Venice Dispatch. 6.

Patrice Chéreau's Gabrielle, based on Joseph Conrad's The Return, proves to be an overambitious project that literally doesn't work on screen. The story concerns an upper class woman, Gabrielle (Isabelle Huppert), who writes a letter to her husband, informing him that she is leaving him for another man. She later returns home - "with the ink barely dry" on the disturbing dispatch. Jean (Pascal Greggory) is despondent and, as anticipated, drops the canister of spirits he is holding after reading the letter.

Part of the problem with the film is the decision to project letters and plot developments onscreen as text. The effect is poor, even embarrassing for its lack of ingenuity. So, too, is the cinematography by Éric Gautier, who tries to embellish the film with more virtues than it deserves. This is a theater piece, shot entirely indoors, with admittedly fine performances, but this is not enough. The film's promotional material contains a lengthy analysis by Chereau about the making of Gabrielle, particularly about working with the magnificent Huppert. This struck me as a compensatory treatise intended to stretch the film beyond its actual parameters. The attempt was unsuccessful and film received boos from audience, with most journalists in a state of bewilderment over the letdown. Establishing the upper class interiors of the 19th century setting seemed to have consumed all the creative attention of Chereau and the resulting story lacks relevance for today's audiences.

Directly afterwards came a screening of Takashi Miike's out-of-competition film The Great Yokai War (Yôkai daisensô), an epic and spectacular science fiction story based on Japanese mythology about goblins, or yokai. Miike also puts to paper an "explanation" about his film for fans raised on a steady diet of his other creations, notably Gozu and Audition. The story: Ten-year-old Tadashi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is chosen to be the "Kirin Rider," a distinction entitling him to obtain the great sword guarded by the Great Goblin of the Mountain. (This makes three films with magic blades at Venice 62: Seven Swords, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children). The Great Yokai War may or may not appeal to adult audiences; it's clearly a kid's flick. More power to Miike. Tadashi screams far too much when he is afraid, but then, so do several of the benevolent yokai. For balance, though, there is the cute and barely audible Sunekosuri, an enchanted cat-like pet. The film is a phantasmogoric epic, very loud, with many special effects, an assortment of yokai goblins and a cast of hundreds (no digital replication here). Their war concerns what happens to an unsustainable world that hasn't learned to recycle. On the dark side, is a Christina Aguilera look alike bad girl with a retro B-52 hairdo and the sinister black-tie villain she hope to merge with.

Posted by dwhudson at September 6, 2005 8:28 AM