Marc Caro's DANTE 01 DVD Review
Science Fiction as a movie genre has many entries in it which suffer from a low budget, especially when taking place in outer space. Too many times have we seen people in cheap jumpsuits walk the same three corridors for the majority of a film's running time, talking lengthy nonsense in serious voices, pretending to be inhabitants of some vast space station in trouble.
And at first glance "Dante 01" fits exactly into this category. The budget is low, everyone is speaking in some sort of leaden prose and the set design is, indeed, people in jumpsuits walking the same three corridors.
But there the comparison stops, for this movie has some aces up its sleeve, the biggest of which is director Marc Caro. Known primarily for his surrealist collaborations with Jean-Pierre Jeunet (together they made "Delicatessen" and "City of the Lost Children"), Caro is one of the very few people who can pull off the trick of making a jumpsuits-in-space movie visually interesting.
But is that enough to save this particular movie?
And how good is the recent British DVD release?
Read on after the break...
The Story:
Space Station Dante 01 is a floating Arkham Asylum, being a home for a small selection of criminally insane inmates. All of these have avoided the death penalty by signing up as guinea pigs for medical experimentation. Left alone they form a mini-society on board of the ship, idling away the time, completely seperated from the wardens and scientists.
This changes when a shuttle docks, bringing two new arrivals: the beautiful but ruthless scientist Elisa who has orders to test a new nanotechnology-based drug, and an unknown new inmate who quickly gets named "Saint George" because of a tattoo on his shoulder. This Saint George was the sole survivor of a strange event which left everyone on his spaceship dead except himself, leaving him unhinged, mute, and seeing starfish-shaped monsters in the people surrounding him..
Business as usual for this space station, it seems, where all the prisoners suffer from different kinds of psychoses already anyway.
But when Elisa's research demands that she kills all inmates with her new drug and leave with the test results, an odd thing happens: Saint George turns out to be able to rescue the other inmates from the lethal effects of the drug. Not only that: he heals their physical wounds instantly and takes away the mental defects which caused their insanity. Startled and scared, both the scientists and the remaining inmates start taking desperate measures to try and keep their power games intact...
The Movie:
In space, no one can hear you go "Huh?"...
Let's start with the bad: this is one hell of a baffling movie. Intentional or not, the short running time (a scant 82 minutes including credits) seems to be working against it in a big way. There are a lot of ideas floating around in this film, some tend to stick but others crash. There are several storylines in it which seem to be missing parts, like the event which gave Saint George his powers. It's one thing to leave some bits for the audience to imagine, it's another thing when all press materials, the back cover of the DVD and website summaries mention something which is vital for understanding the story but cannot be found anywhere in the movie itself at all!
Meanwhile, the remaining bits of understandable story almost get destroyed by the huge amounts of religious symbolism heaped upon it. It even outdoes "Neon Genesis Evangelion" in this regard, no mean feat as you'll surely agree. The goal was probably to add an extra intellectual layer to the film but at times it becomes comical.
Example: every single inhabitant of the crucifix-shaped Dante 01 has a name which says something about the character. That approach works for the inmates because nicknames like these might have grown to be part of their prison society: the boss of the gang is called "Ceasar", while a murderer only wanting to bring peace and relief (from life!) to his victims is called "Buddha" etcetera.
But the prison's warden is called "Charon", his two guards "Cr" and "Brus". See what that sounds like in French? Cerberus! They guard the airlock to the hellish lower deck which houses the prisoners! Hahaha! Haha....hmm.
This overuse quickly becomes too much, but thankfully the viewer is introduced to all players very soon in the movie so after a while there aren't any new names to annoy you with.
It's not just the names though: of course "Dante 01" doesn't have a first, second and third act, it has a first, second and third circle, as the onscreen titles remind us. Because Dante's book described, you know, circles of hell, and... and... aw, stuff it.
So this is childish at worst, pretentious at best. But to top it all off the movie ends with a caleidoscopic finale which hurts the eyes, is impossible to interpret on any of the stories' levels, and aims to be profound while it is just plain confusing. Anyone wanting to explain to me what happens (and why!) with Saint George in the last 15 minutes can sit down with me for a hefty discussion.
Now for the good, of which there is surprisingly much. For after my rant above you would imagine that I have no love for this movie whatsoever yet I've returned to it several times already, to my enjoyment.
For "Dante 01" hearkens back to the French science fiction graphic novels of the seventies and eighties. These were often confusing, sacrificing story to pretentious filosophy and religious name-dropping, but they were also delightfully outlandish and often gorgeous to look at, therefore acquiring a charm all of their own. And it is this charm which can be found in "Dante 01" as well. No surprise actually, seeing as how all designers and writers here have strong roots with the French comic community. At some point Jodorowsky himself was even part of this production, although he had little to do with the end result (dropping out early).
Then there is Marc Caro, and his stamp is very visible here. His use of colors is exquisite, making this the most gaudy jumpsuits-in-space movie ever. In the scientist part of the space station, lush dark purples conflict with bright orange, while the inmates quarters are green, brown and grey. Cameras zoom in on every deficiency in peoples' faces, making the completely bald cast very recognizable and more importantly, distinguishable from each other (often a weak point in lesser movies).
Next comes acting and every person shines here, and not just because they're bald. With each individual only getting a short screen time, most must convey their characters physically trough body-language rather than through speech, and the strong cast really impresses here.
Lambert Wilson (best known as the Merovingian from the last two Matrix movies) plays Saint George, and he has turned himself into a marble statue for this movie. His very texture seems to change between scenes. You cannot help but empathise with this very odd character and most of that is due to Wilson's great work here.
The diminutive viper Elisa is played by Linh-Dan Pham, a French actress of Vietnamese descent, and her great beauty is nicely juxtaposed with all the ugly hulking males around her.
Ceasar is played by Dominique Pinon, almost a default actor when you mention Caro or Jeunet, and he adds yet another memorable person to his already impressive gallery.
And François Levantal as Lazarus is a force to be reckoned with, an actor with such a strong face that he'll leave an imprint in your television.
So with acting and directing being this good, yet the narrative being this incomprehensible, where does that leave the casual viewer? Stranded unfortunately. There is lots to enjoy here but you need to work for it. There are whole sequences which work fine and will stick with you, like one character making an incredibly excruciating sacrifice to safe the others. But most people will hate being sent into the woods at the end in the way this movie does.
Conclusion for the film:
Marc Caro's solo debut as a director impresses as much on the visual front as it fails in its storytelling. The end result is certainly interesting but fails as a coherent narrative. I suspect that everyone involved with the making of this movie will probably have a better understanding of what's going on than the audience has.
Good acting and impressive cinematography alone cannot keep this ship afloat.
I'll still recommend it, but only to fans of French graphic novels. People interested in Serious Science Fiction need not show up: they will just be teased by "Dante 01", shown glimpses of the epic that might have been.
About the DVD:
"Dante 01" has been released by Momentum in the United Kingdom as a region 2 PAL DVD and it's quite a nice release actually. Cheap from its launch date onward, it features a very nice transfer of the movie and some rewarding extras.
But to get to that part you need to go through three unskippable trailers.
BAD, Momentum, BAD!!
And I even LIKE these trailers: "Chrysalis", "Eden Log" and the incredibly violent "Paris Lockdown" (ouch, my knees!) are here. But please Momentum, put them in the extras next time, not in front of the menu.
Having said that, the main film is nicely represented here. "Dante 01" is a very dark movie which can cause problems when converted to DVD, but none can be seen here. It looks gorgeous on both my television and my desktop, sharp and with good colors.
Soundwise everything is fine too with an excellent French Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, and the English subtitles are good and removable (although you'll need your remote to do so as there is no option for it in the menu).
As extras you get the trailer and a very funny "making of" feature which lasts 30 minutes. It shows the actors being shorn bald, working out to get the necessary shape for the film, and having fun on-set. But it also shows the writer explaining some of the religious symbolism and a veritable treasure-trove of concept art. Everyone in this mini-documentary is remarkably candid about the film's low budget and tells freely about the way this needed to be worked around with. This is the sort of "making-of" I like. Extremely informative and fun to watch, without any marketing fluff hidden inside.
Conclusion for the film:
All in all a fine DVD for this baffling film, for a price which makes checking it out actually rewarding, rather than daunting.
