Hey folks, Harry here... and Lucian had a mouthful of film today... about 7 films... one day... and some very very very wonderful titles. Lucian is doing a great job isn't he? Here ya go...
Ok seven films (really six and a half) is too many for one day. Especially since it's 2 a.m. and I'm on just sitting down to write. I'll try to give four or five films the coverage they deserve but I am not promising brilliance.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ang Lee's latest film is a masterpiece. A high fantasy epic set in ancient China it succeeds on every level. Visually stunning the countrysides are used perfectly. The costumes, sets, props and special effects are all stunning. The fight choreography is meshed with effects most would call supernatural as the skilled martial artists draw upon the techniques of ancient lore to all but fly as they battle on rooftops, treetops, rafters and across steppes and hillsides. To most of the audience these effects seem humourous but to me they were an homage to the ideals of eastern martial arts. What North Anmericans could accept in the computer generated world of The Matrix are harder to swallow when the real world is couched as a world where not only is there no spoon but there never has been.
The story also succeeds on many levels. As an epic tale of conflict it is far more intricate and compelling than a simple battle of clearly defined good and evil. As a love story it is bittersweet and moving. As a martial arts movie each swing of fist or weapon is charged with emotion and integral to the tale. The rich backstory gives the movie the feel of the culmination of a wonderful legend.
The cast, headlined by Chow Yun-Phat, Michelle Yeoh and a host of others, are all superb and the characters feel very real despite residing in a world unfamiliar to us. A few characters disappear from screen too soon leaving us hungering for more. Female characters are strong and numerous, much more so than most American films would dare. Yuen Wo-Ping's fight choreography cannot be praised highly enough as battles appear more as ballet than simple combat.
Lee is willing to take chances, midway through the film the story shifts to a lengthy flashback to introduce a new character and let us see a previous one in an entirely new light. To say more of the chances the script take would be to spoil the rich surprises that await. Perhaps in Taiwan what appear as risks to me are commonplace, if so I can only hope North American embraces this film on a massive scale so our cinema can hope to rise to this level.
The Contender
Directed by Rod Lurie
After a while at the festival Hollywood films begin to seem like an oddity rather than a norm. Even those that might normally seem provocative or edgy if seen during the rest of the year take on an air of the commonplace. Though a wonderful feeling to realise it does make it harder to be objective towards the big name shows...
The Contender owes a great deal to The West Wing. The films almost assumes its audience will be fans of that critically acclaimed series (in the first episode of The West Wing the term POTUS is explained immediately, here the term is used without explanation). Jeff Bridges as The President seems to borrow a great deal form Michael Douglas's wonderful turn as the same roll.
Set near the end of the second term of a post-Clinton Democratic president the story centres on the campaign to replace the vice president who has passed away three weeks earlier. The unprecedented confirmation hearings become the focus of an examination of the entire US government system.
Joan Allen plays Senator Hanson, the president's choice as the new VP and potentially the first woman to fill that roll. Opposing her candidacy is the head of the confirmation committee played by Gary Oldman. So excellent are the performances of these two veteran actors that it took me considerable time to even recognize the actors behind the rolls. Christian Slater and a number of other great actors (including Saul Rubinek again playing a high ranking advisor the President after his wonderful Henry Kissinger in the criminally overlooked Dick) round out a superb cast.
The partisan system is the target here as is the hypocrisy of holding the leaders of a nation to a moral standard far higher than the population of that nation. The Contender explores the place of integrity in a system where right vs. left is often more important than right vs. wrong. Though almost all the characters are shown to have reasons beyond simple selfishness for their actions there is also the straightforward realisation that political battles can destroy lives almost as permanently as battles fought with guns and bombs. Greatness and pettiness struggle for domination and, after all, "who doesn't want a short-cut to greatness?"
Ultimately the tone of the film is positive. So positive it seems more like a fairy tale than a realistic look at modern politics; almost a modern day Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. My festival hardened mind screams to me to dismiss this film as a jingoistic exercise in American flag waving. But that would be too simple. Where the film succeeds is not in depicting the way things are. It succeeds in pointing a finger of shame at the system and striving to set an example for the way things truly should be. For that it deserves to be seen.
Baise-Moi
Directed by Virginie Despentes amd Coralie Trinh Thi
It is difficult to bring oneself to review a film that will never air in most of North America. Quite simply the graphic (perhaps pornographic) sex and violence of the French film Baise-Moi will keep it off even the arthouse screens of North America and, in the final analysis, I'm sorry for that. Baise-Moi is a bleak tale desperate hopeless people (who happen to be women) who embark on a brutal killing spree for no other reason than having nothing better to do.
The film appears to be French reaction to American films such as Thelma and Louise and Natural Born Killers. As they progress in their crime wave the women lament their inability to spout witchy catch-phrases they assume should automatically come with the territory. Beginning in a realistic tone the movie slowly transforms into a Tarentino-esque orgy of mindless violence, and several orgies of mindless sex. There is no lesbian undertone here, the women are unabashedly sexual and take what they want when they want it rejecting any liberal intellectual attempt to explain or justify themselves.
In the end, however, the film returns to realism denying them the Hollywood ending they desire. Baise-Moi is not a film for the weak of heart, stomach or character but behind the obvious there is a message that could not be explored in a watered down way. Pity most people seem unready for it.
Signs and Wonders
Directed by Johnathan Nossiter
Another French film, shot in English and set in Greece Signs and Wonders presents a challenge to the reviewer. It tells the story of an American stock trader (Stellan Skarsgard) who governs every aspect of his life by finding signs and portents all around him. He constructs elaborate games, obsessively reads Alice in Wonderland and draws his entire family (especially his daughter Siery) into his compulsion for seeking out patterns and prophecy.
When he breaks off an affair with a co-worker his wife forgives him. But, months later, when that co-worker constructs a series of staged symbolism to convince him they are destined to be together he abandons his family to join her. Then, learning of her deception he attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife and family a task complicated by his ex-wife's feelings of betrayal and her new relationship with a Greek reporter and hero of the former resistance movement.
Thematically the film explores the U.S.'s desire for domination of the world. US brands are shown constantly, they are signs of encroachment for the audience to see. Skarsgard's character becomes a metaphor for America's tendency to believe each of their actions has cosmic significance and that any mistake they make in their all-consuming quest for their own personal happiness can be easily forgiven and corrected. As Skarsgard falls further and further into his self-constructed pattern of the world he fails to realise how easily he can then be manipulated. Only by seeing things as they truly are not for what they represent can he hope to find the truth.
As a critic the film can be baffling. It is full of symbolism, some observed by the characters some not. Chief among these are the repeated elements from Greek tragedy: the daughter's name is pronounced seer-y and she fills a seer-like roll in the story, it is set in Athens and Skarsgard seems like a modern Oedipus foiled by his desire to exploit prophecy rather than avoid or dismiss it. Yet, the director Nossiter (who did not write the screenplay) claims the central message of the film is not to read too much into symbols. As a critic I am left wondering if I have discovered items in the story that even the director was not aware of or if, like the main character himself, I am reading far too much where nothing is intended.
Signs and Wonders will hopefully play in limited release across North America. When it does I recommend you see for yourself what wonders you can find within it.
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