Singapore Sling-Movie Review

Singapore Sling

Dir. Nikos Nikolaidis
Greece 1991 35mm Running Time: 113 min. English and Greek with English subtitles

Fans of Otto Premingers Laura wont want to miss what is undoubtedly the most perverse, lyrical and utterly whacked-out take on the classic noir ever to be thrust upon an audience.

Singapore Sling is a damaged man who has never recovered from the inexplicable disappearance of his girlfriend Laura. For years he searches for any sign of her -- until one rainy night, fate brings him to the home of two psychotic women who may be mother and daughter, or perhaps lovers, or maybe even the elusive Laura and her demented captor who has bound her in a web of violent sex games.

Director Nikolaidis thought he was making a comedy tinged with Greek Tragedy. Critics thought he was an unrepentant subversive who had cannibalized a Hollywood screen gem and then vomited it back in their faces.

Both were right in their own way; Singapore Sling is a riotous comedy, and it is informed by a certain sense of tragedy, but it's also one of the sickest, most disturbing films you will ever see.

Accenting its visceral transgressions -- which include lengthy torture sequences, gluttonous binge-fests and erotic regurgitation -- is the lush black and white cinematography of Aris Stavrou, which guarantees that youll never look at Gregg Tolands work in quite the same way again.

Kier-La Janisse

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