An unbearably taut, slow-simmering noir transposed to the vast countryside and its patient, drawn-out rhythms.
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12/14/09
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Revanche (2009)
94
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:50
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: With Revanche, Götz Spielmann has crafted a debut as surprising as it is suspenseful.
Theatrical Release:May 1, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: At once a gripping thriller and a tragic drama of nearly Greek proportions, Revanche is the stunning, Oscar–nominated, international breakthrough film from Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann. In a... [More]
Starring: Ursula Strauss, Irina Potapenko, Johannes Krisch, Andreas Lust
Director: Götz Spielmann
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Reviews for Revanche
The precise camera placement in every scene brings the audience an up-close and personal vantage point. The sights and sounds of nature play an integral part in the story.
11/21/09
Spielmann sets a tone of weary desperation and rarely strays from it. Not a happy film, but a gripping one.
11/20/09
There's real biblical tragedy, and redemption, in Spielmann's fine, sad, suspenseful film.
11/05/09
Top CriticArtful, suspenseful and utterly engaging, Revanche is also challenging and arguably one of the most mature dramas to hit art houses this year.
10/29/09
Spielmann’s deft storytelling is coupled with immaculate compositions that constrain the characters as confidently as any prison bars.
10/09/09
click to read the full review
09/11/09
A film of carefully strained pulp and rigorously controlled intrigue, the Austrian revenge drama Revanche, which is really about the dividing line between vengeance and forgiveness, belongs to a neo-noir universe where all the classical genre laws apply.
08/14/09
Top CriticSo few characters in Hollywood thrillers ever feel real. The true achievement of Revanche may be that Spielmann's characters sometimes feel too much so.
08/07/09
Writer-director Gotz Spielmann (Antares) avoids the clutter and manipulation of most thrillers, escalating tension almost solely through the characters' turbulent emotions.
08/07/09
Top CriticRevanche involves a rare coming together of a male's criminal nature and a female's deep needs, entwined with a first-rate thriller.
08/06/09
Top CriticThe quiet cinematography by Martin Gschlacht underscores the film's emphasis on characters rather than action while placing the characters in very specific contexts...
07/31/09
The title Revanche means 'retribution,' and this Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film is a European extract of neo-noir, like a Bavarian Body Heat or a Teutonic 21 Grams.
07/30/09
It's undeniably effective and pretty engrossing. And there's something to be said for the unconventional way it sucks viewers in.
07/16/09
Unsettling and at the same time genuinely moving, it's a superb psychological thriller...remarkable for its meticulous creation of mood.
07/03/09
The performers do terrifically understated work. Even in a scene of angry, anguished coupling, silence and stillness persist.
06/26/09
Top CriticIt can be a mite slow, but it's exquisitely crafted and deeply atmospheric, and it pays you amply for your patience.
06/12/09
Johannes Krisch leads an effective cast. But it's writer-director Götz Spielmann who's truly the talent to watch.
06/12/09
This cool, tense Austrian thriller follows a Ukrainian hooker and her petty criminal boyfriend as they try to escape their dead-end lives.
06/05/09
Top CriticRevanche is an extraordinary film, mythic in feeling, about an ex-con who falls in love with a prostitute and how their lives intertwine fatefully with that of a policeman and his wife.
06/05/09
Top CriticLatest News for Revanche
May 01, 2009:
A mesmerizing masterpiece which eloquently meshes the raw, super-realism found in Eastern Promises with the manipulative, mental chess moves of David Mamet's House of Games.
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