BY ROBIN D FOX
The sheer fact that this movie is obscure is nothing less than a crime. One of the finest and most beautiful films ever made. It’s simple, vague, kinetic, brilliant, and gorgeously lush with breathtaking emotional and visual flora and fauna. It’s the perfect melding of two near-perfect minds and, in my humble asshole opinion, may well be Tom Tykwer’s best film.
So the story goes that at the end of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s life (even after the bit where he stated he’d be retiring), he and Krzysztof Piesiewicz (Kieslowski’s most affective and important collaborator: together they are responsible for penning, not only Kieslowski’s legendary Trios Couleurs trilogy and The Double Life of Veronique, but also the massively important and absurdly ambitious {Spoiler Alert: they pulled it off} Dekalog, which is arguably the single most important piece of contemporary cinema actually produced {big words I know, but watch all ten hours of it and explain how I’m wrong, even Kubrick had to go on record expounding awe and he only ever got to read the script}).
These two heavy weights formulated another ambitious trilogy (known as Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory) that was to be written by them and each piece to be directed by someone else, they only ever finished the first script: this script.
Meanwhile in Germany, a new cinematic badass was emerging. He had already done the amazingly underrated Winter Sleepers (which had a strong Keislowski influence to it) and found world renown after the explosion of his insanely kinetic Run Lola Run. Following that film was the equally amazing, but much less seen, The Princess and Warrior. With these three movies, Tom Tykwer proved to be a confident new voice in modern cinema and joined the ranks of Danny Boyle and few others as our new guard of world autuers. Heaven would be his next film, the amazing combination of Tykwer’s fearless, eager youth and Keislowski’s complete otherworldly mastery. This hybrid was to be of great cultural significance; cinematic history being made (like a truer, grander, and more meaningful version of Spielberg making Kubrick’s A.I.).
And guess what? It was all these things and more. This movie is perfect, destined to be one of the greats. Guess how I got to see it? Found the off-brand DVD with a gawdawful cover design at the bottom of Blockbuster’s bargain bin for $1.50 American. American alright.
I asked them (Blockbuster) why they were selling it, as it was their only copy (not that I was complaining about the sweet deal, but this movie deserves more), they explained that Blockbuster was again, narrowing (I think he said streamlining, but..) their catalog, it was important for all stores to carry the same titles; recognizable titles, not the weirdo obscure crap (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the point).
Wow! Well, anyway, enough hate-blogging Blockbuster (they’ve dug their own grave), you can currently see this quiet masterpiece streaming on Netflix (and I’m sure many other HuluFlix-Prime-type things). Point is, it doesn’t matter how you see it, see it!
The film follows Phillipa (Blanchett) an English (like from England) teacher living in Rome, who takes the law into her own hands, committing a terrorist act in the name of justice. Her plan goes horribly awry when the bomb she plants, meant for a high end drug-dealer, kills a group of innocents instead. Quickly found by the police, Phillipa undergoes intense questioning by the authorities. She refuses to testify in Italian, demanding that she be heard in her native-tongue.
Filippo (Ribisi) a very sensitive young man and son of a high ranking policeman, is spending his first day on the job as a cop himself. Due to his ability to speak English, he is brought in as Phillipa’s translator. He quickly falls in love with her and begins to devise an amazing plan to set her free, which after the revelation of what she has done, may or may not be something she still wants.
This movie is powerful, perfectly shot, and visually intuitive. It riskily tells its story through manipulated visuals in a manner not seen outside of Hitchcock. It moves at a steady clip and, for all its silence, speaks volumes. It’s just glorious to behold. Blanchett and Ribisi have never looked better and the film’s locales are breathtaking (I want to live in this movie). I can’t ever stop recommending it to any and all. UTTER DAMN MASTERPIECE!
Note: The second piece of the trilogy was made by Danis Tanovic in 2005, known as Hell or L’Enfer. As it stands, it has not been officially released in this country.
Cinematic Ruminations 