September 14, 2001
HOTEL
is the weirdest freakin’ thing. It’s
Mike Figgis‘
follow up to
TIME CODE,
where four cameras - one in each corner of the screen - followed a
group of characters in real time as they met and separated and met again at
an entertainment industry office in LA. It sounds gimicky, but it worked
surprisingly well and was quite engrossing. In
HOTEL we occasionally get
four pictures at once, more often just one, and sometimes other
combinations. Mostly abiding by Dogme rules, the cheapy digital cameras are
hand held, with lots of eerie night shooting.
Here, at Venice’s Hungaria Palace Hotel, a movie is being made of “The
Duchess of Malfi”, an old play by
John Webster,
a contemporary of
Shakespeare.
The actors, crew, investors, and hotel staff make up the large
cast of characters.
HOTEL
then follows the filming of “Duchess”, and the
goings on in off hours. That’s it - no plot otherwise except for a
mysterious attempted murder that we never get a full understanding of.
There are no characters we care about. The end.
At the end of the flick I found myself standing beside cast members
David Schwimmer
and Salma Hayek
and all I really learned was how short she is.
Wow she’s short. (I’ve done next to no name dropping this fest, so I
thought it was about time.)
THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS
is a shlocky film about a writer
(Andy Garcia,
whose acting in this flick ranges from flat to two-dimensional) who can’t
support his family, so he takes a job as a gigolo at an escort agency run
by Luther Fox
(Mick Jagger,
who was very amusing, very restrained,
surprising good really).
James Coburn
also puts in a good turn as another author, one who sells
books, and
Olivia Williams
(RUSHMORE)
is Gracia’s beautiful client.
I did enjoy the film at first - there are some good opening jokes and
moments - but add
Garcia’s
constant sulkiness to increasingly corny
coincidences and implausible twists, and you end up with shlock. When this
hits your tv screens as a movie-of-the-week, go for a bike ride or a run.
THE SON’S ROOM,
by Nanni Moretti,
one of my favourite Italian directors
(Nichetti,
what’s up, eh?, what you been doing?) won the Palme d’Or at this
year’s Cannes festival.
SON’S ROOM
tells the story of a psychologist
(played by Moretti)
and what happens to his family after a tragic accident
take’s his son’s life. Not a happy topic, but I wanted to see what it was
that won Moretti the Palme.
The beauty of this film is in the honesty of the characters and how events
unfold in such a natural way. Nothing seems forced; the tense moments are
poignant, not overarching as in so many shrill and angst-ridden modern-day
European cinematic assaults, and the tension relieving moments come from
life’s foibles and kindnesses, not oneliners. It just feels right.
The downbeat topic of
SON’S ROOM
is not going to attract huge audiences to
this film, but those who go see it upon release will appreciate the
humanity of this work.
Craig James White
Toronto - jacket not required
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September 13, 2001
In response to Tuesday’s horrific acts the festival cancelled screenings
from noon. I saw no morning screenings.
Today screenings resumed as the festival chose to press on. There was a
different mood today of course, and all screenings were preceded by a
statement acknowledging the shock we all feel. All director/star
appearances (which I haven’t been mentioning throughout my reports anyway)
were cancelled at the screenings I attended until the last one.
That said, two films I saw today had subject matter that had me squirming a
bit, as it today would have been a perfect time to escape via the movies.
LOIN
(or FAR in English), set in Tangiers, tells the story of Moroccans who
desperately want to flee their poverty for the good life in the west -
whether in Montreal, or in Spain. Well made, but I didn’t want to dwell on
the east-west divide today.
MAGONIA,
a Dutch film which tells three stories within a larger one, was
not somewhere that I expected to be reminded of current events again today.
The premise is that a young boy weekly visits his father who is on day pass
from a mental hospital. The father tells stories by which he tries to teach
his son about life. The first story is set in a muslim town where the old
man who calls the locals to prayer is on his last gasps, and the questions
that surround his retirement and replacement. Here we are presented with a
peaceful and gentle situation which puts the religion front and centre. Not
as if I didn’t know that most muslims are peaceful people, but it ended up
seeming to be a timely reminder. Otherwise, I’ll quickly forget the rest of
MAGONIA.
THE FRANK TRUTH
is a documentary about Ottawa’s
FRANK magazine and its
publisher Michael Bate.
FRANK
rakes muck on Canadian politicans and
celebrities, and this doc looks to paint a picture of where the satire and
bile comes from. Interesting enough, but it wasn’t a stunner.
FACING THE MUSIC
was a much more effective and affecting documentary about
Ann Boyd,
an Australian university music professor and composer who tries
to take on the university brass after music faculty budgets are cut and cut
and cut. A dedicated, passionate, and articulate woman, we really care
about this one. While Boyd Hasn’t won her crusade yet, the film will
undoubtedly be used in Australia to rally the public for increased funding.
MA FEMME ET UNE ACTRICE
(MY WIFE IS AN ACTRESS)
is a comedy about a sports
writer whose wife is a famous French actress. Written and directed by
French actor
Yvan Attal,
he also stars as the sports writer. In the role of
the actress,
Attal cast
Charlotte Gainsbourg,
his wife, a famous French
actress. Everything is going swimmingly for this art-imitates-life couple
until Attal is driven a little crazy by an acquaintance who wants to know
how he feels when he sees his wife make love to others on screen.
Yvan jumps on the Eurostar and heads to London to see how Charlotte is
coming along in her latest film, where she is starring with
Terence Stamp
(PRISCILLA,
THE LIMEY).
What does Yvan find when he gets to London? I
cannot tell, because when
MA FEMME
arrives in cinemas on this continent you
should go see it. It’a very enjoyable and intelligent look at the pressures
of fame and the forces of love and jealousy.
It was the best escape of the day.
Craig James White
Toronto - jacket not required
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September 11, 2001
It’s been a day of superlatives: best movie of the festival, worst movie of
the festival, weirdest movie of the festival, most self-indulgent movie of
the festival, new best movie of the festival!
I’ll deal quickly with the more dubious honours.
The weirdest flick so far is
David Lynch’s
MULHOLLAND DRIVE. Essentially
it’s
TWIN PEAKS
in LA, and fun if you want to take your mind for a ride on
a very windy road. A warning: it’s about as unintelligible as
ERASERHEAD.
The most self-indulgent is Bruce Weber’s
CHOP SUEY, a look back at forty
years of obsessing over transitory beauty. There are things of interest in
the film, and I could review this more kindly, but too much of it was too
empty, and it put me off it.
Speaking of empty, the worst flick so far (I hate to say) is
ABSOLUMENT FABULEUX,
a french adaptation of the British comedy series
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS.
We used to talk in the 80s about all the Ameican remakes of
French comedies that didn’t live up to the original - THREE MEN AND A BABY
for example - well, this time the French have botched it bad.
In the English series Eddie and Patsy are awful people, but at least
they’re also awfully funny, and there’s a twisted intelligence behind it
all. They have occasional redeeming moments and are somewhat sypathetic
characters. In the French version they’re puely idiotic, there’s hardly a
laugh, and we’re given no reason the care at all about them. It’s unlikely
this film will be inflicted on North America outside of Quebec. Tant mieux.
So let’s move on.
Today’s first film was the Danish Dogme 95 feature
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS by
writer director
Lone Scherfig,
and it was great to watch. This is one of
those films that leaves you walking on air (until the AB FAB film starts),
and keeps you grinning for inside for hours (AB FAB or no).
First, Dogme 95 means films made with no special effects, available light
only, any soundtrack has to be recorded live during filming, handheld
camers (but not necessarily that stupid shaky-shaky style). It’s an attempt
by some directors to film more simply, more “purely”. I’m not convinced
that all the Dogme films are better for the strict conditions, but there
have been some excellent ones - CELEBRATION is one of those most worth
looking for at the video store - but it hasn’t hurt either.
In the case of
ITALIAN,
I wonder if the Dogme principles helped to focus
all the attention on developing the wonderfully fleshed-out characters that
make this film so rewarding. While lots of Hollywood flicks coast by with a
couple of cardboard leads,
ITALIAN manages to create six entirely
believable lead characters and numerous secondary bits.
ITALIAN
is the story of the goings-on of a group of people in a Danish town
who gradually come to know each other over the time they take a
one-night-a-week Italian course. There’s the new wet-under-the-ears
minister in town, the lonely hairdresser, the clumsy pastry shop girl, the
sports bar chef with the bad temper and foul mouth, the mild-mannered hotel
concierge, and the transplanted Italian waitress, all of whom have trials
and tribulations to overcome, and who do so with lots of humour and grace.
This will get a nomination for Best Foreign film at this year’s Oscars…
and I was figuring it would win hands down until I saw…
Todays’ last film was
LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMELIE POULAIN,
which not only
redeemed the French for me today, but restored the word “fabulous” to it’s
proper usage. This fantastical tale by
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
(one of
Jeunet et
Caro who brought you
DELICATESSEN and
THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN) is the
story of a Parisien girl who has an epiphany and pledges always to be a
do-gooder if one inspired act she does is appreciated.
In that act Amelie returns a box of childhood momentos she has discovered
hidden in her apartment to a now 50 year-old man. The act jolts his cynicsm
into retreat, and Amelie fulfills her pledge to change the lives of those
around her for the better.
Sounds sappy? Nuh-uh. AMELIE comes off as endlessly inventive, hilarious,
brilliant, dazzling…and it deservedly got one of those rare sustained
standing ovations from the we’ve-seen-it-all-crowd that sits in these
festival seats. I had high expectations going into this film (good buzz)
and AMELIE bettered them.
So, two contenders for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in one day.
Remember the names, prepare to read some subtitles when they hit the
theatres, and catch a pair of the very best films of the year.
Okay, it’s late, and I’m skipping my first film tomorrow. Cheers!
Craig James White
Toronto - jacket not required
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