The circus tent is
packed with people, the mood is high, the performers deliver stunts and tricks that defy death and the laws of nature.
The albino Cencio, the raw Chewbacca-like Fulvio, the electric girl Matilde, the magnetic clown Mario (returns to him) and the circus director Israel and his magical dexterity.
Their acclaimed performance is abruptly interrupted by a German bombardment.
We are in the midst of a fiery Second World War.
It's a powerful intro that celebrates the bewitching power of imagination, which is then devastated by the fascist forces of darkness.
Old
Israel plans to take the troupe to the United States and travels into Rome to obtain boat tickets but disappears en route, forcing the remaining trio to search for him.
At the same time, they are themselves hunted by the German Franz, a clairvoyant, Nazi circus director, with a much larger and more pompous establishment, who has seen the fall of the Third Reich in his dreams and believes that the escaping quartet's superpowers should be able to turn the tide of war.
"Freaks out" is a hymn to the odd, a colorful mix of "X-men" and Federico Fellini, loaded with the playful anarchist attitude of the story.
Even the play's villain, Franz, turns out to be an initially bullied and shunned guy who has turned his aggression outwards, against others of his kind.
His ability to see into the future means that he already knows about mobile phones and the moon landing, and that in one of his acclaimed performances he can play an instrumental version of Radiohead's congenial hit "Creep".
So far a
colorful adventure with just as thin a script as the old matinees used to have: A simple conflict, clear roles, a little love and an uplifting ending.
Something to take the kids to - if it weren't for the explicit violence and that somewhat skewed sexuality, which catapults "Freaks out" out of the Family Film category.
Above all, it applies to the clown Mario, who now and then turns his back to the camera - and starts jerking off... Jeez!
What does the man do?
Enough that masturbation seems to be the theme of the week, but why did the filmmakers squeeze in these scenes, which are completely detached from the rest of the plot?
There are other sex scenes here that are more roomy, which certainly clash with the matinee feel but still don't have the same semi-pedophile aura as Mario's activities.
The plot is
thus a little too troll-friendly for an adult mind (superhero fans will recognize, however) and the execution too brutal for children, which makes "Freaks out" a hard-to-sell entity in the cinema repertoire, but it still has its undeniable merits.
It is an anachronistic, imaginative fairy tale that is on the side of the misfits, but for it to be a positive final verdict, one must first carve the jerking clown out of the cerebral cortex.
And it's not easy, I swear.