Some Films from SIFF
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
Here are some films I've seen so far at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). These are not reviews, merely mentions to alert one or two of you in case they show up at a film festival or art house near you.
BROTHER'S KEEPER is a documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Four bachelor brothers have lived all their lives on a dairy farm in New York state. One of the brothers is accused of the mercy killing of another -- or is it a sex crime? -- the prosecution doesn't much care as long it gets a conviction. The local community that for decades ignored the "boys" as smelly and unsightly messes rally round them now to protect them from the outsiders. This is a brilliant piece of film making, initially repugnant (the brothers really are hard to take), the story quickly becoming fascinating and moving and mysterious with drama and comedy and wonderfully revealing interviews with the brothers, the neighbors, the prosecution, the defense. Highly recommended. In fact, this should be next year's Oscar winner, if there were any justice (which there never is, in this category, at least).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! is a German film directed by Doris Dorrie and starring Hansa Czypionka, Ozay, Doris Kunstmann, Lambert Hamel, Omer Simsek. This is an interesting, funny, fascinating, entertaining, and original contribution to the hard-boiled detective genre. In this case, the private eye is a German-speaking Turk Kemal Kayankaya, who is scorned by the Turks in Germany because he's not a "real" Turk (he speaks no Turkish, was raised by German foster parents) and constantly subjected to the anti-Turkish racism of the Germans. He's hired by a Turkish woman to find her missing husband and gets involved in an ever deepening morass of greed, corruption, and violence. Highly recommended.
LOVERS (AMANTES) is a Spanish film directed by Vincente Aranda and starring Jorge Sanz and Victoria Abril. Based on a true story, set in 1954-55 in Franco Spain, it is the story of a weak but very sexy young man who is caught in a struggle between two women. Victoria Abril, who was an Almodovar regular and whom I last saw in HIGH HEELS, won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for this performance. The film was Spain's highest grossing film last year and swept the major awards at the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars, according to the producer who spoke with the audience after the film. This film begins as a comedy and spins down into a very dark and disturbing drama. It is admirably paced and acted. Highly recommended.
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN is a Belgian, French-language film directed by Marion Hansel and starring Carmen Maura. Maura, of course, is the first Spanish actor to achieve real international popularity, mostly because of her performance in Almodovar's WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. This film, in which she speaks French, is about a single female journalist who decides to have a baby by herself, but the unborn child has other ideas. I had a lot of problems with the central conceit of this film, viz., the mother communicating with her unborn baby in words. The movie is heavily message-laden, and while it is a worthy message the power of the message is diluted by the unbelievable premise. Probably, the movie is of interest only to real fans of Carmen Maura, such as myself.
GOODBYE, BOYS (DO SVIDANIYA, MALCHIKI) is a Russian 1966 film directed by Mikhail Kalik. This film was suppressed by Soviet censors for decades, but has finally emerged. It is the coming-of-age story of three boys, life-long friends, in a Yalta-like resort city on the (Black?) Sea. This is the last summer of their childhood. In the fall they will be going to officer school in Leningrad. It was shot in black and white with minimal dialog and lots of lingering mood shots of sunlight on the waves and footprints on the sand being washed away. It is a charmer, even though it seems dated and something of a period piece, and technically somewhat crude or amateurish. I was confused through most of the film by the time frame. It appears, when all is said and done to be set in the late Thirties just before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. Some German and Soviet newsreel clips are spliced in, but I misunderstood them to be flashbacks, rather than contemporary events or forecasts of the war to come. Still, I think this film would be of interest to many of us. The three boys and the other actors are all interesting and lively performers, and the film provides a glimpse at a now vanished culture, too. What I'm not sure about is why the censors objected; perhaps the film failed to show proper enthusiasm for war or they suspected it was making fun of communism, which are probably both true. Recommended with reservations.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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