Father Geek here with Edgard and the Euro-AICN crew to present you with a very good column for this Monday morning. Detailed reviews of two 2001 event films BATTLE ROYAL and BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES; and an interview with BR director Kinji Fukasaku plus lots of info on other big time films that we're all looking forward to, so Father Geek will step into the background and turn the spotlight on Edgard...

EURO AICN

Hello AICN readers, Edgard here with a brand new EURO AICN column...

This week at last I saw the "Beast", yes... I saw BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES and my review is at the bottom... meanwhile there's much more here first... a review also of BATTLE ROYALE, some news from the Netherlands, from the Cannes Festival, a bit more more on VERSUS, and... well... many more... so here it is and enjoy !!

THE NETHERLANDS

Floris sent us the following two news, one concerning a possible SOLDIER OF ORANGE 2, and one about the Dutch vessel "Batavia"...

* The Dutch newsagency ANP reported that producer Rob Houwer is planning to make a sequel to the 1977 movie "Soldaat van van Oranje" ("Soldier of Orange"). Soldaat van Oranje II - the raid to Ambon, is based on the second book of writer and resistance hero Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema. In the fifties he went to the Maluku islands (near Indonesia) to help with the struggle for independance. Houwer has asked Rutger Hauer, who played the part of Roelfzema in the first movie, to return. "He wants to, but nothing has been settled yet", Houwer said.

* Since the Olympic Games, the full-size reconstruction of the Dutch trading vessel "Batavia" has been on dispay in the Sydney harbor. She was to be transported back to the Netherlands, but now an American studio has asked to delay that by ten weeks because they are interrested in making a movie about the Batavia. Now I now Paul Verhoeven has always been interrested in making the movie, (the story of the Batavia is one with a lot of violence, sex and murder while sinking before the Australian westcoast in 1629), but ten weeks seems a bit short for a major Hollywood production. On the other hand the studio is willing to pay 250.000 $ for the delay.

Floris

* And now a long report from Amahagger Muggle from the Rotterdam Film Festival, and more precisely on the much talked about BATTLE ROYALE : Last saturday evening, the Rotterdam Film Festival hosted the first European showing of "Battle Royale", with director Kinji Fukasaku attending! Having read the reviews on AICN, my friends and I tried to get tickets the moment we knew it was going to be shown at the festival. We were very disappointed that the festival hadn't gotten Mamoru Oshii's "Avalon" (the reason, as we were told, was that it would premiere at Berlin, except it doesn't as far as I know, so I'm still a bit cross), but this pacified us a bit. Everything was already sold out though, except for the first screening on saturday, which would take place in the biggest cinema we have over here. We bought our tickets, not knowing it was the European premiere or that there would be a Q&A with the director afterwards. As you can imagine, we were very thrilled when we found out.

First of all, I don't want to spoil too much, so if you've read the other reviews on this site, I'm not going to add anything storywise. From all of the reviews already posted, I tend to agree the most with the one written by Hecubus. I can understand Repojay's point of view , but I disagree with his comment on the "everyone dies uttering last words" bit. It just isn't true, as only a couple die that way (and if YOU were shot in the stomach, you would do the same thing I imagine). For those who haven't read anything about this film, it's about a school class of 15-year-olds, who are dropped on an island by the japanese government, given weapons, and told to kill each other till only one survives. If, after three days, more than one one lives, all survivors will be killed. If there is only one survivor, he or she will be set free. The movie then goes on to record the reactions and gruesome deaths of the 42 youngsters, who are forced to kill their classmates. When their numbers dwindle, people snap all over the place as paranoia starts to rule.

So, why is this horrible violent exploititive movie any good? Well, to start with, although it dwells on the violent deaths of the teens, it dwells more on the relationships between them. Acting and dialogue amongst the kids are good, with no exceptions. Each of the 42 has their moment on stage (well, for some admittedly a very short one, obviously), and this makes the people more than mere numbers. All of the classroom stereotypes are there, but instead of being cheap clichés, they just seem recognizable. You have "the innocent beauty", "the bitch beauty", "the wizzkid" but let's face it, didn't we all know classmates like that when we were that age? This is done so well and believable here I can almost exchange people I knew with some of the actors in the movie. Little flashbacks and cue-cards (as in silent movies) occasionally show what these people meant to each other, and it makes them come alive before they die. Next, although the premise is ridiculous and never well explained (apart from "adults taking revenge on all those infernal young people"), the setting is very believable. You never get the idea you're looking at a set. I would go as far as to say that, in the way "Titanic" managed to create the 'feeling' you were aboard a ship, "Battle Royale" manages to put you on a rainy forested island, were everyone you know may be out to get you. Good art direction and camerawork go a long way here. Back to acting: some people excell. Kitano "Beat" Takeshi is one of them. He is the kids teacher, a man driven over the edge of sanity by the insults, violence and general lack of respect he got from his students. He is tragic, chilling and sad. And boy, does he get even! This class is chosen by impartial lottery, he tells the students, but throughout the film you cannot shake the feeling that he wrote an awful lot of letters to the government telling them his class would be perfect for this. I don't know the names of any of the actors playing the students, but "Sickle girl" will stick with anyone who has seen her. Beauty turned terminator, she puts the goosebumps in 'chilling' (just watch her casually flicking blood of the blade after a double kill). After watching her and "Audition", you might start to think differently about japanese beauties! Has this movie no faults whatsoever? Err, there are a couple. The role of the media in this is never explained well enough. The opening suggests Battle Royale is an event like Big Brother or Survivor, but the kids seem to have never heard of it when they encounter it, and the press is completely absent after the opening. Melee fights are very well shot and choreographed, but gunfights seem like standard action fare, with people shooting uzis for virtually minutes, using one hand only. Also 42 students might be a bit much. After the first twenty, gunnings look a bit repetative.

It's good points outweighs it's bad points by far, in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if this picture gets worldwide cult status, and some scenes are classic methinks. Some of my friends were less friendly with it however, so it isn't everyone's fare. It's meant to be a mainstream entertainment action horror picture, so think "Scream", only with realistic people and done better.

On to the Q&A with director Fukasaku. Last year he was present here at Rotterdam as well, when a collection of his yakuza movies from the seventies and eighties was showing (to critical acclaim), and he and publisher Toho apperently liked it enough to return and grant this festival the European premiere. His son, who is credited as both producer and scriptwriter for "Battle Royale", took pictures of his father and the audience with a small camera, which I thought was touching and funny in a stereotypical sort of way. Before the movie started, Fukasaku (who in sunglasses himself resembles a Yakuza leader a bit) told us briefly he hoped we would be entertained by it, as that was his goal. And he was glad so many people showed up (every single seat was filled), which he thought was fitting for a movie in which so many people die. After the movie there was twenty minutes of Q&A. This was the first Q&A I ever saw, and I was surprised by how generally boring it was, so instead of mentioning every question and answer, I'll just give a list of things I thought to be of interest:

-Director Fukasaku had never heard of Survivor and Big Brother (lucky man!) until his visit to Los Angeles last week, so he said he couldn't comment on similarities.

-The film is based on a novel, which was excluded from winning a japanese horror award because it was "too repulsive". The book then became an underground hit, and when Fukasaku heard of it, he thought it a fun idea in which he could include a lot of aspects of japanese society.

-Fukasaku put much time and effort in the teacher character, while his son is responsible for the very believable dialogue between the teenagers, also acting as an interpreter of sorts between the young cast and his father.

-When asked if there was a difference between the reaction of the Dutch audience and the Japanese one, Fukasaku replied reactions during the movie were more or less the same, except for a scene in the beginning when everything is explained to the class. The Dutch audience was more sensitive to the jokes he put there, as we laughed more than the japanese audience. He said he was glad somebody appreciated the humor.

-Rudely, someone just stood up and asked (in an American accent) why therewas no sex and nudity in the movie, only violence ("not even a single bare breast!"). Director Fukasaku replied graciously that he himself was very fond of sex and nudity, but was fond of violence in movies as well. He said: "If he would have put everything I liked and the kitchen sink in "Battle Royale" it would have lasted for five hours, so let's just stick with the violence!". The audience cheered and applauded on hearing this.

I must add that I'm pleased that Kinji Fukasaku was on national Dutch television last friday being interviewed. They also showed a couple of scenes from "Battle Royale", marking it as one of the major festival events last saturday.

FRANCE

* Last week, Champagne 2000 brought our attention on a Japanese film called VERSUS (you can read this story here : Just Click Here ; saying that this film would become cult like EVIL DEAD, BRAIN DEAD, or other fine work... Since then we also received the following message confirming Champagne 2000's view :

Hi ! I don't know the guy (Champagne 2000), or maybe I do. I'm a french journalist and I've seen "Versus" at Gerardmer festival. The sceptical reactions to Champagne's enthousiam makes me write to you just to say that he's not exagerating ! "Versus" is a real cinematic choc. Because of the information he gives, I think Champagne is a a journalist or he knows some of the journalist that have interviewed the japanese crew and I'm of these. In about a month, 3 or 4 french independent press cinema titles (Starfix; SFX; Mad Movies) will make reports about this movie. Canal + has already made a short subject about it last week in "Le journal du cinéma". Even the most hard horror fans and the living cinema encyclopedies were convinced. It' s really 2 hours of non stop action with some crazy ideas like zombies firing all around them with a enormous gun in each hand ! For information, it's the third movie of Ryuhei Kitamura.

Trooper

* From Screendaily, some disapointing news about the next Festival de Cannes (in May): Actress Jodie Foster has been forced to drop out as president of this year's Cannes Film Festival jury after being selected as a last-minute replacement for the injured Nicole Kidman in the lead role of David Fincher's The Panic Room. The impending threat of a summer strike, should either the writers or actors guilds now fail to agree new employment contracts with their Hollywood studios, meant that Columbia Pictures could ill afford to delay further shooting of Fincher's film in order to accommodate Foster's proposed schedule in Cannes. This year's festival runs from May 9-20. "I hope with all my heart that it is only a postponement and that, if the festival honours me with another request, I will one day become president of a festival to which I owe so much, and this time for good!" said the bilingual Foster, who was educated at a French school in Los Angeles. There has been no official word yet on who will now take over as jury president. This is the second festival setback already this year for the 38-year-old actress following a decision late last year to pull The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys, a film she both produced and starred in, from the prestigious premiere section of the recently concluded Sundance Film Festival. Her film found itself replaced by the poorly received Invisible Circus. The Panic Room was already two weeks or so into shooting at the start of this year when Kidman was stricken by another knee injury. It is still not clear whether this is the same knee that she aggravated during production of Baz Luhrman's song-and-dance musical Moulin Rouge last year. Foster will now step into the starring role of a mother's domestic cat-and-mouse battle with a pair of thieves (played by Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam) who break into her Manhattan apartment in order to steal a hoard of cash. The film is based on a screenplay written on spec by David Koepp that was bought by Columbia for a reported $4m.

* CRIMSON RIVERS (the French thriller starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel) is a hit in Japan ! After two days, it made 1,6 million $, putting him ahead of "What Women Want" and Takeshi Kitano's "Brother". So far, the Matthieu Kassovitz film took 25 millions $ worldwide (with 15 millions $ in France only and 7 in Italy). Next are Korea (the film is released there on February 3rd), Spain (March 23rd), Germany (April 19th) and UK (April 20th).

* Gérard Depardieu will soon go to Cambodia to join the crew of UNDER THE BANYAN TREE with James Caan and Matt Dillon, who will also direct for the first time. Dillon also cowrote the script.

UK

* From Screendaily, some news on a new film starring Christina Ricci... : Christina Ricci is to star opposite UK actor John Simm in the provisionally-titled UK romantic comedy Miranda. The $5.9m (£4m) production is being financed by the UK's FilmFour, which is handling international sales. To be directed by Marc Munden from a script by Rob Young, the project marks the feature debut of TV production outfit Feelgood Fiction. Ricci, whose recent credits include Sleepy Hollow and The Man Who Cried, also with a UK production outfit, Working Title Films, plays a con woman with six identities - including a dominatrix, an angel, a business woman, a geisha girl and an arts student. Simm, whose credits include Human Traffic and Michael Winterbottom's upcoming 24 Hour Party People, plays a librarian who has to work out which persona he fell in love with.

OZYMANDIAS CORNER

Don't blame Ozy... the following news was sent to me last week, but I couldn't add it to last week's Euro AICN... so it might not sound fresh... here it is and my apologizes to Ozy...

First off saw a bit on Sky News here yesterday that Ronan Keating (now solo, ex-lead singer of Boyzone) will be doing the theme tune to the Scooby Doo movie...... Will try and dig on this one.....

She didn't get the Lyssa part in Blade 2 but apparently Dublin pop babe Samantha Mumba is still trying but what part in what Spielberg movie???!?!?!? Showbizireland.com have the details on that and a new Jim Sheridan pic:

-Both Irish producer Jim Sheridan and teen pop sensation Samantha Mumba are causing rumblings with the movie industry in America. Rumours are circulating that Sheridan is to make an Irish version of the Godfather staring Liam Neeson. Mumba’s manager Louis Walsh, who is only back from LA a few days, told ShowBizIreland.com that he was there doing a film deal for the Irish singer. Apparently the part is in a film which is being made by Stephen Speilberg. Conversely, reports in Ireland are that the singer has just done a deal for a TV film with Disney. All however is not all rosy in the Irish film world. Sources in Ardmore Studious are saying that a number of upcoming Hollywood films being made in Ireland may now go on hold with the pending Actors strike in the US.

Films such as Reign of Fire, Disney’s big budget movie which is already getting sets built in Ireland, may now go on hold as will as number of other projects in the Irish film pipeline.

L8r, Ozymandias

ozymandias@dublin.com

Ain't It Cool News - Ireland/UK Office, Penthouse Suite, Ozymandias Towers, Dublin, Ireland.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES (Le Pacte des Loups)

Review by Edgard

Damned !! I sooooo wanted to love this film... I so wanted to say "Masterpiece", "Cult film" or just "Two thumbs up" (as you say on the other side of the Ocean)... but.. it's not the case, although it could have been...

For those who haven't read about the story yet, here it is... in the 18th century, in France, more than 100 persons were killed by an animal... a wolf ? not really... a monster... a "thing"... called "La bête du Gévaudan" (the beast of Gevaudan... for those who didn't guess). This is a true French urban legend... with a mysterious ending as no one really knows what was that Beast... Well BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES is just a way to tell that story, with unfortunately an ending that proposes a (almost) rational explanation to the myth...

For those who haven't read about this film yet, here it is... BOTW is one of the most awaited films in France... since last year's Festival of Cannes where a few minutes were shown for the first time, the buzz has gone crazy... the first images and trailers confirmed it, an overstepping of budget raised the issue... and very quickly BOTW became THE first event of 2001 in French cinema... Well let's say that in that sense BOTW is worth all the buzz... Despite my slightly negative intro, you HAVE to see it... If I was disappointed by it, it's certainly because of all the hype (it happened to me before, remember something called "Episode 1" ?)... So I'll try to share with you why BOTW is not the masterpiece expected, and maybe like that you will enjoy it more than I did. Anyway as soon as I can I will go see it again !

Let's start with my two main negative comments :

1. The length... BOTW is 30 minutes too long... it lasts around 140 minutes because of a too complex story... too many characters, too many subplots... Christopher Gans the director (also director of CRYING FREEMAN) tries too hard to make it an epic film... a film with action, romance, betrayal, suspects... If the movie had been a JAWS or a PREDATOR in the French country of the 18th century, it would have been perfect... because Gans has definitely the eye and the style to make it look good,to make it look furious, fast,... unfortunately the movie loses itself in many dialogues (by actors who are not always convincing), in extra scenes that seem useless (the worst being that romance... I didn't really buy that the two characters could fall for each other, and to be honest I didn't really care... this is a "monster" movie before all...). The plot also gets quite complicated at the end, trying to give an explanation for all the killing (think SLEEPY HOLLOW... it's the same structure, not the same motivations, but the same approach). It's almost like if Gans got scared to make a pure "fun" movie and tried to fill it with "serious" content at any cost... a bit like if he was afraid that some boring critics would have said "Your movie is only about a monster, not about people" that he adds so much (and still so little as there're too many characters) about each persons.

2. And directly depending of my point N°1 : the rhythm... To make a film that seems like a rollercoaster for 140 minutes is really hard... that's why the movie seems slow sometimes and that's also too bad. First mistake, the introduction and conclusion... it's like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or EDWARD SCISSORHANDS... it starts with one old character who remembers... that's useless and should have been removed as it doesn't bring anything to the film... For the rest, it's sometimes frustrating as there're a few scenes which really kick in... you feel the adrenalin going up... you feel the tension, the violence, the rage growing... you start holding your seat, you're thinking "That's it now...here we go"... but it slows down... It's particularly true in the end... there's this great hunting scene that ends with the death of a character... people gets angry, you're thinking "Great, now the revenge scene..."... well no, first 10 minutes of blablabla, subplots, romance... then it comes... the "revenge scene" and you think "Great, now it's the final... the movie kicks ass !!"... well it does... many are killed, there's revenge in the air... but again it stops... blablabla...romance... tears... the Beast is not dead yet... the bad guys are still alive... here we go again... and finally the finale is there... If everything was linked, you would get 30 minutes of pure action, beautifully shot, tense and everything... instead you get a long finale of 50 minutes with slow and unnecessary pauses... frustrating.

Well again if I sound hard with BOTW it's because I was one of the first one probably who was really excited about this film, I so wanted to love it... that's maybe my fault, I got over excited too soon... Now it would be unfair to say this film is a failure... it has many more positive aspects than negative and you should see it... any AICN reader will certainly find great scenes in this film... Gans shows real talent for action scenes... you can feel his love for films in almost every frames... the first attack scene is a tribute to JAWS, then you have great fighting scenes (with a use of "heavy sound" like JohnWoo does), Sergio Leone, John Mc Tiernan, Mario Bava... many very good references. When CRYING FREEMAN was released a few years ago, I remember some critics complaining that Gans was just copying other directors. I disagree. Gans has his own style and a very good one, but Gans loves also to make references to all his "masters" and he certainly does it better than many directors out there... The problem lays in the narration only. Another good point is the mix of genre... here we're in a period film, the 18th century... yet the fights remind you of kung-fu movies, the costumes and general atmosphere of Spaghetti Western (and one of the characters is an Indian), there's a monster (just okay for the CGI effects) and some weapons are directly borrowed from video games (you will LOVE the sword used by the bad guy in the last fight). As for the actors, my choice will go to Mark Dacascos (who really deserve to find his place in big and good action movie, he has the acting AND fighting talent) and Vincent Cassel (who's certainly the best actor of his generation in France). Samuel Le Bihan misses a "I don't know what" to be totally credible and cool as the main hero...

Now I do hope BOTW will get a lot of success here in France and also around the world... it proves that there's a place for real popular films in France, it proves that there's the talent for it too (hope Gans will start working quickly on his next film, too bad he dropped his "Nemo" project), the only thing to do is to be better with scripts... it's just a small detail... a 30 minutes detail in this case, still it would be stupid not to see BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES because it is THE event in French cinema of 2001...

Edgard

That's it for this week... you know what you're supposed to do : send us your comments, news, reviews, reports... to the EURO AICN offices in Paris at euroaicn@yahoo.com and we'll see to it that the world reads it.