Reviews

Wow! This is quite good.

This is a silent movie, with dialog cards rather than sound dialog. It has a quite good, atmospheric music soundtrack.

If you're a Lovecraft fan this film is a must see. It's not long, less than an hour, after all the original material is a short story, not a novel.

The film stays close to Lovecraft's material. Special effects are minimal, but workable. After all, we're talking H.P. Lovecraft Historic Society budget, not Hollywood.

All in all, this is a worthwhile little gem.

HPLHS is at www.cthulhulives.org.

This is a very edge-of-the-seat political thriller. The cast is superb, especially Trintignant as the quiet, but dogged investigating magistrate. Supporting cast is up to the task, with Irene Pappas as the assassinated minister's wife and Jacques Perrin as the photojournalist standing out.

The music track is outstanding, keeping one's heart pumping as the assassination conspiracy unravels. Script is very good and should be heard in its native French so that you don't miss a nuance.

This is one of my favorite foreign language flicks. I've viewed it again and again. It holds up well, even nearly forty years later. This is fine art. It's "lithe and fierce... like a tiger".

To those who came to this one expecting the A&E remake, don't worry. You've come to the right place. Although the A&E version has all the glitz and glamor, this 1980 PBS production has all the rest (which the A&E is sadly missing).

1. It is fairly loyal to the material, Ursula K. Le Guin's novel.

2. It is well acted, arguably very well acted.

3. Characterization is loyal to that in the novel.

4. It communicates the somewhat convoluted plot quite effectively.

5. It carries the message forward. (No spoilers here.)

(The A&E remake accomplishes *none* of these.)

So snag this one on DVD while it's still available. Watch it. It's a little treasure. Although the glitz and glamor of the A&E remake are missing, it has everything else.

"Antwerp"

Having read LeGuinn's book and seen PBS's excellent rendering of her story this new version is a crashing disappointment. The first problem is that there is so little left of the story that much of its impact is missing. In spite of being light on effects and budget the earlier PBS production makes much better use of its resources to communicate LeGuinn's apocalyptic drama to the viewer.

What happened to the space aliens? They seem to be replaced by David Straithorn's character who occasionally pops into scenes with sage verbiage. Unfortunately, so much has been stripped that there is no tissue left to connect him to what little plot remains after the producers and directors finished their hatchet job on content and context. Who knows why they did that?

What's left is a nothingness rivaled only by Jor-Jor's apocalyptic reality. In order to understand what's going on here, one might want to read the book, or view PBS's 1980's telling of the story. Please don't waste your time with this turkey, especially since the PBS version is available on DVD.