Princess

It has all the elements of modern visual culture - P.O.V. camera, smart usage of CGI and strong hit-in the face animated story-telling. And it has soul. The thing that most nowadays production compromisingly neglects due to better box office income. I honestly cannot seriously accept comments that animation in Princess is lame! It can be put out only by someone who is just brainwashed with console games and CGI hyperproduction blockbusters. This is hell of a strong movie and much more. It just begins at the end. Unfortunately, nowadays it's so rare to take something inside yourself from cinema, besides full belly of popcorn mixed with Coca-cola after two hour bombardment of easy to forget moving pictures. This one is animated feature but not a fairytale of king, castle and prehistorik squirrel but real, present life from everyone's neighbourhood we would rather not to happen. Can't wait to see Echo with Pusher's favourite Kim Bodnia. Keep it on Anders.

As the film festival winds down and all the big stars leave the city, the reality of returning back to the normal life begins to sink in. But it's not totally over yet. There is still one more day left, tomorrow I get to watch Sheitan, which hopefully isn't Sheity as the title somehow suggests. Tonight, I saw Princess, which was everything but sheity.

Princess is a Denmark / German import that is comprised of 80% animation and 20% live action. The director, Anders Morgenthaler, puts together a picture that is definitely not something you see in theatres around here. There are a number of facets that make Morgenthaler's Princess stand up tall from the crowd (cliché #1). Firstly, the subject matter; the movie is about a priest who effectively quits his job and coherently scraps his religious beliefs when he allows his life to be rattled by rage and driven by violence. Secondly, the impetus behind the forthcoming violence has never been seen before. The priest (August) (Yes his name is also the name of the popular summer month) returns back to his hometown after hearing of his sister's death. What he learns from here only sickens his soul to the point of blinding his judgment of appropriate justice. He learns that his sister (Christina) (aka Princess) (her porn queen pseudonym) has died an unnecessary death due to the misogyny of Charlie, the president of Lust Paradise, the porno studio Christina worked for. Ironically, August the priest, reacts to this loss, not with sorrow and harmless grief, but with intense and violent vengeance.

The third facet then is the path of destruction that August sets forth on -- towards his ultimate goal of murdering Charlie. This is not your typical Pixar movie which keeps kid audiences giggling and upbeat, but rather a much more subdued, dark movie that consistently permeates a tone that makes you feel sorry and more sorry for the characters on screen. Not mentioned yet, but absolutely crucial to the cohesiveness of the story is Mia, Christina's under-loved, abused and emotionally scarred daughter. After Christina's death, she is taken under August's wings. August solemnly tells Christina that he will take care of her and never let her go. It is through August's acquaintance with his alienated niece, that he finds the straw that breaks his camel's back (Grrrreat cliché #2). He learns that August was assaulted by Charlie and later discovers he even sexually molested Mia. The child has seen the world through the wrong glasses and this irritates August up and through to the existential plane of frustration. He believes Mia does not deserve to live in this kind of reality, and she doesn't need a matriarchal role model who has sex for a living. In a disturbing and emotionally awkward scene, Mia joins some children in the courtyard of August's apartment for a game of doctor. Since the roles of the doctor, nurse and patient were already taken - Mia feels obligated to succumb to the only role she knows; a whore. After announcing this, the children react apprehensively, but curiously play along. In the next cut, the nurse has left, leaving the doctor and the patient or the two boys with Mia, the whore. From a low angle, we see Mia almost teasing the boys with her skirt as she slowly lifts it up and over her crotch. Awed by this novel experience the boys dumbfoundedly ask what to do. From witnessing her mother on home movies, Mia naturally and naively tells one of the boys to get on top of her. At this point, the situation gets tense when one of the boys picks up a twig and connotatively suggests another fashion of entry. Mia still has some ounce of moral judgment to realize this is wrong and resists, but the boys push forward until --- oops, you'll have to watch the movie, because I'm getting drowsy!

It is powerful scenes like this which poignantly drive the audience through a series of long thoughtful gazes to satisfying sentiments of fitting vengeance and brutalization (it's not healthy to repress anything, including our inner most prehistoric instincts!). Princess shines in a genre of it's own which resists calling itself: an action movie, a drama, a dark comedy, a cartoon, a live-action movie or an unsheity movie because Princess does not holistically fit into any one of these groups, because it belongs in all of them. Kudos to Denmark for releasing such an unbarred film that liberates viewers with a penchant for cerebral activity to think beyond convention!

I knew nothing about this going in and it's not easy to tell what's going on for a good while. The plot reveals itself in a different way than most movies do and until there's a general idea of what's happening, the movie seems like an adult swim knock-off wannabe.

However, once everything is set into place, it's very gripping and stays with you until the end with a great story plus wonderful character depth and development.

The film is part animation and part grainy digital video. The digital video is used to represent a character who is no longer alive shown through home movies at random insertions. The home movies style kinda detracts from the story but it's not all bad, there's an interesting scene where a car crash from the outside is animated and from inside is shown with the grainy video.

Although, for the most part there's animation which is spectacular. I'm not sure if it's a company located outside of the country the film comes from but it's not in the exaggerated anime style. That means the animation is there but you're able to actually focus on the story. The style of animation also makes the violence pretty graphic. Understand that this is an R rated movie for a reason and some parts even in animation are tough to take in.

With proper distribution, this could become a midnight movie cult classic.

The BBC series Monkey Dust used animation to portray fairly adult themes. In fact, there were many motifs that seem to come directly from that show, as well as the animation style. I suspect the film has either copied this style directly, or their is a shared artistic connection.

The film covers the porn industry and its fallout. It is put together quite skilfully, but has no consistent mood and ends rather sentimentally. The spine is an almost Kill Bill style revenge plot, around which the sharp edges of the real world intrude. The film has heart but no gravity; it weaves a spell around itself but not the audience. So in the end the whole is considerably less than the sum of its well put together parts.

This is great anime for adults. The story moves you, affects you, so that you will remember it. It is like the hardcore Japanese manga anime stuff with over the top violence and gore, but also with lots of implied sick, twisted, disturbing things. It is truly cruel to watch. A lot of other things I watch are considered sick and disturbed but they never affected me. Princess did...

Sometimes real live film appears in the film, mainly when the characters watch TV. Maybe that is to make viewers more involved in the characters? But I feel the anime characters are more engaging. I do not think the movie gained anything by doing this. Especially the last 1 minute or so of live stuff should have been deleted.

The animations/drawings were great. Especially the lighting. The perspective in the lines were considerably unnatural, which was annoying for me. The characters were portrayed really well. The story was incredibly tragic and great.

I give it a 9 out of 10 if I pretend the last minute is gone.