Do You Remember Dolly
Bell?
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B
Can Communism save Sarajevo in the late 1950s/early
1960s? That is the hot topic as Emir
Kusturica’s feature film debut, Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)
begins. One young man (Slavko Stimac)
is coming of age during these social changes, but his personal changes and
interest in the fairer sex override them a good bit. It tries to be a slice of life film, complete with self-doubt,
pimps and little opportunity in life. The
country was being rebuilt post-WWII, but things would never be totally stable,
all the way up to shocking recent events.
That includes the fall of The Soviet Union and the “ethnic cleansing” of
the 1990s.
Like its European and independent counterparts, the film
does not make children into happy imbeciles like Hollywood has gone for since
the time of this films release in the early 1980s. The talk about ideology is not equaled in any way by a stand the
film takes, which is more interested in the trials of Dino (Stimac) than the
viability of Communism. That’s good,
since it would collapse nine years after the film’s release. By not being so shallow, the screenplay by
Kusturica and Abdulah Sidran does not pull back on the many painful moments
throughout, and holds up much better than many films produced at the time. Though he was more anti-Communist, this film
reminds one of the early international successes of Milos Forman (Loves Of A
Blonde, The Fireman’s Ball) also on DVD, but from Criterion.
Another unintended parallel is a world where the young
have few opportunities, something more prevalent in the United States than when
the film was issued. As compared to
what we see on the news and hear all the time today, the teens here are
lucky. Despite the title, this is not a
flashback cheating film where an older man shows up, than safely relives the
rest of the film. That extremely tired
approach is a Hollywood cliché that usually signifies in most cases an unrealistic,
dreamed-up version of the past, so you should rarely trust that structure. Kusturica is a world-class filmmaker trying
to tell the kinds of story film and cinema does best. This is a remarkable debut for a man who had previously done two
telefilms.
The 1.66 X 1 frame is centered in the 1.78 X 1 anamorphic
frame, which is good, but the print still shows its age. The film might need some work, but who knows
what kind of stocks Kusturica and his co-cinematographers Vilko Filac and
Milenko Uherka had to work with. It
could look better, but still looks good, though one would think this was a late
1970s production for visual and aesthetic reasons. The sound is here in Dolby Digital 5.1 remix is a bit harsh, with
limited surrounds, but is passable. The
Dolby 2.0 Stereo version might be preferred by some, but it is also harsh. The music by Zoran Simjanovic is very good,
including the approximation of early Jazzy Rock music.
Extras include a stills “slide show” that runs with no
sound, previews for other Koch Lorber DVDs and an excellent interview with
Kusturica, who has a great grasp of what is going on with world cinema today,
as well as the world itself. Running 23
minutes, his view of media as a suffocating variant of Fascism that pushes an
oversized cartoon version of consumerism as a new for of Fascism is very much
on target, though he has much more to say.
All in all, this is a pleasant surprise and makes Do You Remember
Dolly Bell? a must-catch DVD.
- Nicholas Sheffo
