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France, Germany · 2010-2010
1 seasons · Completed
Rated NR · 333m, 319m, 330m
Director Daniel LeConte
Starring Alexander Scheer, Nora von Waldstätten
Genre Drama, Crime, War & Politics, Reality
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The unbelievable story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, spanning from his military beginnings in 1973 to his arrest, by French police, in 1994. This film tracks "Carlos"'s frightful rise to power, his raid of the OPEC headquarters in 1975, and his orchestration of a worldwide terrorist organization.
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Carlos is nevertheless a movie that one can somehow remember vividly for months. Much of this power is due to the whiplash widescreen cinematography (oft-mistaken for DV), the hopped-up editing, and, not least, Ramirez's aptly arrogant, fully transfixing, Method-style turn.
Los Angeles Times by Betsy Sharkey
Hypnotic and sprawling five-hour-plus piece of cinematic genius.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Shot by shot, scene by scene, it's a fluid and enthralling piece of work. I wasn't bored for a millisecond.
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
One of the high points of last month's Telluride Film Festival was, as I wrote at the time, spending 5½ hours in a darkened theater-with one short break around the four-hour mark-to watch Olivier Assayas's shocking and edifying epic.
Though it runs an epic five-and-a-half hours (it was made for French TV), Carlos books like no film since "Goodfellas." You will not be bored, ever.
Bravura narrative filmmaking on a hugely ambitious scale, Carlos is a spectacular achievement.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
A rivetingly journalistic account of a scoundrel's rise and fall.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
The movie crawls hypnotically into the skin of this global assassin and astonishes you with its brazenly violent and sexual audacity.
Carlos is mostly tense and thrilling, revealing the poisonous side of global citizenship.
Movieline by Stephanie Zacharek
It's a tricky feat, channeling the glamour of a famous international terrorist without glamorizing him. But damned if French filmmaker Olivier Assayas doesn't pull it off with Carlos.