Reviews

It's incomprehensible why anyone would hazard the making of this movie. As a wonderful tour of a classic French farm house, and the creation of every artists' ideal of the perfect French artist's studio it's perfect. Otherwise it's a self important, arty disaster - even though that certainly isn't the opinion of virtually every "external review" I read. If it's French, dares to be 4 hours long, and deals with A R T it must be a masterpiece.

The artist used for the endless exploratory sketches is embarrassingly bad and the final showing of "the masterpiece" (or at least the one we get to see and not the one bricked into the studio wall)is such bad art and such an anti-climax that the camera lingers on it only as long as it's forced to.

Beart demonstrates what every art school student learns in their first life drawing class: that the nude human body is beautiful and when presented naturally is devoid of all the contrived sexiness that our society layers on it.

If the painting and drawing had been talented and exciting, the pace picked up and the actors given some clearer roles that they could inhabit, the wonderful ambiance of the house and the studio would not have been wasted.

A truly interesting and beautifully filmed movie that's being completely mismarketed in the U.S. with previews implying it's one big beer hall laugh riot - and where did they get the guy who did the movie trailer voice-over? What you really get is a series of poetic, story telling images that are a joy to watch. Letting the images tell the real story, without constant background sound and music to give you clues, reminded me a lot of Antonioni's Red Desert and The Messenger, except that with "Schulze" there was all the feeling those two movies lacked. Just settle back in your seat, get into a slow time mode and you'll have a great evening.

It's hard to imagine that a great director (Herzog), a famous film actor (Sutherland) and one of the greatest climbers in the world (Messner) could have gotten mixed up in this mess. What little plot there is doesn't explain itself and the aimless acting rises so above criticism that it's almost interesting. Still . . . the Patagonian backgrounds are a plus, the brief insight into the new, frantic European competition-climbing scene had promise and the shots (many from high altitude helicopters) of the incredible Torres del Paine and Cerro Torre were spectacular. How they did the last ascent scenes on the frozen whipped cream summit of Cerro Torre is something I'd love to read about. Warning: If you don't love the mountains don't even think of going near this movie!