BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT (Crna macka, beli macor) (director/writer:Emir Kusturica; screenwriter: Gordan Mihic; cinematographer: Thierry Arbogast/Michel Amathieu; cast: Bajram Severdzan (Matko Destanov), Florijan Ajdini (Zare Destanov), Salija Ibraimova (Afrodita), Branka Katic (Ida), Srdan Todorovic (Dadan Karambolo), Zabit Memedov (Zarije Destanov), Sabri Sulejman (Grga Pitic), Jasar Destani (Grga Veliki), Adnan Bekir (Grga Mali), Predrag Pepi Lakovic (Priest), Zdena Hurtocakova (Black Obelisk), 1998-Ger/Fr/Yugo/Aus/Greece)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Bosnian-born writer/director Emir Kusturica (Time of the Gypsies, Underground) has come up with a robust (lively music and characters with plenty of energy) but excessive screwball comedy with Felliniesque touches here and there, and before the film literally goes in the shit, it was able to show some warm romantic moments and garner many laughs from its odd-looking and strangely-acting characters. The film is a relentless slapstick comedy depicting the Gypsy community in Slovenia on the banks of the Danube. It revolves around two friendly patriarchal families and a feud with a third Gypsy patriarch, who is disdainfully called a `businessman patriot.' All the patriarchs are thieves, set in their own ways and customs, with each trying to either control who their children marry or are obsessed in making sure that they do get married.
Grga Pitic (Sabri Sulejman) is the old-wily patriarch enamored with the ending to the "Casablanca" film, which he often watches on his video (it could be said, that one of the film's themes could be about a beautiful friendship formed by a seemingly odd pair). His son, Grga Veliki (Jasar Destani), is the one who wants to marry for love, but his father just wants him to marry anyone before he dies. The other families' patriarch is Zarije (Zabit), who is the elderly father of the slimy screw-up swindler Matko (Bajram). His son is Zare (Florijan), a clean-cut Gypsy boy, who has fallen madly in love with a waitress, a real spit-fire, Ida (Branka), but can't have her because his father owes money to the third patriarch, Dadan (Srdan), who wants Zarije's son to marry his sister, Afrodita (Salija). She is known by the disdainful name of "Ladybird," and is viewed as a midget. She courageously stands up to her brutal brother by saying that she will marry for love only. Dadan is a cocaine-sniffing womanizer and vulgar disco lover (singing out when high on drugs, I'm a "pitbull"), who plays his part with manic energy.
Grga Pitic, garbage dump owner, and Zarije, cement works owner, are old friends, though they haven't seen each other in 25 years (these Gypsies move around). When Matko thinks up a heist of a train carrying diesel fuel, he needs money to finance this hijacking; and, he goes to Grga for help instead of his father. But Matko is double-crossed by his ruthless partner in this venture, Dadan, and subsequently the reason for the forced wedding between Zare and Ladybird to pay off the debt or get killed by Dadan.
The heart of the film is the farcical wedding and the problems that occur there, which include forcing the bride and groom together, hiding the death of the patriarchs in mounds of ice, and having the bride run away from the ceremony, disguised as a tree stump, and to watch her fall in love there with the man she dreamed of. The film comes replete with a happy ending, as noted onscreen by the ending saying just that.
The two cats appear as the title and are seen constantly crawling in and out of scenes, sometimes contributing in a comical way to what is happening onscreen. The film is sometimes a "Keystone Kops" comedy, like those old Mack Sennett films. But the comedy keeps getting more and more absurd as the story gets out-of-hand, going from hand-grenades blowing up parts of a house, dead men reviving themselves after being packed in ice, and finally dissolves into complete chaos. The film just ran too long, close to two hours, for a story that shouldn't have been longer than 90- minutes.
The group of Gypsies were mostly nonprofessional actors, colorful characters, with their mouths filled with gold teeth, and a screen presence that was absurd and defying in logic. Their mannerisms offered a strange and earthy blend of venality. This original film offered something different to see, for a viewer who usually doesn't get to see real Gypsies onscreen.
It's a noisy comedy, with a loud brass band coming in at any time during the film. It takes suspension of belief on the part of the viewer to stick with this one for its complete romp across Gypsy land, plus the skits become too labored to sustain the frenetic pace of the film.
The characters make this film enjoyable. The Gypsies are real humdingers; they are always grinning; and, while acting grotesque, they seem to be cruel, and ridiculous. The warm moment in the film, is the romance between Branka and Florijan, vanishing in a field of sunflowers. She's a live-wire, and when onscreen was a commanding presence.
REVIEWED ON 1/7/2000 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews