Mister Organ

In 1977, Michel Foucault - who at the time was France's foremost intellectual - wrote a preface for a book that never materialised. His essay was called "The life of infamous men." The book was to be a collection of excerpts from so-called lettres des cachets - complaints that 18th Century French citizens could submit to the king about the behavior of a relative, spouse, neighbour or acquantance. From his Paris apartment, Foucault spoke about these lives rising up through the centuries. Lives condemned in a few words. Despicable personages. Scriveners. Lecherers. Fantastical usurers.

Foucault admited to being more moved by these characters than by the canonical tomes of official history. In their blasted and blighted lives, he found points of fascination, and one could say more; he appeared to find a wellspring of uncanny understanding, about the human condition, about human life, about the architecture of knowledge and power that envelopes and saturates all of us, and about the straight and narrow line that runs through the decades, and around which human life gathers as it veers toward an unnameable norm.

I was reminded of this essay and Foucault's feeling towards these extra-ordinary figures while watching David Farrier's documentary. It is a glimpse into a substrate of human life that reverberates almost as the mirror opposite of the branded celebrity culture we all know. A substrate of disorder and fanastical absurdity, and that is as colored by malevolence as it is quaint and incredible mundanity.

Lachlan Anderson's soundtrack is perfectly pitched. It captures an emotional landscape that magnifies the question marks thrown open by the film. But what deserves more praise still is the gentle openness of Farrier himself, as a protagonist in this entire work. He seems to share something with Foucault that allows the film to be made at all. Because whereas many might back away from the subject of the documentary, Mr Organ, or respond aggressively to his behavior, Farrier approaches him as something curious and worthy of being known. And yet that does not constitute condoning Mr Organ's apparent actions. So it is less about passing judgment as it is putting into the spotlight one unique and troubled character, and yet letting that character have their say.

What emerges is beyond fascinating. It's a true document that casts light on many things it would be impossible to express in words alone. In the editing, in the camera work, in the narrative, a consciousness about what is so remarkable in this story appears evident. It is this consciousness that deserves recognition. Because there is a humanism here that goes beyond mere gesture. It's real, and it brought something to light that we can all ponder, and probably learn from. What do we learn exactly. There is wonder everywhere, even amid what is distasteful and disturbing. We share this world with multiple worlds, and amid tremendous latent chaos.

The feeling of watching this in a relatively small but jam-packed kiwi cinema was absolutely fantastic.

Everyone laughing and gasping along at this funny, horrifying, distressing and impactful film.

If you can see it in a full theatre, absolutely do so.

There were parts of the movie where my partner and I gripped each other in horror. My stomach sunk at parts and a few minutes later I was cackling merrily.

David Farrier clearly put a lot of himself on the line for this movie and put himself in the sights of a very scary individual and the results are something he can be proud of.

This is a brilliant piece of cinema and a stunning showcase of journalism.

When we watch a film or a documentary we have an expectation that the end brings us to a logical conclusion ; a natural close ; not so with this documentary so don't expect one because like a virus , the main antagonist of this documentary lives on to do what he does ; slowly destroying the lives of all those he involves himself with. Farrier looks into the strange world of an ego centric madman lost in his own reality; there's no happy ending , no conclusion and like a shark the main antogonist just carries on doing what a shark does. If you've never seen intot he mind of a human being that manipulates, destroy lives and brings chaos to all around them then this is an insight into an uncomfortable man who brings misery to all whose lives he invades.

Now here's a curious proposition, as the hunter becomes hunted and put in awkward position, in pursuit of an oddball, he's then setup to take a fall, although it's not the most engaging documentary supposition. Perhaps the maker has ambition to become Kiwi Theroux, perhaps there's little going on in far off land that live so few, but the editing is stilted, the story rather wilted, I guess if you were in his place it might make good debut. Sadly nothing is presented that engages or connects, there are crazy folk in all corners that work with great effect, they control, manipulate - navigate as they predate, leaving damage, decay, destruction and misery in their wake.

I remember liking Tickled many years ago, but Mister Organ I thought was even better as a documentary, and I think it's shown David Farrier to be more than just a one-trick pony (though it does have the same kind of mix of suspense, intrigue, and tension that Tickled had, just stronger).

It starts a little too chaotically for my liking, but after about 10 or 15 minutes it settles into a groove and starts feeling baffling in the right kind of way. Maybe some of the opening scenes were supposed to get your head spinning right away, but I think I would've liked a slightly more patient build-up to the central premise. But once it does get underway, Mister Organ is fascinating, even when the director admits that he doesn't know where anything's going or how he can even end the documentary he set out to make.

It's an exploration of a very unusual and rather terrifying individual, and the way it functions as a character study of this man makes Mister Organ feel more intense than a good many genuine thrillers. It's the kind of movie where I feel a little worried even saying anything about it, due to the man at its center. I doubt he'd ever read this, but I still don't want to speculate on the man beyond what's presented in this documentary; partly out of fear, but also partly because this is the kind of film that should be watched without knowing much about it in advance. I went in thinking it was going to be about organ transplants in some way, and no... it wasn't that at all.

It's on Netflix currently in Australia, and I only shout out the streaming service because this is one of the few documentaries on there that's genuinely great, straight-to-the-point, and keen to tell its story in just 90-ish minutes. Certain documentaries need longer runtimes, but most documentaries on Netflix don't, and are needlessly padded out to be told in three to four-hour miniseries rather than 90 to 120-minute movies (a big reason why I just stopped watching most documentaries on the platform, be they hosted on there or produced by Netflix itself). Anyway, Mister Organ's one of the good ones currently on Aus Netflix, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys unusual and captivating documentary filmmaking.