{"id":9699,"date":"2014-09-19T14:38:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T18:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9699"},"modified":"2014-09-19T14:38:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T18:38:15","slug":"dvd-galapagos-affair-satan-came-to-eden-the-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9699","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, The (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"GalapagosAffair\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Zeitgeist Films<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a01 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0September 9, 2014<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Documentary<\/p>\n

Synopsis:\u00a0<\/strong>Part true crime \/ insular island lifestyle documentary rooted to mysterious disappearance of an egotistical German Baroness and her lover on the isolated island of Floreana in the exotic Galapagos.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 14 Deleted Scenes \/ Telluride Film Festival Q&A \/ Theatrical Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The latest collaboration from documentarians Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine (Ballets Russes<\/b>) is what\u2019s ostensibly a true life (and likely true crime) tale of three sets of eccentric European settlers who carved out their own respective pockets of paradise on the harsh Galapagos island of Floreana during the 1930s, and after enduring jealousies, drought, and internecine levels of contempt, were \u00a0jolted by a series of peculiar disappearances and tragedies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a complex tale which could\u2019ve been told within a half hour using rudimentary visuals, but Geller and Goldfine had the serendipitous use of rare amateur movies, stills, and personal diary entries and letters from all three parties to reconstruct an amazingly detailed chronicle of human selfishness, vanity, and meanness in what was supposed to be an escape from the cruel, uncivilized post-WWI German and Norway as Hitler & Co. were taking further steps towards conquering Europe.<\/p>\n

The pair did meticulous research, interviewed descendants of the first two couples, local islanders, and relatives back in Europe to build up their chronology of paradise soured, but what began as a documentary on the suspicious disappearance of a disliked couple morphed into a longer film with tangents detailing the anthropological roots of European settlers in this far away region of the world; life as an insular islander; and the sociological changes that followed as tourism and modern conveniences changed a once idyllic world.<\/p>\n

At best, that\u2019s at least a two-part documentary mini-series here, but the filmmakers were convinced all three strands could be woven into a fluid narrative, but each time the tale of the settlers and the looming disappearance gets into gear, the directors hit the Pause button, splintering their film to make room for present day observations or views from descendants; it’s a decision that often redirects us away from the core story.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, the main story involves brilliant German surgeon Friedrich Ritter (beautifully voiced by Thomas Kretchmann) and his homely wife Dore Strauch (voiced by Cate Blanchett) who’ve left Nazi Germany and their respective families to live out Nietzche\u2019s ideal on a remote tropical island, only to have fellow German interlopers \u2013 Heinz Wittmer (A Good Day to Die Hard<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Sebastian Koch), pregnant Margret (The Bridge<\/strong>\u2019s Diane Kruger) and their son \u2013 arrive and establish their own rough-in-the-wilds homestead. As if jealousies, snobbishness, and mistrust weren\u2019t enough, along comes a pompous German Baroness (Connie Nielsen) and a pair of architect \/ engineers, Lorenz and Rolf, who plan to build the Baroness\u2019 dream project: a tourist hacienda for wealthy travelers.<\/p>\n

The Ritters form an emotional allegiance with the Wittmers since they share mutual contempt for the Baroness, whereas the Baroness soon gains the attention of an itinerant philanthropist who moors his boat offshore so scientists could film the exotic humans of Floreana, and later craft a home movie starring the Baroness and her male lovers as, er, pirates.<\/p>\n

That all of this<\/em> exists in print, still, and film form is remarkable \u2013 the directors negotiated a deal to fund the preservation of the already fragile footage residing at UCLA for rights to use the footage in the doc \u2013 but it is the pettiness that makes this crazy tale funny, surreal, and ultimately tragic: after a sudden distant cry, the Baroness and Rolf vanish, and third wheel Lorenz suffers quite horribly soon after, while the Ritters are affected by a very na\u00efve, stupid blunder which a doomed Friedrich Ritter notes as absurdly ironic.<\/p>\n

At two hours, Galapagos Affair<\/strong> is way too long \u2013 90 mins. would\u2019ve sufficed, with the extra material fitting into a deleted scene gallery \u2013 but there are moments where the fate of the settlers is very haunting. It\u2019s hard not to regard the Europeans as na\u00efve in thinking they could escape the social perils of the so-called civilized world, but as Ritter\u2019s great-nephew relates in the doc\u2019s most important interview segment, \u2018If you\u2019re the problem, then you\u2019re destined to repeat and experience the same ills wherever you attempt to flee,\u2019 and Ritter\u2019s idealism and harsh treatment of Dore during their stay on Floreana kind of ensured their relationship wouldn\u2019t be as rich and supportive as the Wittmers \u2013 the family who remained on the island, and whose descendants now run a tourist resort.<\/p>\n

The voice casting is near-perfect, but while Blanchett gets the pronunciation of German words and names right, her accent is too feeble, especially when surrounded by a mixed German and Scandinavian cast. Kretschmann, familiar to horror fans for The Stendahl Syndrom<\/strong> (1996), Rohtenburg<\/strong> <\/a>(2006), and Dracula 3D<\/strong><\/a> (2012), is marvelous, and its his resonating voice reading Friedrich\u2019s austere German diary entries which helps viewers return to the core drama after being repeatedly re-routed by those present-day interviews.<\/p>\n

Zeitgeist\u2019s DVD features a clean transfer of the film with rich sound design, Laura Karpman\u2019s fine score, and a deleted scenes gallery with montages of the local wildlife plus additional scenes that were once part of an early edit but were wisely dropped to ensure the film ran tighter, and shorter, than its likely 150 min. rough cut form.<\/p>\n

Flaws aside, The Galapagos Affair<\/strong> is still a fascinating tale of the human pettiness that seethes with when refugees of modern society flee for relief, and find perhaps greater folly from intimate irritations on an isle from which they can’t easily escape, and more pointedly, all refuse to abandon out of sheer stubbornness.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB <\/a>\u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest collaboration from documentarians Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine (Ballet Russes) is what\u2019s ostensibly a true life (and likely true crime) tale of three sets of eccentric European settlers who carved out their own respective pockets of paradise on the harsh Galapagos island of Floreana during the 1930s, and after enduring jealousies, drought, and internecine levels of contempt, where given a jolt by a series of peculiar disappearances…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[3039,3040,3038],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2wr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9699"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9727,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699\/revisions\/9727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}