Violet Heights

To be quite frank, I've always considered Richard Bevis to be a rather...irritating director. His style is certainly impressive, and markedly distinct from any other director's. However, his earlier movies, such as Dance of the Firefly, I Love You, My Darling, and (to an especially frustrating degree) Fly were just so sappy, so melodramatic, that it was impossible to watch them without cringing. I could appreciate what he was trying to do, but 3dmm has never been the ideal tool for pulling at one's heart strings - as magical and emotional as a movie may be, well, you still are working with a bunch of low-poly models locked in perpetual grins. Seeing this great, innovative style being used in such frankly campy movies, well, it was as if Alfred Hitchcock had decided to dedicate himself to snuff films.

Violet Heights is essentially made in the same mold. It recounts, through flashbacks, the events immediately preceding a man's suicide. While I still don't feel that this movie had the emotional impact that the director probably was aiming for, it somehow succeeded where his past movies have failed: it successfully mixed Bevis's signature style with a plot that was substantial enough, and presented in a sufficiently novel manner, to keep the viewer interested.

Some more detailed words on the movie's look - it really is sensational. Bevis has shown time and time again that he can craft a scene, but this certainly surpasses his prior work. The frame, present throughout the movie, makes it feel as if the events are being documented as they happen, and provides, of course, an interesting visual touch as well. As Aaron pointed out, Bevis also does a wonderful job of working with color, but also at working without color - the juxtaposition of the sepia segments of the film with the vibrant colors of the main segments is very effective, particularly in the film's last shot - my first thought was that he had used an altered palette for it. Very impressive. The scenery and camera work are done brilliantly as well, pretty much a given in Bevis's work.

The plot is a little less...abstract than in much of his previous work. Its presentation, mostly through flashbacks, is a very innovative touch, one that I haven't seen before in 3dmm. When the viewer puts it all together - not necessarily after a single viewing - it's admittedly a little disappointingly cliché, and tries a little too hard to evoke an emotional response - something that's hard to do in 3dmm under any circumstances, and much more so in a film like this that relies on atmosphere rather than characters. In that respect, it does come up a little short, and the American Beauty music, while not entirely inappropriate, further amplified the feeling of "emotional manipulation." The plot is not by any means bad, but, again, I feel like a film that looks this good deserves a little more depth.

Like all of Bevis's work, this is clearly an example of style before substance. Unlike his past work, however, the substance, while still something of an afterthought, is not completely left by the wayside. This film marks a big step forward both in Bevis's directing and his storytelling, and if his next project focuses a little more on the latter, I think it could end up being something really special.

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by Phil Williamson

However, his earlier movies, such as Dance of the Firefly, I Love You, My Darling, and (to an especially frustrating degree) Fly were just so sappy, so melodramatic, that it was impossible to watch them without cringing.

Definitely found this the case with Darling and Fly, but I thought Firefly managed to keep the sap out of it for the most part. In some ways I'd agree that Violet Heights is the better movie, particularly for what it tries in storytelling that Firefly didn't, but I also thought it overreached and got confused in the last couple of events.

Great review, I always had a feeling you'd be good at this.