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ECLIPSE SERIES 18: DUSAN MAKAJEV FREE RADICAL

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There’s never been another filmmaker quite like Dušan Makavejev. Even in the 1960s, when all of cinema’s steadfast rules seemed to be breaking down and artists such as Godard, Cassavetes, and Marker were dissolving the boundaries between fiction and documentary, Yugoslavia’s Makavejev stood alone. His films about political and sexual liberation were revolutionary, raucous, and ribald. Across these, his wild, collagelike first three films, Makavejev investigates—with a tonic mix of earnestness and whimsy—love, death, and work; the legacy of war and the absurdity of daily life in a Communist state; criminology and hypnosis; strudels and strongmen.

Man Is Not a Bird

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Man Is Not a Bird is an antic portrait of the love lives of two less-than-heroic men who labor inside a copper factory, yet Makavejev makes room for plentiful free-form riffing on the almost comically bleak environs.This is one of cinema’s most assured and daring debuts.

Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator

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This story of a tragic romance between a young telephonist (Eva Ras) and a middle-aged rodent sanitation specialist (Slobodan Aligrudic) in Belgrade is an endlessly surprising, time-shifting exploration of love and freedom.

Innocence Unprotected

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This free-associative, utterly unclassifiable film—assembled from the “lost” footage of the first Serbian talkie made during the Nazi occupation—is one of Makavejev’s most freewheeling farces

Excellent.

A blind buy for me, and wholly consistent with what Criterion ought to be doing with their Eclipse line. =D>

Now this is the kind of out-of-the-blue announcement we can all applaud, surely?

I'm certainly down with it! I've seen the first two, and they're very good. Classic, underseen New Wave fare.

Great! I like obscure unknown experimental work. Somebody got their head on right at Criterion.

Interesting, at least.. so I take it that aside from the UK VHS's of Switchboard Operator and Innocence UNprotected these are global home video debuts?

This is this month's best announcement. I have waited for years for a proper transfer of Switchboard Operator and here it is, out of the blue and in a cheap eclipse box set with two other very interesting films. Fantastic.

HerrSchreck wrote:Interesting, at least.. so I take it that aside from the UK VHS's of Switchboard Operator and Innocence UNprotected these are global home video debuts?

I believe Facets wiped their ... er, I mean, released all of these on VHS in the US.

I have been hoping that they would release more films by Makavejev so this is pretty great news for me.

Best release of October for sure. I can't wait.

When I saw the artwork in the Criterion packaging thread, my first reaction was that someone had made a mistake when they tried posting in the Fake Cover thread. Sure, it'd be great to see an Eclipse boxset of this, but they'd never... really?? IT'S REAL? So I jumped to here and sure enough, a boxset I would NEVER have expected to exist - does.

As someone who started collecting Criterions after buying both Sweet Movie and W.R., after wanting to see the former and being a fan of the latter since the age of 14 (I had a very interesting high school library...), I am ecstastic. Nice way to restore my faith after the last couple of quiet months.

My understanding is the Love Affair is Makavejev's best film, but I haven't seen it. Is that a crazy notion, or do others agreee?

In one word: Applause! If these are anywhere near as good as "WR" and "Sweet Movie", this must be the best release this year, together with the Kobayashi.

Personally, I prefer Innocence Unprotected and Love Affair to W.R. and Sweet Movie. Others will probably disagree, but I think the explicit sexual content of the latter two films finally overwhelms their formal innovations. (Though in principle I'm all for frank treatments of sex in the cinema.) In an odd way, I actually find the earlier films more subversive! Regardless, this Eclipse box set is a major release.

Well I know what my pre-order of the month will be (I might do Wings too). This really is a great surprise. My only problem is why did they just rip the Malle Doc color scheme for this? It was hideous then and it's hideous now. Especially since I'll probably be able to get this for twenty on Amazon I'm happy for this one.

I didn't even see this, amazing. With a month full of so many Criterions which I could care less about, to get this eclipse boxset is a pleasant surprise. I've only seen Innocence Unprotected from this, so I"m pretty excited.

Finally something I want it released!

I was initiated to Makavejev's absolutely insane body of work last year in Telluride, with Mr. Zizek introducing a midnight screening of Innocence Unprotected. Looks like this Eclipse will allow me recapture the sheer strangeness/pleasure of that first screening over and over again in the comfort of my living room (minus Zizek's garbled rambling, of course).

Great news!

Quite excited about this one. Dušan Makavejev and Yugoslav/Balkan filmmaking is sort of a blank spot on my radar, but lately I've been reading up on Yugoslav Cinema, leading to the obvious conclusion that Makavejev's films seemed a good place to start with. An easy choice now with this upcoming set.

I'll be happy to replace my bootlegs and I hope Montenegro (my favorite of Makavejev) is coming soon...

Home Theater Forum Review

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How dare the reviewer blaspheme Sweet Movie!?

Innocence Unprotected may be the greatest film ever made!

Okay, that's pushing it, but what a wonderfully bizarre film and such a fascinating way to document one's country's recent (at the time the film was made) history and and an incredibly unique, if bizarre, man. I'm going to have the Aleksic song stuck in my head for days if not weeks.

Is there any way to see the original Innocence Unprotected? Based on the clips here it looks absolutely dreadful and I'd love to get my hands on it.