Barocco

This is a strange one. Hyped as a 'variation on Hitchcock's Vertigo', it certainly fails to be that. It is odd to see the very young Isabelle Adjani when she still had puppy fat in her face, as she does not look particularly like Isabelle Adjani at all except in the eyes at that age. It was a big mistake to cast Gerard Depardieu in the role of two characters, one a boxer who is murdered and the other the killer who murdered him for money. When the boxer's girl friend Adjani shows no sign of recognition of Depardieu the killer when they meet, we know the film is hopelessly contrived, because anybody can see that it is Depardieu. This is really stretching things too far. The film is gloomy, washed-out, laden with hopelessness, a bleak vision. Andre Techine the director shows some directorial skill, so that the film is not what one would call 'badly made'. It is instead badly conceived and a failure. Also, it is rather affected to try to achieve some kind of mock-profundity by a 'study' of a girl who wants to get together with the killer of her boy friend. If this is meant to have some deep existential meaning, it flops. The profundity can be measured in millimetres.