Bo Arne Vibenius' Breaking Point Part 2

The Breaking Point Of Vibenius...Part 2! You can read the first part at THIS POST.

Bo Arne Vibenius' BREAKING POINT started life as a completely different project. After the disappointing returns of Thriller-A Cruel Picture, even with the films success with AIP in the United States, the film maker was looking to try again with AB Audiovisual to create a profitable and commercial film.
You may remember that Thriller-A Cruel Picture was "commercial" according to the filmmaker. Breaking Point certainly is not. That is because the follow up to Thriller was to be financed by the government of Sweden in a money matching program. When financing fell out, Vibenius and crew were forced to scramble something together. This bizarro alternate world futureshock porn thriller was the result! Fueled by nervous energy and the unending desire to film something...anything... with the government grant, the script was pounded out in two days. Vibenius really lucked out to have his talented Director Of Photography, Andreas Bellis, decide to take up the lead role. His talent is a huge part of Thriller and Vibenius' success-and luckily he also had another large, yet mostly hidden, talent in his pants he would be willing to flaunt and flick a fly off. Bellis is excellent in the film-lifting it up (or down as the case may be) into dementia even during the silliest sequences.
Truly an odd film worth looking at, Breaking Point is an important piece in the puzzle of Bo Arne Vibenius' cinema. Breaking Point's harrowed "hero" cum rapist cum adventurer slash fantasizer, Bob Bellings, feels a bit like an avatar for a man that can't seem to get what he wants-no matter how fantastic his talent. At the end of the film when Bellings utters the line "Nothing ever happens in this shitty town" the frustration is palpable. Sitting with Bo Arne and viewing this was an odd experience for sure. Just as Bellings used his time away from his family to immerse himself in a strange fantasy (or blurry reality), he comes crashing back to his humdrum reality-so must it be to come off of making a film that those responsible pin all of their hopes upon, yet never reach the success they deserve.
Sort of like making a fantastic cult film and watching it wade in obscurity for decades...

Breaking Point is mired in Pseudonyms-and with good reason. It also bears the distinction of having Anton Karras playing the Third Man theme, re-interpolated into the "Head Theme" in the films credits by the ever brilliant Ralph Lundsten. Breaking Point is aurally the equal of Thriller-A Cruel Picture. According to the composer and director, Anton Karas arrived at Lundsten's studio with his Zither and played his most famous song a few times. Those sounds form the basis of the weird score and set the tone for everything that happens amazingly well.

Filmed in Stockholm and released in 1975-and again banned by Swedish Censors outright, you have to see this one to believe it. Breaking Point is a fantastic film, and an interesting one as well...hopefully it will see a genuine release someday soon. While I have never seen paperwork regarding any kind of masters, Vibenius told us that he lost the film masters to a New York City distributor many years ago. That should be a hurdle to overcome for any interested licensor!
Also, if you are in Stockholm and feel like visiting one of the famous buildings in the film, Bob Bellings works at the Werner-Gren Institute... check it out.

Finally, here is a list of pseudonyms I've been able to penetrate so far. Anyone with more information on this film, please contact me-I'm always eager to learn more about Bo Arne Vibenius and his work!

-Stan Kowalski (producer Bo Arne Vibenius)
-Ron Silberman Jr. (Director Bo Arne Vibenius)
-Anton Rothchild (Star/DP Andreas Bellis)
-Adam De Loup (Andreas Bellis)
-TURBOman (stunt driving-I can't confirm this yet, but I suspect this is Lars Lundgren)
-Per-Axel Arosenius (Gun Dealer)
-Urban Hitler (special effects-no idea who this is, I just love that name!!)