8 out of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Poetic film but needs repeated viewings

Tim from London, 20th December, 2005

This is a free wheeling film which rejects conventional approaches to narrative and character. I watched the DVD twice and am still not entirely clear about the story - basically it is built around an older man who lives an isolated and detached existence in the mountains with his 2 dogs. He appears to have dodgy connections (mainly through a Russian woman), he also kills an man who enters his home at night and has a son who lives nearby but has little contact with him. After suffering a heart attack he arranges for a heart transplant before heading to Polynesia in search of a son he had there years before. However to focus on the narrative would miss the point of what is a brilliant film. Infact it is not entirely clear if many of the scenes in the film are reality or dream sequences - for example the final shot of Beatrice Dalle riding through the snow or the final scenes when the European son re enters the film. Infact many scenes in the film appear 'dreamlike' (especially the scenes set in Europe). Brilliantly acted by Michel Subor (who was also in Beau Travail and the Intruder also includes flashbacks to previous films). Fantastic score as well, which underlines the bleakness of both the settings and Michel Subor's character. Recommended to those who enjoy elusive and disconnected art.

Read all highest rated reviews

tangential and unengaging

A Customer from UK, 15th November, 2009

Random snapshots challenge the viewer to reconstruct the narrative they were taken from. After forty minutes the film had entirely failed to engage my interest and I switched it off. I just didn't care who the hell the guy in the woods was or what he was up to. A great disappointment after the sublime Beau Travail.

Read all highest rated reviews

Baffling, impressionistic, beautiful and pseudey!

Chintan Nanavati from Staffs, England, 30th August, 2008

Interesting film. Has moments of greatness and is often sumptuous to look at. The central character is not so much played as utterly lived by Michel Subor. This is way beyond mere acting. The slowness of the pace, the film's refusal to follow any kind of conventional narrative, the repetitiveness and the sheer banality of much of what we see onscreen, however, mean you'll need a sturdy filmic constitution to endure this one! But for those open to a bit of postmodernist, existential, (literally) heartless pseudery, there is much to enjoy and admire here. A memorable film then, but one to avoid if you require easily digestible meanings or pat endings or simplisitc motivations.

Read all highest rated reviews

2 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Speechless in Aberdeen

A Customer from Aberdeen, Scotland, 9th January, 2006

I have never felt moved to write a review and probably never will again! The cinematography in this film was marvellous - that is where it ends. I am sorry - a wasted couple of hours waiting for it all to make sense!!!!

Read all highest rated reviews