A trio of Sean Baker films

Notes on a trio of Sean Baker’s films:

Take Out (2004, co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou)
Starlet (2012)
Red Rocket (2021)

As I await Sean Baker’s Anora, the Cannes 2024 Palme d’Or winner, I realized I had no notes on his earlier films that I had seen as Tangerine, The Florida Project and missed seeing a few of his other films. As a means of correction, here are notes on 3 films I had not seen previously.

Slice of American life

One aspect of Sean Baker’s cinema is his ability to show a slice of American life that commercial Hollywood studio ignores. He sheds light on those people / stories not covered by mainstream cinema and does so in a natural realistic manner. That doesn’t mean his films are devoid of drama but instead his film shows reality without any of the dressed up glamour that Hollywood indulges in. In addition, his films feature characters directly or indirectly involved in the adult film industry or associated with them. Take Out is an exception to that.

Food and Delivery

Take Out came out a year before Ramin Bahrani’s Man Push Cart (2005) was released and both films shed light on different aspects of American food delivery in New York. While Man Push Cart highlights the one-man food cart, Take Out focuses its attention on door-to-door food delivery. The main character in the film, Ming Ding (Charles Jang), waits for the restaurant food to be made and immediately get on his bicycle to deliver that food, no matter the weather. Take Out is shown with a high degree of realism and approaches aspects of Cinéma vérité documentary style.

Take Out, co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou, stands apart from the remaining Sean Baker films in not having any association with adult film industry/sex workers as his later films would. The film does contain Baker’s now expected signature in trying to humanize his characters and inviting audience a glimpse into the everyday harsh realities of people doing whatever it takes to make a living.

The Mikey connection

Starlet and Red Rocket are two different films but they are connected by the character Mikey even though the character is played by two different actors in each film and it is never truly spelled out that Red Rocket is the next chapter in Mikey’s life. As Red Rocket describes, the term Mikey is slang for “suitcase pimp” which captures the essence of both Mikey’s in the two films, the character played by James Ransone in Starlet and that by Simon Rex in Red Rocket. A few dialogues by Mikey in Red Rocket (such as installation of pole in living room) seem to indicate that he may be the same person who lived in LA in Starlet and has now left to move back to Texas City in Red Rocket. In Starlet, Mikey’s character is on the fringes even though he is indirectly pulling the strings which impact the lives of the two female characters Jane (Dree Hemingway), Melissa (Stella Maeve) who share an apartment with him. Starlet is Jane’s film about an unexpected friendship with Sadie (Besedka Johnson) while Mikey is in almost every frame of Red Rocket. Even though Red Rocket is about Mikey, the film shows the toxic and damaging impact he has on the female characters around him including his wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and 17 year old Raylee (Suzanna Son).

Red Rocket's Mikey is a dangerous male who is the perfect description of a slime ball and whose predatory behaviour can wreck the lives of anyone in his path. The film shows how he impacted Lexi via the adult industry but Mikey never thinks about anyone else. He is only thinking of himself and his next pay check and that is why he tries to groom Raylee into being an adult movie star.

Other directors would have treated Mikey’s character (Red Rocket) in a different light and would have focused on his villainy right up front. However, Sean Baker’s style allows him to present situations and characters as naturally as possible. This way, audience can watch the characters go about their lives, their daily hustles, and then can form their own conclusions via the actions of the characters.

The Films of Joanna Hogg

Notes on the Six Feature Films directed by Joanna Hogg:

Unrelated (2007)
Archipelago (2010)
Exhibition (2013)
The Souvenir (2019)
The Souvenir: Part II (2021)
The Eternal Daughter (2022)

While viewing Joanna Hogg’s recent film The Eternal Daughter, I noticed that I had never written about any of her films on this blog. This felt like a glaring omission especially since I owned DVDs of her first 3 features Unrelated, Archipelago and Exhibition and saw her films in order of their release. Here finally are some thoughts/notes as a means of correction.

Messy / Strained Relationships

All six of Joanna Hogg’s films depict complicated dynamics of a relationship with brutal honesty. That means, her films don’t shy away from fights, loud arguments between couples and family members that spill out for others to witness. Family tensions are depicted in Unrelated (father-son), Archipelago (mother-sister vs brother), The Eternal Daughter (mother-daughter) while relationships are under a very close microscope in Exhibition (a marriage on the verge of collapse), The Souvenir (toxic male). In majority of these films, the arguments and shouting leave the confines of a bedroom or a dining room but they never leave the space of a villa, house or hotel. That means, her films only examine the impact and fallout of a relationship to those within a closed inner circle and don’t extend to the larger society as a whole.

Joanna Hogg also examines British class differences in the inner circle of these families and their friends. Archipelago stands out in this regard in how a brother and sister differ in their treatment of a hired cook. Edward (Tom Hiddleston) would like to invite their cook Rose (Amy Lloyd) to sit with them at the dinner table but his sister Cynthia (Lydia Leonard) and mother think that is unreasonable. Cynthia even gets upset at Edward’s chats with Rose. Majority of the characters in Hogg's films are financially well off and their elitist behaviour is highlighted in how the characters treat others around them.

Artistic Voice / Challenges

The Souvenir and its sequel, The Souvenir: Part II illustrate the difficulty in making a film starting from the funding process. The films, especially the sequel, highlight the impact a director’s decisions or indecisions can have on the rest of the crew. There are many real life stories about directors shooting a film without a script and such efforts are often lauded as a major achievement but the reality is that there is often a cost impact of wasted film shots or not having a bound script. The Souvenir: Part II shows the frustrations of the cinematographer and rest of the crew in not having clear instructions on where the camera must be placed.

Exhibition examines the creative challenges that contemporary artists have and depicts the equivalent of a writer’s block on an artist (art block). The challenges in expressing one’s vision and having others understand it ties this film to that of the two Souvenir films.

3 year Timeline

There was an equal 3 year gap between the release of her first 3 features: Unrelated,  Archipelago and Exhibition. Then Hogg didn’t release a film for a 6 year gap but the remaining three films were all released within a span of 3 years. This quick release of 3 films in 3 years means that overall, she has maintained a consistent output over the 6 features.

Other Notes

The two Souvenir films have gotten plenty of critical acclaim but Unrelated remains my favourite Joanna Hogg film. Even though it is her debut film, Unrelated is a breath of fresh air compared to how characters are depicted in other British films. Joanna Hogg’s contemplative style allows audience to infer their own sentiments about characters based on snippets of dialogue, body language and how the characters behave. I still recall feeling that Unrelated heralded the arrival of a new director to watch. With just a single feature film to go off, it wasn’t clear what direction her other films would take. Now revisiting Unrelated after having seen all her other features allows me to see how this film fits in with her style. There is a sense of autobiographical element to all her films filtered via focus on relationships and class differences of her characters. We first see this in Unrelated and she expands on this in the subsequent five features.

Tom Hiddleston may be a familiar name now but it is important to note that he made his feature film debut in Hogg’s Unrelated. His second feature film happened to be Joanna Hogg’s second directorial feature Archipelago.

Reference Reading:

Seventh Row on Joanna Hogg.

Hillary Weston Interview on Criterion.

Rachael Rakes on her first 3 features.

The blood soaked cinema of Coralie Fargeat

Reality+ (2014, Short film 22 min)
Revenge (2017)
The Substance (2024)

Analyzing a director’s style just via 3 films can feel dicey especially if one of those 3 films is a short film as sometimes directors need a few films to find their voice. However, in the case of Coralie Fargeat her stylistic voice booms loud and clear from just this small sample set. Her newest film The Substance clearly builds on visual and thematic elements she had in her 2014 short film Reality+ and her previous feature Revenge. In fact, if one only sees the final few minutes of The Substance after seeing Revenge, it would be clear that this was a Coralie Fargeat feature. Her signature is there for all to see.

A better version of yourself but for a limited time

The core question at the center of The Substance is “Have you ever Dreamt of a better of yourself?”.

Fargeat first explored this idea in Reality+ where characters can overlay their physical appearance with a desired Avatar of their choosing after they undergo a procedure. There is a time-limit to their physical appearance (12 hours) after they which they return to their regular self and they cannot transform into their Avatar again until a certain waiting period has lapsed. The Substance also has a time limit for the new and improved version of oneself but it is for alternating 7 day intervals. Meaning, the self and other-self live their lives in alternating weeks.

Other than the time-limit, there is another difference between how Reality+ and The Substance approach the self vs other-self. In Reality+, the new-self is only a physical appearance superimposed on the original self so in essence both are the same shared mind, conscious. Whereas, the body separation in The Substance creates two physical entities that become two competing egos/personalities sharing the same core fluids. This difference leads to the tug of war in The Substance where the balance is disrupted.

There will be Blood, lots of it

Revenge is a blood soaked film where Jen’s character (Matilda Lutz) seeks vengeance for her rape and attempted killing. At the start of the film, Jen and Richard (Kevin Janssens) fly to a harsh desert landscape where Richard is planning a hunting trip with his buddies Stan (Vincent Colombe) and Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède). Before his buddies arrive, Richard is using the time for a romantic getaway with Jen leaving his wife and family back at home. When Richard goes away for a few hours to arrange paperwork for the hunting trip, Stan rapes Jen. Richard tries to play this violent act down but Jen wants to leave for home immediately. Richard tries to reassure her but instead attempts to kill Jen and thinks he has succeeded. As the saying goes “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”. Jen survives, grows in strength and goes on a bloody violent hunt to eliminate the 3 men.

Despite the oodles of blood sprayed across the screen, Revenge has a music video visual aesthetic where yellow and red palettes pop with a techno track. At times, the interior shots of the film feels like a N.W Refn film taking place in bright daylight while the exterior desert shots echo Mad Max. However, it is clear that Fargeat has her own unique sensibilities as the camera hones in on tiny details and expands them with close-ups or extended sequences where scenes that would normally be depicted in seconds unfold over minutes. The film is more style than substance (pun not intended).

The Substance starts off as a sci-fi body horror film but it ends up united with Revenge in soaking the screen with blood. The slight difference is timing of the blood. In The Substance, blood spurts wildly on the screen only in the final third whereas blood starts flowing liberally in Revenge near the halfway point of the film. In terms of quantity, the sheer non-stop gushing of blood in The Substance more than overtakes the total blood oozed in Revenge.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

The concept of beauty is prominent in all 3 films and all 3 films feature characters who embody aspects of beauty and are obsessed about with their appearance. Their obsession is emphasized by the usage of mirrors, which are featured prominently in Reality+ and The Substance where the main characters spend plenty of screen time admiring / detesting their physical appearances. In Revenge, the main character Jen doesn’t need to stand in front of a mirror as she is constantly stared at by the three men. The house/villa in the film has plenty of glass windows which give the men plenty of ways to ogle her.

Small World in a Large landscape

Reality+ is set in Paris, The Substance in Los Angeles while Revenge is shot in Morocco but the desert landscape isn’t ever named in the film and could be multiple locations around the world (Mexico is indirectly implied by the beer). Despite the vast landscape of all 3 films, Fargeat's characters go back-forth in between a few locations only. This creates a mini-world for the characters where their entire universe consists of a closed loop allowing them to visit a few familiar spots and coming across only a few people. As a result, the films are stripped of any plot fat and don’t have any unnecessary characters, dialogues or scenarios. However, the thin plot doesn’t translate into a lean running time for the two feature films.

Instead, Revenge (1 hour 48 min) and The Substance (2 hour 21 min) fill their time with eye-popping visual details amped up by loud music and often repeat the same details over and over despite the point being hammered home much earlier. Reality+ is the best of the three films and gets its point across in 22 minutes. The Substance has a wicked trailer but loses steam after repeated sequences before its jaw-dropping squirming final third.

Style over Substance

Reality+ has more substance than style but the opposite is true of the two feature films Revenge and The Substance where the visual style, aesthetic look, mood take precedent over any plot or general themes. There are clear ideas that Coralie Fargeat wants to convey and she is comfortable blending multiple genres to achieve that. Both feature films played at TIFF’s Midnight Madness section (Revenge had its World Premiere in this category at TIFF) which is where one would expect these films although in the case of The Substance, the film managed to get a Cannes Competition slot. That Cannes slot feels in keeping with the film’s core element where the other-self tries to create a life of her own away from original self, so the film tried to carve a life of its own away from a Midnight slot by escaping into the main Competition slot.

Triple Bill of Alexander Mackendrick

The Man in the White Suit (1951)
The Ladykillers (1955)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

I was already a fan of Alexander Mackendrick as evident by the ranking of his two Ealing studio films The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers at #22 and #35 respectively in my Top 60 Comedy films list. I associated Mackendrick with Ealing Studios and the Comedy Genre especially since four of the five films he directed for Ealing Studios were comedies with Mandy (1952) being the exception. All five of his Ealing Studio films: Whiskey Galore! (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), Mandy (1952), The Maggie (1954), The Ladykillers (1955). 

However, a recent viewing of Sweet Smell of Success led me to rethink Mackendrick’s films in a new light. The 1957 American film starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison is dark look at human nature and on the surface is far removed from the comedic framework of Ealing studio films. Even though, The Man in the White Suit and The Ladykillers have a predominant comedic note, they aren’t pure comedies but contain dark notes. The Ladykillers is a dark comedy laced with crime while The Man in the White Suit is draped with shades of tragedy and irony along its sleeves. Sweet Smell of Success heightens the dark and tragic undertones from these two films and mutes any comedic element to a whisper. 

In Sweet Smell of Success, Tony Curtis’ Sidney Falco character is constantly joking, laughing but his character has an air of desperation about him while the entire film has tragedy written all over it. Sidney is a press agent who gets promotion money from owners to promote their club. All he needs is a good review or a mention of the club in a newspaper article from J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster). Sidney would go to any lengths to get on J.J’s good side including trying to fulfill J.J’s request to breakup his sister’s (Susan Hunsecker played by Susan Harrison) romance with a jazz musician. As Sidney tries to do whatever it takes to break up the romance, he starts to cross moral and ethical boundaries from which there is no turning back.

Sweet Smell of Success is a brilliant portrayal of American society at a time when newspaper reviews meant the world for financial survival for restaurants, theatrical plays and even movies. While traditional newspapers have been in decline in recent decades, some of the core elements of the film such as a smearing someone’s reputation, publishing false stories or personal affairs have sadly been amplified in our contemporary social media dominated world. In that sense, Mackendrick’s film and script co-written with Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman is still as relevant today as it was back in 1957.

Sweet Smell of Success belongs to a different genre but it is unified via 2 threads to Mackendrick's two Ealing Studio films. All three films are a keen insightful observation of characters while also provide an overarching commentary on society. The Man in the White Suit highlights the invisible hand or supply-demand forces that make things work. All the clothing textile company owners want the invention of an indestructible and dirt repellent fabric to fail as that would make people buy their clothes less. In The Ladykillers, the bank robbers try to justify their crimes as saying that no one would be hurt by the missing money because it would be a blip for the banks since insurance would cover it all while the robbers can use the money for their families benefit. There is a financial truth to what the robbers say as has become evident with all the banking and insurance frauds that have become much more commonplace since the film was released. Sweet Smell of Success shows a world where favours can open doors for people and the scenarios in the film are aptly described by the phrase “you scratch my back, I scratch yours”. This phrase still makes the world go around and allows careers to flourish and is at the core of our broken political machine.

I was a fan of Alexander Mackendrick before but after seeing Sweet Smell of Success, I am an even bigger fan. He clearly was one of the best directors to have worked in cinema, yet not as widely appreciated as his peers.

A double bill of Jorge Sanjinés

El coraje del pueblo / The Night of San Juan (1971)
Jatun Auka (1974)

I hadn’t come across any of Jorge Sanjinés’ films when exploring Bolivian cinema a decade ago. Now in 2024 when doing a similar search, his name showed up quite a bit. This change in internet searches feels driven by changing political landscape in Bolivia more than just chance or timing. Given the topic of Sanjinés films, it makes sense why it is likely easier to discuss his films openly in the last few years than it was in the early 2000s. As per this article by Carla Suárez, Jorge Sanjinés

“particularly focused on documenting indigenous cultures of the Andes: Aymara and Quechua. Sanjinés, an avid critic of colonialism, initiated his cinematic journey under the guiding principle “el cine junto al pueblo” (“cinema with the people”). He took a revolutionary Marxist approach to documentary filmmaking with the mission of giving a voice to the oppressed people of the Andean nation. In 1966, Sanjinés founded the Ukamau Group alongside screenwriter Oscar Soria, cinematographer Antonio Eguino, producer Beatriz Palacios and filmmaker Alfonso Gumucio. The group was named after the title of their first feature-length film Ukamau (meaning “and so it is” in Aymara).” Carla Suárez, 2021

I would like to speculate that the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia likely ushered a new interest in the cinema of Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Group he co-founded. This is because in 2006 Bolivia finally had a president who came from the country’s indigenous population. Given the topics that Sanjinés explored in his films, it likely was easier to discuss them once the country had someone like Morales at the forefront.

In addition, Sanjinés' films especially such as Jatun Auka showcases the struggle of ordinary people against the wealthy land owners who used the strength of the military to suppress the people. This film also shows the role Americans played in training the Bolivian generals. Such cinema is labeled leftist or Marxist cinema and is rarely talked about in North American film critics sections. Somehow talking about guerrillas, resistance isn’t favoured by mainstream critical publications due to how they are funded. This also could be another reason why the cinema of Sanjinés was missing in the English language discourse I tried to search in the early 2000s.

Ukamau Group and Direct Cinema

Carla Suárez likens the cinema movement of Jorge Sanjinés to that of Neorealist cinema and cinéma direct:

"New Latin American Cinema is a film movement, inspired by Italian Neorealismo and Québec documentary genre cinéma direct, that used cinema as an instrument of social awareness and change." Carla Suárez, 2021

One of the aspects of Direct Cinema is the embedded nature of filmmaking where the filmmaker immerses themselves in the environment:

“For the cinéma direct filmmakers, the point of departure is the filmmaking process in which the filmmaker is deeply implicated as a consciousness, individual or collective. It is this process--this consciousness--which gives form and meaning to an amorphous objective reality. Instead of effacing their presence, the filmmakers affirm it.” David Clandfield’s essay From the Picturesque to the Familiar: Films of the French Unit at the NFB (1958-1964).

In this regard, Jorge Sanjinés’ two films seen as part of this spotlight meet the criteria as he clearly immerses himself in the local/village surroundings to depict events. The slight variation for The Night of San Juan is that the film is a documentary-fictional hybrid where villagers/workers re-enact events of the massacre that happened. Such a reenactment lends a reality to proceedings.

Jatun Auka shows how exploitation of people can lead to revolution which in turn leads to a cyclical nature of violence. The finale in the film shows Bolivian military aided by US troops killing revolutionaries and their bearded leader is also a reminder that it was in Bolivia that Che Guevara was killed.

Latin America has had many examples of filmmakers showcasing the human impact of revolution in their films. Patricio Guzmán is one of the best examples with his The Battle of Chile while from an overarching political exploration, Octavio Getino and Fernando E. Solanas’ The Hour of the Furnances (1968) comes to mind. The cinema of Glauber Rocha also explored such topics. Looking beyond Latin America, Indian director Shyam Benegal’s cinema also has a lineage to Direct Cinema in its depiction of plight of villagers.

References / Reading material:

Carla Suárez, Emergence of Indigenous Cinema in Bolivia: The Ethnographic Gaze of Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Group.

Alonso Aguilar: Foundations of Resistance in Bolivian Cinema.

Direct Cinema covered earlier in this blog.

Shyam Benegal covered in this blog.

Glauber Rocha.

Spotlight on Jessica Hausner

A spotlight on the Six feature films to date of Jessica Hausner.

Lovely Rita (2001)
Hotel (2004)
Lourdes (2009)
Amour Fou (2014)
Little Joe (2019)
Club Zero (2023)

I have to credit Sam Juliano for helping me come across Austrian director Jessica Hausner. In Jan 2011, Sam Juliano placed her film Lourdes as his top film of 2010. I hadn’t heard of that film or seen anything by Jessica Hausner up till that point. I rectified my blindspot and found Lourdes to be a brilliant combination of dry wit, humour and documentary. The film’s open ended presentation of faith and belief made me recall the style of Todd Haynes’ Safe and Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine. I thought of Todd Haynes’ Safe again when viewing Jessica Hausner’s newest film Club Zero (2023) but Club Zero goes off in a different direction. Both Lourdes and Club Zero are fascinating films that contain multiple styles and don't neatly fit in a single category. I felt a proper spotlight was needed to fully appreciate Jessica’s directorial style and see how the other films fit.

Hybrid genre

All of her 6 films tackle a different subject and on first glance appear to have nothing in common with each other. However, one common classifier across all 6 films is that each film is a blend of multiple genres and can’t be easily labeled as a single genre.

Lovely Rita appears to be a straight forward coming-of-age film but there is a shock in store especially if one isn’t aware of the real life incident that inspired the film. Hotel combines elements of horror, folklore in an artistic manner without any of the jump scares or dissonant music that one associates with horror films. The film also has a nod towards David Lynch (Twin Peaks curtain) and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (hallway shots). Amour Fou appears to be a linear period film but the double suicide in the film puts a completely different spin by the time end credits roll. Little Joe combines sci-fi, horror and science in the most unexpected manner. Lourdes and Club Zero use dry wit to examine how faith and belief shapes people.

Of all the six features, Lourdes and Club Zero compliment each other nicely. Both films show how people are impacted by their beliefs: Lourdes shows a positive side in which people’s beliefs can provide them a way of healing and hope for their lives but Club Zero shows a negative side where blind belief can lead to a cult like following where believers are led down a potentially dangerous path. The increase in polarizing behaviour since 2020 and the increase in cult like worshiping certainly makes a film like Club Zero as highly relevant in our contemporary world.

Loose Threads

With the exception of Amour Fou, the remaining films have a degree of vagueness about the ending. The most abstract and open ending is that of Hotel while Lovely Rita, Little Joe give enough clues for viewers to know what will unfold next. Lourdes leaves a lot for the viewer to interpret events while Club Zero narrows down its focus but still leaves it up for the viewer to know what will happen to the students who are led away by their teacher.

Film Style

Jordan Raup’s insightful interview with Jessica Hausner as part of Film at Lincoln Center’s retrospective on her films helps shed light on her style. These words by Jessica standout: “Normally when I start a new film, I have a very simple logline in mind. It’s a short sentence or word that is the starting point.”

These words help explain how each film can grow from a single seedling of an idea. In the interview, Jessica explains the real life incident she read about that formed the genesis of Lovely Rita (spoiler alert) and Amour Fou and provides insights about the other films. She also addresses the abstract ending of Hotel. The interview was published after the release of Little Joe so Club Zero is not covered by the interview.

All of her films are insightful portrays of female characters who have to make crucial decisions. Amour Fou is the only film where the main character isn’t a woman but even in that film, the female character has to make a critical decision. The films show a thoughtful narrative arc which charts out a character’s journey and growth.

It is an interesting exercise to contrast this style of Jessica Hausner with that of her countryman Ulrich Seidl. Hausner is interested in exploring incidents that lead to a character’s decision and even the aftermath from their choices. Ulrich Seidl is instead invested in showing the suffering his characters face and in most of his films, he is fixated on sexual events.

Copa America 2024 Film Spotlight Results

A feisty Copa America 2024 ended with Argentina winning their 16th Copa America title. Argentina’s win wasn’t much of a surprise as they were easily the favourites but there were a few pleasant surprises along the way such as the re-emergence of Colombia (reached final and narrowly lost to Argentina in extra-time) and the continuing strength of Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay (finished in 3rd place). However, the biggest surprise was Jesse Marsch’s influence on the Canadian Men’s National Team. Canada were very impressive in their run to the semi-finals and unfortunately faced Argentina twice and lost both games. Still, Canada put on a positive attack-minded display even in the games against Argentina and created many chances but their biggest achilles heel in the tournament was their inability to make those chances count.

On the other hand, Canada had a much more of a favourable outcome in the Copa America 2024 Film Spotlight. When it came to films, Argentina and Brazil did much worse than their soccer counterparts. The points system is similar to that used in the Euro 2024 Film Spotlight: match-ups decided by 5 categories of Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography and Production Values. The only exception was that 4 categories of Story, Direction, Cinematography and Production Values were used (Acting was dropped) in the case of a match-up between a documentary (Chilean film) vs fictional film. In the group phases, a win for a film was worth 3 points while a tie was 1 point.

Group film results: top 2 films advanced out of group (in green)

Group A

Argentina: Trenque Lauquen (2022, Laura Citarella)
Peru: The Milk of Sorrow (2009, Claudia Llosa)
Chile: My Imaginary Country (2022, Patricio Guzmán)
Canada:The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)

Canada (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open): 9
Chile (My Imaginary Country): 4
Argentina (Trenque Lauquen): 4
Peru (The Milk of Sorrow): 0

The length of the Argentine film worked against it when compared to the Canadian and Chilean films. Trenque Lanquen is multiple films within a single film. If I could have taken a slice of 90 minutes from that film and put it against the other films in this group, then the Argentine film would have come out on top. As it turned out, the tight focus of the Canadian and Chilean films ensured progress out of this group.

Group B

Mexico: New Order (2020, Michel Franco)
Ecuador: Cronicas (2004, Sebastián Cordero)
Venezuela:  The Box (2021, Lorenzo Vigas)
Jamaica: The Harder They Come (1972, Perry Henzell)

Mexico (New Order): 7
Venezuela (The Box): 7
Ecuador (Cronicas): 1
Jamaica (The Harder They Come): 1

Unlike the soccer tournament, Mexico advanced easily out of the film competition.

Group C

USA: Showing Up (2022, Kelly Reichardt)
Uruguay: Window Boy Would also Like to Have a Submarine (2020, Alex Piperno)
Panama: The Fists of a Nation (2007, Pituka Ortega-Heilbron)
Bolivia: Viejo calavera/Dark Skull (2016, Kiro Russo)

Bolivia (Dark Skull): 7
Uruguay (Window Boy Would also Like to Have a Submarine): 5
USA (Showing Up): 4
Panama (The Fists of a Nation): 0

Group D

Brazil:  Rule 34 (2022, Júlia Murat)
Colombia: Embrace of the Serpent (2015, Ciro Guerra)
Paraguay: EAMI (2022, Paz Encina)
Costa Rica: The Awakening of the Ants (2019, Antonella Sudasassi)

Colombia (Embrace of the Serpent): 9
Costa Rica (The Awakening of the Ants): 6
Brazil (Rule 34): 3
Paraguay (EAMI): 0

This was easily the toughest film group of the four with Group D being a Group of Death.

Quarter-Finals:

Canada (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) vs Venezuela (The Box)

Canada won 4-2 over Venezuela.

Chile (My Imaginary Country) vs Mexico (New Order)

Chile won 3-2 and advanced to Semi-finals.  

Note: Since the Chilean film is a documentary, only 4 categories were used to judge the films.

Bolivia (Dark Skull) vs Costa Rica (The Awakening of the Ants)

The Costa Rican film won on an emotional penalty shoot-out after both films were tied 4-4.

Colombia (Embrace of the Serpent) vs Uruguay (Window Boy Would also Like to Have a Submarine)

Colombia won 5-1 over Uruguay.

Semi-Finals:

Canada (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) vs Chile (My Imaginary Country)

Canada won 4-3 over Chile in a very tight encounter.

Colombia (Embrace of the Serpent) vs Costa Rica (The Awakening of the Ants)

Colombia edged out Costa Rica 4-3 in another close match-up.

Final:

Canada (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) vs Colombia (Embrace of the Serpent)

Match of two former #1 End of year films. The Canadian film placed first in my Best Films of 2020 while the Colombian entry was first in 2015.

In the end, Canada won 4-3 over Colombia to take the 2024 Copa America Film title. Incredibly, Colombia finished 2nd in both the soccer tournament and film spotlight.

Copa America 2024 Film Winner: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)

Euro 2024 Film Spotlight Results

Now that the football version of Euro 2024 is in the books, it is time to unveil results of the film version of Euro 2024. Like previous film spotlight tournaments, match-ups between films in Group and Knock-out phases are decided by the 5 categories of Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography and Production Values. In the group phases, the difference is that a win for a film is worth 3 points while a tie is 1 point. In the Knock-out rounds, the winner is decided by the maximum score in the 5 categories of Acting, Story, Direction, Cinematography and Production.

16 films advance to the Knock-out rounds, with the top two films from each group plus top 4 third-placed films. The top 2 advancing out of the 8 Groups are shown in green.

Group A

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

Hungary (Satantango): 9
Germany (Aguirre: The Wrath of God): 6
Scotland (Gregory’s girl): 3
Switzerland (The Boat is Full): 0

Group B

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

Italy (The Battle of Algiers): 9
Spain (Death of a Cyclist): 6
Croatia (Buick Riviera): 3
Albania (Daybreak): 0

Group C

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

Serbia (Underground): 7
England (The Third Man): 5
Denmark (Babette’s Feast):  2
Slovenia (Spare Parts): 1

Group D

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

France (Pickpocket): 9
Poland (Dekalog): 4
Austria (Homo Sapiens): 2
Holland (The Vanishing): 1

Group E

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

Romania (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu): 9
Ukraine (My Joy): 4
Belgium (Jeanne Dielman): 4
Slovakia (Orbis Pictus): 0

Ukraine edges out Belgium to win second place by the slightest margin.

Group F

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

Turkey (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia): 9
Portugal (Change of Life): 6
Georgia (What Do We See When We Look At the Sky?): 3
Czech Republic (Closely Watched Trains): 0

Top 4 third placed films:

1st: Belgium (Group E)
2nd: Croatia (Group B)
3rd: Georgia (Group F)
4th: Scotland (Group A)

Round of 16 Draw and Results:

Hungary (Satantango) vs England (The Third Man)

Hungary wins 3-2 on the basis of Direction, Cinematography and Production while England scores on Acting and Story.

Germany (Aguirre: The Wrath of God) vs Spain (Death of a Cyclist)

Germany wins 5-2 over Spain.

Italy (The Battle of Algiers) vs Belgium (Jeanne Dielman)

Italy wins 5-2 over Belgium.

Serbia (Underground) vs Georgia (What Do We See When We Look At the Sky?)

Serbia wins 5-1.

Turkey (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) vs Scotland (Gregory’s Girl)

Turkey wins 4-1.

Poland (Dekalog) vs Ukraine (My Joy)

In a very close encounter, Poland edges out Ukraine 4-3.

Romania (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) vs Croatia (Buick Riviera)

Romania narrowly wins out 4-3 over Croatia.

France (Pickpocket) vs Portugal (Change of Life)

In a match-up of two stellar films, France wins out 5-2.

Quarter-Finals: 8 films that are part of canons and best of lists

Italy (The Battle of Algiers) vs Hungary (Satantango)

Italy wins 5-2 over Hungary.

Turkey (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) vs Poland (Dekalog)

In another hard fought close match-up, the Polish film edges out the Turkish entry 4-3.

Romania (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) vs France (Pickpocket)

The French film wins 5-3 over the Romanian film.

Serbia (Underground) vs Germany (Aguirre: The Wrath of God)

Germany wins 5-4 over Serbia.

Semi-Finals: 4 giant films battle it out

Italy (The Battle of Algiers) vs Poland (Dekalog)

Italy wins 5-4 over Poland, with the stellar cinematography of Gillo Pontecorvo’s film being the edge.

France (Pickpocket)  vs Germany (Aguirre: The Wrath of God)

France wins 4-3 over Germany.

Euro 2024 Film Final: Two classic films

Italy (The Battle of Algiers) vs France (Pickpocket)

Italy wins 5-4, with a tiny edge in the overall Production category. That is understandable given the larger scope of The Battle of Algiers over Pickpocket.

Euro 2024 Film Winner: The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)

Ranking Godzilla movies

Ranking the best Gojira/Godzilla films isn’t an easy task, both from a quantity and quality perspective. There are 38 films noted in the Godzilla franchise with the original film released in 1954 and the latest edition in 2024, a span of 70 years. If one excludes the 3 Animation films, then that total drops to 35. The production quality varies a lot among these films not only due to differences in production between Japanese and American studios but also due to multiple reboot/reset of the franchise. There are some films that stand-out while others have substandard production quality and are just derivative, reheated attempts of the original film. It is not a series that one can binge watch as some films in the franchise are unwatchable and after a while, many of them start appearing to be the same. There are some exceptions and it is those films that linger long in the memory.

There are 33 Gojira films from Japan divided in the Shōwa era (1954–1975), Heisei era (1984–1995), Millennium era (1999–2004), Reiwa era (2016–present) and 5 that are part of the American series. This total doesn’t include four films released in US that were re-edited versions of the original Japanese films. In addition, there is a recent spin-off series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters which is part of the American Monsterverse, a series that includes the Hollywood films from 2014 onwards.

Listing of all 38 films

Shōwa era (1954–1975)
 

1. Godzilla (1954, Ishirō Honda)
2. Godzilla Raids Again (1955, Motoyoshi Oda)
3. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962, Ishirō Honda)
4. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964, Ishirō Honda)
5. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964, Ishirō Honda)
6. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965, Ishirō Honda)
7. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966, Jun Fukuda)
8. Son of Godzilla (1967, Jun Fukuda)
9. Destroy All Monsters (1968, Ishirō Honda)
10. All Monsters Attack (1969, Ishirō Honda)
11. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971, Yoshimitsu Ban)
12. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972, Jun Fukuda)
13. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973, Jun Fukuda)
14. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974, Jun Fukuda)
15. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975, Ishirō Honda)

Heisei era (1989–1995) 

16. The Return of Godzilla (1984, Kōji Hashimoto)
17. Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989, Kazuki Ōmori)
18. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991, Kazuki Ōmori)
19. Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992, Takao Ōkawara)
20. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993, Takao Ōkawara)
21. Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994, Kenshō Yamashita)
22. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995, Takao Ōkawara)

Millennium era (1999–2004) 

23. Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999, Takao Ōkawara)
24. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000, Masaaki Tezuka)
25. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001, Shūsuke Kaneko)
26. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002, Masaaki Tezuka)
27. Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003, Masaaki Tezuka)
28. Godzilla: Final Wars (2004, Ryūhei Kitamura)

Reiwa era (2016–present) 

29. Shin Godzilla (2016, Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi)
30. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017, Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita)
31. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018, Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita)
32. Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018, Kōbun Shizuno, Hiroyuki Seshita)
33. Godzilla Minus One (2023, Takashi Yamazaki)

Note: films 30, 31, 32 are all animation films.

Hollywood films 

1. Godzilla (1998, Roland Emmerich)
2. Godzilla (2014, Gareth Edwards)
3. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019, Michael Dougherty)   
4. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021, Adam Wingard)
5. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024, Adam Wingard)

Re-edited films for US market, not included in the 38 film total 

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)
Godzilla (1977)
Godzilla 1985 (1985)

Top 5 Godzilla Films

1. Godzilla (1954)

The original is still the template for all subsequent Godzilla films as elements in Ishirō Honda’s films are revisited, updated and even slightly improved in other films.
 
2. Shin Godzilla (2016)

An absolutely brilliant reboot that cleverly uses Gojira as a lens to demonstrate human logistics and problem solving.

3. Godzilla Minus One (2023)

If Shin Godzilla was about logistics and problem solving, Godzilla Minus One is using engineering to solve the very large Godzilla problem. In addition, the film also highlights the human impact on post WWII Japan in the aftermath of America’s atomic bomb drops.

4. Mothra vs Godzilla (1964)

Mothra is a key kaiju in Godzilla movies and her first appearance in the series also happens to be one of the most worthy films in the franchise.

5. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

Combines many components of the franchise with aliens, Ghidorah, Rodan.

Most family friendly Godzilla: Son of Godzilla

The franchise clearly was trying to make Godzilla appealing for younger kids by introducing a very cute young Baby Godzilla.

Most environmentally conscious film: Godzilla vs. Hedorah 

Godzilla films contain political and social messaging but nowhere is that hit on the head as much as Godzilla vs Hedorah where Hedorah is a monster who grows by feeding off the industrial waste dumped in oceans. Only Godzilla can save us from our destructive polluting ways! If dumping of chemicals and industrial waste in oceans led to the creation of a monster, then perhaps humans may have done more to protect our environment. Unfortunately, life isn’t a Godzilla movie!

Hong Sang-soo watch

This is a follow-up to the earlier March post when I had managed to see 24 out of 31 Hong Sang-soo features to date. I am happy to say that total has now increased to 27 / 31. The films in red are the ones left for me to see. This is the smallest gap I have had and while neither of the 4 films are available on any streaming platform, two are on DVD/Blu-Ray (Our Sunhi, The Woman Who Ran). So there is a chance that I can narrow the gap even further.

1. The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996)
2. The Power of Kangwon Province (1998)
3. Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000)
4. On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (2002)
5. Woman Is the Future of Man (2004)
6. Tale of Cinema (2005)
7. Woman on the Beach (2006)
8. Night and Day (2008)
9. Like You Know It All (2009)
10. Hahaha (2010)
11. Oki’s Movie (2010)
12. The Day He Arrives (2011)
13. In Another Country (2012)
14. Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (2013)
15. Our Sunhi (2013)
16. Hill of Freedom (2014)
17. Right Now, Wrong Then (2015)
18. Yourself and Yours (2016)
19. On the Beach at Night Alone (2017)
20. Claire’s Camera (2017)
21. The Day After (2017)
22. Grass (2018)
23. Hotel by the River (2018)
24. The Woman Who Ran (2020)
25. Introduction (2021)
26. In Front of Your Face (2021)
27. The Novelist’s Film (2022)
28. Walk Up (2022)
29. In Water (2023)
30. In Our Day (2023)
31. A Traveler’s Needs (2024)

The Top 10 Hong Sang-soo films list still stays the same

1. Right Now, Wrong Then (2015)
2. The Day He Arrives (2011)
3. Tale of Cinema (2005)
4. Like You Know It All (2009)
5. The Day After (2017)
6. In Front of Your Face (2021)
7. Woman Is the Future of Man (2004)
8. On the Beach at Night Alone (2017)
9. Night and Day (2008)
10. In Another Country (2012)

Copa America 2024 Film Spotlight

Two games of Copa America 2024 are already in the books with Argentina kicking off their title defense with a 2-0 win over Canada while Peru and Chile drew 0-0. Prior to start of the next fixtures, I want to unveil the selections for the Copa America 2024 Film Spotlight. Similar to Euro 2024 Film Spotlight, I have taken the approach of selecting previously seen films to give each nation the best chance of doing well. The one change from Euro 2024 selections is that I have tried to select as many recent films as possible. I only went for older films if a nation didn’t have a worthy recent contender.

15/16 films are within last 20 years (2004-24) with 12 out of 16 films within last 10 years and 5 films from 2022. The only exception is that the Jamaican film is from 1972. In addition, half of the films (8/16) are directed by women.

Group A

Argentina: Trenque Lauquen (2022, Laura Citarella)
Peru: The Milk of Sorrow (2009, Claudia Llosa)
Chile: My Imaginary Country (2022, Patricio Guzmán)
Canada: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)

Group B

Mexico: New Order (2020, Michel Franco)
Ecuador: Cronicas (2004, Sebastián Cordero)
Venezuela:  The Box (2021, Lorenzo Vigas)
Jamaica: The Harder they come (1972, Perry Henzell)

Group C

USA: Showing Up (2022, Kelly Reichardt)
Uruguay: Window Boy Would also Like to Have a Submarine (2020, Alex Piperno)
Panama: The Fists of a Nation (2007, Pituka Ortega-Heilbron)
Bolivia: Dark Skull (2016, Kiro Russo)

Group D

Brazil:  Rule 34 (2022, Júlia Murat)
Colombia: Embrace of the Serpent (2015, Ciro Guerra)
Paraguay: EAMI (2022, Paz Encina)
Costa Rica: The Awakening of the Ants (2019, Antonella Sudasassi)

Group and Knock-out round results will be posted in next few weeks.

Euro 2024 Film Spotlight

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

Here are the 24 Top European films:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top Argentine Films of All Time

As Argentina and Messi prepare to defend their Copa America, I wanted to do a Top Argentine film list. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means since majority of the Argentine films I have seen start from the late 1990s with the onset of New Argentine Cinema. Three decades (1990-2023) isn’t enough to cover proper ground but over the last year, I have started to fill in the gaps by trying to watch Argentine films from the 1940s-60s. Therefore, this list will change over the next year.

For now, going into Copa America 2024, here are my starting 11 films with 5 honourable mentions looking to sub in if needed.

Top 11 Argentine Films of all time:

1. Zama (2017, Lucrecia Martel)
2. The Official Story (1985, Luis Puenzo)
3. Extraordinary Stories (2008, Mariano Llinás)
4. Invasion (1969, Hugo Santiago)
5. Liverpool (2008, Lisandro Alonso)
6. Bolivia (1999, Israel Adrián Caetano)
7. Mundo grúa / Crane World (1999, Pablo Trapero)
8. Apenas un delincuente / Hardly a Criminal (1949, Hugo Fregonese)
9. The Hour of the Furnaces (1968, Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas)
10. Nueve reinas / Nine Queens (2000, Fabián Bielinsky)
11. Prisioneros de la tierra / Prisoners of the Earth (1939, Mario Soffici)

5 Honourable Mentions (in no order):
Bombón: El Perro (2004, Carlos Sorín)
Son of the Bride (2001, Juan José Campanella)
Pizza, birra, faso / Pizza, Beer and Cigarettes (1998, Israel Adrián Caetano/Bruno Stagnaro)
Silvia Prieto (1999, Martín Rejtman)
Trenque Lauquen (2022, Laura Citarella)

Top Iranian Films of All Time

There are a wealth of legal viewing options for Iranian Cinema unlike that for many other nations. Such a high number of entries made it an ordeal to narrow down a Top 10 list. It was also difficult to not make the entire top 10 list of films just by Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi, two of the best film directors in the world. However, the recent rediscovery of Chess of the Wind (1976, Mohammad Reza Aslani) is a reminder there could still be many worthy Iranian films hidden from view. Therefore, I do expect this list will change over time as I get to rediscover and even revisit Iranian films.

Top 10 Iranian Films of All Time:

1. Taste of Cherry (1997, Abbas Kiarostami)
2. Crimson Gold (2003, Jafar Panahi)
3. The House is Black (1963, Forugh Farrokhzad)
4. Close-Up (1990, Abbas Kiarostami)
5. A Man of Integrity (2017, Mohammad Rasoulof)
6. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
7. The Cow (1969, Dariush Mehrjui)
8. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999,  Abbas Kiarostami)
9. Turtles can Fly (2004, Bahman Ghobadi)
10. It’s Winter (2006, Rafi Pitts)

Honourable Mentions (alphabetical order):

Be Calm and Count to Seven (2008, Ramtin Lavafipour)
Downpour (1972, Bahram Beyzaie)
Iron Island (2005, Mohammad Rasoulof)
Salam Cinema (1995, Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
This is not a Film (2011, Jafar Panahi)
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000, Bahman Ghobadi)
Where is the Friend’s House? (1987, Abbas Kiarostami)
The White Balloon (1995, Jafar Panahi)

Hugo Fregonese's Apenas un Delincuente

Apenas un Delincuente / Hardly a Criminal (1949, Argentina, directed by Hugo Fregonese)

This year’s AFOFF selection of the stellar 1949 Argentine noir Apenas un Delincuente was inspired by Allan’s ‘The Fish Obscuro’ column although the film isn’t as much in the shadows now as it was prior to 2022. That is because Apenas un Delincuente / Hardly a Criminal (1949) was part of a 2022 Hugo Fregonese retrospective that premiered at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna and then later that year at MoMA. In addition, Apenas un Delincuente was the inspiration behind Rodrigo Moreno’s 2023 thoughtful film The Delinquents. In fact, both Apenas un Delincuente and The Delinquents share the same core story of a bank fraud but both films diverge in different directions.

The bank fraud in Apenas un Delincuente was inspired by a real-life incident and is one of those stories that emphasizes that reality is stranger than fiction. In the film, José Moran  (Jorge Salcedo) is a bank employee who fancies the rich nightlife and his day job is only a means for him to pay off his nightlife which also includes a gambling habit. José has run up a huge debt due to gambling losses and subsequent borrowed sums from loan sharks. His salary can’t cover off his debts and he is constantly trying to avoid the loan sharks who are looking to collect their payment. One day, the loan sharks arrive at the bank and demand their money. With no place to run, José gives them another customer’s deposit. Seeing how easy it was for him to use someone else’s money, José starts drawing up a plan to steal even more money from the bank. His ideas are strengthened when he learns that the maximum jail sentence for bank fraud is six years regardless of the amount stolen. José calculates that he can steal enough money, hide his loot, serve 6 years in jail, come out and comfortably live the rest of his life. His rationale is that this one time fraud followed by 6 years of jail time will yield him more money than working an entire life at the bank. José thinks his plan is perfect but like all film noirs, there are elements that José doesn’t factor in such as his family’s vulnerability or street smart gangsters. These unseen factors turn his plans upside down leading to a pulsating action packed finale.

Hugo Fregonese packs in a lot in just under 90 minutes. The first half of the film not only sets up the plan and execution but also gives enough of a family backstory which helps explain José’s decisions. The second half depicts fascinating prison power dynamics before the film incorporates car chases and a good old fashioned shoot-out. I hadn’t seen any of Hugo Fregonese’s films prior to Hardly a Criminal. The impressive execution of the film means that was a huge cinematic blindspot on my end. In reality, Fregonese wasn’t that much in the shadows if I had only looked in the right spots. He was a global film director who started his career in his native Argentina in 1940s before moving to direct films in Hollywood in 1950s such as Apache Drums (1951), Man in the Attic (1953), Black Tuesday (1954). He then moved around Europe to direct a string of films (The Beasts of Marseilles, The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse) before returning to Argentina. If others haven’t seen a film by him, then Hardly a Criminal is a great starting point.

On another note, the running time of Moreno’s The Delinquents (3 hours 9 min) is double in length to Apenas un Delincuente (88 min) and doesn’t have any car chases, bullets or a backstory. Yet, both films are precious in their own right. In fact, the difference in treatment highlights how creativity can ensure that we will never run of worthy films to view.

Cross-published at Wonders in the Dark.