Every time I’ve chopped wood or watched anyone else do it, the basic motion is the same. The axe hangs slack, then swings back and behind the body in a sweeping arc over the head and down, splitting the log in two and embedding itself slightly on the block. It is a movement that mixes laziness with precision, relaxed grace with mechanical efficiency. It is simultaneously a calming and primal experience, one of the simplest expressions of human ingenuity, focus and strength. In Revanche, we witness a man chopping wood in an altogether different manner. He hoists the axe directly over his head, barely pausing before thrusting it downwards. His motion is short and intense. He knows he is wasting his energy and strength doing it this way. But he doesn’t care. In fact, he prefers it this way, perhaps hoping the squandered effort will exhaust his torment.

In its earlier scenes, Revanche doesn’t look like it’s going to take us to a chopping block, at least not in the literal sense. We meet Alex (Johannes Krisch) and his girlfriend, an immigrant prostitute,Tamara (Irina Potapenko, the gorgeous Ukrainian equivalent of Scotland’s Kelly MacDonald). They both work for the same scuzzy boss at a Viennese brothel, and they are both in debt. He believes he can save her and escape with her if he gets the money quickly, so he hatches a scheme to rob a bank. Meanwhile, we also meet Robert and Susanne (Andreas Lust and Ursula Strauss), a kind police officer and his wife who have a nursery all set up in their quiet house, but can’t get pregnant. The robbery, predictably, ends with disastrous coincidence and tragedy linking the two couples together.

The last hour of Revanche is freighted with unresolved guilt and tension, left to settle itself languorously in a setting that reminded me of the films of the great Andrei Tarkovsky. Gotz Spielmann wrote and directed, with phenomenal cinematography by Martin Gschlact. The actors, especially Krisch, are authentic and expressive. Spielmann and Gschlact are very spare with camera movement, shooting in deep focus and filling their shots with exquisite foreground and background layers. Other directors might have been tempted to use a desaturated palette with this material, but this film is rich with natural color and texture. It’s certainly no wonder this was nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar last year. Criterion’s transfer, particularly on the Blu-Ray disc, is among the very best I’ve seen. Minor details are established believably and organically throughout, building in importance as events unfold. Amongst these elements are two photographs and the single character with the capacity to understand their meaning. That moment of understanding, when it finally arrives, is worth more than a whole barn full of firewood. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Crime/Drama/Romance/Thriller

Not Rated

DVD Release Date: 2/16/10

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,