Item #: 17994DV Category: DOCUMENTARY Format: DVD MPAA Rating: U

Woolly Rating: 4/10 (36 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

jd	Jan 25, 2005 @ 19:48:8

<[:-\ “almost ready”
"animal love" begins with unexplained footage of a man playing with a large male dog as another dog might, exciting him rather skillfully. you realize you're in for a grimy ride when he begins to get way too familiar with the dog's privates, nipping and growling. at one point, the subtitles translate his muttering "almost ready." at least two other segments have owners petting their male dogs and straying briefly "too far south." i'm sure it was all pre-planned. irrespective of whatever the featured mammals might do in private, the footage shown was performed, shot, and edited with cynical, prurient intent. i don't know what else is available, but bestiality buffs will probably be left feeling thoroughly ripped off, as these brief excursions into transgressive cinema are smothered in a steaming heap of stunning dullness. most of the footage alternates between two pairs of unemployed men living in extreme squalor, talking semi-coherently, on and on. the intended theme, of disenfranchised people turning to animals for affection, is derailed by endless bitchy exchanges between the pairs. by the time solitary, lonely people are shown with their pets, the point of the movie is long forgotten, and all semblance of authenticity has trickled down the gutter. one very arbus-looking swinger couple (the man shows off his manson-fu knife kata) takes up a lot of screen time, only a brief bit of which has an animal in the frame, and the animal might as well be a paperweight for all the significance it has. some pet lovers who live in relative gentility are included. i didn't buy it for a second, but a pet funeral with a solitary, inert old woman mourning and a phantasm like funeral director uttering a preposterous eulogy did creep me out. perhaps the least plausible segment has a faded but still sexy actress type taking a bubble bath in a luxuriously appointed bathroom, wearing glamor makeup. afterward, she reads love-letters from some human lover she'll never be able to get past while sitting on the floor surrounded by dogs, and then climbs into bed wearing expensive looking lingerie and tries to get her dogs to make out with her. there's never any human nudity, and i didn't see any actual genital contact, but it was still one of the most prurient things i've seen in a while, and i bathe in swill weekly. this consistently depressing, alternately boring and nauseating austrian “documentary” has blurbs citing diane arbus and werner herzog as influences on the cd cover. herzog is quoted, saying "never have i looked so directly into hell." the arbus influence is strong enough to open the movie to charges of plagiarism. arbus-like still poses of poorly dressed, shapeless, toothless men and women in very squalid settings are held long enough to approximate an arbus photograph. they are not always with their pets, making me wonder if this movie is a hodge-podge of footage, with the animal theme padded to feature length with unrelated unpleasantness. i recently went through another collection of arbus photographs, and i still don't see any point in her cruel wallowing in grotesqueness, loneliness, poverty, and misery. i've always thought it was a form of intellectual chicken, detached hipsters trying to outdo others in the game of staring into the vortex of the ugly pointlessness of existence without blinking. given arbus' early suicide, i'd have to say she blinked pretty quickly. the herzog influence is also strong, particularly his blatant dishonesty in staging scenes and encouraging painfully self-conscious people to make fools out of themselves in front of the camera. i'm sure i've seen the bunny beggar dude in at least one other german language movie. i thought at first i had found the smoking gun of documentarian corruption, but given herzog's habit of exploiting unpaid amateurs, the guy may be somewhat for real. "animal love" is typically european exploitation of the unfortunate of the sort that is usually championed by intellectuals with leftist pretentions. it could just as easily be screened for a howling bunch of drunken frat boys or nazi youth, and i'm convinced the real attraction is much the same for both camps of snobs. admittedly, effete leftists are unlikely to go out later and snuff a passed-out, homeless drunk. if i'd watched "animal love" in a lighter mood, i'd have enjoyed it more. it really is too weird for a bad movie buff too pass up, but don't expect a profound exposition of the lonely core of human existence. think talky, art-damaged "bumfights."

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