Gorilla Bathes at Noon

This misfit fish-out-of-water comedy is about as accessible as Dusan Makavejev--director of such subversive and darkly comic films as Montenegro, WR: Mysteries of the Organism and Sweet Movie--gets. Svetozar Cvetkovic, who resembles Liam Neeson, stars as Victor, a Russian soldier stranded in East Berlin after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Decked out in his blue uniform, he cruises the city on his bicycle (decorated with a hammer and sickle flag), visits the Siberian tiger at the zoo, takes it upon himself to clean a defiled statue of Lenin, and interacts with a gallery of colorful characters, including a bearded woman who knits him a sock. Makavejev intercuts this picaresque tale (the video box describes our hapless hero as "a post-Communist Candide") with clips from a propagandistic Russian World War II epic. Oddly compelling, this is a world apart from Miramax bon bons like Chocolat, requiring some patience and investment from the viewer. Recommended, with reservations. [Note: Facets is also re-releasing five other films from Makavejev: Man Is Not a Bird, Love Affair: Or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator, Innocence Unprotected, WR: Mysteries of the Organism and Sweet Movie.] (K. Lee Benson)[DVD Review—July 26, 2016—Facets, 83 min., in English, German & Russian w/English subtitles, not rated, $29.95—Making its first appearance on DVD, 1993's Gorilla Bathes at Noon sports a fine transfer, but no extras. Bottom line: a welcome release of one of provocateur Makavejev's most accessible films.]