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19 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :- Not as shocking as you might be led to believe, 30 July 2006 Author: asphodelfilms from Melbourne, Australia
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I went into this film with some bizarre expectations. I had been told it was completely shocking and devastating. I had also been told it was terrible and embarrassing. I didn't think it was either.I didn't get angry - shocked - embarrassed. I was just bored.Ana Kokkinos is undoubtedly a great director with a strong vision and that really shines through in this film with bold visuals and a very confident approach to the story. Unfortunately there's not a great deal of story to take a confident approach to. The first few scenes are gripping and the tension builds really beautifully so you're wondering what has happened to The Dancer. What did he experience? Why? How will it change him? It evokes the feeling of films such as Death In Venice, Don't Look Now and The Comfort of Strangers (hmm.. all Venetian..). I was hooked.But when it is finally revealed, I found it fairly anti-climactic and rather pointless. Those expecting to be shocked by graphic sex or violence probably won't be. This isn't Romance, Irreversible or even Head On for that matter. There are moments of powerplay in the rape/ abduction scenes that are truly great - when he is forced to masturbate and mentions what goes through a man's mind when he closes his eyes being one clear example - but the problem is, they leave you wanting more which the film just doesn't deliver. It doesn't quite reach the role reversal thrills that film such as Hard Candy or Death & The Maiden deliver. There are endless possibilities raised by the idea of 3 women abducting a man for their pleasure. This may be part of the problem. Swamped with endless possibilities, it seems like they chose not to go with any of them.Once we know what happened to The Dancer, the film stumbles. It falls into that great Australian trend of minimalism and subtlety that just leaves audiences wondering what the **** is going on and why anybody should care. You can call it an "exploration" or a "meditation" (and I imagine the same people who used those words positively in their reviews of Japanese Story and Somersault will probably dredge them up again for this film... and I expect the words "emotional truth" will be thrown around at the same time) or whatever you want but frankly, I think it's just poor storytelling. It seems to shy away from the real drama within the story. If you're going to make a film about emotional truth, don't claim to be a story. Call it Japanese Emotional Truth. Or Emotional Truth of Revelation. Or Girl Gets Laid In Jindabyne. Let's call a spade a spade.It doesn't really explore the consequences of what happens for The Dancer. There's about 10 minutes of plot spread out over an hour and by the time something actually happens, I for one was completely disengaged and beyond caring. The film also stops just when it looks like it's actually going to explore the issues it's raised.It's bitterly disappointing because I thought Head On was definitely one of the greatest Australian films of the last 10 years and I thought the subject matter of this film could have gone in so many different exciting directions. I never expected it to be boring.
12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :- Strong stuff, but a weak finish, 19 September 2006 Author: Philby-3 from Sydney, Australia
This is not your typical Australian movie, despite its government funding. It could have come from a European art-house director and its location in Melbourne seems incidental (I think the original book by Rupert Thomson was set in Amsterdam). It is also not a movie for the nervous – at times it is very tense indeed and the cutting and soundtrack seem designed to keep the audience on edge. As Daniel the male dancer abducted and sexually abused by three hooded women, Tom Long gives an intense, if slightly monolithic, performance. Daniel's lines give him little scope for expressing his feelings, it is only in dance that he can do that, and the rest of the time he acts rather than thinks. On the other hand his physical appearance dominates the film – we are seeing essentially his view of things.The abuse scenes were not as bad as I had feared, and were relatively short. They were pornographic, I think, only to people like the hooded women. And here's the problem. A handsome heterosexual man captured by three young women and forced to have sex with them? No wonder the cops laugh when Daniel tries to tell them what happened. What is it about Daniel that moves them to do this? He was not chosen at random. He's a fit accomplished young male dancer, someone of physical beauty and grace. Why do these women need to humiliate and degrade him? No doubt the director Ana Kokkinos wants us to ask this question but we are not provided with many clues towards an answer. All we are told by the hooded ones is that "it is for our pleasure". Well, if they are sadists, I suppose it makes sense but I don't think it tells us anything about relationships between men and women generally.Even so, the whole thing is pretty well done, and we do get a very clear picture of the devastating impact abuse of this nature can have on a person. The revelation, I suppose, is Daniel's loss of both innocence and self-regard. Ana Kokkinos proved in "Head On" that she can mix atmosphere and action though this film is quieter overall. Tom Long gets good support from Greta Scacchi, never better, as his dancing mistress, and Colin Friels gives a quiet and convincing portrait of an understanding policeman ( a very rare beast). As Daniel's girlfriend, Anna Torv's performance is curiously flat – her character is underwritten and her impassive good looks convey little but emptiness. Deborah Mailman also puts in a good performance in a small role as the girl who helps Daniel recover from his ordeal. But the portentous (or is it pretentious) atmosphere dissolves to a banal ending, almost on the same level as a "Twisted Tale" (a Channel 9 TV series of mordant but slight stories) – the motivation for a routine assault is explained.The screening I saw was sparsely attended and I don't think this film will do well, which is a pity. Ana Kokkinos is a talented filmmaker and it would be interesting to see what she could do with more mainstream material. Art-house Street can be a bit of a cul-de-sac.
6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Revelations and Nightmares, 17 September 2006 Author: Jay Thompson (jdt@aapt.net.au) from Melbourne, Australia
'The Book of Revelation' is an adaptation of Rupert Thomson's 1997 novel about a male dancer who experiences sexual abuse at the hands of three women. The film is directed by Ana Kokkinos, who returns to a key motif of her earlier 'Head On': the wounded male body in a society where men are meant to be un-breakable. Tom Long plays Daniel, the male dancer who experiences the aforementioned attack at the hands of women. The women (all concealed by hoods and masks) hold him prisoner in a rundown building where they subject him to various forms of sexual degradation. After being released by the unseen rapists, Daniel can't admit to what's happened. After all, who'd believe him? A man being abducted and forced to satisfy the sexual demands of three women? So he leaves his girlfriend, quits his dancing career ... and goes in search of the mysterious attackers. Why? To seek revenge? For more torture?The film alternates between excerpts of Daniel trying (or not trying) to come to grips with his experience and flashbacks to the said attacks. This creates a dense, nightmarish atmosphere that still unsettles me almost an hour after this film finished. Also, some haunting use is made of various Melbourne locations (though as a Melbournite, I couldn't help but want to cry out at certain points: "That's the cafe at Melbourne Uni! Why's he walking down that fateful lane when there are so many milk bars on Flinders Street?")The abuse itself is rendered ambiguous. Are they 'real' acts of sexual degradation? Or fantasies of domination and submission? Psychoanalytic film theorists will have a field day with the references to infancy, the womb, the maternal, castration ... Nevertheless, I had to wonder: How would the audience respond if the women weren't wearing such highly stylised garb (and shot in equally stylised surrounds, at one point in slow-mo?) The attack scenes do accurately suggest Daniel's loss of male power and privilege, but (thanks to the manner in which they have been filmed) wouldn't look out of place in your average male-oriented porno. Nothing innovative or politically subversive there, or in the objectification of women that (we are led to believe) is one of Daniel's responses to his degradation. And there's the acting. Greta Scaachi and Deborah Mailman are excellent as women trying to understand Daniel's silent pain, but Tom Long doesn't hit the right note. He seems just too removed from the world around him, even before the attacks. One may argue in his defence that he is trying to represent one model of masculinity - strong and sturdy, tough and unfeeling. Perhaps so. But it's also difficult to empathise with his character, or feel any emotional connection for him whatsoever. But I'm rushing ahead of myself here ... Perhaps (not unlike Daniel) there are many questions and anxieties about 'The Book of Revelation' that I have yet to articulate or come to grips with. The film may not be a completely honest (or subversive) study of sexual violence or gender roles. But it does raise some interesting - and often quite disturbing - questions about these issues. And for that alone, Ana Kokkinos should be commended.
7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Promising Beginning That Becomes a Sort of Erotic Soap-Opera., 3 July 2009 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
While walking to buy cigarettes, the professional dancer Daniel (Tom Long) is abducted and forced to have kinky sex along many days by three hooded women. When he is released, the director of his company Isabel (Greta Scacchi) has already replaced him in the play and his girlfriend gives a cold reception to him. The disturbed and humiliated Daniel leaves the dance company and travels obsessed to seek out the abductors. Daniel has sex with many women that he suspects that might be the kidnappers. "The Book of Revelation" is a weird movie with a promising beginning that loses the initial power and becomes a sort of too long erotic soap- opera or soft-porn chic. The production is classy, the cover of the DVD is awesome but the characters are not well-developed and the trauma of Daniel seems to be excessive since most of the men would fantasize with the dream-situation that he was submitted – to become sexual object of three sexy women. The melodramatic development with the illness of Isabel does not add any value to the plot; the open conclusion is very disappointing and there are no explanations for the motive of the women or the title. It is very clear that the screenplay about a man's feelings was written by a woman. It was good to see the still beautiful Greta Scacchi again and her make-up in the end is impressive. There is a saying in Portuguese that could be translated to English as follows: "If the rape is inevitable, relax and come." Daniel should have done this and spared me of watching almost two hours of a pointless story. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "O Livro das Revelações" ("The Book of Revelations")
13 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :- Tough to sit through but so much to think and talk about afterward!, 30 July 2006 Author: scottybrady from Melbourne, Australia
Well they said it was more about being thought provoking than being a box office hit and they were right. The Book of Revelation was incredibly hard to sit through - both because of its slow pace and its confronting themes - but so very worthwhile.Beautifully crafted, the movie is not for everyone, especially if you've been the victim of sexual abuse. The movie sets out to explore a range of issues and themes and it wasn't until the day after I saw it (today) that many of them dawned on me (and even then it was only prompted by reading an interview with the Director, Ana Kokkinos). I suspect that I'll be experiencing more of these revelations (pun intended) for quite some time.One of the themes of "The Book of Revelation" is sex and power. There are some very confronting and disturbing scenes where the male lead is sexually abused by three cloaked and masked women. One of my female friends who I saw the movie with said afterward that she didn't feel any of the discomfort she usually feels when she sees a rape scene on the screen and wondered if it was purely because it was a man being raped. This is one of those areas that the movie gets you thinking about.It's hard to watch but I highly recommend seeing it.
8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- This film needed more cow bell., 6 September 2006 Author: timkelly1986 from Australia
Here's a couple of paragraphs out of an essay I wrote for university about TBOR."The Book of Revelation is an erotic thriller about sex, power and a talented dancer's struggle to regain his sense of self after being unfortunately raped by three cloaked women. The three women that violate him all have distinctive marks on the bodies; one has a giant birth mark on her buttocks, another has a butterfly tattoo on her lower stomach and the ring leader has a small circle on her breast. So he lives his new life in search of these markings, and to find them on these intimate places he does what any sane man does when he needs to see as many naked women as possible to solve a mystery, he has sex with them. An hour and ten minutes into the film and you feel like he has almost had a piece of every woman in Melbourne.The film is a giant chunk of pretentious celluloid; it is like grandiloquence drips from every frame. At only one point towards the films final climax does Kokkinos give a scene the same energy and strength as her debut feature Head On had in droves. As like many films funded by the government bodies the film takes it self way to seriously, the script and its execution appear to be chores rather then gifts and unfortunately for the talented thespians, their brilliant performances (particularly Tom Long as the fractured protagonist) are stuck within the confines of a pompous wan k fest."
10 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :- Interesting idea, poorly written, muddled execution., 25 September 2006 Author: garver_dave from Australia
Many questions arise about the making of this film. The first of which is: Why make a film that plays out as little more than an awkward female fantasy? It's one thing to leave an audience with issues to discuss about a film's intent, it's something entirely different to go into the process of writing a script which fails to adequately address real human issues before they are rendered on the screen.Why the outrageously melodramatic and often comical soundtrack? Why the excessive and frequently clunky dialogue? Why is the lead character's girlfriend one of the hooded abductors? What purpose is there to turning the lead character's freedom from abduction into a joke by having him complete his "mission"? (This is a classic Little Aussie Film moment. Resort to quirky comedy at the most inappropriate moment.) Why so many scenes where absolutely nothing happens? (This accounts for approximately 15 minutes of the film, which is at least 30 minutes too long.) Why, if a man is imprisoned for so many days, does he not endeavor to make a serious attempt at escape?The Director, who co-wrote the script, has failed on many counts to deliver a satisfactory story. Dave Garver, Australia.
6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Interesting (and shocking) gender-reversal, 6 August 2006 Author: Mylo_Milk from Australia
I saw this film at the Brisbane International Film Festival. The director, Ana Kokkinos ("Head On" 1998), was at the screening to introduce the film and for a brief Q&A afterwards. It is an adaptation of the novel by the same name by Arthur Thompson, which I have not yet read but will endeavour to do so some time in the near future. I was intrigued by the plot - a male dancer (Daniel) is abducted by three hooded women, raped and tortured for 12 days then dumped on the side of the road with no clue as to his attackers' identity (other than a couple of intimately located tattoos and birthmarks) - and looked forward to a gender reversal of the woman-as-victim man-as-perpetrator roles with regard to sexual assault. The film is very confronting, and certainly raises questions about sex and power - in the post-screening discussion, Ana Kokkinos said she wanted it to force us to look at abuse with "fresh eyes", as "human beings" instead of from either side of a gender divide. She particularly hoped the film provoked empathy in men, for the constant fear of violence and sexual abuse that women "know all too well". I certainly think the film forces you - shocks you, perhaps - into thinking about the issue of sexual violence, but rather than making men see it from a female point of view I think it highlights the difference between male and female sexuality. By this I mean that while Daniel is not a willing participant in the sexual acts which take place, they are of such a nature that he is physically capable of sexual arousal and orgasm (with the notable exception of one particularly brutal scene). This is certainly not the case for female victims of rape. Regardless, Daniel is severely traumatised by the experience and the film follows his attempts to find his attackers through his mental and emotional turmoil, culminating in a tragic and disturbing though understandable act. Quite beautifully shot, and definitely worth seeing, if you can handle the graphic depiction of sexual violence (which is certainly no more than you would encounter in any other R18+ rated film, but seems to be more unsettling because of the unconventional context).
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- An insight into coping, 13 September 2006 Author: annie-186 from Australia
A locally famous male dancer gets abducted by three hooded women and kept prisoner for 12 days. He is subjected to sexual, emotional and physical abuse during this time before being dumped on waste ground when they are done with him. Whilst he never sees their faces during his ordeal, each women has an unusual identifying mark. He then begins an unusual quest to find the women responsible.I had expected to hate this film, as I had read so many mixed reviews about it. Instead, I found this film intriguing, having a pet interest in psychology. I was surprised at Daniel's mechanism for coping: I found it a stretch to believe that he told no-one, although on reflection he did try to tell both the police and his girlfriend who were not sufficiently open minded to probe him for more information. The expression of his trauma through his dance was very moving.The acting, on the most part, was first rate. I loved Colin Friels as the empathetic detective. Tom Long showed great courage in accepting this role, which he delivered without it being seedy or sleazy. The girl who played Daniel's first girlfriend came across brilliantly as a selfish, shallow bitch.There were a few unanswered questions, but on the whole it was a well paced film, well acted, well directed.7/10
4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Disappointed, 13 August 2006 Author: talkfest
Worth watching this film for performances, cinematography and design but not groundbreaking cinema. Great performance by Tom Long so emotional and fragile and it's so convincing the way he internalizes his pain and then self destructs.But I remember seeing some of the issues related to this topic treated on "Law and Order", the TV show, back in 2001, an episode called "Ridicule". A man is charged with murder of a woman and it comes out that he has been sexually assaulted by 3 women and the story revolves around whether it can be classified as rape, if he is sexually aroused. Something largely to that effect. It was nothing like the story of the Book of Revelation and it had a completely different emphasis but it meant that some of the issues on their own, were not new/shocking for me, as I had seen them raised on prime time TV 5 years ago. (Of course no explicit scenes were shown and the story started where TBOR left off and I could go on and on to list significant differences.) But, because I remembered this TV show, I was hoping TBOR would take me a lot further, I felt disappointed by how this particular film had been hyped. I just thought it would make me feel a lot more confronted and moved. Not groundbreaking cinema.I do feel however, that these types of issues obviously need to be continually raised, and debated from different viewpoints, to gradually have a lasting impact on society. It gets it out there, in front of more people who may not have seen the topic discussed at all yet.Great art direction/cinematography and loved Greta Scacchi's portrayal of the Dance instructor too. I thought it was one of her best performances.
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