Circus freaks vs. Nazis.
Freaks Out is a 2021 Italian film written and directed by Gabriele Mainetti
, known for directing They Call Me Jeeg ("Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot"). This film however is much different in tone and scope from his previous one: a fairly big-budget historical fantasy epic, featuring four circus freaks trying to survive in a 1943 Rome besieged by Nazis.
Israel (Giorgio Tirabassi) is the Jewish ringmaster of the tiny circus "Circo Mezzapiotta" based in Rome where four performers try to make a living: ballerina Matilde (Aurora Giovinazzo), strongman Fulvio (Claudio Santamaria), animal tamer Cencio (Pietro Castellitto) and dwarf clown Mario (Giancarlo Martini). They however are not regular people, but freaks: Matilde can generate electricity, Fulvio is a "wolf-man" whose whole body is covered in hair, Cencio is an albino with the power of controlling insects, and Mario has telekinetic powers based on magnetism. One day Israel disappears after having collected money for a trip to the United States: the four friends think he ripped them off, but they soon find out that Nazis are deporting all Jewish people from the ghetto to send them to concentration camps. In their quest to save Israel, they will come across "Zirkus Berlin", a Nazi-run circus where Franz (Franz Rogowski), a Nazi officer who's a freak himself, has some devious plans of his own...
The film was originally to be released in Italy on October 20, 2020, but then it was postponed to October 28, 2021. It was shown at the 78th International Venice Film Festival.
Freaks Out provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: The freaks joined the circus because they all ran away from home, and it's stated that in some cases their parents were abusive. Fulvio was being held in a cage like a dog, and Mario says his father beat him up, which may explain some of his behavior. Matilde, on the other hand, left home because she inadvertently killed her mother because of her uncontrollable powers.
- Attempted Rape: Two Nazi soldiers try to rape Matilde who is alone after having temporarily left her mates, and they almost succeed until her powers flare up.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What Franz' experiments amount to, he puts the freaks into situations of distress in the hope of having them unlock their powers and/or turn them into super soldiers. They usually die. Even the protagonists (minus Matilde) are subjected to it, for example Fulvio gets encased in a block of ice.
- Depower: Matilde swore she'll never use her powers to hurt anyone ever again, but the final battle between the freaks, the Nazis and the partisans forces her to go all out. After a devastating storm, her powers get extinguished and she can go on living her life as a normal girl.
- Despair Event Horizon: At the end of the film Franz has killed his brother, led a lot of Nazi soldiers to their deaths, had his plans to create an army of supersoldiers completely ruined and is seen once more as an ineffective failure. What pushes him beyond the edge is his beloved Irina, the only person who stayed faithful to him since the beginning, not surviving the brunt of Matilde's powers. After seeing the love of his life crumble into dust, Franz takes his pistol and shoots himself.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Franz' power is to have visions that let him see into the future, with the help of ether; one of them is then visualized, looking like the man being surrounded by multiple overlapping screens that show all sorts of things that will happen, not only related to war and technology but also random stuff like Michael Jackson, Pac-Man and a Popeye cartoon.
- Expy:
- Among the various sources of inspiration for the setting and characters there are also American superheroes, most notably the X-Men. Matilde is similar to Rogue in that she can't control her touch-based powers, and to not kill people she has to wear gloves in order to interact with others. Fulvio reminds of Beast, being a super-strong, hairy guy with an animalistic appearance who's also surprisingly cultured, collected and sharp-witted. Meanwhile Mario can be compared to Magneto if he were a disabled dwarf who likes to masturbate.
- The protagonists can also be compared, but only visually, to the main characters of The Wizard of Oz. Matilde is Dorothy (braids, youthful appearance), Fulvio is the Lion (hairy guy with a beastly face, not as aggressive as he appears), Cencio is the Scarecrow (lanky disheveled appearance, link to animals) and Mario is the Tin Man (goofy appearance and attitude, link to metal).
- Fingore: Twelve-fingered Franz murders his brother and, to pass off as him, cuts his extra fingers off as part of the disguise. We see all of it in "lovely" detail.
- The Freakshow: Downplayed. The main characters are freaks but they also have other talents besides their powers and appearances. Meanwhile, Zirkus Berlin's freakshow is mostly a front for Franz' hideous experiments. Among the others we see dwarves, triplets, an extremely tall man, a man with gills in his neck, an old man with three legs and a hairy lady who takes a liking to Fulvio.
- Freudian Excuse: Franz desperately wanted to become a soldier and fight for Hitler's glory, but he was rejected for being a freak and reduced to work in a circus, while his brother is a high-ranking officer. So he uses Zirkus Berlin as the base for his experiments to turn random freaks into Nazi super-soldiers, in order to prove that being a freak is not a curse, but the secret weapon that will turn the war's sides in Germany's favor, and also to gain his brother's respect.
- Genius Bruiser: Fulvio is superhumanly strong but he's also erudite, well-spoken and can speak at least three languages. Justified in that he tells the others that his father used to lock him in a cage and he spent all the time reading books, so he's also self-taught.
- Mad Artist: Franz is an excellent pianist with a flair for the theatrical. However he's also a psychotic, embittered bastard who enjoys torturing people and wants Nazi Germany to rule the world.
- Mood Whiplash: Several times, but the biggest one is right at the beginning. The film starts with Israel and the four freaks performing their little show and showing their abilities off, charming the audience (both in- and out of universe)... until a bomb destroys the tent, killing most of the spectators (children included) and reminding everyone that this is still a movie set in war times.
- Mundane Utility: Franz has twelve fingers in his hands and has visions that let him see the future. So he becomes Zirkus Berlin's pianist who performs songs that won't be written until decades later (such as a piano cover of Radiohead's "Creep"). Though he also has other uses for his visions... Two extra fingers are also better for strangling someone, as Franz' brother unfortunately finds out.
- Power Incontinence: Matilde can't really control her electric powers, so she's careful to never stay too close to anyone or to touch them without her gloves since she accidentally killed her mother with one of her outbursts.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Not only the four protagonists, but also La Résistance, that in this film is represented by a group of anti-fascist partisans who all have some kind of physical defect, and whose leader is "Il Gobbo", or "The Hunchback".
- Sphere of Destruction: What Matilde's full powers look like.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Depicted as either cold-blooded, ruthless killers or sociopathic, loathsome whackos.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Cencio can control almost all kinds of insects, save for bees, since he "fucking hates them" after an accident in his youth. Though at the end of the film he manages to face his fears and use a swarm of them against Nazi soldiers.
