Sunday, April 15, 2012

Livide, The Preening Swan, Happy End

There's not much activity going on these days. And why is that, you may ask. Answer: it's the Cph:PIX film festival. So there. I've already spent my precious time watching three films that didn't live fully up to the expectations of an amazing festival where masterpieces are shown. Or maybe I just have too high standards. Well, the first film I watched was "Livide", a film by the two French guys Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. They've previously directed and written the amazing "À l'intérieur" (also known as "Inside), but this time they apparently decided to get popular with the mainstream crowd and make a vampire-themed film. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind vampires. I loved "Hunger" and I was obsessed with the first season of "True Blood" before the focus shifted from sweaty Louisiana to boring supernaturals. Great start with creepy shadows and people who are clearly not what they seem. I love that stuff! I especially love it when all this creepiness will clearly soon turn into bloody, gory horror! However, with "Livide" we just get a vampire girl who can fly. Disappointing!


Maybe that's why I liked "The Preening Swan" so much better. At least it didn't hide from what it was all about. Also, in a weird way, it was a lot more scary than "Livide". Here's the synopsis: naïve Barbara is visiting her former boyfriend Howard, but is worried about the killer in a jester's costume, lurking in the shadows of the town, waiting to kill. She gets even more worried when she finds evidence in the house that Howard is the killer! However, he has a different version to the story. There's a tiny monster, he tells Barbara, in a box in the living room that comes out every Halloween to kill innocents. Kinda like that premise, so I went to see it, expecting weirdness and bad acting. I got both, but somehow the film knew how awful and kitschy it was. And with that in mind, I didn't have a problem with it. Sounds strange? I can't explain it any better. Sorry.



Finally I went to see Swedish drama, Happy End. Pretty good. Not bad. Unfortunately that's all I got to say there. The other people in the cinema seemed to love it, but I was left with a "meh"-experience. That's what I got, folks.


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