I saw Revanche last night at the Sydney film festival and aside from the out of focus image and at one point the movie reel stopping mid-film it was an amazing experience.
Eastern Europe is captured so beautifully. A seemingly quiet and simple countryside (reminiscent of 'blue velvets' suburbia) is contrasted amazingly to the usual city stereotype of brothels, human trafficking and crime.
The director (Gotz Spielman) lingers on certain images that at first, seem to be just for aesthetic purposes but as the film continues; the alleyways, the park benches etc are all extremely significant to the main character (Johannes Kirsch) journey.
The centerpiece in this film though, is definitely the characters. The main character Alex (Johannes Kirsch) is commanding in the lead. Although he is incredibly unlikeable, you cant look away and eventually begin to sympathize with him. By the end of the film you see an amazing evolution.
The wife, the prostitute and the grandfather all are amazing as well. The wife (andreas lust) has some brilliant dialogue in particular and she is just so interesting. I found her to be very real with flaws and temptations that we can all relate to (even if we wont admit it).
There was some action. There was some comedy. The ending was SENSATIONAL. I didn't know which direction it was being taken and became a little impatient but as the screen went black (intentionally, not reel fault) I was incredibly satisfied.
See this movie. It was great.
