Skip to main content

Duffer (UK)

I am not sure honestly how I feel about this film. Duffer, an intense and bizarre study of obsession that is oddly beautiful and disturbing, tells the story of a teenage boy torn between the womanly charms of a kindly prostitute, and the sadistic attentions of an older man. The film came back in 1972 and films like these are usually hit or miss and probably mostly meant for festival screenings. 

Duffer is an aimless young man who enjoys the company of two lovers, but likes to be on his own sometimes, spending time down by the riverside under the bridge, reading, watching the world go by, that sort of thing.  HIs male lover is an older man, who physically abuses him because that is how he gets pleasure but according to Duffer, he also loves him very much. It's times like these he get to his female lover, where he visits her at her place, have casual sex and they chat. Duffer excuses the actions by his abusive lover by claiming that while he feels victimised, he can console himself with the thought that Louis-Jack is gaining pleasure from this, which in his mixed up mindset constitutes a good and helpful thing. This gets ever more bizarre as the elder buggers the younger in the hope that they will produce an "infant", apparently jealous of women and their ability to do what men cannot, although Duffer doesn't have the heart to break it to him that is unlikely to change any time soon. And then the film just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

The film ha son direct dialogues and conversations and is mostly told to us in the form of a running commentary of what is meant to be going on provided by Duffer, but accompanied by interruptions from the voices of both his older abusive lover and the female. This is a very experimental film , trying to push boundaries in the way it tells story and also in the innovative ways that the older lover come sup with to abuse Duffer, but despite this, the film failed to hold my attention. We are not sure of the lover is real, or is just a figment of imagination from Duffer's troubled mind. In fact both him and the female lover could simply be a twin idee fixe representing Duffer's slowly loosening grip on sanity and stability. In the end we're never sure if the whole thing is simply the last crazed reflections of a psychotic episode as the film concludes with the image of a prone Duffer on the riverside. Duffer is a unique view of London and a weird study of the moral, gender, social and political obfuscations of the times. A bizarre study of desires, want and obsession with an awkwardly placed narration, this film definitely did not do anything for me, except just get familiar with yet another experimental narration style. (3/10)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin

One Summer Night (Korean)

I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who

Ultimate masturbation: Shigoki no yama (Japanese) [The Ultimate Masturbation]

I would never know what was the point behind making this film. Was it supposed to be a comedy, cos it wasn't. It wasn't even porn. It was just a silly attempt at making something absolutely senseless and ridiculous. The story, as well as direction is equally shoddy. You could laugh for having seen something so bad, but I wouldn't call that comedy. An old man runs a camp about gay masturbation. The explanation given is that gays masturbate for pleasure unlike straight men, for whom the act is seen as shame or because they can't find a woman. One day a straight man shows up and wants to join the camp for his thesis. After discussion, he is allowed in. Rules include that you can masturbate together, you can masturbate one another, but there is no fellatio or anal sex. Some students of course breaks rule. The teacher then talks about 2 forms of masturbation which gives ultimate pleasure. He shows one without touching and then refuses to talk of the other. Somehow suddenly,