Two drug-addicted, incestuous, rich siblings kill a call-boy to make playing cards out of his skin.
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It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and must say: I was not impressed, not at all. I do side with the other posters when it comes to the fine performances, but some good performances do not make a good movie.On the discussion board, I found a review by an anonymous poster that captured some of the main points. It says: "'Deed Poll' is a movie that raises many questions but hardly answers even a few; a movie that is disturbing and above every attempt at categorizing; an experiment and a very conventional sexual drama despite some shocking scenes. The brilliant acting of Barbara Kowa and André Schneider, the partly very impressive editing and the good camera work (Steffen Ritter) make up for gross plot holes and some technical slips (especially in sound). However, the boredom the audiences have to deal with for 40 minutes remains." Unfortunately, this is true. I wasn't intrigued by the story at all. The protagonists are cold, ambition-less people. They do a lot of drugs and have a lot of (incestuous) sex. So what? For many times, the direction seemed to be virtually non-existent, not to mention the technical aspect: the poor sound quality was enormously disturbing.What's the point of the movie? What's the message behind it all? The anonymous reviewer said: "Somehow Biermann failed to make a clear point and so the movie remains hanging in mid-air without a message. Thus the boredom I blame on the movie. The movie is reserved and emotionless, cold, almost neutral and it doesn't take long to see the flaws: for long stretches the characters of Sean and Ivy are not credible (they clearly have difficulties with the English pronunciation), the character of the mute brother is not developed very well. Some moments are very promising though - in the scene where the call boy is skinned (the one and only true love scene) an intensity is reached that one would love to see the whole movie long. As a spectator one has to regret the chances given away." Again, I must agree. I did like the final scene, especially because of the beautifully captured faces of Gianni Meurer and André Schneider, but it was nothing compared to the boredom I had to suffer for the first thirty minutes. (The sex scenes, though, were aesthetically staged and perfectly edited.)All in all, "Deed Poll" was not my cup of tea - a good, controversial idea wasted -, but it was a interesting to see how a movie can be made with practically no money. Maybe if they had a bigger budget and a more experienced director, this would have become a better movie.
Since this movie will probably never be released widely, I was truly fortunate to get a copy of the DVD through a friend of mine who was visiting Andre Schneider in Germany earlier this year.A weird film, I must say, but it's highly entertaining, dark and sexy. As a gay man, I was hugely attracted to Mr. Schneider who gave a tour-de-force performance in this movie. I haven't seen any of his other performances yet, but this one was electrifying. Equally good were Miss Kowa and Mr. Wittenauer who played an incestuous pair of siblings. But despite of their good performances, "Deed Poll" entirely belongs to Andre Schneider's face and presence: raw and sensitive, sexy and vulnerable, tender and fierce, seductive and ugly. It's his face and the great script that makes the viewer forget about the inept direction, the hilariously bad sound and some goofs.Too weird for American audiences, this movie will sooner or later become a cult classic. I watched it more than a dozen times and made copies for many of my family members and friends. This is a movie with a message.
Deed Poll: a game, a drug, an orgasm, an art.To play poker already will never be like before. Have you played poker at some time? Surely yes. The tact of the playing cards in your hands encourages you to continue playing ... to play more and more. It is a natural instinct, a risk, an art. When you see the movie, to play poker will turn into a new game not known for you. "Deed Poll" will not make you indifferent. As the tact of the playing cards the movie is soft, exquisite, luminous. But simultaneously it is a risk, a danger, a bomb that will wake your more basic instincts up.In 1943 Hoffman discovers the LSD. The ecstasy is an hallucinogenic and some of the effects are that the vision sharpens, the colours meet more alive and vivacious, the persons and the objects acquire a fascinating character, the sensibility for the small details increases, the painful sensibility diminishes, the capacity of suggestion increases, heart runs. The same effects are the film's effects. At some time have you taken LSD? I recommend to you not to do it. But if you want to have an amazing trip you must see "Deed Poll". André Schneider will lead you for this trip of 45 minutes. "Deed Poll" is like an hallucinogenic. With him the colours will be different, you will not feel the pain and will have very much pleasure, the small thing will be enormous, everything will be fascinating, he will be fascinating and you also.Sex does the persons and the persons do sex. "Deed Poll" takes us to a personal orgy of feelings and passion. Feelings that immerse the prominent figures in a spiral of wild sex; spiral that each one uses to escape of a world and to enter other one. An orgy in which you can be one of them. You can meet reflected in one of four prominent figures and to feel as them, to be one of them. The active, the submissive, the intelligent, the madman, the risky, the masochist, the sadistic, the drug addict, the amicable, the incestuous, the shy, the slender you. Have you had sex? I recommend to you that yes. But if you want to have an orgasm seeing a movie, undoubtedly your movie is "Deed Poll"."Deed Poll" is an art. It is a special art, an original art ... a new art. The colours of the movie are not usual and the camera angles are very good. The style of filming is genuine and very interesting and for it, from here, I congratulate the director. The actors are very credible actors, give life to prominent figures marvellously created in the script. Dynamical script and impacting, a personal and only script. Undoubtedly you will not repent on having seen it.
I like dark movies. I like porn. I thought "Deed Poll" was a good combination. It was. A hustler's getting killed for sexual stimulation.Pro: André Schneider's fine performance gave me the chills and Rainer-Maria Wittenauer was pure eye-candy. The fact that we get to see an erection a great bonus. The cameraman did a good job. The whole thing is well-written.Contra: Barbara Kowa's overacting annoyed me. She's wearing a terrible wig and is hysterical throughout the movie. The whole Ivy character is horrible! The sound quality is poor, poor, poor! Why couldn't they afford a better sound system?All in all: a good movie, made under very bad circumstances, with a great plot, a good ending, and a bad leading lady.