Love Affair, or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator

Munich: Spengler and Busselmann, 1967. Original German A1 poster for the 1967 Yugoslavian film.

From the collection of noted film historian Amos Vogel. Full provenance available.

Second feature for Dusan Makavejev, the most celebrated Yugoslavian director of the 1960s. Included in this montage of stories is an erotic love scene, a strudel recipe, rat catching, and a graphic autopsy of a female victim—all within the context of a love affair between a switchboard operator and a rat catcher. A strong example of the director's radical style, combining a decidedly anti-Stalinist stance with the celebration of individual, political, and sexual freedom, using psychological surprise as a means of movement.

The Criterion Collection's essay accompanying their release of the Eclipse set containing Makvejev's first three films (including this one) notes: "There’s never been another filmmaker quite like Du an Makavejev. Even in the 1960s, when all of cinema’s rules seemed to be breaking down and artists such as Godard, Cassavetes, and Marker were dissolving the boundary between fiction and documentary...Makavejev stood alone. His films about political and sexual liberation were revolutionary, raucous, and ribald. Across these, his wild, collage-like first three films, Makavejev investigates—with a tonic mix of earnestness and whimsy—love, death, and work; the legacy of war and the absurdity of daily life in a Communist state; criminology and hypnosis; strudels and strongmen."

23 x 33 inches, non-archivally mounted on board. A few tiny edge chips, and a small sticker at the lower right corner. Very Good plus overall.

Shipping billed at cost. Item can only be shipped within the US.

Criterion Eclipse 18.

[Book #132220]