Reviews

This was obviously a very personal project for director Goiginger, filming some episodes out of the life of his great-grandfather (whom we get to hear for a few seconds just before the end credits). While most of the "story" happens during Franz's time in the Wehrmacht during WW2, it's not really a war story - it's a story about poverty and speechlessness. Many children had to leave their homes because the small mountain farms were not able to sustain the families, so Franz's fate was in fact pretty common in Austria (my father-in-law and my grandfather had a similar upbringing). The only scenes where grown-up Franz lets down his defenses are the ones with the fox, and then there's the last scene where he comes home, learns of his father's death and the effects a letter from the front had on the old man ... strong stuff, I don't want to go into details but that was a perfectely handled and hard-to-bear coda.

This movie is not for the faint-of-heart ... no, there's not much violence, and nobody is dying on screen, but the emotional impact is powerful and there's no levity at all. As to the acting, Franz was perfectly played by Viennese actor Simon Morzé who really buried himself in the dialect and taciturn character - all other characters are just support, played naturalistic and effective. And the foxes (of course, they had to train more than one for the scenes) were perfect, too, no wrong notes here.

The music was unobtrusive, flowing with the scenes but never taking over. The images were cut to 4:3, with rounded corners, so the movie's optic recalls those photographs from early compact cameras - the scenes from Franz's childhood were probably even colourgraded a bit to strengthen the effect, at least I got that impression.

Overall, highly recommended, one of the best movies out of Austria from recent years!

An excellent crime comedy starring two funny femmes, but it gets pulled down a bit by the fact that it seems only half finished ... the setup is ok with three involved parties (the gangster, the harmless and nubile protagonists, and the police) but it's not executed to the finish. The police seem to be set up for a bit of fun involvement but their story stops dead in its tracks about 2/3s in, so it's only two parties in the end - which makes the whole thing less intrigueing than it should be. This, together with the snappy running time (despite a muddy start) , makes me suspect the plot should have been a little more convoluted but got hit by budget considerations. (Compare for instance french comedy "Rebelles" which has a very similar theme but a third party)

This criticism aside, this is a well-executed crime caper with two nice leads which gets better the longer it lasts.

Enter the Void doesn't tell much of a story (the plot could have been squeezed in 10 minutes), but it offers an experience like few other films ... this is for people who find Aronofsky maybe a little bland and Cronenberg too silly; it's also a great date movie if your date happens to be a nihilistic buddhist junkie. The whole "plot" gets foreshadowed in the first minutes where Oscar's friend Alex tells him about what happens to the soul after death, according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. So, no big surprises that after Oscar's premature demise, we follow exactly those steps - but that doesn't take away any enjoyment; the scenes Oscar witnesses, the memories of his and his sister Linda's crual and/or tender past - it all makes for a truly mesmerizing piece of art. It's not only the images (quite revolutionary and visceral in themselves), it's the rhythm, the music (fantastic selection, with Bach's glassharped Air breaking the ice), the human brutality and the little spots of tenderness. And just when I was thinking the one thing the film couldn't offer me were any surprises, and Elton John would sing 'Circle of Life' (the scene with the pregnancy test), I looked at the watch and, what?! - there's an hour more?! I was hooked for good ... This is not an actor's movie, very little in the way of dialogue or development, and most scenes are filmed from above anyway, but the cast do their job and I was positively surprised by Paz de la Huerta whose Linda radiates a heartrending vulnerabilty I wouldn't usually associate with this actress.

There's not a single joke in this movie and very few sceens anyone would find funny ... so, as mentioned, as a date movie it really depends on your date - but if he/she likes 'Enter the Void', well - you're lucky, that's obviously a person worth knowing!