Film Reviews by AS

They never use the word in the film, but the farmers in this part of backwoods Iceland are victims of a monopsony; instead of only one producer as in a monopoly, there is only one buyer, the 'co-op'. Not a farmer myself, but I've a feeling the activities of the farming co-op depicted in 'The County' may ring bells the world over. These organisations doubtless start with high ideals, guaranteeing to buy produce regularly at an agreed price, initially providing security to farmers and hence whole communities, but then they lose their way, get corrupted, or mostly probably just get taken over by corporations that share none of the original ideals and gradually unpick them, hoping nobody will notice. But Inga does notice, and fights fearlessly for her rights, inspiring other farmers to back her and finally establishing a new co-op of their own. That much is all fairly predictable but it's well done, credible, interesting socially and culturally, and resists sentimentality. Only disappointment for those who loved 'Rams' (and laughed out loud at parts of it), this isn't a comedy but a sober and serious work.

To endorse what others have said here, in many ways this is a great film (performances, costumes, cinematography), but in the end I felt it was over-ambitious and lacked focus (runs to over 3hrs). One strand, and the most accessible, is the ex-Nazi doctor (brilliantly played by Sebastian Koch) who becomes a father after the war but who revisits his chilling eugenics on his own family. But the less successful sub-plot is about the integrity of art, under the Nazis and in the post-war GDR. Clearly both regimes wanted art to serve a political purpose and that point is well made, nevertheless the ending seemed inconclusive to me - was abstract art born as a way out? If so, perhaps it is a legitimate historical analysis, just a little hard to make dramatically interesting!

Deneuve (and Binoche) are legends of French cinema, of course, but are sadly coasting through this self-indulgent and self-referential 'film within a film', ostensibly about ageing movie stars and their incestuous and destructive families, but never achieving any real credibility. Ethan Hawke is as lazy as the rest of them (as the token American), though in his case that's his stock in trade. Deneuve at least shows the same gift for comedy and self-parody as in 'Potiche', with some good one-liners (a sort of French Joanna Lumley), but it's really not enough to redeem this false farrago.