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I Miss Sonia Henie (various directors, 1971)
🕑 Added 2022-03-07 04:34:36 +0000 UTC
A rare film I was able to see via the Media City Film Festival online, I Miss Sonia Henie is an absolute waste of time. But if you're an irredeemable completist, it may be worth 15 lousy minutes. The brainchild of Yugoslavian experimentalist Karpo Godina, this is less of an omnibus project than a tedious, ill-conceived Exquisite Corpse exercise. The rules: each film had to take place in the same room; same group of performers; about three minutes in length; and each part must include the line "I miss Sonia Henie," something Snoopy remarks after an unsatisfying round of ice skating on his frozen birdbath.
Most of the participants aim low, producing "transgressive" sex comedy that amps up the absurdism but never even threatens to become interesting. It's strange the collection of auteurs Godina managed to convince to play along. But you'd be hard-pressed to tell the Miloš Forman segment, say, from the Dušan Makavejev or even the Paul Morrissey. Buck Henry's section -- yes, Buck Henry -- stands out because Henry himself acts in it. It is dumb. Possibly the only reason to watch this -- completism, again -- is the opening sequence directed by Frederick Wiseman. (Did he lose a bet?) Not only is it the only part in black-and-white. It is mostly a quiet, placid portrait film that exhibits the man's obvious desire to subvert Godina's strictures. Five Obstructions this ain't.
Comments
I'm kind of relieved to read this--this was my response as well, but after reading so many positive reviews on letterboxd figured I just wasn't in the right mindset or something, & that there was some wit being lost in translation. I can't remember the last time 15 had felt so long.
