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Reviews
Haute tension (2003)
Exactly what a horror film should be...(sans the dubbing)
A great horror film doesn't need to be intellectually stimulating. Those few that do succeed on that level are few and far between. When there is social commentary, as in Dawn of the Dead, it's usually thinly veiled and a bit amusing, but ultimately weak compared with the themes tackled in other genres. We go to a horror film for one reason: to get kicked in the gut...repeatedly.
That being said, when High Tension works, it works to great affect. It's the most viscerally brutal film I've seen in quite some time, After a plodding exposition, it jolts the viewer into a juggernaut of terror, where almost every scene is so full of (ahem) tension. It's almost unbearable. The gore is shockingly realistic and masochistic. The frames are so full of grime, sweat, blood and tears that you feel as if you need some handy wipes just to get through the film. I went away disturbed and feeling dirty. Isn't' that what you want from a horror flick...
Now for the weaknesses...I won't bring up the ending, as I feel that any inkling of where it's going will completely ruin the experience of High Tension...A criticism I will level is the decision of the filmmakers to add a convoluted plot device to explain away why some sections are dubbed and some not. In the original film, it's two college girls going to visit the one's family in the French countryside. Both are French in the original. In the American release, through the power of overdub, they've changed one of the girls and her family to Americans. All of these characters speak English to each other. The "locals" speak French, magically changing the plot without reshooting a single frame. Get it? I didn't. They should have left it completely subtitled as the dubbing simply distracts from the acting and the (ahem) tension.
However, once the action gets going, it's almost exclusively subtitled and the middle act of the movie is a near flawless slasher flick on the level of Chainsaw Massacre. It's the first and third acts that bring the movie down, but that's not enough to cancel out the terrifying and disturbing impact of the film.
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)
Go ahead and do it, Wilbur...
I've given this movie a five based purely on the strength of the performances and competent editing, pacing, shot composition, etc. I admired Lone Scherfig (the director's) previous film, Italian For Beginners, and respect her abilities, and while parts of the film were enjoyable enough, the last half left a bad taste in my mouth.
I found the characters of Wilbur and Alice (though I liked the actors) to be so self centered and morally bankrupt that on hindsight I wish that Wilbur had done himself in in the first scene, or the fourth scene, or the seventh scene...whatever. I don't always need to like characters, and perhaps since this was sold as a "black comedy" what I was expecting from the film was skewed. There are comic moments, but this is no comedy.
I know a sort of moral ambiguity is a distinct characteristic of Danish cinema, and am actually a fan of Lars Von Trier's work and films that push conventional ideas of human relationships, but this particular turn of events was just distasteful to me. I kind of felt duped. Maybe I'll warm to the film with time, but that's my take. Wilbur was a complete tool. That's what I came away from this movie with. But once again, kudos to the actors and direction. Loved the film-making, disliked the film.
Stone Reader (2002)
A little self-absorbed
Perhaps I should watch it again, but as a lover of documentary films I was disappointed in this. The self-reflexive nature was interesting, but the director spent so much time sharing every minute detail of his film-making process, the subject matter became obscured and confused. Also, I've got no problems with breaking the rules through recreation for the sake of film-making, but if you're going to stage a scene in a "verite" documentary, at least try and make it look real. And the long, meandering discussions of literature got a little tedious. The film could have been a nice, tight 45 minute/hour-long doc, but as it is you could fast forward through most of it and get the point with out really missing anything particularly interesting or enlightening.
That said, kudos for the attempt. Gotta respect his enthusiasm, and making a film isn't easy. I didn't enjoy it, but obviously many others did. Then again, I'm not much of a reader.