Portland International Film Festival at Northwest Film Center. The following blurbs are simply my reaction to the films as I saw them. Fair warning that it’s not meant to be a full-scale review or anything other than my own annotations.
Some of the notes relate to my specific interests (such as birds). Dates refer to date seen. As a member of the Silver Screen Club, I get to attend some press screenings before the festival actually starts so the dates cover the whole month of February. Ratings are based on 1-5 scale with 5 being best. Ratings are generally in comparison to each other, not to the whole world of films.
Link to list arranged by title with scores.
1/31/11
Silent Souls — Russia — 3
Interesting but strange, almost dreamlike, vignette of two men of Merja heritage tending to the deceased wife of one of them. Emphasis on the beliefs and traditions of the Merja people and their relationship with water. Merja is a former Finnish property that became part of Russia. Part road-trip film in that they travel a considerable distance with the body to prepare it and send it off in a traditional fashion. Present day events are intercut with events of Aist’s childhood and the death of his mother.
As a side-note to birdwatchers, a pair of caged buntings are also along on this trip and play a role.
1/31/11
Kawasaki’s Rose — Czech Republic — 3.5
Well-known psychiatrist is to be honored with an award for his stand as a dissident during Communist rule, but as a film crew (including his son-in-law) is shadowing his daily life, more secrets are discovered. Cost of cooperating with totalitarian authority in the form of the Czech secret police, the line between being interrogated and becoming a collaborator, guilt, the tricks of memory, family resentments — all play a part in the ensuing events. The present never escapes the past. One of the other characters, Mr. Kawasaki, is a Japanese artist whose life has been drastically changed by the murder of his family when poison gas was released in Tokyo subway. That plot point seems kind of tacked on — as do a few other parts such as the granddaughter stealing chocolates and the strange 3-way conversation between husband/wife/mistress.
Title, according to an interview with the director, also refers to an origami design that’s one of the hardest ones to make — a metaphor for looking at this plot from all sides. Bořek, a sculptor who was forced to emigrate by the secret police, is played by well-known photographer Antonín Kratochvíl who had experiences himself with the secret police as a young man.
Several funny lines: Boring people are worse than murderers.
2/1/11
First Beautiful Thing — Italy — 3
La prima cosa bella
Film opens as a woman at small-town festival in early 70s is pulled out of the crowd to be declared the winner of the Summer Mama contest. Her husband and children are watching — the little girl pleased, the boy (Bruno) scowling, and the husband wanting to take offense at other men looking at his wife. Anna is both pleased and bothered by the attention, but her husband is so incensed it leads to their separation. Anna takes the children and begins a kind of wandering life and a seris of liaisons.
Film switches to present day where Bruno is a less than energetic teacher who avoids responsibility. The problem is that his mother is dying and he’s forced to go visit her. Film switches back and forth between present day and Bruno’s memories of his childhood. Unfortunately some of the flashbacks are too abrupt and it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on when. It’s never clear why Bruno is less than happy with his life.
2/1/11
Incendies — Canada — 5
Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) leaves instructions in her will to her twin children, Jeanne and Simon. Those instructions will force them to travel from their home in Canada back to their mother’s homeland (which turns out to be Lebanon) and find out more about their family history than they had known existed. One set of instructions is to find their father and give a letter to him (this being a surprise to them because they didn’t know he was alive) and the other letter is supposed to go to their brother (again a person they didn’t know existed).
Film switches back and forth from present day — showing Jeanne’s trip to the Middle East — and Nawal’s life as a young girl. I found this a little disconcerting mostly because the two women do look alike (as you would expect with mother and daughter) so I momentarily missed a couple of transitions. The modern scenes aren’t quite as good as the Nawal story flashbacks. There are a number of plot twists and turns, generally well handled although the coincidences do get a bit deep. The back and forth cutting also means that we already know the answer to a lot of the mystery. One other disconcerting this is that the film is in major chapters — with screen titles for each one. The actual film name doesn’t appear until the end, which confused some of the people at the showing I went to. The main points about not being able to hide from the past and about the continuing repetition of senseless violence are still valid. Powerful film with excellent cinematography. Based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad.
2/2/11
His & Hers — Ireland — 1
OK but not appealing to me. Series of vignettes of middle class Irish women ranging from baby toddler stage to old age. Older girls and women talking directly to the camera, often about the men in their lives. Only a few shots of men — the focus is on women.
Segments were well woven together. Irish is a little hard to follow at times but don’t think it makes a big difference. Note that many people at the screening I saw thought this was wonderful and charming, others thought it suitable for taking a nap. Interestingly, a number of people who were vehemently against it were judging the life choices of the women, not the actual filmmaking.
2/2/11
Of Gods and Men — France — 4.5
Based on a true story about a small group of Trappist monks in a village in Algeria in the 1990s. These monks are part of the community, providing medical care and sometimes shoes to the local villagers, and are on good terms with the village Muslim leaders. Their mission seems to be to build relationships not make conversions to their faith. As an Islamist terrorist group makes strikes in the area, the monks are concerned for their safety as well as the Christian villagers. The Algerian government insists they must leave the country for their own protection — and wants to set a guard around the monastery, which they refuse.
On Christmas Eve, when members of the terrorist group appear demanding medical assistance, the monk’s leader, appropriately named Christian, is able to prevent harm by impressing the terrorist leader with quotations from the Koran. The uncertainty about when they will return hangs over the group and each monk considers his path. Should he flee back to France or stay in the village.
2/3/11
Son of Babylon — Iraq — 3
Wilful boy and determined grandmother on a kind of road movie trek across Iraq to try to find out what happened to his father who disappeared during the Gulf War. Film is set in 2003 just after the fall of Saddam when many mass graves were being found in sections of the country and more than one woman is looking for a mising husband/brother/father. Ahmed (Yasser Taleeb) isn’t too sure he wants to be on this journey and tries his grandmother’s patience. Sometimes, however, he has to take charge because he can speak Arabic while his gradmother only speaks Kurdish. They make their way by fits and starts to the prison where she hopes her son has been imprisoned, but he’s not there.
Not strictly realistic because everyone they meet is unusually willing to help, making the film seem a little more lke a parable and less like a current story. Some people found the boy irritating but he seemed pretty much like a regular 12-year-old, intent on his own projects and often quite exasperating, but a strong performance by Yasser Taleeb. He can’t really remember his father because he’s been gone so long, but his grandmother needs to make this trip since she knows her health is failing.
2/3/11
First Grader — Great Britain — 5
Based on the true story of Kimani N’gan’ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo), an 84 year-old who turned up at a local school one day when the new Kenyan government announced free education for all. He never had a chance to learn to read, and now he wants to be in first grade. The teachers try to tell him it’s not possible and give him various conditions to meet. He does what they say, gets pencils and a uniform, and turns up at the school each day. Finally teacher Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) decides to let him stay.
As we learn more about Maruge, we also see some flashback scenes from his days as a Mau Mau fighter against British imperialism in the 1950s and 1960s. The current events are take place in a small, not wealthy village, and we see the conflict between the local people and the big city officials who run the education department. We also see plenty of bureaucratic dithering and some tribal discrimination.
Filmed on location and uses a real Kenyan classroom. Many of the events are true but some are clearly fictionalized.
2/4/11
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle — Romania — 3
Social realism story of a prison for teenaged offenders somewhere in the country. Silviu (George Pistereanu) is almost due to be released after being there 4 years for some unspecified crime. He seems to be a good kid, within the definitions of the prison, and is looking forward to being released, even flirting with the sociology student who’s working on some kind of school project there. But Silviu becomes more and more upset when his younger brother (who seems about 12) visits and tells him their mother has come back to town and wants to take the brother back to Italy with her. Silviu is convinced this is a bad idea — she’s certainly not provided much in the way of mothering or support, and it seems like he’s been in charge of his brother for years.
We can tell something bad is going to happen — Silviu starts breaking the rules and doing his best to figure out any way to keep his brother away from their mother. Silviu isn’t really hard core and George Pistereanu does a good job of conveying that combination of bad boy and youthful naievete. This is apparently his first acting role. Most of the other prisoners are real inmates in juvenile detention facilities.
2/4/11
Certified Copy — France — 3.5
Definitely not what I’d call a French movie. Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami in his first film outside of Iran and apparently his first with professional actors. In French, Italian and English, set in Tuscany. There’s a lot of talk — about whether a copy is as good as the original. Juliette Binoche plays an unnamed woman — an art gallery owner who has moved to Italy from her native France — who takes an English author out to visit a small town. She seems overly emotional about everything. Is this someone she just met — or not. Is it at least partly about communication between men and women. There are many reflections — both in the dense conversations reflecting on their views and literally in the car windows reflecting the passing street scene and Binoche gazing out a window — or maybe looking at her own reflection.
Whatever the answers may be, I found the film interesting but not compelling.
2/7/11
Boy — New Zealand — 4.5
Coming of age story set on East Coast of New Zealand, where director Taika Waititi grew up. This is Waititi’s second feature film, the first being Eagle vs. Shark. Story takes place in the 1980s when Michael Jackson is the most important figure any of them can imagine. Boy is about 11 and he and younger brother Rocky live with their grandmother and some other children, presumably cousins. Their mother died when Rocky was born.
Waititi plays the role of Alamein, the father of Boy. Boy idealizes him, imagining him in all sorts of important roles out in the world, even as the friend of Michael Jackson. But when Alamein returns after years away, it turns out he is a not very effective small-time criminal. Boy has to come to grips with that reality. And this is a film where you can say they literally do “dig up the past.” Very funny.
In 2010 Boy became the top-grossing New Zealand film of all time. Be sure to watch the ending dance number.
2/7/11
Human Resources Manager — Israel — 3.5
Human Resources Manager at a large bakery in Israel sets out to return the body of a worker (Yulia), killed in a suicide bombing, to her homeland in an unnamed country that seems to be Romania. There it turns into a combination comedy/road trip with an eclectic cast including the woman’s son, who insists that her body must go home to his grandmother, and a newspaper reporter who’s just making sure the bakery does the right thing. The bakery is involved because the woman’s body was unclaimed for several days and it appears that the bakery didn’t even know she hadn’t been to work.
Bureaucratic bungling is guaranteed and also some creative rule-breaking. Based on a novel by Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua. Interestingly, the only person in the film who is actually given a name is Yulia. Everyone else is referred to by a generic title, such as Human Resources Manager. I didn’t really notice this as I was watching it, only later when I looked at the character list. There’s no overt political message but someone makes the cryptic remark that Yulia isn’t the first foreign worker to come home from Israel in a box and she won’t be the last.
2/7/11
A Family — Denmark — 4.5
En Famille
The family referred to is the Rheinwallds, owners of the Rheinwald bakery, who have been premier bakers for four generations. However the current generation isn’t really interested in baking.The central story is about Ditte, the daughter, who is the only one who seems like a possible heir to the bakery but who runs an art gallery and is contemplating a move to New York. Then her father, head of the family and the main force in it, finds out he has a brain tumor and she has to decide whether to stay to be with him or go to New York with her boyfriend.
There’s an abortion side plot and some kind of conflict between the daughters and the new wife (father decides to marry his longtime companion after his medical problem is revealed). One issue that comes up, then disappears, is that he wants to come back home from the hospital and his new wife doesn’t want to take care of him at home. The father seems to represent the old ways, where working in the family business and taking care of family first is an honor, versus the newer ways of finding your own new life. Ditte is in the middle of that transition and there are no easy answers that make everyone happy.
Good performances but the storyline seems a little convoluted and wanders quite a bit, perhaps deliberately.
2/8/11
Aftershock — China — 3.5
Story of a family devastated by 1976 earthquake in Tangshan which killed an estimated 240,000 people. It’s melodrama but one that you’re willing to be pulled into. The first mother (it gets complicated) is played by Fan Xu who tends toward the maudlin but most of the other actors are more restrained. Interesting note that Fan Xu is the wife of director Feng Xiaogang. Some of the overwrought worrying about children and family guilt is more typical of that society than an ordinary Western one.
Film opens with the earthquake and the mother’s wrenching choice — her twins, one boy one girl, are trapped under a slab of concrete and only one can be saved. Her choice and the the effect it has on all three of them are the real aftershocks of the film. Story covers their lives for the next 32 years.
Earthquake scenes and the crumbling buildings are impressive. This is apparently the first film to play on IMAX in China and it has drawn large crowds there. Shot in Tangshan and in some of the scenes where there are ceremonies to remember survivors of the quake, the director recruited actual survivors as extras.
2/9/11
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives — Thailand — 0
Didn’t enjoy this film at all. There were a few (very few) interesting shots, but a huge part of it was taken up with wandering through dim forests or sitting around a table in dim light. This may qualify as dreamy but not a kind of dream I want to have. Some of the creatures were interesting — like the ghost monkeys — but not interesting enough.
Uncle Bounmee is dying with a kidney disease and is visited by a number of people — some apparently real such as his sister-in-law, and some who are ghosts or alternate incarnations of family members who have died. Some of the things that happen may or may not be visions of his previous lives.
Huge success at Cannes and definitely an individual response among filmgoers at PIFF.
2/9/11
In a Better World — Denmark –5
original title Hævnen which means “The Revenge”
2011 Golden Globe Best Foreign Film
Film opens in an African refuge camp where Anton is a contract doctor. He works there for a few weeks dealing with the victims of continuing violence, then goes home to Denmark to his wife and two sons. He and his wife have a problematic relationship and the older boy, Elias who is about 12, is being bullied at school.
William Jøhnk Nielsen is excellent in his film debut as Christian, a young man who is mad at his father and the world because his mother died of cancer and who is set on revenge. He and his father move back to Denmark and he meets Elias at the local school. Both are misfits in that particular school and become friends. Christian is set on his own purposes and puts a stop to the bully who’s terrorizing Elias and other kids. Elias goes along with him, mostly it seems because he’s so happy to have a friend.
Fear, revenge, pacifism, violence — which options do we pick, and how do circumstances change what we choose.
2/10/11
La Pivellina — Austria –3
In Italian.
Social realism slice of life about a couple who work with a traveling circus and live in a trailer park somewhere at the outskirts of Rome when they’re not working. As the woman (Patty) is out looking for their dog who has wandered off, she finds a toddler sitting in the park alone. She takes the little girl home with her — an interesting choice considering that she should have notified the police — and finds a note in the child’s pocket saying her mother will come back for her. So Patty decides to just keep her for a few days. It’s not clear how long that few days turns into, but Aia/Asia becomes part of the family, against Walter’s better judgment. He wants to call the police, fearing some trouble with them if they don’t, but Patty convinces him to wait.
This is not so much a story as a series of scenes with the couple or their young neighbor playing with Aia or going places with her. Many if not all of the cast are nonprofessional actors and some are actual circus workers. Much of the dialogue was improvised based on a general idea of what the scene needed to include. There are no major events, just snapshots of life.
2/10/11
The Whistleblower — Canada — 4.5
Story based on Kathryn Bolkovac (played by Rachel Weisz), a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia n 1999. She signs up for that job in an effort to make enough money to move closer to her ex-husband and teenage daughter. She’s assigned to the Gender Affairs office and becomes interested in the treatment of several young girls who seem to be used as sex slaves. She eventually uncovers as sex-trafficking ring involving many high-ranking officials, including people in the UN group.
Weisz does an excellent job and it’s an important subject but film sometimes seems a little too formulaic and doesn’t build tension as well as it should to be a true thriller. Some scenes are definitely difficult to watch and others even more difficult to listen to. Vanessa Redgrave makes an appearance as the head of the Human Rights Office.
2/10/11
Potiche — France — 4.5
Trophy Wife (literal translation would be something like — vase that sits on the shelf)
Deneuve and Depardieu in a fun film that’s supposed to be in 1970s France and looks exactly right for that. Deneuve is Suzanne, a “trophy wife” who is suddenly pushed into a more active role at the umbrella business (an obvious nod to Umbrellas of Cherbourg) that had been owned by her father until she married. Her husband is not getting on with the workers and then has to be hospitalized — so she needs to step in temporarily.
Of course, their two adult children — played by Judith Godrèche as the conservative daughter and Jérémie Rénier as the liberal son, don’t really believe she can do it. Neither does her husband’s secretary, who happens to be having an affair with him. But there is one person who believes she can — that’s Maurice (Gerard Depardieu) who is the mayor, a labor union activist and a former love interest for Suzanne.
Not deep by any means — but very pleasant froth.
2/11/11
Four Times — Italy — 3.5
Le quattro volte
Charming slice of life of quiet Italian village — no dialogue. Sounds are goat bleat, sheep bells, dog barking and wind in the trees. What we see is members of the community going about their daily routines — almost a documentary feel but not quite. We see an elderly goatherder — whose goats go on about their business when he’s not there. Goats are hilarious — inquisitive and causing trouble when left to themselves.
The four times apparently refers to the four seasons of the year, and we see the village activiities during those times of the year, but we’re left to figure out for outselves what exactly is happening. Four times may also refer to a belief in the fourfold migration of souls from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. There’s also an almost literal interpretation of “dust to dust, ashes to ashes.” The old man takes dust from the church sweepings as a treatment for his cough. And the final phase of the life of the tree is to be made into charcoal, which then goes to heat the buildings.
2/11/11
Housemaid — South Korea — 4
Young woman goes to become a maid/nanny in household with a young daughter and a mother pregnant with twins. Husband is rich, a very good pianist and accustomed to getting whatever he wants. There’s something vaguely creepy about him and it’s not really a surprise that he wants sex with the attractive young maid. There are no other men in the film except for brief appearance of two servants who drive him to work. Household is a world of women, including the very pregnant wife, her mother who is intent on keeping her daughter’s position, and the older housekeeper who sees everything. Part erotic psychological thriller, part soap opera, the film seems to be following a reasonable story line until the last few scenes, which struck me as a big finale that didn’t quite make sense.
Apparently a remake and variation on a well-known 1960 film of the same name. Striking use of color.
2/11/11
Heartbeats — Canada –3.5
French title : Les Amours Imaginaires
Francis and Marie are friends — then Nicloas turns up and both of them fall under his spell. They become increasingly obsessed with being with him, to the detriment of their friendship. Nicolas meanwhile gives very ambiguous signals — is he interested in either of them or just having fun. Their increasingly frantic attempts to attract Nico turn into farce. Hopeless crush, imaginary love, friendship, obsession.
Seemed long and a little too self-consciously artistic for my taste, but interesting to watch. Some witty moments, some just bitchy. Interesting use of music — especially Dalida’s version of Bang Bang. Francis played by director Xavier Dolan.
2/12/11
Behind Blue Skies — Sweden — 4
Coming of age story set in 1970s Sweden and based on actual events. The time period is set when we see an interview with a very young Björn Bjorg at the beginning. Hilarious opening sequence with Martin and a girl tell us something important about him.
Seventeen-year-old Martin (Bill Skarsgård) helps his mother take care of children while trying to prevent his father’s drinking. The wealthy parents of his best friend get him a summer job at a resort where they spend their summers. Once he gets there he doesn’t spend time with them as it seems he thought he might, since he’s not really in their social group. Since the boys are primarily friends from school, Martin may not have realized till that summer exactly how different they are. His friend goes off to play away the summer with his rich buddies and Martin goes to live and work with the other resort staff. But that lets him meet Jenny who is also working in the restaurant.
The resort manager, Gösta, soon has Martin doing a series of jobs for him and it becomes obvious that his many business interests are not all exactly legal. But he does have an actual relationship with Martin, something his father doesn’t provide. Those extra-legal activities are the ones that were based on a true criminal story. How their friendship unfolds and Martin’s take on the “grow up and accept responsibility” line that his friend’s father gives him leave us feeling that Martin really has grown up — and seems on a better path than those seemingly adult men around him.
Broader themes of class differences, loss of innocence and the strain of living with an alcoholic. Bill Skarsgård is the son of actor Stellan Skarsgård.
2/12/11
Good Morning to the World — Japan — 0.5
OK, so I did not stay till the very end of this film — made it through an hour of the 81 minutes before giving up. Interesting premise of a high school student who becomes obsessed with contacting the family and/or friends of a dead homeless man who had been sleeping in a road tunnel near the school.
I think the idea was to show the teen’s world expanding to include a bigger world, but execution of the idea and/or making it watchable did not succeed in my opinion.
2/13/11
Come Undone — Italy — 3.5
Cosa voglio di più
Anna (Alba Rohrwacher) is an accountant in Milan in a comfortable long-term relationship who is unexpectedly attracted to a waiter at an event she attended for work. He turns out to be Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino) who runs the catering company and is married with two small children. They both have crowded schedules, family obligations, and demanding jobs — which should be a deterrent to taking on another set of complications, but it isn’t. Domenico’s problems are a little stronger because he also has money issues — is he taking money from his family by spending it on trysts.
Film takes a look at the day-to-day realities and costs as deceptions and lies mount. Good job by the actors. The chemistry between the lovers is obvious as is Anna’s reluctance to proceed with the life she has — her boyfriend wants to have a child but we can see by her reaction to her sister’s baby that she’s not ready for that step. She seems trapped in a see-saw of indecision.
2/13/11
Peepli Live — India — 3
Breathless media coverage and political promises run amok. Two poor farmers, Natha and Budhia, are about to lose their land because of an unpaid government loan. A local politician tells Natha he could cover the loan by committing suicide, because there’s a special program to help the families of deceased farmers who were in debt. Budhia urges Natha to do “what has to be done.” Natha is a little slow on the uptake or he could have pointed out to his brother that he’s the one with the wife and children, so Budia should be the one to sacrifice himself. All of this goes on to the backdrop of Natha’s wife trying to run the household while under constant verbal assault from her mother-in-law who has nothing good to say about her.
This story may be based on some actual events in the ’90s but is blown to laughable proportions here by the sheer over-the-topness of the media coverage. Once they hear that this poor farmer has announced he will commit suicide to protect his family, the reporters and TV crews appear from everywhere to camp out in the village of Peepli to await developments. Poor Natha can’t even go to the toilet (which he has to do in the fields because they have no other facilities) without being watched. Politicians also turn up, hoping to demonstrate that they care about the small farmers.
First feature from writer-director Anusha Rizvi.
2/14/11
How to Die in Oregon — US — 4.5
Excellent documentary on the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, which allows people under a terminal illness to be prescibed a drug regimen that can be used to end their life at a time of their choosing. There are very specific criteria for obtaining and using such a prescription which the film covers clearly. Though often referred to as physician-assisted suicide, it’s not so much suicide as the ability to choose the time for a death that is already inevitable. Also the person taking the medication must be able to take it himself, no one else can administer it.
Much of the film follows Cody, who has been diagnosed with liver cancer and given 6 months to live. How she plans to end her life and the difficulties of knowing when the right time has come mean that this is a troubling and wrenching film, but well worth seeing. Another section gives the story of Nancy who worked on getting a similar law passed in Washington State after watching her husband suffer an excruciating death from brain cancer.
Produced by HBO and will be shown on regular HBO channels later this year.
2/14/11
Poetry — South Korea — 4
Mija (Yun Jung-hee ) is the grandmother of a generally surly teenager who lives with her. She’s a small unremarkable woman, getting through her work as a caregiver for a disabled man, and doing her best for her grandson. No explanation is given for why he lives with his grandmother — it’s just her life as it is. We see her at a doctor’s appointment, where they tell her she is showing early signs of Alzheimer’s. And we hear her telling someone on the phone (presumably the daughter who is the mother of the boy) that the doctor says she’s fine. A notice about a poetry class catches her eye and she decides to sign up for that — perhaps to find something to make her life better, we don’t really know why she picks it. But the poetry instructor tells them they have to learn to really look at the world around them — and that each person must write a poem for the class.
Then Mija finds out that her grandson has been involved in a crime and the fathers of the other boys involved tell her she has to pay a certain sum of money as her part of the deal to keep this crime covered up. How she deals with that as well as how she looks at her own situation is really the point of the film. The pacing is slow and I thought that some of the poetry reading could have been left out — it didn’t seem to add much to the story and made the film overlong.
Yun Jung-hee is a semi-retired Korean star who has been in many films and came out of retirement to do this one.
2/14/11
Armadillo — Denmark — 1
Documentary
Another in a series of films in this year’s festival that come from one country but basically all the action is in a different country. Armadillo refers to an Afghan army base where a group of Danish soldiers are stationed. They are all volunteers but apparently some of them thought they would be going to the Balkans, so they didn’t really choose Afghanistan. Their daily life is mostly routine boredom punctuated with bursts of adrenaline. Most of them seem to be around 20. When they go out to talk to the locals, which is part of their mission, it’s clear that there’s no way for them to tell somewhat friendly Afghans from the Taliban sympathizers. Either way, the local crops and animals are being destroyed, and the Afghans have no idea how long the troops will be there.
Filmmaker Janus Metz and cinematographer Lars Skree spent six months with them. Metz said in an interview that part of the motive for the films was to understand how soldiers become addicted to the adrenaline of combat and why they would choose to re-enlist despite their experiences on the ground. Although these are primarily non-fighting troops, they did have one incident where members of the Taliban were killed. The adrenaline from that incident plus the reaction from Danish homeland when someone mentions the killing in a boastful way on a telephone call are captured by the filmmaket without comment or editorializing.
2/14/11
White Meadows — Iran — 2
Rhamat travels around the island collecting tears, although no one seems to know why or exactly what he does with them. We find that out, but not ill the end of the film. On this trip, he arrives to collect the body of a young woman which is preserved in salt, to transport her to the place bodies are kept. They have not buried her because she was so beautiful the elders were afraid young men would dig her up just to look at her. After rowing some way with the body, Rhamat yields to temptation and takes a look at the body — which turns out not to be a body but a young boy who has hidden there in order to get off the island.
Further along their journey they find an artist buried up to his neck in salt — because he refuses to consider that the only “true” color of the sea is blue. As an artist he insists it can be many different colors. The elders in his village decide he needs to be taken away, to prevent infection of others with this idea. All of this is a kind of allegory about Iran and artistic suppression, which makes it kind of surprising that it made it into any kind of distribution.
Shot on location on Lake Urmia; amazing cinematography by Ebrahim Ghafouri
Director Mohammad Rasoulof and editor Jafar Panahi were both arrested for “collusion, and propagandizing against the regime” and held for varying periods of time in 2010. Then at trial they were given prison sentences of six years each and 20 years prohibition from writing scripts, directing films, granting interviews, or leaving the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sentences had not yet been started in early 2011 but they could be taken at any time.
2/15/11
Light Thief — Kyrgystan — 4
Svet-ake–which literally means “Mr. Light”
Svet-ake (played by director Aktan Arym Kubatis) the electrician in a remote village in the Kyrgyz mountains who helps his neighbors with both the constantly short-circuiting electricity and their personal problems. Sometimes that help takes the form of illegally getting electricity for those too poor to pay. He dreams of bringing cheap, wind-powered energy to the valley. Progress or at least it seems so, is represented by Bekzat, a local who has returned to his native village looking to buy land and go into business with Chinese investors. There is inevitably a clash between the traditional ways and the coming progress.
Interesting views of Kyrgystan landscape and traditional dress as well as a sequence featuring Ulak Tartysh, a sport played on horseback using the headless corpse of a goat as a ball. Film slow-paced but interesting.
2/15/11
Double Hour — Italy — 4
La doppia ora
Psychological noirish thriller. We see Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport), a hotel maid, witness the death of a guest and then, about a month later, we see her speed dating where she meets Guido (Filippo Timi), a former cop who’s working as a security guard. There’s a connection in these two things, but it takes a while before we understand what. Perception isn’t everything and nothing is quite what it seems. Maybe we don’t know which side of the double hour (as in 10:10) we’re in. Or maybe the double hour question is one of romance versus sinister activity.
Twisting plot fits together nicely. First feature by Giuseppe Capatondi.
2/15/11
Steam of Life — Finland — 4
Documentary — Miesten vuoro
Maybe it’s something about the steam, or just sitting around naked, but a sauna seems to be the place that Finnish men can talk about the things that matter to them. Allowing the filmmakers to film them naked isn’t nearly as revealing as the stories they tell about their lives, their hopes and dreams. And the others men in the sauna just allow them to talk. No one is trying to solve their problems or make comments.
Most fun part of the film is the sheer diversity of spaces you can turn into a sauna. I was particularly entranced the the phone booth one — which looked to be on wheels so you could move it to another area.
2/15/11
My Joy — Ukraine — 3
Black comedy/horror with the emphasis on black and horror, not so much comedy. Ostensibly story of a truck driver who is just rying to get from one town to another and gets caught up in a series of incidents along a particular stretch of road in the Russian back country. It’s not clear where he’s meant to be, but the story is a fable about Russian history in general and the repeated wars that have worn the country and the people down. Seemingly random acts of violence — some taking place inside a story of earlier incidents from right after the war. Corrupt traffic inspectors, crazed ex soldiers, mute boy who may or may not be one of the people we see at multiple ages. Hard to keep the characters straight since the time period changes and many of them dress in the same cold weather hats and coats.
2/16/11
Black Bread — Spain — 3.5
Catalan title: Pa negre
Coming of age story set in rural Catalonia in the 1940s after the Spanish Civil War. Opening scenes are violent and disturbing, including cruelty to a horse. Ten-year-old Andreu (Francesc Colomer) discovers the bodies of a schoolmate and his father in the woods — the boy only having time to utter the word “Pitorliua,” which is the name of a supposed monster haunting the village, before he dies.
Andreu and his family belong to the losing side of the war and the local mayor and police believe his father is involved in these deaths. His father goes away — like most of the other men in the family who are either dead or in exile — and Andreu goes to stay with his grandmother and some cousins while his mother works long hours at a factory.
In trying to discover what really happened, Andreu discovers perhaps more than he wants to know about the lies and cover-ups going on all around him. The Pitoliua theme allows for some interesting supernatural touches and we hear the children talking about ghosts and monsters. Seemed to me to be at least one too many subplots — the consumptive boy living at the monastery tried to draw in a theme about birds and flying above your problems but was a little too obvious. Birds were a connector between Andreu and his father — we see several shots of various caged finches and also some dead birds and threats of killing the birds.
Title refers to the black bread that the peasants eat — not the white bread reserved for the mayor and the rich family. Winner of 2011 Goya Award for Best Film and Best Director (Agusti Villaronga). Also Best Actress for the mother Nora Navas and Breakthrough Actor awards for Francesc Colomer and Marina Comas (who plays his young female cousin, Núria.
2/16/11
Passione — US — 2.5
Documentary by John Turturro on the musical background of Naples. Really seems to be more a series of performances (staged not live) strung together with a little commentary. Interesting enough if this is your favorite kind of music, but not enough commentary for a true documentary. Probably should be classed as a love letter to Naples.
2/16/11
The Robber — Austria — 4
Der Räuber
Based on the true story of marathon runner Johann Kastenberger who robbed banks as a kind of hobby. Clearly Johann needs the adrenaline rush provided by running or by the perils of bank-robbery. There’s no real correlation between his running and the robberies — except for the fact that being a marathon runner is a good escape route — so the police have no reason to make a connection. He’s clearly not in in for the money, which seems to mean nothing to him. Is he running to escape or running to find himself or just running because he can’t imagine anything else. We don’t know the answer to that. It’s a psychological study of near constant motion, well played by Austrian actor Andreas Lust who was in Revanche.
2/16/11
Young Goethe in Love — Germany — 4.5
Masterpiece Theater kind of version of mostly true story of Goethe’s early life and his time as a law student. He only wants to write poetry but his father insists on a respectable profession and sends him off to be a law clerk in the country. He falls in love with a young woman, Lotte, who is engaged to another (in the film she is not yet engaged when he meets her, and several of the events in the film relating to her surely never happened). Between his romantic yearnings and the similar travails of a fellow law student, Goethe writes what will become his first famous work, The Sorrows of Young Werther.
The ending may also be overstaged, but Young Werther was indeed one of the first cult novels — it had a huge following in Germany in the late 1770s and there were more than a few suicides for love, inspired by the book. All in all, a good film that may inspire a younger generation to be curious about Goethe and his work. But don’t take it as a documentary.
2/17/11
Illégal — Belgium — 4
Tania is a young Russian woman living with her teen-aged son in Belgium without benefit of official papers. When she’s turned down for citizenship, she burns off her fingerprints with an iron and gets new fake papers through her landlord. She’s picked up and detained but they can’t determine where to deport her to — since she won’t talk and the fingerprints are less than conclusive.
Most of the film takes place in the detention center and Tania’s attempts to escape — including giving the authorities the name and country of a friend as her own. That turns out to be a mistake — her friend had already applied for asylum in a different country and was on file. Not to mention that this action will likely cause the friend a whole lot of trouble if she’s picked up.
OK but too much hand-held camera action and perhaps too one-sided. Treatment of people in the detention center seems a little sensationalized. Anne Coesens (Tania) is married to director Olivier Masset-Depasse
2/17/11
Last Report on Anna — Hungary — 3.5
Utolsó jelentés Annáról
Peter, an academic who wants the freedom to go to conferences outside the country, becomes involved with the Secret Police. They want him to visit Anna, a leader of the opposition who has been living in exile for many years, and persuade her to come back to Hungary, as a kind of validation that the new Communist regime is OK. Based on the real life story dealing with Anna Kethly (Eniko Eszenyi), a Socialist politician. Peter has some access to her because his uncle was once her lover. Once Peter meets Anna and learns some family history he didn’t know, he begins to have doubts about going back to Hungary himself.
Some of the time shifts are confusing since the film opens near the time of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall — and then goes back to the ’70s when the trip to visit Anna takes place. That frame is to allow Peter to tell his nephew that since things are opening up, he will soon hear things about Peter and his activities for the Secret Police. During the segments with Anna, we also see flashbacks back into her days in Hungarian politics.
Film is as much about memories as it is about politics.
2/17/11
Even The Rain — Spain — 3
Film within a film — film crew in Bolivia to make a new film about Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Many of the extras are local Indians, hired because they’re a source of cheap labor for a film with a low budget, regardless of the fact that they’re nothing like the natives Columbus would have encountered. The drama about oppression of the natives by Columbus is overtaken by the real drama of the Bolivian Water War. In spring of 2000 the Cochabamba water supply was privatized — causing thousands of the locals (including most of the film extras) to protest in the streets. Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) plays an Indian rebel in the film and is the real-life leader of the protest, which puts the film in jeopardy.
In addition to the film staging and the news reports of the real-life protest, we also have members of the film crew making a documentary about the making of the film. So it’s a little confusing at times and the actual movie-making doesn’t seem to be particularly realistic. The evils of the government and producer Costa (Luis Tosar) seem a little too vividly black. And then he makes a decision that seems out of character with what has gone before.
The director Sebastien (Gael García Bernal) believes that their film will live on while the local water protests will fade from memory, so he treats the real-life drama as an annoyance and obstruction to his film. He believes in the oppression in the historical drama, but not so much in the present-day events. One interesting scene is when his script calls for the native women to drown their children rather than let the Spanish take them. The local women who are carrying their children can’t even imagine such a thing — they refuse to do the scene even after his insistence that they’ll substitute dolls and there’s no danger to the real children.
2/17/11
The Last Circus –Spain — 0
Balada triste
In theory this may be some kind of parody on the Spanish Civil War but it seems like an incoherent ultraviolent mess. Opening battle sequence is good but goes downhill rapidly from there. Two clowns attack each other vying for the affections of a beautiful young woman. Machete-wielding clowns don’t do anything for me. If you like dark humor and aren’t worried by clowns and pointless violence, you might enjoy it.
2/18/11
Of Love and Other Demons — Costa Rica — 2.5
Based on the novel Del Amor y Otros Demonios by Gabriel García Márquez. Tells the story of a young girl, the daughter of a nobleman in an 18th century Spanish colonial town in Colombia, who is bitten by a rabid dog and therefore presumed to be possessed by the devil. She’s already not exactly the norm since she’s been raised by a native nanny. Her mother has some mysterious illness and we hardly see her out of bed, so the girl grows up listening to native stories and playing with lizards, snails and insects.
I say tells the story but we don’t get much reason or context for most of what’s going on — and the scenes that are meant to show romance or love or obsession don’t convey much feeling.
Film looks lush and erotic, particularly her long curling red hair, even in a convent cell where she is kept chained to a bed while the priest tries to exorcise her demon. But the priest begins to believe she doesn’t really have a demon — and is at odds with the bishop over that as he falls in love with her.
Magical realism touches include the shared dream of a candle burning underwater.
2/18/11
All That I Love — Poland — 3.5
Coming of age story set in 1981 Communist Poland as the Solidarity movement is increasing strength. Janek (Mateusz Kosciukewicz) and his friends form a punk-rock bank called ATIL (All That I Love) whose songs express a desire for freedom. Their dream is to get their band accepted at some festivals. Janek’s father is in the military and his girlfriend’s father is under investigation by the state, so she is forbidden to see him. The wife of another Communist officer becomes interested in Janek and he lets her have a tape of some other band’s songs — not a good idea if they wanted to avoid trouble.
Janek’s father is not unsympathetic his son’s desires, but he is a miltary official. Janek has to learn that words have consequences, not only for him but for those he cares about.
2/18/11
When We Leave — Germany — 4
Die Fremde (literally the strangers)
Really more Turkish than German. Ulmay is living in Turkey with her husband and young son when she decides to leave him and flees to her family who have emigrated to Germany. However, leaving the family and the very idea of a young woman living alone are not ideas that her family can accept. Her actions bring shame on them in the eyes of the Muslim community. She’s setting herself up to be a stranger to them, and her son will be shut out of the community because he’s with her. As one of the women’s shelter workers tells her, they’ll never support you over the values of the community.
On some level, Ulmay can’t believe that. She knows, or should know, the rules and traditions that guide her family’s decisions but somehow thinks they will make an exception for her. She could give up her son, letting him go back with his father, but she refuses to do that. That sets up the rest of the tragedy — which is not far off from real events. This is melodrama but nicely handled in most respects, although end is a little strong.
2/18/11
The Princess of Montpensier — France — 4.5
Director Bertrand Tavernier does an excellent job with a period drama set in 16th century France during the Catholic/Protestant wars. Marie de Mezières is in love with Henri de Guise, but her father arranges for her marriage with the well-connected Philippe de Montpensier, which will further his political ambitions. Philippe is called away to fight and leaves Marie in the care of Count Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), who is charged with teaching her things she needs to know to be presented at court. Chabannes has deserted from the war because of what he believes is senseless slaughter and turned to his old student, Philippe, for assistance.
Marie is coveted by several men, including the Duke of Anjou, but always as a kind of property not for herself. A beautiful woman is valued much like any other possession. This is a period piece but not necessarily always a pretty one. The marriage night scene is very likely realistic, with the bride inspected by a crowd of people, all of whom wait for the act to be consummated and the deal between her father and his sealed. The battle scenes are also likely realistic, with women and children and horses killed along with soldiers.
2/19/11
Sawako Decides — Japan — 4.5
Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa — literal title is something like Hello From the River Bed.
Combination of deadpan humor and defiant mediocrity — we’re nothing special but doing our best. On her fifth job and fifth boyfriend in her fifth year in Tokyo, Sawako (Hikari Mitsushima) is a part-time slacker in a toy company with a subaverage boyfriend who wants to marry her and get a new mommy for his little girl. Sawako isn’t sure how she feels about this but her usual mantra is “it can’t be helped.”
But when Sawako’s father falls ill, she has to go back to her hometown to deal with the freshwater clam processing company. The female workers there don’t respect her because she ran away to Tokyo instead of staying with her father. Neither her uncle nor her boyfriend are of much use, so Sawako is ultimately forced to decide how to work out the problems with the company and with her father. Her rewrite of the company’s pep song (which they sing every morning) is an anthem for lower-middling workers.
I suspect this film is more startling in Japan, where aiming for the highest success is emphasized, than it is here. But Sawako’s idea of just accepting that you might be nothing special and doing your best anyhow is a refreshing change from many other empowerment films.
2/19/11
Circo — Mexico — 4
Documentary of Ponce family’s Gran Circo Mexico which has been in operation on the back roads and small towns of Mexico for over 100 years. Focus is not so much on the circus acts per se but on the difficulties of a small family business in an economic downturn and the relationship stresses of living and working with family in a very tradition-based business. Tino is the ringmaster and his children are learning the family business. However, his wife Ivonne is not from a circus family and is unhappy about the amount of work the children do and that they’re missing a “normal” childhood. She also feels that his parents are getting all the financial benefits and not sharing them.
Music by indie band Calexico was a great fit for the circus world.
2/20/11
How I Ended This Summer — Russia — 4.5
If I were giving an award for character I’d most like to shake and say “what in the world is wrong with you,” Pavel would win it. Beautiful cinematography — especially the time lapse pieces — set in the Russian Arctic where Sergei is a long-time meteorological observer, taking daily readings and maintaining logs with radio reports in to another larger station. Sergei is comfortable with the arctic terrain and knows how to live there. He’s been coming out to this station in the summers for many years, dating back to when there was a much larger crew with families out there.
Pavel (called Pasha) on the other hand is much younger, is clearly bored with the whole thing and seems to have been sent there as an assignment to see if the computer readings that he can get compare with the standard instrument readings. (It seems as if the practice of keeping a manned station out there may be on its way out) When he’s not hunched over the computer working with the data, he’s often playing video games. And when he’s outside he’s listening to music on headphones.
Sergei takes a break to go fishing and leaves Pasha to take the daily readings and report in by radio. While reporting in, Pavel is given some bad news about Sergei’s family and is supposed to tell him as soon as he gets back. This he completely fails to do and lies to the person at the other station. (This is the point where I wanted to shake him) That failure to tell Sergei critical information and the lies that pile up lead to a series of increasingly mad survivalist moves by Pasha. Maybe he was already a little over the edge already, with the constant daylight, the dangerous conditions (they have to carry guns against polar bear attacks), the emptiness of the landscape and Sergei’s obvious view that the old ways are better. Stress deteriorates into panic and paranoia.
Filmed at an actual meteorological station on the northernmost tip of Chukotka (aka Chukchi Peninsula) in extreme northeastern Siberia. In an interview about filming during the Arctic summer, director Alexei Popogrebsky said “Under normal conditions the magic hour lasts 40 minutes a day. In Chukotka, in summer, it lasts four hours.”
2/20/11
Katalin Varga — Hungary — 4
Revenge movie cycle set in the Carpathian mountains which could have been convincingly listed as a medieval period piece if the people hadn’t had cell phones. Katalin takes a horse and cart to another village (there are cars but she doesn’t have one) to try to get revenge for an event years earlier. Of course she wouldn’t have needed to make this journey if a secret had stayed a secret.
How that revenge journey plays out and how it affects Katalin and her son are the point of the story.
Score does a good job of making you believe bad things are going to happen.
2/20/11
7 Days in Slow Motion — India — 4
Fun look at what Ravi and his schoolmates attempt to do in the 7 days they have to use a camera before it has to be returned. These boys are about 10 and obsesses with movies, even though their mothers believe they’re studying diligently for exams, which will also be in 7 days. They decide to make a Bollywood-style film and thereby get to meet one of their idols, Ms Ray. One of the older cousins (17) would be ideal for the female lead but they find out she’s now engaged to a much older man. She’s not happy about this development either, since she wanted to go to college.
The various shenanigans involved in trying to shoot their movie and the effect it has when shown to the family are hilarious.
2/20/11
The Arbor — Great Britain — 3.5
Based on the work of playwright Andrea Dunbar whose work told the story of her West Yorkshire housing project. Most of the story is her two daughters remembering their childhood on the housing estate and what’s happened since Dunbar died. Dunbar’s plays were written when she was a teenager about coping with being an adolescent pregnant teenager with an East Indian boyfriend. Dunbar died at 29, after writing 3 plays but never making it out of the housing estate world.
Unusual aspect of the film is that the actors are lip-synching to the actual voices of the people who were interviewed. This makes it both more realistic and keeps the audience at a slight remove. Many of the scenes are staged in the street at the housing estate and actual residents are looking on. Some archival footage of Dunbar herself is also used.
2/21/11
A Somewhat Gentle Man — Norway — 4.5
When Ulrick (Stellan Skarsgård) is released from prison after 12 years, a guard urges him to just look forward not back. But he gets in touch with his old crew who fix him up with a job as a mechanic and a place to stay. Ulrick is nothing special to look at but is generally agreeable and apparently irrestible to women. Some of the funniest sex scenes I’ve ever seen. The complications with women, demands of his former boss that he get rid of the snitch that landed him in prison, and his attempts to reconnect with his son are all done with deadpan humor. Ulrick seems content to just go with the flow of whatever is happenng. I knew I was going to enjoy the interplay between film and background music when he walked into a coffee bar where Patsy Cline was playing on the music system.
Film posters advertise a “dark feel-good comedy” and that seems like a good summation.
2/21/11
Eastern Plays — Bulgaria — 3
Film doesn’t seem to be able to decide if it’s about a despairing artist who’s recovering from drug abuse but can’t seem to connect with his art anymore or a disaffected teenager hanging out with skinhead groups. Of course, they are from the same family but it’s not what you would call a close-knit family and Christo (the artist) is mostly estranged from them. After a night of arguing with his girlfriend, Christo stumbles onto a gang of street thugs attacking a group of tourists. He helps the tourists, getting beat up in the process, and realizes his brother is one of the gang. The good thing that comes out of this encounter is his meeting Isil, the daughter of the man who was attacked.
Christo Christov is not a professional actor but does a good job as the artist looking for a connection. Many of the scenes in the film are supposedly based on his life story. He died last year and the film is dedicated to him.
2/21/11
The Man Who Will Come — Italy — 3.5
L’uomo che verrà
Horrific story based on true events that took place in Mount Sole, Italy, in 1943-44. Film seems to me to push the sentimentality a little hard — having the lead character be a beautiful little girl who happens to be mute, operatic music that sounds like children singing, and romanticizing the lives of the peasants. Some of the events seemed confusing to me — we know that the atrocity will happen but it’s not always clear what’s going on. We also don’t see much in the way of what the partisans were doing that caused the Germans to deploy so many people to that particular village. In the more idyllic first half of the film, the Germans are there but they seem to mostly be getting wine and eggs and flirting with the girls. In the historical incident the village people are referred to as bandits — but most of those killed were women and children.
It’s not clear what the “man” in the title refers to — could it be the baby that’s born during the last few days, the Nazi soldiers, the partisan soldiers?
Beautiful photography of the countryside.
2/22/11
Cameraman, The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff — U.S. — 4
Documentary on the world of premier cinetamatographer Jack Cardiff, who came to photography from a background in painting. When camermen were being chosen to work with the new Technicolor cameras, he talked about painters and their use of light in his application, rather than discuss technicall details. Responsible for such films as The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death.
Documentary doesn’t really discuss his life, except for him talking about how he did various things and his intention to keep working till the end. He died in 2009 at age 94. Lots of film clips although they don’t seem to be orgaized in any priority way. Fun and interesting even if a little disjointed.
2/22/11
Honey — Turkey — 3.5
Bal
Story of a young boy in Anatolia who suffers from a stammer and is left out or made fun of by his schoolmates. He can read and talk to his father in whispers without stammering but doesn’t seem to be relaxed enough at school to read aloud. His father is a bee-keeper, tending hives that are placed high in trees. Yusuf, played by 7-year-old Boras Atlas, is a quiet and introspective child, drawn to the work of his father and his relationship to the natural world. It’s 2009 or later because he’s reading to his father from what sounds like an almanac, with notes about weather and the date.
When his father goes to a distant place to set up new hives, Yusuf stays home with his mother to help her with her work in the tea fields. When his father doesn’t return as expected, his mother starts trying to find out if anyone has seen him and what’s happened. She sends Yusuf to spend the night with his grandmother during the Mirac Night (the night of the Ascension of the Prophet). They continue to look for his father at the festival that is held in that village. Yusuf, who has never been a talker, stops talking almost completely. Yusuf has a lot of time on his own going back and forth to school and wandering in the forest when he’s not helping his father. This seems a little unusual to us for a six-year-old but probably is not unusual in that rural area.
This is the third in a trilogy of films about Yusef. The trilogy as a whole focuses on the development of a man and the relationship of a boy and his mother, loosely based on stories of director Semih Kaplanoglu’s own life. Director says he wanted to focus on the sense of time, which is being eroded by modern life. The three films are Honey, Milk, and Egg, but they’re done in reverse chronological order, sort of an extended flashback effect. So Egg deals with his Yusuf’s mother’s death and was filmed in 2006. The boy, Boras, was found by the director who happened to see him riding a bicycle. He spent his summer vacation in the mountains with the film crew.
Beautiful cinematography in lush forests although the dim interiors are a little too dark physically for me. Slow pace and no background music other than the calls of birds and other natural sounds.
2/23/11
A War in Hollywood — US — 3.5
Documentary — Hollywood contra Franco
Oriol Porta film about Hollywood’s involvement with the Spanish Civil War, mostly follows the life of screenwriter Alvah Bessie from his fighting with the Abraham Lincoln Brigades in 1937, his return to the U.S., and his blacklisting by the House Unamerican Activities Committee in 1947. Interviews with many filmmakers, including Arthur Laurents (The Way We Were) and Walter Bernstein, and numerous excerpts from the more than 50 films that relate to the Spanish Civil War as well as archival news footage.
2/24/11
Martha — Mexico — 2
Martha is single, in her 70s, lives alone and works for a small office. She spends part of her time taking care of a neighbor who has health issues. One day Martha is jolted out of her routine when the boss tells her he’s automating the job that she’s been doing for years. She’s supposed to assist the young woman hired to do data entry, but then she’s out of a job. At the same time, her neighbor takes a turn for the worse and her daughter insists that she move out of her apartment and to another town. Martha suddenly has nothing to live for and starts thinking about ending her life. Eva, the new girl at the office, tells her about various ways to commit suicide. It turns out to be more complicated than she expected.
Combination of surreal events, black comedy and the human problems of getting older. What do we do when we have arrived at the end? First film by Marcelino Islas Hernández.
2/24/11
Hermano — Venezuela — 4
Story of soccer-playing brothers who have a chance to get out of their barrio and play for a pro team. Film opens with Julio as a little boy when he and his mother find Daniel, a baby abandoned on a trash heap. They take him in and then we switch to 16 years later. The two boys are inseparable and play on a local team. Julio is getting involved in local crime, making money to support the family, while Daniel is still in school. Their mother hopes they can escape from that life.
They’re playing a game against another barrio when talent scouts from the Caracas team are watching, and there’s possibility of going pro. Then a tragic accident sets a different set of events in motion. Relationship between the two boys is believable. Dreams, commitment, family loyalty and the definition of what family means to each person.
Soccer games are well done (and I’m no soccer person), showing the frenetic action. This is director Marcel Rasquin’s first feature but he’s done music and commercial videos.
Picked up for commercial distribution by Music Box Films.
2/24/11
Brother and Sister — Argentina — 4
Dos Hermanos
Susana and Marcos obviously have a long history together. We first see them at a condo-association type meeting which is hilarious. Susana insists on ignoring the rules of the association and only wants her complaints addressed. Marcos lives with their mother and has evidently been taking care of her for several years, not that she appreciates it at all. Susana, who has never married, is very colorful, has a need for constant attention and admiration and is involved in several dubious real estate schemes.
When their mother dies, Marcos has a chance to live his own life, but Susana insists on selling the house and persuades him to move to Uruguay — where his money will go further. He’s used to being bossed around by his mother and sister, so puts up little resistance. Once there. however, he becomes involved with a local theater group and is in a performance of Oedipus Rex.
Some of the funniest scenes are their commentary to each other — particularly one where they hold a conversation while supposedly listening to people in the neighboring apartment talking and/or arguing. They’re talking about “those people” but the comments are really about them and their relationship.
Adapted from novel Villa Laura by Sergio Dubcovsky.
2/25/11
Chicogrande — Mexico — 3
Western based around events related to Pancho Villa’s failed attempt to invade New Mexico in 1916.Not so much about Villa as about the U.S. response, their attemtp to capture Villa, and the torture of locals to get information. The two Americans (Major Fenton who enjoys torture and the doctor who doesn’t approve of these methods) seem to be pretty sterotypical. The Mexican characters are more nuanced.
Main character is Chicogrande (Damián Alcázar), one of Villa’s men who is sent to find a doctor for the wounded Villa. He’s loyal to Villa and to his own sense of honor. Film is interesting but tries too hard to make some greater point.
2/25/11
My Life With Carlos — Chile — 3.5
Mi vida con Carlos
Germán Berger-Hertz’s father was executed by the Pinochet regime when Germán was only a year old. Now 30, Berger revisits the legacy of the man he never knew, interviewing his mother and his two uncles about the circumstances of his father’s death and their own responses to it and the Pinochet rule.
Documentary combined with first person narration, interviews and video of news reports of the era.
2/26/11
Crab Trap — Colombia — 3
El vuelco del cangrejo
A lot of people didn’t like this film because nothing happens. And I think that’s exactly the point. It’s uneventful with not much of a story, dropping a young man (Daniel) into an isolated village on the jungle coast of Colombia. Almost all the inhabitants of this village are of African descent — with one white man who is trying to develop a beach resort.
Daniel arrives there with no particular motivation, only asking to find a boat. He looks and acts depresesed, with no clear story about what he wants to do with a boat. The fishing boats are all at sea so Daniel waits, spending time with a young girl named Lucia who wants him to “buy lunch” from her mother. The locals are in serious economic trouble and Daniel is an outsider who has extra money. He, on the other hand, doesn’t care very much about the money; he seems more focused on some hoped-for escape.
2/26/11
The Man Next Door — Argentina — 3.5
There is one house in the Americas that was designed by Le Corbusier, in La Plata, Argentina. That house is occuped by Leonardo, a famous interior deisgner, who is incensed when his next-door neighbor (Victor) decides to knock a hole in the wall of his house to install a window. The window will look directly into the Leonardo’s house — and he and his wife fear it will infringe on their privacy and otherwise detract from the status of their famous house. The opening scenes of the sledgehammer and the wall cracking are great — my prize for best opening sequence. The neighbor is just a regular working class guy who wants to get some sun into his house, but the designer has no sympathy for that goal. On the other hand, he’s unsettled by Victor’s increasingly insistent and vaguely threatening attempts to come to some agreement.
Initially you are sympathetic to the designer — someone comes along and tries to disrupt what was a perfectly good arrangement. But along the way we see how Leonardo and his family treat everyone else in their lives, and you start to think maybe this isn’t a straightforward as you thought.
2/26/11
Carancho — Argentina — 3.5
Literal translation:: vulture or caracara
Sosa (Ricardo Darín) is one of many “vulture” lawyers who hang around hospital waiting rooms hoping to represent victims in the thousands of traffic accidents that take place in Argentina every year. On one of these he meets meets Luján (Martina Gusman), a young doctor working on the emergency service. Sosa is in debt to some very unattractive people and Luján has resorted to drugs to keep herself going during long days and nights in the medical system.
Director Pablo Trapero builds tension slowly; noir film elements with considerable violence and dark humor. Two main characters don’t seem to have much chemistry which makes some of their actions unbelievable.
Martina Gusman is Trapero’s real-life wife.
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