Customer Reviews

Apartment Zero [VHS]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What makes this film so good is how dangerous it is. It teeters on the edge of homosexuality and true friendship and at the same time casts Colin Firth as almost a damsel on the edge of madness to Hart Bochners rogue character. This movie is set in Buenos Aires and and creates a political climate, a delicate madness and an under current of so many divergent sexualities that fuel the film and keep pulling the rope taunter and taunter.
What makes this film so good is how eventually Firth's character expresses his love for a man who is a ne'erdowell and always will be. He goes to the brink of madness and violence but never of sexuality which is what twists this fikm in upon itself. Eventually it seems as if the relationship between the two becomes too fraught with peril for sex but all of there actions for each other are sexualized.
What I find interesting about this movie is that it in no way compromises its sexuality to be politically correct and instead challenges the watcher to stick with it thru a byzantine plot of identity that switches the nerd for the rogue and then the rogue for the nerd. Both men ultimately have no identity. firth's character by harsh abuse racked upon him by his family and currently dementia trapped mother and Bochner thru the way he must live for his terrorist lifestyle.
In the end Firth learns to absorb Bochner's character to have an identity and Bochner hesitates and theefore loses his own. The best movies are about things that are intangibly exchanged thru the physical world of actions representing so much more.

I recently watched this movie three times in a row. The acting by Colin Firth and Hart Bochner is first rate. Jack is very likeable and lures people of both sexes. The sexual chemistry between Adrian and Jack is very evident. Adrian is one of several people that Jack seduces and he just has to look at you with his beautiful blue eyes to make you want to do whatever he wants. It is a very interesting look at human nature and it shows us that you can't always judge a book by its cover. People are not always what they appear to be. The ending of the movie was very intense and somewhat surprising. Once again, you can't judge a book by its cover. I highly recommend this movie.

Hollywood could never pull off a movie this hard to define. Set in Buenos Aires, it stars British Colin Firth, whom everyone is seeing stars over due to the new Bridget Jones film, and American Hart Bochner, the definition of attractive leading man if there ever was one. We need more movies with Hart Bochner's face filling the screen! When he rescues the cat on the ledge, it is movie-making magic. Bochner is a mysterious character who shows up and is taken in by Firth. While the film's ending is quite unexpected and, frankly, a little on the weird side, the flow of this film is gorgeous, careening between humanistic character study and slightly gory crime scenes. At its core, it's about a male friendship between two men who are unstable in different ways -- fascinating to watch. Why more people haven't seen this movie, I have no idea ....

Argentina has been called a "country of Spanish-speaking Italians who live in French houses and want to be English." This is even more so in the capital of Buenos Aires. A city with an identity crisis, and a people uncertain about the future and haunted by a past of corruption and terror. A claustrophobic, anxious environment that is the setting for this film. Adrian, the resident of Apartment Zero, has created within that space a controlled, sanitized existence into which the outside world cannot penetrate. He purposefully avoids intimacy of any kind, preferring to absorb himself in a celluloid reality of male screen idols (Montgomery Clift, James Dean) and classic American movies. The outside world begins to close in on Adrian after his institutionalized mother dies and the necessity of having a cash-flow forces him to rent one of the rooms in his flat. The prospect of a suitable flat mate is grim until Jack walks into the room. As Adrian puts it, Jack possesses a certain "James Dean je ne sais quoi." Jack turns out to be a chameleon of a man, who is also a quick study of human weakness and insecurity. In a short time, Jack has Adrian, along with the other lonely residences in the apartment complex, dependent upon his affections. All the while this interaction is going on, the "classic American" movie theater that Adrian operates, is now being used to show films from Argentina's past in an effort to hunt down former members of the death squads that once held the country in a state of terror. And staring in one of the reels is Adrian's very own screen idol Jack!

I first saw this film at the NuArt in L.A. when it first came out. I had no idea what the movie was about, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. Going in blind, without having heard anything, made the film so much more powerful. For years, I thought about the film and then I rented it again when staying at the Paramount hotel in NY. And the film lived up to my memory. Now, that I own it, I watch this film over and over, and honestly, I'm not sure why. None of my friends like it nearly as much as I do. But there is something about the relationship between the two main characters, as well as the relationships with the people in the building that resonates with me.

I saw this at the Seattle Film festival in '89 and thought it was quite cool. The casting of Colin Firth was a coup for the filmmakers; he projects the squirmiest sense of psychosis since Anthony Perkins. There are a series of escalatingly creepy scenes between Firth and his crazy mother. Yikes! The gay subtext between Colin Firth's character and Hart Bochner's is nicely played by both actors. I liked the fact that the film wasn't shot or set in the United States. This is a hard film to classify. Is it a serial killer thriller? sort of. Is it a psycho film like REPULSION or The Tenant? Sort of. It has a lot of layers to it and that is something i liked about Apartment Zero. Worth seeing.

Several years ago I worked at a public library and the library had this film on VHS. I was astounded at how good the movie was as I had never heard of it previously. Over the years I would reccommend it to patrons who would ask if I knew of any interesting movies. Without exception, they would always return and tell me how good the movies was, and ask if I could suggest something similar.

In time the movie dissappeared from the shelves and we could not replace it. Luckily, I had purchased a VHS copy of it for myself. In the last few years I have been trying to buy it on DVD so I could dispose of the VHS tapes I had, but it was not available until recently. It did appear on DVD, which must have been pirated copies, and asking prices were as high as $120. Fortunately, it is now availabe as a genuine release at a reasonable price.

from the minute this movie begins i was just drawn into it, the actors are
just so rich with character, humanity, flaws, and obsession. Colin Firth
and Hart Bochner are two characters so different and yet they are so alike. This movie is full of suspense, sexual tension, and breathtaking
scenery. the movie works because the 2 main charcters are just so real
but i also like the neighbors who live in the same building. excellent
and so glad to have it on DVD. the ending is just so twisted. i enjoyed
watching these two men form a very unusual bond and then the movie takes
a turn into madness. i cannot decide which actor gave the best performance
Colin Firth was so likeable as a lonely man existing through classic
movies. enter Hart Bochner and then you are hooked into his character
which is the flawed stranger and these two men become just fascinating
to watch. this has got to be one of my favorite movies! I LOVE IT!

It's not often you see a movie that makes you think about how truly lonely people are and what is really meant by friendship and loyalty. These two guys are lonely down to their core, but it is their loneliness that creates a silent loyalty, they drive each other crazy, test one another, and ultimately save one another's souls - or are they damned? (you decide)

Hart Bochner (hubba-hubba) is completely without conscience until his last moment, incredibly sexy, Colin Firth (OK, maybe not so hubba-hubba, but he sure is adorable) is a man of integrity being pushed to the brink, and the final scene with the two of them is nothing short of amazing brutal power - and the ultimate in 'black' comedy.

When struggling Buenos Aires' art house owner Adrian (Colin Firth), is forced to take in a border, yuppie business man Jack Carney (Hart Bochner) agrees to share living quarters and expenses.

That Jack is more than he seems at face, and that Adrian is even wierder than one might imagine gives this psychological study in character the foundation it needs to succeed. The film has a very eerie tone, unlike films made currently in the US, and is fraught throughout with political and sexual overtones left for the viewer's interpretation. Think La Ceremonie with male leads and an Argentinean backdrop, or better yet, Neil Simon's The Odd Couple twisted like a pretzel in this early David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way) script.

Challenging viewing not for all tastes, a movie for repertory film, about repertory film, I like it immensely.