L'aiguilleur

Movies like this are the reason I don´t like Hollywood movies. All Stelling´s movie are simply brilliant. But who knows them. De Wisselwachter is quite, slow, with almost no dialogues. At the same time it´s very funny and full of surprises. You don´t have to think and be clutterd up with thousands of words which explain everything. You just sit and feel the atmosphere and emotions. Wonderful!!!

While traveling by train, a woman (Stéphane Excoffier) mistakenly gets out in a remote station when the train stops in the middle of the night. Sooner she finds that a weird lonely pointsman (Jim van der Woude) that does not speak her language is the only person in that area and that that was the last train in that track. The man lodges her in his house and they develop an unusual wordless relationship between them.

"De Wisselwachter" is an overrated boredom, with a different but uninteresting story that goes nowhere. I like movies Off-Hollywood, but this story is too absurd and has no message in the end. The sexual tension between the two lead characters is funny in a moment but too repetitive. I saw this movie in an old VHS and the image is too dark; I do not know whether on DVD the image would be of better quality. In the end, I was absolutely disappointed with this feature. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem da Linha" ("The Man of the Line")

I understand the draw and appeal to such a different type of movie and I am a huge admirer of movies with little dialog but all the same this one absolutely terrible. I've been to the Scottish highlands and found the lack of Scottish accents in the characters disappointing. This plot was strong enough in theory but the cheap sets and lack of a single realistic character kept this film from getting off the ground. I feel the use of silence to create atmosphere only works when you have actors who can exude some sort of presence without speaking and these actors certainly cant. If you want a silent movie that captures that presence try (Le Dernier Combat). There have been very few movies that I couldn't even manage to finish and this was one of them. Absolute dribble!

Great film!!! But should be viewed in letterbox widescreen format. The movement, lighting and medium frame close ups work on this film. Absolutely nothing like "Days Of Heaven" and "Secret Of Roan Inish." They are good films,but very hard to watch. "Pointsman" is an excellent example of the director and cinematographer working in harmony.

I've seen De Wisselwachter for the first time about fifteen years ago, but this movie is still with me in some way, and sometimes I feel the need to see it again. The director guides us in an absurd story with an absurd background, but like in a dream, the disbelief never settles in and we are projected in the little world of the movie as it was a perfectly coherent parallel universe. The events in the storyline are scarce, but the tension is always very high, like in a well-made thriller, and the attention of the viewer never fleets.

The visuals are stunning, with no shot falling short of having a perfect composition and gorgeous colors. The sound is used sparingly - the film is nearly completely speechless and the music is used with great parsimony, only the ambient noise is always present - but with great effect. Very original and throughly enjoyable.