loig7

Quite simply, "The Cave Of The Yellow Dog" is a wonderful film: it is heart-warming, life-affirming. It is simple, touching, unpretentious, with a documentary quality to it (how do people live there); it came as no surprise to see on the closing credits that this is a genuine family. Very probably non-professional actors (how could the small children act?). I saw it twice in two days and on second viewing, one can appreciate its subtle construction, how small details pave the way for slight plot twists: more going on under the surface than it originally looks like. For instance the reason behind the father's reluctance; the mixing of dogs and wolves; the people's economic conditions; the (potentially dangerous) presence of vultures in the background, and so on, all of which get to play a part at some later stage. Just go and see it, this film is an utter breath of fresh air. Beautiful ethnic music as well.

It was always going to be difficult to adapt Brett Easton Ellis visually, so full marks to Roger Avary for trying, and -more importantly- for experimenting with a few gimmicks meant to reflect the novelist's unique style. The fact is, it almost works. Take the first exposition scene, for instance, with its irritating/amusing/appropriate (you decide) use of rewind, so as to present the same scene as seen by its different protagonists, or the split screen tracking down the two self-centered protagonists. The best has to be the mini-episode of Victor's trip to Europe : an audio/visual triumph that perfectly conveys Ellis's staccato delivery, his manic listing of names and labels, as well as his omission of anything possibly resembling genuine, heartfelt emotions. More of the same, please ! Spread over ninety minutes, this would have made for an ingenious translation of Ellis's world onto the big screen. As it is, Avary only dares indulge in these little stylistic experiments now and then, opting for a more conventional approach the other eighty percent of the film. (The studios wouldn't have tolerated it, no doubt.) The result : we find ourselves dangerously close to yet another US teen college comedy. Tackling the challenge posed by adapting Ellis' distinctive use of I-narrators, Avary resorts to the good old voice-over. In fact, he could have used it all along the film, from one of the main four protagonists to the next. Once more, his enthusiasm may have been curbed.

Talking of, for a film with a certificate 18, "The Rules" is strangely coy. Give or take the odd line snorting and bogey picking, there is hardly anything shown; the girls have sex still clothed; the suicide scene is elegiac. The original novel was way harder, but let us concentrate on the film.

One would suspect that the real outrage of the movie resides in seeing J. Van Der Beek, straight outta safe vanilla white cringing soap "Dawson Creek", effortlessly land into Ellis territory : he is -worryingly ?- a revelation. Wearing a constant frown on his face, he plays Sean Bateman as a tetchy, snarling, worried, and ultimately clueless adolescent not quite sure of his place, rather than as a cocksure, braindead, idiot savant. The surly hunk thunders along the apparently careless and fancy-free merry go-round, oblivious to his agonising admirers; for instance, he watches hetero porn in the company of the besotted gay character. The poignant secret admirer subplot, to mention it, gives a sense of progression to a story that would otherwise run the risk of getting repetitive. -Which would actually be valid, in a Ellisian perspective : oh, but for the existential ennui of these endless parties, tsss... ! Which makes, by contrast, the food waitress an even lovelier young lady (Theresa Wayman, we salute you.).

The other adaptation : on the screen, the characters appear, well, ...more human; faillible; tentative; endearing. Still wet behind the ears despite putting on a defiant act, they actually search for a loved one -ooh, it will end in tears (or, more accurately, pills and razor blades)! The trademark Ellisian spiritual rich kids' emptiness has been jettisoned in favour of empathy. ...But this maybe is the story of how Sean grows up to become a Bateman (we all know about his brother Patrick, who will actually be pathologically jealous of him -hence...). Another moot point : the exact era in which the movie is supposed to take place ? The book was written in the early eighties, with people listening to Talking Heads; the film's characters use camcorders. In any case, another bonus point for the ending song ! (Irony alert here). It is one of the great pop singles of all time; and as someone would say : "it's a personal statement (...), although of what I'm not quite sure..." "-Deal with it !"