Kinetta - Evangelia Randou

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Greece 2005

The feature directorial debut of Yorgos Lanthimos (DOGTOOTH, ALPS) details the lives of an ex-cop (Costas Xikominos), a photo processor (Aris Servetalis, SMALL CRIME), and a hotel maid (Evangelia Randou, ATTENBERG) in the former crumbling resort town of Kinetta who pass the time re-staging and videotaping local murders. Their motives are of less interest to Lanthimos than the degree of dedication to their obsessions, and how they bleed into or are an outgrowth of their personal lives. The former cop constructs the narrative and plays the aggressor both on camera and at home with a string of Russian prostitutes. The photo processor photographs and directs the action but also finds himself a distanced observer unable to express his attraction to the maid. The maid engages in self-harm in private and enacts the role of the victim before the camera). The fantasies they construct seem short-lived but the effort to produce them occupies their time outside their day jobs (and their minds during work). In the booklet included with the UK DVD of the film (its first release anywhere), Lanthimos is quoted as having described DOGTOOTH as "the story of a person who tries to escape a fictitious world" and ALPS "about a person who tires to enter a fabricated world", but the protagonists of KINETTA are too preoccupied with creating the world to yet experience the angst of being unable to enter it or escape it.

Eric Cotenas

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Theatrical Release: 22 March 2007 (Greece)

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DVD Review: Second Run DVD - Region 0 - PAL

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Second Run DVD Region 0 - PAL
Runtime	1:33:54 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 8.26 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Greek Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
Subtitles	English, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Second Run DVD Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Interview with director Yorgos Lanthimos (16:9; 29:31) • 12-page booklet with essay by critic Michael Ewins DVD Release Date: January 26th, 2015 Amaray Chapters 12

Comments

Second Run's dual-layer DVD features a new HD-mastered transfer of Lanthimos' rarely-screened feature directorial debut. The element is virtually spotless and the bitrate is high, so a certain degree of softness and flatness seems inherent in the original photography (a degree of edge enhancement seems to be a side effect of the encoder's downscaling to SD). The Dolby Digital 2.0 track clearly represents the intentionally sparse stereo mix, and the optional English subtitles are without errors.

Lanthimos was in London editing his latest film in 2014 and was thus available for a Q&A at the Tate Modern gallery following a Second Run-sponsored screening of the film from Lanthimos' personal 35mm print. He talks about the importance of the stumbled-upon location Kinetta to the film with its empty summer houses and aging resort hotels now populated by the workers of a nearby oil refinery. Also included is a twelve-page booklet by Michael Ewins who discusses the films of the "Greek Weird Wave" as evolving more from the circumstances of Greek film production than as a response to the 2009 financial crisis, Lanthimos' relation to other Greek filmmaking contemporaries including Athina Rachel Tsangari (ATTENBERG) as well as how Lanthimos's subsequent films are informed and depart from KINETTA.

- Eric Cotenas

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