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Community Sinful Dwarf

Sinful Dwarf
imdb record
Showed at Something Weird Wednesdays, 4/3/2002
Reviewed April 3, 2002
Released 1973

Person A:
i'll definitely go back. i had fun ... despite the drugged-up rape
scenes and their suggestively weird-titillating psychedelic music.
(note that i don't consider myself a stick in the mud and the graphic
sex didn't bother me, it was just the context of some of the sex and
mostly the directors' intention (which, admittedly, i'm inferring) that
seemed inappropriate for public cinema. at least with, for example,
blaxploitation films, you go into it knowing, "it was a sign of the times, some things are going to be wrong, and we're all going to recognize it's wrong, but we're going to laugh together. and in the end, the people will prevail. we'll cheer and everything will again be right with the world." hmmm... wondering now if our "slaves" prevailed at the end...?)

Person B:
You know, it constantly amazes me how much honest-to-god misogyny goes on in older, especially older European, films. It's creepy and outdated, and never should have been appropriate anyway. You're right, the director had no intention making the abuse of the victims horrible, in fact he tried to make it sleazily titillating. I have no problem with modern, meaningless porn, but weird violent porn feels creepy.
Oh, in the end, the slaves won, sort of, but it all got worse before it got better.

Person A:
There were a few interesting things about the film -- the scenes with the drunken ladies were interesting. I kept wondering if the old friend (not the singer, but the other one) was really drunk. She certainly looked it; like she was a real boozer. I thought the direction of those scenes was well done -- creepy, entertaining, appropriately sad. There were several extended shots of the friend (and of the singing mother too) that seemed intended to invoke sympathy. They would've been more interesting and rewarding if the film represented the abuse as horrible -- as you said -- rather than titillating. The lighting was great, as was the costume and set design. Scandinavians are stylish, even at their sleaziest, I guess.

Person B:
Maybe-- honestly I think we've already given this film more analysis than it deserves. Honestly I don't think the director had the slightest clue what he was trying to do-- which is why he swings wildly between straight porn and cheesy film student stuff, like the opening credits, to maudlin riffs on "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane." I think he was just grabbing whatever he could find and trying to string it together into a movie-- the really interesting this is that by all rights the movie should have completely disappeared, and instead you and I watched it thirty years later in a crowded theater.

Person A:
ok, fine. it was trash. but in the spirit of finding something worthwhile in every (theatrical or otherwise) experience, i still think it looked good. and the old lady was drunk.

Person B:
Oh, yes, and you would be too if you were being paid mainly in Beefeater.

Person A:
the dwarf stuff was fun. cabaret was entertaining. pizza was good.
company was good. and the bucket of schlitz was more than ample.

next week: more poodle, less rape!

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