ZiggyFloydZeppelin Reviews

The Bothersome Man (2006)

Brilliant film about Waking Up

[10/10 · 22 April 2008]

Den Brysomme Mannen is one of the better films of all time and is about a man trapped in a world where there are no senses, no feelings, no Love, no Truth and definitely no Freedom. A world where people become afraid when someone speaks their mind, expresses himself or show affection, a world where no one is Free and no one has any idea what the Meaning of any of this is. Just like the world we live in, the world in Den Brysomme Mannen is a world of lost souls trying to become fulfilled but focus on the complete opposite of what fulfills them, materialism, social acceptance and mediocre satisfactions.

Den Brysomme Mannen deserves full attention by every human soul, because we could all use a fresh Wake Up call.

Camera (III) (2000)

Cronenbergs short little masterpiece

[10/10 · 23 December 2007]

I saw this short on youtube and have watched it twice and probably will watch it again. Camera deals with an aging actor that has passed his prime, both in life and career vise. The old man talks to the screen about life, acting and the effects a camera that ,,the children" brought home will have on them all. He speaks about the camera as it were a curse that would destroy them all as the children make the camera and other film equipment ready to film the old man.

In over six minutes Cronenberg manages smoothly to summon up the most common human flaw: fear, and its effect. As soon as the old man finishes talking about the terrible effect the camera will have on them and the children start filming the old man starts lying and the short film changes from being realistic to being a fraud.

After watching this film I finally ,,discovered" Cronenberg and what it is that he has been trying to say with pretty much all of his films. Cronenberg has dedicated his career into revealing the ugliness behind mechanism by connecting it with monstrous things such as the scientist who becomes a fly, the victims of a car crash who become perverse, the TV producer who becomes illusional, computer game players who can't separate the game from reality, the exterminator who starts sniffing bug spray and also becomes illusional and can't separate truth from imagination, and most of his other work like in Dead Ringers, Scanners and The Dead Zone and probably in his older work that I have yet not reviewed. They are all trying to examine the horrifying side of machinery and the cause it will have on us in the end. Camera is the piece of film that made me realise the genius of David Cronenberg, even though I had loved most of the films I have seen by him I now have a more profound respect for him and I'm going to watch all of his work that I can get my hands into.

Camera - 10 out of 10.

Með mann á bakinu (2004)

One of the funniest shorts I have ever seen

[10/10 · 18 March 2006]

This hysterical short by the funniest man on Iceland, Jón Gnarr, is definitely one of the funniest and most clever shorts i've ever seen. The story is simple and yet brilliant and the actors give a great performance that'll leave you laughing in tears at their finest moments. Með mann á bakinu (With a Man on your Back) is about two strangers who meet on a mountain, they decide to walk down it together but as they're about to cross a river one of them seems to have a problem with getting wet so he asks the other one to carry him on his back. The other one is glad to do so and carries him on his back like a horse. But as they get to the other side the man on the back doesn't want to get of because of all the sharp rocks lying on the river bank and asks him to carry him a little further, the man does so. A little further he comes up with another reason why he doesn't want to get of his back and manages to get the other one to carry him all the way down the mountain. I don't want to describe everything that happens in this short you should see it for yourself, especially all the icelanders who know and understand Jón Gnarr's humor, but watching him riding a mans back like he was a horse will without a doubt make you at least giggle icelandic or foreign.

How They Get There (1997)

Excellent Short

[10/10 · 5 March 2006]

"How They Get There" is a fantastic short film, possibly the best iv'e ever seen /at least the cleverest) and I recommend everyone to watch it at least once, I also recommend you buy "The Work of Director Spike Jonze" on DVD. Before I saw this short I really wanted to know what it was about but there weren't any useful information about the plot here so I decided to write some. If you for some reason can't watch this short or simply just wanna know what's it about then read the next following words.

**************************SPOILERS******************************

The short begins with a close up on the shoes the lead character, a young man, is wearing. The man is hanging out drinking a small carton of milk, as he almost trips and falls he notices that the girl on the other side of the road has just imitated him. The man starts doing silly things as he walks down the road and the girl starts imitating all his moves and this starts to be like a little game between them, he starts waving his hands and doing silly walks and she does the same, this goes on for like a minute or so. But as the road ends the man fails to notice a car driving behind him. The girl stops and starts giving him signals with her hands to stop, the man thinks she's still just playing the game and waves his hands in the same motion as she does and continues walking over the road. The girl gasps hysterically. The car hits the man who flies over the automobile, the driver loses control and the car suddenly hits something and dives into the air crashing into the sidewalk and on cars, probably leaving the driver dead. The mans shoe, that appears in the first shot, flies in the air and lands on the sidewalks curve, the camera moves forward filming the curve, a little bit further the camera stops on an old shoe that's been lying there for a while. The short explains to you how shoes you see abandoned lying on the road get to be where they are, hence the title "How They Get There".

Niceland (Population. 1.000.002) (2004)

Without a doubt one of Friðriks best work...

[9/10 · 21 May 2004]

I saw this film by a total accident and I'm happy to have seen it. The film isn't perfect but its very good and has a nice kind of morale. Niceland is basically about a young man (or an old boy) Jet living a joyful life working at a factory with his girlfriend who he's deeply in love with and vice versa. But shortly after they decide to get married and live together happily ever after her cat, who she has a weird affection for, dies. The girlfriend falls into depression which could (strangely enough) lead to her death and the only way to give her a purpose to live and save her is to tell her the meaning of life. So Jet goes on a journey to discover the meaning of life and thats when he meets Max, a strange man living in a junkyard who claims to know the answer...

Niceland is a pretty surreal film and I wouldn't necessarily call it Icelandic or even British but instead if anything I would probably call it "Nicelandic" especially because I have no idea where its supposed to happen and it felt like a new kind of style. To begin with the film was very fun and entertaining but after a while it got kinda slow but before the film reached its climax it went up hill again and I noticed it had a good point and was trying to say something (although I don't want to reveal what). Gary Lewis and Martin Compston are both very good as are the other actors. Out of ten I would give it a rating somewhere between 7.3 to 7.7 although I can't really imagine what kind of feedback it will get.