REVIEWS
Amour Fou Reviewed by Allan Hunter
How To Train Your Dragon 2 Reviewed by Mark Adams As animation franchises go, the heady combination of rough-and-ready Vikings teamed with dragons offers up plenty of rollicking fun and games. DreamWork Animation’s 2011 film How To Train Your Dragon proved to be a hit, taking $495m internationally, balancing comedy, action and a dash of sentimentality, and this smartly paced sequel does a great job of drawing out the lead characters, expanding the world in which they exist and adding in some warm-hearted and moving moments. Dragons sweeping through the air combined with the raucous antics of cheerful Vikings makes for perfect 3D animated fun, and while the film offers up elements of Brave, Frozen, Harry Potter and even Avatar, it also manages to suffuse its action-packed and often thoughtful story with a real sense of heart to balance its need for family-friendly comedy. Released by Fox, the film should be poised to be one of the hits of the summer. A very strong voice-cast help proceedings immensely and there are enough nicely staged twists and turns to keep its target audience engaged and entertained. Set some five years after the previous film, heroic but rather gawky teen Hiccup (voiced again by Jay Baruchel) has grown to be a good-looking (though still gawky) young man who enjoys bonding with his loyal dragon while railing against the idea of taking over from his burly father, Stoick (Gerard Butler, having a fine old time playing a Scottish Viking) as chief of their tribe. The opening scenes of the clan engaging in some light dragon-racing (a sport that involves throwing surprisedlooking sheep into nets, and which owes a debt of gratitude to Quidditch) allow the film to re-introduce Hiccup’s friends and classmates, including his love interest, Astrid (Ferrera) along with Snotlout (Hill), Fishlegs (MintzPlasse), Tuffnutt (Miller) and twin sister Ruffnut (Wiig). Now that the tribe no longer fight dragons and live happily with them in their midst, things have changed in the village of Berk. But peace is threatened by the news that legendary dragon hunter Drago Bludvist (Hounsou) and his dragon army have plans to invade the region and take over the village’s dragons. Plus Hiccup has to confront and negotiate with the mysterious dragon rider who controls a massive alpha dragon that can manipulate smaller dragons. When the rider turns out to be someone close to Hiccup, the scene is set for a series of surprises, emotional reunions and reconciliation, all of which act as a prelude to an all-out battle.
n 26 Screen International at Cannes May 18, 2014
OUT OF COMPETITION US. 2014. 94mins Director/screenplay/ executive producer Dean DeBlois Production companies DreamWorks Animation, 20th Century Fox Distribution 20th Century Fox Producer Bonnie Arnold Cinematography Roger Deakins Production designer Pierre-Olivier Vincent Head of character animation Simon Otto Main cast (voices) Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, TJ Miller, Kristen Wiig, Djimon Hounsou, Kit Harington
Billed as a ‘romantic comedy’, Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou proves to be a spare, bone-dry comedy of manners as it addresses emerging notions of democracy and freedom in early 19th-century Germany along with more personal matters of life and death. Elegantly executed in a manner reminiscent of Eric Rohmer, it has the same rigour and solemnity that have marked Hausner’s previous features, but the rarefied subject matter and measured pace will attract only the most dedicated and patient admirers, suggesting modest arthouse potential at best. Inspired by the suicide of poet Heinrich von Kleist in 1811, Amour Fou also has similarities to Mike Leigh’s Competition entry Mr. Turner in the way it immerses the viewer in a long-gone age. There is an attention to detail and manners that is quietly absorbing as we witness the daily life of wife and mother Henriette Vogel (Schnoink). Static tableaux capture scenes of evening salons and family meals, all in rooms of terracotta red and sky blue. There are music recitals and waltzes, dogs loll around and a vase of cut flowers is ever present. You could be observing a gallery of paintings from the period. When the melancholic poet and author von Kleist (Friedel) first meets Henriette, he thinks he may have found a soulmate. He is convinced she shares his existential angst and belief that life is essentially without purpose or meaning. He makes her a bold proposition of a suicide pact in which he will kill her and then take his own life. She rejects the notion as preposterous, though she is not the first he has approached. Her view changes when she is diagnosed with a terminal illness and the possibility of arranging the time and manner of her own death becomes a big adventure. Hausner milks some gentle irony from the ebb and flow of Heinrich and Henriette’s commitment to their pact. She grows more determined as he suffers doubts. Heinrich regains enthusiasm as her terminal diagnosis is challenged, though he often seems to prefer the idea of a pact with his cousin, Marie (Hüller). Anyone with an understanding of the politics and social currents of the period will derive greater satisfaction from Amour Fou. A general audience can savour the smaller struggle between Henriette and Heinrich, a tussle that grows to dominate the film and lend it a focus.
UN CERTAIN REGARD Aust-Ger-Lux. 2014. 96mins Director Jessica Hausner Production companies Coop99 Filmproduktion, Essential Filmproduktion, Amour Fou International sales Coproduction Office, www. coproductionoffice.eu Producers Martin Gschlacht, Antonin Svoboda, Bruno Wagner, Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Philippe Bober Cinematography Martin Gschlacht Editor Karina Ressler Production designer Katharina Woppermann Main cast Birte Schnoink, Christian Friedel, Stephan Grossman, Sandra Hüller