Javel-2

Charisma shows another side of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's talent. The forest contrasts deeply with the industrial environment of License to Live, yet Charisma's symbolic analysis of the Japanese society's fears and latent insanity is much more acute. This movie is also one of the few which show the collapse of both individuals and society so intimately. It takes even more sense in the perspective of the Millennium Fear, even if this theme is not explicitly named in the movie. All in all, Charisma is certainly a movie to discover.

I didn't have the opportunity to see this movie in Swedish, only in French. But when I first saw this movie it moved me so I was on the edge of tears. This movie is really original, not much like an Hollywood movie. Indeed the action is not visual but suggested. The character's deep feelings and psychology are revealed throughout the film, in a both soft and strong way. Silence is maybe the most important character of the movie. It makes the spectator quite ill at ease sometimes, on purpose. It helps the spectator thinking about what the characters may feel, sharing their experience, allowing them to be omniscient in the character's mind. Suggestion is far stronger than explanation, that's why I believe every single person will see this movie differently. If you don't sink in the movie in the beginning then you're more likely to get bored, but if you do you'll get the opportunity to think about what makes worth an human life. It's the kind of movie that's good to see again after a few years, to get another interpretation of it. This movie is also a must-see for those who are interested in the rebirth of Nordic cinema (Lars von Triers and co, film makers following the Dogma 95...). As it is really visible in "Festen", Bergman is definitely one of their sources of inspiration.