A Imagem de um Pesadelo

This is one of those movies. Despite the agony, I hung in there for 40 minutes, but I could take no more. I guess everyone has their limits. This movie was incredibly bad! What were the people who made this movie thinking?

One of the the things you can do as a new director is to get a great Director of Photography. He can help you avoid mistakes and save your butt.

Raoul Ruiz is not a new director, he has over 90 films to his credit, but he is fairly new to the United States. This is supposed to be his "official" debut film.

So, he gets Robby Müller to do the cinematography. Great choice, as directors like Wim Wenders (13 times, including Paris Texas) and Jim Jarmunch (Ghost Dog, Way of the Samauri) like to use him on their pictures.

Unfortunately, the great cinematography and a sexy star, Anne Parillaud (La Femme Nikita, Innocent Blood), can't make up for lousy music and bad "B" movie dialog, even if the story is somewhat interesting. Yes, I hung in there to see what happens, and, no, I am still not sure.

It did have Graham Greene (Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Green Mile) and that made it more palatable through the bad parts.

Don't rent, but you may want to catch it on cable.

Even with great set design and cinematography, this muddle of a mystery will leave many questions and confusion, long after it's over. Good, dual character arcs for both William Baldwin and Annie Parrilaud; however, neither seem to connect with the final denouement.I kept hoping I would understand the final outcome, but still remain unsure of what it all meant.It has a Hitchcock/De Palma/Shayamalan director's twist, but it doesn't seem to tie up all the loose ends.It is recommended, however, for anyone interested in post-traumatic stress syndrome, abnormal psychology, or readers of 19th century author,William James.

Lynch meets Luc Besson's "La Femme Nikita", in this rare below average film of Ruiz. Something like Konchalovsky work on Tango and Cash. Ruiz blamed it on the producers and the crew. The camerawork does show the brilliance of a typical Ruiz film. Add to it a painting that keeps changing!

Did see Shattered Image tonight with Billy Baldwin and Anne Parillaud. Terrible. Audience tittered and laughed openly the first half hour, then even that entertainment value waned as the jerking back and forth between supposed reality and supposed nightmare simply became fatiguing. Some glaring imperfections, such as unconvincing Jamaican accents and an outdoor scene where it's raining only on the lead characters' car. Badly researched too. Many loose details are left banging about randomly in this film, without fulfilling the implied promise that their presence will be explained by the end. It's a lot like the later works of director Joseph Losey--Dark Ceremony; The Go-Between--films that tease the audience by not telling us everything but ultimately don't have that much to say.