Avida (2006) User Reviews

Funny nonsense

[gerardo-41 · 5/10 · 13 July 2008]

This movie is an absolute hallucination; there is no plot, visually is black and white standard, nothing new, but it is powerful in the realm of the subconscious. Avida is a fat woman that somewhat resembles Divine: a woman that is eating chips all day and when her dog is kidnapped she asks to the kidnappers to take her life. So you'll have an approximate of your worst nightmare from a drunken night when watching it. The movie was selected to compete in Cannes but was discarded immediately. Maybe this kind of experiment is a cool thing to watch when smoking a good joint but i wonder what is the meaning or transcendence of this mess. At least when you watch a David Lynch movie you are also confused but you can appreciate the work behind: In his movies there's good direction, organic and artesanal decorates, good actors and the presence of emotion as another character but here is all nonsense. Funny nonsense, anyway.(There's a cameo from Claude Chabrol). All is absurd and pointless but it acquires some meaning if you see it with the eyes you watch your dreams.

Neverending nonsense.

[cyanopicacyana · 4/10 · 10 October 2006]

Avida is a game of words mingling life and eagerness, but I personally think this movie was overblown by its ambition and does not make justice to its title. It gathers a set of awkward characters united by unbelievable links. Furthermore, the way everything is connected at the end is, in my opinion, a bit pathetic. What remains of it was a set of images... an interesting one, but not enough to make this a good movie.

I believe this film is supposed to be a comedy, but I surely didn't noticed! The nonsense and caricatural nature of the movie is actually the only good thing about it, but when it drags on an on and on it becomes no longer bearable. I have to say I fought hard to continue seeing it until the end, and I am still not sure it was worth it...

It'll keep you guessing - why you wasted your time.

[JFriday · 12 August 2009]

Nothing at all like what the synopsis at the film festival led me to expect. This is the only movie that I have ever walked out on in my life. And I did that with only 15 minutes left in the show.

A clever ad agency might write a tagline such as "It'll keep you guessing!" What they really mean is that you will never know what the hell it's about. There was a vague pretext that seemed to offer a hint of progression and kept you thinking that it would all make sense in the end. When I realized that there was no way they could cobble together a storyline in the final 15 minutes, I decided that their time was up.

Essentially, it was a macabre sequence of situations that mostly gave the viewer a repulsive look at the actions and reactions of unsupervised people with mild to strong mental handicaps. It relied on using midgets, obese people and various unpleasant stereotypes to present a very non politically correct image. While I don't oppose challenging the PC crowd, it ought to at least be done with a message. In this case, the message appears to be "french people are messed up".

weird, weirder and simply bizarre

[bobbybillions · 3/10 · 3 August 2008]

Let me say at the outset that I'm not a very artistic person and that I don't "get" new art. That being said, this film is absolutely crazy, and in my opinion not crazy in a good way. Filmed entirely in black and white with a series of very loosely connected stories, Avida is a film for those who can look at modern art and say "wow, I feel the energy and passion of this painting." The only reason I give this film a 3 out of 10 is because I actually did manage to laugh at some parts, though mainly laughing at the sheer insanity of the film. Two of the characters throwing chairs on a lawn, as to do what these characters were doing, I have no idea. I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody.

Surrealistic meditation on best tracks of European film-making

[petar-22 · 10/10 · 25 August 2006]

Best artistic film i have seen in years. Incredibly connected to Buñuel/Dali's "An Andalusian Dog" (quoted few other Buñuel's films as well) brings completely fresh vision of surrealism. I saw this film together with a Hollywood actors agent who was completely shocked by the film considering it the act of crime. I had to be easy with comments cause it would make me a criminal as well. There is hilarious scene with Chabrol in the ZOO which rediscovers his tremendous, almost forgotten, acting talent. One of the highlights of the film is wonderful Velvet who makes mythical anti-Venus character so pure and powerful. So, "Avida" is such brilliantly made film, on best tracks of European film-making, which goes straight to film art history with no doubt. I consider Gustave De Kervern and Benoît Delépine saviors of European film art.

Don't be misled by people trying to tell you not to be misled by festival booklets

[missingtth · 9/10 · 16 March 2008]

This film is brilliant - but there will be a fair share of naysayers who will criticize the film for ridiculous reasons. The fact is that AVIDA is extremely creative and progressive film-making and might actually make you think about society at large, the symbols that flow throughout - religious or social - and a bunch of other ideas that certain authorities would rather have you ignorant of.

This is one of those films, like Jodorowsky's HOLY MOUNTAIN, that is shat on in the year of its release but inevitably becomes a cult classic and will be loved by generations to come. It's just that it takes balls to put yourself behind this film and espouse its charms. Something that very few critics, most of whom are coerced by the mediocrity of popular opinion, rarely do these days.

See it if you can.