Sweet Movie (1974)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Dusan Makavejev

Writer:

Dusan Makavejev (writer)

Release Date:

12 June 1974 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

The intercut story of two women: a nearly-mute beauty queen who descends into withdrawal and madness...

Plot Keywords:

Candy | Ship | Pedophile | Vomit | Penis

Cast

Carole Laure	...	Miss Monde 1984 / Miss Canada
Pierre Clémenti	...	Potemkin Sailor
Anna Prucnal	...	Anna Planeta / Capt. Ann
Sami Frey	...	El Macho
Jane Mallett	...	PDG / Chastity Belt Lady
Roy Callender	...	Jeremiah Muscle
John Vernon	...	Mr. Kapital
Hansi Roll
Therese Schulmeister
Renata Steiger
Berndt Stein
Herbert Stumpfl
Otto Mühl	...	Member of Therapie-Komune (as Otto Muehl)
Catherine Sola
Louis Bessières

Runtime:

98 min | USA:95 min (cut version)

Country:

Canada | France | West Germany

Language:

English | French | Polish | Spanish | Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (uncut) (1974) | Finland:K-18 (cut) (1974) | Hungary:18 | West Germany:18 | Australia:R | Norway:18 (1975) | Sweden:15 | UK:(Banned) | USA:Unrated | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Maran Film

Trivia:

Anna Prucnal was exiled from her native country Poland for seven years as a result of her role in the movie. She was denied a Visa to enter Poland to see her dying mother during that time.

Quotes:

Mr. Kapital: [Mr. Kapital and Miss Canada in a helicopter flying above the Niagara Falls] You see that little fountain down there?
[points down to Niagara Falls]
Miss Monde 1984: Yes.
Mr. Kapital: It's gonna be my biggest undertaking in landscape architecture. I'm gonna buy it from the Canadian Government. I'm gonna renovate it, redecorate it. Get rid of the water, turn off the falls.
[Laughs]
Mr. Kapital: I'm gonna install an electronic, synthetic, laser moving image in livin' color. In livin' color, honey! Yeah. And we're gonna have a huge quadraphonic sound system. Yeah! Of the royal waters. Yeah! We're gonna have the best sight and sound system available. Unaffected by weather conditions.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Two-Fisted Law (1932)

Soundtrack:

Bandiera Rossa

Brave, bold and very well shot

First reaction to this challenging and astonishing film might be to pronounce it depraved or that the director is but then there is no suggestion that one will come away from this unique film a less moral person and so the accusation fails. Certainly I would like to think that for everybody there will be at least some part of this they find hard to take, indeed I don't think I would like to sit too closely to anyone who lapped up every frame. Excess of all kind on display here plus a really difficult striptease among young children. And yet, I think despite some of the more flip and seeming silliness, Makavejev is screaming out for the individual to rediscover his private and public freedom. The Soviet Union comes in for most of the kicking, but then why wouldn't it in 1974 when they were still presiding over the director's birthplace and still denying the massacre of Poles so distressingly shown in original b/w footage. Personally, having previously only encountered Otto Muehl through the films of Kurt Kren, I found his antics here the hardest to take. Here the overt element of homoerotic SM as overweight men spat and sicked up over each other seemed to go further than the catharsis of those other movies. But hey someone might find those bit's the best. Brave, bold and very well shot with a marvellous soundtrack.