thomas4cinema

I stopped doing content descriptions a while ago on this blog, as in most cases the plot is rather well-known. Not here: a former porn actor, who now lives with wife and kid, gets the offer for one final high-end big bucks movie, but he does not learn about plot or other characters, to keep authenticity of acting high. He is in, and the production turns into a drug-ridden psychedelic and violent nightmare of abuse and death.

Thanks a lot, IFC, Miss Alison Wilmore, for pointing me to this… in a way, I mean this serious, it is fascinating to see the ways in which minds can deviate. IFC Podcast discussed this under the torture porn headline. I think the film is much more thoughtful, however, than the typical examples under that title, such as the Hostel films. It is a provocation on so many levels I cannot even begin to describe. But it avoids the monotonous schematics of Hostel 2, Saw 5 and their bretheren… “A Serbian Film” is a completely different beast, and what a beautiful-looking ugly one (oh so very stylish!).

The topics are domination, power, thrill-seeking and all those that have been processed in Pasolini’s Salo (surprise… comments coming up, I just happened to watch that one some days ago). As in Salo, there is definitely gratuitous violence and sexuality, but the motivations in “Serbian film” are a bit more manifold – there are even valid artistic considerations for pushing some envelopes – not on part of the film-makers, but on part of the film-in-film-makers. The main character who gets drugged with some bull aphrodisiacum (as if he needed it…) gets entangled in a downward spiral beyond believe… and ends up in situations that cannot be conceived to be more destructive.

Interestingly, in terms of self-analysis, most of this, as gruelling and abhorrent as it was, was not of the “I have to look away” kind (whereas some less violent elements of Salo I hardly could bear). The film has an overall dreamy quality, maybe that is the only explanation. I agree, however, with I think the NY Times review that this – whether you despise the film or find it interesting – is not a film to revisit any time soon… not in the next 50 years, I would say.

via A Serbian Film – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.