October 10, 1999
Moloch (1999) ****
"Moloch" is a Russian film about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, set on a cold, cloudy day in the spring of 1942, in their mountaintop residence of Berchtesgaden, in the Bavarian Alps. The film begins with Eva (superbly played by Russian actress Elena Rufanova) frolicking naked on the terrace and waving randomly to spying telescopic eyes. The morning mist envelops her Rubenesque body. She awaits her lover, her beloved "Adi". Fat, graceless, and often filmed out of focus, she's anything but sexy. But despite that strange opening scene, "Moloch" isn't a piece of Nazi nostalgia kitsch. It's a superbly directed, wonderfully acted and profoundly disturbing masterpiece from Russia's greatest living director, Aleksandr Sokourov. But unlike his earlier, insomnia-curing stylistic exercises like "Mother And Son" (1997) and "Confession" (1998), it's also totally involving and unforgettable. At one point, during a conversation between Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann and Eva, someone mentions Auschwitz. Hitler claims not to know about such a place. Or maybe he just pretends not to know? The film never resolves the mystery. Is it a bit of revisionist history, or just a gentleman refusing to discuss business at the dinner table? Ambiguous and mesmerizing, "Moloch" is an extremely cold movie. It's a portrait of evil at its most banal, human and seemingly unthreatening.
The Straight Story (1999) ****
Directed by David Lynch. Superb mid-western about an old man travelling very far to reconcile with his ailing brother.
In Dreams (1999) ****
Superb thriller from Neil Jordan, starring Annette Bening as a psychic woman whose daughter is kidnapped by a dangerous psychopath (Robert Downey Jr).
Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999) ****
Arguably Jim Jarmusch’s best film, a brilliant, minimalist comedy about a hit man taking on the mafia.
South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut (1999) ****
Directed by Trey Parker. An absolutely brilliant, viciously wicked satire about right-wing American chauvinists, militarists and fascists, who go to war against Canada in order to protect their children from our smutty films. (I always knew those sex-obsssesed Cronenbergs and Egoyans would get us in trouble). Incredibly, our tiny armed forces actually whip their asses pretty good... Vulgar profanities have never been funnier and the traditional family values have rarely got such thorough trashing as in this superbly entertaining animated feature based on the popular TV series.
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