#390: MAKAVEJEV, Duśan: Sweet Movie (1974)
MAKAVEJEV, Duśan (France)
The Booklet
Sixteen-page book featuring essays by critic David Sterritt and Harvard professor and philosopher Stanley Cavell.
Sweet Movie [1974]
Spine #390
DVD
DVD
Pushing his themes of sexual liberation to their boiling point, Yugoslav 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 an exemplar of the envelope pushing of 1970s cinema.
98 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
in English, French & Serbo-Croatian
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2007
Director/Writer
Duśan Makavejev was 42 when he wrote and directed Sweet Movie.
Other Makavejev films in the Collection:
Eclipse Series 18: Man Is Not A Bird (1965)
Eclipse Series 18: Love Affair, Or The Case Of The Missing Switchboard Operator (1967)
Eclipse Series 18: Innocence Unprotected (1968)
#389: WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971)
The Film
Other Makavejev films in the Collection:
Eclipse Series 18: Man Is Not A Bird (1965)
Eclipse Series 18: Love Affair, Or The Case Of The Missing Switchboard Operator (1967)
Eclipse Series 18: Innocence Unprotected (1968)
#389: WR: Mysteries Of The Organism (1971)
This is one of the most disgusting films ever made. [See below on the italicized word] ...
Every film in the Criterion Collection has the following text printed at the top of the back of the box:
“The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents ...
The Collection includes five films by this Yugoslavian mischief-maker. This one, in particular, has been banned all over the world and has made Makavejev’s reputation nearly synonymous with bad taste and general vulgarity.
That said, there is a lot to be said for the experience of watching this very-difficult-to-watch piece of cinema. There are some breathtaking moments — namely, Makavejev’s use of documentary footage of the unearthing of dead Poles from the Katyn massacre, initially blamed on the Nazis, but later proven to be the work of Stalin.
To make a list of all the disturbing moments in this very weird film would number in the hundreds.
There is plenty of nudity, some of it pleasing to the eye, some of it simply coarse. There is a nice song about “is there life after birth?” which seems to be one of the main points of Makavejev’s cinematic tale.
The cast deserves a lot of credit, as does Makavejev for the names he gives them:
Miss World 1984 (Carole Laure); A sailor from the Potemkin (Pierre Clémenti); Captain Anna Planeta (Anna Prucnal); El Macho (Sami Frey); Director general of the Chastity Belt Foundation (Jane Mallet) and Mr. Dollars (John Vernon).
Which brings us to Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), an Austrian psychoanalyst, who coined the term orgone (from “orgasm” and “organism”) ... thus the title of his previous film, WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Spine #389).
He attempted to merge his philosophy of psycholanalysis with Marxism, believing that human beings are shielded by their hang-ups and need to be released in order to attain their “orgastic potency.”
These theories are manifest most evidently in the final sequences with the Vienna group in what the above description by Criterion calls “a grotesque food orgy with scatological, taboo-shattering glee.”
Most of this material features a group entitled Otto Muehl and the members of the Therapy Commune, Vienna.
Laure left the production after one too many weird scenes — someone pulls out his “penis” which is made of some sort of sausage and begins to slice it up with a cleaver; moments later Laure is compelled to gently caress the man’s real penis against her cheeks.
Thankfully, she filmed her nude scene, the sexiest part of the film, where she is covered in chocolate, before leaving the production.
Have fun.
Film Rating (0-60):
41
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Sixteen-page book featuring essays by critic David Sterritt and Harvard professor and philosopher Stanley Cavell.
Cavell:
“Makavejev’s desire might be understood as one of demonstrating to us that we are (as he is), whatever else, disgusted by this world and afraid to acknowledge our disgust. [I’m trying.] We try sweetening the world the way a crook, local or national, sweetens a rotten deal; the difference is that in the case of the world, it is only we who are present, dupes of ourselves.”
Commentary
None.
Video interview
Video interview
With Makavejev and Balkan film scholar Dino Iordanova.
Peter Cowie interviews Makavejev — who is interesting, but seems intent on “justifying” his art.
Iordanova is more interesting, discussing the Marxist and “iron curtain” aspect of this unusual film. The funniest moment is when she discusses the “penis” scene (see above), and jokes that even without one, she squirmed!
Song
Song
from the film sung by actress Anna Prucnal. New lyrics by Pier Paolo Pasonlini! Prucnal was another victim of Makavejev’s excursion into outlandishness, unable to return to her home in Poland for many years.
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