...one really has to hand it to the experimental filmmaker...the determination...the creativity...the tenacity...sometimes, the outright gall and daring, to somehow manage to get the approving salute, in producing a vision wrought from a most unexpected and unconventional ilk, whether it be from a first-time filmmaker...or a protege of a more high-profile filmmakers, who want to throw his hand into the arena...or a filmmaker who has garnished and nurtured a reputation for a certain style, and out of the blue, wants to do something outrageously different, not unlike an inch that one just
has to scratch. And then, there's the experimental filmmaker, who's a seasoned pro at always dipping one's big toe into the fray...always coming out with something totally off-the-wall...something that's wholly expected from that particular filmmaker, but nonetheless, something we as anticipating viewers remain unprepared for, each and every time...
...without a doubt, y'all know some, if not all of these provocative filmmakers; heck, a mere four reviews ago, on this reviewer's docker, we examined the humble, albeit eclectic beginnings of one such fledgling director...E. Elias Merhige, who's higher-profile "Suspect Zero" and "Shadow of the Vampire" was preceded by the wholly experimental, unflinchingly visceral, religiously allegoric horror film, "Begotten". Of course, there's the renowned filmmaker Christopher Nolan, of "Memento", "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" fame, who hit the scene early on, with a daring vision of human study, called "The Following". Director Darren Aronofsky went on to bigger things, but still remained within the 'let's try this on for size' experimental venue, with films like "Requiem for a Dream", "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler"...but before all that, he just
had to get 1998's "Pi" out of his system. And leave us not forget filmmaking auteur David Lynch, who quite literally has made a career out of outrageously unconventional and provocative filmmaking...his production repertoire is as widely spectrumed as it is immense, starting with a classic amongst classic experimental film productions...that being 1977's understatedly bizarre and surreal "Eraserhead"...
...and then, there's a crust of experimental film...a strangely forsaken lot, encompassing a spectrum of surreal & dream-like thoughts, ideas and concepts, ranging from the subtle, to the outrageous...a realm of filmmaking which has been related to a long, forgotten purgatory...not necessarily out of an assumed measure of 'badness' or repelancy of the film (...as what might perhaps be thought of Rob Zombie's recent experimental 'diversion', "The Lords of Salem", a film which harbors equally dedicated lambasters, as well as ardent supporters...the latter of which, this reviewer is included), but more out of a complex fervor, which can only be described as an irresistibly fascinating, head-scratching 'WTF?'...a clique of film, which bears, almost demands immediate repeated viewing, as the result of not believing what one might have been witness to, on initial viewing. Garnishing eclectically varied thoughts and views, not unlike...'perhaps, it was just ahead of it's time'...'sheesh, no one's gonna buy into this'...'a misunderstood visionary'...'...or even 'man, what was this guy on, when he made
this one'...
...and from first-time director James B. Harris, '
this one', indeed...and be aware,
this is one of the subtle ones...
...a wealthy, albeit bored, lonely and disillusioned jazz musician, Troy (Zalman King), just going through the routine and monotone motions in life...day by dreary and uneventful day...happens upon a carnival sideshow, and becomes intrigued and captivated at the tent-shrouded main attraction, featuring a beautiful young girl (Tisa Farrow), imprisoned in a perpetual slumber, and attended to by exploitative circus barkers, charging the curious and voyeuristic crowds one dollar, for an opportunity to kiss the 'fair maiden', and awaken her from her deep slumber. After several visits to the attraction, Troy becomes so irresistibly drawn by the girl, he negotiates a sale of the 'exhibit', with the sleeping girl's 'owner', who agrees to the sale, and also hands over a strange vial of 'medication', which he has been 'dosing' the girl with...
...taking the sleeping girl to his 'castle'...his cold and dark mansion, where he has on display, many other things of absolute beauty, Troy begins to ween the sleeping lass off the sleep-inducing substance in the vial he was provided. Once conscious, he then takes great pride and equal pleasure in introducing and instilling the girl...named Jennifer...into his surreal, twisted and dreamily erotic world, within the walls of his home...assisted by his present mistress, Scarlett (Carol White), and her accompanying consort, Angelica (Veronica Anderson). They all engage in an ongoing series of bizarre, perplexing, albeit sexually arousing role-playing games, and as Jennifer fully recovers her mental faculties from having slept for so long, she quickly accepts the bizarre and surreal fantasy games as a shoulder-shrugging norm...
...however, after a period of time, both Troy and Jennifer become disinterested in the erotically flavored and very much limiting fantasy world, restricted within the dark and hallowed walls of the mansion, and share a covert desire to break away from it all. For Troy, he embraces a longing for a life of reality and normalcy...and wants ever so much to take Jennifer with him. For Jennifer...caught up in the faux role-playing games, despite clinging to a good measure of naivete, as well as equal parts insatiable curiosity of a world outside of the mansion...she's more inertly drawn toward carrying on with the charade, once again assuming that such living is 'normal', as blissfully dreamlike as it seems...but she longs to take things to a wider and more complex level...
...for Scarlett, who reveals herself as the 'engineer' of the bizarre role-playing games, the idea of Troy and Jennifer, bating a hasty retreat from the mansion, in an effort to escape and make off on their own, doesn't sit well with her...and in initiating a whole new set of gameful charades, draws the two hapless players back to the confines of the mansion 'playing field'. Now invariably torn between his desire for normalcy, and feeling distraught over the entangled enigma, which he has gotten his newfound companion into, Troy quickly comes to realize what he has to do, next...
..."Some Call It Loving", without a doubt, cries out to be one of those eclectic and unconventional films, which viewers might be inclined to wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall, listening in on the conversation between the overly-enthusiastic eccentric writer and/or filmmaker, trying to convince the stiff-shirted, poker-faced, stogie-puffing studio executives that their idea is a viable one, for transition into a film. And as often as has happened before, it all comes down to a convincing sales pitch, thrust through a gauntlet of obstacles...multiple studios, head-scratching studio execs...and when it comes to experimental films that are presumed beyond the average viewer's ability to comprehend, or for lack of a better term, 'way out there', a seldom few manage to make it through the barrage of scrutiny, to eventually see the light of the silver screen, and possibly have perceived the responsible, albeit daring filmmaker as a visionary...
...and for it's time, "Some Call It Loving" might well have successfully braved the 'gauntlet'...a feat, probably easier done in this case, as the production company, argumentatively subject to the potential of the film, was a relatively small one...but nonetheless, the film still proved, at least to general audiences, one of overly surreal and complex substance...complex enough, for the film to go misunderstood over people's minds, and as such, quite literally disappear into obscurity, soon after release. That is, until the ideally selective folk over at Vinegar Syndrome saw fit to ideally take it upon themselves, in shedding a long-overdue light on the most unusual film, and making it an inaugural entry in their offshoot sister distribution company, Etiquette Pictures...
...and in the case of "Some Kind of Loving"...well, that was a good thing, for in considering the film, some 40-plus years later, most ardent purveyors of independently produced, experimental films like this one, might well find themselves captivated in the surreal and gamefully manipulative perplexity of the goings-on in such a film. The type of wildly vast and unbridled film-scape which even the most stably imaginative writers and filmmakers might not have considered...and itself, might have only been conceived by a filmmaker, clearly taking a chance on a unique vision, exclusive only to himself, but excited enough about the vision, to want ever so much to share it. Ah yes...such is the case, with a misfit film like "Some Kind of Loving"...
...given the bizarre premise of the film itself, "Some Kind of Loving" exudes itself, awashed in it's own captivating complexity and oddball proceedings...and that sense of complex madness is made all the more compelling and intriguing, in the unpredictable behavior and motivations of the characters within. As such, the film manipulates it's audience in the sense that...well, getting from point A, to point B, to point C, and so on...is there purpose and direction associated with these people, or is this all just a game?? And like the eclectic characters herein, manipulating each other...gamefully trading off the roles of 'puppet master' and 'puppet', on an unannounced moment's notice...we the audience, get invariably and inescapably caught up in, and dropped into this surreal labyrinth...randomly led, and at times, misdirected to the film's eventual conclusion, like a helpless Plinko chip, dropped into an abysmal sea of directionally random pegs, to the invariably waiting endgame at the bottom...
...but it's also the character disillusionment, which also shakes things up unpredictably, in these...let's face it, strange proceedings. Well, perhaps strange to us, as the film's purveyors, but to the hapless characters herein, one's idea of 'normalcy' might well prove to be part of the multitude of games played, as events unfold. Take the character of Troy, for instance: as solemnly portrayed by actor Zalman King (...one of those performers whom one might not recognize the name...heck, even
his name...but still recognize his face, and for myself, I couldn't help but recall his appearance in the gory 1981 'Alien' knock-off, "Galaxy of Terror", the exploitative chemically homicidal 1978 thriller "Blue Sunshine", as well as the tense, drive-in-cinema flavored thriller from 1975, "Trip with the Teacher"): his stint as a musician, herein this film, seems to suggest an attempt to grasp a relatively stable and zen-like semblance of 'normalcy', as compared to the erotically manipulative gameplay, set in motion by his mistress, over at his dark and gloomy mansion; and yet, even
that sense of 'normalcy' is thrown off kilter, when one considers his 'best friend' at the club, where he plays...a fleeting, though nonetheless absolutely heart-wretching early film performance by the late, great comedian, Richard Pryor...here, playing a filthy, drugged-up, burnt-out junkie, enslaved by addiction, and tortured by relentless inner-demons...who looks to the devoted Troy for both musically associative friendship, as well as inspired stability, in his own chemically-reigned, mixed-up mindstay. But again, is this truly the level of normalcy, which Troy yearns for?? Or is this...pardon the repetition...just part of the prerequisite 'facade' of the games played, herein??...
...in contrast, Troy's once-somnambulist, newfound companion, the naive and meekish, though ever-curious Jennifer (...an early performance by actress Tisa Farrow, who is definitely familiar to those dedicated to the horror film genre, as she is best known for her roles in Italian-produced horror classics, such as "Zombi 2", from 1979, and "Antropophagus", from 1980), once awoken from her deep and elongated slumber (...which is vaguely noted as to have been indeterminately long, and as such, the character, as revived, is almost child-like, and with a most insatiable curiosity), already accepts the strange and unusual goings on, around her, as normal...even to the point that she unquestionably engages in the gameful facade around her, at one point. And like Troy, she becomes bored and disenchanted with the restrictive role-playing...needing desperately to escape, though not out of a need for normalcy, but more out of a desire for growth, stemming from an already skewed foundation. It is with
this particular observation, which gives cause for Troy to realize what he has truly done to her, and what he invariable need to do, to 'set her straight' again. But again...yes, here we go again...who's to say that even
this is part of the faux gameplay of eroticism fantastique, set in motion??...
...those looking to port through one's film archives, in an effort to find something reflectively and measurably comparable to the unique fervor of "Some Call It Loving", might well look no further than 1993's bizarre and eclectically dreamlike "Boxing Helena", and to a small extent, even William Malone's independent horror genre piece from 2008, "Parasomnia". Vinegar Syndrome...who has, in a very short time, garnished an impressive record of film restoration...has exquisitely continued in their fine tradition, with this inaugural entry, of their offshoot Etiquette Films line, in the sense that this film, amongst so many others in the Vinegar Syndrome library, is oh-so beautifully remastered, but not too perfectly, as to preserved a deliciously aged look to the film, making it quite amiably reflective of the film's age...exuding the long-proven notion that great artistry is indeed flawed, to a degree. Specifically, with "Some Call It Loving", the film retains a certain dreamy softness in the print, which all the more emphasizes the sense of twisted, dreamlike surrealism and eroticism of the proceedings. An atmospheric glow in the more darker scenes, as well as a perfectly preserved color fading, all the more enhances the eclectic imagery...
...extras on the duo-disc DVD/Blu Ray set include an extensive string of outtakes, as well as thoughts and commentary, both background audible and video-interview-candid, from director James B. Harris (...before
this, an able-bodied right-hand man to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick), and cinematographer Mario Tosi (...of 1973's "The Killing Kind", and later, of 1976's "Carrie" and 1980's "The Stunt Man"), who both nostalgically reminisce over the initial impact of their film, and the appeal found in the film, some 40-plus years later...
...it's a bygone fact, that some films age quite well, like a fine wine, and other film...well, they sour, go out of date, and weather the years, very poorly...and even others, disappear into under-appreciated obscurity, only to be delectably re-discovered & become relevant years later, by a more seasoned and appreciative audience. Such comparative truth is even more ardently stringent, when it comes to independently produced, experimental films...and in the case of "Some Call It Loving"...well, what we have here, folks, is a film that, given a much more different audience, some decades later, just cries out for well-deserved discovery and embraced appreciation...
...who
knew, back in 1973, right?? Maybe there
was method to James B. Harris' 'madness', hmmm??
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