I Stand Alone

Aroview: Staunch attempt to shake up the “bourgeois” values in French cinema, first-time director Gaspar Noe fleshes out his short film about a nihilistic middle aged butcher to a feature length assault. His pent up rage and resentment has blown its lid, as he takes verbal and violent revenge against those who have wronged him, and everyone else who might incidentally cross his path. Pretty much a one-note idea hammered home unremittingly, its hardline conviction is arguably betrayed by the denouement, though it still makes its mark as a ‘punk’ film exercise and uncompromising portrait of sociopathy.

NZ International Film Festival 1999

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