*********Spoiler******************* The Secret of Singapore Sling is revealed! I saw this fine masterpiece of modern post-morbidness and cracked open the perverse brain candy shell to uncover the hidden meaning.The big clue is when the mother and daughter discuss the rules of servants. If you look up the 3 laws of Robotics established by Isaac Asimov you will discover the similarities between "robots" and "servants."1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.The women talk about "servants" following laws like these. They are really talking about how THEY too are "servants" (aka robots) trapped by these rules.Now take note of the women's spastic movements and bizarre speech patterns. And the Singapore Sling character.. he spends a lot of time motionless and never speaks.They are all robots.They are robots struggling to re-enact the Laura storyline (from the classic movie released in 1944) so that they can learn about humanity.As robots they do not understand things like nuances in speaking.. natural human movements, and human sexuality.A further clue is when they are eating. Robots cannot eat! Thus they force food in, and then regurgitate that food back up. Without discomfort except for the regurgitation process itself. And they do not realize how this is not standard eating behavior.And finally, Singapore Sling "himself" is seen rusting... asking about water supposedly. No he was telling them that he had become wet from the outside and his lips were rust covered. Look closely, those are not swollen lips that need water. Those are rusted lips that needed to be polished and cleaned.The woman does not pee on Singapore Sling, she tries to kill him with water released from a valve because she does not know what else to do.If you watch Singapore Sling with this secret uncovered, it becomes a movie that makes sense, and you can delight in seeing a story about robots trying desperately to re-enact a movie they knew about, to try to learn to become human. The water outside and in the pool is the constant threat that keeps them trapped inside.The tragedy is that a robot cannot become human and thus at the end Singapore Sling decides to bury himself and deactivate instead of living the lie.Watch it again with your Isaac Asimov books hand, and enjoy it for what it is... a fascinating study of humanity as seen from an alien perspective.
... View MoreThis movie surely is the best artistic piece of cinema ever made in Greece.The story tells us about a guy who has to confront the nightmares of his broken heart visualized as a couple of bizarre women doing horrible things in their lame house. During his stay out the house, he will soon come to realize not only that his passion was a mere delusion, but will also discover the emptiness of many things that are generally considered enjoyable such as food and sex.The storyline is neither straight nor clear. However, this non-straight format is essential because the films aim is not just to tell a simple story. I would say that it deals more with ideas and thoughts than with persons and their deeds.Carefully crafted to the last detail, with great performances, I would consider this film equivalent to Eraserhead by David Lynch and Vargtimmen by Ingmar Bergman.
... View MoreA detective (Panos Thanassoulis) arrives at an isolated villa looking for a missing girl, Laura, and is imprisoned and sexually tortured by a mother/daughter (Meredyth Herold, Michele Valley) duo who have killed Laura, among others, and buried them in their backyard.This thoroughly bizarre film contains obvious homages to the great film noir, Laura (1944), from the initial plot (a detective in love with a dead girl, whose painting is on the wall) to the beautiful black and white cinematography, to the detective's voice over narration but moves off into directions that are totally unexpected if not downright silly (for example another homage, this time to The Mummy (1932) where one of the main characters is being sodomised by her father who's dressed as the mummy).Although there's much nastiness and depravity on show (from Thanassoulis being tied down and given electro-shock treatments before Herold urinates on his face, to Valley raping him and then vomiting on his face, to the denouement where Thanassoulis kills Valley with a knife he has strapped on like a dildo), the film never really feels nasty and sick. This is obviously quite incredible and an achievement in itself. How does it pull it off? Well there's a very playful air about the proceedings (some even call this a comedy); Valley and Herold's relationship is almost child like and Valley often speaks to the camera (which is an irritation) in her sweet, pleasant voice discussing what has happened. The whole situation is like a game, albeit fetishistic and depraved games, which, in spite of the fact that we know they're killers, doesn't create any real sense of danger or dread. Interestingly Thanassoulis never really speaks to the ladies, they speak predominantly in English and a little French whilst all we hear from him is the voice over (another common noir technique that the films employs), which is in Greek. Is he consigned to a dreadful fate or does he also not really feel in any real danger? The latter is unlikely but he never really tries to turn the tables on his captors. A truly bizarre film, well made and shot, with excellent and appropriate music in the style of 40s noir. Obviously not for all tastes but certainly worth a look for viewers of challenging and offbeat cinema.
... View MoreGoing into Singapore Sling I knew almost nothing about it. I knew that it was supposed to be somewhat "extreme" and that's about it. But what was delivered was nothing I could ever have expected. Holy moly was this a strange movie. Let me rephrase that. Holy f@ckin sh!t was this a strange movie! Yeah that's much better.Singapore Sling is about a mother and daughter duo who have gone completely nuts after father died. Not saying they weren't nuts before, but I'm guessing father wouldn't have approved of everything they're now doing....even though father was a murderer. Haaha, OK, the story revolves around this duo and a man they named Singapore Sling. Singapore is a investigator on the trail of a woman named Laura who is missing and presumed dead. He follows a trail of clues and ends up finding these two whackos. The duo then hold the injured Singapore hostage in their home, while pretty much just trying to make him go nuts. But it's really just they're way of playing and having fun. Having fun for them consists of torture, sex, role-playing, masturbation with fruit, messy eating and the list goes on and on. The movie goes like this for quite a while, just the viewer getting to know these ladies.Singapore Sling is one of the strangest flicks I have ever seen, and also one of the most well made. Shot in a film noir type way, reminiscent of old style classics and combined with stylish, beautiful shots and fantastic music, the movie looks and sounds incredible. But the high praise should go to the actors involved. They were fantastic. Especially the daughter, talking about a role she was born to play....hot chick too. Singapore Sling's only problem is that it is a little long. It's a movie you definitely should watch more than once to fully digest what they're throwing at you. The acting alone is worth another watch. And it's not really a movie to fast-forward either. It's a movie to soak in. Singapore Sling should be a must see for any serious film lover out there. It's too unique not to be. 9 outta 10
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