Beyond Bizarre, The life & art of John Willie
Charlotte Grondin & Guillaume Pin
- 2023
- France
- Documentary
- 1h36mn
- Original version with French subtitles
- Color
World premiere
An honorable Englishman destined to a military career, John Willie, born John Alexander Scott Coutts, John Willie (1902-1962) will become one of the heralds of fetishist and bondage art. A designer, a photographer and brilliant illustrator, he’s remembered as the guy with the whipped and tied up half naked distraught girls, between glamour and perversion. Bizarre magazine or the Gwendoline comics? That’s him.
In this playful and well documented documentary, Charlotte Grondin and Guillaume Pin relate this unusual destiny, with shady zones that spur fantasies (was he really a spy?) mixing reality and fiction. His true talents are now finally recognized and this free spirit is a counter culture icon. As Jean-Pierre Dionnet writes: “Time goes on. So the strange, the bizarre, the deviant return . The artists who couldn’t or wouldn’t fall in line now enter the spotlight. A must see, good whippings guaranteed.
Screenings
07/09 • 19h30 • Screen 100
In presence of the crew
17/09 • 14h30 • Screen 100
In presence of the crew
Credits
- With : JB Rund, Roberto Baldazzini, Vincent Bernière, Mïrka Lugosi, Gilles Berquet, Doctor Bored, Rose Des Lys, Jean-Pierre Dionnet
- Screenplay : Charlotte Grondin, Guillaume Pin
- Photography : Floriane N’Guyen Van Méo
- Editing : Guillaume Pin
- Sound design : Frédéric Texier
- Production : Béatrice Borowiec, Michaël Massias
