In the absurdist semi-noir world of The Unknown Man of Shandigor, reclusive mad scientist Dr. Herbert Von Krantz (Played by Daniel Emilfork, best known for City of Lost Children) has invented the “Canceler,” a device capable of neutralizing atomic bombs. World governments send waves of spy gangs after him to discover his formula, to use for their own ends.

With the help of his assistant Yvan (Marcel Imhoff) and his daughter Sylvaina (Marie-France Boyer), he hides the formula and fends off invasion in his avant-garde villa (designed by famed architect Antoni Gaudí). There is something simply called La Bête in the pool. It eats disks of dry ice.

On the surface this restoration of the 1967 Swiss classic (original title: L’Inconnu de Shandigor) looks like a spy movie. It has a lot in common with Dr. Strangelove (made three years earlier), with the mad scientist using a wheelchair, inept representatives of world governments, and an overall absurdist world view played absolutely straight. Sharp contrasting shadows (extra sharp in this restoration) give it a definite French noir feel.

One of the spy gangs is called the “Baldies”: five men with shaved heads and identical costume and gesture are being trained by their leader in the spy arts, being initiated in preparation for the assault on Von Krantz’s villa. In an early scene they are pretending to be a string quintet, until their leader calls for them to draw weapons. This skill is never used in the film.

One can be unsure if we are supposed to take all this seriously, but it is entirely self-aware. One moment it feels like some super-deep foreign film, the next a spy is melted in acid, then when one of the Baldies dies, the leader (Serge Gainsbourg) breaks into song, the torchy “Bye, Bye, Mister Spy,” accompanying himself on the organ as his minions embalm the body of their fallen comrade.

There can be no doubt this is satire, and we are allowed to laugh at the absurdity of it all, no matter how drily it is presented. Eraserhead was still over a decade in the future, but David Lynch has a lot of the same sensibility, just on a small, intimate scale that doesn’t concern itself with world events as much as with lunch.  This movie never stops for lunch.

The title comes from a vacation the family took to Shandigor, a fictional seaside city in what might be Spain, where Sylvaina falls in love with a man she meets there. The holiday film of the vacation contains an important secret that must be hidden at all costs.

The Unknown Man of Shandigor was a movie worth revisiting, and it is my hope that more discover this dark, Swiss piece of absurd film. As long as you don’t mind French dialogue with subtitles, that is.

9 out of 10 Bêtes