|
reviewed below:
Wed 15
For Bread Alone (Pane nudo) 7/10
Come Into the Light (Alla luce del sole) 6/10
Nafaka 7?/10
Thu 16
The Bridge 7/10
Jindabyne 8/10
Wristcutters : A Love Story 8/10
Fri 17
Bye Bye Berlusconi 8/10
Vitus 6/10
The Master (Mistrz) 7/10
POSTSCRIPT : Neil Young on A Prairie Home Companion and Babel (LIFFe week 2)
THE FIRST REPORT (posted Thursday)
---------------------
Arrival in a misty twilit Ljubljana on 14 November after a long journey meant I didn't quite make it to a film on my first night, but had time to absorb the charm of this small but perfectly made city. The drive from the airport gave glimpses of alpine outlines beyond hazy forest, then into a city which seems to be lacking the usual seedy urban sprawl oof most European towns of any size, everything clean and orderly, a modest but prosperous place full of pride in itself. So after a night at the Hotel Slon, a busy international hotel in the very middle of town, which was playing host to, among others, a group of dental floss specialists, I was ready for the fray next morning, dodging the bicycles. This place has cycle lanes everywhere, a bit of a hazard for the unwary pedestrian, specially from non-bikefriendly Britain, but one soon develops a kind of second sense for their presence.
Wednesday 15 November
For Bread Alone (Pane nudo)
Italy/France/Morocco 2005; Directed by Rachid Benhadj; 7/10
Based on the autobiographical novel of Mohamed Choukri, acclaimed Moroccan writer and Nobel nominee, this is a bleak, realist account of a harsh upbringing in French colonial Tangier during the 40s and 50s, Benhadj spares no detail of squalor as the boy Mohamed sifts through bins, in desperation for food for himself and his younger brother (at one point even biting into a raw gull), and receives constant beatings from his brute of a father, and abuse from the colonialist regime. But it is also an intrinsically poetic view which finds a terrible beauty even in the harshness and most painful of scenes. A succession of excellent boy actors portray Mohamed as he grows up, until the fine actor Saïd Taghmaoui takes on the role of the adult character. Illiterate and quite unaware of the politics of the fast advancing freedom movement, he is arrested and while in prison comes into contact with a nationalist leader and begins to learn to read and write, which becomes his salvation. At once specifically of its time and place, it's also a fine universal portrait of the horror of deep poverty. Fine cinematography and considerable humour soften what is basically a serious and stark tale. The author Mohamed Choukri himself appears in a moving vignette, shot in 2003, at the end. He ws deeply involved in the planning of the film,but did not live to see it finished.
Shown at the KinoDvor Cinema (an enchanting little cinema, on the outside a fairly uninspiring appartment block,but inside like a little Victorian toy theatre, complete with boxes and a balcony, all done out in deep pink with modest decorations picked out in gold.)
Come Into the Light (Alla luce de sole)
Italy 2005; Roberto Faenza; 6/10
Nothing in this film quite lives up to the horror of its opening images of street children in Palermo or demonstrates quite so deeply their brutalisation. It's the true story of priest Father Don Pino Puglisi who returned to his native Palermo and tries to make a difference to the lives of the community, in particular the children. It's the early 90s, a low point of many lows in the island's fight against the Mafia, at a time when 2 anti-Mafia judges, Falcone and Borsellino,and their escorts are murdered by car bombs. Father Pino's attempts at getting facilities for the local people without Mafia strings are doomed from the beginning,but he refuses to submit to intimidation, and his rehabilitation of the kids goes from strength to strength. It's commendably free of religiosity and presents the priest as a man above all rather than any kind of saint (though he is, apparently, up for beatification), and if I have a criticism it would be that the winnning over of the kids from bitter barbarianism to full of fun normality is maybe a mite too easily done. The almost-neo-realist mode saves the story from the sentimentality that occasionally threatens to surface, a common hazard in tales of priest, nuns and children, and the plot proceeds with sad inevitability to its conclusion on the bloodstained stones of a Palermo square. Father Pino received a posthumous human rights award in 1993, his murderers were brought to justice, and that year formed the beginning of a turning point in the fight of the state against the Mafia in Sicily.
Seen at Kinoclub Vic (a spacious fairly modern cinema tucked away near the university area.)
THE SECOND REPORT (posted Saturday)
------------------------
Wednesday 15th, continued
Nafaka
Bosnia/Herzogovina, 2006; Directed by Jasmin Durakovic; 7?/10
This explosive film, the blackest of black comedies, crammed full of incident, character, ideas, startling and lovely images, farce, and, I'm afraid, longueurs, is hard work. You emerge reeling, punch drunk, but it's worth it. It tells the tale of a zany, disparate group of neighbours under bombardment and after in Sarajevo, boozing, brawling, joking, wheeler dealering, fighting, suffering, loving, surviving. That one of them is a film fanatic who runs a cinema means that we are gifted with many clever and lovely film references and jokes, as well as the staggering sight of a cinema bursting into flame under bombardment, an image engraved in my memory. The cinematography is amazing and constantly inventive. More than any other film recently this one made me unsure of my responses - even while watching I kept changing my mind about it, a sequence going on too long made me feel it was terribly self indulgent, then a devastating scene of stark violence or tenderness would make me think it was great. One problem was that I failed to relate to the characters as I'm sure I was meant to - funny, life-forces, yes, but I just didn't love them enough, in the end, to feel their magic. But greatest problem for me was the framing of the story by making it the narrative of the bright-eyed black American girl who had gone to Sarajevo as a gesture of solidarity. She tells the story to a cynical American official, certainly a handy device, but it seemed a heavy'handed and ultimately sentimental way of articulating what the film conveys perfectly well itself, that 'Sarajevo', more than just a location, is the baseline of humanity where happiness and suffering become almost indistinguishable. Like a dish overloaded with rich ingredients, it needs a second tasting - I think I might like and appreciate it a whole lot better a second time. But not yet.
Seen at Kinoklub Vic
Thursday 16 November
A more wintry day here, misty sun, leaves whizzing down onto your head as you walk the street, men raking and tossing them into trucks along the riverside and the heat of the chestnut sellers' burners a welcome blast as you pass by them. A good day, perhaps, for the 3 films I am to see, two, very different, about suicide, sandwiching one, by far the darkest, about death.
The Bridge
USA 2005; Directed by Eric Steel; 7/10
A directorial debut from Eric Steel, this looks at the Golden Gate Bridge and the lives and deaths of some of the people who have thrown themselves off it. The world' s most frequent suicide location, the lure of its romantic and mythic nature to make one's last act on earth beautiful and meaningful is examined through the memories of friends and families of the suicides. By filming constantly for the whole of 2004, when there were 24 deaths, (and they were able to intervene and prevent several in the process), Steel shows us the last seconds of final decision and the long fall. One man speaks on his mobile phone then climbs businesslike to his death, a girl lightly shins over, 'like she had her own little club house down there', as an observer who helped haul her up to safety said. Most of all we see Gene, long-haired leather-coated 30-something, whose many friends speak eloquently of his obsession with death. When he falls, he, uniquely and shockingly, cascades downwards from a standing position on the rail. Steel has succeeded in allowing people to talk from the heart about their feelings for the dead, sorrow, guilt, puzzlement, and not the least, anger. Many debate with thmselves as to how much they should have intervened and, interestingly, despite their sorrow, whether it was right not to. The motivations range from extended misery and alienation through to severe mental illness. One speaker only recounts what it is like from the inside - he, like 2% of jumpers, survives and is rescued. This is perhaps the most alarming - the awareness of falling, the change of heart, the fear. How many of those who succeeded, you cannot help but worry, experienced just this, and rather than getting the oblivion they craved, finally, too late, wanted to live? It's a beautiful, compelling film.
Seen at Cankarjev Dom (special screening)
Jindabyne
Australia, 2006; Directed by Ray Lawrence; 8/10
From the director of Lantana, this is a fine portrait of ordinary people in desperate crisis, based on a story So Much Water So Close to Home by Raymond Calver. From the very disquieting threatening beginning, we move to the little town of Jindabyne, where fishing is the priority amongst the men, and family the centre of unexceptional day to day life. But our nerves are already on edge, and the idyllic surface doesn't stay unbroken for long. Death, madness, jealousy and the power of the landscape, for good or ill, are already present when the men make their fatal fishing trip to a nearby lake, the longed for highlight of their year. The discovery of a body, and their decision to continue their fishing before returning and reporting it, monstrous though it is, is made to seem almost logical and understandable. Not so to the community when all is revealed, and the undercurrents of division and difference, including racism, surface like a corpse. Great performances from a superb cast, especially Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, as ever, as perfectly ordinary people under crisis, just as one would expect from this director after the excellent Lantana. My only gripe is with the ending, which seems a little too easily, finally, to find some reconciliation.
Seen at Kinodvor
THE THIRD AND FINAL REPORT : POSTED MONDAY
------------------------------------------------
Thursday 16th, continued
Wristcutters: A Love Story
USA 2006; Directed by Goran Dukic; 8/10
Suicide again, but what a difference. Goran Dukic has made his striking, very funny feature length debut out of the most unlikely of subjects. When Zia (Patrick Fugit) cuts his wrists in despair at a failed love affair, it's just the beginning of an crazy adventure. He finds himself in a grim grey other world working at the Kamikazi Pizzeria, a kind of purgatory for suicides, where no-one is allowed to smile, and everything is even more drab than real life. He sets off on a road trip with his friend Eugene, one of an entire suicide family (well, they are Russian and it's in the genes). Along the way they come upon many absurdist situations and oddball characters, not the least of whom is the charismatic Kneller (Tom Waits, proving again what a powerful cinema presence he has. And God what a voice!). They are also joined by Mikal (Shannyn Scossamon), who has a mission to get back to the real world through the PIC (People in Charge), as she claims she never meant to kill herself at all. All following their quests they trail on through the battered grey landscapes (all just shot around LA, the director ruefully admits). Constantly original and smart, yet also wistful and affecting, and most of all very funny indeed, it is full of surprises and leaves it open till the last minute as to whether the ending will be happy or not. The audience loved it.
Seen at Kinodvor
Friday 17 November
My last full day in Ljubljana- in the morning I wander the market beside the river where people snack on fried seafood, and among the fruit and veg find stalls devoted entirely to cabbages - both fresh and grated in wooden vats. There are also apple-only stalls, one with 17 varieties. The smell is wonderful. The apples, not the cabbages. Later in the old town I have a good dose of brassica for lunch, with cauliflower soup followed by a plump little fish on a bed of cabbage mixed with crushed potatoes - like a version of Irish colcannon. Well satisfied I navigate my way across the Dragon Bridge and along leaf-strewn streets to the Kinodvor for the first of my three films of the day...
Bye Bye Berlusconi
Germany 2006; Directed by Jan Henrik Stahlberg; 8/10
It's such a brilliant idea - a film about a fictitious film crew making a documentary about the kidnapping of Silvio Berlusconi... Unable to use his real name, over a few bottles of wine the earnest but hapless film makers come up with the idea of setting the story instead in an imaginary land, Ducksville, where the prime minister, Mickey Louse, has a fortune based on melons, owns the local football team and runs the TV stations - a brilliant performance by impressive Berlusconi look-alike Maurizio Antonini. Will they get away with it? It's at times howlingly funny and very clever, with spot-on parodies of Italian TV, fast action, physical jokes and great ensemble acting. But that isn't all. The film makers who have started out naïve and funny become more serious and involving characters as increasingly sinister forces playing against the making of the film bring a genuine sense of danger and fear. The ending is interestingly ambiguous - is the apparent ending of the ‘documentary' now ‘reality'?Occasionally the seeming exaggeration of the threat (I feel sure Berlusconi could find easier ways to scupper their chances of getting the film made) detracts from the sharpness of the satire, but then, although it has been shown extensively over Europe, the film's distributors still find reasons not to release it in Italy, a fact that does not decrease the paranoia.
Seen at Kinodvor
Vitus
Switzerland, 2006; Directed by Fredi M. Nurer; 6/10
It's good to watch a film at an international festival that holds the attention of children as well as adult cinemagoers, and this tale of a gifted young boy had the two little girls next to me totally engrossed, even though they were clearly having to read the Slovenian subtitles. It's a charming tale that develops from a more or less realistic look at the pitfalls even for two nice people parenting an out-of- the-ordinary child, into what really are the realms of fantasy as he takes his life into his own hands in a bold and unexpected way and transforms also the lives of those around him. It's overlong at 120 minutes, but Fabrizio Borsani and Teo Gheorghiu as the younger and older Vitus make the boy believable and get the audience onside. Julika Jenkins as Vitus's mother does well with a character not altogether credibly written , but star turn is Bruno Ganz as his gentle, eccentric grandfather, the only person to really understand and sympathise with his need for normality, a performance of great warmth and charm. It's a good-looking, endearing, if occasionally vexing film, and went down well to a full house at the downstairs Kosovoleva Dvorana at Cankarjev Dom
Cankarjev Dom is the Cultural Centre which is the heart of the film festival, right in the middle of the city. From the outside, it's a vast blocky brutalist building from the Communist era from the outside, though inside proves airy and modern. The strange thing about this eminent building was that I failed to find a ground level entrance to it - all seemed to be via unsigned subterranean stairways. Odd.
The Master (Mistrz)
Poland 2005; Directed by Piotr Trzaskalski; 7/10
An ageless story of alienation, obligation and loss, with minimal plot, this very handsome film hangs on in the memory as a mood and a series of beautiful images. Alexander, the Master, (Konstantin Lavronenko) loner, drinker, and itinerant circus performer, has nothing but his considerable skills and his dream of going to perform in Paris to keep him going, until he meets Mlody (Jacek Braciak), an amiable accordionist and Andzela (Teresa Branna), a prostitute, with whom he forms a successful travelling show of knife throwing and magic acts. They travel the small towns of a rural Poland that scarcely seems to be of the 21st century, where he meets the beautiful and enigmatic Anna (Monika Buchoviec) and falls in love, and for a while it seems he might find a bond at last to another human being. But all the signs are otherwise. Mlody too has his secret and needs redemption. A very pleasing and idiosyncratic style - a symmetrical framing of shots, odd unexpected images - a boat moves over land, circus animals graze in a town square - together with a yellow-grey colour which is sometimes lambent, sometimes bleak, carries one through the film as if in a sorrowful dream.
Seen at Kinodvor
SHEILA SEACROFT
15th-20th November, 2006
Jigsaw Lounge at last year's LIFFe
Sheila Seacroft's illustrated dispatches from the Transilvania Film Festival in Cluj, Romania, earlier this year
|
