Ligia Branice and Pierre Brasseur govern an island removed from reality in GOTO, ISLE OF LOVE, a film whose 2K restoration was made possible by a successful 2014 Kickstarter campaign.
suffocate the old man (René Dary) who previously held his coveted positions.
Glossia and Gono plan to escape their grey, dreary existence in a boat secured among rocks off the beach. “Will it really be better over there?” asks Glossia. “Not better—different,” replies Gono. The Governor inadvertently foils their scheme when he sets the boat loose by accident and lets it drift out to sea.
Grozo and the Governor each discover the illicit relationship between Glossia and Gono (captured through a pair of binoculars from a loft overlooking the stables), resulting in Grozo’s murder of the Gov- ernor with a stolen pistol and the execution of Gono when the fly-catcher accuses him of the crime. Even- tually elected Governor himself, Grozo now has the object of his desire well within his grasp, only for Glossia to fall to her death from a staircase... or does she? The ending is deliberately ambiguous— did Glossia simply survive the fall, or does the gentle opening of her eyes suggest an awakening from a dream? Nothing is what it appears to be on the strange isle of Goto.
Goto III is portrayed by Brasseur as a benign dictator, one who attracts a degree of sympathy. His expression as he watches the waves tossing the boat out to sea is a strong hint that even he recog- nizes this small vessel as providing a passage be- yond the never-never land he inhabits. Yet he’s a
dictator all the same, and the conditions depicted on the island resulted in the film being considered subversive, and therefore banned, by both the Polish Communist Party and Francoist Spain. Borowczyk’s eye for framing and keen ear for music (Handel’s “Organ Concerto in G Minor”) are as dazzling in his live-action debut as in his ani- mated shorts. Several visual motifs hark back to his previous short films (the dolls and other vintage memorabilia from “Renaissance,” for example, or the close-ups of Ligia Branice’s mournful face from “Rosalie”), while others look forward to later works (the bathing nudes in GOTO would reappear in 1974’s IMMORAL TALES).
The extras consist of a short introduction by the artist Craigie Horsfield; “The Concentration Uni- verse” (21m), a collection of interviews with actor Jean-Pierre Andréani, camera operator Noël Véry and focus puller Jean-Pierre Platel, who each remi- nisce on the making of the film; “The Profligate Door” (13m), a display of the director’s use of ob- jects and contraptions (a “talking soundbox,” a “great rattle,” a “black magic box,” and so on) which produce a variety of unusual sounds; and the origi- nal French theatrical trailer. A 39-page illustrated booklet contains essays by Daniel Bird, an article by Patrice Leconte from the February 1969 issue of CAHIERS DU CINÉMA, and an outstanding fea- ture by Philip Strick which first appeared in the
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