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35 out of 47 people found the following review useful: Brilliantly conceived, directed and edited, but ultimately disappoints, 1 May 2008 Author: banapaulo from United Kingdom
Got the chance to see this at the Sci-Fi London last night in a packed cinema. As a big fan of City of Lost Children and Delicatessen I was suitably excited. The film establishes itself from the off with a very confident and distinct visual style and sense of (the deep, dark void of) space.A man arrives at a colony circling the fiery planet Dante, his name and history unknown. The ship is a base for psychiatric research on a handful of criminals, held as guinea-pigs and cut off from outside contact. The new man is seen as a messiah by some of the convicts, a trouble-maker by others, as the psychiatrists carry out routine and risky genetic experiments with their DNA.The film maintains a heightened feeling of tension and claustrophobia that is almost migraine inducing but transfixing. The editing is first rate and the film is well acted (Dominque Pinon, a Caro and Jeunet regular, appears). Unfortunately, the plot keeps promising to go somewhere but ends up disappearing down a black hole of messianic symbolism, and the dialogue is fairly bland and perfunctory. The violence is also almost sickening at times, though this may not bother some.This is a very confidently directed film that is clearly the unique vision of one very creative visualist, I only hope Caro could have applied his touch to better material and not surrender to pretensions of the religious and philosophical. I'm not suggesting that no film should try to tackle these things, but this film doesn't deliver enough of anything else. Many will call the film deep but ask them what it's about before you believe them.Worth seeing, though. Definitely deserves better marketing, but I wouldn't want to be the one to do it.
26 out of 36 people found the following review useful: Uncomplete movie, 11 August 2008 Author: bladou from Paris, France
Considering Caro's past work in the movie field, one can really look forward to see his latest film as director : Dante 01.Well I have to say I was for one really eager to do so and as I watched the movie, even as a full open minded viewer, some scenes were feeling just ... incomplete. The thematic is quite fine, a deep space station used as a psychiatric facility is exiting knowing the visual taste of Caro and the cast is well done too, but in the end every way you look at it the movie never fully unfold his potential.The story, as mysterious it can be, fail to be emotional or understandable at any level which is really disappointing considering you can't connect to any character at all - especially not with the main one - having a feeling of emptiness despite the solid material that could have been used in a much better way.The budget isn't large for this movie, that's obvious and still the director pulled some extremely good shots and some solid acting while being uneven at times (considering the budget, I can only guess that some takes as to be done only a few times), still, beyond that there is nothing to properly think of. As said, the story was somewhat promising at the beginning ... and sadly looks still promising at the end, it's a tale with a slow beginning and no real end or ground to rely on - an etheral narration with some pretty visuals and scenes empty of meaning.If I were to make a comparison, I'd pick "The fountain". They look alike in many ways, sharing a radical vision of movie-making and story telling but where the fountain kept me involved in the character development process and opened some thoughts, "Dante 01" just got me lost somewhere loosing the meaning of it's concept - or maybe I never got it in the first place.Overall, the movie itself isn't bad and you can see it without regrets it's still a nice movie but it's nothing more and that is probably the most disappointing thing about it : you don't feel more than looking at an OK film. Now, I do hope Caro will be directing again and with a better budget and more freedom over his uncompromising style, making this one just a trial step for better materials next time.
23 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Experimental Movie, 28 August 2008 Author: pmdawn from Rio de Janeiro
I'm usually a very 'nice' reviewer. The kind that usually overlooks some faults in movies because the 'experience' is truly what matters to him. So, 'tis with a heavy heart that I say; I have to agree with the majority of reviewers here.This movie feels like it was obviously cut short because of money or deadline issues, so it is painfully frustrating in that sense. The story is interesting, and the visuals and sound are astounding, although very influenced by older sci-fi movies (Alien 3 and Resurrection come to mind), but the religious overtones are rendered abstract (at best) by end of the movie.This is a beautifully well-made movie with awesome visuals, but it has to be taken as an experiment, just like inside the story. Or as an experience, if you prefer.That's because essentially, the last part of the movie was completely lame. And by lame I mean obviously rushed, incomplete and unfinished. Similar to "The Objective" in that respect, but even worse.So allow me to present this movie in another way - as an experimental movie. As an audiovisual spectacle for the senses. And as such, Dante 01 is a marvel.Having said that, the average casual moviegoer will probably not appreciate it in that sense and thus ask for a refund.
32 out of 60 people found the following review useful: Fantastic movie., 3 January 2008 Author: demicore (demicore@hotmail.com) from Toulouse, France
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.
7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Visually stunning, but feels like half a movie, 15 May 2009 Author: udar55 from Williamsburg, VA
So, there is this space prison filled with bald criminals...heard this one before? Corporate scientist Elisa (Linh Dan Pham) arrives on a prison ship with plans of using the felons as guinea pigs for a new DNA altering serum. Also arriving on the shuttle is new prisoner St. Georges (Lambert Wilson). Quickly thrown into the tiny populace, the prisoners notice something is not right with the new inmate when he begins miraculously healing other inmates.Marc Caro - co-director of the DELICATESSEN and THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN - makes his long awaited return to feature film-making but, unfortunately, this seems a step back. The film is visually stunning but the religious allegory heavy plot doesn't do it any favors as Caro seems to be mimicking 2001 and SOLARIS. This moves along at a pretty deliberate pace until an ending pops up that will make you scramble for the DVD menu, thinking you've inadvertently skipped a chapter. It literally comes out of nowhere and you can almost hear the money men pulling out of the project (reportedly last minute financial woes forced Caro to change his original ending). Interestingly, the US DVD has a 30-minute "making of" extra and co-writer Pierre Bordage mentions this was a project originally developed for Alejandro Jodorowsky. There is a great cast including DELICATESSEN lead Dominique Pinon and DELLAMORTE co-star François Hadji-Lazaro.
9 out of 15 people found the following review useful: A milestone: Science fiction discovers the Secret of Immortality for the first time on silver screen, 28 December 2008 Author: Cihan (Sean) Vercan (Victorydawn) from London, Ontario
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
The whole story goes by in a space shuttle which is being used as a medical research center, far away from the earth. 1 organization chief, 1 psychiatrist and 3 guardians are in charge of 7 convicts. Those convicts are chosen haphazardly from the world. They are all average human beings; some of them are murderers some of them are psychopaths. As the story progresses a genetic engineer woman comes to the space shuttle for a confidential experiment. While she was arguing with the psychiatrist on the case of conscience of making experiments over convicts' bodies, a new convict is been delivered to the space shuttle who is very strangely sick, dumb and hold on... No identity! This is Hint-1, he is identity-free. When I complete all the hints I found out from the film, I will explain them within the conclusion. Hint-2: One of the mad convicts began believing that this sick, dumb and unknown mankind is the Messiah sent from God; and he gives him a name after a saint. Hint-3: By time, convicts fall apart into two confronting sides and become against each other. 3 of them believe that the strange man came for help, the other 4 think that he brought only curse and set them against each other. Hint-4: After she gives a start to genetic experiments, the genetic engineer woman injects the immortality virus into some of the convicts' bodies via their operator genes of the cellular membranes. Right after she delivers them to their rooms, just before she is going to watch their behavioral change; our strange guy shows up and takes the immortality virus out of their bodies and eat it. He does this while nobody is awake. Thus he makes everybody thinks of him that he can heal people, and even he can vitalize a dead body. Hint-5: Soon everyone becomes believers of him. After a while the space shuttle loses its route and is dazed by the magnetic flow of a planet; then comes to a crucial point to enter an ultra energy sphere.Our strange guy wears an astronaut suit, jumps out to space,swallows all the energy of the sphere and sends the space shuttle back to the earth. Then at the moment he was swallowing the energy of the sphere, the space shuttle turns upside down, forms "T" and the scene becomes similar with the crucifixion of the Christ.When you watch the end, you can think that the strange guy might be the Messiah as the mad convict knew from the beginning.In fact who is this strange man? The strange man that has been delivered to the space shuttle without nobodies' knowledge of him, must be a spy of a world-based confidential organization(like CIA) or must be a missionary of a secret and forbidden futuristic project(like discovering the secret of immortality) of a non-profit organization. That way no computer no population data-based software will be able to find his identity. But which one is right? How do we know? Do we have to take a guess? Do we have to write a new scenario out of it, just to understand it? Directing and writing of this movie completely fails at this point, leaving viewers' minds confused.The second hint I found out shows that viewers have to believe that the strange man is the Messiah, since his name is credited as Saint Georges, officially.If this guy is the Messiah how come does he carry the same virus, the genetic engineer woman wants to inject to everybody? Is this a coincidence or a logical mistake? Plus, if he is the Messiah why does he need to carry a virus in his body to heal the wounds and to vitalize the dead bodies? At that point director Caro contradicts himself. The third hint I found out reminded me the life of the 3 main prophets who brought the scriptures of the 3 main religions, somehow! Also at the forth hint it reminds me that only prophets could have been able to heal people, somehow!!Rather than the final of the movie, the moment we understood the strange man has been sent there to prevent discovering the secret of the immortality must have been the actual final. Making everyone believe he is the Messiah-even the viewers- prevented humankind discovering the secret of the immortality. This is a clear failure of editing.Despite the fact that the best technical aspects are failed, sounds and visual effects were legendary. The music score controlled our attention in the movie. Art direction and cinematography was successful. Some more make-up may be needed for the blood scenes. In overall, plot was so effectively original for a feature film; seemed some inspiration from Russian "Parajanov's The Last Spring" with the Tarkovsky essences, and carried along within the well-known Alien genre space-horror cinema language it was not hard to watch.Dante01 is the next and futuristic step of its genre. This is going to spread so much inspiration for cinema lovers and sci-fi movie makers in future. I watched it on my laptop from just a 2 feet of distance to my eyes. If I had been watched it on DVD-player or a TV-stand, I would never have been able to understand what Dante01 is talking about.Pay a very good attention,rewind as much as you need for details, and turn off the lights while watching.It's the only way to catch the joy of it.
5 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Mysterious Virus Affects Convicts in Space - Pseudo Religious Sci Fi Movie, 15 March 2009 Author: julessimmond from United Kingdom
The whole story is set in a space shuttle which is being used as a medical research centre, far from the earth with a psychiatrist and a few guardians in charge of 7 convicts. Some of them are murderers some of them are psychopaths. As the story progresses a genetic engineer woman comes to the space shuttle with a secret experiment.A strange, mysterious new convict is delivered to the space shuttle who is very sick, dumb, bald and has no identity....One of the convicts begins believing that this sick, unknown man is the Messiah sent from God; and he gives him a name of a Saint. The convicts fall apart into 2 confronting sides and once things start breaking down the film becomes very enjoyable.I love strong character films. Only trouble is that it is slightly confusing when the genetic engineer woman injects the immortality virus into some of the convicts' bodies. just before she is going to watch their change and our strange mute guy shows up and takes the immortality virus out of their bodies by eating it.... creepyI felt this was a really enjoyable film but if you don't like Pseudo Religious meanings in a film this is not the one for you- I felt like there was going to be a monster but there wasn't so if you try not to expect some big monster reveal or aliens you'll enjoy it more! Enjoyable overall though and great acting and characterisation.
6 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Complete fiasco - Caro would have done better not to release this, 2 June 2009 Author: Dante 02 from United Kingdom
(this is spoiler-free) I count "Delicatessen" and "La Cite des Enfants Perdus" as some of my favorite movies of all time. Interestingly, I didn't know Caro had directed this and watched it by accident. I therefore didn't have any expectations set, but in theory it should have been a good surprise.Well, it wasn't. I heard the movie was released with zero press and that Caro disowned it, blaming the editing. Not surprised one bit - it's a terrible movie indeed and I'm flabbergasted someone like Caro could be behind it.The storyline is laughable - leave your brains at the door please. The ending in particular is just pathetic - it's as if they had run out of ideas and came up with the most ridiculous deus ex machina of all time. I was left gob-smacked for all the wrong reasons.Worst of all, and inexcusably, Dante is a visual failure. Several bits of footage are reused at times, stock-footage style. It's very noticeable, and incredibly grating towards the end. The whole thing has the feel of a cheap afternoon TV movie despite the decent CGI.The actors are actually quite good and do the best they can to salvage this disaster. However, they can only do so much and frankly, there's very little to salvage.Avoid.
8 out of 16 people found the following review useful: Thumb down, Caesar!, 7 August 2008 Author: apeternier from Switzerland
OK, something in this movie is good: it features a very good stage designing and actors are doing their job pretty well. That's all.The plot (very flat, slow and tedious) tries to sell some religious symbols and concepts (crucifixions, agnus dei qui tollis peccata mundi, Saint George and the dragon. etc.) with some science fiction recurrent topics. The setting is looking strictly like Alien I (for the closed environment space ship) and Alien III (for the space penitentiary concept and the bunch of baldy prisoners and prison crew). Computer graphics have been used for representing the evil thing inside prisoners, looking like a jellyfish (or again a first-stadium Alien). These animations have been used, reused and used again during the movie and look always the same, starting annoying the audience after a while. Characters' names sound ridiculous (Caesar, Moloch, Persephone, etc.) and look like a poor cultural-oriented try to mimic some classic elements from ancient comedies and poetry. With no success. There's no plot continuity between some scenes, mainly between the fore-last (sacrifice of Caesar) and the last one (with our hero jumping into the space to perform some kind of redemption of the hellish planet, like Jesus sacrificing himself to redeem humanity...). The last scene is also reusing some elements introduced in 2001 a Space Odyssey, like the Ligeti-like soundtrack and some psychedelic CG effects.In conclusion: a poor film telling one more time the same story and using one more time the same clichés.
7 out of 15 people found the following review useful: In Space, no one can hear you be French!, 16 May 2009 Author: JoeB131 from United States
Okay, I should realize one should avoid French films at all costs.The plot of this movie is that they build this really complex space station to house all of seven criminally insane inmates. A new scientist comes on board the station to introduce a nano-technology cure for their insanity, only to discover one of the inmates is in fact a super-being who can resurrect himself and others from the dead. Her mandate is to make it work even if she has to kill them all.The characters are all given evocative names from mythology and history... Sadly, they really didn't do much more to make them more distinctive. In fact, their heads are shaved and they all wear the same clothes, making the characters even harder to distinguish from one another.The ending makes not a lick of sense. Is there some rule that if you are making a pretentious Sci-Fi film, you need an ending that doesn't make a lick of sense?
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