tifrap Reviews

Lost and Delirious (2001)

Justice done to an essential subject that is often trivialised.

[15 July 2007]

A beautiful engaging film that actually manages to get to the essential human dramas of love, unrequited love, passionate love and filial love. The all consuming power of early fixation and its tendency towards poetic angst is fabulously redirected into some really powerful Shakespearian diversions that really 'crank up the anti', so to speak.

The thing that troubled me most about this film was the fact that the story was wrapped in a fairly sickly Utopian girls school that, unlike the emotions dealt with, hardly anybody has ever gone to - I doubt that such a place could exist.

Speaking of wrappers, this film seems to borrow an incredible amount of its staging and visual identity from other films. I was tempted to begin this review with; 'Bilitis' meets 'Kes' meets 'If' meets 'Picnic at hanging rock' meets 'Dangerous liaisons', but the list started to get too long and seemed doomed to end with meets 'Karate kid' (where have I seen that gardener). I will stand by the comparison with the first three though, in fact the influence of the film 'If' is tacitly admitted, by the inclusion of the same Sanctus from Misa Luba in the sound track and an almost identical school building. Having said that, the story that forms the core of the film is resilient enough to support all these overcoats that it wears, and they are very well fitted indeed.

I would like to read the book now, mainly to see if it is just the production team being lazy in salvaging other films to clad what must be a well crafted narrative, or if the original author was influenced by them.

It is a very fine film, with an admirable message so I do hope I haven't belittled it too much, you really should read the other reviews below this one to re-balance my bias.

El Topo (1970)

A truly great epic, in the tradition of Dante or Taliesin. Timeless film making.

[9/10 · 9 July 2007]

The tag-line for this film does it no credit at all, but that is because the person who wrote it obviously did so for a Hollywood audience - "See the priest ride into the sunset with a midget and her newborn baby" or is that a wild west freak show audience? The film and its narrative is rooted in an ancient storytelling tradition that is earthy, real and appeals to an innate human sense of symbolism and drama. Watching such a tale unfold can give you a real sense of relief that despite the often over sophisticated diet of todays media, we can still follow a tale in a way that calls on a different part of the brain, the same part that has handed down wisdom between cultures and generations over millennia. It is visual storytelling that almost needs no dialogue.

While watching it I was continually struck by the similarities with Sergei Parajanov's films 'Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors'1964, 'Sayat Nova (Colour of Pomegranates)' made two years before this film and 'The Legend of the Suram Fortress'1984 - if you like these films you will also like this one and vice versa - If anything this film is a bit more conventional, in a north American cultural sense than Paradjanov's deeply mysterious Georgian cultural symbolism, and a good deal more visceral (theatrical blood excepted).

I would suggest that to class this film as a western, may satisfy the genre purists in as much as that its costumes and locations conform, but seriously misses the underlying moral, almost biblical tale - complete with sheep, goats rabbits and owls, but no cows or cowboys. This is more of a mystery play out of the central Russian steppe. Having said that, it is impossible to miss the mildly Zapatista political critique of what presumably represents 'gringo' culture; some of which are very insightful indeed, particularly the 'colonel's' men begging for the glimpse of a woman's breasts, and even more delightful, the use of the 'eye in the pyramid' logo to represent the Yankee dollar and those who have sold themselves to it.

Take two hours out, watch this film and just let it soak in, better than any feel-good experience that Tinseltown has to offer.

Blood and Chocolate (2007)

Worth watching if there is nothing great available.

[7/10 · 25 June 2007]

I enjoyed this film. It isn't life changing, deep or even particularly thought provoking, but it does draw you in and keep you 'entertained' throughout.

Many of the comments below extol the book and damn the film, you'd think they would know better to expect a fairly run of the mill film to outshine the fiction it was based on. I haven't read the book but I may now.

The story is compassionate and attempts to re-consider the wolf-person theme by treating them as an oppressed minority, I couldn't help but think that they were a metaphor for the Roma, a thought that bears scrutiny I think.

The cinematography was atmospheric and Bucharest became the star, lots of beautiful rococo buildings and a pleasantly eastern soundtrack. I kept wondering if the film wasn't a Hollywood offering because the characters all seem normal and manage to avoid behaving in the usual American manner (not an "oh my god" in earshot), but no, the ending isn't European.

I was really pleasantly surprised with the beautiful human to wolf transitions, the makers restrained themselves from fx to the benefit of the film, it reminded me of the early eastern European fairytale films (the singing ringing tree). Don't be concerned about gore or substance abuse as mentioned below, there is little more blood than a few cut fingers and bloodstained clothing, and the only substance that gets abused is absinthe (which may well be an illegal substance in your country as it is here), it gets drunk sparingly, injected once and burnt fairly often. See this film.