The Rope, on Topic

Ironically, nobody mentions String Theory in this series, even though it follows a group of scientists studying the origins of the universe, who become obsessed with a mysterious length of cord. Somehow, it just appeared, but it appears to stretch unendingly through the forest surrounding their research institute in co-creators Dominique Rocher (director of The Night Eats the World) & Eric Forestier’s three-part French series The Rope, which premieres Thursday on Topic.

Bernhardt Mueller is the director of a remote astronomical observatory. Its equipment is old, but still powerful and the sudden vogue of theories he and his wife Agnes hypothesized are poised to give the institute a new lease on life. Weirdly, a week before their critical “data harvesting” Serge Morel, the facility manager literally stumbles across a length of rope in the forest. Ulrik, Agnes Mueller’s colleague and secret lover, manages to bang up his leg trying to follow it, so he will not be available the next morning for Bernard’s rope-following hike. He will be the lucky one.

Days later, Mueller’s party remains unaccounted for. Of course, he and Morel managed to recruit the most angsty group possible, including terminally ill research director Sophie Rauk, Leila, an anxiety-ridden data scientist and her increasingly frustrated husband Joseph, and visiting scholar Dani Johannes, whose work explores the relationship between science and her lost religious faith. Out of all of them, Morel is the only you would want to be lost in the wild with. Yet, the rope seems to exert an obsessive hold over some of them, driving them forward, despite the risks and the dead bodies they start to encounter.

The premise of The Rope is a bit like other suddenly-in-Hell-or-Purgatory films, like the endless stairs in Black Ops, but it also shows the perspective of those not stuck in the fantastical Sisyphean situation. In fact, it is even more compelling watching Agnes and Ulrik trying to fathom the depths of the universe than Morel’s crew compulsively following the rope. Still, the contrast between the mysteries of science and the mysteries of the cosmically inexplicable distinctively bifurcates and dramatically distinguishes The Rope from its predecessors.

ICFF ’18: Compulsion

Forget the lurid sex. Clearly, the most fun anyone had on this film was during the location scouting. Somehow, they were able to shoot exteriors at Sacra di San Michele and interiors at what looks like the Palace of Venaria and the Villa della Regina. One would think such places would have some pretty rigorous permit processes, but somehow an S&M horror movie gained entrée. The sex and violence are the same old same old, but the locations are pretty awesome in Craig Goodwill’s English-language, Italian-produced Compulsion (trailer here), which screens today at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, as part of the Italian Contemporary Film Festival.

This is Sadie Glass. You will be seeing a lot of her naked. She barely survived the weird games her former lover Alex liked to play, but she used the experience to pen her thinly veiled autobiographical first novel. True blue Thierry is the right man for her, but he doesn’t always come through at crunch time, so when Alex crashes her book party (a bizarrely dressy event for a Fifty Shades potboiler, at what looks like the Palazzo Madama), she lights off with him, back into the seamy underside of Turin nightlife.

It turns out Alex is staying at his business partner’s boffo villa, where he will be hosting one of his notorious parties over the weekend. Naturally, he wants Glass to attend, but he gets a bonus when she invites erotic dancer Francesca along on a whim. Everything is cool when they are just doing their Skinimax thing, but as soon as the party starts, the vibe turns creepy. Glass gets woozy, starts losing time, and has visions of ritualistic killings. Everything is a game Alex tells her, but the blood stains she finds the next morning suggest otherwise.

It still just boggles the mind that a bodice-ripper-and-slasher like this could shoot in such grand venues. Essentially, the tone is a lot like Eyes Wide Shut, but with the liberal addition of overt horror elements and far less symbolically charged subtext. Jakob Cedergren is a classy actor in respectable, crossover Scandinavian films like Across the Water, Guilty, and Terribly Happy, so it is quite surprising to see him playing (credibly enough) the smarmy Alex. We feel bad for Analeigh Tipton, because the film often leaves her hanging out there, naked and haggard-looking, in a really ugly and exploitative way. It is somewhat kinder to Marta Gastini, who plays Francesca as a Holly Golightly from Hell. However, Jan Bijvoet does right by the horror tradition with his scenery-chewing turn as Minos, the cadaverous butler.

This is a complete change of pace from Goodwill first film, the hit-or-miss dystopian allegory Patch Town, but it is far more derivative of prior works. Brian Clark’s screenplay is a rat’s nest of weirdness and howlers, such as Glass’s practice of reading her final chapter at all her publicity events, which any experienced author will tell you is the best way to maximize sales. The film is a mess but the stunning backdrops often serve as a welcome distraction. If you watch Compulsion, you will have a strong desire to visit the Piedmont region, but you will probably never want to see it again. Not recommended, Compulsion screens tonight (6/16), as part of ICFF in Toronto.

Danish Oscar Candidate: Terribly Happy

In the southern Jutland region of Denmark the word “mojn” is used much like “aloha.” It is usually said in a way that gets under the skin of an urban northerner, like Robert Hanson, the sleepy hamlet’s new police marshal. Recovering from a nervous breakdown, the law man must prove his stability if he ever wants to see his family again. Unfortunately, rather than redemption, Hanson finds nothing but trouble in Henrik Ruben Genz’s Terribly Happy (trailer here), Denmark’s (unsuccessful) submission for this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar, which opens in New York this Friday.

Folks have their own way of doing things in this provincial town, including a very precise method for hanging clothes out to dry. One of the few people willing to explain such customs to the marshal is the battered wife of the wealthy town bully. Truly, the Buhls were an evil match. Ingelise is flirtatious and reckless. Jørgen has a suspicious nature matched by a violent temper. When their daughter Dorthe is heard pushing her doll’s carriage around town, everyone knows Buhl is beating his wife.

Hanson would like to book Jørgen Buhl on a domestic violence charge, but his wife is reluctant to press charges. Further complicating matters, the marshal finds himself increasingly attracted to Mrs. Buhl. It all comes to a head one night when Hanson finds his fate intertwined with the Buhls in an unexpected way. So much for staying out of trouble.

Happy is a rather nifty little thriller well served by its Nordic reserve. Rather than desperately trying to dazzle the audience with one De Palma-like Hitchcockian homage after another, Genz’s approach is more restrained. Almost off-handedly he reveals twists, like a boot inopportunely left behind in the bog. While his directorial touch is relatively light, there is still a heavy atmosphere hanging over the proceedings that suggests films like the Coen Brother’s Blood Simple and John Dahl’s Red Rock West. Indeed, cinematographer Jørgen Johansson gives the film a cool, glossy look that aptly reflects Hanson geographic and emotional isolation.

As Hanson, Jakob Cedergren (seen by many online in Sally Potter’s Rage) makes an appealing anti-hero, more-or-less holding our sympathies despite his terrible mistakes. Likewise, Kim Bodia nicely projects the barely contained rage as his antagonist. When they square off in a mano-a-mano drinking contest, it is pure movie-making magic. Yet it is the distinctive supporting characters, like the squirrelly and sinister Lars Brygmann as the town’s dubious doctor, that really flesh out the picture.

Boasting a few scenes that approach classic status, Happy is quite a distinctive crime drama. Handling the one-darned-thing-after-another thriller elements with a sardonic flair, Genz demonstrates real talent. Dark, unsentimental, and completely lacking a trite political message, Happy was totally out-of-step with Academy preferences, but it is a thoroughly satisfying small town noir. It opens Friday (2/5) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.