Cast: Lazar Ristovski, Nikola Ristanovski, Vlado Javanovski, Dejan Acimovic, Petar Temelkovski, Sofija Kunovska, Emil Ruben, Irena Ristic, Toni Mihajlovski
Directors: Aleksandar Popovski and Darko Mitrevski
Producers: Mirco and Slavco
Screenplay: Aleksandar Popovski and Darko Mitrevski
Cinematography: Vladimir Samoilovski
Music: Risto Vrtev
U.S. Distributor: Salt City Productions
In Macedonian with subtitles
It's only natural that, with the approach of December 31, 1999, there has been a dramatic upswing in end-of-the-millennium hysteria. It's everywhere: in the news, on television, and on the big screen. Actually, movies have been capitalizing on this theme for a while - in recent years, Strange Days and the made-for-TV Doctor Who have adopted the New Year's Eve 1999 setting. Don McKellar's Last Night takes a quiet, cerebral look at the end of the world. For those who prefer their Armageddon with less thought and more muscle, there's Arnold Schwarzenegger's End of Days. However, by far the most bizarre entry into this mini genre is the Macedonian film Goodbye 20th Century, which prophesizes some distinctly unsavory events.
To give credit where credit is due, Goodbye 20th Century accomplishes the nearly impossible task of making David Lynch's Lost Highway seem congruous and linear. It takes a lot of intellectual energy to begin to piece together what's happening in this film, and the results are not worth the effort. The only things that make Goodbye 20th Century of marginal interest are its stylistic design and forthright weirdness. Those with a fondness for character development or narrative cohesiveness will not be engaged by this movie on any level.
Goodbye 20th Century is comprised of three short films -- two 40-minute efforts bookending a three-minute interlude. The first chapter opens in a post-apocalyptic Macedonia, circa 2019. A group of gun-toting religious zealots are holding a ceremony. At its climax, they all point their weapons at one unarmed man (Nikola Ristanovski) and open fire. He doesn't die. They try again with the same ineffectual results. Disgusted and recognizing that their would-be-victim, Kuzman, is cursed with immortality, they give up, leaving him to his own devices. So Kuzman, who is haunted by an event from his past, goes on a quest for death. A mysterious prophet tells him that he'll only find what he wants by killing The Man With Green Hair (Toni Mihajlovski).
Once Kuzman's story ends, we are transported back in time to 1900 for a short silent movie that purports to be the first-ever filmed wedding. It's between a brother and a sister whose moment of happiness doesn't last long. Then it's on to New Year's Eve 1999 for a tale that involves a psychopathic Santa Claus (Lazar Ristovski), a family of mourners who should be in an asylum, and some of the most unusual imagery ever to be committed to celluloid. As if Goodbye 20th Century wasn't strange enough before this point, here is where it really goes off the deep end. There are smoke rings, sadistic children, an old lady with serious flatulence problems, a half-naked woman with shocking red hair, a man who lights his hand on fire, and a corpse that sits up. And, as a bonus, we get to hear a heavy metal rendition of "My Way" that forms the background music to a brutal beating.
The film's apparent point is that the future is as unpleasant and unpromising as the past. Regardless of the year or the millennium, life goes on as a continuum of unrelieved depravity and misery. The vision of directors Aleksandar Popovski and Darko Mitrevski is as bleak as anything I have seen. The problem is, as impressive and kinetic as some of the visuals are (at one point, the camera plunges into a toilet bowl, then explodes into outer space), the movie is an ordeal to sit through. A little mystery can be a good thing, but this degree of incoherence will leave even the most open-minded viewer confused and frustrated. Popovski and Mitrevski use one character to connect the stories together, but who cares? Certain events that occur in the third story relate to those in the first, but there's no real point to these connections beyond teasing the audience. There is also intended to be an element of comic shading to some of the film's absurdities, but the tone is so off-putting that the humor comes across as distasteful and unfunny.
The picture wallows in sex and violence. Incest is a prominent theme, although I have no idea why. A number of unsavory individuals are slaughtered off-screen. When we see their bloody bodies in the aftermath, the color has been de-saturated, making the surreal tableau appear almost black-and-white. The image is striking, but there's nothing underlying it. It hangs in space, ungrounded and without purpose. Much of Goodbye 20th Century is like this - interesting to look at but otherwise a grueling and profitless experience.
It's possible (although improbable) that there's a cultural divide at work here. Perhaps there are obscure contextual references that only Macedonians will appreciate. Still, while such instances might strengthen the movie's thematic content, they are unlikely to make it more accessible. Popovski and Mitrevski seem to relish making their movie as off-the-wall as possible, and, while the result may grant them satisfaction, it is likely to have the opposite effect on those who find themselves in a theater watching the final product.
© 1999 James Berardinelli