Goto, l'île d'amour (1968)

Director:

Walerian Borowczyk

Writers:

Walerian Borowczyk (original scenario)
Walerian Borowczyk (dialogue)

Release Date:

2 October 1969 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | Absurd Humor | Female Nudity | King | Avant Garde

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Pierre Brasseur	...	Goto
Ligia Branice	...	Glossia
Jean-Pierre Andréani	...	Gono
Ginette Leclerc	...	Gonasta
Fernand Bercher	...	L'instituteur / Professor
Michel Charrel	...	Grymp
Pierre Collet
Raoul Darblay	...	General Gwino
Rudy Lenoir	...	Le juge d'instruction
Maritin
Colette Régis	...	La directrice
Michel Thomass	...	Gra
Ari Arcadi	...	L'éxecuteur de chiens
Guy Bonnafoux	...	Gurto
Canari

Also Known As:

Goto, Island of Love (International: English title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | UK:15 | Sweden:15

Company:

Les Productions René Thévenet

Soundtrack:

Concerto No 11 opus 7

atmospheric political fable

Despite its title and the expectations which Borowczyk's reputation, and subsequent work, might raise, there's not really much love on Goto, and no sex in the film at all. What you have is the resistible rise of an unscrupulous operator in a micro-society which is small enough to disguise its (benevolent, but at least symbolically military) dictatorship under the image of an extended family. Goto is not only small but totally cut off from the outside world, so that the power structures which Gono exploits are founded on an inextricable tangle of personal and political ties, and Gono himself, although an 'outsider' in the sense of feeling no personal loyalty to the structures, is very much an 'insider' in terms of his understanding of them. No one, in fact, can either come into or leave the island, and Gono the 'outsider' is the first to thwart any escape attempt.His desire for Glyssia is presumably incestuous and it would be very easy to analyse the whole process of the film as another reworking of Oedipus-refracted-through-Freud, with emphasis on the relation to the workings of power-politics.

Along with that, however, you've got mischievously surreal bits of 'local colour' which also add to the disturbing sense that the island is out of kilter - Gono's official 'activity' being the most obvious; the method of dealing with criminals the most revealing about the real priorities of the system; and the portrait of the king my personal favourite. The photography - black and white - looks as if it owes something to thirties poetic realism and creates just the right balance between fantasy and credibility.