Saturday, August 16, 2014

Wetlands is now movie. Let's celebrate?

From Vulture:
Wetlands, based on Charlotte Roche’s debut novel, Feuchtgebiete — which was derided as porn while also becoming one of the world’s best-selling novels in 2008 — had gained instant notoriety as soon as the Sundance catalogue came out. “Oh, is that the one with the picture of the girl with the finger up her butt?” is the usual response when I tell people I’ve seen it. The catalogue description (it’s in the World Dramatic Competition) begins: “Meet Helen Memel. She likes to experiment with vegetables while masturbating and thinks that bodily hygiene is greatly overrated.” Something about it reminded me of Wish You Were Here, the 1987 explicit British comedy about a girl who curses like a sailor and sleeps with every man in sight. My parents took me to see it when I was 9 and the movie left me traumatized for years, though I’d probably love it now. I actually rearranged my schedule to fit a screening in after interviewing Aubrey Plaza and having her ask me, “Have you seen that one Wetlands? I just keep hearing the craziest things.”
I read Wetlands when the English edition was published five years ago. I can't say it's great art. (/sarcasm), but as a fan of grosser-than-gross novels, and it's um, quite an achievement. (Can you see how diplomatic I'm being here.) There's no real narrative to speak of save for girl explores various orifices and in an odd, after school special turn of events, tries to get her mismatched parents back together. But it's nasty in a spectacularly unladylike way, and that I appreciate. Movie? We'll see.

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