DR. M

   Film (1989). NEF Filmproduktion/Ellepi Film/Clea Productions. Dir Claude Chabrol, starring Alan Bates, Jennifer Beals, Jan Niklas, Hanns Zischler. Screenplay Sollace Mitchell from a story by Thomas Bauermeister, inspired by Doktor Mabuse, der Spieler (1920 ; trans Lilian A. Clare as Dr.Mabuse, Master of Mystery1923 UK) by Norbert Jacques (1880-1954). 116 mins. Colour.

   Although in clear homage to Fritz LANG's three Dr Mabuse films (DR MABUSE, DER SPIELER), this German, Italian and French coproduction is not Langian in style. An epidemic of suicides in a NEAR FUTURE Berlin, investigated by detectives from both East (Zischler) and West (Niklas), is connected to the Theratos holiday camps whose mysterious owner (the "Mabuse" figure, Marsfeldt, played by Bates) has been conditioning holiday-makers by hypnosis to kill themselves, his thesis being that death is fundamentally what we all crave. Marsfeldt, a perversely charming philosopher surviving thanks to a life-support system, has wide media holdings and intends to brainwash the whole of Berlin into oblivion via a tv broadcast. This sophisticated film focuses on the dream-like quality of a world dominated by media images and on the difficulty of locating any firm reality within it.

   PN