“There’s something belonging to me that’s been… lost…

… a bag. The content is none of your concern, but it has an inestimable value to me...” That’s not what I’ve said this morning, noticing that my tobacco set was no more (farewell, faithful friend for many smoky years: hope you’ve been found by some who could appreciate and love you), but the spark that gets Contact High’s crazy carousel off the ground – phrase to be taken even literally, as shown by a scene towards the end of the movie.

Actually, the abovementioned bag serves just as a MacGuffin to lead the action from Austria to Poland, on a bizarre – to say the least – journey where drugs is the common denominator among all characters. Michael Glawogger’s movie is indeed the second chapter of a trilogy dedicated to sex (Nacktschnecken, 2004), drugs & rock’n’roll (project in development); and if I’d thought I already had a quite psychedelic experience with the visual experiments Clouzot’s technicians made for L’enfer, well, Contact High raises the stakes (yes, I know, 45 years ago there were no CGIs…). Space distortions, dog-headed people in a disco, pig-nosed Polish policemen and other kinds of perceptive alterations for a bunch of odd losers and small-time crooks: that’s the menu (hope you like mushrooms, btw). Once you’ve been told that all this goes along with a fresh & humorous script and an enthralling soundtrack, it’s hard to believe mr. Glawogger when he says that the fun lies only in imagining the movie and not in shooting it… Anyway, Michael, we had fun in watching it, and with so many comedies around that seem concerned to entertain their authors rather than the audience, I guess it’s enough to say your movie’s worth the ticket’s price.

So, people, if you’ve missed Contact High yesterday at Odeon, you can catch it on Saturday morning at Kulturni Dom. And, as Jurij Meden said in his introduction, better if you don’t get there sober…

Contact High, Michael Glawogger, Aut / Ger / Pol / Lux 2009
RIYL:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam, USA 1998 (a viewer mentioned it in the after-screening q&a but, trust me, I had already thought about it)

PIERVI