Actualités

Iron Man 2 (12A)

(Jon Favreau, 2010, Us) Robert Downey Jr, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow. 125 mins

Considering his CEO status, it's no surprise that Tony Stark's return feels more like an upgrade than a sequel. It's this season's must-have tech-form with a human interface, machine-tooled for enhanced multiplex performance, even if it has trouble finding much to say. Downey divides his time between battling his own ego and Rourke's ridiculous Russian baddie – among other myriad convoluted Marvel-universe subplots – but it's all about as exciting as the launch of a new MacBook.

Revanche (15)

(Götz Spielmann, 2008, Aus) Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko. 122 mins

An Austrian noir thriller, this takes the heist-gone-wrong set-up to intriguing new territory – the countryside – giving our sympathetic crook a new perspective, and bringing him perilously close to his cop nemesis.

Valhalla Rising (15)

(Nicolas Winding Refn, 2009, Den/UK) Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson. 100 mins

This gory, hallucinatory Viking odyssey makes an indelible impression,...

A convoluted and somewhat over-elaborate Austrian film tackling revenge is saved by astute directing and good performances, writes Peter Bradshaw

Austrian director Götz Friedrich's Revanche is a meditation on revenge which is intelligent and well-made, while at the same time rather contrived and implausible; it has a distinctive sort of Euro-hardcore sheen, mainly due to the superbly lucid, diamond-hard cinematography from Martin Gschlacht. Alex (Johannes Krisch) is an ex-con who works as a barman in a Vienna brothel where he has fallen in love with one of the girls there, Tamara (Irina Potapenko). He periodically visits his cantankerous grandfather (Hannes Thanheiser) in his country farm: the old man gets taken to church by Susanne (Ursula Strauss), wife of local cop Robert (Andreas Lust). The connection draws them all together in a web of coincidence and fate. There is something frankly rickety and elaborate about Friedrich's narrative structure, but the...

Revanche, which is German for revenge, is a hard sell. An Austrian production, the film is in both German and Russian with tiny little white subtitles. The primary reason I start off by mentioning the subtitles is because a film as slow and generally uninteresting as Revanche is made even more difficult to appreciate by it’s often difficult to follow subtitles written in broken English.

Written and directed by Götz Spielmann, Revanche follows an ex-con named Alex (Johannes Krisch) as he plans a bank robbery he perceives as no fail. He intends to escape his insignificant life, running away with an attractive prostitute named Tamara (Irina Potapenko) who only wants to escape the sex business. Ironically, Alex has an unquenchable sex drive, but he cares deeply for Tamara and they get along well.

The initial obstacle for Alex and Tamara is her boss Konecny, a big hulking gorilla of...

Revanche

Directed by: Götz Spielmann

Cast: Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Ursula Strauss, Andreas Lust

Running Time: 2 hr

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: June 12, 2009

Plot: Alex (Krisch) works for a sleazy brothel owner. He’s in love with Tamara (Potapenko), a Ukrainian prostitute in debt to Alex’s boss. In desperation, Alex robs a bank but Tamara dies after being shot by a cop (Lust) who tries to stop Alex. He hides out with his grandfather in the country, where he learns that he’s staying right next to the cop who killed Tamara.

Who’s It For? Though it’s billed as a thriller, it’s definitely a slow one more in line with Cache than The Bourne Identity. So more about morality than chases. For the mature viewer, in every sense.

Expectations: Revanche is up for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. So hoping to be blown away.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:...

Release Date: May 1 (New York)

Director/Writer: Götz Spielmann Cinematographer: Martin Gschlacht Starring: Johannes Krisch, Ursula Strauss, Irina Potapenko Studio/Run Time: Janus Films, 121 mins. Living on the fringes of society, Alex (Johannes Kirsch) and Tamara (Irina Potapenko) are both working in an Austrian brothel. Tamara’s boss wants to transition her into working for wealthy clients in hotels instead of the streets, and when she resists, Alex learns that a client who beat her was actually hired by their boss for her lack of cooperation. He attempts to take her away, but during a bank heist he’s pulling to support her Tamara is shot and killed by a police officer who coincidentally turns out to be neighbors with his grandfather, whose house he’s hiding out in.

We're all for getting out in the summertime, but there might not be anything more refreshing than cooling off in a movie theater... or seeing a movie in the comfort of your air-conditioned home on demand, on DVD, or online... or better yet catching a classic on the big screen at a nearby repertory theater. With literally hundreds of films to choose from this summer, we humbly present this guide to the season's most exciting offerings.

May 1

"Eldorado"

The Cast: Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde, Philippe Nahon, Didier Toupy, Franise Chichy

Director: Bouli Lanners

Fest Cred: Cannes, Warsaw, Glasgow, Palm Springs,

The Gist: When Elie (Adde), a hapless young thief attempts to rob Yvan (Lanners), a 40-year-old car dealer, the two form a unlikely friendship that leads to a road trip across Belgium in this slight comedy that won the Best European Film at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes last year.

I'm sure Dr. Phil will back me on this: It is never a good idea for lovers to work at the same place -- espe =cially if that place is a whorehouse.

Consider Alex and Tamara of the Austrian thriller "Revanche."

Alex (Johannes Krisch) is a lackey for the sleaze who runs the Vienna brothel where his covert lover, Ukrainian hooker Tamara (hot, hot Irina Potapenko), satisfies customers' sexual urges.

When she's not turning tricks for perverts, Tamara positions herself outside the brothel in tall black boots, thigh-high stockings and short black skirt,...

Götz Spielmann’s 2004 Austrian drama Antares was a largely dispiriting example of the “everything is connected” arthouse plugger, designed to show, with irony aplenty, how one calamitous event can unite a disparate group of strangers. Spielmann’s Oscar-nominated Revanche also weaves together multiple storylines, but far more skillfully. Johannes Krisch plays a Viennese brothel’s driver/enforcer, who spends his downtime drafting strategies for extricating his prostitute girlfriend Irina Potapenko from the red-light district. Ursula Strauss plays a lonely small-town housewife—married to increasingly distant cop Andreas Lust—who’s dealing with a recent miscarriage by making herself ...

Irina Potapenko in Revanche I have been keeping track of all the submissions for Foreign Language Oscar as they have been announced and updating the list in my "The Contenders" section and just recently two heavyweights were thrown into the ring as Germany submitted Uli Edel's controversial terrorist drama Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, a film In Contention's Guy Lodge believes is a shoo-in for a nomination citing a Screen International review saying: Discreet, old fashioned, traditional and altogether admirable, this is Jan Troell in what he does best . Paying minute attention to the smallest details, taking its time but never appearing to drag its feet, immensely sympathetic to its heroes and villains alike, this is an intimate family portrait and at the same time a rich canvas of working class life . This picture has quality stamped all over it, awards are likely to come its way whether for direction,...

Oldenburg, Germany -- Emily Atef's "The Stranger in Me" proved to be a triple whammy at this year's Oldenburg International Film Festival, walking away with the German Independence Award for best German film, the Otto-Sprenger Award for best film from northern Germany and the Audience Award.

The jury -- comprising LeVar Burton, filmmaker John Gallagher, producer Jen Gatien, actress Fanny Bastien and producer Rosana Coutinho -- also singled out two performances for special mention: Irina Potapenko's gripping portrait of a doomed prostitute in Gotz Spielmann's "Revanche" and Susanne Wolff for her roles in Jan Schutte's "Die Glucklichen" and the ubiquitous "Stranger in Me."

Other highlights of the festival, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this year, included Chris Eigeman's pool hall drama "Turn the River," Chee Keong Cheung's London-based martial-arts film "Bodyguard: A New Beginning" and Burton's hospice comedy "Reach for Me," which had Saturday's gala audience...

BERLIN -- Revanche, a crime drama set in rural Austria by director Gotz Spielmann has won the best European film award at this year's Berlin International Film Festival.

The prize, presented by the Europa Cinemas Label, a network of some 1,700 art-house cinemas across Europe, honors a film screening in the Berlinale's Panorama sidebar section.

A tale of guilt and revenge, Spielmann's film follows the story of Axel, a low-ranking criminal who falls in love with one of the girls in his bosses' brothel. It stars Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko and Andreas Lust. Germany's The Match Factory is handling international sales on the picture.

"This is a very well made and dramatic film that we believe has the potential to grip audiences around Europe," the Europa Cinemas jury said in a statement.

"The story is absorbing, the characters well drawn and the performances uniformly strong. This is true European cinema at its best -- an authentic and uncompromised view of a corner of Europe."

The Berlinale's Teddy Award for best film with a gay theme was awarded in Berlin Thursday night to Olaf de Fleur's The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela.

The Icelandic film is set in the Philippines and tells of a transsexual prostitute who dreams of marrying a white, Western man.

Panorama

BERLIN -- Hard luck conspires with bad sex in this unspectacular Austrian tale of crime and punishment. The accidental death of his girlfriend spurs an ex-convict to seek, and find, revenge in a way he least expected or ever wanted. The film does not dig into archetypal motives of guilt or atonement but rather dangles the idea that humans can either be pawns of fate's random machinations or become active agents in a grander scheme of things.

With the rudiments of a crime thriller and the makings of a psychological suspense, the drawn-out unfolding of events encourages expectations of a smarter twist or more impressive ending. However, just like the slapdash, unerotic sex scenes that encapsulate the overall mood of unfulfilled hope and bad karma, the film ends on a subdued and rather flaccid note. It's a hard sell for the commercial market, but TV and festival outings are possible.

Revanche is set in Vienna and the small town of Gfohl in equal parts -- urban sleaze reminiscent of Eastern Promises comes face-to-face with provincial churchgoing country life. Alex (Johannes Krisch), the driver for the boss of a sex trade syndicate, has a secret love affair with one of his girls, Ukrainian Tamara (Irina Potapenko). Alex wants to rescue Tamara from rough customers, pay off her debts and chip into a restaurant business in Ibiza. They go back to Alex's grandfather Herr Hausner's hometown, where robbing the sleepy local bank would have been a breeze but for the chance intervention of policeman Robert (Andreas Lust), who accidentally causes Tamara's death.

Alex moves in with Hausner to lie low and ruminate on revenge. While Alex cannot endure the thought of Tamara's murderer carrying on life as usual, Robert complains about his bad luck of having been there in the first place and goes into gradual psychological decline. His wife, Susanne (Ursula Strauss) unwittingly becomes a link between the two men through her friendship with Hausner.

Like the film's first establishing shot of a lake whose smooth surface is suddenly disturbed by something falling in, the plot moves in small ripples, with its first serious turning point arriving 50 minutes into the film and the sexually charged twist occurring 23 minutes later. Cinematography of the countryside is crisp and clear as spring water, focusing on the pristine forest and serene lakes and capturing the brooding weather that foretells the gathering storm within the protagonists.

REVANCHE

Prisma Film/Sperlmann Film/the Match Factory

Credits:

Screenwriter-director: Gotz Spielmann

Producers: Mathias Forberg, Heinz Stussak, Sandra Bohle, Gotz Spielmann

Director of photography: Martin Gschlacht

Production designer: Maria Gruber

Music adviser: Walter W Cikan

Costume designer: Monika Buttinger

Editor: Karina Ressler

Cast:

Alex: Johannes Krisch

Tamara: Irina Potapenko

Robert: Andreas Lust

Susanne: Ursula Strauss

Running time -- 122 minutes

No MPAA rating...