Three Movies

At The Cinema                            Three Movies of Interest Hey Babu Riba (Bal Na Vodi) In this story of young love set in 1950s Belgrade, four young boys -- Pop, Sasa, Glenn and Kicha -- share the same interests: big band music, rowing, American cigarettes and a sweet girl named Mirjana, who serves as their rowing team's captain. Years later, after their lives take a different turn, they convene again only to discover that one of them is the father of Mirjana's daughter. Jovan Acin writes and directs. A rare movie, made in Yugoslavia. In 1953, Tito had just broken with Stalin and installed his own brand of Communism.  Anyone who had not supported Tito was a reactionary, and treated accordingly.  Physicians were forbidden a private practice, and the state's agents could confiscate property at will.  You know the drill.  We're about to experience it ourselves. One of the characters, the "villain" in fact, is an ambitious party worker now plagued by tattoos of the now verboten Stalin on each arm.   His apolitical comrades, who despise him, take to calling him "Joe," which activates his "bully" button.  The ingénue, Mirjana, drives the movie. Thanks to today's greatest video of all time, its easy to describe her charm.  She is Michelle Jenneke.  I really liked this movie. (English subtitled) House of Pleasures (L'apollonide: Souvenirs de la Maison Close) Director Bertrand Bonello makes life in an upscale Parisian bordello at the beginning of the 20th century the focus of this drama, which revolves around the working girls who ply their trade there, including one who's been disfigured by a client.                 Yes, there are at least 5 minutes of this 125 minutes film where nobody is naked, but that's not a reason to like or dislike it.  I'll describe it as where  The Unforgiven meet Toulouse-Lautrec, the French artist who loved Paris's prostitutes, and used them as subjects for many of his paintings. What I found fascinating was the intimate look at the life of a bordello prostitute at the turn of the 20th century.  You have to like all the girls, but the customers are a weird lot.  I did like it, though.  And despite all the naked flesh, I didn't find it at all, er, stimulating.  In fact, the "laughing girl's" travail (the Unforgiven reference) took care of that instinct early on.  (English subtitled)                                                                The Devil's Double In his fact-based drama, Iraqi lieutenant Yahia is forcibly drafted into being a body double for Uday Hussein, Saddam Hussein's depraved  elder son.   This was the most riveting of the three.  The first thing I did afterward was check pictures of Uday's corpse to make sure the sumbitch was really dead.  A true story of Saddam and his psychopathic sons.  Thank you President George W Bush. Riveting.