Terribly Happy

The ironically titled Danish film 'Terribly Happy' is the tale of a cop sent to serve as local Marshall in a remote border town in South Jutland called Skarrild that doesn't need cops or have much use for them. It's a place where nothing much happens. Ha! Well -- that's what they say. This part of the country, you don't know if you're coming or going. People use the same monosyllable, "Mojn" (pronounced "moyn") to say both "hello" and "goodbye." Men of few words, they are, these boozy locals, who like to settle scores their way, not "by the book." Klepto kids are just boxed brutally on the ears and sent packing. There's a bog that swallows up junk, sometimes a cow, maybe some darker secrets. This place is insular, mysterious, and weird. And a bog, like a pistol, once introduced, must be used.
'Frygtelig lykkelig' (it sounds funnier in Danish) has its own rhythm and momentum, and a snappy style including a sound design that's sometimes explosive, sometimes ironic. The film's consistently effective, and has a unique feel, though at times its hodgepodge of genres and stylistic borrowings evokes Coen brothers (especially 'Blood Simple') and David Lynch work as it would be if the American auteurs had filmed in Danish in consultation with Aki Kaurismaki. A mix of psychological thriller, horror story, and neo-noir, it moves fast but also manages to take the time necessary to also be a mood piece in which the town vies with the cop for the role of protagonist.
Here are the outlines, but the details have to be omitted because it's all in the surprises and twists. Robert Hansen (Jakob Cedergren) is the policeman from Copenhagen sent out here because he's had a mental breakdown some time ago. He has, shall we say, anger issues. "You're working your way up?" somebody says. Again: ha! He's in serious limbo. He looks convincing in his police uniform and has a modicum of leading man looks. But then again there's something a bit fuzzy about him too -- something a bit lost. He misses an estranged or divorced wife back home, and repeatedly tries to call her and a little daughter, but without results. He has messed up in some way, and this is a punishment assignment.
Like many noir heroes, Robert comes on the scene already in trouble and immediately gets into more. A pretty but dicey blond called Ingerlise Buhl (Lene Maria Christensen), appears, saying her husband Jørgen (Kim Bodnia) has beaten her. She barges in on Robert the way many a dubious babe has appeared on a hapless noir detective's doorstep. It's not so much a domestic squabble complaint as an attempted seduction -- and instant jeopardy for Robert. He can't ignore Ingerlise but there's no safe way to deal with her. The local rule against outside "by the book" punishments is compounded by the fact that Jørgen turns out to be a scary dude, the town bully; also a man said to have fathered a number of children around town.
The only kids we see are shoplifters corralled by the local grocer, whom Robert learns to smack as instructed rather than book (the kids, that is, not the grocer). And then there's the well-dressed Dorothe (Mathilde Maack), Ingerlise and Jørgen's little girl, who's often seen creepily pushing a big baby carriage around the town's empty, haunted streets with her teddy bear inside. It seems when bad stuff begins at home, she escapes by pushing the carriage. Funnily enough rumor has it she's not Jørgen's. You just don't know, around here.
Genz toys with the unexpected in ways that transcend the film's various genres. These include the Western too, since Jørgen wears a ten-gallon hat and, as odd and menacing at times as Dennis Hopper's bad guy in 'Blue Velvet,' he winds up in a "shoot out" against Robert. Only, in truly Danish style, the shots exchanged are of whiskey, alternating with chugged bottles of beer. (Another bar regular's face is a dead ringer for Hopper's.)
Robert's an outsider but it's never fully clear whether Skarrild wants to exclude him or lock him in forever as one of theirs. His tarnished rep appeals to them because the town's own morals are generally shaky. There's a running card game of the self-declared "quack" Dr. Zerlang (Lars Brygmann) and other local fixtures want Robert for a fourth at the card table. "Everyone knows everything but says nothing" about you in this town, is the rule, and so they know Robert's secrets when he arrives and soon know more in the nightmare Ingerlise and Jørgen force upon him, which he may eventually resolve, or make worse; he must let the town decide. The town has the last laugh, but so do we.
Adapted from a novel by Erling Jepsen,'Terribly Happy' has been richly rewarded in Denmark for its skillful direction, cinematography, writing, and acting. Henrik Ruben Genz obviously had fun making this. It probably didn't hurt much that both he and Erling Jepsen are from the South Jutland region.

Night of the Sunflowers

Is it actually possible that the Coen brothers, while in the process of scripting a movie like, say No Country For Old Men or Miller’s Crossing somehow got lost in a village in Spain, trading their way out in return for one of their scripts, and that script has made it out today into a brilliant thriller, so reminiscent of their style, only this time at the hands of an unknown Spanish filmmaker, in fact his very first directorial venture?? Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo seems very denying, though. He could have, with such a prized script approached any big production house and claimed fame to someone else’s ingenuity. Why then, did he decide to start his work from where he finds himself at home, i.e. rural Spain? Why cast a bunch of unknown actors into a promising script? And what on earth made him venture so far out into the desolateness that he claims, is the becoming of the smaller villages within Spain? Perhaps, there lies an ulterior motive in this brilliant script. And perhaps he did, after all script the movie himself. It’s an insult to any American cinephile, who has no conceptual idea that countries across the Atlantic also make movies, and better ones too.

Night of the Sunflowers is not necessarily a character study. We simply have here, a series of unfortunate events that results out of a meeting by chance, between a rapist and murderer, and his next victim. The rapist will try to victimize a young woman, and who she is and where it all takes place play a decisive part in the violent events that will ensue. So this movie has several strong points. One of them is showing how someone completely unrelated to the rest of the main characters of the story, someone who meets one of those people (the young woman) by chance, can be the trigger for all we're about to see. Then, the structure is very attractive too, as the director tries to make full portraits of each important character and show us, not only what they're doing there, but where they come from, in every sense; he shows us what that person is like, their personality and motivations, and what they want, basically; then he drops that character into the spiral of events that have been started by the attack to the young woman, and so comes this suspenseful story, involving two speleologists, the girlfriend of their leader, a very honest and stern old cop and a dishonest, corrupt young one, and two old men who live in an otherwise derelict village.

Jorge Sánchez’s script takes us on a trail of deceit and murder, edging us to rationalize the circumstances in which these incidents take place. We somehow do exactly that, with no remorse as to the consequences, in the light of what we think is significant or obscure. All that rationalization later makes us feel guilty in a brilliant epiphany towards the end. Somehow, the source of all the evil here is shown as what comes with the arrival of outsiders into an otherwise placid village life. The difference between the natives and the townsfolk is so apparent; it’s literally chalked in black and white. On a later introspection, it is exactly this difference which boils down the series of crimes -unknowingly committed- to what is right and what is wrong. Somehow, we find ourselves at the receiving end of a basic moral instinct which we uphold when faced with a more societal setting. And that, according to Jorge Sánchez is a more obstinate, impervious and obscene act than the real crime we see here.

Paprika

It is hard not to be decked by this film. The first few minutes blast past with such mind-bending, visual élan that it could almost, in itself, stand as an elliptical and enervating short subject. PAPRIKA, the latest anime film from Satoshi Kon (PERFECT BLUE, TOKYO GODFATHERS, PARANOIA AGENT), loosely based on the serial-novel by famed Japanese sci-fi writer Yasutaka Tsutsui, is pure visual ambrosia. While the movie is sure to leave you scratching your head even as you careen from one 2-D, 3-D, CGI animated set-piece to the next, there’s no doubt the movie is one benevolent bully dressed to the cinematic nines. Whether anime/fantastic cinema buffs accept it as a psyberpunkish cautionary tale regarding the conflict of unfettered aspirations vs. soulless technology, or as a definitive statement on the endless possibilities of dreams and cinema, will depend on the viewer’s ability to deal with the overpowering “spice” of the end product’s neuron-battering bravura (this is very much a “head movie”).

Dreams are a mystically pure place where one can live out their fantasies without giving in to the limits of the real world. Countless individuals have tried to analyze, re-enact, and even control their own dreams. What if you could take what’s in your head when you sleep and upload them to a computer? Opening the doors to a realm so unparalleled could bring to life your wildest fantasies and your most terrifying nightmares. Would this be amazing? Or incredibly dangerous? Paprika is a movie that invokes this scenario, combining fantasy dream worlds with a high tech invention that allows people a window into their dreams. Paprika stands teetering on the edge of reality, with the deep ocean that is the dream world beneath her.

With a straightforward narrative that, like a lucid dream, carries enough odd detail to hint at surreal depths, Paprika teases. The titular character is a dream psychologist who is also a dream: she taps into patients' minds, finding centers to their labyrinths. By day Paprika is Atsuko, clinical psychologist and genius (so proclaimed by a jealous coworker) who, along with Tokita, a ginormous, childlike engineer, perfects the DC-Mini, a device which allows direct access to dreams.

Paprika is special. She doesn't need the device to be in people's dreams. Maybe she's just the prototype for a skill set. Maybe dreams are connected already, and she just rides the wave. She uses her power as therapy to gain insight into the meanings of her patients' recurring nightmares.

However, a stolen DC-Mini prototype is being used for a different purpose: to spread an insanity sickness, which causes near-suicidal delusions in the form of waking dreams. Before they can rescue the world from a collective nightmare which threatens all mankind, Paprika, Atsuko, fat Tokita, and Detective Kogima must come to terms with their desires, and with the meanings of shared dreams.

This is certainly one of the most beautiful-looking Anime' features I've ever seen. The bizarre and surreal imagery really does seem like a nightmare come vividly to life on the screen. To my grateful eyes, with the disturbingly violent and sexual images - as well as constant flashes of an otherworldly circus parade featuring household appliances, stuffed animals, and a giant geisha doll that lets out a deathly, ear-shattering shriek - "Paprika" further ensures that this is animation strictly for adults and not children.

Paprika is a paean to movies. There are references to Tarzan, From Russia with Love, Godzilla, Vertigo, and Spirited Away among many others. Even the musical score is a surprise – it's electronic of course, but without the usual coffee-house angst. The quality of the animation is excellent and the detective, Konakawa, has a plain-looking mug that expresses surprisingly subtle emotions without resorting to the squishy-squashy exaggerations that are typical of Disney.

The Tokyo-trashing climax culminates in a mysterious confrontation between masculine and feminine dualities. There are other confrontations too; between maturity and immaturity, aspiration and disappointment, heart and intellect, and a fascinating argument between Dr. Chiba and Paprika about which of them is in charge. At no time in this movie is the distinction between reality and dreams ever clear, and when it is all you leave confused but grinning from ear to ear.

El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes)

The Secret in Their Eyes fell under my radar after watching the Oscar nominations for 2009. I had watched A Prophet and The White Ribbon and I was interested in seeing how this rather unknown movie competed with these two masterworks.

Juan José Campanella's movie follows Benjamín Esposito's investigation of the rape and murder of a 23-year-old schoolteacher. It's a case that haunts him for decades and comes to define his existence. The movie is temporally fragmented, so the narrative jumps from past to present constantly. I should commend the makeup department for its ability to portray the ageing of actors Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago and Javier Godino. Without good makeup, this movie would have fallen apart quickly.

Esposito's investigation takes many turns, meets opposition several times, comes to halts several times in the course of his life, ruins his personal life, and seems like it will never be solved. At the age of retirement he begins reminiscing about it and starts writing a novel based on the event.

This movie addresses many topics at the same time: first of all, the craft of fiction, as Esposito struggles to make sense of the events in order to write his novel. But through this inner journey, the movie also discusses the importance of memory. It also explores the danger of obsession, as Esposito comes to realise that decades working on the case has only left him with a lonely, empty life.

All these ruminations are disguised as a crime movie, a rather elegant one at that. The movie plays with genre a few times, the best one being that it reveals who the murderer is before the end of the first hour. By doing this the movie introduces a more interesting idea: what to do with a criminal who's politically untouchable? Is vigilantism ever justified? At times I reminded myself of Mystic River, which posed similar questions, although the stories are totally different.

Ricardo Darín gives a good performance; in fact I have little to complain about the performances in the movie, but Darín stood out as the passionate, tireless investigator. Pablo Rago, who plays the victim's husband, also impressed me for his ability to portray loss so well.

Since I watched this movie because of A Prophet and The White Ribbon, I have to ask myself: is it as good as those two? No, not by a long chance. The Secret of Her Eyes has quality and good ideas, but I never felt I was watching more than a good movie, whereas I consider the other two masterworks. It's worth watching, but it's hardly the masterpiece everyone is saying it is.

On a final note, if this movie deserved another Oscar nomination, It should be for Federico Jusid's score, whose beauty will no doubt get him more exposure soon.

By Eumenides_0 from Portugal

Gomorra

Despite introductory literatures at various film festivals describing this Cannes Grand Prix Award winner as having 5 stories "woven" together, the stories are quite separate, except for the common theme of the criminal world under the influence of the notorious Mafia Camorra gang. Does it mean that this film is not good? Hardly, if you have the correct expectations. With its 5 separate stories taken from the explosively revealing book by Roberto Saviano (who purportedly had to go into hiding after its publication), Gomorrah is best viewed as a dramatised documentary. As such, it is an excellent piece of cinematic work.

What you notice almost right away, and continuously for the entire 130 minutes of the film, is that the camera never stops moving, a polar opposite to Ozu's, for those who have seen the Japanese master's work. But don't let me mislead you into thinking that this is one of those dizzy, hand-held camera affairs. The movement of the camera, while noticeable, is never distracting. What it does is to take the audience into the various locations in Naples with an amazing sense of reality. In addition to the everyday activities of the proliferation of characters, the film does not omit showing things such as a yawn from an entirely inconsequential and random figure. This is as close to having the audience as an on-site POV observer as you can get.

A brief capsule of the five stories follow. A, adolescent boy's initiation into the underworld, starting with understandable enthusiasm, soon plunges into disillusionment. A middle-age go-between man finds that his influence is fast dissipating in the constantly shifting politics of the underworld. A young businessman has a rude awakening to the business of toxic waste disposal. Two listless, clueless young men on a wild rampage in the underworld find out, too late, that they are not invincible. A tailor with close connections to the Mafia, moonlighting for a lucrative reward from the rivalling garment factory operated by immigrant Chinese, finds out that the situation is too hot for him to handle.

No more needs to be said. This is the sort of film that needs to be seen to appreciate. Only one thing to remember: this is not "The Godfather" nor has it ever intended to be.

By Harry T. Yung (harry_tk_yung@yahoo.com) from Hong Kong

Un Prophete

A 19-year-old man of North African origin is sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a police officer. When he enters prison, he is naïve, shy, and almost withdrawn and cannot read or write. When he leaves six years later, he has become a self possessed, educated individual, capable of controlling his own destiny as well as that of others. Jacques Audiard's (Read My Lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) A Prophet, winner of the Grand Prix Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, is an engrossing coming-of-age drama set in a French prison in which Malik el Djebena (Tahar Rahim), a Muslim estranged from his own community, is recruited into the ruling Corsican Mafia and eventually becomes a gang leader himself. Though deeply involved in nefarious and often bloody activities, the genuineness of his personality makes him an appealing and sympathetic character and adds depth to a riveting experience.

Based on a story by screenwriter Abdel Raouf Dafri, the film clocks in at a lengthy 150 minutes but never feels padded or stretched out. Unable to film in an actual prison location (because they were all being used), Audiard had his own prison built in an industrial area of Paris. As he explains, "Watching it take shape helped us build the prison in our minds, as well." When Malik first arrives, he is singled out by Corsican Mafia boss César Luciani (Niels Arestrup) and told to kill a fellow Muslim prisoner Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi) by slitting his throat with a razor blade. If he refuses, he will be killed himself.

Once the job is done in as brutal a killing scene as you will ever witness or want to witness, Malik is put under César's protection, becoming the Corsican's Arab who carries out menial tasks for him inside the prison. Beset by visions of the deceased Reyeb, Malik, however, soon begins to educate himself on many levels, not only learning to read, but teaching himself Corsican and learning details of Luciani's business. More importantly for his survival, he learns how to operate among the various prison subcultures with their various rituals and codes of honor though he is still an outsider, not fully trusted by either group.

There is no shortage in the film of details involving drug traffic, sex, payoffs, and general prison corruption, things we have seen before, yet the level of our personal involvement remains high due to the heart pounding set pieces and the compelling performances of the lead actors. Slowly, César raises the level of jobs given to Malik, affording him the opportunity to leave the confinement of the prison on several day passes, one involving his first ever flight to Marseilles to negotiate with another Mafia kingpin. Little by little, Malik sets up his own enterprises with his friend Ryad (Adel Bencherif) who is suffering from cancer, and begins to establish his independence from the Corsicans. He becomes known as a prophet when he survives a bizarre car crash, an incident that has been foretold in a fantasy sequence.

Supported by a compelling original score by Alexandre Desplat and brilliant cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine, A Prophet is violent, often ugly and difficult to watch, but is redeemed by the quality of the direction, the outstanding performances by Rahim and Arestrup and the honesty in which it handles the conflicts among ethnic groups, conflicts that mirror French society as a whole. Tahar Rahim is little more than a cipher at the beginning, yet acquires considerable strength of character by the end of the film. According to Audiard, "When I looked into his eyes there was no melancholy, no tragedy, just someone very open, very light, very full of life." A mixture of gritty reality, flights of fancy, identity exploration, and psychological character study, A Prophet is one of the best films of 2009.

By Howard Schumann, from Vancouver, B.C.

Batoru rowaiaru (Battle Royale)

Kinji Fukasaku made a film called Battle Royale back in 2000. He's made plenty of films in the past. I've seen very few of them, apart from Battle Royale but I'm always searching for more.
Battle Royale is a film that has affected many, many people. There are rabid fans of Battle Royale and there are even more people that hate it. Let me tell you why. Battle Royale is a film that exercises its right to explore an idea. Many films have great ideas but most are poorly realized. Battle Royale is simply an awesome movie about one of the most hypothetically traumatic things that could ever happen to teenagers. For those that don't know, the film focuses on what happens when a group of high school students are sent to an abandoned island to kill each other. What brings such a bizarre idea to fruition includes civil unrest, teenage anxiety, and a nation literally terrorized by their youth. It's set in Japan and though it is just a movie it still hit pretty close to reality due to current problems with Japanese youth. In fact, the film was poorly received by the government who feared that the release of the film would incite riots and other such acts of mayhem by the same youth which it focused on. The problem is the same the world around. Young people are much more volatile than they ever were say 20-30 years ago and Battle Royale captures the essence of the horror that today's youth would face going into such a circumstance. Friends kill other friends and bullies all to survive. At the same time they get to live out those videogames that they loved to play at home.

[SIDE NOTE: Counter-Strike, a Half-Life (popular videogame) mod for example, easily prepares young people for the reality of weapons. How many bullets are in a clip of an MP5? What does an assault rifle sound like? Questions like these are easily answered by the videogames of today. Sure, these weapons are also on the streets and in some parts of the world they are even in the hands of children as young as five years-old but the videogame set up creates a comfortable experience with such weapons. It's not that videogames necessarily make people want to get guns rather it gives familiarity to guns. I should mention that I love to play Counter-Strike myself and will continue to play it in the future. I don't hate the game, I'm just pointing out that it does present a fairly realistic portrayal of weapons.]

The problem is that there can be only one survivor of this island massacre, this only adds extra pressure to the already unprepared children who have to fight for their lives. What is truly shocking is that the actors and actresses who have been selected to portray these teens are around the same ages of their characters. They aren't the aging 20-30 somethings that just happen to look young; they are literally teenagers. This flick has some serious bite! It's such a great comment on how we are living in the 21st century in a time when frequently the fear for a country comes from within rather than outside forces.

Certainly, terrorism is at the forefront of the average North American's mind due to the World Trade Center attacks and CNN's endless coverage of the horrors of said event have easily made the problem an international event. But before that the biggest headline grabbers focused on young people, filled with `rage', unleashing their anger on their helpless peers using an array of weapons (mainly guns). School shootings shocked the world when children started killing their peers.

Battle Royale is not meant to trivialize school shootings and youth violence. Rather, it's an examination of the lengths which a government will go in order to discipline the youth. It's such a ludicrous idea. But the characters stay true to form as they profess long held crushes with their dying breath all the way down to naively trusting others who they've always admired as the popular kids. It's sick. Strange. Beautiful. Familiar. Different. And completely engaging. Most people are against the film because they feel that the plot is simply silly or because the dialogue is too hammy or some such nonsense. At the same time, those naysayers will praise films like Braveheart for its honest portrayal of Scotland's only historical hero. I loved Braveheart. I thought it was great too but it's bogus, for the most part. Certain battles and events really did happen. But William Wallace was no man to look up to. He raped and killed women and small children but none of that made it into the film because it was not that kind of "feel good" thing that would sell Wallace as a hero. Battle Royale, since it draws on fictitious characters and plot is far more interesting because it really makes you think about your own life. Could you kill your best friend from high school if the two of you are stuck on an island of death? To this day I refuse to answer that question. It sickens me to think of such a thing and so I felt disturbed by what those 42 kids had to do in Battle Royale. What's even worse is that they were picked by lottery to end up on the island. In the Japan that exists in Battle Royale, each year a random high school class is picked for the event. We are led to believe that all youth in Japan are bad seeds in this film but that really doesn't seem to apply to the class which the film follows. For all intents and purposes, they were innocent. The dialogue between characters is poignant, real, and totally innocent. You can literally see how limited their vocabulary and understanding of the world around them is. Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, some of the characters even profess love for their classmates without even knowing what love is all about. High school is a weird time for anybody. It's an awkward time that is all about experience and misunderstandings. So many people AFTER high school really learn the truth about who liked them and what people really thought of them. During high school there's always some social wall that stops any REAL open communication between two people. Being on the island forces unchecked emotions and feelings to flow out of the characters because death is on the horizon. Can you really label the dialogue as lousy in those circumstances?

Obviously, there are intelligent and well-organized people in the world. Some exist in high school but for the most part teenagers are brash, foolish, and irresponsibly reckless because they've yet to learn from experience. They rarely have any experience. Teenagers put on an island to kill themselves will certainly not learn anything new and if they do it won't matter considering that they'll soon be dead.

Naturally, some go insane and mutter those math equations that their teachers promised them would be valuable in the real world. Others feel the need to fulfill their sexual desires, who wants to die as a virgin, right? Still others try to make the best of the situation by spending their last few hours alive as civilized as possible. But the purpose of the game affects all of these teenagers. They have to hurry. If the battle isn't finished in 3 days they all must die which is easy for the people in charge who have low-jacked each teenager with collars that explode. Not enough to take the head clean off, by default, but rather just enough of an explosion to open up the jugular. They bleed out until they die.their hopes and dreams for the future go with them. This is a grisly film that doesn't specifically cater to gore hounds. Certainly there are some really disturbing death scenes and moments but nothing TOO over the top. The idea is shocking enough, there's no need to be excessive. At first this fact upset me. I wanted this film to be a bloody parade of carnage because I reasoned that it's just a movie. Just some form of entertainment that existed to please me. But the whole idea is sickening and compelling enough to satisfy on more layers than just the visual.

In the end, this is not a film for just anyone off the street. There are so many sceptics and people who are unable to maturely grasp the concept of the film. These are the people that really hate it and you can't really blame them. For too long, Hollywood has been the dominant authority on filmmaking in the world. What was once a greatly expressive and thought-provoking medium has now simply become a trite and boring thing. Everything is recycled over and over. It's repackaged, re-sold, re-distributed to the point that people can hardly accept something new and radical and different. If it's not safe, generic, or commercial than the reason for a film's existence appears to be highly questionable. Battle Royale isn't going to change the world. I wish it could but the damage has already been done and now there is no place for a film that challenges socio-political norms or has subtitles. But that's alright. Films that matter are still being made even if they don't get the same amount of press or attention that the next Leonardo DiCaprio movie will get. If you enjoy Battle Royale then Kinji Fukasaku, who directed and adapted the film for the screen along with his son Kenta, will be able to rest in peace. The man died on January 12th, 2003. He was 72 years-old and all he wanted to do was make movies until he died. He got his wish.

I am a fan.

By Jamie (retro_in_metro@rogers.com) from toronto, ontario

Das Experiment (The Experminent)

Taxi driver and freelance journalist Tarek Fahd spots an advert in a newspaper for volunteers to take part in a psychological experiment over two weeks. He arrives along with a group of others, to be divided up into prisoners and guards before being placed into a simulated prison and provided with rules, Tarek being prisoner number 77. Initially everyone is enjoying themselves but soon the guards tire of the prisoners taking the p*ss and decide it is time to clamp down on their behaviour. As they realize that they have no limit on their powers, the actions of the guards become increasingly brutal and uncaring.

Based on the infamous experiments carried out at Stanford in the 1970's, this film had it all going for it in terms of being an effective thriller while also looking at the ways that human nature will gravitate towards the cruel once they are placed in positions of power. I decided to watch this film because it seemed interesting on this basis but also very topical considering the behaviour of the US soldiers in the Iraq prisons – mostly poor 'white trash' types who were corrupted when they suddenly found themselves in a position they had never been in before – control. Like them, the characters here gradually get more extreme – just like they did in the real experiment as well. With this topicality it is no surprise that I was easily taken in by the film and was never really bored by it. Being a thriller in its own right, the film has to settle into the eventual action conclusion but even this works pretty well and doesn't detract from what has gone before in terms of interest.

This is not to say it is perfect, because it could have been much better than it was. The constant cutting to Tarek's girlfriend now and in flashback only took away from the film and she could have still played her part at the end with much less time during the main body of the film. Also it became a little too far-fetched for the sake of drama – a recent television drama in the UK did it differently by actually recreating the same experiment as opposed to this film which needed to go harder and faster in order to reach the eventual running and fighting stage! But it still works and, to be honest, it is well worth seeking out for the 'human nature' aspect alone – it had a special resonance in Germany but it is hard not to be put in a thoughtful mood given recent events in Iraqi military prisons.

The cast are roundly good and all slip one way or the other in a convincing manner. Beibtreu is good once he gets past the stage where he is making trouble for the sake of it – this is necessary to speed the descent into cruelty but it was laid on a bit thick at the start. After this his performance is much more evenly balanced and he is a good lead. I struggled to pick up the names of all the others because they were mostly unknown to me but the head guard was very good while the rest of the cast did more than just deliver their pigeon-holed characters, where really they could have been nothing more than 'prisoner who goes crazy', 'timid guard', 'angry guard', 'silent prisoner' etc – they weren't, they were all pretty real people.

Overall this is not the best thing to come to if you are after a sort of documentary drama about the original experiment but it is still a very good film. It is exciting and dramatic while still having a bit of a brain on it – an asset made more interesting by what we have seen in Iraq over the past few months with guards becoming even worse than those we see in this film! Not a perfect film but a well made one that is interesting, involving and exciting and one that is well worth looking up.

The author writes under the pen-name of 'bob the moo' from Birmingham, UK

The Chaser

This film is so Korean. The way it is shot and the way the story is told doesn't conform to the way many Americans think genre clues should be presented and adhered to. At it's heart, The Chaser is a crime drama about a serial killer and the guy who's chasing him, but it evolves from many different angles. It's a comedy of errors in the way the police and politicians are portrayed; a melodrama with its inclusion of the precocious little girl who belongs to the woman serving as the film's primary "chase" and investigative point; a psychological thriller in the way the serial killer messes with the minds of the police; a mildly gory film in the way the bad guy uses a hammer and chisel; a bit of a tragedy in the way it ends. The only thing missing from this film is romance. Thank god they didn't make one of the missing girls a love interest of the pimp—he's only after the money they owe him. That's where the brilliance of the chase begins.

There's a fight scene early on where our protagonist, an ex-detective gone bad turned pimp, is beating the crap out of some guy he thinks has kidnapped and sold some of his girls. A long uphill foot chase precedes the brawl so both combatants are extremely winded when the fighting begins—punches don't land and there's a girly incompetence to the whole thing, which is to say, it's realistic. After finally landing a few punches that subdue his opponent momentarily, the pimp gets up and starts kicking him in disgust. He's very angry, still a bit winded and out of control. One of his kicks only grazes its target causing him to lose his balance and fall on his butt, and because of momentum he begins to roll and his feet fly up in the air. It seems funny, but it's not. You have to sneak in your chuckle as he gets up and continues kicking the guy. When he's finally pummeled his adversary into unconsciousness, he uses his foot to roll him onto his side so he can get to the wallet in his back pocket and ID him. He attempts to sit on him, not to keep him down, but because he's bone tired from all the fighting. He doesn't land squarely and ends up rolling on his butt again. It seems funny but it's not.

After the fight scene both men are brought to the police station for questioning. Because the pimp is an ex-detective with a reputation, the cops initially sympathize with the other guy, thinking the pimp over-reacted—not to mention the causal fender-bender that brought the two men together in the first place. The pimp doesn't know that the other guy just took a hammer and chisel to the head of the girl he is trying to get back, he thinks she's just freshly been sold, making his sense of urgency misplaced, where it remains throughout most of the film. It's kind of awkward for the police to find much urgency in one pimp accusing another of stealing one of his girls. The bad guy insists he didn't sell the girl and then mumbles under his breathe "I killed her", and confesses in great detail how he killed her and several other girls. The pimp screams at the cops, "Can't you see he's just pretending to be crazy now?"

And so it goes. We know there's been killing going on and we know who's been doing it from very early on in the film but it manages to remain suspenseful throughout. The Chaser is a gripping thriller from the beginning until a few minutes from the end. The two main characters are portrayed with impeccable nuance. It's Yun-seok Kim's performance as the bewildered pimp that takes this film to great heights. There are so many things that don't go the way he wants them to, like people hanging up on him when he's talking to them on the phone, a little girl who startles him and asks too many smart questions, the cops can't do anything right; and every time, his subdued response of confused disbelief made me laugh. He brings a Kang-ho Song-ish melancholy humor to the film, (I can't think of an American actor to compare him to), while Jung-woo Ha as the impotent serial killer is so normal and unmoved it's creepy.

There are a handful of groan out loud plot moves in The Chaser, but so what. There are also more than a handful of plot moves this film doesn't do, moves that most people will be guessing it will do, that it more than makes up for it. This is a film I know I'll watch again just for the performance of it. The plot won't matter. It's that good.

More reviews at sitenoise-atthemovies.blogspot.com

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

Being an Asian viewer born during the 80's, without any knowledge of the Red Army Faction (RAF), it poses some challenges to me when watching The Baader Meinhof Complex. A warning to those who have no clue as to the RAF before watching this movie: Read on it first. And for heaven's sake don't watch it from the Constantin german DVD release if you don't know a word of german. The Paramount release could be an exciting alternative. I'm not saying why, just trust me, it works better that way.

Uli Edel’s "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" is an exhilarating historical picture with an intoxicating blend of fiction drama with fact-based evidence, resulting in one of the most exciting movies of the year. It is never highbrow in its approach to the subject, but it manages to curb the usual problems biographical features are associated with – chiefly the treatment of having actors introduce their characters initially in neatly composed frames, ticking all the boxes to their ideals. Edel drops us into the events at an appropriate point in history, but is determined to avoid his movie resembling a PowerPoint sermon. The first scene taking place on the sands of a nudist beach is an eye-opening introduction, and I believe Edel is challenging us straight away to look past the various human bodies on full display, and to concentrate on picking up the little details, like the magazine a woman is reading, or the question a blonde haired woman asks a gentleman, who manages an astute response despite the sheer size, and possible flaunting, of this female's naturally voluptuous breasts.

'The Baader-Meinhof Gang certainly didn’t expect to win their war by themselves. They assumed an epic proletarian backlash would be the Revolution’s true engine' explains Richard Huffman in his invaluable book The Gun Speaks. The genesis of the Baader-Meinhof group is discussed in the movie, but you have to look very carefully to find it. This is a movie that rewards attention, though, unlike "Gomorrah," it has a structure that is intricately connected. Observe the segment that develops from the garden party of two characters at this point we know little about - the husband has just received a printed note from a young student, and it is an essay written by his wife to her Majesty Farah Diba (whom we glimpsed on that cover a few moments earlier if you caught it.) As the wife, Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), reads aloud her writings, the movie intercuts to footage from a student-led protest on the streets of Berlin, where one of the signs reads: 'Autonomy for the University of Tehran'. Rather than spend time explaining to those unaware of that institutions whereabouts, the movie endures through presumed audience cooperation by connecting the words spoken by Meinhof to these images. Her angry letter is attacking the Shah of Persia (seen only from a distance in the Berlin footage but the cries of '...long live the Emperor' from supporters confirm it is he who is in their presence.)

If you know your history you will have little troubling following all this. What occurs next is an interpretation of an event in which the Berlin police implicated a new measure for crowd control. Having researched it prior to my screening, I was curious to see how the movie would display 'The Liver Sausage Method' of squeezing bodies between barricades and background buildings. Would it commit and show a few who crushed to death? As it turns out, the movie tinkers a few facts, and has mainly one man start the act of violence by throwing what appears to be a brown papered bag; upon hitting the ground a white trail of dust causes a minor explosion and a cop's patience quota is surpassed. "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" features, at this point, a superb riot sequence that is never melodramatic, never romanticised, yet, bizarrely, is observed from a close distance. The music is perhaps a little too ominous but the riot itself is deceptively pleasing - from moment to moment you feel as if you are right there on that street in 1968. None of the protestors are given room to make an impression, and hence the audience's sympathy is neutral. I liked the omission of the crushing tactic. These cops react as if they were zombies in "28 Days Later" jumping upon the pack for some lunch.

As this riot unfolds to its historically accurate conclusion, I thought to myself why these students were there? 1968 was a particularly unsettled year worldwide, but why were they so enraged with the Shah of Iran to the point they felt they could change the world? They are liberals, of course, but that is a trigger word, explaining little. Are they part of what Huffman referred to as the 'epic proletarian backlash' that generated the Baader-Meinhof's Revolution? This is the Auschwitz generation, and with that legacy fresh in their identity there was enough fuel to energise a wave of discontent against elitist society. That is another trigger word, however, and doesn't really get to the bottom of what their goal was. Are they Communists if they are anti-capitalist? If they are joined by non-violence, does that brand them as ritualists or merely educators? We are introduced to another woman, Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) after this rampage and she is certainly pro-violence. Her boyfriend Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) arrives at their apartment with some explosives. A fire occurs in a clothes shop a short time later. Ensslin and Baader go to bed together but it is not long before police raid the location. This particular strand to the story is momentarily forgotten, but commences once more after footage of Vietnam, Che Guevarra, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King and the perennial squeals of a long-haired man. The court trial is yet to be seen, but in that brief montage, the reasons for their terrorism have been outlined.

The movie uses the new forms of technology to link characters who otherwise would never meet - one of the great beauties of modern technology. Observe the swot who sits upright in his armchair watching television and sees a newsreel report about Rudi Dutschke. Edel makes the most of the incident, as he dissolves from the real-life individual to the actor in his movie playing Dutschke (Sebastian Blomberg.) One might think the television image was used for such trickery, but Edel has another use for it which I will not reveal here. Likewise, the two key women, Meinhof and Ensslin, are initially linked by the media as the latter is watching the journalist report her feelings on the right-wing tactics of dealing with today's students on a live talk show. Meinhof learns about this terrorist through a microphone orientated interview conducted with the father of the now imprisoned criminal, and she is engrossed with what she hears, as dad explains Gudrun's '...state of almost euphoric self-realisation through this act'. Naturally, when Meinhof visits her in jail, Enssslin is quick to highlight she is a fan of the journalist's columns. Whether the two women share an attraction is hearsay, but this is the birth of the Baader-Meinhof conglomeration.

Some commentators will argue the effectiveness of pertaining to violence. I have heard from writers who ridicule students for their belief they can change the world. They can't change the world. There is an admiration though to their action. If one man throws a stone, it is an act of crime that is deemed punishable. If one thousand men throw stones, it becomes more than that - it is, as the film notes, political action. The Holocaust generation feel an obligation to leave their mark, I imagine, and if I were alive during the period who is to say I wouldn't feel ashamed because of the lacklustre resistance the previous generation demonstrated against Adolf Hitler? I may even have got involved in these terrorist organisations in the heat of the moment. Ensslin can't explain her involvement, but she knows it is her historical responsibility to put up as much resistance as is physically possible to what she deems as unacceptable imperialism.

Everything I have described so far takes place within the movie's first thirty minutes. It is that sort of motion picture - the kind that stimulates debate and provokes controversy. "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" runs for just under 150 minutes but it flies past in a heartbeat. If you are a fan of Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Downfall" you may enjoy the reunion of sorts between Hitler and Albert Speer, as Bruno Ganz and Heino Ferch both appear here. Interestingly, Ganz plays Horst Herold and Ferch is billed as Horst Herold's assistant (I can imagine his agent telling him this was too good an in-joke to refuse!) You may also remember Alexandra Maria Lara, who played the angelic Traudl Junge, as one of the Red Army Faction's members, Petra Schelm. Sometimes such inclusions can appear redundant, but I sensed these actors were picked for their ability.

They say that only two things in the world sell anything worth counting: sex annd violence. "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" excels in both departments. 'Sexual revolution and anti-imperialism go together' explains Baader to a group of fleeting voyeurs. We see quite a lot of Wokalek's flesh throughout the film, and there is a sense that Meinhof is in love with her character. They both look similar, with their poker-straight fringes covering most of their face, but whereas Meinhof looks mousey, Ensslin sizzles with femininity. A meandering student walks in on her as she bathes, and the lady politely asks the stranger to jump in. It is hard to believe a time existed when sex was treated so casually but it was and "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" taps into that. My only criticism with the movie is in its second-half, where a few of the prison sequences are not gloomy enough to support their lengthy illustrations, but overall this is great example of a reality thriller. If you were disappointed with Steven Spielberg's "Munich" and in particular the scene involving the detonation of a bomb in a building, there is an alternative example here that bears a striking, though likely unintentional, resemblance to a moment in "The Dark Knight" when Heath Ledger's Joker vacated Gotham's hospital.

David Wallace, United Kingdom, http://www.sightforallseasons.co.nr/

Changeling

'Changeling' has a lot going for it in the eyes of the public just being directed by Clint and starring Angelina. Moreover the little-known but true LA story it tells is heartrending. A hard-working single mother in 1928, Christine Collins (Jolie) is forced to work on Saturday in her job as an assistant supervisor at Pacific Telephone and she leaves her young son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) at home. When she comes back he's gone. Five months later the police produce her son, found in another state--only she denies it's her son. The LAPD's reputation is on the line, and they force Christine to take the boy home. Then they try to discredit her as a lazy and unfit mother when she keeps insisting the kid isn't hers. Eventually she tangles more and more with the LAPD, who're going through an especially lawless period under a corrupt chief. They've shot down a lot of criminals in cold blood and swept away the bodies--just so the Force can control all the crooked dealings in town. Their arch-enemy and leader of the public outcry against cop corruption is crusading minister Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), who seizes upon the Collins case when it becomes public, smelling a rat. After Collins has repeatedly opposed the cops and refused to accept the boy delivered to her--who's three inches too short and circumcised, has different dental work and is unrecognized by his schoolteacher--a willful Irish Captain assigned to this case (Jeffrey Donovan) orders her locked away in a psych ward. A lurid story of child abductions emerges.

'Changeling,' in the screenplay written by J. Michael Straczynski, is based on contemporary press accounts of what are called the "Wineville Chicken Murders." The mystery of Walter Collins' disappearance vies with the story of police corruption and the secret of the murders for attention, but Strazzynski wisely tells the tale from the viewpoint of Collins' mother, a kind of feminist heroine, since at a time when women tended to keep their mouths shut, she will not be silenced and never gives up. Some of the more gruesome details of the Wineville story are omitted, but sequences that go there still have a horror movie cast to them. The rest is a thriller-cum-police procedural with distinct period sociological elements. But there is skillful handling in the way a far-reaching story begins and ends with the intimate experience of a bereaved mother.

Eastwood seems to have looked for a story on the order of Fincher's even lengthier 'Zodiac,' but the melodrama and focus on cop-crime in the material relate it to the James Ellroy-based films 'L.A. Confidential' and 'The Black Dahlia.' The psych-ward incarceration sequence takes you straight back to Samuel Fuller's 'Shock Corridor'--at which point things are beginning to seem pretty lurid, and the film almost as manipulative as Fuller's. Nonetheless the style has Eastwood's usual current elegance and clarity. Oxymoron it may seem, but this is lurid, yet (mostly) restrained. After all, this is a tale in which manipulation is being consciously looked at. In an interview at the NYFF, Eastwood pointed out that there was a link with movies like 'Gaslight' that deal with people trying to bend the minds of others: this is what the crooked cops try to force on Catherine, and they win to the extent that she takes the other boy home. And this is the most interesting and unusual aspect of the story.

The acting is confident, if varied. There are a bunch of young boys who turn in strong, convincing performances, and as manipulative police captain and his chief, Jeffrey Donovan and Colm Feore are reasonable, and Michael Kelley appealing as the good cop who unearths the kidnappings. Newcomer Jason Butler Harner gives a distinctive performance as the wigged-out killer, Gordon Northcott. Amy Ryan is typically strong as another victim of the cops' psych ward incarceration scam. Less successful is John Malkovich in Marcelled wig as the crusading religionist Rev.Briegleb: he just seems too mannered and creepy. Jolie is good, though her appearance is a bit strange: that huge mouth goes oddly with 20's hair styles. At one moment after she was out of the psych ward, I thought she might be locked up a second time--for overacting. Harner gets his chance to chew up the rug himself in his final scene. A little holding back would not have hurt.

The film is outstanding in its period look; and good, if not perfect, in its period feel. If nothing else you'll remember Catherine Collins quaintly gong back and forth along the lone line of phone operators she supervises--on roller skates. Whole neighborhoods were restored by the filmmakers and streets filled with Model T's and, best of all, old trolley cars. The attempt at period lingo might have been more consistent; but that's a goal rarely achieved. Since the time scheme runs from 1928 to 1935, more mention of the Great Depression surely would also have been in order. Since the screenplay sticks to known facts, there is nothing about Jolie's character before or after the events. This is a good and watchable film, but not up to Eastwood's terrific 2003, 2004 and 2006 efforts. Presented as the mid-point film of the New York Film Festival, already well-publicized at Cannes, 'Changeling' opens nationwide October 31st. Eastwood has already directed two more films, one of which, 'Gran Torino,' he stars in. Even at 78, the man still seems virtually unstoppable.

For more info, check out: Wineville Chicken Coop Murders

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is hard to pin down under a specific genre label; it's a surreal black comedy, a human drama, a post-apocalyptic horror movie, a twisted thriller, a futuristic fantasy; and all in all; one of the strangest and most original films I've ever seen.

In this fantasy world, the world has been ravaged and food is now in short supply. This has therefore made food invaluable and it is being used as currency. Things are traded for with grain, corn and lentils, but not everyone can afford the luxury of food, and some have had to resort to cannibalism to continue to enjoy eating. Our scene opens at a delicatessen in an unspecified location in France, and we are treated to an absolutely delicious sequence (no pun intended) in which a man is desperately trying to hide himself in the trash can. We later find that the reason for this is that this particular delicatessen hires handymen and keeps them long enough to fatten them up, and then they are eaten by the delicatessen's butcher and the inhabitants of the apartment building in which they live. The story really gets going when an ex-clown turns up at the shop, wanting the handyman's job, which has...become available. The plot thickens when the new handyman meets, and later falls in love with, the butcher's daughter; Julie. Julie knows what goes on at the delicatessen and can't allow her new found love to meet the same fate as the others, and therefore does the only thing she can do; hire a band of vegetarian freedom fighters to save her love from becoming dinner for the butcher and his customers.

Delicatessen is directed by the team of Marc Caro (whom, I'm afraid, I am unfamiliar with) and the more well known Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of a few lesser known modern classics, but best known for the enthusiastic 'Amelie'. The film is brought to life by a brilliant ensemble cast. Dominique Pinon (who also featured in Jeunet's Amelie, Alien 4 and City of Lost Children) takes the lead role of the clown turned handyman. His performance is both understated and magical; as he simultaneously manages to entice the viewer into his performance, and yet keeps his character in the realms of reality (a place in which this film doesn't take place). Jean-Claude Dreyfus is the real star of the show, however, as the extroverted and over the top butcher. His performance certainly isn't subdued, to say the least; and every moment that he is on screen is a delight. In a stark contrast to Dreyfus, Marie-Laure Dougnac; the young lady that plays his daughter and love interest for Pinon is very down to earth, and is the most 'normal' character in the film...although there's still room for her to be a nearly blind klutz. The rest of the ensemble comes together excellently, and not a single actor in the film performs below par or looks out of place; and there's not many films that you can say that for.

This film isn't quite like anything else I've ever seen. In fact, the only film I can think of that is similar to this is Terry Gilliam's futuristic fantasy; Brazil. The film draws it's originality from it's plot mainly, which is extremely surreal and inventive in itself, but it's not just that which makes Delicatessen one of a kind; it's all the smaller plot points. How many films do you know that feature a bullshit detector? (that is set off when the butcher tells it that "life is wonderful", no less). The way that the film looks is also wonderfully different; Delicatessen has a yellow hue, which lends it a style that is very dull and dreary; and that does the film no end of favours when you consider it's core subject material. The yellow hue also makes the film almost feel like a moving comic book, which is one of the things that gives the film it's surreal and absurd edge. I'm a big fan of atmospheric films, which is one of the main reasons why I like horror so much; and this film also has an atmosphere like no other. It's the way that the yellow-ish buildings look next to the dark skyline, and the way that the film uses darkness and smoke to make it more horrifying (see roof sequence towards the end) that gives this film the finishing touch to it's already distinct style.

The love story in the film is sweet and tender, and this very much offsets the dark overtones of the rest of the film. This is nice, as during the scenes between the clown (Pinon) and Julie (Dougnac), the film allows itself to indulge in humour that isn't dark like the rest of the film, and you get the impression that it's enjoying itself a little more. This is just another thing in a long line of great things that make Delicatessen a great movie. Another of these things is the more minor characters. I have never seen a more motley crew than the one in this film. As previously mentioned, Julie, although not entirely 'normal', is the most normal character in the film; the rest of it is populated by lunatics. There's a man with a house full of frogs, a woman that continually tries to commit suicide, a man that puts cans on his deaf mother in law so they know where she is etc. The support cast's wackiness don't add anything much to the story itself (which only really requires them to be there), but the fact that they are different and imaginative is another of the film's absurd edges, and another thing that makes this film different from everything else.

Delicatessen concentrates more on being absurd and surreal than it does in posing deep and philosophical questions. Personally, I have no problem with that, but those who do want a movie to be deep and meaningful might find the film disappointing because of that. That is not to say that the film completely lacks depth or meaning; although a moral to the story doesn't seem to present itself, the film takes it's depth from the 'what if' scenario that it presents; "if the world's food supply became too short to feed the population, would you resort to cannibalism or join the vegetarian freedom fighters?". It's a very general message; but it's definitely there.

Overall, Delicatessen is a sublime piece of cinema. You wont find imagination and inventiveness to the extent that it is shown here in most films, and that alone is reason enough to warrant this classic status. Delicatessen is everything I say it is and more; and overall the film is one of the true highlights of the 1990's. A gem.

Lucas Belvaux's One Two Three Trilogy

An actor of some twenty odd years the Belgian born Lucas Belvaux turned to writing and directing with Parfois trop d'amour in 1992. With only two feature films under his belt in this capacity it would come as some surprise when in 2002 an ambitious project would emerge, a trio of films written and directed by Belvaux that would take place within the same world using six primary characters as we explore different aspects of their lives over a period of ten days in three different genres: thriller, comedy and melodrama. Working off the concept that for every primary character we see there is a secondary character whose story goes untold; this project puts two of the six main characters in the limelight per film, depicting their story in a genre best suited to them before they are relegated to a secondary role for another. The result is a trilogy of films that mostly work very well on a standalone basis, but achieve a greater success when viewed together as the genres chosen to depict the many sides of each character helps to round them out to a level rarely seen before.

The first in the trilogy tells the story of Bruno, who having just escaped from Prison after serving 15 years for terrorist activities within the popular army is high on the police wanted list. Bruno may be in hiding but his agenda is clear, find and kill the man he believes gave him and his comrades up and then live out the rest of his life in the foothills of Italy. Abandoned but secure safe houses provide a wealth of necessary equipment and a location to prepare for what he must do, while old contacts provide him with a means to locate his betrayer. Along the way however Bruno's motives prove too hostile for those he thought he could trust, while his emotions get the better of him when he takes pity on a junkie named Agnès which only complicates his situation.

Aptly titled On The Run Belvaux as a director concentrates on the notion of being constantly on the move, threatened by his surroundings we are plunged into Bruno's paranoia via a myriad of sensory assaults that confuse through their simplicity. The most effective being the numerous car journeys, with a fixed camera looking through the windscreen during high speed chases this results in a claustrophobic effect, as we only know where danger may arise through sound, a feature which plays a major part in this story. Sequences showing Bruno encapsulated by the darkness of his garage holdings with only a fire lamp to illuminate the solitary desk he uses to practice his weaponry skills further highlight the requirement Belvaux puts on sound, with Bruno flinching at the possibility his location has been compromised when footsteps can be heard outside.

Belvaux as an actor is most impressive. He convincingly portrays Bruno as a man willing to die for his cause, deftly sincere as he travels through the film in a range of often laughable disguises. Bruno is a man with a purpose, yet it's one we shouldn't sympathise with but through his actions in the early stages of the running time and the boyish charm Belvaux brings to the role we can't help but. The well crafted script delivers a wealth of intriguing characters and increasingly tense set pieces and while the anti-hero persona setup within Bruno is continually built upon Belvaux never allows it to fully take hold, yet when the odds against him rise to tangible levels his inevitable actions still manage to shock, both the audience and one of the key secondary characters which finally carve out the doubts within the lead character we always had.

An Amazing Couple is a comedy of errors centred around Alain and Cecile, a happily married couple of many years whose lives are sent into disarray by Alain's decision to keep his wife in the dark about a health problem which requires an operation. With his heart in the right place but his mind on vacation somewhere else Alain's activities cause Cecile to suspect him, not necessarily of infidelity but her worry is such that she turns to a friends husband for help. Pascal, the detective we first met in On The Run is hired as a private investigator to discover just what exactly is going on. Unfortunately Cecile has that effect on men which sees both Pascal and Alain's doctor making thinly disguised advances upon her whenever the opportunity arises, and in his current state Alain begins to suspect his close circle of family and friends are conspiring against him to ensure the operation he requires goes very wrong.

Traditionally the comedy farce genre is one I love to hate, for they generally revolve around a script so threadbare you end up screaming at the characters to simply shut up and come clean, saving both them and us a whole lot of bother. This works though and by and large it's down to the distance Belvaux puts between the husband and wife. They're patently unaware of each others suspicions whilst fully caught up within their own. Cecile is painted as the beautiful housewife any man would be crazy to cheat on, while Alain has a case of hypochondria brought on by the minor operation which steamrolls the setup. The third parties aiding either side add to the fun, the private investigator is a despicable piece of work using his position to edge in on his employers affections while Claire - Alain's secretary - and her boyfriend are put in situations that are sordid to the outside eye and deliciously entertaining for the viewer.

Plot devices such as Alain dictating his revised will throughout the movie to a personal recorder is genius, both keeping us up to speed with his current mind state and causing many a belly laugh along the way. Equally amusing moments can be found littered throughout the dialogue while Belvaux also resorts to moments of simple physical comedy that thanks to the energetic performances never fail to appear fresh, including Claire taking a little too much pleasure in bringing Alain round following his own hilarious collapse at the wheel. Importantly however the characters progress, especially Alain, and throughout the script never once fails to suggest something other than the happy ending could be in sight, and right through to the very last shot there is a sneaking suspicion in the viewers mind that not all is as it should be.

The final part of the trilogy, After Life is the longest and due to its reliance on events from the previous films the least accessible to newcomers, but also the most trying for those watching the three as one due to numerous repeated sequences (albeit re-shot from different character perspectives to often powerful effect). Taking two of the most familiar yet possibly least likeable characters from the prior films, After Life is woven in and around the stories already told. Pascal, the detective who is working on re-capturing Bruno while also playing private investigator to Cecile, has problems of his own to deal with. His wife Agnès, a teacher colleague of Cecile's is a morphine addict, and through his work Pascal is able to control her supply without going though a dealer. Despite her habit Pascal is genuinely in love with his wife and this is an aspect of his character that Belvaux reveals in this story, but deliberately held back on in the previous.

The heartless one-dimensional character depicted in the comedy piece of An Amazing Couple is rounded out here to become one we sympathise with. Pascal is put in a very difficult position by the wife he loves, the addiction he loathes and collision of police work and private investigator duties which drive him to question his love for Agnès, his moral duty in both professions and which takes precedence over the other. By far the most dramatic of the three each of the leads put in a powerhouse performance that requires a complete range of emotions to be laid bare on the table while there appearances must be sacrificed constantly to achieve the complete effect. Of equal stature is the scripting which beautifully ties this piece in to the others, adding greater impact to repeated viewings by revealing facts previously unknown to the viewer about characters who play only a minor role here, but a greater one elsewhere (most notably Jeanne and her husband who feature most prominently in On The Run).

The events which take place in each of the characters lives should be well known to anyone who has seen the prior films in the trilogy, and this is what inevitably makes the two hour run time drag but it should be noted Belvaux works up to a stunning finale that is worth sticking around for and made all the more revelatory by the resonance created through the tales already told but put in a whole new light by this one. The decision to not give in to the obvious shock ending is one I'd also like to applaud; I was certainly thinking it and almost willing it to happen but the film is all the more effective for not giving in to the sick and twisted events we often yearn for in film.

Visually the trilogy is accomplished, with each sharing an obvious style set about by the film stock and inherent grain but each can also be defined by the cinematography and camera methods employed. From the point of view shots and concentration on dark and light shades in On The Run to the bright, cheery and sophisticated look of An Amazing Couple through to the up close and personal, solemnly lighted and hand held nature of After Life. Via the extra features you can see just how well they cut together and could share shots from each other, but you can also see the achievement in taking the selected genres and matching the adopted styles. Sonically On The Run stands out through attention to sound design and some haunting musical pieces that aid the tension Belvaux creates, while An Amazing Couple features its share of light and frumpy tunes that punctuate the comedy and carry it well. After Life however uses minimal audio accompaniment, instead choosing to maintain the sombre mood through unnatural silence and raw performance.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Violent, thrilling, musical, and comedic, Tim Burton's latest Gothic period piece is many things – and unoriginal is certainly not one of them. This eclectic blend of genres may not always produce the perfect results, but the utter bizarreness keeps the intrigue from wearing off..... before the killing begins...:-)

Based on the Broadway musical,Benjamin Barker, is a happily married father in Victorian London. But an evil perverted judge named Turpin (Alan Rickman at his oil-slick smoothest) lusts after Barker's wife. So he wrongly sentences Barker to prison, seduces and poisoningly induces Barker's wife, and takes Barker's baby daughter as his "charge," to await the day when she is old enough to marry him. Fifteen years later, Barker escapes from prison, returns to London along with a fellow sailor Anthony Hope, and adopts the persona of barber Sweeney Todd. At first, he intends only upon avenging Turpin, assuming that both his wife and daughter have been murdered/dead long ago, but he soon discovers that his daughter is still alive. He also discovers he has an other-barberly way with a razor.....

Meanwhile, the sailor, Hope discovers love at first sight with Johanna, Todd's now grown up daughter, unknown to him and now the "charge" of Judge Turpin. And as it happens, Todd's landlady (Helena Bonham Carter), an unsuccessful baker, could use (spoiler) some fresh ingredients to sell her pies: Human Meat. Yes, (chorus) Human Meat. (Spoiler complete).

As bizarre as Sweeney Todd is, it works on quite a few levels. It is literally unlike anything committed to the big screen before, with its wide array of odd imagery and fiercely vibrant performances. The fact that it is a musical is its most inspiring aspect, considering the subject matter is unbelievably dark. To blend slashing throats with melodic tunes is a feat perhaps no one but Tim Burton could pull off. The heavy contrast of singing and bloody violence is utterly singular and many thanks go to Steven Sondheim for crafting such luscious music to go with the sinister plot. That stark contrast adds to the undeniably visceral imagery, which at times becomes so outrageous that you can't help but laugh or applaud.

Those unfamiliar with Sweeney Todd's origins may be surprised to find that the majority of the film is sung. Rather than inserting musical numbers into the story, practically the whole plot is revealed through musical exchanges between the actors, and ominous lyrics foreshadow the visuals to come. Strangely, with so many songs throughout, very few carry a tune or melody that will stay with you after the credits roll. Much of the clever writing will evoke laughter at first listen, but even the more light-hearted songs rarely recall the catchy riffs of macabre musical relative The Rocky Horror Picture Show. While the tunes themselves may not be overly memorable, their delivery is, as several extremely talented actors showcase their singing abilities.

Johnny Depp is the perfect match for portraying the scheming, vengeance-obsessed barber Sweeney Todd, with his brooding presence and sullen voice. There is no better actor in the world that could portray this like Johnny Depp does. His performance is a defining one, one that goes far beyond the Jack Sparrows, Edward Scissorhands, or J.M Barries that Depp portrayed with perfection. Sweeney Todd is a man torn apart by vengeance, a man that answers only to the call of death. Depp illustrates the psychological factors of the character in subtle nuances, giving one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema. A true achievement that lives up to the excellence of the entire movie. His wild-haired accomplice Mrs. Lovett receives exquisite attention by Helena Bonham Carter and her musical numbers with Depp are easily the most impressive in the film. Sacha Baron Cohen turns in an enjoyably maniacal performance as Todd's barber rival and even the main antagonist portrayed by Alan Rickman joins in the singing. Young Ed Sanders as Toby steals his fair share of scenes as well, and the newcomer proves he can sing with the best of them.

As one could expect from an R-rated Tim Burton thriller about a demonic barber, there is plenty of bloodshed. Straight razors are the primary tool of destruction and the blood flows freely once Todd begins his vengeful killing spree. In a manner reminiscent of Tarantino's Kill Bill, the violence is so excessively brutal that one quickly becomes desensitized to the carnage, and throat slashing montages can be appreciated for their morbid humor and the eventual cannibalistic endeavors they represent. Plenty of physical humor and darkly comedic imagery do find their way into Sweeney Todd, though the story at the heart of this tragic musical is so horrific that the overall mood of the film remains grim.

I believe one needs to have an open mind and appreciation for (or better yet understanding of) musical theatre, melodrama, and old film noir/horror films and actors. This movie does not cater to the brutish. I don't mean this to sound elitist but the level of art going on here (visual, acting, music) is significant and requires participation by the audience. If you're passive you won't enjoy it.

Aside from an abundance of bleeding necks, the visuals are truly amazing. The foggy streets of London and the haunting menace of Mrs. Lovett's meat pie shop recall the eerily dark set designs of Sleepy Hollow, while the vibrant dream sequence leans toward Beetlejuice. Every character's costume also superbly matches their physique, from Lovett's Gothic dresses to Pirelli's garish garb.

Overall, the casting is flawless: Johnny Depp is dark, menacing, brooding, damaged, and coldly insane at both the loss of his wife, his deportation to Australia, and imbues a very real sense of revenge. He is well complemented by Helena Bonham-Carter's Mrs Lovall: a woman who really does know how to fail and obsess well; and Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin is lascivious, and evil. Timothy Spall gives a career best - I thought him even better here than Boys from the black Stuff, which is saying something - he weaves an intricate beadle, who knows his status depends on obsequious violence, and Sasha Baron Cohen is simply a turn to be enjoyed - and shows his very fine skill as giving credibility to pomposity.

Tim Burton loves the macabre, as well as bleak colors, and the film is so heavily desaturated that at times it appears black-and-white. At least until the red begins to flow. But this harsh color scheme does wonders for the makeup, locations and sets, for they all become more vividly alive - the performances stand out, as do the carefully planned expressions and lyrics, since color only interferes visually with characters such as Sacha Baron Cohen's flamboyant Pirelli. Additionally, the daydream sequences by Mrs. Lovett are wildly vibrant in comparison to the real world of ashen streets and neutral shadowy rooms. The movie is undeniably bloody. That's the first thing that everyone has to know. The blood is over-the-top, though, on purpose. The blood isn't supposed to gross you out, it's supposed to be a character all its own. With all of the dark hues and blacks everywhere, the blood serves as a frightening contrast with Sweeney's spiraling madness. The bright colors are so noticeable that it's no wonder the upbeat number "By the Sea" works so well; it shows viewers a world different from this one, where everything is bright and pretty and colorful. Mrs. Lovett has fallen so completely and totally in love with Sweeney that when we finally glimpse what she's thinking, it is beyond beautiful in some strange and twisted way.

More visually stunning than musically memorable, Sweeney Todd nevertheless presents an epic and ghastly tale of love and revenge in a manner unlike any before it. Bloodthirsty to an extreme, but with entertainment to match, Burton's latest should not be missed for those with an appreciation of the daringly original.

Secret Window

This is based on the Stephen King short story called "Secret Window, Secret Garden". It is about Mort Rainey, a mystery writer who had recently divorced his wife because she has cheated on him. He is struggling with the loss and lives in a cabin on lake with his beloved dog. The movie begins with him taking a nap (he does that a lot in this movie) when he hears a knock on the door, at the door there is a man blaming him of plagiarism. He soon finds out that this man,John Shooter, is very serious about the story situation, he find s his beloved dog dead, along with a few other people. Who is this John Shooter? Does he even exist? Is Mort just plain crazy? Find the answer to all of these questions in this drama/thriller. The violence in this film is scarce but pretty graphic. The language is constant, but since it is PG-13 there is only one use of the F-word, with many used of the S-word. The sexual content is the basis of the movie. Overall i love this movie and recommend it to anyone, though some may find it boring.

IMDB

Secret Window

"Secret Window" is another one of those eerie thrillers where danger lurks within the shadows. We can almost feel it, and so can the hero, as he walks through his house, armed with a weapon, ready to defend himself at all costs. He hears a noise from somewhere behind him, spins around, and suddenly realizes it was just his imagination. He sighs, puts down the weapon, turns around, and BOO! There's the bad guy, who has somehow managed to enter the locked home and avoid being detected. What if, I wonder, one of these times, the bad guy was seen as he entered? What if the Fisherman from "I Know What You Did Last Summer" had been spotted, and confronted, by one of the teenagers? What if Norman Bates' "Mother" had been exposed from the start? Then there presumably would be no movie, of course.

Although we know where "Secret Window" is headed quite early on, David Koepp (writer of "Panic Room" and director of the well-made "Stir of Echoes") manages to sustain the audience's interest through a series of suspenseful camera shots. Some are inventive, while others are merely fun to watch because we can guess where Koepp got his inspiration.

Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is a successful author who lives up north with his beloved dog and a laptop. He apparently abandons his social life, never gets a haircut, and wears quite silly-looking glasses. He has a sarcastic personality and presumably does not get along very well with the local residents, who generally keep to themselves anyway.

Mort's life is changed forever when a strange man named John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up at his doorstep claiming that Mort has "stolen" his story. Mort is handed a dirty manuscript. Within the pages are passages literally identical to those from Mort's own book, "Secret Window," published in 1994, three years before John claims he wrote his. "Secret Window," the novel, is about a man whose wife cheats on him. Fueled by rage, the fictional character murders his own wife and buries her in the "secret garden" located outside of the "secret window" of their home.

It is said that art imitates life, and through a series of flashbacks we learn that Mort's novel bears an eerie similarity to his own problems -- "six months ago" his wife (Maria Bello) had an affair with Ted (Timothy Hutton). Mort assumes that John Shooter has some sort of connection to his past, and hires a detective (Charles S. Dutton) to find the mysterious man, who always seems to appear out of nowhere when Mort is alone.

Depp's performance is the highlight of the film -- if Depp is imitating Stephen King (the author of the short story "Secret Window" is based on), he succeeds. Barely recognizable hidden underneath a layer of geeky clothing and a generally disheveled appearance, Depp once again proves that he can tackle any sort of role as an actor -- from a scared teenager who has to stay up ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") to a Hunter S. Thompson lookalike ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas").

Koepp, who wrote the screenplay for the film, realizes that the key to the story is Depp's performance wisely allows his primary actor to let loose. Meanwhile the co-stars all deliver fine, convincing performances and although the grand finale is a bit of a let-down, and terribly predictable, the movie's style is interesting. "Secret Window" is better than most in its genre, although by no means is it a masterpiece of any sort. Just an enjoyable Friday/Saturday night matinée, and worthy of recommendation if you're not looking for anything special.

I could criticize the "twist" of the movie and say that it has become one of the most overused solutions to Hollywood film thriller/mysteries of the past decade, but I won't spoil it, and let you decide for yourself whether it does the story justice. 

Se7en

Se7en is a very complex and deep movie, while also being quite disturbing. Andrew Kevin Walker created one of the most original spec screenplays of all time, but it is the kind of story traditionally used more as a writing sample than actually made into a movie. But the creative team of director David Fincher believed in this extremely dark, uncompromising story, and made it just the way Walker wrote it.

The story revolves around two extremely well-drawn characters, David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (Morgan Freeman). In one sense their relationship is the ultimate cliché -- the old veteran cop paired up with the brash rookie (though Mills is not actually a rookie, just new to the unnamed city where the movie takes place). But the contrast between these two characters is played out not for laughs or cheap drama but as the real working out of a moral question. Somerset, the lonely, cynical older detective, cares about people but has seen too much of the dark side of life to have much hope for society. Mills is not as intelligent as Somerset (kudos to Pitt for being willing to play a character that frequently looks foolish), and he lives by a simplistic belief in the power of law enforcement to change the world.

Throughout the movie, the two characters struggle with this conflict -- is human society basically rotten, and can one person do anything to make a difference? Somerset, an intelligent, well-read man, is smart enough to recognize the truth, however painful that is. Mills is the kind of person who has never truly questioned the simple "values" he was raised with. Somerset tries to educate him, tries to warn him, but ultimately fails.

In the end, it is only John Doe, the serial killer, who can teach Mills (and by extension the audience) the truth -- that this world is very often shockingly vicious and senselessly cruel. Doe and Somerset actually have similar views of society and the world, up to a point. But while Somerset still cares about his fellow human beings, Doe hates them, and takes out his rage in a series of gruesome murders based on the seven deadly sins.

This movie is about the investigation Mills and Somerset undertake of Doe's murders, his "sermon" to the world through serial killing. Ultimately, Mills and Somerset can only do so much to try to stop Doe; the killer always seems at least one step ahead of them, and stays that way until the very end of the movie. In a normal Hollywood film, Mills and Somerset would "win" in the end by catching Doe and setting the world right again. But Andy Walker had a quite different ending in mind, and Fincher and his team take the shocking conclusion all the way to the limit of tension and drama.

This movie, like Fincher's "Fight Club," was controversial for being violent and gruesome. Certainly there are a number of gruesome and disturbing images of murder victims' bodies, and many aspects of the story are very troubling, to say the least. But only one person is shown being killed on screen, and by far the worst of what happens in this story happens in the viewer's imagination. Unlike most films that have high levels of violence -- including, for example, Reservoir Dogs or Silence of the Lambs -- this movie genuinely attempts to grapple with the moral implications of what is being shown on screen. In direct contrast with, say Quentin Tarantino, who uses extreme violence for shock effect and to gain notoriety, Fincher actually shows less violence on screen and raises far more probing moral questions in the viewer's mind. I cannot think of any movie that contains as much genuine debate and discussion among the characters about crime and human morality as this one does -- while never becoming dull or preachy for a moment.

I cannot finish this review without a word about Mr. Fincher's extraordinary visual talents. This is a man who ranks with the top handful of directors of all time in his knowledge and grasp of film-making technique. Everything from set design to lighting, selection of film stock and processing techniques, camera movement, frame composition, and editing work together to create an entirely new level of visual brilliance. Fincher's use of technique brings to mind nothing more than the work of Steven Spielberg in the 1970s, the last time a director this extraordinary burst onto the Hollywood scene. A whole generation has passed since then, and there is a new wave of techniques and tools available to the filmmaker of the nineties. Fincher uses every one of these tools to their utmost. The technical work and supporting actors are uniformly superb. This is a movie that works on every level. Andy Walker, having written a mind-blowing screenplay, must have been stunned when he saw the finished film. This movie will rock you to the core.

Leon: The Professional

I've heard it said that thrillers are among the toughest types of films to do well and one of the easiest to mess up. I don't think that this could be anymore true. Most thrillers, especially many of the recent ones, are typically formulaic and offer nothing for the audience to chew on. They certainly provide a rush, but they don't do much more. Action-oriented films are among the worst in this regard. Often-times, even the action sequences are so ordinary that they're boring. Thankfully there are many films out there that buck the trend. LEON (know in America as THE PROFESSIONAL), Luc Besson's 1994 international breakthrough is part of this illustrious group. It not only provides some superbly crafted action sequences but some very effective drama and a flavorful undercurrent of dark comedy. The result is a wholly satisfying cinematic experience.

12-year-old Mathilda (Natalie Portman) comes from a family with more baggage and dysfunction than normal. Her father (Michael Badalucco) deals drugs and her mother (Ellen Greene) doesn't do anything more substantial. Her older sister (Elizabeth Regen) delights in pounding on Mathilda. She also gets abuse from her father and mother as well. About the only person in her family that matters is her younger brother (Carl J. Matusovich). When she's not doing chores for her family, she enjoys smoking cigarettes in her New York City apartment in order to get by. One day, while she's lucky enough to be away, a dirty cop named Stan (played with gusto by Gary Oldman) breaks into Mathilda's apartment with some goons and kills everyone. This wouldn't mean anything to Mathilda except that they killed her brother...

Enter Leon, a laconic, lonely hit-man who is one of New York's finest. He likes to refer to himself as a "cleaner". He has long since repressed any emotional ties to anyone or anything except for his ever-present plant. He also happens to be Mathilda's next door neighbor. He very reluctantly takes her in when her family is slaughtered. But she simply doesn't want shelter- she wants revenge. Upon figuring out Leon's profession, she insists on learning the tricks of his trade. In exchange, she'll clean (in the traditional sense) for him and teach him to read...

The best thing about LEON is easily the interaction between its two protagonists. There is clearly chemistry between Leon and Mathilda, which makes the emotions expressed and the works spoken between the two of them seem believable, even if the relationship isn't likely to exist between them in real life. Much has been made over the years of the sexual undertones in their relationship as it is depicted. This aspect is very low-key at best. Their's is more of a father-daughter/mentor-student bond- a brilliantly realized one, no less. There is a wonderful montage of Leon and Mathilda developing in their relationship while Bjork's VENUS AS A BOY is playing in the background. It's to Besson credit that he could weave this much character development and unforced drama so seamlessly into the fabric of an action/revenge flick.

Acting is another one of LEON's strong suits. For Natalie Portman, this was her debut performance and it showed much promised for her right from the word go. By combining youthful exuberance with world-weariness, she makes Mathilda real in a way that many veteran actors can't grasp. As the title character, Jean Reno is also very impressive. His character undergoes the most change throughout the film and Reno is there with him almost every step of the way. There are times when he's a little stiff- particularly when he has to be more emotionally attached to Mathilda. Overall, however, his quirky, deadpan style of acting serves him well. He also provides some great comic relief, particularly when he tries to imitate a few legendary figures. As expected, Gary Oldman can be counted on to give a memorable performance. His villain is gleefully over-the-top and some of his mannerisms add some more dark humor to the proceedings. As Leon's mentor, Danny Aiello has a supporting role.

The action sequences in the film are quite masterful. The best ones are the opening and closing sequences. There are a few skirmishes throughout the film, but these two set pieces are the most skillful. Besson peppers everything with a wonderful European flavor, giving the film style as well as substance. Best of all, it doesn't buckle under the pressure to cheat the audience with a cop-out Hollywood ending, opting instead for one that preserves the emotional impact of the storyline. With it's combination of pathos, violence, action and humor, LEON deserves recognition not only as an excellent thriller, but as an excellent all-around film.