Gangleri – filmreviews

The second film of this Icelandic director that I review. Just as “Noi Albenoi” a film about people having problems living in the modern world. Daniel manages to maintain with having only 7 Danish Kroner income in four years time, while his friend Morfar (Nicholas Bro, the bad guy in “Mørke“) tries to maintain a regular job. When Daniel falls in love with Franc(esca) life gets more complicated. Just as in his debut film Kári has a minimalistic style in filming and in story and uses subtle and quite typical Scandinavian humour with a magnifying glass on modern living. The film starts quite humorously, but becomes more melancholic towards the end. An arthouse film, undoubtely, not brilliant, but pretty good, especially if you like Scandinavian films.

I ran into this film as one of two DVDs together being one film with the title “Public Enemy Number One”, but the originals both have their own title, this one (“Instinct Of Death”) and “L’Ennemi Public n°1″. What you get is the life of Jacques Mesrine, a violent, but charismatic criminal who uses the media to boost his ego. With nice picture-in-picture montage at times, a story develops in which Vincent Cassel gives the kind of part he is good at. Mesrine mostly robs banks without making much victims, but when it comes to police, he has little mercy. He is caught a couple of times, but escapes which adds to his fame. Travelling all over the world without changing his name, making him famous all over the globe. Prison regimes are obviously not the same everywhere. The films is mostly a drama, but also has some amusing humour and violent outbursts. Not a very special film, but a nice watch nonetheless.

The second part of “Public Enemy Number One” simply continues where the first part left off. Jacques Mesrine continues to play with the media, gets caught a few times more and escapes again, he runs into a new woman and meets his new partner. Also Mesrine starts to develop (semi-)political ideas and begins to see himself as a revolutionary. Nothing much changes compared the the first part, but the picture-in-picture effect is no longer used. The film ends the way the first part started. Also the second part is enjoyable, but I wonder why the whole story is stretched over two films.

Initially “Fermat’s Room” looked like an interesting film. An uncommon story about mathematicians who are invited to solve some “enigma” at a mysterious meeting. The result is less interesting. The four end up in a room having to solve “enigmas” that cannot be too hard the the super-mathematicians that are in the room. Each riddle has a time limit and thus the tension is built. Within that process and irritating amount of whodonnit-shifting-plots are rattled off making the situation more and more incredible. “Fermat’s Room” is another of these films with a nice idea, but poor execution.

Both the box and the story are much alike the magnificent “Sin City“, “the creators” are the same, but strangely enough, this time it is Frank Miller who does the “Sin City” comic who puts somebody else’s comic to film. Since “Sin City” 2 and 3 are in the make, I wondered why Frank Miller would make another such film and if it woud be as good. Well, “The Spirit” is again a great watch! It has a bit of the “Sin City” style but “Sin City” is more shot like you would see a comic with different perspectives and more contrast. A superhero cop hunts for “the octopus” (the greatest part of Samuel L. Jackson since “Pulp Fiction”) and his assistent (Scarlett Johansson is an unusual part) who of course has bad plans for the world. A slightly thin story backs some great fighting scenes, wonderfull humour and magnificent visuals. The novelty may be gone, but if you like “Sin City”, you will like “The Spirit” as well.

“Eden Log” is a very dark and claustrophic French film that plays in an apocalyptic future. The story is explained slowly. In the beginning you just see a man who woke up in some dark tunnel trying to find a way out. As he explores his surroundings, you slowly get the picture of what is going on. The film is shot in black-and-white with a high dark/light contrast. The minimalistic score adds to the pressing atmosphere of the film. “Eden Log” is a great film all the way up to the very weak last scene. A great watch nonetheless.