Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Victor Khomenko (M) on March 14, 2011 at 06:41:49

The 2006 film by Alain Resnais is intriguing because it provides no answers. Let's face it - we all want answers, we don't like being left hanging. But by sticking to ultimate ambiguity Resnais moves the film so much closer to life that it starts to hurt. Forget the always desirable happy ending... you will be gasping for ANY ending at all... for, in memorable words of my neighbor Joe Biden (dropped during Thomas hearings), life is not a still photo, it is a moving picture, and no matter how long the film, you are still only allowed to see one brief moment of life, and it will just keep going long after you stopped watching.

So Resnais torture is not intentional... perhaps at the tender age of 94 he simply realized it was time to give the audience some food for serious though, or maybe this was his way of telling the viewers "So you think YOU have problems?". By doing so he makes it so much easier for us to related to the characters... let's face it, very few of us will ever get to shoot and jump like Bruce Willis' John McClain, but every one of us will be facing difficult personal choices.

Be assured that mr. grits will not walk away empty-handed either - the Italian-born Laura Morante will make his evening worthwhile.

I liked the film,