Cinema
Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman · 1967
Synopsis
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, a prison hospital for the criminally insane. Guards make the men undress, taunt them and send them back naked into empty cells. A psychiatrist questions a new arrival. Before the medical board, an inmate, Vladimir, argues that the institution makes his condition worse and asks to be returned to an ordinary prison; after he leaves, the doctors decide to increase his tranquillisers. An old man who refuses to eat is fed by a tube. Between these scenes comes the inmates' annual show, from which the film takes its title.
Context
Then a professor of law, the filmmaker had taken his students to visit the institution before filming there for twenty-nine days, in the spring of 1966, with John Marshall on camera. He invoked oral consent and that of the institution, guardian of the inmates; the State nonetheless obtained the ban by arguing that they had been unable to consent. According to several sources, it is the only American film whose distribution has been prevented on grounds other than obscenity or national security. In 1989, a judge authorised its distribution on condition that faces be blurred; Wiseman judged this compromise unacceptable, and all restrictions were lifted in 1991.
Who it is for
A documentary of eighty-four minutes, in which one hears only what is said in front of the camera; it shows scenes of nudity and bullying.
Prizes and reception
Banned from public screening for twenty-four years, from 1967 to 1991; its maker received an Honorary Oscar in 2016.
Sources for this page 10
The pages consulted to check this page.