ALIEN 4 (1997. D: Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

G R E A T !

Absolutely. yes. cool. What more is there to say about a film that turns Ron Perlman into a comedian! The film was hilarious, but intelligently so. it is not a spoof. Rather, the laughs come because of the characters, and their special predicaments and as an effect their outlooks on the world.

spoilers

For someone who fought the deadliest predator in history three times and has been dead 200 hundred years and now is part alien herself, or someone who's an android that's been programmed for pity, knows all the dark secrets of the government and survived BLADE RUNNER (brilliant in joke), or someone who is wheelchair bound and probably synthetic, or someone with guns permanently stuck to his hands, or someone who only knows how to cause pain to people, for all these kinds of people there is nothing not to find humor in, especially themselves. That's the only way to keep on living, and keep on being sane. That's also the only way for such a schizophrenic film franchise such as ALIEN to keep on living. According to Jeunet, the franchise and the characters in it are in the stage Ash was in in the middle of Evil Dead 2, when he found it hilarious that the moose on the wall was talking to him and that his severed hand was making obscene gestures at him. This is also what�s refreshing - and captivating - about the characters: they are all extremely self conscious. About themselves, about the futility of life in general and their own living in particular, about the fact that they keep living only by the instinct to live - Ripley and Cole had ample opportunity to sacrifice themselves to save everybody. They didn't. They are way past their "deadline". When they get to earth they will probably be killed, but they go on. They laugh at themselves, at what they are supposed to be by the conventions of society (Ripley: "who do I have to fuck to get off this ship") or of the genre (Ripley to the android: "I knew you were to humane to be human"). Like the characters, Jeunet himself is self conscious. About the medium (the Betty's arrival turns out to be a monitor screen), the genre and its analysis (the whole "motherhood" bit, and especially the womb bit, is more than a nod to the popular-in--academic-circles psychoanalytical interpretation of ALIEN as a film about Freudian concepts of motherhood, wombs, primal scenes bla bla bla. It's as if Jeunet says "Let's play around with this, and see what will Barbara Creed and co. will say now"), the franchise (All three earlier films' various approaches creep up here and there), himself (Casting Perlman in a totally different role than in CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. his role here is quite reminiscent of his role in the marvelous, sadly neglected ICE PIRATES back in 1984). Wisely enough, Jeunet doesn't try to breath new life into the franchise. The formula is probably worn out. I can't think of a new angle to it. Instead, Jeunet prefers to sort of sum up the franchise so far, while realizing the humor that is inherent to his peculiar point of view, as I said before. Also, he is an excellent filmmaker and visualiser, so despite the formula being worn out, he manages to give you a swift 108 minutes that you don't really feel passing. He also has, like Luc Besson in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, a marvelous eye for details, that few Americans have (Stuart Gordon is one, photographer Mac Ahlberg is another. their collaboration on SPACE TRUCKERS, a really enjoyable flic, is thus visually much richer than its budget would suggest.). Of the cast Perlman stands out, but at times even he steps aside for the marvelous Dan Hedeya, whose military general, straight faced in his absurd militarism until the end, is plain hilarious.

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