Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967)
"Ljubavni slucaj ili tragedija sluzbenice P.T.T." (original title)

After many adventures, young female switchboard operator starts a love relationship with a serious young man. But while he's away on business, she gets lonely and succumbs to her ... See full summary »

Director:

Dusan Makavejev

Writers:

Dusan Makavejev, Branko Vucicevic

Stars:

Eva Ras, Slobodan Aligrudic, Ruzica Sokic

Cast

Cast overview:
Eva Ras	...	Izabela, telefonistkinja
Slobodan Aligrudic	...	Ahmed, sanitarni inspektor
Ruzica Sokic	...	Ruza, Izabelina koleginica
Miodrag Andric	...	Mica, postar i zavodnik
Aleksander Kostic	...	Ekspert za seksualna pitanja (as Dr Aleksandat Dj Kostic)
Zivojin Aleksic	...	Ekspert za kriminalistiku (as Dr Zivojin L Aleksic)
Dragan Obradovic	...	Obducent (as Dr Dragan Obradovic)
Rade Ljubisavljevic	...	Vodoinstalater
Aca Tadic	...	Jorgandzija

Storyline

After many adventures, young female switchboard operator starts a love relationship with a serious young man. But while he's away on business, she gets lonely and succumbs to her colleague's passes. When the boyfriend returns, he gets into fight with the impregnated girl that ends up tragically with a killing.

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Plot Keywords:

nude woman | naked female corpse | morgue | pubic hair | brain | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

Yugoslavia

Language:

Serbo-Croatian

Release Date:

6 February 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

An Affair of the Heart

Company Credits

Production Co:

Avala Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was initially refused a UK certificate by the BBFC owing to shots of pubic hair, though the distributor himself partly ruined its chances by ignoring the film's creative aspects and instead telling censor John Trevelyan "I am sending you a film with a few tits in it. I don't think much of it but I can sell it to the sex theaters". It was eventually passed with minor cuts in 1969 and released fully uncut on video in 1996.

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Connections

Referenced in Rupa u dusi (1994)

User Reviews

In the Entire Title, the Word "Or" Is the Tell

What I enjoyed most about this inexplicable Yugoslavian film was the source of pleasure in watching a movie filmed on grainy, imprecise celluloid stock. Every scene hums with that lovely old-fashioned atmosphere of maddeningly strenuous traditional film-making. We can sense the boom mikes, the film reel, the guys with big, uncomfortable headphones, and the director with a big vision that frustrates him by communication breakdown, as the outcome of his film is a bewilderingly ambiguous celluloid mishmash of sex, young lovers, totalitarian Yugoslavia, and nonlinear narrative structure.

And as such, it is a joy! It splurges and has fun! In one hour and nine minutes, its main thread, concerning a Hungarian switchboard operator who meets and falls in love with a Muslim who soon moves into her apartment much to the jealous chagrin of an imposing postal worker, intruding some touching intercuts of archive footage that give impressions of lives ensnared in totalitarian society, a brief history of how the gray rat infested Europe, and a sexologist in his study talking about the history of sex. Even the central train of thought is deconstructed into ambiguity as, seemingly at the same time, the police are investigating the drowning of a young woman.

Director Dusan Makavejev seems to have simply made a multi-faceted montage of Yugoslavia and reflections based on its time, 1967. In spite of its self-indulgence, as was a common limitation of progressive European art-house films of the time, it is very enjoyable.