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What?
A young American woman traveling through Italy finds herself in a strange Mediterranean villa where nothing seems quite right.
Release : | 1972 |
Rating : | 5.5 |
Studio : | Les Films Concordia, Dieter Geissler Filmproduktion, C. C. Champion, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Production Design, |
Cast : | Marcello Mastroianni Sydne Rome Hugh Griffith Guido Alberti Henning Schlüter |
Genre : | Comedy |
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Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
Crappy film
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Wow, while watching I could not quite believe that an insane movie like this does in fact exist. What an absurd and irritating story line, that actually does not really deserve this name. I was repeatedly busy in rubbing my eyes to believe what the screen was offering them. Then eventually, this end on a meta-level where actors do actually make comments on the movie being a movie.Lucky me that Amazon Prime came along with the streaming proposal of an unknown film on my search for some Polanski movie. I opted to go for it.That the movie does actually work despite its absurdity and its odd sex scenes must be accredited to a great deal to the flawless performances by its protagonists Sidney Rome and Marcello Mastrioianni next to the genius of its director. The film is in fact a rather risky endeavor since the distance to cheesy slapstick is quite small and I can almost understand critics that see it this way. At the same time, the movie is just way too bizarre to come anywhere near to such a poor evaluation. What else would you call a woman's leg that is being painted blue midway for no real reason and stays like this for the rest of movie.It is quite a pity that uncompromising, experimental films like this are no longer produced nowadays. Don't ask for the meaning of the movie. I don't think there is any. It is at its best a contemporary document about the freedom of thought of the hippie generation. Maybe someone was just dreaming under the influence of some drugs
What a surprise, and what fun! Although I remember seeing promotional shots of this movie back in the 70s, hearing no more about it, I eventually decided it must never have been made. But, here it is in all its craziness. The beginning is rather edgy as the delectable, Sydne Rome is almost gang raped before the action swings into slapstick and she escapes, albeit with ripped t-shirt. This is as fully dressed as she ever is in this ending up fully nude and leaving the madhouse as quickly as she entered it. An amazing cast clearly had great fun and Hugh Griffith is as animated as I've seen him as the lecherous old head of the household. Mastroianni is marvellous throughout (in and out of the tiger skin). But everybody enters into the spirit and if we never see Lollipop because she is always on her back being serviced by one of the ping pong players, we hear her shouting her encouraging, 'Give it!' in accompaniment to his, 'Take it!'. Polanski is suitably quirky in a particularly quirky role and if the whole thing appears like some LSD inspired wonderland, it has been lovingly made with some style and is a joy to watch.
"What" is Polanski's absolute nadir .It's incredible that,helped by his excellent collaborator Gerard Brach ,he could produce nothing but this drivel:it's an insult to mention such names as Carroll (the elevator is the mirror ?) or Borges .The dialog is never funny,being mean,vulgar, pretentious,almost exclusively revolving around sex .Polanski himself appears as he did in "the fearless vampire killers" and later would in the highly superior "Chinatown" and "Le locataire" (the tenant).At a pinch ,you might find something "polanskiesque" in this turkey:the conspiracy against a lonesome hero ,like in his masterful "Rosemary's baby' or "the tenant" ;the claustrophobia which is present in almost all Polanski's canon,not only the two mentioned works ,but also "repulsion" "cul de sac" "knife in the water" "death and the maiden" ,all these stories which happen "in camera".The Carroll/Borges subject will be used again by Claude Chabrol in 1976 in his "Alice ou la dernière fugue" with much better results.For Polanski's diehards.Barely.
While this is certainly not one of Polanski's finest, it is admittedly a damn funny effort. As a warning, don't expect any real substance to this film. It's ridiculous and trivial, but there are laughs throughout. "What?" fills the gap for those who get a kick out of 70's porn plots, but get bored during the sex scenes. This being said, know that it can easily offend. Expect a movie that will get giggles out of a rape scene. It is a no holds barred comedy that breaks ground that "Happiness" will sweep in to master.Polanski combines his psychedelic absurdity of "The Magic Christian" with the stark strangeness that he would later delve into in "The Tenant." It is a valiant attempt to create a surreal sexual comedy. For most films, the lack of any depth to the characters will turn away even the most devoted viewer; but "What?" creates entertaining caricatures that bobble and bump into one another, with surprisingly charming results. It is difficult to say whether this is a good film or not, albeit it is shot beautifully, and leaves the viewer with many a chortle, but compared to the brilliance of his other films it seems a bit empty. The film can be best likened to a scarred and matted alley cat that loves to come and visit. It is rough on the edges and not nice to the touch, but the affection it gives leaves the soft spots all the more appealing.