When critics describe a movie as "challenging", it's usually code for "bad". Not so with the Polish noir, Palimpsest. Make no mistake, this is a hard film. It demands that you pay attention, and it demands that you think. It doesn't wrap everything up in a neat little bow at the end, but it is emotionally and narratively satisfying.
The one word that best describes this movie is "tense". Excelent sound design and score back up uncomfortably cramped scenes, sparse dialouge and stilted characters to keep the audience unnerved for the entire film.
A detective is assigned a murder case, his friend, another cop, has jumped or been thrown out of a window. He's also assigned a new partner who doesn't seem that interested in solving the case. And what's the history with the cop, his friend and the girl? Why does the dead cop keep appearing in his dreams and waking visions? What's with the weird neighbour and his impossible photographs?
At the end of the film, the murder is solved, but by that point, that's not the most interesting question left.
During the Q&A after the film the director espoused: "I don't want to hear actors saying things that the audience should be thinking". This philosophy, of assuming your audience is thinking, shines through in Palimpsest, it's challenging, and rewarding.
Friday, September 08 6:00 PM CUMBERLAND 1
The poster for this movie is awful. The director was obviously not responsible for it. Finally, a good Polish movie! I've been waiting _years_ to see this happen!
I like detective stories, and murder mysteries are likely the best of those. Obviously, I had to catch this.
There are several stories being told at the same time here, and while it all comes together in the last 30 seconds (really, no joke, I went from "still trying to piece everything together" to "near-total comprehension" in that final 30 seconds, an impressive achievement in and of itself!) you're going to have to be fully paying attention to catch the majority of the pieces on your first viewing. So if you've got that annoying friend that figures out the whole plot halfway into the movie while you're still working at it, you can be sure that this one will have them guessing till the credits roll. On the other hand, if you're not into movies where you have to decide what the story was, then you're not going to like this one at all.
I definitely enjoyed the movie, but I came away feeling unsatisfied. Somewhat cheated, even. I'll have to spoil it a bit for you if you want to know why...
There is no murder. There is no mystery. There isn't even a detective.
I set myself up with expectations for the movie, and they were taken out from underneath me at the last minute. That's all there is to it, it's my own damn fault I didn't get as much out of it as I could. 8 P