The Week in Review

It's taken me a while to write on these films, but are my thoughts on them.

FILMS:

• The Strawberry Blonde (Raoul Walsh, USA, 1941)
• Waitress (Adrienne Shelley, USA, 2007)
• Trust (Hal Hartley, USA, 1990)
• Forbidden Lie$ (Anna Broinowski, Australia, 2007)
  

DVD:

• Chacun son cinéma (Various, France, 2007)
  

The Strawberry Blonde
I found this film an enjoyable enough experience, but unexceptional. And because of that, and the passage of time since seeing it, I find I now have little to say about it.



Waitress
Adrienne Shelly's start as an actress was in two Hal Hartley films: The Unbelievable Truth (1989) and Trust (1990). As far as I can ascertain, these were the only Hartley features she appeared in, though she did also appear in Hartley's 8 minute short Opera No. 1 (1994).

Hartley's style must have had a seminal influence, because his touch is evident in Shelly's last film, Waitress. Unfortunately she died last year under unfortunate circumstances (she was murdered, to be a little more precise), which you can check out on Wikipedia.

Waitress is being marketed at the same people who watch Sex in the City or Desperate Housewives, which might put off some for whom this film will really appeal (it should appeal regardless of gender). This is a US indie gem, that will especially appeal to Hartley fans. It uses a similarly dry but whacky humour, intelligent dialogue and an unpredictable narrative arc. And like a Hartley film, there is a dramatic core that is emotionally moving because it is grounded in truth.

The film is beautifully shot, with food and its preparation a joyous visual sub-theme. The character development is excellent, and it was interesting to see Cheryl Hines post-Curb Your Enthusiasm. Centre stage is Keri Russell who plays Jenna, a waitress at the local diner, along-side co-workers Becky (Hines) and Dawn (Shelly). Jeremy Sisto authentically portrays Jenna's jealous husband Earl and Nathan Fillion plays her gynecologist. An aging Andy Griffith also had a small but effective role.

While Hartley's films often end tragically, Waitress is not quite so dismal, and the film's overall mood is more upbeat and lighter than Hartley's style. The film appeals to one's sentimentality, but that's not a complaint - rather that's part of its enjoyment. It is well-written with intelligent dialogue and story - well worth seeing.

Waitress premiered at ACMI and screened with Hal Hartley's Trust as part of an Adrienne Shelly double. Waitress has a theatrical release starting 25 October.

Photo: Cheryl Hines, Keri Russell and Adrienne Shelly

Trust
I think one either loves or hates Hal Hartley's style. I fall into the former camp. I've now seen three of his films, the others being Amateur (1994) and Fay Grim (2006). Trust is an excellent companion piece to Waitress, and it fascinating to see a younger Adrienne Shelly convincingly portray a 17 year old (at 23 or 24 years of age). After seeing Amateur, it was also good to see Martin Donovan taking lead role in another Hartley film (a search of IMDB indicates Donovan in 7 Hartley films). Hartley uses him to very good effect, especially with his style of deadpan humour.

The parallel stories of Donovan's Matthew and Shelly's Maria alienation from their respective families must surely strike a cord with many disaffected youth, though hopefully not to many would emulate Matthew's carrying a hand-grenade. The character of Matthew's father reminded me of Ricky Fitts' father (played by Chris Cooper) in American Beauty. While the development of Matthew's and Maria's relationship is central to the film, their bond is unsurprisingly unconventional, yet grounded in a reality that resonates. One can connect with these guys. The inter-twining of various tangential stories (like a baby kidnapping) adds to a whacky other-worldly vibe that permeates the film and gives opening for the unexpected.

I haven't found any of the Hartley films I've seen earth-shattering or the top of any lists but they are immensely enjoyable. They are intelligent comedy/thriller/dramas that are definitely out of the square, interesting and keep ya' guessing. I like the way he creates characters that are down-and-out losers, puts them together, throws in some impossible coincidences and lets the narrative go wild. I'm surprised it took me so long to discover him. Trust is a dark but humorous film that is also very moving.

Photo: Martin Donovan and Adrienne Shelly

Forbidden Lie$
In examining a literary hoax - Norma Khouri's claims in her best-selling book, Forbidden Love, about honour killings in Jordan - this Forbidden Lie$ is a fascinating portrait of a liar. By this I mean not so much as getting into the mind of a liar as in recognising one. Shifting sands is an image seen periodically during the film and how relevant a metaphor that proves to be, as Norma Khouri is revealled not just as a liar, but a con-woman on the run from the FBI.

What a fascinating journey Anna Broinowski went on, a journey she could never have imagined when she set out to prove Norma Khouri was genuine. In fact, Broinowski's belief in Khouri is the reason the film ever got made (Khouri almost certainly would not have cooperated otherwise).

While it is clear to me that Khouri is a fake, I'm sure there will be some who will come away from watching this documentary still unsure. In isolation, any one statement made by her is convincing enough to fool the average person (or any person for that matter). What gets her ultimately is the fact that she has been captured on film. One completely plausible explanation of the truth has already been contradicted by previous explanations that were equally convincing. Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

This well-made documentary is very entertaining and compelling due to Broinowski's combination of various factors: first and foremost, an interesting and willing subject (though, not so willing as her fabrications crumbled), relevant and varied perspectives, its international scope, a narrative arc that unfolds like a thriller and the use of effective dramatic recreations (a la Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line).

I predict this film will win best Australian documentary awards do well in the US (where some of the story unfolds) and elsewhere. It is well worth a look.

Links: AFI interview with director Anna Broinowski

Chacun son cinéma
I've been watching this DVD over a period of time. It's the omnibus film to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes film, made up from the contributions of some of the most respected names in cinema. What the heck, I'll list them here:

Theodoros Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Kaige Chen, Michael Cimino, Joel & Ethan Coen, David Cronenberg, Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Manoel de Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hsiao-hsien Hou, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Wong Kar-Wai, Aki Kaurismäki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Ming-liang Tsai, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders & Zhang Yimou.

That's 33 short films, each three minutes long, and each one is the respective director's take on the importance of cinema. It's impossible to give a detailed analysis (like I did for Paris, je t'aime) without at least a second viewing. In short, I liked this compilation a lot. The results are inconsistent, as you'd expect with this type of project, but it was very moving to see the way in which each director was able to depict aspects of cinema that were important to him or herself.

MIFF Day 12

Half Moon (Niwemang, Bahman Ghobadi, Iran/Iraq/Austria/France, 2006)
Half Moon is a road movie with a difference. An elderly man Moma (portrayed with great range and nuance by Ismail Ghaffari), a celebrity singer in his native Iraqi Kurdistan, sets out by bus from Iran with an entourage of his musician sons to his homeland to perform in a large public concert. With seven months of rehearsals, official permits and visas carefully arranged, nothing could go wrong, right? Well, this is border country between bitter enemies Iran, Iraq and the highly marginalised Kurds who are basically a dispossessed people without a country and held in contempt by both countries as well as Turkey. This film illustrates what can go wrong.

While beautifully filmed in some beautifully stark landscapes, the real richness of Half Moon - like most Iranian films screened here - is in the simplicity of the story and the attention to detail to the struggles of seemingly mundane activities. The cultural aspects are especially fascinating. The authority of Moma as the family patriarch is evident; his middle aged sons all hold him in high esteem and cower before him. Not unexpectedly, as Iran does not allow women to sing in public, there are specific issues with involving a woman in such a cultural endeavour.

The family and social dynamics depicted breathe life into this little gem of a film. Music is a universal language that binds people, so when contempt is shown by the Iranian border guards, it has a powerful effect on the audience. My in-laws are similarly musicians of a dispossessed people (Pontians, Greek orthodox who once lived in Turkey), so I could relate well to the scenario in the film. The subtle politics in the film relate to the current state in the region, and it's regrettable that the film has been banned in Iran (the government considers it pro-separatist).

It was interesting to see the advancement of technologies such as cell phones and wireless internet laptops creeping into these otherwise isolated communities. The film is full of beautifully understated performances and naturalistic humour and drama. I highly recommend it and, like most Iranian films I have seen, is something I would take my six year old son to see (were it to get a theatrical release).

Half Moon screened as part of MIFF's International Panorama. It screens again on Friday 10 August at 5pm at the Forum Theatre.

Links: Interview with the director / And another / Official website

Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin, USA/Canada, 2006)
With the exception of a few brief seemingly random shots, Brand Upon the Brain! is shot (or made to appear in post-production to be shot) in grainy black and white. The look is reminiscent of David Lynch's Eraserhead, a classic that may have been an influence, though the style is quite different. Maddin's film uses much more frenetic editing techniques, particularly frequent cutting to create an abrasive subliminal effect from which the title appears to be derived.

I use the term 'abrasive' and for some people that might be a negative, but I found it effective. The film uses captions and along with a neo-silent-era visual design, it has the effect of a coherent experimental film with a bizarre horror narrative. A man, Guy, returns to the island orphanage of his parents after a thirty year absence, on the request of his dying mother. It turns out the parents were subjecting the orphans to some peculiar activities from which Guy escaped.

I found the design, high-contrast lighting and editing techniques effective in conveying a bizarre nightmare-type of story, a horror film that is not entirely original in narrative nor design, yet original in its presentation. I liked the voice-over narration by Isabelle Rosellini. There are some very attractive characterisations and depictions of inoffensive perversity. It's not an earth-shattering highlight of MIFF, but is a good film to enhance the diversity of screenings in a festival context. Definitely worth a look.

Brand Upon the Brain! screened as part of MIFF's International Panorama. It screens again on Wednesday 8 August at 9.20pm at the Forum Theatre.

Links: Offical website / Interview with the director

Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, USA, 2006)
Fay Grim is the continuation of a story begun ten years earlier with Hartley's Henry Fool. I haven't seen the earlier film, and I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I can only regard the current film on its own merits.

For most people, Hal Hartley's style of film-making is something that you either like or you don't. His combination of action, drama, absurdity and dry, ironic humour really resonates with me, and Fay Grim is no exception. It has an air of sharply-written intelligent parody that had myself and many in the audience laughing out loud. For the first half of the film it was relentless and delivered with deadpan straightness. It's a style of humour sadly lacking in cinemas and a welcome relief to the mindless teen comedies that Hollywood pumps out like pancakes.

During the second half of the film, the humour starts to thin as the film morphs into an international espionage/conspiracy thriller. Whether this was Hartley's intention or whether he ran out of ideas is not clear, but I think a bit of editing or re-writing to cut fifteen minutes off the film would have maintained the film's original momentum.

The performances were generally good, particularly Parker Posey and Jeff Goldblum, who had the most screen time. Saffron Burrows, James Urbaniak, Carl Montgomery and Elina Löwensohn all played good support roles. The film's visuals were nice (set in New York, Paris, Berlin and Istanbul) and the music (also by Hartley) was good without being intrusive. The camera angles are mostly off-kilter and point up at the characters - a device that seems designed to accentuate the absurdity of the plot. It initially distracted me as I tried to follow which way the camera was skewed, but then when I just went with the flow it was fine. The film is well-written and I enjoyed this it immensely. If you like Hartley's earlier work, you'll probably like this.

Fay Grim screened as part of MIFF's International Panorama. It screens again on Saturday 11 August at 9.40pm at the Regent Theatre. It also has some kind of future local release, though it's unclear whether it will be theatrical or DVD, or when. Official website.

Links: Index of MIFF films reviewed to date / MIFF website

Isabelle Huppert at ACMI - 3

The films from ACMI's Focus on Isabelle Huppert in this post are a varied lot: a social-realist horror film, a film-noir comedy, an American western and a period drama. The ACMI programmers have certainly given us a diverse range of films in which to appreciate the subject: the very talented Isabelle Huppert.

Today and tomorrow are your last chances to catch some of the finest screenings of French films, including one by the very enigmatic (and rarely seen in this country) Raúl Ruiz:

• Mon 7.00pm: La vie promise (The Promised Life, Olivier Dahan, 2001)
• Mon 8.45pm: Comédie de l'innocence (Comedy of Innocence, Raúl Ruiz, 2000)
• Tue 7.00pm: La cérémonie (The Ceremony, Claude Chabrol, 1995)
  

Le temps du loup (The Time of the Wolf, France/Austria/Germany, Michael Haneke, 2002)
Somehow I missed seeing this film made in between my first Haneke experience (The Piano Teacher, 2001) and my second (Hidden, 2005). I think I was put off by a description I heard of it as a horror film. Genre brings expectations, and while the film does not really fit into that genre, it is not altogether inappropriate either (though any horror is not what the title may initially suggest). It is more of a social drama/thriller about an unidentified threat to civilisation as we know it.

The film is sparse, austere, and with little dialogue. While the plot is very different to Hidden, it shares that film's style. The plot has more in common with say Children of Men, without the stylistic embellishments (and that's not a criticism). While Cuarón's film describes a world crisis without explanation, Haneke's provides so little information, that we don't even know what the threat is. What we see in abundance is the disturbing social responses from the perspective of a family caught away from home and away from the city. The film also recalls Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002), but without the zombies.

Like Ma mère (My Mother) and Nue propriété (Private Property) - both of which starred Isabelle Huppert - the film's opening credits are without any sound, adding to a sobering sense of mystery and foreboding. The whole film is without music other than a character's unenhanced playing of a tape in a cassette recorder.

Haneke is a difficult director for some audiences. His films (the ones I've seen) are cold. He uses cold colours. People are emotionally distant, don't communicate effectively, don't relate. While this makes it hard for some to engage with unsympathetic characters, it peels back the medium to reveal a raw core. One doesn't have to like a character to appreciate the nuance depicted and Haneke's work is full it. His depiction of a scenario without explanation is so intelligent and effective. We get to share the experience of the characters, trying to learn facts and make sense of 'reality' as if we were there ourselves.

Huppert's character is mother and protector of her two children on holiday in the country when disaster arrives suddenly and shockingly. Think of the abrupt moment in Hidden. There are a couple of moments like this in The Time of the Wolf. While the brilliant Huppert has top billing, her role is subordinate to the enormity of the situation she finds herself in. The portrayal of the situation is itself relegated to the background, with the prime focus being on how people react, individually and collectively.

The Time of the Wolf is both very original and very bold in both its conception and execution. It powerfully succeeds in everything it sets out to achieve, ending with ambiguity but (like Children of Men) with some sense of hope. Having now seen three Haneke films, I look forward to seeing anything else by this very talented and challenging director.

Amateur (Hal Hartley, USA, 1994)
Cinema is an emotional experience and a good serious film takes time to digest. While I generally don't like to see two films in a day, exceptions can be made for something as outstanding as ACMI's Focus on Isabelle Huppert. Fortunately the ACMI programmers put on a comedy on after the very harrowing The Time of the Wolf.

Amateur is my first experience of Hal Hartley's films. It's a strange beast and crosses different genres: film noir, black comedy and parody. It doesn't take itself seriously, is silly yet intelligent. There is a real shortage of good, intelligent comedy in cinema today to the extent that I rarely see a comedy any more. So this film is welcome relief.

In the context of an Isabelle Huppert retrospective, it's interesting to see how this actress is utilised by American directors and how her performances compare to those in French films. She has a good command of the English language, so I think she could portray anything in English she has in her native French. However, it seems that American directors appreciate Huppert more for her willingness to tackle sexually challenging characters rather than her much more special talent at depicting subtle and ambiguous emotional roles. Or maybe it's a case that Huppert is not interested in the same kind of roles when appearing in American films. I don't see this as a negative - it's just an observation. It does add to the variety of roles she has played.

In this film she unsurprisingly plays a former nun (and always smoking, something she seems to do in every film I've seen her in). I found neither the film nor Huppert's performance outstanding, but a welcome addition to the retrospective as an example of the varied films she has appeared in and a variation on her range. The performance certainly is against type and am open to the possibility that I brought expectations with me into the cinema. The film was well-written, very enjoyable and with very interesting characters.

The official website for Amateur quotes Huppert: "I call Amateur a metaphysical thriller. It's a strong thriller full of deep and philosophical themes and questions. But it's never intellectual or cerebral. To carry all that depth and ask all those deep questions in a simple, action movie is truly great art." The site also quotes Huppert's reasons for accepting the role: nobody would ever have given her this role in France. It goes against the preconceptions of who she is and the kind of work she does, and this was an opportunity for her to break out of that.

Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino, USA, 1980)
Isabelle Huppert was about 27 when she made this film, and doesn't she look young! Again, it's interesting to see how an American director utilises her talents. Playing a loveable 'whore', she's not pushed or challenged to any great degree, but delivers some of her trademark emotional nuance that few American actresses are capable of. The depiction of prostitutes in this film was similarly repeated in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, and Kris Kristofferson's Averill reminded me of Eastwood's characterisations, particularly as the cool-as-a-cucumber Inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry.

I'm not a great fan of the western genre, though this film departs from the typical goody/baddy stereotypes. While it does test a contemporary audience - labouring somewhat over 225 minutes (nearly four hours) - it has much to admire. The story concerns itself with a death list that the stock association puts together - with a $50 bounty for each person on the list. The list appears to be comprised completely of poor starving immigrants who have settled harsh land and have stolen cattle to feed their struggling families. The film seems to be a critique on the corrupt relationship between government and big business and the arrogance towards the 'little man' in the land of free enterprise. It could almost be a metaphor for oil and Iraq and definitely has universal and timeless relevance that resonates to this day.

Typical with genre, the widescreen is used effectively, and there was good attention to period detail - this film must have cost a bundle to produce. There was a smoky soft-lens look about the film which reminded me of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, which was a quieter film but similarly slow-moving. Heaven's Gate does have action - it's a western after all. It seems like Cimino was attempting to rescue the genre from legend and place it within both an art film and more serious historical and political context. If that was his intent, he largely succeeded, though I believe the film did poorly at the box office.

There's a great line up of recognisable actors other than Kristofferson - particularly Christopher Walken, but also John Hurt, Jeff Bridges and Micky Rourke - and it was interesting to see them with much younger faces. Huppert's role as Ella was not particularly major, but seemed to serve as the emotional core of the film and connected various characters. It must have been a strange and perhaps liberating experience for her to move from dark French films to a grand project like this. I enjoyed the film in context, and it added variety to the Huppert retrospective, but it's not the type of film I normally go out of my way for.

Saint-Cyr (Patricia Mazuy, France, 1999)
Prior to seeing Saint-Cyr, the only other French period film I had seen was Patrice Chéreau's very bloody La reine Margot (Queen Margot, 1994). While these films are very different to each other in content and style, both are very extravagant productions vastly superior to most of their English counterparts. In fact, Queen Margot is one of the first foreign-language films I saw, and its brutality shocked as much as its beauty enthralled me.

Saint-Cyr has none of the brutality but much beauty. Isabelle Huppert plays Madame de Maintenon, a mistress then wife of Luis XIV (Jean-Pierre Kalfon). A strict woman, with the assistance of Luis XIV she founded Saint-Cyr, a special boarding school that selected 250 poor girls with the aim of elevating them through moral and social training, perhaps to be part of the royal entourage.

Madame de Maintenon is depicted as a strict and demanding woman, prone to whims. The film depicts the gradual training of the girls, the teaching of French (many of them spoke regional dialects) and the conflicted emotions as the girls reached marriageable age. When the girls are courted by the local nobility, Madame de Maintenon forcefully coerces the abbot (Simon Reggiani) to apply strict rules for their behaviour.

It was interesting to note a small role by Jérémie Renier, prior to his gaining prominence in the Dardenne brothers' L'enfant and Joachim Lafosse's Nue propriété. Isabelle Huppert is an actress whose screen presence could easily overwhelm a film. Of the dozen or so films I have seen her in, I have yet to see a one in which she has allowed herself to dominate the screen in the way that Hollywood films often exploit their actors. In this she portrays compassion, dignity, severity and subtlety with another fine performance.

Related posts: Isabelle Huppert at ACMI 1, 2, 4 or All