Phantom Love (2007)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I saw this film a week ago at the Bangkok Film Festival and I was impressed. Life is this spiritual journey, and there is where it starts, waking up dreaming! the film amazes me because I have been trough the same experience in my life. Constantly searching for a balance between work and nature's harmony. Because of the Netherlands economic mess, as a Video Artist, I ended up working as a croupier in a casino as well. Constantly in the dark (no windows), the same horrible lost people, and yes every day the same, life becomes a habit and you become an habitual animal, forget that you are truly alive. I tried to get people out of their in stead! You expressed this wonderfully, You really experience in it in your film in such a way that it irritates you, and every scene of nature is a harmonious way out of it! that is life exactly. As a croupier for 6 months I needed to get out of that black hole and flew to Thailand. Where I live ever since as a freelance FREE documentary maker and lives observer. I lived here now for 4 years and am completely free. let's all do that!!!! I live in the most beautiful part of Thailand in the North. But love to observe the lost man in Bangkok, where I saw this film too.. I was impressed, the film is the experience! is the wake!!! And the use of dream archetypes like a serpent impressed me, because they are ancient ways to express deep rooted emotions, but in this time we almost forgot about them. getting closer to the deep rooted instinctive drive and sexuality, marvelous expression. Great expression of truth One thing which always strikes me with films or performances like this is that most people that are stuck in similar habitual unconscious world, are only able to see what it means, and means to get out, become aware, once they get out by themselves, and then they will recognize the film again! The film is a reminder of how dead we are alive. She won AWARD--BEST ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT FOR PHANTOM LOVE! at the Bangkok Film festival, which is well deserved!!!

Andrei Tarkovsky tells us that a teacher wrote the following about his film Mirror (1974): "The film itself lifts the spell of silence and enables one to free one's spirit from the anxieties and trivia that weigh us down…showing the true, instead of the false, values of the world; making every object play a part; making every detail of the picture into a symbol; building up to a philosophical statement through an extraordinary economy of means; filling every frame with poetry and music." (p. 11, Sculpting in Time) Thirty-three years later, this also describes the power of Nina Menkes' new feature, Phantom Love. Combining the real and surreal in daring ways, the film blurs the distinctions between the two to tell the story of an alienated woman's inner, spiritual awakening. Structured to reflect the main character, Lulu's internal conflicts, one experiences Phantom Love the way one experiences life—going in and out of dreams and nightmares to assemble one's own reality.The film merges human and animal worlds in with great focus and heart, mesmerizing us by a dream about a swimming Octopus, and imprinting in our memories other wise creatures like a clairvoyant Cat, mysterious Snake, swarm of Bees, magical Horses, and fragile Moth clinging to a lampshade. The black and white style symbolizes the transcendental approach of the film—primal, stripped to the bone, and made bare to take us deeper into Lulu's story with light, shadow, and grain. Synthesizing documentary shooting with dream-like, fairytale imagery, Menkes roams through the psychic closets of her characters, and in the process asks us to do the same for ourselves. Phantom Love is pure cinema, reminiscent of the transformative films of Bergman, Antonioni, Cocteau, and Tarkovksy.Tapping into the metronome of Lulu's everyday encounters, Phantom Love plunges into its heroine's subconscious to expose the narratives that strangle and trap her—narratives that concern the destructive aspects of Lulu's relationship with her mother and sister, which consequently affect her ability to love and be loved. Few filmmakers have depicted mother/ daughter and sister/sister dynamics with such depth. Nina Menkes artfully presents these relationships as intense ties, which are difficult to cut, impossible to erase, ridden with guilt, and are an endless cycle of resembling reflections. These internal struggles confront and relate to the images of war and destruction on Lulu's television. The distance between Lulu and her TV begins to disappear as the film progresses, eventually culminating in a levitation sequence where Lulu's body explodes, much like the bombs she sees devastating the Middle East. She floats above her bed then looks right at us through the film screen—asking us, if we too feel the same way. Directly following this chilling, but totally courageous moment, Lulu's own nightmares are mirrored in the TV, with the image of a little girl running for her life in a vacant battleground. Phantom Love moves through darkness to find a light so strong it consumes the last frame of the film—we see visions of serenity, fluidity, and strength as Lulu begins her journey to a new, renewing place on the other side of a mystical bridge.

I caught this 'movie' on the last day of the Sundance Film Festival. I caught this 'movie' like one catches a cold- unwanted, and cursing the propagator of such filth. This garbage is the excrement of self-hating emo cutters with nothing to outlet irrational anti-emotion but a camera- suffering from a visual stagnancy of thought, this 'movie' drives through one overly-long shot devoid of any discernible art or cinematography to the next. The 'clever' lack of dialog for the first third of the film establishes the consistency of vacant material. I 'believe" it was the directors motive (because there is nothing to tie anything together, and no rational thought or clues given as to what is happening or why anyone would care) to make viewers feel the same nothingness and self-propelled despair as the wooden characters. Of course see this film will leave viewers wondering, I wonder why it was accepted into the theater, I wonder why the whole theater did not leave with the other half. Nothing in the movie was coherent enough for one shot, let alone establishes continuity between two.I must beg the director to answer one question: Was anything thought out before production?This movie is painful to watch- not for the subject matter- for the un-motivating characterless characters- the excruciating long shots attempting at some rejected student art- the poor camera angles- the amateurish zooming in and out incrementally- the lack of story- the lack of detail- the lack productive dialog- the un-relatable situations without explanation or reason.I have never seen anything this bad attempt to be a movie or art.*Spoiler alert* The synopsis has NOTHING to do with this film- none of those purported events could be interpreted by anyone who has not read the synopsis- the soundtrack was 'masterfully' accomplished by placing a mic on the road and various machinery, there was no score-The only positive commenter shares the same first name as the director, a coincidence or shameless self promoter with a not so clever pseudonym?

an incredible movie that is a combination of surreal and documentary, with stunning performances and brilliant cinematography but most of all, heart wrenching and deep. marina shoif is perfect as the estranged LULU, and her sister, played by Juliette Marquis, seems to represent her wounded interior self. this film is hard to describe as it works on a subconscious level. the powerful images stick with you, and gain power as you dwell on them, days later. Besides the visuals, the sound track is amazing and on a certain level watching this film is like going into a trance, an underworld journey, you surface when its over and feel re-arranged.i think its a perfect movie.