New York November

I saw "South" in a Sneak preview yesterday, and was quite disappointed. As much as I sympathize with the filmmakers' endurance to finish their project over such a long period of time, I must say that the result does not make an entertaining film. There is a mysterious trauma from the past which lacks credibility, and side plots that seem to be going somewhere, but don't. The film leaves much of the backgrounds of its characters unexplained, but that feels like an oversight, rather than a clever stylistic device. Some of the actors are quite good, and the cinematography and music are alright, but the flow between scenes is not always smooth (maybe because of the endless production process). We constantly hear the protagonist's thoughts in a voice-over, which struck me as rather inelegant. This film wants to be art, but is mostly confusion. If you are looking for great alternative cinema, you may want to look somewhere else.

Blurred vision, unsteady camera - the first minutes of South are quite hard to take, especially when you chose to sit relatively near to the screen. But rest assured: Everything goes according to plan, and although South is anything but a straightly narrated movie and you will probably have a lot to discuss afterwords (what a difference to 90% of the popcorn-industry-sponsored crap usually shown), the erratic path gets clearer on the way - which is, most importantly, strangely entertaining. South is crime, mystery, a hint of romantic and in the center a man searching for himself and his own past. This film, which took not less then 12 (!) years to realize, speaks of determination and absolute devotion only because it exists. This basic feeling makes the acting intense to the point of overwhelming, the rough black-and-white-pictures extra edgy. The soundtrack, which actually was produced twice, is very worth mentioning. In one word: Leave your popcorn at home, submerge in this piece with your full awareness, and tho' it's definitely not for everyone, a lot will be greatly rewarded.

But 12 years of your own life passing by, while you seem to be unable to stop it (especially if you did not watch it on Disc, but on the big screen, where you do not have the remote control at hand, to fast forward the movie).

Yes the movie has quite nice themes and its psychological depths seem rich. The problem is: They only seem rich. Pretending and stretching the paper thin plot to such lengths is almost as if you are trying to punish your viewers. Is it our fault that the makers needed 12 years to finish this? Although the question to ask me or any other viewer could also be: Why stay and watch it then? Well I never give up on a movie halfway through. And though there is no physical pain involved in watching one movie, it definitely reached a level of annoyance that only a few movies have reached so far.

The movie tries to be clever, but in my eyes never achieves it. The hand-held style is not working either. It does add just another level of annoyance to the whole thing. But there is another side to the coin ... another review to be more apt ... read that too and make up your mind, if you really want to risk watching this.