Director: Emir Kusturica
Starring: Slavko Stimac, Slobodan Aligrudic, Ljiljana Blagojevic, Mira Banjac, Pavle Vujisic, Nada Pani, Boro Stjepanovic, Zika Ristic

- Reviewed by Linda

I've had a crush on all things Emir Kusturica since finding solace in a movie theater on a crappy day in Copenhagen. His film Underground had just won the Grand Prix at Cannes that year, and I thought checking it out might be a good diversion while trying to waste a rainy afternoon. I was blown away. Since then I have eagerly sought out anything with Kusturica's name associated with it, from the music of his favorite soundtrack composter Goran Bregovic, to his random forays into film acting, like The Widow of St. Pierre.

So it was with great excitement that I came across the DVD release of his hard-to-find feature film debut Do You Remember Dolly Bell?. Taking place in Kusturica's beloved Sarajevo, Dolly Bell is a pretty standard coming-of-age story, with the unique backdrop of Tito's Yugoslavia. Communism is prevalent, yet viewed with pesky annoyance rather than repressed bitterness and hatred. Dino is a teenage boy who lives with his extended family in a rather crappy government-supplied house. His dad is practically a flag-waving communist, trumpeting the good things about the system, depsite being faced with poor living conditions, and thusly a cranky wife.

As with most teenage-boy stories, the plot follows a fateful summer where Dino turns from an awkward adolescent to a young man. The local thug bestows upon Dino his favorite tramp, a young woman who calls herself Dolly Bell, based on a tantalizing Western blonde burlesque queen that the community has watched (with mouths agape) in a film at the Culture Club. This Sarajevo Dolly, however, is a jaded young woman, under the thumb of a man who is basically her pimp. While Dino sneaks provisions to her in the barn adjacent to his house, the guarded young woman can't help but respond to the awkward kindness and schoolboy-crush of Dino.

Do You Remember Dolly Bell? has its charms. Even in this early work, Kusturica displays his love of music as Dino and his pals form a ramshackle pop band through the community's Culture Club. There is also his trademark touch of gentle, quirky humor that's mixed with an often melancholy drama that would drag many other movies down. Dolly Bell tends to ramble, taking its time getting to its conclusion, and there is not really a dramatic bang! to give the movie a central plot. But it will still definitely appeal to Kusturica fans who are hungering for a taste of the director's early work.

The only extra on the DVD worth noting is a 25-minute-or-so modern interview with Emir Kusturica. Though the topics of the conversation are somewhat interesting, what makes this interview particularly memorable is the open hostility that Kusturica displays towards his nervously-stuttering off-camera interviewer. Kusturica is under the impression that he is supposed to be interviewed about Dolly Bell, and gets visibly annoyed when the stammering interviewer strays towards "bigger picture" questions about the director's career. Having interviewed film-industry folks before, this watching interview is like watching a train-wreck. Just when you think Kusturica is about to reach through the camera and smack the poor guy asking the questions, he literally just gets up out of his seat mid-sentence in fury, and that's that. Abrupt cut to a black screen. Unintentionally hilarous!

Agree? Disagree? Go to the Forum!  |  Back to Current Releases

Home | Currently Playing | For Rent | Video Obsession 
Movie Forum | Guestbook | Links | "Get to know us!"

©2005 Moviepie e-mail us