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Montenegro

Play trailer Poster for Montenegro R 1981 1h 36m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 16 Reviews 77% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
A listless and unhappy American housewife in Sweden, Marilyn (Susan Anspach) becomes unsatisfied with her life and goes off the deep end, behaving erratically around her husband (Erland Josephson) and children. Accompanying her husband on a business trip, Marilyn misses her plane and meets a group of Yugoslavian migrants. They take her to Zanzi Bar, their nightclub of uninhibited love, and Marilyn has an affair with Montenegro (Svetozar Cvetkovic), a younger man.

Critics Reviews

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Bruce McCabe Boston Globe 04/28/2018
A virtuoso demonstration of cinematic facility which adroitly masquerades as a witty, pungent evocation of a woman's fantasy life. Go to Full Review
Time Out 06/24/2006
If it begins deceptively, as though setting out to be your typically angst-ridden Swedish art movie, by the time it's reached its set of climaxes,Makavejev's film could not have strayed further from the beaten track. Go to Full Review
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 10/23/2004
4/4
There can be something absolutely liberating about a movie that makes up its rules as it goes along. Go to Full Review
Octavi Marti El Pais (Spain) 02/10/2020
Makavejev's trajectory tries too hard to be modern and yet, it never manages to be in tune with the spirit of the era. [Full Review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Karen Krebsbach Sojourner 08/16/2019
Cleverly edited, with breaks of raw humor often short of slapstick, the film carefully avoids the macabre and the inane, treading on safe ground. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Adam Lippe Examiner.com 09/08/2012
The first half of Montenegro seems to be a parody of Ingmar Bergman films, where characters wallow instead of doing anything about their problems. It's no accident that director Dusan Makajevev cast Bergman-regular Erland Josephson as the miserly husband. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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10/02/2013 Strange but impossible to not get pulled in... See more 02/27/2013 The Yugoslav director Dusan Makavejev, were known for his controversial films about sex. Montenegro is his most bizarre creation. It's the story about the American housewife, Marilyn (Susan Anspach) who lives in Sweden with her much older husband, Martin (Erland Josephson). Their marriage is not a stable one. Marilyn is a bored housewife, with little excitement during her days. She's so bored that she tries to poison the dog, and even sets fire to the bed. One day when Marilyn and Martin are at the airport, Marilyn gets stopped by the airport security, which makes her loose her flight. She's then picked up by a group of gypsies, who takes her to a strip joint outside of town. Marilyn is enchanted by this new experience. While her husband looks everywhere for her. Montenegro has all the reasons to be called controversial. And I'm sorry to say this, but I am actually one of those that are deeply offended by this film. It's so racist. All the gypsies are so stereotypical, like the young immigrant girl Marilyn meets at the airport, who literary says "I love to fuck foreigners". Doesn't she have a back story that can justify her being a hooker? Doesn't she have a family to support? The same can be said about Marilyn. There's no reason for her to act the way she does? And I don't believe that it's just because of boredom. Her husband didn't seemed that bad. I want to relate to her. But she's too crazy. And the ending is just too gruesome. It's very hard for me to judge the movie otherwise. Well it is very sensual indeed, and I like that. And there's some great performances. Although I wish they could have spoken Swedish instead of English. For me it's not the same without an Erland Josephson delivering his stagecraft in Swedish. The same with Per Oscarsson, another great Swedish actor. Overall, I thought the extremely polarizing and racist stereotypes was too much for me to really appreciate the movie. Thumbs down. See more 09/26/2012 Truly bizarre black comedy about a rich woman who gives up everything to shack up with a bunch of immigrants. A film unlike any other. See more 02/20/2012 "It's a Gucci shoe. Any cow with money can buy a Gucci shoe... but this one belongs to the real lady who has a Gucci foot! There is some difference." Funny, yet sad. Middle age does strange things to a woman and its even harder when your family is crazy too. I can't get over she tries to poison her dog tho. See more 10/28/2011 The second half is very rewarding towards the patience held in the first one since Makavejev first makes sure to drown us into boring suburban wealth in order to justify the... let's call it "bored housewife Syndrome". From there, a bizarre and intentionally unrealistic journey of sexual liberation and artistic eccentricities lies ahead, all the time us being accompanied by a camera quality and a soundtrack that stink of the good-old 80s way too much (which is certainly a good thing). Yes, I'd debate that Akerman has constructed more profound and challenging essays about the genre but Dusan will always remain Dusan! 97/100 See more 03/22/2011 According to IMBD trivia seconds were cut from this film to make it an R rating in the USA as opposed to an X. What scene? Was it when the stripper was doing a dance to the radio controlled tank with the dildo attached to the gun? I hope it's that scene and there's a few more seconds of that tank doing it's duty. See more Read all reviews
Montenegro

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Movie Info

Synopsis A listless and unhappy American housewife in Sweden, Marilyn (Susan Anspach) becomes unsatisfied with her life and goes off the deep end, behaving erratically around her husband (Erland Josephson) and children. Accompanying her husband on a business trip, Marilyn misses her plane and meets a group of Yugoslavian migrants. They take her to Zanzi Bar, their nightclub of uninhibited love, and Marilyn has an affair with Montenegro (Svetozar Cvetkovic), a younger man.
Director
Dusan Makavejev
Producer
Christer Abrahamsen, Bo Jonsson, George Zecevic
Screenwriter
Dusan Makavejev, Branko Vucicevic
Distributor
Criterion Collection, Atlantic Releasing Corp.
Production Co
Europa Film, Viking Film
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 18, 1981, Original
Runtime
1h 36m