Crazy Love

I can assure you that Mondo Macabro is truly the wild side of cinema. The flicks these guys dish out are of all levels of genre's. Drama, horror, exploitation, euro, thriller, cult, etc.. Nice tot see someone hand out films that are of quality from all walks of life. Crazy love is all about the other walks of life.

O.K., I can understand growing up in a town way out in Belgium somewhere in 55, attending local cinema and becoming enthralled amongst the gleaming screen of persuasion. I'm talking on a male perspective, sorry ladies. You come running home with the thoughts of kissing, petting and other boner reacting thoughts. You hang out with a next door pal which is a little older and tosses you into the whole scheme of things, of supposed love making. You both fail miserably but on you must go. That I can understand. What I can't understand is how someone could freely talk masturbation when you where such a pre teen, then have your buddy whip it out and throw one back in front of you? I don't think so. The director had that happen, and it was his brother. So maybe it could happen but look where he is from. Well, On to 1962, a few years older and a complexion only a mother could love. You feel really bad, you understand what he going through and he still can't land that lady he most certainly loves.

On to the 70's and by now, you would think he would at least have found Mrs. right? Wrong, still no luck and no a drunken loser. He hooks back up with old time budd and for old times sake. Lets steal a corpse and see what he does. You have to see what true love would do to you.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, other then the jerk of class I was drenched in emotion. Kind of like an after school special if you will. The director talks a little about the flick and his reasoning. Sure, he knows what he's talking about but when he fessed up to the brother showing brother, or brother watching brother part of his life. I sort of turned the rest off and couldn't get that vision out of my head. A disturbing touch to an already disturbing story. An off the beaten path for this label to come out with but cult is cult and the wild side of cinema needs a home somewhere.

Loosely based on the writings of Charles Bukowski,the first segment is actually based on a couple of paragraphs from a short story by John Fante,Bukowski's favorite writer. Director Dominique Deruddere has let his imagination run wild,so what the audience ends up with is a vision of Bukowski living John Fante's childhood, in the European countryside.Gene Bervoets looks very much like Buk's description of himself in "Ham on Rye" and other writings.The soundtrack is great.An interesting coming of age tale.

Crazy Love is a little known eighties cult film that traces a boy's life through three key events. The film is Belgian produced; based around three stories by cult writer Charles Bukowski and brought to life by Belgian director Dominique Deruddere. Crazy Love does not have a particularly good reputation these days, although it apparently caused quite a stir upon its release and that isn't all that surprising considering the subject matter; although to be honest, nothing in this film particularly shocked or offended me. The central character is Harry Voss, who we first meet as a young kid who is learning about sex from his friend, with the aide of a few loose women. We then pick up a few years later and Henry is a schoolboy, befallen by an extreme case of acne that leads to him being rejected by the opposite sex and ridiculed by his peers. The third and final chapter sees the once bright young boy as a drunken waster who cuts a stark contrast to the boy we saw in both the first and second chapters of the film.

The three parts of the film are all incredibly different and the director succeeds in creating an atmosphere to carry this off. Crazy Love is a 'coming of age' film; a favourite subject among Hollywood 'cookie cutter' filmmakers, but this one is about as far from the mainstream as you can get. The first segment is the lightest of the three, but still packs a punch as we watch the subject discovering sex and eventually getting acquainted with his hand. The second segment focuses more on the idea of teenage alienation and sees the film take a darker turn as the sensitive young man is rejected by all the girls because of his deforming acne. This provides a nice opener to the third section, which is completely dark and dismal and probably what earned the film its reputation - the ending is not something that many will forget in a hurry! Overall, it's not really surprising that this film hasn't gone down as an all time 'classic, but it certainly has its place among cult fans and that isn't surprising either. Be sure to catch this film if you want something a bit different!

This movie shows the life of Harry Voss, from being a child with a romantic vision of the world to becoming a frustrated alcoholic. Only the third part is based on the short story "The copulating mermaid of Venice, California" by Charles Bukowski. But its development is so intense that it required two other chapters in order to make it even more meaningful. It mixes nice and entertaining images with black, depressing scenes and the end might not be everybody's taste. As one of the songs of the movie puts it, love hurts but it can also kill. Although the film can be funny at times it is mainly sad and it will not leave any spectator indifferent.

CRAZY LOVE (Love Is A Dog From Hell) is a romantically disquieting and dismaying film by Flemish director,Dominique Deruddere, and is loosely based on Charles Bukowski's short story, "The Copulating Mermaid From Venice, California". Bukowski is often referred to as, "The Poet Laueate of Skid Row", and all of his work embraces the darker aspects of reality, and this film is certainly no exception. CRAZY LOVE is divided into three parts, and examines the life of the deeply flawed and conflicted individual, Harry Voss. In the first section, we witness Harry at the age of twelve as he begins to intuit the romantic possibilities of Love, and is introduced to the sordid mechanics of sex. And, in the second section, he is a senior in high school who tries to establish some kind of a romantic relationship with the opposite sex while dealing with a disfiguring case of acne. And, in the final section, Harry directly confronts the most perfect manifestation of his sexual and romantic desires. The film is a minor classic of Flemish cinema, and the Netlix disc contains an excellent Bonus Selection which offers an insightful conversation with the director, a short feature on the making of the film, and a brief description of the history of Belgium film-making. CRAZY LOVE is certainly not for everyone, but Bukowski has said that this film comes the closest to capturing the essence of his work.