El Niño Pez

Posted on January 4, 2010 by Jt

El Niño PezEl Niño Pez
Lucia Puenzo :: Spain, Argentina, France :: 2009 :: 1h36

Lala (Inés Efron), the daughter of a judge, lives with her family in Buenos Aires. When she is 13 years old, a young outgoing Paraguayan girl by the name Guayi, comes to work in their house  as a maid. It is love at first sight, with their relationship blooming as they grow up. When they reach early adulthood their dreams of living on the shores of the Paraguayan lake Ypoa are on the verge of becoming reality, but a series of dreadful events changes everything, as they cascade into their lives. Going from bad to worse, desperation reaches Lala’s heart, fuelling her determination to get them out.

Two years ago, director Lucia Puenzo had surprised us with the intimate special-girl-growing-up drama XXY and her theme here seems to set off in the same direction. But El Nino Pez (The Fish Child) takes us off on an unexpected tangent. Although it starts off as delving into the complexities of love across the social class barrier, very quickly you find out that that is not where you are being taken. As the story unfolds, we see more and more of the general awkward relationship between the locals and their guest workers, actually sinking into the depths of depravity.

El Nino Pez gives a bleak view of Argentinian society, as  a nation collapsing under the weight of its impotence to protect its people. The corollary of such anarchistic society is that it brings out the worst in people – through the actions of some and the silence of others. You can take comfort in the power the love story, but their love also proves one other thing: that it is not enough for us all.

www.thefishchild.com (www.mk2.fr)

Filed under: America, Argentina, Europe, France, Spain | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

L’Iceberg

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Jt

L’Iceberg

Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy :: Belgium :: 2006 :: 1h24

Fiona (Fiona Gordon) works as the manager of a fast food restaurant in a prefab suburb. She leads a settled-in life with her husband and two children, which are like silent carbon-copies of themselves. One day, she accidentally locks herself into the restaurant’s freezer-room setting off a journey of introspection causing her to question the entire set-up of her life. It is a line of questioning which will push her to the pursuit of a dream: sitting on a real iceberg.

The film has been made as if it was a physical theatre piece where the audience moves their chair from one scene to the next to follow the action. At every scene, we can almost feel our own presence as we sit for the action, to see what will happen. The actors battle it out in the (usually) static frame of our view. When they walk out of our field of vision, we are forced to patiently wait for them to come back on the stage, where we can see them. It is a curious approach for a film, which brings in a spectator proximity which we normally only have with theatre.

Part of this theatrical approach, is a specific portrayal of the characters. They all barely speak, as if living in a mime world. To express themselves, the characters have lost some of their human complexities, to be able to expose their core. The approach works well in combination with the curious story.

From a grey north, to a postcard coastal town to a boat on an ocean. Fiona takes us further and further away from her home in a quest to find herself, taking us with her. I loved the experience, but must warn you that some effort is required when watching. But if you can handle that, the film should keep you smiling all the way through.

www.mk2.fr

Filed under: Belgium, Europe | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Avatar

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Jt

Avatar

James Cameron :: USA :: 2009 :: 2h41

On the faraway planet Pandora, a human mining company wants to move an indigenous population to be able to extract valuable minerals from under their village. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is sent in to attempt diplomacy before they resort to military force. The villagers get the point, listen to a few inspiring speeches and decide to fight back.

As you will have guessed from the summery, Avatar is not about the story. This is old-school blockbuster cinema: the story is just simple and customary, so that you not only do not have to think but there is nothing to worry about either. The movie is about showing-off special effects, which, as usual, can already be seen in the preview on their website. To fully understand this blockbuster strategy, let us search further for a moment: the site is integrated with YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook. And then there is the merchandising, even before the movie starts you will already have seen the spin-offs with Coca-Cola and games on your Playstation,  PSP, Xbox or even your iPhone. All this made me check with McDonalds and you can rest assured: they are also ready to cash in. I am sure Fox has taken care of the production of puppets, mugs and T-shirts for the holiday season too. This is all so tacky for a children’s movie, but does it still matter? Well, in a sense: yes it does.

The bad guy in Avatar is the mining cooperation (which incidentally shifts the blame of its immoral behaviour onto their shareholders). It is in their name that the planet Pandora is being destroyed and the villagers killed (or displaced). The xenophobic and ecological disaster which is the cooperation in the film, is reflected by the real life version (a conglomerate of US companies huddled around a copyrighted image cutting out others with an ephemeral, disposable product). The movie criticises what it represents itself – the use of capitalistic power to the detriment of others. The movie just pushes capitalistic behaviour further than its own production house does (with criminal consequences). But are we supposed to take a blockbuster movie seriously? But then if we discard the story and are prepared to ignore the moral message, then why should we bother going in?

There is actually an answer here: the dream world which is on the planet Pandora. It is absolutely magical! A civilisation which is as a mix of Amazonian Indian and African cultures with a holistic Gaia-type world view. They live in the trees in a Jurassic-ish rainforest world with wavy ocean-like properties. It is all credible enough and beautifully worked out (irrespective if you watch the 3D version or just the big screen). In a word, it is spectacular! The memory of the trip through their world makes me want to return. I think they might have a solution for that. On the playstation. Or on the iPhone…

www.avatar-lefilm.com

(www.mcdonalds.fr / www.coca-cola.fr / www.fox.com / etc.)

Filed under: America, USA | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

The Box

Posted on December 18, 2009 by Jt

The Box

Richard Kelly :: USA :: 2009 :: 1h55

It’s 1976 in small town USA. Southerners Norma and Arthur Lewis, a NASA scientist and a school teacher, live a comfortable life beyond their means with their son Walter. At the first set-back, Norma realises they have no financial buffer. A tall stranger appears at that exact moment to test their morals: he offers them a box with a button. If they press it, they will receive a million dollars and someone they do not know will die. They are not told how or who will die, but just that someone -they do not know- will die. The young couple stares at the box wondering what to do.

For those of you who think they recognise the plot, this is a feature length version of a famous Twilight Zone (1985) episode called Button, Button (from the short story by Richard Matheson). The original film was 20 minutes long, with some notable differences: there we were introduced to a stuttering Arthur and a chain-smoking Norma who live as a bickering working class couple in California, trying to make ends meet. The couple, when presented with the perverse choice, take opposing ends. Arthur is morally outraged by the idea while Norma is blinded by the prospect of the influx of wealth, hiding behind the anonymity of the obscure murder.

But the reason to push the button, poverty and misery, are removed in the contemporary version. The contemporary Norma and Arthur love each other, they are both healthy, living in a beautiful house, fully equipped with everything they could ever need, they go out to the theatre when they want to and even have a sports car and fancy clothes to boot. Under such circumstances, even a little set back should make you wonder what could that million add to their lives? Norma explains that it would “make it easier to live the life they want”, which makes you wonder what on earth they are missing. She says it would “provide security for their entire family”, but if they thought that was important, they would not have been living above their means. The final argument, is “are we ever going to leave Richmond?”. If the script had been a little more challenging, Arthur could have responded: “We have to kill someone because we never took the trouble to leave Richmond?” The reason to push the button is not there. Norma is fooling herself, succumbing under her own greed. And she is to realise it very quickly. But of course, too late.

The Box starts out as a stretched Twilight Zone episode brushed up with the contemporary Hollywood feel-good ethos (everybody is beautiful, wealthy, intelligent and loving) even if it does not suit the story. But as the film rolls on it starts to seem more and more like a M. Night Shyamalan movie. But then there are so many tangents, that you lose count. Some of them end up being storyline fluff while others become mysterious supernatural escapades. This is a wild moral adventure, best watched under cover of night, even if it is scarred by obscure lapses in logic. It is none the less enigmatically captivating, leaving the pieces in your head for assembly afterwards – even if you end up throwing the pieces on the floor because they do not fit.

www.wildbunch-distribution.com/site/thebox

(The Twilight Zone episode: www.imdb.com/title/tt0734727)

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Duel au Sommet

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Jt

Nordwand

Philipp Stölzl :: Germany, Switzerland, Austria :: 2008 :: 2h

Two young provincial army recruits in an early Nazi Germany, are challenged to climb up the Eiger. The mountain had never before been successfully scaled from the north face (Nordwand) and it would have been the perfect introduction for the showcase 1936 Nazi Olympic games in Berlin. While the propaganda machine waits in a five star hotel next to the mountain, the competing teams go up.

The advancement of the climbers Toni (Benno Fürmann) and Andreas (Florian Lukas) dangling from the icy rock is cut-up with scenes from the extravagant hotel down below, where we also find Toni’s childhood love Luise (Johanna Wokalek), as the aspiring (photo-) journalist. She is there with her Berlin boss, who oscillates from charming to Nazi and back again throughout the film. The contrast between the ostentatious luxury of the hotel life and the harshness of the mountain works beautifully, most of the time, although the real strength of the film is mountain photography.

Not only is the daunting steepness of mountain wall impressively portrayed, the unpredictability of its ascent is too. The men against the elements, with their frozen woollen mittens and home-made pegs give a taste of realism to mountain-climbing. The movie gives a taste of the excitement and immense difficulty of climbing, even if here it is enveloped in an air of rashness.

Bizarrely enough, for this day and age, the story has the feel of a Nazi propaganda film. The film is dominated by the heroism of the climbers. The subtle difference is perhaps that one of the two, Toni, is not in it for the glory but for the love of climbing. But even if they are not both climbing for their medal from Hitler, it is their courage and “noble savage” spirit which shines – not only doing their national duty of serving the Führer in his army but also having that unbreakable masculine outdoor courage in which the party prides itself.

When they accept the challenge, going to Switzerland by bicycle (700km!), we are shown two other teams which conclude that the weather conditions make the trek up impossible. It is curious that different teams of experienced climbers would have such divergent opinions on whether or not you can go up, but there you have it. It could have been dismissed as a tension builder, if it was not that the two teams which considered it reckless were the French and Italian teams, and those which considered it feasible were the German and Austrian teams. And then we discover that the Austrians are bungling amateurs. It all sounds painfully like a Nazi plot, but there is one other message which finally leaves the after-taste as you walk out: the futility of the pursuit of glory.

In the end, Duel au Sommet is about a mountain and a group of climbers. And it is there where the film excels. If you’re ready for icy rock and avalanches, you can not get much closer to the climbers than in this one. But be warned, the tip of your couch will seem like too close to the edge.

www.nordwand-film.de

Filed under: Europe, Germany, Other EU | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Limits of Control

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Jt

the limits of controlThe Limits of Control

Jim Jarmusch :: USA :: 2009 :: 1h56

A tall black man in a shiny suit (Isaach de Bankomé) is sent to Madrid. A few mysterious meetings later, he gets off a train in Seville. And then another stop. He is on a mission, or perhaps on several missions, taking him cross country over the Iberian peninsula. This is a film without a customary narrative, leaving you to paradoxically guess the ongoings. Paradoxically, because every step taken by our hero is meticulously planned and controlled. He, at least, knows what he is doing, with a silent, patient cool.

At times the film looks like an old-school 1970s thriller. At other times, we see carefully chosen images which look more like works of art photography than than part of a feature film. At again other times, the surroundings and characters are so painfully normal that it seems out of place with the rest. As you are taken along, you will notice that the same structure of the scenes is repeated, with little curious reminders forwards or backwards in time to create an overall harmony. Perhaps the aesthetic could have been even more formal than it was, as after all the whole film takes on an experimental role. The background canvases of the countryside might at times even have been fake, as it would not have mattered. Reality is a flexible notion in the film and could easily have been bent a little more.

Reconstructing the film in a cafe afterwards is a lot of fun, so try to avoid seeing the film by yourself. You can take the side characters, the locations and the sparse exchanges to reconstruct a world in which the different characters all have their own obsessions and interests. But somehow they all work together. This succession of characters who are “in” on the conspiracy, even originate from widely different horizons, apparently all motivated to work together against the final puppet-master, whose presence we feel intrusively hovering above us throughout the film. And make sure you are up for it too. If you did not catch it yet, the pace of the film is slow.

www.thelimitsofcontrol-lefilm.com

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La Vida Loca

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Jt

LaVidaLocaLa Vida Loca
Christian Poveda :: France, Mexico, Spain :: 2009 :: 1h30

In stark contrast to the tranquility of the little painted houses in a tree-lined suburban housing estate in El Salvador, a violent gang culture permanently kills, maims or has jailed the young of the community. With a rate of 9 murders a day amongst the young, the country is caught in a massive gang feud. The gangs, and the feud, originate from the 1980s run-down south central Los Angeles. The problem could have been contained, considers Poveda, were it not that in 1996, the US government (under Clinton) decided to send 100,000 convicted gang members from US prisons to central America. Combined with a foreign policy of supporting dictatorships and financing civil wars, the scene has been set for human tragedy.

The fearless photographer and documentary-maker Christian Poveda submerges himself into central America a decade later, into the underbelly of society. He managed to get permission from the Salvadorian police and one of the gangs, the “18”, to follow them in their lives. Four years later, La Vida Loca sees the light, taking you along the path of violent outcasts of society. And it is very different to what you might imagine.

The documentary takes us from the unfolding of someone’s life to their funeral after a shooting. It is an endless spiral of gang violence, with seemingly no point to the gang war whatsoever, other than that of having an enemy to unite them. Joining a gang is not even an alternative employer for the poor, as the gang does not offer any external symbols of success (wealth, privilege, whatever). In fact, the gang does not seem to offer anything at all but the prospect of death, jail or invalidity. Hardly the attractive option, but these youths are already broken by their lives. And change becomes inevitable with the gang tattoos (voluntary or forced) marking their allegiance. Once you are have your face covered in tattoos, you can no longer send your CV anywhere. They can not back down.

The film lets the youths talk for themselves. They talk about their broken pasts, of growing up without the guiding support of a family. They speak of the love they get from the gang. They talk, with a peculiar detachment, of passing from one social service (juvenile detention) to another (jail), exposing an existential loneliness at the impoverished fringe in which they live. The gang might not offer the flash of fast cars, bikinis and swimming pools, but it does offer loyalty, stability and a shared suffering. The love of the gang is a love which fills an emotional void, giving them a sense of belonging amongst their peers. The gang is so much an end in itself that its members do not even fear death for it, but rather they expect it. The gang is not the path to wealth, status or happiness but rather a goal in itself. An end. But their fearlessness does not come from a feeling of superiority, what you might expect, but rather from an all-round stunted emotional development born out of their misery. They are phlegmatic, almost accepting their fate as a given. And hence they can tattoo themselves, as a confirmation of their fate, as whatever should befall them would befall them anyway.

But some do try. Christian Poveda follows a re-insertion programme, where ex-gang members try to set up a bakery. We see them, the tattoo-ed ex-bullies, kneading the dough, we know they are serious about doing the right thing, of trying to improve their lives despite expectations. We see them pray, and talk with priests, but it is as if the words just float over their heads. When push comes to shove, who knows what they will do.

As tragic as the lives of the gang members are, as surprising it is to see that there is a normal society outside the walls of their lives. When they get hurt, they find themselves in a capable hospital, with all health services paid for by the state. When they find themselves in court, they are confronted with seemingly capable legal actors. When they are confronted with the police, they seem professional and organised. You might expect the gangsters to be aggressive ego-tripping characters, perhaps even with dubious contacts in the judiciary, but they are not like that at all. At least, they are not presented that way. When they are stopped by the police, they let themselves be searched or taken. When in court, they hear the court’s verdicts stoically, accepting their fate as givens. Of course it is that same stoicism which makes them untouchable, even from punishment. Everything is pointless.

Seeing the film today, so shortly after director Christian Poveda was shot dead in El Salvador, makes the film all the more moving. It is a unique chance to meet people you will never meet, and hear words you will never hear spoken. A look into a violent, criminal subculture normally hidden from view. A testament to a culture which so badly needs understanding, to, hopefully, one day rest in the past.

www.lavidaloca-lefilm.fr

Filed under: America, Europe, France, Mexico, Spain | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Sin Nombre

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Jt

sin_nombreSin Nombre

Cary Fukunaga :: USA, Mexico :: 2009 :: 1h36

Sayra is picked up in Honduras by her father, who she barely knows, to take her up north with him to New Jersey (USA). Without money and without papers. Once on her rough and dangerous journey to a prospective better life, she meets the young Mexican gangster Willy. The young man, nicknamed Casper, had grown up in the violent Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS) gang. Their stories begin to intertwine as Casper slowly but surely turns his back on the gang, and Sayra takes his hand so they can run together.

Sin Nombre (“without a name”) drags us through the underbelly of society, along the railway tracks, with the aspiring immigrants, the profiteers, and the omni present gangsters. The dangerous journey they embark on, is one which will define their lifetime. For Sayra, if she makes it to her family in New Jersey, she will be at the beginning of her new life as an illegal immigrant. However it turns out, her story will have started with that continental crossing, on the roof of that train. For Willy, who knows he can not outrun his Casper shadow, his future is as uncertain as the whims which control the life and death of a gangster.

Carefully put together with an excellent cast, Sin Nombre is as a fictional companion to La Vida Loca, with the wider perspective of poverty and migration in North America. Long after you have left the film, you will still see the train cutting through the countryside with, on the roof, a mass huddled together dreaming of a better future for themselves. A dream, which survives through the hardships and cruelty of the world. A tough watch.

www.sinnombre-lefilm.com.com


Filed under: America, Mexico, USA | Leave a Comment »

Un Prophète

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Jt

Un PropheteUn Prophète
Jacques Audiard :: France :: 2008 : 2h35

A young man is being admitted into prison. The scars on his body and face betray a violent past. He can barely read and write. He has no friends. Malik (Tahar Rahim) is 19 years old. Out on the concrete courtyard, he is recruited by the ruthless Corsican mafioso César (Niels Arestrup) to kill a rival passing through their prison. Malik is beaten into submission. His life could have ended right there and then. But that is not how it was to be. Malif comes out the corner fighting.

Most of the film is concrete slabs and dirt. There is the constant murmur of the rumours passed around in Arabic and Corsican if it is not in banlieue slang French. And then there is the violence. Nobody gets punished because nobody interferes. Even when inmates get killed there is no indication that they are being investigated. The detainees are all on their own. We do see the state’s legal machinery operating in the background with lawyers and judges shifting paper. We see the inmates work in the prison factory sowing clothes. We see the willing bullies being schooled. But the penitentiary staff shine mostly in their absence. Malik knows it is going to be a long 6 years.

He takes what he can get, and tries to make the best of himself. He could have made an excellent career for himself in the army, if life had been different. He has the adaptability, the patience, the dedication, the intelligence and the lack of moral restraint to make it far, in the right framework. If only he had been in an organisation which could contain and direct him, rather than unleash him, as prison did. We see him slowly becoming a man to be reckoned with, creating his own new order. Make no mistake, this young man is taking you along to the bitter end.

Un Prophète is a tough film to watch, but immaculately constructed. I can not claim to have captured the full finesse of the all the criminal dealings, but it does not matter. The audience is thrown into the story as the young Malik is. Thrown in, to live it with him. And live it, you will. It is a masterfully made film with a clever script, an excellent cast and a surprising attention to detail. A rare pearl in the genre, bound to be as rewarded as director Audiard’s previous De Battre mon coeur s’est arrêté, which won no less than 8 Césars!

www.un-prophete-lefilm.com

Filed under: Europe, France | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Thirst, Ceci est mon sang

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Jt

ThirstBak-Jwi
Park Chan-wook :: South Korea :: 2008 :: 2h13

Sang-hyun (Song Kang-Ho) is a modern catholic priest. He is both rational and motivated by a selfless desire to help and to do the right thing. He volunteers for a risky medical experiment to find the cure for a deadly virus, in which he ends up receiving donor blood from an unknown source. He miraculously survives the virus, but the blood transfusion changed him, strengthened him even. Unfortunately, the flip-side of his new strength quickly becomes apparent, when he realises that to stay healthy, he needs to drink human blood. He has de facto become a vampire.

Sang-hyun survives his affliction without compromising his integrity, too much. But along with his craving for blood, came his lust for carnal pleasure too. From there it does not take long for his eyes to fall on the young Tae-Joo (Kim Ok-bin), married to a mildly retarded childhood friend of his. Treading with tenderness and care, he manages to seduce her. Tae-Joo, who was practically living as a family slave, reawakens as a femme fatale, challenging her lover well off the right path. The film swings from dark humour to sexy and from absurd to scary and all that in an aesthetically rich environment. Thrist is a great new twist on the vampire theme, even if it wonders off a little at times. It is funny to note that the marketing boys also had a tough time placing the film.

The French release poster has Kim Ok-bin’s character hanging upside-down from the Priest’s neck like a bat, exposing a lot of rosy hued skin in a darkness. It is a pure aesthetic, with a clear sensual feel, which has a “mainstream” look, as if the film plays down its foreign-ness and its originality to attract its audience. It is immediately visible that Sang-hyun is a priest, offering the intrigue. Any doubt you might have is taken away with the title “Ceci est mon sang” which has a religious ring, and the merit of mentioning “blood”. The film is actually more original and more horror laden than the poster would suggest.

Thirst Korean poster

Notice the difference with the Korean poster. It is as a scene from a faded film, where the female character’s near-panic is contrasted with the male character’s more controlled fear. The two characters are in full view, almost filling the entire poster, although the twist that Sang-hyun is a priest remains hidden. The two characters are white with a fear of something external, even though, on closer inspection, it is Sang-hyun himself who has blood on his lips! Although such an existential fear is not really the subject matter of the film, the poster does suggest fear and blood in old-school cinema. This is not only an accurate description, but also targets the audience who would most appreciate the film. If it is you, do not hesitate – Thirst is a great film.

www.thirst-lefilm.com

Filed under: Asia, S. Korea | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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