*½/**** Image B Sound B Extras C-
starring Klaus Kinski, Hiram Keller, Tina Aumont, Fons Rademakers
screenplay by Judith Rascoe, Alva Ruben, Alexander Whitelaw
directed by Alexander Whitelaw
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Lifespan appears to be comprised of inserts from somebody else's movie. It huffs and puffs in expositional voiceover largely because it hasn't written any self-evident drama–we see loving shots of scenic Amsterdam and a lot of people walking in/out/through buildings, but nothing that might actually clue us into what the hell is going on. You could (as the special features on the film's DVD release do) insist that this is a Last Year at Marienbad-esque ploy, since there are other elements to support that thesis. Alas, Alexander Whitelaw is no Alain Resnais, and his rudimentary exploration of the meaning of eternal life sounds most like a biology student on the make. Aside from a bit of gratuitous skin, there's almost nothing to watch–but all sorts of terrible, pretentious things you never need to hear.
Immortality: although it sounds like a great concept on which to hang a thesis, Whitelaw and company don't get beyond the mad scientist clichés of the Saturday matinee. Hiram Keller plays Dr. Ben Land, who's checking out a conference in the 'dam when colleague Dr. Linden (Eric Schneider) is found hanged in his room. Wondering what could've prompted this, Ben plunges into the late doctor's research and discovers that a) he's extended the life in lab mice; b) he may have done the same in humans; and c) he had a kinky thing going with hotchie-motchie Anna (Tina Aumont). Dr. Land becomes intoxicated by the idea of Linden's research (and by Anna, too), though his labmates protest that eternal life is a bad idea. Meanwhile, Swiss industrialist Ulrich (Klaus Kinski) lurks in the shadows with sinister motives.
So it's the issue of tampering in God's domain again. While the film leaves the matter open as to its viability, it's the same old Frankenstein line. Still, a familiar tune can be replayed in style, and it's style where the film is largely deficient. Try as I might, I can't imagine how someone who came up through the industry (as Whitelaw actually did) could possibly fail to absorb the basics of film action, but the pointless shots of Dr. Land walking over bridges, or bicycling with Anna past windmills, or standing in stairwells, talking, attest to the director's deep uncertainty as to what to shoot. Even a modernist church–clearly used as some kind of spirit/science combo–fails to resonate beyond being a neat-o location. The movie is a very slow-moving travelogue with occasional trips to the bedroom.
But as I say, there are worse things in Lifespan: there's Dr. Land's constant, insistent, omnipresent narration, which provides missing plot details in an austerely flowery fashion, like some combination of Marguerite Duras and the Kuchar Brothers. It's announced of Dr. Linden's footwear, for instance, that "those shoes would come to haunt me," preparing us for the suicide things when those Gucci loafers dangle. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't the only thing forcing the movie to make sense, but the voiceover fills in motives and establishes character in ways that the visuals simply do not. Again, you could argue that this is a Resnais ploy, but Whitelaw and his co-scenarists are no Alain Robbe-Grillet: not only is the fatalism not present, but Marienbad also featured a disconnect between sound and image (and a mistrust of both) that doesn't apply to the squarely straight-arrow narrative on offer here.
What's left are pretentious, shallow referents and third-generation derivations. Linden's elderly patients play a game that mirrors the one in Marienbad, yet it's too childish and formally slapdash to register as the playful modern ploy of the original. (It brings the proceedings closer to Last Year at Legoland.) Then there's the ridiculousness of the notorious bondage scene, in which Land ties up Anna according to Linden's "double-helix" knot program–which must be seen to be believed, though seeing it won't do you much good. Rounding things out is a fuzzy score by avant-garde composer Terry Riley that manages to be musically interesting while failing completely to take stock of what's happening on screen. The result is a film that gropes for a style instead of forging one and fumbles for profundity instead of expressing it.
THE DVD
Mondo Macabro gives Lifespan only an adequate DVD presentation. The 1.85:1, 16×9-enhanced image is a little fuzzy, with shadow detail issues and sometimes blotchy colour. The Dolby 2.0 stereo sound is similarly unimpressive, a tad muffled and lacking in potency. An interview with the director (19 mins.) offers little illumination, with Whitelaw recounting his beginnings with Selznick as a production assistant, his rise in the industry, some extremely vague talk of being "discriminated against by time," and his post-Lifespan career as a subtitler. He's perfectly game, but he's not especially articulate, and the interview left me unsatisfied. A commentary track (moderated by Pete Toombs) is similarly uninspired, revealing that the image of the jigsaw puzzle came courtesy Edward de Bono and little else besides tidbits of mild on-set intrigue and the anointing of Hiram Keller as "Johnny Depp before his time." A text feature offers minor amounts of background on the production and inflates it well beyond its station; a stills gallery, the film's trailer, and a Mondo Macabro promo reel complete the platter.
85 minutes; Unrated; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Stereo); DVD-9; Region-free; Ryko/Mondo Macabro
