This movie freaked me out at times. It really made me think about how people from all over the world interconnect. I liked how it switches from one character to the next, each time giving a little information about them. Each character is a little weird and at times seems...unbelievable. I like how everything starts at a Bull's death and as it moves around the world the characters reveal themselves more and more. Overall I liked this movie for its gritty feel and all the thought put into it unlike many other films I have seen recently. This movie is worth seeing at least once, for me many times. It is a great example of film making and a creative screenplay.
13 Reviews
Very Weird and Bizarre
claudio_carvalho22 December 2005
"Carnages" is a very weird and bizarre movie, taking place in Spain, Belgium and France and with the stories linked through meat, bones, eyes and horns of a bull killed in a bullfight. Most of the stories are intriguing, sometimes funny and even surreal, with very odd characters; although original, the whole is irregular. The cast has good performances, and this overrated film was awarded with five prizes, plus three nominations in some festivals. The cover of the Brazilian VHS indicates that this movie won also the Best Film in the FICBrasília 2003, which is not listed in IMDb. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Estranhas Ligações" ("Weird Connections")
Title (Brazil): "Estranhas Ligações" ("Weird Connections")
Just so much bull
=G=6 March 2004
"Carnage" is a foreign contribution to the many recent films which explore the lives of people with some interconnectedness. In "It's the Rage" the common denominator was the hand gun. In "Magnolia", it was a game show. In "Five Senses", it was a human sense. In "Carnage", it's part of a bull. Killed in a bullfight, a 1000 pound beast makes it's way to a rendering plant where it's dissected. A handful of characters in the film eventually acquire part of the bull while we voyeuristically watch their plebeian lives as they trudge from day to day and, we're supposed to believe, are affected by the bull. Well, this flick is just so much bull and, in spite of some positive critical commentary, just doesn't work. The film is a solid production which bombs on it's ridiculous story making for a slick but boring watch which seems to be building but in the end just fizzles. With subtitles and a 2 hour duration, "Carnage" isn't worth the time or effort. (C+)
Intriguing, well-made and sometimes funny
rubenm29 December 2002
A movie about various characters in three countries and a dead bull? This could easily be one of those tedious, plotless, arty French films I hate so much. In fact, it isn't. Carnages is an intriguing, well-made and sometimes funny movie, well worth seeing. The storyline centres around the remains of a dead bull, that one way or another turn up in the lives of the main characters, sometimes with dramatic consequences. This alone makes pleasant viewing for superficial moviegoers, but behind the main storyline are many layers the director invites us to explore. One of them is the parent-child relationship. One of the first scenes shows a bullfighter talking about his father, the movie ends with two brothers reunited with their long-lost father. One of them is father of quintuplets, the other lives with his mother. Another theme is the life-death contrast, and no doubt there are others I didn't discover. Feel free to do so yourself. Despite these themes and the various interwoven storylines, the movie isn't hard to view. There are many little jokes and funny situations. When one of the main characters orders eight pizza's for three people, this seems ridiculous. Only later the viewer realizes his pregnant wife was expecting quintuplets at that moment. What makes the movie even more enjoyable are the beautiful shots and the outstanding acting. In this film a shot of a little girl watching a bullfight on TV is an exciting scene. That's a difficult job to accomplish.
Some loved this picture, some hated it. I hated it.
max von meyerling16 September 2003
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
CARNAGE is a bad film made by an untalented director. Still some people strongly liked this film. It was very controversial when shown in Cannes.
Viewers either loved it or hated it. I hated it.
Carnages begins with a toreador getting dressed (etc.). Instant Chekhov- if you show a toreador getting dressed then you will see him, sooner or later, getting gored and carried out of the arena feet first. This time it was very much sooner.
Different story- a schoolteacher in Lille is worried because one of her students, a 5 year old girl, draws pictures in which the animals are bigger than the people. Teacher flies off to be with her parents in Spain. The little girl is subject to epileptic seizures and lives with a giant Great Dane. She is watching a bull fight on television when she sees the toreador being gored and carried out of the ring. The teacher arrives and is met at the airport by her mother who drives her home, partially following the truck bearing the bull's carcass.
The bull is cut up with the eyes going to a hospital researcher in Brussels. He finds that the bull was blind in one eye and brings the eyes home with him. His wife is very pregnant.
An Italian actress who has been been auditioning and working at small jobs in Lille attends sensitivity classes which take place in the nude in a municipal swimming pool featuring people you wouldn't want to see naked except the actress, who is played by Chiaria Mastroianni, who, having been born really, really rich, doesn't have to show her breasts in movies. She gets a job, in costume, at the local hypermarche selling meat from Spain. She sells a huge bone marked Romeo (the name of the recently deceased bull) to the family with the epileptic daughter and the Great Dane. While loading their car their shopping cart goes astray and hits the actress's wreck of a car. This is witnessed by a suicidal ice skater/philosopher who waits until the actress comes out of the shop to tell her he saw who did it. He knows their name and address from a bottle of Valium left at the scene.
The actress and the ice skater confront the family just as they give the bone to the dog which goes into immediate convulsions and dies. Meanwhile the researcher with the pregnant wife for some reason agrees to look after a neighbors bratty kid. Soon he is in the fridge playing with the bulls eyes. The researcher catches him at it and retrieves one from under the sofa where it has rolled. There he finds his wife's ultra sound which he discovers has five fetuses visible. (This is actually getting tiring just to recount.)
There is also a taxidermist (!) who lives closely with his retarded mother (!!) in a trailer. Really they are even closer than the limited space of the trailer would normally allow. She gives him a pair of bull horns (Romeo again) for his birthday which he loves. They go around selling his handiwork beside the road and at flea markets. A deaf mute man wants to buy the horns but he promised his mother that he won't sell them. Eventually, using information given him by his mother, he determines that the deaf mute must be his father. He goes to see the old man and accidentally gores himself while hugging his father. He returns home to find his mother dead and rabbits and white doves streaming out of the trailer.
Meanwhile the teacher has returned from Spain with her mother and they go out to a restaurant where the mother is served a dish made from the bull (Toro in red wine sauce) that should have gone to another patron. The other man comes over to the table and discovers that he once knew the mother but calls her by a different name. She tells him he is mistaken. The women leave the restaurant where she suddenly steps in front of a van and is struck and killed. She is taken to a hospital where her liver is donated to the dying matador. The father comes to the hospital and tells his daughter that her mother did go by another name but changed it after murdering her best friend/female lover. The researcher's wife has to be carried out of their walk up apartment by pizza delivery guys and has five babies in the hospital. The actress and the ice skater attend nude sensitivity classes classes together and work up an ice skating act. The matador gets the liver and survives and his nurse has a baby in her womb which already likes him. I forgot what happens next. If this is your idea of a movie then be my guest. Instead of mentioning how it was done, how it was played, how it was shot, I'll just leave the plot lying around here because it expresses completely what's wrong with this film. Some people might read this and think 'that sounds interesting' and go see the film. Go in good health I say. Mind you though, it's quintuplets. Five. An overbearing retarded mother and a deaf mute father. A liver transplant and a murderous lesbian secret past. Fat naked people in a swimming pool doing sensitivity exercises while a snooty actress plays coy. A dead Great Dane. An epileptic five year old. And five babies. Some people loved it. It won awards.
CARNAGE is a bad film made by an untalented director. Still some people strongly liked this film. It was very controversial when shown in Cannes.
Viewers either loved it or hated it. I hated it.
Carnages begins with a toreador getting dressed (etc.). Instant Chekhov- if you show a toreador getting dressed then you will see him, sooner or later, getting gored and carried out of the arena feet first. This time it was very much sooner.
Different story- a schoolteacher in Lille is worried because one of her students, a 5 year old girl, draws pictures in which the animals are bigger than the people. Teacher flies off to be with her parents in Spain. The little girl is subject to epileptic seizures and lives with a giant Great Dane. She is watching a bull fight on television when she sees the toreador being gored and carried out of the ring. The teacher arrives and is met at the airport by her mother who drives her home, partially following the truck bearing the bull's carcass.
The bull is cut up with the eyes going to a hospital researcher in Brussels. He finds that the bull was blind in one eye and brings the eyes home with him. His wife is very pregnant.
An Italian actress who has been been auditioning and working at small jobs in Lille attends sensitivity classes which take place in the nude in a municipal swimming pool featuring people you wouldn't want to see naked except the actress, who is played by Chiaria Mastroianni, who, having been born really, really rich, doesn't have to show her breasts in movies. She gets a job, in costume, at the local hypermarche selling meat from Spain. She sells a huge bone marked Romeo (the name of the recently deceased bull) to the family with the epileptic daughter and the Great Dane. While loading their car their shopping cart goes astray and hits the actress's wreck of a car. This is witnessed by a suicidal ice skater/philosopher who waits until the actress comes out of the shop to tell her he saw who did it. He knows their name and address from a bottle of Valium left at the scene.
The actress and the ice skater confront the family just as they give the bone to the dog which goes into immediate convulsions and dies. Meanwhile the researcher with the pregnant wife for some reason agrees to look after a neighbors bratty kid. Soon he is in the fridge playing with the bulls eyes. The researcher catches him at it and retrieves one from under the sofa where it has rolled. There he finds his wife's ultra sound which he discovers has five fetuses visible. (This is actually getting tiring just to recount.)
There is also a taxidermist (!) who lives closely with his retarded mother (!!) in a trailer. Really they are even closer than the limited space of the trailer would normally allow. She gives him a pair of bull horns (Romeo again) for his birthday which he loves. They go around selling his handiwork beside the road and at flea markets. A deaf mute man wants to buy the horns but he promised his mother that he won't sell them. Eventually, using information given him by his mother, he determines that the deaf mute must be his father. He goes to see the old man and accidentally gores himself while hugging his father. He returns home to find his mother dead and rabbits and white doves streaming out of the trailer.
Meanwhile the teacher has returned from Spain with her mother and they go out to a restaurant where the mother is served a dish made from the bull (Toro in red wine sauce) that should have gone to another patron. The other man comes over to the table and discovers that he once knew the mother but calls her by a different name. She tells him he is mistaken. The women leave the restaurant where she suddenly steps in front of a van and is struck and killed. She is taken to a hospital where her liver is donated to the dying matador. The father comes to the hospital and tells his daughter that her mother did go by another name but changed it after murdering her best friend/female lover. The researcher's wife has to be carried out of their walk up apartment by pizza delivery guys and has five babies in the hospital. The actress and the ice skater attend nude sensitivity classes classes together and work up an ice skating act. The matador gets the liver and survives and his nurse has a baby in her womb which already likes him. I forgot what happens next. If this is your idea of a movie then be my guest. Instead of mentioning how it was done, how it was played, how it was shot, I'll just leave the plot lying around here because it expresses completely what's wrong with this film. Some people might read this and think 'that sounds interesting' and go see the film. Go in good health I say. Mind you though, it's quintuplets. Five. An overbearing retarded mother and a deaf mute father. A liver transplant and a murderous lesbian secret past. Fat naked people in a swimming pool doing sensitivity exercises while a snooty actress plays coy. A dead Great Dane. An epileptic five year old. And five babies. Some people loved it. It won awards.
A slice of life...and of a bull
hippiedj21 May 2004
For those that enjoy films that give us glimpses into people's lives and let us be passersby to their experiences, then Carnage is an absorbing feature. Liking this film doesn't make one snooty at all, some of us just don't always require direct plot nor overwhelmingly "beautiful" people to be entertained. Like the brilliant 2001 film Bug, it connects different people to one incident, and how their lives interconnect even if they don't realize it's happened.
In this case, it's the death of a bull after a bullfight. The bull is butchered and the different parts go out to people in different European countries. That part is really incidental, as the main concern is how these folks' lives interconnect and lives are lost, saved, secrets revealed, and friendships made. I confess I was slightly confused by some of the conversations and revelations, but that did not wreck the experience for me, it just meant I had to go back and view it again at some point to absorb the story better.
The actors in Carnage were quite refreshing to see, they seemed like real people instead of pristine mega-stars. I must disagree strongly with a reviewer here who kept insisting, for instance, that the naked people in the primal scream therapy scenes were all fat and not ones you'd want to see naked. Take a closer look at that scene, buddy. Different shapes and sizes. Look around you and you'll see 99% of people are not beautiful models, and to just have naked beautiful models in the pool would have made the entire scene unbelievable. These were intended to be REAL people, and frankly it's real people that I find to be more attractive instead of fit, shaved "hotties!" Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...I'm sure there are plenty who found the folks in the pool just fine -- Clovis Cornilla as Alexis and 'Mr. Beard' seemed quite masculine indeed, and the women were beautiful each in their own way. Those that criticise how these actors look should take a good look in the mirror at themselves and wake up.
My only discomfort with Carnage are the scenes of the bullfighting. I abhor any abuse of animals, and seeing the poor bulls being slowly killed to the delight of a crowd upset me. I don't know for certain if the bullfighting scenes were real in the manner that the bulls were actually harmed, but I have to understand the fact that this was considered a sport in Spain and I try to focus on the stories of the characters' lives.
It's quite alright if you don't find this film interesting enough. I agree it's an acquired taste. But hey, if there weren't all kinds of different films out there this world would be a boring place, and I enjoyed the lives I got to know in the realm of Carnage. It was an unsettling and beautiful place all at once in my eyes...
In this case, it's the death of a bull after a bullfight. The bull is butchered and the different parts go out to people in different European countries. That part is really incidental, as the main concern is how these folks' lives interconnect and lives are lost, saved, secrets revealed, and friendships made. I confess I was slightly confused by some of the conversations and revelations, but that did not wreck the experience for me, it just meant I had to go back and view it again at some point to absorb the story better.
The actors in Carnage were quite refreshing to see, they seemed like real people instead of pristine mega-stars. I must disagree strongly with a reviewer here who kept insisting, for instance, that the naked people in the primal scream therapy scenes were all fat and not ones you'd want to see naked. Take a closer look at that scene, buddy. Different shapes and sizes. Look around you and you'll see 99% of people are not beautiful models, and to just have naked beautiful models in the pool would have made the entire scene unbelievable. These were intended to be REAL people, and frankly it's real people that I find to be more attractive instead of fit, shaved "hotties!" Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...I'm sure there are plenty who found the folks in the pool just fine -- Clovis Cornilla as Alexis and 'Mr. Beard' seemed quite masculine indeed, and the women were beautiful each in their own way. Those that criticise how these actors look should take a good look in the mirror at themselves and wake up.
My only discomfort with Carnage are the scenes of the bullfighting. I abhor any abuse of animals, and seeing the poor bulls being slowly killed to the delight of a crowd upset me. I don't know for certain if the bullfighting scenes were real in the manner that the bulls were actually harmed, but I have to understand the fact that this was considered a sport in Spain and I try to focus on the stories of the characters' lives.
It's quite alright if you don't find this film interesting enough. I agree it's an acquired taste. But hey, if there weren't all kinds of different films out there this world would be a boring place, and I enjoyed the lives I got to know in the realm of Carnage. It was an unsettling and beautiful place all at once in my eyes...
Waste of a good bull
koroshiya_124 July 2006
When I first started writing this comment it was full of spoilers and consisted of me writing its faults which run throughout the entire film but I'm going to save you that and just make my point. OK yes these people are linked by this bull fair enough but each character in the film isn't properly explained and their stories are utterly ridiculous so that you are left asking why did they do what they did? Why am I watching this? The film often raises a point for a character but then refuses to resolve it and there are a large number of scenes that serve no purpose. So why did I give it 2 stars rather than 1? Everyone now and then it managed to achieve extremely poignant moments and I'm sure its these combined with the fly on the wall look into peoples lives that has lead some to love it but I can't believe these characters, they seem poor fabrications that have little reason for existence in the first place.
Trajectory: The Pulsing Global Balls of Coincidences
gradyharp30 September 2005
CARNAGE is a stunning film - though from the outset it should be made clear that it is not a film for all audiences. For those who cringe at gore, those who are frustrated by nonlinear storyline, and those who feel uncomfortable with magical realism - beware. This is a two-hour plus journey that demands concentration and suspension of belief to glean all of the multi-layered meanings it holds.
Stylishly opening with the elegant dressing and preparation of a handsome young bullfighter discussing his incipient time in the ring with his father, the film moves into a the bull ring in Spain and while the young bullfighter is gored, a young girl watches in horror on a television in France. Thus the sequence of coincidences begins. The dead bull is dragged from the ring, butchered, and his various parts (meat to restaurants, horns to a taxidermist, testicles, eyes, etc) are sent to unrelated places in Spain, Belgium and France. Along the way we meet the child who observed the goring on television and discover she is epileptic and draws pictures where dogs are larger than humans (because her's is!), an actress searching for her center, a therapy group bonding and yielding primal screams while nude in a pool, a taxidermist who lives with his mother (the wondrous Esther Gorintin of 'Since Otar Left') and his estranged anatomist brother married to a woman pregnant with quintuplets (neither brother speaks to their damaged father), and so many more. Each of these characters encounters one form or other of the dead bull as food, souvenirs, gifts, etc: each time the consequences of these coincidences add greatly to the story.
Meanwhile our gored bullfighter lies in coma in need of a liver transplant and it is one of the various women touched by the bull's demise in some way that dies in an accident and becomes the saving liver donor to the young bullfighter. The manner in which all of these myriad coincidental effects of the original bullfight mesh (altered relationships, rejoined parent/child schisms, deaths, altered lives) are sewn tightly together by the end of this apparent conundrum of a story.
The cast is uniformly exceptional. The camera work and pacing are mesmerizing, making the willing eye of the viewer see far more than previously thought possible. Writer/Director Delphine Gleize is truly a talent to closely observe. The audience for this artwork may not be large, but for those souls seeking unique films this one is Highly Recommended. Grady Harp
Stylishly opening with the elegant dressing and preparation of a handsome young bullfighter discussing his incipient time in the ring with his father, the film moves into a the bull ring in Spain and while the young bullfighter is gored, a young girl watches in horror on a television in France. Thus the sequence of coincidences begins. The dead bull is dragged from the ring, butchered, and his various parts (meat to restaurants, horns to a taxidermist, testicles, eyes, etc) are sent to unrelated places in Spain, Belgium and France. Along the way we meet the child who observed the goring on television and discover she is epileptic and draws pictures where dogs are larger than humans (because her's is!), an actress searching for her center, a therapy group bonding and yielding primal screams while nude in a pool, a taxidermist who lives with his mother (the wondrous Esther Gorintin of 'Since Otar Left') and his estranged anatomist brother married to a woman pregnant with quintuplets (neither brother speaks to their damaged father), and so many more. Each of these characters encounters one form or other of the dead bull as food, souvenirs, gifts, etc: each time the consequences of these coincidences add greatly to the story.
Meanwhile our gored bullfighter lies in coma in need of a liver transplant and it is one of the various women touched by the bull's demise in some way that dies in an accident and becomes the saving liver donor to the young bullfighter. The manner in which all of these myriad coincidental effects of the original bullfight mesh (altered relationships, rejoined parent/child schisms, deaths, altered lives) are sewn tightly together by the end of this apparent conundrum of a story.
The cast is uniformly exceptional. The camera work and pacing are mesmerizing, making the willing eye of the viewer see far more than previously thought possible. Writer/Director Delphine Gleize is truly a talent to closely observe. The audience for this artwork may not be large, but for those souls seeking unique films this one is Highly Recommended. Grady Harp
Spoon-fed eccentricity for its own sake
jalberto71818 July 2006
Every now and then a film crosses my screen that deserves being lauded or decried. This one is for the latter category. This film begs the question - who cares? Who cares about any of the superficially and unrealistically drawn characters? Each one is eccentric to the point of silliness, and yet the director assumes the viewer will follow each story with some degree of emotional connectedness. The format is Altman-ish without the brilliance. People who's lives could not be any more different have a thread of a connection through a dead toro. And as the characters utter sentences that could be provocative, it seems more like dead-pan humor than anything else. Its a shame that the script with its "trying too hard to be deep" awkwardness never amounts to anything more than a mild freak show, including real burn victims made to sing a song about being burned. This film felt as though the director was trying to make it provocative without the benefit of substance.
Superb Modern Myth
youneedsome25 May 2005
Formally and in terms of subject matter this movie is a really fine piece of cinema. The music is perfect and its direction and editing have moments of true brilliance. This film explores the events that surround the death of a bull. This film is inspired by the forms and the spiritual intent of ancient myth. The film begins with a bullfighter getting gored in the arena as he kills his first bull. The bull is then processed and divided into its respective products. As the these parts move out into the world they "affect" the lives of the film's characters. The struggles of each individual character seem resonant with the struggle between the bull and his bullfighter. Each story takes on the feel of a fatal dance.
This film is not an attempt to describe the world as it is but rather it is the telling of a story that appeals to our mystical notions of the world. It is a retelling of an ancient myth of replenishment as it relates to modern symbols of grace. Our relationship with the animal master is intact and a covenant still exists between man and beast. It is an understanding that the bull will die and be consumed and that we will kill and reclaim him. It is a pact to participate in the business of life and recognize the inexhaustible source from which all life comes, to which all life goes. This is a great film but modern film goers may need some help with its reference.
This film is not an attempt to describe the world as it is but rather it is the telling of a story that appeals to our mystical notions of the world. It is a retelling of an ancient myth of replenishment as it relates to modern symbols of grace. Our relationship with the animal master is intact and a covenant still exists between man and beast. It is an understanding that the bull will die and be consumed and that we will kill and reclaim him. It is a pact to participate in the business of life and recognize the inexhaustible source from which all life comes, to which all life goes. This is a great film but modern film goers may need some help with its reference.
Meat-Cute
writers_reign14 March 2004
So far the posted comments are mostly negative and appear to take the stance that the six degrees of separation syndrome is bull. I enjoyed it. Sue me already. Okay, it was the name Jacques Gamblin that 'sold' me. He's a solid, reliable actor who I've never seen give a bad performance whilst I HAVE seen him give some doozys. About a year ago he shared a screen with Clovis Cornillac in A Small Week and they're both here again except they never have a scene together. I was also interested in whether or not Lio could act - previously I'd seen her only in concert singing Prevert (not all that well, if anybody asks you, but then she did have to follow Montand). If as a film maker you are interested in telling the stories of several disparate characters there are worse ways to do it than to connect them via a dead bull. Okay, most of the characters are straight from Central Casting Weird but they do perform well and entertain. As a debut I'd say this was pretty impressive. 8/10
One of the Best films i've seen in a long time.
xnycole20 April 2005
I really have no idea what the other people who have posted on this film are thinking. Maybe they don't really know what they are talking about. This film blew me away. I saw it a week ago and i cannot get it out of my mind. I will admit that i am a fan of the six-degrees stories. I think they are quite interesting and i'm sorry if some people are too used to their linear, straight forward plot lines of most major features. The cinematography is beautiful throughout the entire film, and the mise-en-scene really deserves a second or third look to be fully appreciated. The characters are dynamic and interesting, and we care about them without having everything fed to us on a platter. I was so amazed to learn that this was the directors first film, and i greatly anticipate anything she puts out in the future, please see this movie and make up your own mind. I really doubt anyone will be disappointed, even if you do not hold it in as high regard as me.
Little girl is prescribed Valium . . .
Phillim2124 June 2017
. . . and giggles at tragedy on TV *and* real-life. Teenage bullfighter is balletic/transcendent/razor-sharp in his suit of lights and dance of death.
I speculate a movie focusing on the these two immediately-engaging characters and their possible serendipitous intersection would fascinate.
The bullfighter and his arcane ritualistic world of lean and hungry boys are beautifully introduced -- cinematic poetry -- and his opera-buffa older male relatives are superb. A prodigious little girl on Valium and her protective Great Dane, in a world of adults who don't quite get her -- this is a great idea worth developing.
But this film gets scattered -- sacrificed on the altar of 'high-concept' -- i.e., following the pieces of a butchered fighting bull as they make their ways to various dysfunctional human groupings around Europe.
And all at a languorous, Arty pace.
This would be better in the antic tone of a John Waters or Pedro Almodóvar movie. If lingering shots on irrelevant objects and prolonged non-informing close-ups are your thing, enjoy. Even at two hours-ten minutes, the film-maker has not taken time to develop the characters to the point that we care about them.
It doesn't help that the film jumps around story-to-story, dissolving any dramatic tension. One's attention span (perhaps along with one's goodwill) rebels at the feeling it's being abused.
Not to say the actors aren't lovely, the photography not exquisite, the ideas not good -- they are, are, are. But films like this make me -- quite irrationally -- long for an ideal version of the tyranny of the old studio system, where somebody would intervene on behalf of the audience. Still I give it a ten because I sense the film is sincere, and its original ideas are very original indeed.
I speculate a movie focusing on the these two immediately-engaging characters and their possible serendipitous intersection would fascinate.
The bullfighter and his arcane ritualistic world of lean and hungry boys are beautifully introduced -- cinematic poetry -- and his opera-buffa older male relatives are superb. A prodigious little girl on Valium and her protective Great Dane, in a world of adults who don't quite get her -- this is a great idea worth developing.
But this film gets scattered -- sacrificed on the altar of 'high-concept' -- i.e., following the pieces of a butchered fighting bull as they make their ways to various dysfunctional human groupings around Europe.
And all at a languorous, Arty pace.
This would be better in the antic tone of a John Waters or Pedro Almodóvar movie. If lingering shots on irrelevant objects and prolonged non-informing close-ups are your thing, enjoy. Even at two hours-ten minutes, the film-maker has not taken time to develop the characters to the point that we care about them.
It doesn't help that the film jumps around story-to-story, dissolving any dramatic tension. One's attention span (perhaps along with one's goodwill) rebels at the feeling it's being abused.
Not to say the actors aren't lovely, the photography not exquisite, the ideas not good -- they are, are, are. But films like this make me -- quite irrationally -- long for an ideal version of the tyranny of the old studio system, where somebody would intervene on behalf of the audience. Still I give it a ten because I sense the film is sincere, and its original ideas are very original indeed.
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