Bosnian-born director Emir Kusturica is one talented guy! He's
responsible for "When Father Was Away On Business" and
"Underground" The latter film was a very loose (and
somewhat metaphorical) chronicle of 50 years or war in the Balkans,
but "Black Cat, White Cat" is much less heavy. It reads
more like an 18th century comedy opera... The plot is a little
bit complicated, but it basically revolves around a group of Gypsies
living on the banks of the Danube river (don't ask me where the
heck that is) who are all drawn into a large wedding ceremony.
It sounds like a bad Wyonna Ryder movie script, but is isn't quite like that. Grga is an aging crime boss. While invalid and nearly blind, he zips around all over the place in a unique motorized contraption (like a bed with bicycle wheels) and is still very handy with a pistol. Matko is a small-time hustler and a perpetual loser to the more effective mobster, Dadan. We first meet Dadan in the back of his stretch limo swilling whiskey, verbally abusing his hookers and snorting cocaine from a little cross-shaped container. Dadan's great fear is that his deceased parents will curse him for failing to marry off his dwarf sister, Afrodita. The movie hinges around his efforts to get her hitched, at any cost.
Every character in this movie is quite insane and absolutely delightful, in their own unique way. Even the Dadan the villain is little more than a hilarious rascal. (He delivers one of my favorite lines in recent movie memory. While dunking his sister in the well to coerce her into marrying Matko's son, one of his henchmen asks him, what about their parents in heaven? He pauses for a second, then replies: "They can't see us; it's cloudy." and the torture resumes.)
If you had the good fortune to see "Underground" then you will be prepared for the sense of total abandon that seems to prevail in Emir Kusturica's latest films. This gallery of characters makes the tea party with the Mad Hatter look like a Republican "town hall" meeting. Have you ever had the urge to get really drunk and hang upside down out the back of a horse-drawn carriage and roar through the middle of town bellowing obscenities and shooting pistols into the air? Kusturica's movies are the next best thing (and you won't go to jail for 10 years).
Extremely bizarre, extremely fun. What more can you ask for in a foreign flick? This one will grow on you, big time. (I can't get the image of a very large hog snacking away on a car, out of my mind. And I don't want to.)
Please, please rent this film. It really needs to be seen. You don't need to see all that other crap I've been writing about lately, but this one is REALLY worth a look.