Rosa la rose / Through and Through


Perhaps more than any other medium, film excels at manipulating reality—either enhancing it or deconstructing it. The latest releases from Radiance illustrate this cinematic trick at both ends of the spectrum.

Rosa la rose: fille publique (1986) is a red-light district fairy tale set in France, where we meet Rose (Marianne Basler), a prostitute whose radiant looks and gentle approach leave little business for her co-workers. But her dreamworld shatters when she falls for a working-class client who wants more than pleasure… he wants love.

Director Paul Vecchiali’s film inhabits the space between Hollywood fantasy and gritty urban reality, never straying too far from either. Its pimps and prostitutes form a supportive family where business feels almost incidental. Its innocent approach to sexuality embraces a playful sense of intimacy—no matter how many participants are involved.

Jean Sorel lends prestige as the brothel’s ringmaster, but Vecchiali’s camera is captivated by Basler as Rose—not in a lustful or exploitative way, but so that her vivacity pops off the screen like a Disney princess who remains pure despite making her living on her back. The film’s greatest achievement is making the audience root for Rose’s happiness without judgment.


Through and Through (1973) takes a radically different approach, assaulting the viewer with a stark, silent journey through the gutter of 1933 Poland. Based on a true story, Franciszek and Anna are social outcasts whose personal and professional failures create a dangerous co-dependency. At the end of their financial rope, the pair murder a family who refuses to rent them a room, only to find themselves ensnared by a justice system that inadvertently tightens their bond.

Eschewing conventional plotting, director Grzegorz Krolikiewicz blends documentary and experimental techniques to keep viewers off balance. His camera isn’t merely an observer; it participates, stringing together long takes of painful interactions and emotional distress. A film with a social conscience that refuses to soften the blow, it uses extreme close-ups, clever mise-en-scène, and a powerful interplay of sound and silence to create an almost abusive experience. Yet the harsh black-and-white world is so hauntingly beautiful in its ugliness you can’t look away.

Available separately, the limited-edition Blu-ray of Rosa la rose features a new 2K restoration, new and archival interviews, a reversible sleeve, and liner notes. Through and Through comes with three short films by Krolikiewicz, also discussed in the collector’s booklet.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hollywood 90028

Image
While everyone praises a film that is timeless, those that are  of their time  an inevitably more interesting. And  Hollywood 90028  (1974) occupies a singular moment of L.A. cinematic history written by the early generation of UCLA film school grads; an urban desert of sleazy peep shows and dashed artistic aspirations populated by Midwest transplants looking to make it big.  Director Christina Hornisher’s obscure addition to this tragic catalog was sold as a sexed-up piece of violent exploitation (and retitled  The Hollywood Hillside Strangler  and  Twisted Throats ) but this low-budget effort is really anything but.   Mark (Christopher Augustine) is a frustrated filmmaker shooting dirty movies to pay the bills, unable to put together a highlight reel that will get him out of the celluloid gutter.  Michele (Jeannette Dilger) is on the other side of the camera, ashamed of her “performances” but lured by the easy money. ...
Read more

School in the Crosshairs

Image
A pop-music confection of psychic powers, first love, and invaders from Venus, 1981’s School in the Crosshairs is a mainline rush of anime aesthetics and pre-MTV aspirations. And if you think that’s a mouthful, wait’ll you get a look at the film itself! Director Nobuhiko Obayashi ( House ) stacks plot devices like Jenga pieces, relying on the charisma of super-producer Haruki Kadokawa’s handpicked pop princess to keep it from collapsing under its own weight. That secret ingredient is star Hiroko Yakushimaru, the cherub-faced schoolgirl who’d break out later that same year in Sailor Suit and Machine Gun . Here she plays Yuka, the most popular girl in school, who discovers her telekinetic abilities have drawn the attention of a power-hungry alien bent on enslaving her fellow students. With help from a mysterious new girl on campus, the villains drain all the fun from Daii Academy, transforming it into a fascist state devoted entirely to academics.   Based on an oft-adapted novel by ...
Read more

Terminus

Image
Road Warrior   rip-offs are legion. After the success of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic actioner, every two-bit producer with access to a stretch of desert and a box of leftover shoulder pads scrambled to cash in. In the U.S., Roger Corman unleashed   Battletruck , Charles Band gave birth to   Metalstorm   (in 3D, no less), while Italy cranked out so many copycat productions it’s a wonder the Colosseum didn’t wind up with a gun turret and a flamethrower. But France—ah, France—they just might have delivered the most bafflingly sideways homage of them all: 1987’s   Terminus . Set in a near future where a tricked-out truck must pass through hostile territory to reach a predetermined “terminus,” the story begins with its hired driver (Karen Allen) captured and killed by rival gangs. That leaves Stump (Johnny Hallyday), a mysterious ex-con, to complete the journey—accompanied by a mute 8-year-old named Princess. Their mission is guided by an AI system called Monste...
Read more