Ivansxtc

Whilst balled up on the sofa letting my body recover from the excess of the last three days I watched a film which touched on a life filled with excesses: Ivan's Life, from Bernard Rose's Ivansxtc, based on Tolstoy's Life and Death of Ivan Illyich. It uses a loose variation of Lars Von Trier's Dogme 95 approach to film-making (click title if unfamiliar) and manages to convey the impression of something truly original and of great depth without ever laying it on a plate for you. I thought it had a sad beauty almost impossible to capture, but I need to see it again to know if it's really great or if it was the hangover that was impressed. I will rate it a tentative 8.5/10 until I can rewatch it. Kx