I loved this film. I've just watched this movie on the "Parkoskop" film festival and it was stunningly different compared to what I've been expecting to see. I liked the whole package, the experience of it. The movie was quite fresh, with a dreamy and bright atmosphere. Easy to identify with. We see Leni and Lazar, very close childhood friends, reunited after years of separation. The chemistry between them is great, and mutual need for freedom, expressed through selfish games, is challenged by their coming of age. The urge to define the current nature of their relationship is visible in every aspect of their behavior, but the fear of being hurt is equally strong. What's not to like in such plot? The concept of the "game" that Leni and Lazar are playing is somewhat similar to the one from "Jeux d'enfants" by Yann Samuell, but still fresh and different. And I liked it! Now, all that being said, I had some problem to chew on the narrated parts, but they do bring something to the whole picture. The movie was also very stylish, in a rural Panonian kind of way.
3 Reviews
Love Hurts
nammage4 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The color in this is exceptional. Makes even many of the rundown buildings and other architecture seem palpable. It sort of has a facetious start in that it's two children playing (it seems) in an abandoned area, where the female urinates on herself, then cuts to the title then shows a young boy (teenager, perhaps) urinating on the floor of either the same building or another similar to it then cuts to a funeral where that, too, seems to hold a facetious nature about it. Not so much laugh-out-loud comedy but just an underlining of it. It's a slow film; the story gradually taking hold of its plot. I felt even in the scenes where there was a lot of speaking (which were few) that it was quiet in those particular conversations.
The clichéd love story: Man (Lazar) and woman (Leni). The difference between this love story and most others is that this one survives primarily in the imaginary world that these two have created for each other since their childhood. The question is: can they bring it into the real world. There's really no consequences in imaginary worlds since the rules (if any) are created by those who made the world; but there are consequences in the real world and that's where love becomes tested. The imaginary world they love in (see what I did there?) together is metaphorical. It basically, as a whole: takes you on a bicycle ride throughout the Serbian landscape.
I enjoyed it. I read a review on this film recently that said something to the effect of (paraphrasing) "Americans would hate this." Well, I'm an American, and I didn't hate it. There was one part I could have done without: the narrator. He pops up throughout the film telling the story of Lazar and Leni as background characters.The narration wasn't necessary, especially the times he explained about what things were (such as the tornado) as if we're all stupid, or something and don't know what a tornado is. The interactions of the two main characters, their elation and tribulations, were enough to hold together the storytelling. If a narrator is to be used, voiceover is better, in my opinion.
I don't know if my subtitles confused "All Saint's Day" with "The Dsy of the Dead"; except in Mexico, (and western/southern parts of the US with high populations of Mexican-Americans) everyone else around the world celebrate "All Saint's Day" or "All Soul's Day", right? which is a part of the Catholic Church. Day of the Dead originates in Mexico because it was an Aztec celebration to a goddess they worshipped. Catholics claimed it as their own (as they do) and intergrated it into their society; which is why it's celebrated as a national holiday in Mexico. Didn't know Serbia did unless the translation was wrong and meant "All Soul's Day" or "All Saint's Day". Though, the scene at the cemetery is where the imaginary world perpetually ends, somewhat. Things get serious and a bit bittersweet. Like the sex scene near the end, seemed bittersweet.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it.
The clichéd love story: Man (Lazar) and woman (Leni). The difference between this love story and most others is that this one survives primarily in the imaginary world that these two have created for each other since their childhood. The question is: can they bring it into the real world. There's really no consequences in imaginary worlds since the rules (if any) are created by those who made the world; but there are consequences in the real world and that's where love becomes tested. The imaginary world they love in (see what I did there?) together is metaphorical. It basically, as a whole: takes you on a bicycle ride throughout the Serbian landscape.
I enjoyed it. I read a review on this film recently that said something to the effect of (paraphrasing) "Americans would hate this." Well, I'm an American, and I didn't hate it. There was one part I could have done without: the narrator. He pops up throughout the film telling the story of Lazar and Leni as background characters.The narration wasn't necessary, especially the times he explained about what things were (such as the tornado) as if we're all stupid, or something and don't know what a tornado is. The interactions of the two main characters, their elation and tribulations, were enough to hold together the storytelling. If a narrator is to be used, voiceover is better, in my opinion.
I don't know if my subtitles confused "All Saint's Day" with "The Dsy of the Dead"; except in Mexico, (and western/southern parts of the US with high populations of Mexican-Americans) everyone else around the world celebrate "All Saint's Day" or "All Soul's Day", right? which is a part of the Catholic Church. Day of the Dead originates in Mexico because it was an Aztec celebration to a goddess they worshipped. Catholics claimed it as their own (as they do) and intergrated it into their society; which is why it's celebrated as a national holiday in Mexico. Didn't know Serbia did unless the translation was wrong and meant "All Soul's Day" or "All Saint's Day". Though, the scene at the cemetery is where the imaginary world perpetually ends, somewhat. Things get serious and a bit bittersweet. Like the sex scene near the end, seemed bittersweet.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it.
This movie's like something you dreamed of and then you wake up...
carpedieeeeem7 September 2014
Warning: Spoilers
To warn you now, this article may be too subjective, I'm not professional at all. The following is just my fresh and raw impression!
After not a few movies I have watched, I deliberately say that this is the most beautiful film I've ever watched. Not the best, but the movie with the most beautiful individual scenes, of course, and also a surreal beautiful whole.
You feel proud if you're from Serbia when you realize that it is really DONE here and when you see that beauty is all around us, but we grow up away from its simplicity.
This film is about 'being different', this is a film about Peter Pan and Wendy by us and in us, a movie about (not) growing up. This film is about instinct, about that initial feeling of a 'click' from which we have created love and it was a primordial 'click', even in the first decade of life, which I believe caused more pain to Leni. Because everything that civilization over the years made to you, you can not be what you were as a kid, and if you are such person that you dive into your own depths too often, you're gonna want more of the real, old self. This is not the only movie about all of that, but this movie is emotion, assembly of small acts, rather than needless theorizing about something that can only be felt, and not transferred through words.
Dialogue is rare in this movie, but it's still enough in it. Hana Selimovic with her movements and facial expressions made several silent monologues, monologues which hurt, what I think is a huge success for the actor.
My big wish is that I see this unique piece of art in cinema once again. Probably nothing can be compared with that feeling of the first time of its viewing. I wish I could go back to that moment, it's great! What was felt up in audience is that nobody judged Leni and Lazar, we all felt it, we all wanted it with someone, we would all in fact return to the freedom of children's impulses, into the disobedience, and that's why this film unwittingly encourages on self-exploration, which is the goal of the authors to whom I say: 'Well done, this is rare'.
10/10 of me for acting, photography, the script, the soundtrack, or simply: For a perfect movie!
After not a few movies I have watched, I deliberately say that this is the most beautiful film I've ever watched. Not the best, but the movie with the most beautiful individual scenes, of course, and also a surreal beautiful whole.
You feel proud if you're from Serbia when you realize that it is really DONE here and when you see that beauty is all around us, but we grow up away from its simplicity.
This film is about 'being different', this is a film about Peter Pan and Wendy by us and in us, a movie about (not) growing up. This film is about instinct, about that initial feeling of a 'click' from which we have created love and it was a primordial 'click', even in the first decade of life, which I believe caused more pain to Leni. Because everything that civilization over the years made to you, you can not be what you were as a kid, and if you are such person that you dive into your own depths too often, you're gonna want more of the real, old self. This is not the only movie about all of that, but this movie is emotion, assembly of small acts, rather than needless theorizing about something that can only be felt, and not transferred through words.
Dialogue is rare in this movie, but it's still enough in it. Hana Selimovic with her movements and facial expressions made several silent monologues, monologues which hurt, what I think is a huge success for the actor.
My big wish is that I see this unique piece of art in cinema once again. Probably nothing can be compared with that feeling of the first time of its viewing. I wish I could go back to that moment, it's great! What was felt up in audience is that nobody judged Leni and Lazar, we all felt it, we all wanted it with someone, we would all in fact return to the freedom of children's impulses, into the disobedience, and that's why this film unwittingly encourages on self-exploration, which is the goal of the authors to whom I say: 'Well done, this is rare'.
10/10 of me for acting, photography, the script, the soundtrack, or simply: For a perfect movie!
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
