Posts Tagged ‘Thriller’

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – El Laberinto del Fauno

{ November 22, 2009 @ 1:47 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Fact and fiction bleed seamlessly into one another in Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro, whose filmography includes amongst others Blade II, Hellboy and The Devil’s Backbone (El Espinazo del Diablo) masterfully creates a phantasmagorical world of magic-realism which is both credible and terrifying. The story revolves around Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero), ‘n young girl who accompanies her pregnant mother to live with her new Fascist stepfather, Captain Vidal. A magical world unfolds against the grisly backdrop of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War – Ofelia is guided towards her fate by a faun called Pan that she meets in the forest. He gives her three tasks to perform before the moon grows full and the viewer embarks on this quest with Ofelia, destabilised by the uncertainties: Will Ofelia succeed? Can Pan be trusted? What fate awaits the characters touched by war?

What was most striking to me, was the fact that Del Toro blended fantasy and reality with such credibility and conviction. In the past, I have often watched films wherein the director tries to marry fantasy and reality, but fails miserably, and rather emphasises the seemingly “irreconcilable” differences between the two worlds. Pan’s Labyrinth flows effortlessly from fact to fiction and vice versa, whilst many other filmic attempts at magic-realism unconvincingly fragment a film and break its natural flow.

I have to admit though, that the explicit violence of the film was quite unexpected and shocking, and at times even, what I felt, unnecessary. Believe you me, Pan’s Labyrinth is not described as a fairy-tale for grown-ups without good reason. I do not believe that Del Toro uses violence as a vehicle for sensationalism in this film. I believe he uses it for a definite purpose – to emphasise the stark contrast between the imaginative world of childhood innocence and the atrocities committed by adults in reality. Sometimes fact seems stranger and more incomprehensible than fiction, especially with cruel atrocities like the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s or the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that plague our history.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET WATCHED THE FILM! Ofelia’s magical quest becomes an allegory for the timeless universal value: do not fight hate with hate, or evil with evil. Dissolve hate with love and evil with goodness. In this film, self-sacrifice is the key to Ofelia’s redemption and the redemption of the whole community. Ofelia becomes the “Fisher King” who is sacrificed as scapegoat to make healing possible for the nation and the land, a new history can now be written and continued through the blood she has spilled, the blood that is tied to and now lives on in her half-brother. Pan’s Labyrinth is deeply rich in imagery and symbolism – a prospect for a fruitful analytical article, thesis or study.

INFO

Genre: Fantasy / Drama / Thriller
Running time: 119 min
Country: Spain / Mexico / USA
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writing credits: Guillermo del Toro
Producers:
Alfonso Cuarón
Guillermo del Toro
Cinematographer: Guillermo Navarro
Music: Javier Navarrete
Distributed by: Picturehouse
Main Cast:
Ofelia – Havana Baquero
Carmen Vidal – Ariadna Gil
Captain Vidal – Sergi López
Mercedes – Maribel Verdú
Pan – Doug Jones
Dr. Ferreiro – Alex Angulo

The Number 23 (2007)

{ November 22, 2009 @ 1:40 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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A lot of twists and turns await in The Number 23 by Joel Schumacher. Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) is a loving husband and father who is an animal control officer. His life is turned upside-down when he is late to meet his wife after being bitten by a dog whilst on duty. To pass the time his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), browses around in a book store and buys him a book to read entitled The Number 23. As he reads it he encounters a lot of similarities between his own life and the life of the protagonist, Fingerling. In the novel Fingerling is a detective who tries to stop a girl from committing suicide, but does not succeed in his efforts. The girl was haunted by the number twenty-three as was her father before her, and now the number is coming after him. In turn, Walter begins to see the number twenty-three everywhere. When he again encounters the dog that initially bit him, it leads him to the grave of a young woman called Laura Tollins. As his life starts to unravel, it becomes apparent that there is indeed much truth to his obsession with the book. But he might not like what he finds…

Although I found the film to be a big disappointment, I must admit that the cinematography and camera techniques were absolutely excellent. Too bad they do not save the film from its downfall. The trailer, which enthralled me, is quite deceiving. It creates the impression of a conspiracy-theory film about the significance of the number twenty-three. When viewed in totality, however, the film lapses into another stereotype thriller. It tries to be too clever for its own good and relies on far-fetched twists and turns to create several incredulous elements of surprise.

I believe that the numerology topic has a lot of potential, but that it did not reach its full potential in this film. SPOILER WARNING! DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET WATCHED THE FILM: The idea of destiny finding its way to Walter and making him pay for his sins is spread too thick. It is quite unbelievable that such a loving father and husband could also be a callous murderer. And his wife and son’s reactions to his previous life is quite unconvincing as well. Where is the outraged confusion? The heartache? The resentment? The film ends with such hopeful closure which would upstage The Brady Bunch. And Walter’s repentance at the end seems too good to be true – like a superficial, pretentious sermon. But who am I to judge? My sins are bound to find me out as well. Hopefully my skeletons aren’t as dark as Walter’s though… SPOILERS END HERE.

INFO

Genre: Thriller / Mystery / Suspense-Drama
Running time: 95 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Joel Schumacher
Writing credits: Fernley Phillips
Producers: Fernley Phillips
Beau Flynn
Tripp Vinson
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Main Cast:
Walter Sparrow – Jim Carrey
Fingerling – Jim Carrey
Agatha Sparrow – Virginia Madsen
Fabrizia – Virginia Madsen
Robin Sparrow – Logan Lerman
Isaac French – Danny Huston
Dr. Miles Phoenix – Danny Huston
Suicide blonde – Lynn Collins
Laura Tollins – Rhona Mitra

The Illusionist (2006)

{ November 22, 2009 @ 10:23 am } · { Uncategorized }
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The Illusionist by Neil Burger is a period piece set in the 1900s. Edward Abramovich (Edward Norton) is a peasant and aspiring young magician who raises eyebrows when he befriends and falls in love with duchess Sophie (Jessica Biel), a young woman of great social stead. After her family tries several times to keep them apart, Edward is threatened to keep away from her if he does not want himself or his family to be arrested. He ups and leaves and he travels to Russia and the Orient where he becomes Eisenheim the Illusionist, who astounds crowds with his masterful trickery. When his travels take him to Vienna several years later, he encounters Sophie once again. As before, something stands in the way of their happiness: Leopold, the crown prince, plans to make her his wife. And it does not seem that his temper and pride would be able to stand the humiliation…

The visual effects and cinematography are spellbinding and worth the watch. The special effects are done so well though, that they do at times seem to be too real and, therefore, appear to be the product of a supernatural power rather than that of an illusionist. The film also gets a bit too tedious at times and I believe the work could have benefited from some tighter editing towards the end. But this is a very smart and entertaining film nevertheless. And after having enjoyed Paul Giamatti so much in Sideways, The Illusionist was no different. Not a film I would make part of my DVD collection, but certainly worth the watch.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM! The film starts in medias res with Eisenheim’s arrest and then jumps back to where the whole story began. The film thus begins with the climax, or, so the audience is led to believe. I really did not see this one coming…and I am so glad that I didn’t. I was as clueless as Inspector Uhl about the web that Eisenheim was spinning all along, and was pleasantly surprised by the ending. It might have been obvious to some people, my husband being one of them; after all, the film isn’t called The Illusionist for nothing. I truly believed it to be Eisenheim’s quest for justice. Yet appearances can be deceiving, and in this film nothing is what it seems. An unexpected and refreshing twist at the end; far more believable than that of The Number 23.

INFO

Genre: Period Drama/ Mystery / Romance / Thriller
Running time: 110 min
Country: USA / Czech Republic
Language: English
Director: Neil Burger
Writing credits: Steven Millhauser (short story)
Neil Burger (screenplay)
Producers: Brian Koppelman
David Levien
Michael London
Cathy Schulman
Bob Yari
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Editor: Naomi Geraghty
Distributed by: Yari Film Group
Main Cast:
Eisenheim / Edward Abramovich – Edward Norton
Sophie – Jessica Biel
Inspector Uhl – Paul Giamatti
Prince Leopold – Rufus Sewell
Josef Fischer – Eddie Marsan

Funny Games (1997)

{ November 19, 2009 @ 4:46 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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After having seen The Piano Teacher, which is a deeply unsettling film, I just knew I had to watch Michael Haneke’sFunny Games as well. The film opens with a family underway to vacation in their holiday lake house. Georg and Anna play a game in which they play classical songs to each other and the other must guess what song it is, which serves as entertainment for their son, Schorschi. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of the funny games to be played, evident from the disturbing heavy metal that intrudes on the calm classical music. When two polite-seeming young men turn up at their lake house with no intention of leaving, the family are forcefully catapulted into playing along with their sadistic games.

Sensitive viewers should be warned: This is not an easily digestible film, it is dark and disturbing. So steer clear of this if you fear it might linger too long in your conscious or subconscious mind. I can see why the film was so controversial, especially seeing that it was released in 1997. I viewed the film in 2006, but fear I have been so bombarded with violent filmic images the last couple of years, that I have become somewhat desensitised against violence and the film was not so shocking as originally intended. But I think this confirms  what Haneke actually tried to say with Funny Games, for it polemicises against violent entertainment and the representation of violence in films. Just like Paul and Peter play games with the holiday trio, so too the directors of violent films often play games with their viewers. They psyche up their audiences so much as to root for the “goodies” killing the “baddies” and succeed in making their viewers voyeurs of and accomplices to the violence portrayed on screen. The viewers become consumers of the violent entertainment.

The film especially reminds me of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers(1994) in that Stone aims to show the viewer how powerful the media (television news, newspapers, films, etc.) is in inciting people to become consumers of sensationalist violence.

 

The film also addresses the issue of why people do bad things. When people do cruel things to other people or animals, one often wonders what happened in their childhood or during their lives to make them act out in such ways. What is quite disturbing is that sometimes there is nothing external to blame it on. Some people have a good upbringing or good lives, but seem to be inherently cruel. That makes sadistic violence even more incomprehensible and unsettling. Haneke said anyone who leaves whilst watching the film does not need it, and that anyone who stays, does. Why do I need to see disturbing films such as The Piano Teacher and Funny Games? Well, I am not one of those people that believe that ignorance is bliss. Living such a standard life, one often forgets what darkness lurks in the secular world. I do not want to be blind to these things. I want to understand the human psyche better and sometimes I want to know what unthinkable things people do, for I do not want to be naïve to the cruelty that people are capable of. Watching such films makes me question things and ponder issues. It inspires me even more to stay sane in this world where morals seem to be decaying day by day, and to clutch to it with every fibre of my being.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM!

 

The film is postmodern in that it reminds the viewer that he/she is watching a fictional film. The director also manipulates and plays with the audience. When Paul turns back to wink at the camera whilst letting Ana play a game of hot potato searching for their murdered dog, the viewer is not sure whether Paul turns back to wink at Peter, or whether he turns back to wink at us, the viewer. As the film progresses, the viewer gets clarity on this when Paul turns to the camera to address the viewer directly and when he grabs the remote control to rewind Peter being shot. Even with the spoiler warning, I do not want to say too much, for I want to leave it to the viewer to decide what to make of the film.

INFO

Genre: Thriller
Running time: 108 min
Country: Austria
Language: German/French with English subtitles
Director: Michael Haneke
Writing credits: Michael Haneke
Producers: Veit Heiduschka
Cinematographer: Jürgen Jürges
Editor: Andreas Prochaska
Main Cast:
Anna – Susanne Lothar
Georg – Ulrich Mühe
Schorschi – Stefan Clapczynski
Paul – Arno Frisch
Peter – Frank Giering

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