Revanche

Reviewer: Dylan De Thomas
Rating (out of 5): ****½

In Götz Spielmann's recently posted interview with Aaron Hillis on GreenCine Daily, the Austrian director notes with delight that one critic called his riveting Revanche a "Buddhist thriller." And it's true, it does have a "middle way" about it - not slow, not fast-paced; its characters neither lovable nor loathable. And, rare among thrillers, it certainly doesn't tell you what to feel or believe in any dogmatic way.

Revanche, a German word which means both "revenge" and "second chance," is not entrancing for its dense, distinctive plot, but rather for the characters that populate the film. The four main characters - a handyman at a Vienna brothel, his girlfriend, a Ukranian prostitute at same, a police officer in a rural town and his stay-at-home wife - have complicated, genuine motivations, and the drama of film is borne from seeing how each reacts to the singular events presented to them.

The movie is filled with small notes - a sheepish, necessary betrayal of a lover, the resentful misunderstandings between an otherwise happily married couple, a discomfiting wordless relationship between heretofore estranged relations - that ultimately make up a spellbinding chorus difficult to ignore. The acting jobs by all involved should not go unmentioned, with Johannes Krisch in a career-making turn as Alex, the putative protagonist of the film and Ursula Strauss simply smoldering as Susanne, the disregarded housewife.

Though I can't think a true analogue for the movie, it did put me in mind of Xavier Beauvois' Le Petite Liutenant, another tense, naturalistic drama about cops and robbers that doesn't move or satisfy in the traditional mode of a thriller, but was terrifically moody and intelligent, and gripping nonetheless.

Revanche opens with an unseen object being thrown into a pond or a lake, and the shot holds as the ripples on the water move far out from the center. And, as that image is a central metaphor for the movie - the lasting effects from a single action - it also works as how it sticks with a viewer, growing as one gets further from watching it. Highly recommended.

Criterion Collection put out Revanche on DVD and as expected the high-def transfer looks super. The extras included are all worth checking out, while you're digesting the film: a new interview with Spielmann; "The Making of: Revanche," a half-hour doc shot during the production; and most interestingly, "Foreign Land," which is Spielmann’s award-winning student short film.