Asterix alle Olimpiadi è il terzo film della saga a fumetti di Asterix il gallico, prodotto in Francia nel 2008 in occasione delle Olimpiadi di Pechino 2008.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Frédéric Forestier | Thomas Langmann | Clovis Cornillac | Gérard Depardieu | Alain Delon

by Nate Bell

Claude Chabrol, the most workmanlike member of the celebrated French New Wave, has directed somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 films. A career as long as that seems destined to swing both high and low, yet his is surprisingly consistent. (Critics can perhaps cite a masterpiece or two, but how many bombs?) Bellamy would seem to fall somewhere in the medium-high range. It’s chatty and languidly paced, but clearly the work of an old pro and full of the insights that can only come with old age (Chabrol is no spring chicken at 79). It’s a detective story insofar as there is a detective present, but the mystery takes a backseat to the well-rounded characterizations. It seems fitting that the film begins and ends with shots of a cemetery. What better backdrop to ponder life’s enigmas?

The titular protagonist (Gerard Depardieu), a celebrated French detective, is first seen lazing on the sofa trying to complete a crossword. Even on vacation, this man cannot avoid puzzles. His wife of many years (Marie Bunel) wanted to go on an Egyptian cruise, but settled instead for a few weeks in her childhood home in Nimes. A strange man (Jacques Gamblin), lately seen skulking around the property, draws Bellamy into a plot involving a neglected wife, a young mistress, and a charred corpse (the last of which is fleetingly glimpsed at the tail end of the opening credits).

Bellamy’s leisurely investigation is interrupted by the arrival of his good-for-nothing younger brother Jacques (Clovis Cornillac), a boozing, gambling idler. At this point, the film takes an unforeseen turn and begins to coagulate into a family drama. The harsh censure of bourgeois values—a favorite maneuver of Chabrol’s—is largely absent. Instead, the film reveals itself as an inquiry into the notions of chance, fate, and destiny—that is to say of life itself. Jacques (loveless, destitute, forever drifting) and Bellamy (secure, well-to-do, happily married) are juxtaposed in such a way as to draw attention to the social and spiritual chasm that separates them. The recollection of a particularly painful family episode and a tragic ending only serve to deepen the overarching mystery.

Bellamy marks the first collaboration between Chabrol and Depardieu, who at 60 holds his ground as one of France’s greatest movie stars. Bearish yet elegant, he excels at suggesting the insecurities of this outwardly secure man. His life seems controlled, almost idyllic, but the end of the day, it is still a puzzle to him.

Picture Source:

http://www.impawards.com/intl/france/2009/posters/bellamy.jpg

Going into someplace dark, and frightening has been a trope in movies – and in stories in general – as long as there has been such things. So, it comes as no surprise, that along with it being a universal fear it’s also one used by many first time movie-makers. Dark is cheap, and scares are easy. But, it takes true talent and vision to make one that rises above meager budgets, unknown actors and stories that aren’t exactly straight-forward narratives. It’s also fun when they’re not American movies.

Nimrod Antal has gotten quite a bit of attention lately, after being named the director of the remake/boot/imagining of the PREDATOR franchise, that is being over-seen by Robert Rodriguez. He also has a movie coming out in the next couple of months called ARMORED, which is about a group of guys who work for an armored car company and their attempt to stage a heist to claim the millions and millions of dollars they’re carrying. I can see how this kind of fits in with the movie that I just watched, his first feature, as it were. About a group of ticket-takers in the Budapest subway system. KONTROLL, the name of the movie, and the name given to the guys that go through the trains asking to see tickets; is a fantastic movie about hiding from your troubles, camaraderie, and maybe even about serial killers.

The movie intorduces us to it’s world by at first a disclaimer given by a claimed head of the actual Budapest subway system, saying that he was warned not to let this director film in the actual tunnels used by the city; and that actual Controllers don’t act like this in real life. He also says to us, that the movie is “symbolic”. Is this an actual city official giving us his own review of the movie, or is he the only clue that we get as to what we’re about to see. A narrator we don’t see or hear from again, meant only to draw us into the story, and to plant the idea that everything that follows is just a fever dream.

It’s possible, as the next scene we get is of a woman riding down a giant escalator, trying to open a bottle of champagne. She gets to the bottom, after taking a few swigs, leaves the bottle by the steps and walks towards the tunnel. As she’s waiting, the lights go out, then come back on just as the train is approaching. A look of horror comes over her face as the camera spins around to see the train coming to the station and when we look back all that’s left of the woman is her shoe as the train goes by. Next we see a man lying on the ground in the station, seemingly someplace other than where we just were. He wakes up and sits up against a pillar close-by. His nose starts to bleed as a train pulls up and a man sees him and mouths that he’s bleeding.

This man, who we’ll learn is named Bulscu (played by Sandor Csanyi), confronts the other guy asking what he just said. He pulls out a red armband and puts it around his arm, asking for the man’s ticket. From here we cut to a scene of a mound of french fries being splattered with ketchup, and we see a group of guys who begin to bicker as the one tells the younger guy that eating like that will kill him. The young guy then points out that the older man is smoking. The continue back and forth until it seems like the young guy, named Muki, seems to possibly choke and pass out. Later, we find out that he’s narcoleptic and the handicap overcomes him when he gets too excited. The older man, only called the Professor, tells the new guy in the group to leave them as they head off to their morning meeting – as they’re all Controllers, and work with Bulscu.

After the scene of the meeting, and a foreboding moment between Bulscu and another Controller named Laci, we are taken back to the subway escalators as a person all in black – including a hood, covering his face – works his way through the station winding up behind a man who he pushes just as a train approaches. Which, we then move on to watching Bulscu and his crew attempt to do their job; boarding a train, asking people to see their tickets or passes and mostly just getting harassed for their work. Bulscu approaches a girl wearing a bear outfit, who later appears in a dream sequence, as well as being the daughter of one of the train drivers. Then the new guy, Tibi, comes across a legendary troublemaker on the subway named Bootsie – who sprays him with shaving cream, then leads the whole group through the subway tunnels eventually getting away.

The movie has some great comedic moments, like with Tibi harassing a woman for her ticket and when she threatens to tell the cops that he grabbed her tits, he indeed does. There’s also some frightening stuff with the “pusher” and some seeming practical effects of close calls with the trains – especially in one scene where two characters compete in a “game” called ‘Railing’. In the end, the movie gets a little more dream-like, as we start to question the identity of the pusher, or whether there even is one; who the girl in the bear suit (and eventually in fairy wings) is to our main character, and in a scene sort of like ANGEL HEART’s elevator finale, an illuminated escalator that’s going up.

All of the characters, and performances (as much as I can get from them, without knowing what they’re actually saying – and only getting the dialogue, through, I have to admit some inferior subtitles. They get the point across, but could have been better – but each one is fully fledged out, gets a moment to shine and be funny. Bulscu, as the star of the movie, get the most screen-time and is hinted at his former life, when he meets someone he used to know on the train. It seems like he might have been an architect, or something and for whatever reason left it to instead sleep and work in the underground.

It’s a great movie, that really has me more excited to see ARMORED – I was already wanting to see it, but I have to admit now I’m hoping that it’ll be more than just a dumb action-thriller.

The other movie, also underground and sort of a post-apocalyptic vision, EDEN LOG, is a French movie (although, it’s almost all in English) about a man who wakes up in the dark. An intermittent light goes on and off, being the only illumination we have for the first few minutes of the movie. The lighting rarely gets better, but it works because of where the movie is set. When there is light, the movie is mostly just black and white, with a couple of splashes of red, green and brown, during certain moments. What there lacks in light, there’s even less of in dialogue. The first actual speech doesn’t happen until about 20 minutes into the movie.

The man who wakes up, after finding a harness with the light attached makes his way through this subterranean location, eventually coming upon a gate, when he gets through, there’s a weird screen that is slightly undecipherable, and then when we can understand the words, we don’t know what they’re talking about. So, the man – who doesn’t know who or where he is – continues on, eventually meeting up with another man who is seemingly grafted to some roots that are coming down from somewhere above. The tree-guy says that he’s the Architect, mumbles something else and then when our mystery hero hears some roars, the Architect tell him he should just commit suicide. Soon, everything goes black and the man regains consciousness again in a small tunnel. He climbs in a direction that eventually leads to him being encapsulated in an opaque glass box, which we see is being taken up via an elevator or wire. The box crashes into another just like it, that we can see has a dead body inside. The man is able to get the box swinging so that it falls off whatever was holding it, allowing him to crash through it. This is where we soon encounter what the roaring was, we meet a person in a white bio-hazmat suit, who captures the man in a net, taking him into a small lab.

The movie, which kind of feels a little like the original CUBE movie and sort of like THE FOUNTAIN, never really gets that clear on what the whole purpose is. We learn something about the government has created this industry called Eden Log, which is supposedly using a tree to power their city/world, and that the government is actually covering up what their really doing. Which, I think has something to do with feeding underground workers the sap from the tree, then when they eventually die, using the bodies as the actual power source. The tree, is attempting to fight back and uses it’s sap to mutate the underground workers to try and overrun the government, and somehow our main character is both infected but somehow able to control himself, so he has both his mental faculties, to try and help the woman he encounters, but also will become enraged and overpowered by this animal instinct and basically rape her later.

The star, whose name we later learn is Tolbiac, is played by Clovis Cornillac. He is great as the brooding, nearly silent guy that we follow as he tries to unravel not only his own identity, but what is going on around him. Which by the end of the movie, he knows who he is and sacrifices himself to help the tree to freedom. (I don’t feel that it’s either a spoiler, or important a detail to give away that this happens, because this movie is definitely a work of visual art, more than it’s meant to be a literate story.) But, the movie is an interesting endeavor by the first time feature director, Franck Vestiel. While the fact that this movie could have all been filmed on one soundstage, dressed differently to seem like different levels (as the character has to travel from floor -4 to ground-level), the effects are all great. Whether it’s the creature makeup on the mutants, or the (still noticeably CGI) effects dealing with the tree. I feel like it’s to the benefit of the movie that it’s so dark, it lets a lot more of the movie play in our imaginations. But, it doesn’t let us down when we can see what’s happening. And like KONTROLL, actually, both movies feature a great soundtrack of trance/techno-like music, that helps set the moods for both movies.

A man awakens deep underground suffering amnesia. He begins making his way through destroyed labs and dark caverns in the hopes of finding out who he is and why he is there.

Directed by – Franck Vestiel

Written by – Pierre Bordage, Franck Vestiel

Starring – Clovis Cornillac, Vimala Pons, Zohar Wexler, Sifan Shao, Arben Bajraktaraj, Abdelkader Dahou, Tony Amoni, Antonin Bastian, Joachim Staaf, Benjamin Baroche, Zakariya Gouram, Gabriella Wright, Asha Sumputh, Nadia-Layla Bettache, Lavinia Birladeanu

Alright, here’s my first shot at a video review. I have to admit that it probably would have been easier to just type it all out. Brain no function in front of camera. It was an endless amount of trial and error and I’m still not happy with the end result. I thought about scrapping the idea entirely and starting with a movie that I really, really loved but after all that trouble I couldn’t care how much I hate it, I had to put it up anyway. So be gentle my kind readers and I’m hoping that any further attempts at video reviews go much smoother.

I had seen a trailer for this film a while back and thought it looked interesting. The sci-fi-horror meld can be really spectacular when done right. Throw in the fact that this is French and you’ve got my rental dollar. The French are rocking the Dungeon. They are doing some serious cool stuff with horror that is giving the genre a much needed kick in the ass.

A man awakes inside a dark muddy cavern with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. He forges forward through the labyrinth of tunnels and rooms trying to find answers and a way out.

I am intentionaly keeping the plot summary spare. The film’s greatest strength is the lack of information you have going in. There is barely any dialog and you are given no clues or background. You are literally on a claustrophobic journey along with the main character. His discoveries are yours. It is real time pacing, so the film moves along slowly but steadily. The film feels a little like a video game. I actually thought to myself once or twice that he should be breaking boxes to see if there are bonuses inside. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really dug the feel. The film has a killer atmosphere. It is filmed in black and white and there are some simple details that help to create its bleak futuristic feel. The sounds they use throughout work extremely well. The story ambles a bit towards the end but the finale was quite effective. A gripping journey and a nice tight looking production marred slightly by a story that does a bit of wandering. There aren’t alot of action scenes, pair that with the slow pace and I expect some might find this one dull. I personally enjoyed this film and I think it could resonate with both horror and sci-fi fans. Recommended.

Dungeon Rating: 3.5/5

Directed By: Franck Vestiel

Starring: Clovis Cornillac, Vimala Pons, Zohar Wexler, Sifan Shao, and Arben Bajraktaraj

A story of friendship, a story of love and brotherhood – Paris 36 is all these, to be sure. But it’s probably more than that, since it turns on the sometimes conflicted but always affectionate relationships between three friends – Pigoil, Milou and Jacky – all struck head on by unemployment (a consequence of the 30’s financial crisis) – as well as Douce a pretty young girl from the provinces who has come to Paris looking to hit it big and Monsieur Radio, an aging musician whose unhappy love affair has led him to withdraw from the world around him.

It’s the end of 1935, on the eve of the new year and the setting is a working class neighborhood in Paris – a neighborhood dreamed up for us by Christophe Barratier drawing on Montmartre and Ménilmontant, two former villages annexed by the capital, which they overlook from atop their modest hillsides. This imaginary town, where a provincial life can still be lived in its entirety is perceived in sumptuous panoramic shots and through several luxurious and decadent cabaret scenes.

While the Paris quarter in the film is surely a product of Christophe Barratier’s poetic fantasy, it nevertheless reflects an historic reality. Paris, at the time, did indeed possess dozens of small concert venues and especially vaudevill music halls. These popular pleasure centers also drew a part of their patrons from industrial quarters, thus forming a vast admixture where social barriers have not yet been set up.

France in 1936 also marked the explosion of the “POPULAR FRONT.” In the spring of 1936, the poorest classes of French society sweep aside the old political guard of a French republic riddled with financial scandals and immoral manuvering. Answering this groundswell of support mustered by leftist – socialist, communist and anarchist – a violent reaction was organized among the right-wing nationalists, openly fascinated by the triumphant examples of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. That reaction is represented in Paris 36 by the S.O.C., a fascist-leaning quasi-military militia.

It is in that historical context that our three friends join together and try to revive the dream of the old Chansonia theater, threatened with demolition. Three comrades with a passion for music, love and liberty will make their stand there, attempting to strike down the ambient brown plague, that hulking beast which has already spread through Europe and which is about to drag the entire world with it into the grips of war.

A man wakes up deep inside a cave. Suffering amnesia, he has no recollection of how he came to be here or of what happened to the man whose body he finds beside him. Tailed by a mysterious creature, he must continue through this strange and fantastic world. Enclosed, Tolbiac has no other option to reach the surface than to use REZO ZERO, secret observing cells in this cemetery-like abandoned mine. He embarks upon this journey guided by the roots of a plant, leading the way and the main subject of attention of the REZO.

AKA: Rezo Zero – Laufzeit: 98 Minuten – Land: Frankreich

Herzlich willkommen zu einem düsteren SciFi-Horrortrip in düsteren, mit Monstern gespickten Gewölben – nicht der Extraklasse, zumindest aber der Extravaganz. Dieser ungewöhnliche, französische Film fokussiert sich auf das Schicksal eines uns unbekannten Mannes names Tolbiac (Clovis Cornillac), welcher an einem eher unwirtlichen Ort aus der Bewusstlosigkeit erwacht. Es ist dunkel, nur hier und da blitzt ein Licht auf; es ist kalt, er ist komplett von Schlamm überzogen. Was ist nur geschehen, wer ist dieser Mann ? Aber vor allem: wie kommt er aus diesem Schlamassel wieder heraus ? Doch nichteinmal er selbst kann sich erinnern. So folgt er seinem Instinkt und macht sich auf, irgendwie nach draussen, an die Oberfläche zu gelangen. Dafür muss er sich über einige Etagen nach oben kämpfen… und: es wird mit Sicherheit nicht einfacher !

Düster, düster… alles ist voller Schrott und ausgedienten Maschinen

Nun – so zwiegespalten war ich lange nicht mehr, bezogen auf das andauernde Gefühl welches man nach Anschauen eines Films (hoffentlich) hat. Es handelt sich hier um einen eher ungewöhnlichen, mutigen Film – der stark mit einer sehr dunklen, fast schon reinen schwarz-weiss Optik arbeitet. Sowie einer sehr stillen und langsamen, stets bedrohlich wirkenden Erzählweise. Das ist einerseits gut in Anbetracht der Gesamtwirkung des Films, andererseits schlecht – da man als Zuschauer absolut im Regen stehen gelassen wird was die Handlung, den Sinn eben dieser – sowie die letztendliche Aussage betrifft. Zumindest wollte dieses Gefühl nicht nachlassen; das Gefühl, dass irgendetwas fehlte was den entscheidenden Funken hätte zünden können. Dafür wurde dann in anderen Bereichen (leider!) wieder stark übertrieben… vor allem im technischen.

In den Seilen hängend… was ist hier eigentlich los ?

Kommen wir nun also (mal ausnahmsweise) direkt zu den technischen Aspekten des Films; da er fast vollständig von ihnen lebt. Denn der Stil des Films, und damit auch eine gewisse Problematik – zeichnet sich bereits in den ersten Minuten ab. Komplett in schwarz getauchte Szenen wechseln sich mit sehr düsteren ab, bei denen oft nur wenige Prozente des Bildschirms ausgeleuchtet werden. Dazu gibt es ein hektisches Geflacker, ausgehend von Hintergrundbeleuchtungen oder Taschenlampen. Aus-An, Aus-An… Kaum auszuhalten wird diese Art von “Verwischtechnik” (möchte man eventuell etwas fehlende Handlung “übertünchen”…?) bei Szenen, in welchen zusätzlich eine sehr schnelle Schnitttechnik zum Einsatz kommt – beispielsweise die Fahrstuhlszene, die Szenen mit den Monstern. Allgemein muss man seine Augen schon sehr deutlich anstrengen um wenigstens ein gewisses Maß an optischen Eindrücken aufzunehmen; doch speziell diese Szenen sind einfach nur eine – die Augen stark strapazierende – Frechheit. Die Szenenaufbauten sind dafür nett, auch wenn man leider (und aufgrund dessen) nicht viel von ihnen zu sehen bekommt. Enge Räume, tausende in sich verdrehte Kabel, Spuren der geheimnisvollen Pflanze (dazu später mehr), kaputte Maschinen und Computer, tunnelartige Gänge – gar nicht mal schlecht.

Kann hier bitte mal jemand aufräumen… ?

Eine Frage aber bleibt bestehen: wozu das Ganze… ? Größter Knackpunkt ist mit Sicherheit der fragwürdige Inhalt. Wenn mich jemand – der den Film noch nicht kennt – fragt, worum es denn überhaupt geht hätte ich ein ernsthaftes Problem. Denn dies ist gar nicht mal so leicht und in einem Atemzug zu beantworten; was aber auch nicht heisst, dass der Inhalt vollständig belanglos wäre. Lieber wäre mir aber die Frage nach dem, was im Film passiert. Denn dies ist mit einigen Sätzen schnell abgearbeitet ! Irgendein Typ klettert aus dem tiefsten Verlies, besser gesagt: einer tieferen Etage einer groß angelegten Pflanzenplantage hinauf in die mögliche Freiheit. Auf dem Weg begegnet er Menschen in roboterartigen Anzügen, die irgendjemanden suchen und scheinbar die Anlage überwachen. Und selbstverständlich: einigen Mutanten, die von der großen, baumartigen Pflanze (siehe Cover) kontaminiert wurden und nunmehr extrem feindselig sind. Es ist schwer, dem Geschehen zu folgen – auch ein zwischen-den-Zeilen lesen ist kaum möglich; denn gesetzt dass Handlung und Dialog die Zeilen sind – gibt es davon kaum etwas !

Etwas Licht im Dunkel… das wäre doch gar nicht schlecht !

Ärgerlich ist; dass gerade die Szenen, von denen man erwarten würde dass sie etwas Klarheit in das Ganze bringen – das absolute Gegenteil bewirken. Was zum Beispiel ist mit der Szene, in der unser Protagonist mit dem Architekten aufeinandertrifft und sie einen nur allzu verwirrenden Plausch halten ? Was ist mit der Szene in welcher Tolbiac erstmals mit der Pflanze verbunden wird – was passiert da eigentlich ? Was ist mit der Fahrstuhlszene, in der sich anscheinend Traum und Wirklichkeit vermischen ? Auch der Sinn der nach und nach gefundenen Videologs wird nicht ganz klar. Scheinbar kann sich – ansatzweise – unser Protagonist einen Reim auf den Inhalt machen – der Zuschauer aber nicht ! Es bleibt ein vollkommen undurchsichtiges Bild, ein sinnlos wirkender Kampf in allzu dunklen, längst verfallenen Katakomben voller Monster – ein Kampf um; ja was denn eigentlich ? Dies wird jedoch erst gegen Ende hin deutlicher; aber keinesfalls mit klaren Worten aufgelöst.

Oh mysteriöser Wunderbaum… bringst du uns den Garten Eden, oder die Hölle ?

Schlussendlich: ein Film der etwas anderen Art. Hoch anzurechnen sind ihm die merkliche Unkonventionalität, die Perspektive – denn auch als Zuschauer weiss man nicht viel mehr als der Hauptcharakter, man sieht auch ebenso wenig; man ist mittendrin im Geschehen. Leider ist es so, dass die negativen Aspekte doch klar überwiegen. Zu einem guten Horrorfilm mit SciFi Hintergründen gehört – in erster Linie – nunmal auch eine gute, ausgeklügelte Story mit Tiefgründigkeit, einer Aussage und vielen Diskussionsansätzen. Bis auf die finale Szene findet man hier jedoch nichts dergleichen; und selbst diese ist enorm verwirrend gehalten. Ist es tatsächlich so, dass es im Film ausschließlich um eine futuristische Gesellschaft geht, die mit einer ganz speziellen Form der Energiegewinnung ihr Dasein fristet ? Rettet Tolbiac die Menschheit, vernichtet er sie – oder gar beides (kennt man aus der Bibel) ? Ein extrem interessantes Thema, dass zu Diskussionen anregen könnte – jedoch eher nicht auf Grundlage dieses verwirrend-verwischenden Films der unendlich viele Fragen aufwirft, aber keine einzige beantwortet. Und es sich wieder einmal zu einfach macht: streue viele Ansätze herein, vereinfache so das Skript – für die wirklich innovativen Ideen aber muss der Zuschauer selbst sorgen indem er fleissig interpretiert, und versucht den viel zu dunklen Szenen ein Geheimnis zu entlocken. Leider nur 2.7 von 10 Punkten; da wären viel mehr dringewesen.

Der Link zum Trailer – Die DVD auf Amazon.de

French actress Carole Bouquet (For Your Eyes Only) has joined the cast of Protéger Et Servir, the third feature effort from writer/director Eric Lavaine (Poltergay…yes, you read that right). A cop comedy, Protect And Serve (literal translation) will revolve around two cop friends trying to stop a string of terrorist attacks.

Actors Kad Merad (The Chorus), Clovis Cornillac (Asterix At The Olympic Games) and François Damiens (Taxi 4) round up the cast of the film, which will start shooting in January 2009.

Source

Par tout atis, qu’ece qui ma pris de vouloir mater Astérix aux jeux Olympiques! Je n’est jamais été attiré par la séries mais je suis tout de même tomber de haut, le scénario et baclé (je pense que le casting ultra gonflé y est pour quelque chose) et les gags volent tous très très bas. Le seul acteur qui a reussi à m’arracher un sourir a été Alain Delon qui a jouer à merveille son autoparodie, Alice “Vanessa Hessler” n’est pour une fois pas aussi transparente que dans ses pubs, Clovis Cornillac ne nous fait pas regretté Jaqcouille “Christian Clavier“ tandi que Benoît Poelvoord (dans son one man show) essaye de sortir tant bien que mal le film du trou gigantesque dans lequelle il est partie s’enterrer.

Le casting est plus que gonflé, Clovis Cornillac, Gérard Depardieu, Alain Delon, Benoît Poelvoorde, Vanessa Hessler, Jérome Lebanner, José Garcia, Franck Dubosc et j’en passe sont au rendez vous. Je pense que Panoramix devrait préparer impeu de sa potion magique pour Thomas Langmann et Frédéric Forestier “réalisateurs” si ils compte nous sortir un autre Asterix.

Les effets spéciaux (vu et revu) et les décors imposant ne compense pas le manque de rhytme du film, à quand l’adaptation américaine d’Asterix .

En bref, après être partie au ciné maté The Dark Knigth ca à été plutôt dur de rester réveiller pendant le film (heureusement que j’apprécie pas mal d’acteurs qui sont dans Astérix sinon le Divx ne serait plus de ce monde à l’heure qu’il est ).

 
From the primordial ooze, lumps of mud coalesce to form the rough outline of a humanoid shape. In the darkness, your eyes adjust to realise that there is indeed a man, naked as Adam, clawing his way out of the ground – borne of the earth. Primal, feral, disorientated, and shivering. As the biting wind howls around him, this creature staggers toward the vaguest glimmer of light, pausing briefly to strip rags from a nearby corpse he has tripped over.

This is the opening five minutes of Eden Log, and it doesn’t take long to realise that the French are suddenly very serious about their sci-fi.

The film takes the form of a fairly simplistic, computer game level structure – our protagonist soon discovers he is on level -5 of the vast Eden Log complex, and has to endure trials or solve puzzles as he earns his passage up to the surface, one level at a time.  At the climax of each episode we all learn a little bit more about the man and this mysterious world, and slowly we are all allowed to put the pieces together and work out what the hell is going on.

What I really enjoyed about this film was how lo-fi the whole endeavour was. The visual palette is unremittingly bleak and practically monochrome, dealing largely in shades of blue and grey. Clovis Cornillac’s “Tolbiac” carries the film exuding a gruff, coarse attitude, and in actual fact the first half hour of the film is almost completely mute, save for the odd public-service announcement that flickers automatically onto a wall, triggered by his presence. . .

As we follow Tolbiac closer to the surface, there is a scene of exposition which is carried out in a very bizarre room where everything hangs from the ceiling via a complex network of wires and pulleys. It may be completely superfluous, but you cant help but admire the skill with which it is brought to the screen.

Unfortunately I cannot allow myself to be wholeheartedly uncritical of Eden Log – there are some major leaps of logic and continuity which may require repeated viewings to totally grasp, not least of all a shockingly violent rape scene which exploded seemingly out of nowhere and certainly left me briefly confused as to whether it was a dream sequence or not. There are also some seriously wobbly Mutants whose make up and general presence merely detract from the core story, and if all that’s not enough, the conclusion, whilst clearly wanting to be ambiguous and open to debate felt more like it was just baffling and unexplained.

Overall however, I think it is a film definitely worth a watch by sci-fi fans. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it felt very reminiscent to me of 90’s low budget shocker Cube. The first half of the film is certainly a compelling, visceral experience, but once the talking starts and the need to tell a story kicks in, it gets a little bit muddled, so it just felt like a bit of a shame that it lost focus.  Considering that these are the exact same complaints that many people levelled at the blisteringly excellent Wall-E, I don’t think its a sufficiently large hurdle to prevent one’s enjoyment of this film.

Watch the trailer: here

- A CAÇADA

Título original: The Hunting Party

Gênero: Drama

Ano: 2007

País: EUA, Croácia, Bósnia

Duração: 102 minutos

Língua: Inglês

Classificação: 14 anos

Diretor: Richard Shepard

Elenco: Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jesse Eisenberg

Sinopse: Richard Gere é um discreto jornalista chamado Simon. Ele embarca em uma missão não-autorizada em busca do pior criminoso de guerra na Bósnia. Simon vai acompanhado do jovem jornalista Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg) e do cinegrafista Duck (Terrence Howard). Juntoa, eles são confundidos com um grupo de agentes da CIA e passam a ser perseguidos.

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- MAIS DO QUE VOCÊ IMAGINA

Título original: My Mom’s New Boyfriend

Gênero: Comédia Romântica

Ano: 2007

País: EUA, Alemanha

Duração: 95 minutos

Língua: Inglês

Classificação: 14 anos

Diretor: George Gallo

Elenco: Antonio Banderas, Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks, Selma Blair.

Sinopse: A obesa Martha sempre foi um grande peso na vida de seu filho Henry. Após três anos em uma missão secreta do FBI, Henry volta para casa junto com sua noiva. Marty, ex-Martha, agora tem um corpão e um namorado, Tommy. Ele, por sua vez, tem interesse em uma certa obra de arte e é claro em Marty. Agora Henry e o FBI terão que espionar as bizarrices da vida amorosa dos pombinhos. Mas como ser um agente exemplar quando sua mãe está na jogada?

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- A ENCARNAÇÃO DO DEMÔNIO

Gênero: Terror

Ano: 2008

País: Brasil

Duração: 92 minutos

Língua: Português

Classificação: 16 anos

Diretor: José Mojica Marins

Elenco: José Mojica Marins, Jece Valadão, Milhem Cortaz, Adriano Stuart, Rui Rezende.

Sinopse: Após 40 anos preso, Zé do Caixão é finalmente libertado. De volta às ruas, o coveiro está decidido a cumprir a meta que o levou à prisão: encontrar a mulher que possa gerar seu filho perfeito. Em seu caminho pela cidade de São Paulo, ele deixa um rastro de horror, enfrentando leis não naturais e crendices populares. Terceira parte da trilogia: o clássico À Meia-Noite Levarei sua Alma (1964) e Esta Noite Encarnarei no Teu Cadáver (1967).

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- O GRANDE DAVE

Título original: Meet Dave

Gênero: Comédia

Ano: 2008

País: EUA

Duração: 90 minutos

Língua: Inglês

Classificação: LIVRE

Diretor: Brian Robbins

Elenco: Elizabeth Banks, Eddie Murphy, Gabrielle Union, Ed Helms, Judah Friedlander, Shawn Christian.

Sinopse: Seres extraterrestres chegam à Terra em busca de uma saída para salvar seu próprio planeta da destruição. Esses extraterrestres têm a forma dos seres humanos, mas são muito menores. Para observar e aprender sobre a rotina terráquea, eles utilizam uma “nave espacial” que tem o formato de um ser humano comum (Eddie Murphy), que tem de aprender a agir como um humano normal.

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- ASTERIX NOS JOGOS OLÍMPICOS

Título original: Asterix Aux Jeux Olympiques

Gênero: Comédia

Ano: 2008

País: França, Alemanha, Espanha, Itália, Bélgica

Duração: 116 minutos

Classificação: Livre

Diretor: Frédéric Forestier & Thomas Langmann

Elenco: Clovis Cornillac, Gérard Depardieu, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Michael Schumacher, Zinedine Zidane

Sinopse: Os irredutíveis gauleses estão de volta. Os heróis descobrem que há uma competição esportiva (Jogos Olimpicos) entre gregos e romanos a cada quatro anos. E, claro, eles não poderiam ficar de fora. Para conseguirem participar, Asterix, Obelix e todos os moradores da aldeia até deixam de lado um pouco de seu patriotismo e assumem sua porção romana. Só há um detalhe que os guerreiros não contavam: não poderão utilizar a poção secreta de Panoramix.

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- LEMON TREE

Título original: Etz Limon

Gênero: Drama

Ano: 2008

País: Israel, Alemanha, França

Duração: 106 minutos

Classificação: 16 anos

Diretor: Eran Riklis

Elenco: Hiam Abbass, Doron Tavory, Ali Suliman, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Tarik Kopty, Amos Lavi

Sinopse: Salma, uma viúva palestina, vê sua plantação ser ameaçada quando seu novo vizinho, o ministro de Defesa de Israel, se muda para a casa ao lado.

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