A Serbian Film

[MrSilly]

I'm a fairly politically unaware individual, that can be chalked up to many factors that largely revolve around laziness, but having read some supporting material to go along with this film, in an effort to raise my own awareness as to the goals of the filmmakers, I can categorically state that it had little effect on my viewing of the film.

I liked it. Sure, the last 40 minutes makes some baffling decisions and the imagery gets so extreme that instead of powerful it instead becomes farcical, but for the most part I thought it was a highly enjoyable thriller. Provocative, disturbing yet oddly alluring, the first hour was superb, a highly engaging build up to an unknown mystery, with memorable characters and an enticing premise. And it continued to build, I was really surprised by how much I was enjoying it.

And then the bits you all know about appeared and it nosedived. There were still some quality segments, the very last scene I found to be infinitely more powerful/memorable than all the 'sickening' bits, but it was those bits that dragged it down into a nonsense parade. Yeah, I laughed. It got so ridiculous, it seemed apt.

3 or 4 stars, depending on whether I want to praise the first half or chastise the second half.

[Zippykins1]

I've never really been one to seek out shocking or disgusting cinema (still haven't got around to seeing Irreversible yet either...). Preparing myself for something really terrible, I didn't find it too bad, and I would agree with those who found it quite disaffecting - although thinking back on one scene this morning did make me shudder a little.

Like most of you I found the first half a lot more enjoyable as the mystery and suspence was built up, not just most of the awful stuff in the second part, but because the storytelling comes apart a bit and I wasn't always sure what was flashback or not.

[fortunesfool]

I still think 'irreversible' is the most 'challenging' of the two. It's more the way that movie is shot (and designed audio wise) that makes it such an unpleasant experience.

[MrSilly]

Oh, one thing that did not aid my ability to take the film seriously was that, to me, from certain angles Milos looked a bit like Bill Lumbergh from Office Space, so during the nastier scenes my internal monologue was ceaselessly going 'Yeah, I'm going to need you to stop struggling, and if you could perhaps roll over this way, that'd be great'.

[NKRev]

There's a early screening and Q&A of A Serbian Film tomorrow in London (Prince Charles Cinema) if anyone is interested.

http://www.princecharlescinema.com/i...onth=11&day=25

[stoofy]

I saw this the other day, and I have to say I don't buy into the whole political statement thing at all. To me, it's simply pushing boundaries, which is fair enough, but there just isn't a good enough story to back up the violence! It all just seemed a little unnecessary.

Although I didn't particularly like the film, I was very impressed by its production values and special effects, and it will be interesting to see what this director does next. Most likely another challenging film, but hopefully one with a little more subtance.

Also, for those of you having trouble finding it on imdb, it is there! But it's classed as an 'adult' film so you won't find it through the regular search bar. Either change your account settings or search for it through google!