Tuvalu

German director Veit Helmer's grim fairytale recalls David Lynch's Eraserhead and the films of Guy Maddin (Tales From the Gimli Hospital) with its surreal landscape and expressionistic imagery. An all-but-silent black and white film (sequences are monochrome-tinted, making the VHS/DVD jacket full-color images rather misleading), Tuvalu stars Denis Lavant as Anton, a bathhouse apprentice whose job is to tend to the decrepit building's crumbling floors and ceilings, while maintaining for his blind master the illusion (thanks to a looped tape recording) that the pool is full of splashing customers. His life is transformed by the beautiful Eva (who, in one visually memorable scene, skinny-dips with her fishbowl-encased goldfish), but Anton's brother, who schemes to close the baths, threatens their budding romance. At once whimsical, baffling and bizarre, this is one of those singular films that dazzles with its unique vision. Recommended for more adventurous collections. [Note: DVD extras include a photo gallery and the strangely complicated, amusingly insane six-minute short film Surprise by writer-director-producer Veit Helmer. Bottom line: a skimpy but entertaining extras package for an off-the-beaten-cinematic-track film.] (K. Lee Benson)