To Die (or Not)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C+
Ventura Pons continues his more serious attempts at
multiple stories in a single film with To Die (or Not) (1999), but the
twist in this case has him offering two possibilities. Most of the film is shot in black and white
(or is that drained color stock), while the latter third is in color. These ideas of what might be are always
hokey, because you can offer more alternatives than a single film has time to
address. Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run
(1998) tries to overcome this with a smaller sketch done several times, but is
also complicated by its ultimate failure as a run-on, no matter how
complex. It also has issues of “will to
power” too close to German (and Nazi?) ideology to make for an essay
elsewhere. Pons’ film does not have
that issue.
What Pons does offer is seven situations turning out one
way, the death way, for starters. It
does become almost unintentionally comic when each scene ends in a death and
fade out. That hurts the film. The color sequences are not as convincing,
strangely enough, especially when a police car hitting a motor scooter offers
two different riders. Like Run Lola
Run and David Fincher’s The Game (1997), it simply runs out of its
ability to suspend disbelief before it is over. In all cases, you really have to leave your brain at the door
ultimately to survive without yawning.
While Lola was being philosophical (no matter how
problematically), and The Game is subversive and critical of Corporatism
(until it cops out in the end and goes on auto pilot), Pons film does not seem
to have a clear-cut point. It is
certainly “Not” as daring or erotic as his previous films, and this idea of
almost suggesting a higher force (the first motorist hears the voice of something
like God), this has not been any part of his previous work and betrays the
realism of his cannon of films. The
acting is not bad, but the film cannot even survive on that.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image suffers from no anamorphic
enhancement, and the black and white is the newer, lighter kind. Too bad, for darker, more realistic
monochrome (the type that retains its silver content) could have helped this
film be somewhat more convincing, but only to a point. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is Pro Logic
decodable, but is too dialogue-based to really be of demonstration
quality. It is well recorded, but not
state-of-the art. No extras are here,
except the trailer at the end of the film.
After seeing three Pons films, with this being the latest,
it seems he is in a downward arc as a filmmaker, so you will see more of his
films on this site reviewed soon. Even
when he does not succeed, he is at least trying, which is more than I can say
for way too many films coming out of Hollywood in the last twenty years.
- Nicholas Sheffo
