I am pretty sure I will not ask any of the Iranians whether they know the film

Utopia

Welcome to the newest instance of films I am watching because Gorp told me to. Lately one must apply a little force for me to watch things – how else am I supposed to see all these things which are lying around on my computer? I promise myself to only get a Netflix or Hulu account if I have seen all the films on the Monolith. :D Maybe Pixelmatsch and I need to allocate some 7 hours to go through Satantango after all, ha ha ha. Otherwise we will never see it.

“Utopia” is a very random choice. I was bored in some sense (or rather I really, really did not want to work) and I was alone in something that practically looks like a hotel apartment without internet. It was the perfect stage to be watching “Utopia”, a 3 hour long marathon which I normally cannot sit through. But just like “Ai no Mukidashi” is worth every second of its 4 hour run, “Utopia” is worth every second of those 3 hours… except for the first few minutes maybe. For some reason the film begins with a very, very long shot which made me wonder if I can sit through that. But afterwards, the disturbing happenings in the film worked like a charm.

As much as you might expect from a super obscure old German film, “Utopia” is certainly not one of those politically inspired arthouse films with unbearably long pacing. The unbearable parts entirely comes from the story itself. I don’t think I have seen so much violence before, even if the violence is not shown with any bloodshed. Somebody compared this to “No Exit”, where the characters are unable to go through the exit. I don’t quite like the comparison because “No Exit” is a heavily psychological piece, and people in the story are very French in how their hatred for each other is deeply passionate. “Utopia” is not passionate at all, it is rather a film of cold domination in which the characters cannot escape their own hell for completely different reasons than passion.

I read that Shahid-Saless knew about brothels in Berlin, and that he studied them for the film. I have never frequented such an establishment, but I feel like I know more about humans to get the feeling that, just like “No Exit”, “Utopia” is disturbingly real. An (obviously male) friend recently postulated that women try to control men. Now, Fassbinder might agree with that, but I don’t really, because from what I see, it is much more often the other way around. But “Utopia” is not primarily gender-specific. Domination, obsession and being psychologically crushed can happen in any circumstances, and the setting of “Utopia” allows them to exploit it. Amongst all of them, the most fascinating character is clearly the pimp who might feel like the clichéd character who is unable to love himself nor others :D But no matter why he is the way he is (the film does not tell you anything after all), it is much more interesting to observe his behavior. The way he just randomly sleeps with some of his women, gets angry about any stupid thing and just simply the way he talks to them – it feels so damn real. At the same time I agree that Shahid-Saless conceived him as some sort of samurai character. He clearly acts that way because he cannot help himself, and his elegant demeanor and fairly good looks make it possible for you to sympathize with him in some sense, despite all the brutality. It makes it understandable why at least two of the women had some sort of romantic feelings for him, if not more than that.

On a side note, I think the pimp also looks a little bit like Pixelmatsch’s best friend. But don’t ever tell him that. It’s probably the most horrible role you could possibly be associated with. But the guy is a really good actor!

I am a little disturbed at some of the synopses or interpretations floating around on the internet. Unfortunately I cannot find them now. One says the film is about “lust and desire” (lolwhat?), another says the women all believe they are the man’s true love (oh God). I am quite appalled at that. Did these people simply not watch the movie?

To me, the film was rather a mix of Jeanne Dielmann and, strangely enough, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (incredible depression and some sort of melancholy?) than Jeanne Dielmann x Salo. “Utopia” is not a political movie unlike Salo, it is a portrait of humanity like Chinese Bookie, with a lonesome pimp as main character, except that one feels love and the other one doesn’t. All of them are absolutely unwatchable films I could never recommend to anyone, but which I have loved. I think these films tell us a little more about ourselves, and such films are rare and precious.