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Quicktime Trailer:
Hi-Res (http://www.europacorp.com/Medias/Films/Videos/ht/ba_qhd.mov) (Warning - long download)
Lo-Res (http://www.europacorp.com/Medias/Films/Videos/ht/ba_qbd.mov)
Windows Hi-Res (better) here. (mms://193.201.103.82/europa/ht/ba_ht_whd.wmv)
Actors: Cecile De France (Marie), Maiwenn Le Besco (Alex), Philippe Nahon (Le tueur), Franck Khalfoun (Jimmy), Andrei Finti (Le pere d'Alex), Oana Pellea (La mere d'Alex), Marco Claudiu Pascu (Tom), Jean-Claude de Goros (Capitaine gendarmerie), Bogdan Uritescu (Gendarme), Gabriel Spahiu (Homme voiture)
Director: Alexandre Aja (Entre chiens et loups, Furia)
Screenwriter(s): Alexandre Aja & Gregory Levasseur (Entre chiens et loups, Furia)
Plot: Two female students, Marie and Alex (Cecile De France & Maiwenn Le Besco), set off to Alex's parent's secluded homestead in the country to relax and study. Come nightfall, Hell pulls up at the front door.
Alex is now bound and gagged, taken off, with Marie alluding the intruder. Can she save her friend's life in time? Or is everything all that it seems...
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Fangoria reports that Alexandre Aja's French gorefest HAUTE TENSION (HIGH TENSION) had received an NC-17 rating, and that instead of going for cuts or an unrated release, U.S. distributor Lions Gate is sticking with the tag. Now, Lions Gate president Tom Ortenberg has explained the decision, telling Variety, "We are looking to do our part in destigmatizing the rating. Without getting into the argument about which films should fall under it or not, we at Lions Gate would like there to be an adult rating that does not have a stench associated with it."
Ortenberg goes on to say that "To go unrated can marginalize a film by making it feel too independent," and notes that while the company made minor trims to last year's drama THE COOLER to lower its rating from NC-17 to an R, editing HAUTE TENSION to R suitability would constitute "gutting" the movie. The story also reveals that Lions Gate is planning an August release for TENSION. "To a degree, we're going into uncharted waters," Ortenberg concludes of the NC-17 release. "We're feeling our way."
Oooooh snap! Mac, you should seriously use the search function. Look for a PM in your inbox :wink:
http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=4262&highlight=haute+tension
Quote from: Months ago, Weak2ndActAnyone else catch this French horror movie? It's been making the festival rounds and Lions Gate is distributing. In France, it's called 'Switchblade Romance.'
This has to be one of the most violent movies I've seen in a long time (well, except maybe Kill Bill, but this is way smaller and more 'real'). The premise: a girl drives out to the country with her best friend, and they stay at the BF's family's home. And in the middle of night, a serial-killer-of-sorts shows up and starts to slaughter everyone. Yes, that's it. There's 20 minutes of set-up and then 70 minutes of pure unadulterated violence/suspense. And it just goes on and on. The movie made me feel exhausted... but in a good way.
It's really well made and tense. And for you Gaspar Noe fans, Phillipe Nahon (the lead in 'I Stand Alone,' and in the opening of 'Irreversible') is the silent killer. I have serious mixed feelings about the last ten minutes, but I won't ruin anything for y'all. That aside, if you like the gore, check this one out.
Gah, what the fuck is the MPAA doing? I haven't seen the 'Passion' yet, but I HIGHLY doubt this movie tops that level of insanity. Sure, it's bloody as hell, but damn...
EDIT: Dyslexia errors.
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this seems insane.
fucking intense looking. this is gonna be awesome
I didn't really find The Passion all that bad...
This showed at SXSW and while I didn't see it, the overall word on it is "Boooooooooooo"
i like the poster
Quote from: RegularKarateThis showed at SXSW and while I didn't see it, the overall word on it is "Boooooooooooo"
well, people from texas are stoopit.
and people at film festivals usually hate horror.
and i MUST see this movie ASAP!
This is one of the worst movies I've seen in ages. It makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the remake) look masterful in comparsison. It had some decent gore and nice photography, but I didn't really care because the script was just so...well, I didn't think it was tense, and there were very few scares, and the reason for this is because they practically give the ending away at the very beginning with one of the most blatant and obvious lines of dialogue imagineable. And even though the twist is inexecusably tired, seeing as how it's already been done to death in Secret Window and Identity and, to an extent, Blair Witch 2, it's pulled off SO BADLY that you end up just feeling insulted when it's all over.
It's also homophobic in a Basic Instinct kind of way, although greatly amplified.
If this was a straightforward brutal slasher flick, like I Spit On Your Grave or something, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Anyway, I just felt like ranting about it.
New Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/high_tension/)
Are they still willing to release this as NC-17?
man i love that sonic youth cover.
This flick blew.
Big waste, it just goes nowhere. I dl'ed it and it didnt have subtitles, which really didnt matter because there is bascially no talking throughout, and whatever talking i did miss i could pretty much figure out (well except for that line Ghostboy said was "blatant and obvious"; what was that line GB?). If you like blood, then this is for you but dont expect much else. But as some have said before, the result is nothing new. This really could have been somthing cool, but its a bore.
Quote from: bonanzatazQuote from: RegularKarateThis showed at SXSW and while I didn't see it, the overall word on it is "Boooooooooooo"
well, people from texas are stoopit.
and people at film festivals usually hate horror.
and i MUST see this movie ASAP!
je suis une douche-bag.
ugh, this movie was so repulsively banal and french. all it had going for it were gore scenes, of which there were FAR too few and which will be trimmed down for the US release. and for a movie called 'high tension,' where the fuck was it? take a look at this article.
QuoteWhen the lovably depraved individuals at Lions Gate Films acquired Alexandre Aja's French horror flick Haute Tension they excitedly announced it'd receive domestic theatrical distribution with an NC-17 rating. Ballsy, as I've said once before. But appropriate. Appropriate for the mood of the film and it respects the material.
Last week we had a reader calling himself Jinx drop us a line from a theater road show where he ran into some Lions Gate reps who told him Tension (retitled for release here in the States to High Tension) was being trimmed for an R-rated release so it could naturally get wider exposure - one of the key reasons everyone tries to avoid an NC-17 these days, more theater play. We didn't want to run with this news like our asses were on fire until we heard more, so, we contacted LGF.
What we received back was a statement from director Aja himself who tells us, "The version of 'High Tension' that you are about to see is a dubbed English translation of the original French-language film, featuring Cecile de France's own voice in the part of Marie. The new version has also been re-edited slightly, resulting in a running time that is about one minute shorter than the original. 'High Tension' was conceived as an ode to the 1970's American horror/slasher films I loved as a teenager; so it is a source of great satisfaction to me that American audiences will now be able to experience the film on the same visceral level as French audiences, without the distraction of subtitles. Every filmmaker hopes that his or her work will be seen by the largest audience possible. Now, as an English language film, 'High Tension' has the opportunity to travel to U.S. theaters. I want to thank Lions Gate Films for making this possible."
Actress Cecil de France (Around the World in 80 Days) stars in Tension as a Marie, a woman who is forced to pursue her best friend's kidnapper after a brutal home invasion. Tension, which opens in theaters June 3rd, also stars actress Maiwenn (The Fifth Element, The Professional). Aja is currently prepping a remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes for Dimension Films.
http://www.horrorchannel.com/dread/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=983
dude, lion's gate is the new miramax.
Quote from: bonanzataz
ugh, this movie was so repulsively...french.
:saywhat:???
And I thought this was supposed to come out around Valentine's Day?
it was, but then they decided to cut it down. possibly due to the success they had in cutting saw down to an r rating?
and yes, repulsively french. i can't remember a really good french movie in a while (don't get me started on swimming pool and the man on the train), although granted, i don't really see that many new french films. they're just so slow and stupid and go nowhere and then leave you with this dumb twist ending that's supposed to shock you. it's dumb. it's not entertaining and it doesn't even make you think.
the only french movies i like a lot are the ones that michael haneke makes, but he's german.
New Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/high_tension/trailer/)
Mixing a new kind of message
The French horror film "High Tension" is an unusual hybrid: Some lines are subtitled, while others are dubbed into English. By Elaine Dutka, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
PEOPLE may find themselves unsettled by "High Tension," and not only because of the violence in Alexandre Aja's ode to 1970s horror films such as "Maniac!" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." Part subtitled, part dubbed, the movie is that rare hybrid: an experiment in how to make a French-language film accessible to a mass American audience.
Lions Gate Films, the distributor, flip-flopped several times before deciding how to release the film. Originally, it conceived of a limited subtitled release — until a crudely dubbed version created for the international market was mistakenly sent to a research screening last year.
"We were appalled," said Peter Block, president of acquisitions and co-productions for Lions Gate Entertainment. "We were going to kill the guy at the lab. In the focus sessions afterward, however, we realized that the audience was loving the movie. We later decided to examine the possibility of sending it out dubbed for a mass audience. It was cinematic serendipity."
Traditionally, art house crowds in the U.S. have not only tolerated but demanded subtitles. (A dubbed version of Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful" was so poorly received that Miramax Films quickly sent out a subtitled version.) But "High Tension's" 17- to 24-year-old target demographic doesn't go to the theaters to read, reasoned Lions Gate executives. Whether they'd buy into the dubbing — routine for American exports but unusual in the U.S.— was the question.
On the face of it, "High Tension," a $2-million film to be released June 10 on roughly 1,800 screens, is perfect for testing the waters.
The story of two friends fighting off a killer (Philippe Nahon) in the French countryside, it has minimal dialogue after the opening segment — perhaps only 10 minutes in all. ("It's more about behavior and survival," the director said.)
The action is told from the vantage point of Marie (Cécile De France), who, having escaped from the man's clutches, is trying to save Alex (Maïwenn), whom the killer has kidnapped. Some of the more violent scenes have been trimmed — though not removed — to sidestep the commercially disastrous NC-17 rating, which excludes viewers 17 and younger.
Aja ("Furia"), who also co-wrote the movie, supported the decision to dub the film, which he figured would broaden its appeal.
"The American people don't like subtitles," he said on the phone from Paris. "The American people don't like dubbing. That's why you see remakes like 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge,' which are also a way of protecting your film industry. It's hard to release a movie in the U.S. — especially a scary movie. Much easier to have a hit with a period film or an intimate drama."
Lions Gate discovered Aja's film, executive produced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, where it set off a bidding war — unexpectedly, because during its initial screening at the Cannes Film Festival, no North American distributor picked it up. Taken by the performances and camerawork, Lions Gate's Block, and its acquisition executives Jason Constantine and Eda Kowan, edged out the competition. The studio paid a mid-six-figure sum to acquire the film and an equal amount to dub it.
Last November, the lines were dubbed by American actors — as well as De France, one of France's leading actresses, who starred in last year's remake of "Around the World in 80 Days." To fine-tune the process, she flew to the U.S. this year for a grueling session overseen by dubbing coordinator Bob Buchholz.
It's a tedious process, requiring take after take, one sentence at a time. Scripts can't simply be translated from one language to another — words must be added or eliminated to correspond to the lip movement in the footage. The goal: to avoid the stilted, out-of-sync dubbing endemic to martial arts imports, the studio technicians explain.
Not every actor is up to the task, Lions Gate's Constantine points out.
"There are two aspects, artistic and technical," he said. "To maintain the illusion, the actor has to be able to get into character, re-creating a specific moment years later on a soundstage. It's crucial that the dubbing doesn't detract from the realism of the movie."
Learning by doing
Dressed in a striped sweater and miniskirt, De France ran in place in the darkened studio as the movie was projected on a large screen in front of the reading stand where she was recording.
"Please, you must call the police," she intoned, panting hysterically. Buchholz told her to enunciate more, distinguishing between "police" and "please."
It was nearing the end of the 12-hour day, and the actress asked for a break ("My mind is too full"). Three teams worked around the clock for three days to make the test screening deadline.
"I know this film by heart — each breath, each comma — but it's an exercise, this kind of work," De France said. "I really love the movie and want to do the lips perfect. Alexandre did the movie so well because he knows the American thriller. Doing it in English is a natural extension of that."
The entire dubbing process took six months. But it didn't deliver the hoped-for response.
According to John Hegeman, president of worldwide marketing for Lions Gate Entertainment, a horror audience attending a March research screening said the dubbing siphoned off the terror and distanced viewers from the performances.
There was also confusion about the setting of the film. In contrast to the original, which took place in France, the dubbed version was set in an unspecified locale in which all the characters — with the exception of De France — spoke English. How, then, to explain the French police uniforms and road signs?
"We sat around wondering what to do," Hegeman said. "Going [back to the original idea of opening] small with an NC-17 movie would have been an admission that our experiment had failed. After three months of deliberation, we opted to go with the hybrid."
The current version establishes early on that the setting is once again France, where Alex's family is renovating an old farmhouse.
The beginning of the film is almost all dubbed to set up the story without subtitles. All of the locals in the ensuing footage — from the gas station attendant to the authorities — speak in subtitled French, while Marie is bilingual. Talking to Americans, she's dubbed into English. Speaking to Frenchmen and herself, she speaks in her native French.
Though the hybrid version has not been tested, the film has been screened for webmasters on 15 to 20 sites, including bloody-disgusting.com and aintitcoolnews.com.
"It's slightly (OK, maybe VERY) distracting in the first 20-30 minutes," one slasher fan wrote on the bloody-disgusting.com website. But once the action kicks in, "you never look back and don't even notice."
Lions Gate doesn't pretend to have the answers. It's uncharted territory, they say.
"We created a road map as we went along — and the lack of precedents makes it even scarier," Hegeman said. "What did we learn? That simple nips and tucks rather than major revamping can get you where you want to be. It's important to stay true to the director's vision. If you have a great movie, try not to screw it up."
Quote from: bonanzatazit was, but then they decided to cut it down. possibly due to the success they had in cutting saw down to an r rating?
and yes, repulsively french. i can't remember a really good french movie in a while (don't get me started on swimming pool and the man on the train), although granted, i don't really see that many new french films. they're just so slow and stupid and go nowhere and then leave you with this dumb twist ending that's supposed to shock you. it's dumb. it's not entertaining and it doesn't even make you think.
the only french movies i like a lot are the ones that michael haneke makes, but he's german.
the piano teacher was a bit french
What the fuck, Lions Gate? Quit your market research buillshit and release a goddamn subtitled film. You wasted your time and your pride got in the way (they "didn't want to admit their experiment failed"? please, get over yourselves).
SPOILERS (if you care about contrived endings)
This film is gory, but nothing really happens. I was intrigued by the image of an attractive muscular, short-haired French chick wielding a stick wrapped in barbwire. This was, however, close to boring at points. The twist sucks. Goddammit, do people not understand that the whole narrator/split personality thing is now a trite fucking cliche???
I'm planning on seeing this tomorrow
I did.... I love (sometimes) crappy, gory movies
This isn't crappy because of a lack of money or just overall quality. It's crappy because it could've been ok. Disappointing. But still OK.
I had fun there, for awhile. The deaths were enjoyable and if there's blood and gore, I am ready and willing. But man! The story was just awful. The twist isnt forgiveable. :violin:
You know what, I liked it. I fully aknowledge the holes and downfalls of the film, but I still really enjoyed it. Lions Gate screwed up with their half subtitled and half dubbed idea. I can't figure out why they did it. I could alteast understand if they dubbed the film during intense/horror scenes, but they used subtitles there. The dubbing was used during the conversation scenes.
I would like to see a subtitled version of the film, I think the opening conversation scenes would flow a little better. The 2nd act of this film is great. It has some great, great death scenes. I loved it. SPOILERS>>> The twist is unnecessary. It also has a lot of holes in it. <<< END SPOILERS
If you go to this movie and watch it as mindless fun (as I did), then I think you'll come away very pleased. It's difficult for me to decide how much I liked it. The great parts are really great. I'd say it is definitely one of the best horror films I've seen in recent memory, although it certainly has it's problems.
someday, in a movie, i want to have the fuck pulverized out of my face by a weapon as cool or cooler than that barbed-wire-wood-thing.
Note: I watched the original French director's cut so my opinion might differ than those above since I don't know the differences in versions.
*MINOR SPOILERS*
Well, I thought it lived up to its title. I thought it very tense; the lack of dialogue and the subjective POV worked in making it so. It didn't play it safe, going all out in the gore. I liked the battle of wits between a smart protagonist and killer, who was a very vicious and made for a nice cheer when he finally got his. I was with it all the way...
And then... the twist.
It worked soooooo much better as a straight horror/chase movie. The twist was unnecessary; it went against everything shown previously and, like Ghostboy said, you felt insulted. A terrible cheat to the audience.
You should be forced to watch the English-dubbed version.
This was a total failure. Just once I'd like to see a studio have some balls and release a foreign film (with subtitles) in mainstream theaters. The dubbing was just plain awful. The movie causes some real tension in some scenes, but the violence is gratuitous and the plot is pedestrian. And it all leads to one of the biggest copout endings I've seen this year. Not only does it not make any sense, but it cheats the audience in the same way "Saw" did. Another case where sitting through all the violence and gore just isn't worth the cheap pay off. One of the weakest thrillers I've seen....great poster though.
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why did you watch it dubbed? or did you see it in the theatre and are just posting about it now?
Quote from: modage on November 16, 2005, 01:05:06 PM
why did you watch it dubbed? or did you see it in the theatre and are just posting about it now?
all I could find was the dubbed version
on the dvd you can watch the subtitled version. how did you see it?
Yeah, the DVD has three versions - Original French, English Dubbed, US Unrated. The options are under the Setup Menu.
i thougth this was actaully pretty fucking good. you french need to stop being pussies about war and spend your time making more cool horror films. :yabbse-wink: ..the film was just what i wanted gore, nudity, and a hot short haired lady weld ign a spinnign saw. and as a bonus i got alot of gore, great cinematogrpahy, and soem nice music [was that a radiohead song at the end]..and i like the "ping" sounds in the plastic greenhouse. this was tense. and its will eb in my top 10 easily...its the jeepers creepers of 2005.
I just saw this and kind of liked it. I liked the general feel of the movie and throughout probably 2/3 of it, I thought it could turn out really well. I thought that if the plot went the right direction, then it could be a really cool movie. The plot did not go in the right direction. Spoilers I actually started getting bored during the garden scene because the movie had done the same scene over and over in different places, but then she killed the guy. I thought the movie was picking up and going someplace good, but then, all of a sudden, the twist kills it and the ending sucks. Overall this movie could've been really cool, and is for about 2/3 of the movie, but if you make it to the end, it's just no good.