The Wrestler

Painija / The Wrestler. US (c) 2008 Off the Top Rope / Wild Bunch. EX: Vincent Maraval, Agnès Mentre, Jennifer Roth. P: Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin. D: Darren Aronofsky. SC: Robert D. Siegel. DP: Maryse Alberti - shot on S-16mm - 2K digital intermediate - color - 2,35:1. "Round and Round" perf. by Ratt / Rat Attack. "The Wrestler" by and perf. by Bruce Springsteen. CAST: Mickey Rourke (Randy "The Ram" Robinson), Marisa Tomei (Cassidy), Evan Rachel Wood (Stephanie Robinson). 115 min. A Cinema Mondo release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Janne Mökkönen / Saliven Gustavson. Viewed at Tennispalatsi 10, 17 Jan 2009. - An intentional low definition look with heavy grain sustained in the digital intermediate. - A companion piece to Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece Requiem for a Dream. That film was about addiction. This is about performance as a masochistic show. The Ram is a show wrestler at the end of his career. His best friend Cassidy is a stripper. - The film is about dignity, pride and humanity in circumstances where those qualities would be least expected. - Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei are magnificent in their brave performances. The braver feat is how they expose their characters' soul rather than flesh. - The film belongs to the tradition of The Set-Up (Robert Ryan), Somebody Up There Likes Me (Paul Newman), Fat City (Stacy Keach) and The Raging Bull (Robert De Niro), but this is a different game and an original approach. - Also in this film the theme of addiction is essential.

Double Team

100417 / 16 / US / 1997 / Tsui Hark / / action

Double Team / Double Team. PC: Mandalay Entertainment. A Columbia release. P: Moshe Diamant. D: Tsui Hark. DP: Pater Pau. Martial arts: Samo Hung. PD: Marek Dobrowolski. ED: Bill Pankow. CAST: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke. 91’. Scope. MPAA 35076. Rating R = 17. Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Eirik Udd. DIST: Columbia TriStar Egmont Finland. Viewed at VET, Helsinki, Friday, 3 October 1997. *** Van Damme’s best movie so far is the lucky result of a genial production team. It’s the US debut of the Hong Kong wizards Tsui Hark and Samo Hung, and the screen debut of Dennis Rodman, who brings colour and humour to the screen, in perfect contrast to the single-minded Van Damme. It’s flamboyant, it’s outlandish, and it does not care about logic. It’s about magic and miracle and the joy of spectacle. The plot is forgettable and some twists objectionable (shooting innocents, risking lives of babies), but there are several funny inventions (the cybermonks in the catacombs of Rome). To be admired is also the very precise sense of using time lapse and the bold and consistent colour scheme. Hopefully Van Damme will work with these guys again.