''Montenegro'' also known as ''Montenegro – Or Pigs and Pearls'' ( sv, Montenegro eller Pärlor och svin) is a 1981 Swedish

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

by Serbian director

Dušan Makavejev Dušan Makavejev ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Макавејев, ; 13 October 1932 – 25 January 2019) was a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s—many of wh ...

Plot

Marilyn Jordan is a bored, depressed American housewife, married to a rich Swedish businessman with two seemingly perfect children. She tries to "spice up" her existence by surprising the family when she eats their entire dinner, setting the bedclothes on fire and poisoning the pet dog's milk and then advising it not to drink (the dog does not drink). Eventually Martin, Marilyn's husband, decides to have a psychiatrist see her, but it only serves to provoke her behaviour, and further exacerbate her frustration. One day, Marilyn decides to accompany her husband on a business trip, but she gets detained by airport security on a technicality. After missing her plane, Marilyn is befriended by a group of

Yugoslavs Yugoslavs or Yugoslavians ( Bosnian and Croatian: ''Jugoslaveni'', Serbian and Macedonian ''Jugosloveni''/Југословени; sl, Jugoslovani) is an identity that was originally designed to refer to a united South Slavic people. It has ...

, and is taken to a club they run, bearing the odd name of 'Zanzi-Bar'. Marilyn indulges in their fantastic, surreal world of shovel fighting, lamb roasting, striptease and

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...

. It all culminates with Marilyn having a passionate fling with a young man named Montenegro who works in a zoo. After spending the night with Montenegro, Marilyn realizes that even though she adores this world, she is a stranger in it. Completely snapping upon this realization, she kills the young man and returns home. Once back home, Marilyn serves her family a sumptuous gourmet dinner, followed by a light dessert of fruit – which a caption announces is poisoned. The final intertitle states; "the story was based on real events".

Cast

Susan Anspach Susan Florence Anspach (; November 23, 1942 – April 2, 2018) was an American stage, film and television actress, who was best known for her roles in films during the 1970s and 1980s such as ''Five Easy Pieces'' (1970), '' Play It Again, Sa ...

- Marilyn *

Erland Josephson Erland Josephson (; 15 June 1923 – 25 February 2012) was a Swedish actor and author. He was best known by international audiences for his work in films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Theodoros Angelopoulos. Life and career J ...

- Martin Jordan * Marianna Jacobi - Cookie Jordan *

Jamie Marsh Jamie Marsh is an American theatre, television and film actor. Jamie was born in New York City. In 1981 while living in Stockholm, Sweden Jamie was cast in his first movie, ''Montenegro''. From 1987–1991 Jamie studied with Uta Hagen and Herb ...

- Jimmy Jordan * John Zacharias - Grandpa Bill *

Per Oscarsson Per Oscar Heinrich Oscarsson (28 January 1927 – 31 December 2010) was a Swedish actor. He is best known for his role in the 1966 film ''Hunger'', which earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. Early life Oscarsson was born, along ...

- Dr. Aram Pazardjian * Marina Lindahl - Secretary *

Bora Todorović Borivoje "Bora" Todorović ( sr-Cyrl, Боривоје "Бора" Тодоровић; 5 November 1929 – 7 July 2014) was a Serbian actor. He was the younger brother of the actress, Mira Stupica, and father of Srđan Todorović. Biography He ...

- Alex Rossignol * Lisbeth Zachrisson - Rita Rossignol *

Svetozar Cvetković Svetozar Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Светозар Цветковић; born 20 June 1958) is a Serbian actor. He appeared in more than eighty films since 1980 and played the lead role in ''Do Not Forget Me Istanbul'' together with Mira Furlan. Select ...

- Montenegro * - Tirke * Dragan Ilić - Hassan * Nikola Janić - Mustapha * Mile Petrović - Zanzi Bar Customer * John Parkinson - Piano Player

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 88% based on reviews from 16 critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

gave it a 4 out of 4 and wrote: "There can be something absolutely liberating about a movie that makes up its rules as it goes along." Vincent Canby of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

gave it a negative review, and called it "A halfheartedly Surreal comedy filled with forced high spirits, unconvincing lunacies and failed sight gags."

Awards

''Montenegro'' was nominated for the

Golden Palm The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

Award at the

1981 Cannes Film Festival The 34th Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 27 May 1981. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Człowiek z żelaza'' by Andrzej Wajda. The festival opened with '' Three Brothers'' (''Tre fratelli'') by Francesco Rosi and closed with '' Honeysuckle R ...

; it gained Audience Award and Mostra Special Award at

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A non-profit event, the festival is organized ...

Music

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

sings "

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" is a song by American poet and songwriter Shel Silverstein. It was originally recorded in 1974 by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, with the name spelled "Jordon". The song describes the disillusionment and mental deter ...

" over the opening credit sequence

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Montenegro 1981 films Swedish satirical films English-language Swedish films Political satire films Swedish political satire 1980s sex comedy films Swedish black comedy films Films directed by Dušan Makavejev 1981 comedy films 1980s English-language films 1980s Swedish films