Sorry, this movie sucks

Memorable, crazy movie

Fantastic!

Best movie ever!

This is a love story, a dark and morose love story. Its about the lengths that one brother will go to in order to deliver the other from a life of drudgery and uncertainty. A small deviation from honesty is answered with an introduction into a world of pain and suffering for the principal character. Blood sport is a realm of the lowest common denominator, for those whose lives have left them bereft of common decency. So they gamble on the misfortune of others in as intimate a manner as possible. I knew what was coming as the story evolved, yet it disappointed and saddened me nonetheless when the curtain closed. The tension that mounts in the movie is extreme. If you like a straight forward game of chance, you'll like this movie. Dark in the classic film noir style.

"13 Tzameti " is a phenomenon ;it came as a shock in the French cinema,like an UFO;I search and I search my memory but I cannot find a single movie which looks like it in the French history of cinema(maybe Alain Jessua's "Traitement De Choc"(1972) but its form was more conventional) ;it is some kind of "they shoot horses ,don't they?" in the harsh realities of the naughties ;I would not even mention "French naughties" for the movie seems to come from nowhere and all the actors are unknown even over there and it is filmed in stark bleak black and white .The scene takes a little time to take off ,but when it hits its stride,it relegates Tarentino and other "intellectual" directors to kindergarten.Even scenes which seem irrelevant make sense :"you're 22,13's told,it's so good to be 22";even when you are a humble roofer who can't even get paid .The first scenes depict humble life ,verging on poverty and it is in direct contrast with the hateful punters which place their bets not on men but on numbers (like in Horace McCoy's novel "horses" filmed by Pollack).They call their "cattle" players and the "games" scenes are unbearably intense;before they shoot,you can hear the men breathe ,you can feel them sweat and you can almost hear the beating of their heart.Their eyes are fixed upon this bulb (in black and white the effect is increased tenfold)which means life or death.This is a modern fable:the mighty,the wealthy gets his pleasure from his fellow man's pain.Even if they do not make money ,what a thrill to see them suffer ,tremble and die !"13" has a boyish innocent face,lost in a wolves ' world he entered by mistake (but isn't it the same for the other players?) "13 Tzameti" is THE European film noir of the naughties ;it is essential viewing for French cinema students with strong hearts.

Gela Babluani, who at just 26 years old already knows more about suspense than many filmmakers absorb in whole careers, creates a fear so profound, a nightmare so believable that its talons rip into your perception. 13 Tzameti is elegantly minimal, and remarkably hard-hitting, and its monochromatic look at a cast of captivating, case-hardened mugs make it unbearable not to watch, even when proceedings grow nigh on unbearable.Georges Babluani, indeed the director's brother, plays young Georgian immigrant worker Sébastien, who is living in France and working construction jobs to sustain his destitute family. Working on the home of a man named Godon, he learns that he's a frail morphine addict, and is under police surveillance. Godon's overdose turns all of Sebastien's toiling into a waste, so when he overhears the widow furtively discussing an enigmatic "job" meant for her husband, desperate Sébastien filches the instructions for obtaining the mysterious position. The instructions are a crafty manner of evading the police. Sebastien is about to wish he didn't follow those instructions.Establishing himself with a muted eye and a smart ear, Gela has fashioned a film in three acts and while his exposition is intriguing and location striking, it's the innermost act that is laden with taut pressure, an astounding set piece that will hold spellbound any moviegoer willing to give it a chance. The composure in the work of both Babluani brothers is uncannily subdued and ripe, already free of the urge to show off, and works no more than to congeal the terror. Dialogue is short and curt, personalities deferential to plot, character names of such irrelevance that most do not in fact have evident ones while others are distinguished by purpose or by numbers on clammy T-shirts, or by a broken nose, a cane-aided hobble, an unpleasant gastrointestinal issue or a bespectacled slightness. And one would be negligent not to note the exceptionally good suspense thriller score by The Troublemakers, piano, flute and cymbals flitting about a Middle Eastern theme.The film's minimalism and force are ministered to by the bracing black-and-white cinematography of Tariel Meliava, which gives the work a noir look suggestive of the 1940s but with a ferment that is utterly new millennium. Indeed, this beautiful testosterone nightmare is a film thick with distinctive male faces, skillfully composed in black and white close-ups, like Diane Arbus subjects. We do get momentary sensations of character from some of these supporting players, like Aurélien Recoing's brutal Jacky and Vania Vilers' untamed Mr. Schlondorff. Also vibrant are men who back them, like Sébastien's sponsor Alain, all cultured cravat and tweed jacket, and a frenzied, panting gambler who would've been a Peter Lorre character in noir's halcyon days. Less a character than a device, Pascal Bongard is indelible as a delirious master of ceremonies, and helps power the anxiety with his roared announcements.Unlike so many low-budget debuts, 13 Tzameti is filled with genuine behavior on screen. The performances are all active and dynamic rather than static, sensory and specific instead of general. It's made on a shoestring by a bare-knuckle beginner, and it's a smart, austere film noir where men either have little hope or so much money it has warped their souls, though that is no reading of the film. It's purely experiential, which is why it's so effective. It has no superficial moralizing, and that detachment, with the underpinning of restrained formality in enterprising technique, makes for a gripping film to say the least.

While this is a simple story of behind-the scenes crime and gambling, it required above average acting for it to work. The actors do not disappoint. While the lead actor is excellent, just about everyone including the "brothers", the master of "ceremonies", bring out multiple facets of the characters in an unbelievably watchable way.The tension and relief are quite visible on most faces on consequent occasions - but the tension and relief are different for the different characters. This was the challenge for the actors and they have excelled.In order to truly appreciate the movie, one must be 1. mature. 2. able to imagine oneself as the different characters.