Customer Reviews

Dante 01

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

 

 

Read a number of films reviews before watching the movie, and must say all of the criticism was completely lame. This is a visually and intellectually compelling movie for sci-fi fans that are tired of the futuristic pabulum Hollywood puts out.

Dante 01 is a brilliant!,french sci-fiction gem ,it's style and inventiveous ,it's excellent special effects and atmosphere ,lift this movie to a level that few american made sci-fic movies of this type , will ever achive!!. dante 01 is aspace prison for the criminally insane, that happens to be shaped like a cross,to the station comes a new prisoner with a doctor ,who has a new treatment that she's going to test on all the prisoners there,the new inmate has no name and is mute,so they call him "staint george", from the start he is not like the others,he has strange visions and powers that he reveals unexpectedly to everyone on the station.

When "Delicatessen" first arrived on home video in the early 1990s it was a revelation. There hadn't been anything like it since Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and no one besides Gilliam had seemed capable of treading such baroque, decaying and futuristic territory with such charm and humanity. Enter Marc Caro and co-creator Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The future seemed bright for lovers of the whimsically bizarre in film.

Yet, it was not to be. No sooner had they released their second film "City of Lost Children" than it became apparent that the magic was lost. Caro and Jeunet could fill every square inch of the screen with delectable decrepitude yet miss the beat they'd struck with their freshman effort. And Jeunet's films since have all proven, despite the popularity of "Amelie", to be completely unengrossing. They are not bad films, but I've found they lack the humanity, the audience interest in their protagonists, through excessive narration. Instead of explaining coldly how the main character feels, why not show it? For instance, despite the photo stills that imply the heroine Amelie as some sort of adorable flirtatious imp she proves throughout the film bearing her name to have almost no personality whatsoever. Not even the momentary inclusion of a fourth-wall breaking grin at the camera can save her lack of charisma.

Written and directed by "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children" co-director Marc Caro, "Dante 01" does not fall into that same trap. Instead, Caro offers us a film wherein there is not one character to serve as an emotional anchor, no one to root for. Not only is their no protoganist worth cheering, but you won't even care about the plot, if you can even decipher it before the film's end.

The best science fiction has always portrayed the most realistic human emotions and reactions in extraordinary settings - it serves as a mirror for who we are and often as a cautionary tale. Lesser science fiction simply thrills us with the unknown and terrifies us with apparitions from our wildest nightmares.

"Dante 01" does neither: it is so wrapped up in itself that you feel like you've walked in halfway through the movie even three minutes into it. And you likely won't have any idea what is going on until it concludes with it's self congratulatory yet pointlessly unengrossing finale. You will find the film's conclusion and the reacquirement of your personal time the only things to be grateful for regarding Caro's freshman solo outing.

The film has none of the twisted humor we've come to expect from the team of Jeunet-Caro, it takes itself painfully seriously - and I do mean painfully. Caro is clearly not the funny one of the duo.

I won't say don't see it, get it out of your system as I did if you need to attempt to prove to yourself that there is life after 'Delicatessen" (there isn't), but try not to actually pay for the single viewing "Dante 01" is barely worth.

We should be glad for the Dimension Extreme label, for even though it is home to a number of absurdly gory horror films that offer little other than said gore, it also helps make available some hidden foreign gems that we may not see otherwise. It also houses this French sci-fi film Dante 01, which doesn't quite come close to being a gem, but remains worth seeing nonetheless. Written and directed by Delicatessen and City of Lost Children co-director Marc Caro, Dante 01 stars Lambert Wilson (who you'll remember as the smarmy Frenchman from Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions) as a mysterious and seemingly mute man who arrives on a prison ship called Dante 01, and begins to exhibit otherworldly abilities and powers, including healing and resurrection. Dubbed Saint Georges, and drawing the attention of those in charge who seek to experiment on him, it isn't long before bad things start to happen. The first thing you'll notice about Dante 01 is that despite its low budget, the film features some dazzing imagery and brilliant camerawork by Caro. However, the sheer incoherency of Caro's story is what reigns more apparent than anything else. Though it is abvious that Caro's intentions of allegory are there, they get lost the longer the film runs. Not to mention that for being an 82 minute film, Dante 01 ends up feeling like it's just plodding along towards an ending sequence that does little more than cause viewer irritation. Rumor has it that Caro himself wasn't happy with how the film turned out, and while the film as a whole isn't a terrible mess, you can't exactly blame Caro for feeling that way. All in all though, Dante 01 is a different sort of sci-fi that is definitely worth checking out just because it is a different sort of thing, and for fans of Caro's previous work, even though Dante 01 doesn't compare, the film is still worth a look at the very least.

If you're familiar with Caro's work (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) you know exactly what to expect from him visually so I knew going into Dante 01 that it was going to be beautiful to behold and I was correct in that assumption. Dante 01's visuals are stunning, even for the obviously low budget Caro had to work with.

Unfortunately what I didn't expect was the tragically short run time and the underdeveloped, "Pilgrim's Pride in Space" storyline. Some of the back story is hinted at in the synopsis for this film and off-handedly mentioned in the film itself but nothing even remotely adequate enough to fill viewers in on what's going on. I mean, I'm all for making viewers think and draw their own conclusions but sometimes a little exposition can be helpful.

The acting in Dante 01 was fantastic; would you expect anything less from Lambert Wilson, Caro/Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon and the gorgeous Linh Dan Pham (Indochine)? Perish the thought! Caro has gathered together an exceptional cast of actors, breathtaking production and costume design and truly impressive practical & CG effects.

Dante 01 is a sci-fi fans wet dream but those looking for a cohesive story will be left out in the cold. It's just not here, this is French sci-fi at its best...meaning it's wonderful to look at and it'll leave you scratching your head. I could probably have gone on and on about the religious text/subtext but it's all right there for you to digest on your own, I found some of it effective and other bits just plain silly. No problem though, you'll get what you came for if you came for the visual style, Pinon or Cemetery Man's François Hadji-Lazaro because Dante 01's got `em baby!

It reminded me of a millennium version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This one is out of this world (no pun intended). Kudos to Lambert Wilson, who plays the role of St. George's. Riveting. The special effects are superb...and the suspense and support acting is flawless. Director Marc Caro has created a masterpiece. This is his first film in over a decade...a decade in the making. He's best known for The City of Lost Children, and Delicatessen in 1991. This is one of the "Dimension Extreme" classics, so labelled because of its intense and graphic nature. But that's what the new millennium is all about. He takes us to the doorstep of sci-fi in the second decade of the millennium. All 5 stars...no questions asked.

Dante 01 is a dark and engaging movie and I still think about it long after turning off the TV.

I've discovered that good French movies are often hard to predict. I tested this hypothesis over and over again as I watched Martyrs, Them and High Tension. Not until close to the end do I find myself realizing the hidden meanings behind these types of movies.

Dante 01 is no exception. It starts on a remote ship - a space station for criminally insane - orbiting around a star. Soon, viewers witness new arrivals of a doctor and another patient whose role proves mysterious until the very end of the movie.

While the new doctor integrates with the others, the patient is left to fight for his own among the insane who by the way appear well organized and quite rational. After series of incidents the viewers discover that the new arrival possess the capacity to heal wounds and take away death.

The new doctor delivers new technology to the station - nanotechnology that once injected into a patient can genetically reprogram the DNA. Not all doctors are converted to this new technology and soon there is a rift between the ranks, rift that causes the end of the station's existence.

To shorten the story, the new patient becomes a favorite among some of the wild bunch who decide to protect him rather than hurt him. Fights occur between the doctors and among the two fractions of the insane and soon the survivors regroup to help their failing space station, which is falling apart and on a trajectory to crash on the surface pf the star.
And then the heroism and role of the new patient is revealed.

The acting is good and the story interesting. Movies in similar fashion:

) Event Horizon
) Sunshine
) Solaris

I really enjoyed this French movie. There's something very un-Hollywood about well made foreign films (that's a compliment) and this one has it. The story is good and well-acted. I'd recommend it to anyone, especially people who enjoy foreign films.

Watched 15 minutes
Bored to tears
Trippy space movie about ...

Oh yeah, fast forwarded, didn't miss anything
Gone already!
:(

It's an interesting approach, but randomly throwing a bunch of symbolism around does not necessarily generate meaning.