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AIBU?

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To try and start a campaign to stop the uk release of 'A Serbian film'

613 replies

spidersandglue · 27/11/2010 20:25

I'm not suggesting anyone read the synopsis as that's disgusting enough. But I don't know how the government can allow this disgusting film to be released!

Surely this sort of film encourages paedophillia and violent rape.

There are more slaves alive now than there has been before at any time in the history of the world. The majority of this is sex trafficking.

I'm revolted that a film like this can be given even a censored release date (10th)

OP posts:
dittany · 29/11/2010 16:53

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nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree · 29/11/2010 16:54

Oh whatever Dittany you really are tiresome. It was not a leading question at all, it was a quection I had also asked generally earlier in the thread and I think it is a valid one.

If the BBFC believe the remaining scenes do not "eroticise and endorse rape" then is it right to dismiss that view without seeing the film (and again I am not saying I wish to) as a film that does in fact eroticise and endorse rape.

If you want to argue that the entire film eroticises and endorses rape (and it may very well do) then it is nonsensical to do so on the basis that the BBFC says that scenes that are no longer in the film do so.

anonacfr · 29/11/2010 16:54

If this film was supposed to be an elaborate allegory of violence and dehumanisation, why is it marketed as horror torture porn?

I can garantee people are not going to go and see it looking for artistic metaphors, they're going to go as a dare just like the idiots who went to see Hostel and all those other gratuitously horrific films, so they can brag to their mates that they've seen it.

How far away are we from snuff movies on general release? If the victims were willing, one could market them as an allegory of the transience of life or something.
Anything can be 'art' as long as some morons are prepared to use that label.

I don't believe in censorship generally but I also think freedom of speech carries responsibility. In this case I don't believe any allegory or metaphor justifies anything described in that Wikipedia synopsis.

Sick.

nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree · 29/11/2010 16:58

"the BBFC says this film eroticises and endorses sexual violence"

no they did not

They said that some scenes, which they have cut from the film that will be released in this country "eroticised and endorsed sexual violence".

That is quite quite different

MrsTedHughes · 29/11/2010 17:00

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dittany · 29/11/2010 17:02

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dittany · 29/11/2010 17:05

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bupcakesandcunting · 29/11/2010 17:10

Dittany, I agree with most of the points you are making on this thread but your argument is being undermined somewhat by you putting words into people's mouths and ranting. Calm down, dear. It's only a paedo/incest/rape film.

BTW, I just did a Google Image search for Andrea Dworkin. She looks exactly as I expected.

ChickensHaveNoMercyForTurkeys · 29/11/2010 17:13
BeerTricksPotter · 29/11/2010 17:14

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dittany · 29/11/2010 17:16

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nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree · 29/11/2010 17:20

Your logic doesn't work either dittany. You are assuming that the intention of the writer and director is relevant to how the finished (and cut) article is viewed by the individual. It isn't.

And you're analogy doesn't work - you are talking about removing "the worst" of the racist scenes. The BBFC feel they have removed all the scenes that eroticise and endorse rape. Not just the worst.

And how very mature of you to bring up "my work" again. For those not "in the know" Dittany believes that I am someone who endorses and supports rape because as a criminal barrister I both prosecuted and defended those accused of rape. Something of a theme for you isn't it?

bupcakesandcunting · 29/11/2010 17:20

Oh, Dittany. The "Calm down it's only a..." bit was only intended as a light-hearted aside.

I've read excerpts of Dworkin at university and she's shit. I was Googling her out of some kind of weird interest.

I wasn't trying to patronise you either. You carry on making yourself sound unreasonable and enraged if you like. I was just saying it's a shame that you're deflecting from your very good argument (some of them) with ranting.

dittany · 29/11/2010 17:29

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GothAnneGeddes · 29/11/2010 17:32

By the time the product is made, it's too late.

I want to fight the mentality that thinks that the torture, humiliation and degradation of women and children is fun to watch.

Our media is saturated with this crap and I've had enough.

pofakked · 29/11/2010 17:33

Here is an intelligent review from someone who has actually seen the film. It concludes that the allegorical aim is largely compromised by the pornographic aesthetic and the titillation:

'There is a lot to say about A Serbian Film, and whether or not this exercise in allegory truly works in its entirety. While I do believe that the film contains shock value not just for it?s own sake, and while I give my due regard to the thought and intents put behind this challenging piece of cinema, I have two major problems with the film.

My first issue is that the allegory only works broadly, not specifically. The entire story of the film is a generally encompassing analogy of the experience of being perpetually fucked by the government, but only a few specific instances of what Milosh endures can be said to carry meaningful specifics that further inform the events within the film?s allegorical correlation with the history of Serbian social reality. The events of the film were deliberately constructed with allegorical meaning, yet meaning often gets lost when considering the extensions of the allegory not within the greater scope of the film itself, but in terms of individual events and details. (Also, if this is an allegory of national oppression, then what is the purpose of the video cameras and the implied distribution of a finished film? Wouldn?t the end product of the pornography being made serve as vast evidence of oppression, in contrast to the intents of secrecy typical of tyrannical government powers?)

This ties to my second point, the fact that A Serbian Film is also a thoroughly aesthetic experience, forgoing the grittiness of documentary realist filmmaking that typically characterizes films of socio-national relevance with a particularly sleek visual and aural aesthetic. While what is seen on screen contains is intended to be reprehensible, the stylistic choices are, admittedly, aesthetically pleasing. Spasojevic and company show a remarkable ability to frame any given scene with a well-honed and consistent visual style, an impressive feat when considering that this is the debut feature for most of those involved with the production. It is in this vein that I think A Serbian Film runs an oscillating gamut never transparently admitted by the filmmakers, one which marries the shock value we seek through exploitation and (horror) genre filmmaking with the intents of national allegory. Thus, some events operate within Serbian Film through allegory, while others suggest a desire by these filmmakers to exhibit such events because they wanted to see them on film in a way consistent with how genre and exploitation typically operate.'

pofakked · 29/11/2010 17:37

It is not Serbian propoganda. The Serbs aren't one mass of nasty raping men you know.

pofakked · 29/11/2010 17:39

It seems to be an extremely insensitive and cynical attempt to articulate anger at what some Serbs feel was total manipulation and exploitation by their government, which is a different thing.

bupcakesandcunting · 29/11/2010 17:39

Yes they are, pofakked.

ALL MEN ARE RAPISTS.

pofakked · 29/11/2010 17:40

propaganda

noddyholder · 29/11/2010 17:41

bupcakes you aren't serious are you?

pofakked · 29/11/2010 17:42

I don't think dittany is saying that bupcakes, but I do think she is in danger of not realising the vast majority of Serbs had nothing to do with the acts committed in the Balkan wars.

dittany · 29/11/2010 17:43

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pofakked · 29/11/2010 17:51

'The Serbs'

Do you actually know what you mean by that dittany?

No the reviewer did not say that. He said:

'There is a lot to say about A Serbian Film, and whether or not this exercise in allegory truly works in its entirety.'

He said earlier in his review:

'A Serbian Film is intended as a broad allegory. I know this because the filmmakers in attendance iterated this point time and again before and after the screening. Would I have picked up on this otherwise? I can?t say. Serbian Film does suggest a degree of thought going on behind the episodes of abhorrence occurring on screen, but I can?t safely say that a national allegory would be what a given spectator takes away from a cold viewing.'

Another reviewer from the Independent say this:

'There is a feeling of nihilistic self-loathing that runs through the film. In some eyes, after the Balkan wars of the 1990s, Serbia is still a pariah state. The alleged war criminal General Mladic has never been arrested. The memory of Slobodan Milosevic hasn't been exorcised. Films like A Serbian Film and another equally extreme Serbian movie The Life and Death of a Porno Gang play on Western preconceptions about the country and can't help but reinforce them. The very title of A Serbian Film suggests that the director and his screenwriter Aleksander Radivojevic are making an allegory about their troubled and isolated homeland. The screenplay is full of references to the corruption and squalor of family life in the country. However, audiences have been responding to it in stubbornly literal fashion and haven't been slow to express their utter disgust.'

So many people are having the debate about the allegorical merit of the film. Which is not to say it has allegorical merit.

bupcakesandcunting · 29/11/2010 17:52

"The Serbs during the Bosnian conflict committed genocidal rape."

Some Serbs.