**1/2 stars (out of 5)
Directed By:
Robin Campillo Starring:
Geraldine Pailhas,
Jonathan Zaccai and
Frederic Pierrot Language: French with English subtitles
Synopsis:
Without rhyme, reason or warning, the recently deceased residents of a small city in France flood the streets. The government, intellectuals and the families of these returnees have no idea what to do with them. They are temporarily placed in emergency housing and studied until something can be decided. Meanwhile, the returnees are all secretly scheming in dimly lit conference rooms in the middle of the night.
Review:
This film was billed as the Avant-Garde zombie film for good reason. Dont expect the typical brain-eating mindless monsters of
George A. Romero.
This film was much more of a supernatural drama in the spirit of Waking The Dead.The pace of this movie is almost painfully slow. Every time it seemed that it would pick up and start to piece the puzzle together, it was dragged down in a very frustrating fashion. About three-quarters through the film, it seems as though the writers actually stumbled into a very smart and interesting twist. But, in the end, you are left with far more questions than answers.
The acting was sufficient, if not better. The character of Rachel as played by Geraldine Pailhas was especially well executed. The problem was that good acting without proper character development will never work. The audience simply cannot care about the character.
If there was one redeeming quality of this movie, it was the overall cinematography. The images were subtle and graphic simultaneously. The lighting, color and angles all contributed to a very good looking film.
Overall I would recommend this film to anyone that happens to be teaching a cinematography class. Everyone else would serve themselves better to simply skip it.