Change Your Image
carmenbausch
Reviews
Unter den Palmen (1999)
visually stunning, emotionally poor
The movie follows David (Helmut Berger) and his girlfriend Tanja. They rob people to make a living. All goes wrong when David finds a photograph of a young guy (Thom Hoffman) and falls in love and decides to find the guy. Torn between his girlfriend, his controlling brother (Udo Kier) and new found love, David is destined to make a fatal choice. Helmut Berger is sometimes uneasy with the part of David which actually seems very close to some of his real life experiences. The acting is deliberately cold and distant as is the music. The cinematography , art direction and styling are very good considering the budget. It shows that the director has a vision and an eye for detail. But as a whole the film fails to impress, especially on an emotional level. It simply remains too cold and too experimental. (A more developed script with less arty dialogue would have helped as well) . Nevertheless this movie is unique and there are not many films that get made in Holland that have this sort of bravoure. Most films are uninteresting stories but without the great visuals and great music. I give it 8 out of 10.