official site

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seen Saturday 19th November at Cankarjev Dom and Kino Vic
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SOUTH BY SOUTHEAST [W/O] Jug jugoistok aka South Southeast : Serbia & Montenegro 2005 : Milutin PETROVIC : 86 mins (walkout after 39 mins)
   Sonja Savic, the mute female lead from Jan Cvitkovic's fine Slovenian comedy-drama Gravehopping, plays herself - or, one hopes, a heavily fictionalised version of herself in this amateurish Serbian conspiracy thriller, so clumsy in conception and execution you do have to wonder whether it's some kind of a spoof. But the near-incessant portentous score, plus clodhopping screenplay references to Serbia's bloodspattered history (and very recent assassinations), suggest otherwise. And the melodramatic subject-matter also seems entirely serious: an increasingly frantic Savic tries to convince the skeptical authorities that her child, fathered by a controversial local politico, has been kidnapped by nefarious, mysterious conspirators. But does the child even exist..?
   There are apparently numerous in-jokes for viewers familiar with the current Serbian cinema scene, as nearly all of the supporting roles are filled by famous directors. If so, they certainly shouldn't consider giving up the day-job any time soon as the general standard of acting is notably low. Indeed, the whole enterprise - shot on drab-looking digital video - has a cobbled-together feel, as if they made up as they went along. Two reels of South By Southeast were more than enough for me: Hitchcock's North by North West, referenced by both the film's title and poster, really is quite literally a pole apart. 

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HEADING SOUTH [3/10] Vers le sud : France (Fr/Can) 2005 : Laurent CANTET : 107 mins (timed)
   Having scored a major critical triumph with 2001's Time Out, Cantet presumably had carte blanche for his followup. Four years later it arrives as Heading South... and what a perplexingly poor misfire it proves to be, a waste of time for all concerned - including top-billed Charlotte Rampling. Whatever else may be wrong with the film, Rampling is on her finest foxy-frosty form as Ellen, queen bee of an upmarket Haiti holiday resort where affluent, ageing European and North American ladies enjoy sun, sea, sand - and the very close attentions of the attractive young locals. They are, in effect, a rather genteel genre of 'sex tourist' - making for an original and enticing premise for what could have been a striking, distinctive film.
   Ellen and her Canadian friend Sue (Louise Portal) have been coming to this particular resort for years, where the main 'draw' is a charismatic, youthful chap named Legba (Menothy Cesar). The film begins with the arrival in town of Brenda (Karen Young), a slightly mousy blonde in her late forties, from Savannah, Georgia. Some years before Brenda had a satisfying sexual encounter with Legba, and is keen to resume the 'relationship'. This soon causes friction - and unforeseen, tragic consequences for all concerned.
   Along with Robin Campillo (of the well-regarded Les revenants), Cantet adapted a trio of interlinked novellas by American/Haitian writer Dany Laferriere which were published in a volume entitled La chair du maitre ("The Master's Flesh"?). They make little attempt to hide this literary source: in the first half of the film, the 'action' is (somewhat awkwardly) interspersed with a series of to-camera monologues by Ellen, Brenda, Sue, and silky-suave hotel maitre'd Albert (Lys Ambroise) - complete with utterly superfluous white-on-black title-cards featuring the characters' names.
   Legba, pointedly, is not given the benefit of such a monologue - presumably because the women themselves don't really care about his point of view. He has another life away from the beach, where he is embroiled in a tricky relationship with a girl of his own age - who also happens to be seeing a dangerous town bigwig.
   This omission is perhaps unfortunate, but can be excused as mirroring the self-absorption of Ellen, Brenda and Sue. At a stretch, one might also reckon that their breezy solipsism explains the bizarre absence of historical and political context in the film: there is no mention of the ruling Duvalier clan, despite the fact that a title-card informs that the narrative takes plays in the late seventies. One might expect perhaps a passing reference or two to Papa Doc or Baby Doc Duvalier, but the story could just as well be taking place in the Azores of 1995, or 1986 Indonesia. Deliberate, or just plain sloppiness?
   Taken as a whole, the latter seems more likely: the women's blinkered worldview is one thing, but it can't really justify Cantet's distracting decision to resist any attempt at period detail in terms of clothes, hairstyles, make-up - even the cars we see on the streets. In a similar vein, why bother identifying Brenda's home town if Young is allowed to play the part without a trace of a southern accent? Given there's a racial aspect to almost everything in the film, there's clearly a very good reason why Brenda is from Savannah, whereas Ellen is identified with 'Yankee' values - the latter has been living in Boston, and teaches at bluestocking Wellesley College (an in-joke reference to her Angel Heart character, nicknamed 'The Witch of Wellesley'?) 
   Or perhaps Cantet simply couldn't hear the difference, this being his first feature made primarily in English: this might explain Young's hesitant performance, which is all the more noticeable alongside Rampling's insolently regal poise. And why French-Canadian Sue delivers her monologue in English - audibly not her first language - while Albert gets to express himself in French, is yet another head-scratching element of what adds up to a very annoying viewing experience.
   The cast and crew presumably enjoyed a jolly nice few weeks' location-shootingng in the Caribbean - the Dominican Republic was used in addition to Haiti - but there has to be more rationale for making a movie than affording la Rampling et cie the chance to top up their tans.      

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Neil Young
Ljubljana (Slovenia), November 19th/20th, 2005
revised Sunderland, 24th November

seen at Cankarjev Dom cultural centre: South by Southeast
seen at Kino Vic cinema: Heading South

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further Ljubljana coverage:
part one (Friday) : Willenbrock; Divided States of America; Mirage
part three (Sunday) : Dallas Among Us; Kukumi; Buffalo Boy
part four (Monday) : Adam and Paul