L (2012) Reviews

• A controversial, minimalistic. absurd, claustrophobic movie about our daily lives

  viktorkollar2012-11-20

  As I'm not fond of lengthy comments and reviews, especially on thought-provoking and philosophical movies - as I believe that the perception of every single one of us is remarkably specific - I will relieve only one thing, about this very controversial movie, which kept my wits working for quite some time, as I've been stewing over it for a couple of evenings after seeing it at the Ljubljana International Film Festival. The movie is not about cars and motors as a previous comment puts it. It's a symbolist, minimalist and often claustrophobic and bizarrely ridiculous approach on depicting life. It is not at all shallow, but rather unintentionally philosophic in its extraordinary cinematographic simplicity of various static shots. It is definitely worth watching, but beyond question not for everyone. If you cherish modern Greek cinematography - movies like Kynodontas or Attenberg - you will love this one for sure. Mr. Makridis' director-debut definitely payed off. In my personal opinion: an amazing movie and an amazing director!

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• Some nice ideas showing the "war" between cars and motor bikes. Not sufficient to make it interesting

  JvH482012-10-28

  I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012. Its title clearly refers to the capital letter L that can be seen on driving school cars. We see a man who is literally one with his car. It is his home in all meanings of the word: he sleeps in it, he receives his wife and two children, and so on. His main job is to obtain honey for a man who cannot drive. The uncommon situation gives rise to several absurd dialogs with his employer, the honey salesman, his family, and others. A crucial scene (in hindsight) is when he sees a wounded motor driver and his bike lying on the pavement. He stops to see what is going on. Rather than helping the man who is obviously in pain, he stays in the car, staring and doing nothing. When the friends of the motor driver return from calling for help, a peculiar dialog enfolds about the apparent "war" between cars and motor bikes. And how strange it is that the wounded motor driver needs to be rescued by a car, in the form of an ambulance. Also, given that our main character looks like a professional driver, he is inferred to be a professional killer. After this eccentric speech by the leader of the motor gang, the car driver leaves the scene unharmed and continuous his ride. Alas, this delay causes him to show up late for an appointment with his employer. Because of him being late for the second time in a row, he is replaced by a new driver. The latter gets the job by virtue of winning a very odd competition against our main character. (No details to avoid spoilers.) Obviously all of the above can be seen as a metaphor for loss of stability. He apparently does not cope very well with being fired. He joins the motor gang he met before. They teach him to drive a motor bike. He wrecks his car while they watch, and some more rituals involved in an initiation to this very different world. From his former safe place (a car) he makes a move to a parallel world with its own rules, and also more dangers ahead. All in all, this film incorporated several nice ideas, but not enough to make up an entertaining film for the whole one and a half hour. A question that came up with the Q&A after the screening was whether this film could be intended to trigger a discussion about how to watch films?? However interesting to raise this issue, I did not hear a definite answer, short of the obvious contrast between cars (safe) and motor bikes (adventurous).

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• What a brilliant odd duck

  abucketofcorn2014-08-17

  This is one odd duck of a film. A brilliant comedy drama that completely shines as something so far out there that's it's completely crafted in a unique originality that makes the viewer laugh and just giggle at its complete uniqueness. This is Wes Anderson meets Andrei Tarkovsky. Babi Makridis directed a film that will stand the test of time as being a modern day classic. This is his first feature film. To direct an odd comical piece of art like this, for being his first feature length film, it makes me smile and super happy in knowing there are new and fresh directors making a new bold statement of film perfection. This movie is odd and strange and creates fantastic characters that the viewer can become a part of or at least follow along on the strange and odd journey of the Man. The characters other than Man are Black Rider, Bear, Wife, New Driver, Friend, Boss and Skipper just giving it another odd sense and yet brilliant film making at the same time. This Greek film is something to remember and also watch several times in that the viewer can fully appreciate the value and interesting statement made. I think the value of the film is something that grows on you as you watch it over and over again. It was an official selection at 2012's Sundance Film Festival and also was a part of many film festivals. I believe the world of independent film making and festivals saw the ultimate value and uniqueness of this film. The direction has to be something to be seen to understand. I can't just put into words how amazing the shots are and how the landscape is beautiful and picture perfect as a piece of art on landscape come to life. So what does the title stand for well here is the definition of the letter L: An L-plate is a square plate bearing a sans-serif letter L, for learner, which must be affixed to the front and back of a vehicle in many countries if its driver is a learner under instruction? You can finish my Review here: www.abucketofcorn.com

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