Jaco Van Dormael
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Other movies, like Sliding Doors and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance, have explored similar ideas, but Van Dormael pushes the conceit close to its breaking point, depicting parallel-lives-within-lives.
Amélie (2001)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
influenced The Brand New Testament (2015)
Visuals Themes
Van Dormael tiene algunos momentos inspirados dentro de la película, pero su pretensión de subversión e iconoclasta esta mucho más cercana a una burda melosidad jeunetiana (Amelie, 2001) que la elegancia y aguda sobriedad de la brillante La Voiee Lacteé (1969).
If you were to take the charm and playful visual language of Jean-Pierre Jenuet’s Amelie and pair it with a blistering satire of religious dogma, the end result would look something like The Brand New Testament, a new film from Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael.
La nefastez divina demuestra que la desatada fantasía burlesco-poética de Van Dormael, tal como antes lo hizo sobre la reivindicación de los perturbados a perpetuidad de Toto el héroe y de los incapacitados de El octavo día, delira ahora en definitiva y de a huevo sobre el tema de las vidas posibles, ya no referidas a un personaje plural (el decadente centenario del amor loco inextinguible Mr. Nobody), pero siempre lastradas y hechas posibles para poblar el mini-macrocosmos jocosamente gratuito de una deliciosa minipelícula cómica sobre el castigo postrero vuelto del revés y mal ensamblado que se desvía durante casi dos horas hacia una arbitraria macropelícula etérea sobre la recolección de seis nuevos improbables apóstoles lunáticos que se le escaparon a la Biblia, seis de seis, cada uno merecedor de su propio Evangelio según Fulana o Zutano, añadiéndose por turno al cuadro La última cena de Da Vinci que orna el comedor de Dios, a saber: la linda solitaria manca y generosa sexual Aurélie…
There’s so much comic and philosophical potential to be explored in the idea of a world free from the shackles of religion and from fear of death, but Van Dormael opts instead for trite epiphanies and sub-Amélie whimsy, with a dismally regressive view of male and female characteristics being laid bare throughout the film’s increasingly tiresome episodes.
Without it there would have been no Amélie, no mystical-plastic-bag scene in American Beauty, and countless whimsical commercials and music videos would have had to steal from elsewhere.
It's quite sweet and gentle and tries at times to be profound, as if the crew has been shown Amelie on a loop.
Naturally for a film this steeped in its own construction, there are oodles of film references, from Lars von Trier's "Europa" to "Harold and Maude" to, most bizarrely, "A Woman Under the Influence," in a squirm-inducing scene in which Polley's depressed housewife joins their daughter's birthday party and proceeds to make herself into an embarrassing dancing child.
This quirky indie buddy movie’s basic premise strongly recalls the largely forgotten Belgian dramedy The Eighth Day , for which Daniel Auteuil and Pascal Duquenne (who likewise has Down syndrome) jointly won Cannes’ Best Actor prize back in 1996.
Naturally for a film this steeped in its own construction, there are oodles of film references, from Lars von Trier's "Europa" to "Harold and Maude" to, most bizarrely, "A Woman Under the Influence," in a squirm-inducing scene in which Polley's depressed housewife joins their daughter's birthday party and proceeds to make herself into an embarrassing dancing child.
In some of these realms, writer-director Jaco Van Dormael's film is a fancifully high-concept weepie that, at its best, occasionally recalls the sweeping and heart-wrenching melodrama of Somewhere in Time and The Fountain .
Naturally for a film this steeped in its own construction, there are oodles of film references, from Lars von Trier's "Europa" to "Harold and Maude" to, most bizarrely, "A Woman Under the Influence," in a squirm-inducing scene in which Polley's depressed housewife joins their daughter's birthday party and proceeds to make herself into an embarrassing dancing child.
A psychiatrist tries to unlock his mind with hypnosis, while a journalist tries to pry out his life story for the record but is left, à la the reporter in Citizen Kane, with more questions than answers about who this man really was.
This is the type of film French/Algerian star Daniel Auteuil has specialized in in France, with films like "My Best Friend," "Conversations with My Gardener" and "The Eighth Day," mismatching an advantaged Frenchman with a social inferior, and the racial difference introduced here may make some American critics call 'foul' citing the 'Magical Negro,' but the character of Driss isn't played for sentiment.
In this cosmic, multi-dimensional, romantic take on "Little Big Man" (the film also resembles "Inception," Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Dark City" and even one scene from Leos Carax's "Pola X"), Jared Leto gives an exceptional performance as a man whose life spins out dependent upon his different choices, leading him to conclude that not making a choice leaves more possibilities.
The old man, played by Jared Leto in heavy Little Big Man makeup, is the last dying person, since everyone else in the future is “quasi-immortal” thanks to triumphs in stem-cell research.
Sandman” may be a Back To The Future homage, among many other homages.)
Aside from allowing Dormael to play around with CGI and create a futuristic vision that seems lifted (with a smaller budget) straight from "The Fifth Element," there is actually no plot-driven basis for the film to be set in 2092 other than to give Nemo/Mr.
But viewers will likely be reminded of more linear commercial fare such as Sliding Doors or Run Lola Run, in which we see chance and choice create parallel or alternative outcomes for the character.
In some of these realms, writer-director Jaco Van Dormael's film is a fancifully high-concept weepie that, at its best, occasionally recalls the sweeping and heart-wrenching melodrama of Somewhere in Time and The Fountain .
Sometimes it works out really well, such as in the masterpieces “Cloud Atlas” and “The Fountain,” but sometimes the focus gets away from the artist, and what we end up with is what I referred to it as from the start: a fascinating mess.
But, unfortunately, a number of other films have come along in the interim of the long-delayed film—"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," "The Fountain," "Inception,""Cloud Atlas"—that have also flirted with the territory of time, memory, fate, destiny, and love.
Whatever the set-up or setting, the best road movies - The Sure Thing, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Midnight Run, The Eighth Day (Le Huitième Jour) - all have one thing in common: no matter how many times you've taken the trip, you always see something new along the way.
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021)
Directed by Alexandre Koberidze
influenced by Mr. Nobody (2009)
Visuals
With his cinematic imagination operating at peak potency, Koberidze’s directorial feat summons the essence of Abbas Kiarostami’s early feature “The Traveler,” the trenchant voiceover of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amélie” and the musical agility of bygone silent classics — reproduced here in the stimulating instrumentals of composer Giorgi Koberidze.
As if the Cloud Atlas -level juggling act weren’t enough, Belgian writer-director Jaco Van Dormael throws in a hypnosis conceit and, courtesy of Nemo’s sometime work as a writer, fiction within the fiction.
What could have been a confused jumble – like last year’s bloated financial disaster “Cloud Atlas” - is anything but in “Mr.
But, unfortunately, a number of other films have come along in the interim of the long-delayed film—"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," "The Fountain," "Inception,""Cloud Atlas"—that have also flirted with the territory of time, memory, fate, destiny, and love.
In other words, Mr. Nobody is this year's Cloud Atlas , and if the former is slightly less absurd, it's because it spares us the dubious spectacle of watching guest-starring celebs as they attempt to speak in an embarrassing futuristic caveman patois.
Sometimes it works out really well, such as in the masterpieces “Cloud Atlas” and “The Fountain,” but sometimes the focus gets away from the artist, and what we end up with is what I referred to it as from the start: a fascinating mess.
Mr. Nobody is like Cloud Atlas combined with a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
Movies about chance and fate, such as Forrest Gump and Amelie, have to be careful that their musings don’t trip over into preciousness.
If anything, some of Van Dormael’s pondering about the secrets of the cosmos—voiced by Leto in one version of Nemo’s life—could be said to anticipate the searching characters in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.
The Louisiana-born actor is mostly known for his roles in " American Psycho ," " Requiem for a Dream ," and " Lord of War " and Leto has currently been getting a ton of awards for his performance as the AIDS-stricken drag queen Rayon in " Dallas Buyers Club ."