Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageSylvester Countdown (1997)
Director: Oskar Roehler
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The film begins with the hero doing a frantic lone dance wearing nothing but a Native American headdress, and ends with him masturbating in front of his girlfriend’s photo. This concise image of his insecure and obsessively sexual character also depicts the isolating quality of the couple’s life together, consisting solely of sex and quarrels. On a New Year’s Eve trip to Warsaw, they close in ever more destructively on each other. Roehler skilfully plays up the bleak pathos of these egotists’ self-made hell by showing them getting lost in a city which is itself hostile: a grey, icy place where taxi drivers cheat them or get lost, and a strip joint offers a frightening parody of their relationship. Restless camerawork heightens the sense that even when partying or travelling, they’re going nowhere.Author: SB
Cast & crew
Director: Oskar Roehler
Producer: Rolf Peter Kahl, Oskar Roehler
Cast: Rolf Peter Kahl, Marie Zielcke, Robert Victor Minich, Laura Tonke, Doreen Jacobi full cast
Duration: 83 mins
Top Stories
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report
Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke
What do you think?
Post your review now