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Reviews
Björk: Pagan Poetry (2001)
The art of Bjork
It's becoming more and more clear to me that Bjork is not just a clever popstar. With every solo album she releases, the enigma around her music becomes bigger and as the medium of videoclips has always been very important, each promo she makes is a treat for the eye and mind. For her latest album, Vespertine, one of the songs that stand out is Pagan Poetry, a song about an obsessive love. The video for it shows us snippets of flesh being pierced with needles, threads with pearls on them, followed by images, digitally altered, so you can only see the outlines of what is happening. This video was censored for day-time television, because of the piercing-scenes and as it features several shots where Bjork can be seen topless. It would be the same as if Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon would be censored for it's nudity. Well, actually it was, in the time Picasso painted it. What Bjork shows us here is a deep insight into her mind, the tragedy of love, in a way that cannot be tagged as popmusic. Bjork seems to grow further and further from it, she's becoming a living piece of art.
Unbreakable (2000)
Unbearable
In the end it all makes perfect sense; the same director, the same actor, the same kid (no wait, is it a different one?) and the same trick. But this time, a ridiculous story, which gives you time enough to realize that it's all so much like that OTHER movie, that Bruce Willis lifts the art of acting to a new level of laziness, that the expression "never change a winning team" leads to artisticly dead waters. So in the end it all makes perfect sense; I was tricked into watching this movie by a clever trailer and by the fact that mr. Night Shyamalan's previous movie actually surprised me, and made me curious about this one. But I guess he blew it now. Too bad.
Less Than Zero (1987)
Superficiality comes alive!
This a classic example of the book made into a movie. The book was a frightening, uneasing tale about modern youth... very very good. The movie is just a weak reflection of that, going in to completely different directions, except the right one. The book is about superficiality, the movie IS superficiality. It actually left me with a headache, as I was so disappointed with the fact that once again a brilliant idea got raped for Entertainment's sake.
Una noche con Sabrina Love (2000)
A warm snapshot
This is a little snapshot of life in modern Argentina, telling a universal story: the encounters of a young man with the various faces of life, love, sex and death.
Daniel, a 17 year old boy, wins a letter writing contest and gets to spend one night with his idol, pornstar Sabrina Love. For this occasion he travels to Buenos Aires, where he stays at his brother's apartment until he settles a date with Sabrina.
This is somewhat of a roadmovie, moving from the Argentine country to the city and back. Daniel takes some important steps during this trip, which is portrayed in a very warm, sincere way. Even though it does not dig very deep, if you submit yourself to it, you can enjoy the Argentine scenery and the wonderful characters Daniel meets. At some points there have been made very harsh jumps in between scenes, due to lack of time or money (???) but don't let that spoil the fun.
Videodrome (1983)
Version 0 of eXistenZ
I had the "bad luck" to watch eXistenZ well before i set my eyes upon this work of director David Cronenberg. Bad luck, as eXistenZ basically consists of the same ingredients as Videodrome, and kind of spoils the subliminal story line of Videodrome. I guess it's impossible to see Videodrome and eXistenZ as separate movies, as they both handle a subject that obviously intrigues David Cronenburg. Where eXistenZ had so much more to it, for Videodrome, the subject is really the only good thing about it.
To me it seems Videodrome suffers from a lack of enthusiasm from both director and actors. The flat acting of pretty much everybody, but especially James Woods, turn the characters from potentially mysterious into plain geeks. There's Deborah Harry, who moans herself halfway through this movie (be it in bed or in the torture room), as a kinky radio-presenter and there's a strange TV-program saleswoman dressed like a Bulgarian fortune teller. Also, a number of outbursts of violence in this movie are either witnessed by zombie-like bystanders or are just ways to force the movie through some big holes in the script. With these facts, the unexpected plot twists become highly incredible.
Maybe Videodrome made some impact in the time it was released, but nowadays the idea that a video-tape embodies evil is somewhat outdated. Cronenberg was a bit smarter when adapting the story for eXistenZ (can't help but mentioning it), as it tells of an electronic device which may just as well never be invented, and therefore will give the movie more longevity than Videodrome.
Videodrome would be a must-see for Cronenberg die-hards, as it shows him making an early attempt at making a movie that shows a world, switching between reality and hallucination, on the brink of revolution. He finally succeeded in this with eXistenZ, which is a much better attempt in telling the Videodrome story.