Mandragora
|
List Price: Our Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $16.94 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Mandragora
Movie Review: The Road to Degradation
Summary: 5 Stars
The Road to Degradation
"MANDRAGORA"
Amos Lassen
"Mandragora" is one of two films I received from WaterBearer Films for review this week and it held me spellbound. It is a brutal and realistic look at male prostitution in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Prague has recently been discovered by gay movie makers as an ideal site to make movies. I suppose this is due to the plethora of beautiful men and incredible beautiful scenery. The porn companies have been filming there for several years now and Prague has emerged as one of the gay capitals of Europe. This astonishing film is tells the tale of the seductive world of male prostitution which promises money but ultimately with the loss of self respect and loneliness.
Marek (Miroslav Caslavka) is incredibly beautiful and a stunning screen presence. At 15, he left his home village and finds himself surrounded by petty thieves who wear beautiful clothes. Hs father wanted him to go to school and have a good life and the collision between father and son is the catalyst which causes Marek to move to Prague. Once there, a pimp named Honza convinces him to become a rabbit or male whore. Marek's first experience with a wealthy American disappoints but he nevertheless returns to the streets where he meets another "rabbit", David, and the two form an alliance to escape Honza's grip. Together they manage to see and to experience everything the night life of Prague has to offer.
Their lives become revolving doors where people cone and go but not before leaving scars. There is always the threat f drug addiction and HIV infection and eventually they sink to the world of gay porn. A brutal rape scene in which Marek is sodomized by David results in a police raid and Honza miraculously comes to their aid. They return to him and to the world of drugs and illicit sex, to a life filled with drug hallucinations and an unsavory clientele. Marek's father comes to Prague and discovers his son's activities and the final scene is sad to the point of devastation.
This is a downbeat film and I found it hard to believe that people live can this and can actually sink to such levels. The movie is a voyeuristic look into the world of hustling and professes to moralize on the scene of gay male prostitution. It is extremely difficult to see a young boy stripped of his innocence and subjected to the depravity of the milieu where he finds himself. Just when you think he is going to find some sense of stability he is sucked up again into a world that is depicted as having no sense of morality. It is Marek's own lack of self-esteem which causes his downfall.
Although the movie is ostensibly about the world of prostitution in Prague is even more so about Czechoslovakia itself. I remember taking a course in Czech history and learning how the Czech people struggled to achieve national unity only to be defeated by Nazi Germany and afterwards becoming part of Stalin's Soviet Union. This caused the privatization of national symbols and assets and because of that the movie industry declined considerably. It is wonderful to see a movie that has come out of Slovakia that is both meaningful and well made.
Watching this movie is a wrenching experience, especially watching Marek fall victim to such a terrible world. His violation and isolation will break even the strongest of hearts. The story of Marek and his fall is the story of the fall of civilization which when raped will disintegrate and die. It is, as if to say, that the world is plummeting toward a dead end.
The actors are nothing short of wonderful. Their performances are painstakingly believable and they perform with passion. The film is dark and cruel as it descends into the belly of the underworld of Prague. But the direction is fine--more than fine, actually and the performances are just amazing. The movie sweeps us up into a world of compassion and humiliating degradation. Maybe the editing is not perfect and the sound needs work, this is a very important film that should not be missed.
Movie Review: New Praque Spring Coming
Summary: 5 Stars
A 1997th year doco-style work explicitly reflects first post-years of a Czech-Republic-velvet-revolution euphoria, in which beautiful ancient capital, Prague the offspring of the 1968th year Prague Spring anti-communism warriors is simply used to prostituting and snoring drugs - the very habits of the already advanced in some free-from-moral sex-as-a-produce neighbouring western streets, reasoning the paedophiles from around a globe to visit new country for.
Although no explicit juicy-action depicted in this work originated from a modern hub of porno-industry, rating 18+(R) is a realistic classification of this tragic story about the youth lost to pity thievery, underage sex exploitation, drugs, AIDS and crime to simply survive.
In general positively depicted local police, perhaps, would one day reinstate a usual charm of history Prague had been famous (and did present it to foreigners, had even a hostility expressed openly to simultaneously) so attractive for in the days when busy train terminal was crowded by passengers from round Europe rather than hustlers only of a tiny age too often as this movie embedded.
Much more interesting than Twist, and my DVD English subtitles are simplistic but ENGLISH and OK.
Movie Review: Long and Bleak
Summary: 1 Stars
As indignity upon indignity is heaped on our protagonist, one gets a distinct whiff of self-loathing if not actual homophobia in this depiction of a young gay man's exploitation in the big city. Mandragora is way too long, relentlessly bleak and only has a couple of novel cinematic tricks to spark a bit of interest.Movie Review: I couldn't finish watching
Summary: 3 Stars
While the director of this film deals with events that probably happen often, the way that the story is told is relentlessly downbeat. It is hard to imagine that the people the hustlers represent have no good days. I had to stop watching after Marek injures himself in a fit of dispair. I couldn't bear any more.
Some people who pay for sex are abusive and some people who think they can make porn movies treat the models badly. If you think nobody should hustle or be in a porn movie that's fine. However if you are going to tell a story to get that point across then it isn't wise to go from scream-fest to drugged rape to beating then betrayal and so on without a break.
The performances were exactly right. I did not feel like I was watching actors but real people. That added to the horror. Unlike other reviewers I did not feel the quality of the transfer was a problem.
Movie Review: Strong stuff, beautifully acted and directed....
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a complicated movie, with a dark subject, but a powerful one, worth lingering over. The movie charts the fall from innocence of 15 year old Marek into personal ruin and death after he runs away from home to Prague.
Despite the very sad plot, the movie is strongly voyeuristic. Ostensibly a moral tale warning of the pitfalls of the gay teen boy prostitution scene, the viewer will find himself fascinated as they watch this sweet boy be stripped of his small town innnocence, and sink into total debravity. Just as Marek achieves some level of stability, he is drawn down shortly into the next step of the personal disaster to which he is destined. Against his better judgement, Marek's lack of self-esteem causes him to be drawn into increasingly serious mistakes in judgement, until he reaches his final ruin.
Ostensibly about Prague's gay teenage prostitution scene, the movie is also an allegory about Czechoslovakia itself. If you understand Czech history, you'll recognize it in this movie. The Czech people struggled for hundreds of years to achieve national self-determination, only to have it smashed by the degradation of Hitler's Munich. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Czech Nation fell into the clutches of Stalinist Communism. The "Prague Spring" was ruthlessly repressed by Soviet invasion. The fall of Soviet Union only led to the disasterous 'privatization' as national symbols and assets of Czech pride were sold to Western Capitalists and Russian Oligarchs. Eastern European, and particularly Czech movies, all seem to have morose themes which I attribute to the tragic history of these societies.
The performances of the principle actors, David Svec and Miroslav Caslavka are outstanding. You'll fall in love with them both! And no one is a better director of the dark movie then director, Wiktor Grodecki. The music score is a great assortment of classical music that complements the dark plot. The photography of of backstreet Prague and rural Bohemia is worth the price of admission alone.
Because I ended up watching this movie several times, and picked up new things each time I watched it, I've given it 5 stars. This movie has a message, and unlike so much stuff out there is well worth your time to absorb it.