Cinq étudiants en médecine se lancent dans des expériences de "Mort imminente", jusqu'à ce que la part d'ombre de tragédies passées finisse par mettre leur vie en danger.Cinq étudiants en médecine se lancent dans des expériences de "Mort imminente", jusqu'à ce que la part d'ombre de tragédies passées finisse par mettre leur vie en danger.Cinq étudiants en médecine se lancent dans des expériences de "Mort imminente", jusqu'à ce que la part d'ombre de tragédies passées finisse par mettre leur vie en danger.
- Nommé pour 1 oscar
- 3 nominations au total
John Duda
- Young Labraccio
- (as John Joseph Duda)
Histoire
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesJulia Roberts (Dr. Rachel Mannus) and Kiefer Sutherland (Nelson Wright) started dating during filming. They ended up engaged, but Roberts ultimately broke it off. She later married Lyle Lovett.
- GaffesWhile a defibrillator is of no use if a patient has truly flatlined, a patient in a "fine v-fib" rhythm can appear to have flatlined but still be revived with the paddles. Therefore, when in doubt, the Advanced Cardiac Life Support guidelines call for administering the shock, though it's not the treatment of choice.
- Citations
[first lines]
Nelson Wright: Today is a good day to die.
- Bandes originalesPARTY TOWN
Written and Performed by David A. Stewart (as Dave Stewart)
Courtesy of BMG Records (UK) Ltd.
Commentaire en vedette
A vaguely original horror idea
The basic premise of Flatliners is fairly simple. Several medical students put themselves at the point of death in order to find out exactly what the brain does during the fact. It sounds like something a mob of bored students would do for a joke, but it forms the basis of some very creepy substories. In today's world, where Hollywood has to mine foreign markets for the ideas to make a horror film, Flatliners is one of those rare gems that show Hollywood can make something different when it tries hard enough.
What separates Flatliners from a lot of films based on this premise that would come out today is that it does not stoop to being condescending or arrogant. Flatliners recognises that people go to films to be entertained, not moralised to. In this kind of supernatural thriller, the difference this restraint makes is really incredible. What's even more incredible is that Julia Roberts appears without being annoying or demonstrating that she can only play Julia Roberts. The theory of obscurity, that performing artists do their best work with the smallest audience, is in force here.
The subplots concerning what the characters find during their loss of pretty much everything that makes them alive, and how it comes back to intrude on their present time, are done surprisingly well. The moments when William Baldwin's character finds his personal videotape collection coming back to haunt him are especially intriguing. That William Baldwin seems so perfectly cast in the role says a lot either about the script or the direction. I am not sure which.
Kiefer Sutherland, on the other hand, really shines as the lead. One really feels for him as the mystery of what past experience is intruding on the present and why unfolds. As Kevin Bacon's character goes to find an old school pier whose life he made hell and tell her how sorry he is, it becomes clearer what the film is about. We can try to change the past as much as we like, but it's what we do with the present that matters most.
Another good aspect of Flatliners is how it achieves an atmosphere without the use of expensive, elaborate visual effects. Quite unusually for what is essentially a horror film, Flatliners did not expend its budget in places where it did not need to. Much of what we see during the more surreal sequences is a case of professional pretending, simple trick photography, or stock footage. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
If there is a problem with the film, it's that it feels about ten minutes too short. The ending seems more perfunctory than conclusive, as if someone in the studio asked the director to wrap the film up so they can bring it out at a certain market time. Of course, many films have been left with sore spots for this very reason, so Flatliners shouldn't really need to be any different. The hundred and fifteen minutes we do get is highly satisfactory, though not overly brilliant.
I gave Flatliners a seven out of ten. It works well as a date flick or a kind of late-night popcorn film. That aside, it makes a good reminder that low-budget horror shows weren't always sad pieces of garbage.
What separates Flatliners from a lot of films based on this premise that would come out today is that it does not stoop to being condescending or arrogant. Flatliners recognises that people go to films to be entertained, not moralised to. In this kind of supernatural thriller, the difference this restraint makes is really incredible. What's even more incredible is that Julia Roberts appears without being annoying or demonstrating that she can only play Julia Roberts. The theory of obscurity, that performing artists do their best work with the smallest audience, is in force here.
The subplots concerning what the characters find during their loss of pretty much everything that makes them alive, and how it comes back to intrude on their present time, are done surprisingly well. The moments when William Baldwin's character finds his personal videotape collection coming back to haunt him are especially intriguing. That William Baldwin seems so perfectly cast in the role says a lot either about the script or the direction. I am not sure which.
Kiefer Sutherland, on the other hand, really shines as the lead. One really feels for him as the mystery of what past experience is intruding on the present and why unfolds. As Kevin Bacon's character goes to find an old school pier whose life he made hell and tell her how sorry he is, it becomes clearer what the film is about. We can try to change the past as much as we like, but it's what we do with the present that matters most.
Another good aspect of Flatliners is how it achieves an atmosphere without the use of expensive, elaborate visual effects. Quite unusually for what is essentially a horror film, Flatliners did not expend its budget in places where it did not need to. Much of what we see during the more surreal sequences is a case of professional pretending, simple trick photography, or stock footage. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
If there is a problem with the film, it's that it feels about ten minutes too short. The ending seems more perfunctory than conclusive, as if someone in the studio asked the director to wrap the film up so they can bring it out at a certain market time. Of course, many films have been left with sore spots for this very reason, so Flatliners shouldn't really need to be any different. The hundred and fifteen minutes we do get is highly satisfactory, though not overly brilliant.
I gave Flatliners a seven out of ten. It works well as a date flick or a kind of late-night popcorn film. That aside, it makes a good reminder that low-budget horror shows weren't always sad pieces of garbage.
utile•10228
- mentalcritic
- 10 nov. 2004
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Détails
Box-office
- Budget
- 26 000 000 $ US (estimation)
- Brut – États-Unis et Canada
- 61 489 265 $ US
- Fin de semaine d'ouverture – États-Unis et Canada
- 10 034 685 $ US
- 12 août 1990
- Brut – à l'échelle mondiale
- 61 489 265 $ US
- Durée1 heure 55 minutes
- Couleur
- Mixage
- Rapport de forme
- 2.39 : 1
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