The opening scene of Gotz Spielmann’s latest effort metaphorically sums up the narrative path of the film: a pristine lake, the skyline and treetops reflected on its flawless surface, is suddenly shattered by a large object, the ripples slowly fanning out from the point of impact, hypnotically casting its picturesque existence into waves of turmoil. Such is the chain reaction narrative of Revanche (2008). The first part of the film centers around Tamara (Irina Potapenko), a gorgeous young prostitute from the Ukraine, working in a Vienna brothel, and her ex-con boyfriend, Alex (Johannes Krisch), a security grunt, also working for the brothel. Keeping their relationship secret, tensions rise when the brothel owner decides to have Tamara broken in when she refuses a lucrative promotional status offer. Attempting to rescue Tamara from her tenuous position and also an incredible amount of debt threatening both of them, Alex moves forward with his plans to rob a bank and high tail it to Spain. However, as fate would have it, Tamara insists on accompanying Alex to the robbery and while in the parked car is hampered by Robert, a local police officer. Aiming for the tires, Robert accidentally shoots and kills Tamara. Here, the film changes in tone entirely, from a bank heist, dirty urban (sluts and mutts) on-the-run thriller, to a contemplative, tension building, country-side neo-noir. Alex’s hideout is the farm of his estranged, decrepit, and most importantly, loner, grandfather. And it just so happens that Robert the cop and his wife are grandpa’s neighbors. Revanche, if you couldn’t piece together, is about notions of revenge, but not the usual sort. Robert’s wife, Susanne (Ursula Strauss) has her own prerogative complicating the mix, a plot line that reminds me immediately of Steinbeck’s novel “Burning Bright.” As the film broods itself into a climax that seems ready to burst like a pustule on a sweaty day, the intense sexual tension between Susanna and Alex creates some of the most realistic sexual encounters that I’ve seen on film; their copulations are perverse, fevered, and strangely titillating. As well as completely believable. Interestingly, we don’t really even see them with their clothes off. Less is more, generally, when dealing with sexuality on the screen. I recently discussed this with my boyfriend during a viewing of Summer Palace (2006), which I will discuss later on---sex scenes are like salting your food, too much can ruin it—they need to be integral to what’s going on. Humans basically eat, shit, sleep and have sex. While we see scenes in movies of people doing each of these basic human actions, we rarely have multiple sleeping, shitting, or eating scenes (and I mean eating where the characters are simply eating to eat, not to convey conflict around the dinner table or depict eating disorders) that are given as much screen time or frequency of sex scenes. In the end, I have a feeling that once I see Departures (2008), this year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film, I’m going to be a little irked at the Academy for passing over this beautiful, brooding film from Austria. At the very least, maybe we can have access to director Gotz Spielmann’s previous work, as he’s been directing films since 1984. The only distracting aspect of Revanche, for me at least, was Johannes Krisch’s look---I kept thinking he looked like some dirty, white-trash caricature played by Scott Thompson on “Kids in the Hall.”
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