St. Bernard

Directed - Gabriel Bartalos

Cast - Jason Dugre, Katy Sullivan, Bob Zmuda, Warwick Davis

Country of Origin- U.S.

Distributor - Severin

Number of discs –  1

Reviewed by - Richard Glenn Schmidt

Date- 07/14/2019

Jason Dugre plays Bernard, an orchestra conductor who’s lost his way. An unusual childhood, dalliances with drugs, mental illness, overbearing parents, and perhaps something even darker in his past have driven him quite insane. Down on his luck and still wearing his white (albeit rather grimy looking) tuxedo and tails, he gets into all kinds of mischief on the streets of Los Angeles and Paris.

One day, he discovers his muse, the severed head of a Saint Bernard, on the highway. Bernard thinks that his troubles are over but now he has something special, something unique. Everyone he meets wants to selfishly steal his rotting dog head away from him. Bernard’s adventures get more and more harrowing as he struggles to hold onto what’s his.

Director Gabriel Bartalos brings this bizarre passion project to the screen. The art world, the cops, religion, money, and even sexual relations are all skewered in this nasty satire. Speaking of nasty, Bartalos’s special effects expertise (that he’s been honing since the late 1980s) are put to great use here as all kinds of phantasmagorical nonsense gets gleefully paraded across the screen.

Jason Dugre’s performance is both funny and sad. My favorite moment is when Bernard actually has the nerve to ask, “What’s happening?” What indeed, my friend. What indeed. I loved Katy Sullivan as Miss Roadkill, Bernard’s love interest. I wish she’d been in the movie more but her performance is unique, to say the least. Warwick Davis is in this one and is as charming as ever. Keep your eyes peeled for a cameo from director Frank Henenlotter who plays “Wall Street Business Person #2”. 

Saint Bernard is an artsy exercise in the grotesque, a tactile sensory overload that is energetic enough to never become tedious in spite of its excesses. While it does occasionally wear its influences -David Lynch and possibly Shin'ya Tsukamoto- on its sleeve, this is a unique film nonetheless. The pacing is relentless and the one-upmanship of each of the many setpieces as they unfold is quite impressive. Bartalos went all out for this surreal though engaging freakfest and it really shows.

Severin’s Blu of Saint Bernard looks and sounds incredible. This 2013 film was shot on actual film (gasp!) and the Blu-ray format is very kind to that old stuff that people used to shoot movies on. The only extras on the disc are the film’s trailer and a 17 minute “Making of” featurette. I really dig the behind-the-scenes footage and I wish this featurette been longer. John Dugre tells a funny story about shooting a scene without permits and it left me wanting more details. And the more info we can get about chickens skydiving, the better.