Deed Poll (2004)

Sorry, this movie sucks

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and must say: I was not impressed, not at all. I do side with the other posters when it comes to the fine performances, but some good performances do not make a good movie.On the discussion board, I found a review by an anonymous poster that captured some of the main points. It says: "'Deed Poll' is a movie that raises many questions but hardly answers even a few; a movie that is disturbing and above every attempt at categorizing; an experiment and a very conventional sexual drama despite some shocking scenes. The brilliant acting of Barbara Kowa and André Schneider, the partly very impressive editing and the good camera work (Steffen Ritter) make up for gross plot holes and some technical slips (especially in sound). However, the boredom the audiences have to deal with for 40 minutes remains." Unfortunately, this is true. I wasn't intrigued by the story at all. The protagonists are cold, ambition-less people. They do a lot of drugs and have a lot of (incestuous) sex. So what? For many times, the direction seemed to be virtually non-existent, not to mention the technical aspect: the poor sound quality was enormously disturbing.What's the point of the movie? What's the message behind it all? The anonymous reviewer said: "Somehow Biermann failed to make a clear point and so the movie remains hanging in mid-air without a message. Thus the boredom I blame on the movie. The movie is reserved and emotionless, cold, almost neutral and it doesn't take long to see the flaws: for long stretches the characters of Sean and Ivy are not credible (they clearly have difficulties with the English pronunciation), the character of the mute brother is not developed very well. Some moments are very promising though - in the scene where the call boy is skinned (the one and only true love scene) an intensity is reached that one would love to see the whole movie long. As a spectator one has to regret the chances given away." Again, I must agree. I did like the final scene, especially because of the beautifully captured faces of Gianni Meurer and André Schneider, but it was nothing compared to the boredom I had to suffer for the first thirty minutes. (The sex scenes, though, were aesthetically staged and perfectly edited.)All in all, "Deed Poll" was not my cup of tea - a good, controversial idea wasted -, but it was a interesting to see how a movie can be made with practically no money. Maybe if they had a bigger budget and a more experienced director, this would have become a better movie.

Since this movie will probably never be released widely, I was truly fortunate to get a copy of the DVD through a friend of mine who was visiting Andre Schneider in Germany earlier this year.A weird film, I must say, but it's highly entertaining, dark and sexy. As a gay man, I was hugely attracted to Mr. Schneider who gave a tour-de-force performance in this movie. I haven't seen any of his other performances yet, but this one was electrifying. Equally good were Miss Kowa and Mr. Wittenauer who played an incestuous pair of siblings. But despite of their good performances, "Deed Poll" entirely belongs to Andre Schneider's face and presence: raw and sensitive, sexy and vulnerable, tender and fierce, seductive and ugly. It's his face and the great script that makes the viewer forget about the inept direction, the hilariously bad sound and some goofs.Too weird for American audiences, this movie will sooner or later become a cult classic. I watched it more than a dozen times and made copies for many of my family members and friends. This is a movie with a message.

Deed Poll: a game, a drug, an orgasm, an art.To play poker already will never be like before. Have you played poker at some time? Surely yes. The tact of the playing cards in your hands encourages you to continue playing ... to play more and more. It is a natural instinct, a risk, an art. When you see the movie, to play poker will turn into a new game not known for you. "Deed Poll" will not make you indifferent. As the tact of the playing cards the movie is soft, exquisite, luminous. But simultaneously it is a risk, a danger, a bomb that will wake your more basic instincts up.In 1943 Hoffman discovers the LSD. The ecstasy is an hallucinogenic and some of the effects are that the vision sharpens, the colours meet more alive and vivacious, the persons and the objects acquire a fascinating character, the sensibility for the small details increases, the painful sensibility diminishes, the capacity of suggestion increases, heart runs. The same effects are the film's effects. At some time have you taken LSD? I recommend to you not to do it. But if you want to have an amazing trip you must see "Deed Poll". André Schneider will lead you for this trip of 45 minutes. "Deed Poll" is like an hallucinogenic. With him the colours will be different, you will not feel the pain and will have very much pleasure, the small thing will be enormous, everything will be fascinating, he will be fascinating and you also.Sex does the persons and the persons do sex. "Deed Poll" takes us to a personal orgy of feelings and passion. Feelings that immerse the prominent figures in a spiral of wild sex; spiral that each one uses to escape of a world and to enter other one. An orgy in which you can be one of them. You can meet reflected in one of four prominent figures and to feel as them, to be one of them. The active, the submissive, the intelligent, the madman, the risky, the masochist, the sadistic, the drug addict, the amicable, the incestuous, the shy, the slender… you. Have you had sex? I recommend to you that yes. But if you want to have an orgasm seeing a movie, undoubtedly your movie is "Deed Poll"."Deed Poll" is an art. It is a special art, an original art ... a new art. The colours of the movie are not usual and the camera angles are very good. The style of filming is genuine and very interesting and for it, from here, I congratulate the director. The actors are very credible actors, give life to prominent figures marvellously created in the script. Dynamical script and impacting, a personal and only script. Undoubtedly you will not repent on having seen it.

"Deed Poll" is a strange phenomenon: It was a "cult" film (with hundreds of "fans" worldwide) years before it was even made. The internet rumours about this Lord of the Rings actor and Mr. Schneider's involvement with these rumours drew so much attention to a movie that started out as a "ghost movie" and became a controversial little masterpiece when it finally got made. Mr. Schneider is maybe one of the most hated people in the (internet) world for some people, but after this film, even his worst enemy can't deny his writing and acting abilities: In the bathroom scene, you can literally see to the bottom of his soul. There were some massive boycotts of "Deed Poll" before and after its release; some people started posting lies about Mr. Schneider over and over again - which drew only more attention to the film which has been shown in many European cities meanwhile. I watched it at the 19th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and must say that, despite of the bad things that happened in 2000/2001, "Deed Poll" is a tricky sex thriller with moments of sheer brilliance.You either love or hate this movie. I loved it.