The long-awaited third film by Flemish director Dominique Deruddere (Crazy Love, Wait until Spring, Bandini) is a pseudo-existential chamber drama, shot mostly in the famous Victorine studios in Nice. Chris is a young hustler working the French Riviera. His speciality is seducing older women and then blackmailing them into giving him money. One day his scheme backfires, one of his victims strikes back and he leaves her hotel room believing he has caused her death. Running away from the police, he stumbles into the luxurious Suite 16, occupied by Glover, a rich Englishman in a wheelchair. The older man, paralyzed from the waist down, offers Chris his protection, thus entering an endless game of manipulation and constantly shifting power struggle. Glover seduces Chris with lobster, expensive wines and prostitutes and uses the young man to re-enact his fantasies, thereby trying to get back the only things that money cannot buy: his youth and virility. The young man becomes literally the extension of the impotent old voyeur, but their games of domination and deceit are jolted out of balance once the two of them are joined by a young girl, the murder victim picked by Chris on the streets of Nice.
The trouble with this mostly two-character piece is that the characters aren't very interesting. As the dumb, masochistic Chris, Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling gets every opportunity to show his physique, but his acting is flat and dull. British actor Peter Postlethwaite lends some intensity to the proceedings, but even he cannot cope with the feeble motivations behind Glover's elaborate manoeuvers, whose roots go back to his first adolescent sexual experience. All sorts of pretentious references (from Oscar Wilde on Buddhist wisdom to the art of oenology) fail to dissimulate the exploitative nature of the entire venture. There's plenty of rough sex, most of it of the SM kind, with a surprise sodomy thrown in for good measure. But for a film that is so self-consciously daring and kinky, Suite 16 is not erotic in the least. The only thing the filmmakers were passionate about is the all-dominating Art Deco apartment. The main set looks indeed ravishing but one could easily do without the people inside it.
Patrick Duynslaegher (Fipresci)
La tan esperada tercera película del director belga Dominique Deruddere (Crazy Love, Wait until Spring, Bandin) es un drama de cámara seudoexistencial, rodada principalmente en los famosos estudios Victorine de Niza. Chris es un joven buscavidas que trabaja en la Riviera francesa. Su especialidad es seducir a las mujeres mayores y luego chantajearlas Un día le sale el tiro por la culata, porque una de sus víctimas le devuelve la jugada, hay una pelea y él se marcha pensando que la ha matado. Huyendo de la policía da con el lujoso suite 16, ocupado por Glover, un inglés rico en una silla de ruedas. El viejo, paralizado de la cintura para abajo, le ofrece a Chris su protección y así se mete en un juego interminable de manipulación y luchas de poder constantes. Glover seduce a Chris con langosta, buenos vinos, y prostitutas y se sirve del joven para reactivar sus fantasías, intentando así recuperar las únicas cosas que el dinero no puede comprar: su juventud y virilidad. El joven se convierte literalmente en la extensión del viejo voyeur impotente, pero sus juegos de engaño y manipulación sufren un importante revés cuando se junta a ellos una chica joven, una de las victimas que Chris había elegido en las calles de Niza. El problema de esta obra que gira fundamentalmente alrededor de dos personajes es que esos personajes no son muy interesantes. El actor holandés, Antoine Kamerling, en el papel de Chris, tiene ocasiones de sobra para demostrar su físico, pero su interpretación carece de carácter y es sosa. El actor británico Peter Postlewaithe aporta algo de intensidad a los acontecimientos pero ni siquiera él es capaz de compensar las absurdas motivaciones detrás de las maniobras tan elaboradas de Glover, cuyas raíces remontan a su primera experiencia sexual adolescente. Todo tipo de referencias pretenciosas (desde Oscar Wilde, a la sabiaduría budista, hasta el arte de la oenolog
Prod cos: Corsan Productions (Antwerp), Theorema Films
Prods: Paul Breuls, Frank Bak, Catherine Vandeleene, San-Fu Maltha
Dir: Dominique Deruddere
Guión (Scr): Lisa Mayer, Charles Higson
Foto (Ph): Jean-Francois Robin
Mont (Ed): Kant Pan
Art dir (Prod des): Niek Kortekaas
Cost: Lorette Meus
Mus: Arno Hintjes
Ints (Cast): Peter Postlethwaite (Glover), Antonie Kamerling (Chris), Geraldine Pailhas (Helen), Bart Slegers, Viviane de Muynck, Tom Janssen
Duración (Running time): 99 minutes
Ventas (Int sales): Stranger than Fiction Ltd
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