Zavet - Emir Kusturica (2007)

See the disappointed look on the boy's face? Well that was me after watching this film. I probably needed a friendly hand to hold me too.

I like Kusturica, I think he's a great director. He knows how to set up scenes and how to move the camera. I enjoyed most of his films. I've seen most of them. Time of the Gypsies has an amazing sensitivity to it. Underground is a major film. So is Life is a Miracle, where seemed to have become a grown-up director.

Promise me this is... boring. It seems as if someone was trying to copy Kusturica's style and stories and exaggerating everything until it turns absurd - not in the good-absurd way sometimes Kusturica manages to get away with. The boy and girl give the best performances (well the old man does too). Women don't have a very interesting role - prostitutes or wives. The music is... bad. I didn't like it. It doesn't have the subtlety, variation and effect like the music for Life is a Miracle, for example.

I understand now why this film wasn't broadly praised and distributed.


Zavet

Wheel of Time - Werner Herzog (2003)

The subject of this documentary is interesting: a religious ritual about salvation. A Buddhist ritual about Enlightenment, in this case. It's very colourful, very visually attractive, it's got the careful making of a Mandala which is later destroyed, it features the Dalai Lama. Still it's mainly about religion, religious leaders and how people follow rituals.

I expected more from Herzog. I expected him to talk about a big theme, he does that well. It's an okay documentary but it isn't extraordinary. It made me think how Buddhism isn't considered as a religion as much as a philosophy. But it is that, with rules, leaders, ranks, rituals...

Wheel of Time

El Bonaerense - Pablo Trapero (2002)

Carancho is about love in the middle of road accidents. An ugly world full of people who want to help others and people who want to take advantage of others. The world is a dark place but sometimes there is the light of love trying to save us. 

El Bonaerense is about corruption in the middle of the police force. A relatively young man from a small town ends up as a cadet. He got there by chance and had no better prospects. He is a man of his time, the end of 2001, when the country was both confused and demoralised. But he's also an excuse and a mirror for us spectators to travel into the world of La Bonaerense (Buenos Aires province's police force). For people who are familiar with it, it's no surprise the corruption and behaviour of people who should be instead be fighting crime. I'm not sure how it works for people who aren't familiar... I would say this film is too much, it can't be like this, this director is exaggerating. No, he isn't. That's how things are.

Trapero's vision of things is bleak, but the characters of both of his films belong to the same world. El Bonaerense is weaker in the story aspect, maybe because the characters aren't strong enough. It's still an alright film, a journey into corruption. It's nice to watch. The use of music annoys me a little, too stereotyped, too easy choices... exactly the same with the characters.

El Bonaerense

Carancho - Pablo Trapero (2010)

I like this film. I like it because it makes me think that Argentinian cinema can indeed create good things. I like the way it's filmed, the camera and the photography... the sound is alright too.

Not long before Carancho was released, El secreto de sus ojos was a huge hit, Oscar included. A film about a troubled policeman, haunted by an old love at the same time that someone dies and he has a new case to investigate. The story develops into the old love affair (rather boring too) and ends up forgetting about the girl who died in the hands of a psychopath. But it doesn't matter, because her husband is taken care of it by finding the killer himself and torturing him to the end of their days. I remember having trouble putting into words why I hated the film... until someone commented he hated it because of how it's acceptable to take hand in their own justice. That was it, mixing things, trying to make a film about justice and love and failing to do both. (Someone else I know thinks that the film is also saying is that there is no point in fighting lost causes, which is very discouraging). 

Carancho has a troubled character too, in this case a thieving lawyer. And he falls in love, so badly that he decides to finally start doing things right and improve his life. He has feelings, he is human. She is a doctor hooked on drugs. They are a couple that work in the same rotten world where life is at the edge, always. But they are right for each other. It is clearly a film about love. The context is bleak and their story might be hopeless but they are real people with real feelings, with actual difficulties to live their lives. Life has more meaning in this film. So does love. The ending might have a little too many twists, but you can't say it doesn't make sense. It's well written. Even though they share the main actor, it is a world apart from El secreto de sus ojos and a much better film.

Carancho

True North - Steve Hudson (2006)

What a lovely poster. It looks like a watercolour painting. The film doesn't look exactly like watercolour but it still looks nice. It captures the sea, the storm, the drama.

I like stories that are about human drama as much as social ones. This film combines them both. It's also about desperation, and people who are at their last resource. What's right and wrong when you have more to lose than to win?

There are a bit too many twists in the script. You are until the end expecting to see what's going to happen... though I must admit that it gets a bit too much. Thinking about it, you know that there are certain messages the film just won't send. If you do something terrible, there's no way you can get away with it. It is grim but it's also real and extremely careful with the moral of the story.

The thing I liked the most was the editing. It had great continuity moments and that's always exciting for nerds like me. The sound is okay, it makes a good team with the editing.

True North

Violeta se fue a los cielos - Andrés Wood (2011)

Films about real people are always tricky. Especially when the character is someone like Violeta Parra, who was so complex, multi-faceted and interesting. I've seen a documentary about her and it was quite interesting in terms of the interviews it had and how it should a lot of her aspects (in terms of documentaries, it wasn't particularly innovative or creative). With fiction of course it's accepted that dramatic licenses will be taken. I the problem here is how the view they are showing on her is so poor. Compared to a film like La Môme, also a very interesting character, it's very poor. 

Perhaps it fails as a biopic, but does it still work as a film? I suppose so. There's a story to it, you engage in her story... you're introduced to the world of Violeta Parra, just not in all its complexity. One thing is that characters are confusing, I've heard people talking about it (who's that?!). It wants to be an introduction but it also doesn't explain everything (which would mean it's for people who are already familiar with her life.

Still, it's visually very attractive. The music is used reasonably - entirely performed by the actress who does an amazing job as she really turns into her. The sounds... is ok, not great. The editing is a bit weird. There's something wrong with the continuity in between takes (who else notices but me?).

By the end it gets a little... hm. Okay, everyone knows she committed suicide. She had several attempts. So I was curious to see how it was shown. And it doesn't show anything gross or demeaning, which is good. But it doesn't really portray the sadness and difficult times she was in (not just because a lover left her, but because she was suffering in other aspects of her life). It makes it look like a sudden thing, an impulse, when she had been in pain for a while.

I enjoyed the film, I can't say I didn't but it could have been a lot better (especially for all the things I had read about it).

Violeta

Los abrazos rotos - Pedro Almodóvar (2009)

There are weak things about this film. Mainly the fact that key dramatic moments aren't told cinematographically but in dialogues. There's a character who keeps a few secrets... and she tells them while having dinner at a restaurant. And there was one left for breakfast in the morning. Instead of using them narratively in one dialogues everything is revealed. Poor, to say the least.

Is this a love story? I'm not sure. Obsession maybe? Not entirely. That's another weakness. It's more about relationships and memories of Almodóvar himself.

The real strength of this film is the visual aspect. It's all very colourful, impeccable art, not a hair out of place on anyone. That and the fact that actors are well directed. Even Penélope Cruz can act with the right guidance (and without the language barrier). Perhaps she's used to being an object of obsession? Anyway, she's okay. She doesn't even annoy you.

The thing I liked the most was how Almodóvar manages to quote himself. Isn't everyone familiar with Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios ? I would say so. I enjoyed how he can make fun of himself quoting his own personal biggest comedy (and I film that still makes me laugh).

Broken Embraces could be better, but it's not a bad film. Almodóvar has always been praised as a director but I think it was with maturity that he could become more solid at it.


Los abrazos rotos

Sicko - Michael Moore (2007)

I find the subject of this documentary very interesting. I think the investigation is also interesting and how he structures his idea. I also prefer it to his other documentaries, mainly because it's not so much about Michael Moore. I mean, you might agree with his idea and with what he's saying but I don't think he's a very charming man. Here, he lets others make his points and it works a lot better. It's not very innovative in filmmaking aspects, which is a shame. It could be interesting to have nicely done graphics or original music...

I tried to look for images of it, but I couldn't find anything interesting. The poster is rather horrible too.

Sicko

Bellamy - Claude Chabrol (2009)

This poster is quite nice. The idea of this film is quite interesting: a policeman on holidays gets involved with a case out of curiosity. The policeman is Gerard Depardieu, the director is Chabrol. It sounds promising. Well I felt cheated. Instead of it becoming interesting it becomes boring. The problem isn't that it's slow, the problem is that there isn't enough there... There are also certain uses of zoom. I hate zooms, but it can be tolerable in certain films. Not in this case.

I'm disappointed. Maybe I should have expected less of Chabrol.

Bellamy

The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick (2011)

I've heard a lot of praise regarding this film. If you read the reviews you'd find that it's meant to be deep and meaningful... well I didn't think so. It doesn't really created the mood for you to engange into deep thinking. It might pretend to, but it doesn't get there. It's beautiful to watch, every frame is, but that's as far as it goes. The narrative is... interesting, but it's not that innovative. It's not bold enough for you to have to recreate the story, you can still follow it. I don't know. I felt a bit ripped off.

The Tree of Life

El Sur - Víctor Erice (1983)

Víctor Erice hasn't made a lot of films. But he is one of the Spanish directors with best reputation. The Spirit of the Beehive is an amazing film, I have often read that it's the most beautiful film in Spanish cinema. I am not sure about that, but it is indeed beautiful and it is the mother of all the Spanish films that came after it.

El Sur is a nice film. It's beautifully filmed, nicely paced, softly narrated. It's got characters with feelings. It's well directed in every way. The actors are very good and the choice of camera is always interesting. The photography is cold and it does transmit that northern cold feeling the film is talking about.

The sounds. It's got Terence Davies moments... still camera and moving sounds, creates atmosphere, works poetically. The use of environmental sound and music are good. Yet... there's the dubbing. It doesn't completely ruin the film, but almost. The mother is good, the father and the child (who have the main roles) are so badly dubbed it's a shame. I was getting a bit annoyed at his lack of southern accent too, but another character explains it "he's a gentleman" so he speak properly.

There's a story about the making of this film. Both director and producer (Elías Querejeta, important producer in Spanish cinema) had agreed in 81 days of shooting. But after over 40 days they didn't have the rest of the funding, so the producer decided to stop the filming as there could be a film with half the story. They were going to film the second part when they had the money. But the film went to festivals and there really wasn't any need to make the second part... producer claims it worked, director claims it's incomplete. So the second part never existed. Of course the producer is the bad one of this story. But is he, really? I mean the half of the film that was indeed beautifully made was due to his production. Does it work as a film? Yes! Do we need further explanations? No? There relationship father-daughter is complete.

The second part was supposed to be in the south and was never filmed.There is a very interesting interview here where Erice explains his side of the story and tells us what the other part was about. You can imagine through his voice what it would be like*... but films that were never filmed are never films.

*Actually, I was surprised how the way he talks is so much like the way he films. As if his voice is exactly the tone and pace the camera uses to tell the story.

El Sur