LUKAS VALENTA RINNER: PARABELLUM (2014) + EVAN JOHNSON: COLOURS (2015)



Ordinary people prepare for post-apocalyptic life

Michael Haneke meets Carlos Reygadas in this post-apocalypse how-to film about a motley crew of middle-class folk taken out to a survivalist training program in an undisclosed location. Blindfolds worn on the trip in, breakfast served to everyone with optional morning classes in camouflage, botany; classes for all in firing and assembling weapons, hand-to-hand combat, constructing handmade explosives. This is an Austrian shooting in Argentina, in Spanish. It's an odd combination, and makes for an intriguingly dislocated, disorienting film. It doesn't fully engage with the viewer, but that is the point, if you want to take it that way. Is there more or less here than meets the eye? That's not easy to say.

There's a certain shock value in the lack of glamor. The people are mostly out of shape and un-chic. This could be Lonely Plenet/Rough Guide version of Club Med. But all signs are the world is actually going apocalyptic, so if they really are acquiring extreme survivor skills (the demos are a bit superficial), they're going to need them.

Writing of this film in Variety from Rotterdam Jay Weissberg noted how Rinner shifts "from comically surreal to absolutely serious" but "is something of a one-trick pony." He's referring to the irony of a depicting middle class people thinking they can pay their way to survival taught by "experts," while real cataclysm is rapidly approaching. But the serious turn comes when the trainees have to throw away "ethical constraints" (and at least one goes batty). But still the film is "pleasingly unpredictable." It's extra clear cinematography, cast in a pale gray-green that favors the many widescreen shots of lush leafy wilderness, alienates us effectively. Weissberg spells out what's indeed obvious about the opening sequence: that its starry sky, dawn, panning camera over the horizon with animal sounds, echoes Reygadas' openings of both Silent Light and Post Tenebras Lux, though less striking then either, in keeping with the film's generally deadpan manner. Take as you will Weissberg's comment that the film's short running time is "a plus." Ultimately it's all suggestion. And there's something to be said for merely provoking thought. However the DIY half-jokiness of the training camp action sits ill with the portentous interpolated quotes (on flaming red backgrounds) from the invented Book of Disasters -- the Little Red Book for survivors after The End? How serious is he, and should we be worried?

Parabellum, 75 mins., debuted at Gothenberg Jan. 2015; also Rotterdam Feb. Screened for this review as part of New Directors/New Films, joint series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Art, New York, March 2015.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.