At the Crossroads: Slovenian Cinema
July 16-22
at the Walter Reade Theater
Since Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days made critical waves last year, there’s been a lull in the self-proclaimed Romanian New Wave. Perhaps the Romanians are resting on their laurels in 2008, or perhaps three films really don’t make a new wave. Either way, they’ve slacked off, allowing the Slovenians to step up and challenge Romania’s title as the Eastern-European-New-Wave-having-folk with the Film Society at Lincoln Center’s At the Crossroads: Slovenian Cinema retrospective of classic and contemporary films.
While I’d love to side with the little ex-Yugoslavian state that could, most of the films in At the Crossroads are a little too perky to be the stuff of dry, depressing new wavery. There, dissent does not come from illegal abortions but from the neutered horndogs in Vesna (1953), the curiously languid and extraordinarily bored surrealists in Raft of the Medusa (1980) or the would-be punks in Outsider (1996) that worship Sid Vicious and spout ferocious lyrics like: “Our breath stinks, you agree/ Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me?” In fact, Outsider’s Seyad is at his most unruly when he blurts out to his high school sweetheart, “I’d just like to…I wanna hug you!”
Prosperity does not suit Slovenia, making their worship of loveable rebels deadly dull for the most part. Sweet Dreams (2001) is a blissful exception, a light but satisfying bit of ‘70s nostalgia that understands that freedom from cultural and familial oppression is as lonely as it is liberating. In it, Egon (Janko Mandic) pines for a record player and hides out in the cinema from his Mommie Dearest-esque mother (Veronika Drolc, working wonders with a screwed-up pout) and his religiously possessed grandmother.
But as Egon discovers, movies don’t show everything. The only opposition to Tito’s regime in Sweet Dreams is a child-molesting gym teacher who demands that the communists give the people what they want, namely celluloid boobs (don’t ask). No, the cinema in Slovenia is not the harbinger of cultural dissent; but for what it’s worth, I just wanna hug Vesna!
July 16-22
at the Walter Reade Theater
Since Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days made critical waves last year, there’s been a lull in the self-proclaimed Romanian New Wave. Perhaps the Romanians are resting on their laurels in 2008, or perhaps three films really don’t make a new wave. Either way, they’ve slacked off, allowing the Slovenians to step up and challenge Romania’s title as the Eastern-European-New-Wave-having-folk with the Film Society at Lincoln Center’s At the Crossroads: Slovenian Cinema retrospective of classic and contemporary films.
While I’d love to side with the little ex-Yugoslavian state that could, most of the films in At the Crossroads are a little too perky to be the stuff of dry, depressing new wavery. There, dissent does not come from illegal abortions but from the neutered horndogs in Vesna (1953), the curiously languid and extraordinarily bored surrealists in Raft of the Medusa (1980) or the would-be punks in Outsider (1996) that worship Sid Vicious and spout ferocious lyrics like: “Our breath stinks, you agree/ Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me?” In fact, Outsider’s Seyad is at his most unruly when he blurts out to his high school sweetheart, “I’d just like to…I wanna hug you!”
Prosperity does not suit Slovenia, making their worship of loveable rebels deadly dull for the most part. Sweet Dreams (2001) is a blissful exception, a light but satisfying bit of ‘70s nostalgia that understands that freedom from cultural and familial oppression is as lonely as it is liberating. In it, Egon (Janko Mandic) pines for a record player and hides out in the cinema from his Mommie Dearest-esque mother (Veronika Drolc, working wonders with a screwed-up pout) and his religiously possessed grandmother.
But as Egon discovers, movies don’t show everything. The only opposition to Tito’s regime in Sweet Dreams is a child-molesting gym teacher who demands that the communists give the people what they want, namely celluloid boobs (don’t ask). No, the cinema in Slovenia is not the harbinger of cultural dissent; but for what it’s worth, I just wanna hug Vesna!
