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.

District 9: 1.8 million 'prawns' in a slum

District 9 (2009, South Africa/New Zealand, Neill Blomkamp): 10/10

District 9 is a rare thing -- an intelligent sci-fi alien film with plenty of political and social observations packaged as a fun summer movie.

Sci-fi aware

The film starts off with a voice-over explaining that an alien spaceship didn’t stop over New York City, but surprisingly came to a halt over Johannesburg. This is clearly a reference towards films like Independence Day or other Hollywood films which believe that aliens would somehow only stop over America.

The basis of some sci-fi movies in the past was that aliens were kept in Area 51 and government/military personnel used alien technology to develop weapons. District 9 also picks up on this idea and expands it to depict private military contractors wanting to harness the power of advanced alien weapons. Given the rise of private military contractors around the world, the film is properly updated.

Segregation, Refugees and border issues

The setting of the film in South Africa and the director’s interview has focused most of the attention on apartheid but District 9 achieves a lot more than that as it highlights the problem that refugees face in temporary camps when they cross a border. In the film, the alien population is forced to live in slums with substandard conditions, the same treatment that refugees who cross boundaries in Africa or Asia face. On top of that, the social hierarchy shown in the camps is modeled on real life people who take advantage of refugees living in camps.

Another interesting point is depicted by the character of the alien child born and raised in District 9. The alien child asks his father what their planet is like and wants to go home even though he has never seen his home planet. Scores of refugee children are born in camps far away from their home nations and hardly get a chance to ever return to their homeland. As a result, an entire generation (or two) of people have no concept of understanding their roots and have to depend on stories or the rare picture of their homeland (a hologram stands in for a photo in District 9).

The genesis of hatred and genocide

One key ingredient for genocide is when one group of people dehumanizes another group and considers the other group unworthy of living. In District 9 that concept is shown at face value as the tall, skinny and underfed aliens are the object of hatred of their neighbours. The sentiments of the people who live around District 9 indicates that if the South African government does not act to move the aliens, then something far more dangerous would likely take place.

Cruel humans

In a twist on the regular Hollywood alien film template, District 9 shows that if aliens did land on earth, then it would be humans who would do more harm to the aliens than the other way around. Given the messed up carnage that has taken place over the last few decades, it is entirely believable that humans would be far more evil when dealing with aliens. Once again, the film is appropriately updated.

Action...

There are some action sequences in the film but they are nicely integrated in the story and do not cause the film to halt for mindless 20 minutes of explosive situations. The finale action scene takes place in the same slums that the rest of the film is shot in thereby making the action scene an inevitable consequence of the forces brewing in the camps. Plus, the action scenes do not include any silly cuts to generate humour (like Spider Man 3 or even Dark Knight) but are completely focused on the task at hand.

Overall...

District 9 brilliantly proves that it is possible to make an intelligent action/sci-fi film without loud explosions or a brain dead script. If strong word of mouth enables the film to make more money, a sequel would follow. And the sequel will surely be called District 10.

CIFF: notable film comments

I wanted to consolidate comments from my earlier posts regarding some note worthy films playing at CIFF this year. With the exception of Vanaja and Bushman's secrets, all the other films still have screenings over the next 4 days.

Drained (2006, Brazil, Heitor Dhalia): Rating 10/10

This is one of the most witty and original films I have seen this year. Credit for bringing these eccentric characters to life goes to Lourenço Mutarelli who wrote the novel and to Heitor Dhalia for bringing pitch perfect performances from his cast. The film can be described as a deadpan dark comedy but the main character Lourenco (Selton Mello) is much more dangerous than any character in a Jim Jarmusch or Aki Kaurismäki film.

By profession, Lourenco collects people's antiques. But it is never clear whether he sells these antiques or simply keeps them for his collection. He decides the value of each antique himself and if he likes the story behind the item, be buys it. His office (housed in a warehouse) is always lined up with people waiting to sell their item by pouring their heart out to Lourenco. But right from the film's start, Lourenco's mind is preoccupied with two things -- Garconete's behind (a waitress played by Paula Braun) and the foul smell that comes from his bathroom. It would be unfair to give away any more details but the unique characters and scenarios make Lourenco's life hell.

There are some audacious camera shots in the movie such as the opening sequence where the camera shamelessly glares at Garconete's behind -- we watch every swing as she gracefully heads to work. The film stands out from other Brazilian films because of its visual choices -- there are no bright colors saturating the screen but instead brownish colors are prominent. Also, there are no scenes of beaches or any other visual cues that could place this film in Brazil.

Time (2006, South Korea, Ki-duk Kim): Rating 8.5/10

Perfect beauty, the all demanding quest. Will perfection result in happiness and endless love? Even though the answer is obvious but humans still cling onto that dream. Such is the case with the main female character in Kim Ki-duk's latest film. At the start of the movie, we see a woman being cut open and transformed into a beautiful person thanks to the miracles of plastic surgery. The entire process is an ugly one and we are given a front row seat in the operation room to witness the surgery. But it takes about 6 months for the face to be fully healed. Until then, the woman has to cover herself and hide her scarred face from the public. After the surgery, the woman leaves the surgeon's office with her face covered carrying a picture of her old ugly self. A young sweet looking girl, Seh-hee, crashes into her and causes her picture to fall to the ground breaking the frame. See-hee is apologetic and runs to get the frame fixed. But the masked woman does not wait and leaves the scene. From then on, we get a look into See-hee's life. She is dating a handsome man, Ji-woo. Even though See-hee has him to herself, she can't help get jealous over his wandering eye -- everytime Ji-woo talks to a another woman, she gets angry. Unsure about her beauty, she goes to get her face altered. As part of her rebirth, she disappears from Ji-woo's life for 6 months ago.

The sudden disappearance of See-hee causes Ji-woo some grief. After a period of 6 months, the newly touched up See-hee surfaces. But Ji-woo does not recognize her. So she goes about enticing Ji-woo and tries to erase his memories of the old See-hee. But much to her dismay, Ji-woo is still in love with the old See-hee. She is stuck in a lose-lose situation, because if he can't love the new See-hee, then her transformation was a failure. And if he does love the new look See-hee, that confirms her old fears about him not wanting the sweet old self.

But things are not as straight forward as they seem. The concept of time is an important factor in the story. We are given clues from the start that we might not be getting the linear story we are seeing. Sure enough, a rift in time occurs when Ji-woo disappears himself in order to get revenge on See-hee -- he goes to get surgery done on his face as well in order to balance out See-hee's transformation.

In the past, Kim Ki-duk focussed on individual human flaws. Films like Bad Guy, The Bow, 3-Iron, Spring, Summer.. had a touch of spirituality to them as the movies explored human weakness. This time around, he dispenses with spirituality and takes a stand against a society which places beauty over all other values. When humans chase only beauty, they lose a sense of themselves and ultimately spiritual connection. In that regard, the film's most memorable elements are 'space' and 'cleanliness'. Everything is framed in such a manner to give each character the maximum space which only heightens their sense of isolation. And everything appears white and pristine, as if life is completely clean. But by showing the ugliness that hides beneath the surface, we also get a sense of how false and illusionary the appearances are.

This intense yet elegantly balanced film is probably Kim Ki-duk's most accessible film. And the on screen beauty balances out any of the ugly human nature on display.

Armin (2007, Bosnia co-production, Ognjen Svilicic): Rating 8/10

This is a tender film about a Bosnian father and son who cross the border into Croatia for the son's film audition. This is a multi-layered film which not only showcases a relationship between father and son but also addresses issues about exile and scars of a war. The movie also highlights how even if some people want to get on with their lives, others are ready to exploit them to make award winning documentaries/films. Wonderful performances as well.

Ahlaam (2005, Iraq, Mohamed Al Daradji): Rating 8/10

This is a first, an Iraqi film! The story mainly takes place in 2003 during the American invasion and bombing of Baghdad. We see a few people in a mental hospital and with the aid of flashbacks, their tale is told. The flashbacks lead to 1998 when Iraq is bogged down by sanctions. Life is not that great, with people suffering from poverty. Ahlaam is on the verge of marriage, Hassan is having doubts about being in the army because he doesn’t believe in serving Saddam, Mehdi is troubled because he won’t be able to go for higher studies because of his father’s past. These are ordinary people suffering from enough problems already. And then, things get worse in 2003 when the American bombs fall.

Ahlaam is not a happy movie, it can’t be. Things gets worse for the main character as the film moves along. First her marriage is ruined because her fiancée is taken by the Iraqi police. She is pushed to the ground which subsequently damages her mind. But over the years, her mental situation gets worse. The American invasion causes the looters to move into the mental hospital she and her fiancée are in. She escapes, but only to an unsafe deserted Baghdad. Her fate is unresolved at the end, but it is clear, it can’t be hopeful.

There will be plenty of American movies based in Iraq over the coming years, but none will give voice to the Iraqi people. The truth is the Iraqi people suffered under Saddam and now without him, things are worse for them. The looting, the uncertainty, the lack of electricity, no water and a hostile world are all a few men's doing. This is their legacy yet the men in power will never admit their mistake. A country which was already backward would never have been a threat. And now it is more backward, except for the oil.

Mukhsin (2006, Malaysia, Yasmin Ahmad): Rating 8/10

Note: I pre-viewed this as part of the Calgary Pan-Asian Film festival back in Jan 2007.

I have to admit that I am starting to like Yasmin Ahmad’s refreshing approach to families and love stories. I adored her 2005 film Sepet which was just wonderful. Mukhsin is the third film in Ahman's trilogy about the character Orked. Sepet featured Orked's first teenage love, Gubra was about marriage and adulthood while Mukhsin rewinds the clock to the start of Orked's childhood. Plenty of tender moments and a touching cameo from the love-struck Sepet couple. And Orked's warm and effectionate family are all back!

Tambogrande: mangos, murder, mining (2006, Peru, Ernesto Cabellos & Stephanie Boyd): Rating 7/10

North American corporations are busy carving up South America and stealing those countries natural resources. If it were not for a few documentaries, most of these crimes would go by un-noticed. Tambogrande joins a list of previous such eye-opening films and highlights land crimes in the Tambogrande region of Peru where a Canadian company wants to start a mining pit. The region's history, the people's struggles, the political corruption that exists and the power of money are all documented. The film also shows that if people are not willing to stand up and fight for their rights, they will get rolled over. Sometimes, just sometimes, ordinary people can actually make a difference against big money.

Vanaja (2006, India, Rajnesh Domalpalli): Rating 8/10

This beautifully shot South Indian film centers around a hushed up crime. 15 year old Vanaja comes from a poor family. Through her father's help, she gets a job in the town's leading dance instructor's house. Also, as an added bonus Vanaja gets to pick up a few tips to improve her dance. We see this young woman grow on screen. When we first meet Vanaja, she is an innocent girl. But gradually, we see her confidence grow. But just as things are looking good for her, she is raped by the dance instructor's son. The crime is hushed up and the pregnant Vanaja disappears until she has given birth. She returns back to society but is faced with a few difficult decisions.

The film has won plenty of awards at film festival and it is easy to see why. The colorful visuals backed by a very strong performance from young Mamatha Bhukya make this film stand out.

The Bushmen's Secrets (2006, South Africa, Rehad Desai): Rating 8/10

This is a truly refreshing documentary on a topic hardly seen on screen. A long time ago man survived on herbal and natural remedies. But then the drug companies took over and produced a pill to cure every problem. After enough problems and side-affects started to appear, people yearned for simple herbal solutions. So the new money making idea was for drug companies to mass produce and sell herbal solutions. And such a scheme meant stealing generation old tribal knowledge and patenting it as their own.

Rehad Desai travels to the Kalahari desert to see how the bushmen survive the desert like conditions. He is told of a plant, Hoodia, a cactus which is eaten by the bushmen because it suppresses their appetite and gives them nourishment to help in long treks across the hot barren land. Something that suppresses the appetite? Well here is clearly a giant billion dollar plant! So what happens next? Corporations descend in, steal the plant legally or illegally and start counting the money. Desai has done a creditable job with this film in showing the various aspects of marketing such drugs and also depicting how the local governments are to blame as well.

Global Cinematic Duels, Part I

I am tired of people saying that there are no good movies being made currently and that the best cinema was back in the 50’s & 60’s. Ok, back in the 50’s and 60’s, International cinema was something all right. Besides the great directors plying their trade in a number of countries, there were some vintage movies. For example, I don’t think there can be a finer movie than 1966’s Battle of Algiers made today which captures the essence of a society so well. But the same thing can be said of literature as well. The literature of the past meant something but today it is mostly nonsense best sellers. That being said, there are some very good collection of non-fiction work out there nowadays, more so than previously. In the end, it is all subjective really. We all connect with an artistic work at some subjective level, no matter how much we objectively try to judge it. And when it comes to movies or books, sometimes the true merit of a work can’t be assessed until the future. Four decades ago, Philip K. Dick, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell wrote about a dark future where individual freedoms didn’t exist. And yet, in the modern year of 2006 we are living some sort of future that those writers imagined. Life has imitated art or maybe Life has taken its inspiration from art? I will never forget the section from Arthur Clarke’s 2001 where he mentions a future where man can read any newspaper from the world on a small computer like device, which is achieved in the present by reading papers via the internet on a laptop. While some works can mimic or predict the future, others end up remaining timeless because of their inherent humanistic meanings, like Shakespeare. Shakespeare will never go out of fashion and will be forever interpretated and continue to add meaning. And two such interpretations were made in Bollywood recently. One wonders why it took so long? Love, treachery, jealousy and murder are all trademarks of the usual melodramas but this time, those stories are told via the lens of the talented bard's works.

If one is tired of seeing nonsense in the theatres, there are always foreign movies one can rent. If that is not possible, then surely, one can rent the old cinematic gems just to tune out the noise of the big budget crap. I decided to conduct an experiement – over the course of 2 months, I would try to balance my viewings with new released big budget movies mixed with foreign movie rentals from past and present. Then I would set up a competition with the movies divided into different cinematic regions and at the end, just see which country or continent came out on top. The only restriction I put on myself was that the movies would be all that played either in the local theatres or were available at one of the video stores -- no internet renting (something I have been lucky to avoid so far). The end winner really surprised me and provided me with a cliched lesson – quality always wins over quantity, no matter which country the movie is from and regarless of the film's budget!!

Countries/Continents and Film Selections:

USA: Pirates 2, A Scanner Darkly, The Devil Wears Prada, Serenity, FlightPlan

The first movie of this competition was a movie that I relunctanly watched its opening day – Pirates 2. I loved the first movie but I didn’t expect much from the second one. Yet I found myself in the theatre on opening day at the 4:20 pm show. And I was really surprised – the movie was much much WORSE that I could have imagined! In fact, it was the worst movie I have seen this year. It is solely responsible for sinking the overall rating of the USA category. Is it fair to let a commercial crap sink other worthwhile movies? Yes!! If junk is made from one country, then it deserves to shame all other movies from that region. For the record, here are the other ratings:


Pirates 2: Rating 5/10
A Scanner Darkly: Rating 9.5/10
The Devil Wears Prada: Rating 8/10
Serenity: Rating 8.5/10
FlightPlan: Rating 6.5/10

Overall rating: 37.5/5 = 7.5


The only true brilliant movie in this list is A Scanner Darkly with Serenity getting a good nod. Linklater has taken a typical Philip K. Dick story and added the classy animation technique used to success in Waking Life and produced a wonderous paranoid big brother drug induced nightmarish reality. Serenity does proud to the much put down sci-fi genre and brings a fresh far away universe to cinema, and along the way, proves that film (and even tv) fans know more than studio executives, who never wanted the original tv series or movie to exist in the first place. The Devil Wears Prada is sheer fun. Nothing extraordinary here, but plain fun. The first few minutes are one of the best sequences in the movie, which show different women getting dressed. Just by their clothes, we can tell a lot about the different women and that scene captures the classiness of the film, which really is thin on substance but has plenty of style. The less said of Flightplan the better. In fact, I don’t think I can better review this film than Pacze has on his blog – his review is just wicked and completely spot-on.

Asia: Omkara, Mixed Doubles, Good Men, Good Women (Hsiao-hsien Hou), Ab Tak Chaphhan, Maqbool, Election 2

Gangster central really. 3 out and out gangster movies, with 2 of them of them being Shakespearean adaptations and the third being a Godfather mould. A 4th movie is gang related but shown from the side of cops, often left out in gang movies. The remaining 2 movies may be out of place but they capture a time and place of Asia that is worth showing, one modern (Mumbai in Mixed Doubles) and the past (Taiwan in Good Men, Good Women). The biggest disappointment for me was Hou Hsian-Hein’s feature which really was the weakest showing in this category. Having loved his other movies, maybe I had set the bar too high and was not engaged with a story whose fragments can be found in his other movies.

When it comes to the gangster movies, it seems a common theme was present – power won by unfair means will never result in peace and will always end in destruction. Typical story of Godfather like mafia movies that cine flicks around the world have emitted previously, but this time Vishal Bhardwaj has taken that story and wrapped it around the core of Shakespearean plays. Maqbool was a remake of Macbeth and got plenty of praise when it was released. It is a very good movie with excellent acting from all but one main character – Lady Macbeth’s character. Of all the actresses that Bhardwaj could have taken, why did he have to take Tabu? Tabu is over-rated and has been useless in the last few films that she has been in. She was the dull muse that could not inspire anyone and sank M.F Husain’s Meenaxi and has since been playing the stupid innocent_woman_ role for a few years now. In Maqbool she was dull, uninspiring and certainly not as manipulative as she should have been. That is why I had to take my points off my rating for this movie. Omkara on the other hand was far more superior in the acting category as the vibrant Konkana Sen Sharma lit up the screen with every word and Saif Ali Khan and Ajay Devgan played their roles perfectly while enacting Othello in a rural Uttar Pradesh setting. The only negative was the unnecessary songs which hampered the otherwise cool flow.

The first Election movie was perfect as it added a layer of democracy to the gang genre. The second one picks up where the first one left off and has a wicked ending which promises more feature sequels with far more destruction in store; the cycle will be complete surely in future such sequels. At the end of the first movie, Lok is democratically elected to rule all the triads and it seems that peace will reign. The second movie picks up 2 years after the first when another election is coming up. Lok can’t think of giving up his position and his greed makes him far more ruthless (Shakespeare would have understood Lok’s situation). Jimmy on the other hand just wants to be a "businessman". But he finds that he can’t go clean until he becomes the chairman of the Triads himself. So starts a ruthless battle between Jimmy and Lok which ends only when Jimmy hacks (literally) his way to the top. But a tasty twist leaves Jimmy in a precarious position where he might never be just a "businessman".

Ab Tak Chaphhan is a Ram Gopal factory production which is quite good much to my disbelief as I had previously rejected this movie on a quick viewing a year ago. The story is about cops who have to break the law themselves in order to keep the balance with Nana Patekar giving a riveting performance. Mixed Doubles is an decent comedy about a young couple living in Mumbai who are duly going through the stages of their marriage until the husband gets obsessed with the idea of ‘swinging’ to spice their married life up. The one bright spot in the movie -- Konkana Sen Sharma!


Omkara: 9/10
Mixed Doubles: Rating 7.5/10
Good Men, Good Women: Rating 5.5/10
Ab Tak Chaphhan: Rating 9.5/10
Maqbool: Rating 8.5/10
Election 2: 9

Overall rating: 49 = 8.17


Europe: Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, Belgium), Pusher (Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark, 1996), Buffet Froid (Bertrand Blier, France, 1979), I, Soliti Ignoti(Big deal on Madonna Street, Mario Monicelli, Italy, 1958), Element of Crime (Germany), Descent (Neil Marshall, UK)

A completely mixed bag of European flicks with my favourite being the Brit thriller The Descent. The story is simple but very well done – 6 women go cave exploring until they find something sinister hidden beneath the earth. Blood and darkness are the main elements in a gripping edge of the seat thriller that is truly worth watching in a dark theatre. The only negative has to be the chopped up ending for the American version which tries to give a glimmer of hope but I rather would have preferred the Brit version which really ends in darkness. Man Bites Dog is an interesting experiment – a film crew follows a killer who randomly picks his victims and executes them in unique ways. Shot in black & white, it is not a tasteful watch but was made long before the crazy of American reality tv shows started to dominate popular watching so, in a way this movie was a landmark in how cinema is observed. With TIFF 2006 showing two movies where the audience simply observes two characters, one a soccer player going about his job of entertainment, and another where a woman is going about her deadly task of killing, Man Bites Dog fits in with that category of observing different people try to make sense of their lives.

Pusher has a lot of hype around it and that is all it is, just hype. It is nothing great! In fact, I wish the movie was in reverse like Gaspar Noé's Irréversible as that really would have made this watchable because the best parts of the movie are near the end. The movie chronicles a week in the life of a drug pusher. At the start of the week, things are looking good for him as he is collecting his payments and is happy (these are the boring parts of the movie which one has to painfully endure). But a few bad situations leave him in debt and as the week goes on, he sinks further and further. This is probably the most interesting segment in the movie as we desperately see him trying to stay afloat. And in the end, just when things might finally turn around for him, all his hopes are snatched away in an instant. Two more sequels have been made for this Danish indie but I think I will pass on those ventures.

Element of Crime was one of Lars Von Trier’s earlier movies and it is a seductive crime thriller viewed through a cool yellow lens. Everything appears yellow in the film and this filtered lens heightens the mood of the film and punches certain features up a bit more, for example, a pool of blood stands out more in the background. A detective is on the trail of a killer but in order to catch him, he tries to mimic the killer’s ways until, he steps too far and starts acting like a killer himself. Not a perfect movie but a great start from a director much known to controversy nowadays.

The mad caper comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street starts out really well but ends up dragging itself to nowhere. Bordering more on slapstick comedy, it has a nice role by Marcello Mastroianni but overall the film feels dull. Dull is the farthest thing from the Gérard Depardieu starrer Buffet Froid which requires perfect attention to detail as a dream like situations led to the killer becoming the victim, enemies becoming friends and buildings swapping forests (shades of Surrealism & Luis Buñuel's works).


Man Bites Dog: Rating 9/10
Pusher: Rating 6/10
Big deal on Madonna Street: Rating 6.5/10
The Descent: Rating 9.5/10
Element of Crime: Rating 8/10
Buffet Froid: 8.5/10

Overall rating: 47.5 = 7.92


South Africa: Tsotsi, Son of Man

These were 2 late movies that were added to my viewing and honestly, South Africa was not a country that I had planned to cover this time around, but I got lucky here. I had missed seeing Tsotsi on a few occasions so it was only fair that I finally saw it. And Son of Man had a special festival screening in our city and I have to say, I was very impressed. Son of Man is a modern interpretation of Jesus live in the slums and streets of Africa – a time where gangs, religion, politics and corruption reign. It really seems that nothing has changed in the last few thousand years, really? :) Just that we have tv and radio which can transmit news of miracles and tragedies faster than ever before! And guns are readily available to those who need to kill people easily. A very commendable film, not perfect but worth seeing!

Amazingly, the two South African movies stood narrowly beat out the 3 other regions and won this contest. A real surprise indeed for a country whose movies were the last ones to make the cut!


Tsotsi: Rating 8.5/10
Son of Man: Rating 8/10

Overall rating: 8.25