evidentlykelly
a village keeps a grievous evil as a secret, and thirty years later retribution comes in the form of a man who is meant to be their salvation. it all starts with greed. this village is as corrupt as can be. they are willing to whore out their queen for money from the bishop, and the irony is that the black plague that comes upon the village is payback for a terrible thing that occurred to a previous queen who had another lover. there is a lot of Christian symbolism. it's hard to tell if the stranger in town is the Antichrist, a demon, pure evil; meant to be hated, or just another unloved and mistreated bastard. you feel sorry for the poor guy until he kills someone. the upside down cross he was branded with marks him to be evil, but he is actually quite charming and seductive. this man uses talisman sorcery to send out demons to do his work; both to kill and seduce. its ironic that this man causes forces of lust and obsession when it is those forces exactly that he is come to gain revenge from. he bonds with Matilda who is a kind and gentle soul. she is the only non- grotesque character in the film. Matilda burns these sexual paintings and the only one not burnt is wadded up. It's of two women and one has a phallus. I don't really understand what that means. Maybe it's the only one that doesn't make Matilda think of her suitor. Basically, this grotesque, corrupt, and evil town is brought down by their own creation which is slightly poetic. I won't tell you how, but they are. Lena Headey is brilliant as Matilda. She is kind and compassionate and as I said the only non-grotesque character in the film. She did a brilliant job in this role.
trashgang
I never heard of this flick and being released nowadays, almost 16 year after it was shot it does mean a thing. It must be bad, isn't it? Shot in 2002 it stayed for 3 years on the shelves before it was finally released but even then it was failure. The reason it came out in 2014 under the new title Black Plague do had a reason. Pick up the DVD or Blu Ray and just have a close look. Lena Headey is sitting on a throne. Does it ring a bell? Sure, it looks like Game Of Thrones. And they are picking in on the success of that series. The cover of the DVD is never seen in this flick. But don't get me wrong. Mostly it's a bad sign but this flick do offer a few things. It shows Lena as the main lead and is showing what she can do. It's clear that she was ready to move on to bigger projects. Further the look of this flick do show how people lived in the Dark Ages just before the plague entered Europe. Just look how they lived, how they looked, look at their teeth. Look how religion is important. And it do has a good story. The only nudity comes from soldiers standing naked who are controlled by a doctor looking for signs of the plague. Even as the plague enters England there's more going on. Not bad at all.Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5
Armand
Story about amoral revenge, cold, dark, seductive, cruel and brutal, splendid reflection of Middle Age atmosphere, mixture of tension and strange romance, tale about price of gestures and powerful force of past errors, about values and trust, about ghosts and crime as projection of community's soul.In same aspects, a love story and, in fact, subtle exploration of existence significance.A debate-film, with some aspects from Shakespeare or Marlowe, with flavor from Dostoevki and taste of Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" but, very personal as structure and construction of end.Film about old moral debt, about cruelty of a bleak era," Anazapta" is a mirror, with Greek tragedy as mat, image of human instincts, desires and secret fears, notion of justice and faith, greed, poltroonery and black angels. It is lucid introspection in the loops of deep reality beyond the words.The acting, the dialogs, the lights and location are bones of a social corpse, without coffin, funeral or grave.The innocence or the mercy are only illusions for a character in which single limb is memory beyond facts, illusions or regrets.A destiny's butcher and his way.And a very interesting presence of Lena Headey in magnificent role who transforms,in delicate and subtle manner, the nuances of atmosphere and the respiration of action.
gynter
"Anazapta" is one of those movies about the medieval times which does not have any characters boasting a bright, ultra-white-teeth Hollywood smile. The whole so to say "medievalness" is shown very naturally, i.e. people are dirty, rude, there's violence and brief nudity, etc. And this is great. This is the only thing that provides the movies with above the average rating IMHO. The story is twisted just perfectly for ending-guessers to figure out the grand finale some 20 to 15 minutes before time, but the very ending scene has left me wondering. Anyway, in my TV-program the film was described as a historical thriller and thriller it was indeed.
AD
