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| Steven
Soderbergh, Betsy Brantley, David Jensen, Mike Malone |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Fletcher Munson (Steven Soderbergh):
Hello!
Neighbor: Hello.
Fletcher Munson: How are you?
Neighbor: Fine.
Fletcher Munson: Is your wife coming over tonight? Because her
big ass always leaves me satisfied.
Neighbor: Nice of you to mention her. She enjoys sex with you much
more than she does with me.
Fletcher Munson: I'm sure she says that to all the men in the neighborhood.
Neighbor: You may be right about that one.
Fletcher Munson: I'll see you later.
Neighbor: Okay.
A speechwriter for a cultist guru
discovers that his wife is having an affair with a dentist who
appears to be his exact double.
 With
three commercial failures in a row following the smash indie success
of his début feature sex, lies and videotape, Steven
Soderbergh exorcised a few personal demons by abandoning the production
values, conventions and pretentions of traditional American filmmaking.
The resulting film is an intentionally self-obsessed avant-garde
joke of a film that rarely even attempts to make sense, but follows
its own bizarre kind of dream logic to deliver a puzzling, sometimes
frustrating but often hilarious off-beat comedy of surrealism.
Writtten, directed, shot, edited and produced by Soderbergh, Schizopolis also
features the film's creator in a dual lead role, playing the same
character leading two distinct, parallel lives. Both incarnations
of this person have a relationship with the same woman, while the
actress who plays her also appears in another lead role. For those
in search of an understandable narrative, these dreamlike duplications
make the film infinitely confusing, though repeated viewings do
yield a kind of twisted logic at the film's core. But the film
is best appreciated for its absurdist humor, fuelled by Soderbergh's
adroit talent for deadpan comedy and word-games. The experience
may not be for every taste, but it's an early indication of Soderbergh's
broad reach and a rare example of a wholly personal film by this
highly versatile director who has become notoriously hard to pin
down. |
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Available only as a director-approved
region-free release from the Criterion Collection.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.85:1. The
film was shot on a variety of low-budget film stocks, including
video and 16mm, and therefore has a generally rough-hewn,
handmade look that suits the picture's mood. The source print that
was used for this transfer is virtually spotless, and results
in a handsome presentation without any transfer errors or
compression artifacts.
The sound mix is presented in single-channel mono, with a
note in the booklet adding that the soundtrack 'always was
mono and always will be.' It sounds fine within the relatively
constricted reach of the source elements.
The DVD includes a modest
but well-chosen selection of supplements, starting with two
separate audio commentary tracks. The first
is an oddity in the style of the film itself: Steven Soderbergh
interviews himself in a satirically self-aggrandizing style
that's impossible to take seriously, and that is amusing
for a while but does get tired well before the feature's
end. The second commentary track, a group track featuring
members of the cast and crew, actually offers insight into
the production and its background. The 8-minute feature 'Maximum
Busy Muscle!' consists of a selection of deleted footage
along with some behind-the-scenes snippets. It's at least
as weird as the film itself, and doesn't yield any exceptional
insight but still qualifies as a welcome addition. The theatrical
trailer rounds out the extras on the disc. Busily
animated menu screens offer access to the disc's well-marked and
impeccably presented features.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
December 3, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Schizopolis.
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