Customer Reviews

Morlang

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dark and subtly woven, this artistic portrayal of an actual event deserves every accolade it's received, plus some. Rich and lush in its imagery, short in dialogue yet long in emotion, this film explores the vast landscape of aging and middle-aged love in all their permutations. Betrayal begets heartbreak and supressed fury as both artist and muse struggle through the treacherous hills and valleys of reconciliation. Its masterful conclusion leaves viewers grappling with the ultimate dilemma of "what would I have done?"

Morlang, a Netherlands 2002 Film, in the English language, is based upon a true story of an aging successful artist whose wife Ellen, confesses to an affair. Julius Morlang, the artist, soon has an affair with a younger woman. Morlang is also pressured in the art gallery world by his agent for masterpiece work. Ellen his wife, feeling she is doomed, refuses treatment, and they decided to make a death pact.

This is not one of your typical "backflash" movies; it is more complex than that. The director has created a confusing story with numerous backflashes interspersed with real time. If you have trouble figuring out what is going on, it make take a second viewing.

Actor Paul Freeman, who plays Julius Morlang does an excellent job of portraying a man in distress, complete with psychological torment including haunted from the past. The musical soundtrack fills the moods and the landscaping is beautiful. The film is widescreen and narrow to the viewing screen. Aside from the scenery and revealing closeups.

Don't give up on this film if confused, it is a compelling story, with a shocking twist, and done quite well. .....Rizzo

I avoided this due to movie description and reviews. However, it is just plain intriguing. I love the lead actor and was very surprised at the ending. Glad I took the time to watch the movie. Recommend.

As far as the quality of the film, the characters and the acting ....... excellent. True Indie type quality where the talents of the actors, cinematographers, director etc are the instruments that make a good film not the money and effects.

*** Spoiler alert ***

The plot revolves around an aging artist, Julius Morlang who, for all his faults, is deeply buried within himself. His wife of 15 years cannot get through to him and eventually has a an affair with a young and upwardly mobile artist named Jansen. To provoke emotion from Julius, she gave him many chances to stop her going to see Jansen. Morlang, chose to let her go.

Morlang follows her to Jansen's studio and sees his wife and Jansen locked in the embrace of pure passion. Morlang's heart now broken and deep in rage at his wife retreats further into himself. Shortly after Morlang's wife is diagnosed with a brain tumor that leaves her but weeks to live. She and Julius agree on a suicide pact. Julius, prepares the potion and, unbeknown to him, his wife makes a Video tape and mails it to Jansen telling Jansen whats going on and that she and Julius have decided to commit suicide together. However, Julius only serves his wife the potion and she dies alone.

Now, the twist, prior to his wife's suicide, Julius had received news that the tumor his wife has could, and, more likely is, benign. He doesn't give this news to his wife but continues to serve her the potion. Jansen receives the tape and decides to stalk and eventually ruin Morlang as, Morlang deceived his wife into taking her own life.

It fell short at the end for me as, I couldn't make the pieces fit well enough to justify Jansen's actions. Had, on the other hand, Jansen known about the good news NOT delivered to Morlang's wife, then his actions would have been justified and more acceptable.

Still, an excellent movie, well acted, well presented and totally believable in the plot but, as mentioned, for me, a little short at the end.

I enjoyed this film and was blown away by some of the plot twists and turns. Admittedly, piecing it together was, at times, challenging. But well-worth it; 14 minutes remaining and the shock of it made my mouth drop open in surprise. No kidding! Never expected this turn of events. I had to suspend my disbelief at times, but then, that's true of many films. Enjoyed it!

I hate writing movie reviews, but this time I feel overwhelmingly compelled.

This is the story of struggling "camera-obscura" painter Julius Morlang (Paul Freeman) who is also struggling to maintain his marriage to Ellen (Diana Kent), who has cheated on Julius with a rival artist, and the fact that Ellen gets diagnosed with a malignant tumor doesn't make things any better.

But, of course, these events are revealed to us out of order along the lines of 21 Grams and Memento, but failed to maintain my suspense and interest like those films did.

Instead, the film introduces us to Julius's girlfriend Ann (Susan Lynch) before revealing what happens to Ellen, and switches between past and present (I think) to confuse us on purpose. The first 40 minutes or so plays out like a ghost story or haunted house yarn, and probably would've been more entertaining if it had played up the supernatural angle (my opinion), but then we find out what's really going on and I had to ask the question "...and? So? That's it?"

I was able to figure out why Julius was going out of his mind with guilt, and if they had, maybe, focused more on the "pact" he makes and its sinister outcome and put it earlier in the story I probably would've fallen in love with this movie, but it's held off until the third act as some kind of a twist that doesn't work without the proper setup (the scene of Julius waiting between the beach rocks could've been the best scene of the movie if handled correctly).

There is, however, a very chilling Hitchcockian scene late in this film that involves a message left on an answering machine and the removal of said message, but that's about it.

I realize this is supposed to be more of a "psychological" thriller, and where the film is well-acted and does contain some beautiful and interesting shots, director Tjebbo Penning either didn't want to or doesn't know how to tell this kind of a story (with the time-jumping) in the correct way so that we know just enough to understand what's going on and want to continue watching.

Set against the beautiful shores of Ireland and downtown Rotterdam, the film's title character Julius Morlang is a successful artist, torn between the two women in his life. Through flashbacks, past and present are slowly uncovered to those around him.

A complex study of betrayal and jealousy, with great acting.

I am not sure, but I think the moviemakers of this movie took all the scene cuts they'd made for the movie, threw them up into the air, then spliced them together as they picked them up and called that their movie.

To try to figure out what was supposed to be happening, I tried looking up the artist in this so-called true story, and could find nothing about him. So, I didn't have a book to read, or even a magazine article, to see what his life was like. I'd hoped if I knew a little something about him, I could make heads or tales of this movie.

Therefore, I conclude that this movie if for those types of people who like to read intellectual jibberish and claim they 'understand' it. Of the more than 4,500 movies in my collection, this one comes in near or even at the bottom in the editing category.

There are way too many good movies out there to waste time on this one. If you want super-excellent movies also put out by Mongrel Media, watch 'Somersault' or 'Eve & the Firehorses.'