Demonlover (2002)

The most fearless film yet by France's idiosyncratic Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) is an unholy marriage of ruthless corporate thriller and sinister science fiction. Connie Nielsen is the American "ice princess" in a French multination, an ambitious executive whose betrayals and invasive tactics would make her a villain in any other film. Here she's just a pawn in a shadowy conspiracy that may involve contemptuous new assistant Chloe Sevigny and fellow dealmaker Charles Berling and takes her from the legal (if unsavory) commerce of Japanese Internet porn to the brutal market of underground pornography. Assayas directs his modern corporate nightmare with a voyeuristic style, a hard eye for disturbing images, and more passion than explanation. It isn't his most audience-friendly film, but his portrait of international commerce and image culture in the 21st century is impassioned and haunting--cinema for viewers hungry for ambitious and provocative filmmaking. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Dystopia of the New Millenia

Demonlover is a very modernist film which deserves to be alligned with the great dystopic novels of the previous century, "We", "the Iron Heel", and particularly "1984" with one proviso its primary impact as opposed to literary is videogenic.
It tells the story of a corportate executive, appropriatly female, who will go to any lengths to succeed according to her on self-defined, narcisstic standards at odds with her objective appearances and in stark contrast to others expectations. Brash and domineering she uses a free floating cynicism to treacherously sell her corporate secrets to others for monetary gain thinking self-assuredly that her private intrique and machinations are curiously invioable, just as many criminals do. This is the first half of the film, in the second part of which so many critics don't like, all this ballsy swagger is shown to be an act of utter self-deluding fantasy; she has underestimated her antagonist and she instead of manipulating the system for her own gain she devolves into a most contemptible slave to it. A powerful morality tale for the times. April 3, 2007

Intriguing, But Unsatisfying

I watched this film from start to finish, which suggests I found it interesting enough to stick with. But, I was also totally perplexed by its many nonsensical plot twists. For example, it took me far too long to figure out that it takes place in the "high rolling" world of corporate financed porn (an intriguing idea, given the fact that I had no idea such a world existed - I always thought of the porn industry as much more contained and independent).

DEMONLOVER is a little too stylized for its own good - its focus on form completely overwhelms its paper thin storyline. Connie Nielson is very good, but could have been so much better with a stronger script. I debated giving it only 2 stars, but felt the performances merited a stronger rating. August 22, 2006

Jumbled mish-mash that garbles its promise

Where's the emotions and motivations for this contorted mess? Great camera work and suberb dramatic talent wasted on a plot that defies logic. August 6, 2006

People in great shoes behaving badly

Morally bankrupt and blandly ruthless operatives of a multinational plot to acquire a Japanese entity that cranks out morally bankrupt, misogynistic CGI manga. The fun comes from watching ethiclly challenged people in groovy, disheveled designer clothes playing what they think is hardball for the rights to said anime, while just out of frame something bigger and nastier than all of them is waiting to swallow up the whole lot. For all its chilly ambivalence, Demonlover is in the end a simple morality tale about a bad girl finding that her place in the food chain is a lot lower than she thought. How this gets her into trouble and into Emma Peels motocross outfit is all in the journey. Great score by Sonic Youth. June 26, 2006

Demonlover

"Demonlover" is a great looking, inspired film that is ultimately unfulfilling but pretty damn entertaining for the most part. The movie stars Connie Nielsen ('The Ice Harvest'), Chloe Sevigny ('The Brown Bunny'), and Gina Gershon ('3-Way') and is about a woman named Diane (Nielsen) who poisons a woman named Karen so she can take her place as head of a company that produces animated pornography. Sevigny plays Elise, her assistant who can't stand her and Gershon plays a pot smoking American executive. The movie is simalar to a indie-film called "The Dying Gaul" (while that film was much better). It doesn't want to stick to one genre, it wants to go wherever. This film touches base on several genres; Drama, Anime, Action, Comedy, Theatrical-Soft Core Porn...Not in that particular order. The performances are inspired, the animation is great...But, I don't know. It just didn't strike a lot of notes for me. The movie is in French, English, and Japanese...Mostly in French. Apparently Nielsen already speaks fluent french, but it's impressive to see actresses like Sevigny speaking it. I must confess though that it mihgt not even be the story that was a turnoff for me, here's what it might've been. Mid-way through the film, the characters begin talking about an online torture site called The Hellfire Club. What we see of this club and what becomes of one of the characters at this club, are some of the most effective scenes of the movie. This might be just me, but I wanted to know more about the club; I think the plot should've surrounded that little sub-plot a bit more than it did. Jumping into the bonus features; Palm Pictures isn't really a sucker for bonus featuuures but their features are almost better than a lot of mainstream films are. Here you'll find interviews with Nielsen, Sevigny,
Charles Berling, and writer/director Olivier Assayas; I only watched the Nielsen and Sevigny intereviews, but they were quite interesting. The second complaint, although this doesn't add or subtract any reasons for me liking this film. The lack of nudity. The preview of the film makes it look like nudity is almost a plot point; But, here you only see Nielsen naked briefly and there's a teasing scene that has Sevigny lying on a bed naked (on her stomach) with her feet up therefore blocking any t 'n' a shots that might've been there. Anyway, basically what I'm trying to say is...Cyber-geeks will be impressed.

GRADE: C+
June 22, 2006

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