PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS. Director Bret Wood was pretty matter-of-fact introducing his movie Psychopathia Sexualis at a preview screening at the Two Boots Pioneer Theatre. Not everyone likes the movie, he readily admitted. Lo and behold, it turns out that New York Times reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis is part of the unimpressed crowd, as is Benjamin Strong, who dismissed it at The Village Voice. Those who do like the movie, Wood noted, tend to be those who like thinking about sexuality. Well, I'm one of those people--and I liked Psychopathia Sexualis. And I'm pretty sure I'd've liked it even if the swag at the screening hadn't included vibrators (courtesy of Babeland) and copies of the paperback tie-in!

Psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) wrote the constantly evolving editions of Psychopathia Sexualis that inspired the movie. Consisting largely of case studies of patients perceived as sexually dysfunctional, the book is considered a key early text in modern sexual awareness, both from a medical and literary point of view.

Homosexuality...sadism...masochism...pedaresty...apathy...cannibalism...vampirism--they're readily found in Psychopathia Sexualis, communicated via Krafft-Ebing's quaint and quirky prose. Here's a mundane example:

Mrs. O., normally developed, healthy, menstruated regularly; aged thirty-five; fifteen years married. She never experienced libido, and never had any erotic excitment in sexual intercourse with her husband. She was not averse to coitus, and sometimes seemed to experience pleasure in it, but she never had a wish for repetitions of the act.

And here's one that's more lurid (but by no means the most lurid):

One of my patients, hereditarily tainted, a crank, married to an extremely handsome woman of very vivacious temperament, became impotent when he saw her beautiful, pure white skin and her elegant couture, but was quite potent with any ordinary wench, no matter how dirty. But it would happen that during a lonely walk with her in the country he would suddenly force her to have coitus in a meadow, or behind a shrub. The stronger she refused the more excited he became with perfect potency. The same would happen in places where there was a risk of being discovered in the act, for instance, in the railway train, in the lavatory of a restaurant. But at home in his own bed he was quite devoid of desire.

Captured on video in Georgia and definitely not to be considered a substitute for the book, the low-budget but resourceful Psychopathia Sexualis dramatizes some of Krafft-Ebing's stories with a kind of old-fashioned erotic flair. Amidst the velvet and the heavily atmospheric music, the characters pursue their desires and sometimes undergo treatments that come across as primitive, inhumane, and unnecessary even if well-intended. (One glaringly relevant example involves reprogramming homosexuality.) There is an affecting tale of lesbian attraction and outstanding shadow puppetry by Jason Hines in a tale involving, um, necrophilia.

Yes, this is not a movie for everyone--there is some gore and brutality involved. If you're curious, sample the video at the film's promotional website.

Photo: Terry Thomas