EMIR KUSTURICA

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB

USA/France, 1993.  Canal+, Centre National de la Cinématographie, Constellation, Hachette Première, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Union Générale Cinématographique.  Story by David Atkins, Emir Kusturica, Screenplay by David Atkins.  Cinematography by Vilko Filac.  Produced by Yves Marion, Claudie Ossard.  Music by Goran Bregovic.  Production Design by Miljen Kreka Kljakovic.  Costume Design by Jill M. Ohanneson.  Film Editing by Rached M’Dini, Andrija Zafranovic.  

Johnny Depp plays a naturalist’s assistant in New York who is summoned home to Arizona to attend the funeral of a close relative. When he gets there he is suckered into running the family’s used-car business and meets two of the most oddly unhappy women in the world: a miserable rich woman (Faye Dunaway) and her off-kilter daughter (Lili Taylor) with whom he has a romance. Director Emir Kusturica is so intent on making an impressively oddball film that he completely alienates his audience, and by the end you’re left not caring a whit about any of the characters.

Berlin Film Festival:  Special Jury Prize