SELF-CRITICISM OF A BOURGEOIS DOG
Dir. Julian Radlmaier, 2017
Germany/Italy, 99 mins
In German and English with English subtitles
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Post-screening discussion led by Cine Móvil NYC.
Young intellectual filmmaker Julian invites his unrequited crush Camille to join him on a work expedition to an apple orchard. Under the guise of treating the experience as research for his next film, the two set out to observe the viewpoints and lived realities of the orchard’s proletarian day laborers. The fast bonds they form are put to the test, however, when the workers rise up and take over the orchard in the hope of forming a revolutionary worker’s commune.
Self-criticism of a Bourgeois Dog mounts a playful form of criticism toward all of its characters, cutting across class, race, power, and political alignment. The film adopts a broadly archetypical style of comedy, drawing influence from the proletarian slapstick of Charlie Chaplin while applying its own intellectual art-house sheen. The starring duo of director Julian Radlmaier and indie favorite Deragh Campbell provide an entertaining anti-romantic tension to the proceedings while the rest of the cast fills out the humor nicely with their own whimsical particularities. The film screened in 2017 at the Berlinale and had its premiere at Rotterdam (IFFR) – that festival which prides itself on championing bold voices for boldness’ sake.
After the film, Cine Móvil will lead a discussion on the contours of the bourgeois art cultural production system, the nature of the critiques offered by these works, their function, and (perhaps) their utility. Let us poke and prod at this cinematic form and see what we unearth!