Phantom Love (2007)

As a fan of Ms. Menkes' films, I didn't quite know what to expect from her new feature film, Phantom Love. I have been a fan since seeing her six previous works--Soft Warrior, Great Sadness of Zohara, Magdalena Viraga, Queen of Diamonds, Bloody Child, and Massakre. What I love about Nina's work is that it is utterly brave, bold, and original! Nina dares to tap into something spiritual, mystic, subconscious...something undefinable, something magical... Her new film, Phantom Love, a stunning feature shot in black and white 35MM, seems even more daring and unique. From the opening frame, Nina steadies her shots with a hand-held, "raw" edge. She abandons some of her more formal static shots in favor of a roaming eye...an eye that seems to dig down into her subject, dig a hole...pierce and burrow into the depths of the alienation and repression of her female characters. Her central character, a blackjack dealer living in Los Angeles, is somewhat reminiscent of Firdaus from Queen of Diamonds; but unlike Firdaus, this protagonist struggles with "family problems" such as an overbearing mother and psychotic sister. At one point, the "sister" disappears and seems to fuse into the psychic space of the protagonist/blackjack dealer. Typical of Nina's work, specific elements can be debated...and often the literal is less important than the subconscious space or the internal sensations awakened from a particular sequence... In the end, it seems a weight had been lifted as butterflies encircled the main character and she stood naked in the window of her medieval-style apartment. Perhaps this is a sign of hope...perhaps Nina will simple leave it up to the viewer to decide... No matter, I have rarely been so moved from viewing a film... Way to go girl!!!

This film was so disappointing. From the blurb that made me decide to see Phantom Love (why is it called this?)I had expected something arty and thoughtful with beautiful imagery. It did have some interesting images but these often seemed random and made no sense. In fact they seemed like they were inserted to fill in time. In the end the effect was listless.I believe the film was meant to be atmospheric, but it just wasn't. The lack of a coherent plot did not help matters. You might say it was mysterious, but I think it was just incoherent with no atmosphere.The main character seemed to be disturbed but the plot did not draw me in enough to care about her situation. Without looking at the cast list I would not have known that you see the main character as a child. The film has very little context for the time, place or character. I am not a prude but the sex scenes (there were several) seemed pointless and confused me further, I recognised Lulu but I was not sure if it was the same man, different men, a lover, her husband or was she a prostitute. It was only when I saw the credits that I discovered the hairy back was meant to belong to her lover. This film did manage to make what should have been shocking (dream sequences involving Lulu's mother) seem a bit boring.The nail filing actually made more sense, as it did give some indication of Lulu's emotional state. I will not fault the actors as I don't they had a lot to work on.I do not know if the lack of context or flow in the film was because of ineptitude or because it was pretentious but the end result was dull.I can't be bothered talking about it anymore.

Why did I waste my money on this on the last day of Sundance? I want a refund... Can I have my $16 back? While I was watching this film I kept waiting for something to happen, nothing did happen. The only way I even knew what it was supposed to be about was by reading the plot, which was not really like the film. why did the director zoom in with their handy cam and then zoom out? It was not very artistic. Why did the director show Lulu filing her nails for fifteen minutes? Why is it when the actors tried to speak they sounded like they were reading? Or was that the point? I felt like Phantom Love had no story at all, and to be honest I felt like my friends vacation videos had a much higher entertainment value than this film.

I caught this 'movie' on the last day of the Sundance Film Festival. I caught this 'movie' like one catches a cold- unwanted, and cursing the propagator of such filth. This garbage is the excrement of self-hating emo cutters with nothing to outlet irrational anti-emotion but a camera- suffering from a visual stagnancy of thought, this 'movie' drives through one overly-long shot devoid of any discernible art or cinematography to the next. The 'clever' lack of dialog for the first third of the film establishes the consistency of vacant material. I 'believe" it was the directors motive (because there is nothing to tie anything together, and no rational thought or clues given as to what is happening or why anyone would care) to make viewers feel the same nothingness and self-propelled despair as the wooden characters. Of course see this film will leave viewers wondering, I wonder why it was accepted into the theater, I wonder why the whole theater did not leave with the other half. Nothing in the movie was coherent enough for one shot, let alone establishes continuity between two.I must beg the director to answer one question: Was anything thought out before production?This movie is painful to watch- not for the subject matter- for the un-motivating characterless characters- the excruciating long shots attempting at some rejected student art- the poor camera angles- the amateurish zooming in and out incrementally- the lack of story- the lack of detail- the lack productive dialog- the un-relatable situations without explanation or reason.I have never seen anything this bad attempt to be a movie or art.*Spoiler alert* The synopsis has NOTHING to do with this film- none of those purported events could be interpreted by anyone who has not read the synopsis- the soundtrack was 'masterfully' accomplished by placing a mic on the road and various machinery, there was no score-The only positive commenter shares the same first name as the director, a coincidence or shameless self promoter with a not so clever pseudonym?