some thougts on Higuchinski's Uzumaki

[Giacomo Calorio]

I liked Uzumaki too, even though I didn't read the manga. I found it
both disquieting and ironic, as it uses some horror movies cliches and
then destroys them completely, creating darker ways to explore the
horror (through accumulation or negation of audience's expectations,
for examples).
Sometimes it seems Higunchisky is just playing intellectally, but at
the end of the movie I was quite astonished. It didn't scare me, but
it gave me a strange sense of anxiety.
I'm still wondering if it's a good movie or not, anyway. I'd like to
know more of this director (with a strange name...).

bye

giacomo calorio



CC> In the spirit of Lynch's Twin Peaks and Burton's Beetlejuice, Uzumaki? is adapted from a manga.

CC> Higuchinsky's direction is great, because it is not a movie made cartoon (like most adaptions are), but a cinematographic object close to experimental , using all that technology allows? like CGI
CC> and basic sfx like cartoon, but never becoming shallow (like most recent french film like Amelie or Vidocq are ).

CC> Having read the 3 parts manga, I can testify that everything was already in it, and probably twice as much. But Higuchinski wisely chose to?film part of the artist's imagination and in my opinion
CC> succeeded in staying faitheful to the poetic and wild material.

CC> Christophe.