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Critics Consensus: Rambling and eccentric, Emir Kusturica's comedy captures the life and energy of the Gypsy family at the heart of the tale.
Critic Consensus: Rambling and eccentric, Emir Kusturica's comedy captures the life and energy of the Gypsy family at the heart of the tale.
All Critics (35) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (6) | DVD (1)
As with some of Fellini's late works, the energy and inventiveness, not to mention the juicy vulgarity, are so consistent in Black Cat, White Cat that you feel you can slice into the material at almost any point.
A colorful, frenetic mixture of slapstick and folklore that stands a good chance of delighting arthouse audiences the world over.
This is storytelling on the hoof, rambling, self-indulgent, but with enough warmth and humour to overcome its own excesses.
Lacking the emotionally charged metaphors that made Underground something more than a virtuoso Saint Vitus dance, Black Cat, White Catis determined to twist every character into an ideogram for vulgar humanity.
With all of the horrible things happening in the corner of the world once known as Yugoslavia, it's a pleasant change-of-pace to discover a comedy that transpires there.
There's nothing cynical or cold-hearted about Black Cat, White Cat. Like the waves of geese, pigs, goats, dogs and cats that sometimes threaten to overwhelm the human characters, it is recklessly, indescribably alive.
It's like a novel written entirely in italics, every single sentence of which ends with an exclamation mark. As there are people of whom it's said that they don't know their own strength, Kusturica is a film-maker who doesn't know his own brilliance.
There's a surprising warmth and even a little optimism behind Kusturica's gallows humor.
It's ridiculous and self-indulgent, but Kusturica is so skilful, conjuring up one sweeping, sumptuous set-piece after another, that you can't help but go along for the ride.
It's anything but subtle but the magnetism of the cast and sheer exuberance of the storytelling make this fairly irresistible.
Based on true events, this deeply involving film is not only a terrific story but it's also very timely in the issues it examines.
It is as though Four Weddings And A Funeral had been reimagined by Fellini with a cast of crazy Balkan rogues and a background chorus of farmyard animals.
A coke-snorting small-town gangster offers to let a scheming loser out of a debt if his son marries the mobster's daughter. Heavy on plot and with lots of quirky characters, this plays like a script Leonard Elmore might have written if he's been born a Bosnian gypsy.
Super Reviewer
Pretty scenes of the lives of gypsies on the banks of the Danube. More quirky Yugoslavian culture from Kusturica.
Colourful characters and absurd scenarios, but very enjoyable.
...is, I swear, a line of alien dialogue in Jabba's Palace early on in Return of the Jedi. It's when Luke first enters the palace robed in black and oozing confidence, possibly in an exchange with Jabba. Anybody remember this? Somebody must validate me! EDIT: Actually, you know what? I might be when Threepio was translating their story to the ewoks while enthroned as their golden god. Right before he mimicks the explosion sound and got all the "ooh's" from the silly ewoks. No? Also, I'm in Toronto for work. The city always reminds me of that line of alienese. It's fun. Hope you goobs are doing well!
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