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Reviews wanted on three new 'Canada only' releases

Old 01-27-02, 05:05 PM
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Reviews wanted on three new 'Canada only' releases

Has anybody picked up the following DVDs in Canada?:

Once Were Warriors (widescreen)

The Decline of the American Empire

Maelström (widescreen)

I'm already familiar with the films, just want to know what the quality is like.

Last edited by teorema; 02-02-02 at 12:17 AM.
Old 01-28-02, 02:50 AM
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Re: Reviews wanted on three new 'Canada only' releases

Originally posted by teorema
Has anybody picked up the following DVDs in Canada?:

Once Were Warriors (widescreen)

The Decline of the American Empire (widescreen)

I'm already familiar with the films, just want to know what the quality is like.
I have copies of the afforementioned two. I haven't actually had a chance to watch them though. They are on a short list of titles I've been meaning to review.

As for Decline of the American Empire, it's Full-Frame. I haven't opened my copy but I got a note along with the review copy stating this.
Old 01-28-02, 12:00 PM
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Thanks Mark, I'll be looking forward to reading your reviews of those DVDs when you get a chance to view them. I was told by A&B Sound that "Decline..." was widescreen so I'm glad that I didn't order it. Thanks again for the info.
Old 01-28-02, 04:39 PM
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I rented Maelstrom a while back and I seemed to remember it had an excellent transfer. Since I had to go to the vid store this afternoon, I had a look at the back of the case and it states (in french) that the transfer is anamorphic widescreen. So there you go.
Old 01-28-02, 11:39 PM
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Thanks, eXcentris, that's one to add to my wish list.
Old 01-29-02, 05:22 AM
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Originally posted by teorema
Thanks Mark, I'll be looking forward to reading your reviews of those DVDs when you get a chance to view them. I was told by A&B Sound that "Decline..." was widescreen so I'm glad that I didn't order it. Thanks again for the info.
No problem. I'll try and get to them this week. I've had Once Were Warriors and Decline of the American Empire since before their street dates and just got backlogged with other titles. Yes it's possible to have things get lost amongst a sea of discs.

As for Decline being widescreen.. It might be but my source at Seville tells me they wanted to do an anamorphic widescreen transfer but one didn't exist and the cost was too much compared to the sales the title would bring in. Seville even went to the Quebec government and tried to get them to contribute but to no avail. They tried though.

And on that note. I'm hitting the sack. Look for my review of TVA's Gangster No 1 very soon.

Mark
The Canadian Studio DVD Reviewing Whipping Boy
Old 02-01-02, 07:08 PM
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What are these movies about? I'm too tired to imdb them.
Old 02-01-02, 10:45 PM
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"What are these movies about?...

* Maelström

...a POV from the UK: http://www.insideout.co.uk/films/m/maelstrom.shtml

* The Decline...

(French, a very talky talkie - lots of subtitles to read ... unless you understand spoken Canadian French, which ain't nothing like Parisian French, believe me!): http://onfilm.chireader.com/MovieCap...AN_EMPIRE.html

* Once Were Warriors

...a woman's POV:
http://ellis.nebbadoon.com/docs/join..._WARRIORS.html

. . . . . .

Last edited by Hendrik; 02-01-02 at 11:12 PM.
Old 02-02-02, 09:54 AM
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Ah, that's a nasty review for "Maelström". How could you hate a movie narrated by a talking fish? As well as having the most exquisitely photographed abortion sequence! Rottentomatoes.com gives it an 83% fresh rating:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/movie-10000811/

If you want to see truly awful Québecois cinema try "Sous-sol" or the hideous "Elvis Gratton II: Miracle à Memphis".

Last edited by teorema; 02-02-02 at 09:59 AM.
Old 02-02-02, 09:58 AM
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Fathoming Meaning From a Talking Fish

BY STEPHEN HOLDEN (New York Times)

"Maelstrom" is probably the first romantic drama ever narrated by a smelly dead fish. What might a dead fish have to do with love? It has something to do with the ocean whence life springs. And as it turns out, fish figure prominently in the symbolic structure of this fine French Canadian film, written and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Its protagonist, Bibi Champagne (Marie- Josée Croze), is a beautiful and successful 25-year-old businesswoman. Virtually overnight, Bibi's sleek yuppie existence unravels, and she faces an acute spiritual crisis when she has a series of personal disasters.

Commenting on her travails, the craggy-voiced fish (Pierre Lebeau), the movie's philosophical voice, periodically punctuates the soundtrack of a movie whose strategy is to surprise us by taking abrupt surreal sidetracks. At one point in the story, when a character in a restaurant complains about the toughness of her octopus, the film goes on a wild tangent as the waiter complains to the cook who in turn calls his supplier, and we follow the path the octopus took to reach her plate.

As weird as it may sound, the movie's aquatic fixation is integral to its concept. For above and beyond telling a story, "Maelstrom" is a meditation on the disconnection between the glossy surfaces of high-end urban existence and the life-and- death realities they camouflage. The opening scene finds Bibi undergoing an abortion. The procedure is carried out with such a cool, clinical dispassion that she doesn't see what is removed from inside her, which is taken away and immediately incinerated.

Afterward Bibi, feeling desolate, is comforted by her best friend, Claire (Stephanie Morgenstern), who has had three abortions and who advises Bibi to "de-dramatize" what has just happened. Bibi's composure further unravels when her brother — who employs her in a business importing high-priced boutique items from Sumatra — fires her for losing $200,000 in a transaction. We also learn that Bibi's mother, now dead, is a legend in the fashion world. A glossy magazine called L'Avenir (The Future) interviews Bibi and photographs her posing as her mother for a cover story.

The final blow comes when Bibi, preoccupied with her problems, strikes a pedestrian while driving and blithely leaves the scene of the accident. Later she learns from the newspaper that the victim, a Norwegian immigrant who worked as a fishmonger, has died. Guilt-stricken and terrified, she drives her car off a pier in an act that's both penance and an attempt to erase any evidence.

For all the modern anomie that "Maelstrom" evokes, the movie insists there is a hidden connection between things. And when Bibi meets the dead man's son, Evian (Jean- Nicolas Verreault), a handsome frogman, their anguished tango recalls the dance of Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball."

"Maelstrom" is a deliberately unsteady mixture of stylistic elements. Some, like the recurrent images of turbulent water foaming at the bottom of the screen, are abstract. Others, like the abortion, are clinical. The talking fish chopped up by a blood-spattered fishmonger is Dadaist, while the swooning images of sunsets over water and the love scenes are intensely romantic.

The soundtrack also varies from the Dadaist (Tom Waits growling a lyric about drowning in the ocean) to the romantic (Edvard Grieg). Not all the selections are well advised. "Good Morning, Starshine" from "Hair," which recurs as a perky upbeat palliative, sounds annoyingly tinny and ends the movie on a shallow note.

What's sacrificed by the conceptual audacity is a sharp sense of character. Ms. Croze's Bibi never really transcends the stereotype of a yuppie cold fish (if you will), and the details of her family history remain frustratingly sketchy. But the film's iconoclastic mixture of elements is still a courageous attempt to ambush us by tearing through the surfaces of Bibi's life to conjure the gnarly essence of what lies beneath.

MAELSTROM

Written (in French, with English subtitles) and directed by Denis Villeneuve; director of photography, André Turpin; edited by Richard Comeau; music by Pierre Desrochers; art director, Sylvain Gingras; produced by Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal; released by Arrow Entertainment. At the Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 88 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Marie-Josée Croze (Bibi Champagne), Jean-Nicolas Verreault (Evian), Stephanie Morgenstern (Claire Gunderson) and Pierre Lebeau (voice of the fish).

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