Who's Crazy?

An avant-garde, semi-improvised feature shot in Belgium in the mid-1960s by an American bohemian in Paris with a cast comprised of members of New York's experimental Living Theatre troupe, Who's Crazy? all but disappeared after screening at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. The sole surviving print (which has French subtitles on the brief dialogue sequences) was found in 2016 in the garage of director Thomas White and restored for American screenings. The plotless films follows the antics of patients from a psychiatric hospital who escape when their bus breaks down in the Belgian countryside and converge on an abandoned farmhouse, where they trade their institutional fatigues for groovy civilian clothes (heavy on turtlenecks, vests, and scarves) and create their own community. They put one member on trial, cook up an epic breakfast, dance, debate like coffeehouse beatniks in rare dialogue scenes, and indulge in rituals that look like parodies of counterculture clichés by way of silent movie slapstick—until a pack of policemen arrive to round them up. The soundtrack is an improvised free jazz score from the Ornette Coleman Trio and features vocals by Marianne Faithful. This oddity is an interesting artifact from the expressive artistic explorations of the ‘60s (full of energy and experimentation), but it also plays on the idealized innocence, childlike creativity, and purity of the insane, like a hippie King of Hearts. Unfortunately, it never really gels into anything approaching a statement, let alone a story. Extras include a Q&A with the director, a 1966 profile of Coleman, and a booklet with an essay by critic Adam Shatz. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)