Gangleri – filmreviews

Gilliam may be best known for having been part of Monty Python, but as a film director he has a varried CV; “Brazil”, “Baron van Munchausen”, “Twelve Monkies”, just to name a few titles. With “Tideland” Gilliam has made a fantasy drama. The 12 year old Jodelle Ferland carries the entire film (and she has an impressive list of films on her name already) as a young girl who is dependent all on her own with her shit-for-brains parents. She flees into a fantasy world, but the real world is a weird are her fantasies. This may sound like a children’s film, but it definately is not! The story is harsch, some scenes close to shocking and the characters offensive. The film is shot on great locations, but there isn’t too much to the story. The film is nice, but nothing really special. Nice to see some time though.
-2-

As people who follow Almodóvar a bit know, the director makes very good and less interesting productions. The better films usually are around a group of tempered, Spanish women in a few chaotic days of their lives in which the strangest situations occur. “Volver” is one of those. We follow the gorgeous Penelope Cruz for a few hectic days. “Volver” is not as hilarious as some of other films of Almodóvar, but still a very typical film of the director and surely one of the better ones.
-4-

Of course I knew about the book and the film, but I never really cared to see it. A while ago I saw the DVD cheaply and later decided to just buy the film and watch this classic. The DVD makes the film into a children’s film with children’s films advertisements etc. Well, maybe the film is enjoyable for children, but it sure is for adults as well! Especially the first part of the film is stuffed with great jokes, wordplays, silly stories and odd situations. There is a subtle criticism towards the modern way of living and society. The characters are great (especially the manically depressed robot) and the big questions of life are dealt with in a very amusing and often thoughtfull manner. The guide from the title is a ‘book’ that reminds of Prospero’s Books with images coming out when opening it and a voiceover to tell a story. I really had a good laugh watching the film and I can recommand to see it to everyone still in doubt if they want to see this philosophical sci-fi comedy.
-4-

An Argentinian film about a man that just came out of prison and who has to deliver a message to the daughter of a fellow inmate and he wants to visit his daughter. For both purposes he travels through the forrests of his country. Nothing much happens, only little is spoken, there is not really a real story and a sudden end. The film is more like a slow, meditative view in which the only things that happen do so when the man gets hungry or meets somebody. “Minimalistic filming”, a good description. The film is alright and not for the faint of heart.
-2.5-

I don’t watch Haneke’s films often, because the director has the ability to make me feel pretty awkward after seeing his films. This is -of course- exactly what he intends. “Caché” is the first film of Haneke that didn’t have that result and (therefor?) I also think it is Haneke’s least interesting work. The idea (and last name of the main characters) seems to be taken from David Lynch, but is not worked out convincingly. Suggestions are raised and the film suddenly ends, leaving the viewer with questions. Nothing bad about that in my opinion, but besides some very nice stylistics, “Caché” disappointed me a bit.
-2-

“The page-turner” is about a young girl that didn’t make it to the academy of music and starts with something completely different. Later (accidentally) she almost comes back to where she started. The film is presented as a thriller, but actually it is more like a drama with some thriller elements towards the end. “La Tourneuse de Pages” is a nice, French film, but nothing special.
-2-

This short film (10 minutes) is an earlier experiment of the Frenchman Volckman and his crew. It comes as extra on the “Renaissance” DVD (see elsewhere). “Maaz” is a great-looking experiment with real actors and real stages, but with heavy digital workings and surroundings. Bright colours, strange effects, but not really a story. The result is a dream-like atmosphere (or maybe more like a nightmare) and something quite new in filming and therefor a reason to see sometimes. I have no idea if the film can be found another way than on the “Renaissance” DVD, but that film is worth the buy as well, so no worries. There seems to be no poster, so I just picked an image from the internet for the purpose.
-3-

“Renaissance” is a beautiful French animation film completely in black and white in hard contrast (“with no grey tones”). However the film is great to watch, the story isn’t too appealing. In a near futuristic Paris a cop is looking for a kidnapped young, female scientist and he discovers an enormous conspiracy. The creators of the film wanted to make something in between an action film and animation. The first result was a short film somewhere just before the year 2000 (if I remember correctly), later this was worked out to a fulllength film. The aim succeeded. Sometimes the film is obviously an animation (looking a lot like a comic), sometimes the characters seem to have been played by real people (as they were). The film is somewhere between a film noir (much black), a police thriller and let us say “Sin City” (the box also mentions “Metropolis”). A very nice experiment to see.
-3.5-

The highly aclaimed Spanish film of the director of “Hellboy” and a whole series of films that I have not yet seen. It seems that most (if not all) of Del Toro’s film have a ‘political’ undertone in which the nazis represent the bad guys and the ‘reds’ the good side, the same goes for this film. “El Laberinto” is a strange film. There are actually two films in one and in both cases a war between good and evil. There is the ‘real world’ in which a group of nazi-like people try to free the country of ‘reds’ and there is the fantasy world in which a little girl has to undertake a few tests in order to regain her throne. “El Laberinto” goes from fairyish fantasy for little children to dark fantasy-horror in the fantasy part to very explictly violent parts in the ‘real world’. The film is definately not for little children, not even for people with a weak stomach! The fantasy part shows a spiritual quest, the other a more political one. The dreamlike scenes are indeed awsome. Magnificent costumes, great stages and weird characters. I don’t really understand the ‘real world’ part, but I guess the director really wanted to have a political twist to the film. “El Laberinto Del Fauno”, I also fail to see the international title “Pan’s Labyrinth”. The faun may look a bit like Pan (but a faun is supposed to have horns and goat hoofs), but he introduces himself as “a faun”. Pan is by far no faun and the director agrees that the two cannot be equated. A silly mistake of the distributors I suppose.
In any case, the film is nice, the fantasy parts are wonderfull, but I prefer “Hellboy” as ‘total concept’.
-3-