Review of Olivier, Olivier (1992) by Zoran S — 13 Sep 2008

This may be Agnieszka Hollandâ??s most curious and elliptical film, especially given the intriguing manner in which it mixes melodrama and the supernatural. I would probably have to see it again before I could speak intelligently about it, but this is one of those films which I appreciated even if I did not fully understand it.

Visually, the film is beautiful even in the somewhat worn vhs copy I watched it on. Overall, it engages in spiritual questions more effectively than later works of hers such as The Third Miracle or The Healer.

While I still have mixed feelings about that spiritual side of her work (which is aesthetically minor when compared to Tarkovsky or Kieslowski, though thatâ??s probably not a reasonable comparison), and prefer the rich political and historical questions of her films like Fever or A Lonely Woman, I did find Olivier Olivier quite fascinating and hope to see it again on dvd soon.