Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

I heard about this title mid 2011 and has been near the top of my list ever since, not sure what the delay was in distribution but it's been quite a wait, which fuelled my desire to see this film. The instant I saw the trailer I was certain this was my kind of film, vague dialogue hinting a hidden depths, long drawn out scenes with sinister undertones and beautifully crafted futurism styled sets (maybe a little to Kubrick-esk) but still great looking. Everything was in place for a successful romp around a mercurial world spawned and brought to life in nightmarish vision by Panos Cosmatos.

But, for all it's promise and as much as I really wanted to love this film it did fall a little flat. The set design is beautifully crafted, and the high photography levels of some of the scenes is something to be admired, but on occasion a little arbitrary as some scenes did not drive character or narrative forwards nor did it express or emphasis emotions.

The narrative is overly grand which I like (keep it simple) and is deliberately slow and off-paced, which will definitely separate the film lovers from the average watcher that may have stumbled across this film, as you will need to invest a little concentration. There was a downfall to the film as mysterious and menacing atmosphere that it postured at the start did dissipate throughout the film.

This is a first attempt by a director who clearly has a cinematic eye with a good understanding of film taking inspiration from some great directors. Unfortunately he didn't quite create the level of intrigue found in a Kubrick film or a deliver the ruptured reality of a Lynch film and missed the overall depth of a Tarkovskiy film, but it wasn't without it's own moments.

Definitely worth your time - A steady start from a new director but it's worth remembering art house isn't an exact science, hopefully he will get the chance to produce more in the future.

Fmovies: Beyond the Black Rainbow is a sensory experience more than anything. Visually, it's full of strong colours and strange images, while aurally it comes at you with overpowering droning and noise. It's hard to find an easy comparison to the kind of stuff this film throws at you, and that can only be a good thing. Director Panos Cosmatos (what a name!) and his team have to be complimented for their imaginations.

The film itself is a tribute to sci-fi B-movies, but more than that it feels like a defense of experimental film itself: the strange is cooped up, institutionalized and dissected while the world of banal blockbusters rages outside. Of course, even without that reading this is a great example of experimental film that attacks on a level even the most conventional viewer has to feel.

This probably won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for me it's a strong contender for film of the year. At the very least it's a reminder that there are still new avenues to explore in film, ones that don't follow the comforting traditions of either Hollywood or the art-house.

OK... lets say, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch smoked a sackful of 'Gaia Essence', a ripe ole bag of the stuff. Then, Andy Warhol dropped over with a flask full of 'Dream Mana' and the three had a right old time bouncing crazy ideas and concepts and decided after three straight days of inter-perceptionary travel, to make a movie... 'Beyond the Black Rainbow' is probably as close as you might ever get to seeing the labors from any such fictional collaboration.

I loved it. I can't wait to watch it again. If you believe you have an open mind, or consider yourself to be even remotely intelligent I would advise you to give this a chance. The devil is in the details. There is a new talent among us, and we as film fans should be grateful that someone like Panos Cosmatos has the balls to do things his way and present something that at the very least, is something f***ing different and refreshing.

I'll leave you with this, take from it what you will, I once showed one of my favorite sci fi's to a friend who is a die hard Star Wars fan, he hated it and thought it was stupid and slow; it was 'THX 1138' by George Lucas.

Beyond the Black Rainbow fmovies. Its a well done enough horror/suspense/David Cronenberg esque wtf kind of film--but after a while i kind of just wanted them to cut to the chase already. by which i mean there's a lot of set up and a lot of artfully done goosing of that set up--but it takes a good hour and a half if not longer before the actual ch as/confrontation between the two main characters that you spend most of the film waiting to happen finally happens. Don't get me wrong--this movie is trying and succeeds to a varying degree at capturing a certain style and certain flavor of suspense horror film---the director is quite clearly a fan of early Cronenberg--there's not just the obvious nod to Scanners but there's nods to The Brood and Shivers and even a slight one to videodrome in here as well (at least i thought i caught those maybe i'm wrong i don't know) and there are nods to other scare films of the early 80's as well--and certainly the whole tone and pace and set design and wardrobe and just everything about it is very much on the money for a suspense film from the early part of that decade--but i don't know, the movie also had a sort of sleepy effect on me---like as psychedelic as the director wants the movie to be (and it definitely is) you can only indulge in that kind of style so much before you just end up putting a guy like me into a kind of coma--and not the cool trance like one that i'm sure the director was hoping his film would have on its audience. You know there's only so much ranting and raving i could take from the good psychotic doctor and there's only so much self defense scenes i could take from the woman in the mental hospital before a part of me just wanted to scream Get on with it already movie! but eventually the movie does--and it does it well enough---but not so well enough that i can't help but think this movie should have probably been at least a half hour shorter then it was. Ehh whatever---i'm positive it will find its audience soon enough anyways and it will have a nice cult like following in the years to come--much like Cronenberg's early stuff does too.

I went into this with no expectation whatsoever, so the first 40-50 minutes were amazing and original with bags of style conjuring an eager anticipation for what lay ahead for what appeared to be a low budgeter Sci-Fi/thriller that could definitely compete. However, the style soon became monotonous and predictable, ultimately undoing everything that had come before with its lack of progression. Editing was also exceptionally poor, where long drawn out episodes that worked so well in, say, the original version of "Solaris" or "2001", overstepped its original boldness by becoming irritating in the tiresome second half. But what appeared to be original and innovative was to become it's worst enemy - with so many options made available in the first half - the second half was a miserable let down. Any notion of this being a cerebral thriller utterly forsaken for....well....not a lot at the end of the day....with a its only goal to meet its mildly intriguing final shot.

I so want to recommend this for its brave and fresh (if derivative) approach, but - as a movie in its complete format - it was a very poor.

I saw this film at the AFI film festival. Before the film started the director said "I hope you're as messed up in the head as I was when I made this film." He was very right. The film is not for everybody, nor should it be. It is long, confusing, and I loved every minute of it. It is a film you have to buy into to enjoy, but once you're in you're in for a trip. A brilliant piece of science fiction, and contains one of the scariest scenes I have seen in a long time. The cinematography was also brilliant and some phenomenal lighting. This movie is not for those with a short attention span, but anybody who can sit through 2001, Enter the Void or Stalker should love this film.