Too much of everything

How sad is this?

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I guess with Sweet Movie Dusan Makavejev's bizarreness peaked and he decided to make something more straight forward. It is still by no means a regular movie, but there's weird and then there's "weirdest".This one is like a feminist tract about a bored, rich housewife who leaves her snobbish husband and perfect kids to stay with some bohemian Serbs who run a debauched night club.She has a fling with a young man, and yes, that does mean they have sex on a pile of food.I think with his less bizarre, assaultively creative movies, Makavejev also became less interesting. His next one, The Coca Cola Kid, was a new peak in that direction. This one had some of the outrageousness and some of the mundane. It was an intriguing concoction, but not as successful as WR:Mysteries of the Organism.

Susan Anspach is beautiful and delirious (must've been the acting lessons from Jack Nicholson), Marianne Faithfull singing "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" was a stroke of brilliance, and the scene of the husband prancing around the Danish moderne bedroom with his psychiatrist and his wife, wearing nothing but matching bathrobes juxtaposed to the gypsy basting the roast with the beer he's drinking is one of the most memorable scenes.I'd own this but there are children in the house. It is raunchy.

This film was darn good in spite of the fact that almost all of the characters behave in utterly incomprehensible ways. Marilyn Jordan (Susan Anspach) was at least characterized as a bit of a loon from the beginning. Some really fine acting here, Anspach most notably, but also just about all of the Yugoslavian actors, none of whom had I ever heard of before. Of particular note was the young woman, I think it was Patricia Gelin. I'll have to check and see if she has made other English-language films.

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.