Film
THE TIME OF THE WOLF (LE TEMPS DU WOLF) (15) 113min «u
Frequently science fiction is about the sophistication of technology. But let's face it. it's more fun when it is about a complete technological breakdown that results in a return to primitivism: Planet of the Apes and Logan '5 Run come to mind. But usually the dystopia present has a clear cause: nuclear war, a food crisis, a time warp. But director Michael Haneke reckons he ‘didn‘t know enough about the genre to be able to avoid or seek out' the genre’s tropes.
What interests Haneke more in this tale of a mother (Isabelle Huppert), her two kids and a besieged holiday home is how people survive in a state of literal and figurative darkness. Like a number of other filmmakers in recent years (noticeably Godard, Kiarostami, Carax and Grandrieux) Haneke turns darkness into a phenomenological probe. What can we see in these incredibly dark images? Our problem is also the character’s problem. In one scene Huppert searches for her son, Ben, who's gone missing from the barn in which they've been sleeping. With nothing but a burning branch to help her, we empathise almost too much as she fumbles in the blackness.
Obviously the use of low-lighting is hardly fresh in itself - horror films have been using it since the beginning of cinema, but Haneke seems part of a wave of filmmakers finding ways to capture their characters in existential and emotional crises reflected in the lighting. Grandrieux’s Sombre focuses on a nocturnal serial killer, and in Pola X, Carax illustrates the central character’s descent - and obsession with
his half-sister - through low-lit sequences.
For all his grand illusions, though, Haneke knows that his use of shade is simply realistic: in this apocalyptic world there is no electricity. But it serves as a broader metaphor for a communication breakdown when people can no longer expect multimedia co-ordinates to make sense of their lives. This leaves room here for all sorts of superstitions and belief systems exemplified in one harrowing scene in which Ben looks like he's going to sacrifice himself to an obscure faith. This is hardly Haneke defending the media as a source of truth, but the
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Darkness and madness
characters do seem caught in a wider sense of darkness in which hearsay has such a key place. Haneke, of course, is always claiming he‘s no polemicist, but there’s a moral rectitude that usually hints at the despairing (Code Unknown, The Piano Teacher) but that gains ethical ambiguity by the depth of a performance (Huppert in The Piano Teacher), or the insistent rigour in the technique (the long take in Code Unknown and in this film). This might not be the mighty Haneke at his best, but as always. this is of dusky significance. (Tony McKibbin)
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SUBURBAN REVENGE TRAGE’IDY MYSTIC RIVER (15) 137min «o
Cirnt Eastwood‘s frrst trln‘ srnce the fornudarc mess that was Blood Libra xn'rzggles and struggles for breath under the uncrght of expectatron. Based on Dennis Lehane's best selirhg ll()\(‘,|. and set an a suburb of Boston rthat rn reality rs actuth a Hrsbanrc rwghbourhoodr My sfrc R/ver tells the stem of small tune hood Jrn‘rm Markun‘ Sean Penn and hrs two chrldhood friends: Da\e .Trrn Robbrnsr who was abused as a child. and Sean (Kenn Baconl. the local detectrre. \‘Vhen Jrn‘nh, 's 19- year-oid daughter goes mrsslng the past comes back to haunt these three huddle-aged men Wltll fatal results.
Eastwood rs a Stately self effaCrng drreCtOr but the old dog :3 gettrng a lrttie long rn the tooth for epics of this kind of en‘otronal range. The math problen‘ here rs
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that he rs not served well b1. Brran A Knlght's Tale Helgelar‘d’s screenplay. While ()l)0‘,’|l‘r(} all the rules of classic Chabrorran deceit. Helgeland seems reluctant to take the krnd of rrsks that ‘.‘.'()u|d take thrs beyond the l"lll‘tl£lll(}. Supertluous characters cr:).'.d each scene to lrttle effect and at trn‘es tnrs feels tco n‘uch eke a cross l)(‘.l‘.‘.’(3(?l‘. an rssueswed TV mode and an on-set pa't‘, .-.rth E;l$t‘.‘.‘()0(l and ms fan‘cus n‘ates The storylrne teers comcren‘sed latter v.-.rrnnrng acclarn‘ .-..th the audlences at Cannes. the trirt‘ was ‘.'.’|Tll(itéi‘.'.’ll fron‘ ‘.8.'rOLrS testrn'als to be (OOOIEOO
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I Gehera‘ release “00‘ P '7 Oct.
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (12A) 110min 0
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Contrived and depressing