Sweet Movie (1974) 7/10

Sweet Movie is a film by Yugoslavian director Dusan Makavejev, and truly defies categorization and criticism.

Sweet Movie was made in 1974 and takes place in the "future" of 1984. The Miss World Virginity Competition has announced their winner, the most beautiful virgin in the world. Her prize is to be married to the world's richest man, a brash American tycoon. On their honeymoon she discovers her husband has a gold penis and so she tries to run away and begins her bizarre oddessy. At the same time there is another storyline within the film that isn't related to Miss Virginity. A woman is floating down a canal in Amsterdam in a large gypsy boat that has a huge paper mache head of Carl Marx on the bow. She picks up a sailor and they both travel along, picking up children, children never to be seen again.

That's a pretty basic synopsis of the film. There's really alot more going on but to dig deeper would just confuse the reader and give away too much. The film maker was kicked out of communist Yugoslavia for making "subversive" films and continued his career elsewhere in Europe. This film is filled with nudity, sex, and bizarre imagery. The overall plot is up to you to decide, I have my own conclusions but the film doesn't come right out and explain everything.

This film is for adventurous viewers that don't mind being confused and are looking for a challenge. The film truly sits by itself and cannot be easily compared to other films but I imagine if you like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Shinya Tsukumoto, etc then this is certainly worth checking out. I found the film highly entertaining and I never felt the pace slow or become boring. I had no idea where the film was going to go minute to minute, but in this case it worked marvelously well.

Nudity - medium
Overall - 7/10