MovieChat Forums > Montenegro (1981) Discussion > uncut 'harder' version ..??

uncut 'harder' version ..??


I saw this at the cinemas many, many years ago, and then again on VHS a few years after that. After the second viewing I was sure the movie had been cut to avoid what looked like much more explicit sexual content. I'm talking about the dance in the club when the women straddles the large dildo. The editing seemed at odds with the visual narrative, and it suggested that the scene had been censored ...
Can anyone confirm or deny this? Perhaps it was cut even before it was theatrically released in order to obtain the American box office safe MPAA rating of an R ... although this would be very strange for a European director to do this back in 1981.
IMDB doesn't list any alternate versions, so perhaps an uncut version simply doesn't exist.

"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane."
H. P. Lovecraft

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I just finished watching it for the first time since its US release. I'm glad to see your post, because I was thinking the same thing.

I'm pretty certain I didn't see as much nudity or explicit sex. As I remember the "Showtime" scene, they showed the radically transformed young immigrant girl de-vining herself, beginning to dance/writhe on the floor nude. Alex shows up with the RC tank device. Cut to another shot of the red, red mouth, then a few more disconnected images, and suddenly, ta-dahhhh! She's making her exit via forklift. I don't recollect seeing her...interact with the remote-controlled marital aid quite as intimately as she appears to in the DVD version.




dolceri ac dolcere

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And what DVD release (ditribution company) did you see? I want to make sure I'm buying an uncut version.
I've seen a version at the movies and a version on VHS, both of which seemed to suggest there was more - sexually explicit footage - to the scene, perhaps even hardcore???

"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane."
H. P. Lovecraft

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I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival back in the early '80's, and then about half a year later in limited release at the International Cinema in Toronto. The 1988 Fox Lorber DVD release is exactly the same as what I saw under the title "Montenegro" in the theatre. The DVD is listed as unrated, but it may have been re-rated in the US since then.
Whether Montenegro was cut in the US, I don't know but I can confirm the Fox Lorber DVD is the exact same version that I saw in Toronto.

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You are correct - I saw this movie at a Norfolk theater in the early 80's. The dance you describe was more explicit in that release than it was in the VHS version I saw some years after. The VHS version was labeled "American Release" or something like that and was definitely censored, or edited, for what somebody must have thought was watered down American tastes. I noticed the same thing in other movies I saw at that same theater, which specialized in European and independent film in those days. The VHS versions I saw later, particularly of one or 2 Laura Antonelli films, had some of the more interesting scenes cut. I'm hoping the DVD has the original version of Montenegro, which was a great movie.

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Rvillella,
what can you remember being shown in the more explicit version?

"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane."
H. P. Lovecraft

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What a delightfully decadent thread on a delightfully delicious scene in a delightfully subversive movie.

So here's what I've done. I checked out my very grainy, recorded off the offbeat movie channel VHS copy of the movie and refreshed my memory of that scene. Then I looked the movie up on my favorite 'database of nude scenes' and found the following description to be consistent with that version:

...(tank with a dildo attached to it chasing her around the stage). The scene comes at 1:14.5-1:16.25... After she does a strip dance, the tank passes by her a number of times as she gracefully moves out of the way (ole!), giving the camera a good view of all of her--small breasts, ass, full bush, and even a brief shot of her vulva as she swings her legs around. Toward the end, there's a close-up of her bush from the side as it is implied she's being penetrated, as well as a pan-up of her body, which in the show "brings down the house." ...

The only thing I'd add is, based on that description and the version I saw, I'm not sure that there's anything more. There were continuity issues in the scene: the music remains integral, but Tirke has her panties and then is pantyless quite abruptly. Other cuts between angles seem quite abrupt and jolting. And you just have this feeling that there is just a little something that's missing. (I guess that's the sign of a good delightfully delicious scene:))

My guess is that there isn't anything more 'out there', but would be curious to know if anyone else has a different experience!

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Whynot,
thank you most kindly for that detailed response! I appreciate your delight!
I've recently ordered a "deluxe edition" on DVD from overseas, and hopefully this will contain the most complete version of this scene. It seems my memory has served me right, in that the version I saw at the movies many years ago was the version you have on VHS. It suggests the director may have filmed a more explicit version of the scene but cut it before releasing it, knowing that censors would kick up a fuss, or at the very least, the scene itself was more graphic, but never actually filmed.

"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane."
H. P. Lovecraft

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:)
I have the most fond memories of Montenegro, and not for this one scene! Just one of those weird little movies that sticks with you all out of proportion with expectations.

Btw, in the interest of full disclosure I can't take credit for that little description, but saw no point to rewriting something that was pretty close to what I would have written if I had written it. If you can follow that.

I'd be tickled if you'd post a little note, after you receive your copy, and let us all know if it appears to be what we've seen, or a bit different.

In the meantime, enjoy.

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Saw this wonderfully weird little film on Showtime when I was a kid in the 80's, I thought it odd there was a picture of the marital aid on the tank in a "Sex In Cinema" picture in Playboy someone had ('81...?)but it wasn't in the movie so I knew the movie had to have been cut. I actually wrote Showtime to complain they were shearing their films and they actually wrote back and said they didn't do that--they showed the movie as it was presented to them. Years later I found the movie on VHS (haven't seen the DVD but heard it was the same cut) and saw the scene intact. It made more sense (and was much more funny) even though the movie worked fine without it. But I could see why someone would've decided it made the film beyond the reach of a regular R rating (same thing happened with "Spetters").

Another of those aggravating censorship moments that drive so many of us nuts!



Love is a naughty teenager who takes control of your feelings when you're asleep

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I originaly rented this film at Blockbuster on VHS about 20 years. I remember the girl being chased around by the remote control tank/dildo in the nightclub on that Blockbuster copy. The concept of the dildo-tank is still a running joke between me and my friends.

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