Montreal Film Festival
(part 2 of 2)
Film reviews and commentary by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Our fourth day is starting a bit rainy. The nice thing about a film festival is that if we get tired of all this cinema we can, without guilt, just say "the heck with it" and go to the movies. In line for MESMER I am holding an umbrella over my head and Evelyn's. There is room for a third so I edge over to include the woman ahead of us in line. We start a conversation and she is a Peruvian. Her husband who went off to get a pass to the film works for the National Film Board of Canada and we get to talk with him about the board. We are particularly fond of Canadian animation like "Hot Stuff" and "The Big Snit." One of the things I ask to know a little more about is a character who seems to run through a lot of Canadian animation. It is a cat who has shown up in many different National Film Board animations and of late I have seen even on bags of potato chips. That strikes me as odd since the different filmmakers rarely use the same invented character. Apparently the cat was introduced in "The Cat Came Back," which I assume is based on the song about the unwanted cat who keeps returning to his owner after the owner tries more and more desperate measures to be rid of the thing. The cat was used in other animations and now seems to be a trademark of films in a given style from the Film Board. The Board is a non-profit government agency and which ran into some controversy when private companies wanted to start using the cat figure, like the potato chip company. I imagine the controversy was not what to do with the profits, though that entered into it, but would this appear to be a government endorsement.
Present for the premiere of MESMER were director Roger Spottiswoode and Alan Rickman. Rickman was very popular with the audience. He is a major film actor after playing in a particularly good villain in DIE HARD, as well as appearing in CELLO (a.k.a. TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY), and the somewhat over-the-top sheriff in ROBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES. (Though in that film Rickman had Costner to act as a lightning rod. Most audiences found it jarring to have Costner talk with an American accent. He certainly should have known what the English accent sounds like. It is what Nazis or ancient Greeks and Romans sound like in so many films. In any case it is probably Rickman's worst performance, though the fault is more in that wretched script.)
Of course, having the director or even an actor on hand to discuss the film could be very interesting, but that is what the press conferences are for. I guess that the audience likes to just see the people involved with a film. Ironically, actors are more popular than directors. Audiences get a real thrill seeing actors in their three- dimensional form, particularly someone like Rickman who has been good in some popular roles. The directors come and say a few words and usually disappear. I suppose some can be looking at audience reaction and some may go off for coffee. Only a couple that I have seen so far have been answering questions about the film afterward and I think that the theaters discourage that behavior, since they have to follow a schedule. Generally the introductions are short. Rickman welcomed the audience in French and then translated into English saying "I THINK I just said..."
MESMER
[A note on the following. This review is being written at the Montreal Film Festival. I do not have materials to research Franz Anton Mesmer so what dubious historical knowledge I have of Mesmer, I have to take from the film.] Roger Spottiswoode has directed films as good as UNDER FIRE and last year's AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. His lesser films include TURNER AND HOOCH and STOP OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT. His latest is an odd film about one of history's more enigmatic personalities, Franz Anton Mesmer, whose name has passed into common usage for "mesmerism," a word used synonymously with "hypnotism." It is not clear, however, that the force Mesmer called "animal magnetism" is hypnotism. In Dennis Potter's screenplay what Mesmer uses does not appear to be hypnotism or really any other technique as applied today. Just how he cures pain is something mystical that would probably today be ascribed to "power of suggestion." But this had to have been a real revelation in a time when the recommended treatment for hysteria- related ailment was slicing the patient's arm and bleeding the patient until he was no longer strong enough to be hysterical.
The film opens with a tribunal of Paris doctors examining the heretical techniques of Mesmer. Unfortunately, the unfriendly medical tribunal of hide-bound doctors is an all-too-familiar film stereotype going back to the Frederic March DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. It starts the film on a false note. Mesmer is apparently reviewing in his memory his own career and most of the story is told in flashback--also a bit cliched.
We find ourselves in Vienna sometime in the 1770s. Mesmer is already a controversial character: he cures the poor, or at least tries to, in mystical ceremonies that often seem to work. His approach is so radically different from those of his contemporaries that he is considered to be a charlatan. Yet surprisingly often his methods are effective. Since Mesmer offers his services to the poor free and rarely has a paying patient he must operate on funds provided by his wealthy wife. His wife and his dim-witted son or stepson are losing their respect for the unsuccessful Mesmer.
At a recital, famous blind pianist Marie Therese Paradis has a hysterical fit. The physicians want to bleed her right there in front of the recital audience, but Mesmer finds he can calm her with his mystical "animal magnetism" techniques. Paradis becomes Mesmer's patient and develops an emotional need for his attention and treatments. Parallels could be drawn to religious cults and indeed the script sees Mesmer not so much as a hypnotist as perhaps a faith healer. The plot centers on Mesmer's treatment of Paradis and later his career in a decadent Paris where he specializes in helping the rich with complex mystical ceremonies. Finally the French medical establishment, no more receptive than the Austrians, calls upon Mesmer to prove he is not a charlatan. Through much of the film I found myself wondering where Mesmer's theories had originated.
There are several problems with the script, but absolutely nothing wrong with Rickman's performance. Mesmer should be charismatic and hypnotic--in a word, "mesmerizing"--and pulls off his performance with aplomb. With the proper handling of the film, this could be Rickman's best remembered performance. Amanda Ooms as Maria Therese Paradis brings to her role a sort of otherworldly quality. Michael Nyman's score is not memorable but it does create a proper mood.
Spottiswoode occasionally seems to exaggerate on the side of the melodramatic, though when dealing with a figure like Mesmer, can one be sure? Scenes of his cure techniques have a wild madhouse feel. There are sensationalist and bloody scenes of opening veins and bleeding patients of a style one might find from Hammer Films of Britain.
This is a spotty film with moments of real intelligence as well as moment of pure sensationalism. Initially I gave it a lower rating, but on consideration I would rate it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. Dennis Potter, considered an influential force in British drama, unfortunately did not live to see the film based on his script completed. He died last May.
A word or two about the ideas of this film that might constitutea spoiler. For me the techniques used by Mesmer are so bizarre a major attraction of the film would have been to find out the origin of Mesmer's ideas. Dennis Potter's script apparently was written intending to tantalize the viewer with just that specific question. He structures the film to save that revelation for the final lines of the film and then answers the question with a fascinating paradox. It is almost as if power of suggestion invented itself. Mesmer is so convinced that pain could not exist without a means to alleviate it that he has used power of suggestion on himself to convince himself there must be something like power of suggestion. The other interesting question the script plays with is, if you do not cure a patient, but only make the patient imagine that he is cured, have you not in fact cured the patient? As a personal example I suffer badly from the common cold unless I take Vitamin C. If I do take the vitamin the cold is usually very light by comparison. I am told that VitaminC does not help a cold, to which I respond it may be true, but I really value the illusion that it is helping.
MESMER played with "Intact," a short film by Turkish director Seyhan Cecilya Derin. It is about a Turkish woman whose family has arranged a marriage for her falsely convincing her intended that she is still a virgin. Now they are arranging a medical operation to give him the illusion that she was. The main character is not happy being treated as a commodity but meets another Turkish woman at the clinic who has a different outlook on the operation. The film touches on themes of personal freedom and self-worth.
I probably would have like to go for the press conference at 2PM but we had tickets for MEN LIE opposite it.
MEN LIE
The title pretty much tells it all in this hypocritical anti-male diatribe packaged as a light comedy. John Andrew Gallagher has turned from making the kinds of films cable services run at midnight to a feature-length diatribe which brings less and not more understanding to his issue.
There are basically three kinds of scenes in MEN LIE. There are interview scenes with women claiming that men are shitheels. There are scenes of men weakly defending their behaving like shitheels. And there is the wafer-thin story of Scott (played by Doug DeLuca) who acts like a shitheel after getting advice from other shitheels on how it is done. The joke that keeps repeating itself is to have a woman say Scott will act like a jerk and then, sure enough, the script has him do just that. If the same film were made with women as the target or blacks or just about any ethnic group it would be obvious that this film is hate propaganda, but by targeting men it can be considered a blow for women's liberation and will find a ready and even anxious, if not very discerning, audience.
(What little story there is the following paragraph may spoil.) Scott has a perfect girlfriend, Jill (played by Ellia Thompson), but like a jerk he cheats on her every chance he gets. His uncle, who is an unsavory lawyer, gives him a lot of advice on how to be a more competent jerk. Jill's friends warn her that Scott is a jerk and a louse, but Jill foolishly loves Scott. She catches him once, but he apologizes then continues to cheat. When she catches him a second time, she ends their relationship. Scott says he has learned a lesson but is a jerk with his next girlfriend as well. That's not a very exciting plot, but it really is all there is to this film. Repeatedly the laughs come from Scott doing exactly what one of his detractors predicted. Supposed laughs also come from men using supposedly standard male tactics like Scott blaming Jill's anger on PMS.
Being fair, there are two male characters in the film who seem to be presented in a positive light. There are no women who are portrayed as being anything worse than gullible or angry. Also in fairness, the stereotypical male jerk as presented does have some basis in reality, but men do not have a monopoly on being jerks, and the stereotypes here have no more validity than other ethnic hate-stereotypes.
Generally the acting is sufficient, but there are at least two scenes in which it was jarringly bad. This is a bad film that is riding a political wave that is just about the only thing that would make it acceptable to anyone. By far this is the worst film I have seen at this festival. Some of the few on-target jokes in the film concern a character who insists on seeing female nudity in the films he rents from videostores. Gallagher may not be happy about this form of exploitation, but, hey, business is business so he includes exploitive sex scenes in this film. I wonder if he also felt bad about exploitation of women when he made BEACH HOUSE and POSED FOR MURDER.
MEN LIE has crude production values, a very flat plot, and perhaps a chuckle or two. For the sake of a couple of decent chuckles I rate this one a low -1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
That answers my question about whether or not being shown at the festival guarantees that a film will be good. Somebody must have liked it--it got a good review from Joe Leydon of "The Houston Post." I don't know who that is.
The evening film was THE ADVOCATE and it was introduced by Leslie Megahey, the writer director and by Lysette Anthony. She had a smallish comic role in the film. I know the name, but don't remember where I have seen her before. Oh, to have Internet access here!
THE ADVOCATE
The year is 1452 and Paris lawyer Richard Courtois is tired of the legal entanglements and corruption of city law. He wants to use his talents to help common people, so he and his clerk Mathieu travel to the small town of Abbeville. There he indeed finds that law is different, though no better and in some ways a lot weirder. Rural law cases involve accusations of witchcraft, devil pacts, and sodomy with animals. And the law extends to human and animal alike. If a farmer is shown to have had sex with his donkey, both might be hung on the same gibbet. Animals may also be called to court to be sworn as witnesses. One of Courtois's first cases is a very bizarre "murder trial," at least by modern standards. Today such an incident would not fall under the category of murder, but we are looking at a very different culture. Incidentally, the case really did get tried as it is portrayed in the film according to historical records. It seems at first like a ludicrous and trivial court action until Courtois starts sensing that the state's case is invented and may be a part of a larger conspiracy.
THE ADVOCATE is a film with a lot going for it. First and foremost is the setting. Years go by between good films set in so remote a historical period. Even without a good plot the historical detail by itself would keep this film intriguing. The historic detail that gives the film its texture and gives a feel of being very well researched. The viewer is consistently astonished by the differing attitudes and life-style of the 1400s. Unfortunately too often the attitudes we see are a mix of that century's and our own. Similarly to THE NAME OF THE ROSE, the photography often appears inspired by the master artists of the time like Breugel and Bosch. The peasants look grizzled and a bit grotesque.
But beyond the historical detail the plot is also enjoyable by itself. The mystery is not one of the best or most unpredictable, but it is likely to keep the audience guessing. THE ADVOCATE is at once an intriguing mystery film and a well-written drama with comedic overtones. One historical detail that the film makes clear is that in the Middle Ages people were a good deal less sensitive about being seen without clothing. That, however, tends to make me suspect it would get some editing before American public television would show it. But clearly it seems intended for some wide audience because of a major budget and a cast of familiar actors including Colin Firth in the title role, Ian Holm as a likable but corrupt local priest, Donald Pleasance as Abbeville's other attorney, Michael Gough as town judge, and Nicol Williamson thoroughly enjoying his role as a local lord.
THE ADVOCATE was written and directed by Leslie Megahy, a director nearly unknown in the United States but who has made several TV movies for the BBC. This is his first feature film and deserves attention. My rating would be a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
That was probably the best film so far. Certainly it was the most enjoyable, though MESMER left me with more to think about. It is a pity that there are not more Medieval mystery films like THE NAME OF THE ROSE and THE ADVOCATE. I guess it is surprising there aren't more considering how often you hear about Medieval mystery plays; it is surprising more have not been made into films. [On the Internet that last line is e-mail bait. I expect a megabyte or two of e-mail from well-meaning but humorless people explaining to me what a Medieval mystery play is and about eight items explaining to me what an idiot I am for not knowing!]
The fourth day started with THE STORY OF YUNNAN. From this point on we did not learn anything especially novel about the fest, so the balance of reviews follow.
THE STORY OF YUNNAN
Mainland Chinese films are generally a fairly bleak lot. On the whole life in China is fairly harsh. Between the living conditions and the politics, the people in their own films do not seem to lead very happy lives. It is unusual to find a Chinese film that is uplifting or inspiring, but THE STORY OF YUNNAN, directed by Zhang Nuanxing, is a sort of Chinese KEYS TO THE KINGDOM. Shizu, a Japanese woman, was living with her family in Manchuria when the Japanese lost the war. In the ensuing chaos she finds herself alone in a hostile country. She attempts cutting her wrists, but is stopped by a sympathetic Chinese soldier who sends her to a hospital. Two years later she is a hospital nurse and again meets the soldier. They marry, but the soldier is forced to leave the army for marrying a Japanese. He takes her to his home in Yunnan province, only to sicken on the way and die upon reaching his home. Shizu is now all alone in a village where the superstitious people blame her for the death and want to punish her to placate ghosts. [Bad subtitling make it appear they actually wanted to throw her in the fire, but I am assured by the director that was not her intent with the scene.] Things could not seem more bleak.
From this inauspicious beginning, Shuzi will build herself into the one most important person, a matriarch, in the community. She will help to banish superstition and bring enlightened ways to the mountain village. In a story told all too fast she remains in spite of suspicion of her background, government attempts to send her back to Japan, and the Cultural Revolution. Finally she is reunited with her family in Japan and must make some final difficult choices.
Nuanxing in 97 minutes takes the viewer from a village with centuries-old rituals and customs to a Japan with cellular phones and huge department stores. Through the eyes of one woman we see the modernization of Asia. Her film is curiously positive on the former enemy Japanese. It is a Japanese, not the government, woman who brings modern knowledge to the village. The government is portrayed as being well-meaning if occasionally officious. Shizu's Japanese family are shown positively in spite of their participation in the Chinese occupation. Part of the intention of the film seems to be to mend fences with the Japanese.
The worst fault of Nuanxing's film is its sketchiness. To cover so many years in 97 minutes the film has to let one or two scenes cover three or four years. There is often a feel that scenes are rushed. Perhaps to save time or perhaps to make this film more acceptable with the government, after the first few days Shuzi is accepted a little too easily in her new village. The script is determined not to assign any fault and not to have villains. This film could easily used another 30 minutes of screen time. The film is at its best when it is showing village life. It shows customs like fertility dances that one rarely sees in Chinese films but which add texture to the picture of village life.
THE STORY OF YUNNAN is the director's statement of women's values. It is unique for a film from China. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
The film was accompanied by a short "Schrei der Erde" ("Cry of the Earth") by Arvo Blechstein. Blechstein created last year's Oscar- winning "Black Rider." This film is a tribute to French painter Jean- Francois Millet. It also has an ecological comment. It is, however, less involving and more serious than "Black Rider."
CYBERTEENS IN LOVE
In a near-future world recreational drugs have become passe. Those who want drug-like kicks have electrodes surgically attached to their brains and tap directly into cyberspace. This is a very dangerous form of entertainment, worse than drugs, but with a greater and more exciting variety experiences that the mind can tap into. Of course a lot of this is only rumor in Child Support, the prison-like orphanage run by the state. Teenager Su decides to escape Child Support and her escape is aided by Kon, a stranger whose truck she uses. Before long she is getting to know Kon better and discovers he is up to his frontal lobes in the illegal "trode trade." But Kon's partners are up to something incomprehensibly big concerning something called the "eternatrode" that offers a kind of immortality in cyberspace. The head of the team, the mysterious and aptly-named Olderman is particularly intrigued by Su and her ability to see in her dreams visions of the mysterious "Shadowfaces," beings that seem to have a life of their own, but until Su came along only in cyberspace.
That is the basis for a visionary but curiously unengaging cyberpunk science fiction film. One of the features of the cyberpunk writing style is an interesting use of language and here the dialog is all written in a style given the cliched name of "futurespeak." In futurespeak the language is permuted in odd ways that take the viewera few minutes to get used to. Show up late to a meeting and you might say "Sorry for my late self-delivery." Instead of "Kon, can I ask you something?" "I'm trying to sleep." the dialog comes out "Kon, question and answer phase." "No, I have my sleep lids on." As someone once said, prediction is difficult, particularly about the future, but I would hazard a guess that technology will get to the point shown in the film long before language would evolve as much as it appears to have done in this film.
CYBERTEENS IN LOVE is a low-budget quickie made on grant money. The film makes use of computer graphics where possible to create visual effects cheaply, though even now many of those effects are passe. Beyond that it is a weak melodrama with a plot that could have come from a 50's exploitation drive-in movie but given a new lease on life by the addition of science fiction concepts. Those concepts all too often come out in the dialog rather than showing them to us on the screen. Because of the obvious budget constraints we have a film that shows more promise than quality. That also goes for the acting talents of Justine Priestly as Su and Martin Cummins as Kon. Occasionally their acting rings hollow; more often they just fail to be interesting.
This is the first feature film in high definition Sony Digital Betacam format with a 9x16 aspect ratio. Generally the format is fairly good, but it still looks like video, particularly when there are near-horizontal lines in the image being filmed. The scan lines are still all too evident to give this image the quality of a celluloid one.
There are some concepts in the film, but the viewer has to meet them more than halfway. Stretches of the film are talky and dull. There are lots of ideas in the film but few are intriguing. I give CYBERTEENS IN LOVE a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
CINEMA OF TODAY
This is a random collection of five short films that have been submitted to the festival. As far as I can tell they will be shown together no place else. And they are very different from each other, but the mind does tend to look for patterns even in random data and various pairings make for interesting contrasts. [Short films I generally rate as poor, fair, good, very good, or excellent.]
"Tall Stories": This is a light animated film with a little boy talking about his house and family while an older man talks about his home as a child and keeps playing "one-ups-manship" talking about how everything he had was better. The punchline is in finding out what exactly is going on. Rating: fair
"Ignotus": This is a nice, ironic little horror film from Spain. Two obnoxious punk rockers, lost on the Spanish countryside find an old village. They are taken for saints by the locals because their punk spikes look so much like the golden spikes of light on the heads of statues of saints. The locals worship them as they would saints and the rockers think they have lucked into something pretty good. But being taken for a saint is not necessarily such a good thing. This is a story with a Rod Serling feel. Rating: good
"Death in Venice, CA": The title says it all. This is a retelling of the Thomas Mann story with the site relocated in Venice, California. The effect is much the same as doing Shakespeare in modern dress. Something is lost in the atmosphere, something is gained in supposed identification value and relevance. This is a long and introspective half hour. An author visits his sister-in-law and finds himself fixated on his nephew Sebastian. As a curious touch the main character is familiar with the writing of Mann, but does not recognize that he is living out one of Mann's most famous stories. Rating: good.
"The Train": Perhaps this one just caught me in the right mood. For a twenty-five-minute film Mike Mathis's film is one impressive piece of cinema. It is introspective like "Death in Venice, CA" but realistically rather than in a literary sense. It is a horror story, but far more believable than "Ignotus" and apparently could well be based on a true incident. "The Train" is told mostly in flashback two years after the events of the story. The main character, Eddie, was working with his brother Jim in a trainyard. Eddie should be doing his job, but untrained Jim is filling in for him and involved in a horrifying accident of a type that was common in 50s trainyards. Jim who feels fine, is told he has just minutes to live. He can die instantly and painlessly, or painfully over a fifteen-minute interval. Jim has just minutes to say goodbye to his life. Eddie has years to make peace with himself or not. This is a very powerful story and a deeply affecting film. Rating: excellent.
"Tick... Tick... Tick...": This is quite a nice little thriller. A man, a woman, and a bomb are tied up together in an abandoned shack. Obviously somebody is not happy with them. But can they figure out what is going on and can they escape before the bomb goes off? The film combines suspense and a puzzle for the viewer. Rating: very good.
EROTIC FILMS
I had gone to this in the hopes that it would be similar to ARIA, a single cohesive film in which different respected directors would see what they could do given a single theme in this case working on a sensual story rather than showing what they see when they hear opera music. Well, I was half right. It certainly was major directors, but with each piece just a minute or two short of a half hour, this had the feel of a series of episodes made for cable. My major complaint is that of these three half-hour erotic tales, the first two are not erotic and the third is not a tale.
"The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch" (co-written and directed by Ken Russell): This film is surprisingly tame given that it was directed by the uninhibited Mr. Russell. The story might almost be out of Somerset Maugham. Simon Shepherd plays a writer escaping from the world to write at an exclusive hotel. There he finds himself completely fixated on the beautiful Mrs. Kirsch who seems like the most oversexed woman he has ever seen. She seems to eat only long and narrow food, like corn- on-the-cob and sausages, she frequents sex-shops, and much more. The author decides to take advantage of the situation leading to the obvious plot twist. The story is quite predictable. Rating: fair
"Vrooom! Vroom! Vroooom!" (written and directed by Melvin Van Peebles): This one has a sort of "Twilight Zone" feel. Leroy is the lonely kid who never gets the girls. The other kids are all singing and dancing and waving body parts at each other, but Leroy is alone. Then Leroy saves an old witch-woman from being hit by a car. For this she grants him a wish. He would like a motorcycle and a girl, but he gets only one wish. The witch-woman, however, finds a way to grant both wishes with a single wish, but with bad results. Rating: fair
"Touch Me" (co-written and directed by Paul Cox): Sarah is an artist. Christine is a nude model. Sarah gives art classes. Christine models nude in Sarah's classes. Sarah has a student who thinks he is Toulouse-Lautrec. He faxes her poems with obscene artwork. Christine has a boyfriend who does not understand her. Sarah and Christine spend a weekend together in the country. They chase horses. They take showers and sit in front of a fire. Christine gets muddy and Sara cleans her off. Sarah gets another fax from her student. It isn't a great story, but it is the only one they have. There is a lot of very sensual photography but little dramatic resolution at the end. There also seems to be little theme except take love where you find it. Rating: fair
THE REVENGE OF ITZIK FINKELSTEIN
Itzik Finkelstein would like to be a big time wheeler-dealer. Unfortunately his big-time deals all fall through and the wheel has a flat. Itzik is a total failure and has a chip on his shoulder against everyone who has ever wronged him, which he thinks is pretty much everybody in his life. Itzik would like to take his vengeance on the world, but what are the chances for a poor slob who couldn't hit the floor with his hat in three tries?
Then, as luck would have it, a mystical cult from the bowels of the Earth decides that the world must be destroyed to be saved. They send an all-powerful invisible monk to give Itzik the power to kill with impunity. The time has come for Itzik to wreak his terrible revenge.
THE REVENGE OF ITZIK FINKELSTEIN is a slyly written comedy from Israel with more than a little similarity to Peter Cook's's BEDAZZLED. Not too surprisingly Itzik's hate-tour of the villains of his past is less than the killing spree that he at first envisioned. Instead Itzik has an opportunity to reevaluate the values he has been given by others that he thinks have led to his sorry state. As his attitudes change, his self-image and others' images of him change.
Argentina-born director Enrique Rottenberg emigrated to Israel in 1963 and has produced films previously but is directing for the first time. He co-authored the screenplay with Estaban Gottfried, basing it on the story "La Venganza de Beta Sanchez" and moving the setting to Israel. Gottfried appeared in the film in the role of the invisible monk. The film won seven Israeli Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
Moshe Ivgi's Itzik Finkelstein can be very funny, but some of the more verbal humor seems to be lost in the subtitling. He does however show considerable personality. Gottfried's monk is well-written but flatly played.
Not all of the screenplay's humor is in the best of taste, and often humor is more vulgar than funny. Then again, perhaps more humor would come across to people more fluent in Hebrew. I would rate this one a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
THE TOTAL BALALAIKA SHOW
Aki Kaurismaki is a Finnish director generally known for very downbeat films like ARIEL. He did try his hand at comedy, however, with somewhat spotty results with THE LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA. That film told the story of a hapless rock band either from Finland or someplace very cold in the Soviet Union touring the United States on the cheap. The band is actually played by a Finnish comic rock group called the Sleepy Sleepers, but the film seems to imply the characters might be Russian. Their trademark is pompadours that stick out a foot in front of their heads like unicorn horns and pointed shoes that stick out just as far.
A sequel was made (word of mouth is that it is not very good) and the third film featuring the Cowboys is a concert film. This one magnifies the incongruity of the first film by matching the rock band with the Red Army Chorus and Dance Ensemble. The Chorus and Dance Ensemble was always a bit of an incongruity itself. As a branch of the Soviet Army, they were responsible to preserve beautiful Russian folk singing and dancing and to bring them to the world. Even people who hated the Soviets would buy records of their Army Chorus and Band because the music was good. The whole existence of the chorus was a bit of an anomaly, sort of smoothing over the conjoining of Slavic traditions to Soviet militarism.
This film opens with a solemn diplomatic scene. It is apparently the signing, under a watchful poster of Lenin, of a contract for the Red Army Ensemble to have a concert with the Leningrad Cowboys. We then flash to the concert itself, which took place on in front of an audience of 50,000 on June 12, 1993. The resulting film is full of ironic humor with more than a little touch of sadness. There is a little hint of lost traditional values in seeing Russian women in traditional folk finery doing traditional Russian dancing to the sound of "My... my... my... Delilah." A buffoonish Cowboy and a squat folk singer in full Soviet military uniform arm-in-arm sing "So Happy Together." This is more than a concert, it is a comment on the closing of the cold war and the coming of new values, with little respect for the old.
The Red Army seems more able to enhance the popular music than vice versa. For traditional songs like "The Volga Boat Man" and "Kalinka" the Cowboys are able only to clown around a little awkwardly on stage. The Russians lend far more to the popular lyrics contributing the sound of a full orchestra and chorus to music usually carried by five or six performers. Their clowning is more like adding snatches to the old Soviet National Anthem to "Gimme All Your Lovin'" Some how they also add poignancy to "Those Were the Days."
This is a short film, only 55 minutes, with a good sense of humor and a lot of perhaps overly familiar music. Perhaps the music is just not as important as the subtext. On the scale of short films, I would rate it a very good.
CARL, MY CHILDHOOD SYMPHONY
Carl Nielsen is considered the greatest Danish musical composer. The famous post-Romantic composer wrote the story of his youth in his autobiographical MY CHILDHOOD (1927). Erik Clausen has now adapted Nielson's memoir of his youth into the film CARL, MY CHILDHOOD SYMPHONY. As the title implies, we see a set of reminiscences from a poor but not particularly sad childhood. As a set of remembrances we get an episodic montage that is more than the sum of its parts.
The film covers Nielsen, who was born in 1865, at three periods of his youth. The 1871 segment has Dog of Flanders feel. We are introduced to young Carl as a boy of only six, but we see the seeds of a budding genius in him. The son of a very poor artist and musician, the boy herds geese. In one sequence the six-year-old leaves his geese, spellbound by the sound of a young piano student playing. When the girl gives up in frustration, he sneaks into the strange house just to see the piano. His father is angry when he hears of his son's trespass, but he appeases his son's curiosity about music by giving him a violin to play with. The boy takes to the violin as a favorite toy and soon is able to make real music with it, preferring to compose his own tunes over playing other people's music.
The young Carl makes friends through his music with people of his village including a blind musician and a cobbler. Carl meets a sister whom he never knew he had when she returns home to die of consumption. Carl builds a relationship with an older brother who Carl thinks is even more musically gifted only to have Carl accidentally injure the brother and end what he thinks might have been a brilliant career. Though his family and friends suffer from poverty and disease, the film seen from Carl's eyes never gives in to self-pity. The film does not have the structure of a single directed story, but more that of a lot of little reminiscences that go to form a single piece, much as many themes go to form a symphony.
The film develops Carl's character through two more chapters. In 1879 Carl joins the army as a bugle boy. He hides his violin skill and learns the cornet, plays in a military band with near clashes, meets more colorful characters. But in his youthful enthusiasm for his music he remains oblivious to much that goes on around him. By the third chapter in 1883 he has a more mature outlook on life. This section is more introspective with Nielsen falling in love and finally coming toa better understanding of himself and his friends.
CARL could easily have made a social or political point like so many other films about people who grew in poverty. CARL seems almost aimless in not sending some similar message. But that was not Clausen's point in making the film. This is a story of a man with a destiny, and it is that destiny that binds the film together, seeing how the mind of Nielsen came together. This is a film of awe, not anger. And as such, it is the best musical biography to come along in years, rating a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
DADDY, COME TO THE FAIR
This documentary by Nitza Gonan is an uneasy mix. One documentary combines a tearful visit to the Auschwitz death camp and scenes from the main character's stand-up comedy act. That is as uneasy a mix asI can imagine.
Mordechai Vilozny lost both parents of his parents in the Holocaust and a large part of himself, though he managed to survive and emigrate to Israel. He has walled off that part of his life and never discussed it with his children Schmuel and Shoshanna. In 1993 he is returning to Poland to visit the sites of his childhood and to see where his parents were murdered. Schmuel, now an actor and a stand-up comic has resented his father's unwillingness to share Holocaust experiences. The film is about the effect of the journey on the three people and in a broader sense the effect of the Holocaust on the second generation of survivors.
Schmuel is really the main focus, rather than his father, which somewhat detracts from the film since he seems a rather unpleasant character. One tends to agree with him when he dismisses skinheads as "idiots" but it seems a tactless comment. However his jibes at the expense of a Polish soldier who will be taking part in a memorial to victims of the Holocaust seems less than fair. Some of his style is reminiscent of Michael Moore, but not as funny. He also expresses some anger at auditioning but not being chosen to act in SCHINDLER'S LIST. He says that he is actually a piece of the Holocaust and many of the actors chosen were not. It would be more accurate to say his father was a piece of the Holocaust. In a later visit to Auschwitz he pockets a standoff insulator from the electronic fence as a souvenir.
Some of his shots seem unreasonable. He shows us some skinhead graffiti ("same hatreds, same graffiti") and then shows us a peasant woman who claims there is no anti-Semitism in Poland. Clearly denying the anti-Semitism is factually incorrect, but it seems a very human thing for a peasant woman to try to deny it. She is hardly going to start giving case histories for the camera.
The film's best sequence is the visit to Auschwitz, where Mordechai finds records of his father. Even here the camera is more interested in Schmuel than in his father. By this point the viewer is far more interested in the father's experience than the son's. The sequence is certainly touching, but could have been a lot better.
The documentary was apparently made for Israeli TV and then poorly subtitled into English. Some subtitles are flashed on the screen for as little as three-quarters of a second. There are long and pointless sequences like Schmuel's "walk to beach like Fellini," which seems like nothing more than showing Schmuel strut and hum a Fellini-esque tune. It seems like three minutes of screentime are wasted on this eminently cuttable sequence.
This documentary showed potential, but it could have been handled in a much better way. I would give it a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
KILLER
Mick (played by Tony LaPaglia) is at the top of his profession. His profession is eliminating people his employers think are inconvenient. He has just finished a big and important job that at first went wrong. An old friend Archie (played by Matt Craven) had been part of the hit and had nearly wrecked everything, but Mick had salvaged things, finishing the job, and for now he deserves a rest. But his boss George (Peter Boyle) comes to him with an emergency. A woman has to be killed that very night and Mick is the only person who can be depended on. But, George mysteriously assures Mick, she knows about the hit and will cooperate. All Mick has to do is pull the trigger. And the odd thing is, he seems to be right. Fiona (Mimi Rogers) is an extremely intelligent and attractive woman who is entirely blase about the fact that she is about to be murdered. And thus begins a very odd few hours in the lives of Mick, Fiona, and Archie.
Gordon Melbourne has written the kind of script that keeps the viewer guessing what exactly is happening and where the film is going. While in premise there are similarities to DIARY OF A HITMAN, which may well have been part of the inspiration for KILLER, Melbourne has his own ideas on what to do with the premise. One is never sure what plot details will be important. Fiona gets Mick and Archie talking about the business of murder. Is she looking for something specific or is it natural curiosity? She also seems extremely friendly to Mick, all the while seeming to be walking into her own murder with both eyes open. Why does she do what she is doing? Mick has been successful to this point as a hit man and he even explain to Archie his philosophy of exactly what it takes to do his job right, but in one night he has fallen in love and has developed a conscience about killing. And that puts a whole new twist on the game that it has never had before.
While Tony LaPaglia is a generally good actor, his is the most straightforward of the three main characters. Mimi Rogers carries much more of the load of making the film work. She has to be the most desirable woman on the screen since Kathleen Turner in BODY HEAT. Under Mark Malone's direction she manages quite nicely. Matt Craven, as the incompetent hitman wanting so much to succeed does an excellent job of projecting both comic and tragic dimensions of his character.
Mark Malone is directing for the first time, though previously he co-wrote DEAD OF WINTER and SIGNS OF LIFE. His KILLER is slickly produced and it works reasonably well. My rating is high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
THE SILENT MOVIE LOVER
Pablo Torre's film THE SILENT MOVIE LOVER is an atmospheric melodrama from Argentina that is reminiscent of Billy Wilder's SUNSET BOULEVARD, but is even stranger. It is the story of a boy coming of age and of a silent film star near the end of his days.
Paulito is a fatherless boy living in an apartment with his beautiful mother. Money is always a problem and he has to turn to stealing from neighbors and giving the proceeds to his mother who does not question the "miracle" of money appearing in her drawers. A local girl teases Pailito and abuses him with dark sexual games. Finally Paulito's mother gets work living and working in a mortuary and playing the piano. The mortician is an intense and aging silent film star who cannot let go of the past. He looks and moves as if he were constantly in front of the silent film camera. Even the architecture of his funeral parlor is that of movie palaces of the 1920s and his funeral send-offs, performed in silence except for Schubert on the piano, are spectacular silent film scenes.
The old film star, Ralph, who went to Hollywood back in the days when there was demand for Latins following the death of Valentino. By blackmailing Keaton he is able to break into the movies and become a great film star, only to lose everything with the coming of sound. We are told Ralph's story with classic Hollywood documentary and film footage supplemented with antiqued new film footage of Ralph as a young man. In a marvelous way, like the characters, once we are pulled into the claustrophobic film palace mortuary, we get out only through the movies. When suddenly we find ourselves out on a big river reminiscent of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, we are momentarily shocked and it feels very out of place. The characters must feel the same and that too is part of the story. The pacing of THE SILENT MOVIE LOVER is slow, deliberate, and very atmospheric, like a silent film. The style of telling is probably better than the value of the story itself.
Pablo Torre, who wrote and directed THE SILENT MOVIE LOVER, is the son of film director Leopaldo Torre Nielson. Until this point Pablo has been a novelist and this is his first film as director.
THE SILENT FILM LOVER is heavy with atmosphere, and is enjoyable as a reminder of the early days of cinema, but the plot is dissatisfying. I rate it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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