Wednesday, October 21, 2009

LFF: Oscaring The Middle-East

Dave here, with a note of shame: I'm afraid I'm shirking writing about Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon for now, because it's too overwhelming a prospect at the moment. It's not one of his most brilliant films, but it is relentlessly enigmatic and fascinating as always, and it's taking my brain some time to unlock it properly. (But with any luck, this might mean another full review.) So, for now, make do with these slightly more palatable vignette reviews, and tomorrow I'll have news of Julianne Moore's sexuality getting explored, because she just doesn't do that enough in the movies.

Not to get too personal, but The Boys are Back (apparently already released in the US - have you seen it?) is what I constantly fear I am: witless. It's a familiar, comfortable, lazy story, which starts off so appaulingly maudlin I suppose it's inevitable that it eventually becomes bearable. It marks Scott Hicks' return to Australia, where he's not been since the Oscar-winning Shine thirteen years ago. Clive Owen is passable as Joe, a man left to cope as a single father when his wife dies (naturally, she hangs around in comforting hallucinatory form to offer words of words of advice), a task further complicated when his teenage son from his previous marriage turns up to spend some time with his father. All of your favourite teary cliches are here: heart-tugging piano melodies, with a touch of 'native' vocals; a bit of plate-smashing; a man sobbing on his son's bed... It's not a hard film to figure out. The predictably lovely ending might raise a smile, but not because the film will have made any impression on your memory. It'll be filed 'learning to live again' movies, and forgotten within a week. C-

Israel's submission for the Foreign Film Oscar, Ajami is a chaptered, complexly plotted story set in Jaffa, an area of Israel which sees Christians, Jews and Muslims all overlapping. What's particularly intriguing about this is that it's an Israeli-Palestinian co-production, with the two directors coming from the different sides. A familial set-up is instantly disrupted by a sudden burst of violence - a template for the film as a whole. It seems almost overloaded with the breadth of subject it attempts to take in - religion, family, money and power, illegal immigrants, and so on. As such, characters become muddled and those who do recur are hard to become truly involved with, as the roving plot might see them killed in one chapter and then move backwards to see them alive again in the next - a problem when the crux of the film is the emotional involvement of the final revelations. It's still a solid piece of work, performed well by amateur actors, but you do feel a bit like you've seen it all done before, and more strikingly. B-

And we're a two-fer for Foreign Film Oscar contenders (sadly timing constraints meant I missed out on a triple bill - Serbia will have to remain a mystery), with Iran looking a more likely contender with the highly involving About Elly. The easy, amusing banter of the film's opening passages, as a group of friends head to a seafront holiday villa, gives way to tragedy and a fascinating undoing of any and all facades as the group inevitably re-evaluate every miniscule detail of what they'd ignored before. This comes to feel slightly drawn out, but it reflects the feeling of rotting devastation that emerges from the uncertainty, bleeding with sodden tension and despair. If I sound like I'm being vague, I am - it's more the intensity of reaction than what actually occurs that makes the impression, but not knowing will make the mark all the keener. Simple, clean, polished work, this is well worth looking out for. B+

7 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

I'm feeling more and more strongly that ABOUT ELLY will be one of the five nominees. I've yet to read a negative review and everyone seems to find it at least thoroughly engaging... which is a big boost for your chances when you're crossing cultural and language boundaries as a movie.

Dave, I keep hearing that AJAMI is very much like GOMORRAH. I'm wondering if you've seen Gomorrah if you'd agree? and which did you prefer?

amir_uk said...

Dave, I'm totally there with you with regards to About Elly. Such a gripping, engaging narrative from start to finish - quite literally an edge-of-your-seat genre film - but which subverts the conventions of its genre. A genre film with art film characteristics (or the way other way round...)

Technically very accomplished too, with static compositions of two or three people (often using depth of field photgraphy), which serve to highlight the shifting dynamics between various members of the vacationing group, in marked contrast with the kinetic camerawork of the action scenes. A real joy of a film.

amir_uk said...

Also agreed on The White Ribbon. Austere beauty, but too much over-intellectualising. It's more of an essay than a film, but another triumph, no doubt about that, from one of the world's most consistent directors working right now. For me, just not as emotionally engaging as his out-and-out masterpieces Caché and La pianiste.

Also Haneke said in the Q&A after the gala that he'll be shooting his next film in the summer in France with Isabelle Huppert (oh YESSSS!). And it's about the body's decay in old age. ("Another joyful subject," he joked). A future masterpiece I think, and perhaps the role that will finally get Oscar to notice Huppert...

Amir said...

i think nathaniel must be getting sick of my writing about "about elly". haha
so i'm gonna hold back this time!
i can't wait to see it nominated.

Dave said...

Nat: I've not seen Gomorrah (missed it in theatres and it's one of those that just sits on my rental queue waiting for me to care), so I can't comment yet. I really don't see Ajami as being nearly as championed, though.

Amir: I'm trying to keep my reviews relatively short on here, but About Elly is one that certainly deserves more words. The technical aspects were indeed excellent - you mentioned the photography but the editing was also key in working the dynamics you mentioned, and really made the drama of the tragic moment gripping without being overly flashy or anything.

Interesting to hear about Haneke's next project - Isabelle Huppert is ALWAYS a welcome sight. My biggest festival regret is that I wasn't able to catch her in White Material.

amir_uk said...

Ah! White Material was astonishing work - classic Claire Denis, up there with Chocolat and Beau Travail - and Huppert gave us a very different character to the one she's been riffing on this past decade. Thought provoking, beautifully done...

amir_uk said...

Also Dave, though I agree with most of what you're saying about The Boys are Back, Clive Owen went beyond mere serviceable. I thought the first 15 minutes among the best screen acting of the year - and it's because of his tireless work that the film is as good as it is.

Great cinematography too from rising star Greig Fraser. I'm rooting for him to win for Bright Star come February.