Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 15, 1993 TAG: 9305150064
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Zentropa" is a hypnotic tale of intrigue set in postwar Europe and told in a nonrealistic style that's almost impossible to describe. If the Coen brothers' ("Blood Simple," "Barton Fink") had made a new version of "The Third Man" from a script by Ingmar Bergman, they might have come up with something like this.
Lars Von Trier's film is about a young American pacifist, Leo Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr), who comes to Germany in 1945. He naively believes that he can help rebuild the country he refused to fight against, and to that dubious end, he finds work as a conductor on the monolithic Zentropa Railways.
Before long he becomes involved with Zentropa's owner, Max Hartmann (Jorgen Reenberg), and his beautiful daughter Katherina (Barbara Sukowa). Their interest in Leo is mirrored by Col. Harris (Eddie Constantine), an American who suspects that the Hartmanns are part of a Nazi underground, the Werewolves. He wants Leo to keep tabs on the family.
Leo complies, and he finds that there are no moral absolutes in this world. Guilt and innocence are matters of subtle shadings of gray. Good intentions count for nothing as Leo becomes more deeply enmeshed in romantic and political conflicts.
But the plot of "Zentropa" is less important than the visual dream that Von Trier has created. On screen, it's a night-world of rain and railroad tracks, the constant rhythm of the steel wheels and Max Von Sydow's lulling, monotone voice-over narration. (Warning: if you try to watch this film late at night after a large dinner, you'll be asleep in five minutes.)
He uses some astonishing visual tricks -- bright selective colors within a black-and-white film, back projection, layers and still more layers of images -- to give the story a pervasive surrealistic ambience. Those expecting a conventional narrative will be put off by some of the techniques. But anyone who's interested in a serious, provocative approach to a complex subject should make an extra effort to find a copy of "Zentropa."
"Tetsuo: The Iron Man" is just as unusual, but it wanders much farther afield, so far afield that some videophiles won't know what to make of it.
The ad copy contains some of the most breathless blurbs you'll ever read: "hyperkenetic!," "convulsive!," "hyperventilating!" The film itself seems to be a Japanese science-fiction fantasy about a man who becomes metal. I say seems because, to be completely truthful, I didn't get it.
Even though this is not a beginning-middle-end plot, I never understood what was going on or what the action was supposed to mean. For openers, I couldn't keep the characters straight. Are there two guys and two girls, or only one of each, or could it be two guys and one girl? (The credits, in Japanese, are no help.) And what do the video images mean?
In any case, the story seems to begin one morning when this fellow looks in the mirror and finds an aluminum zit on his cheek. He pops it and blood spurts everywhere. Then before you know it, he's being chased around a subway station by a woman who's got metal goop on her forehead and hand, which she may have got by touching this second guy. When guy No. 1 goes back home to his girlfriend, more metallic accoutrements begin to pop up, and unless you're into some very kinky stuff, that's all you want to know.
Intentionally or not, though, what follows is more comic than shocking. Yes, it's all grotesque, violent and sexual but it's handled like an exaggerated silent comedy. The film was made in grainy black and white, and the special effects aren't particularly special. Imagine a fast-paced MTV version of that alternative classic "Robot Monster," the B-movie featuring a guy in a gorilla suit and a diving helmet, and you're close to the mark.
Silly and inventive, yes. Shocking and memorable, not really.
Viewers who are more in tune to "cyberpunk" science fiction may better understand the conventions that filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto is working with. But if "Tetsuo" is representative of the genre, I can't say that I'm moved to explore it.
Next week: comedy, from Bob Hope to the return of the Bikini Carwash! The Essentials:
Zentropa:*** Buena Vista. 107 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, brief nudity.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man:*1/2 FoxLorber. 67 min. Unrated, contains graphic special effects, sexual material.
Both films are black-and-white and clearly subtitled.
by CNB