Psychopathia Sexualis

US 102m, Colour Director: Brett Wood; Cast: Jane Bass, Bryan Davis, Veronika Duerr, Sandra L. Hughes, Ted Manson, Daniel May, Rob Nixon, Lisa Paulsen, Daniel Pettrow, Rachel Sorsa

Named after Richard von Krafft-Ebing's infamous 1886 "medical text" of the same name, Psychopathia Sexualis is a documentary-style narrated period re-enactment based on hundreds of late nineteenth century case studies of sexual behaviour. Once considered authoritative, these clinical writings are interwoven into a number of vignettes which obliquely suggest that some of the doctors should have also looked at their motivations. Potentially more interesting than entertaining, this Victorian sexual history unfortunately lacks direction and an overall sense of purpose, and largely misses much of the real story – the treatment and mistreatment of the patients documented in these writings (Klaus Ming September 2013).

I saw this movie when I was young, 14 or so. I have never forgotten it, and I've never really seen anything remotely like it. But it is certainly not for everyone. I've read in these reviews "expecting a fictional drama" and "decidedly unsexy," both of which are clearly out the window by the opening sequence, and I would say in the synopsis as well. It is not meant to be sexy. It uses titillation, which is very different when against the grotesque. The acting is sometimes wooden. Usually this works, especially in the sequences which are clear love letters to silent films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Tale of Prince Achmed. This is one of those low budget films of a film geek, which are not uncommon but again are not for everybody. But as I often say with niche or B-movies, it's an hour and a half of your life, and if you see something you've never seen before it was probably worth it. There are definitely several of those here. And lastly, what balls! To adapt in expressionist vignettes the accounts of a Victorian textbook of psychological and sexual deviancy. Bravo, Bret Wood. I love your movie.

I expected mere titillation for the sake of exploitation ...which is partly why Krafft-Ebing challenges his readers to understand... he coined the term "masochism" and explains how exploitation, or the feeling of being exploited satisfies one's desires, however these selfish desires and their abstractions---not just coitus for procreation---but the odd fetishes; weird and irrational things that humans combine with touch, taste and their associations with pleasure, is what Krafft-Ebing explored. But in Krafft-Ebing's time the patriarchal model of thinking dominated every-body's behaviors, and the idea of Men and Women with different needs was completely new territory. Krafft-Ebing sought to understand these things, like his first pupil, Sigmund Freud and so should you.

About the movie, a few things stand out for me---besides Wood---the marionette and old-tyme, rotating diorama scene performed by Rob Nixon. If one only listens to the narrator, one will be repulsed, but Nixon's puppetry made it a lovely scene ...until you focus on the narrator again. Such delightful revulsion. Such a brilliant contrast. Speaking of weird contrasts, the scene shot on the train was technically abominable... whites blown-out and actors look green. What happened? Most other scenes are really well done, lighting, set and decent editing. I really enjoyed how the camera work made me feel like a voyeur on these people's lives.

Basically, the writer/director, Bret Wood takes an artful Victorian approach to exposing hidden recesses within the minds Kraft-Ebbing considered deviant. Most every quirk gets screen time, but blood-lust was the primary fluid of compulsion. I avoided focusing on this by counting how many behaviors were abnormal in the Victorian Age, and by comparison acceptable in modern times. It must have been a demanding task for Wood to sort through all the kinks from the book.

His book, a precursor to Kinsey's reports and the DSM, Krafft-Ebing explored various psychologies and how they deal with sexuality and desires. And I appreciate how Wood tied stories together with themes. Most interesting for the "people-watcher" or scientist. Voyeuristic; in a very mythical way, and its interesting to see people's motivations to satisfy desires. Honest portrayals of people's perversions, bawdy lusts and vile corporal behaviors---all the more condemnable because of the time period. Yet, I found a few actors unconvincing in their performances. Blah. But on the whole, scenes carried well from subject to subject, and in the end, there is some clear explanations about people's sexuality. This was good drama with an academic arch of learning. The ending was unexpected and left me with more questions than answers.

A brilliant feminist author, Camille Paglia once said in "The Joy of Presbyterian Sex--Sex, Art, and American Cutlure, Essays", published Vintage Books, 1992, p.32 she wrote "Life without guilt or shame would be found only in sociopaths and the lobotomized."

This movie is a dramatization/recreation of several case studies from a late-19th century medical text by Richard von Kraft-Ebing called "Psychopathia Sexualis." Basically a catalog of various sexually deviant behaviors, there's not much of a plot to speak of and the movie presents these as intertwined, but unrelated vignettes. It also has a lot of voice-over, which makes it feel like one of those History Channel specials except that it's sexually explicit (rather tame, actually). Rather than being titillating, it's mostly stiff and boring. Still there were some nice artistic touches, like filming the whole movie in this chiaroscuro/Masterpiece Theater style which lent it an expressionistic quality not unlike some 1920's German silent films. The score was pleasant and grating in almost equal measure, with maybe one or two classical selections. Back to the material actually presented, there really is no position taken on the rather antiquated attitudes toward sexuality, but a lot of the pseudo-scientific babble gets pretty hard to take (seriously, or otherwise) after a while, especially when many conservatives hold viewpoints not that different from what is presented here. Some of that includes the notions that homosexual attraction is just a form of hysteria that can be treated through hypnosis, and there are some painfully outdated, Victorian views on women's roles. However, the whole movie is set during the Victorian era, so it makes sense in that regard. Maybe I went into this expecting something a little more arousing, but I was ultimately disappointed. It's not very sexy or explicit, and frequently boring to watch. My advice: just skip it and watch something else if you're in the mood for softcore.

Start with the good; beautiful film. However, with all the opportunity this subject had for intensity of raw, hormonal stimulation, this treatment of the otherwise forensic book, was at least true to its academic headiness, though at the expense of entertainment.

The casting is much to blame as I can't imagine the director had no better choices available. Atlanta has talent and it is difficult to tell what part was lack of talent by the actors or what part was the painful micromanagement of performances by the director, but there was not a moment of honest human emotion nor sexual heat. It was as if Wood's goal was to sterilize the subject to the point of his earlier epic Highway Safety film. I could not have been more turned off by his method or the choice of seriously unattractive actors, or so he made it seem that way.

What a wasted opportunity! The man has an eye for classical beauty, but by the time he gets done with it, it might as well be a commercial for a perfume.