BY DANIEL BAIG | In a number of reviews which I wrote last year for CountingDown, I stated that, contrary to supposed conventional wisdom, 2001 was in no way a lousy year for movies, and that in fact the contrary was true. Well, 2002 is upon us and thank goodness the trend seems to be holding up. I've already seen a number of good to great films which will be opening in the weeks to come. (Some of them, like the gorgeous Behind The Sun and the extraordinarily moving Last Orders, had brief Academy-qualifying runs in Los Angeles in December, but will roll out in February and March.) Next week will bring the national (major markets) release of the terrific Storytelling, already open in New York and L.A. (look for my review then). Already playing in some cities and continuing to open through the spring is the acclaimed Taiwanese import What Time Is It There?, and also due in February or March is India's official Academy Awards entry, the wonderful Monsoon Rain.

And then seemingly from out of nowhere, totally under the radar, comes Tuvalu. Without the benefit of a major studio distributor behind it, it unfortunately doesn't have a high profile, but it's such a delight  for me, a delightful surprise  hopefully word of mouth will get people to go see it. It's already played in New York, where it had a very successful run, and it opens today (Friday February 01) in Los Angeles at the NuArt (a theater which has a new state-of-the-art sound system worthy of Tuvalu's complex sound design), and also in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, San Jose, and Berkeley. Next week it bows in Vancouver, Phoenix, and San Diego, and the following week in Houston and Honolulu. Check the releasing company's website (but wait a few days for it to be updated; I was told today that their webmaster is just getting over pneumonia) for locations.

You can also view the movie's beautiful one-sheet poster there.

I went in to a screening of Tuvalu knowing just about nothing about it, and fell in love with it. So I don't want to tell you too much, so as not to spoil its surprises for you either.

I will say that it's not your ordinary movie. It's not a silent movie, but it does somewhat echo the look [echo the look? Can I say that? Probably not.] of a lot of pre-talkie films in that it's in black-and-white which has been color tinted different shades according to mood and setting. [The pictures accompanying this review are in color, but they're photos that were taken on set.] There isn't a great deal of dialogue, but you know what? I didn't miss it. For Tuvalu is a comedy, and its humor is largely visual; its international cast of actors easily gets across the story and their thoughts and emotions with their facial expressions. (Acting classes could use Tuvalu as a training film.) When there is dialogue, it's sometimes in English, and sometimes in other languages. Sometimes it's been purposely dubbed badly, not exactly matching the actor's mouth movements, to further add to the faux-primitive feel of the movie.

Tuvalu is romantic, whimsical, at times suspenseful, and above all funny  but clever funny, not slapstick funny. One of the characters is an old man, no longer what he once was, but not willing to admit it. He works as a lifeguard at a swimming pool; unfortunately, he has gone blind. He seems to think nobody knows this, and that he is fooling everyone. He's not, but it hardly matters, as the pool doesn't attract too many swimmers anymore, and those that do show up aren't likely to cause or have any problems. To make him think his pretense is working, every morning when he takes his place on the lifeguard chair, his son, who also works at the pool, fools him. The son switches on a p.a. system which broadcasts the sounds of a pool crowded with laughing, splashing children. Periodically he'll throw something into the pool to make a loud splash, which allows his father to blow his whistle and point (with his cane) to the No Diving sign. The father also attempts to make himself look more like the man he used to be by wearing a judo outfit under which are airbags; every morning before he takes his post he has his son inflate him, so he'll look imposing.

Later on a murder occurs in the pool. The police make a floating white body outline on the surface of the water.

At one point our hero, played by French actor Denis Lavant  the star of the infamous Les Amants du Pont Neuf  is prevented from crossing a street because the walk signal indicates that only people wearing hats may cross. Before he even got to that point, he had another handicap to overcome: since his job is to take care of the pool, he always wears flip-flops. However, the rules state that flip-flops are only for around the pool. One can't wear them outside the pool building. So he never leaves the building. When he finally has to, he has to wear shoes, which he's never done before. Lavant is brilliant playing having to learn to walk in shoes, on a rocky landscape, in a great hurry as he's trying to get the girl before she becomes the Girl Who Got Away. It's silly, and shouldn't be believable, but it is, and while it's still silly, and funny, it's also moving.

This may all seem ridiculous, but Tuvalu takes place in a sort of alternative universe. This could be Krazy Kat's Coconino County, or the world of Jeunet and Caro's Delicatessen. As a matter of fact, Delicatessen is the movie which Tuvalu is most similar to. If you liked Delicatessen, or that filmmaking duo's subsequent The City Of Lost Children, you're sure to like this as well.

Tuvalu also reminded me briefly of The City Of Lost Children because of its terrific score, composed by Jurgen Knieper, which at times had the same sweet-but-eery (or eery-but-sweet) quality of City's music. Knieper's score, however, goes all over the place  literally. During a funeral sequence, silence is shockingly broken by a haunting, Bulgarian women's chorus-sung piece. Later on, the title song, a gorgeous original composition done Hawaiian slack-key style, holds out an almost mystical promise, to the characters and to the audience, of as-yet-unknown island dreams and adventures.

Tuvalu boasts terrific production design. One of its sets, a long tunnel staircase heading deep into the bowels of the earth, is especially memorable. Like the entire movie, it's lit brilliantly. A climactic action sequence impressively utilizes of vast quantities of water. Shooting lasted 70 days, 12 hours a day.

Tuvalu has won several pages of awards at film festivals around the world, including Best Cinematography at both Toronto (one of the world's top three film festivals) and Slamdance. Disney saw enough potential in Tuvalu and its young German director, Veit Helmer, previously known for technically dazzling and offbeat short films and commercials, to fund it under its Beuna Vista International arm, and release it throughout Europe. It was a hit in France, Germany, and Italy.

However, they didn't have enough confidence in it to release it themselves in the U.S., apparently thinking American audiences are just too averse to going to see anything unusual or different, no matter how good it is. That's why, though Tuvalu was actually completed, and released in Europe, in 1999, it's only now making its American appearance. I really hope enough people go to prove Disney wrong; none of them will be disappointed.

Tuvalu is being released with an R rating, which comes exclusively because of nudity in one scene. (There's no "bad language," and a total of one second of non-bloody violence.) This scene, as it happens, is a gorgeously photographed, lyrical aquatic dance of sorts in which the heroine, played by lovely and spunky Russian actress Chulpan Hamatova in an Amilie-like star-making performance, swims (in the nude) at night with her pet goldfish, in its fishbowl which she twirls around like a partner in a ballet. Although released everywhere else in the world with no problem, this scene had to be cut down in the U.S. to get rid of the NC-17 the asinine MPAA originally affixed Tuvalu with.

Grade: A

Note: Director Veit Helmer will be appearing at the 7:30 showing of Tuvalu Friday February 1^st at the NuArt theater in Los Angeles, along with "Shaye St. John," the cult entertainer (Shaye St. John and Kiki) who will be the star of his own movie later this year.