Montenegro

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.

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.

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.

It is funny, very erotic, passionate, and riddled with jabs into society's snobbish attitude toward sexual fulfillment…

A very wealthy American woman is married to a dull Swedish businessman… When the husband is about to leave for Brazil, she decides to go along with him, but is held up in customs and misses the plane… Trying to get back home, she is caught up in the life-style of a group of vibrant Yugoslavian immigrants living in Sweden… She falls in love with the peculiar manners of the group and decides to stay for a couple of days, ending up in a romantic affair with one of the workers, singing in a topless bar, and having a lot of fun…

In contrast to Makavejev's other noteworthy films, "WR—Mysteries of the Organism" and "Sweet Movie," "Montenegro" is light and uncomplicated... It's a simple story simply told… The message is the same—sexual repression leads to insanity, but sensual indulgence livens the spirit…

"Montenegro" does not exploit its eroticism; it lets it grow out of the situation, out of the characters… When Susan Anspach is seen taking a shower, it is photographed in a very beautiful, soft manner... When a couple is making love, the camera pans up their reeling bodies only long enough to establish their lovemaking, then moves on

From the director of Sweet Movie and The Coca-Cola Kid, this English-language film is very reminiscent of the latter (which was made four years later). It's just a very odd, quirky comedy. It also contains bits of blistering, hilarious eroticism. It's hard to make eroticism humorous. The film's most memorable bit involves an exotic dancer dodging a remote-control tank armed with a dildo. The story involves a wife (Susan Anspach) who tries to catch up with her husband (Erland Josephson, RIP) as he boards a flight. Unfortunately, she packed garden shears, which gets her taken to a small, back room for searching. There she meets up with a Yugoslavian immigrant, with whom she attempts to catch a ride home. They get sidetracked, though, to a settlement of other Yugoslavian immigrants, where her adventure begins. Meanwhile, Josephson returns home, not knowing what happened to his wife. The film is very airy and enjoyable. It doesn't equal out to much at the end. I'd rank it a ways below The Coca-Cola Kid, but it's well worth checking out.