Recensioni degli utenti

The reflexive urge to label any film that flaunts its own sense of willful ambiguity as "in the vein of Lynch" is an overused cliché in the realm of armchair film criticism. And it's all too easy to overstate the paranoid influence of Polanski on films that take a maddeningly subjective approach to their characters. And it's easier yet to label a movie released in 1990, yet utilizing gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, as a satirical-noir counterpart to Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" and the black-humored psychological horror of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" But "Singapore Sling," true to its alcohol-blended title, cribs all of these seemingly disparate influences into a bizarre original that, while not yielding the most emotionally resonant result, offers a hypnotic descent into a gradually escalating nightmare. Greek writer-director Nikos Nikolaidis offers a simple setup, revealed through the title character's voice-over narration: for three years, he has been searching for a woman named Laura, and an injury (for which no explanation is given) finds him on the doorstep of a deranged "Mother" (Michele Valley) and "Daughter" (Meredyth Herold), who proceed to torture and degrade our protagonist in all manner of revolting ways. "Singapore Sling" is well aware of its capacity to disgust and provoke, but what keeps the proceedings fascinating (and watchable) are performances (particularly Valley's and Herold's) that take on an inspired madness that convinces the viewer that their actions are consistent with their unglued personalities (and not mere showy torture fodder in the "Hostel" mold). Complementing Nikolaidis's madhouse aesthetic is the black-and-white cinematography, where one beautifully-conceived shot follows the next, and gives the proceedings a paradoxically classy look, despite the sharp contrast with the subject matter. While not without pretension, "Singapore Sling" straddles the line between "arthouse" and "grindhouse" with gleefully mad abandon, its unapologetic weirdness a breath of fresh air.

So while we don't get certain things explicitly shown (some may feel they saw certain things, like with Reservoir Dogs and the ear scene), the movie is quite mental. And it is tough rating it ... it is black and white, it has violence, a lot of (forced) sexual situations, a lot of depravity in general ... and a lot of despicable and very crazy people in it. An insane Asylum should be the place for them to be - although I would fear for the sanity of the other patients ... jokes aside, this really goes far out.

And it is consistent about it. So the movie sticks to its guns (or whatever you want to call it) - you almost don't feel the nearly 2 hours running time of disgusting episodic tortures/fun times happening. It's all in the eyes of the beholder/viewer. Can you dig this? Can you "enjoy" the madness? I can't answer the question for you ... you have to decide for yourself. "Good times"? Bad times? It feels like an insane play - and playing they do! Acting as some would call it - and no matter if you approve or not, the job they're doing is phenomenal

This flick was frowned upon (to say the least) even from the those willing to sit down n watch in an objective viewing. Right. As if you can. It's the story of a private eye obsessed with the finding of a (probably dead) woman he had met before. His clues lead him to a house where he is enslaved by two women, mother n daughter (or so we d like to believe), whose actions can best be referred to as unspeakable. Nikolaidis is the master, he really delivers with fierce power a movie that is sick, yet sexy in its own perverted way. Definitely not for the light-hearted.

As this is my first review for IMDb, I decided to choose something obscure and potentially difficult. Art-house stylistics with Euro-centric sensibilities is what is evident in Singapore Sling. A film-noirish tendency envelopes this production in a attempt to deviate away from the twisted intents of the main characters. Yes it is filmed entirely in black and white, but the aforementioned film noir elements derive not just from this but also through the foreboding qualities of the narrative, the sensual erotica of the deviant femme-fatales that are thrust before us like they were doyens of Marquis De Sade scriptures and the pseudo-psychological revenge/redemption plot that lies within. Make no mistake this is not easy watching, convention is not permitted. It is exceedingly macabre, yet also allowing sexual pleasure to derive from many levels of disgust. The processes of consuming food in this film will indeed disgust you. If that doesn't then the "disgust" will capture you in many other ways. If you are a fan of Transformers or Shreck then stay away, but if you like unique visual experiences then please indulge.

What do you get when you cross Preminger's LAURA with the Kuchar/McDowell brain-frier THUNDERCRACK!? Something that looks a lot like SINGAPORE SLING, one of the more demented European films of, well, ever. The story of a gut-shot Greek detective in search of a mysterious "Laura" who stumbles upon the house where she's living with her "mother" (who's probably neither that or female, for that matter) gets stranger by the turn, and does not shy away from bizarre sex, ultra-violence, and regurgitative gross-outs in the process. Filmed in beautiful black-and-white, it's a one-of-a-kind film, more purely noir than most noir retreads of recent years, yet far too demented to be considered merely noir. Viewers with strong stomachs seeking the ultra-outre will find this to their delight; all others had best shy away.

I think it would only be fair to say that Singapore Sling is more than a little bit on the weird side of the cinematic spectrum. The story in this Greek oddity takes place over the course of one stormy night. A psychotic mother and daughter, who live in a remote villa, imprison a man whom they christen Singapore Sling. Much strangeness follows.

This has to be described as a true one off. In some ways this may very well be a good thing, as this is a movie with some content elements that can charitably be described as somewhat unpleasant. But it's no ordinary exploitation shockfest; it's an experimental art film as well. For starters, its shot in black and white and it's full of strange dialogues, deeply unusual characters, visual invention, genre clashing and an absolute barrow load of transgressive material. Consequently, it's very hard to categorise. It one solely recommended for those with a taste for the bizarre. It recalls film-noir, with its hard-boiled voice-overs from the main character – except this is delivered in Greek, while the mother and daughter speak exclusively in English; ordinarily details like these would raise questions but in this case it just seems par for the course. This man, Singapore Sling, pursues an ex-lover who vanished after visiting these women; her name is Laura which is a nod the 1944 film-noir…I think.

But all this film-noir malarkey is juxtaposed with a great deal of extreme material; like two completely differing film genres colliding at random. To that end we have lots of sexual torture and humiliation, which includes, of all things, graphic urination, vomiting and…masturbation with fruit. If you think any of its erotic then good luck to you but I think it's only fair to say that this sort of stuff will titillate an extremely small demographic. I personally found a lot of what I encountered in here pretty repulsive to be perfectly honest but the fact is that this is a well-made and acted film, while its sheer originality was impressive. So it does have an impact. Utterly strange and wilfully different, Singapore Sling is a movie that should be approached with some caution but its most likely not going to resemble anything else you've ever seen before. Whether or not that's a good thing I will leave you to be the judge of.

I worry about people who enjoy films like Singapore Sling. Not because it's an outrageous piece of filth full of incest, forced sex, murder, torture, vomiting and bodily fluids - I'm okay with that - but because it's an incomprehensible, insufferably pretentious and self-indulgent pile of arthouse trash. How can anyone find this nonsense entertaining? It aims for shock-value, but somehow winds up being interminably dull and repetitive, with irritating performances from its cast of three.

The plot - what there is - sees a detective looking for his long-lost lover Laura, his search leading him to the home of a woman and her daughter (Michele Valley and Meredyth Herold), a pair of insane killers who bury their victims in the garden. The detective, nick-named Singapore Sling by the daughter, is subjected to humiliation, torture and sexual degradation by the two women. He's gagged, bound. Electrocuted, forced into sex, and urinated on. The mother makes the daughter perform fellatio on a strap on, the daughter mashes a kiwi fruit into her snatch, and, in the final act, the detective rapes the daughter with a large knife. And still I found it hard to stay awake.

Singapore Sling apparently draws inspiration from Otto Preminger's 1944 noir Laura, but from what I have read, the film it most closely resembles is wild porno midnight movie Thundercrack!. I've not seen Laura or Thundercrack!; I will no doubt watch Preminger's film at some point, but I have no real desire to see Thundercrack! If it's closest cinematic cousin is Singapore Sling.

Going into Singapore Sling I knew almost nothing about it. I knew that it was supposed to be somewhat "extreme" and that's about it. But what was delivered was nothing I could ever have expected. Holy moly was this a strange movie. Let me rephrase that. Holy f@ckin sh!t was this a strange movie! Yeah that's much better.

Singapore Sling is about a mother and daughter duo who have gone completely nuts after father died. Not saying they weren't nuts before, but I'm guessing father wouldn't have approved of everything they're now doing....even though father was a murderer. Haaha, OK, the story revolves around this duo and a man they named Singapore Sling. Singapore is a investigator on the trail of a woman named Laura who is missing and presumed dead. He follows a trail of clues and ends up finding these two whackos. The duo then hold the injured Singapore hostage in their home, while pretty much just trying to make him go nuts. But it's really just they're way of playing and having fun. Having fun for them consists of torture, sex, role-playing, masturbation with fruit, messy eating and the list goes on and on. The movie goes like this for quite a while, just the viewer getting to know these ladies.

Singapore Sling is one of the strangest flicks I have ever seen, and also one of the most well made. Shot in a film noir type way, reminiscent of old style classics and combined with stylish, beautiful shots and fantastic music, the movie looks and sounds incredible. But the high praise should go to the actors involved. They were fantastic. Especially the daughter, talking about a role she was born to play....hot chick too. Singapore Sling's only problem is that it is a little long. It's a movie you definitely should watch more than once to fully digest what they're throwing at you. The acting alone is worth another watch. And it's not really a movie to fast-forward either. It's a movie to soak in. Singapore Sling should be a must see for any serious film lover out there. It's too unique not to be. 9 outta 10

A mother and a daughter live in a large home,playing games of sexual domination and re-enacting the murders of various servants that they have hired and then killed.A private detective called Singapore Sling comes searching for Laura,a woman he is fixated on but whom they have killed.They imprison him,using poor guy as a sex toy and torturing him."Singapore Sling" by Nikos Nikolaidis is easily one of the most demented horror films ever made.This extremely weird piece of film-noir is loaded with erotic regurgitation,cannibalism,incest,lesbianism,bondage,bizarre sex and sadistic violence.The relationship between the mother and her daughter is extremely bizarre to say the least.The acting is absolutely awesome and the performances are incredibly real.The atmosphere is simply insane and wonderfully nightmarish.There is also a good amount of sickening violence and gore including the most nerve-wracking dinner sequence I have ever seen."Singapore Sling" is shot in exquisite black-and-white and classical music plays on the soundtrack and this makes it even more unsettling.In one truly demented scene the male lead is tied down to the bed, ETC paddles jammed against his forehead and he is left convulsing in shock while the mother rides him and then moves up to urinate on his face.So if you are a fan of twisted cinema like "Visitor Q","Salo" or "Sweet Movie" give this gross-out masterpiece a look.10 out of 10.

I saw this movie years ago at a film festival, and ended up looking it up here after it came up in conversation with friends last night, partly to prove to them that I was not making it up, and partly to see for myself if there was actually any record of the film's existence, or if it had sunk into some kind of merciful oblivion after doing the festival circuit.

In my festival-going days, I sat through a lot of films that cleared virtually the entire theatre, and usually took a certain pleasure in being one of the last few survivors who made it through to the closing credits. This was the film that caused me to reconsider that practice. Of all the cinematic trainwrecks I've sat through, this was far and away the very worst.

I don't even know if I can fully explain why. It's not just that it's essentially two hours of vomiting, disembowelment and cannibalism, interspersed with about the least erotic sex scenes ever committed to film. It's not even just that the above is shot in grainy black and white at torturously slow art-movie pacing (and I couldn't figure out, even at the time, if that made it better or worse). Or the atrociously bad acting. Or the barely existent plot.

I think more than anything it's the sheer pointlessness of it all. Given how much time, money and energy it takes to make a feature-length film, you've got to ask: WHY? Why make a film like this? What on earth is the point? And 15 years after seeing it, I still have no answer to that.

Greek movies generally suck, so it wouldn't be such a tremendous comment to say that this one is my best greek film (as I am greek). I have seen another film by Nikolaidis, also nice, but in no way as strong and pervert as this one. Singapore Sling is in its bigger part in English, having only some narrative in greek.

The director commented for this one that he was thinking something like a comedy in the vein of greek ancient tragedy while shooting, and for that matter, even if must have a pervert sense of humour (like me) to find this mess somewhat funny, the narrative and direction style is really over-the-top, succeeding, if not to approach ancient greek tragedy, in making a unique film.

This is definately only for the few people that can associate with extreme cinema and surely these people will find much in this one-of-a-kind film. I am also sure they will catch the humourous side of this dark, twisted tale. A must-find, if you can and if you dare!

I've never seen the Otto Premminger classic Laura but given the way so many reviewers here have talked about the obvious parallel, I guess I'll need to see it to try to make sense of what I've seen in Singapore Sling.

I will say this: for a film that came out in 1990, it looks and feels a LOT like a film that came out in 1944. Nikolaidis really nailed the look and feel of 40s film noir. Of course a film that came out in 1944 wouldn't have had all the kinky sex and gore, but the classic noir texture is there.

Even moreso, Nikolaidis has manages something truly extraordinary - he made scenes of torture and violence seem oddly tender and sweet.

Another reviewer here said that he believes the characters are robots. He points out that the laws for servants in the film ("Never harm your master, etc..) are identical to the laws of Robotics famously created by Isaac Asimov. That reviewer thinks the movie is Robots trying to re-create Laura.

I don't know about robots per se, but there is something pre-determined feeling about how the characters act. As if everything that happens is inevitable. And I definitely have the feeling that there is some concept that underlies this film which, when known, will make the behavior make some sense.

I think this film will appeal to horror fans and to people who are interested in the art and craft of film making. It doesn't give up its secrets easily, but it does give you plenty to look at and think about.

It's difficult to categorise the black-and-white surreal experience that is "Singapore Sling". The film probably falls into the midnight movie category with films like "Eraserhead" and "Jungfrau am Abgrund" - nightmarish celluloid journeys that leave you wondering, "Did I really see that?" as you wake in the cold light of the morning.

"Singapore Sling" is beautifully shot; every scene is lit perfectly and looks amazing. From the opening scene where two rain-drenched and mud-caked scantily clad women dispose of the "chauffeur", the tone is set for over-the-top weirdness.

Erotic, sickening, funny and shocking, "Sling" is a taboo-busting tale of incest, murder, fruit abuse and insanity. Acts of sexual debauchery are thrown at the viewer almost casually. The actress who plays the daughter is classically beautiful and delivers some of the most bizarre scenes I've ever witnessed. This is an actress who's trusting the director to deliver a solid film. I would say that this trust is well-placed - Nikos Nikolaidis has produced a unique movie that is impossible to forget and that lingers in the mind like a fever induced bad dream.

For those of a nervous disposition and fragile constitution, this is a movie that should be avoided like the plague. Fans of transgressive cinema, however, will probably love this movie and appreciate its dark slice of perverse comedy.

9 out of 10. A twisted, hellish journey into celluloid madness that is as captivating as it is repelling.

What happens to good films made totally against the grain? What if Botticelli's Venus was painted urinating into an acolyte's mouth? In cinema, such works can find their way to late night screenings, safely past the bedtime of anyone who might object or find them too 'off-beat'. Such was the birth of films that include The Rocky Horror Show and Eraserhead. Or films openly shocking like Pink Flamingoes. Late nighters may be rubbish – or they may be the last bastion of artists that are out of synch with popular and critical tastes. At the time of writing, The Filmhouse in Edinburgh runs seasons of 'psychotronic' film – one of the many sub-genres at the midnight masses of secretive cinephiles.

Our film was fittingly introduced by a masked man with a heavy European accent. "How many films," he asks, "satisfy both your voyeuristic and artistic tastes?" He goes on to mention the awards Singapore Sling has won in its native Greece. The promise of kinky sex, even with vomiting, incest and torture, sounds so much more respectable if it has subtitles and a dialogue in Greek, French and English. And a cinematography award so we can make polite conversation about the nice photography.

But before we write it off as art-house exploitation, let me add that the plot machinations and breakthrough acting devices alone (that blend character, voice-over, narrating to the camera and rehearsing to the camera) put it in an exceptional class of movie. And the cinematography would be Oscar-worthy were it not for the subject matter.

Without giving too much away (Singapore Sling is basically film noir with other elements forcefully mixed), the story concerns a dodgy private detective in love with a dead woman. If that sounds familiar, it's meant to be. The woman is Laura – cue the plot line from the Otto Preminger classic – and she is hauntingly described by the wistful Julie London version of the eponymous song (from a cappella to romantic Glen Miller). Singapore Sling is just the nickname that the detective earns from a couple of female sociopaths, one of whom is worryingly like his dead Laura.

The black and white photography leaves us open-mouthed from the outset. Lush, atmospheric shadows are thrown together as our senses are pounded by a thunderstorm. Rain fights with the flora, ricochets off surfaces, drenches the faces and bodices of two women who, with Hamlet-like grandeur, dig a grave. You feel drenched. And each scene in Singapore Sling is composed with equally mesmerising beauty. Baroque magnificence and delicate taste insulate us from the nastiness to follow. Murder is a parlour game. . . . in the old days, father would murder the servants . . . the girls would only have to plant flowers.

Our female protagonists are mother and daughter. They re-enact murders as a refined sado-masochistic and incestuous ritual. Who is Laura? Was she just a serving maid? Who is in the picture hanging on the wall? Singapore Sling is drawn into their deadly web after knocking on their door, a bullet wound in his shoulder. He feigns a degree of distractedness to give himself time. At what point does the torture make his loss of mental capacity real? While this is not a film to watch if you have a queasy stomach (think, Greenaway's, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover), our sense of revulsion is numbed by being drawn into the twisted aesthetics of the protagonists. I am not kidding – they tie him up, give him electric shocks, and use him for sex before urinating on his face. Later, his abuser realistically makes herself vomit over him as she orgasms. Are you OK with that? If you're still reading, let's get back to the cinematic technique . . .

Singapore Sling occasionally narrates a voice-over, stoically treating it as 'just another case.' Our other two characters go one further. They will narrate what is happening or about to happen to the camera. At one point, Mom (we never learn their names) rehearses dramatic lines in French and English. For a coming role play or for our benefit? Whichever it is, the barrier between audience, character and actor is broken down. When we are simultaneously being inundated with extremely visceral and unsettling material, the effect is challenging. Cocteau once said that film is a, 'petrified fountain of thought.' We might want to analyse, the plot, the Freudian symbolism, even the techniques. But we are helplessly frozen in the terrible vision, and swept along by a smorgasbord of extreme sexual fetish that makes 'The Story of O' look like 'Gone With the Wind.' This makes it even harder work piecing together the mystery when 'all is revealed' (there are a number of interpretations to the central mystery). One of the first things I did was order a copy of Preminger's Laura from Amazon to re-examine the detailed references.

At the Thessaloniki Film Festival, Singapore Sling won a triplet of Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Director. Although as deliberately shocking as, say, Pink Flamingos or Thundercrack!, it oozes style in equal proportion to perversion. British censors promptly banned it. The director called it, "a comedy with some elements of Ancient Greek Tragedy" but reacted to the ban by realising it maybe depicts an underlying malaise in all of us. A darker side we try to ignore. A side that inveigles without substance. The stuff hidden in dreams. Like Laura – 'the face in the misty light . . . that you can never quite recall', as our song says.

Love it or hate it, a policy of late night screenings on rare movies is something that keeps independent cinema alive. Singapore Sling may not be to your taste, but such willingness to dare keeps the doors open for a wider selection of films than can be found anywhere outside of film festivals.

Let me start off by saying that there is absolutely no similarity between this "film" and the 1944 film Laura, aside from the fact that both films feature a detective, and a character named Laura. Those reviewers who are comparing both films for whatever reason are, confused. Not that there's much to understand about Singapore Sling, but…

Being as every reviewer has rehashed the events that take place in this "film" I will not belabor them here. Nikolaidis has created what may well be the most genuinely weird intentionally weird p.o.s ever made. Others (Harmony Korine, David Lynch, Troma, etc) have tried and failed, making only boring dreck that people with worse taste than fans of SS could pretend to enjoy. Others (Pasolini, David Lynch, etc) because of their legal insanity, unwittingly make films that give the viewer a tiny peek at the vast ocean of lunacy that is the Director's "mind" (they don't know any better).

Singapore Sling is a film that succeeds in being intentionally unintelligible, shocking, infuriating and "against the grain" for the sake of it. That's all there is to it. There is nothing more here. Nothing in the idiotic, pointless and cryptic dialogue. Nothing in the spastic, borderline drug induced performances. Nothing in the clunky cinematography, the grade school play level set design, the painfully failed comedy, the tired and poorly staged violence and sex acts….absolutely nothing. It's not good horror, mystery, or black comedy.

It is excellent exploitation trash in the truest sense. There are times when it comes of as typically nauseatingly pretentious, but for the most part it seems like Nikolaidis isn't taking anything seriously. He knew the type of "film" he wanted to make and the type of experience he wanted the audience to have. In other words, he wanted to make the sickest most insane film nobody had yet seen, all else be damned. He comes close.

Though, I haven't read any interviews or anything involving a "director's statement" or what have you, and probably never will, so who knows what exactly his intentions were. I can't imagine why anyone would care anyway…

Check it out, if you have absolutely nothing better to do with your life.

When Singapore Sling first came out it was something new for Greek cinema. There were not many Greek films at that time featuring a pair of demented chicks pissing and vomiting on a tied up fella and engaging in all sorts of kinky sex. For some unexplained reason the dialogue switches from Greek to English to French. At one point, there is a masturbation scene with a kiwi and there is rape by switchblade and cannibalism, but those expecting any decent gore will be disappointed. Much easier to fake a pissing or barf into someone's face rather than create some decent prosthetic f/x.

Watching it a second time after twenty-five years, I discovered the film has not aged well. It's all shot in the director's home and his back yard and this is done in such a bad way you never get an idea of the layout.

The two chicks act in the most spastic manner, spitting out nonsensical dialogue with ridiculous gestures in their attempt to become the next Isabelle Adjani. Worst of all, the film lasts forever. It seems that the director had the impression he was creating high art. That's why it's in black and white and there is a noirish narration by the male character who is definitely one of the lamest characters ever to grace the film screen.

The young chick has nice tits and ass and some of her outfits are very sexy. This is what Singapore Sling amounts to. There is nothing of substance here. You will find more sophistication in the films of Jean Rollin or Jesus Franco.

I finally managed to get hold of this little beast on V H S recently,as far as i know it is not available on D V D yet and boy, was it worth the wait. This film delivers and is sure to irritate the PC brigade as well as stuck up time out reviewers. It is also experimental with a small e as the writer / director plays around with the narrative. The "daughter" breaks the 4th wall on occasion and the photography and lighting are very expressionistic add to this some funny throw away lines shocking violence and erotic regurgitation, and you have the perfect date movie (not)