Gangleri – filmreviews

Even though German, this film seems to go under a Dutch title. Wyss’ debut is almost completely without talking and is a very slow and minimalistic film with a lot of focus on the visuals. Somewhere high up a snowy mountain in a tiny community lives a devoutly Catholic family with four daughters. We follow the daily pattern of the family, but the community seems to have a ‘dark’ underbelly in what appears to be an ancient men-bond. If that was meant to be such, Wyss portrays two conservative sides of a distant community. In any case, great imaginary of snowy landscapes, some darker scenes and a descent soundtrack make Wyss’ short debut (70 min) a very nice film. I do not think “Winterstilte” will be for anyone, but if you like minimalistic films without much story, you might want to see it.

A Dutch film of 1988 I must have seen it some time. Indeed some scenes seem familiar. It seems that “Spoorloos” has become a bit of a cult-film, but after (re)watching it, I wonder if that ’status’ goes for the original or the 1993 remake “The Vanishing”. Strangely enough “Spoorloos” already has that English title in the opening titles. In any case, “Spoorloos” is good for a Dutch film, especially of that time, but it is not exactly a cult classic. It is simply too normal for that (in my opinion). The story is good, based on a book by Tim Krabbé. A young couple goes on holidays to France where the girl disappears. Three years later the man has the same dream as the girl the night before she disappeared and he sets out to find her. A nice story develops, but nowadays this would probably have been filmed a bit ‘darker’, “Spoorloos” remains a quite typical 80′ies film, but the ending is indeed one that will stick with you. Not bad, but I expected something different. I guess I will watch “The Vanishing” too some time.

“Perfect Life” is a highly acclaimed, but nothing special Chinese arthouse drama. We follow two women in the hard daily life in China. We travel from the backstreets of some small town to the main streets of flashy Hong Kong and witness the contrast between traditional Chinese living and a more modern, Western one. “Perfect Life” is quite a sad film and like I said, a too typical arthouse film.

My girlfriend’s boss bought this film for all his personel, so I guess that outside TV and cinema, this was the best-watched film last weekend in these parts! “As It Is In Heaven” is about a successfull conductor who at the peak of his carreer has a heart attack and decides to quit. He goes back to the tiny village where he was pestered away as a boy, but with his artists name. Starting on his own, he soon feels the need to be part of the small community and he offers to lead the church choir, since everybody knows he is that famous conductor anyway. Never having orchestred a choir, Daniel tries to learn how to do this and his new methods leads the villagers away from the town pastor and to Daniel. How new elements in a conservative surrounding brings change, a thing that people usually fear. “As It Is In Heaven” is a drama, not really boring and the presence of the beautiful Frida Hallgren helps too.

However my girlfriend always wants to see psychological thrillers (of James Bond) she now came home with this true story drama. Christine Collins’ (Angelina Jolie) son is abducted from her house and after 5 months the LAPD reunites mother and son. The boy is not Collins’ son though and with the help of a pastor (John Malkovich) she starts to question the LAPD who on their turn expose their power. The events are too strange to be true when we look at them from our own time, but apparently this is what happened. Now a superb film, but not a boring one. It has nice 20′ies settings and descent acting.

Jake is a young man who lives in New York and makes his living as a designer. In the summer he goes to his parents to help them with their trailer park, conduct local politics and organise a music and arts festival. When the permit for a festival in a neighbouring village is withdrawn, Jake figures that he might be able to make some money for his parents when he puts that festival under his own flag. He does not realise the scale of that “Woodstock festival”, not even when an old schoolmate (the organiser) comes flying in with a helicopter. Soon it becomes clear that this will not be a festival for 5.000 people like Jake expected.
“Taking Woodstock” shows the amount of money that went around in the festival, the slyness and professionalism of the organisers, but mostly the impact on the small town when half a million hippies start to gather in and around the festival area. Almost nothing about the music, nor of the festival itself, but all about the direct surroundings with Jake’s parents realising the goldmine, the neighbours forseeing the problems and weird characters trying to help Jake or themselves. “Taking Woodstock” is a very amusing film with a different look on the most famous chapter of music history.

“The Last Days Of Emma Blank” is a Dutch film and I am happy to be able to say that it is not a bad one too! Emma Blank suffers some kind of disease and she is about to die. For her last weeks she retreats into a large mansion somewhere along the Dutch coast with a stack of servants who have to obey her every demand. As the film develops the relation between all characters slowly becomes clear. “De Laatste Dagen…” is finally a Dutch film without disfunctional nudity or foul language/characters, but with a beautiful young woman and functional weird characters. In fact, the realistic but absurdistic characters and humour reminds of Scandinavian films such as “Festen” or “Mifines Sidste Sang”. The developing characters are suddenly turned 180% after a ‘revelation’, which adds loads of extra sauce to the story. “Emma Blank waits for her death. So do her servants.” Well done!

A young, female writer plans to spend a week in an enormous and remote villa to finish a script of which the deadline has passed. What a tedious basis for a horror/thriller! Fortunately the result is not that predictable. The film has a good, pressing atmosphere at times, but the soundtrack is quite overdone (industrial sounds in an old, creaking house?) and overal does not pass the level of a standard Hollywoord thriller. The story has some weird edges too. Not completely boring, but I do not recommend “Deadline”.

The box that we rented had no indication whatsoever that this is a third part of a ’series’, while all the posters that I found on the www do. The ’series’ are not by on director it seems and not a continuing story either, but just sequels to a popular film probably. The basis of the film is not too original: a man can travel back in time. The film places stress on the consequences of this and that concept could have made an interesting story. Strangely enough even the third attempt gives but another of these popular psychic crime fighters tv-series while a better thought-through script could also have resulted in another “Memento“. This third part does not really invite to watch the previous two films to see if they are any better, but like I said: all the ingredients to make a good story are present. Grossman failed to make something good of it and the filming itself is way too popular too. I guess the intended audience was that of films like “Final Destination”, not that of “Memento”. There are some bloody scenes and a quite over-the-top sex-scene, but I suppose that all still aims for the large audience that got used to “Hostel”-massacres.