Captive
(2012/First Run DVD)/The
Captive
(2013/A24/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Every
Man For Himself (1980 aka
Sauve qui peut (la
vie)/Criterion Blu-ray)
Picture:
C/B/B Sound: C+/B/B Extras: D/C+/B Films: C+/C+/B
Here
are some import films, old and new, about people stuck in situations
that are not as easy to escape as it may seem and not always because
of kidnapping.
Brilliante
Mendoza's Captive
(2012) is a drama based on a real kidnapping incident in the
Philippines that happened around the time of the events of 9/11/01
with a group claiming to be related to Osama bin Laden grabbing 20
guests at a hotel in the southern part of the country. Isabelle
Huppert is among them and gives a solid performance as a social
worker helping out an older missionary woman, but she'll need
everything she can to survive the often ugly situation as they are
taken on a crowded boat as Filipino forces quickly realize the
abduction and go after them to save them.
The
film wants to be a study of the situation, message that various
kidnappings are still
going on in the country (among many, of course) and reveal this
untold story that got lost in the shadow to he U.S. attacks. It is
well-done, but despite some good casting, directing, writing and use
of locales, becomes repetitive and predictable, yet I liked some
scenes enough to have you give it a look if interested.
There
are unfortunately no extras.
Atom
Egoyan's The
Captive
(2013) is the latest of a more specific cycle of kidnapping and
imprisonment of people, especially children as child exploitation
remains a worldwide problem, but this one has us dealing with the
subtly dark sides of people similar to who we have met in previous
Egoyan films. Ryan Reynolds is the good father whose daughter is
nabbed when he goes to a local diner to get them food for just a few
minutes and she goes missing for years. He is devastated, keeps
looking and does not stop hoping to find her despite a marriage going
bad with an angry wife, then he becomes a suspect... naturally,
though we know he did not do it.
Instead,
we are given the information early and how this is being hidden in a
sick way, but we also find out early on the kidnappers have abducted
one of the two investigators (Rosario Dawson), which makes her
partner (Scott Speedman) even angrier. This one also has its
moments, but also its predictability while trying to be a character
study of the situation. However, it too falls short including having
one of the kidnappers be a female criminal (Christine Horne) looking
like she is imitating Annie Lennon in early Eurythmics music videos
(think Love
Is A Stranger
and Who's
That Girl
in particular), though that should have made things creepier instead
of oddball. Bruce Greenwood, Kevin Durand and Alexia Fast also star.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds a feature length audio
commentary track by Egoyan, 'Captive Thoughts' featurette, Deleted
Scenes and an Alternate Ending that I thought was worse than the
problematic one they settled with.
Jean-Luc
Godard's Every
Man For Himself
(1980) is the French New Wave director's return to full length
'regular' filmmaking after a series of film's made to be political,
left-wing, subversive, experimental and capture the rise of the left
in the 1960s onward as group efforts that tried to loose his
autueristic mark on his filmmaking, followed by a series of
similarly-themed visual experiments using then-new videotape. After
those cycles and the defeat of the Left worldwide by the end of the
1970s, Godard returned with his possibly his angriest, crudest, most
defiant film as if he had to be dragged back into the filmmaking he
began with. The revolution was over as he saw it, but he had much to
say and show, joined by writer Jean-Claude Carriere (a Luis Bunuel
alumnus) with an anger-filled work from the first scene in the
Discreet
Charm Of The Bourgeois
mode.
It
starts with a man who happens to be a TV filmmaker named Paul Godard
(Jacques Dutronc, perhaps a surrogate for Godard's TV period ended
unhappily) who is stalked and sexually harassed by a hotel bellhop
who wants to be sexually assaulted by Godard just to be a part of
him! Sexual violation is the same as all violation in this film and
that anger extends to every scene, emphasized by Godard's use of slow
motion for the first time in any film in his career. Then there is
the ironic love triangle between he, his ex-girlfriend (Nathalie
Baye, whose character rides a bike a long distance throughout the
film) and a prostitute (it would not be a Godard film without one we
gather) who has a mind of her own (Isabelle Huppert again, who also
played a hooker with a difference in Cimino's Heaven's
Gate
(also 1980, also on Criterion Blu-ray) in an underrated performance)
with violent pimps not far away.
Yes,
he shoots the love scenes like murders and vice versa, but instead of
like Hitchcock, this is more about being and isolated senses of
feeling than suspense or mystery as if it were his answer to Ingmar
Bergman, but much angrier still. For the great cast and all the new
things Godard does here, the film is a mixed bag and his first
non-Leftist/experimental film since Weekend
(1967, reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), so it
might be fair to think of it as the worst Monday back to work in
cinema history. However, some moments meant to be sincere become
unintentionally campy and what worked in the 1960s falls flat here,
though I think he knows this in some instances and goes forward on
purpose bitterly.
I
did not and never expect a 'happy'
film by Godard, but this one is concerned with the state of the world
going rotten after a chance to make better changes. It is ironic
this arrived the same year as Heaven's
Gate,
the peak of sexually explicit XXX cinema (think Caligula)
and the end of director's having free reign to innovate at the major
studios. He would find himself retreating to independent production
like most of his fellow auteurs (Cimino, Scorsese, Coppola, Altman,
even Friedkin) in what has continued to be a surprisingly fruitful,
enduring and even bold string of films that have persevered against
the many changes (not always for the better) in world cinema to where
he has made an acclaimed 3D movie as this 35+ year-old film makes it
to Blu-ray.
Sex
and the unusual use of sound, followed by the unusual use of image is
consistent throughout as Godard tries to make a new start of it by
marking things with a new, darker approach. This runs a tight 87
minutes, not always pleasant, but necessary to point out deeper evils
for which the rest of his career has been ready to attack head-on
boldly, fearlessly and continuously. Godard had to learn the hard
way only he could have his revolution, as long as he conducted it
single-handedly, right, wrong... or left...
Extras
include a nicely illustrated paper foldout on the film including
informative text and Amy Taubin essay, while the Blu-ray adds a
two-episode interview Godard did for the release of the film on The
Dick Cavett Show,
an excellent video essay on the film and Godard by ace film scholar
Colin McCabe, the 1979 short
film Godard made to get this feature film financed, new video
interviews with Huppert & Producer Marin Karmitz, archival
interviews with Baye, composer Gabriel Yared and co-Directors of
Photography Renato Berta & William Lubtchansky, the
Original Theatrical Trailer and short film Godard
1980
by Jon Jost, Donald Ranvaud & Peter Wollen.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Captive
2012
is a good, consistent shoot, but this is just a little too soft
throughout with more than a few aliasing errors, but the
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Captive
2013
is solid throughout as you would expect from an Egoyan film at this
point. Color is consistent and definition not bad, even with a
little style chosen as part of it all.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Man
is a new HD scan from the original 35mm camera negative and the film
hardly ever shows its age with nice detail, depth and color
throughout. It may not be spectacular all the time, but is the best
the film has looked just about anywhere since its original release.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound on Captive
2012
is better than the image, but lacks surrounds as the audio transfer
is a little weak, but the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix
on Captive
2013
is well mixed and presented despite being too quiet and refined at
times to take total advantage of the multi-channel possibilities.
Ambiance is always present however and the recording is solid. The
surprise is in the PCM 2.0 Mono on Man
sounding surprisingly strong with advanced sound design, smart
ambiance, good detail and depth for its age from the original optical
35mm soundmaster. This is one of the best modern mono mixes on
Blu-ray anywhere.
-
Nicholas Sheffo