Dusan Makavejev - WR: Mysteries of the Organism 1971

"This film is, in part, a personal response to the life and teachings of Dr. Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)."
Not for the faint of heart, part documentary and part fictional surrealist philosophical sex comedy, Serbian director Dusan Makavejev assaults the viewers senses with imagery, music, politics and satire. "Mysteries of the Organism" is on many top 1000 film lists.
/ IMDB user/

IMDB info



"This film is, in part, a personal response to the life and teachings of Dr. Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)."





The film starts off as a documentary on Wilhelm Reich, a scientist who studied the orgon and used the human orgasm as a method for healing. Of course, similar to the scientist Tesla; his books were seized and burned by the U.S. government and FDA./ IMDB user/



Dr. Wilhelm Reich



Dr. Wilhelm Reich being arrested



Then the second part of the film deals with Milena, a sexually liberated Yugoslavian girl (of course in a Yugoslavia that no longer exists today) who makes revolutionary speeches on her apartment balcony. She says "The October Revolution failed by not excepting free love"./ IMDB user/



The film mocks capitalism and communism for suppressing people's sexual desires./ IMDB user/






Occasionally punctuated by the wild and crazy NY poet/musician Tuli Kupferberg* roaming the streets of Manhattan in full battle array and carrying an M-16 (I don't think they could get away with that these days, unless they had a Mr. De Niro in the cast.) Yes, it is blatant hippie/yippie revolutionary zeitgeist of 1968-1971, which was very much fueled by the father of the sexual revolution, Dr. Reich, who had died in 1957 in jail for not answering a subpoena to defend his claims of cancer cures. He said he would be judged by scientists but not by lawyers. Inasmuch as he was the only individual to have his books burned by both Hitler and the US government (FDA), his story and his philosophy should be more widely known, but of course he is still suppressed by some of the powers that be. The erotic content of "WR" is tame in the face of today's hardcore but all the more effective for it, in that Reich condemned pornography but glorified healthy sexuality above all else….Tuli Kupferberg and his band The Fugs, on the soundtrack: "Kill, kill, kill for peace…Near or far or very middle East…" / IMDB user/

*In this great "collage", many other famous, and less famous people appear, including: Dr. Reich's wife, Dr. Alexander Lowen, Dr. Myron Sharaf, some new York artists and underground figures, and some witnesses of Dr. Reich's time.

The film has been banned in communist Yugoslavia for about 18 years. In Britain, it was surprisingly ( knowing British censors ) published on Vhs, and even on TV in the 90-ies, censored though, with Makavejev himself providing funny animations to cover the forbidden bits :-)

It is sad that Makavejev, one of the best Serbian directors, and one of the most original and innovative in the world, struggles to find funding for his films. That is why there's not many of them, and I think that makes them even more precious for us.

At the end, I'd like to add my personal opinion about "orgone" - life energy, as discovered by Dr, Reich. I think it is the same universal life energy called by different names in different ages and traditions: prana, chi, ki, reiki, bioenergy…The film also shows one of the few left "orgone accumulators" constructed by Dr. Reich to accumulate this life energy…