The Dancer Upstairs

Starring:Montserrat Astudillo, Javier Bardem, Marie-Anne Berganza, Juan Diego Botto, LuÃs Miguel Cintra, Oliver Cotton, Natalia Dicenta, Xabier Elorriaga, Jairon Flores, Abel Folk, Ramiro JimÃ©nez, Chuen Lam, Alexandra Lencastre, Javier Manrique, Laura Morante, Elvira MÃnguez, Lucas RodrÃguez, Wolframio SinuÃ©, Galo Urbina
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Marking an assured directorial debut for actor John Malkovich, The Dancer Upstairs is a tense, nerve-jangling political thriller that values adult storytelling and emotional depth over cheap thrills. It's a challenge for those accustomed to the frantic pace of Hollywood thrillers, but attentive viewers will be richly rewarded by Malkovich's slow-burn approach to the film's terrorist plot, adapted by Nicholas Shakespeare from his own novel, based on the "Shining Path" movement that terrorized Peru in the 1980s. The plot unfolds in an unnamed Latin American capital, where a lawyer-turned-police detective named Rejas (Javier Bardem) leads an investigation to locate Ezequiel, a terrorist whose followers have left a trail of fear, death and destruction across the city. Rejas falls in love with his daughter's ballet teacher (Laura Morante), but the film's ultimate revelation--a coincidence that Malkovich handles with credible delicacy--throws this simmering drama into stark relief, bringing Bardem's character (and his subtle performance) to a greater awareness of his own personal and political humanity. --Jeff Shannon

Description

This taut political thriller set in Latin America marks John Malkovich's explosive directorial debut. Academy Award nominee Javier Bardem (Best Actor, 2000 - Before Night Falls) stars as legit policeman Agustin Rejas, who faces the greatest challenge of his career - to catch the leader of a terrorist movement threatening to collapse his government, while being stopped at every turn by his own corrupt superiors. As the fight becomes more ferocious, Rejas' search brings him ever closer to the guerrilla leader. But when, amidst the chaos, he falls in love with his daughter's ballet teacher (Laura Morante), Rejas must choose between his heart, his country, and his own well-being.

Customer Reviews:

The Dancer Upstairs........2007-01-21

This film is too long and unnecessarily complicated to deliver a simple message. In the process it leaves the viewer tired in losing interest as one tries to make sense in what is being dished out piecemeal. A forgettable film.

Entertaining, Yet Abridged.......2005-11-18

I got the feeling while watching this film that a good 30-45 minutes of worthwhile film ended up on the virtual cutting room floor. I never quite bought into the Captain's emotional attachment to the Dance teacher, and thought this was just one area that could have been flushed out a bit more. The film started out with a solid foundation and premise, but then seemed to rock-skip toward the end. I wish I had seen an extended version.

John! get checked for that "Cyrus virus".......2005-08-27

OK, so now we know that John M. has some psycho-leanings which he wants to convey to the rest of us through film.

here's the warnings:
1) the dancer doesn't live upstairs,
2) we never really see her dance,
3) the titillating partial-undress picture on the cover never occurs in the movie (hurray for PG-13 hopes for this vid),
4) the explosion scene on the cover is from a thrown-in scene and we don't even know who got blown up in that scene,
5) I guess this is a love story??? the weird thing about this is that hero-man is married and we don't see any marital problems other than the fact that wifey has a bit of a life outside waiting for stone-face to come home now and then,
6) another chick pops in 2x to flirt with our main man, but we don't know who she is, or if these two have ever done the sneaky-deed or what, and there's no follow-up to her character,
7) our main character's acting never gets over 10mph, except for one scene where some non-character soldier is obeying orders and starts to remove pinned-up drawings from our main-character's daughter. ok, touching, but I thought this was a sleek espionage thriller, not a weepy father/daughter slice of life story!
8) a trailer comes up on the bottom of the screen early on and tells us this all happens in "Central America" ... shhhh! don't tell anyone where it REALLY takes place, John! give me a break!
and finally,
9) maybe our Central American neighbors are impressed with a main character who boasts of nothing more than being the tallest guy in the film, but up here in the big ol' USofA we grow 'em big like that all the time. so, maybe the type-casting brains of this one (was it you John?) needs to have a stick of dynamite rammed up their poop-shute, like we were subjected to seeing in this truly "dead-dog" movie.

Slow, beautiful, thinker's movie.......2005-06-28

Though this movie is slow moving and quiet, it is one of the finest films I've seen in forever. Javier Bardem is amazing. No question. The music is spare but affecting (and one of the most memorable parts of this film). I don't want to give away any of the plot but this is a real thinker's love story (in the midst of a terrorist revolution-in-the-making backdrop), smart, brilliant, surprising in every way without gratuitous sex scenes and cheesy, predictable "happily ever after" endings. Malkovich is a genius. Bardem makes you feel his pain. A must see for any smart film lover. Can't recommend enough.

The Dancer Upstairs: the wreck of unmotivated violence.......2005-04-07

Augustin Rejas is a former attorney. Disillusioned, he has decided to join the police force in the hopes that he might obviate the rulings of a corrupt court system. Once he has established himself as an Investigator, he is ordered to assemble a small team and to look into a series of events that may or may not be the makings of united revolutionary activity. There are bombings, suicide bombings, assassinations, brown outs and other unmentionable acts of violence committed throughout this unnamed Latin American country. And the perpetrators are a seemingly random assembly of men, women and children, drawn, with no discernable criteria, from the indigenous poor, their Spanish-descended rulers and the buffering middle classes. The violence may occur at any moment, in any degree and from out of any direction; the tension is unbearable.

Inspector Rejas is a massive still presence. His principle investigative instruments are a fascination for fact, an impassive stare and an unrelenting deliberative nature. And with these, he does eventually determine the identity of the leader of this goalless revolution: a former university professor, known only as Ezekiel. But Ezekiel is an empty revelation: Rejas was never really looking for who but for why.

The Dancer Upstairs is commonly described as a political thriller-a misnomer that may dissuade you from recognizing it as a work of another and higher intellectual order. It is, rather, a meditation on the horror of things inexplicable. We are presented with a puzzling succession of events for which we, like Inspector Rejas, must provide an explicating narrative of some sort. Our motivation is the desire to repair the imbalance, to eliminate the random, violent variables that have wrecked our equation for the peace of meaning. The name "Ezequiel" seems to want to point to something, as do the slogans, the posters and the suicidal dedication of Ezequiel's followers. But they are only so many empty ciphers. And while the revelation is admittedly painful, we should remember that Inspector Rejas--the element of good with whom we will identify--is himself a kind of cipher: inexplicably strong, honest, determined. But he is--if for no ultimately satisfactory reason--a satisfactory counter to the damnable example of Ezequiel.

Charlie Rose with John Malkovich (April 30, 2003)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with John Malkovich (April 30, 2003)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Educational | Genres | DVD | Video

Description

Charlie speaks with John Malkovich about his latest film, The Dancer Upstairs. The film marks Malkovich's directorial debut and deals with the Shining Path movement in Peru, which terrorized the country in the 1980s.

Average customer rating:

The Dancer Upstairs.
Entertaining, Yet Abridged
John! get checked for that "Cyrus virus"
Slow, beautiful, thinker's movie
The Dancer Upstairs: the wreck of unmotivated violence

The Dancer Upstairs [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Mondays in the Sun
The Dancer Upstairs
The Sea Inside
Mouth to Mouth
Before Night Falls

ASIN: B0000C24F1

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

The Dancer Upstairs........2007-01-21

Entertaining, Yet Abridged.......2005-11-18

John! get checked for that "Cyrus virus".......2005-08-27

Slow, beautiful, thinker's movie.......2005-06-28

The Dancer Upstairs: the wreck of unmotivated violence.......2005-04-07

Charlie Rose with Jane Arraf; Matt Dillon; Javier Bardem (May 9, 2003)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Jane Arraf; Matt Dillon; Javier Bardem (May 9, 2003)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

One month after U.S. forces seized Baghdad, Jane Arraf of CNN talks about reconstruction efforts there.Then, a conversation with Matt Dillon, director and actor in the film City of Ghosts.Also, Spanish actor Javier Bardem talks about his performance in the new film, The Dancer Upstairs, directed by John Malkovich.

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