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

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

No Country for Old Men - Ethan & Joel Coen (2007)

I had see this before but I had do it again to analyse a few things.

This is a poster for Japan, I liked it.

The Coen brothers know how to make genre films. They take thrillers or westerns and make them their own. Not everyone can do that. (Not even Tarantino). This film has elements of the western but it's mainly a thriller. The best thing about it is the pace of the suspense. They are masters of handling information, deciding who knows what is key to this. They also know how to pace things. For this they use sound as their main tool. Technically, the film is impeccable but what's most important is the way the resources are used. It's not that the sound is loud and huge, it's just simple. It's got a lot of silence, moments of anticipations... and then something unexpected might happen. Perfect example of managing saturation and silence.

The actors are well chosen for their role. Nobody is over the top, just simple performances, you'd imagine that carefully led in a simple way. You aren't sure who's the main character because they all seem as important (they are clearly defined in who they are and what they want which never fails to engage the audience.

The film is so well put together that you forget it's an adaptation and not written by the Coens. I think that's what most impressive. No matter how good they can be with adaptations (and remakes) I'm not interested in their version of The Ladykillers.


No Country for Old Men

Encounters at the End of the World - Werner Herzog (2007)

At the beginning of the documentary Herzog says he's not going to make a film about fluffy penguins. And he doesn't. His fluffy creatures are human, the strangest of them who end up working in Antarctica. You do wonder how Herzog ends up finding characters who are just as crazy as he is. 

Recently I saw the BBC Frozen Planet series. They also have an episode about people who live in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. But they are so different in so many ways. 

Herzog's documentary isn't just a nature show... it's a story about people. It's human, it's engaging, it's thought-provoking... it's a proper cinema documentary rather than a television one. His characters are very well found. You don't know who's the strangest one and who's your favourite. 

The Frozen Planet is beautifully filmed with all sort of HD technology and slow-motion cameras. Herzog doesn't need all this. Apparently James Cameron wanted to do the project  as well , with 36 people as crew. Herzog won because he only took a cameraman and himself as sound recordist. It's still works very well with a minor budget.

There's also a nice choice of music and sounds. Perhaps because his music collaborator/friend was very involved in the project as he is also an expert diver. The underwater sounds are amazing. One thing I wasn't sure about the Frozen Planet was if the sounds were all dubbed or how were they recorded. I never saw any sign of a sound crew in the making of (and very limited credits) - something that doesn't make sense with the big budget HD photography.

I think the best thing about it is the questions it raises. Why and how do the strangest people end up in such a remote place? Did humans evolve to escape the underwater world? Are we, like dinosaurs, meant to disappear from Earth some time in the future?

Oh! And there are penguins in it after all! Lost  and deranged, just like everyone else in the film.

Encounters at the End of the World