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4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu - Romania - 2007)
Pretty depressing and, one would assume, realistic look at the situation of trying to obtain, pay for and deal with the consequences of back-street abortions in Romania in the 80's. Shot in a very documentary like way, with no music and by the looks of it a lot of improvised dialogue this film provides an insight into the mechanics of the situation while also depicting the emotional impact of the journey the two girls we follow take, and the oppressive conditions under which the average citizen was living at the time. Overall this film accomplishes everything it set out to, with honesty and realism for which it deserves a lot of credit. It's fascinating to watch in the same way as witnessing an auto accident unfolding, but really it's no picnic to sit through, especially for those of a sensitive disposition. |
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Cyclo (Ahn-Hung Tran - Vietnam - 1995)
This gritty, violent and authentic film from Ahn-Hung Tran centres around a young cyclo (an excellent performance by Le Van Loc), his older sister and her lover (the ever reliable Tony Leung). Having lost both his parents, Cyclo (none of the main characters has proper names) lives a hand to mouth existence, living a hard life on the edge of extreme poverty. The only money he can earn is by hard graft - ferrying people here and there in his rented cyclo cab. There's a turf war going on though, and his cyclo is soon stolen and his life threatened by rival gangs claiming the area as theirs. Now further in debt the lure of a life of crime becomes irresistible. Parallel to this story is the poet's (Leung). He's already heavily involved in organised crime and takes to pimping out the cyclo's sister, also in dire need of cash. Everyone here is trying to eke out a living any way they can. The atmosphere of tension, desperation and frustration is almost palpable, and the sticky hot and grimy streets of Saigon give an oppressive taint to the characters' travails. This is an utterly assured, gripping and visually impressive cinematic experience whose imagery will stay with you long after the end credits roll. One of the most impressive Asian films I've seen in recent years. |
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Diamonds of The Night (Jan Nemec - Czechoslovakia - 1968)
This film will leave you short of breath. It's intense in a way that very few films these days are. Shot in beautiful black and white photography and with an absolute minimum of dialogue (the first time I watched it there were no English subtitles, and I enjoyed the film immensely), this is a film told with a pressing urgency and fierce passion. Set in Nazi Germany during the second world war we follow two Jewish youths who have escaped from a train transporting them to a concentration camp. They're hunted mercilessly through the woods by a group of elderly men with shotguns, who you'd thnk were out hunting quail on a Saturday afternoon. The camerawork and editing are just magnificent, and the two leads convey an authentic fear of capture that allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the terrible situation these two boys find themselves facing. You can almost smell the sap from the trees and pine scent in the air as the camera rushes up slopes and through gulleys at breakneck pace. At only sixty three minutes there's absolutely no fat or gristle on this film, and no let up from start to finish. This is a rare feature that's well worth seeking out. |
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The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin - Turkey - 2007)
Impressively constructed film set in Germany and Turkey which features some strong performances. It's a multi-stranded affair in which we follow a few characters in seemingly unrelated situations whose lives you can be sure will be intersecting as the film progresses, which indeed they do. Ali falls for Yeter - a prostitute whom he later accidentally kills in a drunken rage. His son Nejat - a university professor becomes estranged from his father because of this, and seeks Yeter's daughter who in turn has become involved with a German student who tries to free her from being deported, while she's renting out Nejat's apartment. Sounds complicated, and almost suffers from an over-contrivance of plot, but Akin keeps everything from getting bogged down, instead focussing on each character in turn, and these performances are of such a high qaulity that the plot soon becomes secondary to the characters, and how they are dealing with their lives. |
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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quais Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman - Belgium - 1975)
Minimalist film from Belgian director Chantal Akerman in which we follow - in minute detail - a housewife as she undertakes her daily chores. We watch her take a bath, fold sheets, prepare meals, help her grown son with his homework and we even take a trip outside with her as she gets some meat from the butchers and relax with her as she has a cup of tea in the local bar. With a running time of over three hours and twenty minutes you might think that this film would be a chore to sit through, and if you're not in the mood this may very well turn out to be the case. However, if you make a little more effort and go with it you may find - as I did - that you'll be more than amply rewarded with a singularly captivating film which will stay with you long after those three hours and change have elapsed, because this is a unique film. Watching Jeanne Dielman - a widowed single mother - complete each mundane task with stoic determination and an obsessive attention to detail is at first weirdly fascinating - much like it would be if one were to sneak into a stranger's house to observe them unseen. After a while it becomes quite hypnotic until finally we're in a position to recognise her emotional distress in the slightest deviation from the routine with which we've become familiar. These tiny missteps signal massive emotional shifts which evince a powerful response in the attentive viewer, much more so than would your traditional emotional outburst. This is a devastating portrait of an ordinary woman forced through circumstance into a world of quiet desperation and her gradual slippage into depression and finally a calm insanity, and the ending is all the more shocking when it arrives because of the quiet, simple and uncomplicated way it was filmed. If you can get into the right frame of mind this film will blow you away. A difficult masterpiece. |
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The Man Without A Past (Aki Kaurismaki - Finland - 2002)
Markku Peltola stars as the unfortunate man of the title. As the film opens we join him on a train journey - on his way to a new city, we assume to start a new job as a welder. On his arrival he stops for a rest on a park bench and is set upon by a gang of thugs who beat him into a coma and steal all his belongings. He awakes (after being declared dead) in the hospital and quickly makes his escape, completely unaware of who he is and why he is in this strange place. The remainder of the film is his journey to pick up the pieces of his life. You'd think his main objective would be to find out his identity, but Kaurismaki's interests are somewhat tangential to this and that's what makes this film so satisfying. Peltola gives a very down to earth performance; his character - listed in the credits only as 'M' is more concerned with trying to get back on his feet, find a place to live, earn some money and find love than he necessarily is with unearthing his identity. Midway through the film this is found out (not by M, but rather through a sequence of events outwith his control) and an intriguing mystery becomes an intriguing character study and rather than wondering who this man is we now wonder what choices he will make in life. Kaurismaki's sparse style is perfectly suited to this tale of people living on the outskirts of society and the way the story pans out is absorbing, occasionally funny, oftentimes quite moving and in the end, supremely satisfying. A fine film that really should be seen by more people. |
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Of Freaks And Men (Aleksey Balabanov - Russia - 1998)
Set in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century this is a truly bizarre film dealing with the world of underground pornographic photograph and film production and distribution. Upper class families are being targetted by a troup of pornographers who are taking over the basements of the families and using them as makeshift studios to produce their porn which they then peddle to the maids of the very same families. Nifty, eh? Viktor is the heavy and ringleader of three 'porntrepreneurs' but he eventually falls away from the porn and developes an unhealthy interest in a couple of twins he comes across. He starts to tour with them as a singing freak show, and plans a future around them, however one of the twins is an alcoholic and the other is becoming obsessed with twisted sexual practices Viktor's partner introduced her to, and everything begins to unravel for Viktor and his troup. There's more going on than that but I don't want to give too much away. What an odd film this is and very enjoyable for someone looking for something a bit different. Technically speaking the cinematography is very interesting; it's a kind of bile yellow sepia toned monochrome which really suits the piece - very much reminiscint of early daguerrotype photographs. You'd be hard pushed to find a weirder setup than what's presented in this film. Strange indeed, and satisfying.
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Revanche (Götz Spielmann - Austria - 2008)
Alex, an ex-con recently released from prison and looking to make a fresh start is working in a strip club as an odd job man - presumably the only work he could find. His girlfriend Tamara is a Ukrainian prostitute and they both dream of escaping the shady and violent world they are forced to live in by saving enough money to emigrate to South America. Unwilling to wait any longer Alex hatches a plan to rob the local bank then flee the country with the proceeds. He and Tamara carry through with this plan which goes awry as Tamara is accidentally shot by Robert - a passing off-duty policeman. Shortly after the incident Alex finds out the policeman lives close to his father's farm and his thoughts turn to revenge. Again though, Alex hasn't thought through his actions and slowly comes to find out that Robert is suffering severe guilt over the incident and that Alex himself may have been more responsible than he for the turn of events at the bank. Johannes Krisch gives a believable performance as the thoughtful Alex, and Spielmann does a fantastic job of setting the scene for us - seedy nightclubs and organised crime surrounds Alex and Tamara. There's an authentic sense of impending doom the two lovers are caught up in and we want them to escape before it's too late. An accomplished rumination on the use and abuse of power, freedom to act and dealing with the consequences in life. |
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Syndromes And A Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand - 2006 )
I suppose this film is something of a love it or loathe it proposition for most people. There is no narrative - the single biggest hurdle most people have to overcome when sitting down to watch a film like this. Also the sequence of events as presented is somewhat confusing even once you're accepted the fact there's no traditional plot. The film is divided into two parts - both of which show strong resemblences to each other. The first half is set in a medical centre, the second in a hospital. Most of what we see on screen are fictionalised memories of Weerasethakul's childhood much of which was spent hanging around medical centres and clinics as both his parent's were scientists working in these institutions. We see various workers go about their jobs and interacting with people, and it's much more interesting to watch these people live their lives than you might think. There's something special about Weerasethakul's work - there's a supreme naturalism about the performances, combined with fantastic cinematography and an air of strangeness, mystery and fun that's just too hard to resist for the viewer who's looking for something special. Unknown to the average cinemagoer at the time of its release (and still, it has to be said for those same people today) this film has become the critics' darling, winning many international awards and popping up on lots of top ten films of the decade, and deservedly so. See it. |
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The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami - Iran - 1999)
Lyrical and poetic film set in a remote village in Iranian Kurdistan. A middle-aged man appears in the village with a team of co-workers (who are never seen) ostensibly to fix something in the village - the team seems to be a group of engineers, or at least that's how they're regarded by the locals. The camera follows the main character almost exclusively in this film, on his exploration around the village and his encounters with the locals. It's gradually and elliptically revealed that there's something more to his visit than at first meets the eye - perhaps even something sinister. If you can find some quiet time to sit down and soak this film up you'll be amply rewarded by a leisurely paced and very beautiful character study that's quietly contemplative and a little mysterious and lets the viewer decide much of what's happening and why. It's also quite funny in places. A real gem of a film and one that will definitely reward repeated viewings. |
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