Hell (2005)
(L'enfer)
Country: FR/IT/BEL/JAP
Technical: col/2.35:1 102m
Director: Danis Tanovic
Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Guillaume Canet, Jacques Perrin, Carole Bouquet, Jacques Gamblin, Jean Rochefort
Synopsis:
Three sisters lead an atomised and variously fraught existence in Paris, the result, it is implied, of their own troubled childhood after their parents' relationship broke down in scandal. Everywhere, it seems, humankind is leading a ruthless, solitary struggle for survival.
Review:
An elegantly shot, formally beautiful essay in personal misery, distractingly prefaced by the biblical, 'What does it profit a man..?' quotation. In the most poignant segment, a woman finally yields to a young man she presumes is pursuing her for herself, only to find that he is gay and was responsible for the destruction of her family life. The film asks us to swallow some particularly stark aberrations from verisimilitude: a mother who leaves her children alone in the flat for long periods, children who appear to do nothing but sleep; a husband who prefers the 'mutton-dressed-as-lamb' looks of Maryam d'Abo to the voluptuous Béart. But this is a worthy successor to Tykwer's Heaven, in the unrealised Kieslowski trilogy (at the time of writing Purgatory remains unfilmed), and there are some images and motifs from his films: Gillain filmed against a tree, recalling Jacob in Véronique; a woman at a bottle bank; encounters in cafés and hotel rooms; an enamoured ticket collector who inscribes a cassette compilation of train noises as a love token.
(L'enfer)
Country: FR/IT/BEL/JAP
Technical: col/2.35:1 102m
Director: Danis Tanovic
Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Guillaume Canet, Jacques Perrin, Carole Bouquet, Jacques Gamblin, Jean Rochefort
Synopsis:
Three sisters lead an atomised and variously fraught existence in Paris, the result, it is implied, of their own troubled childhood after their parents' relationship broke down in scandal. Everywhere, it seems, humankind is leading a ruthless, solitary struggle for survival.
Review:
An elegantly shot, formally beautiful essay in personal misery, distractingly prefaced by the biblical, 'What does it profit a man..?' quotation. In the most poignant segment, a woman finally yields to a young man she presumes is pursuing her for herself, only to find that he is gay and was responsible for the destruction of her family life. The film asks us to swallow some particularly stark aberrations from verisimilitude: a mother who leaves her children alone in the flat for long periods, children who appear to do nothing but sleep; a husband who prefers the 'mutton-dressed-as-lamb' looks of Maryam d'Abo to the voluptuous Béart. But this is a worthy successor to Tykwer's Heaven, in the unrealised Kieslowski trilogy (at the time of writing Purgatory remains unfilmed), and there are some images and motifs from his films: Gillain filmed against a tree, recalling Jacob in Véronique; a woman at a bottle bank; encounters in cafés and hotel rooms; an enamoured ticket collector who inscribes a cassette compilation of train noises as a love token.
(L'enfer)
Country: FR/IT/BEL/JAP
Technical: col/2.35:1 102m
Director: Danis Tanovic
Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Guillaume Canet, Jacques Perrin, Carole Bouquet, Jacques Gamblin, Jean Rochefort
Synopsis:
Three sisters lead an atomised and variously fraught existence in Paris, the result, it is implied, of their own troubled childhood after their parents' relationship broke down in scandal. Everywhere, it seems, humankind is leading a ruthless, solitary struggle for survival.
Review:
An elegantly shot, formally beautiful essay in personal misery, distractingly prefaced by the biblical, 'What does it profit a man..?' quotation. In the most poignant segment, a woman finally yields to a young man she presumes is pursuing her for herself, only to find that he is gay and was responsible for the destruction of her family life. The film asks us to swallow some particularly stark aberrations from verisimilitude: a mother who leaves her children alone in the flat for long periods, children who appear to do nothing but sleep; a husband who prefers the 'mutton-dressed-as-lamb' looks of Maryam d'Abo to the voluptuous Béart. But this is a worthy successor to Tykwer's Heaven, in the unrealised Kieslowski trilogy (at the time of writing Purgatory remains unfilmed), and there are some images and motifs from his films: Gillain filmed against a tree, recalling Jacob in Véronique; a woman at a bottle bank; encounters in cafés and hotel rooms; an enamoured ticket collector who inscribes a cassette compilation of train noises as a love token.