rumfoord

I rather enjoy watching short films. Like short stories, there's seldom room for more than one good idea, so that idea has to be done well--in the hands of a skilled director, this is an opportunity rather than a limitation. Eros is a collection of three such films, ostensibly sharing a similar theme.

Wong Kar Wai's "The Hand" is the first film, and is a premiere example of what a short film can achieve. A concise story about a tailor and a high class prostitute, "The Hand" distills the love/lust theme into a beautiful, intoxicating gem. It is by far the best film of the bunch, perhaps even one of the director's finest.

Steven Soderbergh's "Equilibrium" is the second film in the trio, and features a few shots of a naked woman and a long and unrelated dialog between Robert Downey Jr and Alan Arkin. As far as I can tell the film has vanishing little to do with love, lust, passion or sex--and not much else to say about anything. Soderbergh, who's often hit-or-miss, misses big time with this convoluted short.

Michelangelo Antonioni's "Dangerous thread" (or however it is properly translated) is quite different from the previous two films. It is certainly on message, featuring lots of full frontal nudity and some sex, but doesn't really have much of a story. It actually feels like it is much closer to succeeding than "Equilibrium", if only because it seems to fit comfortably within its time constraints, but the vacuous plot leaves you bored.

In the end Eros is a missed opportunity. After the first film you expect a beautiful tapestry of ideas and perspectives, but it never materializes. Nevertheless, the first film is well worth watching--easily justifying a rental or screening.

I stand alone tells the story of a recently released ex-con butcher. Penniless, the butcher moves in with his pregnant girlfriend and her mother in northern France, based on the promise opening up a new butcher shop. His girlfriend, her mother, and his life prove to be too much for the butcher to handle--provoking him to horrifying violence. Fleeing to Paris, he tries to start over once again.

With highly stylized cinematography and editing, and wholly unnerving philosophical monologues from a character on the brink of total mental collapse, Gasper Noe gives us a stunning and realistic portrait of a hopeless and lonely existence. Though less compelling than irreversible, I Stand Alone is a concise and powerful film that's well worth watching.

Dead or Alive is a Japanese direct-to-video Yakuza flick with a lot of violence, a bit of sex, and a sprinkling of perversion. It begins with a kinetic montage of Yakuza violence, which sets the stage for a somewhat convoluted story about a policeman and a young group of hoodlums that are trying to cut into the Yakuza's action. The story progresses normally, and then ends, as the Director says, like a head-on collision with a 18 wheeler.

That ending though, is bad. The characters are flat--even more so than is usual in a Miike film--and largely bland, nothing like the amazing people that populate the cinematic worlds of Ichi the Killer or Audition. All that saves this film from being a consummate bore are Miike's trademarked scenes of surreal violence and perversion--and these are certainly here in full force.

This is an entertaining film for the genre and budget, but it's likely to disappoint those expecting another small Miike masterpiece.