The woman is Laura cue the plot line from the Otto Preminger classic and she is hauntingly described by the wistful Julie London version of the eponymous song (from a cappella to romantic Glen Miller). If that sounds familiar, it's meant to be. Without giving too much away (Singapore Sling is basically film noir with other elements forcefully mixed), the story concerns a dodgy private detective in love with a dead woman.
And the cinematography would be Oscar-worthy were it not for the subject matter. And a cinematography award so we can make polite conversation about the nice photography.īut before we write it off as art-house exploitation, let me add that the plot machinations and breakthrough acting devices alone (that blend character, voice-over, narrating to the camera and rehearsing to the camera) put it in an exceptional class of movie.
The promise of kinky sex, even with vomiting, incest and torture, sounds so much more respectable if it has subtitles and a dialogue in Greek, French and English. "How many films," he asks, "satisfy both your voyeuristic and artistic tastes?" He goes on to mention the awards Singapore Sling has won in its native Greece. Our film was fittingly introduced by a masked man with a heavy European accent. At the time of writing, The Filmhouse in Edinburgh runs seasons of 'psychotronic' film one of the many sub-genres at the midnight masses of secretive cinephiles. Late nighters may be rubbish or they may be the last bastion of artists that are out of synch with popular and critical tastes.
Or films openly shocking like Pink Flamingoes. Such was the birth of films that include The Rocky Horror Show and Eraserhead. What happens to good films made totally against the grain? What if Botticelli's Venus was painted urinating into an acolyte's mouth? In cinema, such works can find their way to late night screenings, safely past the bedtime of anyone who might object or find them too 'off-beat'.
Reviewed by Chris_Docker 8 / 10 A rare and worthwhile item (as long as you can stomach it)
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