Singapore Sling

source: Singapore Sling

Well...it doesn't get much more bizarre than this! To sum it up simply, Singapore Sling is a work of extreme cinema; featuring all manner of things from sadomasochism to incest...but it's shot in a style reminiscent of the classic film noirs from the golden age of cinema. The two styles offset each other constantly, and this gives the film an extremely surreal atmosphere as well as a completely unique style that ensures Singapore Sling is nothing like any other film ever made. The film was made in Greece, which makes it almost unique in its own right as Greece isn't a country famous for film-making. The plot focuses on a detective who is looking for a girl named Laura. One night, he stumbles upon two women burying a body and we are introduced to what has to be one of the most "offbeat" mother and daughters in cinema. We then follow the daughter as she details the things her and her mother get up to, before the weary detective; who is given the name 'Singapore Sling', stumbles into the pair's home and ends up becoming 'involved' in more insane games. The film is shot in beautiful black and white, and director Nikos Nikolaidis does an excellent job of making the film as picturesque as possible. In fact, the film is so damned pretty that even morbidly sick practises such as a mother having lesbian sex with her daughter don't seem quite so grotesque when seen in this film. The film only features three performers, but it never gets boring even though the film runs for over 110 minutes. The director somehow manages to keep things interesting despite the fact that the film often retreads similar ground. Much of the credit for the film must go to Michele Valley and Meredyth Herold, who both provide brilliant performances as the mother and daughter central duo. Panos Thanassoulis is good also as the title character, but he remains silent for most of the film and never gets a change to fully impress. The film plays out well throughout, and it all boils down to a suitably sick finale which gives credence to both its pornographic and film noir styles. Overall, Singapore Sling is a fabulous piece of celluloid which needs to be experienced by everyone who considers themselves a fan of cinema!

SINGAPORE SLING is one of the strangest films out there. Now, I've watched a good bit of twisted * material in my day - but those are typically laid out *-style, with no plot, and just scene-after-scene of twisted sh!t. This film is different, as it has a full-blown plot, incredible cinematography, excellent acting...and all the twisted nastiness that a true "shock-film" lover could want. Initially, the audience is introduced to a mother/daughter team of complete whackadoos who "kidnap" a private-dick that they begin to refer to as "Singapore Sling". Singapore enters the picture when he goes poking around the womens' house looking for a woman named Laura who he encountered a while back and has become obsessed with. Captured by the nut-jobs, Singapore is subject to all sorts of fun abuse at the hands of the two freak-o's, and the story begins to get "stranger" as we start to find out a little more about the actual background of the women...or do we??? SINGAPORE SLING is a VERY strange and original film. Shot in striking black-and-white in a very 1940's detective-story/film-noir style, but rife with "extreme" exploitation material - I honestly can say I've seen nothing like it before. The performances by the mother/daughter team are completely believable - same for Singapore (though he's mainly silent throughout the film). The depravity on-hand includes lesbionic incest, bondage, vomit-play, fruit-*, cannibalism, golden-shower action, knife-rape-vag-stabbing - you name it, this one has it. This is one of those rare films that shows that "extreme" subject matter and depictions can still be stylish and innovative, and "viable" in film. Most will be repulsed by this if they aren't a fan of this sort of thing. The rest will appreciate it for being one of the weirdest and most stunning exploit films ever made. My only gripes are that it runs a little long and drags in some spots - and that with all the depravity on display - the sex/* scenes could have been more "graphic". Other than that - a fine exploit film indeed...9/10

It's difficult to categorise the black-and-white surreal experience that is "Singapore Sling". The film probably falls into the midnight movie category with films like "Eraserhead" and "Jungfrau am Abgrund" - nightmarish celluloid journeys that leave you wondering, "Did I really see that?" as you wake in the cold light of the morning. "Singapore Sling" is beautifully shot; every scene is lit perfectly and looks amazing. From the opening scene where two rain-drenched and mud-caked scantily clad women dispose of the "chauffeur", the tone is set for over-the-top weirdness. Erotic, sickening, funny and shocking, "Sling" is a taboo-busting tale of incest, murder, fruit abuse and insanity. Acts of sexual debauchery are thrown at the viewer almost casually. The actress who plays the daughter is classically beautiful and delivers some of the most bizarre scenes I've ever witnessed. This is an actress who's trusting the director to deliver a solid film. I would say that this trust is well-placed - Nikos Nikolaidis has produced a unique movie that is impossible to forget and that lingers in the mind like a fever induced bad dream. For those of a nervous disposition and fragile constitution, this is a movie that should be avoided like the plague. Fans of transgressive cinema, however, will probably love this movie and appreciate its dark slice of perverse comedy. 9 out of 10. A twisted, hellish journey into celluloid madness that is as captivating as it is repelling.

Let me start off by saying that there is absolutely no similarity between this "film" and the 1944 film Laura, aside from the fact that both films feature a detective, and a character named Laura. Those reviewers who are comparing both films for whatever reason are, confused. Not that there's much to understand about Singapore Sling, but Being as every reviewer has rehashed the events that take place in this "film" I will not belabor them here. Nikolaidis has created what may well be the most genuinely weird intentionally weird p.o.s ever made. Others (Harmony Korine, David Lynch, Troma, etc) have tried and failed, making only boring dreck that people with worse taste than fans of SS could pretend to enjoy. Others (Pasolini, David Lynch, etc) because of their legal insanity, unwittingly make films that give the viewer a tiny peek at the vast ocean of lunacy that is the Director's "mind" (they don't know any better). Singapore Sling is a film that succeeds in being intentionally unintelligible, shocking, infuriating and "against the grain" for the sake of it. That's all there is to it. There is nothing more here. Nothing in the idiotic, pointless and cryptic dialogue. Nothing in the spastic, borderline drug induced performances. Nothing in the clunky cinematography, the grade school play level set design, the painfully failed comedy, the tired and poorly staged violence and sex acts….absolutely nothing. It's not good horror, mystery, or black comedy. It is excellent exploitation trash in the truest sense. There are times when it comes of as typically nauseatingly pretentious, but for the most part it seems like Nikolaidis isn't taking anything seriously. He knew the type of "film" he wanted to make and the type of experience he wanted the audience to have. In other words, he wanted to make the sickest most insane film nobody had yet seen, all else be damned. He comes close. Though, I haven't read any interviews or anything involving a "director's statement" or what have you, and probably never will, so who knows what exactly his intentions were. I can't imagine why anyone would care anyway Check it out, if you have absolutely nothing better to do with your life.

Greek movies generally suck, so it wouldn't be such a tremendous comment to say that this one is my best greek film (as I am greek). I have seen another film by Nikolaidis, also nice, but in no way as strong and pervert as this one. Singapore Sling is in its bigger part in English, having only some narrative in greek. The director commented for this one that he was thinking something like a comedy in the vein of greek ancient tragedy while shooting, and for that matter, even if must have a pervert sense of humour (like me) to find this mess somewhat funny, the narrative and direction style is really over-the-top, succeeding, if not to approach ancient greek tragedy, in making a unique film. This is definately only for the few people that can associate with extreme cinema and surely these people will find much in this one-of-a-kind film. I am also sure they will catch the humourous side of this dark, twisted tale. A must-find, if you can and if you dare!

The reflexive urge to label any film that flaunts its own sense of willful ambiguity as "in the vein of Lynch" is an overused cliché in the realm of armchair film criticism. And it's all too easy to overstate the paranoid influence of Polanski on films that take a maddeningly subjective approach to their characters. And it's easier yet to label a movie released in 1990, yet utilizing gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, as a satirical-noir counterpart to Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" and the black-humored psychological horror of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" But "Singapore Sling," true to its alcohol-blended title, cribs all of these seemingly disparate influences into a bizarre original that, while not yielding the most emotionally resonant result, offers a hypnotic descent into a gradually escalating nightmare. Greek writer-director Nikos Nikolaidis offers a simple setup, revealed through the title character's voice-over narration: for three years, he has been searching for a woman named Laura, and an injury (for which no explanation is given) finds him on the doorstep of a deranged "Mother" (Michele Valley) and "Daughter" (Meredyth Herold), who proceed to torture and degrade our protagonist in all manner of revolting ways. "Singapore Sling" is well aware of its capacity to disgust and provoke, but what keeps the proceedings fascinating (and watchable) are performances (particularly Valley's and Herold's) that take on an inspired madness that convinces the viewer that their actions are consistent with their unglued personalities (and not mere showy torture fodder in the "Hostel" mold). Complementing Nikolaidis's madhouse aesthetic is the black-and-white cinematography, where one beautifully-conceived shot follows the next, and gives the proceedings a paradoxically classy look, despite the sharp contrast with the subject matter. While not without pretension, "Singapore Sling" straddles the line between "arthouse" and "grindhouse" with gleefully mad abandon, its unapologetic weirdness a breath of fresh air.

*********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.

This is one of those movies where main character is supposed to be about 9 or 10 years old, but due to morality issues they make her 20 and retarded, behaving like she is mentally 9. At this point there are numerous reviews that state this movie is a masterpiece. IMDb rating for it is 6.4. And people who chose to rate it that high are walking around freely among rest of us. Reason I chose to see it is because it is classified as COMEDY. Unless you are into necrophilia and child molestation (or sexual intercourse with mentally deficient people) this movie offers absolutely nothing. The most annoying thing in entire movie is the way actress Meredyth Herold chose to deliver her lines. Sadly, I think she probably nailed her role and did precisely what was expected of her, to role-play retarded 9 year old, sexually abused, little girl. Since I am not amused by watching retarded people speak, I did not find it entertaining at all. Comedic value of this film is right up there with finding belching, farting, and poking dead animals with a stick funny. Except replace dead animals with almost dead people. For those of us that are closer to sanity, to whom edge of what is acceptable as comedy stops somewhere little bit after American Psycho and before Serbian Film and Hostel, this movie is something better left untouched.

What do you get when you cross Preminger's LAURA with the Kuchar/McDowell brain-frier THUNDERCRACK!? Something that looks a lot like SINGAPORE SLING, one of the more demented European films of, well, ever. The story of a gut-shot Greek detective in search of a mysterious "Laura" who stumbles upon the house where she's living with her "mother" (who's probably neither that or female, for that matter) gets stranger by the turn, and does not shy away from bizarre sex, ultra-violence, and regurgitative gross-outs in the process. Filmed in beautiful black-and-white, it's a one-of-a-kind film, more purely noir than most noir retreads of recent years, yet far too demented to be considered merely noir. Viewers with strong stomachs seeking the ultra-outre will find this to their delight; all others had best shy away.