Item #: 4689DVD Category: FRENCH Format: DVD MPAA Rating: U

Woolly Rating: 6/10 (91 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

Kevin Rayburn

Aug 19, 2002 @ 18:25:8

Euro-Bore
I realize that criticizing a European art film leaves one open to charges of philistinism, but so be it. Fact is, I usually like non-narrative-focused European studies of the human condition. Luis Bunuel, Ingmar Bergman, Carl Dreyer and others are among my favorite artists. Recently some very fine work has come out of France from directors such as Andre Techine (Le Voleurs) and Patrice Chereau (Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train)--to cite just a couple of examples. And these are pretty heady and complex films, structurally and emotionally. I saw this Michael Haneke effort on DVD the same day I saw M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs." It's interesting to see two films at both ends of the spectrum that are equally bad. "Signs" was a piece of utter, audience-pandering Hollywood tripe. "Code inconnu (Code Unknown)" is an arid, pointless exercise in audience alienation. The film follows the lives of four characters (and their circles of families and friends) who "meet" during a street altercation at the beginning of the film. The rest is an Altmanesque "short cuts" showing how they all fail to communicate with each other in their daily lives. The film attempts to capture "the way we live now" in Europe by showing people at different strata of society. Issues of race and bigotry are occasionally touched on with effectiveness. Hypocrisy among all classes is addressed. You have seen this all before, in better films (try Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne's "La Promesse" for instance). Michael Haneke eschews the detestable audience implication games he engaged in in his most famous film "Funny Games" (which I also hated), in favor of Euro-chic minimalism. If you find anyone or anything in this movie to give a damn about, then you must be a better person than I. * CODE UNKNOWN review c. 2002 Kevin Rayburn earthgroove1@yahoo.com

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