Hawaii

The reason for this name is a set of slides of Honolulu from the protagonist’s childhood.  Nothing more. This is a film in the line of sexual tension seen in Berger’s previous work, this time set in a rambling house in a small town.  Eugenio is a writer and house sitting, Martin is living rough and looking for work – he knew Eugenio when they were kids.  The friendship slowly develops into something else.  Slow but absorbing look at the small gestures of two timid men inching towards each other.  

Enjoyable but rathonly for those willing to invest in the process of two people slowly reaching out to each other.  Excellent photography and direction of the actors (Manuel Vignau and talented newcomer Mateo Chiarino), the only major flaw for me was the rather pompous music by co-producer Pedro Irusta that detracted from the otherwise bucolic sounds of the farm.

★★★+

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Robert Guédiguian is well-known for his films on social issues in Marseilles. His wife, the talented Ariane Ascaride, is usually the lead.  His most recent work is no exception and starts with a scene of redundancy in the local shipyard involving union leader Michel (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) and his wife Marie-Claire (Ascaride), a cleaner who has to take on extra work to help them out.  He basically takes early retirement at 50 and looks after the grandchildren as they plan a trip to Africa.  Fate strikes when they are assaulted and their holiday money and savings are stolen.  This begins a series of questioning about what they had done to deserve this fate, being hard-working, honest people.  They then discover that the one of the assailants was a young man also laid off from the shipyard.  When it emerges that he was looking after his two younger brothers abandoned by the mother and the fathers of the boys, they feel the urge to do more than help and not remain in the role of the victim.  This is a film about social tissue, about solidarity versus egoism that is so common today.  The two leads portray real people who are trying to do the right thing in life, understanding some things and not others.  Marseilles is shown in luminous sunlight reflecting the director’s love of his home city.

★★★★

Song for Marion

What can I say? In its concept and in its execution, this film is a terribly manipulative tearjerker about a grumpy old man trying to cope with his wife’s impending death and subsequent loss.  She is member of a choir of OAPs who do update versions of heavy metal or rap hits.  Very twee.  Hubby (sensitively played by the talented Terence Stamp) wants none of it but finds himself little by little more involved with the group which is led by an impossibly chirpy and sensitive teacher. 

Vanessa Redgrave is fine as the wife, if somewhat predictable, but her simple presence raises this material.  Bit players have to make do with the clichés.  It is entertaining to a degree but so manipulative and kitsch when dealing with this really tricky issue that I have to bring it down.

★+

Días de Pesca

Carlos Sorín returns with another minimalist film set in Patagonia.  Alejandro Awada plays a 52 year-old man who has been recommended rest by his doctor and comes down to Puerto Deseado to fish for sharks despite never having gone fishing before.  We soon learn that he has another goal, to reestablish relations with his somewhat resentful daughter who blames him for the parents’ break-up and has become distanced from him.  She is now married with a child his grandfather has never seen.  Apart from that there are encounters with locals and other travellers and in spite of a fairly spare plot, Sorin gets plenty to reflect on into the film in small observations he makes about people.  Music and photography are good and the overall effect is that of a well-made small film.

★★★

Enough Said

A romantic comedy with a more than bittersweet flavour, this is a more complete and believable film than I expected.  Basically it is about ex’s and how they can poison future relationships through their memories and through the memories their partners have of them.  A very natural screenplay by Nicole Holofcener shows us how we stumble in and around relationships and how hard it is as we get older to find the right person such is our pickiness.  Holofcener gathers together a great cast here: Julia Louis-Dreyfuss multilayered and credible as Eva,

James Gandolfini cool in one of his last films, the ever magnetic Catherine Keener, Toni Collette and some younger future stars all do their bit.  Intelligent.

★★★★

Headhunters

Every so often a fresh work comes on the scene by a director willing to tell a good story and liven up the genre a little.  This is a Nordic thriller that has elements of the Peter Jackson gore but is definitely a thriller with a great chase and some nice elements.  Roger Brown (the excellent Aksel Hennie) is a businessman and part-time art thief who meets his nemesis in the form of Clas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), employed in a rival business but also an ex-mercenary.  Clas gets to Diana, Roger’s wife and finds his weak points but Roger will fight to the wire.  Imaginative, tautly directed by Morten Tyldum, this Norwegian film is a definite winner, even for those who don’t especially go for this genre.

★★★★

Rush

The story of the rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt for the Formula 1 Championships of 1976.  The year ended with a one point win to Hunt but not after some massive ups and downs, accusations of cheating and the almost fatal accident of Lauda from which he returned to race only weeks later.  The film entertains on one level – it is exciting and Ron Howard knows how to keep the audience hooked.  Daniel Bruhl is very effective as Lauda and Chris Hemsworth less so as Hunt.  Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara do the job as the wives.  But beyond that the film had little for me.  The screenplay is banal, Peter Morgan does a lot of biopics but in my opinion fails to lift them above the ordinary.  The technical side saves this.

★★★

A Prophet

Finally got to see this modern French classic only released in DVD here.  If you can get past the first 30 minutes and a particularly gruesome murder and its preparations complete with razor blade in mouth, the film turns out to be a fascinating tale of survival and wits in a modern jail as we follow a young illiterate prisoner, Malik, learn how to handle the cruelty inside and eventually to play off the Corsicans against the Arabs.  Jacques Audiard is the director (his name spoken in French is not too far from the Spanish “odiar” or hate and his films have their fair share of hate and violence.) Apart from Malik who is more or less a survivor, the big figure of hate here is César Luciani leader of the Corsicans in the jail and played majestically by Niels Arestrup – a great performance.  Matching him stride for stride is Tahar Rahim in his first role.  He is utterly convincing and at times fathomless which is just as his character should be.  Other elements like photography (Stephane Fontaine) are superb as is the very good music of Alexandre Desplat.  While the overall tone is undeniably bleak, the film has moments of beauty and poignancy and is so surefooted even in its more fantasy-like aspects that you are wrapped up in its story from the beginning.  A very good work and superior in my view to his late film Rust and Bone.

★★★★★

Paradise: Love

Austrian film by Ulrich Seidl, whose “Dog Days” I saw some years back and found rather disturbing.  Yes, another bleak film from Austria about a 50 year old divorcee who goes off to Kenya for a beach holiday and finds herself immersed in the local boy toy sex trade.  So, it is a version of the French “Heading South” but on a less cerebral and more earthy level.  Rather long and repetitive it still ends up being extremely sad as we see Teresa (a very compelling Margarethe Tiesel) looking for love and finding disappointment from boy to boy as she wallows in pity for her sagging overweight body and the majority of the locals just look to find ways to get money out of the foreign women.  None of this is new whether it be sex tourism for men or women, but somehow Seidl relentlessly portrays the bleakness of it all, even in the plush hotel, let alone the villages the boys come from. The film has some very strong scenes, and there is no shirking of showing sex and nudity under the eye of cameraman Ed Lachman. It may be seen as a condemnation but the characters are doing the best they can do.  So, nothing original but this disturbing film will linger in the mind.

★★★

This is not a film

Jahar Panahi’s response to the Iranian government’s stifling of his freedom to work punishing him with house arrest and 6 years prison plus a ban from filming for 20 years simply because he shows things the authorities dislike.  This documentary-conversation filmed by a friend shows Panahi and his daily life and frustrations, the film he wanted to make but can’t which he talks us through, and the unseen neighbours and delivery people, friends and lawyer he talks to.  In the middle of it all scene stealing like mad is his daughter’s pet iguana.  As the film goes on, the blend of film theory and life metaphor becomes more apparent and in a final few scenes with the substitute janitor, Panahi shows his heart and skill as a film maker.  The ending is perfect, poignant and as with most Iranian films, ripe with subtext and meaning.  This non-film may ramble in parts and not be perfect but it is powerful art and a work of dignity from an artist whose wings have been totally clipped.  Bravo!

★★★★