Gorilla Bathes at Noon

Sometimes a movie is relatively random, I think.

In the case of "Sweet Movie" and "Coca Cola" this added value. Its more than quirky charm, its the magic of being thrown a different logic and asked to juggle it using ordinary hands.

But in this case, it seems to have escaped what we can do, so the balls are just thrown at us, determined to simply fall on the floor.

There is power here, and I suppose especially for someone who suffered under Soviet despotism. Its at the end, where our preparation for lost soldier pays off. There is an amazing sequence at the end of a huge cold war statue of Lenin in East Berlin being carefully decapitated and carted off. Its captivating. This is preceded by a romance with a redhead who spends half her time in dreams dressed as Lenin.

Interspersed with this is footage from a Soviet film of the capture of Berlin, glories tooting loudly, good comrades beaming.

It almost works. The title comes from the method of survival. Our lost soldier gets his food by stealing from the animals at the zoo, presumably at noon.

The film ends with our character trying to sell his Soviet uniform at the Brandenburg gate. The voice of the filmmaker is heard asking if we wonder why main character spoke English and everyone else their native tongue (mostly German and Russian). Why it because, the narrator says, because he's an actor!

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.