This review should start with a confession. I discarded Apartment Zero the first time I saw it, as an artsy-fartsy piece of slow nonsense. But I kept hearing about it over the years, about Colin Firth and Hart Bochner's performance, people quoted lines from the film and I, still loyal to my first impression, kept saying meh. I spent last weekend with some old friends I hadn't seen in years. The subject of Colin Firth came out and that lead to Apartment Zero and to an argument that ended in a challenge. My friends have an HD 70" LED TV and of course a DVD of Apartment Zero, the theatrical version with special features. I took the challenge and I sat through it. Well okay, I may have been too young when I first saw it because what I saw last Saturday night was totally new to me and it blew my mind! Yes it blew my mind. Even the slow start has that ominous sense of dread that grabs you and doesn't let you go. Looking at Colin Firth as Adrian, years after Pride and Prejudice and A Single Man is quite something in itself. He was then already a genius actor but, perhaps, unaware of it. There are details in the performance that are mesmerizing, so vivid so intimate. The real story of Adrian is all in Colin Firth's eyes. That throbbing heart buried somewhere deep, deep inside the man. And then, Hart Bochner and his performance is as in tune with Colin Firth as Abbot's was with Costello's. Spectacular, painful, funny. The rest of the cast is a Pandora's Box of hinted characters, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Miguel Ligero,Dora Bryan, Liz Smith, artists from all over the globe are the tenants of the building and identity is the theme. Of course I was too young when I first saw Apartment Zero. The score, a phenomenal mix of love, fear and tango. I intend to order it as I intend to watch Apartment Zero again, very soon. And a big lesson learned, now I'm going to watch Philippe de Brocca's King Of Hearts, another film I didn't care for the first time I saw it, but my friends seem to love. I let you know. Thank you Paul and Sarah PS: I've just found out that the director Martin Donovan was assistant to Luchino Visconti. That may explain a lot of things and how is it I didn't know that? Visconti is my hero.
Review of Apartment Zero
