Novo
If one word could sum up the experience of watching this film it would have to be ‘perplexing’. As one of the 8 films released in Tartan’s Cine Lumiere collection, NOVO according to The Daily Telegraph is “A sort of soft porn Memento”, or whilst we are scraping the bottom of the barrel, it is, according to The Daily Express “50 First Dates with a continental flavour”. That about sums....
If one word could sum up the experience of watching this film it would have to be ‘perplexing’. As one of the 8 films released in Tartan’s Cine Lumiere collection, NOVO according to The Daily Telegraph is “A sort of soft porn Memento”, or whilst we are scraping the bottom of the barrel, it is, according to The Daily Express “50 First Dates with a continental flavour”. That about sums up the understandable parts of this film, even though a comparison with MEMENTO is probably a bit rich, even though it is about memory to some degree. But instead of plot, we have nudity.
It starts off with Graham (Eduardo Noriega) repeating his action of buying a can of drink from a soft drinks machine, before he is guided into the office where he works by his female boss. She then makes him undress and continues to shag him. Upon orgasm, she dismounts him and continues to shove her finger up his arse telling him “you are always amazed at how much you like this”. Thus, now we realise he has some major memory problems: the film begins. A secretary then starts temping at the office where Graham is the resident photocopier. They fall in love with each other, to some shallow degree, and continue to roger each other in what later turns out to be an attempt to restore his ‘3 hour memory’. We then start to understand that things are not quite what they appear to be and the familiar faces that keep appearing are all working together in the hope of restoring his memory. There is also comic relief in the fact that he has to keep writing down all the things that he needs to remember. However, as it all seems so implausible that someone would be allowed to roam around free with such an infliction as his, the humour is generally tainted by more negative feelings.
About an hour into the film, just as things are starting to be clarified, it takes another turn for the worst. I won’t try and bullshit my way through the remainder of the plot because I have no idea what happened for the next 30 minutes. Although he started to recover his memory, mine dissolved and turn me into a perplexed unhappy fidgety mound of flesh waiting for the end. In fact in gave me time to focus on some other areas that I was not too happy about. The music was pretty poor and did little to enhance, improve or comment on the atmosphere, plot or the narrative. The Cinematography also did little to enhance any of these areas. During times when Graham is having a small memory episode we get the classic hand held jerky camera and the occasionally speeded up moments that all seek to heighten his mind set. But as the film places such a distance between the viewer and the film, these techniques just stand out and render themselves pretty pointless. It was hard to ascertain whether the acting was any good as well. Certainly Noriega appears to have a few comic slants to his illness and behaviour but as with a lot of subtitled films innocence is usually bliss. As for the women, all they do is looked doe eyed at Graham or open their legs and wait for him to get stuck in, so the roles don’t appear too much of a challenge
The film though does have some drawing points, not for this reviewer but I am sure that some will be chasing this film for the nudity. There are a number of these pointless scenes scattered throughout the first 40 minutes, the joke being that he is a good shag and every time he forgets he has just had a shag, the women finds herself in heaven, craving some more like a kitten nuzzling itself up to its mothers tit. The nudity seems to have little place as it neither adds nor improves the overall film. But as with the general perception of French films some I am sure will seek it out for that alone. There is also a bizarre scene involving a tooth which ends up disappearing up a woman’s front bottom, never to return, as she leaves and he forgets to take it out. But I am sure no one will be renting this out to see that, well apart from the odd politician or local vicar.
EXTRAS
1. ARAKI (7 mins)
This is the return of the famous Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, who had his own documentary recently released called ARAKIMENTARY. In this short featurette his presence seems totally irrelevant. However, via a short verbal introduction by the director of NOVO, we are informed that he used some of Araki’s imagery for the way he shot his naked actresses. We then see Araki shooting a Japanese nude in his studio and living it up for the camera.
2. JAPANESE INFLUENCE (12 mins)
This section seems even more pointless than Araki’s. It is a fat Japanese geezer displaying his collection of Shun-Ga scrolls and paintings (paintings and stories concerning sexual encounters, etc). He talks us through how liberated the Japanese were, sexually, hundreds of years ago, unscrolling pictures of fat geezers having their way with their servants or prostitutes. However, this was actually quite interesting, I only write about it in such a sordid way because this is the way it appeared to be presented if we strip away all the artistic crap that NOVO’s director tries to push on us, during his sentence before and after the segment to try and show us how deep and artistic his own film is by being influenced by such things.
3. BONDAGE (6 mins)
Another pointless section where we are allowed into a bondage class in Japan. This section is most memorable for illuminating on the complex process that a piece of hardware store rope has to go through for it to become good for some good old fashioned Bondage or ‘the art’ as the teacher calls it. As NOVO had nothing that really focused on bondage, this section seemed irrelevant, however it was more enjoyable than the film.
4. THE END (3 mins)
Again, it is unclear what this is about but it appears to be a deleted scene in black and white, edited around some of the other material from near the end of the film. The one thing it didn’t do was clear up what happened at the end of the actual. Maybe I need to be a superior human being to understand this though, so it would have been above me if it was explained.
Now for the good stuff. The film is a great transfer in Anamorphic 1.85:1 and the sound is also excellent, coming in Stereo, 5.1 surround and DTS. But as neither the picture or the sound had that great a content this makes little difference, other than for the credulity of the distributor.
All in all this film perplexed me. Before it got perplexing at best it was titillation and at worst it was a heap of self indulgent crap. When it got perplexing the interest disappeared in understanding what was happening. The extras on the DVD also seemed to have little to do with anything that the film was seemingly presenting. It was hoped that the extras would clarify a couple of details but it decided on presenting 3 people who had little to do with what we are watching on the screen. For those interested in how to make a good bondage rope then maybe this is worth renting. For those interested in Araki just get ARAKIMENTARY out because it is a far more thought provoking film that this piece of garbage. Health warning: treat this film like it has got bird flu.
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