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Romeo + Juliet * Baz Luhrmann * 1996

You may find me crazy, but this is one of my favorite films. Of course I have known this film for centuries, but apparently I saw it long before I started this filmsection. Now I got it on DVD, so… For those of you who don’t know this film (if this is possible), yes, it is with Leonardo DiCaprio, but this doesn’t make the film less beautiful to me. As the title suggests the film is based on Shakespeares “Romeo and Julia” and this is done brilliantly. The setting is in a modern city, but the text is in the original old English. The things that Shakespeare did not describe explicitly are filled in freely, things that are discribed used, but put in the new setting. Therefor the cars look a bit funny, a gun had the brand “sword” and they can put stuck into the ground and a policeman is the leader of the city of Verona. The voiceovers are made into newsreaders on TV and there are more brilliant findings in this film. The music is perfect (I have had the score at home for years) which makes this film as dramatic as Shakespeare probably meant it. The acting is great. The actors had to speak in an ancient tongue but still remain true to the modern setting of the film and to my opinion they did well. The film is so old that it is available for only a few euros/bucks so my suggestion is that you get a copy of it.

Le Roi Danse * Gérard Corbiau * 2000

After Corbiau’s great “Farinelli” years ago I heard about this film. It did great at filmfestivals around the world and seems to have been ‘touring’ for four years. It even came back in the cinemas for a short while recently, but I didn’t get to see it. Four years after it first came out, it is finally available on (rental) DVD, or did I just miss it for too long? Well then, where “Farinelli” is already a complete bombastic and wonderfully detailed film about classical music in the Renaissance, “Le Roi Danse” tops it. The story is about king Louis XIV who loved to dance (the title means “the king dances”). Louis XIV is of course the ‘sunking’ who had Versailles built. You don’t get to see much of his reign and politics. You get a picture of a king who saw himself as a god on earth and also quite sturdy, being in the game of dance and play. He had the Italian composer Lully and the French playwriter Molière working for him making the newest kinds of music. In the beginning this is something like musical hearplay with ballet, but around the end of the film opera blows over from Italy. Really a great film to watch with stunning stages, great costumes, great playing and a great atmosphere. Also (I expect) historically just and therefor can be put in line with a film like “Elizabeth”, entertaining and docile. Being a film about music in times passed, you may compare it to “Amadeus”; “Le Roi Danse” may be even better. Get to see it if you are into historical / musical films and if you haven’t seen “Farinelli – il castrato” yet, get to see it too!

Ring Of The Nibelungs * Uli Edel * 2004

the curse of the ring

It doesn’t happen very often that I see a film of which I have read the book, but this film is based on the “Nibelungenlied” and the “Völsungensaga” (from the poetic Edda). The story of Sigurd/Siegfried the dragonslayer. The box says that both epics were the bases of Wagner’s “Ring Des Nibelungen” operas (correct) and the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy (maybe one or two ideas). This two episode series (2x 1,5 hour) is only loosely based on the sagas. It is no boring watch, but since I know the stories I frequently get the idea that something is wrong / different. Also the story ends a bit too early. The clash between the old and new (Christian) faith is stressed quite a bit and since the story of based on the old, this film of couse shows something of our prechristian past which comes nicely in the raising interest herein.

The Ring Two * Hideo Nakata * 2005

I have been in doubt whether or not to go and see this film. The first American Ring was alright, but didn’t quite have the atmosphere of the originals. Then there were two Ju-Ons of which the first was remade by the original director and this film WAS kept mostly in the Japanese style. Then Nakata himself was going to make the second American Ring. I read both positive and negative reviews and decided to just go for it.
Well, “The Ring Two” is pretty boring. Is has become totally American with fright-moments instead of atmosphere and additions to the story to make it more interesting. This American Ring two isn’t just a remake of one of the Japanese Ringu films, but an entirely new film, more or less with a new story. This is positive in my opinion, there is at least SOME surprise left when you know all of the Japanese films. But, like I said, “The Ring Two” is not too entertaining, but still alright to see some time.

The Ring * Gore Verbinsky * 2002

I have seen all four of the Japanese Ringus and was still curious about the American remake of the original. It took a while before I got to see it. However the American version is different, it is still a very nice horror/thriller. It isn’t as dark and claustrophobic as the Japanese version. The story is familiar, there is killer video, when you see it, you get a phonecall and die after a week. The video itself (the images, themes, etc.) is more worked out than in the original version, but the story largely remained the same, but where oh where did the story with the horses come from? The atmosphere is good, the acting too, overall more American of course, but like I said, still worth watching.

Ringu 0: Baasudei * Norio Tsuruta * 2000

After the tremendous succes of “Ringu” (an American remake even!) there was a sequel “Ringu 2” which I have yet to see (but will within the next days) and after the sequel there was a “prequel” “Ringu 0”. Chronologically this film comes before the original. There are several Ringu books that the films are based on, so however all these sequels are very Hollywoodish it is still somehow bearable. “Ringu 2” is by the original director, but “Ringu 0” is by the director of the wonderfull “Kakashi” (see elsewhere), but I found that out after I saw it, so I didn’t have too high hopes when I watched this film.

But, Ringu 0 proves to be about as good as the original. Not so dark in filming, but the same dense atmosphere, dark sounds that makes you definately have to see this on DVD and a slow building-up towards a great ending. The story is that of the girl from the well/drain that caused the curse. You can see how this shy girl moves to Tokio, makes problems that she can’t help and how she ends in the drain. The film is wonderfully made that you keep wondering what how when and especially why upto the last minutes. If you liked the original, see this one, if you haven’t seen any “The Ring” yet, be sure to see the originals!

Ringu 2 * Hideo Nakata * 1999

After the succesfull Ringu, Nakata made a sequel and later a ‘prequel’ was made by another director. I thought Ringu 1 is okay, but I suppose my expectations where too high, Ringu 0 was better than expected, but 2 is just alright. The story continues where part 1 ends. The people who found Sadako in the well are lost of insane and new people investigate the curse. Nice to see if you saw the other two, but the least of the three. Oh, my advice: watch them in the order they were made! That is Ringu, Ringu 2 and then Ringu 0.

Ring: Spiral * George Lida * 1999

For those who still don’t believe it: “this is the film that was shot at the same time as the original Ring and is therefor the only real Ring 2”. I had heard of this ‘original Ring 2’ before which was regarded so terrible that a descent follow-up had to be made. I can’t find this title in the Internet Movie Database. The info above comes from the internetpage of the videostore.

This Ring is indeed the least of the four Japanese films, but still not as horrible as some will make you believe. It is more of a drama which very slowly evolves towards the dark thriller that we came to watch the Ring ‘series’ for. The story comes after the first Ring of course. The dead doctor isn’t dead and flashbacks go back to Ring 0. No need to tell you about the killer-videotape I suppose? Just watch it if you have already seen the rest. When I see the English version of the first Ring, I have seen them all…

Ring(u) * Hideo Nakata * 1998

What do you get when you mix The Blair Witch Project, Tesis, Videodrome, Odisjon/Audition and a bit of David Lynch? Indeed, a Japanese cult-horror. I had never heard of this film until last november when the boyfriend of my youngest sister told me about it. In the meantime it seems that “Ringu 2” and “Ringu 0” (which chronologically is supposed to be seen before this one) and on top of all, “Ringu” (just “Ring” on international dvds by the way) has been remade in America as “The Ring” and this US-version will have its cinema-premiere in the Netherlands coming Thursday (13/2/03). According to the critics, the American version is as good as the original and the word says that this is the most frightening film since the first Blair Witch. Well then.

“Ringu” is about a videotape-curse. People who see a certain video get a phonecall immediately after and they hear that they have only one week to live. This becomes a story to scare friends at school, but a tv-reporter is going to check out this story when two youngsters die with a horrible expression on their faces a week after they are said to have seen the film. Quite rapidly she finds a videotape on a holiday-resort, watches it, gets the call and asks her ex-husband to help her out to solve the mystery. He also sees it, doesn’t receive a call, but does get the weird visions that the watchers of the tape get in their last week. Then the search for the origin leads to a young girl who was daughter of a strange woman with psychic powers. The little girl could wish people dead and when she was murdered by her father, a curse came forth from her death.

The film reminded me of the Spanish “Tesis” because of the hunt for a killer-videotape by experts on the plane of video. Also the cult-film “Videodrome” has a similar idea as “Ringu”, videos take over the lifes of their victims. “Odisjon/Audition” I only added because this is also a film in Japanese as is “Ringu”. Then “Ringu” is supposed to be extremely frightening without gruesome images, like in “The Blair Witch”. This is partly true. There indeed are some quite heavy scenes in this film, but still I have to see my first real scary film. Further the film is quite dark and the video-images are used a bit as in Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. Also the dark drones add to the effect giving “Ringu” a nice atmosphere.

All in all though I didn’t like “Ringu” too much. It is nice, but not overtly original and definately not as scary as people say. Still a film that you want to see if you like horrors without thousands of liters of blood and also if you like a dark atmosphere in a film.

Riget (The Kingdom) II * Lars von Trier * 1997

E 20 for three videos isn’t too much money, right? Too bad that I had to get a horrible dvd-version of the first series in order to get the whole thing (reviewed elsewhere). Three videos exactly the way you get the thing on tv, nothing more, nothing less, PERFECT!. So this time I DID get to see the intros with the swamp, the hilarious song and intro AND Lars’ stories at the end of every episode.

The Kingdom I is still pretty much of a soap-series with some strange elements, but it builds up to an extremely crazy end. No waiting when you have everything at home, so I immediately continued with these second series (of three years later!). These are MUCH darker, crazier and absurd than series I. Again I am not going to tell you too much about this ghost-story-hospital-soap. If you like the bizare kind of tv-making and you haven’t seen The Kingdom, be sure to see it! Also the second series have a very open end, but I don’t believe Von Trier will ever make a third series. <5>