# Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

### reviewed by
Murali Krishnan

    [2.5/4.0]

Schizophrenia is a mental illness where the patient often perceives a reality that is markedly different from what a normal mind would perceive. Portrayal of mental illness is often given from the perspective of the sane observer viewing the puzzling behavior of the afflicted. This film takes the opposite approach, with the audience viewing a confusing, incomprehensible world through the eyes of the protagonist.

This story does not contain a clear narrative, but rather is a composition of various scenes and occurrences in the life of the main character, Julien (Ewen Bremner). He lives with his widowed father (legendary German director, Werner Herzog), and his two siblings, pregnant sister Pearl (Chloë Sevigny) and brother Chris (Evan Neumann). Both of Julien's siblings appear to be normal, and all of their behavior seems coherent. Julien's father comes across as an odd character, but perhaps it is only Julien's perception of him that is askew.

The events that take place in the household span the range from mundane to bizarre. Chris, perhaps the most "normal" character, is constantly practicing wrestling. Pearl shops for baby clothes, tenderly cares for Julien, and plays the harp. Julien's father delivers monologues about various topics, ranging from the dialog in the movie Dirty Harry, to a talking bird competition. He sometimes watches television while wearing a gas mask. All these factors seem meaningless in isolation, but form a rough mosaic in composition.

The most bizarre and disturbing elements of the film occur when Julien is followed. He engages in behaviors that are typical of people with his mental illness, like raving at pedestrians, and emotional immersion in religion and religious imagery. At times however, Julien appears mostly normal, such as the scenes where he is attending a school for other disabled persons. A friend of Julien's at the school, a young girl with impaired vision, makes the statement that she had always thought her vision was normal until she was told that "normal" people can see much more clearly than she could. This is the key insight the film makes into Julien's world. What may be disturbing and unintelligible to the viewer, is normalcy for the schizophrenic mind.

Very few of the events that occur are coherent in the context of a story. The initial scene presents extreme actions and imagery that jar the viewer but does not seem connected to the following narrative. Immediately the viewer is undecided whether what was presented were real or imagined actions. The intention is clearly to present a world where reality and illusion and hallucination combine to form the sensorially riotous world of the schizophrenic. Director Harmony Korine wrote the story which was inspired by his real life uncle who suffers from the disease.

The film adheres to the tenets of Dogme 95, an austere school of filmmaking that eschews many of the superficial or manipulative aspects of modern filmmaking. For example, Dogme 95 films are shot on location without sets or props, sound is recorded from source and not redubbed, the camera is hand-held, etc. All of these techniques also reflect the scattered and impressionistic nature of Julien's mind. Much of the acting was improvised, and some of the footage was taken as the actors, staying in their roles, interacted with real people on location.

The film will definitely not play in multiplexes as it does not have an audience there. It will likely have a limited run on the art house circuit, but still struggle to attract viewers to such a detached, abstract, and difficult film. As a portrait of schizophrenia, the film immerses the viewer into a world of altered reality. There is a threadbare narrative at its core, but the film is mostly a collage of disjointed scenes, images, and experiences. The characters are left vague and are not possible to identify with.

Conditionally recommended. The film is highly ambitious, tackling a subject that is deep but without any commercial appeal. It makes no concessions in its attempt to peer into a world that will not be intelligible to the audience. The flaw of the film is that it is tedious, requiring mental endurance and toughness from the viewer.

    (c) 1999 Murali Krishnan
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