AMER

This Belgium film by directors Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani is a love-letter to the Italian “giallo” films of the 1970’s, and is split into three sections.  Each section presents a part of Ana’s life that is important to her or that has shaped her into the person she has become (whether these are real or imagined moments is never explained).  Each section deals with a different part of her life: her childhood, adolescence and finally, adulthood. 

The first part is the stand-out section, as it plays more like an Italian horror film of the same era with “giallo” elements to it (think Dario Argento’s “Suspiria” or “Inferno”).  Ana is living with her parents in a big gothic house, along with her grandmother (who may or may not be a witch).  To add to the creep factor, they also share the house with a corpse (Ana’s recently deceased grandfather) who resides in the spare room.  Ana is clearly terrified of her grandmother and believes that she is trying to bring her grandfather back to life.  Ana is constantly running from or being chased by her grandmother (but is it real?) until she sees something that changes her life forever. 

The way this revelation is shot is amazing, as the image splinters and becomes all different colours, similar to the effect of a kaleidoscope.  As good as this first part is, the second part is equally as disappointing.  Easily the worst section of “Amer”, part two has Ana (now an adolescent) going for a walk with her mother, until they come across a group of bikers parked outside the shops.  After her mother enters the shop, Ana soon realizes that all of the biker’s eyes are on her, every part of her.  For the first time, Ana realizes what an effect her body has on men, and she soon begins to notice that she also enjoys all of the attention.  This is all done with quick edits and extreme close-ups, and becomes quite repetitive and begins to border on the ridiculous.  

Far too little happens in this section, in far too long a time, and it doesn’t have a significant resolution (the mother comes out of the store and smacks Ana for flirting).  Worst of all, is that it loses all of the fantastic atmosphere that the first section set up, which is mainly due to the complete lack of “giallo” references, making it feel like it has come from an entirely different film.  Not to matter though, because the film bounces back big time in the final part, when it basically becomes a “giallo” film. 

This time, Ana (as an adult), returns to her childhood home, but it is much different from when she was a child.  Both her parents appear to have died and the home is vacant and run down.  While at the house, though, Ana is stalked and terrorized by the taxi driver who brought her there.  While not quite as good as the first segment, it comes pretty close, but if you have seen enough of these types of films (as I have), the final twist is pretty easy to see coming.  The connecting theme of all three segments is voyeurism or being watched by others. 

I must say that I never thought that I would get to see this film on the big-screen, but amazingly I found out that a horror film festival was playing in Melbourne (how did I not know about this earlier?) and this turned out to be the closing night film, and there was no way I was going to miss it.  It is a shame about the second segment, but overall it was a good film experience.  I want to point out that I’m glad that the directors went the extra mile with this film and used vintage film stock of the era, as this certainly added to atmosphere of this film, there is no way this would have worked with today’s digital cameras.  Oh and no, I have no idea what the title means.

Ranked 23 in Top 25 of 2010