- DON'T LOOK BACK (DVD MOVIE)
Alex and Marcus are a couple whose story is told over the course of a fateful evening in a series of long takes. An emotional odyssey that unspools in reverse from gut-wrenching violence to sweetly observed moments of sublime tenderness.System Requirements:Starring Albert Dupontel Monica Bellucci Vincent Cassel Directed by Noe Running time: 97 minutes Copyright Lion's Gate 2003Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:Â ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating:Â NR UPC:Â 658149815926 Manufacturer No:Â ST8159D
Irreversible begins with the closing credits running backwards before the film begins (or ends) with Marcus (Vincent Cassell) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) being escorted out of a gay S&M club by the cops, Marcus with his arm broken and Pierre in handcuffs. The "story" proceeds to unwind in a series of single-take scenes that unfold
Memento-style, with each scene giving more cont! ext to what we have seen previously. Each scenario depicts actions, dialogue, incident, behavior, and circumstances that the lead characters might have wished didn't happen, ranging from extreme violence through awkward social situations to mild embarrassment. The central character (and possible dreamer of this whole what-if story) emerges as Alex (Monica Bellucci), who suffers the worst in a very hard-to-watch rape sequence in an underpass. Semi-improvised, the scenes all have attack and power as themes, with later/earlier conversational sequences that suggest life isn't all sexual assaults in the dark, showing equal cinematic imagination with the horrors. Arguably, this is not a film most would subject themselves to twice, but it is something that stays in the mind for days after viewing, sparking far more ideas and emotions than most wallow-in-nastiness pictures.
--Kim NewmanThe latest triumph from Giuseppe Tornatore, the writer and director of the Academy Award(! R)-winning CINEMA PARADISO, MALENA is an utterly unforgettable! story o f a boy's journey into manhood amid the chaos and intolerance of World War II. In a sleepy Italian village, the most beautiful woman in town, Malena (Monica Bellucci), becomes the subject of increasingly malicious gossip among the lustful townsmen and their jealous wives. But only her most ardent admirer, young Renato Amoroso (Giuseppe Sulfaro), will learn the untold true story of the mysterious and elusive Malena! In a captivating motion picture nominated for two Academy Awards, the eventual struggles and hardships that Malena must bravely endure serve to inspire Renato to new heights of compassion, courage, and independence!When 12-year-old Renato, riding through his small Italian town on his new bicycle, sees the voluptuous Malèna, little does he know he's launching on an infatuation that will carry him through the tumultuous days of World War II.
Malèna begins as an enraptured depiction of Renato's adolescent mind--the way he stares, hypnotized, at Malèna's gar! ters pressing through the material of her tight skirt, or his frustrated rebellion against the indignity of wearing short pants--but soon transforms into a portrait of small-town prejudice. Malèna's looks spark lust and envy in the townspeople; when her husband dies in combat, the gossip only intensifies, to the point that Malèna is dragged into court to defend herself against accusations of adultery. When the women of the town refuse to sell her edible food at the market, Malèna has little choice but to become what she's been unjustly accused of being. At the end, a twist of fate turns this tale of longing and jealousy into a heartbreaking love story. Monica Bellucci exudes the can't-help-it eroticism that makes Malèna such a lightning rod for everyone's desires; she's like a more zaftig Isabelle Adjani. The movie seems to wander at times, but the ending has a powerful emotional impact. From the director of
Cinema Paradiso.
--Bret FetzerAn exquisite tribu! te to Italy’s most important contemporary model and actress.! As a mo del, Monica Bellucci graced the covers of magazines such as
Elle and
Esquire before achieving success as an actress whose notable appearances include roles in Bram Stoker’s
Dracula,
The Matrix Reloaded, The Passion of the Christ, and
The Matrix Revolutions. This glamorous volume features 150 of the most exquisite, sensual photographs of Bellucci throughout her twenty-year career taken by the world’s most important photographers, including Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton, Fabrizio Ferri, Richard Avedon, and Ellen von Unwerth. Monica Bellucci will appear in the 2010 Disney film
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with Nicolas Cage.Max, a young corporate hotshot, leaves his successful new world behind to search for his elusive lost love Lisa. His mad quest begins after he accidentally overhears Lisa's melodic voice speaking in the phone booth next door. But before he knows it, she is gone. Still, he is so elated that he abandons his plans, l! ies to his fiancee, and after leaving his luggage with his pal Lucien, sets off to find her. The hunt leads to a fabulous apartment, where he saves a girl from a suicide thinking that she is Lisa. But this girl, Alice is as drab and mousy as Max's Lisa is beautifully feline. Max becomes involved with Alice, unaware that she also dates Lucien.Meanwhile the real Lisa attempts to break free from her obsessive rich lover who may have murdered his wife. For this reason, she continues to avoid her apartment, which she has generously loaned to Alice. When these characters collide, the stage is set for a tragic denouement.French director Marina de Van follows her boldly audacious debut In My Skin with the thriller DON'T LOOK BACK, another brave, disturbing plunge into darkness that plays with identity and body doubles a la David Lynch s Mulholland Drive and David Cronenberg s Dead Ringers. Author Jeanne (Sophie Marceau of The World Is Not Enough and Braveheart) has her new novel tu! rned down and then begins to question everything. Was that tab! le reall y located in that corner? Is this my husband? Is that my child? In a daringly cinematic moment that employs state of the art special effects, the character morphs into an entirely different actress (the luscious Monica Bellucci of The Matrix Reloaded, The Sorcerer s Apprentice, and The Passion Of The Christ,) and embarks on a determined quest to uncover the secret hidden in her past that has undermined her world. DON'T LOOK BACK marks the next stage of a truly unconventional talent.
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