MovieChat Forums > The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi (2009) Discussion > PopMatters gives kudos to Kingsley...

PopMatters gives kudos to Kingsley...

posted 15 years ago by tlcarpenter
4 replies | jump to latest

Below is one of the first reviews of the dvd Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi - and it's mostly positive! YEA!

Psychological savant Dr. Anna Fugazi is having a hard time with her burgeoning practice. Seems her patients, including a raging pedophile, an agoraphobic psychic, a true nutty professor, and a demented kleptomaniac are trying her mental mantle. Even worse, her home life with musician boyfriend Maynard is a wild ride of sex, parties, and disturbing dreams. You see, Anna is having nightmares involving bondage, discipline, blood, and vague metaphoric memories. While trying to keep it together, she feels like she’s literally falling apart. One day, a detective named Rowland comes to visit. She claims that one of Anna’s clients has killed his wife and left town. The cop wonders is she has any clues as to where the man might be going. Anna has a name - Grenwich - that’s all. Of course, she may have more knowledge than she even knows.

The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi is indeed a triumph for first time filmmaker October Kingsley. Wearing her exotic erotica on her Suicide Girls inspired façade, she’s a creative and confident artist. Sure, the last act “twist” is about as unsatisfying as they come and we don’t always understand or follow the sexual symbolism involved. Still, for a movie that includes anal rape with a broom handle, child molesters dreaming of laughing children, and a post-plastic surgery, pre-apocalyptic disaster Faye Dunaway, Kingsley keeps things from going completely bat dance. She’s also an intriguing onscreen presence, her slight accents and petite stature giving way to moments of madness and murderous desire. Still, not everything about this oddball experience works. Kingsley is anything if not self-indulgent, and the actors appear lifted from the struggling local Los Angeles scene. Yet the minute Dunaway walks on the set, everything changes. Everyone’s community college level performances suddenly start attending graduate school.

There’s also no denying the look of this film. Kingsley loves to experiment with style and form, taking elements from the fetish scene and mixing them with standard cinematics. The moments of physicality are graphic without being profane and there’s an orgy sequence that shows how effective and arousing suggestion and careful editing can be. Still, there’s that uneven ending to contend with, a finale that falls short of the ambitions Kingsley shows elsewhere. Some will probably be able to predict the outcome the minute Fugazzi falls into her first “trance”. Others will witness the reveal and still wonder just what in the Hell is going on. There’s definitely a desire to play with reality and the dream state here, and Kingsley’s history as a psychology and philosophy major do come into play. If you’re willing to accept 5/6ths of a great film, you’ll truly enjoy The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi. Even with its unsuccessful climax, this is a film and filmmaker worth watching. And that’s the main reason why Troma’s continued commercial output is so important. Without them, where would truly independent art be?

—Bill Gibron

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] smittensight 15 years ago

Troma rules! I saw this film over the weekend and I totally got it, and I really enjoyed it. (see my earlier post) I liked all the dreamy, dirty sex sequences, and I loved all the weirdo characters that come and go from the doctor's life. The only real issue I had with this movie is that Faye's detective character should have come sooner rather than later in the film, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this wild, peculiar film!

[–] laurent_brian 15 years ago

Sex on film is potentially used as a means of revealing the lightest or the darkest traits of an individual character, primarily, vulnerability, instinct, sadism, and impulse. The Seduction Of Dr. Fugazzi is a good example of a movie using such a controversial dynamic. This is not a film that is going to be easily appreciated. Likewise, this is not a film that is going to be easily forgotten. In time, this film is going to become a timeless, cult classic filled with controversy, affection, and repulsion. It is a surreal vision demanding attention, if not praise.

Set around the life of Dr. Anna Fugazzi, the film is a dark, sensuous mystery involving the doctor's deranged patients, her masochistic boyfriend, and her colorful friends. The film's beautiful but detached surrealism reminds us that we are not immune to the disturbing events which lurk just beneath the surface. There is a darker side of life waiting for us all. And as a French critic recently said "you either think it's dementedly bizarre or a head-trip to nowhere". This film is dangerously imposing, tempered only by the filmmaker's willingness to push all acceptable boundaries, and yet still remain in control.

This movie has a lot of so-called "masterpiece elements" to it. First of all, the way October Kingsley makes The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi increasingly disturbing is a perfect example of how pristine the dynamics of weirdness and tension are built. Through this process, Ms. Kingsley indeed deconstructs the audience expectations. The film's setting and mood are introduced in an exposition lifted directly from older film-noirs. The film is initially expected to follow a particular path. The way Ms. Kingsley associates and intermingles elements of classic narrative methodology and the "dynamics of noir" appears to be original at worst and "avant gardiste" at best.

Second of all, the opposition between the creepiness of the plot/characters and the beautiful setting of the film is definitely for me a masterpiece element. Ms. Kingsley succeeds in the masterful exercise of controlling the audience's attention through shock, awe, and crass humor. Most of us will not quite know what to make of this film and we can disagree on the value of such a cinematic experience. However, audacious, erotic, disturbing, haunting are adjectives that will always be linked with "The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi". The cult genre has just been re-invented by the young Ms. Kingsley and right in front of our very own eyes.

[–] gubermax 15 years ago

Just saw it again tonight... still awesome and sexy!