CARLOS Directed by Olivier Assayas
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I haven’t seen the shorter version, but I would hate to lose one moment of the gripping 66-minute sequence—really the heart of the movie—in which Carlos plots and executes his spectacular 1975 raid on the meeting of OPEC ministers in Vienna. With a handful of commandos, he stormed the conference and took the staff and delegates hostage. His plan was for them to board a DC-9 and fly to each of the member nations, where their respective delegates would either read a statement of support for Palestinian independence or be executed, but he got only as far as Algiers before the plan fell apart. Viewers disinclined to give Carlos five and a half hours would be well rewarded by sampling just the OPEC raid, which begins 95 minutes into part one. A relatively self-contained story with its own cast of characters, it’s both suspenseful and insightful, exposing Carlos as a man of high rhetoric but malleable commitment.
As written by Assayas and Dan Franck, Carlos is charismatic, passionate, and ruthless. “Anyone who resists will be executed,” he tells two men he’s recruiting for the OPEC attack. “Anyone who doesn’t obey our orders immediately will be executed. Anyone who panics will be executed. Even if a member of the commando doesn’t obey my orders, or doesn’t follow the instructions outlined in advance, he will be executed.” Taking advantage of a security breach, Carlos and five commandos will storm and subdue a conference of several dozen delegates. The potential for casualties is high, and though Carlos has already crossed over from civil resistance to armed violence, two German dissidents recruited for the operation stand on opposite sides of that line: the icy, pathological Nada (Julia Hummer) has already done time for shooting a cop, while the reluctant, idealistic Angie (Christoph Bach) wonders if he can kill for their cause. Carlos brushes aside any such reservations with the terrorist conceit that they’re soldiers: “We’re talking about the minimum military requirement of any revolutionary struggle.”
Fri 12/3, 4 and 8 PM (parts 1 and 2); Sat 12/4, 11:20 AM and 5:40 PM (parts 1 and 2), 3:10 and 9:30 PM (part 3); and Sun 12/5, 2:30 PM (parts 1 and 2), noon and 6:20 PM (part 3), Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, 773-871-6604, $15 for all three parts.
Carlos, condensed version Mon-Thu 12/6-12/9, 4:45, $9.25
