Just like the title says, in this thread, I will list off what I think to be the 10 best movies from Yugoslavia, and the countries left after the breakup. But first, I will give a little prologue, as well as some (dis)honourable mentions. I plan on getting really wordy, so each entry will be its own post.
Every non-anglo on this site has probably wondered what are the best movies in their language. It's a topic I was interested in since someone suggested I look into international cinema. Look up top 10 lists for German or Russian or even Czech films, and tell me what do you see. Nosferatu and Metropolis and Das Boot and Untergang, Solaris and Vozvrachenye and Ivan the Terrible and Idi i Smotri, Faust and Marketa Lazarova and Baron Munchausen. All classic after classic. Naturally, I'd want to look up such a list for Croatian films. If we're judging by language, you could also include Serbian and Bosnian ones. We speak the same language, and have a lot of cultural similarities, one of them being that our movies are trash.
When I say trash, I don't mean in the same sense as Bollywood or DCEU movies. Our trash stinks in its own way. There's a number of traits that distinguish our bad movies from the rest, the biggest and most obvious one being over-politicization. There's nothing wrong with having political commentary in your movie, but we always handle it in an opinionated and passive-aggressive way. If you've seen that Lily Singh dumpster fire from a few weeks ago, you have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about.
Here in Split, we use the prefix "Jugo" as a general insult, so I'm surprised that "Jugofilm" hasn't become a term yet. It can refer to any movie that's just a vessel for political opinions, regardless of where it's from. Let's start saying that. Dr. Strangelove, The World's End and Idiocracy will be political movies, while Princess Mononoke, Pan's Labyrinth and Captain Marvel will be jugofilms.
And don't tell me the Black Wave is any better. It has all the same problems, so what if it went against Tito's regime? Being historically important isn't the same as being good. If They Live was sold to China as a communist propaganda film, but not changed at all, would it still be good? Of course it would.
What's worse is that these Jugofilms are the ones to get the most attention from the media. When you look up top lists of our best movies, you'll get something like ''How the war started on my island'', which features stock characters and kindergarten-level humour, but it's political so I guess it's a 10/10.
Still, that's not to say there's no merit to ex-yu cinema. I figured if we can create something excellent in any other form of entertainment, we can make great movies. At least, enough for a respectable top 10.
By the way, I will deliberately limit myself to only 3 Kusturica movies.
ZG80
Not good enough for the top 10, but I definitely recommend it. Plenty of good laughs.
Time of the Gypsies
I admire its soundtrack and cinematography, but beneath all that, it's just a generic gangster movie. Check it out if that's your thing.
Tko to tamo peva?
I'll be honest, I have no idea what people see in this movie. It could've been funny if the actors had pulled the sticks out their asses.
Zgode Šegrta Hlapića
I remember liking it as a little kid, but I didn't rewatch it on the grounds that if I can't stomach Disney movies, I can't stomach this. I doubt it's good enough to dethrone Inspektor Maska as the masterpiece of Croatian animation anyway.
Glembajevi and Tko pjeva zlo ne misli
Again, way too sappy for me.
Balkanski Špijun
I can see why people like this one, but it hits too close to home for me.
F20, The Show Must go On, and Južni Vetar
I can't find a good version anywhere.
Vis-a-vis
A good movie, not a yugofilm at all, but not top 10 material.
A Serbian Film
I could write better dialogue while jerking off. Terrible.
I'll start with the actual list in a minute.
What is the point of this list?
Every non-anglo on this site has probably wondered what are the best movies in their language. It's a topic I was interested in since someone suggested I look into international cinema. Look up top 10 lists for German or Russian or even Czech films, and tell me what do you see. Nosferatu and Metropolis and Das Boot and Untergang, Solaris and Vozvrachenye and Ivan the Terrible and Idi i Smotri, Faust and Marketa Lazarova and Baron Munchausen. All classic after classic. Naturally, I'd want to look up such a list for Croatian films. If we're judging by language, you could also include Serbian and Bosnian ones. We speak the same language, and have a lot of cultural similarities, one of them being that our movies are trash.
When I say trash, I don't mean in the same sense as Bollywood or DCEU movies. Our trash stinks in its own way. There's a number of traits that distinguish our bad movies from the rest, the biggest and most obvious one being over-politicization. There's nothing wrong with having political commentary in your movie, but we always handle it in an opinionated and passive-aggressive way. If you've seen that Lily Singh dumpster fire from a few weeks ago, you have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about.
Here in Split, we use the prefix "Jugo" as a general insult, so I'm surprised that "Jugofilm" hasn't become a term yet. It can refer to any movie that's just a vessel for political opinions, regardless of where it's from. Let's start saying that. Dr. Strangelove, The World's End and Idiocracy will be political movies, while Princess Mononoke, Pan's Labyrinth and Captain Marvel will be jugofilms.
And don't tell me the Black Wave is any better. It has all the same problems, so what if it went against Tito's regime? Being historically important isn't the same as being good. If They Live was sold to China as a communist propaganda film, but not changed at all, would it still be good? Of course it would.
What's worse is that these Jugofilms are the ones to get the most attention from the media. When you look up top lists of our best movies, you'll get something like ''How the war started on my island'', which features stock characters and kindergarten-level humour, but it's political so I guess it's a 10/10.
Still, that's not to say there's no merit to ex-yu cinema. I figured if we can create something excellent in any other form of entertainment, we can make great movies. At least, enough for a respectable top 10.
By the way, I will deliberately limit myself to only 3 Kusturica movies.
The mentions
ZG80
Not good enough for the top 10, but I definitely recommend it. Plenty of good laughs.
Time of the Gypsies
I admire its soundtrack and cinematography, but beneath all that, it's just a generic gangster movie. Check it out if that's your thing.
Tko to tamo peva?
I'll be honest, I have no idea what people see in this movie. It could've been funny if the actors had pulled the sticks out their asses.
Zgode Šegrta Hlapića
I remember liking it as a little kid, but I didn't rewatch it on the grounds that if I can't stomach Disney movies, I can't stomach this. I doubt it's good enough to dethrone Inspektor Maska as the masterpiece of Croatian animation anyway.
Glembajevi and Tko pjeva zlo ne misli
Again, way too sappy for me.
Balkanski Špijun
I can see why people like this one, but it hits too close to home for me.
F20, The Show Must go On, and Južni Vetar
I can't find a good version anywhere.
Vis-a-vis
A good movie, not a yugofilm at all, but not top 10 material.
A Serbian Film
I could write better dialogue while jerking off. Terrible.
I'll start with the actual list in a minute.
Last edited by Tramuzgan; 12-04-19 at 07:57 AM.