Dark Arc

saw this other night on Netflix and it was an interesting surprise. Coming from European cinema it is very different from most American independent films with some provoking ideas about art and imagery in the time of the internet.

the story of a critic of art trying to affect the perceptions of a sort of artist (graphic artist), using an attractive make-up artist who is also an escort..but also maybe being used.

It is offputting at times, but I think this is the intention and a bit slow in sections, but there is always magnificent visuals to soak in and orchestra type music. I also like this song over the closing credits, sort of David Bowie punk.

Caught in my Netflix queue - this is one one wacked art flick with a great idea at it's core...it's all about the images that most stick in our brain, and the movie itself provides a ton of them.

The pacing lags a bit here and there, but overall I found this a very interesting indie film which was refreshingly different from most of the independent films that I see. It is a genuinely challenging movie.

Very solid acting from the three leads, and some extremely black humor in places, especially at the outrageous climax.

For something off the beaten cinematic path, I would recommend it.

Also very good music throughout, which goes with the impactful images.

I am a fan of art cinema and I found this Canadian DVD very different and interesting. It is slow and poetic in places, and not for all cinematic tastes, but once it got going it really held my attention. It is a challenging to describe film, but I would say something along the lines of a seductive artistic mystery noir. With weird humour. I liked the idea of weaving a film around the concept of the "Charged Image", those few visual perceptions we have which really embed in our memory and consciousness. This notion is taken to the extreme, in almost a comic way. And the film has an exquisite look, and visual moments to match this idea. It also has a really amazing ending.

I will watch this film again.

Big fan of Zukovic's "THE LAST BIG THING", which I initially saw during the peak of the 90's Indie era. I just bought "DARK ARC" on Amazon, and it's the kind of indie they really aren't making anymore, with a thought-provoking concept and a real strange tone that starts off darkly comic and turns to pitch black tragedy by the end.

It's densely wordy and slow at times, but this will appeal to some who want something different than the low key naturalism which seems to be the de facto style in most indie's today. The pace is uniform though, and the visual schema holds constant delights. And the actors are all on board with the style, with particular mention going to a mesmerizing actress with the very apropos name of "Sarah Strange".

I'm only sorry here to disappoint the reader on whose recommendation I sought what I can only describe as The Room of dark, self-referential movie fiction. That isn't so accurate, since this guy is consciously striving for effect, it's just that the effect is as ridiculous.

The camera and production design are at a basic TV-level of imagination, there is no broader adventure in the eye.

There are a few weird costumes and shots framed around images, but they are as artistic a gesture as passing around flyers for your friend's art gallery.

The main threads in the story revolve around watching, images, and sexual pull to memory, ostensibly the same dark and noirish stuff that Lynch deals in. Robbe-Grillet before him. All of which I like in films. But the thinness of obvious ideas compared to their overstating, the amused wordplay ("I'll pass on being Pasiphae, I don't like bulls or bullish men" "Slink your slickness into the kitchen and get us libations"), the sense of a mere eccentricity pretending aloofness while dressed in pink, it's all so art school-ish for my taste.

Overall, the effect it has on me is like getting a papercut from a book on poetry and thinking I was on dangerous and poetic adventure.