threeJane Reviews

Schatten der Zeit (2004)

Tear-jerker, and I don't mean that in a good way

[3/10 · 13 June 2009]

It might draw some tears from some people, but not from me (and there are films that I cry in). It's the kind of tear-jerker that is meant as Oscar-bait.

This is your standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds her again. Oh, and of course the boy is good-looking. The girl is beautiful. Because they are moral and hard-working, they do well in life.

Yes, there are poor kids ripped off and abused by unscrupulous adults, but if you didn't already know that, you need to travel more.

I agree with comeau and khajoor; this is "third world pathos".

The Forbidden Chapter (2006)

Stranger than fiction

[6/10 · 13 June 2009]

There aren't that many Iranian films around, so I will see any that come my way.

From early in the film, it was clear that it wasn't about the usual Iranian social issues. Firstly, there was this cult of men called neophytes (the name suits their appearance) who are subjected to the usual fear, sleep-deprivation, and pain to ensure they continue to follow the Master. The Master is your stereotypical cult leader.

The cult lives in the poorest (oh God, let it be the poorest) area of the city of Mashad, in relatively salubrious and warm surroundings. Outside of the flickering firelight of the vaulted building which houses the cult, a seemingly endless number of starving prostitutes and their children beg and freeze and try to keep clear of the serial killer who is killing several prostitutes a day.

I could not get used to the filth, poverty and suffering depicted. In fact, it still disturbs me.

After the night-time dancing of the neophytes, a man and his belongings get off a bus. At this point, I was wondering if I was going to be able to follow it. Then I quickly realised that the man had come to town to solve the serial murders. (At least, I think that's what happened. Please don't anyone burst my bubble.) From this point on, the film is a standard murder mystery (albeit an Iranian murder mystery). Yes, the cult continues to feature, but don't they so often in a murder mystery? Some very unremarkable things happen, particularly around the police investigator, and you might predict the ending. In other ways, the film gets more and more bizarre.

When the credits revealed that it was based on a true story, that explained everything. For me, when something is stranger than fiction, that's because it usually isn't fiction. It really was a strange film, and I'm glad it was made.

I Am Legend (2007)

There's this guy that comes out at day...

[8/10 · 24 May 2009]

When I was first told the premise of this film, I was interested. The whole world (read, everyone in the USA) has been turned into vampires except this one guy, who goes around hunting them. (He doesn't, necessarily - his interests are wider than that.) Unfortunately, the guy is Will Smith. Oh well, once you are comfortable and intrigued by the New York city landscape turning to wilderness, what you going to do? Will Smith (or a long list of stunt people, who were nominated for an award) rips around NYC in a 4WD/SUV with an intelligent dog and music blaring, ready to fire at anything that moves (bar some kind of antelope).

Robert Neville, this survivor, is so *methodical*. And his methods work. Also, he has so many personas. There is Colonel Robert Neville, doing his duty and saving his city. The flippant Robert Neville, flirting with mannequins. Scientist Robert Neville. Fit and careful Robert Neville, who makes sure he and his dog survive by following his own rules. There is scared Robert Neville, who I very much identify with. And of course, vulnerable Robert Neville.

The best thing about this film is that it is so SCARY. I seriously thought of not watching it, or at least lining my stomach with a glass of milk to prevent an ulcer.

Edit: I was told the novel was written 50 years ago, and I loved the concept, so I read it. I think the film is a fair if not superior adaptation. For example, I don't find the vampires in the book very scary. Robert Neville fist-fights a few of them at once, which he would not be able to do with the fast, strong vampires of the movie. Similarly, the vampires of the book know where he lives from the start, and can't get in the house. The technology in the book is old (eg a watch that needs winding, projectors instead of DVD players); if you had to be true to that technology, you'd end up making a period film.

The Hidden History of Homosexual Australia (2005)

Very thorough

[9/10 · 31 March 2009]

I have just watched the most interesting and thorough *Hidden History of Australian Homosexuality*, which screened on SBS recently.

It started with the transportation of convicts from England to Australia, interviewing two male and two female academics who had researched the topic and really knew their stuff. At this point, the backgrounds to the interviews are black, and the interviewer is absent throughout the documentary.

The very early history (ie up to WWI) is illustrated with plenty of stills, and the occasional clip from a period film.

There is some really interesting documentation of homosexual culture from WWI onwards, particularly in terms of women, as they gained financial independence.

Other interviewees (eg David Marr and John Marsden to name just a couple) are called in to talk about the history of homosexual Australia in the 1950s when homosexuality was considered as evil as communism, and gay Australian men left Australia in droves.

For the 1960s, there are many witnesses to the budding gay liberation movement and the police brutality it attracted.

The film also documents the incredibly sad AIDS epidemic, the accidental/on purpose confusion between homosexuals and pedophiles on the part of Australian politicians, and the attempted vilification of Justice Michael Kirby.

For me, the documentary was missing the fun (albeit without rights) and celebration of the Sydney gay scene, for example Les Girls and the Erskineville Hotel, Oxford and King Streets, and more about the gay Mardi Gras. Then again, these things are mostly more 'present' than 'history', and many viewers would have witnessed them first hand, so fair enough.

Oasis (2002)

Not just a beautiful story, but an ugly allegory too.

[10/10 · 1 March 2009]

mitsounob from Yokohama, Japan commented that the director made this film about communication, among other things. That's what it was largely about for me too.

I'm thinking mainly of the scene where Jong-du and Gong-ju are both at the police station. When Gong-ju is being asked for her account of the incident, her sister keeps speaking for her. The policeman doesn't give Gong-ju time to speak for herself. One of the most difficult scenes for me is when Gong-ju repeatedly bashes herself against the cabinet to try to get somebody to listen to her. Similarly, her brother, when trying to reach a "settlement" with Jong-du's family, speaks for Gong-ju. When talking about how traumatised Gong-ju has been, he says, 'Just look at her'. As if she could never enjoy physical love.

This brings me to the second theme of the movie, as far as I am concerned. The world is set up for people with a certain range of abilities. Which means that people who fall within this range can exploit people who fall outside of them. Which is exactly how Gong-ju and Jong-du are treated by their families.

Jong-du is the fall guy for his brother, who has a family and a career and can't 'afford' to do time. To add insult to injury, Jong-du gets out of jail to find that his brother has moved, without leaving a forwarding address! Gong-ju's family similarly exploits her. Jong-du and Gong-ju are fairly forgiving of their families' despicable behaviour.

My final comment on this film is that Gong-ju and Jong-du know their place in the world. They know not to even bother trying to convey the truth. In fact, I get a fleeting, disturbing feeling that their families are the only people whose behaviour towards them is a true and honest symptom of how the world really works.

Le cou de la girafe (2004)

Rich story-telling

[8/10 · 20 November 2008]

This is such a rich story that it could entertain and succeed in several ways, depending on your point of view. It's a story about old age, about family relationships, and wise characters who know when to stay quiet.

For myself, it was a story of how children can trick you, or charm you, or drag you kicking and screaming out of your comfort zone. And where did they learn to do all this? From none other than ourselves, when we did it to them. Still, they seem to be so much better at it than us; our comfort zones are so much more rusted into place.

Just an observation: Why are middle-aged heroines in French films so often called Helene?

The Magician (I) (2005)

I loved this movie.

[9/10 · 12 November 2008]

The only reason I am not giving it 10 out of 10 is that I got a couple of the characters mixed up at one point (the sequences are shown out of chronological order). It is also true, as other reviewers have pointed out, that the film gets a bit talky in the middle section. It is as if Ryan gets a bit seduced by his own script-writing. Well, it is hard to cut out writing.

To my mind, the strength of this movie is the characterisation. Scott Ryan is a marvelous character - the antithesis of the wine-drinking, PC, environmentally-conscious middle-class intellectual elite of the Howard years. His accent is broad, he likes his 'chewy' and his 'Big M'. I was transfixed by the way he drank his McCoffee all up while seeming to wince with every mouthful.

I don't want to make this a long boring review so I'll just make some final last observations: the crew double as cast in most if not all cases; stay for the end of "I'll Be Gone" by Spectrum and one last out-take after the credits are finished; Ryan has clearly been influenced by *Pulp Fiction* (and why not?).

Noise (I) (2007)

A film for lovers of Australian cinema.

[7/10 · 21 September 2008]

This was one of those films that, if you are Australian, makes you feel at home in it. A nice change from watching the British murder mysteries on the ABC, the European homicide series' on SBS, or the hour-long American homicide dramas on the commercial channels, all of which seem to compete to horrify the viewer.

Horrifying the viewer has its own genre - it's called horror - and *Noise* isn't in it. *Noise* is unmistakably a drama, although the use of sound in the movie does serve to highlight (and overturn) conventional use of sound in cinema. Hence all the awards given for the sound.

I loved the main character, particularly his motivation for being a cop. I think I understood his heroism at the end, even though it wasn't spelled out. I wouldn't have minded if all the unknowns had been solved at the end, but as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Especially because it involved Nicholas Bell.

PS. I think this film aptly portrayed the range of uniformed officers in Australia.

Terminus (I) (2007)

Watch it twice.

[9/10 · 15 September 2008]

This film is a family favourite. Even though it's quite scary, and a little violent, my three-year-old is happy to watch it multiple times, from the safety of Mum or Dad's lap. Even on days when we don't watch it, she is comforted that 'monsters' can only go at walking pace, and you can always outrun them, if need be (this is confirmed by the monsters on *Doctor Who*). I think my young daughter continues to watch *Terminus* because she wants to understand the dream scene.

For myself, the 'monsters' in this film remind me of Mr Pump, the golem in Terry Pratchett's novel *Going Postal*. Golems can only go at walking pace, but they can go forever, without eating or sleeping, and they will catch you. For my partner, they remind him of 'machine spirits' in the role-playing game *Shadow Run*.

There are a couple of reasons to watch this short film twice: Certain motifs reappear, allowing you to have a go at working at why these 'machine spirits' are taking over the city. Also, the title of the movie gains added meaning, as you speculate on what happened to the concrete pillar monster's previous subject, and what the title actually refers to.

Inconscientes (2004)

Really fun.

[8/10 · 15 September 2008]

It looked like the cast and crew had a great time making this movie, and the fun is infectious. The costumes must have been a lot of fun to work with, particularly for Leonor Watling (playing the lead character) who was extremely flattered by them despite rushing around dressed up as nine months pregnant.

I didn't see this as a period film at all. For me, it was a film about people in love with people outside their own marriage. Hardly an issue confined to early last century, but setting it ninety years ago heightened the comedic aspects of having to cover it up.

I also saw it as a gay movie. My gaydar went off as soon as Olivia started talking about her husband's enormous penis.

Ferpect Crime (2004)

Was Lourdes motivated out of love or revenge?

[5/10 · 15 September 2008]

This film has a lot of comments, so I'll confine mine to the character of Lourdes.

The first time we see Lourdes on the escalator we can tell she is going to blossom. She watches Rafael until she sees her opportunity, then blackmails him into loving her. This seems unworkable and indeed it is. How can you blackmail someone and love them at the same time? Sometimes Lourdes seems genuinely in love with Rafael and wants nothing else but for him to return her affections. At other times (particularly when she gets a successful career of her own) she seems only to want to punish Rafael for ignoring her.

I am having my own private Spanish film festival at the moment and it occurs to me that "machismo" is not a Spanish word for nothing. Maybe pure revenge would have been too much of a moral tale. Or maybe it would just not have been Spanish (I can't help thinking of *Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown* when I think of Lourdes unwisely falling for Rafael).

Three things I liked about this film: 1. Rafael is very aware of how shallow he is, but talks of how he will pursue hedonism nevertheless. 2. I loved Lourdes commanding her troops. They were supposed to look ugly but the way Lourdes strode, and high-fived her soldiers lent them a seductive power. 3. Don Antonio's eternally smouldering hair.

Astronautas (2003)

The key to this film is the plural: There is more than one astronaut.

[7/10 · 15 September 2008]

This movie isn't overwhelmingly good or anything. In fact, since I saw it on the small screen yesterday I've been thinking I've seen this sort of storyline many times over. There have also been moments when I thought it was just an avenue for the artwork. However, *Astronautas* is kind of like a complex curry. It's better the next day and your own enjoyment is enhanced by other people talking about the ingredients.

The opening scenes are indeed confusing and disorienting, and importantly, make you want to know what is going on. Then we find out, and run through the first four steps of a ten-point plan for Dani to get clean. He is keen to appear 'normal' to himself and to others, as he says to the girl sitting on his neighbour's doorstep, "I'm just a normal guy going about his normal life." Dani looks far from normal, with his wild hair, in his goggles and white overalls, hammering holes in the wall of his flat, calling the cops with an obviously disconnected phone.

I get the feeling (well done, Arnodeo) that Dani has never known what it's like to be 'normal'; that he has always been an 'astronaut', even before his addiction. There are other astronauts in the story. Dani's former neighbour Andrés is off with the fairies, sitting on the edge of a bay somewhere. Andrés' sister Laura (it becomes apparent to me when she is seen in the shower, practising Personal Hygiene) is an ex-addict too. Laura, however, is much more confident in her non-conformism than Andrés or Daniel.

For me, the strong message of this film is that although Dani is alone, like all astronauts, he makes it where others fail. His doctor has forgotten him, Italiano has not managed to get off heroin after all, Andrés is never coming back to earth, and even Laura (Daniel's brief fellow traveler) vanishes one day. However, Laura has left him with a good foundation and we hope she has done enough to help Dani on the road to recovery.

Angels in Fast Motion (2005)

Great characters

[8/10 · 11 August 2008]

By that, I don't mean Maria, Allan and Steso (Thomas) who were meant to be the three main characters. I mean Maria, Allan and Hossein. All the way through, I was hoping for Steso to get more interesting or more involved in the slowly interconnecting story. At the same time, I was straining to learn more about Hossein, the Persian war veteran with enough self-esteem to share.

As an English-speaker, I could not help compare this film with *Trainspotting*. It is a very 'f*** life' philosophy and comments more than once on the bourgeois and their habits.

I also could not help but compare the camera-work with that of *Requeim for a Dream*. David Stratton would hate it: rushy and giddy - but I like that sort of thing. There was no stop-motion that I remember.

I did like the sound-track, but I may be biased because the lyrics were often in English.

The Taste of Others (2000)

A film about how the opinion of others affects your own opinion.

[9/10 · 11 August 2008]

Or this is how I saw it, eventually. Like Angelique, I'm someone who imposes their taste on others, so it took me a while to catch on. For the first half, I thought this movie was about infidelity, which it isn't really.

Someone you thought was a boor can suddenly become a lot more appealing when someone else finds them attractive. It isn't just that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It's that others see different things in people.

I have a friend who can transform music for me, just by liking it herself. Music that is 'not my taste' comes alive when she says she likes it. Suddenly I become the person with a certain taste to the person with no taste.

This is exactly what happens to characters in this movie. Castella is the pivot around which the various characters of this movie turn. He presents as a tactless embarrassment, a nouveau rich (please excuse my French) who travels with a bodyguard, Bruno. Castella doesn't care if Bruno is bored or not; it's his job. And there are other characters. The ones who have the farthest to fall when Castella passes through their lives are those who are quite sure their taste is far superior to his.

Funny, subtle, very watchable, and I learnt from it.

Beautiful Boxer (2003)

Stranger than fiction

[8/10 · 6 August 2008]

This movie was aired on channel SBS in Australia, and their current catch-phrase is "The most amazing stories are true". The value of this movie is that it is a more interesting, and less sentimental story than could ever have been imagined. I don't mean to detract from the lead acting with this statement, which is also fantastic.

*Beautiful Boxer* marries the two strongly Thai elements of kick-boxing and transvestitism. I know nothing about kick-boxing and it seems I know less about transvestitism than I thought, as IMDb tells me there is no such word. Therefore it's kind of like making an Australian movie about beer and kangaroos, but somehow without clichés. Hard to imagine and I imagine, hard to do.

Toom leaves his farming family to become a monk (fair enough - at least he'll probably not starve at the monastery). But he struggles with what is considered the easiest of the ten tenets of being a junior monk. He then turns to kick-boxing, which he excels at because he's always had to defend himself from bullies. This then becomes a source of income for his family, and for hopefully, one day, his sex change operation. Meanwhile, he has a relationship with his mother which again, could not have been invented. Nor could the trajectory of his boxing career or the fate of his coach, Chart. I probably should be saying *her* at this point, as it is obvious that Toom is male in biology only.

Which is where I struggle with this movie. I always thought that your body helped inform who you are. Sometimes I think your body is all of it. After all, isn't whether you feel like a man or a woman determined by chemicals in your brain, or neurons, or something physical like that?

Anyway, Toom's message is to be true to yourself; to your heart, however you want to figure that out.

Kike Like Me (2007 TV Movie)

A cynical film-maker proves that it doesn't make any difference if you are Jewish or not, except to yourself.

[7/10 · 24 July 2008]

Or does he? I could think about this film forever, and I probably will from time to time, for the rest of my life. There is the strength of it. If nothing else, this feature documentary makes you really think about why you would ask someone, "Are you Jewish?" I've asked people, and it makes them bristle. I've been asked a lot myself. There are never any consequences to the answer yes or no, so does it change how we think of someone if we know they are Jewish?

Jamie Kastner goes around the world begging people to ask him. He starts getting a bit fed up with humanity in Germany, where memorials to holocaust victims abound. His rather dry tone gets rather drier. On to Krakow, where restaurants called Alef and Ariel serve matzo ball soup to tourists on a Friday night. The waiter admits that the reason the restaurant is open on a Friday night is that the owner is not Jewish. Jamie appears to crack and starts asking the question himself. Is the quartet Jewish? No. Jamie spits the dummy and cynically head over to Bagel Mama. It seems a little more kosher, but still Jamie isn't happy. Will anything please him?

In Krakow, he asks someone else if they are Jewish. I don't want to spoil the surprise here, but the answer affects a financial transaction between Jamie and the other party. Does it matter if you are Jewish or not? I'm confused.

By Auchwitz, Jamie has lost all his mirth. He criticizes the tourists, walking around looking 'dutifully mournful' in their 'hipster outfits' (not looking too shabby yourself there Jamie). He picks a fight with his film-crew, arguing that he doesn't need to go and look at the oven etc. Angry, and not feeling the need to prove his disgust with the Holocaust, Jamie leaves Auchwitz, with the camera following him out the gates.

Oh, I just remembered that there is a hot-dog stand on the way in to the camp. Jamie buys one, and comments that the camp could have done with one during the war. (I suppose, if they were kosher hot-dogs.)

I get it. Jewishness, and the Holocaust are not commodities. But is that all this film was about? I came away with much more.

Little Otik (2000)

I liked things more before Otik came along.

[7/10 · 10 July 2008]

I'll concentrate on the two scenes I really liked: A street vendor wrapping babies in newspaper and selling them to a queue of women, and the first time Mr Zlabek is shown looking at Alzbetka.

Very early in the movie, a beautiful Božena Horáková and a line of other very pregnant ladies are sitting in what later transpires to be a gynecologist's's waiting room. Božena's husband, Karel Horák, looks out the window and sees a street vendor fishing babies out of a tub of water, wrapping them in newspaper, weighing them and selling them to a waiting queue of housewives. Karel goes downstairs and joins the queue, looks up and sees himself watching him out the window. Karel rejoins his body in the waiting room and Božena emerges from the doctor's room, tearful and no longer pregnant.

Thus we learn that Božena is not actually pregnant at all, although the Horáks both wish she was. This scene is a fantastic introduction to the style and content of *Little Otik*. This is the first time we see stop-motion photography in the movie, and it occurs to me that it's a practical way to film babies, as well.

Not long after wards, the pre-pubescent Alzbetka meets the old man Mr Zlabek on the stairs. While he is putting her glasses on to get a better look at her, she pulls her school tunic down over her knees to avoid the male gaze that every woman is familiar with. As he ogles her, Mr Zlabek's fly unbuttons to reveal the logical extension of his gaze. Alzbetka's mother comes out onto the stairs to help Mr Zlabek, who instantly turns into a helpless old man again. When Alzbetka claims that Mr Zlabek wanted to paw her again, the mother can't, or doesn't want to, see it.

Alzbetka is the only one in this movie who has any idea what's going on. How many among us don't remember the feeling of not being believed just because we were children, even though we were right? (How many mothers have turned a blind eye to the way men look at their daughters, because they depend on the man or they want to avoid confrontation?)

Once Otik came along, I kept watching, but Otik kind of swamped everything. I continued to be interested in things like Alzbetka's motivation for looking after Otik (she had always wanted her parents or at least the Horáks to have a baby); the potential uses Alzbetka might make of a box of matches; Alzbetka's mother's unappetizing lunches and the dramatic tension in a patch of fattening cabbages.

Revenge of the Rats (2001 TV Movie)

An anti-authoritarian cautionary horror comedy.

[7/10 · 10 July 2008]

This movie was recently shown subtitled not dubbed, on Australia's Special Broadcasting Service. I thought I read here that there is sometimes an assumption that *Revenge of the Rats* is a sequel. In fact, the rats are getting revenge for something that is done within this movie, or in human history. There is no prequel as far as I know.

Now, let's get The Pied Piper of Hamelin out of the way. Perhaps this tale crossed my mind when I was watching the film, but that's all. There was the use of the word "coffers" at the end of the movie. A dazed mayor tries to justify her actions by saying "the coffers were empty". "Coffers" isn't a word you hear around much these days, unless you read folk tales to your children, as I do. Since seeing *Revenge of the Rats*, I've read two versions of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Now I see the comparison. A metaphorical fat but literally ugly mayor promises more than the city can afford, to get rid of the rats. This is about as far as I can follow the analogy. The children are not led to a door in a mountain, with one lame boy left behind to tell of a land of winged horses and fountains, where it is always spring and everyone is always happy.

There's a lot that is quite mainstream about this movie. The romance and the resolution especially. The female characters have potentially powerful roles in society but are really quite impotent. Where this film is quite rebellious (as compared with American cinema) is that it is anti-authoritarian. The helicopter pilot is sacked by the mayor for "doing good". The mayor and local government are portrayed as corrupt and pandering to big money. Finally, it is left to one doctor in Frankfurt to solve an epidemic of a fatal and contagious disease. Apparently there is no national Infectious Diseases authority to co-ordinate things or send in back-up.

I'm not a horror aficionado, so any horror I do see is usually mingled with humour. Right from the rat in the blood bank you can see this is going to have the right balance of horror and comedy for most viewers; the huge number of rats is impressive and the horror fans seem to be satisfied too.

My Teacher, Mr. Kim (2003)

Somewhat predictable

[5/10 · 22 May 2008]

The title I saw it under, *My Teacher, Mr Kim*, indicates that it is from the point of view of the student(s). However, it is really Mr Kim who is the subject of this film, as he undergoes an epiphany and radical transformation.

I loved the character of Mr Kim. He starts off as selfish and shallow in so many ways, and really made me wonder how much more I could achieve if I thought of myself less often.

Mr Choi was an excellent character too, and Sun-Young the high-school drop-out city girlfriend of Mr Kim. However the character of the school caretaker was developed for no apparent reason, the children were indistinguishable from each other, and their parents just cardboard cut-outs.

Fair enough, but why then the reverent attitude to Mr Kim by the end of the film? As far as I could see, there just wasn't enough to explain the children's love for him. He left them to study alone far too much, and played soccer with them far too little, for them to love him as they did. The best thing he did for them, was spend his white-envelope money on gifts for them, and this really wasn't a materialistic type of film.

Which reminds me, there were some really nice ironic moments. Like when Mr Kim is sitting with his students in the beautiful countryside, next to a clear stream, all of them smoking fish on sticks, and he is telling them of all the modern conveniences that Seoul has to offer.

So, some good, some bad, largely predictable but not entirely so, see it if the subject matter or the location interest you - otherwise you could probably give it a miss.

Inugami (2001)

Lots of threads

[5/10 · 19 May 2008]

I can't really make a fair comment on this film as I wasn't giving it my full attention, and I gave up on it halfway through.

I liked the way it looked, the mystery, and the exploration of Japanese traditions, history and equivalent of karma. These are all rolled in quite nicely with the horror, in this movie.

Though it seemed like it had a lot of threads, I followed the main ones very easily. There were some threads which I couldn't follow at all, and that's probably why I gave up on it.

Again, I wasn't giving it my full attention, and I'm not a particular fan of horror, so it may not be the film's fault.

Spare Parts (2003)

Changed my view of Eastern European cinema

[8/10 · 26 April 2008]

I have a problem with Eastern European cinema. I avoid it because I expect it to depict a gloomy, dreary, depressing, dark and dirty world which is so foreign to my culture that I can't relate to it.

Although *Reservni Deli* was all that (and seedy too), it had me interested, partly because I had seen *Pod Njenim Oknom* (AKA *Beneath Her Window*) a few hours earlier, and I wondered what else the Slovenians could do.

The film began by reinforcing my stereotypes of Eastern Europe. There was old footage of a Soviet nuclear power plant. Two Slovenians, one older, jaded and callous, the other younger, sensitive, a rookie to the people-smuggling trade, truck dis-empowered souls through the last leg of their journey to the EU. Conditions in the back of the truck were of course disgusting, inhumane or both. When the cops were around, the music was spooky and I was conflicted as to who to feel scared for. I think I was most scared for the babies who cried when everyone was trying to be quiet and avoid discovery.

The only characters are the people smugglers, their clients/victims, and a potential girlfriend of the rookie, Rudi. She really only serves to highlight Rudi's slow corruption. The only characters I was sympathetic to were the people being smuggled, who show a glimpse of their life's trajectory as they travel through Slovenia.

I was hypnotised by the corruption and increasing cynicism of Rudi, and the correlating lightening and increasing humanity of Ludvik, his older partner.

Of most interest to me was the film's commentary on globalisation and the unionisation of Europe. Ludvik says, 'They all want to reach that f***ing Europe... I hope that as long as I'm alive we don't join f***ing Europe... A united Europe was Hitler's project.' Some irony follows, but it reminded me of the concept of Americanisation and the attempts of Southern and Central Americans to make it to the USA, the professed land of freedom.

I wonder if the West's current embracing of nuclear power was in the director/script-writer's mind at the time of making the movie? I was pleasantly surprised by *Beneath Her Window* and liked this even more. I'll certainly be thinking about it for longer.

Die Überraschung (2004)

Very black comedy.

[8/10 · 25 April 2008]

The subject matter is not supposed to be funny. But the film is. Laugh out loud hilarious.

Man sneaks into his girlfriend's flat to 'surprise' her; there is an apparent suicide and two people suffer death by burning. The irony is, they were only trying to be nice.

The first half of the film is a sort of comedy of errors such as we have seen before, but halfway through we are jolted out of this comfort zone. It is as if one day out of the blue you got a phone call that someone died.

This is a film that relieves you of your conscience and allows you to laugh at callousness and misfortune.

Beneath Her Window (2003)

I didn't know Slovenian cinema was so good

[7/10 · 25 April 2008]

Something about this film reminds me of French cinema. However in this film, the beautiful young woman is independent, brave, and she works for a living.

The script is very, very good. I love the stalker and his history, the way the married man gets dumped, the relationship between Dusa and her mother. Dusa's job (teaching dancing) provides opportunity to show off Polona Juh's considerable dancing skills when she uses the studio after hours.

The whole 'offbeat' thing is a bit too offbeat; trying a bit too hard. The same with the romance. These are just minor criticisms of an otherwise good film.

The Eye (2002)

We all know what happens when someone in a movie gets an eye transplant

[4/10 · 24 April 2008]

And when that character becomes the client of a good-looking doctor, we know that doctor is not just in it for the medical scenes.

The special effects were pretty good I thought, especially when you consider that the protagonist (convincingly) doesn't know what it's like to see, and takes a while to figure out what she is supposed to be seeing and what she isn't.

Otherwise though, I thought the horror (especially the burned bodies) was pretty shonky, and the romance really bleugh. (My vocabulary is at its peak tonight.) The third act, starting with the trip to Thailand to the end of the film seems added on to improve the film (as if it helps). Tragically though, I suspect it was always a part of the script.

One for the horror fans I suspect, and bearable even if you're not.

Triad Underworld (2004)

Stylish

[6/10 · 23 April 2008]

Way stylish, to the point of being auto-erotic sometimes. The lead actors and actresses are gorgeous, their clothes and hair are oh so casually to-die-for, and the pink furry coat and moving table shots are indeed ridiculous (as noted by others). Sometimes this film tries too hard, and the implied violence is faux Tarantino.

I enjoyed this gangster film when it was moderately stylish, and wonderfully so. Right from the opening scene (shot through a transparent clock into a busy restaurant kitchen) this film shows what it is capable of. Plot-wise, by the time it came to the 'amazing twist', I didn't really care.