Sheila Seacroft’s Cluj film-festival dispatches (2) About Elly; Fluke; Machan; Tears of April, etc
. Tuesday, 2nd June .
THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ISLAND [2/10]
La possibilité d'une í®le aka Possibility of an Island : France 2008 : Michel HOUELLEBECQ : 95m : seen at Cinema Arta
Well, maybe I could have been outside in the rain instead – that's the only way see the 95 minutes of watching this film as relatively well spent. Pretentious, dull, full of pseudo-scientific bamboozlement and spiritual flummery, its only possible saving grace is that it appears to truly believe in its own portentousness. Shifting, for no good reason, back and forth between time zones, it is the tale of Daniel, son of a father who heads a sect which believes in eternal life, not as most religions know it, but via a kind of cloning, which creates a race of so-called neo-humans who can survive the apocalypses to come.
After following the sect as a rather bored young man with a bad hairdo, Daniel has broken away, only to return after some years to its headquarters, when his father is dying. Poor Benoí®t Magimel does his best with the enigmatic Daniel, whose motivations we are never helped to understand. Neither the headquarters – Dr Who-ish type caves on an island - nor the sect members impress. The latter seem more like the fashionable crowd who turn up to strike attitudes at a very pseudo, very bad, art gallery.
After many an intense look and turgid music punctuated by the odd dash of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Daniel agrees to take on his father's mantle, via this aforementioned cloning business, and become the new leader. (I think.) The most ludicrous cod-science sequence which portrays this process has all the old chestnuts of cheap science fiction – a throbbing, winking and blinking body-scanner-type pod, a large machine oozing dangly wires like so much spaghetti, and a frowning man in a black polo-neck gravely pressing an important-looking switch.
Many generations later, when all real humans are dead, we have Daniel pounding the wild places Crusoe-like with a dog as his only companion (the dog is charming) while not far away his Woman Friday draws closer, a striking looking black woman whom he has locked eyes with in an earlier life, striving across similar terrain, clad only in a figure-hugging designer dress, an upmarket version of Raquel Welch in her One Million Years BC animal skins.
Although there's a slight amount of humour in the earlier scenes, the film's played with deadly seriousness, particularly the 'satirical' scenes at a beach resort where the irony is laid on with a particularly hamfisted truelle. Its haughty, superior attitude towards mankind leaves a nasty taste. Maybe it's the ultimate demonstration of the ill-advisedness of allowing an author to direct his own work; or maybe, more horrible to contemplate, this is a true reflection of the book.
TEARS OF APRIL [7/10]
Kasky : Aku LOUHIMIES : Finland 2008 : 109m : Cinema Arta
In total contrast this is a film that satisfies on many levels. Great plot, with seemingly never-ending twists, emotional engagement, fine cinematography, and a pacing which scarcely ever fails. You could hear a pin drop throughout, the audience were so totally engaged. Set in the little-known, outside of the country, civil war which broke out in newly independent Finland in 1918 between the left Reds and the conservative Whites, its central story is of Miina Malin (Pihla Viitala), the last survivor of a Red women's troop after her comrades are defeated and murdered by the Whites.
Adapted from a novel by Leena Lander which was based on many recorded experiences, it succeeds in being both straightforwardly exciting and posing tricky questions about loyalty, truth, and personal sacrifice, while looking at the moral deterioration that war can bring on both the common soldier and the highly educated and ethically aware man of culture, in the form of the self-torturing Hallenburg (Ero Aho). There's fine use of music, and the scenery of southern Finland is lovingly shot, a poignant backdrop to the horrors it witnesses. It's good to see such a handsomely made and complex film that is also accessible to general audiences.
ABOUT ELLY [8/10]
Darbareye Elly : Asghar FARHADI: Iran 2009 : 115m: Cinema Republica
The first 20 minutes or so of this film are pure heaven. Sheer delight in existence laps from the screen into the audience as a group of old friends from university and their young children take a weekend break in an old house by the sea. They have brought with them a new acquaintance, Elly. She's been invited along by the lively Sepideh, who wants to introduce her to Ahmad, their friend back visiting from Germany, newly divorced. They pull out all the stops to be nice to Elly and encourage the two to get together, but she is strangely reluctant.
Screaming out loud for fun in a road tunnel, flying a kite on the beach, and just the exhilaration of being fit and young and happy with one's life and one's friends – it's heady stuff and wonderfully shot in verité style. It feels like reality we are watching, while also looking like a perfectly choreographed dance. So when a disaster happens, things begin to unravel, and a secret about Elly known only to Sepideh begins to surface, it hits the audience that much harder.
The latter part of the film in which Elly's secret is gradually brought to the surface is maybe a little too long in development, as trust between friends is betrayed. Elly's secret was, in the end, not such a big thing (though clearly something more profound in Iranian culture than it would be in European). The trouble resulting from it is brought about only by misunderstandings and misjudgement, but this in a subtle way makes the tragedy – of Elly of the relationships – more pitiful.
. Wednesday, 3rd June .
FLUKE [7/10]
Mazli : KEMENYFFY Tamas : Hungary 2008 : 88m : Cinema Victoria
This crazy, cheerful comedy that mixes political satire and knockabout humour with considerable warmth brings to mind the classic Ealing Comedies such as Whisky Galore and Passport to Pimlico. The people of Ogyarmat, a scruffy little village on the Hungarian border of prosperous Austria, are so downhearted about their future as a community that they're on the point of selling off their land to an Austrian company. Only stubborn Istvan (Andor Lukáts) stands out against it, but then he's always been an awkward old cuss.
But when he discovers that an oil pipeline runs under their churchyard, the villagers come together to tap and sell the oil and their future seems secure – except when personal greed comes in and each, from local mini-capitalist to communist to church minister, begins to want the takings for themselves rather than putting it to the general good. The arrival of an executive from the oil company (Felix Theissen) to sort things out, followed by TV cameras and reluctant police, cause further zany chaos. As a first feature from Kemenyffy it's extremely impressive, beautifully paced, laugh-aloud funny and, despite being based on an idea that's been seen before, still holds surprises.
MACHAN [7/10]
Uberto PASOLINI : Italy/Germany/Sri Lanka 2008 : 109m : Cinema Victoria
In September 2004 the entire 23-strong Sri Lanka National Handball team, in Germany for a friendly tournament, vanished. They were never seen again, disappearing into the world of illegal immigrant workers. This is an imagined, personalized version of the events leading up to that. For those who felt that Slumdog Millionaire was a rather romanticized view of the poor in the subcontinent, this film is a good antidote.
Romantic and warm, yes, but the poverty is less beautiful and the feel of despair and sadness of people unable to get themselves decent lives more true. Its leading figures, already rebuffed and cheated out of their money in their attempt to get visas for Europe, find a flyer asking for handball teams to visit Germany for a friendly tournament.
Despite knowing nothing about the sport, they gather together a group of others keen to get to Europe to work, and set about making themselves into a credible team – not a lot of this effort goes into learning the actual game, as they plan on escaping as soon as they arrive. Things don't quite work out that way. A wonderful portrayal of decent men desperate to change their and their families' lives. And very funny too.
Sheila Seacroft
6th June, 2009
all films seen in Cluj, Romania, at the 8th Transilvania International Film Festival
public screenings – complimentary press tickets
Jigsaw Lounge CLUJ 2009 INDEX PAGE
Sheila Seacroft's dispatches
1 : Tues.2.June : Everyone Else; Revanche; Quiet Chaos; Thomas
2 : Sat.6.June : About Elly; Fluke; Machan; Tears of April; The Possibility of an Island
3 : Wed.10.June : Apocalypse On Wheels; Australia; Awakening From a Dream; Weddings, Music & Videos – plus report on directors vs homeless football game
4 : Thu.11. June : Constantin and Elena; Hooked; Passo Doble
5 : Mon.15.June : Police, Adjective and Antichrist