Polish-born director Walérian Borowczyk (1923-2006) had one of the strangest careers in cinema, from acclaimed animation films alongside Chris Marker in the 1950s to erotic movies unfairly dismissed by many as soft porn. The time has come to reassess his peculiar genius. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne may seem like conventional horror material. But this radical reworking of Stevenson’s novel emphasises two things: a philosophical debate on rational empiricism versus transcendent metamorphosis, and a surrealistic brand of feminism that insists on women’s desire and complicity in the violent eroticism unleashed by Jekyll’s ‘weird science’. As always, Borowczyk’s minutely artisanal, baroque style renders the past as a strange, luminous, trembling place, full of beguiling toys, hidden chambers and transgressive games of love and death.
Film details
Countries of production
France, West Germany
Year
1981
Festival edition
IFFR 2015
Length
92'
Medium/Format
DCP
Language
French
Director
Walérian Borowczyk
Producer
Ralph Baum, Robert Kuperberg, Jean-Pierre Labrande
Screenplay
Walérian Borowczyk, based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
Production design
Walérian Borowczyk
Principal cast
Udo Kier, Marina Pierro
Production company
Allegro Productions, Multimedia Gesellschaft für Audiovisuelle Information, Whodunit Productions
