Psssssssss

In Europe, no self-respecting crossroads is without its annual film festival, but in the U.S. the idea has taken root only in San Francisco. Last week the top prize at San Francisco's Fifth Annual International Film Festival went to Animas Trujano, a Mexican picture about a slow-witted Zapotec Indian, played, curiously enough, by Japan's Toshiro Mifune. But --as is customary at film festivals--the most talked-about film in town was not the big winner. It was a cartoon from Communist Yugoslavia called Ersatz.

Made by Dusan Vukotic, head of a film company in Zagreb that is state-financed but remarkably free of state control, the film uses no dialogue (just a light musical score) and begins with an unpromising situation: its hero, a plain-looking fellow, parks his automobile at a lakeside beach, unpacks a plastic beach mattress and fills it, using a hand pump.

Then he pumps up a tent, an umbrella, and a chair. He walks over to his car, pulls out a plug and psssssssss, the car deflates and shrinks until it is a speck on the sand. He pumps up a surfboard. He pumps up fish. He pumps up a girl. He doesn't like her looks, so he tries again. The new broad is smooth, supple, lissome --but there is something wrong. Two quick final puffs and her bikini brassiere is properly filled.

Pneumatic bliss gets out of hand. The girl goes off by herself for a swim, and he has to pump up a shark to scare her back into his arms. A bronze-god water skier comes along and skis her off to a romantic island for a torrid love scene.

The hero pumps up a powerboat and gives chase. His rival is soon unplugged. Psssssssss, no rival.

The time comes for the hero to leave the beach. He unplugs everything, from the beach pad to the girl. Then he unplugs the lake itself; it shrinks to a small blue dot. He pumps up his car. He pumps up a highway and drives away.

But on the road he runs over a nail. Psssssssss, no car. Psssssssss, no highway. The hero lies injured on the non-road. A plug pops out of his thumb and psssssssss, no hero. Nothing left, just the nail.

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