TUVALU -- Veit Helmer, dir

©1999
studio: First Run Features
production company: Veit Helmer Filmproduktion
dir: Veit Helmer
cast: Denis Lavant, Chulpan Khamatova, Philippe Clay, Terrence Gillespie, E.J. Callahan, Djoko Rosic, Catalina Murgea, Todor Georgiev
screenplay: Michaela Beck and Veit Helmer

In a desolate and colorless landscape stands a dilapidated bathhouse run by a puffed-up blind man, his long-suffering wife, and their son Anton, who does all the work. He's lonely and unsophisticated, and he falls in love with the beautiful Eva, who comes to bathe with her father. When Eva and her father lose their home, they come to the bathhouse to stay, but bits of the ceiling fall on the old man and he dies. Eva blames Anton, and she seems to seek the arms of the brute Gregor. Can Anton win back her heart, get the bathhouse through a rigorous government inspection, and help keep his parents employed? Waiting out there somewhere is the paradise isle of Tuvalu. [from Amazon.com]

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Having greatly enjoyed the movies such as Delicatessen, Amelie, and The City of Lost Children, I was really looking forward to this movie, which seemed to be in the same vein. Instead, the movie seemed to be made in vain.

While this seemed to have the same kind of bleak, futuristic setting as Deli and City, it lacks the charm that the other movies have. The review from IMDB says it best:

The movie relies heavily upon distinctive looking performers (such as Levant,
and Terry Gillespie as the developer) and, like Jeunet and Caro's
'Delicatessen,' the abstraction of sound effects. Unfortunately, this movie
doesn't have a whole lot of wit and can't keep us dazzled in the way
'Delicatessen' and 'The City of Lost Children' did. It tries creating an alien
world, but Helmer's eye and ear are lacking. The monochrome compositions,
frequently color-tinted (one of many nods to silent cinema), are visibly
arbitrary, and the sound effects are just sort of noisy. There's no rhythm to
them, and Helmer fails to make it musical.

The dizzying fantasy sequence on the ship is so out of place that it takes us out of the locale and mood that Helmer worked so hard to get us atuned to.

Sadly, a movie worth missing.