Change Your Image
Anon.
Reviews
The Limey (1999)
Ambitious and original thriller
One of the best thrillers of recent years. The Limey slows down a little in its middle section, but is ambitious in terms of how much enriching marginal detail it subtly includes. The basic story owes a lot to Boorman's Point Blank. If Stamp's hard man is not quite as stony as Marvin's character, it's a close run thing, and the scenes which establish his violent temper are among the best in the film. But the real subject of the film is the passing of time and its effects. Stamp and Fonda play (as well are are) survivors from an earlier era, which they carry with them. The film is interested in what this baggage means to them and what it has done to them. Soderbergh's camera dwells on their faces, studying every crease.
In particular, we see Stamp's face again and again. For instance, in his window seat on the plane, with sunlight scanning his features. The camera can sometimes seem to X-ray the actors, making the performances secondary as it brings out the personality beneath. It's similar to how David Lynch films his performers in that he takes from them more than they realize. But Lynch will often turn this to menacing effect. With Soderbergh there's not so much a threat as a feeling of dispassionate intimacy.
Couple to this Soderbergh's cutting style. He pushes his audience to the limits of its patience and emphasizes a looser study of character than we're used to in this kind of film. It feels like he's quickly sketching around to catch fleeting impressions. The cutting dissociates us from the events of the story, risking the loss of narrative momentum, but it encourages us to imagine the characters as real people, suggesting that they have other stories to tell, quite apart from the story of this film.
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Lively, funny and relevant
On the surface Topsy-Turvy is an lively and funny reconstruction of a period, featuring the lives of of two remarkable men, and it's watchable on this level alone.
But it's also a first class examination of performers, how they work, and how their work relates to their times. The many perceptive scenes set in rehearsal and production are as fun to watch as they are revealing.
The Mikado appears as "play within a play", a light-hearted play about the ways of the Japanese. We get a hint of these Victorians seeing something of their own formality and orderedness reflected back on them. The opera that G&S and their company develop, inspired by a culture alien to them, is partly a commentary on themselves, whether they realise this or not.
This is where the film develops depth. The Victorians seem as odd to us as the Japanese seemed to them. And in the detail of this now distant way of life, we sometimes catch sight of ourselves when we least expect it.
The film darkens towards its close, in that it underlines how isolated actors or writers can be. There's no sentimentality here about a big showbiz family. But Leigh believes that performance can bring us together, whether we're on stage or in the audience.
Idioterne (1998)
Is he taking us for idiots?
Maybe The Idiots was meant to be a two way satire. On one hand, it makes fun of how the mentally disabled are treated, as uncovered by the Idiots on their day-trips. On the other hand, with its view of an experimental commune, it's an attack on the aimlessness of a middle class privileged enough to pander to silly whims. They've won the right to think freely and all they can do is pretend that they can't think at all. But if satire is the intent, it's ironic that a film attacking aimlessness should be so aimless itself. Lars von Trier has made a vivid film that wants nothing more to do with the specifics of the world (like real disability) than does his imaginary commune. He seems fascinated with the play between rules and naivety in a way that which makes me sceptical about his film-making Dogma. Is he taking us for idiots?
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Teen fantasy as art statement
The film contains: - A gay or bisexual reading of glam rock, of interest to anyone who likes this music; - A poorly argued case that rock stars are descended from Oscar Wilde; - An attempt to link the unknowability of rock stars to the enigma of Charles Foster Kane, by using the structure of Welles's film (Velvet Goldmine needs all the structure it can get); - A series of imaginary glam rock videos with glamorous stars and costumes, and music which sounds like it was done by a pub cover band; - A lot of truly awful linking material, with scenes that would not be tolerated in even an average soap opera.
Dance of the Wind (1997)
Thoughtful look at tradition of "pure music"
Meditative film set in Delhi. A singer trained by her mother is forced by her mother's death to consider her place in a tradition of music-making. For the most part it seems to explore the idea of this tradition with subtlety. Beautifully shot and acts as a sort of homage to the music which fills the soundtrack.
Karakter (1997)
Disappointing, mannered ramble
Katadreuffe is the illegitimate son from a one off liaison. His mother's a working class woman whose only characteristic is her inscrutability. His father's a bailiff and money-lender who's a wealthy and powerful man, sadistic to those he deals with through business. Katadreuffe was conceived when his mother was working for his father as a housekeeper; she left as soon as she realised she was pregnant and refused to see the bailiff again, despite the letters proposing marriage. Katadreuffe is caught between his mother's seemingly total indifference, and his father's resentful attempts to bankrupt him. Yet he is bright, ambitious and becomes successful. The film asks why. Unfortunately it also has a mannered visual style, pseudo-Kafka jail scenes, a dull love interest, a corny mentor figure and hordes of evicted workers with torches and red flags.
Hana-bi (1997)
Melancholy, violent police film doesn't quite add up
A slow-paced police film with some striking violence. I suppose it's usual for police films to show some of the officers' home lives, bringing out the tension between their domestic and working worlds. Unusually, Hana-Bi foregrounds the domestic life of its main protagonist, a retired cop with some unfinished business, which involves the terminal illness of his wife. The tone of the film is thus more melancholic than tense. Kayoko Kishimoto, as the sick woman, gives a nicely understated performance. Beat Takeshi underplays his lead role to a greater extent, which may be the main strength of the film. Their life is contrasted with that of Takeshi's colleague, also facing private grief, though this contrast doesn't add enough. More importantly, the shifts between the violent world of loan-sharking and the sad, loyal marriage are hard to swallow. It seems implied as the film ends that Takeshi's character has values looking back to the Samurai. I'm no expert on these values, but was only partly convinced.