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Moriarty’s DVD Shelf! APARTMENT ZERO Review
This one’s been a long time coming. That’s what happened to a lot of films from the ‘80s that were financed by 37 different tiny companies. Skouras Pictures was the theatrical distributor in the US, but the film was financed by PRO, a British company. Over the years, the film has bounced from one video label to another. I saw the film as an imported Japanese laserdisc once, curious to see the original 124 minute theatrical version. The movie was cut for home video by Martin Donovan, the film’s director and co-writer. This isn’t the guy from WEEDS and the Hal Hartley films, though. Different Martin Donovan. This guy is from Argentina. He was a TV writer in the ‘70s on stuff like CHICO & THE MAN and THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and then he seemed to reinvent himself when he hooked up with a young writer named David Koepp. They wrote APARTMENT ZERO together, and then later they also wrote DEATH BECOMES HER, the Robert Zemeckis jetblack slapstick comedy. For many years, the only version of this film available has been the cut version, but Anchor Bay’s Feb. 20th release of the film will correct that and finally offer a worthwhile version for people to rediscover.
The film takes place in Buenos Aires, where Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) runs a small reparatory theater. He’s an already-crumbling cookie when we meet him. Firth’s incredibly young here, and he’s a bizarre bundle of exposed nerve endings. When his mother goes insane, he has to put her away, and the combination of those expenses and the slow-motion failure of his theater means that LeDuc finds himself in financial straits. He has to rent his mother’s room out to someone, a prospect that terrifies him. He knows he’s not fit to live with a stranger. And then Hart Bochner walks in and the chemistry between him and Firth is so electric and disturbing from the very first moment that it seems inevitable that LeDuc will invite Jack Carney (Bochner) to stay. What could be a one-note film about a twisted man’s romantic obsession becomes much more complicated when LeDuc starts to realize that things don’t add up about his surface-perfect new tenant. As their relationship develops against the backdrop of a series of murders in Buenos Aires, the film manages to be wicked fun and terribly sad in equal measure, and it's the sort of thriller that lingers because of just how pervasively and peversely creepy it all is.
The film moves at its own pace, but it’s always rich with characterization and eccentric detail, and Donovan’s use of Buenos Aires is hypnotic. The film’s got a great score by Elia Cmiral (RONIN, WRONG TURN), and even though it’s got some of the unmistakable visual signatures of the ‘80s, the film doesn’t feel dated. It just adds to the particular surreal flavor of the piece.
The disc comes with two commentaries. One is by Martin Donovan, and the other is by David Koepp with a “special guest star.” I haven’t played the two commentaries yet, but I hear it’s Steven Soderbergh who shows up with Koepp for some reason. I’m just pleased that some effort was put into finally getting this one back into the marketplace so people can discover it or see it again. Now I want to see if someone will put out MAD AT THE MOON, Donovan’s follow-up film which isn’t currently available in any format in the US. Maybe it’s about time someone pay this obviously talented filmmaker a little due respect, and that David Koepp’s detractors be reminded of just where he began.
This is definitely a film I’m adding to my permanent collection, and one I’d recommend to anyone in the mood for a strange but satisfying thriller that recalls early Polanski or even Lynch. Good stuff.
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Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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I've been waiting to see that film for eons......... and they end up releasing shite instead. WTF?
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...very glad to see DVD at last. Very good film about one's life informed by cinema, in need of human companionship, lengths to which one can go to keep companionship. Similar to "Fade to Black", or even "The Talented Mr. Ripley"
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They still don't got the rent.
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lame movie.
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ZOMG!
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But I was very young and it was years ago on VHS. It got great reviews, but was hard to find. Didn't live up to the hype for me but I gotta give it 1 more chance.
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is the unrelenting feeling the film imposes on its audience; after twenty minutes you know that some incredible twist of The Insane is just around the corner, but you don’t know which corner. Oh, and it’s funny; especially the more times you see it. I would say that Apartment Zero is the funniest film since 2001: A Space Odyssey (in a like minded comparison sort of way thingy-mer-jig. Ya dig?)
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I'm ecstatic. This is one of my all time favorite movies.
I've been obsessed with the U.S. role in Argentina's "Dirty War" every since I saw this movie nearly 20 years ago. (For those of you among the vast majority of Americans who have never heard this: We did and/or supported some very bad things in the 70s in Argentina.)
This movie is disturbing and shows an American psycho more authentically than "American Psycho" did.
Btw, it was Colin Firth's first big role. -
Honestly Who cares about Apartment Zero when the king of all movies came out on DVD today. All Hail The Greatness of GYMKATA!!!!!!!
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I saw this on vhs about 16 years ago. I remember almost nothing of the plot yet I have intense feelings that I really enjoyed this film. I've lost count of how many people I've asked over the years "Have you seen Apartment Zero". I've never met one person who admits to even knowing that this film exists. Even the girl I watched it with says she doesn't remember the film at all. I actually started to think that I didn't really see it but just read about it in some film journal or magazine. Nice to know it's out there and I'm not crazy (well...). Hope it holds up.
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Essentially, the U.S. government, at the behest of Henry Kissinger, overthrew Salvador Allende and installed dictator Augusto Pinochet, killing scores of people in the immediate aftermath and terrorizing many more in the proceeding decades.
On another note, I've been waiting ages for "Apartment Zero" on DVD. Very well-written, with clever dashes of dark humor and a very intriguing homosexual subtext. -
...I told him that Piven is thanking is lucky stars he survived the shitfest that was PCU. At least he wasn't in High School High...
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everyone's gotta begin somewhere.
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I saw this in the theater when it came out and strongly disliked it. I may have even walked out. It wasn't just the creepy psycho-sexual vibe (which, yes, Talented Mr. Ripley did beautifully), but the story seemed like such a mess. To this day, the residue makes me unable to see Colin Firth as a swoon-worthy romantic lead the way the ladies have fallen for him, Mr. Darcy nothwithstanding. He does his job, but he seems creepy and cold.
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Name rings a bell .....
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...as I understand it anyway. Apparently, Michael Mann all but 'disowned' the project (he apparently doesn't site it in his list of work). In the new graphic novel, Wilson talks about how Mann has (or is) apparently blocking production of a DVD. The original story by F. Paul Wilson is totally kick ass and even though he says he 'hated' the movie, I personally liked it a lot and would love a DVD of it..even bare bones would be better than my ancient VHS copy of it. Supposedly, it was either released or 'intended for release' in November of 2004 but some searching turns up nothing. Not even bootlegs of the LD that does exist. I just recently bought the soundtrack (import)...Tangerine Dream did some amazing stuff for film!!
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...that don't confront me,
long as I get my money next Friday -
I think not, sir.
Now kindly blow me where the pampers is.
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