Cioran Reviews

A Hijacking (2012)

Excellent danish workmanship

[29 September 2014]

Tobias Lindholm seems to specialize on realistic, grim and bleak stories which he executes with grace and elegance on par with bygone masters. A Hijacking - Kapringen is Lindholm's second feature film, his first R is a tale of even bleaker conditions and circumstances than this realistic and powerful story of a ransom drama. Piracy and hostage taking for ransom is an ancient business model in Mediterranean. North African coast had plenty of Europeans waiting for release in exchange of escudos. Some stayed there and married, some converted to Islam, but some were lucky enough to return home. The famed Spanish writer of Don Quijote Miguel de Cervantes was perhaps the most famous case, and his writing was strongly inspired by his fate at the hands of his Moorish captors in Algeria.

Pilou Asbaek stars again in the main role like in Lindholm's previous film R as a ship's chef Mikkel and the representative of the crew used by the negotiator Omar to initiate contact with the owners of the cargo ship. Thus starts the nerve-wrecking chess between the negotiator and Orion Subway's CEO Peter (Sören Malling). Impulsive, moody, illiterate teen pirates make the life of the crew a hellish experience. Men are humiliated whenever hostage takers feel in the mood and constant threat of violence and sense of helplessness is strongly traumatizing. The crew and most hijackers, with the exception of negotiator, have no common language but signs and hands, and one side also communicates with guns...The CEO Peter is a cool and experienced businessman and negotiator and does not panic easily. The negotiator for the pirates needs Mikkel to express genuine desperation and misery which he does easily under threats of violence. Peter knows that the crew is a valuable merchandise but negotiations prolong for months.

Lindholm is a skilled and classy writer and director. R and Hijacking are both compelling films with strong characters, and Submarino which he wrote but was directed by Thomas Vinterberg (most known for his dogma masterpiece Festen) is perhaps even finer work. In Submarino 2 brothers from a troubled family battle with substance abuse and harsh conditions. Lindholm seems to work with his team of actors and Asbaek and Peter Möller are used in many of their projects.

Piracy in Somalia has turned into a business that plagues its neighboring countries severely. 4-5 attacks occur daily, and NATO battleship from Netherlands patrols the coastline protecting some cargo ships. Somalia is in complete mess lasting for 2 decades, jihadist al-Shabaab controlled Mogadishu until quite recently. UNISOM which consists of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi wage a desperate war that seems to last for years. Al-Shabaab and reigning political and military chaos maintains piracy business, Kenian coastline and Seychelles' economy suffer greatly from gangs of pirates. Seychelles islands and Somaliland in North Somalia at the Red Sea with its status of autonomy give piracy convictions of 6-10 years, which in a totally devastated country is no big deterrent. Hundreds of hostages at present wait for ransoms to be paid on the coast of Somalia. Essentially the film's narrative tension is sustained by fine nuances of depiction of inequality where Peter can choose and decide a lot, but nearly all the rest very little...

Barbarians (2014)

Reasonable for a first feature but lacking edge...

[17 September 2014]

This is the first feature film by a bit over 30 years old Serbian writer and director Ivan Ikic. A tale of growth, alienation and a search for identity of a teenager without proper role models to guide him in his endeavors. The film was advertised as a story of football hooliganism, but it is only a theme of context for youth estrangement in a modern Eastern-European society in a smaller town.

Luka and his family are refugees from Kosovo, his father is missing, mother is depressed, angry and desperately unemployed in new conditions. Luka is being harassed by social workers and parole officers. The loss of a home, and father of the family overshadows Luka's rootlessness and senseless meanderings. Zeljko Markovic is relatively credible as a moping, clueless kid.

The intensity and threat of violence of the first scene projects an ominous ambiance into the rest of the film. Luka and his best buddy Flash are buying a gun, and testing it, but Luka is broke. He hurls insults and threats at the seller. The macho atmosphere of the scene predicts blood and violent deaths, but instead the director just follows that with aimless wanderings and general pointlessness of the main characters. The guys are bored and looking for danger and at least the director manages to convey that. Far more relevant than family, school, work or any creed for the two guys and their pals is supporting the local team. It is the only thing both do with passion. The culture of masculinity and the need to improve your position in a social pecking order colors most communication. Luka is impulsive, angry and depressed enough to not care about his safety and challenge bigger roosters. Narrative tension is built upon the danger of social repercussions to his posturing.

The film barely touches on the theme of football hooliganism, and is somewhat more descriptive of fanatical support of a football team. My own initial interest was a depiction of Serbian hooliganism, but the film just mirrors the backgrounds and general teen alienation behind devoting yourself to your team to such a significant degree. Serbian hooligans are some of the most famous for nationalism and racism in the whole Europe, and the film certainly describes bleak economic situations and harsher living conditions than in most of EU side of Europe. The most hated opponents are since the wars and bombings of last decades Croatia, Albania and USA. Flags are being waved and nationalist undertones are visible, racist xenophobia is being hinted at in one scene. Racism is shown in its typical insults and "banana throwing" -level so common still in many European leagues.

On the whole the depiction of meaningless alienation and social misery is not even close in its desperate hopelessness and grim destinies quite common in for example Finnish urban portrayals like Vuosaari and Bad Country (Paha Maa) but lacks subtlety and sense of irony of the more masterful Danish portrayals of existential modern angst. Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg and Nicholas Winding-Refn have so many more nuances in their tales of social alienation and underworld and desperate characters looking for self-respect, and mainly sense of humor and tiny bits of humane credibility.

Ichi the Killer (2001)

avantgarde

[10/10 · 17 February 2002]

This is avantgarde art-house violence at its best, it is based on manga which is obvious watching the few first minutes of this film. Another brilliant post-post-modern artwork from Takashi Miike. After seeing the film I was just totally speechless.

Air Force One (1997)

Horrible

[1/10 · 19 November 2000]

This is a propaganda film Leni Riefenstahl, Mao and Stalin would be proud of. Senseless, waste of time, starring wooden Harrison Ford who has been playing the same role, since Han Solo and Deckard of Blade Runner, now for 20 years. He is certainly one of the worst professional actors in the world.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

not nearly as bad

[8/10 · 19 November 2000]

This film was not nearly as bad as judging from the comments by some Americans. Acting was good, dilemmas were relevant, only thing seriously lacking was contextualization. Characters weren't historically well contextualized to make their activities coherent. Action wasn't founded but happened unexpectedly out of nowhere . It gave a chaotic sense to the film. Calling this film boring is totally off base. This is not a boring film. It just tried to encompass too many complex topics into a relatively brief film: animalistic brutality, confusion of origins, the frustration of many unanswerable questions to existence and suffering, the fragility of civil society and the often rigid adherence to laws to maintain a community. The film portrayed the dilemmas of human condition, suspended somewhere between gods and animals. This film is definitely better than 90% of cheesy, brain dead, rubbish coming out of Holy wood.

The English Patient (1996)

Quite boring

[6/10 · 31 October 2000]

Despite some existentialistic twists, and many beautiful people this film is absolutely too long, boring and lacking substance in too many scenes, not to mention being too confusing and convoluted. It is ok, but not even close to Schindler's List or especially American Beauty. Definitely not deserving of 9 oscars, a film made for middle aged women mourning their lost love or teen girls fantasizing of their dream prince. There is obviously too much of both in Academy Awards as evidenced by the success of films like The English Patient and Titanic.

Baise-moi (2000)

ok

[7/10 · 11 October 2000]

ok, but the mindless violence was getting repetitive. Film makers were unable to bring any deeper angle to the story. Characters remained shallow and surprising, thus lacking credibility. The beginning was ok and seemed realistic. Graphic sex scenes were quite interesting. Senseless violence just was senseless violence without any justification for it.

The Other Hollywood (1999 TV Movie)

Realistic and good.

[10/10 · 3 October 2000]

I believed this documentary depicted the industry of adult movies quite realistically. Some people find a profession within it but many are consumed and later ejected. Drugs and fast living is regularly closely tied to people in porn industry. There is always plenty of new girls willing to enter the industry in hope of becoming stars or just getting more money, the pay in sex industry is quite awesome compared to any regular blue collar job. The documentary depicted the positive and negative sides of the industry without bias. It was an interesting overall view of the porn industry from the 70-s to present, having lots of interviews from famous porn actresses and actors ranging from Houston 500 to Buttman gonzos and Max Hardcore.

Just Cause (1995)

This could have been an ok film.

[5/10 · 3 October 2000]

The plot twist in this film was quite extraordinary, on afterthought perhaps a bit contrived and incredulous, but certainly very unexpected and surprising. This film could have been ok, the theme was sick and repulsive enough, Ed Harris was impressive in his role of a rivetingly perceptive, disturbed version of Hannibal Lecter. The police fronted by Laurence Fishburne seemed to know something the other didn't. On the whole, the characters weren't that credible, and with the exception of the ending this film could have been above the average Hollywood assembly line rubbish, but with the ending the director relegated himself into employing all the most predictable, and most despicable, brain dead Hollywood cliches. Which repels any intelligent viewer who has any sense of direction, dramaturgy and screen writing away from this dumbed down production.

Restless (2000)

Good script, ok acting, credible and voyeuristic.

[8/10 · 17 September 2000]

This film didn't give easy answers, didn't perform unnecessary underlining and is very voyeuristic in depicting nudity. Levottomat (Restless) is quite an existential film, meaning it in the tradition of Sartre and Camus, and has definitely been influenced by Camus' L'Etranger's main character who is unable to really feel. He has lost passion for life, but still feels sexually immensely excited, and ready to satisfy his carnal desires with any girl who indulges in 'no strings attached' sex. The main character Ari, an emergency physician played by Mikko Nousiainen, has no answers. He seems to live in a nihilistic void and struggles with what is ethical - rights and wrongs relating to human relationships. Because of his infinite craving for sex he sacrifices cozy friendships and messes up the lives of a 'sixsome' of 3 couples.

The film has a lot of sex, and I loved the way the actors plunge into their roles. This film is about 'the meaning of life' or what fuels the life if and when there is no meaning to it. The demarcation between 'meaningless sex' that is only the issue of the people directly involved and sex which is encroaching on some third parties' existence was very interesting. When is it ok to cheat and when is it absolutely unacceptable. Ari only refused from sex once, in the case of his desperate, boozing ambulance driver friend wonderfully portrayed by Samuli Edelman being under threat of being left and his wife implying her willingness to sleep with Ari.

The film was written well by Aleksi Bardy, who is obviously knowledgeable of the lives of 20+ Finnish yuppies in a cross-fire of traditional cultural pressures against individualistic happiness and endless search for pleasure. Irina Bjorklund represents a moralist who's notions of right and wrong come from the scriptures. She battles against the nihilism of modern life with her faith and deals with the 'bigger',philosophical questions of existence. Eventually the priest is the one Ari finds most interesting of his numerous women.

X-Men (2000)

Rubbish!

[4/10 · 7 September 2000]

This film is so bad, one liners suck, dialogue is horrible and it's filled with all the boring, repetetive cliches. Without 3 gorgeus models: Janssen, Romijn-Santos and Berry I would have given this 0. Now it gets 4. McKellen and Stewart are wasting their talent with this half-baked film, that is nothing what it could've been.

American Beauty (1999)

a spectacularly entertaining and thought provoking achievement

[10/10 · 14 January 2000]

Often when reading or hearing other people's reviews or comments about some film I wonder if we've watched the same film at all. This especially applies to this film.

This film - again - is about liberation from cowardice, social roles, self-denial people so often put themselves in. The sadness and humorous irrationality of the character's lives alternate constantly. Brilliant satirical comments and the tragedy of existence are always present in this fine film. The transformation of somnambulent, internally dying, fed up Lester (Kevin Spacey, who is awesome, superb in every scene) is very similar to Fight Club's Jack's transformation to non-conformist, socially liberated and confident Tyler Durden. Though Fight Club is even better film than this.

Lester hates his work, he hates the circumstances and interactions he finds himself in, he feels beaten to the ground without getting up, at least not without help. After feeling comatose and humiliated for some time, the beautiful teen age vixen Angela (Mena Suvari, great role) triggers some change in his sexually deprived monotonous life. He starts fantasizing of her submerged into corny surroundings with red flowers. Angela's comments to Jane about her father's lacking muscles prompt him to become an addict of weight lifting. Which together with his re-acquired habit of smoking weed from his new neighbor Ricky Fitts (impressive Wes Bentley) rejuvenate him. He starts feeling alive - confident and good about himself. Prepared to improve his life. He believes he is not such 'a colossal loser' after all.

The wife Carolyn (wonderfully hysterical Anette Bening) and the daugther Jane (beautiful Thora Birch) are confused about Lester's sudden change. They are all alienated from each other. Carolyn resents Lester's sudden irresponsibility and tries to fill her life with goods and material success. As long as the facade is fine and her material situation good, all is well. She has succumbed to superficial pretentiousness and has reduced herself to a caricature, whose main goals are to maintain the facade of a happy family, success in her work and gaining more materia. She is an impostor.

Voyeurist Ricky films everything he can with his camera so not to forget the transient, ephemeral nature of things. He wants to remember the beauty of a particular moment - be it death of a bird or a leaf in the wind. There's a lot of zen in some of his comments, he he has learned to see beyond the appearance - beyond the facade. His own tragic existence according to structure and the rules his father colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper) has laid down for him has pushed him to value the unique beauty of various phenomena. Colonel Fitts has beaten his family into submission - his wife is lethargic, but Ricky still hustles and attempts to find something meaningful. He understands life as an ephemeral experience that has to be seized fully and passes his attitude to Jane & Lester.

Eventually the film is about the fragility of life - death can come arbitrarily and unexpectedly- through no mistake of yours or via just a misunderstanding. You live only once and there's lots of potential beauty you miss when living the daily routine consists of chasing the things you don't really need. Or even if you need, it takes courage to wonder at things and it takes a lot courage to let go and be free - to be honest to yourself and happy.

Fight Club (1999)

The best film of last few years!

[10/10 · 7 January 2000]

Fight Club is the best film of last few years. Technically brilliant, with superb story, acting and profound psychological and social content. Fincher is by far the most innovative and creative American director after Stanley Kubrick.

This film is deeply philosophical and focusing on 'the meaning of life' concept. The story starts rolling with the depiction of the dissatisfying life of the main character. He tries to fill the existential void with goods, he tries to bond with people in sobbing and sharing about their pain and misfortunes, in the end nothing fills the void. Edward Norton's character is disgusted with the nihilism he sees around him - the superficial corporate greed with it's corporate pawns. Life falsifying and denigrating consumerism, which reduces individuals to mindless drones and leads them to believe that gathering material possessions, looking outwardly according to norms would make them happy. In essence the character gets sick with all the excessive socialization, all the unnecessary symbols of conformism and social status which leave him alien to himself. The character is confused who and what he is and what he essentially wants. He's only recourse is to the core of his being, his body. It's chemical mechanisms are simply rewarding or punishing, there is nothing less real or unadulterated in human existence. The corpus doesn't prevaricate. It transmits the signals and mind simply receives and interprets them. The signals are utterly authentic and that's Palahniuk's probable justification for the fighting and the violence, which was cruel but based on consent, much like courageous, ultramasculine boxing and ultimate fighting contests.

Pain and pleasure are unifying sensations between all people and also the signs of human separatedness from the world and the signs of individual corporality. Circumstantial changes in endocrinological hormonal secretions are often addictive and artificially sought in our culture.

First half of the film revels in consumerist critique and finding a way for these, mostly lonely and slightly alienated men to endure the nihilism of their existence. After the bonding has happened and Tyler Durden is awarded the status of a great visionary,a spiritual leader much like most autocrats have been raised to their throne by unsuspecting people (Hitler, Mao etc) the film takes a leap forward and starts analyzing the psychology of revolutionary activity and revolutionary groups.

Tyler starts project Mayhem and goes further and further into anarchistic activities to take the power back and overturn this spirit eroding, life degrading social system.

Fight Club's analysis of revolution is a lot smarter and deeper than the one in Matrix because the end part is raising the question 'why does revolution always seem to eat it's children?'. Why do idealistic men wanting to improve the society and the situation of countless humans end up instituting the most violent and gruesome regimes.

What is so flawed in human nature that turn good intentions to often even worse oppression than the one before? The references to Maximilien Robespierre, Lenin and Hitler are quite obvious in this film. The lead character wanted to liberate men from socialization, to enhance their individuality but ended up removing their individuality, denigrating and sacrificing them in the name of greater good. He sacrificed his own ideals, thus the fight in the end and another reference to historical revolutionaries. Robespierre who was responsible for the 'reign of terror' era of the French revolution got his jaw shot off before taken to the guillotine.

Striptease (1996)

Hilariously bad!

[4/10 · 7 January 2000]

This film is just so bad it almost becomes good. The whole sillyness of the movie, the utterly stupid scenes and lines can make this film eventually a cult classic like Deep 9 From Outer Space etc. Burt Reynolds and Ving Rhames are great, both roles are so shallow, simple and stereotypical but still quite funny.

Demi Moore is just such a horrible actress, she just sucks in every meaning of the word. Yes, she can dance a bit, she has worked out, her face is fine - but to get millions for showing off her nonexistent acting skills, and her body - an accomplishment of plastic surgery - is just another proof that there's something seriously sick and disgusting in this world.

Burt Reynolds, Ving Rhames and Robert Patrick did understand that this was a satire, and executed well. Demi Moore was just so stiff and bland and unsexy it ruined it. The last 30 minutes were hilarious. It still is a very, very stupid film. Whatever message it had (haven't read the book) gets ruined by the lame Demi show off.

Pi (1998)

Brilliant!

[10/10 · 21 September 1999]

Glad to see a wonderfully executed film about something intellectual. A nice departure from the usual repetitive sex, eating, violence and other common themes emerging from the animalistic, instinctual aspects of human existence. This very jewish film (one of the best together with Barton Fink and Miller's Crossing) is about the quest for the truth. Understanding of the patterns of complex systems. It seemed like the writers are somewhat familiar with the set and chaos theory. Brilliant mathematician Max Cohen suffers from debilitatingly severe headaches and truly reminds of many brilliant mathematicians like Kurt Godel and one of the founders of fractal mathematics Mitchell Feigenbaum in his avoidance of people and ultimate dedication to his vocation. He believes like most ingenious scientists before him that universe exhibits patterns and these patterns can be quantified and understood in the language of mathematics. He pursues finding a definite answer to the workings of the stock market, thus stumbling on a numerical code to the processes of the universe. A code linking together spirality and the golden rule of geometry meaning the fractality of nature and the concept of self-similarity.

He detests petty materialists and finds the orthodox jews looking for a password to god silly and mistaken in their interpretation of the code.

Many things are left vague in the process, but the idea, photography, black and white world of the mathematician and the film, editing and drum and bass music the director Darren Aronofsky uses are just brilliant.

The mathematician reminds of the obsessed scientist ready to risk and curtail his life to find the understanding to the ultimate questions. He is very similar to the unconditional seeker in Ken Russel's Altered States. An intelligent film for a change. Thanks to filmmakers for that!

The Sixth Sense (1999)

What's the hype?

[6/10 · 18 September 1999]

This is a reasonably well written, well shoot and constructed film with no substance to mention, playing it safe and not daring to transgress the conventional Hollywood frames. Young Haley Joel Osman is the carrying force of this film and succeeds in receiving lots of empathy for his unhappy, fearful condition. Many scenes of this film are touching, and some scenes startling and slightly disturbing, but for the most part this film has been dumbed down to achieve maximum audience and profit. The good craftmanship of the film makers is being wasted in the director's lack of strength in his vision and edge. This is such a neat package of "horror" for cinematically uneducated and undemanding from a nice, compromising Spielberg school of directing.

Bruce Willis is not playing a moronic action-hero, but an introverted academic in his typical boring way. Comparing this film to "Exorcist", "Shining" or "Silence Of The Lambs" would constitute a blasphemy towards great masters of film making like William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick and Jonathan Demme.

This film is more of the calibre of "Flatliners" than aforementioned achievements. Sixth sense is a relatively insignificant, unchallenging mainstream film with really, nothing you haven't seen dozens of times before.

Happiness (1998)

Uplifting!

[10/10 · 18 September 1999]

This is such an awesome, brilliant film on the superficiality, existential emptiness and alienation of a miscellaneous bunch of middle class characters. People looking for personal happiness, mostly through sexual gratification and, for the most part, miserably failing.

Helen, is a gorgeus writer who feels she lacks authenticity, Trish is a housewife who unknowingly has her own share of dark secrets in the family closet. The characters are real and alone with their urges and many needs and they're depicted very realistically battling with their many needs, wishes and insecurities. The fact is that people portrayed in this film really do exist. Probably each of us shares some sort of deviation or a sexual predilection, the motley crew of the film's characters is quite credible. The vanities, the sillyness, the lack of control over one's own life and circumstances is universal amongst members of humanity. Yet this obsessive strife for happiness, and ease is often leading us to greater unhappiness and unease. Imperative for happiness, especially happiness without content, instant gratification is the illness of the modern man. And this condition Todd Solondz presents in this funny, intelligent film with fine control, style and competence. He firmly holds all the different threads in his grip, and even manages to portray the Russian crook played by Jared Harris, and his family with such correspondence to reality. Brilliant film about the nonsensicalities of human existence...uplifting.

Big Bullet (1996)

superb action

[8/10 · 18 September 1999]

This film has some really impressive action scenes. The humor and action are blended well, though the intensity of the film does not sustain itself till the end. The last scene is a slight anti-climax in terms of action quality and astonishing explosiveness of the scenes preceding it. The humor doesn't seem to be so ridiculously clumsy as in many other Hongkong movies, and this film is of totally other class than most American action-comedies of recent years. Lau Ching-Wan acts as a typical, intuitive police-hero who scoffs at invalid orders from incompetent police superiors. The dialectic of the film is built on the superhuman coolness and ruthlessness of the drug gang, humiliating the police force while providing a serious dose of lead poisoning with a variety of machine guns. Leaving plenty of corpses in it's wake. Yu Rong-Guang is especially impressive as an ultra cool, merciless gangster in this Woo-like piece of action where tough guys are truly die-hard.

The Matrix (1999)

good film

[9/10 · 3 September 1999]

Cinematography, story and the directing of the film are good, but this hardly matches John Woo's "Bullet In the Head" in action or Blade Runner in it's profoundness. I found many ideas quite brilliant though the story seemed lacking in some aspects: the resurrecting kiss, the idea of the messiah (so worn out, be it a ubiquitous Jungian collective symbol), I actually found no rationale for the Matrix to perpetuate the human existence at all. Why should Matrix keep these humans living at all in the context of the story. Does it need guinea pigs to experiment on for some untold reason ? As a metaphor this story reminds of a group of "Marxist" rebels who have seen through the web of superficial lies and seen the light. They have broken out of the conventional dogma and seen the true face of surrounding society and it's pains, and pleasures.

The Phantom of the Opera (1998)

Disappointing!

[4/10 · 3 September 1999]

By far the worst Argento film I've seen. The story is plain stupid, although the story has never been the most significant part of the Argento parcel. This time his visions have lost it's edge totally, the splatter and gratuitous typical Argento-violence is there, but that and his infatuation with opera is the only thing reminding of his previous work. Acting isn't much, but you still see the occasional wonderful camera moves and he has always used music very convincingly. As a whole it is disturbingly lame production from such a grandmaster, whose previous Stendahl's Syndrome was just mindbogglingly powerful masterpiece. Hope his next giallo film has same grit his former giallo visions have portrayed...

Violent Cop (1989)

uncompromising!

[10/10 · 3 September 1999]

Takeshi Kitano is a superb director, with his own uncompromising vision. The sure sign of a true artist. The violence in this film is shocking and often appears from nowhere, a typical Hollywood conditioned viewer may be get disturbed from the rule breaking of Kitano movies. The pace is slow, but it just makes this film more intense. Kitano plays himself unemotionally and literally, like in all of his films. The relationship between the police and his sister adds special grit to this fine film.

Max Havelaar (1976)

compelling

[10/10 · 3 September 1999]

This film works. It gives a realistic, grim depiction of life in a European colony, namely Indonesia. The description of web of hypocrisy of church-going Dutch and the utmost repression the natives under their rule endure. People who derive benefits from others misery and use powerful denial mechanisms to evade from the truth. Max Havelaar was a man, the film makers and writers seem to love - a beacon of hope. One stand up guy who resists succumbing to the mire of human power struggles and utmost cruelty towards other people, in a situation where he has the position to wield unquestionable power. In this he reminds of Josef Schindler who also found some humanity in a dire, cruel situation. This film also matches John Sayles' "Men With Guns" in portraying human cruelty.

The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)

hauntingly beautiful!

[10/10 · 12 February 1999]

Philip Ridley continues on his unconventional path as a visionary filmmaker. Ridley is an artist, so it´s no use looking at his film in terms of conventional plot or traditional storytelling in mind.

Ridley chooses to shock you,confuse you and make you feel anger, resentment and compassion at will. He uses plenty of symbolics, interesting editing and beautiful cinematography. He is like an expressionist painter at work.

Nature depicted by Ridley is grand, mysterious and unpredictable. He plays with moods and creates ambience, title song performed by P.J.Harvey is hauntingly beautiful. "Passions of Darkly Noon" is not as intense as "Reflecting Skin" but they clearly belong to same genre together with Curtis Radclyffe´s "Angel Baby". In all of these films the mood and characters are disturbing in the most tranquil,pacifying settings. Where modern human animal,with all the cultural and civilization induced load, is at the crossroads with surrounding, timeless nature.

Tombstone (1993)

good one!

[8/10 · 12 February 1999]

I liked "Tombstone". It´s not as intense and powerful as "Unforgiven", but it is a good film. Mainly due to good acting and interesting characters, especially terminally ill, deadly Doc Hollyday and complex, misanthropic Johnny Ringo (played by Micheal Biehn). It was entertaining, but didn´t lose its edge to just superficial gunslinging. The duel between Hollyday and Ringo is the climax of the film.

Men with Guns (II) (1997)

a Beautiful, sad film about the state of Mexico´s indians

[10/10 · 1 October 1998]

This is a beautiful Spanish speaking film about the vicissitudes of Mexico´s indians and one man´s endeavour to leave a legacy. Dr. Fuentes had one major flaw, he naively believed in the goodness of men, and despite his ingenuity in medicine, misunderstood the complexities of his homecountry´s politics. He wanted to pass a legacy, but slowly found it to be in shatters by the people he as an educated bourgeoise trusted. One by one the shocking reality of Indians became revealed, his students had vanished, and the victimization of nations was apparent. There was nothing else to cling to except dreams and hopes of escape.