a graphic attempt, extremely well done

Rating: 9/10 (11 March 2003)

I just saw RFAD the second time, first time on the big screen and I still think it's and very good movie. Knowing what was expecting me made the emotional impact gave way for a more calm and rational view. When people seriously criticise the movie, they often say, that the characters are flat and artificial. And they are somehow right, but I personally think that this is not a flaw of the movie or script, but just an different attempt of telling a story. There are a lot of very good movies building up characters from the inside, showing fragile emotional and intellectual structures rising and falling. RFAD chooses a more "graphic" way. The characters are abstract images, looked at with a cold distance. They are not actual human beings but an essence of some of theirs ways, they are dreams of beings in a dreamlike graphic world. And as the title already tells they get shattered. People might be right in judging these attempt as inhuman and potentially superficial, but I feel otherwise. To me it is really beautiful and precious and the fact that such a highly abstract and stylised point of view can cause a real emotional effect shows the high quality of this picture.