The films of Jean-Pierre Mocky

Notes on three films directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky:

Les Dragueurs / The Chasers (1959)

Litan (1982)

À mort l'arbitre! / Kill the Referee (1984)

I hadn't heard about Jean-Pierre Mocky until I came across Radiance's trilogy.

The title Kill the Referee stood out because but it was the same title of a Belgium documentary released in 2009. The Belgium doc Kill the Referee (co-directed by Yves Hinant, Eric Cardot, Delphine Lehericey) changed its title to The Referees, which is closer to the original title of Les Arbitres. The change felt appropriate given the hostility towards some refs in European competitions. Of course, back in 2009,  I had no idea that the title actually referenced Mocky's film title as I didn't come across Mocky's name when reading reviews about the Belgium documentary. The documentary touched the real life outrage and death threats directed towards referees, a similar idea used as a launching pad for Mocky's film which is based on the book The Death Penalty by Alfred Draper. 

In Mocky's Kill the Referee, a referee (Maurice Bruno played by Eddy Mitchell) gives multiple penalties against the away team causing their supporters to be enraged. Their supporters, led by the spirited Rico (Michel Serrault), blame the ref for the defeat and want to teach the ref a lesson. When they see the ref being interviewed by a local tv station, they arrive at the station and chase the ref and his girlfriend Martine (Carole Laure). Their chase leads them to a mall where Maurice and Martine are hiding. During their chase, Rico accidentally kills Béru, one of their group members. Instead of admitting his guilt, Rico tells everyone that ref killed Béru and now the entire group is out for the ref's blood. The chase for Maurice leads the group to Martine's apartment building, where there are some fights, death defying escapes from the building, and ultimately the group find themselves in a mine with Rico driving their team bus towards Maurice and Martine's vehicle. 

The film does exhibit the satirical style of Jean-Pierre Mocky with some over-the-top scenarios which results in an unexpected ending. In addition, there are some pertinent messages embedded in the film about mobs, the ref's behaviour, elites vs locals all depicted in B-style production values. The low-budget production values don't take away from the film's message and importance. 40 years after its release, the film is still highly relevant as refs find themselves under more fire in today's climate.

Welcome to Litan

Sci-fi, horror, mythology, folk stories are all meshed up in Jean-Pierre Mocky's film set in the village of Litan where strange occurrences take place. Litan starts off with a nightmare yet that pales in comparison to the events the main characters find themselves in. The scenarios need to be seen to believed as elements are taken from a blend of films such as locals' mind taken over by an entity, locals are frozen in a trance like state, acid waters which vaporizes a person's body.

There are plenty of creative ideas in Litan yet not all are coherent with scenes edited in a way that make it look like a real film exists somewhere on an editing table. Of course, given the low-budget nature of the production, the highly edited scenes are likely the final product.

The Chasers

Mocky's first film Les Dragueurs is the most polished of the three and a top-notch film that could easily be an extension of the French New Wave style, with the exception of the final third which depicts a sex-party / orgy set in a manor. The final third and the characters' journey through the Parisian night life is akin to the territory that Kubrick explored in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), a film based on Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Dream Story.

Pushing boundaries

Mocky's Radiance trilogy is called The Agitator and the three films called provocations. A sentiment echoed by Emmanuel Macron who called Mr. Mocky “an eternal provocateur". The other description of his films center around low-budget nature of his productions and prolific nature of his films. He directed over 60 features, releasing a film every year, or twice a year.

Daniel E. Slotnik had this to say in Mocky's obit in 2019:

"Mr. Mocky was a contemporary of the French New Wave directors François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, a longtime friend. Like them, he relied on inexpensive equipment and swift shooting schedules. But his films, unlike theirs, were decidedly more grindhouse than art house. He subverted the perceived sophistication of French cinema and made unapologetically raw films that could alienate critics but draw audiences."

These words calling his films grindhouse may apply to Mocky's later films but Les Dragueurs is an exception to the above as the 1959 debut film is a work of art.

Euro 2024 Film Spotlight

A criteria for previous Euro Film spotlights (Euro 2008, Euro 2012, Euro 2016) was to select previously unseen films or films from unknown directors. This led to some exciting discoveries and many months of viewing or hunting the film down. This time around, I have kept things a bit simpler. The main criteria for this Euro 2024 Film spotlight is to select some of the best films previously seen from each country. As a result, this will allow for a much more richer cinematic head-to-head competition. 9 decades are represented by these films with the earliest from 1949 and the newest from one from 2021.

Here are the 24 Top European films:

Group A
Germany: Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)
Switzerland: The Boat is Full (1981, Markus Imhoof)
Hungary: Satantango (1994, Béla Tarr)
Scotland: Gregory’s girl (1980, Bill Forsyth)

Group B
Spain: Death of a Cyclist (1955, Juan Antonio Bardem)
Italy: The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
Albania: Daybreak (2017, Gentian Koçi)
Croatia: Buick Riviera (2008, Goran Rusinovic)

Group C
Slovenia: Spare Parts (2003, Damjan Kozole)
Denmark: Babette’s Feast (1987, Gabriel Axel)
Serbia: Underground (1995, Emir Kusturica)
England: The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)

Group D
Poland: Dekalog (1989/90, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Holland: The Vanishing (1988, George Sluizer)
Austria: Homo Sapiens (2016, Nikolaus Geyrhalter)
France: Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)

Group E
Belgium: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman)
Slovakia: Orbis Pictus (1997, Martin Sulík)
Romania:  The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, Cristi Puiu)
Ukraine:  My Joy (2010, Sergey Loznitsa)

Group F
Turkey: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Georgia: What Do We See When We Look At the Sky? (2021, Aleksandre Koberidze)
Portugal:  Mudar de Vida (Change of Life, 1966, Paulo Rocha)
Czech Republic: Closely Watched Trains (1966, Jirí Menzel)

Results of the Group matches, knockout phases will be posted in a few weeks.

Claire Denis' Stars at Noon

Stars at Noon (2022, France/Panama/USA, Claire Denis)

A hot humid Latin country in political turmoil. A sultry woman, Trish (Margaret Qualley),  doing anything for dollars so that she can escape to a more stable Latin nation. While Trish may be in the country at the wrong time but from the little we gather, some of her troubles may be her own doing. Trish wrote an article documenting the truth in Nicaragua and that landed her in hot water with those in charge. Her passport is taken away as is her ability to leave the country. In a few snippets of conversation, it becomes clear that Trish is not yet an established journalist but trying to find ways to sell her stories. However, the Nicaraguan article hampered her ability to find any more buyers for her articles, so she has to resort to do anything, including sleeping with strangers for money, in order to leave the country. As luck would have it, she encounters Daniel (Joe Alwyn) who has even more troubles circling him. The two get together, get in even more trouble, and come up with ways to get to the border so they can escape to Costa Rica.

Claire Denis and co-writers Andrew Litvack and Léa Mysius have taken the core of Denis Johnson’s novel The Stars at Noon about 1984 Nicagragua and adapted it to our current pandemic times where masks are present and proof of vaccination is required to leave the border. Like our real world, mask compliance is always not 100% and not strictly enforced. The removal of specific details works in the film’s favour because some nations are always kept in turmoil due to constant interference by other nations. Tindersticks' soundtrack, a constant in Claire Denis films, enhances the mood and elevates proceedings. The film has a lingering pace and at times the jazzy music is a few beats ahead of events or at other times keeps pace with Trish and Daniel’s adventures.

Stars at Noon was one of two Claire Denis films in 2022 along with Avec amour et acharnement (Both Sides of the Blade). In both films, the female characters encounter men who are trouble for them. In this regard, the title of an earlier Denis film Trouble Every Day could easily apply to both films.

Top French Films of All Time

Coming up with a Best French Films of All Time list is not an easy task given the thousands of worthy films to choose from over a century.

Top 30 French Films roughly in order of preference:

1. Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)
2. Le ballon rouge (The Red Balloon, 1956, Albert Lamorisse)
3. La règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939, Jean Renoir)
4. Le Trou (1960, Jacques Becker)
5. Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati)
6. Le samouraï (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)
7. Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959, François Truffaut)
8. Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows, 1958, Louis Malle)
9. Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear, 1953, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
10. Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cléo from 5 to 7, 1962, Agnès Varda)
11. Orphée (Orpheus, 1950, Jean Cocteau)
12. L’Age D’or (1930, Luis Buñuel)
13. L’Intrus (2004, Claire Denis)
14. L’armée des ombres (Army of Shadows, 1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
15. L’Argent (1983, Robert Bresson)
16. À bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960, Jean-Luc Godard)
17. Beau Travail (1999, Claire Denis)
18. Du rififi chez les hommes (Rififi, 1955, Jules Dassin)
19. La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
20. Que le bête meure (The Beast Must Die, 1969, Claude Chabrol)
21. Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands off the Loot!, 1954, Jacques Becker)
22. Hiroshima mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais)
23. Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live, 1962, Jean-Luc Godard)
24. Les Vampires (1915, Louis Feuillade)
25. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
26. L’année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad, 1961, Alain Resnais)
27. La Jetée (1962, Chris Marker)
28. Paris nous appartient (Paris Belongs to Us, 1961, Jacques Rivette)
29. La maman et la putain (The Mother and the Whore, 1973, Jean Eustache)
30. Le genou de Claire (Claire’s Knee, 1970, Eric Rohmer)

List submitted for Wonders in the Dark's French film poll.

Bruno Dumont 2.0

Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (2018, 4 episode TV Mini-series)

For a change, I started at the beginning. I was fortunate enough to witness Bruno Dumont’s films in order as they circulated on the film festival circuit starting with La vie de Jésus (1997), Humanity (1999), Twentynine Palms (2003). I was shocked, puzzled by what I saw because back then I was still searching for a film vocabulary to comprehend things. I started forming a clearer picture with his next films Flanders (2006) and Hadewijch (2009) and figured I had understood his style and what to expect next. That is why the arrival of Li'l Quinquin (2014) was such a surprize and forced me to recalibrate. 

The 4 part TV series Li'l Quinquin was also presented as a full length feature film which I was lucky enough to watch in a cinema. On purpose, I had read nothing about the film in advance and was able to go through a whole range of emotions while watching the comedic bumbling adventures of Commandant Van der Weyden (Bernard Pruvost) and Lieutenant Carpentier (Philippe Jore) as they attempted to solve an inexplainable series of gruesome discoveries. Van der Weyden’s character was certainly a delight and the closest assessment was his character was a cinematic offspring of Jacques Clouseau and Tati’s Mr. Hulot. With Li'l Quinquin, Dumont showed a new side to his filmmaking by taking aspects of French town life depicted in his previous films in a different direction. While the work felt like an auteur’s variation of True Detective, it also seemed to suggest Bruno Dumont 2.0. That belief was strengthened with the arrival of Slack Bay (2016). 

2.0 is firmly enforced by the arrival of Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (2018), another 4 episode TV series that features the same characters from Li'l Quinquin, albeit grown up. The title character from Li’l Quinquin (Alane Delhaye) is now grown up as Coincoin, as are Eve Terrier (Lucy Caron) and Kevin (Julien Bodard). Delightfully, both Bernard Pruvost’s Commandant Van der Weyden and Philippe Jore’s Lieutenant Carpentier characters are back although they don’t appear to have grown any wiser.

This time around, Dumont tries his hand at the sci-fi genre using the similar comedic framework developed by Li'l Quinquin. Van der Weyden is still fumbling his way across the countryside while Carpentier is still driving on two-wheels. 

The duo are woefully unprepared for the arrival of the….aliens. Of course, this being a Bruno Dumont film, the aliens are not what Hollywood has given us but are instead an oozing gooey sludge that can fall from the sky at any given moment.

The mysterious sludge also has some powers that I will not give away but safe to say, it results in plenty of comedic situations akin to slapstick and mistaken identities. There are some other delightful comedic touches such as the broken lights on top of the police car. At the start of the episodes, there is a single unbroken light but after multiple crashes and alien sludge falling from the sky, an additional light is added by Van der Weyden as the story moves along.

By the end of the film, there are 4 broken lights on the passenger side of the police car while the original light is also broken on Carpentier’s side. There are multiple cinematic references as well that serve as wink-wink jokes for those in the know although this time around Carpentier’s name works perfectly for the material as it is just a single letter away from Carpenter (ahem John).

Near the end of the film, Dumont slightly shifts into another genre before closing things out with some music. The song and light-hearted music doesn’t feel like a coincidence because Coincoin is book-ended by Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2017) and Joan of Arc (2019), two unique musicals. The drift to musicals may be Dumont 3.0 although with his upcoming film On a Half Clear Morning (2021), Dumont may go back to 2.0 or perhaps 2.5.

Delphine and Muriel Coulin's The Stopover

Voir du Pays / The Stopover (2016, France/Greece, Delphine and Muriel Coulin)

When it comes to depicting Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in war movies, a majority of Hollywood films focus on an individual. Such films show how an individual, mostly male, is left on their own and has to find a way to cope. This type of depiction reduces the issue to an individual problem and fails to tackle the problem on a larger scale. That is why Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s The Stopover feels remarkably insightful and eye-opening. The film, adapted from Delphine Coulin's book, shows how French soldiers stop for a three day decompression session in Cyprus when returning from Afghanistan. This three day break is meant to help the soldiers adjust to life in the real world before returning to their families. As one of the characters Marine (Soko) puts it, the government and military want to remove all bad images from the soldiers and return them only with clean images back to their families.

Given the trauma soldiers face in war, a three day decompression session isn’t enough. However, it is better than 0 days which is the case with many countries. Of course, as the film highlights, this strategy isn’t perfect. The first aspect is the culture shock of going from Afghanistan to a Cypriot beach resort, or as Max (Karim Leklou) puts it “Going from burkhas to thongs”.

The other aspect is that each person deals with issues in their own way. This is emphasized repeatedly in the film as some benefit from talking about their feelings while others prefer solitude. Then there is the aspect of what one should discuss in front of their superiors and colleagues. In the film, the sessions involve using virtual reality to put the soldiers back in the mental space of their missions. There is a psychiatrist available to observe and offer a one-on-one session if needed. The soldiers are told to be honest in what they say. However, the film shows honesty doesn’t always go down well. This is because in some cases there are unwritten military rules which are violated if one is honest about the failure of a mission or who was responsible for the loss of troops’ lives. Violation of these unwritten rules don’t result in any healing but instead may add to more problems for a solider.

Delphine and Muriel Coulin's smart script and direction, which won Best Screenplay at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2016, depict events in a layered manner sprinkled with humour and compassion. There is a lot of material this film covers but full credit to the sisters that they allow each issue its own space on screen. The film covers multiple characters but in a few minutes, we are able to get an accurate understanding of their differing personalities. The film is mostly filtered from the perspective of three women soldiers, Marine (Soko), Aurore (Ariane Labed) and Fanny (Ginger Romàn). Marine and Aurore are shown to be childhood friends and they get most of the screen time but Fanny’s presence is crucial and the film shows that at the end of the day, the three women soldiers have to fend for themselves against the male egos. The inclusion of a few crucial scenes highlights another complicated layer of the military with regards to the differing treatment between men and women and also how abuse is allowed to go unchecked.

The film premiered at Cannes in 2016 but frustratingly the film was not included in the Main Competition. Admittedly 2016 was a strong year for Cannes but The Stopover is one of the best, if not the best, movies about war to be ever made. It deserved to be in the Main Competition on merit and if it had been included, then perhaps it would have gotten more coverage and would have been discussed and seen by more people.

The Red Balloon

The Red Balloon (1956, France, Albert Lamorisse)

A balloon floating up in the sky still manages to catch everyone’s attention! Some will express sadness at seeing the balloon floating away, at the thought that there is a child nearby who is crying at seeing their precious balloon fly away. Despite all the technological advancements and flashing gadgets we have in society, a balloon is still an essential part of a child’s life. No birthday party would be complete without the presence of balloons. In fact, balloons complete a birthday party. This love of balloons would have made Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon an easy film to be included in a childhood countdown. However, the film is present on merit in the Wonders in the Dark Childhood Countdown because it is more than just about a balloon. In its short running time of 35 minutes, The Red Balloon encapsulates all of life, including all emotions associated with a child’s growth from an early age to that of a teenager. More importantly, the film’s style, without dialogue, and story make this a timeless work that is also the purest form of cinema. The film is a beautiful blend of documentary, art and commercial cinema. In addition, the template for many contemporary films, including Hollywood animation movies, can be traced all the way back to Lamorisse’s beautifully conceived short film.

Rest can be read on Wonders in the Dark, as part of its Childhood Countdown.

L'Age D'or

My review of Luis Buñuel’s L'Age D'or is published on Wonders in the Dark as part of their Top 100 Comedy Countdown.

Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir is a director one encounters very early in their cinephilia journey, with The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu) most likely a first stop given that many consider the magnificent 1939 film as one of the greatest films of all time. In my case, The Rules of the Game is the only Renoir film to have played in local cinemas multiple times over the last decade. However, Renoir directed many other worthy films that I missed and so a spotlight was due in order to play catch-up. The following eight were chosen with 5 of the films part of a Renoir box-set.

1. La fille de l’eau (1925)
2. Nana (1926)
3. Bondu Saved from Drowning (1932)
4. La Grande Illusion (1937)
5. La Marseillaise (1938)
6. The River (1951)
7. The Doctor’s Horrible Experiment (1959)
8. The Elusive Corporal (1962)

Renoir is a rare director who worked in three transitions of cinema, from silent films to talkies (both black and white) to color. Each new transition comes with its own set of technical challenges but also allows a director to treat cinema as an open canvas to freely explore new ideas and techniques. In this regard, Renoir made excellent use of each cinematic mode to keenly explore behavior of characters in different rungs of French society, from the lower to upper classes, from revolutionaries to politicians, from artists to the wealthy aristocrats. Remarkably, Jean Renoir’s first color film, The River, set in India shows that he was able to carry his sharp observations into a different culture. The River is based on Rumer Godden’s experiences which explain the intimate nature of the material but a huge credit goes to Renoir for properly balancing the Indian cultural observations with a tender touch. The film appears to have been made by someone who has lived and grown up in India for years not by a foreign director such as Renoir.

This spotlight was certainly a true pleasure and reaffirmed why Jean Renoir is one of the greatest directors in Cinema. However, I still missed out on some truly worthy Renoir films going by Sam Juliano’s comments where he rates Une Partie De Campagne and La Chienne as Renoir’s great films to go along with The Rules of the Game and The Grand Illusion. Also, Sam has high praise for La Bete Humaine as well.

Note: the only reason I saw Bondu Saved From Drowning was because of the film’s appearance on the comedy countdown at Wonders in the Dark, where Ed Howard has an excellent essay outlining the film perfectly.

Euro 2012: French Films

Entry #6 of the Euro 2012 Book & Film Spotlight looks at the two French films.

L’Apollonide (House of Tolerance/House of Pleasures) (2011, Bertrand Bonello)

Films set in a brothel often depict similar stories by incorporating a range of familiar characters from a young to an older prostitute and from a miserable to a romantic person. The clients that visit the brothels also appear to be cut from a similar template such as a young male after his first sexual experience, a rich man who falls in love with a prostitute and wants to rescue her and an older male simply looking for a friend. Therefore, a lot of credit must be given to Bertrand Bonello who manages to craft a unique film despite working in the confined framework of a brothel. Many of the characters shown in Bonello’s film are familiar from previous films set in a brothel but Bonello also adds elements of horror and fantasy while layering everything with a stylistic touch. For example, the recurring images of a panther and the tragic disfiguring of a prostitute’s face (“the woman who laughs”) are not only haunting but linger long in the memory. The films also contains delightful moments, such as the sequence of money being counted which perfectly illustrates the financial side of sexual transactions. Music also plays a key part in L’Apollonide while the visuals evoke sentiments of an underground world of drugs and sex. Even though the film does not depict rich colors, it exudes a bit of the sensuality found in rich supply in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers of Shanghai. As it turns out, Bonello mentions Hou Hsiao-hsien’s film in an interview with Cinema Scope:

One of my uncertainties was the atmosphere of the brothel in my film. I didn’t want that French, 1900s [makes a fanfare noise]… Moulin Rouge, etc. etc. So I went directly to that opium den mood in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s film, because it keeps the sensuality but is not hysterical. There’s an explicit homage in my film to Flowers of Shanghai: the Chinese violin.

Also, the final scene is a perfect way to end the film as it creates a bridge between brothels of the past and modern day prostitution. That crucial scene also illustrates how a film like L’Apollonide will never age and will always be relevant in our society.

Rapt (2009, Lucas Belvaux)

A rich man gets kidnapped. The kidnappers demand a ransom from the victim’s family. The family want to do whatever is possible to get their beloved back.

At this point, Lucas Belvaux’s Rapt tears up the familiar script found in cinematic kidnapped stories and goes off in a completely different direction with surprisingly powerful results.

The first deviation from conventional kidnapped stories is the realization the kidnapped man Stanislas Graff (Yvan Attal) is not as rich as everyone initially thought. He has a lot of debt and did his utmost to maintain an illusion of an extravagant lifestyle. Investigation into his life reveals his multiple affairs which alienates his wife and daughter. Stanislas’ company and board of directors are not too happy with his lifestyle and are reluctant to part with any funds for his release. As a result, Stanislas is cut adrift from the outside world and the only people who end up caring for him are his kidnappers who still believe they can get some money from his capture. With the exception of a few torture scenes, Rapt does not feature any of the action or heroic scenes often found in kidnapping tales. Words are the weapons of choice in Rapt and character assassinations are the only kinds of attacks that take place.

Same Same but different

Both L’Apollonide and Rapt show that in the hands of a talented director, a familiar setup can yield a completely different end product. Therefore even though one day stories may dry up, cinema will always continue to surprize as long as creative personalities stand behind a camera.

Forza Bastia

Jacques Tati's last directed work was a football film!

Tati directed Forza Bastia, a 26 minute documentary, in 1978 but the film only surfaced in 2001 thanks to his daughter Sophie Tatischeff. The film was shown at the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival in Amsterdam 2011 and can currently be viewed online in its entirety.

It is a remarkable film that shows the excitement in Bastia leading up to their first leg of the 1978 UEFA Cup final against PSV Eindhoven. Tati's focus is on the dedicated and loyal fans, showing their pre-game rituals along with their tension and anxiety during the game. There are some amazing sounds captured of the game itself which was played out on a water logged pitch and ended 0-0. Overall, this film is a great treasure not only of football's history but of cinema itself.

For the record, PSV won the second leg 3-0 to win the 1978 UEFA Cup.

Three Films by Mohamed Al-Daradji

The following three films from Iraqi director Mohamed Al-Daradji all take place in 2003, the pivotal year in which Iraq's history changed drastically.

Ahlaam (2006)
War, Love, God & Madness (2008)
Son of Babylon (2009)

The core of Ahlaam takes place after the American invasion but the film goes as far back as 1998 when Iraq was bogged down by sanctions. Back in 1998, the title character of Ahlaam (Aseel Adel) was on the verge of marriage while Hasan (Kaheel Khalid) was having doubts about staying in the army because he didn’t believe in serving Saddam. Mehdi (Mohamed Hashim) was troubled because his father’s past would stand in the way of him going for higher studies. These characters lives was clearly not great to begin with but their plight gets worse as the film moves along. Ahlaam’s marriage is ruined because her fiancée is taken away by the Iraqi police. She is pushed to the ground which subsequently damages her mind, eventually landing her in a mental hospital. The lack of order after the invasion causes the looters to move into that mental hospital forcing all the patients, including Ahlaam, out on the unsafe streets of Baghdad. As the film shows, most people suffered from poverty while living under the oppressive regime of Saddam. However, things got subsequently worse after the bombs started to fall in 2003 as the locals had to deal with extra problems such as looting, lack of electricity and water. The chaos and looting that spread like wildfire in 2003 causes the lives of the main characters in Ahlaam to spin further out of control. Ahlaam's fate is unresolved at the film’s end, but it is clear that it can’t be hopeful.

The documentary War, Love, God & Madness depicts the struggles and challenges in the making of Ahlaam. In 2003, Mohamed Al-Daradji and his crew entered Iraq posing as journalists (Al-Jazeera being the magic word) otherwise they feared their camera would be taken away. Once in Baghdad, Al-Daradji tried to find the only working film camera while recruiting local actors. He found it quite challenging to select a female lead especially since prospective leads backed out when they learned about the rape scene in Ahlaam. Things are further complicated when one of the crew members walked off suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, the lack of electricity and safety complicated the daily shoot schedule. Al-Daradji was on the verge of giving up and leaving Iraq but he ignored the advice of others around him and stayed to produce a sharp end product in Ahlaam despite all the stress and complications.

Son of Babylon is set a few weeks after the invasion of 2003 and starts off far away from the Iraqi capital. An older woman Um Ibrahim (Shazada Hussein) goes in search of her missing son when she learns that certain prisoners of war have been freed in Iraq. She take her grandson Ahmed (Yasser Talib) along as her missing son is Ahmed’s father.

Their road journey is not an easy one because the country is in a state of flux especially when horrific truths about the past are unearthed on a daily basis. One of the film’s most emotional sequences is when the traveling duo encounter a funeral procession of recently discovered buried bodies. There are no words spoken but Um Ibrahim’s silent expressions convey her worst fears about her son’s fate.

The film manages to showcase Iraq's vast and picturesque countryside, something hardly ever seen on screen.

Also the film depicts the challenges posed by the cultural and linguistic diversity of Iraq. Um Ibrahim is Kurdish but she cannot speak Arabic so she has to rely on her grandson for translation. People have enough problems to begin with so the language barrier only adds to their frustration and confusion. Yet, no matter what language an Iraqi speaks, they are united in their suffering. The ending of Son of Babylon is even more emotional than the one in Ahlaam but such films cannot have a happy ending, not especially when there are so many unresolved matters. The end credits in Son of Babylon lists that more than a million men, women and children have gone missing in Iraq in the last 40 years. By April 2009, more than 300 mass graves were found containing between 150,000 - 250,000 bodies. The remaining are still missing so there are countless stories waiting to be told about Iraq.

Transfer of suffering

Ahlaam and War, Love, God & Madness are about the suffering of the living. However, Son of Babylon shows that suffering does not end when someone dies. In fact, their suffering gets transferred to their living relatives. And in cases when relatives have no closure about a loved one, the next generation of family members start their lives burdened with a heavy dose of pain.

Smoke and Sounds

Ahlaam is a very well made film that smartly uses a grayish/dark palette to depict the chaos after the 2003 invasion. On the other hand, Son of Babylon is bright and vibrant yet most scenes feature smoke in the background thereby depicting the constant blowing up of things.

War, Love, God & Madness captures the sound of gunfire and bombing that locals have to endure on a daily basis. The documentary also features many conversations with locals in cafes and on the streets. In this regard, the film shares a bond with Sinan Antoon’s About Baghdad. It is quite fascinating to think that both Antoon and Al-Daradji were probably in Baghdad at the same time in 2003 filming their respective documentaries. Their films do feature a bit of hope because the locals believed that being rid of Saddam would eventually lead to a more happier life. It would be interesting if someone revisited the city now and interviewed the same people again because as bleak as things appeared in 2003, we now know that the coming years brought on more uncertainty.

The documentary title War, Love, God & Madness comes from an observation by a person that changing one letter in arabic transforms the word "war" into "love" and "God". That is a fascinating observation as wars are something that take place in the absence of love yet wars also take place in the name of God or if one side has too much love of their God. And when wars take place, madness is unleashed, thereby setting one on the path towards more wars.

Voices and Stories

There are plenty of books and films about Iraq yet very few of these works give an Iraqi perspective. One of the big reasons for lack of an Iraqi voice is because most of these works are based on experiences of western journalists who were living inside the Green Zone or embedded with foreign troops so their viewpoint was always a bit restricted. When these journalists went to meet the locals, they were accompanied by a translator or a bodyguard (soldier or private) and as a result, there were always filters and barriers which prevented a true Iraqi perspective from emerging. There are some exceptions such as James Longley’s incredible Iraq in Fragments which covers different parts of Iraq and outlines realistic problems facing the country. However, most films about Iraq hardly feature any Iraqis or are even shot in the country. Therefore, Mohamed Al-Daradji’s films are a pleasant surprize because they are shot entirely on location and manage to give voice to the local Iraqi people.

Mohamed Al- Daradji’s films are not made to collect box-office receipts or to win acclaim. Instead, they are made to depict essential human stories about citizens of a country the world has largely ignored even though the country name itself is regularly featured in headlines. These films won’t change the world but atleast it is good to know that there is still some relevant cinema out there that is not manufactured to win awards.

The Artist

The Artist (2011, France/Belgium, Michel Hazanavicius)

Once upon a time, a megastar was effortlessly able to charm his audience. He smiled and everyone fell over backwards in awe, including producers who obliged to his every whim. A photo with him could turn a nobody into a page one headline. However, he was vain and refused to change with the times so his producer dumped him. The actor was so sure of his success that he became an indie filmmaker and bankrolled his own film. The film flopped at the box-office and when the stock market crashed, the actor went bankrupt. His fortunes were sold off at an auction and he had to pawn off his expensive suits for food and drink money. He turned into an alcoholic and was so washed up that even his shadow left him. When all hope looked lost, a loving hard tried to pull him out of the quicksand. Unfortunately, once again his pride got in the way and his fate appeared sealed.

But in the tradition of a typical Hollywood studio film, he is saved thereby ensuring a feel good happy ending that everyone loves.

Cut. Insert sound. Roll credits.

Applause.

Give film universal acclaim.

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo charmingly bring their characters to life but ultimately The Artist is a rehashed studio film sold in a different package. The silent film treatment feels like a gimmick as demonstrated by the nightmare sequence in which Dujardin’s character of George Valentin loses his voice. George is told by his producer Al (John Goodman) that talkies are the future and silent actors are on the verge of extinction. This causes George to have a nightmare in which he loses his voice but all the objects and characters around him break free of the film’s silent framework -- the objects make a loud noise while characters laugh in their own voice. This sequence draws attention to itself and makes the film appear more as a spoof of the silent film era, and not as a homage. Also, watching George and Al discussing talkies while reading intertitles appears to be joke geared towards the audience and not as a relevant scenario in the context of a silent film. It would have been more effective if The Artist was a pure silent film with no reference to talkies or if the film was about the making of silent movies where characters talked in their own voice. As it stands, The Artist comes across as a muddled effort trying to use a framework of a silent film without fully embracing the methodology of the era.

CIFF 2011 -- All about the Mavericks

Calgary International Film Festival 2011

Every year I joyfully look forward to the 10 day cinematic adventure that is the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF). Normally, I have my festival specific routines and relish tweaking my schedule as the festival goes on, adding in extra films or altering my plan to get some rest. However, this year my schedule for the opening weekend was decided well in advance because I was invited to be on the three person jury to judge the Mavericks competition award. The Mavericks competition featured eight films from first time directors. The goal was to watch all eight films in the cinema along with the audience during the opening weekend and then deliberate to come up with the award. As per the film schedule, I had two options to see all eight films:

1) 2-3-3: Start off with two films on Friday and then take in three each on Saturday or Sunday.

2) 3-3-2: Three on the opening day and end the weekend with two.

I opted for the second option and added two more films for personal viewing, making the format a much more soccer friendly 4-4-2. This format also allowed me to give my full attention to the Mavericks films.

The eight Mavericks films seen in order of viewing:

Maria, my Love (2011, USA, Jasmine McGlade Chazelle)
Heat Wave (2011, France, Jean-Jacques Jauffret)
The Sacrament of Life (2008, USA, Joseph Sorrentino)
Flowers of Evil (2010, France, David Dusa)
Radio Free Albemuth (2010, USA, John Alan Simon)
Old Goats (2010, USA, Taylor Guterson)
The Whisperer in the Darkness (2011, USA, Sean Branney)
Sunflower Hour (2011, Canada, Aaron Houston)

All the eight films are quite wonderful and different from each other which made it fascinating to judge the competition. The eight films are also clearly a labor of love by the filmmakers and it was a great experience to hear the stories about how some of these films saw the light of day. I had the pleasure to listen to Jasmine McGlade Chazelle, Joseph Sorrentino, Sean Branney and John Alan Simon talk about their films and had a very nice chat with Joseph Sorrentino. These films highlight the importance of film festivals in helping to showcase talented filmmakers whose works would otherwise be lost in the overpowering Hollywood dominated North American cinemas. I relished viewing all these films and hope they get the larger audience they deserve.

In the end, we chose Flowers of Evil as the winner of the Mavericks award.

Here is our jury statement:

Flowers of Evil is a bold, innovative film brimming with fresh new ideas. David Dusa has crafted a unique film that smartly integrates social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube within the film’s visual language while maintaining the story’s flow. Dusa’s film contains living breathing three dimensional characters who draw the audience into their lives thereby creating an emotional connection with the characters lives in Paris and a revolution taking place in a far off land.

In addition, Flowers of Evil also features a grooving soundtrack and makes great use of Shantel’s Disko Boy song.

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The other two films that I saw on the opening weekend were Kill List and Alps.

Kill List (2011, UK, Ben Wheatley)

Ben Wheatley’s film packs quite a powerful punch and increases the tension and violence as it races along at a riveting pace. One remarkable aspect of the film is that it keeps certain elements off the screen thereby allowing the audience to fill in their own version of certain events related to the characters background story and even to the cult group. The violent scenes cause plenty of discomfort although the film’s most shocking scene won’t seem as a surprize to those who saw a certain 2010 film.

Alps (2011, Greece, Giorgos Lanthimos)

Lanthimos’ follow up to Dogtooth features far more deadpan humor and less of the strangeness that might have put some people off Dogtooth. That is not to say that ALPS is without its quirky dark humor but it is presented in a much more accessible manner than Dogtooth. The material that is presented in ALPS only seems much more darker and sinister when one walks away after seeing the film and thinks about the characters and their lives.

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Some quick comments on other films that showed at the festival:

Guilt (2011, Canada, Marc Bisaillon)

This excellent Canadian film is based on a true story and raises some worthy moral questions about guilt/punishment. There is some humor as well regarding how the champ jock is given preferential treatment but the humor is subtle and does not draw attention to itself.

In Heaven, Underground (2011, Germany, Britta Wauer)

The story about how the Weissensee Jewish cemetery survived the Nazi era and continued to operate for more than a century is certainly extraordinary. Surprisingly, this is a very light tender film about the heavy topic of death and features many poetic and contemplative moments.

Target (2011, Russia, Alexander Zeldovich)

Like all good sci-fi films Target uses a single topic, elixir of youth in the film’s case, to explore larger issues about human behavior and morality in society. Plus, the film uses current trends of China’s growth to extrapolate a future where the political power balance is altered. One forgets the sci-fi element 30 minutes into the film after which the story unfolds like an epic Russian novel, carefully highlighting the disintegration of the principal characters. The ending shot certainly evokes Tarkovskiy’s Solaris as do certain other aspects in the film.

Journey of a Dream (2011, Canada co-production, Shenpenn Khymsar)

This worthy documentary is a fascinating mix of a memoir, a road journey, a political film about Tibet's struggle of independence and a look at the underground music scene in Darjeeling. Each part contains many engaging aspects which are nicely tied together in the end when the filmmaker draws a line between his Buddhist beliefs and love of metal music.

Le Quattro Volte: I wrote about this film previously and it is still a front-runner for one of my favourite films of the year.

George the Hedgehog (2011, Poland, Wojtek Wawszczyk, Jakub Tarkowski, Tomasz Leśniak)

And now for something completely different...George the Hedgehog is a Polish animated film that is a blend of political and social satire packed with plenty of sexual innuendo and some nudity to boot. The film is surprizingly liberal with its sexual depiction and is not afraid to offend with its crudeness and racial jokes. George the Hedgehog also smartly includes the impact that online videos can have in swaying public opinion and starting a revolution of sorts.

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The ones that got away

The opening weekend certainly exhausted me and that meant I had to give away some of my film tickets over the next few days just to recover. So I missed seeing Take Shelter, Monsieur Lazhar, The Skin I Live In and The Bengali Detective. On top of that, family commitments meant that I missed the closing gala film Take That Waltz along with three of my must-see picks for the festival -- Le Havre, El Bulli and The Salt of Life. Still, CIFF 2011 was another great festival experience highlighted by the outstanding Mavericks competition.

Oh Canadian weather

CIFF has always taken place place in the final week of September and usually spilled over into the first few days of October. As a result, my memories of the fall season have always been associated with CIFF because my waiting in line for films has gone hand in hand with a chill tinged air. However, remarkably last year the weather during the first week of the festival was summer like thereby making the walks in between the cinemas pleasant and fun. Incredibly, this time around the first weekend of the festival (Sept 23 - 25) featured temperatures in the range of 29-30 deg C thereby meaning some of the warmest summer weather of the year took place in the fall. If this summer like weather occurs during the festival next year, then it will certainly be further proof of the changing weather pattern.

Claire Denis Films

A spotlight on Claire Denis featuring the following 5 films:

Nénette et Boni (1996)
Beau Travail (1999)
Friday Night (2002)
L’Intrus (2004)
White Material (2009)

L’Intrus -- A global journey

First, there was the sound.



Then, there was the image.



Without the sound, the image meant nothing. Without the image, the sound would have not have had such an effect.

A simple image with a simple discordant sound in the background.

Another image, with the same sound.

L’Intrus features many images with variations of the same opening background score by Stuart Staples’ (Tindersticks) solo score. Staples' score is set either against stationary images or against fast moving objects such as the dogs in the snow. The music produces a mesmerizing effect in all cases and adds a layer of mystery around each image while accelerating the pace of the film. When his score comes on, it takes center stage allowing one to listen to it perfectly while observing the images. Normally, in most films one only gets to listen to a few seconds of a background score before the music gets muted when the actors start talking. But in L'Intrus, Claire Denis ensures the music is given enough of a presence. In a sense, Staples' score forms a bridge between the various images and is a key component in carrying the story.

The combination of these images with Staples' score produced a haunting lasting impact on me when I first saw L’Intrus more than a year ago. I always felt that it was a film that demanded a second viewing so that I could move beyond the hypnotic seductive impact of the images and dig a bit deeper into the story. Thankfully, the second viewing proved immensely rewarding and easily confirmed L’Intrus as my favourite Claire Denis film and in this category I include White Material, Beau Travail and I Can’t Sleep.

The story of L’Intrus can be easily summarized as a tale of the missing heart. Louis (Michel Subor) requires a heart transplant to save his life but nothing is the same after he gets his new heart.

He goes on a long journey to gather a part of his past because that would help fill his new heart with love and satisfaction.

In reality, he needs to find his long lost son because his current son (played by Grégoire Colin) is hardly capable of any love. Neither does Louis’ sultry seductive neighbour offer any love although she haunts his fantasies.

Louis names his neighbour (Béatrice Dalle) “queen of the northern hemisphere” and she truly is a queen, who can not only tame men but wild beasts as well.

As tempting as she is, the queen can never mend Louis’ heart. So he is forced to undertake a journey to a more warmer paradise where his past lies.

L’Intrus is a journey across the planet as envisioned by Claire Denis. The film locations consist of snowy landscapes, perfect beaches, rainy ships, a peaceful countryside with some hills, a crowded city and a tense border crossing. The film is inspired by a Jean-Luc Nancy book L’Intrus about a heart transplant that creates a sense of an invasion of the body but in reality, it is the film that invades the mind of its viewer, implants images and sounds that will continue to play long after the film fades to black.

Beau Travail -- working in the sun, dancing under the strobe lights

A kiss. Cue music, Tarkan’s "Şımarık".

The patrons grove to the music. The club is the only escape for French soldiers stuck in an endless cycle of chores which seems to freeze time for them.

The camera observes their activities in the hot sun, be it digging

or just having a duel.

Opera music heightens the impact of the duel and provides a nice balance to the pulsating dance music found in the clubs.

There are three men who the camera chooses to focus more on and in a sense these three men represent different rungs of power. There is the young, confident Gilles (Grégoire Colin),

then there is a conflicted Galoup (Denis Lavant) who is battling his inner demons, including suppressing his desires while Commander Bruno (Michel Subor) gives out orders.

The film consists of discrete images that can be pieced together as one wants. The ending is a clear example of that. One can interpret a sad ending or just enjoy observing Lavant’s character finally letting loose and dancing his heart out to Corona’s Rhythm of the Night.

Like L’Intrus, Beau Travail is another film that demands a second viewing.

Open air cinema to a closed room

The best cinematic experience of my life took place in Sept 2009 when I was fortunate enough to witness White Material debut at the Venice Film Festival. In my case, I caught the open air screening of the film in campo San Polo. The experience was incredible as the empty dark space around the white screen added infinite depth to the film while the blowing wind enhanced the experience and allowed me to soak and breathe in the African surroundings depicted in the film. The only negative aspect was that the French film only had Italian subtitles meaning I missed out some of the specific aspects of the plot. Still, the film was not difficult to follow because of the wonderful visual language.

Almost two years to the date of my Venice screening, I finally saw the English subtitled version of the film and that has only increased my admiration for the film. However, it felt a bit stifling to see the film on a smaller TV screen in a closed setting. In this regard, I would have had the same feeling if I had seen the film in a movie theater because White Material has to be seen in an open air setting to maximize the effect of the natural lighting used in the film. Using natural light was a decision born of circumstances and not a production decision. As per Claire Denis, the lighting equipment did not arrive in Africa on time and would have been delayed for weeks. So she decided the crew should go ahead and shoot as much without any natural lights although Isabelle Huppert was not immediately informed of this. White Material was the first collaboration between Denis and cinematographer Yves Cape. In her previous films, Denis worked with Agnès Godard but Godard was not available so Denis decided to go ahead with Yves Cape because she liked his work in Bruno Dumont’s films. The choice proved to be an inspired one as Yves managed to capture the heat and harshness of the landscape perfectly in each frame. An equally inspired decision came in another sequence shot inside a darkened room entirely with flashlights. That scene manages to capture some of the tension and myth around the character of the Boxer nicely. The Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé) is immensely intriguing and appears to be a mixture of several past African leaders. Another aspect that stands out is the fact that White Material appears to be the first film I have seen a character portrayed by Huppert to be venerable and weak. Normally, she portrays characters completely in control but in White Material her character Maria is at the mercy of events and is forced to seek help.

Cameroon standing in for West Africa

The above wide angle shot from White Material watches Maria run away from the screen and as she runs away, she appears to diminish in size until it looks like a little girl is running. In that exact moment, the shot manages to draw a bridge to Denis’ debut film Chocolat, a film that like White Material was also shot in Cameroon and starred Isaach De Bankolé as well. The young childhood memories of a girl in Chocolat are set against the backdrop of the final days of French colonialism while White Material is set in contemporary Africa against the backdrop of a civil war which is threatening to disintegrate the country. Both films manage to cover a few decades not only of Cameroon’s timeline but also of a few West African countries by extension. The flashback sequences of Chocolat are set in WWII when French colonialism was about to end so the film shows a critical period of transition, when power was finally about to be transferred back to African hands. Chocolat starts off in 1988 Cameroon while White Material is also set in a modern West African country (Cameroon is not named though the film was shot there) and depicts a nation on the verge of collapse. Both films show Africa in a period of transition and even though there are chaotic events which are threatening to overtake everything, Denis integrates enough silent moments in both films which convey a sense of dignity.

Intimate moments and fantasies

L’Intrus, Beau Travail and White Material are shot outside of France and cover a wide array of topics ranging from memories, desire, international crime (illegal heart transplant in L’Intrus), racism, power, political scheming, colonialism and war. On the other hand, Friday Night and Nénette et Boni are smaller scale films shot in Paris and Marseille respectively and feature more intimate moments as the camera narrows onto just a few characters. Friday Night is the only film out of the five confined to a narrow amount of space as the camera is mostly set either inside a car or in a hotel room observing two bodies. Nénette et Boni draws the camera up close when needed but it also pulls back to observe the characters in their moment of misery or joy. At first it was a bit underwhelming to approach Friday Night and Nénette et Boni after seeing the other three visually rich global films but those feelings subsided when I got involved observing the characters closely.

Friday Night features mainly two characters who engage in a one-night stand after a traffic jam in Paris brings them together. The female character is portrayed as someone who is trapped in the film either physically in the car or in a mental cage but she is able to find liberation because of her chance encounter.

Nénette et Boni is a tender story about two siblings who spent most of their lives apart because of their parents divorce. However, when Nénette (Alice Houri) is pregnant, she seeks out her brother Boni (Grégoire Colin) for support. At first, Boni is a bit distant but eventually he warms up to Nénette and looks after her in a loving manner. Denis wonderfully blends Boni’s fantasies about the baker’s wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) beautifully within the film’s fabric thereby adding a bit more sensual flavour to the film. A big surprize is seeing Vincent Gallo play the role of the baker.

Similar Names & New Associations

Grégoire Colin is only absent from White Material but is a visible presence in four of the other films. He is the Boni in Nénette et Boni and is a force to reckon with in Beau Travail but only manages a few moments of screen time in L’Intrus and Friday Night. On the other hand, Michel Subor is present in White Material, Beau Travail and L’Intrus.

Agnès Godard was the cinematographer in all but White Material while Nelly Quettier was the editor in three of the films excluding White Material and Nénette et Boni.

Tindersticks, either as a group or via its individual members Stuart A. Staples or Dickon Hinchliffe, are a continuous association in all but Beau Travail. Stuart A. Staples provided the mesmerizing solo score for White Material and L’Intrus while Tindersticks handled the score for Nénette et Boni and Dickon Hinchliffe worked on Friday Night. The collected music box-set by Tindersticks for Denis’ films features these four films and also includes 35 Shots of Rum.

Claire Denis returned to Cameroon to shoot White Material almost two decades after she shot her debut feature Chocolat there but it seems that White Material features many new associations for her, especially by working with Yves Cape as the cinematographer for the first time and finally working with Isabelle Huppert. It seems almost incredible to think that Huppert and Denis, two French women who are clearly among the best in the world in their respective fields, took this long to work with each other but thankfully the association happened.

Overall

If I had to subjectively rate the five films out of 10, this is how they would stack up:

L’Intrus (2004): 10
White Material (2009): 9
Beau Travail (1999): 9
Nénette et Boni (1996): 8
Friday Night (2002): 7