juanmed Reviews

Déjà mort (1998)

Shakespeare on cocaïne...

[23 January 2001]

Cocaine, guns, porn flicks, and the french riviera. A bunch of young people on their way to hell, a tragedy with the human scope of Shakespeare, and without the wordly moral common sense he was bound to. A great film encompassed by the unstoppable desire of the characters, where it seems everything is going out of control. The score by Bruno Coulais underlines it, like a regretful and ambiguous complaint, suggesting the tragic beauty of young people being consumed.

One of the boldest, best french films of the last years.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999)

an anime masterpiece

[14 December 2000]

this film has been writen by Mamoru Oshii, to whom we owe the excellent "Ghost in the Shell". A reminiscent theme in his work, is the question of the self as opposed to the whole: does our body define us? In ghost in the shell the answer is "no" as the body dies, and the character survives, being "downloaded" into another body. Then again, In jin-Roh the question asked is can our desire define us? the answer is "no" , for the character gives up his desire and kills his love to meet with the requirements of his kin. Oshii seems obsessed with these questions, and always finds the same answer, maybe it has a Buddhist bias, it is certainly a holistic view of mankind, breathtakingly scary and real. A must see.