France   ¦   COLD SHOWERS   ¦   8/10
   Cold Showers is the latest addition to what has become a very well-established subgenre of French cinema: it's a coming-of-age tale about teenagers in a smallish town, in which the financially-straitened protagonist (who has a conspicuously richer pal) must cope with school issues, his sexuality, his place on the sports team, and problems relating to his family. Another similar entry currently doing the film-festival rounds is Franck Guerin's A Summer's Day, which also injects mild thriller elements (an Italian take on not-dissimilar material can be found in Land Wind).  Cold Showers, as the title implies, takes an invigoratingly fresh approach - not least in the way the sexuality and physicality of the characters are persistently foregrounded. In theory, this looks quite simple stuff - but it's hard to carry off with such elan.
   Story focusses (initially) on Mickael (Johan Libereau), a young lad in his late-ish teens who excels at judo, but is somewhat less adroit when it comes to relationship relationships. He is asked by a rich local businessman (Aurelien Recoing!) his son Clement (Pierre Perrier) with his training; the pair eventually become friends - but their palliness is put under strain when the rich kid also gets to know Mickael's force-of-nature girlfriend Vanessa (Salome Stevenin). Another factor complicating Mickael's life is that he has to lose a considerable amount of weight to replace a colleague on the judo team - and there isn't that much of him to begin with...
   Tale is told as much through looks and gestures as it is via dialogue, though the latter is lively, solid and believable when it does occur. Film is essentially character-based, unpredictable, the narrative course largely dictated by the raging hormones of the three main characters, while our (not-always-sympathetic) hero's background of genial domestic chaos (via his hapless, well-meaning, none-too-bright parents Jean-Philippe Ecoffey and Florence Thomassin) is particularly well-sketched (providing welcome mild comic relief).
   Direction includes moments of moody artiness, but these never get out of hand - indeed, the modulation of tone is one of the major strong suits in what is a consistently absorbing and rewarding, well-acted picture. The three leads are rock-solid and most engaging, while the supporting cast is full of grace-notes: look out for real-life judo-ist Yoann Monjal, who makes an impact from very limited screen-time as Mickael and Clement's team-mate. Like all the supporting judo-competitors, Arnaud's weight-class is given alongside his character-name in the closing credits ('Arnaud -90kg') - an amusing touch, and entirely typical of a sly picture that pays extra-close attention to every little detail.



Netherlands   ¦   GUERNSEY   ¦   5/10
Ponderously slow Dutch drama is a psychological exploration of a thirtyish woman's existential crisis. Director takes her cue from the tamped-down emotions of this "frequent flyer" who is always continent-hopping from Europe to Egypt and back because of her work - but all destinations, like the Channel Island from which the picture takes its name, turn out to be essentially states of mind. Guernsey itself isn't seen until quite near the end, where there's a sequence reminiscent of Antonioni's L'Avventura played out against a backdrop that looks more Mediterranean than English Channel. Director tells her story via somewhat static tableaux: a tale of infidelity-fears, and family strife. Busy Dutch actors Johanna Ter Steege (from The Vanishing) and Fedja Van Huet (near-ubiquitous in Nederlands productions over the past half-decade) pop up in supporting roles, and their vividness goes some way to compensating for the alienating chilliness of the lead Maria Kraakman. Picture is enigmatic and slow-burning, but in final act our intrigue gives way to tedium: film is ostentatiously fond of slowing down the pace, but to what end? Message seems to be: no man is an island, but perhaps wome women are? Has a certain zeitgeisty appeal, focussing on one-child families in a Europe of sleek surfaces and suppressed/repressed emotions. A sudden violent act seems to shock our heroine into "life" - but she's like Octavia in a previous Egypt-set work, namely Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra:
   She creeps:
   Her motion and her station are as one;
   She shows a body rather than a life,
   A statue than a breather.



Macedonia   ¦   KONTAKT   ¦   7/10
Bittersweet romance Kontakt is a proper little crowd-pleaser from Macedonia (unsurprisingly romped home with the audience award here in Linz). The set-up doesn't exactly break new ground, bringing together as it does an imposing bloke who's been let out of jail early and a fragile young woman who's been unexpectedly given similarly early release from a mental hospital (brings to mind the old gag that people who consider marriage therefore "belong in an institution.") The pair find themself in close proximity when the man is hired to patch up the old house in which the woman now resides - of course, (as in Pjer Zalica's Bosnian charmer Days and Hours) it isn't just the house that ends up being "repaired." Tale has much potential for corniness but is handled with a winning sincerity, some leavening humour, and a light touch from the writer/director - not to mention to very strong performances in the leads. It's a showcase for both actors and they make the most of the rich material. Picture blends comedy and tragedy, so that even when we're laughing (which is surprisingly often) we're always aware of the dark lugubriousness underpinning the central relationships. The couple's backgrounds are very troubled - and these troubles are directly related to the problems experienced in recent decades by former Yugoslavia as a whole and Macedonia in particular. As in school-melodrama Mirage, the new country looks in a bit of a mess here - any optimism or positivity in the final reel is exceedingly hard-won, but therefore all the more believable. Preparez vos mouchoirs, indeed, for the shamelessly tearjerking (and rugpulling) climax.



Bulgaria ¦   GEORGI AND THE BUTTERFLIES   ¦   6/10
Yet another documentary about a mental hospital? And one from the former Eastern Bloc? Well, yes and no. Patients, staff and the building as a whole each play significant roles, but the real focus is on the institution chief Georgi: a boss who comes across as genial, chatty, but very possibly as unhinged as several of his charges (and there's a cinema great tradition of madmen-running-asylum pictures: let's call it the House of Dr Edwardes subgenre). Against a background of severely cash-strapped, post-Communist, pre-EU Bulgaria, tireless entrepreneur Georgi keeps coming up with unlikely ideas to make money and also keep his patients active (the latter objective carrying with it more than a whiff of R D Laing). Fundamentally depressing material (tragic, even) is therefore given a rather jaunty spin as Georgi's harebrained schemes are recalled by himself and his bemused wife - snails here, silkworms there. Is this really an accurate or fair depiction of the state of mental-hospitals in the former Soviet bloc? Most such institutions can't boast such audience-pleasing elements as we find so liberally here - in what turns out to be a big-screen variant on the entrepreneur-showcasing BBC show Dragon's Den. By the end, Georgi (perhaps via the law of averages) seems to have hit on a particular promising potential moneyspinner - and this shortish, slightly underdeveloped documentary could perhaps be expanded with a coda set (say) three or four years down the line when we can gauge the success (or otherwise) of this latest pipe dream.

Neil Young
22nd May 2006  / 30th June

COLD SHOWERS : [8/10] : Douches froides : France 2005 : Antony CORDIER : 103 mins (approx)
GUERNSEY : [5/10] : Netherlands 2005 : Nanouk LEOPOLD : 91 mins (timed)
KONTAKT : [7/10] : aka Contact : Macedonia (Mac/Ger) 2005 : Sergej STANOJKOVSKI : 101 mins (timed)
GEORGI AND THE BUTTERFLIES : [6/10] : Georgi i peperudite : Bulgaria 2004 : Andrey PAOUNOV : 62 mins (timed)

Cold Showers, Guernsey and Kontakt seen at CityKino cinema; Georgi and the Butterflies seen at Moviemento cinema. All seen on 30th April in Linz (Austria).

click here for A-Z of all features reviewed at Crossing Europe 2006, , or here for a roundup article on the event (written for Tribune magazine)