Mlad i zdrav kao ruza

After watching A bout de soufflé (Godart), one will notice that Young and Healthy like a Rose is another rip-off of the French Nouvelle Vague by Yugoslav directors.

At the time this made perfect sense, with all the censorship and control over culture.

But to call this move an authentic piece of work ahead of its time would be a mistake.

The movie rips-off the original after 11 years.

Having said this, in local context the movie has been very important in paving the way for a Yugoslav / Serbian new wave in film.

This must have seemed a pretty shocking aberration in 1971 Yugoslavia, even though that nation was in some respects the most liberal and westernized of Soviet Bloc nations at the time. Indeed, it got banned, so obviously the authorities took offense, probably less at the antihero's criminal antics than at the conspicuous nose-thumbing at Tito, the Party, and national pride. But for all its calculated outrages, the movie feels forced and cartoonish as an expression of rebellion.

Our protagonist Stevan is a wiry perpetual-motion machine, his thin but muscular body frequently on undressed display, who doesn't seem to actually live anywhere. Instead, he just bounces like a pinball from one caper to another, stealing cars, picking up hippie hitchhikers (then nonchalantly shooting them dead when they try to steal HIS car), having sex with old flames (some of them prostitutes) he treats like crap, pulling armed holdups, having unconvincing fistfights, cracking wise even when he's finally arrested and beaten by police. He's always lunging around, as is the camera, save when he stops to directly address the camera. There's a lot of violence and nudity, but too often it all feels like a child's dress-up game of cops & robbers, more college-theater "anarchy" than genuinely transgressive.

Still, the movie does go out on more of a limb eventually, starting with a sequence depicting the mass trashing of a department store, which impresses if for no other reason than your wondering how they got permission to create a mess with thrown-about consumer goods that must have taken many hours to clean up. And there are subsequent sequences of rioting in the streets, offering an outre spectacle of armed youth in open revolt against the government and society in general. It's a fantasy, yet one undeniably daring for its era and place.

Even this edgier material is marred by an excess of hand-held, zoom-laden camerawork, however, which makes the film feel more shapeless and semi-amateur than free-spirited. Still, it's fascinating that "Young and Healthy" actually got made at the time, even if it was hastily withdrawn. There's a lot of groovy (and I think mostly foreign) music soundtracked, and the smugly antisocial hero (whose actor looks a little like Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders, and continued a highly successful career for decades despite this film's censorship) wears a whole lot of groovy shirts. Ultimately, "Young and Healthy" is more valuable as a historical curio than as a work of art (or entertainment), but that's still quite enough to make it worth a look for those interested in the cinema and politics of this period.

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There are two important things to bear in mind when discussing the movies such as Young and Healthy As a Rose.

The first thing is that it follows the fashion of the post-hippie era movies. Chaotic storytelling purports to be the true image of things, although, in my opinion, is rather a distorted mirror of reality.

The other thing is the fact that the movie has been made in Yugoslavia in the beginning of 1970's. Although not a part of Eastern Bloc, the censorship has been very strict at the time of movie's creation. Voicing the opinion against the official dogma could have ended up your career or even led you to prison.

Therefore, Young and Healthy As a Rose shouldn't be regarded merely as a precursor of "theater of violence", brought to mainstream by Tarantino. It was also a criticism of a totalitarian regime, despite the vague message it offered.

The movie follows the career of a small time crook who ends up being recruited by the police. He uses his new employment to become the don of the underground and leads a revolt against the system. Back in the day the police really recruited criminals, although it has been secret service which sent them abroad to do their dirty work. At the same time, Yugoslavia was kept free from organized crime.

The main protagonist leads his monologue almost during the entire movie, uninterrupted during most of the dialogs, as well. He is telling a limited amount of stories, but mostly uses one-liners ranging from ancient proverbs over common people's wisdom to elementary school jokes.

Somewhere in the movie Jean-Luc Godard has been mentioned, presumably because he was a part of the inspiration. Some critics assumed that the director foreseen the downfall of Yugoslavia by criminal elements. To underline this they refer to the end of the movie where the main protagonist mentions how he is "(y)our future". Well, this might have been a strike of genius but also could have been just the cocky writer trying to impress the audience.

Whatever the real reason has been, Young and Healthy As a Rose never achieved the notoriety of, for example, Plastic Jesus, produced in the same year. And it serves it right.