uros-tomic Reviews

Tito and Me (1992)

A story of a misguided nation, using often absurd humor to heighten the impact of the truth it refuses to compromise

[10/10 · 22 December 2004]

The film "Tito and Me" was made during one of the most difficult periods in the history of Eastern Europe. Its quirky humor has marked the beginning of the end for the country it celebrates and unmercifully criticizes at the same time.

Making a child the central point of the film is essential for its vision. A child is able to see everything in a way as yet unclouded by the veils that adults often put on truth. And yet, the nation this film depicts often behaves like a big child (in ways that lead to self-ruin instead to self-preservation), and that gives another justification for such a choice of the main star.

The film goes even further to deal with certain philosophical and moral issues that were accepted without question for a great number of years in most countries of Eastern Europe. It puts them to test, a test of an honest and pure spectator of human foibles and peculiarities, and shows us the terrifying results made by an unbiased viewer.

The humor of the film, often bordering on absurd, only serves to heighten the sense of malaise and impending doom that eventually becomes a reality.

The child Zoran (wonderfully played by Dimitrije Vojnov, who is now one of Serbia's leading film critics and film connoisseurs)is taken along the paths of maturity, his thoughts become more and more grown-up in the process, and accordingly, his illusions are shattered one by one.

This film is comic, warm and honest, but also cruel and terrifying in its refusal to compromise. It is a story of a misguided nation and a warning for others who may share the same destiny, but are as yet not aware of it. As such it should be seen.

All That Jack's (1980)

Catching the spirit of a nation, the film serves as a sharp observation of contemporary society in the Balkans

[10/10 · 21 December 2004]

This film is the third feature written and directed by director Goran Markovic, who has proved to be one of the best Serbian directors in the latter part of the 20th century. Despite his youth (or perhaps because of it), the director has successfully made a film which transcends the boundaries of the plot, and goes to serve as a sharp observation and critique of the contemporary society in former Yugoslavia, thus becoming one of the best Yugoslav films.

While aptly re-creating a typically charged atmosphere in a large and highly successful Belgrade school by depicting various teachers and the school staff and showing us their relationships, their characteristics (and mostly their flaws), he manages to also catch the spirit of a nation, and to visualize through analogous dialogs (and other film accessories)a time of great conflicts and tumultuous relations on the Balkans peninsula, which have marked the second half of the century, only to lead from bad to worse.

The acting is, as in most major films made in Yugoslavia 1at that time, superb. Even though there is no leading role, each character (and actor) has its turn to shine and personify yet another type of existence, and thus to weave its thread into the rich tapestry of the film's vision.

I would like especially to emphasize the importance of the poem recited at the end of the film. It serves as a kind of summary of what we have seen (or what we should have seen), and a manifest of the director's ideas and credos.

Swimming Pool (2003)

avoiding self-complacency, this film is a journey through many layers of reality...

[8/10 · 21 December 2004]

Charlotte Rampling has proved yet again her ability to portray complex and multi-layered characters, and she still infuses them with an air of almost preternatural credibility and reality. In Swimming Pool she plays an elderly British crime fiction writer suffering from long-lasting depression and writer's block. Following the advice of her publisher and taking up his offer to use his house in Luberon, France, she embarks on an eventful journey through her own imagination, finding out a lot about her talent as a writer, but also about herself and life in the process.

This film deals as much with the intricacies of any creative process, building a story within the story to create an analogy to any person's journey through self-discovery and self-fulfillment. As it goes along, you find yourself wondering just at which particular moment does the story end and the reality begin. Or vice-versa. Such is, it seems, the directorial point of view,that reality has many layers and shapes, and that we choose which one to accept, according to circumstances which surround us.

The film seems partly based on 1969's La Piscine, but is more intent on showing this manifoldness of the reality as we know it. I liked it for not being too self-satisfied and too artistically made(because I feel that would have taken the edge out of the plot), and for having a Chabrol air throughout. i give it a solid 8.