Promise Me This
Promise Me This
| 26 May 2007 (USA)
Promise Me This Trailers

An old man named Zivojin Markovic, living in a remote village prays for his grandson Cane to go to the city, sell his cow and bring back a wife. In the city he is supposed to meet up with his grandfather's stepbrother, but this man is dead. Instead, he meets this man's two grandsons, two good-natured brothers who are nevertheless small-time criminals and experts in demolition. Cane soon clicks with these men, and also falls in love with a schoolgirl (Jasna), who he wants to marry as part of his testament with his grandfather. He gets involved in this girl's family affairs, rescuing both her and her mother from prostitution and gangsters headed by a man called Bajo, and the new group of people return to the small village in time to celebrate Zivojin's wedding to his neighbor, despite the gangsters' best efforts to stop the celebration, which results in a double wedding.

Reviews
dhalmagean

I find it very funny and also profound the following idea showed by the 2 brothers that worked in constructions. One brother was passionate by the Americans way of demolitions using controlled explosions to lay down huge buildings. He used to study tapes with demolitions by explosions in USA. He was enchanted by they. He liked it very much: how big demolition experts are the Americans :)And than, after this study, we can see his choice in destroying the house: use his strong head as a ram, hanging on a crane which was used to hit him against the wall. It is so hilarious.I couldn't stop laughing.

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pentacul

I don't know why some guys from US, Georgia or even from Bulgaria have the courage to express feelings about something they don't understand at all. For those who did not watch this movie - watch it. Don't expect too much or don't put some frameworks just because this is Kosturica. Watch the movie without prejudice, try to understand the whole humor inside - people of Serbia DID actually getting married while Bil Clinton bomb their villages, gypsies in all Balkans are ALWAYS try to f*ck you up in any way they can, LOVE is always unexpected, pure and colorful, and Balkans are extremely creative. For those who claims this is a bad movie I can see only that the American's sh*t (like Meet Dave, Get Smart etc) are much much worse than a pure, frank Balkan humoristic love story movie as Promise me. The comment should be useful and on second place should represent the personal view of the writer. I think the movie is great and people watch it must give their respects to the director and story told inside. It is simple, but true. It is brutal, but gentle and makes you laugh to dead.

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Gokielig

I started to watch this movie with great expectation although I had some fears too. In my opinion Kusturica together with Almodovar is among the most creative directors in Europe. Movies like Time of the Gypsies, Underground, Black Cat, White Cat are so rich, so imaginative that I don't hesitate to call them masterpieces. That's the reason why I was expectant. I was afraid because Life is a Miracle though still being quite a fascinating work already showed some signs of artistic crisis. I had at times impression that the director started to lack ideas which resulted in self-citing.Zavet was even more disappointing. It is well watchable still, has some really good moments but never comes to the point of truth, never reaches the poetical heights and freshness of Kusturica's above mentioned masterworks. what was surprising for me that even humor in this movie is quite flat. At times you feel that you are supposed to laugh but it is not funny at all. For example that flying guy from the circus canon. In the beginning it was somehow promising, I even had reminiscences of the red balloon from Arizona Dreams but after all there was no development and the end of the episode was unconvincing.Zavet can still be enjoyable experience, especially for Kusturica's fans and indeed it is well worth watching as it is a hotchpotch of the director's hallmark elements but those seeking high artistic inspiration probably won't be satisfied

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edlund-5

This "movie" is more like a music video. Kusturica said in an interview from 2004 that when he is making movies, he feels like making music, and when he is making music, he feels like making movies. The best thing in "Promise me this" is the music, written by Stribor Kusturica.Kusturica said in the same interview, that for him the dialogues in the movies are like noise. "Promise me this" has very little "noise".I liked "Life is a miracle". It was also like music video for the first 30 minutes and at some points later, but it had a beautiful plot. "Promise me this" has no plot. I was awaiting this movie with big expectations, because I've read, that the script has been written by Ranko Bozic - one of my favourite scriptwriters, who participated also in "Life is a miracle". Ranko Bozic writes great dialogues, but for Kusturica they are "noise", and much to my regret, I saw only two dialogues, which I could identify as written by Ranko Bozic. The other part of the script was used by the director for making his chaotic music video for the music of his son Stribor.Gordan Mihic (the man who wrote the scripts for "Time of the gypsies" and "Black cat white cat") said in an interview, that Kusturica never follows the script. "Black cat white cat" was the only script, for which Kusturica said, that he will not touch it. According to Gordan Mihic, after all Kusturica comes back to the script, and if he doesn't, he doesn't make a good movie. And I think this is the case with "Promise me this". He should have followed the script of Ranko Bozic."Promise me this" is billed as a "comedy", but there are very few moments, which made me laugh. The comedic moments are in the same style as "Black cat white cat", but are not that funny at all. I think the difference comes from the fact, that "Black cat white cat" was written by Gordan Mihic.However, I know some people, who liked "Promise me this", they find it very positive movie.

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