MAELSTRÖM A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
Can you name a film narrated by a fish? Got you stumped? Well, how about one whose subject is the killing of a fish, a fetus and a pedestrian? The answer to both of these trivia questions: Denis Villeneuve's allegorical tale, MAELSTRÖM.
The movie -- which will likely leave you shaking your head, thinking "What was that all about?" -- does have its moments. Strong on blue-tinted visuals, the movie works sporadically when the operatic music comes up. It also contains an impressive performance by Marie-Josée Croze, playing Bibiane "Bibi" Champagne, the lead enigma in a bizarre story that never amounts to anything. "Sophisticated" viewers who refuse to admit that they don't like it will likely call it "challenging" to their fellow sophisticates.
The film opens with a fish on a bloody chopping block about to be killed by a grizzled, blood-splattered fishmonger. The fish, who appears periodically throughout the movie, is both its narrator and its philosopher. "A young woman starts one long voyage toward reality," the fish tells us in the beginning. Later, he has more metaphysical reflections, such as, "He who has killed will be killed."
After the weird fish opening, the movie cuts quickly to Bibi's abortion. After watching a close-up of the remains of a fetus being sucked into a tube and then incinerated, we switch to Bibi, who is upset in an apartment. Her best friend, who says that she has had two, no three, abortions, tries to assure Bibi that she'll get over the emotional shock. Although the film is certain to drive pro-lifers mad, it turns out not to be about abortion, or about much of anything else for that matter. What it is about is about ninety minutes, which it makes seem like three hours.
MAELSTRÖM runs 1:37. The film is in French with English subtitles and in a little Norwegian without subtitles. It is not rated but would be R for sex, nudity and violence. It would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 17, 2002. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club (http://www.cameracinemas.com/club) of Los Gatos and San Jose.
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