Carole Laure, Pierre Clémenti, John Vernon

The intercut story of two women: a nearly-mute beauty queen who descends into withdrawal and madness, and another who captains a ship laden with candy and sugar, luring men and boys aboard for sex, de...( read more  read more... )ath, and revolutionary talk.

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72% liked it

1,806 ratings

Critics

41% liked it

17 critics

Unrated, 99 min.

Directed by: Dusan Makavejev

Release Date: May 1, 1974

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DVD Release Date: June 19, 2007

Stats: 229 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (229)


  • December 31, 2008
    There are some films that are designed to shock, some designed to titillate, some that delight in disgusting the view. For Makavejev, shock, disgust and titillation are never the purpose, but a means to a form of psycho-liberation. Makavejev in Sweet Movie hurtles us head first i...( read more)nto the confronting theses of Post-Freudian Wilhelm Reich. We are forced to confront our relationship to our primal beings. He literally smears our consciousness with faeces, vomit and carnality.

    We cannot watch orgiastic scenes of regressive acts, a sensual striptease played out inches from the faces of young boys, Carol Laure masturbating in a pool of molten chocolate without a visceral reaction. We are forced to confront our own repressed desires and shine a light in the dark recesses of our own psyche.

    Here is revolution at it's most personal, montaged together with lashings of wild humour. Allow your head to give up control and come along for the ride. Recommended to anyone who is willing to put their concept of themselves on the line a risk a flirtation with prurient madness.
  • December 7, 2007
    WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE MOST DISGUSTING FILM EVER MADE. This makes Pink Flamingos look like a Sunday night family comedy. Murder, pedophilia, puking, public defecation, piss drinking, whatever debauchery you can name of this has it. Carole Laure is hot and looks very tasty drench...( read more)ed in chocolate.
  • October 3, 2007
    A thoroughly pretentious, incoherent, arty piece of nonsense from start to finish. There are a couple of good scenes (and they're not necessarily the more startling ones) but they're not really worth waiting for. The film was rejected by the BBFC in 1975 and would almost certainl...( read more)y fall foul of the same censor today on child protection grounds. The one star I am awarding is for the excellent use of music throughout; as others have said, the soundtrack is amazing.
  • November 14, 2009
    - Hitler! DirtyJew!
    - They call me... Neanderthal."


    SWEET MOVIE (1974)


    Director: Dusan Makavejev
    Country: Canada / France / West Germany
    Genre: Comedy / Drama
    Length: 98 minutes

    ...( read more)="http://s712.photobucket.com/albums/ww125/ElCochran90/?action=view¤t=SweetMovie.jpg" target="_blank">Sweet Movie,Dusan Makavejev,Cult

    Delicious, scandalous, expressionistic and controversial Yugoslav provocateur Dusan Makavejev is clearly one of the most misunderstood poets of complete self-destruction. Sweet Movie is a film with such audacity, such gorgeous poetry, such supposedly "disturbing" and "nauseating" sequences, that any lover and supporter of all artistic expressions and the instantly implied subjectivity of both of the terms "art" and "beauty" willl find ultimately impossible not to fall in love with. This complete cult masterpiece is arguably the sexiest and most gorgeous and orgasmic attack towards capitalist authoritarianism and Communism, not to mention the most daring magnum opus ever thought by a brilliant human brain.

    Sweet Movie alternatively tells two stories. On one hand, we have the shocking story of a beauty queen, Miss Canada, who slowly descends into a catastrophic life of existentialist madness and depravity after winning a virginity contest (that's right) denominated Miss Monde 1984, denying to have sex with a golden penis (that's right), having sexual intercourse with a possibly Mexican singer named El Macho and getting stuck with her vagina (that's right) and moving to a bizarre anarchich community who celebrate food feasts with orgies of vomit (that's right) and excrement. On the other hand, we have the story of Anna Planeta, possibly the sexiest, non-porn character name in existence, brilliantly interpreted by Anna Prucnal, a beautiful actress who was exiled from her native Poland for seven years after her role in the film and was denied a Visa so she could see her dying mother. She plays the role of a philosophical and pedophile, demented killer who is constantly travelling through the canals of Amsterdam in search of lovers who want to have sex with her and subsequently killing them in a pool of sugar. Her boat is named "Survival" and it has a giant face of Marx with a tear on his eye, and it is in that boat where she makes candy. If this wasn't enough, real documentary footage is shown, portraying the camps that were near the city of Smolensk, where the Soviet Army held more than 14,000 Polish prisoners of war under inhuman conditions. In 1943, after Germany had seized the region, rumors of a mass grave containing the Polish corpses were investigated by an international medical team, revealing that actually more than 14,000 Polish prisoners were killed. Moreover, it was not until 1992 when it was confessed that Joseph Stalin was the one who had authorized the killings.

    Sweet Movie is the result of the work of a visionary auteur that actually dared to establish his filmmaking style through a groundbreaking and controversial perspective, slapping the face of totalitarian anarchy. Symbolism may be a very adequate interpretation of the sickening events that take place through a relativelty short running time that, consequently, is felt like an eternity. It is one of the most representative samples of scandalous filmmaking that fully represent the nature of cult and envelope-pushing cinema of the 70s. Most of its political influence comes from the fact that Yugoslavia was a Communist country at the time, an event that may justify the complete explicitness and demented nature of Sweet Movie. The importance of the screenplay and the performances are lost, although not completely, since they are still complementing elements. The true anathematical brilliance of Sweet Movie can be found in its complex symbolism, in its shriek-type-of direction and in its underlying layers of absurdity, constantly suffering a transformation from complete shock value with substance behind to a state of pure absurdity and, yes, hilarious comedy... a comedy that is originated from the criticism that is made towards how degraded the human condition has turned out to be.

    Of course, degrading and repulsive acts was the most logical and adequate measure for faithfully representing the negative influence that degrading and repulsive authoritarian Communism and Fascism has imposed over the weak will of a highly dependent society. The destruction of Marx's ideals is emminent, thus the tear on his face is justified, sailing aimlessly in search of grotesque feverishness and sexual perversion. Sexual liberation is not precisely the topic here, and that is hilariously explained through the happenning of an unsuccessful sexual intercourse with a random, supposedly handsome singer in the Eiffel Tower. Elegance and class collide with external degradation. If such cinematic project is released, any financial ambition will meet its doom, so it is obvious at some extent that such hypocritical ambition was not in Makavejev's mind. He wanted to shout and be heard. It is a political and liberalist shout, a shout that was obviously destined to be rejected and catalogued as "depraved". Directors like Nagisa Ôshima, Pier Paolo Pasolini, John Waters, Norifumi Suzuki and Peter Greenaway had to go through the same injustice.

    Perhaps it should not be seen as an artistically political act. Perhaps it should be perceived as a merely funny spoof towards the process of political overpowerment, or perhaps it should be seen as a kick in the balls to an audience that relies and trusts in its particular government... not to call it "anarchy" or "dictatorship". Films of this calibre have the power to trascend. People are still talking about Sweet Movie. People still talk about Salò o le 120 Giornate di Sodoma (1975). However, coward (not the sensitive and weak of stomach, since they are excused, but coward) audiences keep avoiding them, but if a film is surrealistic, then it is pretentious nonsense. If a film is slow-paced, it is dull. Moving from a shrewd depiction of the "mysteries of the organism" to a "sweet movie", these are the films that clearly strengthen the statement that implies that modern censorship is preposterous. A woman having sexual relationships with children and an orgy of food and vomit is immediately rejected, but nauseating measures such as organizing and authorizing(!) events such as Katyn Forest massacre... F#ck, people! Open your eyes! Choose a side and promote this type of art. This is not a pretentious and fun piece of crap like Pink Flamingos (1972). This has substance and an inevitable, unique brilliance.

    98/100
  • October 6, 2009
    Too much mess less sweet. Experimental. Wild Bunch.
  • July 11, 2009
    A jumbled mess. The chocolate scene was sexy, but that was about it.
  • July 10, 2009
    Some great gags and a great cast, but no matter how avant garde it is, it still needs a plot.
  • July 7, 2009
    Director: Dusan Makavejev
    Country: Canada / France / West Germany
    Genre: Comedy / Drama
    Length: 98 min

    Image and video hosting by
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    In the contest of the "most virgin" Miss Monde 1984, Miss Canada (Carole Laure) wins, and prize is the marriage with the milk industry tycoon (John Vernon) with his 50 billion dollars fortune. In their honeymoon, Miss Canada "does not accept" the golden penis of her husband, and with the support of the black man Jeremiah Muscle (Roy Callender), she runaways to Paris. There she meets a Latin singer, El Macho (Sami Frey), they have an intercourse in Eiffel Tour and they get stuck together. She moves to a weird anarchic community and later she becomes an actress working in a chocolate advertisement. Meanwhile, the revolutionary, pedophile, and mad killer Anna Planeta (Anna Prucnal) makes candy in her boat while sailing through the canals of a city that seems to be Amsterdam. She meets the sailor Potemkin (Pierre Clémenti) and they have a torrid affair. Meanwhile she uses her candies to seduce young boys and kill her lovers. In the middle of the story, it is presented what seem to be footages of a Nazi doctor and a slaughter in a war with many dead bodies.
  • June 22, 2009
    Forgettable. Not nearly as shocking as people claim it is.
  • June 20, 2009
    on the sexual freedom and perversion. of the 1970's in Europe. a side-story goes shows the perspective of a communist/gypsy camp on the seas.

    Yes, it does strip the boundaries, well, tears the conventional boundaries apart for film making but in Yugoslavia in the 1974..I mean i...( read more)t was different time. probably too many 'WTF' moments for the average viewer, you have to be somewhat perverted to like this movie. However, it's a ride to be rode.

    ps all the criticism is a waste of time, you have to see it to gain an opinion.

Critic Reviews


October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

I didn't hate it, although it affected me in bewildering and sometimes unpleasant ways. I didn't find it a success, but I found it an audacious attempt, and it's filled with images impossible to forget. full review

View more Sweet Movie reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • haleh27
    January 30, 2008
    Sweet Movie by Dusan Makavejev is disturbing movie. It simply has child molestation scenes as enjoyable acts and obviously the companies that have endorsed this movie have approved these acts. It is unbelievable how child abuse and children work are acceptable in entertainment industry. It was a shame and absolutely disturbing movie.
  • oliverrs
    August 15, 2007
    I liked this movie, and am glad Criterion released it.

    I thinkf olks who like "extreme cinema," for lack of a better term, would enjoy it. It's in a class of films that could include John Waters's Pink Flamingos (and his whole 70s ouevre, basically), Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, Myra Breckenridge, Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend, and other experiments in cinematic excess. I enjoyed it; the Criterion print is nice and clean-looking.

    I've heard Salo will be reissued by Criterion in 2008.
  • henrycovert67
    July 1, 2007
    wow. a lot of hating on SWEET MOVIE. too bad; with the official US release on Criterion (who did a beautiful job), Dusan's classic is primed to provoke and, yes, dismay and even disgust a new generation. perhaps it boils down to the cliche "either you get it or you don't", though some would prefer "every generation gets the art it deserves".
    i'm unwavering in my conviction that this is the most unique film ever attempted (and yes, it succeeds magnificently); my own personal # 1 favourite; and possibly the greatest ever.
    hail Makavejev!!
    (i'll write an 'official' review one of these days.)

    Henry Covert
    author of feature review of SWEET MOVIE for the Spring 1998 issue of VIDEO EYEBALL, magazine. Makavejev himself called my review "insightful and intelligent" (i was stunned.. but in a good way).
  • henrycovert67
    May 10, 2007
    one more month til the Criterion DVD of SWEET MOVIE arrives... finally!!

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