Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Seraherrera
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
dwpollar
1st watched 6/14/2009 – 6 out of 10 (Dir- Benoit Delpine & Gustave Kervern): Quirky little road movie comedy about an unlikely pair who definitely don't like each other at the beginning of the movie but then get injured in a tractor while fighting each other and are forced into a similar situation. They are both crippled and no longer have much of a life to live so they take to the road and just happen to hook-up together for the journey. They each have a separate destination but somehow they are dragged along together many times just because they are both crippled and people mistake them as friends. The movie has very little dialogue and it's humor really comes out of the situations they are put in and what they do in those situations. The humor is definitely dark, for example ---- one big laugh comes when one of them steals an elderly persons' electric wheelchair(it's funny because we know they are just trying to survive any way they can and they aren't used to this). There is no music background in the movie so you pay attention to every sound and every camera movement which is very compelling and very un-Hollywood like. The slow moving story is OK, because the characters keep our attention and we pay attention to everything because of they way the movie is made. One character is a motocross enthusiast so we trek to some of their races and the other character doesn't appear to care much for anything until we find out what he cares about at the very end. I won't spoil the ending but it has to do with the manufacturer's of the tractor that caused the injury. The ironic ending is a brilliant bookend to a very unique and slow-moving comedy. The quiet movie will keep your attention and give you a few laughs so it's definitely a worthwhile view if you get the chance at seeing this French piece of cinema.
Danny Hartering
AALTRA is a film that frequently brings a smile to your face and every now and than you will laugh out loud. As the humor is often pitch black, don't feel strange if you are embarrassed by your own laugh. The blackness of it all is underlined by the fact that the film is in black and white. It tells the tale of two men who are constantly at each other's throat, until they both get stuck in a no-perspective situation ánd with each other. The film is a bit of a slow starter, but once the two men are "on the road" more and more moments are either funny or hilarious. I especially loved the encounters with the Flemmish and German speaking well-doers. It is one of those rare films where a certain shot can be a funny shot in itself, I mean without further verbal explanation or build-up. And hey... you will never listen to "Sunny" with the same ears ever again.
stensson
Belgian film is having a great period and Aaltra is another proof of that. It's rather back to the basics. It's so basic that the actors for long periods don't speak. They even don't have any mimic during these periods. Still much is said all the time.This is about the neighbors hating each other. Hate gets them into an accident and they both end up in wheel chairs. They begin to need each other and the silent and in many ways literally unmoving friendship starts.This is a black comedy where you after a while start to laugh, not at the two friends but at the circumstances around them. That's probably also the message.
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
'Aaltra', made on a budget of about ninepence (and showing every penny of it) is a harsh and unsentimental comedy about a couple of paraplegics who go on a road trip from Belgium to Finland by means of hitch-hiking in their wheelchairs. The fact that the two travelling companions are bitter enemies only adds to the bizarre hilarity.Both travellers are intentionally depicted as unlikeable. The filmmakers rather daringly go against audience sentiment, deliberately undermining any sympathy that the physical handicap of the main characters would give them. One of the two handicapped men is shown asking passers-by to help him across the road ... and then he tries to snatch their wallets while they assist him! Elsewhere, there is a great deal of pratfall comedy at the expense of the two paraplegics.The entire film is shot in stark, washed-out monochrome. I suspect that this was a necessity due to the very low production budget, but the filmmakers have cleverly turned this to the advantage of the narrative. The whole film looks like some stark minimalist seriocomedy by Samuel Beckett. Imagine Vladimir and Estragon in wheelchairs, on their way to see Godot. Or two Hamms without a Clov.There are some bizarre continuity lapses: these seem to be down to the low budget. And there is also a very gratuitous insertion of a naked woman; I suspect that the distributor insisted upon this, in order for the film to get a larger audience. 'Aaltra' is not to all tastes, but I laughed heartily and the filmmakers show real ability. I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10.
