Hey folks, Harry here. Man, putting up all these film fest reports reminds me... I have to get to writing up my own reviews of THE STRAIGHT STORY, THE LIMEY, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, BODY SHOTS and a couple of others. Sheesh... type type type. Unfortunately I have trouble being concise... some people have even said I ramble quite a bit. Hmmm... I haven't noticed. Oh... Ok, here we go....
Hello Harry,
Another set of reviews from the Minority Reporter here in Chicago. The filmfest has been a lot of fun, though the movies are sort of telescoping into each other. I should start writing my reviews before I confuse one movie with another.
Without further ado, the reviews
The Letter (France/Portugal) Grade : B+
Dir : Manoel de Oliveira
French/Portuguese with English subtitles
They used to write stories like this in the 17th century. The girl marries a man who is suitable for her, but falls in love with a man who is not. She avoids temptation to be true to her husband, even though her heart belongs somewhere else. She would rather move to the colonies to be away from her admirer. Imagine such a story being set in today’s world. We ask: why doesn’t the girl just divorce her husband? Why cannot she obey her heart’s wishes when she is finally free to do so? Such questions would not arise in our mind if this story were to be set in the past. The central conceit of Oliveira’s new movie “The Letter” is that such a story is set in the 90s and filmed as if it were set in the 17th century, with anachronistic details and dialogue.
Does it work? For me, it did- at least for most of the time. Many others whom I have talked to since watching the movie had problems with it. I think what Mr. Oliveira’s is trying to do is to argue that there is such a thing as absolute morality, that responsibility is a virtue that is underrated in today’s world. The fact that we are uncomfortable with the notion of a woman NOT following her heart suggests how much the society has changed. The director does not proselytize nor does he suggest that we all should follow such a path. What he suggests, I think, is that we think about such issues instead of blindly following our heart’s desires.
Chiara Mastroianni, the daughter of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Denevue plays Madame de Chartres, who falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a Portuguese singer playing himself. Ms. Mastroianni, when I saw her last in “Diary of a Sedecteur” was a gawky teenager. She has now grown into a exceptionally beautiful lady, who also is a superb actress (it is in her genes!). She is the moral center of the movie- racked by doubts and guilt, she still follows what she thinks is the right path.
The Letter (La lettre) won the Jury Special Prize at Cannes this year (and apparently elicited quite a few boos). It will probably be released in the art house circuit.
The Love of Three Oranges (Taiwan) Grade : B+
Dir: Hung Hung
Chinese with English subtitles
At the end of the hyper-kinetic “Run Lola Run”, my friend remarked that if the movie had gone for one minute longer, he would have screamed. I could understand that- it is a perfect length movie. Some movies require a certain perfect length- if it is fleshed out any more, it becomes boring, any less, and it seems incomplete. “The Love of Three Oranges” is one such movie. At only 60 minutes, it tells a involving story of JJ, a pizza boy in Taipei and his relationships with Poni, his ex-girlfriend and Mimi, Pony’s current girlfriend. Poni is perhaps a bisexual and Mimi a lesbian, though they never talk about labels. Instead, it is about feelings expressed and repressed, obsessions developed or lost and everything is covered with a tinge of regret that things are not what they should be. The ending adds a new layer of meaning to the proceedings.
Hung Hung’s debut is a promising movie that well served by a taut screenplay. His theater background allows him to use lighting that is more attuned to emotions than to realism (Sam Mendes pulled off something similar in “American beauty”). The acting all around is perfectly pitched. This is a gem of a movie that will hopefully get wider distribution.
The movie is generating a lot of buzz at the film festival that after three showings sold out, the festival decided to add another showing next week.
From the Edge of the City (Greece) Grade : B
Dir : Constantinos Giannaris
Greek with English subtitles
I loved the director’s earlier movie “ North of Vortex”, a black and white travelogue across America that raised some pertinent questions about masculinity and homosexuality. His new feature film "From the edge of the city” is set among a group of teen outsiders- Russian Greeks living at the edge of Athens. The protagonist is Sasha (newcomer Stathis Papadopoulos), still in his teens. He has been a male prostitute for some years and now runs his own small prostitution ring- with one guy and one girl. In the echelon of prostitution, he is one step above the streetwalkers, but there are others above him. He has a mentor who will guide him to higher levels of management. Steeped in the macho world of Pontoi (Russians from the Black Sea coast), he sees nothing wrong with sleeping around but wants a virgin as his girlfriend/wife. And regularly cautions his friends that they should never accept being the submissive in bed with their male tricks because they would then become gay themselves.
There is nothing in the story that has not been done before and better (the obvious inspiration is Gus van Sant’s Shakespeare meets Andy Warhol “My Own Private Idaho”). But the way Mr.Giannaris portrays the Greek Russian émigré world is worth watching. While I was never completely involved (I could see the ending coming a mile away), I was never uninterested either. Besides, there is one bawdy joke involving an American and Russian comparing their penises that is worth the price of admission.
Considering its subject matter (lotsa topless guys running around), it may be picked up for limited distribution, especially in the gay market.
My next report will include a piece on Sukorov's "Moloch", which was very controversial and can be expected to generate protests, if it does get released. "Moloch" examines a day in the life of Adolf Hitler and has been accused of being sympathetic. I will address that in my next report.
Until then, this is minority reporter signing off.
