| Product: |
The Bothersome Man (DVD) |
| Date: |
19/03/07 (180 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Surreal, fabulous look to it and balck comedy at its most subtle
Disadvantages: Very strange and subtitled
The Bothersome Man is a strange, surreal film, made in Iceland and categorised as a Norway/Iceland co production it manages to be as close to a David Lynch film as you can get with about being as completely incomprehensible as his films can be; much as I love them they can be hard work to watch! The Bothersome Man is very much open to interpretation as you really don’t have a clue as to what the film is about, or rather it doesn’t patronise you by explaining everything to you.
It starts with Andreas (Trond Fause Aurvaag) on a tube station platform and after a few minutes focussing on him and two youngsters passionately kissing in the background he leaps in front of a train.
The screen fades to black and when the picture returns we see Andreas on a bus, alone apart from the driver. They are driving through a desolate tract of land, a landscape not unlike a desert. There seems to be nothing around and he is dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a small shack. He is picked up and taken to a city and given a job. Everything seems to be great, he enjoys his job and things seem to go his way all the time… though something doesn’t seem to be quite right and he isn’t sure exactly what that is.
Then one night he hears the sound of music coming from a basement room and it occurs to him that he hasn’t heard music in a while. Suddenly he begins to notice other strange occurrences, like the way dead people are ‘cleared away’.
Where is he and what is going on?
The Bothersome Man is a weird piece of movie entertainment, thoroughly enjoyable and just so bizarre at the same time. The whole thing is just slightly to the left of our world, off kilter with what we think is normal. Even the conversations are just not quite right, there is a very very odd discussion between the main character and his new girlfriend. It is very funny but not because of the chat between them but because of the reactions of the girl to what he is saying. Her facial reactions and words just do not tarry up with the expected responses a person would give to such a conversation.
It has to be said that very little actually happens in The Bothersome Man but you don’t really care. You are involved in the story because you want to understand it and puzzle it out for yourself. It engages your mind and your sense of wonderment. There is a story to the movie but it is so very open to interpretation that what it is actually about is up to you to decide.
For me though it is a wry black comedy about people and their lives, to say anything more would tell you too much!
Even the photography of the film is in the same style. It makes everything look normal but at the same time the colours, the feel et al just doesn’t seem quite right. You cant put your finger on it and that is incredibly clever because it is just a feeling you get rather than anything concrete.
I found myself laughing out loud at some of the outrageously surreal scenes in the movie, mainly because as surreal as they are they are also only just that slight step away from reality and the cleverness of that makes you realise certain things about how we live our lives!
The Bothersome Man is a film to watch when you want to see something a little bit different, when you want to get away from the sort of films you are accustomed to seeing and the unoriginal format of most Hollywood films..
If you are a fan of David Lynch or just want to see a subtle black comedy that will puzzle you as much as delight you then I recommend The Bothersome Man whole heartedly.
Seen at the London Film Festival Oct 2006.
released in the UK May 25th 2007
Summary: A Nowegian David Lynch like experience
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