Realism - in a degree never seen before

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 1999)

Hard to say anything about this. Is it good ? Is it bad ? I don't know. I just know that I've sat during the movie nearly without any move, with full concentration, without thinking about anything else but the movie, what will happen next. It was so realistic. Is reality good or bad ? Does any of the ordinary categories for movies matter if its real, and not only a game ?
This movie focuses enormously, nay in an ideal way, on the character development. There is no sudden change, no compression of the emotions, like normally in movies. Everything happens in a way and speed normal emotions of real people would develop. If the characters had changed very much, there had been a pause of some hours where they didn't used the camera. I repeat myself, everything here looks totally real. I've never seen that in this degree in a movie before. And I'm wondering why I've never missed that in all these comedies and tragedies and maladies (french: illnesses) I've seen before. So often I've called a movie "realistic" before, not knowing that it wasn't realistic at all, compared with this reference.
This is not a horror movie. Read it again: this is not a horror movie. One could say much about the properties of all horror movies I've seen before, brutal, idiotic, boring, or sometimes funny, and some classical movies (such as Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)) even brilliant - but they where never, never realistic. I often cursed inside when I saw how illogical people behave in ordinary horror movies. Not here. No way. So at least if you're a fan of horror movies, you are not at all guaranteed to like this one, for its so different.
The screen picture is often of very bad quality, especially in the night. Is this a fault or an advantage ? Of course, this is also realistic; the ears gets more informations what's happening than the eye in the night.
So what should I say ? Who could enjoy this movie ? I've no clue. I guess that many horror fans might even hate it. Everyone might hate it. But everyone might also love it. I've no clue, except that I think (I'm not finally sure!) I myself liked it.
Will there ever be a movie like this so successful ? I think so. It has very big faults, but also big strengths, and I think its strength are the more important ones. Again, I'm not sure. I don't know if I've seen a revolution or a bad joke of a movie.