Gotz Spielmann’s Oscar-nominated Revanche
Film Comment Selects
Walter Reade Theatre
Feb. 20-March 5
If you’re fortunate enough to see it with an audience, Jean-Claude Brisseau’s A L’Aventure (2008) will show you exactly what kind of provocations are in store at the Film Society at Lincoln Center’s annual “Film Comment Selects” (FCS) program. Hand-picked by the knowledgeable and thankfully openly self-interested writers of Film Comment, A L’Aventure is the latest bit of unruly, ill-conceived and immodest artsploitation from Brisseau, a repeat offender at FCS. Defending the film shows a dedication to truly challenging shaggy dog films that ignores the best of the best for the sake of finding the films that while really infuriate, gouge and in general incense both its supporters and critics. If for no other reason than its stupefyingly tacky/transfixing David Copperfield finale, A L’Aventure is gloriously imperfect and guaranteed to give you mixed feelings—it’s pretty special that way.
While most kinds of sustainable cinema at the festival are a little dreary, there are several notable exceptions, like writer/director John Boorman’s latest minor gem The Tiger’s Tail (2006). Boorman’s film may be a preposterous thriller that updates The Prince and the Pauper for the sake of taking a muddled stab at social criticism—gee, I guess the key to amending the follies of capitalism really is by creating a more even balance of power between haves and have-nots—but it is a very well executed one. Though Boorman’s script is riddled with plotholes and simplified logic—apparently, a wealthy tycoon (Brendan Gleeson) can’t think of a single way to convince people he’s been replaced by a mouth-breathing doppelganger—its also very much a compact and well-rounded middlebrow potboiler. Boorman could have stood to take a few more risks with the film—I miss his “Paranoid, Psychedelic but Butch!” phase—but his lack of ambition works in his favor, allowing Tail to achieve an admirable balance between flinty humor, taut suspense and surprisingly heart-felt domestic melodrama. New John Boorman may be less fidgety and hence less interesting than Old John Boorman but I guess seeing him finally mature as a storyteller is a nice consolation prize.
Boorman’s latest effort may be one of the most entertaining of this year’s stacked line-up, but writer/director Christian Petzold’s Jerichow (2008) is the most gripping. While it only takes about a scene or two to get used to its relentless pace, that sense of momentum is its biggest asset. Its dizzying pace gives new intensity to Petzold’s modern retelling of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Set in contemporary Germany, the now destitute Thomas (charismatic Benno Furmann) goes to work for Ali (Hilmi Sozer) and ends up working on Ali’s wife Laura (Nina Hoss, who does “dead-tired” sexy very well). The film is so purposefully structured that cinematographer Hans Fromm’s meticulously framed photography looks coyly accidental. Nothing seems capable of slowing Jerichow down, not even its anti-climactic finale and obvious anti-Capitalist provocations—as Laura lamely laments, “You can’t have love, if you don’t have money. That’s something I know”—and thank goodness for that.
On the other side of jarringly naturalistic neo-noirs comes Gotz Spielmann’s Oscar-nominated Revanche (2008), one of the most obvious but immersive revenge tragedies since last year’s bandwagon darling Let the Right One In (2008). Unlike Petzold’s lightning-quick scenes, Spielmann hypnotizes the viewer with serene long takes that establish an ersatz sense of pathos no matter how played out the drama of watching a brooding pimp (the enthralling Johannes Krisch) lick his wounds and plain to do something unspeakable may be. Revanche’s stellar cast and bewitchingly still atmosphere goes a long, long way in terms of atmosphere, even if the results are a little too cold-blooded.
Revanche’s slow motion beats are nothing compared to the ones that inspired tyro auteur Fernando Eimbcke uses to maximum effect in Lake Tahoe. His follow-up to the equally blissful Duck Season (2004), Eimbcke’s sophomore feature casts a sleepy spell with its Jarmuschian deadpan sense of humor. The film’s compact narrative arc is chockablock with bittersweet moments of reflection that stand in for the awkward and seemingly endless periods of waiting that make up adolescence, making it the film to beat at this year’s program. So sis-boom-ba and all that because for once in what only feels like a while, playing cheerleader to FSLC is warranted.
Walter Reade Theatre
Feb. 20-March 5
If you’re fortunate enough to see it with an audience, Jean-Claude Brisseau’s A L’Aventure (2008) will show you exactly what kind of provocations are in store at the Film Society at Lincoln Center’s annual “Film Comment Selects” (FCS) program. Hand-picked by the knowledgeable and thankfully openly self-interested writers of Film Comment, A L’Aventure is the latest bit of unruly, ill-conceived and immodest artsploitation from Brisseau, a repeat offender at FCS. Defending the film shows a dedication to truly challenging shaggy dog films that ignores the best of the best for the sake of finding the films that while really infuriate, gouge and in general incense both its supporters and critics. If for no other reason than its stupefyingly tacky/transfixing David Copperfield finale, A L’Aventure is gloriously imperfect and guaranteed to give you mixed feelings—it’s pretty special that way.
While most kinds of sustainable cinema at the festival are a little dreary, there are several notable exceptions, like writer/director John Boorman’s latest minor gem The Tiger’s Tail (2006). Boorman’s film may be a preposterous thriller that updates The Prince and the Pauper for the sake of taking a muddled stab at social criticism—gee, I guess the key to amending the follies of capitalism really is by creating a more even balance of power between haves and have-nots—but it is a very well executed one. Though Boorman’s script is riddled with plotholes and simplified logic—apparently, a wealthy tycoon (Brendan Gleeson) can’t think of a single way to convince people he’s been replaced by a mouth-breathing doppelganger—its also very much a compact and well-rounded middlebrow potboiler. Boorman could have stood to take a few more risks with the film—I miss his “Paranoid, Psychedelic but Butch!” phase—but his lack of ambition works in his favor, allowing Tail to achieve an admirable balance between flinty humor, taut suspense and surprisingly heart-felt domestic melodrama. New John Boorman may be less fidgety and hence less interesting than Old John Boorman but I guess seeing him finally mature as a storyteller is a nice consolation prize.
Boorman’s latest effort may be one of the most entertaining of this year’s stacked line-up, but writer/director Christian Petzold’s Jerichow (2008) is the most gripping. While it only takes about a scene or two to get used to its relentless pace, that sense of momentum is its biggest asset. Its dizzying pace gives new intensity to Petzold’s modern retelling of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Set in contemporary Germany, the now destitute Thomas (charismatic Benno Furmann) goes to work for Ali (Hilmi Sozer) and ends up working on Ali’s wife Laura (Nina Hoss, who does “dead-tired” sexy very well). The film is so purposefully structured that cinematographer Hans Fromm’s meticulously framed photography looks coyly accidental. Nothing seems capable of slowing Jerichow down, not even its anti-climactic finale and obvious anti-Capitalist provocations—as Laura lamely laments, “You can’t have love, if you don’t have money. That’s something I know”—and thank goodness for that.
On the other side of jarringly naturalistic neo-noirs comes Gotz Spielmann’s Oscar-nominated Revanche (2008), one of the most obvious but immersive revenge tragedies since last year’s bandwagon darling Let the Right One In (2008). Unlike Petzold’s lightning-quick scenes, Spielmann hypnotizes the viewer with serene long takes that establish an ersatz sense of pathos no matter how played out the drama of watching a brooding pimp (the enthralling Johannes Krisch) lick his wounds and plain to do something unspeakable may be. Revanche’s stellar cast and bewitchingly still atmosphere goes a long, long way in terms of atmosphere, even if the results are a little too cold-blooded.
Revanche’s slow motion beats are nothing compared to the ones that inspired tyro auteur Fernando Eimbcke uses to maximum effect in Lake Tahoe. His follow-up to the equally blissful Duck Season (2004), Eimbcke’s sophomore feature casts a sleepy spell with its Jarmuschian deadpan sense of humor. The film’s compact narrative arc is chockablock with bittersweet moments of reflection that stand in for the awkward and seemingly endless periods of waiting that make up adolescence, making it the film to beat at this year’s program. So sis-boom-ba and all that because for once in what only feels like a while, playing cheerleader to FSLC is warranted.
