Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

rddavies Torreton looks like a French Harrison Ford - who confronts adversity with puppy dog eyes and a grimace. The plot is Cold Mountain which is itself I guess the Odyssey - a long journey in the company of others, where a series of encounters take place, each a bit stranger than the next. As others have said *nothing* in this movie objectively makes sense. I can't think of a single scene that could happen the way it is portrayed in real life. Not one. Certainly not the beginning of the movie where the principal character is going to walk across the desert, dressed in somewhat formal clothes carrying a satchel? Or the one where he's arrested by the security folks and then let go with apologies and money? To they guy who sells words, to the girl who just decides to go with him. I don't buy it.

Balthazar-5 I really like this film, but I find it frustrating because it reminds me of another film from over a decade ago - maybe several decades - and I cannot for the life of me remember what it is.Schlöndorff is a film-maker whom I have never really admired, yet here he makes what really ought to be dross into a ethereal almost masterpiece. In a way, the film is in two discreet sections - first Charles leaves 'the world' behind. He leaves behind his car and vice (as in prostitutes, drugs) money - in the oilfields - and his identity (when he jettisons his papers). So he loses everything, then he sets out to discover everything. First the very beautiful and charming Ulzhan, then the crazy Shakuni played by David Bennent. Then the 'meaning of life', perhaps.It is Shakuni's character who is driving me crazy. A man who sells words... I am sure there is another film with such a man - maybe a Godard film...Anyway, the brilliant central section set in the steppes is absolutely magnificent - the bleak desert exteriors and the desolate abandoned settlements and gulag-style prisons look like something left over from Herzog's 'Fata Morgana'.Why I like - nay love - this film is that it ought to be bleak and unforgiving and depressing, but there is such rich humanity in its characters, and such consistently expressive imagery and montage in its style that it is gently euphoric.

Istanbul_2 I watched this film at Istanbul Film Festival recently and it certainly placed itself among the top 3 of my favorites this year. What a way to express a man's sadness, desperate situation, and bitterness, due to the loss of his loved ones! And a wonderful way to express a woman's loyalty. It was also great pleasure to watch the wild view of the Asian steppes, while the plot slowly penetrated into my mind and heart. Last but not least, the beautiful actress and her non-exaggerated acting are worth mentioning. Being a person from an eastern culture, this film appealed a lot to me. There is a lot of spirit in the film, with a subtle expression of emotions. All in all, Schlöndorff made my day.

death-hilarious Ulzhan (2007) Ulzhan is just about the worst type of trash that one runs into at film festivals. Ostensibly the story is about a French teacher who mysteriously stops his car on the side of a highway in the middle of Kazakhastan and starts walking East into the steppes. Despite being grounded in a very unassuming and naturalistic performance by Philippe Torreton and set against the very real backdrop of modern Kazakhastan, the film exists in a world of dream logic. Much of the dialog is alternatively poetic or lunatic and the relationships between French teacher and the two guides he picks up are only understandable on subconscious symbolic level, as in dreams.At a symbolic level, the film appears to be about European involvement with the eastern world. The film takes place in the steppes of central Eurasia, the very border of the occidental and oriental worlds. Throughout the film we're consciously reminded of the cultural ('living in zoo vs. living in the jungle'), economic (international oil drilling), and environmental (aral sea, nuclear testing sites) impacts of occidental involvement in the orient. Unfortunately a lot of the comment seems to be overtly racist. The French man in many ways seems to represent the Occidental world in it's relationship with the oriental world. He is racked with self doubt, and existential concerns over his presence and purpose, which he describes as a search for 'treasure', but seems to be a desire for self-destruction. Despite his wish to remain uninvolved with anyone while on his search, a young local Kazakhastani woman, Ulzhan, who herself works as a French teacher insists on leaving everything to follow the French man and serve him as a slave (oh, the white man's burden). The comment seems to be that as much as Europeans/Americans may desire to remain uninvolved in the oriental worlds they invade for resources (etc.) they will find themselves playing the unwanted role of master to the oriental, even if they had not intended it. The film ends on the note of the oriental slave being the only one that can save the Europe from itself. Needless to say, a Toronto audience wasn't particularly impressed with the message. The film didn't receive a single clap at its conclusion, which is the first time I've seen that at any festival movie.