I discussed this film with some friends of mine and it's amazing to see how strong and negative some reactions are.
***SPOILERS*** A simple story (group of terrorists kidnap a famous TV-personality and kill him) is just an excuse for the film its real deeper thoughts about our society that creates extreme unacceptable behaviour. Edwin Brienen chooses for his debut film a very manipulative way of telling the story and blocks every emotional involvement of the viewer on purpose with a theme like political terrorism. Rather than dealing with drama and deep emotions, he quotes Nietzsche and De Sade. Showing off his intellectualism is sort of irritating but seems also a trick to distract us viewers from the emotion behind the deed: the TV-host is a victim, but portrayed by Brienen (at the beginning of the film) as a conservative judgmental old prick. I understood some actors in this film come from the commercial TV-world in Holland (Mental Theo had a happy hardcore hit here in Germany early nineties) which make things even more bizarre (the bizarre political dialog they have to speak). The film questions moral and consequence and although hysterical during a lot of moments (Brienen's take on Lynch's the red room in Twin Peaks here transformed into a green room is way over the top and annoying), the attacks on 11 September and the murder of Theo Van Gogh (reading from the Koran while a couple is having sex) prove Brienen (unfortunately) right. In that sense is Terrorama a prophetic film (Brienen wrote and filmed it in 2000), one with an extremely bitter aftertaste though.
On an acting level is Esther Verkaaik amazing in her portrayal of a woman torn apart between emotions and political idealism. Kiki Classen (absolute beauty) makes a strong impression as the assistant of the TV-personality. Her scene in which she questions religion ("I'm searching for my own revelations") during a dinner date with him is the highlight of the film.
The film gained some positive reputation over the last years and was released on DVD as part of the Brienen-collection in 2008. The rough style of Terrorama is continued in Lebenspornografie but Brienen certainly became more Hollywood after. It's a pity though that this collection uses an old and very dusty copy of the film instead of a remastered one. I read they will release a 10years-anniversary DVD so lets hope they spend some money on a pixel-clear-copy as Terrorama absolutely deserves it!
***SPOILERS*** A simple story (group of terrorists kidnap a famous TV-personality and kill him) is just an excuse for the film its real deeper thoughts about our society that creates extreme unacceptable behaviour. Edwin Brienen chooses for his debut film a very manipulative way of telling the story and blocks every emotional involvement of the viewer on purpose with a theme like political terrorism. Rather than dealing with drama and deep emotions, he quotes Nietzsche and De Sade. Showing off his intellectualism is sort of irritating but seems also a trick to distract us viewers from the emotion behind the deed: the TV-host is a victim, but portrayed by Brienen (at the beginning of the film) as a conservative judgmental old prick. I understood some actors in this film come from the commercial TV-world in Holland (Mental Theo had a happy hardcore hit here in Germany early nineties) which make things even more bizarre (the bizarre political dialog they have to speak). The film questions moral and consequence and although hysterical during a lot of moments (Brienen's take on Lynch's the red room in Twin Peaks here transformed into a green room is way over the top and annoying), the attacks on 11 September and the murder of Theo Van Gogh (reading from the Koran while a couple is having sex) prove Brienen (unfortunately) right. In that sense is Terrorama a prophetic film (Brienen wrote and filmed it in 2000), one with an extremely bitter aftertaste though.
On an acting level is Esther Verkaaik amazing in her portrayal of a woman torn apart between emotions and political idealism. Kiki Classen (absolute beauty) makes a strong impression as the assistant of the TV-personality. Her scene in which she questions religion ("I'm searching for my own revelations") during a dinner date with him is the highlight of the film.
The film gained some positive reputation over the last years and was released on DVD as part of the Brienen-collection in 2008. The rough style of Terrorama is continued in Lebenspornografie but Brienen certainly became more Hollywood after. It's a pity though that this collection uses an old and very dusty copy of the film instead of a remastered one. I read they will release a 10years-anniversary DVD so lets hope they spend some money on a pixel-clear-copy as Terrorama absolutely deserves it!
