The Yugoslavian film Masquerade was released the same year as Drive, He Said, Jack Nicholson's film about basketball and college during the late 1960s. The two films share some themes and ideas.
Both films deal with a successful, student basketball player (Igor Galo in Masquerade) who becomes involved with an older, married woman. In Drive, He Said, the woman was the coach's wife. In Masquerade the woman (Vida Jerman) is the wife of a rich, conservative who only cares about hunting. Both films deal with the changing generation. In Drive, He Said, the issue is the Vietnam War. In Masquerade, the issue is more just the generation gap, with youth being portrayed as being more honest and adjusted than the older generation.
Of the two films, Drive, He Said (not without its own problems) is probably the better of the two films. A falseness hangs over Masquerade. For instance, the film opens with stock footage of WWII followed by naked bodies being covered in dust, which has a sort-of Zabriskie Point vibe. However, the youths in this movie would be of a cold war generation, born after WWII. Furthermore, Masquerade builds to a party where the youth's friends show up. What follows is very dated (nude painting and dancing).
The most interesting (and also uncomfortable) part of Masquerade deals with the child of the woman having an affair with the basketball player. She hires her lover to tutor the boy, and the boy, about ten or eleven, becomes attracted to both his mother and his tutor when he discovers their affair. However, this plot thread does not pay off much at the end.
As another reviewer noted, Masquerade has a great deal of both male and female nudity. Watching it in 2025, the film feels more like an exploitation film than a coming-of-age story. The film is well shot and acted and has a nice to look at leading female (Vida Jerman). Masquerade is certainly not boring, but it is also a little hard to take seriously.
