Not long after the 1997 death of author/"Beat" cult figure William S. Burroughs, French filmmaker Jean-Francois Vallee created this eccentric but clearly admiring nonfiction short-feature tribute - Burroughs was, of course, revered in France. Cynics might note that any outsider artist who leads Americans to poor life choices may get revered in France (insert your own Jerry Lewis joke here).
A very loose chronological biography is insinuated into a media-barrage shower of weird imagery (though by no means groundbreaking, the style does anticipate lots of YouTube mashups that were soon to come), set to readings of Burroughs oft-bilious prose-poetry, from such works at The Ticket That Exploded, The Wild Boys, Nova Express and, of course, Naked Lunch. One is informed by Burroughs' onetime lover Allen Ginsberg that, despite the angry written rants, Burroughs was a gentle, lonely soul. The handsome young Burroughs (a Harvard student from a prosperous St. Louis family) once amputated his finger as a result of an unrequited homosexual crush - though the legendary tale that Burroughs fatally shot his wife Joan in 1951 in a bizarre druggy accident goes unmentioned.
Burroughs' infamous narcotics use (household servants supposedly indoctrinated him) is described, as only the French would, as part of the writer's search for ultimate "freedom." While not exploring the pleasures of intoxicants and the flesh in Mexico and Tangiers, Burroughs generated mind-altering literature, often through the means of "cut-ups," literally pasting fragmented articles and paragraphs together in random order, producing non- or anti-narratives. Doubtless, Burroughs was at his best as an alternative to America's stale mainstream-1950s culture of conformity. After that, you are on your own.
Associates interviewed here include a frail Paul Bowles and an appreciative Laurie Anderson, and viewers might catch some visual fragments culled from Howard Brookner's 1985 fan-favorite Burroughs: The Movie, fuzzy video of poetry readings and performance art, and diverse sources.
With a classroom-friendly run time, the documentary makes no substitute for the more straightforward and coherent Burroughs material out there (assuming any), but bids fair as a total-immersion venture into the Burroughs mystique and what made the fellow a grandfatherly hero to the pretentious black-turtleneck coffeehouse crowd. A strong optional purchase for academic libraries, with added (not to mention addictive) appeal to literature departments in universities friendly to the avant-garde.