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Flandres (2006)
Once more with feeling!
Truly one of the worst films, I have ever had the intense displeasure of watching. Bruno Dumont and his hyper-minimalist style is an affront to anyone who takes film seriously. What he does is to remove everything that makes cinema work: acting, dialogue, music, editing, visual language. He reduces, what I think could be an engaging story, to a pseudo-documentarist look at characters that I ultimately don't give a sh** about! You see, that's what happens when you refuse to use any of the tools of the trade to form a connection with your audience; you don't get one. In the rape scene, where Demester and his friends come upon an Arab girl and gang-rape her, I didn't feel anything. When Demester leaves his friend to die, i didn't feel anything. And when Demester returns home and tells his (for lack of a better word) girlfriend that he loves her, I didn't feel anything. That's what I took away from the film: Nothing, except of course the overwhelming feeling of having wasted an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back. I won't deny, that Dumont has an eye for images. His montage-technique is quite good (although his belief that it can carry an entire movie is preposterous to say the very least). Especially the first ten minutes of the film demonstrate this. However because it never moves beyond that, I can never quite bring myself to care about what happens to the characters. If you like minimalism (which I'm not opposed to by principle), I suggest to check out film by Carlos Reygadas or some of the Italian masters. At least save yourself having to sit through 90 minutes of some pseudo-intellectuals director's formalistic experiments. Shun it! Shun it as you would a rabid dog.
Evilenko (2003)
Unwatchable mess with a brilliant Malcolm McDowell.
I saw this movie at the Natfilm-festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. I was thoroughly unimpressed. Not true, there was actually one good thing about the movie: Malcolm McDowell. His acting is superb, he can play a maniac like few others and in this movie he is positively chilling. I also loved his performance in 'The Company', another horrible movie with a few good performances. It is sad that he can't find a good movie to invest his considerable talent in.
Back to the movie. The movie was presented by the director who explained, that he wanted it to be a parable on the collapse of communism and the disillusion, that brought with it. This explains, I think, to some extent what went wrong. He tried too hard. The script ended up being a mishmash of a fascination-with-serial-killers-horror-movie and a self-indulgent and trite piece of symbolism. One of the worst scenes is the interrogation scene, where the investigator confronts Evilenko and "battles with him on his terms". I don't think I have ever seen so many clichés and and so much half-digested pop-psychology forced into such an unnecessarily long scene. The dialogue is completely unbelievable and it certainly doesn't help, that it is, for the most part, delivered by utterly untalented people. Why the director chose to use Russian actors and dub them with second-rate voice actors is a mystery. Marton Csokas plays well enough, if a little wooden and the actress playing Evilenko's wife steals the frame in the few scenes she is in. Other than that the movie is a complete waste of actor wages.
In conclusion, I would like to say, that I think this movie gave me an understanding for the horror Evilenko's victims must have felt. I certainly couldn't get out of the cinema fast enough.
Bænken (2000)
Fantastic and heartfelt portrayal of the edges of society
I was very skeptical when I first went to see this movie, I have never been a fan of political movies or movies with an overstated "message". This film however, proved to be neither. This is a refreshingly unsentimental portrayal of one of the members of society that we all would prefer to ignore. The main character, Kaj, is a wellfare client with no prospects, he once had a job and was making a life for himself, but now he is a broken down alcoholic with a genuine but thinly-veiled deathwish. He is masterfully portrayed by Jesper Christensen who, deservedly, won both the Bodil and Robert awards for his performance. Enter a woman who says she is his daughter and suddenly his world becomes complicated. What is so great about this film is that it never wallows in pity and heartfelt sympathies for its protagonists and neither does it become a political manifesto about the sufferings of the lower classes. This is ultimately a movie about a man, a man who may have made some wrong decisions in his life but nonetheless a human being like the rest of us. Per Fly spent a lot of time with people whose life resembles that of the characters in order to achieve a high level of authenticity. As a result the setting of the film is thoroughly believable and the characters equally so. This is the first film in Per Fly's trilogy about the classes in Denmark, the second movie about the upper class premiers this week in Denmark and the third, about the middle class will begin preproduction shortly.
It's All About Love (2003)
Another great film from a great dane
Before I went to see this film, I had read a lot of reviews that said that it wasn't good; it lacked a properly fleshed-out story, it was too superficial. After I saw it, I could understand why the reviewers felt like this, but I wholeheartedly disagree with them. This film isn't supposed to be a credible social drama with a probable storyline and believable characters. The nature of this film is light, almost ethereal. From start to finish this is a fairytale, an intangible voyage through events and interactions with one overshadowing theme: It's all about love. I was reminded, when I saw this film, of the stories of Oscar Wilde, they too possess an immaterial, poignant view of the fleeting nature of love (or happiness for that matter). The air of the film is amplified immensely by the beautiful images and the hauntingly sweet music by Zbiegniew Preisner (who has composed the music for many of Kieslowskis films). Especially the huge panoramas in connections with the planes are some of the most beautiful images I have ever seen on film. The film's use of close-ups takes a little getting used to, but is very effective at communicating the characters' emotions. Among the actors, I was especially impressed by Sean Penn, who provides a sort of philosophical voice-over to the entire film. Also Joaquin Phoenix was a positive surprise, he was much more toned down than I have seen him before. The cast that make up the tiny community around the main character Elena is eminently selected, with a wide range of memorable characters. The actors are some of the best supporting actors around. Thomas Vinterberg has made a film that is decidedly different from "Festen", but in my opinion almost as good. I can't wait to see what his next project will be.
Iskanderija... lih? (1979)
Why indeed
One cannot help but agree with the title of this film. Why indeed? Why spend more than two hours watching this mess of a film. The only reason I can think of that the Jury gave this movie the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, is that is is different from anything else at the festival. And it is, it is a refreshing view through the eyes of a moviemaker NOT from the west. Unfortunately Youssef Chahine is not up to the task. He has severe difficulty figuring out which story he wants to tell, there are many stories in this film that would make great movies in their own right, but the constant intermingling of them, which might have worked in the hands of a more experienced director, fails in this film. For the first hour you are thrilled with the movie. One of the many stories involves an Egyptian aristocrat who picks up young English soldiers and kills them, one of them however invokes his pity and he ends up falling in love with him. For the first part of the movie this story is well told and interesting, but in the second half it becomes obvious and cliché and the good beginnings are ruined. This is one of his early movies and, although I haven't seen any others, I firmly believe that his production has improved vastly with experience, but you should definitely not see this as your first movie by him.
Grim Fandango (1998)
One of the last great adventure-games
Ah, the golden days of yore, when you could find adventure games of this quality often. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. The golden age is over, but every once in a while a game appears out of the dusk that blast through to the mainstream. This game blew my mind (and that of many others), it was voted game of the year by many sites (totally unheard of for an adventure game). The graphics are very impressive, I am not usually a fan of 3D-graphics, but the jagged, iconographic style suits the theme (which is a curious mix of film noir and a south American folklore). Of course, the greatest thing about this game is the story; it is an epic tale of a man's redemption after his death, delightfully free of usual American sentimentality and with numerous references to film noir. The narrative style is highly cinematic and the excellent voice action, along with great music, helps convey the atmosphere beautifully. This is as close to an interactive movie as you can get. That, however, does not mean that the game is too easy, you will easily spend hours on this game. This game represents everything that makes this genre great, I can't recommend it enough. By the way, if you want more of the same, I can also recommend The Longest Journey from Norwegian developer Funcom.
The Wedding Dress (2001)
Worthwhile
I happened to turn on the TV the other night and catch this gem of a movie. While it's outline may seem overly sentimental they manage to pull it off. With a solid performance by a couple of American TV-stables this movie succeeds in the difficult (and very misused) genre of romantic comedy. The plot weaves effortlessly between the different characters never spending too much time in one place and, thankfully, never overemphasizing the atmosphere. While not likely to win the Golden Palms this is certainly a worthwhile movie, so if you happen to catch it, don't change channels, it beats Jay Leno any day!
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Incredibly moving film
This is one of the most moving films I have ever seen. It is more than 3 years since I saw it and it still stands as clear in my memory. The air of quiet melancholy that dominates throughout this movie is never in danger of becoming melodramatic or overstated. I recommend every one to see this movie and the other films based on the books by Raymond Briggs (Father Christmas and The Snowman).
Lucky People Center International (1998)
Interesting premise but fails in central points
The first third of this film, thrilled me. I was piqued by the connections the directors made between song, dance, religion and ecstasy. But gradually it began to irritate me that the makers apparently couldn't see beyond their own New Age eco-narcissism. Step by step the movie becomes a political manifesto and most of the good intentions go to waste. It is still a very interesting film and despite its shortcomings in image quality, it should be viewed by anyone who liked Baraka.