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tom-543
Reviews
Les convoyeurs attendent (1999)
Some of this film is bordering on genius, the rest is just inspired.
The director of this film has obviously seen a Shane Meadows film or two. Not only was the film set in a small town and centred around the poorer parts but it was also in black and white and featured an odd lonely man who befriends someone much younger than him.
It has been described as a comedy but it isn't funny in the way that Hollywood tells you when to laugh and builds up to a big punchline (that is usually very disappointing anyway). This film is of a realist nature and so anything that is funny is funny because it could happen to you or i. The plot is simple and the performances are brilliant. Everything is subdued and wonderfully not over the top which gives it a certain charm that is lost in anything that places special effects over a storyline.
The young girl who played Luise could have a bright future ahead of her. Why is that the children i have seen in European cinema are much better at acting than those in Hollywood films? I blame the parents.
Pi (1998)
Betters the Matrix in every way for modern science fiction
This film caught me completely by surprise last year, i went to see it because my parents were going and i thought i might as well as i had nothing better to do. What i saw from the first moment up until the last was wonderful, Pi was the only film i had seen a the cinema twice. Complex and almost fit inducing (with all the flashing lights) Pi was actually quite easy to follow. This film is true science fiction - not just an elaborate fairy tale set in space or some war film (also set in space). This is sci fi for the brain, not sci fi for the popcorn and hot-dog fraternity. It may be full of number patterns and maths but you don't have to be a genius to consider it in such a way (my simple friend loved it and she isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer). Watch it, buy it, do whatever you can to see it - this film is magnificent, so all those that went on about the Matrix last year will finally be able to see what can be done with a small budget and big ideas (rather than a budget so big that the ideas aren't explored enough). PI PI PI PI PI.....sorry i loved it so much that i keep having to say the words. I wrote an essay for my film course about the use of sound in the film and got an A, i'm not the best of students but it brought out the best in me.
Fans of The Matrix should love it, though i hated that film (but only because i loved this one so much) and fans of dark comic books would probably get a thrill from it as well. Apparently the director may be directing the new Batman film, that is a very exciting prospect....as long as it remains in black and white.
Fucking Åmål (1998)
Small and perfectly formed.
To get someone to go to see this film with me i had to tell them it was about two teenage lesbians from Sweden (which it is). I didn't tell them that the film wasn't porn though so they may have been disappointed. I was probably as far from disappointed as it is possible to be. The two leads put on beautiful performances, the setting was realistically boring and full of the type of people that live in every boring area (in the world) and it translated very well into english. I haven't seen a film as good as this since Pi (and believe me that is saying something) and hopefully it will be out on video soon. Everyone living in a town like Amal should watch this film regardless of age, race, country where they live etc. I will remember this film till the day i die.
Rebecca Liljeberg had more effect on me than any young actress has ever. Either i'm obsessed or she really is the most wonderful human ever (i think i'm probably obsessed but at least she isn't 12 like Natalie Portman was in Leon).