{"id":1337,"date":"2010-11-13T01:43:59","date_gmt":"2010-11-13T06:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2017-05-27T02:19:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T06:19:56","slug":"dvd-goto-island-of-love-goto-lile-damour-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1337","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Goto, Island of Love \/ Goto, l’\u00eele d’amour (1968)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Film: Excellent<\/p>\n

DVD Transfer: Very Good<\/p>\n

DVD Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label\/Studio: Cult Epics<\/p>\n

Region: 0 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released: February 28, 2006<\/p>\n

Synopsis: A crimminal rises in rank and sets his eyes on the wife and kingdom of an isolated monarchy that barely survives in a post-catastophic landscape.<\/p>\n

Special Features: 1968 Short: “Les Astronautes” (12:04) \/ French Theatrical Trailer with English subtitles.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Best remembered for the outrageous film\u00a0The Beast <\/strong>(La Bete<\/strong>), Walerian Borowczyk’s origins as an animator and satirist are much more evident in his debut feature film,\u00a0Goto, l’\u00eele d’amour<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Pronounced “Gottoh,” Borowczyk’s viciously funny movie is a m\u00e9lange of historic film styles, which he uses to create a distanced, theatrical narrative for his absurdist tale of an Iago-like scoundrel who almost manages to enjoy the fruits of his selfish schemes.<\/p>\n

The thematic parallels to Shakespeare are readily apparent, but Borowczyk establishes his own isolated land of lunatics, all reduced to living out and furthering the remnants of an idiosyncratic culture. With the vestiges of their technocratic world reduced to museum relics in scarred wooden and glass cabinets, the island’s inhabitants live out dullard lives under the guise of their corpulent lord, Goto III, who presides over his society’s legal courts – basically a stage-bound challenge between a hooded giant and a club-wielding weakling, with the loser losing his head – and appoints key positions to the worthy.<\/p>\n

That’s pretty much how the story’s little Iago – Grozo (everyone’s name begins with the letter G) begins his quest for power: saved from the guillotine by Goto III, the scheming twerp is awarded the posts of boot polisher and fly catcher. Learning his craft, Borowczyk’s Grozo murders and exploits the weaknesses of the cuckolded Goto III, until the kingdom is within his grasp.<\/p>\n

Borowczyk’s visual approach is still tied to the flat, portraiture style of his animated work, but it all seems like a deliberate and clever method in presenting the absurdist tale as a classic French play on societal and political idiocies. The high contrast black and white cinematography (interrupted a handful of times by brief colour shots) evokes the harsh lighting of nascent film photography; the static images are reminiscent of the immobile camera found in early sound films, but Borowczyk frequently breaks the mould via extreme close-ups and the occasional tracking shot.<\/p>\n

Cult Epics’ transfer is made from a very clean print, and though the framing seems a bit tight – an online reference to a PAL VHS release has the film’s ratio at 1.66:1 – the framing of many shots are overall quite odd.<\/p>\n

The film’s visual design is less portraiture, and more of a textural collage; blending various cinematographic styles, and striking, moving patterns within singular shots. (A key example is the film’s opening titles, which unravel like a zoetrope – of passing horses and riders against a wood-paneled background.)<\/p>\n

Much like\u00a0The Beast<\/strong>,\u00a0Goto <\/strong>uses classical music for underscore – here, it’s Handel’s Concerto No. 11, opus 7 – but Borowczyk positions live performances to further ridicule Goto’s society, as the same piece is played very badly by post-catastrophic, junk instruments – including a bow and a twangy saw.<\/p>\n

The nudity that ultimately became a pivotal element in the director’s work is less important in Goto<\/strong>, and appears to either shock the cuckolded ruler (and position his rapid downfall), or act as a naughty narrative interlude when prostitutes bathe before boffing their anxious clients. (The DVD includes the film’s French trailer – itself stylized like a pre-WWII promo – which also seems to include a few shots not in the final film.)<\/p>\n

Cult Epics’ DVD – part of the branded Walerian Borowczyk Collection – includes a booklet with brief but informative liner notes by Rayo Casablanca, a printed filmography of Borowczyk’s lengthy career, and original promo art (which, like much of Borowczyk’s striking film posters, plays up the boobery with a sprawled female figure).<\/p>\n

Having begun his film career in 1946, Borowczyk made a number of animated, live action, and mixed media shorts before exclusively remaining in the feature film field, and the DVD includes one of his award-winning shorts, made in collaboration with Chris Marker (who also designed the striking\u00a0Beast<\/strong> booklet, reproduced in Cult Epics’ limited 3-disc edition).\u00a0Astronautes<\/strong>, from 1959, is a witty short that follows the creation of a spaceship and the astronaut’s exploration and inter-stellar encounters, using a m\u00e9lange of film stills, optical effects, and cutouts. Stylistically recalling the later work of Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, the short’s humour and absurd assimilation of objects to create actual space travel also includes some dual-language text (in English and French), and an appropriately trippy electronic score by\u00a0Andrzej Markowski<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Casablanca ‘s notes, Borowczyk was considered one of Europe pre-eminent animators before he ‘unleashed’ the shocking ideas in\u00a0The Beast<\/strong>. Better known to a select few as a cult director of weird softcore erotica, the release of\u00a0Goto <\/strong>and\u00a0Astronautes<\/strong> should begin a re-examination of the director’s work, and hopefully start a trickle of more Borowczyk animated classics that remain largely unavailable on DVD.<\/p>\n

Cult Epics’ The Walerian Borowczyk Collection includes\u00a0Goto, Island of Love<\/strong>, Love Rites \/ Queen of the Night \/ C\u00e9r\u00e9monie d\u2019amour<\/a> <\/strong>(1987), and single-disc edition of The Beast, The \/ La b\u00eate<\/a><\/strong> (1975), plus four postcards featuring images from the three films (which are also available separately). Available separately is\u00a0Behind Convent Walls \/ Int\u00e9rieur d\u2019un couvent \/ Interno di un convento<\/a> <\/strong>(1978).<\/p>\n

In 2007, Severin Films released Immoral Women \/ Les H\u00e9ro\u00efnes du mal<\/a><\/strong> (1979).<\/p>\n

In 2014, Britain’s Arrow Video assembled a 10-disc, definitive released titled Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection, with numerous unavailable titles and shorts mastered in HD. Certain titles from this limited set were reissued separately in the U.K. and North America by Arrow, while other titles in the collection were released in 2017 by U.S. label Olive Films, including Goto<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sporting a fine transfer, the DVD and Blu-ray editions include an 8 min. intro by artist Craigie Horsfield, with clips supporting his eventually tangible thoughts on Borowczyk’s oevre and the uniqueness of Goto<\/strong>. The film’s production and its eccentric maker are more deeply detailed in the interview featurette “The Concentration Universe: Goto, Isle of Love.” co-star Jean-Pierre Adreani recalls his mercurial shifts from bewilderment to fascination under the direction of minimally verbose Borowczyk, fellow actors Pierre Brasseur and Ligia Branice, and Borowczyk’s preference for the simple, functional decor which extended to old cars with mudflaps and rain guards; co-writer Dominique Duverg\u00e9-S\u00e9gr\u00e9tin on Boro World, that odd environment created by a hands-on filmmaker who gave little direction beyond precise movements for the actors to follow; and cameraman No\u00ebl V\u00e9ry on Borowczyk’s highly unique visual style which similarly reflected his roots as an animator who moved objects and humans as objects within a fixed space.<\/p>\n

Other titles released by Olive Films on DVD and Blu include Blanche<\/strong> (1971), Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal<\/strong> (1967), and Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films Collection<\/strong> (1959-1984).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2006; revised 2017 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film: Excellent DVD Transfer: Very Good DVD Extras: Good Label\/Studio: Cult Epics Region: 0 (NTSC) Released: February 28, 2006 Synopsis: A crimminal rises in rank and sets his eyes on the wife and kingdom of an isolated monarchy that barely survives in a post-catastophic landscape. Special Features: 1968 Short: “Les Astronautes” (12:04) \/ French Theatrical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[5154,17],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-lz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16098,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions\/16098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}