ppanon-1 Reviews

The masked avenger: Lagardère (2003–2005)

Interesting retelling

[8/10 · 26 December 2005]

A retelling of Paul Feval's Le Bossu, with a number of changes. The intrigue is a little more complex in the uncut version, which allows a greater development of the friendship that develops between Lagardere and the Duc de Nevers. Instead of a gypsy circus, Lagardere hides with Aurore in Spain, taking occasional trips through Europe hunting down the surviving assassins of the Duke, looking for the shadowed killer whose hand was pierced by Lagardere's dagger after stabbing the Duke in the back. The only drawback I found was that the Duke's special fencing move, the Botte de Nevers seemed a little overused in the movie.

A very well done movie with a few twists and turns. Good performances by nearly all the actors (I found Yvon Backe's de Gonzague a little weak), with Clio Baran doing a good job as an Aurore with the wit, wiliness and feistiness of her natural and adoptive fathers. The dialogue is very well written and rendered, but you'll need to know French to understand it.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

A tribute to Japanese films and their descendants(Partial Spoiler)

[10/10 · 25 October 2003]

Kill Bill is clearly a tribute to Japanese live-action and animation films that have gone before. The violence is sudden and graphic as in many Japanese samurai movies, and the main character is effectively a ronin: a feudal soldier who has been wronged by her feudal lord and comrades-in-arms and swears revenge. Gore and blood fountains reminiscent of the animated First of the North Star (or even Monty Python) contrast with beautiful cinematography.

Even though the main characters are female, this is not a Charlie's Angels, fem-power, feel-good chick flick. The humor is less overt and more noir than Pulp Fiction. This movie is quite dark and opressive. The pacing is good, with pauses to let you recover from the over-the-top fight sequences. However the acting was at times a little weak. The result is at times ridiculous and at times sublime.

Other reviewers here have complained that the backwards exposition is a tired Tarantino gimmick. Ah, but maybe it's a trick? The first chapter of the movie tells of events that, within the movie's chronology, take place after the last scene. But maybe QT chose that exposition so that, by the time you have been through all the gore to get to the end of Kill Bill Vol.1, you have forgotten most of that first chapter?

When I heard the last line of the movie, uttered by Bill, I thought "That Tarrantino is a sadistic SOB leaving us hanging like that". When I got home 3 hours later, the other shoe dropped and I got the second possible meaning behind that sentence, the whole first chapter of the movie had new layer of meaning, and my expectations from Vol. 2 just shot up. That delayed a reaction doesn't happen too often to me these days and, if I'm right about it, those of you that haven't gotten it yet will be in for a big surprise when Kill Bill Vol 2 is released. And maybe you too will decide an apology to Tarrantino is in order for having called him names.