arkid77 Reviews

Right Now, Wrong Then (2015)

Hong Sang-soo is testing me...

[6/10 · 8 October 2015]

I've been a fan of Sang-soo for some years yet his frustrating insistence to continually repeat himself is now annoying me.

Sure you can guarantee failed romance and time wasted drunk in korean bars in Sang-soo films and I'm fine with that in theory.

The problem I have is that everything else once you've seen a few just seems so repetitive as well...

Ie the kinds of creative characters he chooses to portray, the form of the films, the dynamics between characters, the voice over narration, I could go on and on.

In totality, they are just far far too repetitive for me. I was absolutely fine with all this until this film. For me this film was like the product of a once great now semi-senile 90 year old director just repeating himself after a golden age of great films decades before.

He really is starting to make the decrepit Woody Allen look original!

I'll probably watch the next Sang-soo film that comes out as well but with a lot more caution not expecting much.

Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 (2014)

Better deconstructed as still photographs

[6/10 · 8 October 2015]

I found some of this footage fantastic, yet the overall result with the pretty constant drone of the Kronos Quartet (I normally like their work) just somewhat uninspired and hard going.

I felt that a lot of the footage would probably have worked a lot better if deconstructed a lot more and broken up into a much faster paced collage of ever mutating sequences.

As stills many moments of the footage was absolutely beautiful and at points due to its bad condition and smearing effect looked like a painterly work by Stan Brakhage.

Aside from what I understand to be the natural state of the nitrate footage there was no other beauty to be found in the resulting film.

Counting (2015)

Left wanting more variety

[5/10 · 8 October 2015]

Whilst the duration and some underlying themes of each of the 15 chapters to this film may vary, the overall feeling I got from them was not difference but their likeness.

Many of the pieces were shot in the same locations and nearly all the film seemed to have been filmed during the colder winter months of the year, resulting in the same very drab and oppressive look to most of the chapters. That may have been the idea but this combined with the lack of variety in the content left me very uninspired. Alone the amount of in taxi/airplane footage could have been cut by about 90%.

I've been to many of the places visited by the director and enjoyed the shared interests in places and details yet was constantly left left wanting better shots... more interesting attention to details and also of interesting eccentric locals (like the old lady ripping the credit advertisements off the advertising board).

A lot of it felt like filler and the shots of the bands and the directors friends in particular I felt added nothing. I could imagine the film being much more interesting as a travel journal short at half the length.

Am Kölnberg (2014)

A fantastic sympathetic, sensitive and surprisingly funny slice on life on a social housing estate

[9/10 · 7 November 2014]

This is Germany - Cologne to be exact - but it seems that the people we see could have been located in any country, as are the problems and experiences they face.

All the characters have levels of depth and surprising stories, ideas, thoughts and ways of expressing themselves that completely shatter our early impressions of them.

It's incredibly sympathetically shot and also really funny and sweet at many moments. The incredible trust that the protagonists must have had with the directors is clear to see on screen and is a real compliment to their patience and abilities. Really this is one of the best documentaries of its type I've ever seen.

I saw this at the Leipzig DOK film festival and was blown away by how good it was. I desperately hope this gets proper distribution as more people need to see this.

An incredible achievement for work by two such young directors.

Tarr Béla, I Used to Be a Filmmaker (2013)

For die hard Tarr fans and directors this is a must see

[8/10 · 4 August 2014]

This documentary is a really practical on set observation of Tarr, his craft and the collaboration with the other crew and actors. If you want a review of his films and analysis and documentary style interviews you won't find it here but that wasn't really what I was after.

I believe it's the only documentary ever made on set and whats's great about this documentary is that the massive majority of the footage is from the set, in fact even before the house that was used was built we see them planning it's construction. It's all the more poignant as it is his final film, something he was conscious of and telling the crew at the time of it's creation.

For anyone that has watched all of Tarr's films, I found the small section with Erika Bók very touching to hear about how important Tarr and his wife had been in her life.

Alps (2011)

How to become a cliché of yourself in just 2 films

[2/10 · 29 July 2013]

I'm amazed this film was so similar to the bizarre yet alluring debut feature by Giorgos Lanthimos, "Dogtooth".

Its for this reason that it really bombs in my opinion. The concept of the story, the stylisation, shooting, the dry emotionless delivery of the characters, the sex acts, the violence, the patriarchal characters within it, the submissive female characters, the fact he is using one of the same lead actors, etc etc.

I could go on. The film is just too similar to Dogtooth in every way. And if your going to make such a stylised film similarity stands out even more I feel.

This is Dogtooth but just less alluring. OK, maybe its just a more obfuscated story and one that is more challenging it could be argued. Still when you've seen the previous film this seems like a weak tweaking of the same formula.

If you haven't seen Dogtooth go see it! I recommend it. If you do by chance see this before Dogtooth maybe you can pass it off as interesting and at least very unique, however it's hard to think this with the knowledge of what came before it.

I really hope Giorgos Lanthimos can develop a lot for a 3rd feature and dig himself out of the stylistic hole he seems to have dug.

Un lac (2008)

Incredibly intense visual audio overload, see this if you can!

[9/10 · 27 October 2008]

Very shaky and obscured imagery can be simply frustrating and distracting, but not in the case of this mesmerising film by Grandrieux.

From the very first second we are thrown into an intense isolated (in more ways than one) world of darkness, snow and impenetrable forests from which the characters and viewer will have a problem escaping from.

I wont talk about the plot itself, which is very minimal and not really that complex, although due to the nature of the films form (minimal dialogue and focus on purely audio/visual story telling) the overall "plot" can seem rather obscured. Grandrieux wants to attack your senses directly and has no desire to tell a traditional narrative story, so just immerse yourself in his world and all should be clear (!?!) by the time the lights come back up.

Grandrieuxs aim seems clearly to be the total immersion of the viewer, and in his skillful hands we experience 2nd hand what the main character Alexi sees, hears and feels when at one with his work, his horse and the world around him. This film has some of the strongest single images I've ever seen in a film. The images of the close ups of the horse in its barn, breathing through the darkness and also Alexi running with the horse and his sister through the snow come to mind in particular.

To go back to the first image, I've hardly ever been so instantly arrested by a films total visual and audio output. Just make sure you see this in a dark dark cinema (as Grandrieux wants us to according to his interview at the London Film Festival 08). If you HAVE to see it at home, before it starts make sure the volumes up and the curtain well closed.

Three Monkeys (2008)

Psycho thriller meets Stalker - didn't really work for me.

[6/10 · 27 October 2008]

Is this the first film from Cylan to mark a notable shift in direction, or is it just a one off? Personally speaking, I hope its just a one off. Ill explain why...

In some aspects this film isn't anything unexpected. Cylan's visuals have always been very important and this latest digital outing is a further progression in the direction his previous works were already going. This films visuals seem even more extremely colour corrected and lusher than all the previous colour films he made. Cylan's sound-scape specifically seems to have also progressed hugely from his last films. These are all details im OK with (although I think his colour correction is a bit too much sometimes).

A few more words on the sound; On the whole it was great and the soundtrack was incredibly loud on the screening we saw, which im sure was deliberate. My only gripes were Cylan's constant use of a shaking metal sound effect that he's taken directly out of Stalker (i hope the estate of Andrei Tarkovsky aren't reading this!) were a little too much for me knowing the penchant he already has for his love of Tarkovsky! Oh, and the sound effect of the repeated thunderstorm really was way too unsubtle and unoriginal.

3 Monkeys however has a very different plot to his other films. In short, this is no normal meditative slow paced Cylan film and not what viewers who know his existing work will expect. You could also say that this film HAS an active plot, while the others have much less of one.

In a nutshell this film follows a simple "dramatic" plot which is setup for the viewer within the first minute of the film and is more akin to something one would find in a psychological thriller film. I wont ruin anything, but the very fact that this film uses "sensationalist" (very much so in terms of what to expect from Cylan at least) plot devices such as murder and attempted suicide give an idea of what I mean.

It did seem to run a little long and here lies a conflict I found with the film. I found it struggling to find its place between a short sharp slick psychological thriller and a normal Cylan film. In other words, wresting with its length and timing. Maybe its just me, this viewer that was doing the wrestling... Still, it seemed to be a bit too long and self indulgent for the kind of film such a plot arbitrarily assigns it. If it had been a more meditative Cylan film, sure no problem, the shots could have been twice as long and it would have fitted quite well within the inwards looking reflective nature of the narrative.

In conclusion, although I found the film very slick and well made, that ultimately it seemed lost between two forms/directions. Also, being very aware of Tarkovskys films and Cylans liking for them, i found the quite frequent specific references / takes from them to be quite annoying. A small point and irrelevant to anyone unfamiliar with his work.

I hope Mr Cylan's film don't continue to go in a basic plot driven direction such as this one or I believe it will be a great loss to world cinema.

Import Export (2007)

In our times – personal struggles on both sides of the border

[9/10 · 8 November 2007]

There have been many films in recent years, particularly European ones themed around what has become clearly one of the most important humanitarian and social issues to haunt the new century; immigration. Naturally a huge complex subject and many films have already touched some of the basic points as to why certain peoples have in the first place emigrated and then the problems they faced in their new world; often very serious ones being horrifically exploited in the hands of others.

Still, I think it would be wrong to conclude that Ulrich Seidl's challenging film is a discourse purely on this. While it does genuinely highlight many vital questions about immigration that I'm sure many people would rather not think about (let alone willingly watch when they go for some light relief in a cinema!), I think that the main purpose of the film is to try to make us understand the actions of to two very different young people, Olga and Pauli, The two characters we spend the entire film following while at the same time provoking us to question our own expectations and assumptions about them and others.

It just so happens that these characters both want to escape their very upsetting realities and even more worrisome futures. Both do this by leaving their home lands. Olga leaves Ukraine for Austria, and Pauli goes in the opposite direction.

Both characters never interact with each other or cross each others paths – thank goodness, it would be a very worn cliché if they had. Instead we are left at the end of this provoking film with many unanswered questions about the actions we have witnessed, what drives them and where are they going.

The film is incredibly refreshing for its lack of clichés I felt. At many points Seidl sets up our expectations using quite classical narrative techniques and in almost every case, what we think is about to occur doesn't. The paths both take are incredibly believable, helped enormously by the use of non actors throughout the entire film. It's really hard to forget your watching something that has been constructed when it features so many unnerving scenes of real people that are clearly not acting, just "playing" themselves. Both characters, especially Pauli is quite different from the 1st impressions we are given and its incredibly refreshing and sometimes relieving that our worst fears or own clichés about who these people may be are proved to be wrong.

The only obvious cliché I found was Pauli's disgusting step father Michael. I felt this made an important point in itself, to counter the often very negative news stories people in many western 1st world countries are fed about immigrants. In this film, a film by a developed 1st world European nation, the most unsympathetic low character is from said 1st world country - the land of the film maker himself! - the characters actions while he is aware are an important turning of the tables, reminding us as to how "we" may be seen or act when abroad.

Although this is left completely open at the rolling credits there is a very subtle positivism that the very compassionate direction and writing leaves us with I found. While anything could happen after the last shot, it seems clear that both now have at least faith; a life to believe in, one worth struggling for.

Haiku Tunnel (2001)

The only film I've ever walked out of

[1/10 · 26 January 2002]

I think this is almost all I need to say. I feel obliged to explain my actions though. I've basically never seen such an armature production, and I mean that in all senses of the word. Although he physical camera work, boom MIC operation and other technical aspects of this film are laughable, unfortunately its not the only areas.

Unlike some classic independent films that have been saved by their scripts great characterization and plot, this unfortunately has an awful script, awful acting and worst of all, awful annoying characters.

It's a crime that for the every independent film that gets, distribution like Haiku Tunnel, there's a 101 other indie films that died silent deaths. I don't know who the Kornbluth brothers know at Sony, but that can be my only explanation as to how this amateur family production ever got distribution. I'm quite bemused as to why they picked this up.

The ONLY part of this film that holds out any intrigue is its title. However, the reason for that is even a let down. I hope this review will save a few people that may be intrigued by this films title from going to watch it. I've seen a lot of films in my time, and I'm very forgiving when in the cinema, but this was too much. I'll never forget 'tunnel', for marking an important point in my life experience of cinema. Shame it's such a low point.

Haiku Tunnel (2001)

The only film I've ever walked out of

[1/10 · 7 October 2001]

I think this is almost all I need to say. I feel obliged to explain my actions though. I've basically never seen such an armateur production, and I mean that in all senses of the word. Although the physical camera work, boom MIC operation and other technical aspects of this film are laughable, unfortunately its not the only areas.

Unlike some classic independent films that have been saved by their scripts great characterization and plot, this unfortunately has an awful script, awful acting and worst of all, awful annoying characters.

It's a crime that for the every independent film that gets, distribution like Haiku Tunnel, there's a 101 other indie films that died silent deaths. I don't know who the Kornbluth brothers know at Sony, but that can be my only explanation as to how this amateur family production ever got distribution. I'm quite bemused as to why they picked this up.

The ONLY part of this film that holds out any intrigue is its title. However, the reason for that is even a let down. I hope this review will save a few people that may be intrigued by this films title from going to watch it. I've seen a lot of films in my time, and I'm very forgiving when in the cinema, but this was too much. I'll never forget 'tunnel', for marking an important point in my life experience of cinema. Shame it's such a low point.

Glaube und Währung - Dr. Gene Scott, Fernsehprediger (1981 TV Movie)

Captivating TV

[7 October 2001]

Live TV at it's best…

I just had the opportunity to watch a print of this and I can't recommend it enough…a really fascinating documentary. It starts of so farcical that you wonder what Herzog's motives are in making this short film. However, we soon discover that this larger than life TV evangelist is not quite the pillar of towering strength that he portrays to his devoted audience (which as he reminds them, has grown well into it's 1000's).

What I found so fascinating about Dr Eugene Scott and his live telethon style broadcasts wasn't the usual reactionary opinions (although he had his share; homosexuals, women's rights etc). It was the surreal, completely unbelievable set-up of his television broadcasts. If you tried to make the most over the top parody of a TV evangelist possible, the result would still be nowhere near as ridiculous and captivating television as Scott's broadcasts. I've spent my share of time in America, seen many TV evangelists, but none of them have ever come close to Eugene Scott.

From the over the top set dressing, to his in house singing duo, to the old ladies manning the telephones (all major credit cards accepted) the whole broadcast really is quite astounding. The highlight though is Scott himself. Herzog shows us some quite extraordinary moments of television captured live by his small on-set crew. At one point the Dr grumbles ‘I will not be defeated tonight... (pause) not one more word until that thousand comes in'. At which point the presenter crosses his arms and just glares into the live camera refusing to speak until his requests for donations are met with.

With the Dr in full swing, resistance seems futile. Soon Scott is reporting on the incoming donations, all of which are in there hundreds, many thousands of dollars. However, it's just as well ‘It's not about the money!' as Scott screams at one point when again his requests to meet a larger target of a quarter of a million dollars are not met. Even when Scott's financial desires have been satisfied he still feels the need to insult his audience for not parting with their ‘few hundred miserable dollars' earlier.

The strength of this documentary though is in Herzog's one on one interviews with Scott, carried out on his estate or in the back of his stretched limo. Herzog's candid questioning shows an altogether different side to the TV persona his viewers were only allowed to whiteness. I've read that since Herzog's film, the FCC shut down Scott in the early 80's. I would suggest searching the Internet for Dr Scott. He seems to have embraced the Internet in order to continue his teachings.

Huie's Sermon (1981 TV Movie)

James Brown eat your heart out

[12 August 2001]

James Brown eat your heart out

'Huies Predigt' (Huie's Sermon) was made the same year that John Landis released 'The Blues Brothers'. I would love to know if one of these productions had any influences on the other... maybe it's just a happy coincidence.

Reverend Huie is the real life Cleophus James (played by James Brown in 'The Blues Brothers'. This short lasts for the entire length of the reverend's sermon, filmed in front of a live congregation in the reverends hometown of Brooklyn. This really is documentary in its rawest form... as the single camera shot tracks the manic reverend from a safe distance for the entire length of his sermon. As Huie escalates into an ever increasing incomprehensible frenzy, I couldn't help but wonder how it was all going to end.

Apart from a few establishing and end shots the entire documentary is spent tracking the reverend in a couple of single shot takes. In the middle of the sermon Herzog cuts to a few shots of the run down Brooklyn streets and derelict buildings that contain the home's of Huie's all black congregation (giving Herzog time to reload his single camera).

I was lucky enough to see this and two other documentaries projected in one session. This was the last short shown, and by this point several members of the audience got up and left mid way through before the sermon had ended. I would recommend sticking this out, as although difficult to make out at points, the sermon is quite fascinating and Huie's views worth hearing. This is definitely preaching old school style. The reverend discusses the problems on the street that Herzog has shown us, but also attacks topics as far ranging as energy saving devices to sex change operations.

BTW, look out for the disciples on hand throughout the sermon at stage side, equipped with towels to help mop the reverend down.

Mit mir will niemand spielen (1976)

Dress code for Guinea Pigs

[12 August 2001]

Just got to see a projection of this (along with Heart of Glass that was made the same year). I was led to believe before seeing this short, that it was another of Herzog's documentaries, but this isn't the case, is quite clearly staged action.

It tells the story of a young boy who is excluded from the rest of his classmates, the underlying reason for which is not made clear to start. He spends his time having to play in the corner of the classroom on his own, excluded from the group. The boy eventually befriends a girl in the class and invites her home to meet his talking pet raven. It is at this point that the boy's exclusion from the school group starts to become clear, as he reveals to his new friend the disruptive and abusive upbringing he has had to suffer at the hands of his parents.

Apart from the apparent underlying message (that there is no such thing as a problem child, only problem parents), what I found interesting about this short was the period of Herzog's cinematic development in which it was made. Having seen a fair number of Herzog's films, I would have assumed from the basic structure and production of this short, that it would have been one of the first shorts he committed to film. However, by 1976 when this was made he had already made a number of feature films (The Wrath of God, Even Dwarfs Started Small etc) and some highly respected documentaries (Land of Silence and Darkness – that I recommended to anyone!). I quite enjoyed this little short, but to anyone interested in Herzog, go and see some of his great documentaries before seeing this.

As for the guinea pigs, I wont ruin that; you'll have to find out for yourself. It's bound to induce a few ‘ahhhhs' in the audience though.