Review of Innocence Unprotected (1968) by Zoran S — 03 Nov 2009

I am glad that Criterion released this on dvd. It's nice to see the film with better subtitles and cleaned up images (though the print still seems rather damaged.) This is probably my favorite of Makavejev's early films as it shows him developing the complex montage style he employs in WR: Mysteries of the Organism.

On a basic level, this is a strange documentary about the first Serbian talkie film (a film which is beyond awful). Like a lot of Makavejev, however, it is also a complex and dialectical essay: this time covering such topics as collaboration with the enemy, national myths about strength and freedom, and (implicitly) about the antagonism between the aforementioned national myths and communist ideology.