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Farligt förflutet (2001)
Move over Ed Wood - here comes Oscar Petersson!
This film, by Oscar Petersson, is unique. Its uniqueness doesn't lie in the story, since many a half brained Hollywood production has served us comparably miserable plots, but rather in the thorough way that complete and utter lousiness in one aspect is joined with equal lousiness in all other aspects.
The dialog is worse than embarrassing. Rotten acting and abysmal direction are thrown into the mix. Bosnians speaking English with heavy Swedish accents add an unintentional element of humor. Uninspired lightning and camera-work are icing on the turkey film cake. As a sort of surprise for the audience, there are a few completely unmotivated slow motion sequences where you'd least expect any. To add insult to injury, the whole thing is cut by someone devoid of any sense of timing.
The "bad guy henchman turns good after hearing good guy's speech" scene in the church, is the point at which is time to dethrone Ed Wood from the position as the worst director of all times; Move over Ed Wood - here comes Oscar Petersson!
Monster's Ball (2001)
Boring
You can't fault the acting in this film, but the story it tells could be told in a lot less time. Thus, it's just too long and too boring. You would think that the film could do a good job of exploring the psyche of Thornton's character during the changing phase since it's got so much time on its hands, but the viewers don't get to experience much of that. All we get in a long, long wait for the end of the film.
The Shadow (1994)
An Art Deco feast for the eyes!
Forget about the director, this film belongs to the cinematographer, Stephen Burum. Burum did great work with The Untouchables, Mission Impossible etc, but this film is the best looking of them all. With the story set in the 30's, the scenography is full of beautyful Art Deco design. The Shadow's club has a great looking interior dominated by silver, black and white as the fashion and good taste of the time dictated. Good taste is also present in abundance in the exterior shots, where Art Deco is shown at its best again, this time in architecture. Add to this the Shadow's Cord 810 (or 812, they look the same) car, and you have nothing less than a formidable feast for the eyes. As if this weren't enough, there are loads of little details for the attentive viewer to discover and marvel at.
Shots where black/white/silver dominate are contrasted with comic book style shots with highly saturated colours. Many exteriors are shot with a tele lens, which "compresses" the pictures, adding intensity to them.
All in all, you could take just about any individual frame from the film, make a large print of it and hang it on the wall. That's how great the photography and scenography of this film are.
So how about the direction, acting and plot? OK, I guess, but who cares? That's not what this film is about.