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Innocence Unprotected, 1968
This documentary is a mix of long sequences from a never-released 1941 film called Innocence Unprotected that was to be the first sound film made in Serbia. Derailed by WW2 and then run afoul of Nazi censors, this film takes the original footage and combines it with historical footage and contemporary interviews with surviving cast and crew.
The Criterion Channel's summary of this film calls it "utterly unclasifiable", and I totally agree. What is this movie? I don't know.
Do you want to watch a film about an acrobat saving the woman he loves? Come on in! Do you want to watch actors and filmmakers having a picnic lunch in a cemetery while reminiscing about shooting scenes while hiding from Nazis in a bathroom? Come on in! Do you want to see the film's star engage in some bodybuilding training and poses to show he's still got it? Come on in!
I don't think I'm in the right headspace for a film that pulls in so many directions, and my sense as I was watching it was that I was only getting about 60% of what I was meant to take away. But that was enough.
This is a weird and unique film that despite its bizarre organization and pace still manages to tell a bittersweet tale of trying to make art in an environment of physical danger and political oppression.
Innocence Unprotected, 1968
This documentary is a mix of long sequences from a never-released 1941 film called Innocence Unprotected that was to be the first sound film made in Serbia. Derailed by WW2 and then run afoul of Nazi censors, this film takes the original footage and combines it with historical footage and contemporary interviews with surviving cast and crew.
The Criterion Channel's summary of this film calls it "utterly unclasifiable", and I totally agree. What is this movie? I don't know.
Do you want to watch a film about an acrobat saving the woman he loves? Come on in! Do you want to watch actors and filmmakers having a picnic lunch in a cemetery while reminiscing about shooting scenes while hiding from Nazis in a bathroom? Come on in! Do you want to see the film's star engage in some bodybuilding training and poses to show he's still got it? Come on in!
I don't think I'm in the right headspace for a film that pulls in so many directions, and my sense as I was watching it was that I was only getting about 60% of what I was meant to take away. But that was enough.
This is a weird and unique film that despite its bizarre organization and pace still manages to tell a bittersweet tale of trying to make art in an environment of physical danger and political oppression.