Amer (2009)

As a young girl Ana was a rebellious child. She was also tormented by images of death and a shadowy, ominous figure in black. Now an adult, she is once again tormented by shadowy, other-worldly forms.An extraordinary feat. In making this movie the director(s) managed to turn 15 minutes of meaningless and random plot into a 90-minute movie. Done by doing almost everything in slow motion and repeating one action over and over, often without even changing the camera angle. Incredibly pretentious and containing no substance whatsoever this movie is truly devoid of any positive qualities. Avoid at all costs and save yourself some time.

As a fan of giallo, surreal and 'arty' films, as a bilingual French speaker and lover of Truffaut, Bunel and Goddard as well as Bava, Argento and Fulci, this should have been my kind of film. But Amer is a 90 minute waste of celluloid. The saving grace is its beautiful locations. My immediate reaction to the opening scenes were that it was filmed in the same villa as 'Hatchet for the Honeymooon'. I've checked this and hatchet was filmed near Rome, whereas Amer was shot (well thrown lazily together whilst drinking absinthe) near Menton. But, good start if it is to be an homage to Giallo. To be fair the first of the 3 segments is an OK student giallo pastiche. It is eerie, confusing and slightly disturbing. This would be fine if it had any narrative link to the rest of the film. The 'middle' section is possibly amongst the worst waste of time I've ever spent in front of a screen.A dreary real-time walk into the village while mummy gets her hair done then chasing a football down a hill to be confronted by the lamest bunch of pseudo bikers (on 50cc mopeds) I've ever seen. Give me strength! The final segment is OK in a confused way and is littered with Argento references most notably from 'Profundo Rosso' and 'Tenebrae'. And then it ended. which was about the best bit.

once in a while come a film, that is extraordinary. Beyond all you've seen before. "Amer" is such a film. First of all: This is no "horror" film at all. It is something beyond any known genre. A masterpiece, that will make no sense at all, if you expect a storyline or explanations. If you want to see it like that, you may be disappointed. But if you are able to watch it like a dream, a recording of the dream state of an unknown woman, you will experience an amazing trip. To me this film is as close to a dream as a film can come. The visual ideas and the camera-work is simply awesome. A proof that you don't have to spend big budgets to make a great movie. The missing of a concrete storyline gives a lot of space for own ideas. To me something I love. I am bored of all the cleverness in modern films and stories. "Amer" gives room for fantasy and imaginations. One of the bravest films I've seen for years. Thubs up. Hope to see more from those directors.

"Amer" shown recently at Cinema Village, is a film that deals in psycho sexual matters in the stylized way European directors love to present. It is a creepy movie that involves a lot of ideas that play, in a way, like a stylized video, but without music, and lyrics. In a way, it reminds us of some of those installations at MOMA, where videos like this play to captive audiences, exciting some, but boring most of the people that approach the space.The film was conceived by Belgian directors Helen Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Evidently, it is their tribute of those 'giallo' Italian films, of which Dario Argento has made a career directing. There is story behind the images one sees on the screen. Much is left to the viewer's imagination since what happens in the film has no dialogue, but it is clearly the story of a young girl that is traumatized from her early years, first by the death of her grandfather, and then by witnessing a passionate sexual session by her own parents.After a while, the film becomes somewhat tedious because it appears to be pretentious, trying to find audiences that find pleasure in watching this genre, but without Mr. Argento's humor. Cassandra Foret and Charlotte Eugene-Guibbaud play Ana, as a girl and then as the teenager she becomes. Marie Bos is seen as the adult Ana.Manu Dacosse is the cinematographer who works with dark images to convey the creepiness of the atmosphere the directors were after. The editing by Bernard Beets arranges the different shots in an artistic way to please the viewer.