Videomannen

Great little film that I picked up for just £5. Lots of nods to giallo films and will relate to people who stalked the video shops in the 80s such as myself looking for obscure films we thought we would never actually get to see. Give it a go you could do a lot worse with your 90 mins.

Ennio and Simone are passionate people, survivors from the '80s in a spiritless new millennium. Simone drinks to dull the pain of her unfulfilled existence. Her daughter is giving her the cold shoulder, so she takes refuge in '80s nostalgia, and in her passion for ancient Egypt. Ennio is clinging to his old video stock. He is a collector and smalltime dealer of VHS at a time when people are already moving on from DVD. He loves giallo, '70s Italian slasher films. Picking-up a rarity advertised by Simone, who is clearing her shelves, he has the chance to sell it to a mysterious collector for a small fortune, and get out from under his debts. But then, much like Simone's distant daughter, his mint condition VHS tape disappears without trace.

What Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch and High Fidelity did for sports and music fanatics, Videoman does for moviehounds. Like Hornby's heroes, Ennio needs to face up to changing times, but maybe he can still stay true to his principals without selling out? Simone likewise needs to stop propping herself up with booze and walk confidently towards a better future. Can they find their path together, or will their disappointed-positivity get in the way?

Videoman is an offbeat charmer, a comedy with a razor-sharp edge. Like a giallo flick it may lull you into a false state of security, only to launch a surprise out of the shadows. It's a bit funny, a bit depressed, a bit insightful, a bit stupid, a bit grisly. Ennio is, after all, immersed in slasher and T&A movies. Both he and Simone want respect, with little chance receiving any, except from each other. Their relationship is more mutually confessional than that provided to the geeky heroes of the aforementioned Hornby stories by their girlfriends. Videoman takes place in a twilit world full of repressed emotions, emotions that need to burst out. Sweden.

Much like Ennio's giallo classics, Videoman is likely to be a connoisseur's favourite, not a party piece, not a crowd pleaser. But it has a lot of charm, especially for anyone who remembers the '80s and VHS tapes.

'Videoman' is one of the all too rare films featuring a greatly flawed middle-aged male protagonist I can readily relate to, which, quite frankly, also made for frequently uneasy viewing! Ex-video-shop proprietor Ennio Midena (Stefan Sauk) is a disenfranchised, heavy-drinking divorcee, an increasingly bitter loner, wholly unwilling to connect to the self-absorbed swill of social media, an analogue diehard in a disorientating digital age of instant gratification, constantly obsessing about once again opening a niche video emporium; his dream one step closer to corporeal reality as he has secured a mysterious high-paying customer for his rare, mint-condition VHS copy of maestro Lucio Fulci's legendary video nasty 'Zombie'. The strangely charming 'Videoman' is an engaging, appealingly retro-flavoured, darkly tinged, character-based drama about the murkier side of life-consuming collector-mania, metropolitan loneliness, boozy existential despair, all blissfully bathed in the neon-hazed hue of lovingly synthesized 80s nostalgia!

The fitfully likeable, irksomely opinionated Ennio's maddeningly circuitous path to desperately locate a valuable missing tape, finally get free of debt, and find love is rarely less than compelling cinema. Ennio's stultifying insular, basement-dwelling inertia is considerably brightened by the arrival of 80s music fan, Egypt-loving dipso Simone Karlsson (Lena Nilsson). And the film's elusive nemesis 'Faceless' makes for an eerie peripheral presence, and the Giallo pastiche is amusingly staged, and the slew of euro-cult references are a delight, especially edifying is the lurid discussion over Rosalba Neri's 'body part' double in Fernando Di Leo's gruesome Giallo 'Slaughter Hotel'. An additional B-Movie bonus is the spot the-cult-movie game director Kristian A. Söderström clearly wants us to play, as 'Videoman' features 'Eye-Patching' excerpts from Bo Arne Vibenius's iconic 'Thriller: A cruel picture', and his lesser-known grindhouse classic 'Breaking Point', with a splendidly grisly 'insert' from Carlo Vanzina's cult 80s slasher 'Nothing Underneath'. Metalheads might also appreciate the brief cameo by writer/musician Daniel Ekeroth as fellow video collector Jonas 'Franco' Karlsson. 'Videoman' is a delightfully vivid, deliciously downbeat drama that is well worth 'tracking' down!'

I can understand how people can enjoy the references to other films and the general overall nostalgia of this film but, to be perfectly honest about it, it needs more than just milking the nostalgia of its audience to keep them engaged.

The film is very slow and boring, I only made it to about half way through before I gave up and turned it off. I'm not a guy who does this usually, I'll sit through a film I'm not enjoying simply because I want a complete picture of the film before I write anything. I'm also fine with "slow burn" movies, if the plot is and characters are engaging, I can sit happily taking it all in. But I simply lost patience with it.

This film may well appeal to others, but it just wasn't for me.

After I finished the exciting novel named 'sterven met tussenpozen' by our flemish writer Filip Keyaert about a video shop owner during the 80's, his daily life behind the counter, the all round customers, one close buddy and a loving wife at home, I wanted to track down 'videoman'. Finally watched it and I can only say it's a sublime little movie. Very well made with great actors and recommended to all video lovers back in time !