AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

ecmelton-186-105049 Black Cat, White Cat is a very stylized and almost cartoonish movie that focuses on the more colorful and "eccentric" aspects of Romani culture and uses it as the backdrop for an action comedy. The film utilizes an incredible and over the top style that's reminiscent of Terry Gilliam. The action is quick and fun. The comedy is sharp and dynamic. All the subplots converge and provide a satisfying ending. It's a brilliant movie.This is one of very few movies that focuses on Roma culture and it's one of the most popular among the actual Roma community. That's probably because it doesn't dwell on the ethnic aspects of the characters. They have their own personalities. The use of stereotypes in the movie are fairly minor and doesn't act as a detriment to the overall quality of the film. The fact that Matko is a conman isn't portrayed as being connected to being Roma, likewise Grga was portrayed as a gangster who happened to come from a Roma background. It doesn't really imply that the two characteristics are related. There are also Roma characters in the film that don't fall into theses stereotypes, such as Ida and her mother, so it doesn't paint Roma culture in a negative light by making these characters crooks. If anything the characters they chose to make criminals show that the stereotypes are based on old fashioned ideas that are now outdated. This is displayed in how different generations of characters act. Grga is the oldest Gypsy character and the most over the top. He is a powerful mob boss and surround himself with a lot of very ornate and gaudy things, such as his golden sunglasses or a bed that rocks like a cradle. Matko is from the next generation, and he is a small time crook with slightly unusual clothes (like a weird hat) but less so than Grga. By the time we get to Zare and Ida, the youngest characters and the movies main protagonists, there aren't any characteristics or features that expressly label him as Roma. He would be considered a very plain character by most standards. They're just normal people. Again, while the more overtly Roma characters in are also show to be more criminally inclined, the film doesn't credit that to their cultural heritage. Regardless of whether or not this was the filmmaker's intent, it paints the all the different stereotypes as a silly thing from the past, with little relevance to the modern day.Black Cat, White Cat is much more focused on telling a fun story that takes the characters on an interesting adventure than it is showing an accurate depiction of Roma Culture, and it's a better film because of it.

SnoopyStyle Matko Destanov is a petty hustler living with his son Zare in a riverside shack home in eastern Serbia. He gets double-crossed in a scheme with Dadan and gets into debt to him. Dadan offers a clean slate if Zare marries Dadan's midget sister Afrodita. However neither Zare nor Afrodita like the arranged marriage. Zare is in love with barmaid Ida.It's a wild crazy world reminiscent of Fellini. I do find the story rambling but the movie is full of wild eastern European absurdities. It has a certain ridiculous fun imaginative qualities. It often feels chaotic like a train running off the tracks. I really wish the imagery and ideas can be harnessed in a more controlled story.

tedg This was recommended by a friend, as the best film she knows. This is an intelligent woman, so I endured some frustrating months trying to find it in the US, finally to see it on an overseas trip.It wasn't a great experience for me, excepting two elements. My guess is that I am not from the south of European as my friend is. The stereotypes that are exploited here are simply unknown to me, and all the humor depends on exploiting the twinge that real stereotypes elicit. Also, as an American, I get no reward from the knowledge that this is genuinely human from a region that was at the time deep in the most depraved state genocide. The distance between civilization and barbarity in this area of Europe was little more than the distance I often drive to visit a movie theater.Lacking that, what I get is zaniness unconnected to my sense of self and dread. So the zaniness taken out its situation has to stand on its own. It doesn't for me, because it is not handled as a cinematic value, rather just a color, a tone. If you have not seen this, it is a sort of "Cannery Row" based on the foibles of Balkan Gypsies: twisted families, peculiar macho drives, love theft and lies.There are two very lovely things here. One is the liquid environment. The locations and how they are handled is extremely cinematic. Everything is in motion: gaggles of birds, other animals, boats on the river, an old gangster in a raggedy vehicle and of course the troop and camera. The fluidity of this is far more valuable than the humor, at least for me.The other lovely thing is a seduction scene that may be one of the most engaging in cinema. A quirky young woman has her eye on a young man. Like all men in this world, he is a nitwit, but is young and clean. She leads him to a field of sunflowers, where she romps while stripping and enticing by running away. Her teasing giggle is profoundly attractive, and I suppose that this one scene must have percolated for a long time. (In all later scenes, the quirkiness of the girl is gone, and she plays simply a love interest.)Oddly, the cats of the title are the clumsiest and least integrated bit.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

ian_ison There are elements of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' in this piece which are cleverly buried beneath the rollicking adventures of this small-time low-life society. Absolutely, these cats outdo the Shakespeare comedy.Everyone is out to use and abuse everybody else and we learn to accept that as Real Life as it was meant to be. The young lovers escape their slavery to family obligations to a happy ending and the shrew also finds true happiness in the least likely place. We get a morality play ending without feeling cheated in the least.There seem to be ethnic subtexts here which would be lost on a non-local audience - such as the Greek name of the local gangster family, the black comedy treatment of the murder of a corrupt guard on the border and the various religious or atheist affiliations. The sex urge seems to be everywhere as are cultural straight-jackets to keep it in check.My favourite scene is when the Matko character is given an enamel mug of the petrol that they've just bought for next to nix from a passing Russian barge with the object of assessing its quality by taste. He spits it out in disgust BECAUSE IT'S WATER! Priceless!