Dante 01 (2008)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Marc Caro

Writers:

Marc Caro (screenplay)
Pierre Bordage (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2 January 2008 (France)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Deep space, at the edge of the galaxy. The future. A new prisoner arrives on top security prison ship and psychiatric research unit Dante 01...

Plot Keywords:

Space | Prison | Criminal Psychiatric Institute | Space Station | Christian Film

Cast

Lambert Wilson	...	Saint-Georges
Linh Dan Pham	...	Elisa
Simona Maicanescu	...	Perséphone
Dominique Pinon	...	César
Bruno Lochet	...	Bouddha
François Levantal	...	Lazare
Gérald Laroche	...	Charon
François Hadji-Lazaro	...	Moloch
Lotfi Yahya Jedidi	...	Raspoutine (as Lotfi Yahya-Jedidi)
Yann Collette	...	Attila
Dominique Bettenfeld	...	BR
Antonin Maurel	...	CR

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, some disturbing images, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

France:Unrated (with warning) | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | USA:R | Australia:MA

Company:

Eskwad

Trivia:

Visa d'exploitation en France: N° 114497

Fantastic movie.

I had the pleasure of watching this movie yesterday and wasn't disappointed. I had been waiting for Caro's next work with great anticipation and I consider this movie to be a success on every level, with the only disappointment being that it didn't seem to have been released in many theaters in France, I hope it'll fare better in other countries.

This movie isn't an epic by any means. The story takes place in a psychiatric facility orbiting around a burning planet deep in space, and populated by little more than a dozen people, so the scale is pretty intimist. The patients of this space hospital are all death row inmates who have agreed to serve as guinea pigs for behavior-changing treatments in order to win a few years of life. The routines of the whole compound are disrupted when a new patient with intriguing abilities (Lambert) arrives, escorted by a new doctor (the beautiful Linh Dan Pham) ordered to test new treatments on the inmates.

You will soon realize upon watching the first few minutes of this movie that everything that happens in it is a metaphor, and that's all I will say about that in order not to spoil anything.

I have nothing but praise for all the elements of this movie. The actors are top notch (especially the inmates), as well as the direction, the art direction and the story, which all together manage with great success the most important aspect of any movie of that kind: to suspend our disbelief. The immersion was complete and I have not for one second questioned the how's and why's of the setting. The movie didn't feel too long or too short, and the ending was satisfying and brought a sufficient amount of closure while still leaving many aspects of the story open for personal interpretation.

Overall a great experience that I would recommend to anyone.