Robert Tanitch reviews the latest DVDs
EXODUS GODS AND KINGS (20 Century Fox). You might have thought Biblical epics had died with Cecil B De Mille, Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. But no, here is Ridley Scott’s version of the Egyptians having a pretty rotten time in 1300 BC, what with the crocodiles (a bloody orgy which pollutes the Nile), the locusts, the frogs and the flies. What sort of God would kill all the first born children? Well, an Old Testament God would. God is represented by a pugnacious, sneering little boy who dictates the 10 Commandments whilst Moses (Christian Bale) chisels away on a tablet. The dialogue rings false and even the spectacle disappoints.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY (Artificial Eye). Peter Strickland offers voyeurism and bondage. A professor (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her lover (Chiara D’Anna) indulge in a consensual sadomasochistic relationship, acting out bossy mistress and servile maid. It’s an artificial, ornate world of female entomologists. There’s not a man in sight. (The Duke of Burgundy is a butterfly.) The film has its admirers: a work of art to some; pretentious and prurient to others; boring for many (the cat looked particularly bored) and humourless (except for the religious music). It’s a film for lesbian entomologists, perhaps?
ALBERT RN (Renown) is a life-size, life-like dummy and he was created in 1944 in a POW camp during World War 2 and used as a stand-in for a prisoner who had escaped. Anthony Steel and Jack Warner keep a stiff upper lip and Anton Diffring does his familiar nasty Nazi officer turn; but the actors cannot liven up a dull script. The story is based on fact but too much phoney fiction has been added and the fiction is not only unbelievable, it is totally lacking in tension. The final scene is a real let-down.
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