Post Mortem

Post Mortem

Directed by Pablo Larrain

Chile, 2010

Cornerhouse, 2 October 2011

What strikes one immediately about this film is the way in which the personal and the political become all entangled.

Set in Chile’s recent past, the main character is Mario (Alfredo Castro), aide to a pathologist.  His life is subdued and stable with nothing much on the boil, though maybe he’s got his eye set on a woman who’s a little out of his league.

Then the Chilean military quell political unrest and the body count begins to rise.  At the morgue, Mario is swamped by dead bodies and there is no course of action open to him that is both intelligent and ethical.

It is a curious film, since its subject is atrocity yet its approach lies through a kind of deadpan comedy and a banal artifice, albeit one that’s highly emotionally charged.  Only some hours after the film does its full impact hit home.

A very impressive achievement, a film you really need to watch more than once.

A Separation

A Separation
Jodaeiye Nader az Simin
Directed by Asghar Farhadi
Iran, 2011
Cornerhouse, 5 July 2011

This film made me think of What Maisie Knew, though there’s not an exact match.

It is like, yet unlike, Henry James’s work.  Yes, we have a fractured family and, yes, we see the world (largely, anyway) through the critical eyes of a child.  Actually, two children.  But this world is contemporary Iran, not old New York.

Seeing Sharia law in action is one of the high points of the film, as too is the complexity of the drama, which comes to centre on whether a man caused a woman to miscarry a child.  Even at the very end there is ambiguity, an alliance not yet declared.

This film is splendidly acted and is full of passion, anger, humanity, hypocrisy, argument, truth, indignation and integrity.  And who’d have thought that in modern Iran they’d be drinking Twinings Earl Grey tea. They’re really big on it, apparently, either that or there’s an example of astute product placement here.

Julia’s Eyes

Julia’s Eyes
(Los ojos de Julia)
Directed by Guillem Morales
Spain, 2010
Cornerhouse, 22 May 2011

One of the best horror/crime films you are likely to see this year, and an intriguing meditation on the act of seeing itself (& invisibility also, come to that).

Here we follow Julia, a woman who is gradually losing her sight, as she investigates the death of her twin sister, who suffered also from the same degenerative eye condition.  Just about everyone accepts that she killed herself, but Julia doesn’t believe it; the special bond between twins tells her that her sister was murdered.

You will be gripped and scared by this film, and you’ll also be subject to several gruesome incidents, one involving a needle approaching an eye… it was excruciating to see, truly.  For cinematic storytelling, the film could hardly have been bettered: there was suspense throughout and the momentum never slackened.  It is clear that the film as a whole owes a big debt to Peeping Tom and one key scene at the end was probably derived from Wait Until Dark; but no matter, those are good films to be influenced by.

Some wild ride is in prospect when you go to see this one.

Slackistan

Slackistan
Directed by Hammad Khan
Pakistan, 2009
Cornerhouse, 12 December 2010

Still from Slackistan

All told, a generic slacker film about over-educated, under-achieving rich kids who spend their days wondering what to do with their lives.

They drive around, this torpid trio, chasing or rather looking at girls and engaging in inane conversations with each other.

There is some romance, comedy and intrigue, as well as the odd pang of conscience when they encounter those less privileged than themselves.  And at the end we get an unsurprising,  bog-standard resolution of purpose.

The Islamabad setting adds little, sad to say: the film could for the most part have been made in America.  As an aside: this is what happens when you allow your children to learn American English rather than British English, they grow up to become spoilt brats.  Be warned.  Seriously.

Slackistan is a competent film, moderately intelligent and moderately entertaining, but no great shakes.

The Turning Gate

The Turning Gate
(Saenghwal ui Balgyeon)
Directed by Hong Sangsoo
South Korea, 2002
Cornerhouse, 25 November 2010

Still from The Turning Gate

This is the final film by Hong Sangsoo in a short season of his films entitled ‘Between Men and Women’.

It is an apt title for the series since all of these films have been about the battle between the sexes, the difficulties that men and women experience in getting along.  Although it would be unfair to say that if you’ve seen one Hong Sangsoo film then you’ve seen them all, one can nevertheless point to certain common characteristics:

• Divided loyalties and/or a compromised situation: a married man (or woman) has an affair, say, or a man makes a play for his best friend’s girlfriend.
• Often, a recognition along the lines of ‘A girlfriend of mine did that’ or ‘I’ve said something like that in the past too’, as when the protagonist in The Turning Gate tells a woman that, for him, love means simply liking someone a lot - and she turns away from him, upset.
• Something that should be quite clear.  There cannot be a happy ending for everyone; it’s impossible.
• Conversations will most frequently take place in restaurants or in bed or via a mobile phone; the most important conversations anyway.
• When people insist on being believed, or are most passionate, they are lying.  Any promise made will be broken.
• The casual gesture is always significant; indeed, it can embody great sacrifice.
• Another formulation of the same thought: there are no casual gestures in Hong Sangsoo’s films.

The Turning Gate has, above all, a kind of unkempt authenticity.  It is a terrific film.

Peepli (Live) by Anusha Rizvi

Peepli (Live)
Directed by Anusha Rizvi
India, 2009
Cornerhouse, 10 November 2010

Still from Peepli (Live)

This is a terrific satire of modern India, a country where poverty sits side by side with plenty.

A farmer announces his intention to kill himself.  It is the only way his family can keep their farm.

The film is closer to Capra’s offerings of the ‘30s than to Swift, being easygoing and entertaining, rather than scathing and biting.

Nonetheless, the film hits its targets square and true, and those targets include: politicians, the media, labyrinthine bureaucracy, endemic corruption, and a tendency to play the blame game.  Naturally, Islamic terrorists and America get a good look in when this game is played.  Before we laugh too much, however, let us note that many of these problems are not unlike our own.

Rizvi’s direction is sure-handed and the story is eventful.  In particular, the shrewish exchanges between Natha’s wife and mother are terrific.  They deserve a film all to themselves.

It is the conscience of India that perishes in the end, in the form of a news reporter whose concern is with truth and with presenting a comprehensive picture of the tragedies of village life.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Directed by Daniel Alfredson
Sweden & Denmark & Germany, 2009
Cornerhouse, 5 September 2010

Still from The Girl Who Played With Fire

An efficient and effective thriller, brought to you courtesy of the nation that gave you Cirkus Cirkor (see below).

If I have one criticism to make, it is that the film is too much a clone of the standard Hollywood thriller.  There is little specifically Swedish flavour and colour.  It is all rather characterless, withal, in this respect.

Never doubt, though, that the film will grip your attention.  The action is fast-moving and few scenes last long, presenting the actors with the problem of how to establish and convey character.  They resort, on the whole, to shorthand: furrowed eyebrows for puzzlement, say.  Though this can occasionally create a cartoonish ambience, in the main it is effective.

Noomi Rapace is an exception to the above rule, however, and a great talent.  She gives us a young woman who is tortured, feral, vulnerable, driven, uncertain of her identity, desperately in need of friendship and human connection.  Now grown, and no longer an abused child, she is determined to root out abuse.

Take yourself along to The Girl Who Played with Fire to see Rapace’s performance.  And to see how it all turns out in the end, naturally.

Leaving by Catherine Corsini

Leaving
Directed by Catherine Corsini
France, 2009
Cornerhouse, 18 July 2010

Still from Leaving

A film that could almost be described as a bourgeois version of I am Love.

As in that film, love appears as a thunderbolt.  It is unsought for, unwelcome and unwanted, and not entirely a good thing.  Kristin Scott Thomas gives a spellbinding turn as Suzanne, an apparently content wife whose life is turned suddenly upside down.  She deserts her husband and children, relinquishing a comfortable and affluent lifestyle, in order to be with an ex-con.  Her new life is, in so many different ways, an impoverishment of her old – and the path towards it is messy, disruptive, humiliating and painful.

In a curious kind of a way, this is a religious and even a pagan film.  Love is a divine madness, unworldly in its disregard of law, morality and raw economic power.  Yet love, too, is a power in the world: it effects behaviour, changes people, makes things happen for good or ill.

Leaving is a fine film.

International Film Guide 2010

International Film Guide 2010
Edited by Ian Haydn Smith
Wallflower Press, February 2010
ISBN: 978-1-906660-38-3

As one might suppose, the vast bulk of this book is devoted to a survey of world cinema.

Well over a hundred countries are covered, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and each chapter is written by a specialist in film in that particular country.  Some of the writers are critics and journalists, while others are academics or curators or programmers.

Typically, the writer will discuss a variety of films released during 2009 before choosing their own personal top five.  One can also expect an appraisal of each country’s film industry and a listing of key contact information.  In the chapter devoted to the UK, for example, you will find listings for BAFTA, the BFI and the UK Film Council.

Several chapters covered film festivals and there was an in-depth look at the Berlinale, now 60 years old, by Andrea Dittgen.  It was interesting to note that the winner of the Golden Bear in 2009 was Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow, a film that has been favourably reviewed on this site.

Another section of the book, ‘Directors of the Year’, included profiles of Kathryn Bigelow (quite prescient to choose an Oscar winner!) and Claire Denis, whose White Material has been reviewed here also.  A retrospective of Denis’ work, Intense Intimacy, is touring the UK and I hope to review some of these films later this month when they are screened at the Cornerhouse.

Other features included ‘In Memoriam’, a series of short obituaries and appreciations of those who had passed away in the previous year, and an article on the future of 3D by Ben Walters.  Also, the editor has written a chapter looking at DVD releases during 2009.

For any film fan or movie buff, especially one prepared to look beyond the narrow horizon of Hollywood blockbusters and their local clones, this book is a godsend.  If you are at all involved in the film industry (or you aspire to be) it is well-nigh essential.

Lebanon

Lebanon
Directed and written by Samuel Maoz
Israel & France & UK , 2009
Cornerhouse, 28 May 2010

The usual ‘war is hell’ shtick, though with a major twist.

Virtually all of the film is set in a tank and when we do eventually see the outer world it is through the crosshairs of a gun sight.  There is a tenebrous and claustrophobic atmosphere, the four tank-bound soldiers living and working in a confined space.

What strikes one about this war film (and most other ones too, come to that) is the contrivance whereby the soldiers are portrayed as innocents and regular guys, rather than men who are paid to do evil (Brecht’s definition of a soldier).

Here the Israeli soldiers are conscripts (and so not in the tank by choice) and must follow the chain of command (and so not responsible when they kill).  The really bad guys are a Turkish mercenary and a Lebanese fighter who uses a civilian family as a shield against both the tank and a platoon of heavily armed Israeli soldiers.  The question as to why Israel has illegally invaded a sovereign country is not raised, but then that is not really a surprise.

Pay attention and you’ll see some scenes that are truthful and telling and impossible to gainsay.  In the main, mind, this is quite an ordinary war film.