ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

SHORTLY BEFORE his death in 1996, the great Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski was working on a new trilogy of films inspired by the concepts of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.

The first screenplay was filmed in 2002 by director Tom Tykwer. Now, Oscar-winning ‘No Man’s Land’ director Denis Tanovic has assumed responsibility for ‘Hell’, a chilly, existential tale in which hell is a state entirely of one’s own making.

Tanovic has assembled an impressive cast of French talent for a film that takes pure melodrama and plays it with the intensity of a psychological thriller.

The focus is on three sisters who live very separate, lovelorn lives in Paris. Sophie (Emannuelle Beart) is married to philandering photographer Pierre (Jacques Gamblin). and is driven to despair by jealousy.

Anne (Marie Gillain) is infatuated with an older, married professor who seems to regard her as an unfortunate fling. Celine (Karin Viard) devotes herself to their frail mother (Carole Bouquet) until persistent caller Sebastien (Guillaume Canet) convinces her that she might have an admirer.

All of them in some way are damaged by a traumatic past. Filled with revelations, confrontations and unexpected twists of fate, ‘Hell’ gradually allows us to piece together the history of this family and the events that have pushed them all to these isolated, joyless existences.

It looks beautiful and is expertly played even though the dialogue veers towards the pretentious and the story is sometimes a little too inscrutable for its own good. Despite some flaws, ‘Hell’ is always intriguing, even though it falls far short of the high standards set by Kieslowski’s own ‘Three Colours’ trilogy from the 1990s.

Selected nationwide release
Director: Denis Tanovic
Stars: Emanuelle Beart, Karin Viard, Marie Gillain, Carole Bouquet, Miki Manojlovic
Screenplay: Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Country: France/Italy/Belgium/Japan
Year: 2005

© Allan Hunter, 2006