The sexy Ukrainian Bond-babe (from Quantum of Solace) Olga Kurylenko's first film was L'Annulaire (2005) . Iris (Kurylenko) have an accident and cut off her ring finger. Then she moves to a port town (filmed in Hamburg), and lodging in a hotel by the seafront. She gets a job as an assistant and receptionist for a man who preserve peoples specials items into specimen. The guy and the place is weird, and he comes up with some requirements to her, that makes the job and employer even weirder. It's originally a Japanese novel by Yoko Ogawa, and there is some strange Japanese atmosphere over this story. The movie is packed with the nude Iris, and I guess that alone will please a lot of male viewers. I think the story was going a bit empty after a while, but I'm a male viewer - so I stayed tune with the beautiful Iris until the final.
12 Reviews
Olga Kurylenko's debut
lastliberal18 October 2009
This little gem was Olga Kurylenko's (Quantum of Solace, Hit-man, Paris, je t'aime) first film. That is the only thing that attracted me to it. She has a beauty that just draws you in no matter what she stars in.
She has to do a lot of acting in this film, as it is short on dialog. She injures herself in an industrial accident and ends up in a situation with a strange man in a strange job, and sharing a room with a sailor who works nights. The only interaction with the sailor is through what he leaves in the room, but the relationship with her boss takes on an erotic turn.
Despite the absolutely awesome display of femininity by Kurylenko in the musical and visual feast, there just wasn't enough story to carry this all the way.
She has to do a lot of acting in this film, as it is short on dialog. She injures herself in an industrial accident and ends up in a situation with a strange man in a strange job, and sharing a room with a sailor who works nights. The only interaction with the sailor is through what he leaves in the room, but the relationship with her boss takes on an erotic turn.
Despite the absolutely awesome display of femininity by Kurylenko in the musical and visual feast, there just wasn't enough story to carry this all the way.
Have you ever seen a movie and then had no idea what you'd just seen or if you even liked it? I just did!
planktonrules1 July 2018
"L'annulaire" ("The Ring Finger") is one o f the strangest films I've ever seen and now that I've seen it, I really have no idea what it was all about or whether I even liked it. I certainly loved parts of the picture.
Olga Kurylenko stars as Iris, a woman who loses the tip of her ring finger at the beginning of the story. She then obtains a job working for a VERY strange man who 'conserves' things...though exactly why and what he does with them is very vague. In fact, vagueness is the strong theme throughout the tale. Often people are in scenes but you have no idea who they are and why they're there. Knowing no one's motivations or back stories make for a very odd viewing experience. Plus, often folks do things....and you have no idea why. Iris begins a bizarre sexual relationship with her boss, the conservator....but you have no idea why nor does Iris for that matter. What comes of all this? I have no idea....see the film and decide for yourself.
Overall, one of the strangest films I've ever seen and one that is beautifully filmed and directed...though maddeningly vague. I still don't know what I thought of this film, though I do think you should be aware that there is a lot of nudity in the picture...though it didn't seem very provocative nor perverse...just explicit.
By the way, throughout the film, Iris perspires a lot and the office where she works has no air conditioning. Her boss tells her to arrange to have air conditioning installed but it never occurs. When she calls, she asks for a 'Mr. Rota'...that is Spanish for 'broken' and I wonder if this choice of names was intentional.
Olga Kurylenko stars as Iris, a woman who loses the tip of her ring finger at the beginning of the story. She then obtains a job working for a VERY strange man who 'conserves' things...though exactly why and what he does with them is very vague. In fact, vagueness is the strong theme throughout the tale. Often people are in scenes but you have no idea who they are and why they're there. Knowing no one's motivations or back stories make for a very odd viewing experience. Plus, often folks do things....and you have no idea why. Iris begins a bizarre sexual relationship with her boss, the conservator....but you have no idea why nor does Iris for that matter. What comes of all this? I have no idea....see the film and decide for yourself.
Overall, one of the strangest films I've ever seen and one that is beautifully filmed and directed...though maddeningly vague. I still don't know what I thought of this film, though I do think you should be aware that there is a lot of nudity in the picture...though it didn't seem very provocative nor perverse...just explicit.
By the way, throughout the film, Iris perspires a lot and the office where she works has no air conditioning. Her boss tells her to arrange to have air conditioning installed but it never occurs. When she calls, she asks for a 'Mr. Rota'...that is Spanish for 'broken' and I wonder if this choice of names was intentional.
Review from 2005 TIFF
riid10 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.
L'Annulaire is the second feature film from director Diane Bertrand, who also wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of Yoko Ogawa's novel.
The film follows Iris (Olga Kurylenko), who moves to a port town after cutting off the tip of her ring finger in an industrial accident. She quickly finds lodging in a hotel down by the harbour, but is forced to share a room with a sailor who works at night and sleeps while she is out in the day. While searching for work, by chance she comes across an old girls' school that now houses a man (Marc Barbe) who preserves and stores personal artifacts that people bring to him.
Taking a job as the man's office assistant, she soon becomes involved in a sort of relationship with him, while at the same time being intrigued by the sailor (Stipe Erceg), whom she only knows through the things left in their shared room.
The movie, filmed in Hamburg and just outside Paris, is beautifully shot. Bertrand favours many tight shots of the characters, giving a more intimate feel to many of the moments in the film. Noah Cowan, the co-director of the festival, described the film as combining the contemplative feel of Asian cinema with the sexual energy of European cinema. Thus, the film is very spare in its dialogue, leaving only the words that are spoken and the looks between characters as the framework on which to interpret the story.
The preservation of personal artifacts in the film causes one to wonder about the nature of memories, loss, and the desire or need to move on, extending even to Iris' own life. This helps to draw the viewer into what is a very quiet and meditative film.
I found the actress playing Iris was quite good, especially given that it was her first film and that she had to communicate so much non-verbally. A few of the scenes between her and the preservationist were charged with a lot of sensual energy, even in something as simple as him putting a pair of shoes on her feet.
Notes from the Q&A with director Diane Bertrand: - L'Annulaire is very open-ended, and Bertrand herself admitted the film doesn't give any answers; the audience can imagine what it wants.
Minor spoilers below:
L'Annulaire is the second feature film from director Diane Bertrand, who also wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of Yoko Ogawa's novel.
The film follows Iris (Olga Kurylenko), who moves to a port town after cutting off the tip of her ring finger in an industrial accident. She quickly finds lodging in a hotel down by the harbour, but is forced to share a room with a sailor who works at night and sleeps while she is out in the day. While searching for work, by chance she comes across an old girls' school that now houses a man (Marc Barbe) who preserves and stores personal artifacts that people bring to him.
Taking a job as the man's office assistant, she soon becomes involved in a sort of relationship with him, while at the same time being intrigued by the sailor (Stipe Erceg), whom she only knows through the things left in their shared room.
The movie, filmed in Hamburg and just outside Paris, is beautifully shot. Bertrand favours many tight shots of the characters, giving a more intimate feel to many of the moments in the film. Noah Cowan, the co-director of the festival, described the film as combining the contemplative feel of Asian cinema with the sexual energy of European cinema. Thus, the film is very spare in its dialogue, leaving only the words that are spoken and the looks between characters as the framework on which to interpret the story.
The preservation of personal artifacts in the film causes one to wonder about the nature of memories, loss, and the desire or need to move on, extending even to Iris' own life. This helps to draw the viewer into what is a very quiet and meditative film.
I found the actress playing Iris was quite good, especially given that it was her first film and that she had to communicate so much non-verbally. A few of the scenes between her and the preservationist were charged with a lot of sensual energy, even in something as simple as him putting a pair of shoes on her feet.
Notes from the Q&A with director Diane Bertrand: - L'Annulaire is very open-ended, and Bertrand herself admitted the film doesn't give any answers; the audience can imagine what it wants.
- She tried to be faithful to the novel, but it is very short. Bertrand added the sub-plot with the sailor.
- When asked why she adapted this novel, Bertrand said when she first read the book, she couldn't stop, and had all these images in her head, which was unusual since the atmosphere in the book is not European. But even upon re-reading the novel she still had the same feelings. She felt aspirations to explore the desire, love, and mysteries of the story.
- Olga Kurylenko is from the Ukraine, and this was her first film, thus making it difficult to obtain financing. Thus, there was lots of time for her to work on her character; Bertrand asked her to watch lots of films and read a lot of books. Kurylenko felt a bond to the character.
- The director of photography is also a photographer, which accounts for the look of the film.
- Bertrand wanted to film something slow like a painting, to make the audience feel as though they are watching moving images.
Minor spoilers below:
- Bertrand had less direction for Marc Barbe, but she did ask him to not play his scenes with Kurylenko like he wanted to seduce her, even though the character seems to know exactly what she needs. Iris is supposed to feel that he sees inside her as soon as they meet. Barbe agreed that the character does not need to explain himself.
- In the novel, the shoes which play an important role in the story are black, not red, however Bertrand has a bit of an obsession with the colour red.
- Bertrand feels the story really starts with the scene where the preservationist puts the shoes on Iris' feet. It is Ogawa's theme that Iris has a feeling of being possessed by the shoes. But when Barbe's character tells Iris that she can't take the shoes off, she gives him a quick look that says "ok, so you want to play this game" and decides to do it, preferring to live something rather than nothing.
Where dreams and desires meet to provide enigma
RJBurke194213 August 2011
This film did not turn up on my radar back in 2005. That's not surprising, I think, given the complexity and opaqueness of the story which together renders such a movie as box-office poison. It is, however, a cleverly contrived fable about unresolved needs and dreams – and all with a distinct nod to David Lynch, arguably the master of complex mystery and film-making – and all dressed up with appropriate symbolism and metaphor.
Every city has lonely people and Iris (Olga Kurylenko) is one such young woman working as a drudge on an assembly line in a bottling factory at a major sea port. Her face is set, sullen and almost sad as she helps the bottles along clattering rollers. She doesn't see a broken bottle and cuts her ring finger badly, gushing copious blood around. The wound is dressed at a medical office where, overcome by stress and pain, she lapses into sleep, almost in a fetal position.
With a quick jump-cut, we next see Iris renting a room at a seaport dive for sailors – a direct symbol for one of her needs – and then obtaining a job as an "office manager" at an obscure laboratory where she assists with the screening of people who wish to preserve things of value. The pale-faced laboratory owner (Marc Barbe) is authoritative, austere, and abrupt at first, and always dressed the same: black trousers and shoes, white shirt and long white laboratory coat that billows out as he strides around each day, seeing to the work within the 100 plus rooms in the old college he bought to house all the preserved "specimens" he keeps for clients.
As time passes, he becomes more interested in Iris, more attentive and finally more possessive – providing a clue as to why prior female office managers had apparently left hurriedly. Iris, however, allows herself to succumb to his wishes and desires – and thereby satisfies another of her secret needs; and which also result in the brief, highly erotic love making that simply confirms the depth of her deprived emotional needs. Incidentally, as part of their "contract" he insists that she wears a pair of high-heeled red shoes – always.
At the same time, Iris also evinces interest in the young sailor at the hotel with whom she shares a room but – he being on shift work – without ever seeing him, only savoring the lingering smell on his bed and clothes. It appears that the sailor is equally interested when we see him doing the same with her clothes when alone in the room.
Curiosity, though, drives Iris even further with her need to see the laboratory in which specimens are prepared. She asks her employer if she can see him work, but he refuses. But she persists as she gains more favor with him and eventually manages to convince him she is worthy.
Few viewers, I think, will be satisfied with the closing scenes and may remain mystified. They do, however, provide closure for the entire story and Iris's experience.
The film is distinctive with just enough dialog, long takes, seemingly erratic cuts, a riveting sound track that's difficult to hear properly, and mostly nameless characters, including an enigmatic shoe-shine expert of fifty years. It all adds to the mystery but some viewers will be dissatisfied, even repelled.
From that overall perspective, and like David Lynch, the director (Diane Bertrand) has left viewers to interpret the story according to their own beliefs and experiences. Like Lynch's movies, there are long, dark corridors, extreme close-ups, unexplained scenes (for example, Iris swinging on the end of a large crane cable's hook), unexplained time shifts, unexplained appearances of others who seem to add nothing to the story, and, of course, an enigmatic ending. Bertrand doesn't achieve the same type of suspense, though; that, however, may be deliberate because the subject matter here doesn't have the same darkly evil connotations so evident in most of what Lynch has done.
Still, if you like Lynch, I highly recommend this film; and the director, as an interesting and promising companion, perhaps. Give this a seven.
August 2011.
Every city has lonely people and Iris (Olga Kurylenko) is one such young woman working as a drudge on an assembly line in a bottling factory at a major sea port. Her face is set, sullen and almost sad as she helps the bottles along clattering rollers. She doesn't see a broken bottle and cuts her ring finger badly, gushing copious blood around. The wound is dressed at a medical office where, overcome by stress and pain, she lapses into sleep, almost in a fetal position.
With a quick jump-cut, we next see Iris renting a room at a seaport dive for sailors – a direct symbol for one of her needs – and then obtaining a job as an "office manager" at an obscure laboratory where she assists with the screening of people who wish to preserve things of value. The pale-faced laboratory owner (Marc Barbe) is authoritative, austere, and abrupt at first, and always dressed the same: black trousers and shoes, white shirt and long white laboratory coat that billows out as he strides around each day, seeing to the work within the 100 plus rooms in the old college he bought to house all the preserved "specimens" he keeps for clients.
As time passes, he becomes more interested in Iris, more attentive and finally more possessive – providing a clue as to why prior female office managers had apparently left hurriedly. Iris, however, allows herself to succumb to his wishes and desires – and thereby satisfies another of her secret needs; and which also result in the brief, highly erotic love making that simply confirms the depth of her deprived emotional needs. Incidentally, as part of their "contract" he insists that she wears a pair of high-heeled red shoes – always.
At the same time, Iris also evinces interest in the young sailor at the hotel with whom she shares a room but – he being on shift work – without ever seeing him, only savoring the lingering smell on his bed and clothes. It appears that the sailor is equally interested when we see him doing the same with her clothes when alone in the room.
Curiosity, though, drives Iris even further with her need to see the laboratory in which specimens are prepared. She asks her employer if she can see him work, but he refuses. But she persists as she gains more favor with him and eventually manages to convince him she is worthy.
Few viewers, I think, will be satisfied with the closing scenes and may remain mystified. They do, however, provide closure for the entire story and Iris's experience.
The film is distinctive with just enough dialog, long takes, seemingly erratic cuts, a riveting sound track that's difficult to hear properly, and mostly nameless characters, including an enigmatic shoe-shine expert of fifty years. It all adds to the mystery but some viewers will be dissatisfied, even repelled.
From that overall perspective, and like David Lynch, the director (Diane Bertrand) has left viewers to interpret the story according to their own beliefs and experiences. Like Lynch's movies, there are long, dark corridors, extreme close-ups, unexplained scenes (for example, Iris swinging on the end of a large crane cable's hook), unexplained time shifts, unexplained appearances of others who seem to add nothing to the story, and, of course, an enigmatic ending. Bertrand doesn't achieve the same type of suspense, though; that, however, may be deliberate because the subject matter here doesn't have the same darkly evil connotations so evident in most of what Lynch has done.
Still, if you like Lynch, I highly recommend this film; and the director, as an interesting and promising companion, perhaps. Give this a seven.
August 2011.
FILM-MAKING 101 TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE OF THE TOTAL BEING LESS THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS!!
Tony-Kiss-Castillo3 February 2024
SO..... WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???
Haunting musical score, disturbingly unsettling erotic scenes, perturbing voyeuristic encounters, Olga Kurylenko as eye candy, preserve-and-cherish-those-best-moments-of-your-life metaphors, artistic and interesting visuals...
Put all these diverse elements into a cinematic blender and what do you get? A Film-Making 101 textbook example of the total being LESS than the sum of its parts! I've been asking myself the "What the H*LL is this?" question incessantly for hours since spending 90 minutes as a "voyeur" of this experiment. And...As yet, there just doesn't seem to be an answer!
The director, Diane Bertrand, seems to be assiduously and blatantly giving us the title (sans "Ring") for the duration! The film revolves around a mysterious "clinic" where people go to have important life-relics "preserved"...In theory, at least. In practice, these supposedly priceless articles are soon forgotten about. It's difficult to empathize with any of the characters in the film because they're all so creepy, to one extent or another. Even Kurylenko's character is more off-putting than not.
The supposedly "erotic" scenes are reminiscent of watching someone getting violated by their orthodontist during a root canal procedure. A rather self-indulgent piece of film-making, it's not hard to imagine dozens of Director Bertrand's friends gathered at her home for a private screening shouting "C'est Magnifique!" and "Incroyable!" afterward! As if this weren't enough, many segments are painfully languidly paced.
"FINGER" might have faired a little better after a second viewing, but I'm not motivated in the least to see it again.
3***........ ENJOY! / DISFUTELA!??!?...(If You Can Manage!)
Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!
Haunting musical score, disturbingly unsettling erotic scenes, perturbing voyeuristic encounters, Olga Kurylenko as eye candy, preserve-and-cherish-those-best-moments-of-your-life metaphors, artistic and interesting visuals...
Put all these diverse elements into a cinematic blender and what do you get? A Film-Making 101 textbook example of the total being LESS than the sum of its parts! I've been asking myself the "What the H*LL is this?" question incessantly for hours since spending 90 minutes as a "voyeur" of this experiment. And...As yet, there just doesn't seem to be an answer!
The director, Diane Bertrand, seems to be assiduously and blatantly giving us the title (sans "Ring") for the duration! The film revolves around a mysterious "clinic" where people go to have important life-relics "preserved"...In theory, at least. In practice, these supposedly priceless articles are soon forgotten about. It's difficult to empathize with any of the characters in the film because they're all so creepy, to one extent or another. Even Kurylenko's character is more off-putting than not.
The supposedly "erotic" scenes are reminiscent of watching someone getting violated by their orthodontist during a root canal procedure. A rather self-indulgent piece of film-making, it's not hard to imagine dozens of Director Bertrand's friends gathered at her home for a private screening shouting "C'est Magnifique!" and "Incroyable!" afterward! As if this weren't enough, many segments are painfully languidly paced.
"FINGER" might have faired a little better after a second viewing, but I'm not motivated in the least to see it again.
3***........ ENJOY! / DISFUTELA!??!?...(If You Can Manage!)
Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!
Images that make you go mad
oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx14 March 2010
A city with no name, a young woman with no history, a house apart - a strange island in a sea of trees. I like the lack of references to anything external to this system. The world of this movie is airtight. I'm reminded of the famous story retold by W. Somerset Maugham, "Appointment in Samarra", where a man, upon bumping into Death in the streets of Baghdad, flees to Samarra to avoid his wrath, but instead runs into Death who is waiting for him in Samarra, and whose anger at the jostling in Baghdad is revealed to have been mere surprise, as he had been expecting to see the man in Samarra later in the day. The sealed nature of this film demands a focus on inevitability.
A young woman, Iris, wanders alone in the port area of the city, along superannuated towpaths, past the gigantic hulks of international shipping; outside of work the closest she comes to really being with others is staring at prostitutes behind plate glass, or contemplating entering a bar. There's something brutal about the isolation of Iris by the filmmaker. When I reviewed In The City of Sylvia, similarly a beautiful movie with an isolated character, I said that the filmmaker should either have won the Golden Lion at Venice or have been brutally murdered; I've similar feelings here.
Today is Sunday and I've been sat in a deserted office building writing this review, ostensibly here to study for exams, but procrastinating somewhat. The morning streets are almost empty, a white contrail hints at faraway adventures that I'll never be part of, the river is full of empty boats. There is nothing good about being alone; the beauty of it is only a subtle form of cruelty.
The soundtrack of the movie is done by Beth Gibbons of Portishead; its fractured entropised lilt is just right; you only ever catch fragments of lyrics.
Iris gets work as the sole employee in the strange set aside laboratory. The laboratory offers a simple service whereby people may come and, for a fee, have items preserved and stored away. This seems quite a perverse thing to do. Memory, which it seems this film is about, IS perverse. Recently I wrote three poems to a woman I love, who I later learnt has no desire to be with me, I never gave them to her. A colleague tells me I should burn them, and that is perhaps the best thing to do, but perversity wills me to preserve them, to torture myself. Memory becomes viscous ooze in which you are trapped, finally it solidifies and turns into amber. People (mostly children) who can live in the moment, truly do not know how lucky they are.
Some have called the film erotic, however the erotic whilst present, is as intangible as a passing cloud on a sunny day. Marc Barbé's conserver remains inscrutable and devoid of passion during sex scenes. Sex scenes with him are no more or less sensual than seeing a spider cocooning a fly, trapped for inclusion in its larder. One quite disturbing picture from above shows us an image of his head on Iris' body, he is merely consuming her.
Other aspects of the erotic are fetishistic, the focus on the shoes that Iris is made to wear for her work, her clothing, which the sailor who sleeps in her room in the morning feels and smells in her absence. The movie brought to mind for me Magritte's two famous fetishistic paintings, The Red Model, and Philosophy in the Boudoir, both of which show clothing suggesting the female form. (Philosophy in the Boudoir also came to mind during In The City of Sylvia).
Mahjong came into play as it does in all good surreal movies (cross-reference to Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa). You could if you want see Iris as a flower tile, and the laboratory door as the white dragon tile (which is a blank tile in Mahjong, or blankness with a rectangular border). These are symbolic, but I don't want to spoil the movie by mentioning how.
Do not watch this movie, arrange to have all copies burnt!
A young woman, Iris, wanders alone in the port area of the city, along superannuated towpaths, past the gigantic hulks of international shipping; outside of work the closest she comes to really being with others is staring at prostitutes behind plate glass, or contemplating entering a bar. There's something brutal about the isolation of Iris by the filmmaker. When I reviewed In The City of Sylvia, similarly a beautiful movie with an isolated character, I said that the filmmaker should either have won the Golden Lion at Venice or have been brutally murdered; I've similar feelings here.
Today is Sunday and I've been sat in a deserted office building writing this review, ostensibly here to study for exams, but procrastinating somewhat. The morning streets are almost empty, a white contrail hints at faraway adventures that I'll never be part of, the river is full of empty boats. There is nothing good about being alone; the beauty of it is only a subtle form of cruelty.
The soundtrack of the movie is done by Beth Gibbons of Portishead; its fractured entropised lilt is just right; you only ever catch fragments of lyrics.
Iris gets work as the sole employee in the strange set aside laboratory. The laboratory offers a simple service whereby people may come and, for a fee, have items preserved and stored away. This seems quite a perverse thing to do. Memory, which it seems this film is about, IS perverse. Recently I wrote three poems to a woman I love, who I later learnt has no desire to be with me, I never gave them to her. A colleague tells me I should burn them, and that is perhaps the best thing to do, but perversity wills me to preserve them, to torture myself. Memory becomes viscous ooze in which you are trapped, finally it solidifies and turns into amber. People (mostly children) who can live in the moment, truly do not know how lucky they are.
Some have called the film erotic, however the erotic whilst present, is as intangible as a passing cloud on a sunny day. Marc Barbé's conserver remains inscrutable and devoid of passion during sex scenes. Sex scenes with him are no more or less sensual than seeing a spider cocooning a fly, trapped for inclusion in its larder. One quite disturbing picture from above shows us an image of his head on Iris' body, he is merely consuming her.
Other aspects of the erotic are fetishistic, the focus on the shoes that Iris is made to wear for her work, her clothing, which the sailor who sleeps in her room in the morning feels and smells in her absence. The movie brought to mind for me Magritte's two famous fetishistic paintings, The Red Model, and Philosophy in the Boudoir, both of which show clothing suggesting the female form. (Philosophy in the Boudoir also came to mind during In The City of Sylvia).
Mahjong came into play as it does in all good surreal movies (cross-reference to Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa). You could if you want see Iris as a flower tile, and the laboratory door as the white dragon tile (which is a blank tile in Mahjong, or blankness with a rectangular border). These are symbolic, but I don't want to spoil the movie by mentioning how.
Do not watch this movie, arrange to have all copies burnt!
Nice Cover
enjaya15 June 2006
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this movie. The cover, the synopsis and the concept were really the high points. The lead actress was quite good as well (not bad to look at too). I mean the cinematography was good I guess, but nothing to out the ordinary. I mean you can't rely on gritty filters and a softened colour palate to carry a movie. The concept for this movie really intrigued me and I had begged my friends to rent it a couple times by the cover(instead of "Poisidon" and "When a Stranger Calls"). Just it seemed to me that it was trying too hard to be something and wasn't focusing enough on characters actual motivations and any connection with the real world. "Who is this girl?" is what I'm sure would have been the question if I had convinced anyone I know to watch it with me.
Don't bother. Heard its hard to find so should be a problem for most people.
Don't bother. Heard its hard to find so should be a problem for most people.
A Favorite at Toronto Film Fest
lorryimdb31 January 2006
Saw this at TIFF 2005, my buddy and I went into this movie with no expectations and it ended up being a favorite (top 3 for me) of the film-fest. Unlike most at the fest, the pacing was perfect and each scene was necessary, it's a rare movie today that has such tight editing. The mystery and eros has a slow-burning build....
This was the only film I attended at the fest that left the audience hushed during the credits as well. I wouldn't call it 'eerie', maybe 'otherworldly'? Reminded me a little of polanski's ninth gate somewhat (and that's a good thing), but I doubt that anyone else would make that comparison :) I've been thinking about this movie for five months, figured it would be a shoe-in on the art-house circuit, but haven't heard much yet, this movie deserves to be seen!
This was the only film I attended at the fest that left the audience hushed during the credits as well. I wouldn't call it 'eerie', maybe 'otherworldly'? Reminded me a little of polanski's ninth gate somewhat (and that's a good thing), but I doubt that anyone else would make that comparison :) I've been thinking about this movie for five months, figured it would be a shoe-in on the art-house circuit, but haven't heard much yet, this movie deserves to be seen!
painful memories preserved and thereby contained
christopher-underwood17 June 2013
Very fine film, beautifully photographed and directed with a wonderful central performance from Olga Kurylenko, who of course, has deservedly gone on to find fame and fortune, while this gem languishes, barely seen. I had never heard of it when I picked it up but am certainly glad I did. Based on a book by Japanese author Yoko Ogawa this is a marvellously quirky tale on the nature of obsession and possession. Some have mentioned David Lynch and I would have thought most of his fans would enjoy this. Set mainly in the port of Hamburg, we get a fantastic painterly picture with the increasingly strange happening inside as people visit to have painful memories preserved and thereby contained. Very Japanese in concept and this would have worked more easily in a Japanese setting but this is still a unique experience well worth seeing. Oh, and I almost forgot mesmerising score from Beth Gibbons, which is sadly not available.
We all need specimens...
Chalice_Of_Evil28 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
While this isn't the first foreign film that I've watched, it's certainly the first one that I've done a review for. Admittedly, what got me interested in checking this film out was Olga Kurylenko. I'd first seen her in the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace - which wasn't exactly a great movie, but I thought she did really good in it. Therefore, I held out hope that L'annulaire (or 'The Ring Finger', as it's called here in Australia) would prove to better utilize this talented actress. Thankfully, it *does*.
The opening scene is of a young girl talking to a man in a white coat (Marc Barbé), asking if she can get a "specimen" of the fungi she's brought to him. We then get quite a beautiful piece of music (with a twinge of eeriness to it) playing over the interestingly-filmed opening credits, featuring the fungi.
Olga Kurylenko plays a young woman named Iris. When Iris is first introduced, she's working at a bottling plant (until she has an accident, involving her cutting off the tip of her ring finger on a broken bottle). Apart from the gushing blood from her wound, there's also a gruesome shot of the blood filling up the bottle on the conveyor belt. She then hallucinates the bloodied cut-off tip of her finger boiling in a glass of water. The sweltering heat doesn't help matters. Iris ends up moving to a port town. After getting accommodation, she takes an interest in a sailor named Costa (Stipe Erceg), who just happens to be the same person who shares the room she's staying in. He works nights at the docks, and is only there when she is out.
Iris manages to find work, but it's at a creepy place, and inside is a creepy bloke (the man in the white lab coat from the opening scene). He informs her that their job is to "prepare specimens and preserve them". People bring in personal artifacts they want to keep forever and get a 'specimen' made of the objects. From this point on, she finds herself drawn to her employer.
He later takes her down to his "inner sanctum", where it is cooler, but also isolated. Everything's quiet down there, where he goes to "unwind" (apparently, preparing specimens is "tiring work"). He observes that the shoes she wears are "not stylish enough" for someone her age, and he gives her a pair of shoes that he's bought her. When she asks how he managed to guess her size (the shoes fit "like a glove"), he says that all he had to do was look at her foot to know its size. It's actually a very sexual moment, as he removes her shoes and puts on the ones he's given her. He tells Iris he would like her to wear the shoes every day, all the time, whether he's looking at her or not. As if his behaviour wasn't already questionable enough, on a day where she arrives at work in the rain, he gets her to undress in front of him.
Iris then meets a shoe-shiner, who compliments her shoes, but warns her that keeping them on all the time will lead to the possibility of losing her feet. He says that the shoes are "taking her over" - which becomes very important. There's a bit of humour injected when Iris informs a potential client that a specimen cannot be made out of a malevolent shadow. She then spends some time with her employer down in the bathroom, where they have a light-hearted moment of calling out, letting the sounds of their voices echo. One thing leads to another, they eventually end up having sex (he's quite forceful with her, but she seems to not be entirely against it). At one point, after asking her if there's not a specimen that she would like preserved, he urges her to remember her most painful memory. She then tells him the story of how she lost the tip of her ring finger. There's a great moment later on, with Iris swinging on one of the crane hooks by the harbour.
She eventually finds a note in her room from the sailor, saying that he's leaving and that he'd like to meet her before he goes. When she goes to meet him, however, he's kissing some other girl (the fool!), thereby totally blowing his chances with Iris. She's more interested in her boss anyway. Although Iris learns that other girls who'd worked for him had "vanished/disappeared", not to mention the fact that he makes her spend all day picking up the pieces of a Mahjong set she accidentally drops (and, oh yeah, he's a CREEP!), she still has sex with him. As she explains to the shoe-shiner later, she's unsure about her feelings and feels it is impossible for her to leave the place. The shoe-shiner informs her that if she doesn't take the shoes off immediately, she'll never be able to get away. He suggests she get a specimen of the shoes, so that her feet can be free, but she tells him she doesn't want them to be free.
She eventually asks the lab director to take her to the basement, but he won't do this unless she wants a specimen preserved. In the end, we see her take off her shoes and leave them as she disappears into a white light. The ending is open to interpretation. This was an odd movie, but not necessarily a "bad" one. Olga Kurylenko portrays Iris with lots of nuance. She's able to say SO much, with so few words. It's all there in her expressions/her eyes. You really feel for her character, and she's the main reason this film works. The haunting music and the beautifully-shot scenery contributes to the unnerving atmosphere. It's a film that you definitely have to think about, and you'll appreciate it more after repeated viewings.
The opening scene is of a young girl talking to a man in a white coat (Marc Barbé), asking if she can get a "specimen" of the fungi she's brought to him. We then get quite a beautiful piece of music (with a twinge of eeriness to it) playing over the interestingly-filmed opening credits, featuring the fungi.
Olga Kurylenko plays a young woman named Iris. When Iris is first introduced, she's working at a bottling plant (until she has an accident, involving her cutting off the tip of her ring finger on a broken bottle). Apart from the gushing blood from her wound, there's also a gruesome shot of the blood filling up the bottle on the conveyor belt. She then hallucinates the bloodied cut-off tip of her finger boiling in a glass of water. The sweltering heat doesn't help matters. Iris ends up moving to a port town. After getting accommodation, she takes an interest in a sailor named Costa (Stipe Erceg), who just happens to be the same person who shares the room she's staying in. He works nights at the docks, and is only there when she is out.
Iris manages to find work, but it's at a creepy place, and inside is a creepy bloke (the man in the white lab coat from the opening scene). He informs her that their job is to "prepare specimens and preserve them". People bring in personal artifacts they want to keep forever and get a 'specimen' made of the objects. From this point on, she finds herself drawn to her employer.
He later takes her down to his "inner sanctum", where it is cooler, but also isolated. Everything's quiet down there, where he goes to "unwind" (apparently, preparing specimens is "tiring work"). He observes that the shoes she wears are "not stylish enough" for someone her age, and he gives her a pair of shoes that he's bought her. When she asks how he managed to guess her size (the shoes fit "like a glove"), he says that all he had to do was look at her foot to know its size. It's actually a very sexual moment, as he removes her shoes and puts on the ones he's given her. He tells Iris he would like her to wear the shoes every day, all the time, whether he's looking at her or not. As if his behaviour wasn't already questionable enough, on a day where she arrives at work in the rain, he gets her to undress in front of him.
Iris then meets a shoe-shiner, who compliments her shoes, but warns her that keeping them on all the time will lead to the possibility of losing her feet. He says that the shoes are "taking her over" - which becomes very important. There's a bit of humour injected when Iris informs a potential client that a specimen cannot be made out of a malevolent shadow. She then spends some time with her employer down in the bathroom, where they have a light-hearted moment of calling out, letting the sounds of their voices echo. One thing leads to another, they eventually end up having sex (he's quite forceful with her, but she seems to not be entirely against it). At one point, after asking her if there's not a specimen that she would like preserved, he urges her to remember her most painful memory. She then tells him the story of how she lost the tip of her ring finger. There's a great moment later on, with Iris swinging on one of the crane hooks by the harbour.
She eventually finds a note in her room from the sailor, saying that he's leaving and that he'd like to meet her before he goes. When she goes to meet him, however, he's kissing some other girl (the fool!), thereby totally blowing his chances with Iris. She's more interested in her boss anyway. Although Iris learns that other girls who'd worked for him had "vanished/disappeared", not to mention the fact that he makes her spend all day picking up the pieces of a Mahjong set she accidentally drops (and, oh yeah, he's a CREEP!), she still has sex with him. As she explains to the shoe-shiner later, she's unsure about her feelings and feels it is impossible for her to leave the place. The shoe-shiner informs her that if she doesn't take the shoes off immediately, she'll never be able to get away. He suggests she get a specimen of the shoes, so that her feet can be free, but she tells him she doesn't want them to be free.
She eventually asks the lab director to take her to the basement, but he won't do this unless she wants a specimen preserved. In the end, we see her take off her shoes and leave them as she disappears into a white light. The ending is open to interpretation. This was an odd movie, but not necessarily a "bad" one. Olga Kurylenko portrays Iris with lots of nuance. She's able to say SO much, with so few words. It's all there in her expressions/her eyes. You really feel for her character, and she's the main reason this film works. The haunting music and the beautifully-shot scenery contributes to the unnerving atmosphere. It's a film that you definitely have to think about, and you'll appreciate it more after repeated viewings.
Haunting meditation on mementos of memory & experience
gut-617 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This odd but beautiful and haunting film has a mystical Japanese atmosphere in a European setting. Likewise the characters, setting and plot are all odd, beautiful, haunting and mysterious. The film seems to be about the relationship between memory and experience, and the physical objects which represent those memories and experiences.
The lead character Iris starts by having a traumatic industrial accident that severs the tip of her titular ring finger, which falls into and colours a bottle of lemonade. She moves to a port city, where she time-shares a hotel room with a sailor working the night shift on the adjacent docks. They don't meet, but they "know" each other and interact through their possessions left in the hotel room, and develop a mutual but unrequited fascination for each other.
Iris by chance finds a new job as a receptionist in a bizarre laboratory. The business of the laboratory is to preserve and store (i.e. embalm and inter) specimens (i.e. mementos) of painful memories, so that the owners can find closure and move on. The creepy lab director, who runs the business essentially by himself, takes an erotic interest in her, and gives her a pair of perfectly-fitting attractive red shoes that he insists she always wears.
From then on, the film doesn't really develop further in terms of character or plot. This may frustrate some viewers, but it makes the film so unique and memorable. Instead it develops in bizarre and unexpected ways this theme of preserving specimens. We learn that the lab is a former girls boarding school, and that two former boarders still live in two of the few rooms not yet used as catacombs for the specimens. Both are practitioners of obsolete trades - one a pianist, the other a switchboard operator. Both are old women, yet still retain a strangely ageless girlish appearance. One has a class photo in her room from the boarding school days, which happens to show a still youthful looking lab director. Perhaps they are ex-lovers of the director. There are a couple of mild hints that the women may be ghosts. For example, one of the women suddenly appears and stares at Iris from behind while Iris explains to a potential client on the phone that specimens can't be taken of a malevolent shadow, then rapidly moves away just before Iris looks behind. An unexplained young boy also wanders the corridors, making sudden entrances and exits.
Despite what Iris said, the lab makes specimens of surprising things. One client wants a specimen of a music score given by a former boyfriend - not the score itself, but the sounds. The director gets the pianist in room 209 to play the music, then places the score in a labelled plastic container, without apparently recording it.
The director seduces Iris in the lab's cool inner sanctum, the boarding school's former bathing area and swimming pool, where he earlier gave her the shoes. He tells her of the girls who filled this once wet space with talk and laughter, yet it is now dry, empty and silent. Iris later dreams of herself showering among the voluble girls. Or is it a dream? One young client, who at the start of the movie had ordered a specimen of fungus growing on the ruins of her burned-down house, returns to ask for another specimen - this time the burn on her cheek. To Iris's shock, the director agrees after explaining to the client that healing a burn and taking a specimen of it are not the same thing. He takes the girl to the preserving room in the basement where Iris is not permitted, as only specimens are permitted there. The lab director does not return for the rest of the day, and a perturbed Iris repeatedly presses her ear to the basement door. Later while screwing Iris, the director asks Iris if she wants a specimen taken. Iris after some denial and hesitation suggests her mutilated ring finger.
An old rasta client who works as a shoe shiner (another obsolete craft) compliments Iris's red shoes, but warns her that the red shoes are cursed, and she should not wear them too often. He invites her to visit his shoeshine stand at the station. While wandering the catacombs and looking at specimens during an idle moment, Iris sees a photo of a young girl (possibly the burn victim) also wearing the distinctive red shoes. The former switchboard operator casually mentions to Iris that Iris's predecessors in the receptionist job all suddenly disappeared without a word of warning. When Iris takes up the shoeshiner's invitation, he warns her that she should get a specimen of the shoes, as she will never be free if she doesn't take them off. Iris replies that she doesn't want to be free, to which the shoeshiner replies that he will never see her again. After returning to the lab she accidentally drops a client's mahjong set (a philosophical representation of the universe), and on the director's instruction spends the rest of the night slowly picking up the pieces and reassembling them in their rightful place. Accepting her fate, she takes off the shoes, and walks into the basement where only specimens are permitted.
In concordance with the film's themes of preservation and timelessness, the film is set in the recent past, but apart from being obviously European is geographically and chronologically non-specific. The container terminal places it after the 1950's, and the lack of computers and mobiles places it before the mid-1990's, but all other markers of time and place are carefully removed.
The lead character Iris starts by having a traumatic industrial accident that severs the tip of her titular ring finger, which falls into and colours a bottle of lemonade. She moves to a port city, where she time-shares a hotel room with a sailor working the night shift on the adjacent docks. They don't meet, but they "know" each other and interact through their possessions left in the hotel room, and develop a mutual but unrequited fascination for each other.
Iris by chance finds a new job as a receptionist in a bizarre laboratory. The business of the laboratory is to preserve and store (i.e. embalm and inter) specimens (i.e. mementos) of painful memories, so that the owners can find closure and move on. The creepy lab director, who runs the business essentially by himself, takes an erotic interest in her, and gives her a pair of perfectly-fitting attractive red shoes that he insists she always wears.
From then on, the film doesn't really develop further in terms of character or plot. This may frustrate some viewers, but it makes the film so unique and memorable. Instead it develops in bizarre and unexpected ways this theme of preserving specimens. We learn that the lab is a former girls boarding school, and that two former boarders still live in two of the few rooms not yet used as catacombs for the specimens. Both are practitioners of obsolete trades - one a pianist, the other a switchboard operator. Both are old women, yet still retain a strangely ageless girlish appearance. One has a class photo in her room from the boarding school days, which happens to show a still youthful looking lab director. Perhaps they are ex-lovers of the director. There are a couple of mild hints that the women may be ghosts. For example, one of the women suddenly appears and stares at Iris from behind while Iris explains to a potential client on the phone that specimens can't be taken of a malevolent shadow, then rapidly moves away just before Iris looks behind. An unexplained young boy also wanders the corridors, making sudden entrances and exits.
Despite what Iris said, the lab makes specimens of surprising things. One client wants a specimen of a music score given by a former boyfriend - not the score itself, but the sounds. The director gets the pianist in room 209 to play the music, then places the score in a labelled plastic container, without apparently recording it.
The director seduces Iris in the lab's cool inner sanctum, the boarding school's former bathing area and swimming pool, where he earlier gave her the shoes. He tells her of the girls who filled this once wet space with talk and laughter, yet it is now dry, empty and silent. Iris later dreams of herself showering among the voluble girls. Or is it a dream? One young client, who at the start of the movie had ordered a specimen of fungus growing on the ruins of her burned-down house, returns to ask for another specimen - this time the burn on her cheek. To Iris's shock, the director agrees after explaining to the client that healing a burn and taking a specimen of it are not the same thing. He takes the girl to the preserving room in the basement where Iris is not permitted, as only specimens are permitted there. The lab director does not return for the rest of the day, and a perturbed Iris repeatedly presses her ear to the basement door. Later while screwing Iris, the director asks Iris if she wants a specimen taken. Iris after some denial and hesitation suggests her mutilated ring finger.
An old rasta client who works as a shoe shiner (another obsolete craft) compliments Iris's red shoes, but warns her that the red shoes are cursed, and she should not wear them too often. He invites her to visit his shoeshine stand at the station. While wandering the catacombs and looking at specimens during an idle moment, Iris sees a photo of a young girl (possibly the burn victim) also wearing the distinctive red shoes. The former switchboard operator casually mentions to Iris that Iris's predecessors in the receptionist job all suddenly disappeared without a word of warning. When Iris takes up the shoeshiner's invitation, he warns her that she should get a specimen of the shoes, as she will never be free if she doesn't take them off. Iris replies that she doesn't want to be free, to which the shoeshiner replies that he will never see her again. After returning to the lab she accidentally drops a client's mahjong set (a philosophical representation of the universe), and on the director's instruction spends the rest of the night slowly picking up the pieces and reassembling them in their rightful place. Accepting her fate, she takes off the shoes, and walks into the basement where only specimens are permitted.
In concordance with the film's themes of preservation and timelessness, the film is set in the recent past, but apart from being obviously European is geographically and chronologically non-specific. The container terminal places it after the 1950's, and the lack of computers and mobiles places it before the mid-1990's, but all other markers of time and place are carefully removed.
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