Parisian beauties

Paris (2008, France, Cédric Klapisch)

Paris is often called a seductive romantic city. So it is not surprizing that a film titled Paris should feature plenty of romance and some enticing seductive women. After exploring relationships and friendships in Barcelona in L'auberge espagnole (2002) and Russian Dolls (2005), Cédric Klapisch turned his camera towards Paris to create an engaging film. The main star of Paris is Romain Duris but the women light up the screen with their presence. Here are just some of the beautiful women that grace the camera in Paris:

Gaspar Noé Films

Two films by Gaspar Noé:

Seul contre tous / I Stand Alone (1998)
Enter the Void (2009)

Enter the Brain

I Stand Alone allows unfiltered access to the inner thoughts of a jobless butcher (Philippe Nahon) whereas Enter the Void visually depicts images that are circulating in a soul’s memory bank. The differing method of words vs images in the two films drives each film’s presentation and style. I Stand Alone is packed with words due to a constant stream of thoughts that bounce around inside the butcher’s head. He does not talk much to others but since he is always thinking, the film is never short on words. On the other hand, most of Enter the Void is from the perspective of Oscar’s (Nathaniel Brown) soul, who can only observe people. The camera accordingly allows the audience to see what his soul is seeing, so the film is short on dialogue and the only words that filter through are bits of conversation Oscar’s soul can make out. The camera also dips inside his brain and as a result, the audience visually sees the memories that are getting triggered. This perspective also explains the repetitious scenes of Oscar’s parents accident that are shown in the film. A human being often thinks of certain situations over and over again, which means the same thought is recirculated in the brain usually with similar associated images and feelings. Oscar is haunted by the death of his parents and cannot forget that tragedy, so he is often thinking of that accident. His thoughts may initially drift off in different directions but no matter what path his memories take, the destination is always the car in which his parents were killed.

Enter the Void

Near the end of I Stand Alone, the butcher wants to enter a void by ending his life but he manages to stay in the real world. However, in Enter the Void Oscar literally enters a void (via a different route than what the butcher intended) and also manages to re-emerge from that void. Interestingly, a tiny spliced shot in I Stand Alone shows a birth but that birth does not take place until the ending of Enter the Void.

The end is just the beginning

Commercial cinema is never short on happy endings but incredibly, Gaspar Noe also provides a happy ending in all three of his features albeit with a slight deviation. Irreversible moves backwards and ends on a calm note as all the brutality and ugliness is shown long before the end. Enter the Void also ends on a positive note when a birth is meant to signify a new beginning. At first it looks like I Stand Alone will end on a miserable note but the audience is given a 30 second warning to leave the theater if they want to avoid seeing any violence. For those that stay, the film shows the butcher succumbing to the demons inside his head and falling to the lowest depth imaginable. However, it turns out that evil act was just in his imagination and the camera pulls out of his brain to show that some form of morality still exists.

If the film had ended at this point, the ending would have been happy indeed. However, the final words uttered by the butcher hint that he may just go ahead and do whatever he wants. So that means after the final credits bad things could happen but as far as the audience is concerned they can leave with some measure of hope.

However, getting to the ending in all these films is anything but a pleasant experience. Irreversible has two segments (fire extinguisher & the rape scene) which cause discomfort while Enter the Void shows an immoral world of drugs, sex and corruption where happiness is always out of reach. I Stand Alone drags the audience through the butcher’s sickening thoughts and actions but the film also shows that society around the butcher is not that hopeful either. Poverty, joblessness and racism is rampant and one wonders how many more butchers are wandering around the streets.

Yes there is a director here

The final credits of I Stand Alone say “You have been watching a Gaspar Noe film”.

It is hard to imagine audience can ever forget his name after watching any of his features. His films cannot be dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders but instead warrant a reaction of some sort, be it positive or negative. Of course, his films divide audience but one truly feels that Noe has directed his films and everything shown is as per his vision. The camera bounces around when it is needed to and if the camera is not moving, then it is stationary for a reason. Majority of Enter the Void is from the point of view of Oscar’s soul, so a hovering camera angle is essential for creating that feeling. To this effect, the film manages to sustain a floating point of view right until the end and does not take any shortcuts. The start of Irreversible features a camera that spins around giving an impression of a fly navigating around buildings before landing up inside a room to listen to the wisdom of a naked man (Philippe Nahon). However, the camera is absolutely still during the nine minute long rape sequence because that is what Noe intended. If there was any moment in the film that the camera needed to look away, it was during that sequence in the tunnel. Yet, the audience is not offered that option. In I Stand Alone quick zooms and cuts, punctuated with offscreen gunshots, point to the volatile mental state of the butcher. The butcher’s mind is working in overdrive and building up hatred for everyone around him. He cannot sit still even for a minute, is constantly agitated and often acts out the first thought that enters his brain. So the rapid fire editing gives the film an accelerated pace and highlights his restlessness.

Also credits in Noe’s films are a talking point in themselves. Irreversible features credits that run backwards and sideways while Enter the Void assaults the senses with a brightly colored credit sequence that zips by in a flash and uses various eye-catching fonts.

Personally, I think I Stand Alone is the most complete film out of the three while Enter the Void is the best directed film. Irreversible is a few notches behind the other two but it is also the film that got the most attention and ensured his other two films were accessible.

Beware of the angry tire!!!

Rubber (2010, France, Quentin Dupieux)

Very few films come with an inbuilt cult classic quality like Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber. A film about a killer tire advertised with some stunning posters easily makes for plenty of buzz and anticipation.

The opening few minutes of Rubber strengthen that cult status with a hilarious monologue which features a cop who faces the camera to describe various sequences that happen in other films for "no reason".

His words prepare the audience to suspend any logic while watching Rubber. Of course, no amount of logic can ever explain a killer tire but the cop’s words ensure that the film gets a critic proof pass. The story then hilariously adds a fake audience within the film who are witnessing the same movie as us, although they are watching the action with binoculars.

The presence of the fake audience turns Rubber into a live reality show within the scripted film that we the audience are watching. The opening sequences of the cinematic reality tire show depict how the tire is awakened and slowly learns to master his psychic killing abilities. At first, the fake audience is amazed and shocked by the tire’s new found powers. Eventually, the novelty wears thin and the audience is bored, especially by long periods of the tire’s inactivity which involve the tire just staying stationery and pondering about his next move. Things take an interesting turn when the tire goes for a drive down the highway and falls for a young woman. The tire follows her and waits for an appropriate opportunity to make another move. In the meantime, the tire takes out his anger on other victims by blowing them up.

The film's posters point to a 1970’s kind of slasher/killer film with plenty of gore but that is not the case. Some blood is shed but not on the scale as indicated by the posters. Instead, Rubber tries to use the 70’s look to incorporate some absurd situations, dry humour and artistic elements. Unfortunately, thirty minutes into the film, the fake audience angle wears thin and the jokes dry out. Some life is injected into the film for brief periods before things come to a standstill again. It is not until the final moments when things truly get interesting after a tricycle gathers an army of killer tires. Alas, the film ends before we get to witness the army of killer tires in action. Why? No reason...

except to leave the door open for a sequel?

Spotlight on Chabrol

Claude Chabrol’s unexpected death in September 2010 meant the world lost a core director of the French New Wave. Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette are now the last remaining Cahiers du Cinema New Wave directors although Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda and Chris Marker remain from the Left Bank group. Chabrol started his film career during a rich period in global film-making through the late 1950’s and 1960’s when mesmerizing films emerged from all corners of the globe. Incredibly, Chabrol remained a prolific filmmaker throughout his career, directing more than 50 features. Chabrol directed his first film in 1958 (Le Beau Serge) and last in 2009 with Inspector Bellamy, meaning he had a staggering average of one film per year over a span of half a century. Not only was he a key filmmaker, he was also a film critic who helped champion other filmmakers via Cahiers du Cinema.

The seven films selected for this spotlight start a decade after Chabrol’s first feature and thus fall outside his New Wave period:

Les biches (1968)
La femme infidèle (1969)
Que la bête meure (1969)
Le boucher (1970)
Juste avant la nuit (1971)
Les noces rouges (1973)
Nada (1974)

In A History of the French New Wave, Richard Neupert notes:

Le beau Serge and Landru mark the beginning and the ending of Chabrol’s contributions to the New Wave proper.....
His first eight films helped make a New Wave, but film enthusiasts had to wait five years, until Les biches and La femme infidele (both 1968), for Chabrol to help truly remake the commercial French Cinema. page 160, second edition.

Adultery & Murder

Adultery is present in four of the seven films but in three of these films, cheating on a spouse is directly connected to committing a murder. In La femme infidèle, Charles (Michel Bouquet) kills his wife Hélène’s (Stephane Audran) lover in a gush of anger while in Les noces rouges the wife (Stephane Audran) and her lover conspire to kill her slimy husband. In La femme infidèle, Michel Bouquet plays the husband who was cheated upon but in Juste avant la nuit his character cheats on his wife (Audran) with their neighbour’s wife and kills his lover in a fit of resentment during a S&M episode.

Que la bête meure features an obnoxious husband Paul (Jean Yanne) who cheats on his wife with her sister but that infidelity is not the reason for Paul’s murder. At the film’s start, Paul runs over a child and drives away leading the son’s father to track down Paul for revenge.

Murder as a battle for Identity

Jean Yanne’s character Popaul/Paul commits gruesome murders in Le boucher where he plays the title character who cannot curb his inner demons. Popaul is not portrayed as a calculative serial killer but as a man who kills whenever his dark self takes over and pushes him to commit the sinister crimes. One side of his personality yearns to be helped and saved while his darker side forces his hands to drive the knife into his victims.

In Les biches, Frédérique (Stéphane Audran) invites a young street artist (Jacqueline Sassard) into her Parisian apartment and tries to seduce the young woman. The young woman never reveals her name so Frédérique names her Why. Frédérique takes Why to her villa outside the city and surrounds her with luxury in order to woo her. When Why pretends to show interest in Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Frédérique gets jealous and pounces on Paul herself. Initially, Why is not taken with Paul but after Frédérique dates Paul, Why wants Paul as well and craves a threesome but Frédérique purposely keeps Why at a teasing distance. The sexual atmosphere that Frédérique creates results in Why losing her identity so much so that she starts dressing and talking like Frédérique in the belief that will allow her to win Paul. Eventually, Why realizes that she will always be a double unless she eliminates Frédérique to fully assume her physical identity.

Arrest as a release from guilt

In Les biches, no guilt is associated with the murder but in some of the other films, the main character is tormented by their reckless murders. Michel Bouquet portrays this guilt with a cold precision in both La femme infidèle (as Charles Desvallees) and Juste avant la nuit (as Charles Masson). In La femme infidèle Charles is relieved to be apprehended so that he does not have live a life of lie. Charles murders his neighbour and best friend François Tellier’s wife in Juste avant la nuit but is tormented by his guilt. He confesses his crime first to his wife Hélène and then to François. Incredibly, both tell him to forget the incident and move on. At first, François’s forgiveness seems to relieve Charles but eventually his guilt possesses him. He makes up his mind to turn himself in but is prevented in doing so by Hélène who cannot bear the humiliation of seeing Charles behind bars.

In Les noces rouges, Lucienne Delamare (Stephane Audran) and Pierre Maury (Michel Piccoli) appear to get away with the perfect murder when they kill Paul Delamare (Claude Piéplu), Lucienne’s corrupt political husband. However, Lucienne’s daughter suspects wrong doing and writes a letter to the police which mentions her mother’s affair with Pierre. That letter leads Lucienne to accept her guilt and give herself up along with Pierre.

Political games & backstabbing

There is a tiny element of political manipulation shown in Les noces rouges where Paul Delamare (Claude Piéplu) is shown to be a shrewd politician who is willing to use people around him as pawns. Paul wants to use his mayoral position for personal profit and is even willing to allow his wife to have an affair with Pierre as long as Pierre assists in Paul’s profitable ways. However, Nada is the only true political film out of the seven which depicts a violent clash between police and a terrorist group over a hostage. The film also shows the sly political games that exist within the various arms of a government that can lead to back room deals and public scapegoats.

Familiar actors and names -- Charles, Paul and Hélène

Stéphane Audran was married to Chabrol from 1964 until 1980 and is the leading star in five of the seven films. In each film, her character is given a slightly different look but it is in Les noces rouges that her character is finally unrecognizable mostly because of her brown hair. Her character is named Hélène in three of the films. In four of the films her character has a passionate love affair whereas in the fifth film her character plays a quiet obedient housewife who stands by her husband even after he cheats on her and commits a murder.

Michel Bouquet gets a similar first name of Charles in La femme infidèle and Juste avant la nuit because both characters are cut from the same cloth of guilt and inner turmoil resulting from murder. Jean Yanne’s character is called Paul in both Le Boucher and Que la bête meure but his character is not entirely similar in the two films, which is why in Le Boucher his character is given an alternate name of Popaul. Claude Piéplu’s character of a corrupt politician in Les noces rouges is strikingly similar to Jean Yanne’s character in Que la bête meure, so it is not surprizing to see Claude Piéplu’s character is also named Paul. Interestingly, Michael Duchaussoy’s character who seeks revenge for his son’s killing in Que la bête meure is also named Charles and Paul's sister-in-law is named Hélène. A character of Paul is also found in Les Bitches but in that film the character is a passive observer of sexual games in between two women.

Dominique Zardi and Henri Attal get varying roles in five and four of the seven film respectively. Both get the most screen time in Les Bitches but after that, their roles get smaller yet both are easily prominent and recognizable in their few minutes of screen time. Zardi and Attal are also found in Juste avant la nuit, La femme infidèle and Nada with Zardi getting an extra appearance in Que la bête meure.

In closing...

Que la bête meure offers the most twist and turns in the planning and execution of a calculated murder. Charles wants to avenge for his son’s murder and plans for a long painful suffering of the murderer. Armed with an accurate theory about the criminal’s identity, a stroke of luck leads Charles to the killer’s sister in law Helene. Charles seduces Helene to get to Paul but once he meets Paul and his family, he realizes that everyone despises Paul, including Paul’s son. What follows is an elaborate game where even the son is involved in the killing of his father, thereby completing the murder cycle.

Chabrol was an admirer of Hitchcock and labeled a French Hitchcock by some for his use of similar motifs of murder and mystery. However, the films in this spotlight show that Chabrol was a bit more subtle than Hitchcock in his murder films and handled the turmoil and crime in a calmer manner. The killers do not panic after they commit their crime and none of them run away. So when police want to find the murderers in La femme infidèle and Les noces rouges, they simply go their homes and arrest the criminals with no fuss. Also, like Hitchcock, Chabrol uses music effectively to alert of impending danger but unlike in Hitchcock’s films, the music in Chabrol’s films is not heightened and does not draw too much attention to events.

Lourdes

Lourdes (2009, Austria/France/Germany, Jessica Hausner)

Religion is a divisive element in the human race. It causes wars, divides families, heals and saves people while also leading them down a destructive path. There are struggles over whether God exists and then over which religion is the true path to salvation. Reincarnation is not accepted universally nor is the promise of afterlife. Yet, a majority of the human race still holds faith in some form of religion or God. Then there are those who do not believe in God but believe in an entity of some kind that holds sway over humans. The various faiths may differ but they are still united in their belief towards an omnipresent yet unseen force. The only substantial evidence comes in the form of a miracle, a sign that a higher power does indeed exist. This sign could be an act of a statue accepting a form of human devotion (example: the drinking of milk by Ganesh statues) or it could be an unexpected healing of a person.

Jessica Hausner’s film takes place in Lourdes, a place where millions flock every year to either get healed or observe a sign from a higher power. If people's intentions for making a pilgrimage to Lourdes is a selfish need, then it is inevitable that the small town will be buzzing with gossip and anticipation. The film shows that gossip spreads like wildfire because everyone believes they have an equal chance to get healed. One would expect a dedicated religious person to have better odds of observing a miracle but there are no rational answers as to who can get healed. In Hausner’s film, even the priests are forced to concede the often repeated statement “God works in mysterious ways”. As a result, each and every person who heads to Lourdes believes that a miracle is within reach.

The main character of Lourdes, a gentle and smiling Christine (played perfectly by Sylvie Testud), does not hold any bitterness in her heart, even though she is confined to a wheelchair. Christine also does not let her limited mobility get in the away of making various trips around Europe. Her conversations indicate that she often travels on pilgrimages and cites Rome as her favourite on the basis of the Italian capital’s cultural superiority over Lourdes. Christine has feelings for one of the male officers accompanying them on their pilgrimage trip but those feelings are only one way until Christine is touched by a miracle. The unexpected miracle brings some delight in people around Christine while arouses jealousy and distrust in others. The distrust arises because a miracle is portrayed to be like winning the lottery -- once someone is cured, then no one else can win the life changing prize on a particular trip.

Jessica Hausner brilliantly presents her film with dry wit and humour. The pilgrimage events are depicted documentary style while the script gently pokes fun at the beliefs, rituals and certain egoistic people seeking a miracle. The film does not openly satirize the characters but instead allows audience to derive their own sentiments. Such a vague and open ended presentation of faith and belief brings to mind the style of Todd Haynes’ Safe and Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine, two films that also present events in a straight forward manner while subtly eliciting laughs at the expense of people who blindly buy into someone else’s beliefs.

Jean-Pierre Melville Spotlight

The 6 films part of the spotlight on Jean-Pierre Melville:

Bob The Gambler (1956)
Léon Morin, prêtre (1961)
Le doulos (1962)
Le deuxième souffle (1966)
Le samouraï (1967)
Un Flic (1972)

In Melville’s films, like in mine, characters are caught between good and evil; and sometimes, even the worst gangsters can behave in the noblest fashion...

Melville is God to me

-- John Woo, The Melville Style, Cahiers du Cinema, Nov 2006

Jean-Pierre Melville is famous for his gangster films which have plenty of admirers, including John Woo and Quentin Tarantino. However, Melville ventured off in other directions as well, most notably World War II French resistance (Army of Shadows), religious debate (Léon Morin, prêtre) and an incestuous relationship tale sprinkled with a dreamy Cocteau Orphée narrative style (Les enfants terribles).

Criminal vs Cops, chess matches

Rain coats. Hats. Criminals. Cops. Heists. Robbery. Gambling. Loyalty. Jazz.

A lot of the same elements appear in various Melville gangster films but each film still has a distinct character because of the effort spent in crafting unique criminals and cops whose behaviors and actions linger long in the memory after the final credits. Bob (Roger Duchesne, Bob the Gambler) is an experienced calculative criminal who is completely different from the rash impulsive Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani, Le doulos) or the heist mastermind Simon (Richard Crenna, Un Flic) or the principled yet emotional Gu (Lino Ventura, Le deuxième souffle). Then there is the much younger hitman Jef Costello (Alain Delon, Le samouraï) whose cold style is rivaled only by the police informer Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Le Doulos). Each criminal character adds a completely different flavour to each film and their interaction with the cops makes for an intriguing intellectual battle.

The only criminal who appears to be untroubled by law is Bob because his extensive network of contacts allows him to be in the know and have a few cops in his back pocket. For example, only Bob can have such a conversation after getting arrested:

Cop 1: Criminal intent will get you five years but with a good lawyer, you could get it down three years.

Cop 2: With a better one, no criminal intent! You could be acquitted.

Bob: With a really top lawyer, I could sue for damages.

While criminal characters take center stage in Melville's films, police characters also get worthy camera time. The films present hurdles police face in order to solve cases and portray cops as intelligent and honest men, who are aware of the limitations of their jobs. In both Le deuxième souffle and Un Flic the cops talk about requiring some luck or clue to proceed forward in their investigations. In Un Flic, the importance of public help is emphasized in order to crack a case and fight off the public's ridicule of police.

In Le deuxième souffle, Commissaire Blot (played by Paul Meurisse) utters truth rarely seen in crime films:

We’re policemen, not magicians.
If some little thing doesn’t come along to help us, Gu will escape. End of story.
That leaves just luck..or chance. Call it whatever you like. We just need one tiny lead and we’ll work it to the very end.

The job of police officers is always tougher than criminals as cops have to work within a constrained law & ethical framework in order to solve their cases. Whereas, by definition criminals are those who break the law, so they are free to use whatever means possible to achieve their goals. But both Le deuxième souffle and Un Flic show that police have to push the boundaries of that framework as much as possible, even carve a few holes, to get a step closer to the criminals. For example, in Le deuxième souffle Blot uses a small time crook to trick Gu into spilling the beans and then records Gu’s confession, a tactic that enrages Gu as being unethical and a betrayal of the old times when cops and gangsters never mingled with each other.

Despite their tactics, both opposing sides of cops and gangsters understand each other and this understanding allows each to guess the other’s moves and not waste time. At the start of Le deuxième souffle, after Blot arrives at a crime scene in a restaurant, he knows there is no point in getting a confession from anyone at the restaurant because no one will provide any information. So Blot goes about narrating everyone’s alibi/confession and naturally he is proven right. No one indeed saw or heard a thing, even though gunshots were fired in plain view of everyone.

The films also manage to provide valuable screen presence for fringe characters hovering around the criminals and cops thereby painting a more complete picture of the criminal universe. However, some of the most delicious scenes in these films, especially in Un Flic and Le deuxième souffle, involve face to face encounters between the criminals and cops. These encounters allow the two opponents to assess each other and detect any sign of weakness which can be exploited later on.

The hierarchy

In Un Flic, three different roles of a heist are defined:

The holy trinity: the criminal, thief and the runner

The criminal occupies the top spot in the heist hierarchy and is the mastermind behind the plan. A thief is a rung lower than the criminal so naturally the police are more interested in catching the criminal than a petty thief. The runner/driver/look-out occupies the lowest rung and his capture is next to meaningless as most often he is not aware of the heist details.

However, a heist needs money. A fact illustrated in Bob the Gambler when Bob identifies the need for a financier willing to put up a money for their heist plan. A financial backer could potentially share the top hierarchy with a criminal, depending on the relationship and history between the two.

If a criminal cannot make do without a money man, then the police cannot do without an informer required to keep tabs on the criminals. Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Le Doulos) plays such a useful informer and in Un Flic, it is due to an informer that Commissaire Edouard Coleman (Alain Delon) is able to come close to nabbing Simon.

Planning, Execution & Analysis

The five gangster films are meticulous in either the planning of the heist (Bob the Gambler) or in execution of the crime (a magnificent 20 minute dialogue free helicopter/train robbery in Un Flic and a house robbery in Le doulos).

When it comes to analyzing the crimes, the police are shown to be equally competent in determining how the crime was committed (Un Flic, Le Doulos and Le deuxième souffle). Such attention to detail enriches all the films and ensures no plot holes will tarnish the films.

---

Out of the 6, I had seen Le samouraï previously, a film that I admire a lot. Overall, all the films are highly engrossing and a pleasure to watch.  However, I was absolutely amazed by Le deuxième souffle which is going to rank as my #2 Melville film behind Army of Shadows. Le deuxième souffle is a perfect depiction of the cop vs criminal mind games and also shows the value of loyalty in the criminal world. It also appears to be an underrated film that needs to be seen more and talked about in the same spirit as Army of Shadows & Le samouraï.

Carlos -- conversations, cigarettes and women

London, Paris, Beirut and back to Paris again. All in the opening 10 minutes. In the next 20 minutes, Hague, Yemen and Vienna are added to the travel itinerary. Welcome to the world of Carlos. A world defined by the constant lighting up of cigarettes, intense conversations about revolution, kidnappings and assassinations, and steamy sessions of sexual intercourse. Olivier Assayas' remarkable film is not a history lesson but instead picks certain key moments from Carlos’ life and weaves them into a coherent work that allows the audience to get a sense of Carlos’ ideas, his lovers and his shifting views. The three part film depicts Carlos’ transformation from a revolutionary with ideas to topple the system into a mercenary, a gun for hire. By the conclusion of the film, Carlos is a washed up terrorist who poses no real terror threat to anyone. So it is not surprizing to discover that he is captured at this stage, when he is fat, has no money or friends. Assayas is also interested in using the film as a lens to depict the complex international political games where rival enemy nations become friends the next day and vice versa.

Money, Passport & Diplomatic immunity

Any large scale terrorist operation requires money, lots of it. Surprizingly money is relatively easy to obtain for terrorists as almost all governments seem to have some set aside for destructive purposes. The rich nations spend oodles of money not only on their armies and weapons and but also on supporting rival nation’s groups, while less fortunate nations also allocate money for individual groups/mercenaries to carry out their terror plots. With money being no issue, it is a bigger challenge to obtain diplomatic immunity as only few nations can offer that security to hide terrorists.

Assayas’ film illustrates that no large scale terrorist operation can take place without a government’s knowledge. That government could be a domestic one or it could be a rival nation but some level of government has to be involved for a terrorist to slip through international borders undetected. For example, in the film it is the Syrian government that gives Carlos a diplomatic passport with a fake identity enabling him to easily fly across various countries and receive weapons in diplomatic packages. In Eastern Europe, Carlos plays the Soviet Union comrade card and gets full cooperation from East Berlin all the way through to the Kremlin because he proclaims to be fighting for communist ideals, while managing to fight for Palestinian freedom & Arab values at the same time. His words allow him to setup base in Hungary in full view of the Hungarian police who are powerless to stop him initially but only ask Carlos to leave after international pressures force the Hungarian government to distance themselves from him.

All the intelligence and spy missions won’t come close to arresting a major terrorist as long as he is protected by a diplomatic umbrella. Once that umbrella is removed, then rival spy services can move in and claim their prize. The French, aided by American intelligence, capture Carlos in Sudan but that was made possible because Carlos had outlived his usefulness and the Syrians gave him up.

Mirror Mirror

On one hand, one can understand Carlos’ political agenda by observing his interactions with governments/diplomats. On the other hand, Carlos’ relationship with the various women offer an insight into his insecurities and emotions. If the casting of Édgar Ramírez is perfect for Carlos, then the various women roles are perfectly cast as well as they form a valuable aspect for deciphering Carlos.

At the start of the film, Carlos is shown to be sophisticated, charming and brimming with revolutionary ideas. It is not surprizing to find him associate with an equally charming revolutionary over fine dining. At this stage, Carlos is mostly about ideas with very little action under his belt.

Once Carlos achieves success with his actions, his growing fame allows him to attract starry eyed admirers, whom he naturally educates about revolution. It is clear that Carlos will not associate with any woman who has a differing opinion to his and as a result he opts for a young woman willing to worship his every move.

The young girl is mesmerized by Carlos and his weapons. Carlos can merely utter words such as Weapons are an extension of my body and the girl is willing to have a foreplay session with a grenade.

But Carlos draws too much attention to himself and has to leave the country. Ofcourse, it does not matter where Carlos ends up because he can bed any woman. A fling on the beach with an unnamed woman follows.

Throughout his life, Carlos continued to utter his allegiance for the Palestinian cause even when he completely drifted away from any Palestinian issue. As Carlos’ revolutionary ideas are moulded into cold blooded killings, he meets his match in Magdalena Kopp in a Baghdad hotel. Magdalena is the only woman Carlos encounters who carries a gun and the two hit if off. Her icy behaviour mirrors the cold war nations they find themselves in and the Eastern Europe phase in Carlos’ life.

Carlos is shown to get easily bored, so it is not surprizing to see him get tired of Magdalena, especially after she has their child, thereby reducing her sexual appeal. By this stage in his life, Carlos is fat and not the thin suave man he once was. So predictably Carlos yearns for a youthful lover and he finds a perfect match in an innocent college student, who is willing to quietly stand by her man, through his worsening health.

The film shows that women were Carlos’ weakness. Even if he had a girlfriend or a wife, he still sought out sexual pleasure via prostitutes. On two occasions, Carlos’ interactions with prostitutes allow police/government to get information about him. In Sudan, Carlos lived under a false identity but he was discovered after a prostitute encounter reveals his lie. The discovery starts a chain of events which leads to his capture.

only 5.5 hours?

At first, the film’s total running time seems daunting. However, Carlos moves at such a brisk pace that the length is never felt. The film quickly weaves through the globe in Part I, focuses mainly on the botched hijacking in Part II and finally slows down to catch its breath midway through the third part but by then one wants to hold onto each passing minute tightly before the film’s inevitable conclusion.

Spotlight on Godard

Every cinephile crosses paths with a Godard film sooner rather than later in their cinematic journey. The only difference is that some follow a more linear journey through Godard's films than others. This variant is not always down to choice as cinephiles who have lived through the 1960's had the unique ability to soak in fresh Godard reels as they arrived but those joining the cinephilia belt in the 1990's had to make do with whatever films they could find. For example, my Godard journey followed the unusual path of first seeing his 1965 film Alphaville followed by Ro.Go.Pa.G (1963) before finally hitting Breathless (1960) and then jumping all the way to In Praise of Love (2001) before working backwards through Contempt (1963), Band of Outsiders (1964) and Week End (1967).

There is so much written material about Godard's films that one can sometimes have the mistaken belief of being familiar with his films even though they have not seen the work. I was surprized to discover that I had only seen 7 of his films even though I could name atleast 20 of his films off the top of my head. Also, the few titles I had seen were very early in my film viewing days as I saw most of the films on VHS tapes. So it was time for me to treat myself to some Godard as a means of catch-up. Also, I hoped that seeing some of his older films might come in handy before I tackled his latest work Film socialisme.

Un Femme di Femme (1961)
My Life to Live (1962)
Le Petit Soldat (1963)
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
La Chinoise (1967)
Detective (1985)

Of the six films, my favourite would be My Life to Live, a devastating yet beautiful work with a mesmerizing pool hall sequence.

La Chinoise, Le Petit Soldat and Pierrot Le Fou make an interesting political triple bill.

Even though Le Petit Soldat and Detective are separated by more than two decades, they share a common thread about a mistaken killing related to a character reading a hotel room number upside down. In Le Petit Soldat, it is a two digit number but in Detective it is a three digit room number as 666 & 999 are mistaken.

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Calgary International Film Festival 2010, preview II

Taylor's Way

A quite incredible film that effortlessly switches gears between three different genres with considerable ease. The opening 15 minutes appear to be familiar territory (girl in a bad relationship is picked up by a guy at a bar) but then the film transforms into a road journey/self-discovery story which navigates the beautiful British Columbia countryside. Yet, amid the beauty and tranquility signs of darkness start to slowly filter through. However, the meaning of these signs is only revealed in the film's final moments. A must see film!

Pelada

Soccer is called the beautiful game. Now, that beauty may be hard to find on a professional or international game pitch but it does exist. Proof of that genuine beauty is provided courtesy of an American college duo who hit the road to play pick-up games in various countries. Their journey takes them to unlikely destinations such as a Bolivian prison, a slum in Kenya, a roof-top in Japan, a playing field in Iran and the streets of China. The end result is a magnificent documentary that highlights why the world loves this game and how the real passion of the game exists on the streets amid everyday people. Professional soccer players, their managers and FIFA should be forced to watch this film and lower their heads in shame. Because the ugliness of the World Cup and its negative play (4-5-1/5-5-0 tactics, dives, fouls) is ruining the game yet uglier the game gets, the more money these professional players make.

Bioscope

An engaging Indian film that demonstrates the hypnotic effect that cinema has on people. Some of the film’s strongest scenes are those where there is no dialogue and the beautiful haunting images (such as the recurring dream of a dead body washed ashore) flood the screen. The film is set in 1921 India when cinema was largely unknown in the country. So we witness villagers seeing cinema for the first time and observe how their views are shaped – some consider the device as ungodly while others are entranced by the images. And we even get to meet a character (Diwakaran) whose love for the new medium leads him to neglect everything around him and only focus on cinema. In fact, Diwakaran probably depicts the actions of the first cinephile in Indian history.

Cinema is such an integral part of modern Indian life that it is hard to imagine Indian society without movies. So it is fascinating to watch a film which shows how love for cinema started to make its way through Indian life.

At World's End

This humorous Danish film is a throwback to the 1980’s style of action/adventure comedies. In a way, it is refreshing to see an old fashioned film about adventure in an exotic land told with humor and a bit of political incorrectness. The actress Birgitte Sorensen steals the show and it wouldn't be a surprize to see her land bigger profile roles in the future.

Norberto's Deadline

Norberto is drifting aimlessly in life until he finds his true love in theater. However, if it was not for theater, then it is likely possible that Norberto would morph into either a Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) or a Raúl Peralta (Tony Manero). It is to Daniel Hendler's credit that he allows us to closely observe Norberto in his moments of despair and misery so that we can better understand Norberto and comprehend how someone who is just one or two steps away from a complete breakdown can still find the courage to salvage their life.

Mundane History

Winner of a Tiger Award at Rotterdam, Mundane History is cut from the same cloth as one of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's films. Yet, Anocha Suwichakornpong is able to carve out an individual identity and demonstrate true talent in two mesmerizing sequences which break away from the 'mundane' everyday life scenes. The first sequence charts a journey all the way to the origins of the universe. And the second sequence charts events following the big bang towards a human birth and lands firmly in the main characters hospital room location, thereby putting the whole story into perspective. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a truly cinematic treasure.

Kosmos

Reha Erdem is certainly an intriguing filmmaker but at times he can be frustrating as well. While each of his last three films have improved their visual beauty, each successive work has had a slight dip in the story and character depiction. Times and Winds was a satisfying film where the cinematography was perfectly in sync with the coming of age tale while in My Only Sunshine the on-screen beauty overpowered the bleak tale. Now with his latest offering Kosmos, Reha Erdem has given us a delicious visual treat but the story is not as dark as the cinematography points to. There are hints of distrust about the magical healing powers of the outsider and a bit of cosmic interference (UFO) but the innocent love tale slightly halts the film's mesmerizing rhythm. Still, it deserves to be seen because it is one of the best shot films of the year.

The Famous and the Dead

Every now and then there appears a film that reminds everyone that there is more to Brazil than soccer, beaches, samba, favelas, poverty and crime. A few years ago, it was Heitor Dhalia's wonderfully bizarre Drained set in a warehouse that showed a Brazil devoid of these common symbols and now it is Esmir Filho's chance with The Famous and the Dead. There are no beaches to be seen in The Famous and the Dead and the film's depiction of suburban isolation and loneliness is more familiar material for American Indie cinema. Yet the setting of such themes in Brazil highlights how similar issues can take place in any part of the world, especially in a modern globally connected world where various social networking sites and blogs allow people to hide their true identities and assume another.

The film's chilly mood and atmosphere goes perfectly with the theme of death and suicide. In fact, in almost all scenes one can detect the presence of death hovering above the main character. The film also does a great job of integrating social networking sites, blogs, online videos within the story to highlight the main character's sense of isolation. Also, the transition from the web videos to regular footage is seamless. The end result is a work that is very much in tune with modern times, aspects that most current cinema seems to sidestep.

Note: The film's look and mood evokes the chilly winter conditions of Canada or Northern Europe. So in a way, the film is a perfect companion to the fall weather that greets CIFF every year:)

Family Tree

There have been quite a few films that have used a family gathering as a starting point to uncover a dark past about one of the family members (such as Celebration, Monsoon Wedding). So directors Olivier Duscastel and Jacques Martineau deserve a lot of praise for using this familiar template to make an intelligent and delicate film which manages to deliver an emotional punch. A son's funeral is the starting point for unwrapping a family secret that provides quite a shock when all is said and done. An incredibly moving film!

2010 Movie World Cup, Group A

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France

Films: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, In the Pit, Gigante, Sans Soleil



South Africa: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha (2005, Mark Dornford-May)

A creative interpretation of the Spanish opera Carmen set in a South African setting. The opera is moving at times but the real gems are the African music/dance sequences which are uplifting and a joy to watch. Besides these dance sequences, my other favorite moments are some of dialogue-less scenes where the memorable music forms a perfect companion to the beautiful images.

Mexico: In the Pit (2006, Juan Carlos Rulfo)

Cars. Gridlock. Congestion. Solution? Freeways. Congestion on Freeways. Solution? Building more freeways or adding another level to existing freeways.

Mexico City. Teeming with people. And the location of one of the world's longest and highest 2nd level freeway. The film starts on a tiny portion of the freeway construction site where we meet some of the people doing the hard work and the day to day physically grueling tasks. We learn about these people's beliefs, attitudes and even myths regarding the construction and Mexican life in general.

The film's true beauty shines through in the final overhead shot of the construction site which gives a glimpse into the enormous task. The extended view of the partially completed freeway puts the whole project into context and gives a magnitude of the thousands of people who toil in the sun to get the project completed on time. And then there the millions that will benefit once the construction is done.

We meet only a few people working on a small portion of the bridge but as the mesmerizing final shot shows there are many more stories waiting to be told.

A truly amazing documentary!!

Uruguay: Gigante (2009, Adrián Biniez)

Gigante is quite a treat and presents its pleasures in quietly developed moments. The film artfully mixes dry humour, beauty with a pinch of simplicity.

Jara is a lonely security guard who falls for a cleaning girl named Julia while working night shifts observing the supermarket monitors. His gazes gradually become obsessive and he starts stalking Julia. He believes she is flirting with another co-worker and follows her to a restaurant. But instead Jara finds her on a date with another man. So he then follows that man only to rescue him from a bunch of thugs. The two return back to the resturant to have some drinks and chat. Through their conversation, Jara learns that the man found Julia through an internet dating site and that she loves heavy metal. So naturally Jara goes about learning to love heavy metal in his bid to win over Julia.

There are plenty of charming humorous moments sprinkled throughout the film. Two interesting moments come in a restaurant and involve a soccer game on tv. When Jara follows Julia to the restaurant, he sits across the restaurant while looking over to observe her. In the meantime, the man next to Jara is busy watching the soccer game and chats about the game but Jara only looks on blankly.


Later in the night when Jara returns to the restaurant with Julia's date, they make small talk. Jara is only interested in getting some info on Julia whereas her date is busy watching the game. This time around, the waiter also chips in with his view about how the ref ruined the game.


It is interesting that everyone around Jara is interested in the soccer game but he shows no emotion whatsoever. The game on tv is a local league game but even if the match was a world cup game, you be sure that Jara would not pay attention. Unless someone told him that Julia liked watching soccer. Then Jara would become the biggest soccer fan in Uruguay.

France: Sans soleil (1983, Chris Marker)

A perfect choice for the movie world cup because this film does not set up roots in one place and is a travelogue that jumps in between Tokyo and Guinea-Bissau with a brief touch down in San Francisco. The film touches 3 continents and has ties to the current world cup and three of the past 4 world cups -- the film travels to USA & Japan, host/co-host nation of the 1994 & 2002 respectively; Chris Marker is French and France hosted the 1998 World Cup; the current world cup is in Africa which gets a decent viewing time courtesy of Guinea-Bissau.

The film features a series of letters read by a woman about a man's journey from the crowded streets of Tokyo to Guinnea. A memorable moment arrives in an African market when Marker's camera captures a woman's smile and beauty.

Ofcourse, the woman knows a pair of eyes (and a lens) are on her, so we see her look away yet she is still aware of the presence fixated on her face.

There are many other images which stay long in the memory.

Standings and Points (Maximum out of 9)

In the Pit: 8
Gigante: 8
Sans Soleil: 7
U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha: 6

It was a very tough decision deciding who got top spot as there is very little to seperate In the Pit from Gigante. My choice was made more difficult by the fact that I saw both films almost 6 months apart -- I saw In the Pit back in December and recently saw Gigante in May. In the end, I have to give a narrow nod to the Mexican documentary.

Soccer Group Prediction

I would not be surprized if like the film results both Mexico and Uruguay advance to the second round. On paper, Uruguay are the most capable team in changing their tactical formations with Mexico not too far behind in adapting to different styles. As is often repeated, no host team has failed to advance from its group. South Africa is not a very strong tactical team and a noisy home crowd may not be enough to power them through to the next phase. On the other hand, if South Africa can get an early goal, then there is a chance their spirits might be lifted by the home crowd. Also, South Africa's opener against Mexico presents them with a good chance of nabbing a win or atleast a draw.

As for France, I have no hope. France have been mostly inept, dull and uninspired under Raymond Domenech. Domenech is not entirely at fault though because he did inherit a pretty weak team after Euro 2004 but he has done nothing to improve the French game. The ultimate blame for France's failure should not rest on the players or Domenech but should be put on the French Federation's shoulders. They had a chance to put things right after a disastrous Euro 2008 but they did nothing. The French Federation know the team will fail which is why they were quick to name Laurent Blanc as Domenech's replacement well before the World Cup. The Federation did this to take away some of the anger that will be directed towards them once France stumbles and fails. The biggest surprize for me will be if France advances from this group. And I will be even more surprized if France manages to score more than 1 goal in any of the three group games.

For now, I am going to go with Uruguay and Mexico to finish 1st and 2nd in the group.

Spotlight on the Arab World

1948 and the question of land...

Tick Tock. 1948. Silence. A minute later, chaos. Many Palestinians left, or were forced to leave, their homes in 1948 with the hopes of returning one day but their ownership documents are meaningless because legally now their homes belong to someone else. So what happens when all the surviving members of 1948 are gone? Annemarie Jacir provides one answer to that question in Salt of the Sea by showing an example of a third generation exile who keeps the memories of pre-1948 alive. In the film, Soraya leaves her home in Brooklyn to visit her grandfather’s land and retrieve his money. However, the bank can no longer hand over the money because in their eyes that old Palestinian branch no longer exists. So Soraya decides to rob the bank along with two accomplices. What follows is a road movie but in this case, the road passes through non-existent towns and streets because the old Palestinian towns are either renamed or in ruins. What remains of the original towns? Only their memories. After the original generation of 1948 has perished, only memories will remain about streets, houses and the smell of oranges.

Border and Checkpoints

In both The Syrian Bride & Rana's Wedding, a woman’s marriage plans are strained due to the presence of border and checkpoints respectively.

 In The Syrian Bride, the border in question is between Syria and Israel (Golan Heights) while it is the various checkpoints dividing the Palestinian landscape that cause a problem in Rana’s Wedding. Interestingly, in both movies the bride is played by Clara Khoury. Completing the border/marriage trilogy is Randa Chahal Sabag’s The Kite which shows a girl’s relationship effected by the border between Israel and Lebanon.

Three different films but all tied together by images of a female foiled by man made borders. The following image of a bride in a white dress heading towards the border in The Kite can be found in The Syrian Bride as well.

Internal problems

Sometimes one’s problems are not created by a border but by friction within a nation’s boundaries. The two Algerian films Barakat and Rachida show how the consequences of internal struggle can effect the daily lives of people.









In Barakat it is civil war while in Rachida it is terrorism that causes fear in the population. In both films, women are the main characters who overcome their fear and find new strength to carry on.  Interestingly, both films are also tied in another way -- the lead actress of Barakat is Rachida Brakni and her first name forms the title and character name of the other film.

Youth and life on the streets

The Moroccan film Ali Zaoua packs quite a punch in depicting the life of streets kids in Casablanca. While it is heart breaking to see young kids miss their childhood and head straight into an adult life of gangs and crime, credit must be given to director Nabil Ayouch for balancing the harsh street realities with a fantasy tale. The fantasy tale, which forms the basis of the title character’s quest to find an elusive land with two suns, lends a sprinkling of hope to the film. Such is the strength of Ali Zaoua’s belief that his friends go to great lengths to fulfill his wish and in turn give their lives a purpose as well.

All about the girl and some falafel...

The soothing lyrics of Yasmine Hamdan’s "Lili s’en fout" liven up the opening moments of Michel Kammoun’s charming and enjoyable Falafel. Whenever Hamdan’s voice comes on, we find the main character of Tou in a happy state. Tou has valid reason to be happy, especially when he learns that Yasmin will be at the party that he plans to attend. The night is progressing the way Tou planned but a series of incidents turn things on their head. After an altercation in a parking lot, a man strikes Tou’s face with a gun and leaves his face scarred. But the scar is more than skin deep and the violent incident eats away at Tou and he wants revenge. He manages to get a gun illegally and despite advice from his friends to cool down, he is determined to use his gun. However, he is saved in the most unlikely way thanks to the mystical powers of a rebel falafel. Yes, a falafel. It is true. Anything can happen in a magical night in Beirut.

What a Wonderful World

It is indeed a wonderful world. Every frame of Faouzi Bensaïdi ‘s What a Wonderful World is poetic and beautiful. Even though the wonderful individual parts of the film do not add up to a coherent whole, it is hard to resist the charms of this unique film. What a Wonderful World is a mesmerizing mix of a French comedy (references to Jacques Tati), a Spy spoof, a musical and a love story.

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Films seen as part of this spotlight and in order of preference:

Salt of the Sea (2007, Palestine co-production, Annemarie Jacir)
What a Wonderful World (2007, France/Morocco, Faouzi Bensaïdi)
Ali Zaoua (2000, Morocco co-production, Nabil Ayouch)
Falafel (2004, Lebanon/France, Michel Kammoun)
Rachida (2002, Algeria/France, Yamina Bachir)
Enough! (2006, Algeria, Djamila Sahraoui)
The Kite (2003, Lebanon co-production, Randa Chahal Sabag)

CIFF 2009 Diary, Day 9 & 10

Day 9: Saturday, Oct 3

Oct 3 was all about achieving a personal record of seeing 7 films in a single day. Originally, I had planned on seeing atleast 5-6 films but when an additional screening was added at 10:45 am, the path was clear for me to hit the elusive seven.

Cyborg, She (2008, Japan, Jae-young Kwak)
Time: 10:45 am at The Plaza

The originally scheduled screening for Wednesday night was sold out but the print never arrived on time. So a special screening was added on Saturday morning. But as it turned out, the film-makers still screwed up and sent a print without English subtitles.

Watching this film without subtitles is not that bad as there are quite a few stretches without dialogue (one such sequence was atleast 10 minutes long). But I was quite disappointed by this film because it looks like a recycled version of Jae-young Kwak's earlier film My Sassy Girl with a sci-fi angle tacked on. While My Sassy Girl was fresh and funny, the humour in Cyborg, She is stale and predictable.

I Killed My Mother (2009, Canada, Xavier Dolan)
Time: 12:45 pm at the Globe, downstairs screen.

This film blew me away and was easily the single best film of the festival I had seen. Normally, only a few films inspire such strong reactions in me and I was certainly not expecting to be jolted this early in the day.

Dolan's film is raw, funny, emotional and brutally honest. It properly depicts the teenage vs adult struggle that exists in a majority of households in probably every country in the world. Normally, there is a mutual loving bond between parents and children early on in the child's life. But when the hormones start gushing through the children’s blood stream in the early teens, those same loving parents become the children’s enemy and the relationship between the two sides starts to degenerate. In some cases, the relationship starts to mend once the teen has grown up into an adult. For some people, this happens around the mid 20's, for others much later. But Dolan seems to have acquired this understanding a lot early on as he directed the film when he was 19 (and wrote it when he was 17).

The dialogues are sharp and pointed. In one case, the mother remembers the time when her son used to tell her everything and they were friends. To which the son replies "I was 4 and I had no choice". Ouch. Words can hurt, especially if they are always spoken with venom and sarcasm. The mother is unable to cope and the son wants away. Their arguments and fights may be about personality traits and specific issues but they echo the universal teenage angst and sense of rebellion. There have been many films in the past which covered similar topics but most works usually turn into one-sided rants from a teenager's perspective. On the other hand, I Killed My Mother perfectly depicts the struggle that exists on both sides -- it is not easy for parents to raise their kids while it is equally difficult for kids trying to assert their self, despite depending on their parents. We are also introduced to another parental example in the film which shows how a parent tries to be their child's friend. Yet, even that parent gets disrespect no matter how hard she tries. Damned if you let the kids have their way and damned if you stand in their way.

Plenty to take away from this film. Quite simply, a sensational debut.

Gigantic (2008, USA, Matt Aselton)
Time: 3 pm at Eau Claire, Screen #2

Sometimes the indie American films follow a prescribed formula especially by ensuring their stories contain quirky off beat characters who are supposed to generate humour for their unique behavior. Sure there are some tender moments of genuine humour here but for the most part, I didn't react with much enthusiasm. Still, it was a nice relaxing film to watch after I Killed My Mother.

Cooking History (2008, co-production, Peter Kerekes)
Time: 4:30 pm at Eau Claire, Screen #5

This insightful documentary highlights the rarely depicted topic of military cooks who fed the soldiers. Peter Kerekes does an excellent job of ensuring the documentary is vibrant and always interesting by getting the surviving characters to either cook or re-enact the tension of their war time drama. And as an added bonus, Peter Kerekes also provides humour in the form of recipes, in case someone wants to serve their nation by poisoning an entire enemy army. And each recipe appropriately ends with the common ingredient of "a pinch of salt". The final segment which features a cook standing in the ocean is precious, especially his preparation of imaginary dishes for an imaginary sea crew.

note: I missed the first 8 minutes of this film as Gigantic was a 98 minute long feature.

Breathless (2009, South Korea, Yang Ik-June)
Time: 6:30 pm at the Globe, downstairs

For the second time in the day, I was absolutely shook up by a film. But it took a while to appreciate what the director had in mind because the first 20 minutes appear to be routine stuff straight out of most Korean/Japanese gangster films -- punching, swearing and some slapping. The person dishing out all these is Sang-Hoon (played by the director himself), one of the nastiest on screen personas seen in recent years. The violence is put in context via a flashback when we observe a tragic episode in Sang-Hoon’s childhood where his mother and sister were accidentally killed in an episode of domestic violence. Sang-Hoon never forgave his father and after his father is released from prison, Sang-Hoon visits and beats him up frequently. Sang-Hoon’s kicks at his father usually occur at the end of night when a drunk Sang-Hoon ponders over his past. The father quietly accepts the beatings.

Sang-Hoon is a loner with no friends but one day he comes across a fiery teenage girl, Yeon-Hue, who refuses to take his abuse and fires back. The two form an unusual friendship and take comfort in each other’s presence, even though the two swear and put each other down. It turns out that another example of domestic abuse is taking shape in Yeon-Hue’s house, where her teenage brother is just starting to assert his “manliness” by taking his anger out on his sister. The abuse that Yeon-Hue suffers is two fold because her father is mentally disturbed (triggered most likely after his wife and Yeon-Hue’s mother’s death) and hurls profanity at his daughter frequently.

A few years ago, I had seen an Israeli documentary where someone asks an Israeli woman how her fellow countrymen could treat the Palestinians so badly considering the suffering Jews underwent. The Israeli woman replied that if a young boy saw his father slapping his mother, would the young boy be a peaceful person when he grew up? Her reply was negative and she said most likely the young boy would grow up into a man who would in turn slap his own wife. Her words came to my mind while watching Breathless because the film shows that kids who witness violence in their youth will grow up and re-enact those same episodes onto others. While the film may not be the most pleasant to watch, it takes a brave stand in drawing a direct line from domestic abuse to gangster violence. There are some examples of youth joining the gang due to unemployment but the film emphasizes the cycle of violence aspect quite clearly.

There are many movies out there which have graphic scenes of violence and horror and the directors of such graphic films defend their works by emphasizing their movies are anti-violence and the violent scenes are meant to prove a point. But in most cases, these movies end up glorifying violence because the consequences of violence is never fully explored. On the other hand, Breathless clearly depicts the danger of a violent life, whether that life is in a household or in a gang. There is a consequence to every violent action and Yang Ik-June’s film is the only one I can think of that has a purpose for every scene of violence and abuse. This film should be shown to every teenage and adult male. And if after seeing this film, those males would still opt for a violent life, then there is no hope not only for those people but humanity in general.

And to think that Ddongpari (Breathless) is just a debut feature by Yang Ik-June! Wow. Easily one of the year’s best and relevant films!

Seven Minutes in Heaven (2008, Israel, Omri Givon)
Time: 9:30 pm at the Globe, downstairs

There is a good story idea in this Israeli film but while the idea may have worked perfectly for a 20 minute short film, it is painfully worn out in a full length feature. The needless repetition and spoon-feeding do nothing for the story but merely pad the time, and when the interesting twist on the story is revealed near the end, it is too late.

Daybreakers (2009, Australia, the Spierig brothers)
Time: 11:30 pm at the Plaza

For the seventh film, I was back at the location where I started my day, almost 12.5 hours earlier at 10:45 am. I got to the Plaza at 11:15 pm and the long line up had me worried. There were two lines, one for the advanced ticket and pass holders, and the other for rush tickets. Only a certain amount of pass holders are let in and when that quota is reached, the pass holders have to join the back of the rush ticket line. Since I was a pass holder who was at the end of the advanced ticket line (only 5 people were behind me and they all had tickets), I was certain I would not make it. But amazingly, I just made it.

As for the film itself, after an impressive start and good setup, it was a huge letdown to see the film settle into a comfortable Hollywood template, complete with loud music, some explosions and even a car chase. The film does redeem itself with a good ending. There are lots of neat elements in the film not covered by other vampire movies, especially the “Daytime Driving” aspect, which could also serve as the film’s alternate title. I thought the film had a great idea in combining a vampire tale with a sci-fi & political angle and there are many aspects which add something new to the vampire genre. So it was especially frustrating to see the film contain a very dull and average middle segment.

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After 7 films in a day, sleep. Precious sleep. zzzzzzzzzzz

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Day 10: Sunday, Oct 4

The Prophet (2009, France, Jacques Audiard)

I had first heard of Jacques Audiard about 4 years ago when I was in London. His film The Beat that My Heart Skipped earned rare reviews, especially from Peter Bradshaw. So I decided to check the film out during its opening weekend in London and was left in awe of both the film and Roman Duris’ performance. Duris was already a favourite of mine, especially from his performance in the pulsating Exils, but he was mesmerizing in Audiard’s well crafted film. I made a point to see the next film that Audiard would direct.

Fast forward to 2009 and when Audiard’s Un Prophet hit Cannes, I lay in eager anticipation. My excitement only grew over the coming months and hit a high point when I was in Paris where almost every cinema seemed to be showing the film. I waited for its CIFF debut and quickly snapped up my ticket. And it was a good thing I had an advanced ticket because the film was sold out on its 7 pm show on the festival’s final day.

The Prophet dives into the heart of the gangster world, right from the prison cells to the controlling ports and cities. The prison’s hierarchy and daily routines are outlined with a fine observant eye, which at times recalls the work of Jacques Becker in his brilliant film Le Trou. We observe a criminal (Malik El Djebena played by Tahar Rahim) elevate himself through the ranks by his quick intelligence, observant and diplomatic skills. There are plenty of neat references (religious are the common ones) tucked away in this film which will ensure a second viewing will also provide a pleasurable experience. Overall, quite an amazing film.

note: In the second half of the film, I found Tahar Rahim to resemble a bit like Robert Pires. Since at one point in my life I considered Pires to be a footballing God, I found the presence of his look like in a film called The Prophet to be appropriate.