Thursday, April 14, 2005

Les Amants criminels

Criminal Lovers. FR / JP (c) 1999 Fidélité Productions / Le Studio Canal+ / Arte France Cinéma / Euro Space Japan. P: Oliver Delbosc, Marc Missionnier. D+SC: Francois Ozon. Poem "Nuit d'enfer" (Arthur Rimbaud). DP: Pierre Stoeber. PD: Frédérique Chauvineau. M: Philippe Rombi. M themes from Wagner ("Liebestod"), Vivaldi (adagio from Symphony in C minor for strings). Starring Natacha Régnier (Alice), Jérémie Rénier (Luc), Miki Manjolovic (the man in the forest), Salim Kechiouche (Saïd). 96 min. A good Celluloid Dreams print with English subtitles by Sionann O'Neill. Viewed at Orion, Helsinki, 14 April, 2005. Two high school lovers murder their classmate Saïd, get lost in the wood and trapped in a violent hermit's cabin. It's about blood and sex, hetero- and homosexual. Completely different from Tarantino, in the tradition of Honeymoon Killers, John Waters, and David Lynch, maybe, but different from them, as well. The strange animal inserts remind us of The Night of the Hunter. Technically apt, yet I have a hard time connecting on any level.

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