Sweet Movie

Taste is subjective, but this definitely wasn’t sweet. Makavejev tests our endurance with his confrontational Sweet Movie, which could perhaps be labelled as a peculiar political declamation. Using the collage technique (interspersing the scripted shots with no less coarse documentary shots, e.g. from the Katyn Forest), he goes far beyond the boundaries of what is considered “normal” and “nice”. For me, the peak – where else is there to go from this point? – was the scene of the orgy, whose participants did not differentiate much between the food that had not yet passed through their digestive tracts (not necessarily from beginning to end) and that which had. Sex, politics and sweets. And probably also Freud, coprophilia and paedophilia; it’s better not to look for these things. After the film ended, however, I was confused and hungry (I like sweets) rather than disgusted. For all of the visual delicacies, the sense of it all seems to have escaped me. Perhaps in the end it isn’t important if the director throws excrement from the screen at the communists, fascists, capitalists or simply everyone who’s watching. He’s able to lash out and provoke, which is important. But…is that enough? 65% (16/10/2011)