Montenegro tango

Montenegro is, without a doubt, one the freshest, most original and seldom seen gems on the planet. Anspach delivers a personal best as a housewife on the brink of insanity who befriends a band of eccentrics at the Zanzi Bar. What follows is a bizarre odyssey of sexual and emotional discovery. Robust characters, Pinter's beautiful cinematography, and tart humor make this a must. The stuff of life.

A quirky black comedy about a bored housewife in Sweden who spends some time with a group of Yugoslavian gypsies. Anspach, in perhaps her best role, looks great and is terrific as the woman who's slowly going to pieces and must get away from home to regain her sanity. The film is full of loony characters and bizarre situations but it has a strangely endearing quality to it. The scenes at Zanzi Bar, where the Yugoslav characters reside in a Boheminian lifestyle, are brimming with raw sensuality, helped by Zachrisson as an Earth-mother and Gelin as a young prostitute. Ingmar Bergman veteran Josephson is Anspach's perplexed husband. Other eccentric characters include Josephson's father and his shrink.

An hilarious and weird sex comedy from Dusan Makavejev, about an bored, neurotic American woman married into an insane and yet strangely uninteresting Swedish family, who finds release in a group of randy, freedom-loving (if scruffy) Yugoslavian immigrants. Makavejev's take on modern Europe and modern life in general seems just right to me. Susan Anspach makes the most of her leading role, and is better than I've ever seen her before. She never quite broke through as a major star, and her work in Montenegro will leave the viewer wondering why.

This is a nihilist black comedy about the emptiness of success and riches.

Susan Anspach is an American housewife, 40ish, married to a rich Swede, and living in a palatial Stockholm seaside residence. She's bored and frustrated. Her father-in-law is 80ish and auditioning wives. Her children are helping their grandfather with the auditions. Her husband is always out of town, and when he's in town he won't sleep with her. Gradually, her behavior is becoming more and more erratic.

When she is denied permission to board a plane to Brazil (because she tried to carry oversized gardening shears on board), she falls in with some struggling Yugoslavian immigrants, and is attracted by their zestful, lusty craziness.

This movie is completely nihilistic. All of the characters are painted in very broad comic brushstrokes, ala Dr. Strangelove, and the sets and situations border on the surrealistic. (There's even a dysfunctional clock homage to Dali's "Persistence of Memory")

This is one odd movie, but I liked it a lot. One cannot expect the characters to behave as people really would, but the movie is energetic and hilarious in sections, erotic in other sections, and the production values are impressive.

This was made in 1981. The director never really made a brilliant movie, but he should have. There is so much talent in evidence here.

I remember seeing this film as a young guy at a film festival when it was first released knowing little about it's content of its directors past. The advertising poster led people to believe it may be some sort of eastern European soft core porn but how mistaken we all were once the reels started rolling. With Marianne Faithful singing her signature "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" tune, I just knew that the premise of this song was somehow linked to this movie. I won't bore you with the synopsis of this film as others have already done this, what I will tell you is this is probably one of the most cleverly made movies I have seen in years. All sorts of social commentaries can be concluded about this movie, but having owned a copy of the film and viewing it on numerous occasions, each screening presents a different interpretation. What still blows me away is the closing scene of the movie, even after all this time and myself and friends have sat around a dinner table discussing what does it "really all mean". Each glass of Merlot presented even more outrageous takes like the movie itself. 10/10 to Susan Anspach, director Dusan and hats off to the two young support players who play Susans children, the talent is all class. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie for the wild ride that it is, even just to experience the wonderful unpredictable ending......I'd love to know what you all think.