Bad Boy Bubby

Dutch director Rolf de Heer who moved to Australia when he was young and took citizenship had the script for Bad Boy Bubby (at the time, just called Bubby) in development for years. He had an idea for the film and kept adding to the screenplay with experiences from his daily life, putting in oddities that he saw. Eventually getting round to looking for money, an Italian businessman, Domenico Procacci, agreed to put up half the cash and de Heer managed to get the rest and begin shooting. Casting an inexperienced actor, Nicholas Hope, in the lead as Hope's work in some short films had impressed him was only one step in gathering a sizeable cast for what was bound to be a provocative and controversial film.
 
For all of his 35 years Bubby has lived in a small concrete apartment with his mother who has brainwashed him into believing that the outside is poisonous and, if the poison doesn't get him then God will and uses a small crucifix on the wall to convince her son that Jesus is watching all the time and will tell her if Bubby disobeys his Mom. Bubby is also used as a sex slave by his mother in their weird two-person existence which begins to unravel when a man comes banging on the door shouting for Florence, saying that he knows she's in there. The man turns out to be Bubby's Pop who didn't know that he had fathered a son over three decades ago. Bubby is basically in a man's body and, having grown up with no books, pictures, radio or television has virtually no language skills and only mimics and copies what other people say. When he captures a cat he eventually asks his mother how the cat's alive when it's been outside in the poison and her answer that it doesn't breathe leads him to mummify it in clingfilm and is suitably confused when the cat dies.
 

 
Eventually escaping from this hellish existence, Bubby begins to travel around whilst trying to make sense of his new surroundings. Due to his upbringing, he thinks nothing of groping a woman if he thinks she has nice breasts and is completely overwhelmed by this assault on the senses. Picking up quotes here and there, he eventually takes up with a band who recognise him as the 'Clingwrap Killer' and can't decide whether to turn him in for the sizeable reward money or stick with him as he has a strange and compelling stage presence that turns out to be a hit.
 
Bad Boy Bubby reminded me a lot of Being There and particularly O Lucky Man! as the protagonist is a likeable but slightly odd individual (moreso here than in Lindsay Anderson's masterpiece) who finds himself in the most unusual situations and drifts seamlessly from one to the other. Just as Malcolm McDowell was perfect as Mick Travis, Nicholas Hope is incredible as Bubby and has the ability to portray a man-child with complete innocence but more than a hint of danger.
 

 
Bad Boy Bubby is a remarkable film, deeply fascinating and very dark in the humour to the point where you find yourself laughing and then wondering if you should have done. Some parts are genuinely funny, such as where Bubby assumes the way you get food in a baker's is to approach the man at the counter and speak in a ridiculous voice while asking for the 'deliciously fattening chocolate éclairs' because that's what the woman in front of him has done! At some points it is so dark that you have trouble watching but you always feel that there is light at the end of the tunnel and Bubby, who never ceases to amaze, is such an endearing character that you can't help but like him and wish him well.

The Disc

 
Extra Features
The commentary with Rolf de Heer and Nicholas Hope is well delivered and informative as they address the more controversial elements of the film, particularly the dead cat, all the shooting locations and various things that Hope had to do in the course of the film. He divulges that all the actors who would be naked during the course of the shoot met up just before and stripped off together and talked about their bodies so they wouldn't be self conscious when it came to the big moment - this went for the camera operator as well who filmed some scenes in the buff to put the actors at ease!
 
The interview with de Heer is a revealing and well put together piece with only some of the information duplicated from the commentary. He is still angry after all these years about the proposal to reintroduce the death penalty in Australia which took place during the shoot and he talks here (and in the commentary) about how he nearly tackled the issue with the film.
 
This set contains the film on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and Digital Copy so you are well and truly future-proofed and can buy this set if you only intend to buy a Blu-ray player in the future. This is really the way to release films - Disney have done it with Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio (but without the Digital Copy) - and I hope that more distributors will do the same. After all, it's in their own interests as it widens the audience. Also included is a booklet with letters from de Heer and Claire Benito who go through the scrupulous attention paid to the cats' welfare in response to the cuts prompted by an Italian animal rights organisation that criticised the film with unfounded and innaccurate reports of cruelty to cats. The letters are well worth reading and put your mind at ease if you felt at all uneasy about the scenes involving the cats.
 

 
The Picture
For a low-budget movie made in 1993, Bad Boy Bubby looks fantastic and, though it doesn't have the quality of modern films on BD such as Iron Man and the Pixar Films, it is still a fine looking film. De Heer employed no fewer than 31 cinematographers during the shoot so that different sections would have different looks to emphasise the fact that Bubby is seeing things with fresh eyes and everything is brand new to him. This is an approach that works very well and, whilst the differences aren't startling, they are subtle enough to emphasise the changes in the mise-en-scène during the course of the film.
 
*The pictures contained in this review are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the image quality of the disc.*
 
The Sound
Rolf de Heer experimented with binaural microphones to get proper directioned stereo sound so the film becomes more immersive as you hear what Bubby hears and the sound changes as he turns his head. I found this most effective in the stereo soundtrack which was clearer than the two HD options. Of these the DTS-HD Master Audio is by far the best with terrific separation though some of the dialogue is  a little indistinct and there are no subtitles available to help.
 
Adding to this is a further binaural soundtrack designed to be listened to with headphones and it is a wonderful option as you hear crunching when Bubby eats and subtle shifts in the sound, particularly in the first scene in the pizza parlour where the only sound is from these microphones to show what a massive experience it is for Bubby. I wouldn't say this is the perfect way to watch the film but it is very close, certainly more emotional than the options which use the speakers.
 

 
Final Thoughts
The thought of watching a film with very strong language, violence and scenes of incest will probably turn a lot of people off but you shouldn't let it worry you as there are very few short sex scenes between Bubby and his mother and the film leaves these behind after about twenty minutes to follow Bubby on his voyage of discovery where he meets Angel, joins a band and finds he can communicate with people who have severe learning difficulties. It is practically a heart warming film, made even more effective because of where Bubby's journey began.
 
I really enjoyed this and compare it favourably to O Lucky Man!, a film I hold in huge regard and love to bits. Bad Boy Bubby is a movie I'll watch again and again and it's a credit to Eureka that they have given it such a good release.