Tuesday, July 15, 2003

I Stand Alone (1999)

Hrm. I stand on the fence about this one, the debut of Gaspar Noe (the pleasant French gentleman who made Irreversible). Certainly, there's a lot to admire about this film. Noe's compositions and uses of screen space are oft-striking, proving that he is indeed a born filmmaker. Even more impressive is his utilization of non-diegetic sound (I'm speaking of the infamous "gunshot jolts", an effect that kept me jumping even into the film's final sections). But the script's the thing, and I couldn't help imagining how much more effective the film would be (and, to be sure, what a different film it would become) if, instead of the constant splenetic rantings of the butcher, we heard nothing on the soundtrack. Just silence while watching the simple, stark shots of the butcher moving from place to place and trying to eke out an existence after a lifetime of bad choices. But god, he does go on. After a while, you just want him to shut the fuck up. Noe reminds me a lot of his fellow Frenchman Bruno Dumont (the maker of Life of Jesus and Humanite): Both are capable of greatness and may one day make a truly great movie... if they can rid themselves of their fascination with calculated shock value. I mean, come on. You've got our attention now, yes. So thrill us.

Grade: C+