Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
There are titles each year that start to pick up steam, and we just start getting flooded with reviews for them. So far this year, the three films this first spy reports in on have been among the most buzzed-about:
Hi Harry,
I just want to share some short thoughts on a few films that recently have been discussed on your site:
Irreversible
I must admit I followed the hype and bought the DVD from Amazon France, although I don’t understand french that good (and no subtitles are included). But even though the story isn’t hard to follow. Like former reviewers already mentioned this film is told backwards in around a dozend acts, each filmed in one uncut shot (or it almost seems so) and centers around a couple and the ex-husband of the couple’s girl. To make it short: She get raped and the two men are looking for revenge.
On one side the film is technically brilliant, but when this film gets more public attention I bet it will be one of the most discussed pictures ever due to its nearly unbearable violence.
Geeks like the folks hanging around at this website will have no problem cause they understand that it is just a motion picture, but there are people who are not able to cross that line between reality and fiction that easy. In my opinion this film could become a problem for them. Sure there have been pictures with violent scenes before, but what makes this film different is that the mentioned scenes seem so real, different to the blown up comic like violence seen in asian films recently.
So for film addicts this film will be a brutal pleasure to watch, all others should be aware of what they are going to see.
The film caught my attention some time ago, cause the soundtrack (included in the DVD set) was produced by Thomas Bangalter, one half of famous french dance act Daft Punk. Good stuff but Daft Punk fans shouldn’t be too excited.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
While some readers critiziced Harry’s Top Ten of 2002 I found them very interesting. I don’t need to see LOTR or Star Wars in it. Everybody knows enough about these films and everybody knows they are great. I want to read about movies I’ve never heard of before. So Harry’s number one made me raise an eyebrow (I still trust Harry’s and Moriarty’s choices... mostly).
“Mr. Vengeance” is a great film period. But it is early impossible to compare it to stuff like LOTR when it comes to place it in any chart cause this is so different.
Like “Irreversible” this film is about revenge and it is also very violent. The film has a stunning mood and although it has a lot of tragic moments it also makes you nearly laugh caused by the situations the characters are forced into. There are some great moments in “Mr. Vengeance” with long quiet parts to show it from the point of the deaf and mute main character. His ill sisters, the wired girlfriend and the revenge-seeking father make this cast a winning point. It is a slow picture but is anything but boring - The story keeps you hanging on for the whole 2 hours.
Maybe “Tiger & Dragon” opened the world’s eyes to asian cinema, but that’s not a problem when you see this film or stuff like The eye, Audition, the original Ring and lots of other great pictures soon to be discussed on this site.
Goodbye Lenin
Although I’m from germany I’m not a big fan of german cinema. Beneath classics like “Das Boot” or “The Tin Drum” recent hits like “Run Lola run” or “Das Experiment” are exceptions – the biggest part of german cinema is nearly unbearable. While countries like France or the UK better and better stuff by the time, our creativity is blocked by bureaucracy. There hasn’t been a noteable action movie for years. We had a recent try in thriller with “Tattoo” which was for german standard OK, but compared to international stuff just half baked. So latest hope lies in the crtically acclaimed “Goodby Lenin” and it is really worth a look. At any rate foreign viewers should at least have basic knowledge about the recent history concerning the german unity, otherwise most of the laughs will be hard to understand.
Just right before that reunion a strong socialist mother falls into coma, the wall breaks down, east- and west-germany is one, and she wakes up. While the doctor advises her son that “any shock would kill her” he does anything to make her believe socialism is still alive, which leads to some hilarious scenes. Concerning to most other german comedies all actors are in top form and truly believeable. The story has lots of intelligent jokes without getting to cheap, added by some dramatic moments perfectly fitting into the storytelling.
It’s not 100% perfect but that could also be caused by my basic refusal to german cinema. For interested viewers this film should not be missed.
Any spelling or typing miztakez may be forgiven...
Jetfunk
This next guy deals only with IRREVERSIBLE, and I’m still writing my review for this film. I think it’s technically remarkable, but I also think the Emperor’s a bit underdressed, if you catch my drift. Anyway, check this out:
A film more violent than Straw Dogs and Salo combined. Writer-director Gaspar Noe, the man responsible for Irreversible, once stated his ambition to create such a film. Here, we have a most admirable attempt, in what must be one of the most horrifically violent films ever. I liked it.
French cinema is a notoriously capricious beast. Sometimes the celluloid burns and crackles with the spirit of new wave bravery and innovative élan. At other times it teeters on the brink of its own derriere. Irreversible treads the fine line in between.
The film opens with the archetypal ‘wise old French man’ who declares “time destroys everything” – the message of the film which is echoed at the end. When the camera then takes us into a gay club called The Rectum it’s like semiotic self-depreciation. Indeed, the film almost seems to be proud how close it is to disappearing up its own.
In the seedy basement club a man is looking for “Le Tenia”. The shaky camera bounces chaotically around the red-lit rooms; a nauseating sequence which frankly irritated me to the nth degree and left me in a state of complete indifference. Then something happened; something incredibly horrific. A man – apparently “Le Tenia” – suddenly has his face smashed in by a fire extinguisher wielded by one of his pursuers. I leaned forward in my seat, put my hand on my mouth and watched as the man’s head, with shocking realism, fell to pieces on the screen; a fusillade of violent percussive strikes. Unlike the films of Scorsese and Tarantino where the camera is inclined to cut away at the point of most extreme violence, Noe’s camera holds on the face of the man until it is no more than a concave pulp. From then on, my attention was undivided.
The concept of the film in itself is compelling. It tells the story anti-chronologically, so the opening actually tells the end of the story. It’s a clever twist on the revenge film; we see the act of vengeance first and later we see the motivation for it - another controversy-courting scene where a woman (Alex, played by Monica Bellucci) is raped and beaten into a coma. We see the entirety of the savage rape from an objective camera, without cuts. Of course, by the time it happens, we already know how it will end – we have already seen her being carried out on a stretcher, her body bloodied and apparently lifeless. Yet this is a great strength of the film – a film which, although brutal in parts, is at times also amusing and, believe it or not, romantic. In fact, the end of the film is not so alien to a Hollywood romance; it is ostensibly a happy ending. But the audience is burdened with hindsight and so haunted with the knowledge of what is to come. Thus, the joy of lovers Alex and Marcus (played by the great Vincent Cassel, La Haine) is marred, pregnant with tragedy. Time, it seems, will destroy everything. In fact, it already has.
Irreversible is a great film, though not without flaws. The direction at times seems too desperate for originality and artiness – annoyingly so. Generally, though, the varied style is highly effective, with Kubrick-esque objective tracking shots and an incredible boldness to deal so explicitly with violence on screen. Make no mistake, this is not simply a gore-fest; Noe has crafted a unique and arresting piece of cinema which has real merit at its pounding heart.
I don’t disagree about there being merit to the film and some of what it says and does, but I’m not sure I think it has the degree of merit people are granting to it. I think the technical craftsmanship is so overwhelming it’s hard to process at first. This next guy, Robert Paulsen, was certainly bowled over:
IRREVERSIBLE (****)
This is one of the most powerful experiences I ever had in a movie theater. Working backwards (like "Memento"-but a thousand times better), the narrative is revenge, crime, then character study, in that order. The editing combines visuals, music, and sound in such a way that all your senses are bombarded, then soothed, over the ensuing 99 minutes. I hate to tell people that the first 20 minutes were the most intense I have ever seen on film. Yes, the violence is graphically realistic. Yes, the 9-minute rape is, literally, unwatchable. Yes, clearly 1/4 of the audience was gone after the first 30 minutes. And, yes, its one of the 5 greatest films I have ever seen!! One of the most powerful and thought provoking films you will ever see, "Irreversible" should be seen by anyone who loves the cinema. I put it in the same class as "Henry, Portrait of A Serial Killer". Anyone who has seen, and loves that special film, will know what I'm talking about! I approached director Gaston Noe and told him that the only other movie that affected me that way was "2001" when I first saw it in Cinerama in 1968. I told him it was ironic that he included its poster in one of the final shots. Gaston told me that the reason he included it was that Kubrick was his long time inspiration. The quote on the poster is "The Ultimate Trip", which is what I felt like for weeks after I screened this amazing masterpiece!
The film will be released unrated in New York and LA on March 7th. If you must, close your eyes (and ears) for the first 20 minutes, but DON'T LEAVE UNTIL THE FINAL FRAME! You will not regret it!!
One thing’s for sure... IRREVERSIBLE will be one of the films that people never forget from this year, and any serious cinema fan would do well to search it out in limited release starting this weekend.
"Moriarty" out.
