Date:

Friday, September 13, 2024

Venue:

UT Connewitz

Location:

Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

Notes:

US 1972, D: Wakefield Poole, A: Bill Harrison, Robert Lewis, Peter Fisk, Cassandra Heart, 75’, no dialogue / projected silently, DCP

It's about to get sleazy. In his classic all-male-adult film, Wakefield Poole recounts the experiences of a construction worker labelled as “straight” and his journey into unknown desires. We follow the nameless man with a moustache, flannel shirt and hard hat as he walks home from his shift through the streets of New York. On a street corner, a woman is hit by a car and her handbag flies at his feet. He grabs the bag, in which he later at home finds a lipstick – the first and by no means last phallus in the story – and an invitation to Club Bijou which he accepts without the slightest hesitation. During his visit, he wears no underwear under his denim. What follows is a dense sequence of flesh and colour: sex driven surrealism, in which our protagonist appears less as an active participant than as a reserved, possibly guilt-ridden, supporting character.
Despite the low production budget – the club scenes were shot within four days in the director's flat – Poole, who worked as a cameraman and editor in addition to directing, pulls out all the stops on a visual level: split screens and multiple image overlays convey the protagonist's world of thought to the viewer. There are also cabinets of mirrors and a highly expressive use of colour and light, while the spatial setting remains limited to the essentials. Despite all the concentrated “man on man action”, BIJOU is a highly avant-garde contribution to gay erotica – the perfect introduction to the genre for heteros.

Whether you are new to the genre or not, the post-punk band Pisse will sweeten the deal. In a work commissioned by GEGENkino, they are dedicating themselves to a new soundtrack for BIJOU. Like the construction worker in the film, Pisse have been surrounded by an aura of mystery and aloofness since their formation over ten years ago. The members of the band from Saxony, which has since become known throughout Germany and even the world, deliberately spread unreliable information about themselves. They consistently reject the commercial music business and, in addition to releasing their albums in vinyl editions, always make them available as downloads, where you can determine the price you pay for them yourself. The daily newspaper taz compares Pisse to the sarcastic punk of the early Goldenen Zitronen. Critics from other music magazines are also enthusiastic about their sound: Musikexpress voted the album “Mit Schinken durch die Menopause” one of the 50 best punk albums of all time in 2023.

It will be interesting to see how the band, whose instrumentation with a theremin is already rather unusual for a punk band, will deal with BIJOU's series of images: whether they will orientate themselves on the structure of the original film score – evocative, atmospheric compositions and loops by Gustav Holst and Alan Hovhaness, interrupted by a pinch of Led Zeppelin. Whether they might incorporate text fragments or scraps of speech, as the Pisse lyrics are unrivalled and it is almost a shame without them. Whether they might put more emphasis on synthesiser and theremin. Or whether they work with samples and electronics. We don't know. Ulrich Gutmair also writes about the band in the taz: “For all their filthiness, Pisse are washed in the waters of the avant-garde.” So much for Gutmair. The band's official promo text, on the other hand, states: “Whipped by disgust, Pisse play low music for a dishonourable audience.” We look forward to aesthetic moments of friction between image and sound. It will be a celebration.

With an introduction by Marco Siedelmann.

Noise Rock, Post-Hardcore, Post-Punk, Punk, Punk Rock, Germany, German, Noise Punk, Garage Psych, Indie Punk, and Synth Punk.

Seen By:

Sʟᴇᴠɪɴ Kᴇʟᴇᴠʀᴀ