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Cat tales >>Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat is a bizarre, hilarious fable by MATTHEW HAYS
Black Cat, White Cat is an epic, too; bluntly put, it's a burlesque gypsy soap opera farce about two feuding families and their respective bids for financial security and romantic fulfilment. As the film opens, the layabout Matko is busy hatching various criminal schemes to make buckets of cash. Destitute, dogged by bad luck and clearly a comic bungler, he even manages to screw up an entire train-robbing operation, ultimately owing a huge debt to his partner in crime, Dadan. Played by Srdan Todorovic, Dadan is the least likable--but most hilarious--character in the film. Snorting coke and listening to dreadful pop tunes which he gleefully sings along with, Dadan slaps his sisters about, refers to his girlfriends as "junkie bitches" and is generally repulsive. His demands of Matko are simple: the debt to Dadan will be forgotten as long as Matko's son, Zare, marries Dadan's shrew-like sister, Afrodita. A forced wedding--with cocked shotguns firmly in place at both the bride and groom's heads--is the script's climax, the perfect culmination of mismatched romance and clashes of over-the-top characters. Black Cat, White Cat opens at the Parc, most fittingly, the week after a retrospective of Fellini; the Italian master would undoubtedly approve of Kusturica's flamboyant use of imagery. The cast is made up of a primarily professional-actor-free ensemble; they're a highly talented bunch, but Kusturica has clearly hand-picked many of them for their quirky faces. In true Fellini form, Kusturica spikes the film with nonsensical cutaways to a massive pig who's busy ripping off bits of an abandoned car and eating it. But Fellini-isms aside, Black Cat, White Cat is still firmly rooted in Kusturica's distinct universe. After his thoughtful and insightful drama Underground, the director has done an about-face, venturing to make a thoughtful and insightful comedy--effectively succeeding at both genres.
Black Cat, White Cat opens with English subtitles Friday, July 8 at the Cinéma du Parc. Now playing with French subtitles at Ex-Centris. See repertory listings for showtimes |
What an odd, entirely unexpected and divine surprise Black Cat, White Cat is. A film shockingly different from director Emir Kusturica's previous film, Underground, the deathly serious--and highly controversial--look at a half century of ethnic strife and war.