Engineer lodging at hairdresser's home sparks complex relationship. Situation intensifies when young driver enters the picture, altering dynamics between all involved.Engineer lodging at hairdresser's home sparks complex relationship. Situation intensifies when young driver enters the picture, altering dynamics between all involved.Engineer lodging at hairdresser's home sparks complex relationship. Situation intensifies when young driver enters the picture, altering dynamics between all involved.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 4 nominations total
- Rajka
- (as Milena Dravic)
- Barbulovic 'Barbul'
- (as Stole Arandjelovic)
- Direktor
- (as Dusko Janicijevic)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Man is not a Bird: Yugoslav Filmmaking at its Best
Shot is black and white in 1965 Covek Nije Tice depicts a man who cheats on his wife, but is still considered a heroic worker for propaganda purposes. Another man, an engineer who comes to town finds himself attracted to the daughter of his landlord.
It's a great film because of the atmosphere it creates of the Yugoslav world, especially significant since the destruction of that world.
Interesting
Loves of a Blonde
The hypnotist who explains to an audience about the power of superstition and illusory belief, a great viewing template that sets up everything else as objectively unreal yet present in the willing viewer. The pompous ceremony where a superintendent is awarded by the communist powers that be before an audience of bored factory workers, some of whom may have even turned up to watch the film. The closing scene with the circus of very real absurdities.
So this is the journey here, from cinematic hypnotizing to slightly less (or more) real situations through what palpable desires these may unlock.
It's all centered in a relationship between a blonde hairdresser and a middle-aged superintendent of an energy project. The desires being to trust a lover, to complete a work even as you wonder why, to have dreams survive. I like that it is primarily visual and freeform, while being vital instead of just an artifact of technique; the less you think you have to say, the less of your own self obscures the possibilities of what is before you.
It isn't great, but it is among the most accomplished debuts of New Wave. Now I set my eyes on later works by this guy.
Nope
Machevejev may well be the most affirmationally erotic artist in the cinematic canon. Human touch always affirms life, for the better or worse of the subsequently affirmed. Here, all involved turn out okay: they get to continue to enjoy the spectacle that is the socialist circus of life. (For me, Machevejev's affirmation of the existential circus seems much more sincere than that of, say, Fellini.)
a rough, fascinating debut with a few dull bits
It's this, plus an undercooked story of a drunken man and his troublesome own affair that brings out a huge girl-fight between his wife and his lover in the middle of a street, that marks the dramatic side of the picture. Mixing in and out of these stories is footage of the mill, the workers working diligently, leading up to a big celebratory concert where Beethoven's 9th fills the air (also in cutaways to Rajka having her fling with the man in the truck as her actual lover sits in his awarding ceremony).
It's not filled with Makavejev's rampant humor, and it's more of a real "film" instead of one of his hybrid comedy-documentaries. Man is Not a Bird is a fresh burst of original film-making, and if it's not always engaging during its 79 minutes (I found myself tuning out in a couple of scenes) it's still reveals an artist with something to say. There's something urgent about his film, particularly towards the end and during those hypnotist scenes where the audience is enraptures by the hypnotists skills directing people on a stage. Makavejev is after an essential truth in human nature: work and love can't always go together, or sometimes one takes over the other, and a (Communist) nation like the one this is set in needs to find a balance of both.
Did you know
- TriviaAs of 2016 it was included in the #100 Serbian movies list (1911-1999) and protected as cultural heritage of great importance.
- Quotes
Roko hipnotizer: Placing a bat's wing on a person's chest won't keep him from getting out of bed, just as scratching a girl won't make her fall for you. A stone left for 12 days under a rooster's tongue, an owl's eyes, moles, frogs, and so on. If someone carrying empty plates overtakes you, you interrupt your trip for fear of bad luck. Likewise if a cat crosses your path. If the clock hands come together, young girls think that some boy is thinking of them and try to guess his name. You see how we unconsciously use magic in the 20th century. Someone with a headache must have been jinxed. A red thread is tied to him, and burning coals are cast on water. Historical monuments around Kismet have begun to be vandalized. Rumor has it that a person with a sickness or sores who takes mortar from the Murat Memorial, mixes it with spring water and eats it or dabs it on himself will be completely cured. Frescoes have also begun to suffer damage. Rumor has it that a barren woman who crawls beneath the stone underlying St. Mark's monastery and eats mortar from the fresco there will become pregnant. So you see, some people are eating mortar, while others are preparing to fly to the moon. The moral is: Magic is absolute nonsense.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Balkan Spirit (2013)
- How long is Man Is Not a Bird?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Čovek nije tica
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 21m(81 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1







