Schizburg
To begin with…
The first time i head of this movie was a couple of years back. One of my film junkie friends and i were locked into one of those random, leap-frogging conversations that covers not just a movie but FILM as a whole. Anyways, we got around to soderbergh and he blurts out “Dude, have you seen Schizopolis? Its great, man. Really bizarre and soderbergh is in it and he makes weird faces in a mirror for like 5 minutes, I think you’d like it.”
I was skeptical. But i borrowed it anyway because i had seen the cover in the Cult section of the local indie video store (As Seen On TV in Oxford MS) and every once in a while the poster art on a movie box can steer me in the right direction.
I was blown away immediately when i saw it. I had no idea what i was getting into. so few are the movies that rivet you to your seat with what seems like pure nonsense. I was engrossed in the movie because unlike anything i had seen before, it had a (mostly) comprehensible story that was entirely unpredictable in its illustration.
That being said, i think that the communication and perception themes in Schizopolis were pretty straight forward. Everything that we see play out in the story is a metaphor and cuts to the heart of what all these interactions actually are.
The speech between Munson and his wife (speaking in subtext) is an illustration of a husband and wife going through the motions of a now-passionless marriage.
The scenes where Munson and his wife are speaking in different languages simultaneously is a metaphor for them not really understanding each other (“its like shes speaking a different language, Mr. Marriage Counselor!”) Another symptom of the passionless marriage.
When Elmo and his many mistresses (Alliteration attack!) are tossing seductive, yet nonsensical, dialogue back and forth, we can see that the dialogue is meaningless. The banter is just a means to an end. Neither party is really trying. The both know what is going on as soon as the door opens and their eyes meet. I think that we can assume that if Elmo is actually on a routine call and he wasnt speaking in gibberish, he would first say something along the lines of “You called an exterminator ma’am?”, which would be routine effortless dialogue. The mistress would then reply with something seductive (something she has possibly used in the past with other exterminators). Elmo would then come back with a tried and true seductive line, probably proven in his previous exterminations-with-benifits. Rinse and repeat until desired effect is achieved.
Munsons characterization of his libido, Korchek the dentist, is evident in Soderbergh playing both characters. Munson might have all of his energy tapped out of him by trying to avoid doing actual work and interactions between himself and his co-workers. When he gets home he just wants to be left alone. His libido, Korchek, is miles away at a job that he can do blindfolded, leaving his mind to linger on sex. Because Korchek is more free at work he can be more free socially, and is more “free” socially.
Soderberghs portrayal of office life is fairly straight forward. Its boring. Its mundane. Nobody wants to be there, really. Well maybe the higher-ups do, but this is only because they are horrible people and enjoy their jobs more than anything else. Everyone working in the office is paranoid about their jobs and moles and spies because they have nothing else to keep them occupied intellectually. So when some rumor gets passed around the office it gets blown way out of proportion until people are sweating over nothing at all.
I think the Eventualism is just a replacement for scientology. One guy spouting a bunch of crap that the down-trodden will eat up if it holds the empty promise of a better life.
Considering that Soderbergh is on his second marriage, and has had rocky romantic histories (the info on the “histories” comes from a book called Rebels On The Backlot. if their info is wrong, shoot them.)
The perception aspect comes from the director living through most of the scenarios ( i cant speak for the elmo scenes though.)
What i find remarkable about this movie is not the themes behind it but the way that they are portrayed in an almost,and in some cases ENTIRELY, literal sense. He has just thought about what all this crap we have to trudge through everyday means and has abreviated it. Hilariously so.
Tommy Bell
