Underground (1995)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: B
In one of
the wackiest longer films in many years, writer/director Emir Kusturica gives
us Underground (1995), which is
split into three sections: World War II, The Cold War and the Bosnian War. Shysters Blackie and Marco are at their early
peak of crime and partying when the Nazis arrive. After several misadventures, they decide to
simply take their good times into an elaborate bunker with all the luxuries
they can drag in. Years later, after
WWII is over, they are still down
there with dozens of others who think the Nazis won!
Marko
decides to betray everyone there by letting them think the Nazis still rule, so
he can make money off of weapons they are building. When the elaborate fraud is exposed, Blackie
goes even more bonkers and sets his mind to nailing Marko. If this sounds crazy, it plays on the screen
in an even more madcap fashion.
Miki
Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic, Slavko Stimac and a chimpanzee
are among the cast that brings off this bizarre fantasy/comedy co-written by
Kusturica with Dusan Kovacevic. Though
it could have been Science Fiction or a surreal comedy like something from
Stanley Kubrick or Terry Gilliam, it takes a different route of near-dementia. There is slapstick in the film that actually
stays in context to the narrative, which itself is not totally normal. At 167 minutes, the film does run on at
times, especially the chimpanzee storyline, but the film is impressive for how
often it usually works.
Some of
the non-fantasy material still may fail to totally suspend disbelief or be
logical, but the film moves so well when it works, that this is not as much of
a problem as it should be. Though
unrated, the film is R in nature for sexual situations and some of its
violence, which is also often part of the slapstick. This won the Best Film Award at Cannes and on a level of ambition and
imagination, I cannot fault the judges there.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is good, though some of the footage is
obvious stock footage, which was then mixed with degraded footage to put the
actors in the same world at points. That
lowers the fidelity by normal standards, but this is the way the film is supposed
to look at those points. Cinematographer
Vilko Filac gets it all to match pretty well, without digital excess. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic
type surrounds that are somewhat limited, but exist. Both the end credits and Dolby’s own official
title listings denote the film as a 5.1 digital theatrical release, but no such
soundtrack is offered here. The sound
here has both Serbo-Croatian and German languages, with English captions
available. The sound can be a very
slight bit harsh, but only in very small spots.
The only extras are a 3-minutes-long interview with the director at a
premiere and the French theatrical trailer.
Just as I
received this DVD, I watched the always fun Maggie Gyllenhaal go to a video
store and pick films she liked and recommended.
This was on her shortlist, despite being almost ten years old. It is that kind of film, the kind everyone
deserves to see at least once all the way through. Underground
is a key moment in modern Serbian filmmaking.
- Nicholas Sheffo
