L'Enfer

I am not a fan of Kieslowski. He is an excellent director but I find his subject and his camera too formal and affected for my taste. Danis Tanovic brings a more human and compassionate eye to the project. If Kieslowski were alive and made this film as planned, it would have been far more stylized and self-aware. Tanovic instead chose to be more straightforward aesthetically. The result is wonderful. The topic itself, like those of Kieslowski’s trilogy, is dramatic enough that a careful and controlled unfolding is all it needed. Tanovic does not try for cheap drama, so what could have been laughably melodramatic arrives as sympathetic and nuance. It may be a descent into hell, but, as it is an earthy one, there is no need for frozen ponds and brimstones; classical tragedy is sufficient. If the short filmography does not qualify Tanovic as a master of filmmaking, he will certainly be one soon.