Calgary International Film Festival 2010, preview 1

The 2010 Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) kicks off in less than 2 weeks time. The film selections continue to grow in technical and artistic strength each year and this year the festival has some amazing films on display, with the Mavericks competition category showcasing some of the best films of the year. Last year, Mavericks contained some worthy films such as Karaoke (2009 Maverick winner), Be Calm and Count to Seven, Everyone Else and Fish Eyes but this year's selection is much stronger than the 2009 list.

Manuel di Ribera

This visually stunning film is a fascinating mix of Lisandro Alonso and Bela Tarr yet is completely original. The lonely journeys of Manuel, conducted with the aid of boats, has touches of Alonso (from both Los Muertos & Liverpool) while the mostly grayish/dark environment and the drunken locals' distrust of Manuel feels similar to Tarr's The Outsider and Satantango. Also, the film brilliantly plays with the concept of reality by having two almost similar scenes of an event incorporated into the film -- one real and one imagined. The audience is left to figure out what the reality is.

Note: The isolated Chilean island seems to echo the island in the third short of Andrés Wood's Historias de fútbol.

The Intern

Clara Picasso's sublime film cleverly uses a Buenos Aires hotel setting as a springboard to examine wider issues, such as male-female power games and the thin boundary that exists between private and public life. Not a single minute is wasted in the film's brisk 64 minutes. Almost at each 20 minute segment, the viewer has to track back to the previous segment to get a clue as to mystery or relationship tussle taking place on screen. The end result is an engaging film.

R

Stand by for the one of the most brutal and dark films of the year!! The tag 'dark film' is easily thrown around but in the case of R, the tag is entirely justified. The film makes last year's wonderful Un prophète look like a feel good happy film. Besides being completely savage, R is intelligent and that is demonstrated by a clever perspective shift two-thirds into the film which shows the similar hierarchies of two rival gangs.

The Robber

A highly entertaining yet intelligent film. This film is an example that an accessible film can be made without clichés or spoon feeding the audience. The two highs of running and robbing give Johann’s life meaning and it is clear these habits will eventually take a toll on his life. The entire film is defined by fast movement, shown by Johann's marathon runs or his perfectly timed car getaways. Remarkably, the story is not fiction and based on a real life character.

Hunting & Zn

This powerful Dutch film shows how a complicated relationship can be strained when lies and a pregnancy enters the equation. Like last year's brilliant Everyone Else, this film is bold enough to look at the nasty side that exists in all relationships and thereby causes the audience to get deeply involved with the film. As a warning, pregnant women or couples expecting a child might want to brace themselves for an emotionally challenging film.

You All Are Captains

This fascinating award winning black and white film demonstrates that even an improvised film needs a structure to make the work engaging. The film's first 20 minutes feature a filmmaker teaching school kids how to use a camera. The filmmaker has no script or goal in mind and a result, frustrates his students who are puzzled by the filmmaker's motives. After the kids complain, the filmmaker is replaced with another director who gives a structure thereby letting the film's brilliance shine through. The ending of the film in color puts the whole work into perspective including the first 20 minutes. A film and filmmaker to watch out for.

Lucky Life

Lee Isaac Chung deserves a lot of credit for making a poetic film that deals with cancer in such a tender manner that one never gets the sense of impending death that will take over one of the characters. The film is more concerned with mood than specific details as most of the conversations appear to be improvised and not scripted cinema, which adds to the film's fluid flow. The film has a very cool mood around it and when the characters meet each other, there are smiles and tender moments throughout reflecting the strong friendship that exists.

Cold Water of the Sea

This Tiger Award winning film (Rotterdam) adds an artistic layer on top of an accessible coming of age tale. The parallels between a young girl and woman is interestingly shown as the two characters form reflections of each other. The beautiful landscape of Costa Rica contrasts the internal struggles of the characters.

Putty Hill

A unique and interactive film that blurs the line between documentary and fiction. The interactive aspect is executed by having the actors in the frame stop what they are doing and look towards the camera to answer questions by an unseen interviewer. And once they are done answering the questions, the camera steps back and films the action.

And finally, this year there is a Canadian entry in competition -- Snow and Ashes. It is a film that I am looking forward and is the only one that I have not previewed from the 10.

Buon Americano

The American (2010, USA, Anton Corbijn): 10/10

Over the years, I have seen some wonderful film posters in New Delhi, Mumbai, Madrid, Rotterdam, Paris & London but the only posters that I have come across in Canada have been run of the mill dull copies promoting the next commercial venture. Which is why I stopped in my tracks when I laid my eyes on The American's poster.

This stunning poster etched out a 1960's-70's time period with George Clooney appearing to be a James Bond like figure. A lone man, a hero?, dashing away with a gun in his hand away from the watchful eye of a woman (femme fatale?) in the background.

That was it. For the first time in my life, I made up my mind to watch a film based on a poster. The only other information I bothered to look up was the director's name. I avoided reading the story or seeing the trailer.

A gamble of sorts.

And remarkably, the gamble paid off nicely because The American is a beautiful, rewarding artful film. It is a film that allows us to calmly admire the Italian landscape and quietly observe Jack/Edward (Clooney) at work or during his moments of lovemaking to a beautiful Italian woman named Clara (Violante Placido). There is no needless dialogue to take us away from the events filling the frame and the expressions of the characters give enough clues as to their motives. No time is wasted in explaining Jack's background but there are enough clues presented to allow viewers to fill in their own version of a back story. Also, the film cleverly creates moments of tension with simple situations and a rich soundtrack.

Now, Jack is not a stranger to the cinematic screen after all. Variations of his lonely assassin for hire have graced cinema for decades be it in the form of a spy, an outlaw (say in a Sergio Leone film) or a criminal but the big difference that Anton Corbijn and writer Rowan Joffe have made is to remove bloodshed and explosive action sequences from the equation. As a result, the film is a polished and thoughtful work of art that is completely engaging.

Lonely men in Europe sitting in a cafe

The closest association to The American in my mind is Jim Jarmusch's wonderful The Limits of Control as the main characters in both films are assassins who travel across Europe, spend time enjoying a cup of coffee in a cafe and cross paths with interesting enticing women. The one big difference is that The Limits of Control has an element of humour around it whereas The American is a bit more serious although it does contain brief moments of lightness. Also, The Limits of Control presents the story in abstract clues that have to be put together whereas most details in The American are presented clearly as the story moves along.

Surpizingly both The Limits of Control and The American have been savaged by North American critics for being "pretentious art house films". Hmmm. Both films have long takes, little dialogue and no loud explosions. So are those enough reasons to dismiss these films? Hardly. And even the nudity in The American has gotten some complaints as it has been used as an excuse to further the film's European art-house label.

For me The American is one of the best films of the year. Yet, I have a feeling this film will be quietly ignored by most even though it can be found playing in a multiplex. But this is a film that deserves to be seen.

Bankploitation, anyone?

Sam Raimi’s wonderful Drag Me to Hell has been rightly praised for a return to the director’s horror roots. But the film is more than just a horror film. It may be the first film of a new genre -- bankploitation. The genre, which surprizingly has not yet taken off, would feature stories about revenge against the evil banks. As hard as it is to believe, there was a time not too long ago in 2008, long before oil companies were re-instated as villains, that the banks and financial markets were considered evil. The bankers freely gambled away people’s futures thereby leading to a serious financial crisis. People’s anger grew but there was nothing the common person could do. Even governments bend over backwards to give the banks more money (sounds improbable but seriously true) thereby allowing the banks to return to their profit making ways in less than no time. So the common man/woman were left helpless with no one willing to provide an outlet for their anger and frustration. That outlet finally arrived in 2009, when Sam Raimi came to the rescue with his film.

Christine Brown plays an innocent, honest and hard working woman, who is hoping to get the position of assistant manager at her bank.

But she is worried that her hard work and time with the company won’t be enough as a recent hire Stu is determined to suck up to the boss to get the position. When an opportunity to prove her assistant manager credentials literally comes knocking on her desk, Christine decides to ditch her good hearted ways.

Mrs Ganush has failed to meet her mortgage payments despite getting 2 bank extensions but she does not want to lose her familial home and asks Christine for a 3rd extension.

Christine goes to her boss to consult the case. Her boss explains that the bank would stand to make money by rejecting Mrs Ganush but still leaves the final decision in Christine’s hands. So Christine decides that the only way she can move up the bank ladder is to do what all the other male bankers before her did and reject Mrs Ganush, thereby making a decision to profit the bank and seal her progress into the assistant managerial chair.

Mrs Ganush begs Christine, gets down on her knees, and kisses Christine’s skirt, but Christine panics and calls the security guards.

Mrs Ganush feels shamed by Christine’s reaction and tries to strangle Christine.

Christine manages to escape unharmed but spends the rest of the film trying to avoid getting dragged into hell after a curse is put on her head by Mrs Ganush.

Drag Me to Hell shows that if a bank employee merely treats their customer as a means to advance their career via beefing up the bank’s profits, then there could be serious consequences such as an evil demon could be summoned to drag the employee down to hell. Ofcourse, the revenge against the bank is depicted under the guise of a horror film as the story strictly adheres to the horror film template of having an innocent female in distress. It does seem unfair to inflict a death curse on Christine after her first male-induced cold hearted decision but horror films rarely show mercy to female characters. In this sense, Drag Me to Hell merely conforms to the standards of throwing female characters under the bus (or train). Maybe in the future some other director might do go the full Bankploitation path and call their film ”Wall Street: Money Drags You to Hell”.

On another note, Drag Me to Hell does one thing rarely seen in horror films -- it includes a scene where the evil demon attacks Christine in broad daylight, breaking away from the convention of depicting horror only at night time.

While the film manages to be funny and packs some scares it is ofcourse pure fiction. Because if there were real gypsies capable of cursing bankers, then maybe some of the financial men might have thought twice about their reckless decisions.

Inception

Dream within a dream within a dream

Inception (2010, USA/UK, Christopher Nolan)

Alejandro Amenábar beautifully explored the complex world of dreams and reality in Open Your Eyes, later remade into Vanilla Sky. However, the story of both films only explored one level of a dream world. Christopher Nolan has taken that core concept of dreams vs reality and gone two/three levels deeper, thereby creating a hyperlink dream maze that requires multiple hops to exit. Even though Inception traverses multiple dream levels and is bursting with fascinating ideas, it is a remarkably accessible film that manages to explains its ideas in a fluid manner without halting the plot progression. Ofcourse, since it is also a summer film, it contains the mandatory action sequences and explosions, without which the film might not have gotten booked in a multiplex in the first place. Thankfully, a majority of the explosive scenes shot in the Canadian snow-capped mountains arrive in the finale and don't derail the film too much.

Rating: 9/10

note: The story presented in Inception would certainly have made Jorge Luis Borges smile, given that Borges was a master of labyrinths and dreams within dreams.

2010 Movie World Cup, Group C

Group C -- England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia

Films: Of Time and the City, Ballast, Daughter of Keltoum, How I Killed a Saint



England: Of Time and the City (2008, Terence Davies)

Terence Davies pays tribute to his home city Liverpool in this autobiographical documentary. The film is a blend of newsreel and archival footage accompanied to Davies' mesmerizing voice. Unfortunately, the end product has no fixed pattern and drifts as per Davies' memory. So the recollections feature some pleasant memories mixed with some angry recollections but not everything is engaging.

USA: Ballast (2008, Lance Hammer)

Lance Hammer's fine debut film is a poetic look at a family's ability to cope with a tragedy. The film starts off in dark circumstances and eases up gradually presenting a tiny glimmer of hope for a better future by the end. The cinematography perfectly captures the grim circumstances and Hammer is brave enough to let the images speak for themselves, without pausing to explain anything. In fact, the film plunges head first into the tragedy with no build up. After that opening sequence, we see events unfold without any unnecessary flashbacks and as a result, the film is able to maintain a consistent powerful flow throughout.

Algeria: Daughter of Keltoum (2001, Mehdi Charef)

Rallia (Cylia Malki) goes to an Algerian village to find her biological mother but her trip ends up being a brave journey across the Algerian landscape filled with danger in the form of Resistance fighters and violence related to oppression of women. What unfolds is an emotional tale about poverty, survival and strength required to take all the punches and carry on. Cylia Malki's pleasant face perfectly depicts the complex emotions required of her character who moves from innocence to defiance to anger especially at the beliefs around her. And when all the emotions have exploded, there are much needed tears to heal and repair the damaged bonds.

Note: The political, social and religious tugs in Algerian life along with violence against women have been present in one form or the other in the last few Algerian films I have seen such as Enough and Rachida. That trend continues in Daughter of Keltoum. At first, Daughter of Keltoum appears to be free from any political depiction but as Rallia leaves the village, resistance fighters make an appearance followed by issues of head covering and violence against women.

Slovenia: How I Killed a Saint (2004, Teona Strugar Mitevska)

How I Killed a Saint is a Slovenian co-production set in Macedonia and uses a brother and sister's differing life paths to depict a society wrapped up in civil war. The bubbling anger and frustration experienced by the brother could easily apply to that felt by other citizens of Eastern European nations at their country's situation and presence of foreign troops. The brother joins a political movement and decides he will take matter into his own hands to do something for his national cause but he does not realize that his violent actions will have a consequence close to home.

Standings and Points (Maximum out of 9)

Ballast: 9
Daugther of Keltoum: 7
How I Killed a Saint: 6
Of Time and the City: 5

For me the biggest disappointment was Of Time and the City. The film has been critically praised and I bought into that hype making this the first selection of my movie festival. Also, since Davies is an auteur, I felt the selection was a no brainer. Unfortunately, I found the film hugely disappointing and one of the poorest selections out of the 32.

In a way, the selection of Of Time and the City and its disappointing end result is reflective of the English soccer team. The English media hype their team up time and time again expecting them to win the World Cup yet the English team has been very tactically weak over the last decade and that is reflected in the poor on-field results. Yes, in theory penalties have cost England in the 1998 & 2006 tournaments but those kicks only mask the incorrect tactical formations and the unimaginative display of the team. In 2002, England were a man up against Brazil in the Quarter-Finals but could not muster even a decent chance in the second half and simply faded away. Fatigue might have been a factor but something also has to be said for which players were picked and which were left out.

Soccer Group prediction

For me, this is weakest of the 8 groups in the World Cup. Despite all their shortcomings, England will comfortably advance from this group along with USA. The big question will be whether the US can beat England to the group's #1 spot. Algeria did well to overcome their bitter rivals and African Champions Egypt to qualify for the world cup but it is hard to expect any upsets from this squad like that from the 1982 Algerian team who beat West Germany and Chile 1-0 and 3-2 respectively and were then unfairly robbed from advancing from the group stages when Germany and Austria conspired to a 1-0 result.

The Ethical Red Button

The Box (2009, USA, Richard Kelly): 8/10

When I was a young kid, I remember staying up late to watch episodes of the Twilight Zone. I have forgotten most of the episodes but the episode based on the "Button, Button" short story stayed with me. The episode ended on a chilling note and I can still remember the ethical dilemma the couple faced while sitting in front of a simple box with a button in the center. When I first heard about Richard Kelly’s film adaptation, I was intrigued about how this short story could be extended into a feature. Given Richard Kelly’s previous two features, I had a feeling that The Box would certainly be fresh and innovative. Sure enough, I was not let down as The Box is indeed one of the most though provoking films to come out of the normally stale and cliched Hollywood film industry.

**** Some spoilers ****

The short story ended with the idea that the young couple could die next when the box would be given to someone the couple didn’t know. The feature picks on up this idea and shows that the box follows a closed loop where death will next take place in the household that last pressed the button. Since there are multiple such boxes doing the rounds in America, a scenario is setup where various paths of life/death will be made. On a macro level, the boxes also seem to serve as an elaborate game theory model where pressing a button also triggers codes for a possible global game of destruction. The game theory angle is never mentioned but can be inferred at the continuously changing world map listing the various US combat command centers around the world. Does the map change everytime someone presses the button? Possibly, because in one instance the deliverer of the box, Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), mentions the game will stop when enough people decide to not press the button. The game theory angle could have been the perfect explanation for the film had there not been the additional layers of an alien invasion, government conspiracy and religious implications thrown in the mix. Not to mention the mind control element and portals used to give people a glimpse of the after life or to transfer them from one location to another. I am unable to find a unified theory to explain everything in the movie but that did not diminish my enjoyment of the film. Two other films came to mind while watching The Box -- David Twohy’s 1996 feature The Arrival regarding the radio communication with aliens and the ending of John Carpenter’s 1987 feature Prince of Darkness. The ending of Prince of Darkness showed that someone from the future was sending messages at a frequency which was picked up by the people in the church only in their dreams, meaning only when the people fell asleep were they able to get the same dream, which turned out to be an encoded message. In The Box, people’s mind is controlled via a frequency which renders them into zombies and in turn transmits the images they see back to a central source.

The Box requires an investment from the audience to think ahead and to piece things together. Given the poor reviews the film has received, it is clear that most people were not willing to invest their time in this film and slammed it. The same reaction was given to Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky, a film which was much less complicated than The Box and even to Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking, a film which was jam packed with intelligent ideas. If The Box was instead an animated film, then some people might have accepted what they saw on screen. I can’t remember many people complaining too much about how an elderly man could spend a single night to blow up enough helium filled balloons to uproot his house in Up. No one seemed to further question how a young boy could then navigate this flying house in the movie correctly to South America with just a compass? A cartoon allows one to easily digest any deviation from reality whereas a flesh and blood feature allows very little room for imagination. Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko became a cult hit on video and DVD and I certainly hope The Box does find an audience on DVD. While the film may not be on the same level as Donnie Darko, The Box certainly needs to be seen and not dismissed lightly.

 

The Damned Job

The Damned United (2009, UK/USA, Tom Hooper): 9/10

Just a few of the things a modern soccer manager has to satisfy:

And even if all the above are met, there is still no guarantee that a soccer manager would be able to keep his job.

Case 1: A manager wins all the trophies by playing 1-0 negative football and the owners/board of directors are happy with all the trophies.

However, if some sections of the fans and media are not happy with the negative football and they have a huge say in the club’s operations, then the manager would not be in the job too long.

Case 2: A manager ensures his team plays the most beautiful football but fails to win many trophies.

Some fans would be happy but others would want the manager to be fired. However, if the board of directors are satisfied, then the manager would survive.

Case 3: A manager wins trophies by playing beautiful football but does not get along with the board of directors.

In this case, the manager would not last long in the job. The example of Real Madrid comes to mind because at Madrid, the board of directors are never shy to fire a manager days after he had landed a major trophy. Heck, at Madrid, they are known to fire managers even when the team is top of the league and in an excellent position to win the title (example, the 1991-92 season).

---

Until this year, if one had to understand a soccer manager’s tough position, then one could only piece things together by reading multiple books, newspaper/magazine articles and watching the odd tv interview. But with the release of The Damned United fans of the game finally have a film that gives a glimpse into the multiple pulls that a soccer manager has to withstand in his day to day job. Even if one is not a soccer fan, then there is still plenty to enjoy in this accessible and polished film that mixes the real life case of Brian Clough’s turbulent 44 days of employment at Leeds United with a sprinkling of fiction.

Two brothers and two fateful penalty shots

Rudo y Cursi (2009, Mexico/USA, Carlos Cuarón)

Ah. The beautiful game. It unites and can equally divide.

Two brothers, one a goal keeper and the other a striker. Mortal enemies on the field because of their opposing roles. One’s happiness depends on the other’s misery -- if a striker scores, then he is the hero yet if the goalkeeper blocks the shot, then the goalie comes out on top. An agent, Batuta (Guillermo Francella), is impressed with both brothers but he can only pick one, so he leaves it up to the brothers to decide who gets selected. Beto (Diego Luna), the goalkeeper, opts for a penalty shot to decide their fates.

As the two brothers run towards the goal, Beto indicates to Tato (Gael García Bernal) where he should shoot the ball.

“Shoot to the right”

“Let me block it. Shoot to the right.”

“Okay.”

Tato steps up and sends the ball perfectly to his right while his brother dives the other way. Batuta is impressed and asks Tato to meet him the next day. But Beto is upset.

“I said aim right! Why’d you shoot the other way?”

“I aimed right!”

“I meant the other right!”

“What other right?”

“My right, asshole!”

“You should have said to aim that way!”

The rivalry that was already present between the brothers intensifies. Tato takes a step towards healing that rivalry. After Tato makes it big, he forces Batuta to give his brother a chance. Sure enough, Beto is given his chance and manages to make his mark. However, the two brothers are plagued with problems off the field -- Tato throws his riches away on a fine looking gold digger named Maya while Beto gambles everything away.

Oddly, the brothers handle their off-field problems differently. While Beto’s gambling debt puts his life in danger, he still manages to shine on the field, keeping clean-sheet after clean-sheet. On the other hand, Tato’s goals dry up completely and he reaches breaking point when he learns that Maya is cheating on him.

Tato is on the verge of being sent to the second division and has one more game to salvage his career, while Beto is given one more chance to pay off his debts. Both brother’s get their chance to turn their lives around in the same game when they square off against each other.

It is clear how fate will decide the outcome.

A penalty shot. If a penalty shot kick-started their soccer careers, then it is appropriate that the two brothers face off again from 12 yards to decide the outcome of the rest of their lives.

Rudo y Cursi may feel like a Hollywood film in its treatment but the film redeems itself in the penalty shot near the end where the ironic fates of soccer and life in general are respected. The ending can only be written by someone who understands that, in soccer, games can end just as they start.

Note: The calm and soothing narration provided by the character of Batuta evoke the sentiments of Eduardo Galeano from Soccer in Sun and Shadow where Galeano poetically conveyed the beauty of the game.

CIFF 2009 Diary, Days 6-8

Day 6: Wednesday, Sept 30

The 10 film Maverick competition kicked off on September 30 with 4 screenings, followed by a further 4 on Thursday and the final two on Friday night.

Schedule for the 10 Maverick films:

Wednesday -- Juntos, Everyone Else, Unmade Beds and Karaoke.
Thursday -- Be Good, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, Wrong Rosary and Fish Eyes.
Friday -- My Suicide and Be Calm and Count to Seven.

I had seen four stellar films prior to the festival (Be Calm and Count to Seven, Everyone Else, Fish Eyes and Karaoke) and I was looking forward to seeing a few more.

Juntos (2009, Canada/Mexico, Nicolás Pereda)

Before the screening, Nicolás Pereda mentioned that he felt strange talking about Juntos as a movie because originally it was intended to be an art gallery project. He then asked the audience to watch the film with an open mind.

It is easy to see why this work could have been an art gallery project. One can imagine seeing the footage beamed on walls as audiences walk by a particular moment and then return later on to see what the three characters are up to. The film contains long static takes and gives a glimpse into the relationship between three people living in an apartment -- Gabino, his girlfriend Luisa and his friend Paco. Gabino finds himself in the middle of this awkward dynamic as Luisa's dislike at Paco's presence means that Gabino's relationship with Luisa is put under stress. The stress is conveyed early on and reaches breaking point in a stellar 10 minute long dialogue less scene with Gabino and Luisa sitting quietly at the kitchen table. With each passing second in this scene, one can feel the tension rise between the two and had Gabino dared to speak a word, then the relationship would surely have been over then and there.

The title Juntos refers to Gabino's dog that goes missing at the film's start. The dog's disappearance also signals the degradation of the relationship Gabino has with Luisa and Paco, although Gabino's easy going manner with Paco suggests that he will eventually forgive any of Paco's mistakes (a beautiful dialogue exchange between the two when Gabino is working on the sink pipes is another strong highlight of the film). There is also a scene that will inspire walkouts or discontent from the audience. In this particular scene, the camera does not shy away from watching Gabino take a bath in the nude. The scene starts off with Gabino's member slightly covered but slowly, everything is out in the open. This long sequence, which features Gabino lathering himself with soap, brought laughter from some of the women in the crowd and caused one man to loudly blame another woman for bringing him to see this movie. The man walked out a few minutes after the scene was over. But the scene does bring up the question that if it was a woman shown bathing instead of a man, would there have been any walkouts or even any laughter?

There are also some precious moments of humour derived from watching the characters and their crumbling household appliances. The film certainly requires an investment from the audience and does reward those who are patient enough.

note: Robert Koehler's review is worth reading.

Karaoke

After Juntos I headed down to the Plaza to meet up with Chris Chong Chan Fui and introduce his film. As it turned out, Karaoke proved to a frustrating challenge for quite a few of the audience members, including some good friends.

Day 7: Thursday, Oct 1

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009, USA, Damien Chazelle)

This black and white free flowing jazzy film is a breath of fresh air and has shades of John Cassavetes. The story is simple enough -- Boy Meets Girl, Boy dumps Girl, Boy meets another Girl and eventually Boy realizes he made a mistake. But the film has such a beautiful free style to it, like a jazz piece, that one can forget about the story and enjoy the images that are musically conveyed on the screen. There are also a few musical numbers, especially the cute restaurant tap dance sequence, that are integrated nicely in the film's framework.

Note: originally I had intended on seeing Be Good but then I changed my mind because I figured that I might have better chance of catching Be Good on DVD than Damien Chazelle's film. As good as Guy and Madeline.. is, I do wonder what future the film might have outside of the film festival circuit.

Wrong Rosary (2009, Turkey, Mahmut Fazil Coskun)

There is a famous Indian song from the film Padosan: "Mere samne wali khidki mein ek chand ka tukda rahta hai..". which roughly translates to "a beautiful girl lives next door" (I think an exact translation for this song would lessen the impact). The words for that song perfectly describe the story in Wrong Rosary as Musa, a muezzin, is smitten by his neighbour Clara. While the two belong to different religions, it is not religion that forms a barrier in their relationship but instead Musa's shyness gets in the way. Gradually, as he takes takes baby steps to edge towards Clara, we see his confidence grow. And just when things look like heading towards a happy sunset over the Bosphorus, a heart breaking conflict is thrown in the mix, ensuring some tears will take place.

Overall, Wrong Rosary is a wonderful crowd pleasing film. At times, the two characters of Musa and Clara look straight out of a Chaplin movie as both are outcasts in the beautiful city of Istanbul.

Note: Wrong Rosary continues the trend of fine Turkish films I have seen this year. And like most of those Turkish films, Wrong Rosary is expertly shot and allows one to completely soak in the atmosphere. The previous Turkish films that I saw this year will be outlined in a “Spotlight on Turkey” post shortly.

Day 8: Friday, Oct 2

Zero films seen!!

Despite my best intention of seeing a film on friday, a bizarre sequence of events (rain + car troubles) ensured that I once again failed to see a film on each of the 10 festival days.

Still, the rest was welcome as I was able to take in a record 7 films on saturday.

CIFF 2009 Diary, Days 2-5

Day 2: Saturday, Sept 26

Tetro (2009, USA, Francis Ford Coppola)

Family again. But this time the family does not deal with the mafia but instead with the arts -- music, theatre, opera, ballet and literature. A tale of 2 brothers forms the core but there is also a second rivalry of 2 brothers (the two brother’s father vs their uncle) around the nucleus. Women, the love interests, left standing by.

The Black and White gives La Boca a beautiful sensual feel. It starts with a blinding light and ends with a similar light. Flicker, flicker, off.

Houston, We have a problem (2008, USA, Nicole Torre)

Oil. Wars and boardroom deals. Politics and foreign policies, all about oil. The black gold has driven humanity forward and it may prove to be their downfall.

Good to see the ideas that one reads about in books and papers given coverage on film. It is essential that people watch this film but what good will come out of it? The film covers the emergence of alternative forms of energy in the latter half and that is where hope lies for humanity. Hopefully, the politicians get that message as well. Otherwise, the clock is ticking and more wars may await.

The White Ribbon (2009, co-production, Michael Haneke)

In The White Ribbon Haneke displays the same keen observation towards society and culture that was evident in Cache, although the methodology between the two films differs in terms of images vs words. In the absorbing Cache, it was solely the images that gave clues to the character’s true feelings and the audiences were required to derive their own conclusions. But in The White Ribbon, the character’s words clearly spell out the hatred and feelings of disgust. On some occasions, the images do convey the hatred & fear but words are the real weapon here.

The White Ribbon does take a while to catch fire though. The first hour appears to be devoid of much drama as we get a dry glimpse into the character’s daily lives and activities. But after the first signs of the horror and hatred in the village are revealed, then the purpose of those earlier scenes which depicted the mundane activities is made clear. After that point, the film is a riveting pulsating catalogue of the hatred and evil that would be unleashed beyond the borders of a single village and across the European landscape.

The use of a narrator to carry us through the small town tale in The White Ribbon feels a bit like Lars von Trier from Dogville and Manderlay. In fact, Dogville and The White Ribbon have quite a bit in common as both films use the story of a few selected characters to stand in for a nation -- in both cases, the directors are trying to depict their understanding of the psyche of a larger group of people by focussing on a selected few characters. While von Trier set his film on a stage set thereby eliminating any feelings for the character’s environment, Haneke uses a real environment to depict the character’s daily routines thereby making his film feel like a living breathing case study.

Day 3: Sunday, Sept 27

Crackie (2009, Canada, Sherry White)

Ah Newfoundland. Beautiful landscape but devoid of jobs. Not a stereotype but a reality as documented by the large number of people that leave the place to head west to look for jobs, especially in Alberta. Sherry White’s film also picks up on this aspect as the young Mitsy is abandoned by her mother who heads to Alberta to etch out a better living. Crackie is an engaging coming of age tale garnished with a mix of humour and drama. The humour is provided by Mary Walsh who plays the strong outspoken grandmother who looks after Mitsy.

Revache (2008, Austria, Goetz Spielmann)

I had been looking forward towards this movie since it made the cut for Cannes back in 2008. And I was not disappointed as this beautiful bank heist + moral tale certainly delivers. Also like in Spielmann’s previous film Antares, steamy sex is thrown in for good measure. Having now seen two movies each by the Austrian film-makers Goetz Spielmann and Ulrich Seidl, there are overlapping similarities in both film-makers style, especially considering both film-makers start their recent films in sex centers before expanding to a larger canvas.

Police, Adjective (2009, Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu)

Serious conversations between characters regarding the meaning of words and grammar forms a rich cinematic experience. Things are presented in a simple easy to absorb manner with long takes mixed with precious moments of humour. The film builds up on Corneliu Porumboiu’s previous film 12:08 East of Bucharest and also has a nod towards The Death of Mr. Lazarescu as it depicts another example of the bureaucratic circle of paperwork hell.

Day 4: Monday, Sept 28

The Happiest Girl in the World (2009, Romania co-production, Radu Jude)

Winning a free car was supposed to usher in new freedom for Delia Fratila. All she had to do was act in a 35 second car commercial and drive away with her new car. But things don’t turn out to be that simple. Her parents want to exchange the car for money to finance a better future and the commercial shoot turns out to be an artistic and physical challenge. Funny and engaging. Another vintage film from Romania.

Day 5: Tuesday, Sept 29

The Last Lullaby (2008, USA, Jeffrey Goodman)

This was a real discovered gem of the festival. Originally there was only a single screening of this film (Sunday 7:15 pm) which I had intended on seeing but unfortunately missed. Scott, a true film buff, raved about this film later on and I wondered when I would get to see it. But thankfully a second screening was added on Tuesday and true to Scott’s words, The Last Lullaby is indeed a treat.

Price (Tom Sizemore), a retired assassin for hire, rescues a girl from a bunch of kidnappers and demands a ransom from the father for his opportunistic rescue effort. Price disappears after he collects the money but things get interesting when the girl’s father tracks him down and offers a hit job with a lot of money. On paper, it looks to be easy money. But in the tradition of film noir, it turns out to be anything but. Stylistically shot and nicely acted (Sasha Alexander looks immensely charming), The Last Lullaby is easily superior to a majority of what Hollywood has to offer. So you can be sure that this film won’t play in a multiplex any time soon, but it is one that has to be seen.

St. Nick (2009, USA, David Lowery)

The last few years have seen a richer and different America depicted on screen thanks to film-makers such as Ramin Bahrani’s (Man Push Cart & Chop Shop) and Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy). Now, David Lowery’s name can be included in that list as his St. Nick is a beautiful addition to the new American cinema that is emerging despite the dominating presence of the mostly suffocating one-dimensional Hollywood cinema on the North American screens.

While the main story of St. Nick is about two young run away kids, the film also highlights the current America where empty abandoned houses reflect the tough economic times. At the film’s start, the young boy examines one such abandoned house and gets about making it habitable both for himself and his younger sister. While it is engaging to watch such a young boy go about fixing the house, it is also heart breaking to see these two kids skip past childhood and head straight into the struggles of adulthood. Since the two have no money, they have to resort to stealing to feed themselves. In this aspect, the film is related to Wendy and Lucy as both films examine the young character’s struggle to make ends meet while on the road.

St. Nick is also another shining example of a film that does not need to drown the screen with dialogue and instead lets the powerful visual language of the camera convey its thoughtful story.

A decade long path from Dark City

Knowing (2009, USA/UK, Alex Proyas)

Note: Spoiler Alert -- key details about Dark City and Knowing are mentioned.

More than a decade ago, the brilliant Dark City showed a world where humans were the guinea pigs of an alien experiment. The film was smart and offered plenty of intriguing ideas about memories and human psychology.

11 years later, Alex Proyas returns with an end of the world sci-fi film with a key alien presence. As per the film, it is aliens who shepherd humans through the cycle of destruction and recreation. The aliens serve as angels in charge of ensuring that the cycle of life continues as per the Bible. While the film only focuses on one young Adam-Eve couple in charge of starting the birth of the planet from scratch, it also indicates that multiple couples might share the burden. Earth's destruction is quite beautifully done and "the end" does not feel like a finale. Instead, it appears as the board has been cleared completely so that a future recreation can take place.

I was pleasantly surprized by Knowing. I had mistakenly believed the film would be another run of the mill destruction film but it is much better than Hollywood's regular nonsense. Knowing is a decent watch even though it is not nowhere as good as Dark City. Interestingly both films form a bond due to the alien presence. In Dark City, the humans are not shown to be taken by the aliens, whereas in Knowing the transport of the humans is depicted. The aliens in Dark City use their minds as weapons but it is the mouth that serves as the weapon in Knowing (whispers and also for blinding light). Both sets of aliens from the two films wear trench coats but in Knowing, the aliens don't need a hat as they have a full set of hair. So clearly the aliens in both films are from different planets :) Maybe, another decade later Alex Proyas will present a third installment of an alien film. So let this blog entry serve as a time capsule in that regard.

Boy meets girl...but this is not a love story

500 Days of Summer (2009, USA, Mark Webb): 8/10

Love, Fate, Destiny. Words which are used quite a bit. Especially love. Many films claim to be a "love story" without ever understanding what love is. 500 Days of Summer doesn’t make that claim. In fact, the narrator at the film’s start makes it clear that "this is not a love story." So what is the film about then? Boy sees girl. Boy thinks he is in love with girl. Boy and Girl date. Girl still feels nothing. Boy is crushed, heart-broken. And then, only then, boy wakes up.

Some of the best "boy meets girl" tales are when a writer injects their personal experience into the mix. This is because valuable lessons are only learned when one is forced to look within for answers after a heart break. And sometimes, one needs time to understand what a coincidence means or what fate is really indicating. Sometimes meeting a person isn’t the end goal of fate, but that person is simply a marker which will ultimately point towards "the one". Such is the case in 500 Days of Summer.

And what comes after summer? Autumn, ofcourse!

Quinglorious Tartare

Inglourious Basterds (2009, USA/Germany/France, Quentin Tarantino)

A WWII fantasy comedic drama in 5 chapters.

Chapter One: "Once Upon a time...in Nazi occupied France.."

Beautiful French country side. A French farmer. A german solider. French dialogues, english subtitles. Glass of milk. “Bravo”. Language switches to english. Where are they hiding? Rat-a-tat. Gun shots. One girl is allowed to escape.

Haaaaa...haaaa..the laugh of evil.

Chapter Two: Inglourious Basterds

Gang of men. Killing is all they do. But since Eli Roth is playing one of the men doing the killing, there has to be an element which will fit nicely within Roth’s Hostel films.

Chapter Three: German night in Paris

This chapter is dedicated entirely to the cinephile. Talk of German directors and even the propaganda cinema that existed under the Nazis. And a brief lesson to spoon feed audiences about nitrate film.

Chapter Four: Operation Kino

Mike Myers makes a brief appearance and delivers his few dialogues with the same dramatic pause that Austin Powers would. And a film critic character is introduced. Hmm.

Tavern in Nadine. Laughter. Das Boot filled with beer. All merry. But the accent throws things off. The film critic comes to the rescue but the lying can’t go on for too long. Gunshots. Rat-a-tat.

Chapter Five:

Lady in Red. Cue music. Revenge. Burn. Bullets.

Before fade to black: "I think this just might be my masterpiece".

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Majority of the critics and Tarantino’s fans will probably nod their heads in agreement at those words. For the few critics who disagree, well Tarantino lets us know what fate he would like a film critic to get as per the example in his movie. And if there are audience members who don’t agree with Tarantino’s gospel, the fans boys will take care of them, as I found out when I dared to suggest that Tarantino should have edited Kill Bill 2 a bit more. The angry abuse I got suggested his fans believe that every scene he shoots is the greatest and all the dialogue in his film drips with intelligence. There is no doubt that Tarantino can write great snappy dialogue and he knows how to shoot a scene, but that does not mean that every scene should be present in his movie especially if it does not contribute to the overall structure of the film. Why are writers, be it short story, novel or screenplay, asked to re-write and edit repeatedly? Because abstract or intelligent ideas may be great on their own but sometimes they don’t contribute anything to the overall work. If every director was allowed to have all their favourite scenes in a film, then each film would be longer than 3 hours. But Tarantino is allowed a greater degree of self-indulgence than other film-makers. The harsh opening lines of this review for The Fall by Ed Gonzalez come to mind as an example. Gonzalez blasted Tarsem for being self-indulgent. Yet whatever Tarsem did fit within the framework of his film’s structure but his usage of exotic locales & props were slammed for being selfish. Tarantino does not do locales but uses his dialogue as a canvas for his inner ideas. Gonzalez does not have such harsh words for Basterds but his opening line from The Fall's review could easily apply here as there are plenty of self-indulgent scenes in Basterds (and in all Tarantino movies for that matter) which don’t fit within the film's framework.

The overall framework of Basterds is a beautiful French language film garnished with a bit of German and Italian. Tarantino should get a lot of credit for keeping his film mostly non-english as that gives it a wonderful atmosphere. And his overindulgent dialogues are toned down a bit thanks to Christoph Waltz, who does a brilliant job in expressing Tarantino’s words and is a delight to watch. Unfortunately at times the French film is almost squeezed over by a Kill Bill style movie complete with dramatic soundtrack, bold yellow titles, colorful background introduction of some characters and quick cuts to spoon feed audiences or to add humour. Brad Pitt is fun to watch but I wish there was a way to have Pitt’s character included within the framework of the French film and not be pushed aside along with Eli Roth in an almost separate segment, even if that segment is not longer than 30 minutes. The counter argument is that if this second style movie didn’t exist, then Basterds would have had trouble in getting marketed to North American audiences; the weaker english language film is probably needed to support the superior French language film otherwise the overall movie might have ended up in art house theaters and not in multiplexes.

Rating: 7.5/10

Even though Kill Bill, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds are original movies, they are works which are completely aware of other film genres and movies. Part of the joy in watching these films is to see how they build up on past films and incorporate newer elements while remaining completely unique and fresh. It wouldn’t surprize me if Tarantino will put his unique imprint on another genre next. But I am waiting to see if Tarantino will go back and make a unique genre free film again, a film free of the past.

Public Enemies

A Michael Mann film is always an event to look forward to but I was more keen to see how the Sony F23 HD camera would be used to depict a 1930’s gangster film, a genre that does not offer too much in the way of story variance. The story of Public Enemies is mostly atypical of the genre -- gangsters rob banks and split the loot to spend the cash on women and drinks while the cops hire their best to hunt the outlaws down. A love interest and strong opposing characters complete the story. But still, within a confined template there are plenty of moments where time stops and one can enjoy the scene for what it is. There is one amazing scene where the wanted criminal John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) audaciously walks into the police station department that is planning his arrest. The bright sunlight shines on his face which bears a confident smirk and he causally lowers his sunglasses to examine the evidence gathered against him and even has a word with a few policemen who are listening to the baseball game on the radio. The natural sunlight and pacing of the scene may be at odds with the rest of the film’s dark look but this scene highlights Dillinger’s confident personality and need for fame, be it from the police or even the media, as some other scenes attest with close-up of his eyes.

Overall, Mann’s style and usage of the camera prevents the film from being another run of the mill Hollywood gangster flick. There are some moments where the film is alive as the rich images flood the screen (example: in some scenes, the gunfire literally sets the screen on fire). The close-ups combined with the speed of the camera give a documentary feel and one forgets that Public Enemies is a 1933 period film.

In previous Mann films such as Miami Vice, Collateral and The Insider, there were plenty of ‘cool’ scenes with either a bluish or greenish tint. In Public Enemies there isn’t any such bluish tinting but instead natural sunlight or minimal lighting is used to light up most scenes. The police station scene would qualify as the patent Mann cool scene in Public Enemies. Plus, Diana Krall’s beautiful voice lends a jazzy touch to the film.

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Next up: I am curious to see how the Red Digital Camera’s usage would make District 9 different from other alien films.

Solving problems, one bomb at a time

The Hurt Locker (2008, USA, Kathryn Bigelow): 9.5/10

Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker isn’t a war movie even though it is set in a war zone. It is a film about problem solving, with the problems being either diffusing bombs or taking out enemy snipers. In fact, the best moments of the film are when the soldiers are shown in the middle of their problem solving exercises which require zen like concentration. The soldiers don’t have any time for pondering about the meaning of life or questioning the war’s motives or even to pause and stare at death head on; the dangerous situations require them to tune everything else out and only focus on the ticking bomb or enemy in the line of sight.

One of the film's best sequences takes place during a long and patiently shot sniper scene in the desert. The sequence shows how even a soldier’s breathing or heart beat could make him miss a long range target. Plus, the camera angles brilliantly show the scene from the sniper’s perspective and at no point does the camera switch over to a close up of the target. This technique allows one to get a sense of the difficulty in adjusting for the depth and range of the target and the concentration required. Normally, other films handle similar sniper scenes by first showing the good guys aiming for the enemy and then immediately having the next shot show a close up of the enemy being shot. As a result, one never gets a sense of the target’s range.

The Hurt Locker does incorporate other aspects of the soldier’s lives complete with macho games and punk rock music, things one has come to expect from films set in war zones. Thankfully the film does not waste too much time on the soldier’s drinking and whoring aspects which are supposed to take the edge off from the death defying tasks at hand. Not every thread is tied up in The Hurt Locker and that allows one to get a sense of the confusion and hazy information that the soldiers have to deal with, especially when the soldiers can’t speak the local language. There are some clues which allow the audience to identify some of the men who are observing and planning further bombings but overall, the film is not concerned with a typical Hollywood style happy ending where the enemy is rounded up at the end.

Easily one of the best films of the year and if this film is not nominated for a best feature in the 10 available slots at next year’s Academy awards, then there is something seriously wrong. I really doubt there are 10 better American movies than The Hurt Locker which are yet to be released in the next 4-5 months.

fade to white...and then pitch dark....

It was almost ten years ago that I first heard about Jose Saramago’s book Blindness. By then, I had read his The History of the Siege of Lisbon. Even though the core concept of ..Siege of Lisbon was interesting (how adding a single word in a novel could alter the historic meaning), I was baffled by Saramago’s writing style which consisted of sentences spanning multiple pages and not separated by any periods. Plus there were no quotes for a conversation between characters as their words were separated by commas. This meant that I could not stop at just any place in the middle of my reading and had to continue on for another 50 pages or so before a natural stoppage appeared. In a way, this style is good because it ensures that the reader is fully engaged and forced to read each word slowly lest they lose track of things. But on the other hand, this style does make for an exhausting read. Shortly after I finished reading the book, Saramago won the Nobel Prize in Literature and his other books gained popularity. And Blindness was a title that popped up quite a bit in conversations with friends. It turned out that the book’s popularity spread in an infectious manner, just like the blindness disease in the book, and most people around me swore of the book’s greatness and urged me to read it. Unfortunately, since I was exhausted after reading The History of the Siege of Lisbon I was not in any mood to tackle another book written with endless sentences.

And that was that. Then three years earlier, I found Blindness in a book sale and decided to finally buy it. Unfortunately after repeated tries, I couldn’t make it past page 150. I had hoped to finish the book before Fernando Meirelles’ film version was released but I gave up and decided to watch the film instead. Oddly, the first 30 minutes of the film were quite painful to view as having known the story, there was no mystery and everything appeared quite superficial and poorly done. The film did eventually become interesting when the dark savage human nature was exposed. Still, I was left with mixed feelings regarding the film. Reading the book, one can conjure up their own visual path while objectively following the character's plight. But the problem with the film adaptation is Fernando Meirelles’ attempts to impose a visual style (example: having multiple shots of the blurred white vision the characters have) thereby wanting the audiences to experience the characters disorientation. As a result, the film is caught between a visual style which does not integrate well with the depiction of the characters. I felt the strongest aspect of the film is near the end when the visual style is temporarily suspended and we observe the savage humans at work. We observe how morality can be easily dropped within a mob when individuals either find comfort & a safe haven in their group or get a fake sense of power when encouraged by a thug. In a way, the latter part of the film makes for a character study to observe humans at their worst akin to Philip George Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment documented in his book The Lucifer Effect. But even if the visual style of Blindness was dropped in the editing room and the film became a pure character study, it would still pale in comparison to the intense German film The Experiment. While The Experiment is based on Mario Giordano’s book, it is loosely inspired by the Stanford prison experiment and shows how humans either conform or rebel against roles they are thrown in.

Saramago does not explain the blindness disease in the book because he is more interested in studying the human condition. In that regard the blindness is a hook to get people isolated together so that Saramago can conduct his Stanford prison like experiment. Although, Saramago’s experiment is not a study of pure blindness as the characters contain a woman who can see and a man who was born blind thereby making him more aware of situations around him. Not having finished the book, I can’t comment on how rich his story is but besides the visual style, there is nothing original in the film – the characters act as one would expect them to given the situations. There are some who take a power role and demand things from others while some easily become the victims. Then there are the rebels who want to fight. Sure one can say aspects of the story hold up a mirror to our society when some rules are taken away. But these aspects could be studied in other ways and not by infecting characters with a mysterious blindness.

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It was by pure coincidence that after I finished watching Blindness I saw Errol Morris’ documentary Standard Operating Procedure. Morris’ film looks at the incidents of abuse that took place at Abu Ghraib and is a real life horrific case study in the manner of the Stanford prison experiment. In fact, Philip George Zimbardo talks about Abu Ghraib in his book The Lucifer Effect because he was asked to testify in the courts regarding one of the soldiers involved in those sick acts.

Standard Operating Procedure is a visually sharp film that allows the audience to make up their own minds regarding the incidents. Morris ensures his camera lingers on the soldier’s faces a bit longer than usual and lets them naturally open up. There are plenty of instances where Morris shifts his camera’s position (either to the left or right) as the soldiers talk thereby ensuring we take the soldiers words with a grain of salt – did the soldiers act on their own? Or were they just following orders?

The outcry from the prison pictures ensured that the soldiers who were seen doing things in the pictures were the only ones accused. But Morris shows that there were other personnel standing outside the frame who were also guilty but were spared. And no one seems to be talking about the setup of the prison and the interrogation procedures as they contributed to the abuse. This is where Philip George Zimbardo's work is important as he talks about the environmental conditions that play a factor in tranforming people from good to evil behaviour. But people don't want to listen to that either. They just want to get rid of the "bad apples" so that they can get on with their happy lives. Blindness & The Lucifer Effect do show how most people can become those "bad apples" given the circumstances but our current society is more interested in blaming individuals rather than studying the overall situations that cause individuals to act in certain ways.

Blindness and Standard Operating Procedure do make a dark double bill of sorts – they depict humanity at its worst and the combined crimes from both films range from rape, sexual abuse to murder. In Blindness everyday people mutate into villains while in Standard Operating Procedure it is the military that resorts to evil.

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Ratings out of 10

Blindness: 6.5

Standard Operating Procedure: 9

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On another note: the events in Abu Ghraib are predicted in Jon Ronson’s hilarious yet dark book Men who Stare at Goats, a soon to be made film. In Men who Stare at Goats we learn about some of the techniques used to disorient Iraqi prisoners so that they would talk. In one case, the prisoners were trapped in dark shipping containers with strobe lights keeping them awake along with loud blaring music of the Barney song (yes the purple dinosaur) repeatedly played. What kind of demented torture technique is this? But this is just a minor torture technique as opposed to the other truly sick ones that have been going on for decades yet the public is blissfully unaware. So when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out, people just wanted closure by punishing those in the pictures as opposed to questioning the entire setup that has encouraged such acts for decades.

Beauty in simplicity

Wendy and Lucy (2008, USA, Kelly Reichardt): 10/10

Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy has certainly gotten a lot of critical acclaim since last year, including being named as the top film of 2008 in Film Comment's end of the year list. But despite all the attention, it wasn't until this past weekend that the film finally opened in my neck of the woods. And I am glad to have seen it finally. Wendy and Lucy is certainly a beautiful film, a film that contains much depth hiding behind the simple appearance.

The film only has a running time of 80 minutes but there isn't a single wasted minute. It is a perfectly crafted film. A rare thing in fact. The film follows the journey of Wendy (Michelle Williams) and her dog Lucy as they travel across the US to make their way up to Alaska. Gradually in the film we learn that the purpose of Wendy's journey in her beat up car is to look for work in Alaska, a place that is willing to hire people without an address or even a phone. This matter of fact revelation does tell quite a bit about the state of the American economy and how things have become. There are plenty of towns that are wasting away and while Reichardt beautifully keeps the focus only on Wendy, one can sense the collapse lurking around the corner.

Wendy and Lucy is another example of a film that shows how a skillful film-maker can create a beautiful work without diluting the screen with needless words. Much of commercial cinema in America is packed with over-smart non-stop dialogues which go on and on, but in reality do nothing to add to the story -- they are just meaningless words polluting the screen. So compared to that Wendy and Lucy is a breath of fresh air, something to be cherished.

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A few weeks ago, A.O. Scott had a very interesting article about the state of the new American cinema. These are some of his comments regarding Wendy and Lucy:

There was some talk of an Oscar nomination for Williams, who was so believably ordinary in her look and so rigorously un-actressy in her manner that you could easily forget her celebrity. But “Wendy and Lucy,” released by Oscilloscope Laboratories, a small and ambitious new distributor started by Adam Yauch, a member of the Beastie Boys, would have looked a little awkward alongside the other Academy Award nominees. It’s true that the big winner, “Slumdog Millionaire,” concerns itself with poverty and disenfranchisement, but it also celebrates, both in its story and in its exuberant, sentimental spirit, the magical power of popular culture to conquer misery, to make dreams come true. And the major function of Oscar night is to affirm that gauzy, enchanting notion.

The world of “Wendy and Lucy” offers little in the way of enchantment but rather a different, more austere kind of beauty..........


I can't imagine that a film like Wendy and Lucy would ever win an Oscar for best film of the year, even though it is by far the best American film made in 2008. This does highlight that the award shows are nothing but attention hogging spots for the big studios and their executive’s egos. Sure every now and then, some independent film is allowed in but for the most part, it is an exclusive party for the studio films. And then there is the pattern that after an independent film maker gets a break, he/she is invited to be part of the studio machinery. Steven Soderbergh is such an example. He got his break when Sex, Lies and Videotapes made it big. But shortly after, he was sucked into the studio machinery. Thankfully he is still making good movies and Che (especially part two) is certainly a vintage film but he is far away from those initial independent days.

note: I thought of Sex, Lies and Videotapes while watching Wendy and Lucy as the leads in both films live in their cars and have no fixed address -- a free independent spirit.

There are too many tags around films – studio-backed, independent, foreign, avant-garde, etc. And somehow these tags alienate and differentiate films. Good cinema should be celebrated, regardless of how much money it cost to make or where it came from or its style. But I am drifting into a much longer rant about the messed up nature of film distribution. I will end however with some more relevant words from A.O Scott's article:
WHAT KIND OF MOVIES do we need now? It’s a question that seems to arise almost automatically in times of crisis...In recession, as in war — and also, conveniently, in times of peace or prosperity — the movies we evidently need are the ones that offer us the possibility, however fanciful or temporary, of escape.

Maybe so. But what if, at least some of the time, we feel an urge to escape from escapism?


It seems that escapism cinema will never go out of fashion. Both Hollywood and Bollywood have done such a wonderful job in dumbing down the expectations of audiences for decades that it doesn't matter what the current economic situation is, escapist films will always be in demand. Recently, box office numbers are up for Hollywood flicks and studios are putting that down to more people heading to cinemas as they can't afford to go on vacations or go to concerts. So that might mean more excuses to produce brain dead films while continuing to shut out quality works.

Revisiting Syriana

Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale thinks he's gonna run this up the flagpole? Make a name for himself? Maybe get elected some two-bit congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here? No, I tell you. No, sir! Corruption charges! Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.
-- Danny Dalton, Syriana

I loved Syriana when I saw it in 2005 but was also quite angry at the state of the world portrayed by the film. My anger was reflected in my blog posting about the film:

Tell me something I don’t know! Seriously tell me something I don’t know. For the record, I don’t live in a world where my news comes from only one tv channel. I am lucky enough to live in a world where there are books which are not only interesting but intelligent. I also live in a world where there exists art which is not only meant for entertainment. And speaking of entertainment, what about movies? What the hell is the point of a movie? What purpose does a movie like Syriana serve? If one likes this movie, then it does not matter. If one hates this movie, it does not matter either. It does not matter if one sees this movie or not. This movie will not change a thing in the real world. In the real world, lies are openly told. People believe it because they don’t have a choice. Governments lie, corporations lie, so what? We have been told to shut up and turn a blind eye. And then come movies like these. People will call this the truth and people will call this propaganda but in the end, it won’t change a thing. At the end of the day, the only thing the average man can do is to watch movies which affirm their beliefs about the lies that they already know. Because you see the average person needs to drive a car everyday, the average person needs a bus or an airplane or other transportation which relies on energy. Energy which is generated by OIL! Yup bloody OIL! Black oil, money oozing oil! Oil! People are killed, governments are toppled, money changes hands, a few men get together and smoke some cigars, some drink and some get fat (and the fat is not only because of money), jobs are lost, jobs are gained, ships move, cars are blown up, technology fails and movies are made. Syriana has the look and feel of Traffic because Gaghan was the screenwriter of the 2000 award winning film. Syriana is more complicated than Traffic and it does not explain everything. Is it hard to follow? Not really. The movie jumps from location to location but it has no choice because the movie tries to cover all the essential angles – covert operations, corporation take-overs, corruption, rich rulers, good noble rulers who are trying to make a difference, the unemployed worker, the corruptor, the family man, etc. Everything is presented. There is no start and no end. We get a slice of the happenings in the crazy OIL world. We also get some very realistic portrayals of life in the lower rungs of the oil crazy world. Finally a movie which accurately shows the daily life of foreign workers in the compounds!

Syriana forms an interesting trilogy of movies in 2005 with The Constant Gardener and Lord of War being the other. Put all these movies together and some very hard facts come out in the open. But like I said earlier, it won’t change a thing! One of my favourite movies of the year!!! Yet I can’t give it a perfect rating. Why? Because I wanted more angles to be covered, I wanted more lies to be shown.

Watching Syriana again almost 3.5 years again is a sobering experience. In 2005 I only picked up on the oil policies and the spy games shown in the film. But the following quote can indeed point to other areas of the market where things went wrong:

Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection.

Now the entire world knows which people got away with what over the last few years. And this time, it wasn't only the oil men. It was other wall street corporations, men in suits, who got rich when no one was looking.

Syriana was certainly relevant back in 2005 and amazingly the film is even more relevant now because the film brilliantly shows how financial manipulation was/is tied with covert operations and regime changes. We truly do live in a world that gets worse every day because of past actions and manipulations yet we only judge the villains based on their present reactions.

Syriana does make a worthy double bill with Body of Lies. In fact, Body of Lies does borrow some scenes (the target strike) from Syriana. At the end of the day, movies like Syriana offer people a chance to look at the ugly world that exists and in that sense, the film does not offer any form of escapism like most commercial movies.

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Plenty of useful quotes from the film:

When a country has five percent of the world's population but spends fifty percent of the world's military spending, that country's persuasive power is in decline. -- Prince Nasir Al-Subaai

Bob Barnes: Intelligence work isn't training seminars and gold stars for attendance.
Fred Franks: What do you think intelligence work is Bob?
Bob Barnes: I think it's two people in a room and one of them's asking a favor that is a capital crime in every country on earth, a hanging crime.
Fred Franks: No Bob, it's assessing the information gathered from that favor and then balancing it against all the other information gathered from all the other favors.

Spy games

What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?
-- Alec Leamas, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The description of a spy above is in complete contrast to the one created by Ian Fleming and the subsequent James Bond films. Even though Martin Ritt’s adaptation of John le Carré’s novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold came out in 1965, we still have not had a cinematic spy like Alec Leamas (Richard Burton). Leamas plays a lonely miserable spy struggling for money, who gets drunk frequently, and is not afraid to throw a punch or two. Credit for such a character has to go to John le Carré who was still a “spook” himself when the movie came out and one can see the brutal honesty involved in how the spy game is truly played. But then again, the British know a thing or two about spying since they spent centuries perfecting the art. The following dialogues spoken by Leamas’ boss Control (Cyril Cusack) show the false morality involved in the spying game and the mess such self-righteousness causes:

Our work, as I understand it.. is based on a single assumption that the West is never going to be the aggressor. Thus..we do disagreeable things..but we’re defensive. Our policies are peaceful..but our methods can’t afford to be less ruthless than those of the opposition.

You know, I’d say, uh..since the war, our methods - our techniques, that is - and those of the Communists, have become very much the same. Yes. I mean, occasionally...we have to do wicked things. Very wicked things indeed. But, uh, you can’t be less wicked..than your enemies simply because your government’s policy is benevolent.

Shockingly the above words could easily apply today as they did four decades ago.

Technology as a spy tool...or not

Martin Ritt’s film shows how local personnel are critical to the gathering of information and form the most important currency to assist spies. But in the last few decades, technology has given the ability to listen in on others conversations and follow someone’s movements. And this technology gives the false ability that one can understand the enemy. Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies shows that spy technology is useless when the enemy chooses to live off the grid and does not exchange messages via cell phones or the internet but rather meets face to face to discuss plans. In a way both The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Body of Lies show that if one needs to get information from others, then they need to gain their trust. Body of Lies contrasts this style of trust by showing how Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) opts to foster a healthy relationship by trusting the local people while his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) prefers to push people aside whenever he feels like it and is constantly looking to use people.

Another common element in both films is how the bank is used by both Leamas and Ferris to lead the enemy to suspect one of their own -- in The Spy Who Came from in the Cold a letter to the bank causes the damage while in Body of Lies it is an email that causes an innocent person to be blamed.

The Spy Who Came from in the Cold is a brilliant film that focuses more on the interaction with the characters while Body of Lies is a fascinating travelogue through the middle east depicting the complexity of the problems that lie there. As much as I enjoyed watching it, Body of Lies feels like a missed opportunity and could have been much better had it employed the framework of Syriana and Traffic. The explosions and Hollywood machismo does get in the way but thankfully Leonardo DiCaprio shines in a role akin to the brilliance he brought to Blood Diamond.

Smile..for that camera

London probably has the most CCTV cameras than any other city in the world and it is hard to escape the watchful eye of the cameras. The British TV series MI-5 shows some of the people that do their spying remotely while gathering feeds from these cameras. While the show is currently in the 7th season, I caught up with Season One which consists of 6 one hour episodes. The first episode is the weakest as it features a topic of pro-life activists. But thankfully the show started to take more risks as Season One progressed and the 6th episode depicts the complicated decisions involved in balancing the threat from two different enemies (Islamists and the IRA).

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Ratings out of 10

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965, UK, Martin Ritt): 10
Body of Lies (2008, USA, Ridley Scott): 8.5
MI-5, Season One (2002, UK, various): 7.5

A global mess requires an international film..

One would think that the arrival of film where the villain is a bank would make for great timing. Surely the film would benefit from the public’s resentment? Right? Apparently not. The International made about $10 million in the opening weekend despite opening in more than 2,000 screens. On the other hand, the 100th edition of Jason’s slasher adventures (dice, cut, scream, blood) made 4 times as much (yes it did open in 1000 more screens). The metacritic rating for The International is only 52/100, so clearly the critics were not impressed. So their bad reviews must surely have made a difference as it turns out that on the particular time I chose to see the film I was the only person inside a giant multiplex theater. Imagine that, a giant screen, stadium seating and I was the only person there. Surely that indicated that the film was awful, right? NO.

Tom Tykwer’s The International is an entertaining film that has a gripping action sequence (the bullet ridden shoot-out) and moves at a nice pace ensuring that the audience gets a good look at each locale (no fast cuts or frantic camera moments). Plus it has a very believable story regarding the evils of a big bank. Sure there are some flaws but the same problems plague most Hollywood films. Interestingly, most critics ignored such flaws when it game to The Dark Knight. Anyway, here are some interesting points the film brings up:

Cut out the middle man

When governments engage in stirring a revolution in another country they need massive funding for weapons and training. In democratic countries this means getting funding approved via some cryptic hidden causes because the general public can’t know that their tax money is being used to kill innocent citizens in another country. And when the funding is approved, the banks get to work moving the money around. All this process does take some time. So what if the banks decided to ignore the governments and start moving their own funds to stir up civil violence in nations? And when the civil war is over and the bank’s chosen government comes into power, guess which bank they will turn to get mega loans for rebuilding their nation?

There is a great line in the film which indicates that the goal of banks is to control the debt. So if a bank can know where to cause a war and where to stop one, then it would control that nation's debt. Hmmm...

Follow the weapons..

While following the money is important, in this day and age it is also important to follow the flow of weapons. There are only a handful of nations that manufacture weapons yet their weapons are freely available in most African and Asian nations. How? Why? If ones understands who moves the weapons and how then one understands the true villains of a conflict. But why is there no attention placed on the weapon flow? Because that would implicate the good nations who don’t want to get their hands dirty.

Don’t trust the man with the clean suit

Clive Owen’s Louis Salinger character constantly wears crushed suits. That is because he has no time to get his suit cleaned up as he is constantly in pursuit of his enemies. Most of the time he is unshaven and wears his anger on his face. On the other hand, the bankers and lawyers he meets are perfectly dressed -- clean shaven and wearing perfectly cut suits. These bankers and their lawyers do have a lot of money, blood money as it turns out, to ensure their looks and respectable appearance helps them trap more clients. There is an Italian politician in the film who is honest yet well dressed so obviously he can’t last long because the film ensures that the only well dressed men are the evil ones.

Look, look a bit longer and now action..

The film travels through multiple cities such as Berlin, Lyon, Milan, New York and Istanbul. And in each city the film ensures we get a good nice look at each specific location. There is a moment when the camera descends from the sky to give us a perfect view of Istanbul’s beauty. But unlike most movies the camera does not quickly cut away and it hovers a few extra seconds to ensure we can make out the people walking on the bridge and the cars driving about. A simple point but this aspect allows us to soak up the atmosphere and know the surroundings where the next moments of action will take place.

Note: The opening sky shot of Istanbul reminded me of Heaven and that is not surprizing as both both Tykwer and DOP Frank Griebe worked on that film as well.

Point A to B, Action, Point C to Point D, Action...

As soon as the film’s angry hero Salinger arrives at a location, the action takes place. On one hand it appears that each location is existing in a state of suspended animation and only when Salinger arrives do things move along. But there is a reason for this. There is a strict deadline that the bank works on in trying to eliminate all the people who can implicate them. At the film’s start when a innocent person is on the trail towards the bank’s evils, he is eliminated. The bank then eliminates the other person who could expose them within 9 hours. When Salinger goes on the move, he hits the road on the trail of an assassin. Since the assassin travels multiple cities via commercial flights (no private jets as the bank is probably cutting back) there are only a few fixed time slots on which he would appear in a city. So all Salinger has to do is follow him and as a result, he tags along all the film’s action sequences. Is that script cheating? I have seen this complaint in a few reviews so clearly people who don’t like the film use this. But no such excuse was used for The Dark Knight when the film moved from one action sequence to another.

Comments:

Overall, I enjoyed The International. But I might be just one of the few who not only bothered to see the film but actually relished spending time in an empty multiplex for this.

Rating: a subjective 9/10