Nirvana

Christophe(r) Lambert heads an international cast in this 1997 French-Italian(?) co-production. While the movie doesn't have the big budget a Hollywood blockbuster would have had, it still manages to create an interesting & convincing near-future world. Actually, it's one of the few films that really manage to create a decent cyberpunk setting; right now, I can only think of "Nemesis" which was a pretty good effort, and then there's always "Blade Runner", of course...

As for the acting in this movie, it's always tough to rate the level of acting when the movie is dubbed, but all in all I'm not complaining. Lambert is good, and Diego Abatantuono (sp?) is interesting as the sentient game character Solo - and kind of appropriate, too, since he has the physical look of a real-life "Mario on steroids". :-)

There are also several nice touches of humour, that prevent the movie from taking itself too seriously (check out the meditating guy later on in the movie for a nice example...). Finally, there is some nice music in there as well.

All in all, an enjoyable little movie - with cult potential, I think.

I wanted to watch Nirvana as I heard it was made by the same people doing Mediterraneo, which I enjoyed. I watched it in Italian, so bad dubbing was not a real problem for me (even if Christopher Lambert is clearly not speaking Italian). A lot of reviewers compared this to films like Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix, but that is just inviting disappointment. The best American film match that I know of is Existenz. The same ideas of games becoming too real, intermingling with reality, to the player's downfall.

The film has several things going for it. One is Christophe Lambert, who is always funny in any movie, no matter how bad it is. Another is the very beautiful Stefania Rocca, playing the mysterious Naima. The best thing, in my opinion, is that it is a truly Italian film, rather than a clone after an American movie, a feeling that is enforced by Diego Abatantuono playing the role of Solo in a typical Italian way. Other things, like the scene with the guy killing someone in the corridor because they were making too much noise 'ma che cazzo?!' or the car antitheft device spouting Italian insults are good examples.

The cyberpunk theme is clearly influenced by William Gibson's vision (I mean, what cyberpunk film isn't?), and in a way steals a lot of the elements you see in Johnny Mnemonic, released just two years earlier, but the moral of the story is more metaphysical in nature.

As much as I liked all of these elements in the film, I have to also complain about a lot of others. The low budget feel, the technicolor "virtual world", some of the clicheatic characters, etc. Overall I liked it, though, and I think for its budget, country of origin and ambitions, it was not a failure.

Nirvana results to be a peculiar Sci-Fi film with an intricate screenplay dealing with the complex relationships between a game designer and program and how the main character , through a virus, controls the artist . Jimi (Christopher Lambert), a successful computer game creator , finds that his latest issue has been infected by a virus which has possessed consciousness to the program's main role named Solo (Diego Abantautono). While Solo has a tormented relationship to a computer generator prostitute named Maria (Amanda Sandrelli). Jimi affected by the memory of his fled sweet heart named Lisa (Emmanuelle Seigner)and begged by Solo to finish its useless "life", starts a search for someone who can help him both to discover what happened to Lisa and to delete his game before it is released . Meantime he is being pursued by a nasty corporation . Later on , Jimi goes to Marrakech and Bombay contacts to Joystick (Sergio Rubini) and Naima (Stefania Rocca). As utilizing the plot of portraying a program within a program, the summary has the spectator haunting if what they are watching is actual or a virtual reality.

This is a sci-fi movie in middling budget full of thrills , symbolisms , some action and weird events . I won't say that there aren't any issues because there are but overall the acting is pretty flawless.The reason that I think Nirvana is more reviewable than pretty much any other film is the story and the philosophical and cyberpunk elements of the story because with every viewing I catch something I didn't see the previous time I watched it. Nirvana not only supplies the world with a whole new level of passable special effects mixed with style and substance, it also brings a whole new meaning to the word 'cyberpunk'. The story was sometimes lame but it's worth watching for the background events and the environment packed with neon lights in ¨Blade runner¨style . Acting wise the film works excellently. Interpretation was wonderful, script, visual, sound, everything about this film is a tribute to a usually overlooked genre. However , it contains regular cinematography , it's necessary an urgent remastering . The motion picture is efficiently realized by Gabrielle Salvatores .The constant theme of his movies is the escape from the problems of the modern world and the most of his movies include philosophical themes . Almost always casts Diego Abatantuono; frequently also casts Sergio Rubini . Among his most important films are ¨Amnesia¨ , ¨I'm not scared¨ , ¨Marrakech Express¨ ,¨ Quo Vadis baby ¨ , his successful and Oscarized ¨Mediterraneo¨ and of course ¨Nirvana¨ .

Films generally carry a title for a reason. Salvatores's Nirvana's is the key to understanding it. Without the key, the film will look like rubbish, like many comments here testify. But, if you get that key and use it, it can become one of the most astonishing movie experiences you may make.

The title is not just the name of a videogame. That is totally incidental.

The movie is about the voyage towards Nirvana - the real thing - of two men (or maybe of one man and his own projection in a virtual world): how the two (or maybe the man and his own inner conscience) start to understand what Nirvana is and how they eventually reach it, in spite of all misadventures and (that is not casual at all...) the cycles of deaths and rebirths that the virtual self Solo (meaning alone, in Italian, not Star Wars' character - again not a coincidence) has to go through.

This is a movie about symbolisms. This is a movie about the deepest searches of the soul. Searches that cannot be disturbed by petty concerns (see Bebo Storti's apparently bizarre line after he appears in a flash for just a few seconds to shoot and kill a very unlucky henchman "I am MEDITATING [profanities deleted]!").

Science fiction is incidental to its aims, and provides a fabulously well used tool to unravel the story in what I regard as a cinematic masterpiece.

Blade Runner's climax ended on the recognition that replicants (and humans, maybe) were just "tears... in the rain". Nirvana's is about snowflakes that fall forever, and yet never fall.... Pity this is so far above the expectations of an average moviegoer that most viewers did not even recognize the genius in its simplicity. My congratulations to Cacucci, Corica and Salvatores!

Alright, as I can see, we have very mixed reviews on this one. I personally really liked this sci-fi flick. What's so cool about it? No, no, it's not thought-provoking like eXistenZ of David Cronenberg and then again YES forget about Matrix - Nirvana is magical in a way a Hollywood film will never be. Almost surreal, Nirvana presents the future world in a most atmospheric way, and quite realistically manages to capture the decadent atmosphere of a future cyberpunk world.

What's no realistic at all, and oversimplifying is the whole plot and stuff. But who cares? Characters manage to be quite interesting, the music builds an awesome atmosphere. As you see, I don't try to intellectualise any of it: i like it for what it is, a small euro sci-fi that, at least to me, delivered the goods!

A recommendation... especially if you like Gibson-like, cyber-punk literature. BUT DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH