Appartement zéro

I saw this movie 25 years ago and liked it. I learned the movie trivia game that they play throughout the film and have played it myself many times over the years. This is a very good movie. What it tells the viewer is that there are many sides to each person. We are all multifaceted and can't be defined by a single characteristic. This is so different than current films that seem to instantly define characters. " He's gay, she's black, they are violent etc." It's probably my favorite performance by Firth. Bochner is also excellent and watching it again made me wonder why he never had a bigger movie career. All of the tools were there. It's definitely worth a look see. Highly recommended.

I had a strange memory of this film. Unsettling. Frightening. Every so often I meet someone who's a devotee of Apartment Zero and I kept meaning to see it again. Well, last night, it happened. It took me completely by surprise. Clearly the first time I saw it I hadn't venture "into" the apartment. This time I did. Colin Firth is, is, I can't find the words. He creates a character I've never seen before in a movie. The sort of character you keep at arms length. Too creepy and gloomy but before you know it, you're with him, you feel for him, you start to recognize him until you say, wow, that's me. Hart Bochner is pure perfection as the catalyst with the mask. The characters in the building, the Greek chorus, are a xenophobe's nightmare. Elegant, brittle, hilarious and yes, terrifying at times but look at it. Where is the terror coming from? It points in one direction but you go there on your own. Oh yes. This Zero is a Ten.

I recently went through a sudden bout of Colin Firth obsession and was digging through his filmography when I came across this hidden gem. Apartment Zero is a gripping, intense, offbeat and immensely original psychological thriller filmed three decades ago. Some of the preferred techniques (like the frequent use of super close-ups and the style of background music) employed here might be reminiscent of vintage films from a bygone era. Much like in fashion, pop music and pop literature, certain cinematic styles, themes and techniques went in and out of fashion throughout time, sometimes induced by influential works of the time, changes in social and ideological landscape, or technological advances. This gives works from a certain era a decided "look" and "feel", which may seem dated when revisited decades later, though I do not think "dated" is necessarily a bad look. Retro can be cool and inspired. Since this film is older than me and I'm not much of a cinephile, I have no idea if this film was viewed as original and unusual when it first came out as it is now, or if films of that period all had that similar style or theme. But I can't help but be hopelessly pulled into the story and immersed in the protagonist's strange and oddly specific world, even though there was no flashy CGI or overly picturesque scenery and set pieces to grab one's attention at every turn. Like many reviewers has said before, the acting by the main characters and the supporting cast was superb. And there was nothing else to distract viewers from the characters and their story. Colin Firth gave an indelible performance that made his typecasting later in his career seem much more lamentable. Nothing was wasted, and the entire thing was a consistent, coherent, and unexpectedly convincing piece of story-telling. Since I watched this film during a Colin Firth binge, I can't help but notice the evident changes in the style of his films throughout the years, which I think more or less mirror the stylistic evolution of filmography as a whole in the past three decades. I'm not saying these changes are bad, but I do regret that films like this are less likely to be made or enjoy box office success nowadays.

I couldn't speak for quite a while after the movie was over. I had been taken for an emotional ride and I was totally unprepared for it. Colin Firth is extraordinary in his tragicomic creation. Firth manages to find a "shape" for his character's insecurities. It is moving and funny, creepy and never before seen. Can you name a character like Adrian in another movie? Someone made the comparison with Roman Polanski in "The Tenant" and although I understand, I disagree. There is a flash of intellect in Firth's Adrian that made the character, for me, totally real. I know that guy and that thought alone is disturbing. Hart Bochner's Jack is perfect as the catalyst, the tempter because when he's looking at Adrian we can break through the darkness and realize that he's as human as Adrian. The Apartment Zero is populated by a multinational chorus who, individually, will give in to the stranger. Am I confusing you? Bits of Pasolini's Teorema as well as Harold Prince's Something For Everyone and at the same time light years away from both of them. A true original.

A claustrophobic, anxious environment that is the setting for this film. Adrian, the resident of Apartment Zero, has created within that space a controlled, sanitized existence into which the outside world cannot penetrate. He purposefully avoids intimacy of any kind, preferring to absorb himself in a celluloid reality of male screen idols (Montgomery Clift, James Dean) and classic American movies. The outside world begins to close in on Adrian after his institutionalized mother dies and the necessity of having a cash-flow forces him to rent one of the rooms in his flat. The prospect of a suitable flat mate is grim until Jack walks into the room. As Adrian puts it, Jack possesses a certain "James Dean je ne sais quoi." Jack turns out to be a chameleon of a man, who is also a quick study of human weakness and insecurity. In a short time, Jack has Adrian, along with the other lonely residences in the apartment complex, dependent upon his affections.

While the film itself feels a bit dated after more than twenty years, and it takes its own sweet time to explore its possibilities and eventually assume its inevitable direction, there is much to relish along the way. There's no real need for a cross-dresser in the story, for instance, but the film would be diminished without him. Since 1988, we've seen Colin Firth emerge as a kind of coolly aloof and vaguely mournful romantic hero in just about anything he does, but here he is cast as a young man with what feels like the early onset of dementia, which certainly makes for a change. Meanwhile, the weirdness of his handsome and self-absorbed apartment-mate (Hart Bochner) gives an edge to their relationship that compels a kind of helpless fascination, always defying predictability.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10.