september|october|2004 - A Choice of Reviews
Suburbs
Festering racial hatred and sinister personal demons combine to make
amoral monsters of four working-class Joes in the horrowing, darkly comic "Suburbs".
Audiences brave enough to endure brief hardcore passages (played for grins)
and the apparent onscreen shooting of a dog (no laughing matter) will be rewarded,
if that's the word, by an uncompromising meditation on cruelty bred of ignorance
and fear, shot through with bleak, dark humor.
From "Blue Velvet" to Gaspar Noe, Michael Haneke to "The Machinist", the concept of extraordinary brutality lurking beneath ordinary exteriors has been a subject ripe for a genre that might be called the Cinema of Endurance. For writer and theater director Vinko Möderndorfer, here making an assured helming debut from his novel, the overarching metaphor is the morally barren suburb of the soul from which senseless rage springs. -- Eddie Cockrell (Variety)
"One of the most bizzare was "Suburbs", from Slovenian helmer Vinko Möderndorfer. Grab this one if it ever comes to New York. " -- V. A. Musetto (New York Post) - Montreal review
Euro pics in bloom at Venice film fest
'Confituur,' 'Suburbs' among pix to unspool in Days component
While Hollywood will hold court at the upcoming 61st Venice Intl. Film Festival,
European pics rule the roost at the fest's new Venice Days section, unveiled
by artistic director Giorgio Gosetti. Section's 12 entries include seven first
works.
Revenge drama "Dead Man's Shoes" from Britain's Shane Meadows, "Confituur" by Belgian helmer Lieven Debrauwer ("Pauline and Paulette"), Slovenian helmer Vinko Moderndorfer's debut "Suburbs" (which segues to a Montreal competition slot) and "Nemmeno il Destino" (Fate Is Not Enough), sophomore pic from Italo helmer Daniele Gaglianone ("Sailing Home"), are among the section's standout titles.
Gosetti previously ran state-backed film promotion agency Italia Cinema. Before that, he was unofficial deputy director to Gillo Pontecorvo during the latter's tenure as Venice fest topper.
"My only selection criteria is to find pics that really have something to say and show true passion in saying it," Gosetti told Daily Variety.
On the selection committee were French newspaper Liberation critic Agnes-Catherine Poirier, critic for French paper Liberation; Polish critic Tadeusz Sobolewski; and Adrian Wootton, chief exec of promotional body Film London. -- Nick Vivarelli (Variety)
There are some widespread views about Slovenia. ... Just in time and almost
bloodlessly, without a war, it has succeeded to leave the federation.
As if to defy these views, movies coming from this "Slavic paradise" focus on
the dark side of humanity. There is no war in these movies, but their characters
are capable of violence, of chauvinism, of disdain for the other. These movies
seem to say: "we are not innocent". In Spare Parts (Rezervni deli) by
Damjan Kozole (Berlinale 2003), smugglers of refugees harass their victims.
Also in Suburbs we find the theme of the stranger. ... An apparently
innocent peeping at a young couple by four old mates from suburbs ends up in
a manhunt. Thus, the "little-realism" turns into a Tarantino-style thriller.
In Suburbs one can find the trace of the national conflicts in Yugoslavia,
but a much more general interpretation is also possible. It is a psychological
study of alienation widespread in the suburbs. With the four men (some of them
lonely, some of them married) pornography has become a habit; for them, their
neighbours have become pornographic objects. -- Tadeusz Sobolewski
March|April|2004 - A Choice of Reviews
Reservoir Dogs in the Slovenian Way
A quite dark but consistent vision, which sheds light on the places we would
rather not see. The four protagonists do not even have enough love for themselves,
let alone for the people around them. ... This results in a revealing portrait
of extremely bitter pigheadedness, which manifests itself in various consequences,
from alcoholism, sexual deviations, to broken families and chronic depression,
which toys with suicide all the time. A film, whose strong point are especially
the masterful interpretations of the four main actors, also boasts a thoughtful
set design and top notch photography. -- Dražen Štader (Vikend magazin, 2
April 2004)
> more
A Radically Different Slovenian Film
(To make a long story short) Suburbs is one of the few Slovenian
films in the last ten years that is able to tell its story as a whole and
does not disintegrate into a sequence of loosely connected situations. It
has one more feature that radically distinguishes it from the majority of
the contemporary Slovenian films: its story, or, more precisely, its topic.
... Suburbs is, above all, a resounding film on intolerance, but not only
intolerance for those who are different, but intolerance as a way of solving
conflicts in life. That, of course, is a much broader subject than xenophobia,
which is only a manifestation of this attitude. ... The author of the film
does not offer any guidance for salvation - instead he just hints at it:
in the world full of fascism the simplest human act is the implosion of catharsis...
Suburbs will not be a hit; it is far too cruel for that, for many people
it is even unbearable and politically provocative. However, this does not
change the fact that Vinko Möderndorfer has, in co-operation with the director
of photography Dušan Joksimović, composer Jani Golob and editor Andrija Zafranović,
made one of the best Slovenian films in the last ten years, more accurately,
after Košak's Outsider and Šterk's minimalist masterpiece Express Express.
-- Marko Golja (Radio Slovenija 1, Gremo v kino, 26 March 2004)
> more
Druga jutranja kronika
Several new Slovenian films touch upon the attitude to foreigners.
... However, in his film Suburbs Vinko Möderndorfer goes to the very end
and beyond. ... The hatred to the two young people, who coincidentally are
not Slovenian, but are beautiful, in love and, above all, living their life,
is just an excuse for the protagonists, like bloodshed in the name of politics,
to finally and without any restraint release their dark beast - sadism, covered-up
homosexuality and murderous passion. A film about people, who have wrecked
their lives and who seek power in hatred, becomes an ever clearer picture
of murderers and their silent witnesses. The debut by Vinko Möderndorfer,
a successful writer and theatre director, is a mature work in all respects,
with perfectly developed characters of the four friends. A dark, sometimes
comical grotesque story, wants to hurt the viewer and, without a doubt, it
succeeds in that. -- Ingrid Kovač Brus (Radio Slovenija 1, 25 March 2004)
Heroes
In two good Slovenian films - Spare Parts by Kozole… and Suburbs,
the debut by Möderndorfer, we can witness the emergence of the new Slovenian "hero".
... The heroes in both films have their lost marginal existences without
any future. And if we believe that art holds a mirror to reality, we can
only wonder at the stories or read an article or two in the newspapers. Namely,
every country has heroes that it deserves. -- Irena Štaudohar (Žurnal, 26
March 2004)
Bankrupt Patriot
If ten years ago it seemed that theatre is the main cause for the
clumsiness of Slovenian films, today artists from the theatre are coming
back to the big screen as masters. Starring Renato Jenček, Peter Musevski,
Jernej Šugman and Silvo Božič. -- Gorazd Trušnovec (Slovenske novice, Polet,
25 March 2004)
Before the City - Emptiness
Apart from Jenček, who has to be noticed by other cameras in the
future, the other most prominent characters are portrayed by Jernej Šugman
and Peter Musevski. They build their characters … mostly on the confrontations
with each other. The former does it with a blank face, slightly open mouth
and the eyes of a bull, behind which something is boiling all the time, while
the latter does it with theatrical and exhibitionistic acts (the one with
masturbation definitely being the peak of them), which are only manifestations
of painful emptiness. -- Ženja Leiler (Delo, 25 March 2004)
Slovenian Beauty
(The friends from the suburbs) - they see no difference between women
and the "people from the south" - both are guilty. "The southerners" are
even more guilty - because they enjoy Slovenia more than Slovenians do. The
Slovenian Friends look like small, lunatic, demented fuckups, waiting
for their Leader. And, while they're waiting for him, they're living in the Deer
Hunter. -- Marcel Štefančič, jr. (Mladina, 29 March 2004))
In the Cut
Well-balanced acting and dramaturgy of individual scenes. -- Bojan
Kavčič (Stop, 1 April 2004)