Ruiz, Raoul

Klimt

John Malkovich inhabits the role of dissolute artist Gustav Klimt so completely one almost expects to see his wild-eyed features reflected in Klimt's well-known painting The Kiss. The story is a (very) loose biopic about the tortured life of the Austrian artist, whose deathbed ruminations begin the film and the flashbacks that begin to paint the portrait of his incredible, hedonistic life. Even in the relative freeness and sophistication of fin de siècle Europe, Klimt and his fascination with the overtly erotic were bound to become lightning rods for high society, not to mention the self-protective Western art world. Yet Klimt declares (over and over), "I don't give a [bleep] what the critics think," and he begins to build his signature sensual paintings--and a growing grudging respect in his home country as well.

Malkovich is well matched by Saffron Burrows, who plays a witchy French dancer as committed to the idea, and expression, of free love as is the maestro. The film is especially noteworthy for its lush cinematography, which does remarkable justice especially to Klimt's famed "gold" paintings (of which The Kiss is still one of the most recognizable). The city of Vienna itself appears to be lit from within by a million golden candles. --A.T. Hurley

IN THEATRES JUNE 22 2007 (Limited) Popular Austrian painter Gustav Klimt is portrayed by John Malkovich in this dramatic biopic by director Raoul Ruiz.ReviewFrom Sight and Sound 07/01/2007By Sight And Sound Critic Paul Julian Smith"[T]here are some gorgeous delirious moments....The authentic interiors so fragile they were almost impossible to film in are exquisitely shot and lit by Aronovich."Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE UPC: 741952315193 Manufacturer No: KLF-DV3151

Time Regained

Genealogies of a Crime

Comedy of Innocence

"You're not my mommy." These words are uttered with complete certitude by the 9-year-old son of upper-class Parisian Isabelle Huppert; mother and son are about to enter the Twilight Zone. Comedy of Innocence is from the prolific Chilean-born filmmaker Raoul Ruiz, a director less interested in telling conventional stories than he is in playing with the boundaries of what a movie is. The 9-year-old demands to be taken to the home of a stranger (swanlike Jeanne Balibar, from Va savoir), whom he proclaims to be his true mother. Ruiz's command of mood and atmosphere carries the movie through its tantalizing set-up, and Huppert is of course a superb presence. She plays against the expectations of the role, finding the simmering truth beneath. One might hope for a bit more meat in the lackadaisical middle section of the film, but the eventual explanation is intriguing and worth hanging around for. --Robert Horton

On his 9th birthday, a young boy suddenly tells his mother that he wants to go home to his "real" mother. This declaration leads to an eerie and engrossing mystery which blurs the boundaries between psychological thriller and ghost story.

DIALOGUES OF THE EXILED

This is the last "Chilean" theme done in many years by Raoul Ruiz. Filmed in 1974 most of the roles were played by chileans that just arrived to their parisian exile. Some others were played by well known french actors (Francoise Arnoul, Daniel Gelin) as a soplidarity issue. International critics acclaimed this film, which is the base of Ruiz's brilliant career in french cinema.

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That Day

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting/The Suspended Vacation

One of the most important films of the seventies The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting began as a documentary on writer Pierre Klossowski but soon became in Ruiz's words "a fiction about theory." A pompous art collector offers a new history of western art through a guided tour of a fantastic gallery of "living images" all created by the "forgotten" artist Tonnerr. As our guide drones away about aspects of his collection the human figures begin to smirk and fidget emphasizing their play-acting and introducing a new level of spectating into the narrative. Structured as a kind of never-ending detective thriller Ruiz's film is a daring fascinating meditation on the relationship between words and images between works of art and their description or interpretation. Photographed by Sacha Vierny. In French with English subtitles.System Requirements:Running Time: 67 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 736899059729 Manufacturer No: DV78968

Three Crowns of the Sailor

Celebrated filmmaker Raul Ruiz (Genealogies of a Crime The Golden Boat) directs this surreal drama based on the southern Chilean island of Chilo's myth of "Caleuche" or "The Ship of the Dead." A sailor spins fantastical yarns of far-off brothels opium dens and more in far-off locales for a young boy who has just committed murder. In French with English subtitles.System Requirements:Running Time 117 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN Rating: NR UPC: 736899091620 Manufacturer No: DV86941

Shattered Image

There are times when Raul Ruiz's maddening and mesmerizing film resembles a direct-to-video erotic thriller in which rampant clichés collide in scenes surreal in their straight-faced silliness. And there are moments when the fractured narrative and stylistic shards create a sophisticated study in alienation and disconnection. These elements often coexist in the same scenes. Ruiz is a master craftsman whose cinematic intelligence is put to the process of storytelling as much as to the telling of stories. Here he has two tales that intertwine through dreams and fantasies, bouncing off of and commenting on one another. Anne Parillaud stars as a lethal, world-weary assassin in the first and as a skittish, wide-eyed newlywed in the other. When one falls asleep the other wakes up, as if it were all a dream, but we're never sure which one (if either) is real. When the assassin takes a job that targets her lover (William Baldwin) and the newlywed suspects her husband (Baldwin again) of a plot against her life, it becomes clear that their relationship is far more than a schizophrenic split. Pinging against the narrative sophistication and deliriously rich images are creaky B-movie twists and hoary performances by Baldwin and femme fatale Lisanne Falk. The result is a film that defies its own conventions, like a parody of bad thrillers executed with the assured brilliance of a cinematic genius. It may not always work, but it never fails to astonish. --Sean Axmaker

Shattered Image

There are times when Raul Ruiz's maddening and mesmerizing film resembles a direct-to-video erotic thriller in which rampant clichés collide in scenes surreal in their straight-faced silliness. And there are moments when the fractured narrative and stylistic shards create a sophisticated study in alienation and disconnection. These elements often coexist in the same scenes. Ruiz is a master craftsman whose cinematic intelligence is put to the process of storytelling as much as to the telling of stories. Here he has two tales that intertwine through dreams and fantasies, bouncing off of and commenting on one another. Anne Parillaud stars as a lethal, world-weary assassin in the first and as a skittish, wide-eyed newlywed in the other. When one falls asleep the other wakes up, as if it were all a dream, but we're never sure which one (if either) is real. When the assassin takes a job that targets her lover (William Baldwin) and the newlywed suspects her husband (Baldwin again) of a plot against her life, it becomes clear that their relationship is far more than a schizophrenic split. Pinging against the narrative sophistication and deliriously rich images are creaky B-movie twists and hoary performances by Baldwin and femme fatale Lisanne Falk. The result is a film that defies its own conventions, like a parody of bad thrillers executed with the assured brilliance of a cinematic genius. It may not always work, but it never fails to astonish. --Sean Axmaker