Ciao maschio

Marco Ferreri directed some of the most unusual films of the 1970s - from the castration love story "La Derniere Femme", to the gluttony fuelled orgy of "La Grande Bouffe". Bye Bye Monkey might not match those films for quality or shock value, but it most definitely surpasses them in the weirdness stakes.

Bye Bye Monkey is a rare exercise in cinematic existentialism that does not drown in its own pretence. In fact, the film's greatest achievement is that it somehow manages to be entertaining despite having a plot which basically involves Gerard Depardieu walking around with a monkey. There are, of course, detours from this central premise and they are just as perplexing. Ferreri offers a Roman wax museum subplot, feminist dancers interested in experiencing rape, a massive gorilla corpse/sculpture and a love scene between a young Depardieu and a then 65 year old Geraldine Fitzgerald. Did I mention that Gerard Depardieu incessantly blows a whistle throughout the film?

I'm really not sure what the film's deeper meaning is intended to be, assuming that it has one at all. Bye Bye Monkey contains so many ideas and passes comment on so many issues that I gave up trying to interpret them all. However, Ferreri's favourite theme of emasculation is unmissable in everything from the dancer rapists, to Luigi's sexual frustration and the birth registrar's comments on dressing Cornelius in girl's clothing. The film is never weighed down by its philosophy and there is just as much enjoyment to be had from the surreal imagery as from the film's ambiguous subtext.

Gerard Depardieu was doing his best work in the 1970s and he turns in another muscular performance as Lafayette. I can not imagine another major actor who would accept this role in the first place, let alone approach it with the conviction that Gerard does. Marcello Mastroianni is also great as Luigi, as is Geraldine Fitzgerald in her most controversial role. However, it is James Coco who almost manages to steal the show with his outrageously over the top performance as Mr Flaxman. As good as the actors are, this remains Ferreri's show and his direction is as stylish as ever.

Bye Bye Monkey is a real oddity of the 1970s. Ferreri was a truly unique director and this may be his most individual, if not most convincing, work.

What film involves a beach in New York City, apes and a very famous New York landmark? Yeah, well Planet of the Apes does, but I mean Ciao Maschio.

This is a pretty bad film, there is no story to explain, the relationships between the characters are sometimes puzzling, the occurrences are sometimes impossible and the people's reactions unreal. Then comes the acting, the very, very bad acting.

But if you love films set in New York City and just like a calm atmospheric and weird film set in parts of New York you don't often see then you can't miss this.

The entire film takes place among a few block radius in a residential neighborhood just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. It seems to be shot in a hurry as many scenes could have used another take or two. I wonder if they had all the necessary permits of if it was, umm "guerilla" filmmaking. It seems like they may have shot it all on a few Sunday or Holiday mornings as you never see another soul walking the streets during any scenes.

But here is the most fascinating part. This was shot, I assume in 1977, and at the time they were building landfill or extending that part of Manhattan out into the East River to create a man-made neighborhood on which they would build expensive condos. But at this brief point in history it was a vast beach, it was all sand. It was blocked by a weak fence with a warning sign but they ignored it and several scenes, long scenes, take place on this yet -to-be-finished landfill area just under the Twin Towers. It is actually quite beautiful and I doubt another film exists that would show this. In fact I doubt you could even find an old newsreel type video on youtube that might show this.

For that reason alone i would recommend this.

Strange, and it has some interesting bits, but it's dull and nonsensically plotted. Gerard Depardieu and Marcello Mastroinanni make asses of themselves, and Gail Lawrence, better known under her porn name, Abigail Clayton, is naked for about 50% of the film. Depardieu plays a boy toy in New York City. One day his friend, played by Mastroianni, is walking along the beach when he discovers the corpse of King Kong, whose orphaned baby he gets Depardieu to adopt. The themes involve the ever-changing gender roles, and this could have been very interesting. Unfortunately, it has no real plot to speak of, and it just meanders from weird scene to weird scene. Sometimes, the visuals are quite haunting, especially when the characters are on the beach with the New York cityscape towering over them and the giant ape corpse dominating the bottom of the frame. 5/10.

You know how foreign movies have the reputation for being extremely weird and full of naked people? Well, if you've ever seen a foreign movie from the 1970s, you know why. They're weird! Everybody takes their clothes off!

In Bye Bye Monkey, a bunch of disconnected stories are all joined together. And everyone takes their clothes off. An independent girls' theater troupe discusses whether or not it's possible for a man to be raped, then decides to put the question to the test. James Coco makes wax replicas of Ancient Rome, then decides to make the faces likenesses of American presidents. Geraldine Fitzgerald longs for love she's never experienced. And finally, Gérard Depardieu finds a baby monkey on the beach and adopts him. Marcello Mastroianni tags along in various scenes, but it's not really clear why, and Abigail Clayton falls in love with Gérard, even though he's never without his pet monkey and constantly blows through a metal whistle when he breathes. Yes, he's gorgeous, but nothing in this movie makes sense.

In an inarguably adorable scene, Gérard tries to leave the baby monkey in the park and walk away. The monkey shrieks and runs after him, then climbs up his body to nestle in the crook of his arm. In the next scene, Gérard gives the monkey a little bed, and you can see the animal smiling. That's about as cute as it gets. The rest of the movie is either weird or upsetting, but if you really like 1970s foreign movies or have never seen one, this is a perfect example. Ironically, the entire movie is spoken in English, and Gérard speaks more English in this movie than he did in Green Card!

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to nudity, graphic sex scenes, and an upsetting scene involving an animal, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

Is it another world, or our world gone mad? Ferreri has quite an imagination, especially his use of juxtaposition: a rotting carcass of King Kong, a wax museum where James Coco reenacts parts of history, and an underground society where rats prevail. Depardieu, who's lines are badly dubbed, manages to get through this yarn uncomfortably gripping a chimp where he found beside the dead Kong. Mastroianni is always at his best, altho this time presenting a more cartoonish characterization. However, despite the exotic idiosyncrasies, this film can be rather dull at moments. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a large percentage of this movie, ad hominem the ambiguous finale which may help clarifies the film's bizarre symbolism. Watch this one on a rainy day.