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Reviews
Sílení (2005)
a mesmerising film, but perhaps not as profound as I expected
The film opens with quite an unusual director's speech that invites us to consider what we are going to see as a pamphlet on our society rather than a work of art. So I did - and perhaps this is why the film left me slightly disappointed. As a work of visual art, it is superb, mesmerising and innovative, with little pieces of animation sandwiched between much larger parts played by actors. As far as the message is concerned, however, I was expecting more. Fair enough, the plot itself is quite perplexed and some of its turns will remain a puzzle even by the end of the film. But I kept thinking that if Haneke or, better still, Kieslowski were directing this film, the story would gain that subtlety and depth it was lacking.
Caché (2005)
A pseudo-thriller about postmodern conscience
"Hidden" is a story of a successful TV journalist George and his family who are terrorised with video tapes suggesting somebody put them under a total surveillance. In trying to understand who might have been nursing a grievance against him, George goes back to something from his early childhood that he would much rather forget. George feels guilty. But is guilt such an adequate response to one's misdeeds - or is it more of a problem in itself?
Undoubtedly a very timely film and shot with no less courage, honesty and wit than Haneke's famous "The piano teacher", "Hidden" is perhaps a little bit too cerebral: every little detail in it has an explanation (which Haneke himself does not hesitate to provide in a "special feature" interview on the DVD release). And even when there is no explanation, this is only because a lack of it is also a clue in itself. This rational approach to film-making makes the film rather vulnerable: it becomes too easy for the audience to break it into pieces and this is something that the magic of cinema can rarely survive. Perhaps the best person to make a film like that would be late Krzysztof Kieslowski ("Decalogue", "Three Colours"): proposing riddles to which he didn't know the answer himself was his genre.
Les poupées russes (2005)
A clever but less memorable sequel to "L'auberge espagnole"
"L'auberge espagnole", although not flawless and very low-key, is probably one of the best films about nostalgia ever made. In "Les poupées russes", the main character of both films, Xavier (Duris), has coped well with his post-Erasmus nostalgia. However, what seemed, at the end of "L'auberge", to be both a cure and a new beginning has turned out to be much less of the latter. Xavier is nearly thirty and his life still badly needs focus.
The film follows Xavier from Paris to London to Moscow to Saint-Petersburg, examining relationships with his ex-Erasmus friends (many of whom look like they got a hold on life better than himself), his ex-girlfriend Martine (Tautou) and various new lovers. The sceneries are exciting and the characters are crafted perhaps with even more care and sincerity than in "L'auberge" (the Duris-Tautou "still friends" duo is a delight) - but the romantic allure of "L'auberge" served well to smoothen the rough edges and dilute the film's hard-boiled message - writer-director Cédric Klapisch is definitely a man of ideas more than anything else. "Les poupées" is no less cerebral, but with the grown-up life being what it is, there's much less in the film to get carried away with - meaning that at times it becomes more of a philosophical drama than a romantic comedy. And for that purpose, perhaps the philosophical message that the film tries to convey - that letting go of dreams is a sad, but necessary part of growing up - is simply not strong enough.