Roger Burke This film did not turn up on my radar back in 2005. That's not surprising, I think, given the complexity and opaqueness of the story which together renders such a movie as box-office poison. It is, however, a cleverly contrived fable about unresolved needs and dreams – and all with a distinct nod to David Lynch, arguably the master of complex mystery and film-making – and all dressed up with appropriate symbolism and metaphor.Every city has lonely people and Iris (Olga Kurylenko) is one such young woman working as a drudge on an assembly line in a bottling factory at a major sea port. Her face is set, sullen and almost sad as she helps the bottles along clattering rollers. She doesn't see a broken bottle and cuts her ring finger badly, gushing copious blood around. The wound is dressed at a medical office where, overcome by stress and pain, she lapses into sleep, almost in a fetal position. With a quick jump-cut, we next see Iris renting a room at a seaport dive for sailors – a direct symbol for one of her needs – and then obtaining a job as an "office manager" at an obscure laboratory where she assists with the screening of people who wish to preserve things of value. The pale-faced laboratory owner (Marc Barbe) is authoritative, austere, and abrupt at first, and always dressed the same: black trousers and shoes, white shirt and long white laboratory coat that billows out as he strides around each day, seeing to the work within the 100 plus rooms in the old college he bought to house all the preserved "specimens" he keeps for clients. As time passes, he becomes more interested in Iris, more attentive and finally more possessive – providing a clue as to why prior female office managers had apparently left hurriedly. Iris, however, allows herself to succumb to his wishes and desires – and thereby satisfies another of her secret needs; and which also result in the brief, highly erotic love making that simply confirms the depth of her deprived emotional needs. Incidentally, as part of their "contract" he insists that she wears a pair of high-heeled red shoes – always.At the same time, Iris also evinces interest in the young sailor at the hotel with whom she shares a room but – he being on shift work – without ever seeing him, only savoring the lingering smell on his bed and clothes. It appears that the sailor is equally interested when we see him doing the same with her clothes when alone in the room.Curiosity, though, drives Iris even further with her need to see the laboratory in which specimens are prepared. She asks her employer if she can see him work, but he refuses. But she persists as she gains more favor with him and eventually manages to convince him she is worthy. Few viewers, I think, will be satisfied with the closing scenes and may remain mystified. They do, however, provide closure for the entire story and Iris's experience. The film is distinctive with just enough dialog, long takes, seemingly erratic cuts, a riveting sound track that's difficult to hear properly, and mostly nameless characters, including an enigmatic shoe-shine expert of fifty years. It all adds to the mystery but some viewers will be dissatisfied, even repelled.From that overall perspective, and like David Lynch, the director (Diane Bertrand) has left viewers to interpret the story according to their own beliefs and experiences. Like Lynch's movies, there are long, dark corridors, extreme close-ups, unexplained scenes (for example, Iris swinging on the end of a large crane cable's hook), unexplained time shifts, unexplained appearances of others who seem to add nothing to the story, and, of course, an enigmatic ending. Bertrand doesn't achieve the same type of suspense, though; that, however, may be deliberate because the subject matter here doesn't have the same darkly evil connotations so evident in most of what Lynch has done.Still, if you like Lynch, I highly recommend this film; and the director, as an interesting and promising companion, perhaps. Give this a seven.August 2011.

Chalice_Of_Evil While this isn't the first foreign film that I've watched, it's certainly the first one that I've done a review for. Admittedly, what got me interested in checking this film out was Olga Kurylenko. I'd first seen her in the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace - which wasn't exactly a great movie, but I thought she did really good in it. Therefore, I held out hope that L'annulaire (or 'The Ring Finger', as it's called here in Australia) would prove to better utilize this talented actress. Thankfully, it *does*.The opening scene is of a young girl talking to a man in a white coat (Marc Barbé), asking if she can get a "specimen" of the fungi she's brought to him. We then get quite a beautiful piece of music (with a twinge of eeriness to it) playing over the interestingly-filmed opening credits, featuring the fungi.Olga Kurylenko plays a young woman named Iris. When Iris is first introduced, she's working at a bottling plant (until she has an accident, involving her cutting off the tip of her ring finger on a broken bottle). Apart from the gushing blood from her wound, there's also a gruesome shot of the blood filling up the bottle on the conveyor belt. She then hallucinates the bloodied cut-off tip of her finger boiling in a glass of water. The sweltering heat doesn't help matters. Iris ends up moving to a port town. After getting accommodation, she takes an interest in a sailor named Costa (Stipe Erceg), who just happens to be the same person who shares the room she's staying in. He works nights at the docks, and is only there when she is out.Iris manages to find work, but it's at a creepy place, and inside is a creepy bloke (the man in the white lab coat from the opening scene). He informs her that their job is to "prepare specimens and preserve them". People bring in personal artifacts they want to keep forever and get a 'specimen' made of the objects. From this point on, she finds herself drawn to her employer.He later takes her down to his "inner sanctum", where it is cooler, but also isolated. Everything's quiet down there, where he goes to "unwind" (apparently, preparing specimens is "tiring work"). He observes that the shoes she wears are "not stylish enough" for someone her age, and he gives her a pair of shoes that he's bought her. When she asks how he managed to guess her size (the shoes fit "like a glove"), he says that all he had to do was look at her foot to know its size. It's actually a very sexual moment, as he removes her shoes and puts on the ones he's given her. He tells Iris he would like her to wear the shoes every day, all the time, whether he's looking at her or not. As if his behaviour wasn't already questionable enough, on a day where she arrives at work in the rain, he gets her to undress in front of him.Iris then meets a shoe-shiner, who compliments her shoes, but warns her that keeping them on all the time will lead to the possibility of losing her feet. He says that the shoes are "taking her over" - which becomes very important. There's a bit of humour injected when Iris informs a potential client that a specimen cannot be made out of a malevolent shadow. She then spends some time with her employer down in the bathroom, where they have a light-hearted moment of calling out, letting the sounds of their voices echo. One thing leads to another, they eventually end up having sex (he's quite forceful with her, but she seems to not be entirely against it). At one point, after asking her if there's not a specimen that she would like preserved, he urges her to remember her most painful memory. She then tells him the story of how she lost the tip of her ring finger. There's a great moment later on, with Iris swinging on one of the crane hooks by the harbour.She eventually finds a note in her room from the sailor, saying that he's leaving and that he'd like to meet her before he goes. When she goes to meet him, however, he's kissing some other girl (the fool!), thereby totally blowing his chances with Iris. She's more interested in her boss anyway. Although Iris learns that other girls who'd worked for him had "vanished/disappeared", not to mention the fact that he makes her spend all day picking up the pieces of a Mahjong set she accidentally drops (and, oh yeah, he's a CREEP!), she still has sex with him. As she explains to the shoe-shiner later, she's unsure about her feelings and feels it is impossible for her to leave the place. The shoe-shiner informs her that if she doesn't take the shoes off immediately, she'll never be able to get away. He suggests she get a specimen of the shoes, so that her feet can be free, but she tells him she doesn't want them to be free.She eventually asks the lab director to take her to the basement, but he won't do this unless she wants a specimen preserved. In the end, we see her take off her shoes and leave them as she disappears into a white light. The ending is open to interpretation. This was an odd movie, but not necessarily a "bad" one. Olga Kurylenko portrays Iris with lots of nuance. She's able to say SO much, with so few words. It's all there in her expressions/her eyes. You really feel for her character, and she's the main reason this film works. The haunting music and the beautifully-shot scenery contributes to the unnerving atmosphere. It's a film that you definitely have to think about, and you'll appreciate it more after repeated viewings.

collanter The sexy Ukrainian Bond-babe (from Quantum of Solace) Olga Kurylenko's first film was L'Annulaire (2005) . Iris (Kurylenko) have an accident and cut off her ring finger. Then she moves to a port town (filmed in Hamburg), and lodging in a hotel by the seafront. She gets a job as an assistant and receptionist for a man who preserve peoples specials items into specimen. The guy and the place is weird, and he comes up with some requirements to her, that makes the job and employer even weirder. It's originally a Japanese novel by Yoko Ogawa, and there is some strange Japanese atmosphere over this story. The movie is packed with the nude Iris, and I guess that alone will please a lot of male viewers. I think the story was going a bit empty after a while, but I'm a male viewer - so I stayed tune with the beautiful Iris until the final.

lorryimdb Saw this at TIFF 2005, my buddy and I went into this movie with no expectations and it ended up being a favorite (top 3 for me) of the film-fest. Unlike most at the fest, the pacing was perfect and each scene was necessary, it's a rare movie today that has such tight editing. The mystery and eros has a slow-burning build....This was the only film I attended at the fest that left the audience hushed during the credits as well. I wouldn't call it 'eerie', maybe 'otherworldly'? Reminded me a little of polanski's ninth gate somewhat (and that's a good thing), but I doubt that anyone else would make that comparison :) I've been thinking about this movie for five months, figured it would be a shoe-in on the art-house circuit, but haven't heard much yet, this movie deserves to be seen!