All the way from VIENNA comes this report on VIENNALE. Barton Fink dared escape his small L.A. abode to travel abroad for the likes of us. Too cool. Of course with all that great Viennese food why would you sit for a film? To digest, of course. So here comes the first report from VIENNALE from Barton Fink and his look on KILLER, 23 and John Carpenter's VAMPIRES. Warning though, there are spoilers in all three reviews. So look out... ok? Here we go...
Barton Fink here with a first (short) report of the VIENNALE (Viennese Film Festival). It opened 16. with Truman Show. It´s generally well attended, even for movies that sometimes don´t deserve it. Yesterday I saw three movies that deserve to be seen:
1. KILLER (French/Kasachstan) 2. 23 (German) 3. VAMPIRES (finally);
KILLER (Director: Darezahn Omirbajev; 1998)
This is a very low budget film. It´s about a chauffeur with wife and baby, who lives in Kasachstan, and causes a small traffic accident which nonetheless demolishes another guys Mercedes. The Chauffeur now has to pay for the repair job. Of course he has no money, and finally ends up with more debts and the opportunity to get rid of his debts through a killing.
That´s the plot, but it ain´t the movie. The movie is more about the changes in the Ex-Soviet landscape, morality is lost, and people have absolutely no hope surviving in this surrounding. Everybody is trying to make (American) money so they can leave for the US. In KILLER everything looks sooo ugly, and it is also shot with the cheapest, completely dated looking lights in recent cinema. This movies looks like it comes from the 70´s.
I felt that the director hates everything about life in Kasachstan; the pictures seem to scream: get me out of here! And the actor who plays the lead has real star qualities: incredible coool, like a russian version of Chow Yun Fat.
But let me also state the negative about the film: the pace is excruciatingly slow; which I think comes from the fact that KILLER´s running time is only 80 Minutes, and they couldn´t cut it further down, because then it wouldn´t have feature film length. Still, it´s a worthwhile, good movie.
23 (Director: Hans-Christian Schmid; 1998)
The real reason for writing, once again, is a truely EXZELLENT movie from Germany (of all places). And I guess, it´s story will appeal to Harry especially, so here it comes (there are no spoilers, because there is no way you can spoil this movie):
First off: this one is really based on a TRUE STORY. In the 80´s, where people didn´t have nifty 300Mhz machines and stuff (instead Commodore and Amiga), two young hackers in Germany meet a dubious guy, who talks them into using their hacking for spy-stuff for the Soviets. (Remember the 80´s? Reagan was president of the US, and there was always talk of a nuclear war in the air. Paranoia.) Soon they two hackers are breaking into the security systems of the US, or an German atomic plant. They also get loads of money for their efforts. And then all goes down, as the police finds out about them.
So, what is the reason for my rave? Now, see, the movie really makes you care about the two computer freaks, and when one of them discovers, that he isn´t paranoid, that they are really bugged by the state police, who are hot on their heels, you could feel how the audience gasped for breath. (And now: which movie did that you through the sheer force of storytelling?). 23 reminded me of ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN by way of Danny Boyle or Martin Scorsese.
You may think, you seen it all before, as in WAR GAMES (an 80´s movie with Matthew Broderick, actually quite good, as I remember it). But this is the real stuff, the characters are believable, and brilliantly acted. What made the movie so great was the humour that was in the telling, the warmth of the overall experience. (If the Germans keep on making films as good as this and RUN LOLA RUN (Lola rennt) then there is hope for European cinema; especially as both movies are extremely audience-friendly). Also the pace of the movie is very fast.
Now why do I think, this will appeal to Harry? Because 23 is about a group of computerfreaks who meet and share their experiences, who find friendship and generally have a good time just doing their thing. They turn the night into day, so they can use the cheaper telephone rates when connecting via modem. They are at the same time outsiders and also the first on the newest frontier (like Harry´s homepage - no, I´m not going to give into the temptation of further copious arse-kissing).
Why is it called 23? Well, the answer to that one is a bit complicated. The computerfreaks in this movie read a book called ILLUMINATA, but not only once, but 50-60 times. And this book says, that there is a world hidden beneath the known world. And that our world is controlled by this hidden world. And the members of that hidden world are called the Illuminata. Mozart and Goethe are cited to have been one of them. And the secret number of the illuminata is 23; also a very powerful number is 5 which is the sum of 23 (2+3=5). The characters in 23 are seeing the number in everything; and they are especially alert, when they find out that (back in the 80´s) Swedish Ministerpresident Olof Palme was assassinated on 23. of a month, at 23:23. So they think, that he was killed by the illuminata. Your average conspiracy theory, you see?
Please, please: if this movie plays anywhere in the states, simply go see it: give yourself a treat. This movie is definitely on my 10-Best list of this year; wait a minute, I think, it´s the best thing I think I´ve seen all year.
And: VAMPIRES
I think, they still hold this one up for release in the States to ensure a Top-Spot-Weekend-Opening; I couldn´t think of any other reason. Sure, it´s bloodtripping, but in my opinion not excessively so. The print they showed had the Carpenter score (of course), and I was wondering, who said, they were gonna change it? Because: no way they gonna change that score.
Since everybody on this site seems to have seen it, I spare you the plot, and rave a bit about Carpenter´s Widescreen compositions; to me he is the master of widescreen, especially in ASSAULT ON PRECINT 13 (still my favorite); HALLOWEEN, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THEY LIVE. He seemed to have lost that unique ability of his with ESCAPE FROM L. A. (which I think is his worst movie, even badder than MEMOIRS), but here he goes again: VAMPIRES is almost shot like a Western, with landscapes and stuff; also note his very strange and effective cutting in the opening Vampire-Slaying: as the (wild) bunch of Vampire Hunters, leaded by James Woods, approach the Vampire-infested barn-house, he let´s the stand for a moment, cut´s into a closer shot of them still standing, then let´s them go. It´s hesitation is perfect for anticipation of the bad things to come.
Then there is also a great, great moment, at the end when a priest is set up as a bait for the vampires and looks into the glooming darkness. There is a menace about this scene, a statement about fear of the unknown, that goes beyond most of the stuff done in recent horrormovies (at least it seemed so to me).
I didn´t find the ending a let-down, wasn´t bored for a minute, still found the movie a bit too long, but of course, I couldn´t tell, where and what to cut. Another bit of nit-picking: Daniel Baldwin. (Although I found Sheryl Lee astonishingly good). The fat Baldwin brother didn´t do it for me. I hated the guy. James Woods was super, he´s currently the best suited actor for Carpenter´s heroes; there is a coolness about him, that was exactly dead-on. But: the movie also worried me about Carpenter´s state of mind; there was a mean-spirited cynicism at work, largely absent from his other films; and they way women were treated let me speculate if Carpenter had recently had a traumatic divorce or something (the movie felt like it; women haters liked that aspect though).
Finally: nobody, as I seem to remember, has mentioned, how FUNNY Vampires is; yes, it truly is (EFL.A. was ment to be, but wasn´t).
Greetings earthlings
Barton (you´re a sick fuck) Fink
