SEXY BEAST - Jonathan Glazer

Dienstag 21.10.2014
20:30 Uhr
vorgestellt von Sebastian Markt

USA 2001 96 min., Regie: Jonathan Glazer / Drehbuch: Louis Mellis, David Scinto / Produktion: Jeremy Thomas / Musik: Roque Baños / Kamera: Ivan Bird / Schnitt: John Scott, Sam Sneade / Besetzung: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, James Fox, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White

"Glazer, who started his career directing TV commercials and music videos (MTV banned his video for U.N.K.L.E.'s Rabbit in Your Headlights, featuring Denis Lavant as an unfortunate pedestrian in a tunnel), has a distinctive compositional style. He often isolates an actor in the extreme foreground or background of a shot, and he knows how to cut together odd-angled images so that they have kinetic impact. The movie itself is something of a sexy beast; it lures you in with a 10-minute opening sequence that's sensuous and funny. There's Gal basking beside his pool, his fleshy body all sweaty, the white mat on which he's lying reflecting so much light you want to grab your sunglasses. On the soundtrack, reggae gives way to rumba mixed with a throbbing techno bass. Gal stands up, has a little chat with the pool boy, and just when it seems like the plot will never kick in—and maybe that's OK—a huge boulder tumbles down the steep hill behind his house, flies over Gal's head, missing him by inches, and lands in the pool. The boulder—a reminder that that you can't expect bliss to remain unbroken—foreshadows Don's arrival.
What distinguishes Sexy Beast from the recent rash of British gangster films is Glazer's investment in character and performance. The film is exuberantly styled, but not for the sake of style itself. Rather, the lush color and off-kilter framing make you more aware of the characters' responses to the world they inhabit; they let you understand that Gal is on the side of life and Don is on the side of death."

[Amy Taubin: Barbarians at the Gate, The Village Voice, 12/06/2001]