DVD OF THE WEEK

LA JETÉE / SANS SOLEIL *****
Dir: Chris Marker
Starring: Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich,
Jacques Ledoux

Nothing much new has popped my cork this week, certainly nothing of the exalted standard needed to be a 'Pick of the Week”. Fortunately this double bill of brilliance from France was re-released a couple of weeks back and will delight and astonish film buffs.
I say 'from France” but both films are actually in English since the only spoken track on each is from a narrator.
Director Christopher Marker is known as a reclusive maverick genius whose preferred medium is the film 'essay”. Sans Soleil (Sunless) is his masterpiece in this form; La Jetée is, unusually for him, a narrative story – it is also considered a masterpiece.
Made in 1962 (it's in black and white) La Jetée is the story that was later remade by Terry Gilliam as 12 Monkeys. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic future it finds people living in underground bunkers and scientists conducting time travel experiments to try and save the human race from its past destruction. The extraordinary thing about the story is that it is told entirely in a series of still photographs with narration. It is one of the most heartbreakingly brilliant short films I've ever seen.
Sans Soleil (1983) is a whole different bag. A full-length meditation on time, memory and society, it consists of an unknown woman reading letters from a cameraman and viewing his images while he travels the world – with particular interest in Africa and Japan – to produce a study of 'the dreams of the human race”.
It is not a film for everyone, but I know people so entranced that they still make a point of watching it annually. I'm one of them.

While fellow action star Steven Segal, churns out more and more direct-to-DVD dreck, Jean-Claude Van Damn, the Muscle From Brussels, has found something far more interesting. Low-budget Belgian outing JCVD (***) fuses a bank hostage situation with the tropes of reality TV and finds the titular action man playing none other than himself, or at least a version of himself, career flagging, losing custody of his daughter and struggling to pay alimony. And caught as a hostage in the bank siege with the whole outside world thinking he's the perpetrator. It's clever, actually a bit too clever, and never quite fulfils its potential, but hats of to Jean-Claude for breaking new ground.

Nothing But The Truth (***) is a cleverly-constructed Washington political thriller, from writer-director Rod Lurie (The Contender) who specialises in this sort of thing. It's a fictional reworking of the case of Valerie Plame, outed by the Bush administration and specifically a New York Times reporter who was subsequently jailed for refusing to reveal her sources. Complex issues of national security and press freedom and fine performances from Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga (this year Oscar-nominated) and a steely Matt Dillon make for engrossing viewing.

Coming on as a Japanese version of Blade, Blood: The Last Vampire (**) is the story of a half-vampire teen who kills demons. She works for a mysterious outfit who may or may not be good guys. Based on an anime of the same name, this appears made for lovers of martial-arts video games since that is what it most obviously resembles. It's all really just an excuse to tie together a whole lot of obviously CGI-enhanced fight scenes. A lot. If you consider that a recommendation then this film was made for you.

Horsemen of the Apocalypse (*) is the proper title, though it really looks from the cover like it's just called 'Horsemen”. I clarify this lest anyone rent this half-assed apology for a serial killer thriller by accident. Dennis Quaid stumbles round miserably in sub-Se7en style gloom while someone, obscurely referencing the apocalyptic horsemen of the Bible, kills people. With a terribly silly twist and such a short running time one can only assume that something went horribly wrong during production.