DVD Review - Only God Forgives

Genre:
Drama, thriller, arthouse
Distributor:
Lionsgate Films UK
Rating:
18
BD/DVD Release Date:
2nd December 2013 (UK)
Director:
Nicholas Winding Refn
Cast:
Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Yayaying Rhatha Phongam
Buy Only God Forgives: [DVD] / [Blu-ray]

After edging closer to mainstream audiences with his 2011 feature Drive, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn gives his new-found audience a square kick to the face as he returns to more ambiguous arthouse territory with Only God Forgives.

Only God Forgives, a tale of vengeance set in the Bangkok criminal underworld, follows Julian (Ryan Gosling) an American gym owner cum drug smuggler. After Julian’s brother is murdered for raping and murdering a 16 year-old Bangkok girl, Julian is ordered by his domineering mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) to avenge his brother’s death. He is soon entwined in a battle with Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) – a corrupt retired police chief who runs the streets by his own laws.

Whilst Only God Forgives is stylistically reminiscent of Drive – seen through its neon-tinged aesthetic and dark red glows, thematically it feels closer to Refn’s brooding Norse epic, Valhalla Rising. Refn uses limited dialogue, places an emphasis on ambiguous dream-like sequences and further showcases his tendency for ultra-violence. This results in a truly striking combination of electric and mesmerising visuals with a broodingly intense yet mysteriously ambiguous narrative.

It is no surprise to see the director dedicates Only God Forgives to cult-Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky – his influence can be seen throughout the feature – as can the stylings of fellow avant-garde filmmakers David Lynch and Gaspar Noé. Walks down woosy corridors, visions of limbs being hacked off and unsettling karaoke numbers craft a surreal, nervous dreamlike atmosphere – resulting in us never truly anticipating the direction that Refn’s narrative is going to take.

Thematically Refn presents us with a lingering tale of vengeance and skewed justice – where the ‘good guys’ start and the ‘bad guys’ begin is never quite clear. Julian is a quiet type who never truly appears to commit to the vengeance that he seeks – he appears lost, drifting through this surreal hellish Bangkok underworld. Gosling brings a mesmerising intensity to the role of Julian – he showcases echoes of the troubled western hero and presents us with a dangerous unsettled quality.

The title seems most apparent in the character of Chang – the zen-like retired police chief is God – he dishes out the punishments that he sees fit and masterminds some of the most violent moments in the feature – queue one sequence involving spiked needles and ear-drums. Perhaps even more vile than Chang is Crystal, Julian’s velour track-suited, peroxide blonde mother who excuses her eldest son’s crimes (noting ‘well he must have had a reason’). Crystal’s desire for vengeance is showcased through her continual disappointment for Julian who she continually compares to his older brother (with echoes of incest coming through when Crystal even compares her son’s manhood). The usually loveable Scott Thomas is magnificent in this trashy, downright vile role.

Whilst many will be tired by the ambiguous nature of Only God Forgives, others will be mesmerised by Refn’s astounding visual style and poignant, intense, ultra-violent tale of vengeance in the Bangkok underworld.

★★★★☆

Andrew McArthur

This is a repost of The People's Movies cinema review

Models Turned Actors (Jeune et Jolie Feature)

With model-good looks being a near-universal prerequisite to ‘making it’ in Hollywood, it might seem like moving from the modelling industry into acting would be a logical, seamless transition. However, with a number of successful models proving to be acting disasters, we are naturally wary of those that make the switch, suspecting that talent may have taken a backseat to beauty. In François Ozon’s brilliant new film Jeune et Jolie, Marine Vacth proves that these prejudices far from apply to her. In a performance that has received rave reviews, Vacth stars as a curious young girl on a journey of sexual discovery. To celebrate the release of Jeune et Jolie on 29th November we take a look at some others who have proven that models can have serious acting chops too.

Marine Vacth

Starting out as a model at the tender age of 15, the beautiful Marine stunned her way to a number of high profile campaigns, replacing Kate Moss as the face of Yves Saint Laurent perfume. However, Marine left behind what surely would have been an impressive career in modelling to pursue her true passion in film. Jeune et Jolie marks her breakthrough role, gaining international recognition for her performance - delivered with the assurance and subtlety of an actor years her senior.

Famke Janssen

Dutch beauty Famke Janssen moved from Holland to the US to pursue a career in modelling, experiencing great success evident through her work in the late 80s with Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel and Victoria’s Secret. She burst onto the scene with her brilliantly camp portrayal of Xenia Onatopp in Pierce Brosnan’s best Bond film – Goldeneye – and cemented her ‘respectable actor’ status as Jean Grey in Bryan Singer’s X-Men trilogy.
Film highlights – Goldeneye, Taken, X-Men

Halle Berry

Halle Berry has had a truly remarkable, record-breaking career. Winning Miss Teen All American and Miss Ohio as a teen, she later went on to become the first African American Miss World entrant in 1986. Making her film debut in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, Halle went from role to role until, in 2001, she became the first – and only – African American to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Monster’s Ball. Like Janssen, Berry also starred in the X-Men Trilogy as Storm, and appeared as a Bond girl in the –albeit terrible – Die Another Day. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all, Halle!
Film Highlights – Monster’s Ball, X-Men, Cloud Atlas

Lily Cole

Before being scouted whilst walking the streets of London aged 14, Lily Cole had never considered modelling. Yet this chance encounter proved to be the most important in her life. Appearing on the cover of Vogue aged 16, the only was up for Cole as she went on to work with fashion giants such as Prada, Alexander McQueen, Chanel and Louis Vuitton. While still an influential model, Cole tried her hand at acting, taking on a few small roles before starring in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus alongside Heath Ledger in his final film.
Film highlights – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, St. Trinians

Mark Wahlberg

While not the most prolific of models, Mark Wahlberg can easily boast the most colourful past on this list. Coming into the public eye as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block fame, Mark was angry and violent through his adolescent years, suffering from cocaine addiction at 13 and getting convicted for attempted murder at 16. Turning over a new leaf, Wahlberg reinvented himself as rapper Marky Mark, later modelling for Calvin Klein underwear. Wahlberg then made the transition to acting, gaining plaudits for his portrayal of Micky Ward in 2010’s The Fighter.


Jeune et Jolie is in UK cinemas from today 29th November courtesy of Lionsgate Films UK.

Felini's Il Bidone (1955) To Get Duel Format Masters Of Cinema Release

Genre:
Comedy,Drama, World Cinema, Arthouse
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Release Date:
30th December 2013 (UK)
Format:
Dual (DVD&Blu-Ray)
Rating:
12
Director:
Federico Felini
Cast:
franco fabrizi, richard basehart, broderick crawford, Giulietta Masina,


Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing IL BIDONE, one of the most acclaimed films of the 1950s by legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini (8-1/2, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita). The first Blu-ray release anywhere in the world of this classic drama, will be released in the UK in a Dual Format (Blu-ray &DVD) edition as part of the Masters of Cinema Series on 30 December 2013.

Federico Fellini followed up his iconic breakthrough La strada with this brilliant drama - an unsparing look at the dog-eat-dog values of post war Italian society that nonetheless manages to navigate expertly between the lightly comic and the emotionally stark to become one of his richest, most moving works.

Il bidone [The Swindle] follows three small-time conmen - the ageing Augusto (Broderick Crawford), "Picasso" (Richard Basehart), and Roberto (Franco Fabrizi) - as they prey upon the poor and gullible for modest gains. However, once Augusto is unexpectedly reunited with his daughter, now struggling with her studies, the moral and emotional demands of his lifestyle begin to take their toll sooner than he had anticipated.

With its masterful set pieces and host of superb performances (including the director's wife and muse Giuletta Masina), this forms the centrepiece of what has been termed Fellini's "Trilogy of Loneliness" (with bookending films La strada and Le notti di Cabiria), and may be the darkest examination of human nature he ever attempted. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this long-undervalued classic in a new high-definition restoration.



SPECIAL FEATURES

• Beautiful new high-definition master, with the film appearing in 1080p on the Blu-ray
• Optional English subtitles
• Original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring the words of Federico Fellini, rare imagery, and more!
• More to be announced!

Pre-order or Buy - Il Bidone [Masters of Cinema] Dual Format [Blu-ray & DVD]

Paul Greengrass To Be Honoured At This Years Moet British Independnet Film Awards

The recipient of The Variety Award has been announced by Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson, joint Directors, The Moët British Independent Film Awards.

Paul Greengrass will receive The Variety Award at the ceremony on Sunday 8th December at Old Billingsgate.

The Variety Award recognises a director, actor, writer or producer who has helped to focus the international spotlight on the UK. The Variety Award was bestowed upon Jude Law last year and has previously been awarded to Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, Sir Michael Caine, Daniel Craig, Dame Helen Mirren and Richard Curtis to name a few.

Paul Greengrass became an internationally renowned and respected filmmaker who earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Director and a Best Original Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild of America for his work on UNITED 93. He won recognition for his work on BLOODY SUNDAY when the film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. BLOODY SUNDAY starred MBIFA 2013 host and patron James Nesbitt, who won best actor at BIFA alongside Greengrass who also picked up his first BIFA for Best Director. Greengrass directed THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, picking up the baton from Doug Liman on the blockbuster hit franchise. He was subsequently nominated for a BAFTA for Best Director for the final film in the saga, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM which also received all three Academy Awards® it was nominated for, and two BAFTAs. The film broke records in the US when it became the highest grossing August opening. Greengrass continued his working relationship with actor Matt Damon with GREEN ZONE. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, which opened the 2013 BFI London Film Festival earlier this year, is Greengrass’ latest critical success and is expected to garner much recognition during this year’s awards season.

Greengrass has had a long and distinguished career in British television: he has written and directed TV films concerned with social and political issues, including THE MURDER OF STEPHEN LAWRENCE (winner of BAFTA’s Best Single Drama Award in 2000 and the Special Jury Prize at the BANFF World Television Festival), as well as THE FIX, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, and OPEN FIRE. He produced and co-wrote the 2004 television film OMAGH, set in the aftermath of a real IRA car-bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland. OMAGH won BAFTA’s Best Single Drama Award in 2005. Greengrass spent the first decade of his career covering global conflict for the ITV current affairs programme WORLD IN ACTION and writing and directing many documentaries. He also co-wrote the bestselling memoir Spycatcher with Peter Wright, former assistant director of Britain’s MI5.

Previous winners of the prestigious Best British Independent Film award include Broken, Tyrannosaur, The King’s Speech, Moon, Control, Slumdog Millionaire, The Constant Gardener and This Is England.

The Moët British Independent Film Awards will take place  on Sunday 8th December at 8pm, the whole event can be watched exclusively here.

Eureka Video Announce Their Masters Of Cinema 2014 Early Releases

Eureka Entertainment have announced via their twitter feeds (@eurekavideo and @mastersofcinema) their forthcoming releases in The Masters of Cinema series for the months of January, February and March 2014.

With a slate of titles that ranges from the most recent and 1980s American cinema (and, separately, the emergent Australian independent cinema), through to masterworks of the Italian cinema, and on to silent, and 1970s Hollywood, The Masters of Cinema Series runs the cinephile gamut once again with a seven-film January-March line-up that includes works by Federico Fellini, Samuel Fuller, Sidney Lumet, Francesco Rosi, William A. Wellman, Ted Kotcheff, and Andrew Bujalski. As if that weren't enough, Eureka Entertainment are also proud to announce an early summer release for one of Robert Altman's most revered films.

Producer of the Masters of Cinema Series, Craig Keller stated “In January, we welcome Andrew Bujalski into the Series for the first time with his smash indie-success Computer Chess (read review) that is currently enjoying a theatrical run across the UK following its British première at the London Film Festival. Alongside Computer Chess, William A. Wellman's Wings – the winner of the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture (1927-1928) will see its UK home-release premiere. Both titles will be released as Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) editions.


In February, we'll be releasing for the first time in the UK, a special edition Blu-ray and Ltd Edition Blu-ray SteelBook of Sidney Lumet's classic police drama starring Al Pacino — Serpico (Original Theatrical Trailer http://bit.ly/17Tt2mE ) Secondly, we'll be releasing a Blu-ray edition of Federico Fellini's 1972 epic colour spectacle, a love-letter to the past and present of the city he loved best: Roma .

Another Italian classic arrives in March in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) release: Francesco Rosi's gripping political procedural, Le mani sulla città [Hands Over the City]. March also finds us two of the most brutally unsparing and controversial independent works of the last forty years. The first is the long-awaited (and uncut) release of Ted Kotcheff's disturbing and subversive Wake in Fright, hailed by Nick Cave as "the best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence," and which Martin Scorsese has stated to have rendered him "speechless" — released in its brilliant 2009 restoration. Prior to its home-video release, Wake in Fright will be released theatrically in selected cinemas in the UK & Eire on 7 March 2014. Here is the brand new 2014 UK theatrical trailer . The second controversial release in March is Samuel Fuller's feverish White Dog, unavailable in the UK for decades, whose premise — a stray white dog turns out to have been conditioned to attack any black person on sight — was woefully misconstrued at the time of its 1982 release; it remains one of Fuller's most passionate anti-racist statements. Both of these works will also be released in Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) editions.”

Managing Director of Eureka Entertainment, Ron Benson added “The finest in world cinema abounds across these seven releases, supplemented as always with a spate of special features and extras, all presented with a meticulous attention to detail and design. The same ethos applies to a film we'll be releasing in May, and for which we're thrilled to be able to provide an early sneak-announcement: Robert Altman's epic 1970s ensemble classic, Nashville, released for the first time on UK home video, in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition.”

Blu-Ray Review - Heaven's Gate Restored Edition (1980)

Genre:
Western, Drama,
Distributor:
Second Sight
Rating:
15
BD/DVD Release Date:
25th November 2013 (UK)
Director:
Michael Cimino
Cast:
Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Isabelle Huppert, Sam Waterston
Buy Heaven's Gate 2 disc restored edition:
[Blu-ray] / [DVD]

Heaven’s Gate, in the last thirty years or so, has created a reputation for being one of the most notorious flops in the history of film. In the past thirty years since its initial lukewarm reception it has been considered a masterpiece by many critics, but it’s equally reviled as being one of the worst films ever made, albeit that viewpoint has increasingly dwindled in recent years.

The making of Heaven’s Gate is as infamous as the film itself; it went wildly over budget, there are confirmed stories that the director Michael Cimino would literally wait for exactly the right cloud in the sky, and there are unconfirmed reports that a sizeable amount of the budget went on cocaine for the cast and crew.There’s been a very famous book on the making of called Final Cut, which was later made into a TV documentary which is included on this disc. It has been cited as the single film that took the power from the director, which was very much a thing of the 70s to more studio-controlled films, which is still sadly the case.

The story of Heaven’s Gate is relatively simple it’s about Jim Averill (Kris Kristofferson) who is a marshal in Johnson County, Wyoming. Averill is from money but has rejected his classes’ rejected attitude to the poor immigrates of Johnson County. The immigrates sometimes steal the rich cattle barons’ stock for food and the cattle owners have decided to create a kill list and have hired men to do the job and have got political power from Washington to do so. The rest of film shows the people of Johnson County and the war they fight with the cattle barons.

The film’s initial reaction from New York Times critic Vincent Canby has went down in history as one of the most infamous bad reviews with the line “it fails so completely that you might suspect Mr. Cimino sold his soul to obtain the success of The Deer Hunter and the Devil has just come around to collect.” The truth of the matter is it’s actually a better film than the much-loved The Deer Hunter and a more interesting film; it doesn't have the tour de force of the legendary Russian roulette scenes. It’s a considerably slower film but Cimino’s intention was to transport you to experience the west, as it was not some romantic version, which is so often the case.

The cinematography of the film is some of the best ever committed to film so some initial reviews like saving “there are no redeeming features” is absurd. Vilmos Zsigmond who was the cinematographer of the 1970s shot it. The famous roller skating scene is spellbinding and there are shots in the film, which are literally just jaw dropping in their beauty.

The cast Cimino complied is simply outstanding including Kris Kristofferson in possibly his finest performance. Christopher Walken is great as usual as one of the hired killers. The film’s supporting cast is complied which like people as Jeff Bridges, John Hurt and a very young Mickey Rourke and if you watch carefully you can spot a young Willem Dafoe in the cockfighting scene. The one flaw in casting is Isabelle Huppert as madam of a whorehouse in Wyoming but even that works cause the film is almost dreamlike at times.

Heaven’s Gate seems to have become a modern classic for many and rightfully so, it’s a film that has became legendary for the both the right and wrong reasons. It deserves the 2nd chance it’s now receiving with the recent theatrical and Blu-ray reissues here and across the pond in the USA. It’s well worth the 3 hours and 40 minutes of your time.

★★★★★

Ian Schultz

This is a shared review with The People's Movies

Review - Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess

Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 92 mins
Director: Andrew Bujalski
Cast: Wiley Wiggins, Myles Paige, Patrick Riester, Robin Schwartz


A work as sublime as it is surreal, Computer Chess is the latest microbudget oddity from independent filmmaker Andrew Bujalski. Set at the advent of personal computing (sometime during the early 1980s), it follows a group of programming hobbyists over one weekend as they compete in a friendly machine-vs-machine chess tournament. The aim: to engineer a piece of software that can not only out-think another computer, but ultimately out-think a human.

Its form is as idiosyncratically retro as its content: Bujalski chose to film on some of the earliest commercial video cameras, both for the vintage authenticity and to add "a transcendental character to the image," that would, according to cinematographer Matthias Grunsky, "help express the sometimes unexplainable things that happen between man and computer." True enough to the imperfect and unpredictable technology of the time, bright lights burn trails in the lens and people blur through fuzzy grey matter; like the characters, we chase glimpses of ghosts in the machine.

The search for higher artificial intelligence gives rise to some unexpected philosophical inquiries, but the socially-aloof nerd herd are often too short-sighted to grasp what anything could, or will, mean—a big part of the comedy comes from knowing that these hapless dorks will one day inherit the Earth (for an age of technological enlightenment, things are almost comically unexciting.) But what really is driving these computer-obsessives, tinkerers and scientists? What is happening between man and computer—or more worryingly, who is driving who? As we watch characters struggle and fail to break out of their own unconscious grids and behavioural loops, it becomes clear that the quest for a machine with a soul is far less pertinent than the quest for the soul in man.

Comedic elements ebb in and out of the rambling narrative: a New Age self-help group are also occupying the hotel, and the inevitable clashes between the emotionally-cold geeks and the self-loving hippy-types offer genuinely cringe-worthy laughs.

But the most arresting moments happen when Bujalski breaks the rules of his own carefully procured aesthetic: the black-and-white documentary beats that open the film eventually give way to stranger, more anarchic forms, as the video begins super-imposing on itself, reversing, slowing down, splitting in two, and for a brief moment even switches to colour. The film ends up being strangely psychedelic, but also alive to the possibility of one small thing: Change. Much of Computer Chess seems to be an attempt to grapple with that one pet theme.

Bujalski also slyly reflects the rise of independent filmmakers (his debut feature, Funny Ha Ha, helped launch the early-aughts 'mumblecore' movement) and the birth of his own child in the narrative, gifting the film with a surprisingly autobiographic tone, and the criss-crossing lines between hobby, obsession, love and family stealthily work their way into the fold without any explicit foregrounding.

Four features in, Mr. Bujalski continues to be one of American cinema's most distinct voices, and much like the unassuming pioneers at the heart of Computer Chess—who also focus on the wide implications of imperceptibly small actions—his influence may be greater felt in the years to come. Forget the singularity; as a filmic experience Computer Chess is itself, singular.

★★★★½

Pierre B

Review - Parkland

Stars: Zac Efron, Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Giamatti, Tom Welling, Marcia Gay Harden
Director: Peter Landesman
Release: 22nd of November 2013
Rating:  15 (UK)

Fifty years to the day that US President John F. Kennedy was shot, cinematic recreation of these events, Parkland, hits UK cinemas. There are little words to describe Peter Landesman's film other than a vapid, tasteless attraction that is neither compelling or insightful.

This ensemble piece follows the lives of several people who were dragged into the chaotic events spurred on by the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Among those that Parkland follows are a young doctor (Zac Efron), a local man who catches the assassination on film - Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti), and Robert Oswald (James Badge Dale), the brother of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Shot in a manner that is so bitty and frantic, viewers are unlikely to be compelled or emotionally connect with any of the stories in Parkland. Characters and rushed on-and-off the screen like show ponies with far too much going on to grasp any cohesive human element of the story. The talented cast is squandered on undefined roles, characters presented with little to depth that exceeds the surface-level value of their costumes.  Despite the fast-paced chaos unfolding on screen, Landesman's film is remarkably dull and unfocused with a runtime that feels double its stated ninety minutes.

Parkand also feels like a rather tasteless affair, packed with unintentional laughs and toe-curling moments of crass details. Among these are Zac Efron's young doc pounding on Kennedy's bloody chest and yelling "No! Leave them on," when a nurse attempts to remove his boxers (a misguided attempt to give the President some dignity, which Landesman and co. had long since destroyed). There is also a blood-drenched Jackie Kennedy clutching a piece of 35th President's brain-matter, and Jackie Weaver's camped-up comic-relief Mrs. Oswald barking in her Southern drawl that her kill-ah son is an und-a-cova spy.   There are plenty of occasions when you may question if John Waters and Divine could even have produced a picture of such bad taste.

Why was a film like Parkland was needed? The events of Kennedy's assassination are heavily-documented in documentary and feature-film form. Not to mention the thousands of magazine articles and online features that have appeared and fed into the assassination and its myths. This is not going to prove insightful to the casual viewer, the history buff, or the conspiracy theorist.

Parkland squanders its impressive cast in this unfocused, tasteless, and boring recreation. With little depth and insight, Parkland can only be described as a mess.

★½☆☆☆

Andrew McArthur

DVD Review - Thanatomorphose

Genre:
Horror
Distributor:
Monster Pics UK
Release Date:
9th December 2013 (UK)
Director:
Éric Falardeau
Cast:
Émile Beaudry, Eryka Cantieri, Roch-Denis Gagnon
Buy Thanatomorphose: DVD

The word Thanatomorphose is a French term for the decomposition of an organism’s flesh after death. In Eric Falardeau’s film a young woman (played by Emile Beaudry) suddenly finds herself decomposing despite being alive. It’s clearly very influenced by the body horror films of David Cronenberg. He often used a horror conceit to explore a theme and to an extent Thanatomorphose does this too. Sadly the film ends up feeling like a vague idea stretched to feature length without saying much of anything unlike the films of Cronenberg making it an unpleasant and sometimes dull experience.

The film opens with a colourful montage of close-ups of the main couple in the film having rough sex. It’s pretty unclear what’s happening, it kind of has the look of the credits sequence of a grindhouse film and is underscored with John Carpenter-esque synth music. After this ends we are properly introduced to the main character, a woman who at one point had artistic ambitions but now seems devoid of any personality. She is defined by her weakness, her weakness in not saying no to her boyfriend who is a total ass, as well as another man in her life. The opening act of somewhat violent and uncaring sex is what seemingly causes her decay. In typical Cronenbergian fashion this body horror element is used as a metaphor, but in the case of Thanatomorphose the metaphor is so half-baked that it brings nothing more to the film other than a slight air of misogyny.

After the pulpy looking opening the film transitions into something else completely. The synths are replaced with strings and everything slows down. From this point on, other than another short pulpy interlude, the film is in full art-film mode. I say that because it’s full of mumblecore style muttered dialogue, constant nudity, and the aforementioned slow pace. The strange mix of genre elements and art aesthetics is something that Cronenberg’s films nailed, but this film is less successful. The reason Cronenberg’s best films succeeded were because their ideas were so strong. Thanatomorphose on the other hand seems very muddled with its ideas to the point that they really take a back seat to the pure experience of the film. The problem is that the experience of the film is just rampant unpleasantness.

To get more specific about what I mean I’ll use an example from the film where it very obviously references Cronenberg’s The Fly. In The Fly Jeff Goldblum’s character is slowly becoming an inhuman creature; his body is slowly falling apart as he changes into a monstrous human/fly hybrid. It’s a brilliant and heartbreaking allegory for disease and more specifically the AIDS epidemic of the time. In one scene we see him open his medicine cabinet and there are jars containing different appendages and body parts that have fallen off of him. This scene shows us that despite his changes he is still the scientist he was before. As monstrous as he appears the man he was still exists underneath, the man who wants to take note of everything and learn from this horror. Thanatomorphose takes this image of someone storing and noting their bodily decomposition but in this situation it tells us nothing. There’s nothing specific to her character that lends any significance to this moment other than “Oh cool, they’re referencing The Fly”. So much of the film’s attempts at bringing depth to its simple story end up adding nothing and if anything just draws attention to its emptiness.

As I said, the key thing that made Cronenberg’s films succeed was the strength of his horrific metaphors. In the case of Thanatomorphose this is one of the most troublesome aspects of the film. The idea of externalising internal decay is interesting but what the film denotes as decay worthy of this horrible experience is rather strange. This woman’s relationships with men are what are rotting her. Her boyfriend is cruel and obnoxious who seems to just want her for sex, something that is mirrored by another male friend who appeared nicer than he actually was. The male characters are dismissed as animals wanting sex in one strange scene but she seems to be held accountable for her weakness. The idea of someone causing their own pain and unhappiness (and by extension this being externalized) could be interesting and if done well could be quite brave. The thing is that here we know so little about her that it kind of comes across as victim blaming. As if these relationship mistakes are completely her fault, because men are just beasts, and how they are destroying her are due to her and nothing else. I don’t want to completely chastise the films ideas and proclaim they are hateful of women but they’re so underdeveloped and surface level that they could definitely come across that way.

A lot of this could be excused if the experience of watching the film was good enough. Sadly this is not the case. Other than one moment (which was also very similar to a scene from The Fly), which definitely got to me, I didn’t feel anything other than grossed-out. The special effects of this woman’s living decomposition are generally well done, but that’s not enough for me to be interested in any way. Even the camerawork was completely uninteresting. It was hard to tell if the incessant blurriness and close-ups was meant to be a reflection of her delirium, they didn’t know how to make this apartment look interesting (the whole film is set in her apartment), or the effects were not solid enough to show entirely clearly.

When a film invokes the memory of some classic horror films it better be good enough to pull us in and not solely think of those other films. In this case the comparisons it drew just highlighted its failings even more. All in all I found it to be a very empty film with one good idea. The performances, music, and camerawork could have been one way that the film made itself more interesting but they were nothing more than fine. Everything other than the effects and one burst of craziness lacked any kind of character and that was really the films downfall. Disgusting effects can forcefully pull an audience in to reflect on the film’s ideas but when there are no ideas the effects serve nothing other than to disgust, and that’s all this film has.

★☆☆☆☆

James MacLeod

Blu-Ray Review - Betty Blue (1986)

Genre:
Drama, Romance,
Rating:
18
Distributor:
Second Sight
BD Release Date:
25th November 2013 (UK)
Director:
Jean-Jacques Beineix
Cast:
Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle, Gérard Darmon
Buy: Betty Blue: Deluxe 2 Disc Edition [Blu-Ray]
Betty Blue since its release has became one of the most iconic films in World Cinema. The poster just itself is easily recognizable with that picture of Béatrice Dalle as the title character. Jean-Jacques Beineix directed it and he was considered one of the leading lights of the Cinéma du look along with Luc Besson, Leos Carax and to an extent Jean-Pierre Jeunet. These filmmakers rejected the Cinéma vérité of some of the French new wave films of the 1960s and took much inspiration from the American films of the 1970s and specifically the stylization of films like One from the Heart and Rumble Fish by Francis Ford Coppola.

Betty Blue was Beineix first film after the disastrous commercial and critical reception of his film Moon in the Gutter. Beineix was for many the lead lighting of Cinéma du look due to his stunning debut film Diva that took not only France by storm but also the UK and the USA. It was a truly stunning splash and still is a marvel to watch, Beineix was even compared to Orson Welles by noted critic Pauline Kael. Beineix was a “wonder kid” so his next film was deemed to fail naturally not unlike Welles’ own 2nd feature The Magnificent Ambersons.

Betty Blue is a 3 hour long doomed love story about Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglad) and Betty (Béatrice Dalle) who are madly in love quite literally. Zorg has been working as a handy man on a beach chalet when Betty arrives. She arrives and they fall madly in love in more ways that one. Zorg has been writing a novel and has given up on it till Betty discovers his manuscript and tries to get it published. Betty turns increasing insane and self-destructive and Zorg tries to save her before it’s too late.

Betty Blue isn’t as good as Diva because that film is so contained and so meticulously made. It’s also an hour shorter than the director’s cut of Betty Blue, which helps. This blu-ray also includes a shorter version than is missing around an hour but I only watched the director’s cut.

It’s a sprawling film of what love does to people and how it drives people to madness. The film told though Zorg’s character but the real star of the show is Béatrice Dalle whose performance has left an undeniable mark on cinematic culture. The film comes from hands down the most interesting time for films from France since Godard went downhill after his divorce from Anna Karina. Overall it’s worth getting a copy of it especially since Second Sight has a done a very nice blu-ray package including both cuts and a documentary on the film and Béatrice Dalle’s screen test for her role.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz