Singapore Sling (2003)

Touches You

That was an excellent one.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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.

... Singapore Sling has been one of my fav films since many years .... .. ..... I don't want to say much about it .. just a very important element that everyone who has seen Singapore Sling or will see it must know .. ... A movie that I saw last night made me see a HUGE drawback in this beloved film ... . .. .. The movie that I saw is called " dead reckoning " .. it is a film noir with Humphrey Bogart ( for more about this movie --> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039305/ ) .... So the thing is that the words in the last scene of "dead reckoning" are almost the same with the ones spoken in the last scene of "Singapore Sling" .. !!!!----.. Nikos Nikolaidis has stolen these lines ...---- ( they are NOT put in the film like a "game" between him and the viewer .. to see if somebody will find the "link" between the two movies .. NO .. -->.. the lines are clearly stolen by Nikolaidis )

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!

wow - this movie is mind-blowing in so many ways... it's on a ranking with the best of world cinema, and is not merely transgressive (though be aware -- it is extremely transgressive). The two female leads personify commitment to an acting role, and along with the male lead go all out for their art. This movie is an integral piece - a complete cinematic vision, from the stellar black and white cinematography (with "deep focus" throwback to Gregg Toland, the man-with-the-print waxed enthusiastically to me about) to the noir overtones and the hard-boiled detective, the "Laura" musical theme interwoven throughout -- to the perverse erotic aesthetic. Plus it takes all this to an operatic level - as fully constructed as a Greenaway film but without the arty label. This movie lays on the sexual taunts and the threat of death in ever-increasing doses. It is ending from the very beginning -- but it takes a long, increasingly loaded ordeal before it finally hits us with the tragic conclusion. You will not have seen anything like Singapore Sling -- it is a work of beauty though it bears repeated viewings to assimilate everything it has to offer.