Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967)
An insane overlook on a love relationship between Ahmed and Isabel, directed by the most critically acclaimed Yugoslav art-house director, Dusan Makavejev, offers us a cold and neutral standpoint implementing documentary-style cinematography and the use of archival footage which spans from the ever-loving implications on the totalitarian regime to the educational films on human anatomy. The film leads a non-traditional narrative, built on stylistic dialectic which rapidly shuttles from one half to the other with little, or no warning.
“Are you interested in sex?” is a question placed by a certain author on the subject of medicinal sexuality, doctor Aleksandar Kostic, which opens the film. Love Affair is fueled on the love/death dichotomy, as it ends with a murder. The Eros/Thanatos concept is set in the title which uses a conjunction “or” that indicates a struggle between these two element.
Besides the character of doctor Kostic, there is a lecture-like sequence that introduces the viewer with yet another doctor, this time an expert in criminology. Doctor Aleksic deals with the tragic conclusion of the love story with the same scientific punctuality and lack of emotion, as his earlier counterpart.