Hey folks, Harry here... Capone is currently talking to Dr Mabuse about some minor surgery as he's typed up one helluva comprehensive look at his filmic adventures at the Chicago Film Festival. There are... SEVERAL FILMS listed here that this is the first I've heard of them and they sound great!!!! Without further ado, here ya go...
Hey Harry. Capone in Chicago here. I’m so sleepy. 34 film in 15 days: somebody shoot me. Seriously though, this is by far the single strongest grouping of film the Chicago International Film Festival has seen in as long as I can remember. The event was short on high-profile Hollywood films, but long on really wonderful small films, foreign offerings, and movies that are destined to be big art-house hits. Last week, I told you about films I went ga-ga over like AMELIE, FAT GIRL (which won this festival’s top prize) and THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE. Here’s everything else I saw…
WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?
For those of you who saw Taiwanese director Tsai Min-Liang’s last film THE HOLE or his earlier works VIVE L’AMOUR or THE RIVER, you know the kind of quiet, almost unmoving power his movies have. WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? is no different. It focuses on a man (Tsai mainstay Lee Kang-sheng) and woman who meet. He is selling watches on the street; she is traveling to Paris soon and wants a dual-faced watch for the journey. Although it’s clear the two are fond of each other, she goes to France anyway, leaving him with little to do but think of her. This is actually two films, as we follow both people to discover the lives they lead after their initial (and only) encounter. We get to see her on a whirlwind tour of Paris, complete with a very funny run in with Truffaut-favorite Jean-Pierre Leaud (THE 400 BLOWS). Meanwhile, Lee sets himself the task of changing every clock in Taiwan to Paris time to express his feeling for the woman. WHAT TIM IS IT THERE? is a sweet and moving story with little dialogue, but a whole lot of force. The film won second place overall in this festival and took home additional honors for its director and cinematographer.
SUPER 8 STORIES BY EMIR KUSTURICA
If you’ve ever seen an Emir Kusturica film (UNDERGROUND or BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT), just imagine the kind of organized insanity he might introduce into the documentary format. SUPER 8 STORIES follows the adventures of Kusturica’s hugely successful and popular rock group The No Smoking Band. The film is essentially a tour diary, showing us their wacked-out but highly entertaining concerts as well as loads of backstage stupidity. The film spends a few minutes profiling each key band member, and gives us a brief history of the band, which began as a Monty Python-esque television comedy troupe. We also get to see behind the scenes of a video shoot (directed by Kusturica, naturally) and the resulting music video. Part Spinal Tap, part Leningrad Cowboys, the No Smoking Band puts on a helluva show, and this movie is a rare treat. I got to fall in love with a band that I’ve never heard of before; what a rare treat that is. Kusturica clearly puts as much energy into his music as he does his film work, and the love he feels for it and his band mates is evident. Great fun.
ROBERTO SUCCO
I have a very hard time believing this incredible movie will ever be released in the states, but a guy can dream. ROBERT SUCCO from France is hard core crime drama at its most dangerous. Stefano Cassetti plays the title character, an Italian who sneaks into France and lies to everyone he meets about his identity. He’s not slick, he doesn’t try to hide his accent; he just lies and people either believe him because they don’t care about the truth, or they don’t. He picks up women but has a tough time following through in the bedroom, if you catch my drift. And his fragile mind leads him to some of the most random acts of violence I’ve seen on film. He rages like a child, but his handsome looks and moody personality get him admittance into the adult world without question. The police are always right on his trail, but his absolute unwillingness to be captured and his unblinking tendency to murder anyone standing in his way, keep him from being caught for quite a while. Not since I first saw HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER have I experienced such a single-minded, unadorned look at murderous behavior. Director Cedric Khan (L’ENNUI) has a lot to answer for and much to be proud of.
BARAN
Some of the finest films I’ve seen in the last five years have been those from Iran, and few films are more timely in today’s political and emotional climate than BARAN. Master director Majid Majidi (CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, THE COLOR OF PARADISE) delivers what is clearly one of the most sophisticated works in all of Iranian cinema. This is a sympathetic account of the Afghan refugee situation in Iran. After years of Russian warfare and the decimating practices of the Taliban, more than a million refugees fled Afghanistan over the years. Since they are willing to work for next to nothing, Iranian were put out of work and became extremely resentful of the situation. BARAN centers on a construction site that illegally employs Afghanis including a young worker named Rahmat, who works as a tea boy for the workers. The previous tea boy, Kaleef, has been bumped to doing manual labor at the site as a result, does everything to sabotage Rahmat’s job, including trashing his kitchen. Then one day, Kaleef discovers a potentially deadly secret about Rahmat, but instead of revealing it to the authorities, he takes pity on Rahmat and his struggling family, and tries to assist them financially without them knowing it was him that helped. Kaleef experiences something of an emotional awakening as a result of the experience, which culminates is a singularly haunting final shot. BARAN is a sophisticated work
IN THE BEDROOM
Most people know Todd Field from his acting work in RUBY IN PARADISE and as the piano player that leads Tom Cruise into mischief in EYES WIDE SHUT. Now it’s time to put Field’s name in the hat as one of 2001’s great directors. IN THE BEDROOM is Field’s feature debut, and it packs more of an emotional punch than just about anything else I’ve seen this year. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson plays a relatively happy, upper-middle-class couple living out their slow and peaceful lives in a Maine town. Their son (Nick Stahl) is preparing to go to college to be an architect but is having second thoughts about leaving the town because he’s falling in love with a slightly older woman (Marisa Tomei), who has two kids and is separated from her short-tempered husband. Almost without warning, a tragedy befalls this extended family and dealing with the loss is simply too much for some to handle. IN THE BEDROOM is about the process of grief; there is no defining event that allows everyone to move on. In fact, by the time the film ends, many have still not fully grasped the enormity of what has been taken from them. It was a rare treat to see Spacek back in form. She give a powerhouse performance in this movie that deserves as many awards as they can heave at her. Field lives in Maine, so he knows the setting perhaps better than a director just visiting a location, and his attention to the stunning corners of this community make this feel like a love letter to the state. IN THE BEDROOM is a “grown-up” movie, not just in terms of the audience it’s trying to reach, but also with the way it doesn’t give you a surface look at suffering. This is not an easy film to sit through; it feels naked and authentic to a degree I can’t put into words. This is one of my ten favorite film of the year so far, easily.
RUBY’S BUCKET OF BLOOD
A last-minute addition to the festival, this Showtime original movie is a so-so look at Ruby, a woman (Angela Bassett) who runs a juke joint (the title of the film is the establishment’s name) in the segregated south. She becomes nervous when the house band hires a white man (Kevin Anderson) to replace the recently departed singer of the group. “I sound black,” Anderson says. Well, he doesn’t. His singing (I’m assuming it’s really him singing the songs) is mediocre at best. Bassett is good as a woman coping with a husband that left her because he views her as “low” since she’ll scrub floors to make a living. Her hard work has paid off since she owns the club and has raised a daughter that she hopes will do better than her in the world. As if things we’re touchy enough, Ruby and the white singer flirt with the idea of falling in love, but it never feels real. She’s just trying to find someone to replace her husband, and he’s just a guy who doesn’t mind a little danger in his life. The music isn’t that good, the script is sketchy, and the performances are admirable but mostly uninspired. Showtime’s original films have been improving in quality over the years, but RUBY’S BUCKET OF BLOOD isn’t up to the newly set standards.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
No one makes documentaries like Frederick Wiseman. About once a year on PBS, I spot his latest epic-length detailed examination into any number of subjects. Sometimes he explores places with social relevance, such as mental hospitals or Chicago housing projects. Other times he’s just interested in the subject for his own reasons, such as his take on the full-time residents of Aspen or his look backstage of a professional ballet company. He does not interview his subjects or narrate his films. Instead, he lets his subject get so used to him being there before filming even begins that by the time he pulls out his cameras, they don’t even act like they know he’s in the room. No filmmakers has perfected this process like Wiseman, and it’s always a pleasure watching his films. His latest subject may be his best, a Tampa-area shelter called The Spring, for victims of domestic violence (mostly woman and their children, but a few men live there as well). Although the film begins with a few “Cops”-like visits with police on domestic violence calls, most of the three-hour-plus film takes place in the shelter, observing one-on-one counselling session, group therapy meetings, staff meetings, legal counselling, the classrooms set up for the children. Every corner of this hotel-like facility is examined, and the stories we hear from women of physical and mental abuse is devastating. The film frames abuse in all its complexities, and explores the countless obstacles these women face even after taking the most difficult step of leaving their partner. There is no more amazing thing to watch than a person’s self-preservation kick in. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE gives us a handful of examples of people who rise from the lowest of lows and find a place where hope is offered. The film won the top Documentary prize at this year’s festival.
OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS
Academy-award nominated director Barbet Schroeder (REVERSAL OF FORTUNE) goes for a scaled-back look in this story of a gay writer named Fernando, who returns to his homeland of Medellin, Colombia, a place completed ripped apart and made savage by the drug-production culture. Fernando is the ultimate cynic and critic; he hates everything that has happened to his homeland and doesn’t care who knows it. He has come to Colombia to die, he tells people. Within minutes of arriving in Colombia, he picks up a young man who turns out to be a loving friend but also a ruthless gangster with a price on his head. The two form a strange relationship that neither question. The younger man takes Fernando on a tour of the new Medellin, while mowing down anyone that offends them including rude waiters. Although Fernando is shocked by this behavior, he does little to discourage it. OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS is a jagged piece of filmmaking that jumps from tender to explosive with little warning. I liked the movie when it took the time to examine Fernando’s bitterness; it’s not that different than the disappointment we often feel when we return to the place we grew up and find it change. The difference is that Fernando’s old home has turned into hell. This is a tricky but worthy film.
THE ORPHAN OF ANYANG
I believe this movie is the only one at the festival from China, and it’s a good one. This simple story of the recently unemployed Dagang, has him scrounging for cash, when he finds an abandoned baby at a noodle stand. A note attached to the newborn promises the person that takes care of this baby $25 per month; Dagang jumps at the chance for the cash. Dagang meets the mother, Yengli, a young prostitute and girlfriend to a local gangster, who is the father of the child. Dagang and Yengli form something of a business relationship, whereby he establishes a bicycle repair stand just outside his apartment; she brings her customers into the apartment under his protective eye. When the gangster discovers he is dying of leukemia, he decides that he wants to acknowledge the child as his heir, and conflict arises between the three. THE ORPHAN OF ANYANG is a delicate, quiet work of art that establishes a rhythm of humor, charm, and detail that it never strays from. A lovely work.
DISCO PIGS
Kirsten Sheridan (daughter of Irish director Jim) has constructed this nightmarish Irish fairy tale about a boy and a girl born on the same day in the same hospital, who live next door to each other their entire lives and are virtually inseparable. Much like HEAVENLY CREATURES, the leads DISCO PIGS live in something of a fantasy world of their own creation. The call each other Pig and Runt, and the two walk around their town and school prepared to lash out any anyone who does not conform to their belief that they are the kind and queen of all the land. On the eve of their 17th birthday, the boy comes to realize that the two should be married (to now, their relationship has been everything but sexual), but the girl doesn’t necessarily agree. She is beginning to become frightened of his increasingly violent behavior, and her parents decide to send her away to a home for troubled teens. The boy discovers where she is and sets out to rescue her. DISCO PIGS reminded me of another recent film be a famed director’s daughter, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES; both share an atmosphere that is both delicate and seedy. Nothing in DISCO PIGS feels real, and the one-note nature of the characters gave me little to hold onto. We’re not sure whether to root for them or pray for their destruction. And I’m not sure I cared what happened to either of them by the end of the film. Kirsten Sheridan has made a lovely film about decidedly unlovely people. A good effort but not something I’d recommend.
THE SON’S ROOM
I’ve only seen a handful of films by the noted Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti (CARO DIARIO, APRILE), but from what I remember about them, they made me both laugh and think, and Moretti was frequently compared to Woody Allen. His latest film, THE SON’S ROOM won the Grand Prize at Cannes this year, so my expectations were high. Much like Todd Field’s IN THE BEDROOM (the films are strikingly similar), THE SON’S ROOM is about a family nearly torn to shreds by a death. In this case, the death of a grown child. Moretti (who also stars in the film as the father) lets us see that the death was coming at a time in the family’s life when the son was going from child to friend of his parents; a mutual respect was just being established, and the father and son were growing closer with each passing day. The family clearly has suffered few hardships, and this death is destroying them. Both parents blame themselves at first then the other; their daughter has lost her closest friend. Then the arrival of a love letter from a girl the son met at the beach without the parents knowledge gives them something to focus upon and help pull them back together. Unlike IN THE BEDROOM, THE SON’S ROOM does occasionally fall back on sentimentality, but it never feels forced. I never felt that this family would stay fractured, so some of the drama is undercut. Still, THE SON’S ROOM is strong stuff, and it offers an uplifting message about healing and existence. Moretti’s character isn’t nearly as neurotic as I’ve seen him be in the past, and I enjoyed the lessons learned.
TRULY HUMAN
The second Danish Dogme film of this year’s festival, TRULY HUMAN is the funny-sad and weird tale of a little girl and her imaginary friend, whom she says lives in the walls of her parents’ home and is the ghost of her aborted brother (I mentioned this was weird, right?). When the little girl dies in a car accident, the parents move out of the house and into an apartment complex. Their old house is torn down and from the rubble rises the imaginary friends, fully grown but lacking in all social graces. He eventually makes his way to a refugee camp, where he is taken in under the assumption that he is seeking asylum. The confused man learns to speak and learn, but much like Chauncey in BEING THERE, people give his words much more weight than they deserve. He gets a job, begins a relationship with a woman, and finds a place of his own, coincidentally in the same building as his parents. His only real wish in life is to be reunited with his parents and do what is necessary to become a real human (thus the title). TRULY HUMAN is a fable of sorts. It’s extremely funny at times and troublesome at other times. The man finds himself watching children play a lot because mentally, he’s still a child and he never got the chance to play. His attempts to be near children rile up the local parents, and lead to a nasty turn for him. This may be the closest we’ll get to sci-fi Dogme. I enjoyed this one.
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
Alfonso Cuaron (who directed the recent update of GREAT EXPECTATIONS) returns to his native Mexico for this high-energy sex romp about two teenage boys who take a road trip with the 28-year-old wife of one of their cousins. Apparently the film has broken every known box office record in Mexico, and it’s clear why. The film is hysterically funny, scrappy, sexy, and raunchy. The conversations the two boys have about their girlfriends, drugs, sex, and what it takes to be a real man are some of the most frank and funny dialogue I’ve heard in a while. The performances are energetic, honest, and revealing. Not surprisingly both of the boys fall for the beautiful woman, but how she responds may not be as predictable as you might expect. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN will have you in stitches, but also make you think about whether you might need to loosen up a little in your own life.
THE PORNOGRAPHER
The one thing this year’s festival definitely has not been lacking is erect male genitalia. I’m not kidding. I saw three movies (all by French directors: FAT GIRL, INTIMACY, and this film, THE PORNOGRAPHER) in the past two weeks featuring fully aroused members. It doesn’t bother me; I just wasn’t expecting so much penis. FAT GIRL and INTIMACY are amazing movies; THE PORNOGRAPHER almost put me to sleep. How can the most graphic of the three be so boring? How can a film that features a money shot (a facial at that) be so snooze-inducing? THE PORNOGRAPHER asks (and answers) this question. Truffaut-favorite Jean-Pierre Leaud (THE 400 BLOWS) returns (he was also seen in WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?) as the aging porn director who has become legendary for his mixing of high art and dirty sex. We see him at work, directing some very graphic sex scenes for a film that marks his return to filmmaking. He is frustrating because porn has gone from a an attempt at story and acting to straight sex. Although the film won the International Critics Prize and Cannes, I saw more people walk out of this movie than any other movie at the Chicago festival. It was clear they were leaving from boredom than shock or disgust. In other words, this is no BOOGIE NIGHTS. The movie only features two sex scenes, a lot of self-diagnoses on Leaud’s part, and endless scenes of people sitting around in palatial homes talking about how sad and uninspired they are. Join the club, losers! THE PORNOGRAPHER is a dud.
DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS
I know absolutely nothing about skater culture and folklore, past or present. And nothing gets me more excited than sitting through a documentary and coming out the other side feeling educated on something that is genuinely interesting. DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS chronicles the birth of the skate punk subculture. Born amongst the wreckage of a once-glorious beach-front resort in Southern California, a group of troubled teens and death-defying jocks literally invented extreme sports. I loved the stories of how they transformed skateboarding from a largely horizontal endeavor to an aerial sport. We learn that style was as important as skill, and that many of these kids were seriously troubled with skating being the only outlet they had both artistically and as a means of venting. During the water shortages of the mid-1970s, these kids cruised the backyards of the rich looking for empty concrete pools where they could perfect their skating. Many of these early skaters became something akin to rock stars; others, who were less able to market their prowess, faded into obscurity. Sean Penn narrates this tale of sports history, and there’s some great testimonial to the power of culture by the likes of Henry Rollins, Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam. But the real heroes of the story are the Z-boys themselves. DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS has a killer soundtrack of mostly classic ‘70s rock, is stylishly edited, and 100 percent entertaining.
That's it. Ugh, I'm exhausted. But all in all, it was a terrific year for this festival. I'll have a final report on the two closing night films next week.
