I Stand Alone
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.08 You Save: $8.87 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.99 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of I Stand Alone
Movie Review: French film takes internal ranting down to sub basement levels of the psyche
Summary: 4 Stars
At one time, The Butcher had a decent life, owned his own butcher shop and was raising his daughter. However, when one day his daughter starts her period and runs to his shop in fear, The Butcher believes that she has been sexually assaulted and winds out beating the man he believes responsible almost to death. For this, he spends years in prison, and when released, has nothing left to him. His business is long gone, his daughter in a mental institution, and his old friends and business acquaintances are unwilling or unable to help him find work.
He takes up with a woman who owns a tavern and she becomes pregnant, selling her business and moving with The Butcher to the outskirts of the city to live with her elderly mother. The woman becomes overbearing, backing out on her promise to set The Butcher up in his own shop. Jobless, he is forced to sit around all day listening to the insults and humiliations dished out by the women until he snaps, beating his pregnant girlfriend and fleeing back to Paris.
Without money and without a job, he wanders the dark, fetid streets raging against his life and every single person who has ever crossed his path. His long diatribes are so psychotically ferocious and filled with the vilest thoughts of murder, self-debasement, and burning hatred that it practically has the power to peel the paint off your walls. This is the story of a man sunk to the lowest depths of life, and then beyond into the putrid sewers of a psychotic mind.
The film is entirely in French with English subtitles. There are graphic, XXX porn scenes in it, when The Butcher sits in a seedy theater, ranting and watching the movie. There is graphic violence against women, both audio and visual, and a place in the movie where the screen blanks and flashes a warning that the weak-stomached are warned not to watch. However, I've seen much worse and thought the warning to be a little theatrical, though it was a bloody, incestuous, and graphically violent ending.
'I Stand Alone' is not for the weak of heart or stomach, but The Butcher's incessant rants against life and women, friends and acquaintances, give an interesting if not repulsive view into the mind of a very psychopathic personality. Overall, it's a strange, violent, bloody film that holds back no punches. Rent before you buy. Enjoy, but keep your barf bag handy.
Movie Review: Not What I Expected...
Summary: 4 Stars
Maybe I'm jaded, I have seen a few "extreme" films, though I have been powerfully affected by more than a few (usually NOT the most violent or goriest). I did not find this film particularly shocking. Yes, the XXX clip is graphic for non-porn film --think Human Anatomy 101, and the final violent "fantasy" sequence is prolonged to the point of discomfort.
Still, those looking to see the envelope pushed will be disappointed. This is not "Ichi the Killer" or "The Devil's Rejects".
In fact, all the hype about how "shocking" this film is obscured the fact that the main character is well-drawn, wonderfully portrayed and though he's full of rage and violence, it's hard not to pity the dumb brute as he bludgeons his way hopelessly through the bleak slums like an enraged, tormented bull, soon to be put out of its misery . This film is ultimately a tragic character study. It is mature and thoughful.
The butcher is definitely not a sympathetic character, but like Keitel's cop in the Bad Lieutenant, he is doomed, trapped by his self-hatred and misanthropy. The Butcher's "redemption" is as twisted and illusory as his values. Like a Kafka character, he is lost in a world that he cannot understand or control.
It's a great, bleak look at alienation in Western society. If that appeals to you see it!!!
If you want action, over-the-top-violence or some sort of neat Hollywood moral or resolution, avoid this film.
Movie Review: A downer that draws the viewer in!
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw Noe's 'Irreversible' first, so I was shocked to see that the fat guy sitting on the bed(half naked) at the beginning of that movie was the protagonist of 'I Stand Alone'. First off, I have been buying every "shocking" movie I can find just to satisfy my curiousity. Very few actually do shock me. But 'Irreversible' did shock me, definately changed me for the better. I will never let my girlfriend walk home alone again! I was expecting the same hardcore, raw story-telling in this film...and was not disappointed. Being a bit of a cynic, I found the Butcher's attitude slightly comical. Anyone who's ever felt dumped on(for any reason) can certainly partially relate to the protagonist's feeling of helpless isolation. I mean, this cat is alone even when he's in the presence of others. His inner dialog is always with us as we follow him through his self destructive quest to regain some sense of Manhood. This is a man's movie. Of course, very few people actually cross the line this character does through the course of his many frustrations- and thank God for that. However; that whole incest thing I didn't quite understand and I'm not going to try to. All I can say is that from a common Man's perspective this film is not all that shocking, save for the formentioned relationship between Father and Daughter. If not for that,I could honestly give it 5 stars because it lets us glimpse into territory we dare not tread through.Movie Review: When the Cuckoo goes Ka-Boom!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Gasper Noe (Irreversible) flick akin to a savage "Taxi Driver".
This flick is haunting, but I cant put my finger on why that is.
Oh wait yes I can!!!
A fetal stomach beating,
the constant split second movement of the camera, accompanied by sharp dissonance,
racism, misogyny, misanthropy
child molestation,
and of course a positively heartless(?) murder scene.
You can actually feel the main-characters insanity,
(ie: his inner monologue becomes rapid & incoherent)
as the movie progresses toward it's disturbing, violent conclusion,
which the director is courteous enough to give the viewer a 30 second warning to leave the room before the insanity ensues.
(NOTE: The widely offensive, unwarranted ending comes straight out of left-field, you won't expect it.)
The plot is simple enough,
A man on the fringes on a psychotic melt-down, flips out one day when he can't find a job and can't handle the pressures of everyday life.
And the world will pay. (and by the world I mean the viewer)
MORAL OF THE STORY:
When you're psychotic, you stand alone.
Movie Review: Noe's examination of misanthropy rocks!
Summary: 4 Stars
Gaspar Noe's "I Stand Alone" is a brutal dissection of alienation that is unafraid of exploring societal taboos. Anyone who is familiar with Noe's oeuvre should probably know what to expect ( see "Irreversible"). Philippe Nahon, known to American audiences for his repulsive turn as a serial killer in Alexandre Aja's "Haute Tension," stands out as a middle-aged butcher who is quickly descending into paranoid psychosis. Consumed by free-floating hatred, Nahon wanders the mean streets of Paris obsessing over the daughter whom he let slip away. Noe punctuates many scenes with staggering zooms augmented by a nerve-jarring sound effect. This effect serves to unnerve the viewer very successfully. Also, there is a warning before the last half hour of the film for those who are squeamish.( Remember the "fear flasher," and the "horror horn?" It 's sort of like that.) "I Stand Alone is a very rigorous work of cinema art from a rather transgressive new voice in French film. It is not for everyone, as a matter of fact, it is not for most, but there is frisson to be had from it. I rate it four of five stars.