Tries so hard to be a classic.... and fails miserably

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2002)

The story of the movie takes place in three different layers - each being a certain part of the main protagonist's life. First, there is his adolescence, where he slowly turns from rascal to junior gangster. Then there is his adult life in his gang, and finally, his return as old man to his old home city, after 30 years of hiding in excile.
The movie begins with a crucial scene: The death of his gang. The rest of the movie tries to tell the story of that event - how it came about, mostly.
But all of this does not capture the spirit of the movie: The summary of the story pretends that there is some sort of development, some movement. Yet the movie manages to slowly ooze from set to set, from time layer to time layer, without ever generating excitement, without ever feeling as if the story was progressing. There is painfully little dialogue - and whatever there is is slow. How many times does one character ask a question, only to receive the answer after a long break, during which his opposite pretends to be lost in thought or emotion or just lost? As a consequence, none of the characters seem real. Given the cast and director, it is probably considered a sacrilege to point this out: But whatever they were doing for this movie, they were not in the least succeeding in portraying life, or lifelike performances. Perhaps on some other planet, frozen in liquid nitrogen, there are life forms with reaction times similar to those depicted in the movie - but on earth people tend to talk, and act, and live, a lot quicker. Stealing well over three hours of our lives for this movie is way too much.
The only explanation is that this movie tries to be a piece of art - not entertainment. Which would make it a fairly ugly piece of art, showing prostitution, sex, drugs, violence, perverted sex, rape and almost every element that could shock or thrill, but without thrilling. And there are only two scenes in the entire movie that manage to shock. If it is to be seen as art, then perhaps they should have told the story as a long series of still images, as opposed to a movie (i.e. similar to the French "movie" that inspired "Twelve Monkeys"). That way, the entire thing would not have felt so awkward and out of place, and perhaps, it could be more appreciated. Especially the soundtrack, as background to a series of images, would have made this a piece of art. In this movie, it feels oddly dominating - where there is little talk, the music is very noticeable. It is the only character that won't shut up...
In the end, the movie tries so hard to be a classic, it feels obvious and annoying. The ending is confusing, and everything between start and end is boring.
3/10