Hey folks, Harry here with his 2nd part of his report from the European Union Film Festival. And again he has films to report on that have my interest piqued... now if only there were a way I could see them. Something for that list of to sees... Here's the mad man....
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago, concluding my report from the Gene Siskel Film Center’s European Union Film Festival. I should note that one of the films that I was scheduled to see, BLOW DRY, was cancelled and replaced with a superb French film that I’d already seen called HARRY, HE’S HERE TO HELP (I believe when it’s finally released in the U.S. it will be titled WITH FRIENDS LIKE HARRY...). I reviewed this movie last October, when it played at the Chicago International Film Fest (see: www.aintitcool.com/node/7185 ). I loved the hell out of it, and now that it seems it’s going to come out domestically, I want all of you to support it...or else. I’ve got two more from the EU Fest...
PANDAEMONIUM (from Great Britain)
Knowing very little about British literature, I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that this film is based on people that actually existed. I’m talking about the men who effectively invented the Romantic movement in British poetry: Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth. From the devious mind of director Julien Temple (ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS; and my favorite documentary of 2000, THE FILTH AND THE FURY), PANDAEMONIUM is unlike any museum-piece, costume drama I’ve ever seen. True to form, Temple establishes his poets as the rock stars of their time: hyper-sexual substance abusers who fed (and stole) off each other’s creative plates (much of this film reminded me of AMADEUS).
Coleridge (a severe Linus Roache) is clearly the more talented of the two, but he found it impossible to write with Wordsworth (John Hannah) nearby. Their friendship is, at its core, self-destructive. Wordsworth supplied Coleridge with the opium he needed to create, but it’s clear that Coleridge’s real addiction was to Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy (Emily Woof). Best known for his works, “Frost at Midnight” and “Kubla Kahn” (both recited and visualized beautifully here by Temple), Coleridge is portrayed in PANDAEMONIUM as a victim and abuser, particularly of his wife (Samantha Morton, stirring as always). The film does drag at times and occasionally gets lost in its own flamboyant imagery (after all it is about poets!), but it left a lasting impression on me.
THE KING IS ALIVE (from Denmark, sort of)
As far as I could tell, the only thing Danish about THE KING IS ALIVE are the people behind the camera, beginning with director Kristian Levring. This film is the fourth and final of the back-to-basics Dogme 95 series by the four original founders (including Lars von Trier’s THE IDIOTS, CELEBRATION, and MIFUNE). I’ve seen all four now, and THE KING IS ALIVE is not one of the better in the series. Having said that, the film is by far the most beautiful Digital Video movie I’ve ever seen. Levring captures colors and lighting that I’ve never seen in a Dogme or any DV production. THE KING IS ALIVE is dissimilar from the other Dogme films due to its much larger budget and higher-profile (and mostly English-speaking cast, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janet McTeer (Oscar nominated last year for TUMBLEWEEDS), Bruce Davison (X-MEN), the late Brion James (Leon from BLADE RUNNER), and France’s Romane Bohringer.
The plot concerns a group of about a dozen tourists on a bus deep in the African desert. The bus gets lost and breaks down in an abandoned town. While one member of the group volunteers to march into the desert to get help, the others stay behind and pray their water, food, and sanity don’t run out. To avoid total boredom, one of the stranded, an aging actor, enlists the others in a makeshift production of “King Lear.” But as rehearsals drag on and hope of rescue begins to fade, anger and tension grow. THE KING IS ALIVE is fear, desire, and explosion in one jittery little package. Like the characters in other Dogme movies, the ones here basically hate everybody and everything, and sometimes watching a movie filled with no sympathetic players is difficult to watch. But I found THE KING IS ALIVE at times pitiful and wonderful.
