TATTOO (director/writer: Bob …
TATTOO
(director/writer: Bob Brooks; screenwriter: Joyce Buñuel; cinematographer:
Arthur Ornitz; writer: Thom True; music: Barry de Vorzon; choose: Bruce
Dern (Karl), Maud Adams (Maddy), Leonard Frey (Halsey), Rikke Borge (Sandra),
John Getz (Buddy), Peter Iacangelo (Dubin); Runtime: 103; MPAA Rating:
R; producer: Robert F. Colesberry/Joseph E. Levine /Richard Levine; 20th
Century Fox; 1981)
"All involved
in this calculate non-standard like to be in call for of some Freudian assay."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Tattoo was scripted by Joyce Bunuel, Luis Bunuel's daughter-in-law.
It's helmed by Bob Brooks, a British-based commercial and TV director.
It follows in the obsessive vein of John Fowles' The Collector, but veers
on the side of kinkiness. The film shoots to be shocking, and turns into
an unbelievable sleazy melodrama of little social worth.
"Tattoo" is the story of a crazed loner tattoo artist, played by
Bruce Dern as Karl Kinski. After visiting Japan and becoming charmed of
their elaborate stylistic tattooing, Karl returns home to practice his
craft in New Jersey. To him, tattoos are spiritual and are called "the
mark." Karl is hired by a local fashion 'zine to paint fake tattoos onto
the bods of some models to push a new swimsuit line. There, Karl becomes
obsessed with married international supermodel Maddy (Maud Adams). He dates
her, but he refuses to have sex with her because she's not into tattoos.
So he stalks her and finally tattoos her for real after kidnapping and
drugging her, and finally he rapes her after he covers her bod with tattoos
and feels that she's now good enough for him. All this nonsense takes place
while he's keeping her in his dad's isolated seaside cabin. In one sicko
scene, he makes the frightened vic masturbate. It goes down a slippery
pathological path of psychology, without adding any insight. All involved
in this project seem to be in need of some Freudian analysis. The rumors
persisted that the sex scene was real and not simulated, though Adams says
that's not so Bruce. No matter, this was a raunchy voyeuristic cultish
film that was hard to forget but in a bad sort of way. Its violent end
brings all the unpleasantness to a fitting conclusion.
REVIEWED ON 12/28/2003 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
Carrie Jiminez