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Frozen * Juliet McKoen * 2006

This British film plays in a small fishertown two years after the disappearance of a young woman, not even her body was discovered. The film is all about “Kath”, the sister who is obsessed by the disappearance and tries everything to find her sister or at least her body. Slowly she looses her grip on reality.
“Frozen” is mostly a drama, but has some thriller edges, because on the background, the hunt for the possible killer is always present. From the beginning I had the idea that the clue was given away too easily, but the ongoing suggestion of the solution proves to be just a suggestion. “Frozen” is almost completely Shirley Henderson who carries the film almost all on her own and does that very well. The result is an enjoyable ‘mysterious drama’ with nice images, great acting and a realistic atmosphere.
-3.5-

Ta divna Splitska noc * Arsen A. Ostojic * 2004

A Wonderfull Night In Split

A Kroation film that gives a few stories that play between 10:00pm and 12:00pm on some new years night. All the stories play in a small part of the city of Split and give a glimpse of the ‘dark side’ of the city, especially drug-related. In a way the film is a drama, but also in a way it is a (black) comedy. It sure has some weird elements, strange characters and funny dialogues. It starts confrontatingly realistic, but ends in a mirage. It is spoken in Kroatian, has great camera work and is beautifully shot in high-contrast black and white. Also it has a dense atmosphere, since it mostly plays in very small allies. A very nice film!
-3.5-

Horizonica * Ramon Etman * 2007

This weekend there is an art and music festival in Eindhoven, called “Edit”. During this festival “the best film ever from Eindhoven” (perhaps the only) was shown. I had heard a lot about this zombie-thrasher-horror-film. It was made with a tight budget and the help of 1236 volonteers (which has become the advertisement). Since it was shown in Eindhoven, some of the cast and crew were part of the audience. Also I knew that some people I know are in the film. To the film then. Well, “Horizonica” as a film is not too good. The acting is awfull, the synchronising terrible (as if the actors simply read their text out loud), the images and colours poor (safe for some nice ideas with over- or underlighting), the story thin. Let me start with the latter. In an act of hatred and revenge, a young man poisons the water system of Eindhoven with a virus that turns people into murdering zombies. A few lines are put in the film, such as first-year students being dropped in the woods (for the Blair Witch effect), a group of policemen trying to save the world, etc. The film quickly develops into a typical slasher movie with extremely bloody scenes and grim humour. There are also some Jap-horror elements which works well with the very industrial soundtrack. These sure are the better scenes, but they seem to be a bit out of place in the film. Then there are a few scenes completely loose from the rest with overacting and absurd dialogues, which are the most funny elements of the film. Well then, do you have to watch the film? If you are from Eindhoven or its surroundings: you better. Especially the Eindhoven-promotional beginning is a funny watch. For the rest you will have to enjoy bloody slasher films and/or have a grim sense of humour. The film sure is funny, but good?… nah.
-2-

Perfume * Tom Tykwer * 2007

I saw this film (in German) in a room with a few hundred “Grufties” during the 2007 edition of the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig. Not that this has anything to do with the film, but I thought it would be nice to mention.
Tom Tykwer, the many-sided director of Lola Rennt, Heaven, Der Krieger und die Kaisering, this time comes with a historical drama around a boy with a magnificent sense of smell. After a wretched youth he becomes student with a perfume-maker and becomes obsessed with the pursuit to capture the scent of a woman.
“Perfume: the story of a murderer” is a nice historical drama which gives a nice insight in the fabrication of perfumes, has a nice sence of humour and good acting. The beginning and especially the end are much overdone though, both in filming (the beginning) and the story (the end). For the rest a nice watch.
-2.5-

The Wicker Man * Neil LaBute * 2006

When I discovered the 1973 original version of this film late last year, I already heard that also this film was up for a remake. I like the original, am no fond of remakes, heard some bad things about this remake, so I just went to see it out of curiosity. There is no use in telling where the remake differs from the original, it is almost an entirely different film. The note: “based on the screenplay by Anthony Schaffer” should be completed with the words “very loosely”. Where are the songs, why did Lord Summersisle become a woman, where is the Christianising character of Howie, what about the bees, what about the the Wicca and occult symbols that have nothing to do with paganism, what about this epilogue / cliffhanger for a sequel? etc., etc. In short: the story has been changed quite a bit. The new Wicker Man became just an average thriller, whereas the first had a nice atmosphere. Surprisingly enough, the climax did become even more fierce in the remake. All in all not convincing when you know the original and from the reactions from the cinema I understood that the rest of the audience wasn’t entirely convinced either.
4/9/06 -2-
Read the review of the original here.

Hellboy * Guillermo del Toro * 2004

For some reason I thought that the title referred to some Japanese action film, but nothing is less true. Now with the new film of Del Toro in the cinemas, attention is drawn to his older work. I saw a trailer of the new “El Laberinto del Fauno” (strangely translated as “Pan’s Labyrinth” for the international release), first thought that it was some kind of fantasy for children, but when I later read the reviews, it seems that it is actually an impressive fantasy for adults. The same can be said about “Hellboy”. If I had to tag the film, it would be something like: “a (political) sci-fi fantasy comedy”. A what? “Political” is between brackets. The Nazis are dragged it, but I don’t think that the film as a whole has much of a message. “Sci-fi” because of the laboratory, etc. “Fantasy” is obvious and “comedy” because the film has a wonderfull sense of humour and more than just a random joke here and there. The story then. The Nazis open a gate to another world and this in order to get forces here for the destruction of the world. A little red ape falls in the hands of a (good) scientist who later has some secret monster division of the FBI, monsters fighting monsters. There is a nice thick layer of religion and occultism in the film (but not really ‘deep going’), great costumes and stages and a simple but effective story with good scenes and acting. “Hellboy” is unlike almost any other film and in this regard refreshing; maybe not a brilliant top-film, but definately very enjoyable.

INLAND EMPIRE * David Lynch * 2007

Watching a David Lynch film is like listening to a power-electronics album. It is not for most people, because most people will be looking for melodies, lyrics and a feel-good atmosphere, rather than oppressive darkness, chaos and violence. The same goes for a film such as INLAND EMPIRE. Film critics have been looking for logic, a story, a nice atmosphere and a happy end, but they have found none of that and therefor slay this film to the ground. What INLAND EMPIRE brings you is a very ‘industrial’ opening, weird characters, strange filming, absurd dialogues, scenes that (apparently) have nothing to do with eachother, a story that is ‘incorrect’ and confusing (actually there seems to be a multitude of ‘stories’) and most of all: extremely dark scenes, eruptions of violence and disturbing images. Indeed, Lynch-fans can be reassured, INLAND EMPIRE is in the style of Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive. In a way, it continues the ‘path’ where the other two point to.Where Lost Highway had two stories (and ‘unconnected scenes’) and Mullholland Drive several, INLAND EMPIRE seems just a collection of short films rather than a film. It has elements of the sitcom “Rabbits” (that I haven’t seen), hallucinative scenes, typical ‘Lynchial’ close-ups with industrial background music, different stories that somehow seem to form a red line, but maybe that is not the case at all. You guessed it: I am not going to tell you a story, I will not going to analyze the different elements. The biggest mistake you can make with a film such as this, is to approach it rationally. Somehow everything has its place. Like the electronic noise terror of a power electronics release, the artist has carefully put it together, undoubtely with an idea, but if the artist leaves out an ‘explanation’, all you can do is undergo it and enjoy the atmosphere. Somehow I like one power-electronics release, but another not. In film there isn’t such a variety, there is Lynch and a few other ‘weird directors’ that don’t care about how things are supposed to be. I happen to like Lynch. His films are impressive and because they cannot be understood, I can watch them over and over again, like I can listen to music over and over again. Maybe a final note for Lynch-likers like myself: Lost Highway is magnificent, Mullholland Drive is very good, INLAND EMPIRE is good, but it seems like Lynch is trying to be weirder and weirder which makes it more and more difficult to ‘get into’. Of course I have only seen INLAND EMPIRE once now, but at the moment it seems that with Lost Highway Lynch has reached his peak for me and now it is slowly (and I say “slowly”) going down. No worries, because INLAND EMPIRE still is a film that you have to see if you can stand a film like this and I adivise you to see it on the big screen, even when it only plays in a few cinemas. A last thing about the camera work, as you know Lynch shot the film with digital handycames (that he partially handled himself!), this is sometimes irritating (shaky images, not too good quality), sometimes fitting. Concider it as a typical David Lynch experiment and don’t worry about it.

Twin Peaks second series 1990/1 – David Lynch (2007)

It is a magnificent day for a Dutch Lynch-freak. Today “Inland Empire” premieres (in only five cities!) and we are going to see it coming sunday. Also, after almost five years of waiting, the often anounced boxset with the remaining Twin Peaks episodes is available!! The ‘first series’ was 7 episodes (you had to buy the pilot separately if you got the American version like me, I believe the European version has 8 episodes) and now we are finally up for the remaining 22. The series proved successfull enough to allow Lynch to make more episodes, yet it never came to a third series. The box of the second series is nothing compared to that of the first. There is no tranparant plastic case this time, just a cardboard box holding two ‘digipacks’ with two halves of the second series (which are released separately in Germany I heard). The artwork seems to have been tried to give a ‘modern look’. Why does the dwarve have white eyes on the box and what about this strange frontcover?
You can imagine that I haven’t yet watched the 22 remaining episodes, I just got the box! I have seen Twin Peaks a couple of times and I am not going to say anything except that this is the best that ever appeared on TV. If you don’t know Twin Peaks, you will have to start with the first series anyway (read my review of many years ago) and the rest will be excited by the news that the remaining episodes are truely finally available on DVD.

Pretpark Nederland / A Funfair Behind The Dikes * Michiel van Erp * 2006

A documentary about what Dutchmen do in their free time. A women’s days out, Gay Pride Amsterdam, shopping, Prinsegracht concert, Elf Fantasy Fair, Efteling amusement park, etc. The film is presented as a hilarious and charming look on the Dutch, but besides a few ‘typicallities’ and amusing moments, I find this documentary not very groundbreaking or even very typical. What adds to this, is that the documentary is often ‘behind the scenes’. You don’t get to see people visiting the Efteling, but the creation of a new attraction; not much people going to a mall with thousands of others on holidays, but a man trying to promote his small town and its middle class. Amusing, but the idea could have been worked out better in my opinion. The documentary has English subtitles, so also non-Dutch-speaking viewers can laugh about us. I don’t know if there is another version than region 2 though.

A Zed & Two Noughts * Peter Greenaway * 1985

Another old film by the magnificent director Peter Greenaway that has been made available on DVD. Now there is also a series with “the early films of Peter Greenaway”. I am still eagerly awaiting Greenaways absolute masterpiece “Prospero’s Books” to be released on DVD. I did notice that “The Baby Of Mâcon” has been released on DVD, so I hope it is only a matter of time. Anyway, I hadn’t heard of “ZOO” yet, but Greenaway has many films that I haven’t seen. “ZOO” is a typical Greenaway film. A long line of strange scenes made around a thin story that only serves as starting point. Greenaway took a few absurd (or even taboo?) subjects, uses his famous amount of nudity and inverted sexual moral and again managed to create a dreamy atmosphere with great camera work and music. The story plays around a zoo where two women mysteriously died and another survived. All people involved are somehow connected to the zoo. Again a very good film of one of my favorite directors.