Steppenwolf (1974) Fred Haines

In the bourgeois circles of Europe after the Great War, can anything save the modern man? Harry Haller, a solitary intellectual, has all his life feared his dual nature of being human and being a beast. He’s decided to die on his 50th birthday, which is soon. He’s rescued from his solipsism by the mysterious Hermine, who takes him dancing, introduces him to jazz and to the beautiful and whimsical Maria, and guides him into the hallucinations of the Magic Theater, which seem to take him into Hell. Can humor, sin, and derision lead to salvation?

Writer/director Fred Haines displays this film not only as one of the 70s more surrealistic dreamlike films (of the mindfuck realm) but he also allows it to play out like a William S. Burroughs metaphor on midlife crises and dealing with the experiences of aging,with Von Sydow dedicatedly playing the role with dignity amid scenes of Terry Gilliam style animation and vdeiotaped segments of Von Sydow walking through various bizarre corridors,as well as the storyline of Von Sydow meeting up with a lone woman (Dominique Sanda [THE INHERITANCE,DAMNATION ALLEY] ) who teaches him to dance,enjoy the finer things of life and hooks him up with her friend (Carla Romanelli [GANG WAR IN MILAN,THE SENSUOUS NURSE] ) for a sexual interlude before he is taken to his descent into the theater for the film’s bizarre finale.

Steppenwolf (1974)