Two Weeks in Review - 12/4/09

It was three months ago today that I had my accident. My physio told me that when a footballer presents with a torn posterior cruciate ligament (the knee injury I received), her response is to expect to be off the field for three months. I'm pretty keen to get back on my bicycle, and hope to ride to work tomorrow.

I didn't post a Week in Review last week, even though I didn't see much. This week has focused on La Mirada, and I'm posting these separately. Here's what I've seen over the last two weeks.

FILMS

• The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, USA, 1940)
• Erotikon (Mauritz Stiller, Sweden, 1920)
• Furtivos (The Poachers, José Luis Borau, Spain, 1975)
• Uncle/Cousin/Brother/Harvey Krumpet (Adam Elliot, Australia, 1996/1998/1999/2003)
• Mary and Max (Adam Elliot, Australia, 2009)
• Tulpan (Sergei Dvortsevoy, Kazakhstan/Germany/Poland/Russia/Switzerland, 2008)
• Bilbao (Bigas Luna, Spain, 1978)
• La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly's Tongue, José Luis Cuerda, Spain, 1999)
• La buena vida (The Good Life, Andrés Wood, Chile/Spain/Argentina/France, 2008)
• Arrebato (Rapture, Iván Zulueta, Spain, 1980)
• Surcos (Furrows, José Antonio Nieves Conde, Spain, 1951)
• La casa de mi padre (Blacklisted, Gorka Merchán, Spain, 2008)
• La mujer sin cabeza (The Headless Woman, Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, 2008)
• Mi querida senorita (My Dearest Senorita, Jaime de Armiñán, Spain, 1971)

The Shop Around the Corner
Terrific little gem, a Hollywood classic. The structure of the narrative seems well-suited for the era, but nothing done in recent decades seems to come close. Romantic comedies today seem forced, derivative an manipulative. This one is smart and works so well because of the excellent characters and snappy dialogue. The support cast really embellishes the story.

Erotikon
Quite a number of people walked out during this film, the late film at Melbourne Cinémathèque. I put that down to the time, the medium (silent film) and that it's not one of the really classic examples of the medium. Still, as someone interested in the history of cinema and where we've come from, it was worth staying for. I found some of the takes and dissolves quite well developed for its time. The story was OK, but nothing special.

Uncle/Cousin/Brother/Harvey Krumpet
See my earlier post.

Mary and Max
I think that with Mary and Max, Adam Elliot doesn't quite maintain the momentum of his short films, but that's not to say that the results are anything less than excellent. With each successive endeavour, his work seems to get more and more sophisticated. Yet there's a consistency and continuity. You could almost piece together each of his works and make one mega-film. The visuals, the structure (voice-over narrator), the semi-autobiographical nature (or at least the appearance of it), the quirkiness, the pathos and the humour are all constants in his work. As I've said several times lately, I think this is the most engaging and entertaining Australian film made in recent years.

Tulpan
A 'nice' film, the type that I'm kinda over. You know, the National Geographic ethnographic-type piece that we've seen done (better) in The Story of the Weeping Camel or (not as good) in The Cave of the Yellow Dog. It's an enjoyable enough film, but if you've seen the above-mentioned films, there's really no point seeing this one. Basically, it depicts a way of life that is slowly disappearing, using the story of a sailor returning to his remote country to woo a local girl as a pretext to depict the way of life of these nomadic goat and camel herders.

Before Mary and Max

Before Mary and Max, there was Adam Elliot's Uncle, Cousin, Brother and, of course, the Oscar-winning (in 2003, for best short film), Harvey Krumpet. Last weekend, ACMI screened Elliot's previous shorts and the following day, I saw his latest outing at a Rivoli cinema preview. It was a great experience, seeing all in close proximity. There's a common aesthetic: the visuals (minimal use of colour), the narrative (all depend largely on a narrator), the look of the characters and the pathos of the stories.

Elliot has a wonderful way of telling stories and, seeing him interviewed, I'm always taken at how much he looks like one of his plasticine characters. I love this themes of diversity and acceptance, blending in bleak themes that normally might turn audiences away, yet somehow captivate in this medium.

Last year, when Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis came out, I commented that this is the type of film that Australians should be making. With Mary and Max, Elliot has done it. It's very engaging and entertaining film, something we rarely hear a local film described as. It's also something you can take the kids to: it makes mature themes accessible to children. My eight-year old son loved it as much as I. It should do very well at the box office and I recommend it.

Meanwhile, here's Elliot's earlier work, all of which we had the good fortune to see at ACMI on the big screen in one sitting.

Uncle
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Cousin
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Brother
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Harvey Krumpet
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