Gangleri – filmreviews

A young girl is haunted by a demon and to find a sollution, her boyfriend buys a camera to register what happens. He starts to film themselves day and night.
“Paranormal Activity” has more than one thing incommon with “The Blair Witch Project“. Both films are very low budget, but made big bucks after hitting the cinemas (I even read it was released in Europe earlier than planned because of the success in the US, so why is it of 2007?). Both films are formed by the video footage that the subjects recorded themselves. Both films are creepy thriller / horror films in which nothing much is to be seen, but the suggestion and the fact that it looks authentic does the trick. Both films have a lot of out-of-hand filming that makes my stomach ache. “The Blair Witch Project” was hyped more, with fake newsflashes on the internet about lost students and the idea that the film was merely what was on the videotape of the recorder that was found. “Paranormal Activity” has obviously been edited more, but in several cases this really adds to the atmosphere. Most (of course) happens at night, but the periods that nothing happens are shown in fast-foward. There are also two fast-foward scenes in which something does happen, greatly enlarging the ‘creepyness’ of those scenes. Just as in “The Blair Witch Project” it takes a while before things start roling, but after that the film quickly runs to a climax. I personally did not find the film all that scary, not as much as “The Blair Witch Project” for sure. Maybe that is because the novelty is gone. The film still has a magnificent atmosphere though. Taking the reactions from the audience, many people did get the creeps though (such as the three girls next to us discussing if they still dared to leave the room ). I have seldom seen a film with so many outloud reactions from the viewers, screams and yells, “oh my god”s, they were all there. There is nothing much to say about the story of the film, other than that what I started with. Be sure that it is the more frightening kind of film like the one I mentioned several times before. If you liked “The Blair Witch Project”, you want to see “Paranormal Activity”. On the big screen of course.

This new Dutch production will play four times today in the small cinema of Broet, a local centre for filmmakers. “The Blue Horse” is a drama mostly playing around two men with dark secrets. The film is quite dark and has thriller and some horror elements. We obviously have a Dutch crew speaking English and the acting is not always too strong, but the small budget has been used smartly since the stages and camera work look nice. Scenes that did not make it into this film form another line of the story and will appear under the title “Vengeance” next year. “Vengeance” is announced as a slasher horror. “The Blue Horse” has cut up the story so that it only makes sense at the end, but the trailer gives it away almost entirely.

The name of Guillermo Del Toro on the cover (as producer) raises expectations. One might expect a pompous fantasy, but even though “El Orfanato” is somewhat of a fantasy, it has little to do with Del Toro’s own films. “The Orphanage” plays in… an orphanage and the orphanage is hunted. Not really a groundbreaking story, neither is the film itself really groundbreaking, but nonetheless a nice drama/thriller in which fantasy and reality are mixed.

“The Return” tells the story of two boys whose father suddenly returns after 12 years. He takes his two sons on a trip, destination and reason unknown. The father has a hard time choosing between being stern and fatherly, the sons start to doubt the man’s intentions. “The Return” is a very minimalistic film. It has a slow pace, steady camera work and little conversation and the viewer is supposed to fill in the blanks. Everyday situations come with a few surprises and wonder about certain events. A nice film if you want to see something tranquil some time.

“La Vie Nouvelle” is somewhat of a cultfilm. It is almost impossible to find outside French-speaking countries and there seems to be no version with subtitles, not even French for the parts that are spoken in (I think) Bulgarian. There is not that text word in the film, but it would have been nice to know what the Bulgarians say and the French parts are not very easy to follow either. In a David Lynch style and with quite a few ‘Lynchian’ elements, “La Vie Nouvelle” seems to give fragments of a story that plays in the dark underworld of Bulgarian organised crime. Out-of-focus and shaky camera work for the more shocking parts, a very minimalistic style with a dark rumbling soundtrack for most of the other. Grandrieux has created an interesting film that will mostly appeal to people who like David Lynch and not to people who enjoy a straightforward story and flashy action scenes. The film is dark, sometimes disturbing, but not really as shocking as some seem to find this film. The term “drame sentimental” that appears on the back of the box is a vast underrating too of course. There is some violence, a lot of nudity, beautiful images and strange camera and montage experimentation; not as good as Lynch, but a nice film to search for of you like this style. Try French and for example Canadian sources to find this film.

The Dali-like cover caught my attention and the cover represents the film very well. “The Fall” opens with a very strange scene, but basically is about a young girl who stays in some 18th century hospital where she meets a young man who tells her stories. The stories are pictured in elaborate colours, with grand stages and costumes. The dreamy atmosphere that becomes darker as the film progresses reminds a bit of “El Laberinto Del Fauno” or “The Fountain“, but is is not that elaborate of fantasyfull. A nice film that initially looks like a family film, but the last part where story and reality start to mix the light tone disappears.

We just wanted to go to the cinema, not to see a film in particular, but it is disappointing what is in the cinemas these days, even the arthouses. “District 9″ was the only film that I might want to see and so we did. Blomkamp starts with some sort of mockumentary which explains the situation. It involves aliens in a ghetto in Johannesburg, everything besides that already gives away too much. When the film switches to a more ‘normal’ film, a very original story develops, mixing current social problems (xenophobia, etc.) with weird scifi elements. The key element of the ‘black stuff’ is a bit thin to me, but the writers came up with something original for sure. Towards the end “District 9″ develops into a complete over-the-top action slasher which is not really my thing. The film as a whole is not too good in my opinion, but it is the story, the great findings therein and and the documentary part that make this film worth a watch.

So my girlfriend came home with another 007. Fortunately it is over with new 007’s, since this last one is even worse than “Casino Royale“. The again immoral James Bond (Daniel Graig) violently hunts a rich environmentalist with vicious plans killing most of the leads to the suspects in doing to, to the huge dislikement of his superiors. That about sums up this cheesy action ogre. Even inspite of the beautiful Olga Kurylenko I even find the women more appealing in the older Bond films.