Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This is a huge update this morning, and this was a last-minute addition. Worth waiting up for. As I said in the intro to Vern’s piece, I dig Assayas, and I’m very curious about this one:
This is a huge update this morning, and this was a last-minute addition. Worth waiting up for. As I said in the intro to Vern’s piece, I dig Assayas, and I’m very curious about this one:
Hey Harry and Moriarty,
Secret Asian Anne w/ just a quick report from SIFF for the film Demonlover.
Caught the one SIFF screening of Demonlover tonight at the Cinerama. I expected it to be completely packed but it wasn’t quite... The thing that’s always a bummer about seeing SIFF flicks at Cinerama is that they always tell you the balcony is closed when you first get in the theatre, but then they almost always end up opening it later anyway. And so in the past I’ve usually just ignored them, especially the time the usher came running after me and said “sir, the balcony is closed.” (If there’s anything worse than being called “ma’am” when you’re clearly not an 80-year-old woman, it’s being called “sir” when you’re clearly not a man). But since I was with friends this time, I didn’t want to go around violating any “rules” so we sat downstairs. And indeed, the balcony remained closed, so the place was full, minus balcony.
I was kind of wondering if people knew what they were in for in regards to this flick. All I knew was what I’d read here on AICN... so I wasn’t sure if there was going to be lots of hentai graphically shown. There was a bit, but not really as much as I thought there would be, and all of the naughty bits were pixelized, which was a surprise. I mean, I guess I wasn’t really expecting them to show full-on hentai, but I was sort of expecting them to just not show the parts of the frame that depicted the actual, ahem, going’s on, as opposed to pixelizing bits and pieces, as it were. In any case, it was just the right amount to get the idea across, and yes, the CG looked really good. Not Final Flight of the Osiris good, but at least Final Fantasy good. Hentai is f***d up stuff, no doubt about it, but it’s out there, and there’s a market for it, and when there’s a market for something hot, there’s inevitably a corporate battle over who gets to own, distribute, and ultimately make money off of it.
Connie Nielsen and Chloe Sevigny were both excellent as cold and calculating (and they sure do know how to work it) women working for a French company in negotations to partner with TokyoAnime, makers of the new-fangled pornime. Gina Gershon’s lips, along with the rest of her, made a fabulous entrance as the arrogant rep from the American corporation looking to get in on the deal. Everybody was hot and sexy. Connie got naked. Chloe got naked. I don’t remember Gina getting naked though (and I think I would have remembered, I mean, we’ve all seen Bound haven’t we?!) I have to say, I was really curious about that “naked Chloe on the bed playing videogames” scene, but it was very brief, and, shall I say, tastefully photographed, and so you didn’t really get to see that much. But the concept was there, so along with some mental compositing from other films where she’s been *naked* naked, and... well, anyway...
Technically, I thought this film was great in pretty much all aspects. Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, whose list of credits includes the excellent Irma Vep, Demonlover features great acting, excellent cinematography, and well-paced editing. Set design and costume design were cool too – not overbearingly screamingly *cool*, but just kind of a laid back, almost subtle, everything and everybody just looks good without trying too hard, cool.
Plot-wise, the film started out as a who’s-stabbling-who-in-the-back type thriller, and then turned into a metaphorical journey of a descending nature for the main character. So there’s this subtle shift sometime after the first hour or so, and it took me a bit of post-viewing ponderance to really become aware of that. I think this film is best viewed not knowing anything about the details of the plot though, so I won’t say any more than that.
I dug this film quite a bit, and I don’t think I’ve seen any other movies in which Chloe utters the lines “... lower... lower... keep going down...” Taken completely out of context here, of course, but now aren’t you curious?! According to IMDb, Demonlover has limited release in the US this September, so look for it in the fall.
That’s it for now, take it easy.
ta,
Secret Asian Anne
Sounds like our Anne’s got a bit of a crush on Miss Sevigny. That’s... that’s... that’s awesome! Can I watch?!
"Moriarty" out.
