Import/Export (2007/Palisades Tartan DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Film: B-

 

 

Some ideas sound better than the usual high concept idea for a film and some just sound smart.  Ulrich Seidl’s Import/Export (2007) could have been all comical with its tale of two unhappy individuals going in opposite directions expecting to find happiness and not even knowing each other, but the film takes the idea somewhat seriously and the results are interesting, if uneven and not fully realized.

 

Pauli (Paul Hofmann) is from Austria and heads West thinking he’ll find work and a better life, the same idea coincidentally Olga (Ekateryan Rak) from the Ukraine thinks of when she travels East for the same reasons.  She lands up a nurse and he in several odd jobs.  Both are young and likable, you want to see them do better and the makers know this.  Here at its second-longest length of 135 minutes, it is not a bad film and deserves some kind of audience and following.  I would like to see six more minutes supposedly somewhere, but they do not even turn up in the extras here.  This is at least ambitious and worth a look, even if you are uncertain of its conclusion.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image was shot in Super 16mm film, though that is no excuse for this to be as soft as it is, especially since Kodak’s terrific Vision 2 stocks were used, so there is the possibility that the issue could be that this is a 35mm blow-up.  Either way, the film still has a good look and two Directors of Photography in Edward Lachman and Wolfgang Thaler.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better than the 2.0 Stereo, but still has an inconsistent soundfield, which is why Palisades may have passed on a DTS mix.  Extras include two interview pieces and some trailers for other Palisades Tartan releases.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo