Revanche is quite good

The new Austrian film noir playing this week at the Cinematheque, Revanche, is quite good. It's the sort of film that I suspect one would profit immensely from seeing with no preconceptions or ideas where it is going - call it a crime film, a psychological drama, and in part a meditation on revenge - which, since it's the title of the film, I suppose isn't giving away too much - but let's leave it at that, shall we? It has some of the formal chilliness and - what's a euphemism for "slow?" - pacing of the recent German noir Jerichow, which I wrote about here, but opens into something deeper, more profound, and in an odd, subtle way, vaguely Pagan. (Or is it vaguely Christian? ...but then, Christianity is vaguely Pagan, isn't it - the wounded God rising from the dead and ascending in spring and all that...). Put it this way: if you're a cinephile, go see it. If you're not sure what cinephile means, don't.

Nice to have films to be excited about on the horizon - Lars Von Trier's Antichrist, Gregg Araki's CrEEEps (or CrEEEEps or however many E's it's spelled with). So looking forward to seeing what's in the film festival this year...