390 - Sweet Movie

[criterionmaster]

Pushing his themes of sexual liberation to their boiling point, Yugoslavian art-house provocateur Dušan Makavejev followed his international sensation WR: Mysteries of the Organism with this full-throated shriek in the face of bourgeois complacency and movie-watching. Sweet Movie tackles the limits of personal and political freedom with kaleidoscopic feverishness, shuttling viewers from a gynecological beauty pageant to a grotesque food orgy with scatological, taboo-shattering glee. With its lewd abandon and sketch-comedy perversity, Sweet Movie became both a cult staple and exemplar of the envelope pushing of 1970s cinema.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Dušan Makavejev
- New video interview with Makavejev
- New interview with Balkan film scholar Dina Iordanova
- Actress Anna Prucnal sings a song featured in the film
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Stanley Cavell and David Sterritt

[criterionmaster]

NO COMMENTS!? I know there already was a thread for this film, but I for one, love this cover art. I think it may be some of the best Criterion has ever done, but I am wondering how well it goes with the film, and if it is the best they could have chosen? Anyone else like the cover? I will definitely be picking this one up too, I have been dying to see this film, and lordofdance gives it a recommendation.

[captainofbeef]

I love the cover, but I don't think this would be my type of film.

[eatawiiner]

It sounds like a film that is soo detestable that its impossible to stop thinking about after an initial viewing. That kind of film deserves a spot in my collection for sure.
Also, my favorite cover art of all time for sure. Everything from the semi exposed nip to the baller ass text to the drippy wacky C, this is a must own for moi.

[criterionmaster]

www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews31/sweet_movie.htm

hmm, the guy didn't like the film, and said the features were lacking, too. i will still probably bump this to the top of my queue in the next few days. it does sound like i could love this film.

[eatawiiner]

After further investigation, WR looks like it would interest me more than this. Beautiful cover for sure, but me thinks WR is getting picked up long before this. Definitely a rental if not anything.

[criterionmaster]

what made you decide that would be more interesting? it could do the same for me. i don't really know much about either, except they are both weird and filled with sex.

[eatawiiner]

I was under the impression that Sweet Movie was about sex and nothing else. WR looks to be more of a motion picture than just 'sexual liberation'. SM looks like another 'I am Curius' type thing and I hated that shit the entire way through. I could be completely wrong tho, since i've never seen either film and am basing opinion off the articles i've read on both films. Also, the commentary on WR would be super useful for a film that was dealing with issues in an area i dont know in a time i wasn't a part of.

[criterionmaster]

i see what you are saying, i will just have to check out both films to decide, though. i wasn't a huge fan of i am curious, but i still liked it.

[lordofdance]

I got Sweet Movie from DVD Planet recently and rewatched it three times. I can assure you that it is absolutely nothing like I Am Curious. True, there is frank sexuality and political content, but the similarities end there. I haven't seen WR yet, but that actually seems like it might be more like I Am Curious because both movies combine documentary-style footage with fictional content. WR is likely much stranger than I Am Curious, however, if it's anything like Sweet Movie.

Anyway, though, Sweet Movie is a succession of bizarre and occasionally disturbing scenes that don't have very much narrative structure. There are characters to follow, but much of what they do doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Toward the end, Sweet Movie becomes downright grotesque with its displays of bodily fluids and scatology. There's muder, borderline pedophilia (I'm still not sure how legal one scene involving young boys and a naked woman is. There's gotta be some law against it, at least in the U.S.), footage of corpses being unearthed and all kinds of other nastiness. I Am Curious is a family movie compared to this.

The first half is much more palatable than the later scenes, but Sweet Movie is never an easy viewing experience. It's just as messed up as I remember it being the first time I saw it on VHS years ago, but the presentation is much better on DVD. The scene where the guy keeps making himself puke is much crisper now, as is the scene where the people are defecating in front of cheering spectators. Ahhh, and the golden penis shines that much more brightly.

[eatawiiner]

Wow, er, that sounds utterly insane. Im happy i didn't purchase it this past weekend, but am looking forward to viewing it sometime. Just another reason to get netflix again.

[criterionmaster]

yeah, i am not so sure how much i like a movie that makes NO SENSE, but it does sound like something that must be seen, especially from me. your reviews always do it for me, you have helped me make a great decision in renting, instead of buying, yet you also got me more excited than i was before. this is going up high on my queue. did you happen to watch the features?

[lordofdance]

Here comes the meal from Hell... (or at least some really bad table manners)


There's an interview with a college professor who talks about some of the political and psychological ideas behind Sweet Movie, but I didn't find it that informative. She discusses the the peeing and puking at the end and how it isn't as bad as people make it out to be if the viewer looks at it "rationally." I don't know... I just don't care for watching people puking or peeing on themselves and each other. Or pooping. I guess her point is that it's just a natural function.

There's also a brief interview with the actress that gets naked in front of the young boys. She says that she was banned from Poland for 7 years for appearing in Sweet Movie. She then sings a song from the movie, with lyrics by Pier Paolo Pasolini! (It turns out Pasolini supported Sweet Movie, partly because Salo came out around the same time and met with similar outrage.)

Lastly, the director of Sweet Movie, Dusan Makavejev, explains some of the movie. He says that he didn't try to control all the gross stuff at the end because he didn't want to "strangle" the creativity of the actors. Apparently, he didn't necessarily intend for any of it to happen. He also talks about the scene with the young boys and the naked woman and how it was banned in England. He points out that the boys weren't really engaged in any sexual activity and the crew looked out for their best interests, but I still find it kind of troubling.

The whole movie is based on the philosophy of Wilhelm Reich, as is WR. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

[criterionmaster]

okay, well you guys got me interested, so i rented it. i will hopefully watch it soon enough, and get back to you with my thoughts. it looks insane. the dvd says it is "intercut with shocking footage of nazi medical experimentation"!? and it says that ebert says "an experience to defy criticism" so we will see.

[lordofdance]

That Nazi experimentation thing I'm not sure about. There's this weird footage of a little baby being twisted around in acrobatic poses by some guy, but that's pretty much it. Unless they're talking about the corpses being dug up, but I thought that was something the Russians did. I'll have to look at it again.

[criterionmaster]

well, i watched it, and i think it might even be more disgusting than salo, what do you think? i was trying to eat these vanilla cookies during that dinner table scene, and i started becoming sick. piss drinking, that girl rubbing her face on the dudes dick, right after he cut up a huge fake dick, and so much more. how about that scene in the sugar, with the lady on the boat? that was fucked up as well, and that kid scene which you already mentioned. i couldn't believe that, and how weird it would have been.

i think that nazi experimentation must be that baby thing. there is really not much else it could be. oh yeah, i can't forget them all taking shits on plates, and that one dude acting like he was a baby shitting and pissing all over himself.

i watched the features and the director made this sound like it was a comedy, and that people always were laughing, although i don't think i laughed one time, did you? anyways, i am not quite sure what i thought of the film overall, i liked many of the things, and i am still thinking about this film after a few days, but i just don't know. was there a point really to any of the scenes?

[lordofdance]

Pretty much everything toward the end makes me want to puke. I love the song in the movie, though-

"Is there life on the Earth, is there life after birth..." I keep singing it myself.

Salo's more meanspirited by far, and nobody eats poop in Sweet Movie, but, yeah, it's pretty repugnant. I pretty much like the first half of the movie and am repulsed by the second half. That guy's mother creeps me out, though. Freakish old woman, she is.

[criterionmaster]

lordofdance said:

Pretty much everything toward the end makes me want to puke. I love the song in the movie, though-

"Is there life on the Earth, is there life after birth..." I keep singing it myself.

Salo's more meanspirited by far, and nobody eats poop in Sweet Movie, but, yeah, it's pretty repugnant. I pretty much like the first half of the movie and am repulsed by the second half. That guy's mother creeps me out, though. Freakish old woman, she is.

yeah, so much of that movie makes me sick, but you are right, the first half is tame in comparison to the rest. i loved that song, i might have to try and download that sometime. it was really catchy.

yeah, that is what i thought as well. salo is more meanspirited, whereas sweet movie is suppose to be like a comedy or something, but in salo, it is much faker in some parts, whereas the people in sweet movie were actually pissing, and the one dude did drink some. and were they really shitting on those plates, too? salo the shit was fake, if i remember right. but yeah, i see what you are saying. it probably isn't as bad as salo.

i am not exactly sure if i remember who you are talking about in the movie, i probably would if you tell me what she did in the movie or whatever, though.