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Review - Revanche (Revenge)
Revanche premiered at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy awards. It was written and directed by the Austrian Gotz Speilmann. The story begins in a Viennesse brothel where security minion Alex (Johannes Krisch) is having a clandestine affair with Tamara (Irina Potapenko). They are about to engage in a high risk venture - to rob a local bank and disappear from the scene, the local authorities and the brothel owners, who would not take kindly to the loss of one of their best girls.
We are introduced to the rest of this four-hander, as Susanne (Ursula Strauss) and her rooky policeman husband Robert (Andreas Lust), are living a comfortable existence in the same town, except they want to have children, but can't. This is stretching their relationship to breaking point.
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When fate intervenes and cop meets robber, a nervous trigger finger sets Alex on a course of revenge and he begins to stalk his victim across the other side of a lake, using his grandfather's farm to hole up in, chopping wood with psychopathic intensity with what seems certain to be the murder weapon of choice.
The Independent described this film as 'elegantly nuanced' and indeed so. We see an unexpected softening of Alex's intensity, largely thanks to the kindness of Susanne towards grandad (excellently played by Johannes Thanheiser and looking like a cross between Harry Grout and Max von Sydow). Our sympathies begin to change as we enjoy a fine piece of acting from Ursula Strauss, who is prepared to go to extreme lengths so keep her marriage afloat.
This is a subtle and resonant, deeply involving and fulfilling movie. The film explores the validity of revenge, climaxed in a memorable scene towards the end of the film where a revelation provides an opportunity for redemption.
Rating : 9/10 Elegantly Nuanced
Review written by John Franklin : September 2010
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