Ray Pride

(Toter Mann) It's difficult to decipher the story of "Something to Remind Me" at first, the logic of which unfurls with uncommon parsimony. Christian Petzold's 2002 feature is thick with cool surfaces and controlled compositions, offering, before its thriller plot clicks in, a glimmer of the contemplative nature of painting in film's relentless present tense. The great part of the plot finds Stuttgart lawyer Thomas (Andre Hennicke, a craggier Jeremy Irons), who grows obsessed with Leyla (Nina Hass, an older Mena Suvari with a taste of Greta Scacchi's aloofness), a hard-to-read blonde. There's an element of sleepwalkers in space throughout. It seems like we are in Rohmer territory, but the dialogue is sparse. Over the film's taut ninety minutes, Petzold is serenely effective in depicting a stalkerish age: we are all pawns as well in the fantasies of those whose paths we cross, those we know, secretly desire to know, scheme to possess. Every game has but one player, working it over in our single solitary head. There's an icy twist, of course, and Petzold works its cold mystery with brilliant dispatch. 90m.

"Something to Remind Me" plays Sunday and Wednesday at the Siskel Film Center. See Short Runs.

(2004-03-03)

Also by Ray Pride

Tip of the Week
Hart Perry's "Valley of Tears" is a twenty-year labor of love about the labor movement
(2004-02-25)

What would Riggs do?
A movie more violent than most of those condemned as part of what certain groups refer to today as "the culture"
(2004-02-25)

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2004-02-25)

Tip of the Week
Writer-producer-director-editor Siddiq Barmak's wrenching story of a young girl's humiliation under the Taliban is the first made-in-Afghanistan film since the U.S. invasion
(2004-02-18)

The City That Smells
(2004-02-18)

Edifice complex
(2004-02-18)

Short Runs
(2004-02-18)

Tip of the Week
(2004-02-11)

Tip of the Week
(2004-02-11)

Stealing beauty
(2004-02-11)

Short Runs
(2004-02-11)

Porn by design
(2004-02-11)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment