Mutzenbacher (2022)

In the setting of an actual casting session, the film confronts one hundred men of different ages with passages from the novel Josefine Mutzenbacher. No more than four of them sit on a pink couch at a time and begin by reading passages from the novel that they received only moments earlier. They then answer questions from the director, who is off camera, and also talk among themselves about the connection between the text and their own experiences. In one instance, a man improvises an approach scene; another is willing only to read and explicitly refuses to act out a scene. Asked why they took part in the casting, one man suspects that only some of the group were motivated to participate by the text, while others were more curious about the experience of being in a film. Only a few have read the novel, and they are all older. One of them singles out as a central, frequently repeated passage the instruction to keep the sexual acts secret. At the time the text was written, he says, women still enjoyed men; today, people are quick to see advances as harassment. When he says there are no women left who express enjoyment of sexual encounters with men, a younger man disagrees. In another scene, two older men discuss how “everything used to be more relaxed”; the novel’s protagonist, they say, made the best of her situation. The film also addresses the possibility that the anonymously published novel was written by a man and that Josefine’s character was constructed as a male fantasy that justified male desire and even presented it as something welcome. Younger men say several times that they cannot switch off their moral compass, and therefore take a detached view of the sex scenes involving underage Mutzenbacher. After reading one scene, one of them even shudders with revulsion. Older men, by contrast, openly acknowledge their sexual interest in girls. One man voices concern about the impression his family might get of him when they watch the film. The film also discusses the pressure to perform that men face today as a result of competition on dating apps and easy access to pornography. This pressure, it is said, turns a sexual encounter into a performance in which men tick off a checklist that guides their behavior. The role of language in the novel is also discussed: in a sexual context, language is “part of the pleasure.” In some scenes, all the men appear onscreen as a speaking chorus: one recites a passage and the others repeat it several times. This brings a lyrical dimension to the film. At first they speak terms of endearment; later, a series of colloquial expressions for having sex. These are the only parts of the film’s text that do not come from the book.