King Is Alive, The (2000)

reviewed by
Laura Clifford


THE KING IS ALIVE
-----------------

A missed plane changes the itinerary of a small group of European and American tourists so they're put on a bus to make their next connection. Liz (Janet McTeer, "Tumbleweeds") frets that the journey is taking too long and is fed comforting words by her husband Ray (Bruce Davison, "X-Men"). But when night turns into day, they discover that the compass bus driver Kanana (Peter Kubheka, "The Air Up There") has been relying on doesn't work. Stranded in an abandoned mining town 500 miles from anywhere, English actor Henry's (David Bradley, "Prick Up Your Ears") idea of staging 'King Lear' sets the stage for the full range of human emotion in "The King is Alive."

Cowriter(with Anders Thomas Jensen)/director Kristian Levring is the fourth founder of Dogme 95 (along with Lars von Trier, "Breaking the Waves;" Thomas Vinterberg, "The Celebration;" and Soren Kragh Jacobsen, "Mifune"), making his feature directorial debut with "The King Is Alive."

The ensemble cast create unique and complex characters that form a microcosm of society. Jack (Miles Anderson, "Cry Freedom") is the adventurer, who gives the group the five rules of surviving in the desert before setting off for help. Henry is the artist whose exercise of writing out the roles of King Lear from memory casts him as the group's director. Drawn to him is Catherine (Romane Bohringer, "Colonel Chabert"), a young French woman who fancies herself an intellectual yet turns down the offer of Cordelia's part. That goes to Gina (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an American vamp disdained by Catherine but looked upon fondly by Henry (and lasciviously by the other white males). Paul (Chris Walker) is a coarse, loud Englishman accompanied by mousy wife Amanda (Lia Williams) on a trip designed to bond with father Charles (David Calder, "The World is Not Enough"). Ray and Liz are a married couple whose suppressed accusations don't withstand the first evening's alcoholic blowout. Ashley (late character actor Brion James, to whom the film is dedicated) is the initial Lear, done in by the DTs. Local Kanana is the object of scorn, lust, revenge and racism. Moses (Vusi Kunene, "The Air Up There") is a hermit found in the village who acts as the story's narrator.

Levring and Jensen use 'King Lear' as a springboard for alliances, cliques, divisions, betrayals and ultimately madness. Yet for all the fascinating behavior so finely created by the cast, the screenwriters overindulge with several melodramatic sexual alliances - lust in the dust indeed. These people may have something to prove, but Levring so ably makes us feel his characters discomfort ('I feel like a pig! I want a bath!' proclaims Liz) that sex seems an unlikely outlet for them. Gina's sacrifice for her 'art' via a most unlikely pairing plays especially false despite the actors' craft. Still, the dialogue is often devastating. Newly awakened Amanda tells Paul 'I knew you were nothing special but I didn't let that bother me because I wanted a peaceful life.'

Using three handheld digital video cameras, Levring achieves a rich, color-saturated look at his exotic location of Kolmanskop, Namibia which is truly the star of his film. The ever shifting sands provide texture, Gina's lip gloss and chartreuse satin shirt reflect light and splotches and streaks of paint on interior concrete walls provide both character definition and a modern art background. Editor Nicholas Wayman Harris makes offbeat, unusual choices. A one second cutaway of a woman's midriff from a closeup of her face punches up the montage. The sudden lack of sound during aerial shots intensify the utter isolation while allowing us to soak in the spectacular beauty of the terrain uninterrupted.

"The King Is Alive" attempts to encompass the human condition via a woefully off course tourist bus. Despite a couple of wrong turns, it takes us to places both known and uncharted.

B

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