(France/Germany, 165 min)
Dir: Olivier Assayas; Writ: Olivier Assayas & Dan Franck
Starring: Edgar Ramirez, Alexander Scheer, Nora von Waldstatten, Ahmad Kaabour.
Just a quick one today (I need to cram in more reading before the Golden Globes tonight!) Actually, I can add another film to the “I’m rooting for list” – Carlos, the staggering crime epic by French mater Oliver Assayas. Carlos premiered at Cannes earlier this year, and there was considerable hype for Assayas’s film. Carlos originally runs at 330 min (5½ hours!) but it has also been released in a 165-minute theatrical cut, which I saw last night. (The complete version ran as a miniseries on IFC.)
The action of Carlos also jumps around from a dozen or so countries and the soundtrack features eight languages spoken at different intervals by members of the cast. Through Carlos’s acts, the film thus offers a smart portrait of the complex politics of globalization (much like Assayas did via the dissolution of a single family in last year’s Summer Hours). Further aided by laudable performances by lead Edgar Ramirez and the rest of the international cast, as well as first-rate cinematography and some brilliant editing, Carlos is riveting cinema. If the theatrical version is this good, I can’t wait to see the five-hour cut!