The Raspberry Reich (2004)

Of all the movies that made up what came to be known as New Queer Cinema Bruce LaBruce's "The Raspberry Reich" is considered to be amongst the most radical. The sex is certainly explicit and it's nicely shot by James Carman though LaBruce's mixture of guns, sex, revolution and extreme left-wing politics is still a difficult pill to swallow. It might have helped if the acting or the script were any good, (they're terrible), but this is just a porn film with better camera-work and editing than most and what LaBruce assumes is a political agenda that will appeal to intellectuals. He shot it in Berlin but it could just as easily have been Budapest or Barking. You could view it as a comedy in bad taste though I doubt if it will make you smile. On the plus side it's marginally less boring than Godard's political pictures which might have benefited from a dose of explicit sex but don't take that as a recommendation.

It's really sad that the gay community comes to the defense of such an appalling bad movie as Raspberry Reich. This film has no redeeming features. It does have non-event actors; a rubbish script and a truly irritating habit of superimposing quotes from George W and Blair over scenes of graphic intercourse. That doesn't make it a cutting-edge alternative movie. It's just facile and boring. It is quite the worst movie you will see this (and any ) year. Life is just too short and precious to give time to this unmitigated rubbish. And now IMDb want me to write 10 lines minimum about a film which deserves a two word summary. Hey ho.

I saw this at a film festival in Philly where it was aptly introduced as "...either political commentary disguised as hard core gay porn, or gay porn disguised as political commentary." As porn...wow. I wasn't quite expecting the explicitness--so if that's what you're looking for, then enjoy. (I must confess that I did.) The actors are all very photogenic and appealing. There definitely was comedy, and perhaps even food for thought, in the political statements made by the over-the-top revolutionary characters. I found it a bit difficult to switch gears, but maybe after repeated watchings I'll be able to do so. Those who are able to view hard core fare from an artistic and/or intellectual point of view will probably be better able to appreciate the film's artsy elements as well.

Bruce LaBruce's satirical swipe at terrorist chic is a gleefully irreverent swipe at, well, just about everything. The film combines a porn sensibility (complete with badly dubbed voices) with a high camp transgressiveness that reminded me of early John Waters. Indeed Raspberry Reich seems unsure as to whether it wants to be John Waters or a parody of Marxist Jean Luc Godard.Like John Waters early work this film has got plenty to offend everyone, but its also pacily directed and witty and boasts a terrific over the top character in Gudrun, the sexual and political revolutionary with ways too many causes.