Take a Deep Breath

The gaze is an inevitable part of cinema. Cinema is a visual medium so there’s a necessity to not only look, but for a director to choose what to look at. The gaze can also be a great way of getting inside a character’s head and seeing how they see the world. The gaze is strong in Take a Deep Breath. Regrettably, this is not a positive. The camerawork allows insight into the director’s head more than any of the characters. And what’s going on inside the director’s head is that women sure are pretty. The prominence of the male gaze in this film about female relationships really detracts from the story.

Take a Deep Breath focuses on the dramatic goings on of a Serbian family. Parents Milos and Lila have a chilly relationship. Lila believes Milos sees her only as a trophy, and one he is less pleased with as the years drag on. So, Lila begins an affair. Daughter Sasa announces to her parents that she’s moving to Canada with her boyfriend, Stefan. But before she can do so, Stefan is injured in a traffic accident. Stefan’s sister, Lana enters the picture to care for her brother. Lana has been living in Paris. She has a much more open view regarding relationships and sexuality. She also takes a liking to Sasa. What begins as a friendship quickly becomes an affair between Sasa and her boyfriend’s sister.

There’s not honestly a lot of buildup to Sasa and Lana embarking on an affair. They bond immediately. And it’s not a bond of mere friendship. Though I’m unsure whether this is intentional or because director Dragan Marinkovic doesn’t understand relationship dynamics between women. Sasa and Lana take a bath together pretty early on. You know, like women do with a woman they’ve only recently met. It’s obviously impossible for Marinkovic to know how women interact without men present. Yet I’ve seen other male directors pull off believable dynamics between women. That’s not present in Take a Deep Breath. Sasa and Lana’s relationship frequently feels like male imagination of what women get up to when they’re alone.

And now we arrive at the problem of The Gaze. Marinkovic’s attraction to women colours so much of this film. Often in places where it’s not necessary. I can’t shake the feeling that this is an instance where these characters are lesbians because a male director likes looking at women. Sasa and Lana’s first sex scene is pure fantasy fodder. It’s outside, there’s a wind machine and Lana undoes a Sasa’s bra with her mouth. It’s sexy, sure. But there’s also no discussion before, during or after regarding the fact that this is an affair. Or that Serbia isn’t accepting of gay people. Nah, just have some sexy sex outside. When Sasa rebuffs Lana the next day, Lana has minimal reaction. She just tells Sasa to call her when Sasa is ready to embark on another sex scene.

The gaze wouldn’t be such an issue if Take a Deep Breath was just a romantic drama. But this is a messier, more all-encompassing story. There’s a really fascinating, rotten dynamic between Sasa, Milos and Lila. Sasa and Milos’s final scene is dramatic, nasty and tragic. That final scene showed so much potential for what this movie could have been. Exploring the relationships between these family members and how they hurt each other would’ve been some powerful cinema. But the focus is so often on Sasa’s very shallow relationship with Lana. This relationship also could’ve had some depth. But Take a Deep Breath only likes the concept of lesbianism. It never really takes the time to dive deep into the unsexy parts of that identity.

Take a Deep Breath ends with Lana musing about how perhaps Serbian society should be more sexually open. Perhaps if it was, Sasa’s family would be happier and healthier. The focus of the film is definitely about sexual openness. But there’s a lack of depth to all of the film, including this focus. I’m left with the distinct feeling that Marinkovic wants a more sexually open society not so queer people can live safely or so open communication can happen between romantic partners. Instead, his version of a sexually open society is one where pretty young lesbians perform sex acts in public. Not even for their own pleasure, but for him and his own attraction to women. The never ending presence of the male gaze really tanks this movie. There’s some deep and major family drama in the film. But it constantly comes second to depicting women as sexy.

Overall rating: 3.7/10

Other WLW films in similar genres