In Hell

1976 [FRENCH]

Drama

10
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 310 310
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.04 GB
1204*720
French 2.0
NR
us  fr  
24 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 1
1.94 GB
1792*1072
French 2.0
NR
us  fr  
24 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by khungus-1 7 / 10

universal glory /joy to the world

I can't pretend I understood much of what Papatakis is railing against here and this is a rare instance in which the IMDB synopsis is helpful as is the excellent review submitted several years ago by shanbhattacharya_, which is a recommended read. It's a simple enough premise - an actor trying to complete and find a distributor for her absent husband's newest film but the whys and the wherefores of late 60s / early 70s Euro politics are not something I'm very knowledgeable about. Still, it's clear enough who Papatakis sides with, I just had a little trouble keeping up with the finer points.But what does come through with crystalline clarity and crosses any boundary is the super humanly committed performance given by Olga Karlatos, whose effort commands respect of the highest order regardless of one's feelings about the film proper. It's a once in a lifetime confluence of the right role and the right actor coming along similar to (commitment-wise that is, the characters they play couldn't be more different) Mónica Del Carmen's work in "Leap Year" from 2010.It's not an easy film to sit through but anybody interested in watching great actors acting great owes it to themself to seek this out..
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Reviewed by shanbhattacharya_ 8 / 10

An unflinchingly radical little-known near-masterpiece.

The Greek/French director Nikos Papatakis has not made too many films, and this one may be the closest he had ever reached towards cinematic mastery. An extremely radical political drama, this film chronicles the journey of the protagonist Galai (played with a certain maddening quality by Olga Karlatos), an actress of political torture B-movies made by her husband Hamdias. Now Hamdias is also secretly a anarchist revolutionary of the Palestinian Liberation Front, absent throughout the course of the film due to some underground operation, leaving Galai and his editor to finish his latest torture film and arrange a screening for distributors. Under this complex premise, Papatakis explores and criticizes the role of artists, intellectuals, filmmakers etc who take pride in calling their art 'revolutionary' while living under the safeguard of their bourgeoisie producers and patrons.

Exaggerated and talkative at places, one can easily understand the lack of love it received (just look at its modest rating itself) because of its anti-israel and its anti- 'white-liberator' stance. Having said that, one might argue that its brilliant final act is politically somewhat ambiguous. The film within this film (the torture film made by Hamdias) is harrowing enough to call for such dramatic expanse. A definitely difficult watch, understandably more so by the European audience, but extremely rewarding as you begin to identify with the opinions presented here.

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