Dir. Richard Linklater. US.Comedy 2023. 113mins

Gary Johnson seems like just another dorky divorcee with his cats and Honda civic. But life is turned upside down when he takes on a “fake assassin’ job for the New Orleans Police Department, in Richard Linklater’s latest, a noir comedy, premiering at Venice.

Hit Man, the standout surprise of the festival, is a real feel-good affair co-written by Linklater and Glen Powell who stars as the unlikely undercover cop who also lectures in philosophy at the city’s university. And despite geeky outside appearances Gary pulls off both roles convincingly in a confident comedy turn that sees him in different disguises and personas – from Russian gangster to Redneck – a far cry from the open-toed sandals and baggy jeans of his geeky prof role.

Gary poses as a jobbing gun for hire, snagging his victims with false assurances, these putative perps are then pounced on by a posse of police and dealt with by the strong arm of the law. That is until Gary falls for one unhappy wife called Madison (Adria Arjona) – and it seems the feeling is mutual – the two sharing a simmering chemistry, Gary rising to occasion in ways he never thought possible.

Madison wants rid of her husband, so Gary invents an alter ego in the shape of Ron so the two can get down and dirty without being “unprofessional”. Soon they’re scheming like Stanwyck and MacMurray, and Gary is soon out of his depth. Let’s remember Madison is contemplating murder while Gary is just a decent guy stroking his pussies! Luckily his colleagues are there to support him but will they come to the rescue before Gary finds himself in deep water?

The clever script and whip-smart dialogue ensures Hit Man never descends into farce or camp territor, Sandra Adair editing with deft aplomb. A welcome and enjoyable edition to the Linklater archive. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023

Dir|Wri: Woody Allen | Cast: Melvil Poupaud, Lou de Laâge, Niels Schnieder, Valerie Lemercier | US Comedy Drama, 90’

Woody Allen is back. Coup de Chance, his latest comedy drama, is also his first in a foreign language. Not bad for an 87 year old director. But wait a minute? How will he do the funnies in French? Well you’ll be pleased to know he pulls it off in a dazzling coup de grace (this could be his last film, we are are told) thanks to the comedy talents of Melvil Poupaud with a twinkle in his eye, Woody blends romance with drole humour in a noirish jaunt centring, comme d’habitude, on a menage a trois.

Paris glows in Vittorio Storaro’s autumn tints. Financier Poupaud (Jean ) and Lou de Laâge (Fanny) are a glamorous young couple enjoying a beau monde existence: a slick 7ieme apartment and a country house for weekend shoots. She is bohemian and feckless, he is more ‘bon chic bon genre’ with his dapper suits, state of the art train set and a penchant for getting his own way. But he buys her trinkets from Cartier and they seem to be in love. So what could go wrong?. Well Fanny bumps into an old school friend Alain (Schneider), a poet (and the only decent character) and falls for his lyrical charm. Woody’s classic themes once again rear their heads: fate, infidelity, murder and a wicked mother-in-law, whose meddling will bring the house down.

Coup de Chance moves along briskly each scene an enjoyable gem, Woody seems to edit as he goes along and there is nothing spare in this delicious drama with its needling tension and upbeat jazz score from Herbie Hancock. If this is Woody’s curtain call to say goodbye he deserves a long round of applause. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 | NETFLIX

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Dir/Wri: Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Cast: Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, and Ayaka Shibutani | Japan Drama 115′

Japanese auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi came to Venice Film Festival last year with another weirdly serene thriller spiked by a steely sense of humour.

Evil Does not Exist – his first feature since winning the best international film Oscar with Drive My Car last year – follows Takumi and his little daughter Hana, who live in the remote village of Mizubiki, fairly close to Tokyo but miles from the hubbub of the big city, where they enjoy a modest existence according to the seasons, like generations before them.

An extended opening sequence luxuriates in the peacefulness of this bosky location where Takumi is seen rhythmically chopping firewood and scooping crystal clear stream water into bottles. Mizubiki is a natural habitat for Siberian Ginseng and Wasabi leaves that Takumi and his brother pick to use in their cooking. And on her way back from school through the woods – often unaccompanied – Hana loves watching the deer grazing in the bracken. She has learnt all the names of the native trees and how to identify them.

But this rural idyll comes under threat when the villagers are invited to hear about a local glamping site being planned by a start-up financier from Tokyo. This ‘holiday village’ offers city residents a comfortable “escape” to nature. But when two representatives of the glamping company arrive in the village to hold a meeting, it soon becomes clear that the project will have a negative impact on the local water supply, endangering the delicate ecological balance of the area and the villagers’ way of life. These moral, ethical and ecological concerns are teased out in Hamaguchi’s richly insightful narrative that could easily provide material for several other features.

The Q&A session takes place calmly and without conflict between the reps and the villagers, and there’s a great deal of dark humour at play in the arguments and counterclaims that helps to mollify what could have been a hostile confrontation. The ill-prepared reps – provided by a talent agency – soon have to admit their total ignorance of the nearly countryside, and also their lack of knowledge of basic ecology, and the locals quietly put them to shame. But the meeting has an even more profound affect on Takumi and little Hana, the ripples of which gently play out in the film’s tense and quietly devastating finale. @MeredithTaylor

IN UK & IRISH CINEMAS FROM 5 APRIL 2024 | VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 | GRAND JURY PRIZE | GOLDEN LION COMPETITION 2023

Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos | Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Margaret Qualley, Christopher Abbott, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter | Fantasy Drama 141′

Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest offering won’t be to everyone’s taste. In fact, despite its artful, fish-eye lensed wizardry, strange camera angles, kaleidoscopic images and gobbledegook dialogue, it may irritate the hell out you after the initial fascination.

Unfolding in black and white – until the heroine finally comes into her own in the second hour – Poor Things feels rather pleased with itself, as if the maverick Greek director is being perverse for the sake of perversity.  Doused in profanities, the film makes ample use of the c-word – always a negative in my view – that detracts from some of the clever writing. This eighth feature is based on a literary award-winning work by the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray (1934-2019) and is adapted here for the screen by Tony McNamara who also scripted Lanthimos’ big success The Favourite. But Poor Things is far and away a less enjoyable film although it eventually comes into its own as a surreal female empowerment story with Sci-fi undertones.

Emma Stone is screen dynamite as the main character Bella Baxter, a young woman who undergoes a life-changing evolution after she brought is back to life, after attempting suicide, by the radical scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe with a Scots accent) who inhabits an Alice Wonderland style household with echoes of Dali and Magritte.

In Baxter’s weird Victorian home, Bella starts off mentally-challenged after the doc gives her the brain of own unborn child who has died in the accident, when Bella jumped from Tower Bridge. From then on she questions the Victorian world around her, and herein lies the humour: Bella is an adult child without inhibitions, constantly verbally and sexually challenging grown-up society and all its idiosyncrasies.

Emma Stone | Best Female Actor in a Musical/Comedy 81st Golden Globes

Bella’s state of grace makes her refreshingly honest and naive to the point of ridicule. And this candour is the key to her complete emancipation that comes about through total disregard for her gender and the social restraints of the era. Bella escapes from Dr Baxter’s household with the caddish Duncan Wedderburn (a superb Mark Ruffalo), and their peripatetic odyssey involves much debauchery, Bella having scant regard for her sexual probity as she experiments wildly with all sorts of men in a Parisian whorehouse. The two lovers enjoy unbridled graphic sex scenes with Bella   burbling on in her strange speech patterns, like a female version of Robert Peston, only more so.

The whirlwind romance transports them all over Europe from Lisbon to Paris and finally London in sequences that reminded me of Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo. Freed from the prejudices of her era, Bella gains considerable agency and finally becomes a liberated woman of today. A brilliant premise and a visual knockout, but far, far too long for its own good at over 2 hours. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 | GOLDEN LION WINNER 2023 | Academy Award Best Actress Emma Stone | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Best Female Actor in a Musical/Comedy Emma Stone | 81st Golden Globes

Dir/Wri: William Friedkin | US Drama 96′

William Friedkin’s final film, The Exorcist directer sadly died last month, turns out to be as compelling a court room drama as ever there was, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Herman Wouk.

Delivered with gusto by a cast of commanding actors, amongst them Jason Clarke (who recently flexed his verbal acuity as the prosecution council in Oppenheimer), this follows the court martial of U.S. Naval captain, Lieutenant Commander Philip Queeq who had showed signs of mental instability during a recent foray in the Middle Eastern waters, purportedly jeopardising the safety of his ship, and was relieved of his command by a First officer called Stephen Maryk (Jake Lacy).

Clarke is Greenwald, called in to defend Maryk despite a degree of reluctance and scepticism on his part. And his fears gradually gain ground as the trial proceeds, Greenwald questioning if the Caine were a true mutiny or simply the courageous acts of a group of sailors that could not trust their unstable leader.

This briskly paced affair moves along like ‘a bat out of hell’ as Friedkin intended, as we play judge and jury in the ethical and moral dilemma with some of the finest minds of the US Navy, played by Monica Raymund, Lance Reddick Elizabeth Anweis and Francois Battiste.  The Caine Mutiny may not look particularly exciting confined to its pristine interior setting and cast of dapper sailers but this richly thematic, chewy drama provides dynamite entertainment. And what a film to go out on.

Friedkin commented in the press blurb: ‘I intentionally chose to keep the issue of right and wrong as ambiguous as possible. I was consistently impressed with the level of expertise that our actors brought to their roles and I believe that these are some of the best performances I have ever seen’. And he should know. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | OUT OF COMPETITION 2023

Dir.: Elise Girard; Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Tsuyoshi Ihara, August Diehl; France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany; 95 min. 2023

Sidonie in Japan is rather a wan ghost story about loss and the healing powers of love. It all looks rather gorgeous and Isabelle Huppert keeps us intrigued with her star quality right through to the end.

She plays Sidonie Percival a French writer has been suffering from writer’s block since her husband Antoine (Diehl), a major influence, dies in a car accident. During a book tour in Osaka she embarks on an affair with her publisher Kenzo Mizoguchi (Ihara) who has ended his loveless marriage. But the past seems to haunt them both, particularly Sidonie, until Antoine’s shadowy ghost finally ‘wanders off to the other side”. It’s unclear whether Antoine has re-appeared to tell Sidonie to write again,but he soon vanishes for good leaving Sidonie and Kenzo free to get to know each other on their way to Nara, Kyoto and the wondrous island of Naoshina.

Much is made of Sidonie’s frist book “L’Ombre Portee”, The carried Shadow”, which is sort of auto-realism in the vain of Marguerite Duras.
The film is driven forward by wonderful widescreen visuals, the minimalist script taking a back seat. Huppert takes the lead, just as she’s always done since first appearing on the festival circuit in in Alain Tanner’s 1968 The middle of the World. Since then, Huppert has carried a whole host of minor features saving them from oblivion, and Sidonie, outstaying its welcome even at 95 minutes, is no exception with its likeable if underwhelming characters all on ‘adagio non troppo’.

There are no barbs here so Huppert has to inject tempo herself, and she succeeds against the ponderous script and its meanderings. In the end Sidonie leaves the audience in a bind: clearly Girard has talent, writing here with Maud Amelia and Sophie Fillieres, but script lacks polish and needs finessing. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI 2023

Dir: Roman Polanski | Cast: John Cleese, Fanny Ardant, Mickey Rourke, Oliver Masucci | Comedy Drama, 90’

Roman Polanski has a field day in latest film which turns out to be turkey – in the best possible way. And this is no news to ardent fans of the controversial director who has always been true his heart with an eclectic body of films that have won him an Oscar, a Palme d’Or, a Bafta, Golden and Silver Bears, and a brace of other garlands.

Polanski prides himself in being an actor’s director with a string of international hits: Tess, The Pianist, Chinatown, The Ghost, Cul-de-Sac, Repulsion, Frantic and hauntingly memorable thrillers like Rosemary’s Baby, The Ninth Gate and The Tenant. His version of Macbeth stands out from the crowd, along with historical drama Oliver Twist. Knife in the Water will certainly go down in history as one of the most taught psychological dramas. And then there’s Fearless Vampire Killers that vaunts his absurdist comedy talents.

The Palace, premiering at this year’s 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival, probably falls somewhere between box office flop What? (1972) and Fearless Vampire Killers. Set in a snowy Swiss 5 star hotel called this jaunty little comedy once again assembles a motley crew of oddballs there to welcome in the 21st Century. But what’s missing here is Polanski’s iconic craft and dogged attention to detail, and although there are some laughs, for the most part the film is about showcasing the grotesque to the point of parody.

The Palace feels like Polanski is just having a big party with his close friends – co-writer Jerzy Skolimowski and producer Ewa Piaskowska, Fanny Ardant and John Cleese (in a departure from Basil Fawlty). Veteran DoP Pawel Edelman is behind the camera and Alexandre Desplat provides the score. And there’s even a part for his daughter Morgane.

In The Palace, nearly all the guests have had some form of cosmetic work particularly Mickey Rourke who sports an orange perma-tan and a blond wig hiding his baleful frown. They all demonstrate the rude sense of entitlement of the super rich. But this is just all part of the fun. In a timely tongue-in-cheek touch a group of Russians injects a vein of Cold War sculduggery. A retiring President Yeltsin makes a TV announcement introducing his replacement, an unassuming man called Vladimir Putin. There is plenty of intrigue but none of the narrative strands leads anywhere. Maybe in his ripe old 80s Polanski is just poking fun at plot resolution. Who knows? But a touch of upbeat humour is much welcome in these angst-ridden times. To cap it all, the star turn, providing the romantic finale, is a live penguin. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 | OUT OF COMPETITION

Dir/Wri: Luc Besson | Cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Jojo T Gibbs | France, thriller 117′

A dog really is man’s best friend in Luc Besson’s latest, a canine thriller, based on real events. “Dogs have only one fault” according to Douglas, the main character, “they trust man”.

Wrapped round another astonishing performance from Caleb Landry Jones – in fact, he is the film – Dogman shows how a complex, wounded soul rebuilds his life thanks to the love and companionship of a pack of dogs of all breeds from tiny terriers to Corgis and Alsatians. The story is book-ended by his psychological assessment with struggling psychiatrist and single mother Evelyn (T.Gibbs) who feels compassion for Douglas’s suffering after he lands up in jail. The two are united by their respective pain.

French ‘cinema du look’ filmmaker, best known for his string of iconic hits, The Big Blue, Nikita and Leon adds another crowd pleaser to the list. Dogman is a likeable character we can all relate to; an honest broker with a heart and soul despite his flaws. And we feel for him.

A tough childhood sees Douglas thrown into a cage of dogs by his cruel father whose abuse forces the boy (played by Lincoln Powell) into a wheelchair. The dogs rally round and become a supportive family in his eventive journey through life  And here Besson stretches our credibility to the limit in what Douglas actually get up to but somehow it works.

Besson endows Douglas with many qualities: compassion; kindness; persistence; self-deprecation and a certain nobleness of character. He is a perfect role model for everyman, let alone the hard-done-by. And he has bankable talents too: a melodious singing voice that sees him impersonate Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe. Landry-Jones plays him with an endearing serenity despite his ill-changing injuries. But woe betide anyone who pushes him too far. And the plot turns on a revenge saga that sees Douglas and his dogs rally round a vulnerable woman in some ludicrous scenes that really beggar belief. Dogman has that same idiosyncratic visual allure of all Besson’s features. Despite its flaws this is another winner entertainment-wise. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GOLDEN LION 2023

Dir/Wri: Stefanie Kolk | Netherlands 93’

After her baby is stillborn Robin makes an altruistic decision in this sombre and affecting feature debut from Dutch filmmaker Stefanie Kolk.

Nine months of pregnancy, and then a traumatic birth with nothing to show for it is a tragedy for any mother. And when Robin (Frieda Barnhard) learns her baby has died, everyone in the family is affected not least her partner (Wimie Wilhelm). The two go through plenty of soul-searching finally coming to the conclusion that the nourishing milk that Robin is already producing should not be wasted but go to a good cause.

But their doctor has disappointing news. She advises the couple against their decision to donate breast milk, not wishing to put a further burden on Robin’s grief-stricken body: Lactating into a bottle is a big commitment. But Robin feels it will actually empower her to deal with the mourning process by injecting a note of joy and positivity into an otherwise pretty grim scenario. And the milk donation project gives her something upbeat to talk about with her friends. It’s not all doom and gloom thanks to Robin’s pragmatic nature and she must avoid being defined by her loss and find a way to put a positive spin on her life. She is a survivor and a strong one at that supporting her partner through his grief. But then comes another layer to the storyline that adds an enigmatic twist of lowkey dramatic tension to an already fraught situation. 

Melk is sensitive but never sentimental and made all the more enjoyable by Emo Weemhoff’s stylishly framed images and some convincing performances all round, particularly from leads Barnhard and Wilhelm. Alexander Reumers’ minimalist score leaves us with space and tranquility to reflect on the gravity of a scenario that gently lifts the lid on an inevitable fact of life that also offers a message of hope. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI 2033

Dir.: Cedric Kahn; Cast: Denis Podalydes. Emmanuelle Bercot, Jonathan Cohen, Stefab Crepon, Souheila Jacoub; France 2023, 118′.

Cedric Kahn’s nostalgic look old-style filmmaking is a cinematic sister to Truffaut’s Day for Night. But while Truffaut celebrated a past full of wistful sentimentality, Kahn takes step back into the 1960s, when factory workers were the heroes (at least for a time), before Godard killed the sub-genre off with Tout Va bien. 

Making Of  takes us behind the camera to experience the emotional turmoil generated by crew, cast and extras and the addictive nature of filmmaking.

In a drab provincial town in France, director/script writer Simon (Podalydes) is feeling suffocated by his film about workers taking over their factory. And he is right: two young investors withdraw their money after Simon rejects their “Happy Ending” – he wants reality at all costs. Line producer Vivianne (Bercot) wants to cut the budget and is running out of money. The actors, crew and the extras, who live in nearby high rise blocks are faced with a unpalatable choice: forgo wages for the remainder of the shoot, and hope the film coins it at the box office (so the royalties off at least some return) – or walk off the set and let the film die.

And worst of all the male star Alain (Cohen) is a self-centred jerk who dominates the stage during discussions. His partner Oudia, played by Nadia (Yacoub), lives locally with a jealous boyfriend. Joseph (Crepon), a budding screenwriter desperate to make it in films, agrees to shoot a behind-the-scenes on video camera. 

Father of two Simon is filmed arguing with his wife in Paris. Their marriage is going down the plughole so he makes a lightening dash to Paris to save it but later collapses in a motorway pharmacy. With  so many personal interests involved, can the majority agree to write off their wages for the vague promise of box office success?

Kahn reflects on a time when actors and extras offered their services for free particularly in political films for free – but the star(s) made sure the production went ahead. In this case, there is a clear division between the extras, the “ordinary” actors and the crew and Alain, the box office star. These demarcations run deep: and Kahn reveals the worst of them

“Cinema is a hard drug”, opines Simon, who wants to retire. DoP Patrick Ghirenghelli uses the handheld camera to conjure up the mayhem  and thrusts headlong into a world where setbacks are the order of the day. So filmmaking is still a labour of love even though it can often be a dangerous one. Well-observed and highly entertaining. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL |

Dir: Guy Nattiv, Zar Amir Ebrahimi | Docudrama, 105′

Making history as the first feature to be directed by an Iranian, who also stars, and an Israeli Tatami is an edgy addition to the female sports sub-genre bringing us ringside into the competitive world of the Women’s Judo Championships in a stylish black and white thriller.

Sporting competitions – both on the screen and in real life – seem to be fraught with difficulties for women, who are more likely to find themselves at the centre of sexual controversy, either in the form of unwelcome advances, as in the recent Spanish football debacle, or, as in action dramas Slalom and Power Alley where the main characters experience unexpected biological or erotic challenges that threaten to destabilise their performance or sporting prowess.

The focus here is political: Iranian judoka Leila (Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Cannes Best actress winner Ebrahimi) will find themselves put to the test when they arrive for the competition all shrouded in hijabs, which they will also wear for the entire contest. The action spikes as the competition is in full swing. Leila is suddenly ordered to fake an injury or face being branded a traitor of the Islamic Republic, along with her coach.

With her own and her family’s freedom at stake, Leila must make an impossible decision: comply with the Iranian regime as her coach Maryam implores her to do, or fight on and go for the country’s first gold medal.

This is an intelligent and striking action thriller that once again highlights a repressive religious regime that particularly punishes women. Co-written by Nattiv and Elham Erfani, who also takes up the role of assistant coach to the women’s team, Tatami is a strong contender competing for the Horizons award at this year’s 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | HORIZONS 2023

Dir: Céline Rouzet | Cast: Mathias Legout Hammond, Elodie Bouchez, Jean-Charles Clichet, Celeste Brunnquell | France, Thriller 104′

A mother gives birth but when she suckles her baby the results are startling in this beguilingly deceptive thriller with its dark vein of humour from first time feature filmmaker Céline Rouzet.

The intimate opening gives way to a gorgeous splash of bosky pastures and hills. This is the Ardennes in full summer where Georges et Laurence Feral have decided to settle with their two kids. Baby Philemon is now a teenager (Legout Hammond) and little Lucie (Laly Mercer) is ready to start school leaving Laurence to return to work. And they seem like any other family in this pleasant part of France.

The strange thing is their evenings seem to be spent hooked up to blood bags that Laurence has apparently filched from the blood donation department of the hospital where she now works.
Philemon has found a girlfriend Camilla (Celeste Brunnquell) but an unorthodox habit remains with him as he desperately tries to protect her from the truth. And one day he mysteriously saves the life of a local woman – but no one understands how. And this plot line is never really resolved. Philemon is clearly a troubled teen who gradually feels more and more of an outsider in this close knit community.

Often viewed on the widescreen with an aerial camera this is a sinister drama that gets darker by the minute, and the night scenes are particularly alluring as Philemon descends into the nightmare of his terrible affliction.

Best known for her award-winning debut documentary feature A Distant Thud in the Jungle (2020) Rouzet director with confidence from a script co-written by William Martin. Mathias Legout Hammond is the standout in a soulful performance sensitively supported by Élodie Bouchez and Jean Charles Clichet as his parents. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 | HORIZONS COMPETITION.

Dir: Goran Stolevski  | Cast: Anamaria Marinca, Alina Serban, Samson Selim, Vladimir Tintor, Dzada Selim, Mia Mustafa, Sara Klimoska, Rozafa Celaj, Ajshe Useini

Modern families come in all shapes and sizes and none more so than the one in Housekeeping for Beginners that started with two mothers at its helm.

Macedonian born Goran Stolevski, best known for his award-winning debut You Won’t Be Alone, plunges us into a maelstrom of mixed emotions, tears and recrimations in this free-flowing melodrama that sees Dita (Anamaria Marinca), a reluctant and harried ‘mum in law’, suddenly forced to bring up her girlfriend’s two unmanageable daughters: cheeky upstart Mia and troubled Vanesa, a teenager going on 40!).

So life is what happens when you’re making plans, as the phrase goes. And to make matters worse Dita, a cultured and intelligent individual, is pushed to the limit, and we really a palpable sense of panic for her in this hair-raising set-up, where she also tolerates a marriage of convenience with (Vladimir Tintor) who is gay but needs papers to stay in the country.

A battle of wills ensues as the three continue at loggerheads captured by Naum Doksevski’s pin-sharp frenzied camerawork that takes us up close and personal to this unlikely family fighting to stay together through force of circumstance rather than compatibility and desire. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | HORIZONS 2023

Dir.: Robert Kolodny; Cast: James Madio, Lawrence Gilliard jr., Stephen Lang, Keir Gilchrist, Ruby Wolf, Shari Albert, Imma Allielo, Gordon Silva, Ron Livingstone, Ron Livingstone; USA 2023, 99 min.

US filmmaker Robert Kolodny also creates some impressive visuals of decay in this docu-drama, written by Steve Loff.

The Featherweight, his first feature, looks at the failed comeback of ex-world champion featherweight Willie “Pep” (Madio), considered one of the best fighters of the 20th century and famed for his speed, finesse and elusiveness in the ring. But his return to the ring ruined his marriage and career prospects in the midst of a poisonous family atmosphere in his home town of Hartford /CT, a mere two hours train ride away from New York, but in another universe from the throbbing metropolis.

Where Martin Scorsese and others still see some romantic yearning in the fighters portrayed, Kolodny shows just disillusionment and fractured family relationships. Born Gugliemo Papaleo in 1922, the sportsman had a terrible time at the hands of his violent father Salvatore (Silva) and his tyrannical Mama (Allielo) and their drug dependent son Billy (Gilchrist). Sister Fran (Albert) seems a voice of reason, even though she can take on all others when it comes to prejudice and conspiracy theories.

The family home is a den of psychological violence where Linda (Wolf), Willie’s much younger wife, tries to escape for a acting career in New York. The jealous boxer does his best to sabotage her efforts. Having won 229 out of 241 fights he has managed to hold on to world championship in his weight class for years.

Gambling eats away at Pep’s finances and he is broke by the age of 42, six years after retirement. Against the advice of his manager Bob Kaplan (Livingstone) Pep plans a comeback, aided and abetted by his trainer Stephen Lang (Gore). All the people in his circle during Pep’s career have little influence on the boxer or his actions – but Sandy Saddler (Gilliard jr), who took the world title from Pep, before losing in the return fight, has an emotional relationship with Pep.

Salvatore emerges a violent, manipulative brute who took the children away from his wife for a time. When young Pep lost his shoe-shining spot to an older boy, Salvatore told Pep to fight his corner – or he would have a much bigger battle on his hands. Somehow this story colours the whole film, Pep feeling guilty about his father’s death – rather than liberation from his tormentor. But his treatment of Linda sadly shows he has inherited his controlling and jealous misogyny.

Kolodny reveals the broken heartlands of the USA: Hartford has been left to rot, like many towns which have fallen by the wayside. Pep is a symbol of this decline: he will end up begging for jobs at Hilton hotels in remote locations. No wonder he wants to return to the ring, the only place he shone, and counted at his home. Hartford is an industrial wasteland, and Pep goes out of the frying pan and into the fire, exchanging his training for a comeback in a dump of a ring in Miami.

The Featherweight leaves nothing to the imagination: Pep is just a step away from his ancestors from Sicily: violence, physical and psychological, are the only ways he knows how to solve a conflict. One roots for Linda in the hope she will make her escape to New York. Pep, on the other hand, will always be on the losing side: in his family battles and his comeback. A dark, disheartening tale of relegation and loss. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | HORIZONS 2023

Dir.: Pietro Castellittto; Cast: Pietro Castellitto, Adamo Dionisi, Chiara Noshere, Benedetta Porcadi, Sergio Castellitto; Italy 2023, 117 min.

The Mafia theme is hard-wired into Italian life. And although on the surface of it Enea might seem just another Italian gangster flic, Pietro Castellitto’s Rome-set sophomore feature is sublimated into a sumptuously lyrical often melodramatic character study of stunted emotional development. Like the Greek hero Aeneas, son of Aphrodite, Enea struggles to do his good looks justice, and his nonchalant nature will be tested to the limit.

Enea (P. Castellitto) is drop dead gorgeous and he knows it, relying on his charisma and winning manners to sail through life. Now in his thirties, he is still joined at the hip to his close friend and fellow pilot Valentino (Dionisi) and the feeling is mutual. (“I always followed you because you are so attractive”).

But their friendship will be tested to the limit after Enea, who owns a Sushi-bar, gets involved with the mob in a drug heist worth a cool 20 million. Just how Enea got roped into the gig – or why he decides to keep the loot all to himself – is a mystery. This guy is a sly operator who slips into his gangster role with consummate ease.

Enea’s father (Stephen, the director’s actual father) is a child psychologist with a destructive personality needing to let off steam after hours. But he enjoys the emotional kudos of having a “happy family’, however fake it is. His wife (Noschere) is a TV presenter, but seem to resent her life of privilege. In a very telling scene her husband watches her nearly being hit by a falling palm tree in the atrium of the their villa. These are the kind of people who blow a gasket when the housekeeper leaves. They even employ a Filippino butler with a dodgy background, just for show.

So life is certainly not sweet in the Enea household. His much younger half-brother is a troublesome truant and the city’s General prosecutor has thick files on both Enea and Valentino. He makes the mistake of threatening the two friends in his office at the top of a skyscraper – an unwise decision as it later turns out.

Then Enea falls for Eva (Porcoroli) and this sounds the death knoll for his closeness with Valentino, setting in motion a stunningly surprising finale. DoP Radek Ladczuk captures this orgy of pyrotechnics, car chases and killings with his superior style. But the script never leaves the family setting: Enea might be the black sheep, but his relationship with Valentino (as long as it lasts) is the most honest thing here, despite its ambiguities. Do we need another Italian gangster movie?, possibly not. But this one will seduce you with its structural brilliance and visual allure. An unforgettable addition to the Mafia subgenre.AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GOLDEN LION COMPETITION 2023

Dir: Victor Iriarte | Cast: Lola Duenas, Manuel Egozkue, Ana Torrent | Spain/Portugal/France Drama 95′

Set in San Sebastián, Madrid, Porto and Paris Victor Iriate’s first feature offers an inspirational way for two women to come to terms with past trauma. Billed as a violent murder story with a political background, the crime here is ‘much greater than anyone could ever imagine’ (according to the lead character Vera and harks back to a terrible child trafficking episode in Spain’s not so distant past.

The film’s enticing early scenes give way to a less satisfying denouement. The idea of framing the story as neo-noir thriller is a clever one but the execution, though poetic, is rather overwrought. We already know what’s going to happen, it’s just a question of how and when.

In the opening scene a menacing score accompanies a woman’s hand tracing over the pages of an atlas of Spain and Argentina. This hand belongs to Vera (Lola Duenas, unforgettable for her performance in Alleluia) and we don’t trust her for a minute. And for good reason: forced to give up her child Egoz for adoption, she is a bitter woman. And the pain and rancour is with her everyday. A collage of pictures and archive clips follows in silence, shedding light on Spain’s social and political past and that unfortunate trafficking episode and the perpetrators. Vera imagines killing them all. Desperate for revenge the lonely woman spends all her spare time searching in vain for the documentation relating to her child’s whereabouts. But nothing comes to light.

Vera, a court stenographer, lives in the Basque capital but has always spent her summers on the Douro where her aunt lived. On the way to Porto she will eventually meet Cora (Ana Torrent) who has brought up Egoz (Manuel Egozkue, who has an uncanny resemblance to his adoptive screen mother). The two women have one thing in common, they are both highly dexterous: Vera types all day, Cora is a talented pianist, and their abilities are showcased as one of the film’s recurring motifs. The three of them play a dangerous together, and seem to get on like a house on fire. But this is all part of the quite obvious deception. Iriarte and his two co-writers capture the spirit of William Congreve: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI 2023

Dir.: Andres Peyrot; Cast: Aristeides Turpana, Diaz de Pestan, Olonnigdi Chiari, Cebaldo Inawinapi; Panama/France/Switzerland 2023, 87′.

French/Panamese filmmaker Andres Peyrothas has unearthed a real gem for his first film. It takes us back to 1975 when French documentarist Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau (1923-1997) went with his crew and family to the San Blas islands of Panama. Herre the Kuna community consider their women to be sacred.

Gaisseau’s claim to fame was winning the first ever Documentary Oscar, in 1962, for Sky Above and Mud Beneath. But despite this lofty achievement financing God is a Woman soon ran into difficulties and the bank took the film as collateral.

Then along came Aristeides Turpana who happened to be present at the original shoot and is now a university lecturer. He has taken it upon himself to discover the original, and luck is on his side when he meets one of his former students who is now the deputy minister for culture in the Republic of Panama. He digs out a copy of the 1975 version of God is a Woman – but dust has eaten the film material rendering it unfeasible, even for restoration purposes.

So Turpana makes his way to Paris where he had promised to meet Gaisseau in a particular cafe. But the filmmaker is long gone, and so is his wife, and daughter Akiko. Turpana soon cheers up when he finds out that Akiko has hidden a copy of the film in her cellar.

The Cinematheque Francaise was able to restore the copy and finally, fifty years after shooting, the refurbished film arrives in San Blas. Excitement spreads like wildfire, people taking on loans from family members to travel to the screening. They are looking forward to seeing their, who have since died, preserved on celluloid. Turpana oversees the construction of an outdoor cinema with a huge screen – on the night of the projection, boats from all over the islands are moored near the screen – over a hundred thousand people have ventured out to see their heritage.

The original 1975 copy is rather a wild undertaking, Gaisseau was known for his excesses. But somehow his approach fits the exuberant staging of a young girl’s coming-of-age. She has chosen a partner of own generation and he has two nights to escape – but he doesn’t disappoint her and joins in the celebration dancing with his male peers.

In the discussion that follows it transpires that Gaisseau did not translate the shaman correctly, but went for a more exotic approach – something which had been done regularly in the past. But the young filmmakers of today are anything but overwhelmed by Gaisseau’s efforts, although they admire his camerawork – in the style of John Ford. But most people really enjoy the mass celebration, “just in time to commemorate the rebellion of the San Blas people against the colonial forces hundred years ago”.

DoPs Patrick Tresch and Nicolas Desaintquentin uses hand-held cameras to capture the festivities. Gaisseau’s poetic pastoral pictures serve as an everlasting memory of that joyous occasion and will live forever etched into the collective memories of the Kuna people. AS

CRITICS’ WEEK | VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023

Dir: Alex Braverman | US Doc, 99′

The Safdie Brothers are behind this new documentary that looks back at the life and career of Andy Kaufman, considered one of the most innovative, eccentric and enigmatic performers of his era. A master of manipulation, Kaufman could generate merriment, tears or violent reactions from his audience, even discombobulating his closest friends into a nonplussed silence.

Messing with reality is everything that Andy was about. His art form is his act but – like every artist – he had to come up with something new and this was the magic formula: To have fun. Whether the audience got it, or not, it was up to them.

Documentarian Alex Braverman jumps around a bit in telling Andy’s outlandish story. It unspools like an outburst of mixed emotions; anecdotes and excerpts from amusing chat show interviews. The comedian can’t understand why people laugh at his deadpan silences  – but not at his gags.  But when he finally lands a Carnegie Hall gig success has arrived.

The best thing about Braverman’s film is that he goes back to Andy’s upbringing to understand why this middle class Jewish entertainer had such a desperate need to live in the past, recreating an eternal childhood.  Apparently It all stems from a ‘narcissistic wound’: As a child Andy’s best friend was his grandfather Pappo. The two were inseparable, and sold on each other until grandpa’s death. Andy’s parents didn’t have the heart to tell their son his friend had gone forever, saying Pappo had just gone travelling. But Andy never got over his parents’ deception. Unable to cope with the rejection he created an alternative way of staying forever with Pappo, retreating into an interior life in his bedroom where he invented his own TV station ‘Channel 5’, eventually turning himself into a children’s entertainer and then a fully fledged adult comedian.

Humour was largely situational. Taking a one off job as a waiter Andy would often put on funny voices when serving customers, leaving the diners flummoxed but unsure how to respond. By creating a series of different characters, Andy could dissimulate, accessing the innermost depths of his personality with these diverse guises. The ‘foreign man’ Latka act was one of his most long-running gags. An Elvis impression allowed him to be sexy. The Tony Clifton character allowed him to be an ‘asshole’. 

Danny DeVito – one of the main talking heads – talks of his involvement with Andy during the ‘Taxi’ years, But the fact that Clifton actually existed as real person led to a complicated set-too with his ‘alter ego’. Another act featured an old woman who died of a heart attack on stage. But nobody understood whether it was real or not, leading to complaints as Andy’s acts drifted dangerously near the bone.

Personally too his life became fused with fantasy. Often he responded “not necessarily” when confronted with unequivocal facts. Drug addiction took over and, for a while, Andy lived in a local park as a ‘drop-out’. After this troubling episode he managed to bond with his father, who is still alive and provides ballast as a commentator. Andy discovered transcendental meditation and claimed it saved him. He eventually became a teacher of the method.

At one point Laurie Anderson joined him on his stage and became his stooge, often in some very violent violent acts that showcased the brutal face of America in contrast to the saccharine one so often vaunted by the entertainment industry. At this point he had also started a bizarre new act challenging women to wrestle him in the ring where he would perform as the bad guy wrestler, at a time when women’s lib was on the rise. Andy could be great fun in a crowd but he was incapable of emotional intimacy.

Thank You Very Much is entertaining and well put together chronicling the life of a unique performer who was also, like many entertainers, a troubled soul. Braverman certainly gets under Andy’s skin, as much as anyone could, to celebrate a man who was socially unconventional whose skill was performing for an audience who didn’t know it was actually watching a show. MT

VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY 2023

Dir.: Ariane Louis-Seize; Cast: Sara Montpetit, Felix Antoine Benard, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noemie O’Farrell; Canada 2023, 88 min.

Ariane Loise-Seize opts for an extravagant title in her deadpan feature debut. Co-written with Christine Doyon, this quirky Canadian comedy is a roller-coaster of conflicting emotions centred around Sasha, a bloodthirsty vampire who would rather die than harm.

In Montreal, we meet family favourite Sasha celebrating her birthday. The gift of a piano goes down well and proves her to be a natural on the ivories, but a clown follows next as her first victim. The family can’t wait for her get their fangs into this helpless ‘amuse-guele’ but Sasha gives it a wide berth.

Sasha has been groomed for her life of bloodlust with a diet of German vampire movies of the silent era. But this gorefest has the opposite effect on her: Sasha feels empathy for human potential victims and enters adulthood (she is 68, but looks decades younger) without draining a single drop of the crimson nectar she craves.

Maybe she’s a late developer? Her father, (LaPlante) an academic, is philosophical and bides his time but her mother (Monpetit) is impatient for Sasha to get her fangs into someone: “I am not going to hunt for you for the next 200 years” is a warning cry, so Sasha spends a spell with her aunt to cut her teeth and get cracking.

Enter Paul (Benard), a suicidal young man, tormented by group of punks led by Henry. Cousin Denise encourages Sasha to complete the first kill – and age gracefully like auntie Victoria (375). But Paul falls for Sasha (whence the film gets its title) and is desperate for revenge on Henry. Sasha is well aware of her need to “transfer” Paul (AVATAR like) to his vampire status. Somehow she must pounce.

This amusing tragicomedy unfolds in a similar albeit more upbeat vein to Let the Right One In with DoP Shawn Pavlin taking a Grimm’s fairy tale approach, incorporating realistic elements to reflect the present – equally dark and foreboding – as the outwardly pleasant and moderate vampire world. Sasha has to fight on both fronts and develops a certain taste for violence when cornered. But she (and Paul) must be true to the mission: to remain humanist at all times. A great premise but a bit of a ”one-act-pony”, even at 88 minutes. The final reel feels rather drained of the energy spent in the early part of the story. Still, Human Vampire is one-off and highly entertaining, Ariane Louis-Seize is certainly a talent to reckoned with. AS

WINNER of the 2023 GdA Director’s Award. GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI VENICE and TORONTO 2023

Dir.: Gianni Amelio; Cast: Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardoc Maltese, Sarah Serraiocco; Italy 2022, 134 min.

Italian director/co-writer Gianni Amelio returns to Venice with a worthy but rather tired looking epic about the trial and imprisonment of 1960s poet and intellectual Aldo Braibante accused of ‘Plagiarism’, an old fascist law masking homophobic intent. The case went to trial in Rome when Ettore’s family brought a law suit against the academic, who enjoyed a consensual relationship with the student. 

Ennio (Germano), a Unita journalist, is sympathetic to Braibante but the communist newspaper refuses to support his case since they believe homosexuals should be punished in concurrence with the Italian state. Graziella (Serraiocco) joins Ennio in setting up an LGBT styled campaign. And while Graziella pursues her activism, Ennio then leaves the newspaper, potentially a victim of Aids. DoP Luan Amelio underlines the director’s stereotypical message with rather bland images in this quality potboiler. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GOLDEN LION 2022

Dir.: Joanna Hogg; Cast: Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carlly-Sophia Davis; UK 2022, 96 min.

Joanna Hogg envelopes personal memories in her latest film -a ghostly tale that echoes Henry James and Sigmund Freud. The Eternal Daughter is all about the unprocessed grief and guilt between a mother and her daughter, or is it her adopted daughter?.

Rosalind and her middle-aged filmmaker Julie (Swinton in doppelgänger mode) retreat to the Welsh countryside to stay in a stately haunted hotel which once belonged to Rosalind’s family. Arriving in swathes of mist on a dank December night, they appear to be the only guests in residence. A celebration of Rosalind’s birthday is supposed to be the highlight of the trip that Julie is hoping will also provide a few ideas for a film about her mother.

The eerie sequestered location provides an ominous setting for the days ahead which get off to a bad start when the two women find themselves at the mercy of an offhand hotel receptionist (Davies) who puts them in a dingy room where Julie hardly gets any sleep, disturbed by sinister noises during the night. Gradually a dreary routine sees reality and fantasy fuse in a malign atmosphere where Julie’s creative juices fail to flow, her dog becoming an acute barometer for the enigmatic goings on while also echoing Julie’s suppressed feelings of anxiety in her desire to please her mother who is submerged by her own unreliable memories of the past  

Shot on 35mm film in Panavision with an evocative score, this is an imaginative reflection on how well we think we actually know our parents as people before we came along, and how their experiences colour our own lives. Rosalind was the child of Victorians in a distinctly un-permissive world shaped by the maxim “never explain, never complain”. She lived through wartime but her recollections seem suppressed by a desire to put a positive spin on the past and bury her true feelings. And although the past is still a foreign country for Julie, she and her mother are actually more similar than they imagine, locked together in a timeless bond through their intimate background. Hogg’s unique idiosyncratic style with its witty English sensibilities once again triumphs and is instantly relatable for her niche audience of committed cineastes. The Eternal Daughter is a delicate but thematically redolent memoire that adds to her distinctive archive. A piquantly tender often sadistic tour de force. MT

IN UK CINEMAS 24 NOVEMBER | VENICE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERE

Dir.: Santiago Mitre, Cast: Ricardo Darin, Juan Pedro Lanzini; Argentina/USA 2022, 140 min.

Multi-awarded director Santiago Mitre (The Summit) chronicles a dark episode in the history of his nation: the 1985 trial of the Junta’s generals. And although these military monsters had terrorised the country and murdered half a million Argentinians for nearly a decade during the ‘Dirty Wars’, this was the only trial that ever took place. The hero of the hour is General Prosecutor Julio Strassero (a masterful Riccardo Darin) who, undeterred by the military’s still considerable and corrupt influence within their fragile new democracy, assembles a team of hungry young lawyers for the monumental court battle. What follows – on the widescreen and in intimate close-up – is an incendiary race against time to bring justice, involving death threats as dirty as the wars themselves. DoP Javier Julia’s panoramic shots of the courtroom and specular street set pieces make this a real epic that speeds along with Mitre’s tightly written script making over two hours seem like minutes. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | FIPRESCI PRIZE WINNER 2022

Dir.; Noah Baumbach, Cast: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Raffey Cassidy; USA 2022, 136 min.

The curse of the festival opener is alive and kicking at Venice: Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, an adaption of Don de Lillo’s 1985 novel, is simply an embarrassment. In New York, Jack Glasdney (Driver) and Babette (Gerwig) have a brood of kids to look after from their own fraught marriage and earlier relationships. And they fail miserably: the toddler and younger children are a drain on their energy and, the older ones – including teenager Denise (Cassidy) seem more mature than their parents. Then en ecological disaster comes to town, and Jack is caught in the fallout. Mysticism and graphic violence ensues, but no plot resolution of any kind. DoP Lol Crawley does his best to keep the frantic tempo going, but it’s all empty noise.AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022

Dir: Todd Field | Cast: Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss | US Biopic Drama 158′

Cate Blanchett is sheer dynamite – allegedly mastering fluent German – as a world famous musician foisted by her own petard in this hefty near three hour biopic from US director Todd Field.

Field, in his first film since Little Children (2006), firmly establishes the gravitas of Lydia Tar’s prestigious position as head conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in the prodigious opening scenes of a feature which luxuriates in its endlessly fascinating main character; her peripatetic high net-worth lifestyle amongst the great and the good, her pioneering grit and perseverance in accomplishing her multiple worthy achievements: now at the zenith of her career she is a pianist, composer, conductor and successful family woman who has adopted a Syrian refugee with lover Sharon Goodnow (the ever luminous Nina Hoss) and is seemingly un-eclipsible, or so it would seem.

Slow-burning towards a coruscating crescendo after a languorous, immersive overture, the denouement is decidedly gut-punching. Certainly a film for committed cineastes or fans of classical music, this is heavyweight stuff but a magnum opus for Field and a tour de force par excellence for Blanchett. MY

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022

Wri/Dir: George Miller | Cast: Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba | Australia, Fantasy Drama, 118′

Best known for his groundbreaking saga Mad Max, Australian director writer George Miller turns his talents to another fantasy world with a fairy tale starring Tilda Swinton, in her second film at VENICE FILM FESTIVAL‘s 79th celebration.

Based on a short story by A S Byatt, she plays Dr Alithea Binnie who gets more that she bargained for after buying a trinket in a market stall on a visit to Istanbul. Polishing up the bauble back in her hotel bedroom out pops a djinn in the shape of Idris Elba, offering the good doctor three wishes in exchange for his freedom. The voluble djinn then rather outstays his welcome with endless exotic tales of his escapades in the style of the Arabian Nights. Certainly entertaining – up to a point – this is another enjoyable flight of fantasy with Tilda, and some spectacular special effects, stealing the show. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | 2022 | UK Cinemas from Friday, 2 September.

Dir.: Claudia Varejo; Cast: Ana Cabral, Ruben Pimento, Christiana Branquinho; Portugal 2022, 111min.

This impressionistic first feature film from Portuguese director/co-writer Claudia Varejo,  (Amor Fati), is set on Sao Miguel, an island in the Azores. A straightforward gay awakening story, Varejo puts tempo, heart and soul into a spirited debut that is structurally flawed.

Ana Cabral gives a sparkling performance as Ana, the neglected middle child of a traditional family where her brothers Tejo and little Simao get all the attention. Ana is best friends with Luis (Pimento), who is openly gay and dresses provocatively often attracting negative attention on an island still ruled by the old-fashioned values of the older generation. The church and patriarchy is on its last legs, ready to be swept away by the young who, more often than not, leave the island as soon as they can.

One day the mother finds her son unconscious in a drug den and he admits to being part of a narcotics smuggling ring. But once Cristiana (Branquinho) arrives from Canada, this heavy mix of personal and cultural rebellion will boil over. Meanwhile Ana finds all the answers to her questions in when she falls for Cristiana – but what will she do when Luis and her lover depart the island for good at the end of the summer?

Varejo goes hell-for-leather in her pursuit of youth revolution. Sometimes simplistic in the dialogue (“Binarism is a prison’), overly sentimental in the love scenes between the young women on the beach – but always galloping forward at an insane tempo, Wolf and Dog storms through classrooms, churches, family homes and places of traditional male refuge. In the disco, a girl band hold sway while the old women pray their offspring will not be seduced by ‘Satan’.

DoP Rui Xavier does his best to support this all-out assault: his handheld camera tracking Ana in her pursuit of love and freedom. But the lingering lakeside scenes don’t come off so well. Overall, Wolf and Dog is well-acted and beautiful to look at but the relentless emotional explosions make for over-kill, particularly with a generous running time, giving the director too much space for self-indulgence. Varejo was obviously afraid to leave anything on the editing-room floor – but self-discipline would have helped here. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | WINNER DIRECTOR’s AWARD | VENICE DAYS SELECTION 2022

Dir.: Cyril Leuthy; Narrator Guillaume Goux; with Anna Karina, Marina Vlady, Anne Wiazemski, Hanna Schigulla, Judy Delphi, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Mirelle Darc, Daniel Cohn Bendit and JL Godard; France 2022, 100 min.

Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022) was still out to revolutionise cinema, just before his death at 91, according to this latest documentary about the famous filmmaker and co-founder of the Nouvelle Vague who claims, in his defence “I don’t have my heart in my mouth anymore”.

“Godard is a legend, but we have forgotten the man”. In trying to uncover the real Jean-Luc director Cyril Leuthy sat down with Godard’s many collaborators, friends and critics who have a lot to say about an eternal rebel who was still exhausting himself in the hunt for a perfect cinema, even with 140 films under his belt.

We watch him on the set of Le Mepris in 1963, and in scenes from Breathless, for which Godard won the Prix Jean Vigo. At the ceremony he claimed: “awards matter, because they draw attention to the cinema”. The film changed society and the world (!), everything was possible from then on, even close-ups with a wide-angle shot.

Godard was born in a fashionable Paris district in 1930 and moved between Paris and Switzerland as a young man. His father Paul was a physician. His mother Odile worked for a bank, and died in an accident in 1954. The family did not want JLG to attend her funeral, since he had disgraced himself by stealing from his friends and family: he financed Rivette’s first film with the money he stole from his uncles. After the success of his first feature, Godard was happy that Le Petit Soldat (1960) was banned. “I am happy that my second film is hated, it brings me closer to the cinema”. Marina Vlady, star of Godard’s “Two or three things I know about her” believes he actually played the improvising genius. In reality, Vlady and the cast were dependent on their earphones: Godard directing them “like robots”.

Anna Karina, JLG’s first wife and muse is adamant: “he was irritated by happiness. He is pure spirit”. Macha Meril, who starred in JLGs Une femme mariee (1964) goes a step further: “I was like a substitute for Anna Karina. He treated me like an ornithological object”. Anne Wiazemsky, wife number two, was proud to be with the filmmaker, but also found JLG soft, funny and loving. Her recollections of her marriage are read out by a child. But after she starred in La Chinoise, the first cracks appeared. Daniel Cohn-Bendit claims the Chinese employees of the Paris embassy called JLG a moron, and would have forbidden the film title, had they had the power. Cohn-Bendit maintains Godard supported the Cultural Revolution, which the former calls “Ritual slaughters” JLG meanwhile was fighting the De Gaulle regime, calling democracy ‘a slow way of death’.

From then on JLG put his anger onto the big screen: Weekend (1967) saw mass slaughter on the auto routes of France, a metaphor for France’s capitalist take-down. After helping to support the re-instatement of Henri Langlois as leader of the Cinematheque, Godard and Truffaut helped to bring the 1968 Cannes Festival to an abrupt standstill. But the intended revolution did not materialise. JLG fled into the Dziga Vertov collective, co-lead by Jean-Pierre Gori. And Anne Wiazemsky, moved out: “Gorin moved in with JLG, there was no room for me. I loved him as a filmmaker, not a commissar.”.

The features that followed in the aftermath: Vent d’ Est and Vladimir and Rosa, had limited releases – and remained in the dark for decades. Their financing had only been raised because JLG was behind the camera, even though he was part of the collective. Godard then retreated into the political cinema of the 1970s. In 1977 he went to live in Rolle, Switzerland, where he had spent his childhood.

A near fatal accident saw him teaming up with a friend from the past Anne-Marie Miéville. After the two moved to Grenoble, Godard founded his first studio ‘Sonimege’. But he still dreamed of starting again: “When I take a shot, I ask myself, what would Lang, Renoir or Hitchcock do? And I would do exactly the opposite”. Still, Sauve qui Peut (1980) was a new beginning, JLG used the word ‘I’ for the first time in a decade. Cannes was helpful for his comeback, and he lectured “the incredible is what we don’t see”. Passion (1982) with Hanna Schygulla was another step towards rehabilitation. Her remark “the only relationship he has is when he is filming” is the nearest anyone has got to the truth.

In 1983 JLG won the Golden Lion in Venice – it also got him a pie in the face when a member of the audience was unhappy with the sexual content of the feature. In 1995, the first snap of JLG as a child was discovered. In the photo, he was actually mourning himself. ” I mourned first, but death did not come. Since then I follow myself as a human being, but I am not one”. His major epic Histoires du Cinema, cost him ten years of his life and was finally released in 1988, with a running time of 423 minutes. Based on 495 films and 148 books, plus photographs and paintings, it sums up his philosophy: “History has to be told in ruins, cinema is only real as a history of ruins”.

And finally: “Cinema is nothing. but it wants everything”. And we can be sure that JLG has given himself, or whatever is left of him, to the beast called cinema. DoP Gertrude Baillot sets a frenetic tempo in motion – and it never slackens. Leuthy has succeeded in bringing the personal and the cinematographical together in a portrait of a man who sacrificed his own life and ability to love on the alter of re-invention – without ever finding himself in the process. AS

JEAN LUC GODARD 1930-2022 | VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | VENICE CLASSICS 2022

Dir/Wri: Salvatore Mereu | Cast: Peppeddu Cuccu, Giovanni Porcu | DoP Francesco Piras | Italy  2022, 70′ Sardinian dialect.

In a sun-backed hillside in the arid plains of Sardinia Raffaele is sleeping out in the open waiting for the wind (il bentu). So as not to be late when it finally comes he has massed up his little pile of grain, which will last him for the coming year. The most important thing in his life at the moment is this wind, it’s also the title of this tough but enchanting moral fable that reflects on self-discipline for young and old alike.

For the next few days Raffaele has left his wife back in the village and must wait patiently for the wind to help him separate the grains from the chaff, so he can make bread and earn his livelihood. And his grandson Angelino, who visits him during this lonely time in the open fields, must also wait – to be old enough to ride Rafael’s treasured mare Turtledove.

Darkness falls and Raffaele eats an omelette by candlelight before spending the night in wild anticipation of the weather to change and imploring it with ancient songs and supplications. Come morning he tidies up the field in readiness for the whiff of air to blow up from the sea, and tells his little grandson off for arriving unwashed and unkempt to help him. He talks about the need to look sharp in today’s world where the boy may find himself one day driving machinery rather that sweeping the straw around like his grandfather. Although the old man takes a dim view of modern intrusions like the thresher.

In his primitive shack Raffaele hollows out a hunk of bread and fills it with creamy curd cheese from a blue bowl. And all the time Angelino asks when the horse will be ready. “When you’re grown up”, Raffaele tells him. And during their time together he initiates Anglelino into the ways of the world reprimanding the boy for leaving the freshly churned milk in the sun. Meanwhile the gruff old man goes about his daily duties: pumping water from the well, washing and clearing up while his grandson tries every trick in the book to let him ride the mare until it’s too late.

Sun-based Sardinia is very much a character here and Francesco Piras creates an evocative sense of place with his limpid hyper realist images in a feature that relies on its ambient soundscape, folkloric music and simple dialogue.

Sardinian filmmaker Salvatore Mereu was inspired by a story from poet and novelist Antonio Cossu (1927-2002 to make his feature, simple in execution and storyline yet wide-reaching in its themes, Bentu is all about the impatience of youth; the intrinsic value of staying in rhythm with the natural world and respecting time-honoured traditions in a place where time seems to stand still as the future marches on. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | VENICE DAYS

Dir/Wri: Steve James | US Doc, 101′

The United States is the only nation to have used the atomic bomb in warfare

The UN has declared the use of the bomb illegal but none of the atomic 9 nations has signed the treaty

The Compassionate Spy chronicles the life and career of American physicist and spy Theodore Hall (1925-99) best known for his involvement in creating the atomic bomb during World War Two, and passing the secrets of the ground-breaking invention to the Soviet Union.

Based on live interviews with his surviving spouse Joan, and archive footage of Theodore in the final months of his life, along with interviews with Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel (Bombshell The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy), awarding-winning documentarian Steve James pieces together a sinister and compelling account of the atomic years and the couple’s life together from their first meeting at the University of Chicago, when Joan was only 17, until Ted’s death in November 1999. And although James maintains his distance, Joan presents a resolutely affectionate view of her husband and his work. And while Ted expresses a certain degree of regret for his actions, Joan is clearly besotted by her ‘child prodigy’ husband and his achievements and maintains a hagiographic stance to this day.

So the focus here is Joan’s glowing account of her early years with Ted and their close friend Savile (Savi) Sax, the three remained inseparable until Joan, a budding poet, decided to give up her idea of playing the field until her late twenties. She would eventually marry Ted in 1947 in what seemed like a natural progression, both Socialists from Russian Jewish backgrounds but Ted grew up in New York and Joan was from Chicago, and so in love she admits – on discovering his incendiary activities – she would have married Ted even if he had been a murderer.

In 1944, Ted was recruited as an 18 year old Harvard senior to be the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos where, in order to get ahead of the Germans, he handled experiments for the implosion device (“Fat Man”) and helped determine the critical mass of uranium for “Little Boy”.

But when the war was over, Ted failed to shared his new wife and colleagues’ elation felt after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb, when Japan and Germany were already defeated. And here James interweaves shocking images of the widespread destruction of Hiroshima where 340,000 citizens died to avoid the necessity of an US invasion.

Ted was concerned that the consequences of an American monopoly of atomic weapons could lead to a wide scale nuclear catastrophe, and was especially worried about the possibility of the emergence of a fascist government in the United States. At the time the Russians were viewed through rose-coloured spectacles in America, having been allies against the Germans. And this favourable sentiment was reflected in films like Mission to Moscow (1943) that was nominated for an Oscar but went home empty-handed.

For his part, Ted admits (in the interview) to finding the Russians approachable – “they even had a sense of humour!” – so he decided to pass key information to the Soviet Union. And while on a vacation in New York City in October 1944, he visited the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) offices, instead of the Soviet Consulate (where he feared FBI surveillance), in order to locate a suitable contact to pass information about the Manhattan Project along to the Soviet Union.

After a few recommendations, he met Sergey Kurnakov, a military writer for Soviet Russia Today and Russky Golos, and handed him a report on the implosion bomb, and the scientists who worked at Los Alamos. Saville Sax delivered the same report to the Soviet Consulate a few days later under the guise of inquiring about relatives still in the Soviet Union.

Hall later talks of his regret at passing on the secrets, but Joan points out that his failure to do so would have resulted in misfortune for the whole world. The couple would go on to have three children, one getting killed in a bicycle accident, they shares their views, along with Savi Sax’s son and daughter who reflect on their father’s reaction to his involvement but admit that his activity had possibly less of an impact on the family. James also shares ample footage of the Rosenberg couple who went to the electric chair in 1953 for their spying activities, Ted considering them guilty of a minor offence.

Densely researched and revealing A Compassionate Spy is packed to the gunnels with photos and archive footage, and enlivened by occasional musical hits of the 1940s, this is fascinating film but the one to one interviews with Joan Hall are sometimes too heavy going. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | OUT OF COMPETITION.

Dir: Graham Foy | Drama, Canada 106′

Two Canadian teenagers are enjoying the summer holidays when their fun ends in tears in this luminous feature debut from Edmonton-born filmmaker Graham Foy. What starts as a simple buddy movie soon becomes a transformative journey into an oasis of tranquility in a film that explores friendship and all kinds of human relationships in the real world, and beyond.

Kyle (Jackson Sluiter) and his friend Colton (Marcel Jimenez) are typical teenagers experimenting with danger. Skateboarding as fast as they can through a local housing estate, their summer days are spent letting off steam in Alberta’s lush countryside. Mucking around on an abandoned building site they discover a dead cat, and Colton, by far the more sensitive of the two boys, gives the animal a ‘spiritual send-off’ on a flower-covered raft in the fast-flowing river nearby. Kyle’s sudden death forces Colton to reflect on the meaning of friendship and he retreats into  himself and into nature in a typical response to extreme grief.

Once the rambunctious Kyle is out of the way, the film finds a peaceful equilibrium in this lyrical look at growing up in a close-knit, largely rural community living in the vast open landscapes of Western Canada. There’s a remoteness here that somehow resonates with the bewilderment of being a teenager, and a symmetry in the vast, silent corridors of the college campus that brings to mind another Canadian-set feature, The Shining. 

Tentatively exploring the aftermath to tragedy, the fragility of friendship and the traumatic transition from childhood to adult life, Foy’s resolutely placid feature debut provides a space to reflect on the transcendent themes of loss, and the meaning of life and death in a memorable piece of filmmaking that drifts into the surreal with its dreamlike images and visionary occasional score. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | VENICE DAYS 2022

Dir: Francesco Zippel | Italy, Doc 106′

This new documentary on Sergio Leone opens with a dynamic introduction from longtime fan Quentin Tarantino who strikes just the right ebullient tone for an immersive look at the legendary director’s life and work from awarded filmmaker Francesco Zippel (Friedkin Uncut).

These opening scenes are cleverly edited in such a way as to reflect the smiling faces of many of Leone’s admirers – Martin Scorsese, Robert Niro, Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg – who like they are laughing along with Tarantino at the memory of Sergio Leone. And this positive jubilation seems to sums up the essence of an epic director, who first and foremost, considered himself as an entertainer in a career spanning nearly three decades from the early 1960s when he made his first feature film, The Colossus of Rhodes (1960) to his rather early death in 1989.

This is not the first biopic of the renowned Roman genre director – and it may not be the last – but Zippel certainly captures the iconic filmmaker’s talent to amuse on the big screen: “Cinema for me is above all a big show where events of the masked life are proposed”.

The son of eminent actor and director Vincenzo Leone (aka Roberto Roberti) from the early days of silent cinema, film was for Sergio Leone (1929-89) ‘his whole life’ and he used it to explore and expose his deepest thoughts and feelings from early childhood in Trastevere, Rome where he admits, in an archive interview, to seeing the world from the perspective of a little boy. Steven Spielberg, one of the film’s informative talking heads, picks up on this sentiment: “that man, inside and very close to the surface, was still a boy. A boy playing cowboys, a boy loving to entertain his friends, an entertainer and someone who wasn’t pretentious as an entertainer, but was generous as an entertainer.”

Leone’s biographer Sir Christopher Frayling also reflects on the personal nature of Leone’s films against a backcloth of archive footage from newsreels of the day: “they’re deeply personal for three reasons. Firstly they’re about a child who largely grew up in Trastevere, who remembered going to see Hollywood movies in the 1930s during the era of Mussolini when America was seen as a model of freedom and modernity. It was another world, and this child…loved those fairy tales. They’re autobiographical secondly because in 1943…the American troops landed in Salerno and came north to Rome, and it came as a shock to meet real life Americans for the first time. He couldn’t see in them anything of those characters I’d seen on the screen. This led to some disillusionment for young Leone. The third way in which they were autobiographical is his own formation as a filmmaker between 1949 and 1959 where he worked as an assistant director on 35 movies.”

Gian Luca Farinelli, director of the Cineteca di Bologna explains how Sergio was influenced, to a large extent, by his father’s keenness to make films that appealed to a wider audience; quality films that were also accessible to the mainstream. And a great deal of Sergio’s filmmaking passion seems to derive from his father’s often frustrated attempts in this regard. And although his father’s obsession initially put him off as a teenager, when Vincenzo retired and went back to his village in Lombardy, Sergio “felt a great urge to continue what he was doing”. It almost seemed to him like an obligation.

Clint Eastwood, who was working as a swimming instructor, initially said ‘no’ to the offer of a part in A Fistful of Dollars. The idea of spending his month’s holiday filming in Italy was not appealing and anyway, he had been starring as Rowdy Yates in a long-running TV series Rawhide (1959). Inspired by Kurasawa’s samurai epic Yojimbo, Leone dashed off the script in 15 days, his imagination fired up by the Japanese great’s depiction of a fairy tale novel, which transposing it to a Western. Although Eastwood didn’t speak any Italian, and Leone didn’t understand English filming went ahead in sign language, the director being transfixed by Eastwood’s ‘indolence’, describing him as: “a real cat-man, born lazy. He seemed to sleep as he walked. But when it was time, he gained a curious speed and dynamics”, et viola – Eastwood’s career suddenly took off, although for a time he never heard back from Rome although in the days following its Roman release Fistful had already made well over a million liras at the box office, confusing Eastwood who thought he’s starred in a film called The Magnificent Stranger. According to Frayling the working title was in fact Ray El Magnifico.  

Zippel obviously touches on Ennio Morricone’s invaluable contribution music-wise. And Frayling describes how Leone “re-invented the Western story for a new generation – the children of Marx and Godard – who didn’t believe in it anymore” but, according to Frank Miller, were hooked in by ambiguous, larger and life nuanced characters “who had both good and evil in them”. The film then deals with each of Leone’s various features with collaborators chipping in and adding value with amusing anecdotes, including the late Eli Wallach.

Providing a comprehensive companion piece to the recent Ennio, and sometimes overlapping, Zippel and his team pack in an extraordinary amount of detail enriching the feature with animated sequences, personal photographs and ample archive footage in an engrossing look back at the director’s life and also at an era reflected in wide-ranging features from well-known westerns, historical epics to gangster thrillers and beyond. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | VENICE CLASSICS | Best documentary on Cinema Award |

Dir. Lav Diaz; Cast: John Lloyd Cruz, Ronnie Lazaro, Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, DMs Boongaling; Philippines/France/Portugal/Denmark 2022, 187 min.

Philippine filmmaker Lav Diaz has delivered, at least by his own standards, one of the shortest features of his career. Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ ‘The Count of Monte Christo’, this is one of many revenge stories in the Diaz canon. The international co-production allows “the master of the slow cinema” more time, and Diaz can also afford the talented DoP Larry Manda, who shot A Lullaby and Norte for him, behind the camera, allowing the auteur free rein to let his imagination fly. The result is another stunning “immersing” experience, Diaz drawing the audience into his world on another melancholy journey through recent Philippine history.

Diaz’ heroes are permanently on the run, hunted by government agencies, usually in the shape of the police. They have an ecliptic journey in front of them and this often transports them back to former traumata. But here the roles are reversed, and we meet Police inspector Hermes Papauran (Cruz) discussing a murderous anti-drug police campaign under the control of the former president Duterte, with the documentary filmmaker Raffy Lerma (Boongaling).

At first Hermes appears to be the hero of the piece, haunted by the psychotic inspector Supremo Macabantai (Lazaro) and suffering from psoriasis, largely brought on by his own guilt. But it soon emerges that Hermes had been taught the tricks of the trade by Macabantai, only for the student to turn against his master, denouncing his corrupt methods of getting rid of drug dealers when in reality killing innocent people – by making them ‘disappear.’

Supremo has been just released from prison, an official voice on the ‘phone informs him that Duterte himself helped to get his pardon. When Hermes reads a notice accusing him of being a wife-beater on his whiteboard he resigns, telling his students that he is indeed a perpetrator. Later we will hear more from Raffy who has been accused by Duterte of forging the images of the murder spree by the police.

Meanwhile, Supremo tries to hide his murderous instinct behind the pose of a man of God who wants to baptise everyone he meets, with a focus on sex workers (to whom he is drawn like a magnet). One woman pays with her life, and the sequence where Supremo is seen embalming her body is particularly chilling.

Supremo and Hermes moving around the country like the characters in a Western, but here they communicate by text. A positive identification comes in the shape of Hermes’ sister Nerissa (Buencamino)), a teacher. Her husband, Pedro, is one of the many who disappeared without trace and Nerissa blames her brother for his loss – their meetings in a spooky beach house on the edge of the water is another highlight. But Supremo has sworn to wipe out his former student’s entire family.

Diaz’ characters are always drawn to mythical places, in this case the location is St. Isidro. Here Supremo collapses after dancing for hours in the street and recounting the story of how he became Hermes’ victim, to a group of sex workers. We will return here later when the Fernando Hotel will play a central role in further revelations. Supremo and Hermes dance a deadly duet, and we are also lost in the trail of violence, with the ocean taking on the role of a would-be liberator: the beach house becoming the symbol of decay which is claimed back by the titular waves.

Cinematographer Larry Manda uses two different forms of black-and-white images: during the day it is a luminous version, but at night (where most of the action is set), the shadowy world produces a grainier, more threatening world.

Like all Diaz features, this is a work of sorrow, the audience becomes unwittingly involved in the apocalyptic struggle, lost in the languorous images and sucked into an emotional odyssey that is the Philippine filmmaker’s universe. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | OUT OF COMPETITION 2022

Dir: Christina Grosan | Czechia, Drama, 83′

In the opening scene of this surreal three segmented sci-fi themed sophomore feature from upcoming Hungarian Romanian director Christina Grosan, Hana, a capable middle-aged publisher approaching retirement is having a tough time. Recently widowed, she is then made redundant from her job, and desperate to get rid of a strange monkey robot bought by her late husband. Grosan sets the tone for an enigmatic and disorientating film centring on three women and echoing our turbulent times.

In the games shop Hana (Tatjana Medvecka) meets Tereza (Nora Klimesova) a teenager who is later seen celebrating her birthday. The bunting put up by her parents to mark the occasion mysteriously catches fire just as guests are arriving for a party that ends in disaster after a patronising comment from one of Tereza’s friends sends her rushing back to the safety of her bedroom where her cat is just giving birth. Tereza cleverly manages to cut the cord and stimulate the kitten’s breathing, although not its suckling response.

Rushing back to the mall pet shop Tereza runs into Hana who provides the vital kitten food to keep the animal alive. Meanwhile all hell has broken loose again back home where Tereza’s parents are being evacuated due to an air raid. Enter Silva (Petra Buckova) whose washing machine has gone on the blink just as she was about to take her disruptive kid David to the dinosaur park. They make their way through streets, and later at the swimming pool it emerges that David has injured one of local kids in a fight and is generally unpopular. Later David’s antics will provide the source of much anguish when the police demand the evacuation of the mall where he has joined other kids in a play group. Hana and Tereza find themselves trapped in the mall with alarms and sirens blazing only heightening the atmosphere of generalised angst and mass hysteria. David and Tereza join forces to try and find a way out of the mayhem.

With inspired visual allure and an apt score highlighting moments of hope and bewilderment, Grosan and her writer Klara Vlasakova tell a trio of interlocking tales capturing the zeitgeist of an intelligent society traumatised and destabilised by the unusual events besieging them. Lurching from one crisis to the next, but always getting there in the end through working together, this upbeat drama carries with it a message of hope in an uncertain future. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | VENICE DAYS 2022

Dir/Wri: David Wagner | Cast: Luka Dimic, Gerhard Liebmann | Austria, Drama 87′

Austrian writer director David Wagner comes to Venice with this first feature, a provocative character driven drama based on real life, and starring dynamic acting duo: Gerhard Liebmann and Luka Dimic in the leading roles.

At first Eismayer seems like another well-made armed forces affair focusing on a real person Sergeant Major Charles Eismayer, feared for his tough intransigence in training Austrian army recruits, in particular Major Mario Falak (Luka Dimic), who he mockingly calls “Ali Baba”. But our expectations are challenged and continually put to the test when the film develops into a nuanced and surprisingly moving story of the ‘love that can never reveal its name’. Or at least that is what we are led to believe in the opening scenes where Wagner firmly establishes the territory: a starkly spartan training base in deepest rural Austria. And despite efforts of the ‘powers that be’ to strike a more humane and conciliatory approach to the traditionally tough drilling procedures, the red-beret’ed conscripts still quail under the intransigent gaze of their abrasively draconian instructor Deputy Lieutenant Eismayer who seems to go far beyond the call of duty in laying down the law.

And Liebmann gives a compelling performance in the central role as this hard-bitten perfectionist whose heteronormative family life is a dysfunctional mess. Exerting as much control over his family – a wife Christina (a sensitive Koschitz) and sweet little son Dominik (Tatzber in his debut) – as he does over his troops, Liebmann brings surprising humanity to his character: and we feel for him despite his unappealing persona and inability to see the humanity in others, and that’s the skill of Liebmann’s performance. But then Eismayer takes a shine to a sultry young Serbian recruit who gradually thaws his frosty demeanour revealing in its place a heart of gold. Fate throws the two soldiers together in a story that is unexpected in its outcome as the thematically thorny narrative finds a satisfying conclusion, based on a little known episode in Austrian military history.

Elegantly and artfully framed by Serafin Spitzer with Raphael Caric and Thaire Galleguillos’ nifty set design, the resonances with Oliver Hermanus’ 2019 drama Moffie  are clear, but this is a more stagey outing that manages its tonal shift from austerity to an unexpectedly bracing denouement that is both thrilling and upbeat. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | WINNER IWONDERFUL AWARD | VENICE CRITICS’ WEEK 2022

Dir/Wri.: Koji Fukada; Cast: Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada, Hirona Yamazaki, Misuzu Kanno, Tomorowo Taguchi, Tetsuta Shimada; France/Japan 2022, 123 min.

In his latest film, competing for the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Japanese writer/director Koji Fukada gently explores grief and the alienating sadness felt by a couple mourning the death of their only child. And how close family can often be the real enemy hiding behind a duplicitous facade.

Taeko (Kimura) and Jiro (Nagayama) are a public spirited couple in their early thirties, looking after the city’s homeless in the social services department of the local council. The mild mannered Taeko will take the brunt of considerable male hostility throughout the drama – none of it deserved. Taeko’s son Keita (Shimada) from an earlier marriage, has joined the family unit and they all get on like a house on fire, spending their evenings playing the board game ‘Othello’ – Keita is a dab hand.

But Jiro’s traditional father Makota (Taguchi) cannot come to terms with his son marrying a woman with a child from a previous relationship, and during the celebrations for his 65th birthday his wife (Kanno) has to get him to apologise to Taeko for an unwarranted outburst. But the party soon ends in tragedy of a different kind when Keita has a fatal accident.

Soon after her son’s death, Taeko’s first husband Park (Sunada), who is deaf and communicates in sign language, come under her care as a homeless person. At Keita’s funeral, he hits out at Taeko who refuses to take umbrage even though Park left when  Keita had only just been born. Park borrows money from Taeko claiming he has to visit his dying father in Korea. This is just one of many lies he will tell during the course of the drama: the real reason he is going is to attend the wedding of his oldest son,  whom he had abandoned twenty years ago.

Fukado has the courage to cast the speech-impaired Park as the real villain of the piece – suffering severe physical challenges does not necessarily make him a good person. Taeko is also a rather ambivalent character – using Park to serve her own needs. And although Jiro seems like a good guy he has never adopted his stepson officially, without giving a reason for it. Old Makota lives in the past, his traditional values clashing with modern Japan. And his wife only defends Taeko because she wants to see her grand children growing up. Immediately after the accident, she will beat a hasty retreat to the countryside with her husband. Jiro’s ex partner confesses how heartlessly she behaved towards a lover whom she dumped. In this group of ordinary people, their true selves coming to the surface caused by the death of a child. Will they take the opportunity to redress their lives, choosing honesty instead of obfuscation to come to terms with themselves?

Filmed on long-tracking shots and in intimate close-ups DoP Hideo Yamamooto, this is a spare and subtle domestic drama in the style of Ozu and Toyada. Performance-wise Fumino Kimura is particularly convincing as woman who needs weaker characters to make her feel more confident. An sensitive film that speaks volumes about social motivation. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GOLDEN LION

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | IN COMPETITION

Dir.: Kei Ishikawa; Cast: Satochi Tsumabuki, Sakura Ando, Masataka Kubota; Japan 2022, 122′.

Japanese director/editor Kei Ishikawa offers up a languid but over-ambitious feature inspired by the 2018 novel by Keiichiro Hirano. Adapted for the screen by Kosuke Mukai, A Man seems like a straightforward thriller, but it plays out as a metaphysical look at memory, identity linked to the recent wave of xenophobia active in Japan.

Rie (Ando) lives alone with her son Yuto, running a stationary shop. No longer together with her  husband, after the death of Yuto’s younger brother, she faces at uncertain future emotionally. Then love comes along in the shape of Daisuke Taniguchi (Kubota), a rather shy amateur painter who earns a living as a lumberjack. After the birth of their daughter Hana, Daisuke is killed by a falling tree. Rie is stunned and traumatised, so is Yuto, having bonded with his stepfather.

On the first anniversary of Daisuke’s death, his brother turns up with the alarming news that the man in the cherished family photo of their ‘lost loved one’ is not his brother. Rie asks lawyer Akira Vido (Tsumabuki) for help, and what comes to light is a change of name and identity – not once but twice. Daisuke was purportedly a professional boxer, who committed suicide after his father was executed for a triple murder. Vido then becomes the focus of the narrative: his marriage to the daughter of a wealthy but xenophobic man, is on the verge of collapse – not surprisingly, since he himself is the son of Korean emigrants. Vido becomes increasingly immersed in the Daisuke mystery which throws up more questions that it answers, but the director, sticking closely to the pages, does not reveal Daisuke’s real identity.

Even the very generous running time of two hours does not allow Ishikawa to get the sprawling plot under control. There are simply too many stories to be told, and Akira’s alienation from his wife and her family – however intriguing – slows down the thrust of the main narrative, leaving the audience underwhelmed by a story that should be gripping. All this is not helped by Ryuto Kondo’s remote camerawork that seems to treat the protagonists like fish gliding slowing around in the aquarium that actually features in the final act.

Ishikawa has bitten off more than he can handle: the confusing introduction of new protagonists and narrative strands certainly keeps the audience guessing, but nothing is really resolved. A Man is flooded with great ideas and there are some magical moments but less is always more, particularly where this otherwise impressive film is concerned. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | 2022

Dir.: Adrian Sibley; Documentary with Jared Harris, Jamie Harris, Damian Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Elizabeth Harris, Jim Sheridan, Stephen Rea, Russell Crowe; UK 2022, 106 min.

Richard Harris (1930-2002) is seen through the eyes of his three sons: Jamie, Jared – both actors – and Damian, a filmmaker, pictured opening a vault where the famous Irish actor’s papers are kept. Each in turn gasps in amazement to discover the contents, giving this watchable biopic a rather fulsome flavour.

Making his entree into the film world with bit parts in ‘boys own’ classics such as The Guns of Navarone, Richard Harris got his big break in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life (1963) his rambunctious rugby player Frank Machin on a collision course with everyone and everything was to be the role model for many features which followed, garnering him ‘Best Actor’ in Cannes. Yet, only one year later, he looked very much at home in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert alongside Monica Vitti.

Perhaps this is a key to the enigma of Harris: a raucous, alcohol-dependent brawler – who gave up drinking for a decade between 1981 and 1991- and a lover of poetry. He was obsessed with his poetry, despite his moody personality which often resulted in physical violence. His state of mind certainly had it roots in his two-year confinement to bed with TB, as a young man. Both the poetry and the dare-devil adventures on and off the screen are explainable: the introvert was afraid that illness would consume his life – so he might as well go for it hell for leather.

Harris was married between 1957 and 1969 to the aristocratic Elizabeth Rees-Williams, the couple had three sons. A second marriage, to American actor Ann Turkel, lasted another twelve years. “I have not the ability to sustain relationships” Harris sighed. Director Jim Sheridan, who directed Harris in The Field (1990), talks about the same problem.

In the 1981 theatre revival of ‘Camelot’, Harris and co-star Vanessa Redgrave re-invented how to perform a musical: instead of lip synchrony, both actors sang their own text, and Harris would have a worldwide career as a singer. In the end, there was Gladiator and his swansong, Dumbledore, in the first two “Harry Potter” features. His grandchild, by now a mother herself, destroys one of the Harris legends: she claimed she would never speak to him again if he played Dumbledore. In reality, Harris would not commit to three months in New Zealand shooting Lord of the Rings. Dumbledore was easier to sustain. When Harris left the Savoy for the last time (he had a suite there for decades) he was suffering from Hodgkinson’s Disease, and jokingly blamed the hotel’s food for his demise.

DoP Eoin McLoughlin tries his best to liven up proceedings in a film which occasionally seems rather stultifying. But there is more than enough material to sustain a modest running time – although a little more of the Harris spirit would gone down rather well. The old rascal would certainly have quickened up the tempo. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | 2022

Dir/Wri: Nancy Buirski, US Doc

New York in the late sixties is reflected through a seminal work of the era in this resolutely anti-glamour documentary from American filmmaker Nancy Buirski (The Rape of Recy Taylor).

Desperate Souls looks at the talented, often troubled souls involved in the making of John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy. And then broadens into a study of New York and America in general at a tumultuous time of political unrest, cultural ferment and social change.

Fifty years after its release, Midnight Cowboy remains one of the most iconic and groundbreaking films of the 20th century. Set in a New York wallowing in welfare poverty and a peaking population, Buirski tells the salutary tale of two drifters who join forces out of desperation in their fight to survive: Dustin Hoffman plays the crippled feral Ratso, Jon Voight a naive fortune seeker Joe Buck who styles himself after a gun-toting Gary Cooper, but here he’s shooting blanks.

With a pithy script by blacklist survivor Waldo Salt, and a resonant soundtrack of contemporary tunes, John Schlesinger, an outcast himself due to his sexuality, somehow identifies with these friendless loners and goes on to tell a story both durable and meaningful about tenderness, friendship and loyalty, and the deep human need for commitment: You feel for these two characters, and somehow you want to protect them. And that was one of the standout elements of the film which remains upbeat despite its grim and disillusioned undertones.

The result was the only X-rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with two other Oscars, Best Screenplay for Waldo Salt, and John Schlesinger for Best Director over George Roy Hill, Arthur Penn, Sydney Pollack and Costa-Gavras. The film also paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty, New York-based movies with adult themes and complex characters.

Award-winning filmmaker Buirski casts similarities and captures the zeitgeist of a transcendent time through archive footage, salient photographs and close-up often poignant interviews with Jon Voigt and Ian Buruma (nephew of Schlesinger) and others. 

Being an English director John Schlesinger had a detached view of the culture, and this enabled him to make the first realist film depicting a gritty New York, with its beggars, losers and hustlers. The documentary shifts seamlessly through its themes, variously exploring homosexuality exotic to the mainstream reflecting Schlesinger’s own upbringing in England, where he was sent to boarding school, and bullied for being Jewish. His filmmaking focus was documentary and realism, but he came late to Tony Richardson’s ‘Angry Young Men’ party, and maintained his interest in characters wanting to escape their surroundings, but always with a vein of humour.

Unlike Madding Crowd, which was panned on its initial release, Midnight came from the heart in its depiction of Buck, “a dish-washer who fucks everyone”, and was a resounding success; Buirski also touches on the career of Waldo Salt describing his ironic hatred of writing and his needing to be constantly chivied into producing a script. Buirski also touches on other creative spirits such as Andy Warhol in fleshing out her immersive look at the backdrop to these tumultuous times. 

The documentary also drifts into the importance of the Vietnam war and its impact on the population young and old, describing how the anger and bitterness over President Lyndon Johnson’s handling of the endless war found an outlet into cinema, channelling the angst into the Western genre. A rich and meaty meditation on America in the late 1960s that certainly deserves several viewings. MT

SCREENING IN VENICE CLASSICS | Best Documentary on Cinema strand | VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022

The full programme for the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10) has now been announced by festival president Roberto Cicutto and artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Julianne Moore heads up the main competition jury composed of Kazuo Ishiguro, Audrey Diwan, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Mariano Cohn, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Leila Hatami and

Expect to see some really dazzling new features from the world’s most established directors with some surprises in store. Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, will open the festival (in competition).

Competing for coveted Golden Lion there are new films from Luca Guadagnino, Alejandro G. Inarritu, Joanna Hogg, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Darren Aronofsky, Andrew Dominik, Martin McDonagh and Frederick Wiseman. Lav Diaz also makes an appearance with his second mega feature this summer: When the Waves have Gone, playing in the

Florent Gouelou’s French drama Three Nights A Week will open this year’s Critics’ Week sidebar. The Giornate degli Autori’s programme includes Abel Ferrara’s Padre Pio and Mark Cousins‘ March on Rome, amongst a glittering array of newcomers, and closes with Steve Buscemi’s The Listener.

GOLDEN LION 2022

White Noise (opening film) (US) 136′
Dir. Noah Baumbach

Il Signore Delle Formiche (It) 134′
Dir. Gianni Amelio

The Whale (US) 117′
Dir. Darren Aronofsky

L’Immensita (It-Fr) 97′
Dir. Emanuele Crialese

Saint Omer (Fr) 122′
Dir. Alice Diop

Blonde (US) 165′
Dir. Andrew Dominik

TÁR (US) 158′
Dir. Todd Field

Love Life (Jap-Fr) 123′
Dir. Koji Fukada

Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (Mex)
Dir. Alejandro G. Inarritu

Athena (Fr) 97′
Dir. Romain Gavras

Bones And All (US) 130′
Dir. Luca Guadagnino

The Eternal Daughter (UK-US) 96′
Dir. Joanna Hogg

Beyond The Wall (Iran) 126′
Dir. Vahid Jalilvand

The Banshees Of Inisherin (Ire-UK-US) 109′
Dir. Martin McDonagh

Argentina, 1985 (Arg-US) 140′
Dir. Santiago Mitre

Chiara (It-Bel) 106′
Dir. Susanna Nicchiarelli

Monica (US-It) 106′
Dir. Andrea Pallaoro

No Bears (Iran) 106′
Dir. Jafar Panahi

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (documentary) (US) 113′
Dir. Laura Poitras

A Couple (Fr-US) 63′
Dir. Frederick Wiseman

The Son (UK) 123′
Dir. Florian Zeller

Our Ties (Fr) 85′
Dir. Roschdy Zem

Other People’s Children (Fr) 104′
Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski

Out Of Competition – fiction

The Hanging Sun (closing film)
Dir. Francesco Carrozzini

When The Waves Are Gone
Dir. Lav Diaz

Living
Dir. Oliver Hermanus

Dead For A Dollar
Dir. Walter Hill

Call Of God
Dir. Kim Ki-duk

Dreamin’ Wild
Dir. Bill Pohlad

Master Gardener
Dir. Paul Schrader

Siccita
Dir. Paolo Virzi

Pearl
Dir. Ti West

Don’t Worry Darling
Dir. Olivia Wilde

Out Of Competition – non-fiction

Freedom On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom
Dir. Evgeny Afineevsky

The Matchmaker
Dir. Benedetta Argentieri

Gli Ultimi Giorni Dell’umanita
Dir. Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo

A Compassionate Spy
Dir. Steve James

Music For Black Pigeons
Dir. Jorgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed

The Kiev Trial
Dir. Sergei Loznitsa

In Viaggio
Dir. Gianfranco Rosi

Bobi Wine Ghetto President
Dir. Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo

Nuclear
Dir. Oliver Stone

Out Of Competition – series

The Kingdom Exodus
Dir. Lars von Trier

Copenhagen Cowboy
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

Horizons

Princess (opening film) 111′
Dir. Roberto De Paolis

Victim 91′
Dir. Michal Blasko

On The Fringe 105′
Dir. Juan Diego Botto

Trenque Lauquen – In 2 parts both 120′
Dir. Laura Citarella

Vera 115′
Dir. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel

Innocence (documentary) 100′
Dir. Guy Davidi

Blanquita 94′
Dir. Fernando Guzzoni

For My Country 113′
Dir. Rachid Hami

A Man 121′
Dir. Kei Ishikawa

Bread And Salt – 100′
Dir. Damian Kocur

Luxembourg, Luxembourg 105′
Dir. Antonio Lukich

Ti Mangio Il Cuore 115′
Dir. Pippo Mezzapesa

To The North 122′
Dir. Mihai Mincan

Autobiography 116′
Dir. Makbul Mubarak

The Sitting Duck 122′
Dir. Jean-Paul Salome

World War III 117′
Dir. Houman Seyedi

The Happiest Man In The World 95′
Dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska

The Bride 81′
Dir. Sergio Trefaut

Horizons Extra

Origin Of Evil (opening film) 125′
Dir. Sebastien Marnier

Hanging Gardens 117′
Dir. Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji

Amanda 93′
Dir. Carolina Cavalli

Red Shoes 82′
Dir. Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser

Nezouh 100′
Dir. Soudade Kaadan

Notte Fantasma 83′
Dir. Fulvio Risuleo

Without Her 110′
Dir. Arian Vazirdaftari

Valeria Is Getting Married 76′
Dir. Michal Vinik

Goliath 92′
Dir. Adilkhan Yerzhanov

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | 31 AUGUST – 10 SEPTEMBER 2022

Dir: Bogdan George Petri | Cast: Ioana Bugarin, Emanuel Parvu, Cezar Antal, Valentin Popescu | Drama, 118′

Bogdan George Petri follows his sweaty murder story Unindentified, with another discursive crime drama wrapped round the case of a young novice who goes missing from her convent in the Northern Romanian countryside.

19-year old Cristina (Bugarin) is fiercely committed to becoming a nun, but judging from her tears in the opening scene the trial period is not going to plan and early one morning she secretly leaves her cloistered confines heading for the local hospital.

The taxi ride with another passenger, a doctor, offers a taste of Romanian humour allowing Petri to share his pithy views on spirituality, the music of folk singer Gica Petrescu, the state of the nation in general, a theme that will crop up again and again throughout this thorny tale that soon becomes a seething crime investigation. On the way back to the convent after her tests Cristina takes another taxi, but she will never reach her destination

Apetri’s skilful direction includes a quietly devastating scene where the camera swings full circle around a vicious crime unfolding deep in the woods. The victim’s awful cries compete with a howling wind gusting through the trees, a pair of cattle ranchers riding by emphasising the remoteness of the location, and leaving us desperate to know the outcome from their sole witness perspective.

The police procedural is headed by inspector Marius Preda (Parvu) who brusquely cuts to the chase in his hunt for the perpetrator who will soon be have to be eleased from custody. Investigations at the convent prove inconclusive, the nuns are unwilling to cooperate in their desire for privacy, echoing Cristian Mungiu’s convent drama Beyond the Hills.

Ioana Bugarin is vulnerable yet determined as the novice at the heart of this tightly coiled mystery that sees the desperate detective committing a series of serious misjudgements. And as he races against time to convict the suspect a strange modern miracle occurs before his eyes. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir/scr: Potsy Ponciroli. US. 2021. 99 mins.

There are nods to Peckinpah in this spare but rather lacklustre western that eventually catches fire in a coruscating showdown after a series of posturing gun-slinging episodes.

Writer-director Potsy Ponciroli shoots the wild west of the early 20th century as a merciless desiccated wilderness where Stephen Dorff’s Ketchum leads a posse of villains posing as law-keepers. In a grassy ditch in deepest Oklahoma cadaverous farmer Henry (Tim Blake Nelson) finds a satchel of dollars near a listless body transporting both to his homestead determined, for some unknown reason, to nurse the stranger back to health. 

Living with his sweet-natured teenage son Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) the taciturn Henry is still mourning the loss of his wife to tuberculosis a decade earlier — but her ghost is the only female to grace the cast of this macho fuelled narrative. Hot on the trail of the injured man Ketchum claims to be a sherif from another county. Henry senses something suspicious and strengthens his resolve to protect the injured man (Scott Haze), but his own identity is soon called into question, providing the reveal which comes as an anticlimax so late in a mystery that never gets under the skin.

Made up of gritty action sequences and terse standoffs this is a western in the traditional style from video and TV director Ponciroli. Old Henry is decent but pedestrian fare reliably carried by Dorff and a ghoulishly taciturn Blake Wilson who holds out stoically until the final frame.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir/Wri: Michel Franco | Cast: Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg | Thriller 83’

Neil Bennett is just starting to relax in a plush Mexican resort with his sister Alice and her two teenagers, when a phone call shatters their idyll. Their mother has been taken to hospital and soon after dies.

Hurriedly getting their stuff together they dash to the airport. But Neil has forgotten his passport, leaving his neurotic sister to pick up the pieces back home. So begins Michel Franco’s latest thriller with his signature plot twists and nasty surprises: a blueprint for lean storytelling unravelling in just over an hour, Sundown just might change your life.

Louche, snarky and yet utterly devastating Sundown is all about serendipity – how life suddenly falls into place and then out again. You can’t help rooting for Neil, a suitably laid back Tim Roth, he does what everyone wants to do, walking away from responsibility, following his heart. Charlotte Gainsbourg is a strung-out, stressful bundle of nerves as Alice, and you just want to run away from her and that’s what Neil does. Running a successful slaughterhouse business the family is loaded. Money has never been a problem, and it shows in their flip attitude in a tight little thriller with its clipped dialogue: nothing is spare.

Leaving the airport Neil heads back to a squalid hotel in downtown Acapulco and it’s here that he finds contentment in a love affair with a local Mexican brunette.  Pretending to be organising a new passport with the consulate he drinks beer and shoots the breeze, ignoring his sister’s endless phone calls. When Alice finds him, a week later, he’s already loving the dream. And all the stress of London suddenly floods back. You may well empathise with Neil when Alice forces a ‘business divorce’ on him offering a generous retirement package while he willingly gives up his share, content to be left to his own devices.

But his laid back attitude hides a more sinister but pivotal plot twist telegraphed in the opening scene, blink and you’ll miss it. Michel Franco certainly does no favours to his native Mexico portraying it as a venally corrupt and dangerous place to visit. And we’re not prepared for the showcase showdown that brings Sundown to a grisly climax

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir: Maggie Gyllenhaal | Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Fanning, Jack Farthing | UK Drama 124′

Olivia Colman reconnects with her past on a trip to the Greek Islands in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film as director.

Based on Elena Farrante’s novel, The Lost Daughter makes for a fraught psychological drama graced by another gripping performance from Colman as Leda Caruso, a professor of Italian literature looking for seclusion on a working holiday.

Not quite as brittle as Charlotte Rampling in The Swimming Pool but just as redoubtable and mesmerising, Colman’s warm smile melts to reveal a passionate determination as an academic and mother of two grown-up daughters, openly confessing that her maternal instincts were secondary to her desire for self realisation

The peace of her the secluded beach near her holiday home (rented from Ed Harris) is soon shattered by the arrival of a raucous bunch of New Yorkers from Queens whose apparent parental dysfunction mirrors Leda’s own, the reflection on the past gradually destabilising her tranquility as anxiety drifts into this newfound idyll.

Olivia Colman brings all the subtleties of age and experience to her richly complex role. Voluble when the occasion arises, she mostly keeps to herself but is increasingly drawn in by the antics of her American neighbours: the young mother Nina (Johnson) soon becoming the focus of her fascination. And Nina copes with a clingy toddler, memories of Leda’s own experiences flood back as the film plays out in a series of flashbacks fleshing out her past, Jessie Buckley playing her younger self.

Stifled by the heat and buzzing insects and hemmed in by her American interlopers Leda’s working holiday soon descends into anguish heightened by the sudden disappearance of Nina’s daughter, and her much loved doll. Leda joins the search party eventually finding the girl but keeping her doll to satisfy some unexplained maternal urge which fuels the final prt of the film as some visceral recollections of the past creep back: an early marriage, kids arriving too soon and disrupting her glittering career, precipitating her into romantic indiscretion and divorce.

Gyllenhaal’s assured direction and well-modulated narrative explores some dark nights of the soul but it’s Colman who brings it all together in an incendiary performance full of mercurial moments as well as measured maturity that keeps the hatches battened down in this stormy story about love, attraction and personal satisfaction. MT

ON NETFLIX FROM December 31st 2021 | VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | BEST SCREENPLAY 2021

Dir. Xavier Giannoli. France. 2021. 144′.

Inspired by Honoré de Balzac’s rags to riches hero Eugene de Rastignac who works his way through the Comédie Humaine, this lavish period drama charts a personal and literary advancement in post revolutionary France in a way that resonates with the media world of today, the clear voice of Balzac providing a guiding narration.

In the flowing tradionally styled screen adaptation Xavier Giannoli calls his main character Lucien de Rubempre and casts a dashing and tousled haired Benjamin Voisin (fresh from Ozon’s Summer of ‘85) to play the ambitious young social climber charting his impetuous progress through the ranks from the backstreets of Paris to the corridors of power where he comes up against the ruthless establishment of the salons.

Lucien de Rubempré is an aspiring poet from Angoulême who soon captures the heart of cultured baroness Louise de Bargeton (Cécile de France). But his lowly social class causes a scandal, and Louise is cautioned by her beady eyed cousin, Marquise d’Espard (a beady-eyed Jeanne Balibar) forcing Lucien back onto the rocky road of Parisian grafting where he soon meets his rival Nathan (Xavier Delon) and the hard-nosed cynical journo Etienne Lousteau (Vincent Lacoste in fine form) who has found a way of financing his literary career through theatre criticism in the newly burgeoning tabloid press.

Lucien’s arriviste vanity and lust for life will eventually derail his dreams of lasting success, although for a while he is the toast of the town. Until then Lucien discovers the high life, champagne flows and the beau monde of Paris appears to be his oyster, Gérard Depardieu’s wealthy publisher soon signing the cheques. Meanwhile Louise has gone full circle in her spiritual evolution as a world weary aristocrat and beaten a hasty retreat to the country where she pines for her beau.

Meanwhile new love for Lucien arrives in the shape of homely showgirl Coralie (Salomé Dewaels) who becomes his mistress and confidante, her strengh and moral probity a much needed guiding light for the impetuous ingenu. And for a while the couple enjoy a meteoric rise as the ‘dernier cri’ of Paris through their hard work and genuine endeavour. But storm clouds soon gather on their moment of fame and Coralie’s  desire to keep Lucien in the dandy manner he’s not been accustomed to see the debts mounting up until all they have left is their love.

With Christophe Beaucarne’s fluid camerawork this is an opulent if rather overblown drama that could do with a trim here and there to make it a slightly more palatable watch instead of an indulgent two and a half hours. That said, Giannoli is worthy of praise for his skilful adaptation of what is an enjoyable and magnificent French classic. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir: Paul Schrader | Cast: Oscar Isaacs, Willem Dafoe, Tye Sheridan, Tiffany Haddish | US Thriller 120’

Paul Schrder’s latest thriller turns on a ‘one more trick before retiring’  premise. Oscar Isaacs is in his element as William Tullich, an ex convict from Guantanamo bay whose decade in prison has made him an introverted, compulsive routine-junkie now earning his living as a card counter travelling around from casino to casino ‘just to pass the time’ attracted by his skill at gambling rather than his desire for filthy lucre. 

A bitier more full-blooded take on Croupier (1998), this is essentially a revenge road movie with a difference that contemplates a stale and soulless America fuelled by rancid day-old filter coffee, and reflecting on the bitter vestiges of Abu Ghraib prison where William served as a US officer complicit in the torture of inmates.

With his poker face and detached demeanour Will is driven by a subtle desire for redemption that gradually becomes more obsessive as the narrative strands mesh together revealing the true horror of how ordinary people can become monsters in a controlling environment where they are forced to create an alter ego to survive.

On the road William meets Tye Sheridan’s broken young man Cirk, a metaphor for a millennial caught up in debt and dysfunctional family relationships, whose father was also involved at Guantanamo. Will’s desire to help “the kid” will lead to a coruscating showdown in the film’s elliptical finale where Will comes face to face with his former army superior Gordon Gaddo (Dafoe). A subplot involving Will’s gambling sidekick La Linda (Haddish) is only the weak link here and doesn’t quite convince as the love story at the film’s core: neither Haddish nor Isaacs really connecting with the deep humanity of their characters as fully rounded individuals capable of expressing deep emotion. That aside this is a visually alluring and at times gripping thriller that imagines 21st century America as a lost and shallow shadow of its past. MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Dir: Laura Bispuri | Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Dominique Sanda, Maya Sansa, Carlo Cerciello, Leonardo Lidi, Maddalena Crippa | Italy Drama 87;

Laura Bispuri’s first film Sworn Virgin took Berlinale by storm in 2015 with its edgy story about a woman opting to live as a man deep in the mountains of Albania. The Peacock’s Paradise appears to be a more straightforward domestic drama, Bispuri’s long time collaborator Alba Rohrwacher this time playing a mother (Adelina ) planning a church wedding to her fiancé Vito (Lidi). But Bispuri’s other family members are an offbeat bunch, outwards appearances proving to be deceptive.

Dominique Sanda stars is the hostess Nena celebrating her birthday with her husband Umberto, their children Vito and Caterina, cousin Isabella, their daughter-in-law Adelina, her daughter Alma, Caterina’s ex Manfredi – who still lusts after her – although he’s at the party with his new girlfriend Joana. But the star of the show is Paco, Alma’s peacock, whose delicate presence and sudden fall from grace causes everyone to reflects on their own sadness and missed opportunities, as well as each other.

With its muted colours, gentle pacing and thoughtful performances this is  a nuanced, introspective film that avoids sentimentality or melodrama in exploring close close relationships, perceptively written by Bispuri and Silvana Tamma. MT

Venice Film Festival 2021 | Orizzonti 2021

Dir.: Aly Muritiba; Cast: Antonio Saboia, Pedro Fasanaro, Thomas Aquino, Leo Miranda, Mauro Zanata, Laila Garin; Portugal/Brazil 2021, 118 min.

A tortured amour-fou between a violent policeman and a transgender man is at the heart of this anger-fuelled Western melodrama from Brazil’s Aly Muritiba who sensitively explores how traditional family roles are replayed in gay/transgender relationships in a strongly macho culture.

Forced to live as a straight man, Daniel (Saboia), has turned into a disgruntled forty-year old, recently been suspended from duties after causing life threatening injuries to a young recruit. His relationships with women have, unsurprisingly, been fraught. Online he has just met Sara (Fasanaro), who lives in Sobradinho, in the south of Brazil, thousands of miles away from Daniel’s hometown of Curitiba. But when Sara stops answering his calls, Daniel leaves his sister (Garin) in charge of his dementia stricken father (Zanata), and heads to Sobradinho where he produces flyers with Sara’s photo, and plasters them all over the small town. There he meets Fernando (Aquino), who knows Sara (Fasanaro) who actually goes by the name of Robson. As it soon emerges, the two are an item, but the local priest has asked Robson to undertake a “re-orientation” course with his college Oswaldo (Miranda), who himself had been “cured” from being gay. Robson’s true identity made public, thanks to Daniel’s flyers, he decides to leave for Rio, but the past is far from over.

DoP Luis Armando Arteaga conjurers up stunning widescreen images of the vast sub-continent, Daniel’s drive across the country serving as the centre piece. Pedro Fasanaro triumphs in his role as Sara/Robson, Saboia finding a certain humanity in the unlikeable character of Daniel. Aly Muritaba directs with analytical insight, avoiding sentimentality in a mature and thoughtful epic.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | GIORNATE DEGLI AUTORI

Dir: Aditya Vikram Sengupta | Cast Sreelekha Mitra, Shayak Roy, Bratya Basu, Arindam Ghosh, Satrajit Sarkar, Anirban Chakrabarti | India, France, Norway – 129’ – 2021 – Bengali

Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s third feature is the only Indian film in this year’s Venice lineup. Set against the ancient city of Kolkata adapting to a rapidly changing world, this delicately observed but ultimately tragic story centres on a divorced mother who also experiencing an identity crisis after the loss of her daughter and her marriage.

When she is refused a home loan by the bank, having spend all her money of funding her daughter’s treatment, her boss, the owner of a massive Ponzi scheme, makes her a questionable offer to finance her future. But Ela feels more comfortable looking to her family for support, reconnecting with her estranged stepbrother who also lets down her down, blaming Ela for his own dark fate.

Then Ela’s childhood sweetheart resurfaces and gives her the warmth and hope for a new beginning. Just as Ela starts living the life she had dreamed for herself, she realises that she isn’t the only desperate soul clinging to a raft in a sea of scavengers.

Bengalis have strong ties to the world of cinema and communism and Sengupta chips away at the various layers of tradition to reveal a human condition that is often soulful and yet full of hope and joy. The film highlights the aspirations and struggles of cultured people gasping for breath in an ever-expanding metropolis, once home to Satyajit Ray and Rabindranath Tagore Once Upon A Time is a love letter to a city struggling in murky waters where colourful characters are constantly trying to invent new identities without being submerged in the tide of change. MT

Venice Film Festival 2021 | ORIZZONTI .

Dir.: Teemu Niki; Cast: Petri Poikolainen, Marjaana Maijala, Samuli Jaskio, Rami Rusinen; Finland 2021, 81 min.

The Finns are well known for their deadpan humour and this latest  from Teemu Niki is also full of passion and soulfulness in the style of recent dark comedies Come As You Are and Berlinale Golden Bear winner The Other Side of Hope.

It follows two film buffs coping with debilitating illnesses – but the last thing they need is pity. Crucially, Niki is pains to point out that his physically challenged characters by no means see themselves as second class citizens, although they are often considered as such by those around them. The story unfolds through the out of focus perspective of wheelchair-user and John Carpenter fan Jaakko (Poikolainen) who doesn’t let his condition stand in his way, despite the negative views of his friends. Not to be outdone, his online friend Sirpa (Maijala) – the two haven’t yet met – is affected by some kind of blood virus and forced to travel “only three hours away in a train and taxi” for chemotherapy with its ghastly side effects. Jaakko takes this opportunity for a face to face meeting, paying her a supportive visit, despite to his mobility issues, a welcome lottery win providing much needed funds for the journey. As an ice-breaker, Jaakko brings with him a brand new copy of her favourite romcom the titular Titanic, a film he personally detests.

But as luck would have it, his backpack is stolen at the train station, the identity of the thief later being revealed as a young man wearing a tee-shirt emblazoned ‘Scorpions’. Here Niki introduces another humorous twist to the narrative involving the drug dealing pair Samuli and Rami (Jaskio and Rusinen). But will Jaako survive to deliver his gift?

DoP Sari Altonen has great fun imagining Jaakko’s outlook on daily life, giving the audience a full taste of the horrors which go hand in hand with his condition. But the biggest surprise of all is that Petri Poikolainen suffers MS in real life. A performance of great endurance and utter brilliance.

Venice Film Festival 2021 | IN COMPETITION 

Dir.: Ciro de Caro; Cast: Rosa Palasciano; Valerio Di Benedetto, Fabrizio Ciavoni, Cristian Di Santis, Mattheo Quinzi, Annalisa Lori; Italy 2021, 109 min.

This slow-burning and sensitive drama explores the overwhelming sense of loss and confusion brought on by a pandemic, a state of affairs that will be familiar to all of us. Ciro de Caro’s loose direction oscillates between impressive scenes and fuzzy vagueness held together by Rosa Palasciano’s luminous presence as Giulia, her lack of certainty leading to an identity crisis as relationships come under pressure.

In Rome, we meet first Giulia with her boyfriend Alessandro (Quinzi), he wants to split up but she insists on having ‘another baby’. She embarrasses him in front of his family then rushes off, looking in waste bins for discarded children’s toys, a habit she indulges in for the rest of the feature. Giulia’s employment track record is not looking good: working part-time looking after an old lady she ends up stealing from her. At the same time, another job in a care home comes to an end, Giulia holding Sergio (Di Benedetto) responsible. Sergio and his two friends Ciavoni (Ciavoni) and Fausto (Di Sante) are nevertheless obsessed with Giulia, the four of them driving to the seaside where they meet up with Giulia’s friend Sandra. After a stressful afternoon ends with arguments and accusations, Giulia wanders off on her own through the countryside, where she releases a horse from its tether, a metaphor for her own desire for freedom. There are elements of Neo-Realism at play, but De Caro’s narrative mostly lacks focus drifting off into banalities, feeling more like a ‘first draft’ than a polished final feature, although some may interpret his enigmatic approach as representative of Giulia’s loss of self. DoP Manuele Mandolesi limpid visuals capture the essence of the fragmenting Giulia in this languorous portrait of a woman in distress. AS

Venice Film Festival 2021

DirWri: Yuri Ancarani | Cast: Daniele Barison, Bianka Berényi, Maila Dabala, Alberto Tedesco | Italian Fantasy Drama, 100′

Unfolding serenely in a suave jazzy vibe this splashy narrative-slim hyperrealist Venetian love letter thrums to the soft summery ambient sounds of the lagoon where it pays homage to la Serenissima.

Artful framing and a contemporary soundtrack are all that’s needed to tell the story of the venal side of Venice that unfolds fantasy docudrama-style through a series of suggestive long takes tracking the main character – Daniele, a young man from Sant’Erasmo – who takes a scuzzy psychedelic road less travelled away from the typical barchino (motorboat) way of life, aiming for something more subversive and even surreal involving ever more speedy and powerful craft.

Captured in the vibrantly inventive camerawork of DoP Lorenzo Pezzano, Atlantide is the latest from video artist and filmmaker Yuri Ancarani (a junior Jonathan Glazer) and perfectly captures the lowlife in this highlife location in a pop promo way. Lowkey yet thrilling Atlantide is a colourful subtle crime story that gradually turns more sinister driven forward by Mirco Mencacci’s majestic score in the closing stages, keeping us guessing until the final frame. MT

Venice Film Festival 2021 | Orizzonti Competition

Dir.: Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine; Documentary with Leonard Cohen, Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman, Sharon Robinson, Judy Collins, Regina Spector, Clive Davis, Amanda Palmer, Rufus Wainwright; USA 2021, 118 min.

Canadian singer, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) once again comes under the spotlight in this passionate but objective new documentary from Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller (who also serves as DoP).

The focus here is Cohen’s quest for spiritual meaning, culminating in the 1984 song, Hallelujah. Inspired by “The Holy and the Broken” by author Alan Light, the directors have cleverly put together a piece of musical history, backed by prodigious researc.

Cohen was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Montreal and stayed faithful to his religion even though for a time, in the late 1990s, he was drawn to Zen Buddhism and lived for a few years at the retreat of Zen master Kyozan Joshu Sasalli Roshi on Mount Baldy. Cohen was a renowned womaniser unable to commit to family life. He bought the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s where he enjoyed a long relationship with Marianne Ihlen, for whom he wrote “So long Marianne”. They both died only a few months apart (of leukaemia). Cohen’s last love letter formed the eulogy at Ihlen’s funeral. In the 1970s Cohen lived with Suzanne Elrod, the couple had two children, but “Suzanne” was actually written for Suzanne Verdal. Cohen shared most of the 1980s with the fashion photographer Dominique Isserman with whom he also collaborated on work projects. Actress Rebecca de Mornay also shared professional achievements with Cohen.

Even before Hallelujah was made globally famous by the animation feature Shrek (2001), Cohen wrote songs for Robert Altman’s noir Western McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971). The original reaction to Hallelujah on the 1984 album ‘Various Positions’ was anything but promising: Columbia Music CEO Walter Yetnikov was less than enamoured, and the album was not released in the USA. The original version was produced by the small record label ‘Passport Records’ a year later. Cohen was not the only one to record the song, the most famous versions are by Jeff Buckley (who died shortly afterwards in a swimming accident), John Cale, KD lang and Brandi Carlisle. Rufus Wainwright was supposed to perform Shrek for the feature but the producers decided at the last minute to go with John Cale’s version “because it fitted better with the character of the titular protagonist of the feature”. But Wainwright did not lose out completely, his version was used for the sound track version.

Many ‘famous’ moments from music history are touched upon: the meeting between Dylan and Cohen in Paris, comparing the time the composers spent on their songs, with Dylan (15 minutes in the back of a taxi) the clear winner, since Cohen honed Hallelujah to perfection in over seven years using about 200 verses. Rolling Stone music critic Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman, friend of Dylan and Cohen, is the most animated witness, trying to come to terms with Cohen’ ‘split’ personality, best described by the man himself: You either raise your fist, or sing Hallelujah. I did both”.

In spite of the long running time, for once justified, Hallelujah is chockfull of juicy titbits, keeping us enthralled for nearly two hours. The legendary star found himself making a successful comeback, touring the globe after his business manager absconded with all his money, including his pension fund. He leaves behind him an oeuvre suffused with languid longing, words and music full of sentimental low level depression.AS

IN CINEMAS FROM 16 SEPTEMBER 2022

Dir.: Gabor Fabricius; Cast: Benjamin Fuchs, Kinscö Blénesi, Ildicó Bánsági, Andrea Ládanyi; Hungary 2021, 98 min.

In Stalinist Hungary during the early 1980s a troubled punk musician is sent to a psychiatric ward where he struggles against the regime’s authoritarianism alongside patients with more serious  mental health problems. Stunningly captured in black and white by Tamás Dobos, first time director Gabor Fabricius goes for an Orwellian atmosphere showing Frank’s descent into a nightmarish vision of a system hellbent on destroying any kind of creativity, seen entirely from Frank’s POV. This is a fuzzy journey into darkness where we meet a series of periphery characters whose place in Frank’s universe never becomes entirely clear: his unnamed partner and another inmate he befriends. The aesthetics certainly carry the film, but the lack of narrative structure reduces the impact on our ability to engage with Frank and his tortured world. Erasing Frank is nonetheless a visceral visual poem portraying the misuse of psychiatry in all Stalinist countries from WWII until 1989 in one of the darkest chapters in history.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

Venice has upped its game programme wise in recent years and now looks to challenge Cannes with its glittering line-up. The 78th edition opens on September 1st with mainstream film as well as arthouse fare including the hotly anticipated Princess Diana drama Spencer starring Kristen Stewart and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Star power is boosted by Adam Driver, Matt Damon, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Olivia Colman and Jamie Leigh Curtis

This year’s jury is headed by Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) presiding over Oscar winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), French actress Virginie Efira (Benedetta), Italian director Saverio Costanzo (Hungry Hearts), Canadian actress and producer Sarah Gadon (Enemy), Romanian documentary maker Alexander Nanau (Collective), and British actress and singer-songwriter Cynthia Erivo (Widows).

Other major movies picking Venice for their world debut include David Gordon Green’s latest horror outing Halloween Kills starring Jamie Lee Curtis; Ridley Scott’s period drama The Last Duel starring Adam Driver, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jodie Comer; and Edgar Wright’s hotly anticipated Last Night in Soho with Anya Taylor-Joy. All three will screen out of competition.

In the running for the 2021 Golden Lion for best film are Jane Campion’s star-studded literary adaptation The Power of the Dog featuring Kirsten Dunst and Benedict Cumberbatch, Ana Lily Amirpour’s latest Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman, will also premiere in competition at the 78th Venice Festival.

Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco is back in the main competition after his New Order won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize in Venice last year, Sundown, an English-language features sees him working again with Tim Roth, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Paul Schrader will be there with The Card Counter, starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Willem Dafoe.

Venice 2021 has proved of late to be somewhat of a springboard for the Academy Awards. But Italian cinema has also garnered kudos from the ‘La Mostra’ which features this year no less that five Italian titles in competition, including America Latina from brothers Damiano and Fabio d’Innocenzo, Il Buco from director Michelangelo Frammartino, Freaks Out from Gabriele Mainetti, and Mario Martone’s Qui Rido Io.

Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino will also be on the lido with his latest The Hand of God,a rites of passage football themed drama set in Naples during the 1980s where Diego Maradona joined the city’s team.

The closing film on September 11th will also be Italian — Roberto Ando’s Il Bambino Nascoto

Other buzz worthy titles include Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song from director Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine. TV wise there’s Scenes From a Marriage starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac reunited after A Most Violent Year (2014) an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s celebrated classic 1973 feature.

The Horizons section this year features a lot of new directors. Most notable here is British director Harry Wootliff whose premiere True Things, has a glittering cast of Ruth Wilson and Tom Burke, and Matt Dillon starring Land of Dreams from Iranian director Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari, starring Matt Dillon. The sidebar closes with Rhino from the contraversal Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov. As if there wasn’t enough films the Horizons now includes an ‘Extra Section’ that explore new avenues in world cinema, ie ‘experimental’ fare.

Last year Venice successfully managed to be the first major international festival to hold an in-person edition since the pandemic broke in the February. The 2021 festival acknowledges that coronavirus is still rampant in Europe with the variants taking hold.

The full lineup of the 2021 Venice Film Festival is below.

VENEZIA 78 – COMPETITION

Madres Paralelas, dir: Pedro Almodóvar
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, dir: Ana Lily Amirpour
Un Autre Monde, dir: Stéphane Brizé
The Power of the Dog, dir: Jane Campion
America Latina, dirs: Damiano D’Innocenzo, Fabio D’Innocenzo
L’Evénement, dir: Audrey Diwan
Competencia Oficial, dirs: Gaston Duprat, Mariano Cohn
Il Buco, dir: Michelangelo Frammartino
Sundown, dir: Michel Franco
Illusions Perdues, dir: Xavier Giannoli
The Lost Daughter, dir: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Spencer, dir: Pablo Larraín
Freaks Out, dir: Gabriele Mainetti
Qui Rido Io, dir: Mario Martone
On the Job: The Missing 8, dir: Erik Matti
Leave No Traces, dir: Jan P Matuszynski
Captain Volkonogov Escaped, dirs: Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov
The Card Counter, dir: Paul Schrader
The Hand Of God, dir: Paolo Sorrentino
La Caja, dir: Lorenzo Vigas
Reflection, dir: Valentyn Vasyanovych

OUT OF COMPETITION – FICTION

Il Bambino Nascosto, dir: Roberto Ando
Les Choses Humaines, dir: Yvan Attal
Ariaferma, dir: Leonardo Di Costanzo
Halloween Kills, dir: David Gordon Green
La Scuola Cattolica, dir: Stefano Mordini
Old Henry, dir: Potsy Ponciroli
The Last Duel, dir: Ridley Scott
Dune, dir: Denis Villeneuve
Last Night In Soho, dir: Edgar Wright

OUT OF COMPETITION – NON-FICTION

Life of Crime 1984-2020, dir: Jon Alpert
Tranchées, dir: Loup Bureau
Viaggio Nel Crepuscolo, dir: Augusto Contento
Republic of Silence, dir: Diana El Jeiroudi
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, dirs: Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine
Deandré#Deandré Storio Di Un Impiegato, dir: Roberta Lena
Django & Django, dir: Luca Rea
Ezio Bosso. Le Cose Che Restano, dir: Giorgio Verdelli

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Le 7 Giornate Di Bergamo, dir: Simona Ventura
La Biennale Di Venezia: Il Cinema Al Tempo Del Covid, dir: Andrea Segre

OUT OF COMPETITION – SERIES

Scenes From a Marriage (Episodes 1-5), dir: Hagai Levi

HORIZONS EXTRA

Land of Dreams, dirs: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari
Costa Brava, dir: Mounia Akl
Mama I’m Home, dir: Vladimir Bitokov
Ma Nuit, dir: Antoinette Boulat
La Ragazza Ha Volato, dir: Wilma Labate
7 Prisoners, dir: Alexandre Moratto
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, dir: Teemu Nikki
La Macchina Delle Immagini Di Alfredo C, dir: Roland Sejk

ORIZZONTI

Les Promesses, dir: Thomas Kruithof
Atlantide, dir: Yuri Ancarani
Miracle, dir: Bogdan George Apetri
Pilgrims, dir: Laurynas Bareisa
Il Paradiso Del Pavone, dir: Laura Bispuri
The Falls, dir: Chung Mong-Hong
El Hoyo En La Cerca, dir: Joaquin Del Paso
Amira, dir: Mohamed Diab
A Plein Temps, dir: Eric Gravel
107 Mothers, dir: Peter Kerekes
Vera Dreams of the Sea, dir: Kaltrina Krasniqi
White Building, dir: Kavich Neang
Anatomy of Time, dir: Jakrawal Nilthamrong
El Otro Tom, dirs: Rodrigo Pla, Laura Santullo
El Gran Movimento, dir: Kiro Russo
Once Upon a Time in Calcutta, dir: Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Rhino, dir: Oleg Sentsov
True Things, dir: Harry Wootliff
Inu-Oh, dir: Yuasa Masaaki

VENICE LA BIENNALE FILM FESTIVAL  | 1 – 11 SEPTEMBER 2021

Dir: Amos Gitai | Drama, Israel, 90′

Gitai certainly brings out the exotic edginess of this Israeli port city bordering on the Lebanon in his feisty social satire that sees Palestinians, Israelis and Lebanese enjoying a local night spot.

Those familiar with the territory – political, cultural and social – will certainly appreciate a drama set in this complex part of the world Some of the intrigue will be missed by the mainstream unable to identify who’s who. And although we’re constantly led to believe by the British press that Arabs and Israelis are constantly at each others throats, Gitai shows us otherwise – in a multicultural set-up where opposites attract amid a heady brew of sexual chemistry that fuels the various interconnecting vignettes in a rather stagey drama with its awkward performances – often feeling as if the cast is just reading from the script. Yet there’s something mesmerising about the seedy characters. You might not trust them to post a letter, but they’re intriguing to watch

The setting is Haifa’s Fattoush Bar & Gallery adjacent to a busy railway line that occasionally drowns out the conversation between business people. And while negotiations are going on in the art gallery part of the venue, gay couples are carousing in another corner of the venue.

Laila (Maria Zreik, Villa Touma) is the owner of the gallery. She is married to canny Palestinian Kamal (Makram J. Khoury) who doesn’t give her credibility as a businesswoman or agree with the political nature of the photos in her current exhibition picturing the Palestinian Resistance, although he does appear laissez faire about her relationship with Gil the artist who shot them (actor and singer Tsahi Halevi) – the two are seen embracing before Kamal arrives on the scene.

There’s an odd scene where Kamal is accosted by a rather fiery young Arab woman (Behira Ablassi) who tries to bribe him for money by hiding in the back of his ‘top of the range’ Mercedes. He handles the situation with nonchalance cleverly giving her short shrift.

Gil entertains a sob story from his half-sister (Israeli actress and dancer Naama Preis) complaining about her sexless marriage. She turns her attentions to a good-looking young Arab guy who plies her with drinks before the two disappear into his car for a quickie.

In another part of the bar a stocky young black Arab is on a blind date with a bewigged Jewish widow (Hana Laslo). Candidly admitting he was expecting somebody younger, she confidently retorts: “I was expecting someone more Jewish”. A bizarre episode features Arab chef Hisham whose wife Khawla (Khawla Ibraheem) unwisely makes a play for his friend Gil.

Gitai’s snapshot of the Middle East feels very much like a filmed play – entertaining at times but also rather forced and artificial in its depiction of this multicultural social brew. MT

IN CINEMAS FROM 5 NOVEMBER 2021

Dir.: Rodrigo Sepulveda; Cast: Alfredo Castro, Leonardo Ortizgris, Paulina Urrutia, Julieta Zylberberg; Chile/Mexico/Argentina 2020, 93 min.

Venice winner Alfredo Castro (From Afar) is the main attraction of this full on melodrama with political overtones from Rodrigo Sepulveda (Aurora).

Based on Pedro Lemebel’s 2001 novel of the same name, this gay love story plays out in the Chile of 1986, when resistance fighters blew up Augusto Pinochet’s security offices in an attempt to assassinate him.

Carlos (Ortizgris) is part of an underground cell, planning to eliminate Pinochet. The action kicks off during a raucous evening in a local club where Castro’s ageing transvestite drag queen La Loca del Fuente is in full swing. The performance is interrupted by Military Police who kill one member of the troupe and arrest others. Carlos saves La Loca’s life, pretending they are a heterosexual couple, while the soldiers look for more victims.

La Loca lives in a derelict house in one of the poorest quarters of Santiago where he earns a modest living as a needle-smith. Smitten by the handsome revolutionary, he allows Carlos to store some boxes with “books” in his house, and also accords them total privacy when Carlos’ group has meetings, although La Loca wises up on discovering a cache of guns in the boxes, and objects to being asked to embroider a table cloth with the Chilean flag for one of his clients, Donna Clarita (Urrutia), who is entertaining Pinochet for dinner. Carlos threatens La Loca with a visit from the Political Police if he refuses the commission.

The pair become close, La Loca accompanying Carlos on a ‘scouting’ trip for the planned assassination, but La Loca comes home one evening, to find that the guns are gone. Carlos backs off after the failed attempt on Pinochet’s life, leaving La Loca lonely and heartbroken. But after Julieta has driven him to a meeting with Carlos at the beach, La Loca must make a very personal decision

In this beguiling feature Sepulveda lifts the lid on the gay scene of Pinochet’s Chile when transvestites and other sexual ‘deviants’ were much frowned upon by communists and their class enemies – especially in Castro’s Cuba. As La Loca points out to Carlos: “there are no gay communists”. Both neither Carlos or La Loca are winners. Carlos has to flee the country after the failed attempt on Pinochet’s life, not knowing the event would eventually be the end of the end of the dictatorship. La Loca knows very well that in the macho terrain of South America, sexual orientation is not a matter of choice.

DoP Sergio Armstrong plays with a bold palette of prime colours; the subdued lighting chez La Loca echoing the psychological state of its inhabitant: shutting out the day and just living for Carlos’ nightly visits. A classical melodrama, very much in the vein of the great Mexican director Emilio Fernandez. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2020 | VENICE DAYS

Dir: Ahmad Bahrami | Ali Bagheri (Lotfolah), Farrokh Nemati (Boss), Mahdieh Nassaj (Sarvar), Touraj Alvand (Shahoo), Majid Farhang (Ebrahim) |  Drama, Iran 103’

Ahmad Bahrami’s second feature is a work of stark elegance in contrast to its soulful setting in a remote mudbrick factory on the verge of shutdown in a dusty corner of Iran. A metaphor for modern Iran The Wasteland echoes Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Abbas Kiarostami in its chiaroscuro grace and artful framing and nothing is spare in a storyline that gradually smoulders to a coruscating conclusion.

Workers of varying cultures and creeds toil tirelessly in the searing heat their simmering resentments felt but barely seen until the shutdown of the factory is imminent, the boss no longer able to finance a traditional concern in a world that has changed forever. The building trade is using concrete and other sustainable products and the traditional art of compressing and baking earth into rectangular blocks has no place in the 21st century.

Forty year old Lotfolah has dedicated his life to the factory as foreman and supervisor – man and boy – now he has nowhere to go with his only companion, a trusty horse. The workers look to their boss for the future but he cannot sustain them. He must settle up their wages and send them on their way to the city. Up to now they have been united in their differences focussing on a common goal. But petty resentments and quarrels now start to break out and the smouldering environment fires up their bitterness. Ebrahim, an Azerbaijani Turk, is in love with an Iranian girl called Gohar. But her father Mashebad has other plans for his daughter back in their village. Kurdish Shanu insists on wearing a sleeveless teeshirt much to the anger of the Muslim men. But he has more pressing problems to sort out, with a father on death row. An intense undercurrent of emotion burns between Sarvar and Lotfolah who has set his heart on a future for the two on them. But Sarvar remains an enigma, proud and silent. Scenes of her in quiet contemplation against the backdrop of factory arches are amongst the most inspired in this arthouse treasure that uses academy ratio to set the action firmly in a distant era unconnected to the modern world yet reliant on it for survival.

Ahmad Bahrami uses a clever narrative device that centres on the factory owner’s announcement that the factory is to close.  This speech is played out five times throughout the first half of the film, and each time it accumulates, another part added to the existing message, the camera taking the POV of each workers, their story is then amplified into its own vignettes. The worker then returns to his family and after a discussion they eat and go to sleep.

But Lotfolah is alone in his life and we feel for him. Ali Bagheri gives a monumental and thoughtful performance that conveys a weight of emotion simmering under his mournful demeanour. As his co-workers slowly pack up and go he remains a figure of quiet desperation going about his business as diligently as in the past. And in the final act a feeling of gloom and despondency builds towards a doomladen finale. This sober end of worlds thriller came to the Venice Horizons competition modestly without noise or representation standing its ground as a minor masterpiece. MT

Venice Film Festival 2020 | HORIZONS

Dir.: Merawi Gerima; Cast: Obinna Nwachkwa, Dennis Lindsey, Taline Stewart, Jamal Graham, Melody Tally, Ramon Thompson; USA 2020, 90 min.

This debut feature chimes with today’s Black Lives Matter theme
through the Merawi Gerima’s personal homecoming memoirs seen through the eyes of through of his main character Jay (Nwachkwa, also a debutant).

Jay is back From studying film in Los Angeles. But his old stamping ground of Washington DC: once called Eckington, now NoMa (North Massachusetts Avenue), doesn’t feel the same anymore. Gentrification has since set in. But although Gerima is keen to point out that his film is not about gentrification, it is hard to interpret otherwise.

Jay’s parents (Ramon Thompson/Melody Tally) are hassled by property developers, and his childhood friends are seemingly hostile. The parallel sequences of his happy boyhood are truly nostalgic, and ring sometimes much truer than the contemporary alienation narrative.

Jay’s parents have always been a touchstone for the troubled youth of the area, and these issues continue to abound along with unsolved drug problems and new confrontations with the White interlopers. Of Jay’s childhood friends, Mike is dead; Dion (Graham), his former older idol (Jacari Dye plays a young Jay) is in prison; and Demitrius is nowhere to be found. Delonte (Lindsay) is one of many indifferent to Demetrius: “He moved to Maryland, I think”, he tells Jay. But Delonte had his own family issues to deal with, including the death of his mother at the hands of his father, Jay is a traitor: “Don’t forget, you left us! You can’t save me now. You lived the big life in LA, whilst we held down the city. Don’t ask ‘where is Demitrius, as if you really care. You only care only about yourself and the motherf…g movie you are shooting. Anyhow, we are paved over by the Whites, like we never existed”.

Jay’s relationship with his girl friend Blue (Stewart) is also troubled. She feels rightly neglected and, after a party, a jealous Jay storms off when he sees Blue consorting with his mates. The most impressive scene is Jay’s prison visit for Dion, whose letters he had never answered. Instead of the depressing penitentiary background, Gerima stages their meeting in the woods of their childhood. This is much more intense than the staged titular scene, where a White woman’s dog craps on the Black home owner’s lawn. While the dog’s owner is cleaning up, the house owner complains “about leaving residue on my lawn”.

With the riddle of Demetrius unsolved we are left with Jay’s partly irrational anger about changes: he has lost his childhood friends and environment and struggles to replace them. The filmmaker and his main protagonists seem to have hit a wall.

Impressive camerawork by DoP Mark Jeevaratnam cannot make up for a narrative that leaves too much unresolved. A more structured approach would have helped greatly. Nevertheless, Residue is strong on intensity and benefits from convincing performances from both the younger and older Jay. AS

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL  | Venice Days 2020

Dir/Wri: Katrin Grebbe | Drama | 126’

Nina Hoss works wonders with a devilish script in German writer director Katrin Gebbe’s morose and over-long sophomore feature that follows her Cannes outing Nothing Bad Can Happen.

Pester power is the name of the game here and many parents will understand how difficult it is when an existing child desperately wants a sibling?  that with the ultimate damnation of adopting a child who then turns out to be a demon and you have the basic premise of Pelican Blood which opens this year’s Venice Orizzonti sidebar

Riding over glitches in the narrative and bringing a convincing vulnerability to her challenging role is what Nina Hoss does best. And she triumphs here as a fraught single mother doing her utmost not to give up on the vile 9 year old girl she has adopted from Bulgaria, German law not allowing single mothers to go down this route. Hoss just about saves the film as the stoically committed mother Wiebke living with Raya and her cheished child Nicolina (Adelia-Constance Giovanni Ocleppo) in a rural paradise where she works as a horse trainer, enjoying the occasional romantic interludes with her raunchy colleague Benedikt (Murathan Muslu), also a single-parent. But this idyll is short-lived. 

Raya’s tantrums soon prove impossible to handle but Wiebke is loathe to give up on the girl who would have to go back to an orphanage and face more trauma for a second time. Gebbe ramps up the unsettling feeling of tension with an ominous soundscape that makes this enigmatic drama chilling to watch. And although Grebbe avoids swerving into lurid horror by keeping the thrilling elements of the drama chilling rather than ludicrous, it is too far-fetched to appeal to strictly arthouse audiences. And the final denouement brings to mind The Omen amongst other features of this popular sub-genre.  MT

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 28 – 7 SEPTEMBER 2019