My Thoughts on A Serbian Film

I originally posted this on the mondomovie.com forum in a thread discussing the 4 minutes of cuts levelled at 2010 horror/thriller 'A Serbian Film' but I thought I'd post it here also for posterity.

Some good discussion here so I'll weigh in.

I enjoyed the film greatly, but I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because I was expecting a gritty, Guinea Pig-style torture porn and what I got was an almost Hollywood level of gloss coupled with some fun performances and set-pieces that in the end left me feeling like I had watched a hollywood thriller rather than a notorious horror.

I think this is exemplified in the opening shot of the title, projected from old, scratchy stock accompanied by piano music is smashed to bits as the (frankly excellent) electronic score kicks in letting you know to drop your pre-conceptions immediately.

As has been mentioned in this thread, I never felt shocked by the so-called offensive content because it never felt real to me. Be it the pitch perfect porn-parody or the screwing of an obvious puppet, it all seemed like fantasy. Maybe that is the reason for the pornography theme of the movie in the first place, after all isn't that a hyper-reality that you are supposed to buy into in the same way? There is even a character in the film that defends his actions by claiming that all's fair in the world of 'art', and this film and the director's insistance that it is all an allegory could be read as an Andy Kaufman-esque satire of the modern art movement (piss-christ anyone?)

I found the I Spit on Your Grave remake to be a much more disturbing film (even with the BBFC cuts) due to it's extended, unflinching scenes of rape and humiliation that come across as very real and plausable, but it's the film in which a man kills another man with his penis that gets pulled? Come on now.

Whatever you think of the film and it's ideas/content, it's a well made and provocative work that deserves attention.

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