bix171
02-22-2004, 12:11 AM
Though the screenplay was written by the late director Krzysztof Kieslowski with his collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz and advances their common theme of the duality in human nature, the compelling visuals are purely those of director Tom Tykwer, who continues to cement his reputation as one of the most interesting European filmmakers working today. Since his breakthrough, the hyper techno-driven “Lola rennt”, Tykwer has been moving towards a more studied, balletic mise en scene and here his subdued combination of remarkable aerial photography (the cinematographer is Tykwer’s gifted longtime colleague Frank Griebe using a Spacecam, a descendant of the Steadicam) and tempered, deliberate pacing provides the film with a gliding, effortless feel that gives you the sense you’re in a dream. Kieslowski’s and Piesiewicz’ oddball story has Cate Blanchett as a British schoolteacher in Italy plotting revenge on an industrialist she believes runs the drug cartel that caused her husband’s fatal overdose; when her plan goes awry, killing innocents in the process, she’s arrested but is helped to escape her interrogators by a police stenographer (well-played by Giovanni Ribisi) who has immediately fallen in love with her. Strangely enough, Tykwer’s smoothly measured cadences make it all seem plausible, even the ponderous philosophical aspects of the script, which are somewhat hazy. But the material itself is not the director’s primary focus; he prefers to let the dazzling skyborne images of the Italian countryside sing to the viewer and the sense of being rhythmically lulled into a lilting, floating euphoria is what lingers long after the film is over.