Vinyan (V)
| release date | April 7 2009 |
| studio | Sony Home Entertainment |
| director | Fabrice du Welz |
| writer | Oliver Blackburn, Fabrice de Welz |
| starring | Rufus Sewell, Emmanuelle Béart, Julie Dreyfus, Borhan Du Welz |
| site | vinyan-lefilm.com |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
2 Comments
The past year i been hearing about the movie, how it is a different take on horror/thrillers. It is difficult to believe how the husband/wife get from thailand to wasting thousands of pounds in search for their missing son. That alone is so unbelievable it really puts you out of the movie from the get go. The film does a couple things well, it does make you feel uncomfortable. You get the sense when in Bruma that you do not belong there and you are truly lost. Vinyan does have great cinematography. Colors are dull and washed out in Bruma but pop in other areas(jungle/thailand). Vinyan is definitely different. It has a few things going for it but its slow pace, unbelievable story, and genuinely dumb wife makes it hard to recommend.
Yes the movie is slow. In fact there are several scenes where your just waiting for a “cut” and i swear 10 more seconds go by. The acting was great and the plot was good as well. Great visual scenes of nature. I liked it
just terrible.. very let down
I was really excited to watch the movie, in fact i was sitting in the theater watching X-Men Origins Wolverine and i was like mann i can’t wait to get home and watch Vinyan. I got home, put the movie in and it started off pretty good it had a good story and all but then it got to about half way through and the scenes just started to get longer and longer and it’s like every person is like “hey lets not say a word for 20 mins and piss everybody watching this movie off”. I didn’t really like ending either it just kind of like ended right there. I was pretty disapointed with the movie, sure it passed the time but i could of rented Broken.
This film took three people to write the script, if you take out all the waste of time interludes this film is about 20 minutes long. The new french horror films are good because they are inspired by american horror which taught them to be entertaining. This film is just like old french movies boring and a waste of time, the only thing that made me fill uncomfortable was waiting for it to get good which it never did.
I watched thi movie with high hopes, and was severely let down. Yes, the story was pretty good and the acting was above average, but dear god is was a chore staying awake through the whole movie. The ending, which i suppose was supposed to be a shocker, was dreadful and so abrupt that it leaves the viewer wondering what the hell just happened, and not in a good way. Overall a very dull and dissapointing film.
I watched thi movie with high hopes, and was severely let down. Yes, the story was pretty good and the acting was above average, but dear god is was a chore staying awake through the whole movie. The ending, which i suppose was supposed to be a shocker, was dreadful and so abrupt that it leaves the viewer wondering what the hell just happened, and not in a good way. Overall a very dull and dissapointing film.
As if losing your only child to a horrible act of nature isn’t enough, you then strain the boundaries of your already irreversibly changed marriage by trudging through the jungles of Burma. But is the surreal and dark journey down the rabbit hole really enough to drive you completely insane? Emphatically yes, as we see in the movie. Many viewers will argue rightly that the film moves a bit too slowly in parts, and relies too heavily on scenery, but in the tradition of great films like Calvaire, it’s gorgeous, gritty, tense and beautifully directed.
This movie was longer than it needed to be. (or just felt that way) Either way yes it was nicely shot, had an interesting idea, and actually had good acting. But the storyline was to simple and didn’t go anywhere other than expected.
I thought this movie was very good. The cinematography almost made me smell the jungle. It reminded me of High Tension, another French movie. The pace lends itself toward a of a lost journey into psychosis. Emmanuelle Beart was effective as a mother driven to madness by an unbearable loss. It reminded me of a horror version of a Goddard film taking place in the jungle instead of Paris. The drawn out and slow nature of the story mirrors the character’s unraveling sanity. Ultimately Fabrice du Welz entices the viewer toward a more creative role than submission to the prescribed authority of the director. I see that my favorable opinion is in a minority but in my mind Vinyan is a sophisticated take on a psychological thriller. 9 out of 10
Alright, I love horror. I watched this when I went camping and it was horrible. I thought the plot would be more solid. I thought the script would be so much better. The best part was when the movie was over and the credits were rolling because I could get on with my life.
The ending was such a HUGE disappointment to me. I was left sitting there going ‘What?’. It wasn’t a good ending. It was fast and sloppy and the director didn’t take any care to what the viewers would think.
DO NOT watch this movie, in my opinion. Go find other movies that’ll be worth your time. Trust me.
intelligent plot, visually stunning, amazing actors, but also very dark and disturbing.
This site has led me to some great films recently (I’ve been trying to stick with 4 skulls and up) but this was no such treasure.
The film was slow, it was not visually stunning as some say, and it never made me “feel like I was in the jungle.” Also if you think this movie was a psychological thriller then it doesn’t take much to thrill you.
I can’t even justify it being in the horror genre. I give the film credit for doing something different but that’s all I give it.
Great visceral atmosphere. This movie is clearly not going to please everyone and is perhaps not the sort of movie average BD users come here looking for. It isn’t without its flaws to be sure, but was certainly worth this viewer’s 90 minutes.
Wow, the BD followers are dumber than I thought. This movie was awesome!Termendous atmosphere and imagery.
Sorry but I thought this was very boring and dull. I guess it wasn’t my type of movie. The ending was really stupid how it just ends, I mean come on your just gonna end it like that. What a cop out, just plain lazy.
the only thing that really bothered me was the ending, kinda disturbing…? and after all u maybe expect a little more… understod what they/the wife was going trough and why she behaved like she did, but yeah, she annoyed me to…
“Vinyan” has been marketed as a horror film; which is no surprise, given that the director behind it is Fabrice Du Welz. If you haven’t seen a little movie known as “Calvaire”, then that name means nothing to you; but if you have, well then, there you go. Anyways, “Vinyan” is not so much a horror film but more-so a drama with a few disturbing, haunting, creepy, horrific moments that apparently sell it off as belonging into that genre. The marketing boys responsible for this one should be put out of the job.
But that’s just a pet peeve; and it merely kicks off the decently-sized list of them that I have surrounding Welz’s second feature film. I think it would be best to start out by saying a few words: I respect this film, and having seen it, I still can say that I respect Welz for making it. But that’s not to say that I particularly liked it. This is the kind of film where it revels in simplicity; yet it has some sort of deeper agenda on its mind that never comes full circle. In my opinion, any film remotely like that is a disappointment any day; and disappointing certainly comes to mind when I think of this film, even if it’s only been a few dozen minutes after finishing it.
A lot went wrong with the film. The action is set to the beautiful back-drop of Thailand and its island regions; which makes for some excellent scenery/eye-candy. I’m fine with that; but what I’m not fine with is the story. A couple is grieving after having lost their son to a tsunami that hit the said country. It left many dead; and their child’s body was never found. This gives them some hope; although they’ve been merely hoping for some time now, and they’d like nothing more than to have their little boy back with them again.
Their belief in their child’s survival is given extreme support when the wife in this couple notices a young boy – in a video shown at some art convention or something that the two protagonists attend – that closely resembles their very own. Determined to find out the truth, both husband and wife travel to the islands of Thailand – which are heavily populated by criminals and underdeveloped tribes of primitive humans – where they shall attempt to find their kid.
I said I have problems with the film; and I do. The most I can say about my general distaste for the plot is that in spite of the intriguing set-up – which somehow throws mysticism and horror tropes into the mix – there’s still a general sense of pure boredom. I didn’t care about these characters, and therefore I kept searching for alternative reasons to give a shit about this half-assed narrative; finding no positive results. By the end; I was pissed, tired, exhausted, dazed, confused, and greatly let down.
I have no doubt that a few curious movie-goers will find “Vinyan” to be intriguing and thoroughly entertaining. I wish I could have felt the same about it, and given the appeal that Welz’s previous feature had with me; I was expecting something a little more, I don’t know, conclusive and satisfactory than this. If anything, the film is a solid approximation of what happens to most films when their maker decides to go all un-conventional and blend art-house aspirations with elements not commonly found in such films. There’s plenty about “Vinyan” that is indeed artsy – fantastic cinematography, beautiful locations, and solid performances – but little that is engaging or memorable. I wouldn’t tell anyone to avoid it; nor would I tell most to see it. Perhaps it depends on your tolerance for poorly-marketed, somewhat contrived pieces of cinema. But when it comes to me and this film, there is no problem; only minor nitpicks, which is enough to turn my head in the other direction. Fortunately, I’ll be able to move on; and with pleasure.
Fabrice Du Welz created what I believe to be one of the best horror films ever made in “The Ordeal”. A truly underrated masterpiece that expressed continous classic scenes with stellar directing, performances and images that scare me to this day. “The Ordeal” is probably the scariest and one of the most ingenius films I’ve ever seen due to its nightmarish ambiguity and mixing surrealism with reality. So when I discovered that Fabrice also wrote and directed a film called “Vinyan” I just had to see it. I didn’t think that it would quite match up to the heights of his debut, but I was hoping for the same weirdness and choking atmosphere and in some ways I was right.
“Vinyan” scared me in its final moments. The last half hour was full of unsettling imagery and a disturbing atmosphere. It was very involving and captivating to see the characters suddenly plunge into such a disturbingly different world. The final shot was especially haunting and it will be an image that will never leave my head. “Vinyan” left on such a disturbing note that it’s the type of film that needs to sink in. Like “The Ordeal” (although no where near that standard or scariness) I didn’t know what to make of it, except being chilled. If “Vinyan” remained as unsettling for the majority of the film (like “The Ordeal”) then Fabrice could’ve made another masterpiece. Unfortunately it isn’t flawless.
I loved the opening, especially with the under-water shot turning red with vibrant sounds that perfetly mimics the tsunami without actually seeing any of the massacre. I also liked the way Thailand was captured with its hustle and bustle. It was disorientating and hypnotically done. Unfortunately when the couple get to the island it becomes extremely slow and at times boring. A good 50 minutes or so is slow and I was just waiting for something to happen and when it did it was too short and I was sort of left wanting more. In the first hour there’s only a couple of haunting and beautiful images to grab your attention but then your sort of left wanting the pace to speed up a bit.
It is a very involving story-line, similar to “Antichrist” as a couple are dealing with the grief of losing a child, however they don’t know if they’ve lost him. It’s a thin plot but an engaging one. It’s one that shouldn’t be dragged out for as long as it was. The directing is fantastic though. There’s a brilliant birds-eye-view shot of the couple walking in to some ancient ruin that is done beautifully. The jungle setting was also atmospherically captured with some creepy atonal music. “Vinyan” does score in the atmosphere department and I think that if the script was tightened up a bit and the pacing increased then Fabrice would’ve been onto a winner.
“Vinyan” was never going to be as masterful as “The Ordeal” but it still could’ve been an extremely strong horror film. The final half hour is unforgettable and hugely unsettling but it’s a tough slog getting there. The directing is involving and the music effective too, however the screenplay needed to be more full of weird happenings. I believe that it would’ve been stronger as a more survival type horror film. However, the wife’s descent into madness is compelling and disturbing to watch. “Vinyan” will be and has been misunderstood by a lot of people, but I found the ambiguous and unanswerable final half hour both scary and brilliant. I’ll look forward to what Fabrice can come up with next. His short film “A Wonderful Love” is also incredibly disturbing and brilliant!