An adventurous episode in the Dogme 95 film movement, The King Is Alive takes a group of international tourists to a desert in Namibia, where their bus breaks down in an abandoned village. Dissuaded by the nerves of their driver, the group initially panics, throwing unreasonable accusations at each other before deciding on a plan. A seasoned explorer named Jack briefs the other passengers on means of survival, before leaving on foot to find the nearest settlement. A first night brings drunken camaraderie, but some of the passengers isolate themselves, unable to forget their situation for a single second. To keep the spirits up, Henry encourages the group to put on an impromptu production of King Lear, a performance that accurately mirrors the increasing sense of cabin fever palpable in the village.
What would normally have been another retread of a terribly familiar film concept is given new gravitas with its direct handheld style. Kristian Levring, one of the founders of Dogme 95, thrives under the audiovisual constraints, giving full attention to the group dynamic. The setting is a constant source of excitement, the shades of saturated orange reminding one of the suffocating heat. The range of characters unfortunately also means a range of performances – where one actor might be thoroughly convincing, the next is hammy enough to shake the viewer back into reality. In a way, the King Lear performance draws subtle reference to this unevenness, resourcefully turning it on its head to breathe new life into the film.
Intercut with footage from old Danish films, this peculiar anthology film invites twenty international directors to direct short films about Danish women, and the open brief makes it hard for the viewer to travel from one film to the next.
The Weather – short remake of Berlin, Symphony of a Great City?
Expectations – interview snippet which means little out of context
Me – dark, brooding depiction of sexuality, with notes of sci-fi
Meditation – entertaining portrait of a loving matriarch with an unusual hobby
Danthing – utterly surreal computer animation, reminiscent of Guy Maddin
My Things – sentimental, and a sweet interpretation of the title;
Light Apparel – baffling proverbial piece about gender inequality
Archaeology – mildly interesting documentary which discusses the Sami people
Centre – superb experimental short which keeps a moving ball at the centre of the screen
Life In Six Steps – ambitious Reggio-esque documentary which doesn’t quite gel together
Berlin Retour – unusual time-travelling WWII short with a questionable aesthetic
Casting – weak comedy which aims to subvert the stereotypes of Danish women
Peeping – culture-shock drama; feels like an excerpt of a bigger film
Dreaming – typical political fare from Dušan Makavejev, with cheeky self-reference
Bliss – inaccessible fragment of a conversation between the artist and Vietnamese friends
My Father – touching short about memory; could have been longer
Pork And Apple Stew – dreadful absurdist animation
Rhythm – decent piece on samba, although tenuous link to the theme
Tackling the sticky subject of copyright in the age of the internet, Good Copy Bad Copy was originally screened on Danish TV, but later received an official free BitTorrent release to increase awareness of the subject. The documentary starts with the topic of hip-hop sampling, and various industry know-it-alls give us the case study of Bridgeport v. Dimension Films, a lawsuit decrying N.W.A.’s use of two seconds from a Funkadelic track. The case shook the industry and also called for a complete re-evaluation of copyright law. Mention is also made of Danger Mouse’s non-profit side-project The Grey Album, which remixed The Beatles’ White Album and added vocals from Jay-Z’s Black Album. Before long, we begin discussion of copyright in film, sparking interviews with the founders of illegal peer-to-peer site The Pirate Bay, as well as producers from the famously unmanageable Nigerian film industry.
Given the often amusing nature of these court cases (one attorney tickles himself with the notion of a judge dealing with song titles like “Get Off Your Ass And Jam”), the film is sometimes hard to take seriously, but it makes many interesting points. Creative Commons board member Lawrence Lessig, a frequently-referenced copyright expert, points out that copyright law discourages easy access to older, more obscure material, and in this manner suppresses creativity. At just under an hour, it’s easy to digest and, apart from the interviews with music producer Girl Talk (which are a little too self-congratulatory to be of interest), not a moment is wasted.
Following a spell in prison, a neo-Nazi skinhead named Adam is sent to a religious commune to work amongst fellow sinners, a state of affairs he takes time to adjust to. Ivan, the tolerant pastor of the commune, negotiates Adam down to the simple goal of baking a pie using apples from the churchyard, but after a series of unfortunate incidents renders all the apples inedible, Adam’s unruly side is reignited. Later on, Adam learns that Ivan’s wife committed suicide having not known how to deal with their son’s cerebral palsy, and bottling his own emotions up has left Ivan with a dangerous brain tumour. At first, Adam acts indifferently, but when his white supremacist colleagues wreak havoc at the church, he is forced to question his beliefs.
In spite of its biblical overtones and controversial themes, Adam’s Apples has a brilliant sense of humour and undeniable universal appeal. Using a whole host of colourful supporting characters, director Anders Thomas Jensen ensures that every subplot and nuance is interesting, and manages to show the humanity in even the most loathsome individuals. Former Bond villains Ulrich Thomsen and Mads Mikkelsen shine in their respective roles as Adam and Ivan, between them generating a believable tension. But it is Ole Thestrup as Ivan’s hilariously uncaring doctor who arguably steals the show, eliciting some of the film’s biggest laughs. Watch with caution if you are easily offended, but there is more than enough in this heartening comedy that almost everyone will be entertained.
Audience-teasing mountebank Lars von Trier returns to courting controversy with his latest film Antichrist. Comprising four chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, the film concerns a nameless couple whose lives have been changed forever by the death of their toddler son. The wife (an outstanding turn by Charlotte Gainsbourg) has developed a severe complex about the isolated cabin she had taken her son to the previous year. Her psychologist husband, played by Willem Dafoe, decides to take the matter into his own hands by taking her back to the cabin in the hope that she can be cured through acclimating herself to the object of her fear. The experiment backfires however, as she begins to increasingly rely on sex as a means of relief, a condition which deteriorates the more terrified she becomes. When the husband finally determines the root of her fear, he realises all too late that even he can do nothing to help her.
If you’re familiar with von Trier’s public-eye persona(“I am the bestfilmdirector in the world”), this film should come as no surprise. Although there is a wealth of imagination behind the project, the story is a drab affair, bolstered hugely by cheap animal symbolism and some hilariously misogynistic woman-possessed sequences. It is, however, a technical masterpiece – cinematic luddites will be easily wooed by Anthony Død Mantle’s fantastically experimental camerawork, and the chilling sound design. But for all its technical virtues, Antichrist still suffers from the after-effects of a rigorous subtlety enema.
Breakfast is an important meal. It sets you up for the day and gives you the required nutrients, no more, no less - it's a square meal. And this, in a way, is what this film review blog is meant to do. No matter what sort of film it is, every review gets exactly 250 words - just enough to get your RDA of plot, background info and critique.
I try my best to watch and review films from all over the place, in the same way I might have French toast one morning, and Coco Pops the next. Anyway, I'll leave you to get stuck in. Feel free to give me feedback, ask me where to find films, tell me off for unfair comments... I'm all ears. Bon appétit!
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