A Serbian Film (2010)

[houseca]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I will never watch this film.

...EVER.

You can torture me all you want.

...it won’t change anything.

... says the man who lives in the dark underbelly and has the most disturbing and scariest profile pic of us all....

[Keyser Soze.]

Originally Posted by thecalm_7

Any word on the Unearthed Films release? Coming up on a year since the last post on the subject.

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

That's the only edition worth owning for the moment and currently goes for a decent amount. If no one here offers to buy it from you it'd be worth your time to join the Unearthed Films Facebook group as there are folks on there that would be interested in it no doubt.

Now is as good of a time to unload it as any as well as Unearthed should be nearing completion on their new edition which will include around 6 minutes of new footage and will be the first time the film is released in the states in a truly uncut form. I would have already messaged you if I needed it, but I snagged a copy of the same edition years ago as well.

The last information blast on this to come out from Unearthed Films stated that they’re hoping to release the blu-ray by end of year. Perfect timing if you ask me, because nothing screams Christmas holiday cheer like a Serbian Film.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

The full uncut edition is illegal in the UK. The first version I purchased was the UK Blu Ray Edition. I believe it's cut by 9 minutes. Even in its completely cut form it was still disturbing as hell on the first watch. Later on I acquired the 3 disc dutch edition and that is now the only version I watch but I've kept the UK cut as the packaging is great and it's a novelty to see this film trimmed as almost every edition has a different run time due to the various edits by region.

I would argue the cut version is actually even more disturbing than the uncut version - especially in that one infamous scene. Here the special effects look decidedly fake and the whole thing is so over the top that it becomes surreal and even funny. Sort of like the equally infamous dinner scene in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

By removing some of these moments, which otherwise provides the viewer with means to distance himself from the events, the censors did achieve the opposite of what they wanted - i.e. they managed to make it even more horrific because now almost everything is up to the viewer's own imagination guided by the sound effects.

I found it interesting to watch the cut version for comparison.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by JPK

Hang on a minute. You're insinuating you have not only watched this multiple times but continue to do so?

You should be on a watchlist.

That's funny. I would argue people like you, who seems to have a hard time distinguishing between fiction and reality, are the ones who should be kept on watchlists.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I will never watch this film.

...EVER.

You can torture me all you want.

...it won’t change anything.

Nice virtue signalling there ...

[houseca]

Originally Posted by JPK

Hang on a minute. You're insinuating you have not only watched this multiple times but continue to do so?

You should be on a watchlist.

Whoa! settle down, it's just a freaking movie.... it could be argued very easily that it is only satire and aimed to disgust in a "dark comedy" kind of way.

I laugh at people that get so worked up over fictional works of art. Take your fake "high moral values" elsewhere.

[thecalm_7]

Originally Posted by houseca

Whoa! settle down, it's just a freaking movie.... it could be argued very easily that it is only satire and aimed to disgust in a "dark comedy" kind of way.

I laugh at people that get so worked up over fictional works of art. Take your fake "high moral values" elsewhere.

I was just kicked off Instagram for this argument. Well, different film.

[JPK]

You lot are a bit uptight.

Walls closing in?

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by JPK

You lot are a bit uptight.

Walls closing in?

YOU are the one arguing people should be on watchlists for watching fiction, yet WE are the ones who are uptight.

Okay, whatever you say, pal ...

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by JPK

You lot are a bit uptight.

Walls closing in?

The Reddit and Twitter association of Clowns called, they want you back.

[Worship.my.wreck]

Never seen this one, but I'm very curious, since this seems right up my alley.

Heard that a new blu ray is supposed to be released. Is this true?

[andyman1970]

Originally Posted by Worship.my.wreck

Never seen this one, but I'm very curious, since this seems right up my alley.

Heard that a new blu ray is supposed to be released. Is this true?

Unearthed Films has been in the process of preparing a new blu-ray release for some time now. It's supposed to have, I believe 3 cuts of the movie plus a lot of extras. Last I heard they were planning for end of year so hopefully soon.

[Deadguy2322]

Originally Posted by JPK

You lot are a bit uptight.

Walls closing in?

Just because you kiwis happily give up your rights and freedoms doesn’t mean everyone else has to.

[AFFanAttic]

JPK's comment comes across as pretty apparently tongue-in-cheek to me.
lol I'm less unsettled by someone who watches this movie multiple times than I am someone who does so but has like zero self-aware sense of humor about it.

[Surge92]

Originally Posted by Worship.my.wreck

Never seen this one, but I'm very curious, since this seems right up my alley.

It makes Salò look almost tame by comparison.

[Vulture Lives]

Originally Posted by Surge92

It makes Salò look almost tame by comparison.

Gotta disagree. Neither movie particularly bothered me, but I'd say that Salo made for the more uncomfortable viewing experience. The graphic nature of A Serbian Film sometimes works against it. You become aware that you're looking at special effects in a movie. And it goes so over-the-top on occasion that it becomes funny (intentionally or otherwise). Also, you can kinda sorta identify with Milos in A Serbian Film. He reacts to the situation with horror/anger, and he attempts to fight the bad guys. In Salo, there's absolutely nothing and no one to identify with. Your main characters are the worst sickos imaginable, and you're not really given any other characters to relate to. The victims are essentially just props. It's really hopeless. I'd also say that Pasolini was a better filmmaker than Spasojevic, so no surprise that Pasolini made the more effective film.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by Vulture Lives

Gotta disagree. Neither movie particularly bothered me, but I'd say that Salo made for the more uncomfortable viewing experience. The graphic nature of A Serbian Film sometimes works against it. You become aware that you're looking at special effects in a movie. And it goes so over-the-top on occasion that it becomes funny (intentionally or otherwise). Also, you can kinda sorta identify with Milos in A Serbian Film. He reacts to the situation with horror/anger, and he attempts to fight the bad guys. In Salo, there's absolutely nothing and no one to identify with. Your main characters are the worst sickos imaginable, and you're not really given any other characters to relate to. The victims are essentially just props. It's really hopeless. I'd also say that Pasolini was a better filmmaker than Spasojevic, so no surprise that Pasolini made the more effective film.

Personally I find the merits allotted to Salo to be significantly overstated. I do think the film certainly deserves some of the praise it has received but by and large I do not think it's anywhere near the cinematic masterpiece some may have a person believe. I also do not personally feel that it's a better produced film. I feel that the techincal aspects which make up A Serbian Film are actually stunningly well done... to the point where just how well made of a film it really is is grossly overshadowed by the controversy and effects sequences.

I've said it a few times before in this thread, but you could edit A serbian film down to a PG-13 effort by removing all visual effects and it would still be a really well made film. Salo on the otherhand, without the shocking sequences would mostly be a forgotten footnote in time as far as I am concerned. Salo's depictions of depravity while certainly disturbing are a bit more subdued as you alluded to, however without them the film simply falls apart into what is essentially a mediocre picture . A serbian Film's depictions of depravity meanwhile are so off the charts that it steers the picture into that of farce, however as Mr. Thomsen stated earlier... even with the visual depictions removed the film remains incredibly disturbing.

There is a certain level of unfair advantage that Salo has gained by being associated with the Criterion Collection... I'd argue that A Serbian Film is at an equivalent disadvantage by being associated with Unearthed Films and both distributors color the prestige of their associated films by the other types of content that they release. Truth be told neither would ever win a best picture award, however A Serbian Film certainly would be in contention for best effects and best sound design by my estimation which in itself elevates is above Salo in my book.

[Surge92]

Originally Posted by Vulture Lives

Gotta disagree. Neither movie particularly bothered me, but I'd say that Salo made for the more uncomfortable viewing experience. The graphic nature of A Serbian Film sometimes works against it. You become aware that you're looking at special effects in a movie. And it goes so over-the-top on occasion that it becomes funny (intentionally or otherwise). Also, you can kinda sorta identify with Milos in A Serbian Film. He reacts to the situation with horror/anger, and he attempts to fight the bad guys. In Salo, there's absolutely nothing and no one to identify with. Your main characters are the worst sickos imaginable, and you're not really given any other characters to relate to. The victims are essentially just props. It's really hopeless. I'd also say that Pasolini was a better filmmaker than Spasojevic, so no surprise that Pasolini made the more effective film.

Salò is definitely the better movie by far, and bleaker in a slow burn way. A Serbian Film, however, may have pushed the envelope a little bit more, although I'll agree some of violence like the (ahem) eye-gouging scene borders on cartoony.

[Vulture Lives]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

Personally I find the merits allotted to Salo to be significantly overstated. I do think the film certainly deserves some of the praise it has received but by and large I do not think it's anywhere near the cinematic masterpiece some may have a person believe. I also do not personally feel that it's a better produced film. I feel that the techincal aspects which make up A Serbian Film are actually stunningly well done... to the point where just how well made of a film it really is is grossly overshadowed by the controversy and effects sequences.

I've said it a few times before in this thread, but you could edit A serbian film down to a PG-13 effort by removing all visual effects and it would still be a really well made film. Salo on the otherhand, without the shocking sequences would mostly be a forgotten footnote in time as far as I am concerned. Salo's depictions of depravity while certainly disturbing are a bit more subdued as you alluded to, however without them the film simply falls apart into what is essentially a mediocre picture . A serbian Film's depictions of depravity meanwhile are so off the charts that it steers the picture into that of farce, however as Mr. Thomsen stated earlier... even with the visual depictions removed the film remains incredibly disturbing.

There is a certain level of unfair advantage that Salo has gained by being associated with the Criterion Collection... I'd argue that A Serbian Film is at an equivalent disadvantage by being associated with Unearthed Films and both distributors color the prestige of their associated films by the other types of content that they release. Truth be told neither would ever win a best picture award, however A Serbian Film certainly would be in contention for best effects and best sound design by my estimation which in itself elevates is above Salo in my book.

I never said that Salo was a masterpiece. I never even said that it was a good movie. And I don't see the point in discussing non-existent cuts of either film.

My point was that I found Salo more uncomfortable to watch - for the reasons that I stated. Simple as that.

[dkelly26666]

I certainly have always taken "Salo" more seriously.

I don't think its merits are overstated at all. It is the Marquis de Sade's '120 Days of Sodom', structured as Dante's Inferno, and shifted to WWII Italy, to give it a political significance (Pasolini detested the Nazi fascists; by making the leads from the de Sade novel Nazi fascists, and giving it the Inferno/Circles of Hell reference, he's making them the ultimate personification of evil). Like the de Sade novel, it is told entirely from the POV of the evil men and their madames, releshing the horrors without excuse or apology. The victims represent the 'resistance', and yet frustratingly for the viewer, offer little resistance. Pasolini also said the relationship represents that between the bosses/leaders and the common man workers. The abuse of power and the exploitation of humans as disposable commodities. Even the infamous forced excrement eating is a metaphor for mass consumerism. The victims are even shown betraying one another continuously, rather than bonding together against the oppressors. They are so fearful that they believe 'selling out' to their oppressors will somehow gain favor with the oppressors and make things easier for them (it doesn't work). Finally, in the ultimate solution, when the leaders have gotten all the use they can out of their victims, they literally discard them like refuse. It's bleak and uncompromising, and the only relief the viewer is granted is realizing that this is set in history, and that these men would soon be forcibly taken out of power. But history repeats itself, and that is the point.

Now, other things not often taken into account when approaching "Salo" are that 1) Believe it or not, Pasolini went easy on the viewer, not even attempting to portray the worst horrors actually in the Sade text, and leaving most of the worst material in the film to dialogue and descriptions, making the viewer FEEL as if they've seen more than they actually have; 2) the film is striking, with elaborate sets and costumes and framing compositions (for all its ugliness, it's actually beautiful); and 3) that it actually DOES have an intentional dark humor at times that people either completely miss or feel too guilty to laugh at.

The film is a dark masterpiece.

I've often said that a modern equivalent is Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street", another often misunderstood and sometimes unfairly maligned portrait of the abuse of power and privilege, told from the point of view of the abusers. It might not be as physically violent, but the ideas are the same.


Now, with "A Serbian Film", I honestly never felt much of anything of substance. It IS technically well made mostly, as I remember it being more slickly and professionally produced than I had expected. More well acted than I expected, as well. I suppose I had expected a low budget, grindhouse type of shocker. Instead, it is produced on the level of a legitimate, professionally produced film. Beyond that, however, it feels like a somewhat juvenile attempt to just be more and more shocking and repulsive for its own sake. As others have said, this backfires on it, because once you become so over the top, it starts to become impossible for a mature viewer to take it seriously.

I think it was Mark Kermode who said that he didn't believe that the filmmakers had any real intentions other than trying to make a notorious shock film that all of the internet would be talking about and reacting to, but they claimed they were making a film about the Serbian government's exploitation of its own people, thus trying to make their own spin on a "Salo" type of film. But he said his reaction was that ANY attempt they may have made at making a serious political statement was lost under the increasingly absurd, over the top splatter and shock value. And the problem with that film is that it WASN'T trying to be funny, it just is, at inappropriate times. I was never freaked out or disturbed by it like so many others have been. To me, it felt like being 12 again, in a boys' locker room, with another boy telling a group of boys, "Hey, you know what's grosser than gross?", and then proceeding to say tasteless things that make the other boys cringe and laugh at the same time.

There's nothing wrong with a little exploitation film, mind you, but it's hard to take it seriously as anything other than that.

"A Serbian Film" seems a more slickly polished version of "Cannibal Holocaust" than a retread of "Salo".