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Reviews
Ôdishon (1999)
A failed experiment at best (possible spoiler)
A sympathetic but clueless middle aged man sets up an audition to find a new wife, seven years after having become a widow. The woman he picks and starts to date does not turn out to be the shy, fragile girls she seems to be.
Takashi Miike lulles us asleep with an excruciatingly boring and utterly passionless story of love and family life and then tries to catch us off guard with a bloody and gruesome finale.
With flashbacks, Miike shows us why the woman has become the monster she is, but does it give us any real insight into her feelings, her psyche? Can we appreciate her sad life story? Do we feel any compassion for her? No, no, no. In the end, she's just a monster. The things she went through as a child just seem to be another horror movie, with her uncle as the monster.
And the man? I just thought he was stupid and naive in the extreme. The girl's story doesn't check out, and there's obviously something 'wrong' with her. Warned by friends and even by his late wife in a vision, he still goes through with the relationship, and then becomes a helpless victim of her true nature.
Without being backed up by interesting characters or a gripping story, the admittedly horrifying ending turns out to be nothing more than some heavy duty blood and gore. Audition is a failed experiment at best. The only redeeming factor the film has is the increasingly surrealist style later in the movie.
Somberman's aktie (1999)
A nice adaptation of Campert's book.
Somberman's actie is a nice but not spectacular adaptation of Remco Campert's 1985 novel. It won't save the Dutch film industry. But to me, it was a pleasant surprise. Well acted by Dirk Roofthooft (Somberman) and Serge-Henri Valcke. Somberman's actie works well as a tragicomedy, but it doesn't succeed very well in rendering the atmosphere of the 80's. All in all, recommended to those who like Dutch cinema.
Split Wide Open (1999)
Slow, badly acted, without focus.
The rather disgusting title didn't promise much, but as one doesn't often get to see an Indian film I had good hopes. But Split wide open was a big disappointment. The very unclear and chaotic story is about a wealthy paedophil, a yuppie water salesman and a presenter of a sexuality talk-show 'split wide open'. The film chaotically jumps around between these and more subjects. The acting is really bad, soap opera like. The pace of the film is very slow, no bad thing in itself but for a modern big city story I want much more speed and drive to the story. Of the countless films made in India each year, why is this the one we get to see?