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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE TEMPTATION OF ST. TONY Samuel Johnson’s phrase “Nothing odd will do long” should be emblazoned forever on the hearts of filmmakers. Or perhaps a modern update, “Keep it short, stupid.” Such advice could have helped Estonian director Veiko Ounpuu and maybe prevented The Temptation of St. Tony, his sometimes amusing exercise in absurdist post-Soviet miserabilism, from overstaying its welcome. Shot in black-and-white, the film follows the surreal, melancholy adventures of an Estonian factory manager named Tony. The press notes say it’s about a man considering what it means to be “good,” but that’s buncombe. It’s tough to reconstruct an actual plot from the largely random shards of events. Things happen in a jumpy, abstract way, flying further off from reality as the film goes along. Tony’s father dies, he’s forced to lay off his employees, his wife cheats on him, and he even runs over a dog. More importantly, he gets mixed up with a dark-eyed waif whose dad he fired, but the logic connecting his moral conundrums, such as it is, is one of a dream. An early dinner party scene is St. Tony at its best, with an almost Luis Buñuel-like random energy. A guest discusses the history of swinging and everyone’s embarrassed by the bum who toddles up to the picture window. But St. Tony’s quietly manic spirit dissipates quickly. By the time we see a priest walking up a wall, a puppet-like woman floating over trees, an underground cabaret with sex slaves for auction, and a cannibal feast, all you want to see are the credits.
It should be said that Mart Taniel’s cinematography is
beautiful. The camera swivels slowly over muddy landscapes and captures
the rich graininess of swamps and crumbling old churches, as if Ansel
Adams used his powers for decadence. This is one of those films where
each frame could be printed in a book. Perhaps it would be easier to
enjoy it that way.
Brendon Nafziger
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