This short review was originally written in French, my native tongue. Here is a translated, and updated version for all of you, fine English-speakers from around the world:
Dante 01 is a solo effort from Marc Caro, who is well-known for his collaboration with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on awesome films such as Delicatessen (1991) and La cité des enfants perdus (1995). Now I won't go as far as saying that he is the weakest link, but I will simply point out that while he directed only one feature film during the last fifteen years, Jeunet alone was responsible for the vastly under-rated Alien: Resurrection (which will probably be remembered in twenty years as the last good Alien film) and the international smash hit Amélie.
SYNOPSIS: Dante 01 is an orbital station hovering over fiery planet Dante. It is home to a small, experimental lab/prison that uses its criminally insane inmates as guinea pigs for pharmaceutical testing. The film opens with a small ship docking at the station, carrying in its bowels a sexy, but unethical Vietnamese doctor called Elisa and a frozen, Messianic prisoner called only Saint-Georges (the same name as a famous dragon slayer). The story revolves around bitchy Elisa's use of nasty, mood-altering nano-machines and mute Saint-Georges' arduous integration among a population of unstable psycho ward inmates who will soon discover that he is much more than he first appears to be.
APPRECIATION: Elaborated from a linear screenplay riddled with genre clichés and vacuous mythological references, this boring effort with a faint allegorical flavor falls flat during the first verbal exchange between Elisa and the lead doctor aboard Dante 01, which leaves the green filters, manic POV shots, CGI nanomachines and other visual gimmicks as sole motors of a flawed narrative. Left to fend for themselves, forced to mechanically deliver incongruous lines of dialogue, the actors cannot even hope to give life to the vain archetypes of the screenplay. It's a shame too because colorful Dominique Pinon seems ill at ease in the unlikely role of a criminal mastermind and he thus gives a performance that's a far cry from those of Delicatessen and Amélie.
You should definitely skip this film, except if you're a Caro or Pinon completist. I mean it.
*1/2
Style, sure. But no substance, an abrupt conclusion and wasted acting jobs.
Here is the original French text which I had written right after seeing the film (and which conformed with the model foregrounded by major québécois critical body Mediafilm):
Dante 01 is a solo effort from Marc Caro, who is well-known for his collaboration with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on awesome films such as Delicatessen (1991) and La cité des enfants perdus (1995). Now I won't go as far as saying that he is the weakest link, but I will simply point out that while he directed only one feature film during the last fifteen years, Jeunet alone was responsible for the vastly under-rated Alien: Resurrection (which will probably be remembered in twenty years as the last good Alien film) and the international smash hit Amélie.
SYNOPSIS: Dante 01 is an orbital station hovering over fiery planet Dante. It is home to a small, experimental lab/prison that uses its criminally insane inmates as guinea pigs for pharmaceutical testing. The film opens with a small ship docking at the station, carrying in its bowels a sexy, but unethical Vietnamese doctor called Elisa and a frozen, Messianic prisoner called only Saint-Georges (the same name as a famous dragon slayer). The story revolves around bitchy Elisa's use of nasty, mood-altering nano-machines and mute Saint-Georges' arduous integration among a population of unstable psycho ward inmates who will soon discover that he is much more than he first appears to be.
APPRECIATION: Elaborated from a linear screenplay riddled with genre clichés and vacuous mythological references, this boring effort with a faint allegorical flavor falls flat during the first verbal exchange between Elisa and the lead doctor aboard Dante 01, which leaves the green filters, manic POV shots, CGI nanomachines and other visual gimmicks as sole motors of a flawed narrative. Left to fend for themselves, forced to mechanically deliver incongruous lines of dialogue, the actors cannot even hope to give life to the vain archetypes of the screenplay. It's a shame too because colorful Dominique Pinon seems ill at ease in the unlikely role of a criminal mastermind and he thus gives a performance that's a far cry from those of Delicatessen and Amélie.
You should definitely skip this film, except if you're a Caro or Pinon completist. I mean it.
*1/2
Style, sure. But no substance, an abrupt conclusion and wasted acting jobs.
Here is the original French text which I had written right after seeing the film (and which conformed with the model foregrounded by major québécois critical body Mediafilm):
Doté d'un scénario linéaire qui multiplie ad nauseam les clichés du genre et les références mythologiques creuses, cet ennuyeux huis-clos à saveur allégorique tombe à plat dès le premier échange verbal, si bien que seuls les filtres verdâtres, plans subjectifs vomissants, nanomachines de synthèse et autres excès visuels semblent propulser le récit. Livrés à eux-mêmes, forcés de débiter des platitudes sans nom dans un français international franchement déshumanisant, les interprètes n'arrivent pas à élever leurs personnages au-dessus des archétypes gnangnan du scénario. C'est quand même dommage pour le délicieux Dominique Pinon pour qui le manque de latitude constitue une muselière.
