Any Way the Wind Blows

Tom Barman's Any Way The Wind Blows is a great movie, but (big BUT here) do not try to find a coherent story here. The movie is a mosaic of lives in Antwerp, Belgium, in June. We follow these people during whatever they do on this Friday. The most have only one thing in common: They end up at the same party that night.

The film is beautifully shot, the actors are all great, the dialogue is loose and realistic, the direction is terrific, but the one thing that makes this film really stand above most of the films made in Western Europe nowadays is... The Soundtrack (with capitals). I own it and it's on of the best compilations I have ever heard! Dance, rock, jazz, instrumental... It's all there. And it brings the film to a higher level.

Mind you, this is not a film for everybody, but for the people who are not afraid to see something else than the usual slick fare that is, alas, too common nowadays. And remember: "Although life is short, you have to perform all the miracles that you can..."

I'm not the typical imdb movie-fanatic. I'm not even someone who really likes watching moves (I doubt I've ever watched more than 3 movies a month).

I liked this movie because the characters could really exist and really be living in Antwerp. Having often walked the thin line between the underground and the 'decent way of living' myself, this movie brought back memories when I watched some of the characters in there. Although the standard-issue 'tax paying upright citizen' might not believe this, I don't think I've seen one person in there that I couldn't compare to someone I've met in the past. This movie really shows live as it is living in Antwerp.

The choice of music i great. There's for example a drum'n'bass track in there at exactly the right moment that just made me want to start dancing right there.

I had some good laughs too!

I can't comment on (or care about) the technical aspects of this movie, but if mr Barman ever makes another movie I wouldn't want to miss it.

Any Way the Wind Blows is Tom Barmans (who is also know as front man of the rock formation 'dEUS') debut movie. Entirely shot in Antwerp (Belgium), the movie starts on a sunny friday morning and skips rather superficially between the events that fill the day of a dozen of main characters. When the movie ends, you have a lot of stuff to think about, because most of the different story-lines are left wide open.

The movie has a (purely instrumental) sound track that will rock your socks off. In most scenes, the music truly enhances the general atmosphere and feel, really making the movie hallucinating to watch at certain points of time. The main scene in the film, the party, is very well shot.

The director didn't hesitate to use video clip techniques, having his main characters dancing on one of the best sound tracks I've heard lately.

The screenplay is great stuff. Camera angles and colors are very well chosen. The 'costumes' are very hot and very 'seventies' too. And I loved (most of the) acting.

The thing I liked most about the movie, are the subtle touches of absurd, surreal, very dry or even cynical humor that interleave.

Without claiming to be a comedy (this movie certainly is not a comedy but rather an alternative piece of art), it still manages to have its audience giggling and even burst into laughter at some times.

This is one more directors' debut that shouldn't be an ending. I hope to see more Tom Barman movies in the future because I had a good time. Cheers.

I really liked Tom Barman's AWTWB. You just have to let it come over you and enjoy it while it lasts, and don't expect anything. It's like sitting on a café-terrace with a beer, in the summer sun, and watching the people go by. It definitely won't keep you pondering afterwards, that's true, but that's not a prerequisite for a good film. It's just the experience during the movie that's great.

I felt there were a few strands that could have been worked out a little more, but being a Lynch fan I don't care that much anymore :)

And I *loved* the style, or flair of this movie. It's slick, but fresh, and the soundtrack is a beauty. Any music-lover will get his kicks out of AWTWB, I can assure you.

I'll give it 8 out 10.

(music-wise 10 out of 10)

Barman just wanted to make a movie because he wanted to. Just as simple as that, and he succeeded. Not only in his goal, but also in making a wonderful movie, especially visually. He knows how to use pans, slow-motion sequences, tracking shots, crane shots, etc. in a beautiful, smooth way. This gives the movie a very relaxing feel to it.

The story is about the lives of 8 very different characters who have nothing in common except one thing: a party that they all attend to, which also is the turnpoint of this movie. The beauty of this picture lies not in the question how the characters have effect on eachother (in comparance with a similar, of course better movie like Magnolia). I simply don't think that that was Barman's idea. The beauty lies in the different details of experiences that people go through which makes or breaks their lives. Barman is very successful in telling those little stories that describe little experiences. He knows people..... and Antwerp.

The soundtrack of the movie is also excellent, but not a surprise as we know that Barman is also a very succesful songwriter and musician with his band dEUS. The music is sometimes hot and at the same time relaxing which contributes to the sunny, smooth feel of the movie. Other times we hear funky pop/rock-melodies which give some scenes the strength that they need.

There's only one flaw, and that's the last half an hour. Was it the runtime, which was breaking me up? Or weren't the last scenes that fresh and accurate than the scenes until then? I can't figure it out...

All in all a beautiful sunny movie which lifts the Belgian cinema up.

8 out of 10!

(It's the breeze that flows through a girl's hair on a sunny afternoon making her even more beautiful; it's the fresh breeze that makes you relax when it passes you at a crowded party when someone opens the door; it's the breeze that carries the perfume from that beautiful girl sitting next to you in the park who you just met a week ago; it's the breeze.....)