No Such Thing

Starring:Robert John Burke, MargrÃ©t ÃkadÃ³ttir, Sarah Polley, Julie Anderson, Anna KristÃn ArngrÃmsdÃ³ttir, Ilene Bergelson, GuÃ°rÃºn MarÃa BjarnadÃ³ttir, Bessi Bjarnason, Helgi BjÃ¶rnsson, Julie Christie, Stacy Dawson, Maria Ellingsen, Anthony Giangrande, Erica Gimpel (II), ÃžrÃ¶stur LeÃ³ Gunnarsson, Brynhildur GuÃ°jÃ³nsdÃ³ttir, Baldvin HalldÃ³rsson, BjÃ¸rn Ingi Hilmarsson, JÃ³n Hjartarson, Baldur T. Hreinsson
Director: Hal Hartley
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Writer-director Hal Hartley (Henry Fool, The Book of Life) has loosened his usual arch style, but the results are no less distinctive. Sarah Polley (Go, The Sweet Hereafter) plays Beatrice, a naive young reporter who is sent by a huge media conglomerate to investigate the disappearance of a camera crew in Iceland. Eventually she finds an immortal but depressed and alcoholic monster (Robert John Burke) who wants nothing more than to die. Beatrice agrees to help him find the one man who can kill him, and she draws the monster out into an invasive media spotlight. No Such Thing is maybe too ambitious; the story tackles not just the media and world unrest, but even the history of mankind. Still, like most of Hartley's work, the movie remains uniquely engaging, a delicate mix of irony and sincerity. Also starring Helen Mirren (Gosford Park) and Julie Christie (Afterglow). --Bret Fetzer

Description

Good and evil, love and hate collide in this captivating adventure from award-winning director Hal Hartley. Starring Sarah Polley (The Claim), Robert John Burke (Robocop 3), Academy Award® nominee* Helen Mirren (Gosford Park) and Academy Award® winner** Julie Christie (Dr. Zhivago), No Such Thing is a provocative and deeply moving film thatwill change the way you look at the world. New York journalist Beatrice (Polley) travels to Iceland to find a monster (Burke) believed to have killed her fiancé. Once she meets the beast, he opens her eyes to the horror of his existencehe has witnessed history from the dawn of time. Moved to help him, Beatrice takes the monster to New York. But when a media firestorm erupts, Beatrice realizesher monster is more than he appears to be and the world may not be ready for the truth. *Supporting Actress, Gosford Park (2001); Supporting Actress, The Madness of King George (1994). **Actress, Darling (1965).

Customer Reviews:

"I'm Not The Monster I Used To Be" ~ The Dissolution Of The Sacred.......2007-05-02

According to Plutarch (CE 45-125) the great Goat-God "Pan is Dead," dying just as the Christian faith was taking hold in the Mediterranean world, a classic case of out with the old and in with the new. However what if Plutarch was wrong, what if Pan hadn't died but lived on through the centuries. What if this primal, rural deity remained in the shadows of history quietly observing the advancement of mankind through the ages. What would he think of seeing his beloved wilderness landscape slowly devoured and replaced by large, congested urban centers. Would he be forced into a nomadic existence forever looking for a place of solitude away from the ever curious world of men. If he was seen on occasion would he be revered as in old as a God, or despised and perceived as a monster? What if Pan really did exist?

Interesting premise don't you think? Well this is the situation and just some of the questions dealt with in Hal Hartley's amazing dark comedy `No Such Thing' (`01). OK, I admit the film doesn't actually refer to this horned and hairy monster as the legendary Pan but the resemblance is strong and there are definitely subtle implications in the script supporting this view. Anyway, a satyr-like creature is discovered alive and hiding out in a remote region of Iceland. He is isolated, depressed, alcoholic and suicidal. The monster laments, "I see extinction in everything around me." He's convinced that only dying can solve his problem. But he can't, he's immortal. This disenfranchised pagan deity now spends his time drinking and terrorizing a nearby village whenever his anger at mankind becomes too much to bear. All seems hopeless until Beatrice a young American journalist convinces him to accompany her back to the U.S.A., giving her the story of the century and providing him with his one and only chance for extinction.

`No Such Thing' is one of the most original, off-beat and quirky films you'll ever come across. Hartley's dialogue ranges from inventive to absurd, but always meaningful and layered. Robert John Burke is brilliant as the potty-mouthed Satyr and Sarah Polley is a perfect choice for the clueless Beatrice. If you're looking for something totally different from the everyday here it is!

Not my favorite Hartley, but still worth seeing.......2006-05-31

I would rate this in the mid- to low-range of Hartley films - but I still recommend it because even a sub-par HH is miles above most other directors' best efforts. It's one of those things where I see what he's trying to do (modern-day fairy tale, satirical allegory etc.) and in theory it should work, except it falls flat in the end because the plot ends up being somewhat forced and unoriginal.

However! Robert John Burke as the monster is hysterical and totally worth the price of admission (as it were). I love the whole concept of an angry, drunken, chain-smoking monster cursing up a storm and wishing he could commit suicide. Burke's performance is spot-on and not the slightest bit hokey, as the character so easily could have been in the hands of a lesser actor. And Polley, while I like her in general (she was great in Go), is sort of flat and wishy-washy throughout much of the film, except in those first scenes when she meets the monster. He injects some much-needed life into her line readings.

For HH fans, it's definitely worth it for Burke alone. For those new to Hartley, it's not the best introduction - for that, try Henry Fool instead.

best character I have seen...in a long...long...time!.......2006-04-04

You know, the new Star Wars movies did not have a character that could hold my interest, but the monster in this movie does. Mr. Burke, had to wear skin to play this part, but he played it with more than the skin, with his eyes, expressions, his voice. I have not seen a more unique character than this one. My favorite character in books is from 'Le Miserables', and from movies, this monster. Watch it you'll be surprised.

One of the oddest films I've ever seen.......2006-03-14

The main character, Beatrice, is a saint in the making.
Early in the film we learn that a monster has killed her 'fiance' Jim, and two other journalists, in Iceland. The fact that he was her fiance is our clue that she's still innocent, pure.
She volunteers to go and investigate, meets resistance because she's so young, but prevails.
We find out that her mother has recently died, and she has no other family. This establishes her as free of normal human connections, as a saint should be.
Setting out, she can't get a cab because of a bomb scare at the airport; she can't take the subway because of a nerve gas attack. She gets a ride in the back of a truck belonging to men who destroy things for a living - demolitions experts.
Her plane crashes into the ocean and she's the only survivor. She's rescued by a fishing boat and ends up in a hospital in Iceland, which was her destination.
You see, NOTHING can stop her.
It's pointed out to her that she has nothing - but she refuses money for the story of the plane crash, how the other passengers behaved, 'who was brave, who was a coward'. 'They were people', she tells her boss. And she's a saint, so she doesn't need money.
She's given a choice: have an agonizing operation or remain crippled. Of course she chooses the operation, so that she can carry out her mission.
During the surgery we see her doctor wincing and covering her ears in response to Beatrice's screams (covered by the soundtrack).
When she's up and about she dumps her walker for a cane, and as her doctor drives her north the next day, in search of the monster, she ditches the cane at a cafe along the road.
By the time the road runs out she's able to mount a horse and ride into the mountains. She's fully healed.
The residents of a village who've been paying tribute to the monster drug her and leave her unconscious, wrapped in a shroud, as an offering to the monster. He won't hurt her.
He proves to her that he killed her fiance; she cries but won't get angry at him.
In an act of saintly forgiveness, she brings him back to New York to search for Dr Artaud, the one man who can kill him (his wish is to die).
I won't go on. The movie is a fairy tale, religious allegory, and satire, rolled together.
The first time I saw it I turned the CD off in disgust. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it... I went back to it and saw what I'd missed... this film should become a cult classic.

Hartley's stunning epic.......2006-01-02

No Such Thing is my favorite of several favorite Hal Hartley films. I find Dante's Divine Comedy under the surface of this epic wherein Beatrice and the monster journey through the Inferno of contemporary America and climb up to Paradise and the divinity of pure love at the ending. It's a brilliant film: hilarious and tragic, dark, mythic, and deep.

There's No Such Thing as a Chanukah Bush, Sandy Goldstein

Average customer rating:

There's No Such Thing as a Chanukah Bush, Sandy Goldstein
Starring: Theres No Such Thing As Chanukah Bush-Sandy Goldst
Manufacturer: Sisu Home Ent.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Educational | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Children's Music | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000BGH2MM
Release Date: 2005-12-06

DVD:

DVD

Babylon 5: The Complete Fourth Season [6 Discs] [1994] (REGI

DVD: Man Who Knew Too Much

Relaxing - Die schönsten Landschaften/Teil 4