Another round from Stephen Sayadian and the middle film in the trilogy of weirdness. ‘Cafe Flesh’ kind of feels like the halfway house between ‘Night Dreams’ and ‘Dr. Caligari’, not as porny as ‘Night Dreams’, but WAY more porny that ‘Caligari’ though, not without good reason.
The plot is set in the not too distant future (Sayadian has gone on record as saying he felt this took place in an alternate 90s.) Where the world has been ravaged by a nuclear apocalypse. This hellscape has eradicated persecusion on race,sex,gender or sexual preference basis. But instead split society as we know it into two camps. ‘Negatives’ who make up 99% of the population, who, on top of the usual post nuclear apocalypse style burns and injuries, have developed a mutation that makes them pretty much completely unable to engage in erotic physical touch with themselves or others. If they try, all parties will immediately begin to feel nauseaus, followed by uncontrollable vomiting, and eventually passing out.
The other camp, the 1%, are ‘Positives’, folks who have seemingly escaped the apocalypse unscathed and are able to have sex freely. I know which side i’d rather be on. But ‘Pozzi’s’ as they’re known have an even bigger problem on their hands, as government agencies are sweeping the apocalyptic hellscape SPECIFICIALLY looking for ‘Pozzi’s’ and on locating them, they’re rounded up, and sent to their nearest ‘Cafe Flesh’ a jumping 50s by the way of 1982 style bar where all registered ‘Positives’ are forced nightly to perform in increasingly perverted and bizarre sex shows, aimed at keeping ‘Neggi’s’ under control and subdued, as its the only entertainment in the wastes, while also regulating heavily the movement of ‘Pozzi’s’
Our film predominantly follows Nick and Lana, a couple of ‘Negatives’ who, before the war were in a loving relationship, that are now really struggling due to Nicks inability to have sex, alongside Nicks own feelings of imasculation. Lana helps arrange the shows at Cafe Flesh, and the film predominantly follows the happenings around the club, introduces us to some strange and wonderful characters and some even STRANGER sex acts…But when a newcomer arrives from the wastes called ‘Angel’ who is adamant shes a ‘negative’ the whole cafe will quickly find itself on the reciving end of investigators, hellbent on locating ANY ‘Pozzi’s’ and getting them on stage as soon as possible. With revelations that’ll turn the worlds of Nick, Lana and Angel totally upside down.
Of the first three Sayadian films, ‘Cafe Flesh’ is probably my least favourite, that isnt to do it a disservice mind, theres a lot going on in it. But I just feel like its more of a ‘stepping stone’ picture for the director than a landmark highlight. Sayadian at this point was very use to theatrical productions. ‘Night Dreams’ had been his first solid foray into film making, and this feels like a director/writer who knows a thing or two about movie making, but wasnt quite yet at his most confident.
At its core, theres a lot to love about ‘Cafe Flesh’ the plot itself has twists and turns that were both welcome and unexpected, the surrealism is really the main draw for me to this picture, with explicit imagery I dont think in my wildest dreams i’d have been able to conjure up. (ever wanted to see a 50s housewife get railed by a fully adult sized mouse dressed as a milkman, complete with dildo tail?…Or a giant Pencil fuck a secretary? This may be the film for you.)
In that sense it carries a lot of ‘Night Dreams’ DNA, and in some senses, this feels almost like the offcuts from ‘Night Dreams’ that Sayadian couldnt properly relaize in THAT film have been transplanted into this. While the absolute madness is welcome, I find the porn sequences in this film do have a bad habit of overstaying their welcome, this film clocks in at around 72 minutes, and I’d say you could easily knock 3-5 minutes off of every porn scene and it would have run ten times better.
For me? the sex scenes just, arnt that interesting. the surrealism is, but once it gets stuck into the more porn oriented moments, its just locked off mid-close shots of boning, occasionally cutting to a reaction shot from one of the cast. And it’s hard to tell at this point whether the lack of intimacy in the direction of those sequences is a choice given the topic, or if its just an inexperienced director who doesnt really know how to frame intimacy to make it feel passionate or interesting. ‘Caligari’ doenst really delve into sex as frequently as these two and seems to keep its sequences a bit tighter, so im inclined to believe its the latter.
The extended sex scenes pad the runtime quite heavily, which, to me? impacts how the actual story ebbs and flows. It feels less like the sex compliments the plot, and more like the film makers are essentially wrenching the story book from my hands to make me watch ploughing for 8 minutes, before giving me the book back for another 10, rinse, repeat.
What I will say though is, thats probably the biggest and sole issue I have with ‘Cafe Flesh’ its not committed ENOUGH to being porn to BE porn. Its not fleshed out narrative wise enough to lead with story, it feels a bit caught in the middle.
The plot elements themselves are wonderful, we have eccentric characters who all get a decent handful of moments to define themselves, Nick and Lana’s relationship is complex and explored decently, the twists and turns always kept me guessing what was coming next and the film gets into some genuinely bleak and bittersweet moments I really wasnt expecting from a film that features men dressed as adult babies banging theigh bones on high chairs in the opening act.
the act structuring feels a bit lop sided because of the extended sex sequences, but on the whole i’d say they’re pretty decently balanced out. The contrast between comedy weirdness and genuine discomfort is frankly delightful as well.
Direction wise, as mentioned it feels more like a ‘missing link’ than a fully fleshed out piece. Night dreams embraced absurdity, Caligari is set in some kind of German Expressionist by way of the B52’s void world…’Cafe Flesh’ has one foot in the surreal, and one foot in reality. and to me that feels unsual and jarring, for the most part, it weirdly works. But then there’ll just be some random scenes that really pulled me out of the space it was going for and left me feeling a little disinterested. Sayandian here is really learning the craft, so I do have to cut him some slack, but I just feel that there were moments here that, in the hands of a more experienced director (or had it been dealt with by Sayadian today) would have been much tighter and better handled.
The cine however? is basically flawless. fantastic surrealist and experimental compositional choices, crash up against neon soaked moody, smokey bar sequences. Sayadian is a director who revels in colour and you wont get much more vivid, rich and expressive than in these early films. incredibly powerful sequences combined into a tight edit with creative and interesting lighting only really further sell me on the vision on display here. I’d say just on this aspect alone the films worth checking out alongside Sayadians other work. It really is flourishing.
Performance wise, again; its pretty faultless, I had actually missed the Michelle Baur was in this playing Lana until I checked out the supplimental material (I also wasnt aware that this was only Baurs second ever ‘hardcore’ flick, which was surprising) But shes astounding in this, I find it kind of crazy that NOONE talks about how good she is in this film, playing a woman with a secret, dealing with the increasingly complex realtionship she has with her partner. Shes incredibly emotive, brings a real presence to the film and says more with micro movements and her physicality on set than the dialogue ever could.
Thats not to downplay Paul McGibboney who’s also absolutely carrying this film from strength to strength playing Nick with a strong front, but a clearly crumbling mask as he begins to realise that ‘Cafe Flesh’ may be all thats left for him. I also have to shout out Andy Nichols who plays ‘Cafe Fleshs’ host for the evenings Max. a UTTERLY slimey performance, he OOZES dislikability with every single line delivery, its incredible, his own revelations were both very satisfying and handled very well. He was excellent.
I cant even begin to go into the supporting cast and extras in this film either, who play things ABSOLUTELY perfectly. Its almost like an inverse ‘Rocky Horror’ with the majority of the patrons of ‘Cafe Flesh’ looking at the performers the same way a dog looks at a rotisserie chicken in a shop window. the eccentricities all play off each other well with explosive and interesting moments. I really quite enjoyed it honestly.
And finally, the soundtrack…which, being honest…wasnt really my jam. It had its moments, but its trying to be a 40s and 50s ‘Jazzy, but in the future!’ kind of take, but its hit and miss, where it works, I kind of dug it, where it didnt. It was grating. I could easily see why folks would like the score to this one, but I personally much preferred Caligari.
I feel my rating for ‘Cafe Flesh’ will shift in time, theres honestly a lot to like here, but it feels like a film mid transition, a necessary work to get to the logical end point, but not a ‘complete’ picture in the spiritual sense. I loved the casting and cine, but the script really struggles to shake off its ‘too porny for its own good’ vibes, which left me a bit frustrated.
I’d say its definitely worth your time, alongside all of Sayadians early works. But done expect a film that puts story ahead of sex. its very much in the midst of an identity crisis on that front.
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