Freak Orlando

"Freak Orlando" by German documentary maker Ulrike Ottinger is easily one of the most surreal movies I have ever seen.I can compare this relentless orgy of surrealism to the cinema of Alejandro Jodorovsky and John Waters.The film obviously lacks cohesive story-line.It's a series of bizarre vignettes which take place in eccentric worlds filled with freaks and Siamese twins.There is plenty of eccentric humor in "Freak Orlando" and lots of weird theatrics.The central character of Orlando is played by Magdalena Montezuma,but there is also Delphine Seyring in the cast whom I remember from wonderfully stylish lesbian vampire flick "Daughters of Darkness"(1971).Overall,"Freak Orlando" is a must-see for the lovers of bizarro cinema.5 Siamese twins out of 10.Not for the easily bored like I am.

How to describe this film? It is loosely based on Virginia Woolf's book 'Orlando: A Biography'. It's sort of like Tod Browning's "Freaks" meets Alejandro Jodowrosky meets the Werner Schroeter meets a Aleksei Balabanov film. A beautiful film that breathes and exudes Audiovisual and is the face of rebel and underrated transgressor cinema of the 80s. It's impossible to place Freak Orlando into a particular genre. The setting feels like a dystopian environment, but the story goes well beyond any conventions. The head-scratching story is both exciting and maddening, and only knows the meaning behind it all. Overall, Freak Orlando is one of the most bonkers films I've seen, the standout performance by the cast plus the incredible set design, mise en scène and the music makes it a surreal feast and, although you can take the easy way out and just press the 'stop' button. It's certainly not an easy watch for those who are not into surreal films but, it is something that is a bizarre film to watch on a lazy evening with beers.

When I saw this movie the 1st time at the age of 14(?) in german TV, I was something in between bored and fascinated. The left impact was so subtle that I seemingly forgot about the movie for decades. After now almost 30 years I suddenly started to hunt the images in an almost obsessed way. But how was it called? Was it "Wizard of OZ"? I had to dig deep in my "sub concious" to reconstruct the title of that movie begging to find it and succeeded after hours until the title "re-apreared" in my memories: Freak Orlando! Where can those original movies be found in theses days? This time I saw the movie with different eyes. Like a rediscoverd yewel which it is. I even bought Ulrike Ottingers corresponding Book to try and understand the thought process of her. This movie, though being part of a thematic trilogy stands for it's own I think and there are at least 2 ways one can recieve that film. The one is to try and grasp an intellectual dimension with all the philosophical and above all mythological aspects. The other one, which I even prefer, is to just falling into trance, allowing oneself to regress to a mythological level! This is where the magic unfolds the real potential. Thank you Ulrike Ottinger for such a great gift!