A Serbian Film (2010)

[Icemouth]

Originally Posted by Kentai

Here's an EDIT REPORT (NSFW) to give you an idea. I think it's "only" cut by about 14 minutes, since the 86 min. runtime is for the PAL DVD running 25fps.

The film is definitely a black comedy, and I did laugh out loud more than once. But it's "comedy" in the same way that A Clockwork Orange, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and Nekromantik 2 are comedies; I expect that the vast majority of people who aren't already jaded are never going to see the humor past all of the grotesque imagery, and if so that's fine; this wasn't a film made for you any more than the average romantic comedy was not a film made for me.

The defining moment of insight into how serious the filmmakers were taking it all occurs shortly after the film's most infamous sequence. Director Vukmir goes off on his violent rant immediately following the single most disturbing moment this (or probably any other) film has to offer, upset that the hero - who's understandably disgusted - just doesn't see the genius of his vision. ("Don't you understand? We've created a whole new genre!") I really think I was so upset following the first viewing less because of how 'icky' it all was, and more because I was totally unprepared for how smart the film surrounding them was. Just like Requiem for a Dream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Oldboy, it's not the grotesque imagery itself; it's how that imagery was used that makes it powerful.

This isn't a clumsy effort like Last House on the Left or The Guineapigs, it's a real movie made by smart film makers who wanted to test audiences with the most vile sort of satire. A Serbian Film is most certainly offensive, but it's also not violence just for violence's sake. It was taking the framework of 21st century 'Torture Porn' and pushing the limits so hard they've completely broken the genre, and I'm sure that was their intention from the start. Seriously, there's nowhere to go from here but down; even if A Serbian Film didn't "mean it", it still crossed a line, and future film makers are just going to have to explore new avenues to offend audiences.

That bit that the director/producer spouted off about the film being a political allegory has got to be BS, though - it's a commentary on the fight film industry if anything, not Serbia as a nation. (And if it was allegory, I sure as heck don't follow it - but I'm severely ignorant of Serbia's rather bloody civil war, so maybe I'm missing something?) I don't think that matters much though - people have sworn for decades that Pasolini's "Salo" was a commentary on fascism and fast food when it so obviously isn't - it's just a convienant excuse to make a philosophically driven film about libertines sound socially relevant. If overly pretentious critics have to find modern relevancy in a 19th century work of pre-Nietzsche God Is Dead theology masquerading as an encyclopedia of smut to "like" a great film, hey, whatever makes them happy...

What, you're telling me various forms of rape aren't a clever allegory for various forms of rape?

....oh, right, it's not. I don't understand why he even tried to make the movie seem "deep" when it's clearly exactly what it is and nothing more.