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Julius Morlang is an aging artist, struggling to stay relevant in a sphere that does not praise the wisdom that comes with age. His agent wants something flashier and more modern, while his wife just wants him to talk to her. But Morlang is the very essence of self-possessed, and cannot manage either. When his wife has a possible affair with a young Austrian artist, Morlang flees to Ireland and meets another woman. But when his wife is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, he takes back up with her for her remaining time.
Flash-forward a few years later, and Morlang is remarried to the Irish girl, and someone is gas-lighting him: breaking into his home and his car, leaving him cryptic messages referencing his dead first wife. The audience does not know what these message mean, but does Morlang? He appears to, but also appears in no rush to alert the authorities. Why?
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Morlang, another film in Topic Entertainment’s Thrillers box set, is a difficult film of which to give a straight-ahead review. First off, it has a fractured narrative, jumping back and forth in time, often in the same scene. Dutch director Tjebbo Penning seems to delight in misdirecting the audience, and his stunning eye for visuals allows him to do this with ease. In one scene Morlang is speaking to his first wife, and as she walks out the front door and closes it, his second wife comes up behind him, and when the camera swings around we see that we’ve gone forward in the future.
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Little touches like that are very important, because the second thing that makes Morlang difficult to review is that it is not strictly a thriller, as such. Yes, someone is sending Morlang strange messages, but there is no real intent behind them. There’s no physical threat to any of the characters, and no tension of anything being found out about Morlang, since what needs to be found out is told slowly, in pieces, throughout the film. This is not a complaint. In fact, there is a subtle beauty to the way the central conflict unfolds in the film, like a flower blooming in elapsed time. It shares a certain aesthetic with Christopher Nolan’s Memento, in that you never quite know what movie you’ve been watching until its over.
| Morlang had me right from the beginning. It opens with Paul Freeman as Morlang, and I could not help but shout, “Belloq!” while pretending to be Doctah Jones. He is setting up his camera to take a photo of himself, and while looking through the lens his (second) wife suddenly steps in front of it, clearly framing her Erin Go Bragh. When he looks up to, um, face her, she lilts, “I can’t find my knickers,” in an innocent voice. He then chases her outside, in a game of cat and mouse that at some points seems seductive, and at others stalking. It’s the kind of vacillating tone that could muddle a scene in another film, but in Morlang really sets up that it is going to be a film all about reversals. |
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And reversals abound. Sometimes it is a film about trying to keep your creative spark alive in a medium you’ve worked in for three decades, then it is about dealing with a cheating spouse, then a terminally ill spouse, then a second spouse. And in the midst of all that is a possible murder mystery, a possibly dangerous stalker, and a possibly psychologically cracked lead character. Once again, it’s a mélange of narrative devices and plot points that could overburden and derail a lesser film, but here it works. Sure, the film never build any real tension, and the end is somewhat anticlimactic, but it is never about shocking you or red herrings or boo scares. It’s a quiet film that takes place inside a very particular man’s head, and manages to be fascinating despite the lack of a true destination.
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Belloq!
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This is also a very international film. In addition to being helmed by a Hollander and taking place in that country, Morlang’s first wife, Ellen, is played by Freeman’s fellow Brit actress Diana Kent, most notable to me from Heavenly Creatures. His second wife, Ann, is played by Irish actress Susan Lynch. Both women are formidable talents, playing strong female characters. That also serves to give the film some nice contrasts. All around a good show. See it if you are a fan of more cerebral cinema. |
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