Who
the Hell is Bobby Roos?
Director’s Statement
Who the Hell
is Bobby Roos?” is a thought-provoking film that,
I hope, sticks to your ribs. It is the third film in
my “Laughing Man Trilogy” which includes
“Alligator Eyes” (1990, starring Roger Kabler
and Annabelle Larsen, First Prize San Sebastian International
Film Festival) and “Dead Funny” (1995, starring
Elizabeth Pena and Andrew McCarthy). Each of these films
looks at the dangerous line between comedy and tragedy.
This is the realm of “black comedy.” Of
the three, “Who the Hell is Bobby Roos?”
is the most realistic and perhaps the most daring. It
is about the psychological breakdown of an entertainer
– a clown -- who creates uncanny impressions of
celebrities. Bobby Roos can’t deal with the world
as himself because he has no self – no identity
of his own. Dramatically he is a character without character.
He sees himself as an empty shell that he must constantly
fill with the personalities of others. The film is a
modern exploration of the popular image of the clown
who is laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside.
The audience laughs and cries with Bobby and at Bobby.
Certainly it is not easy to watch a brilliant comedian
reach the end of his rope and, aside from the flashback
structure and the cautiously hopeful ending, the film
does little to protect its audience. Even the opening
shot (based on the paintings of George de la Tour) of
Bobby looking into a candle and reflecting on how he
got to this lonely place in his life is gloomy. But
to balance this, the film has plenty of hilarious moments.
The film
is neither fiction nor non-fiction. Based on the experiences
of Roger Kabler, who plays Bobby Roos, it is an unsettling
mix of entertainment and hard emotional truth. Shot
entirely through improvisations on multiple miniDV cameras
and mixing real-life footage from Roger’s archive
of television and stand-up appearances, the film is
best described as a realistic portrait of Bobby Roos,
who is Roger Kabler’s alter ego. “Who the
Hell is Bobby Roos?” succeeds because Roger has
been to that scary place and has the honesty and courage
to share his experiences with us.
The film
never uses the terms manic-depressive or bi-polar, because
Bobby doesn’t use them. Instead we see Bobby asking
everybody who he thinks loves and cares for him: “Am
I crazy?”
So if you
are like most sensible moviegoers and are looking for
escapist drama and adventure, then this is not the movie
for you. If, however, you like stories that aren’t
afraid to reach into the dark and dangerous corners
of the human mind; if you appreciate experiences that
leave you a little less comfortable, but a little wiser
than when you started; and if you want to see a film
that goes “where no film has gone before,”
then by all means, take a look at “Who the Hell
is Bobby Roos?”
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