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Lifespan
UK / Netherlands 1974
produced by Alexander Whitelaw for Whitepal Productions
directed by Alexander Whitelaw
starring Hiram Keller, Tina Aumont, Klaus Kinski, Frans Mulder, Eric Schneider, Fons Rademakers, Sacco van der Made, Onno Molenkamp, André van den Heuvel, Helen van Meurs, Adrian Brine, Albert Van Doorn, Lydia Polak, Joan Remmelts, Dick Scheffer, Rudi Falkenhagen, Paul Melton, Rudolf Lucieer
written by Alexander Whitelaw, Judith Rascoe, Alva Ruben, music by Terry Riley
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Doctor Linden (Eric Schneider) has discovered (or thinks he has
discovered) the secret of immortality ... and then he kills himself. Dr
Land (Hiram Keller), who has come from the USA to Amsterdam to meet Dr
Linden decides to investigate both his death and the discoveries he made
(of which the manuscripts are weirdly missing though). His investigations
lead him - and his young assistant Pim (Frans Mulder) - into a web of
intrigue, death and deceipt, a net that includes an old people's home, a
mysterious Swiss industrialist named Nikolas Ulrich (Klaus Kinski),
Linden's girlfriend Anna (Tina Aumont) - who eventually becomes Land's
girlfriend but also has a thing going with Ulrich -, some mild bondage, a
bit of graverobbing, mass murder, and ultimately the discovery of an
immortal ... who dies before long though.
And suddenly the whole thing seems to cave in on Land, as he is accused
of not only graverobbing but also the killing of the immortal, then
it is revealed that Dr Linden might not have worked on immortality at all
but a way to add colour components to a flue vaccine ... and ultimately
Land is sent to an insane asylum - and he might as well be, since from
here on, dead Dr Linden appears to him quite frequently.
In the end though, Land breaks out of the asylum and travels to
Switzerland, to sell his secret of immortality to Ulrich, who eagerly
awaits him ... or is it all just a madman's dream ?
A deliberately slow-moving but very cool mix of sci-fi and giallo-style
murder mystery, with the protagonists hunting clues, one wilder than the
other, to in the end lose himself inside his own investigation (which is
quite a surprise ending). Beautifully played, beautifully filmed,
intelligently written ... recommended, need I say more ?
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