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Frozen | Year: 1997 Classification: Foreign Film - Chinese Directed: - Xiaoshuai Wang Pretentious -rebellion without cause. This film aspires to be categorized as an art /intellectual film by putting so many static shots of an artist suffering from perpetual hemmoroids (At least, his facial expressions look like he has them ),talking about death and crude amateurish filming style. I'm shocked to discover that Rotterdam Film Festival's Hubert Bals fund subsidized a pretentious film like this.The Chinese film scene is booming and fortunately this film will never be part of it. frozen One almost feels morally compelled to give a high rating to a film like this because of what it stands for and the obvious difficulties involved in producing such a work. But I can't. Frozen, as previous reviews have explained, is essentially about a young performance artist who to raise his apparent spiritual malnourishment or general weariness with life to an art form decides to take his own life in protest against....well, we're not sure exactly, and that's the problem with the film. His individual struggles are never gone into in great detail. Instead we get him doing black and white Munch-like sketches of hollow cheeked post-apocalyptic waifs and then sitting in his room for three days without eating. His brother in law tries to cash in on his known death wish by selling his work (an impulse that needs no explanation). Few films have the opportunity that Frozen had to fire big shots at an obviously worthy target and win immediate sympathy for its message. But instead, we are left with the impression that the Chinese underground has succumbed to a general nihilism. Apart from ethnicity and language, this could be Seattle youth dropping manhole covers on puppies to protest the WTO. Some scenes, notably those with the character of Bold Head, do carry enough intensity to be engrossing in and of themselves, i.e. his methodical consumption of a bar of soap, and his opening of a bottle with his teeth, which was more profoundly philosophical than any such act I've seen on film or in person. His character was extremely compelling. I suppose some might argue that the prevailing sense of despair and hopelessness that runs through the film is an indictment of the Communist system. Perhaps so. But normally one would expect that a rallying cry would not be so cognisant of its own futility. This film should take a lesson from the writings of authors like Solzhenitsyn, who faced totalitarianism with intellige is in ho gave us GARDEN OF EDEN with Corinne Griffith a few years back) in conjunction with Turner Classic Movies was issuing a newly restored version of the original 1916 version. Louis Feuillade (1873-1925) was the undisputed master of the movie serial. He took what was regarded as the cheapest form of cinematic entertainment and turned it into an art form. Although not as erotic or as violent as LES VAMPIRES his previou omment> Buy Frozen at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Frozen Search with the Priority Search Engine on Frozen This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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