The 22nd Miami International Film Festival

[oscar jubis]

The 22nd edition of the Miami International Film Festival starts tonight and the city is buzzing with unprecedented excitement. Even casual filmgoers appear to have caught fest fever, lining up to purchase tickets weeks in advance of screenings, many of which have already sold out. The festival, under the leadership of director Nicole Guillemet, has expanded to a 10-day lineup of 117 films from 47 countries. Projectionists will be kept quite busy at five different venues throughout the city, from small multiplex screening rooms to the grand, historic, 1400-seat Gusman Theatre.

This year, the Festival bestows its Career Achievement Tribute to the incomparable Liv Ullmann. World-renowed for her ground-breaking work under the direction of Ingmar Bergman, her talent extends behind the camera as well_her directorial effort Faithless will be screened. Ms. Ullmann latest collaboration with Mr. Bergman, Saraband, will be shown following the tribute on February 8th.

The festival's Jury will be headed by maverick director Bob Rafelson, who's unforgettable Five Easy Pieces will be shown in a new print to celebrate its 35th Anniversary. The jury will select films for recognition in the following categories: Best Dramaric Feature, Best Ibero-American Dramatic Feature, and Best Documentary. There will also be an Audience Award and a FIPRESCI prize presented by the International Federation of Film Critics.

The Festival will include two programs of Film Shorts, screenings of Classics of the 50s, several educational seminars, a Professional Development Series comprising workshops for film, video and entertainment professionals, and a very intensive 2-day event called "Jean Rouch: A Celebration of Life and Film". This pioneer of experimental and ethnographic cinema is the subject of a number of conferences, colloquiums and screenings organized by the Festival in collaboration with the University of Miami and the French Consulate. I've been waiting all my life for the opportunity to watch some of Monsieur Rouch's films. What a treat!

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Whisky (Uruguay, 2004)

Jacobo Moller has no reason to smile. He's spent his life taking care of his elderly mother and managing his run-down sock factory in Montevideo. The sullen bachelor leads an existence dictated by dreary routine. His brother Herman moved to Brazil many years ago, has a wife and family, and has prospered. Herman didn't bother to return when their mother died a year ago, but now he wants to visit. At the factory, Jacobo depends on the loyal and trustworthy Marta, the only person with whom Jacobo seems to have any contact. Desperate to prove to Herman his life has added up to something, Jacobo meekly asks Marta to pose as his wife during Herman's visit. Marta agrees and visits the beauty salon, not that Jacobo would notice. They go have a picture taken, and finally we see Jacobo smile momentarily when asked by the photographer to say "whisky". The jovial Herman arrives and a game of deception begins. The experience seems to rejuvenate the lonely Marta, particularly when Jacobo reluctantly agrees to visit a resort for a couple of days. Unresolved issues between the brothers resurface but Marta is the one likely to undergo a more permanent transformation.

Whisky is the second film from Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll, who again share writing and directing duties. Their debut 25 Watts was awarded at the Rotterdam Film Festival and was compared to Fassbinder's Katzelmacher and Linklater's Slacker. Whisky is a richer, more assured film, presented at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section and winner of two awards at that most prestigious festival. The rather inexperienced acting trio, Andres Pazos, Jorge Bolani and Mirella Pascual, do a superb job of providing a wealth of character detail with a minimum of means. Whisky stays with you long after you've left the theatre. It's a strong candidate for the Jury Prize for Best Ibero-American Dramatic Feature at the fest.

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Voces Inocentes (Mexico, 2004)

Innocent Voices is driven by a worthy agenda: to dramatize the plight of minors during wartime, more specifically, their use in combat. Director Luis Mandoki showed interest when Oscar Orlando Torres pitched his story to him on the set of When A Man Loves a Woman. The resulting film is a disappointment despite worthy subject matter.

Mr. Torres emigrated to the US in 1984 to avoid being recruited by the Army during the Civil War in El Salvador. The whole film is set in his hometown of Cuscatanzingo, based on his experiences and inspired by the folk song "Casas de Carton". It's not only the houses that are made out of cardboard, the melodramatic script doesn't attempt to provide any depth or detail to the characters. Twelve-year old Chava, his siblings and mother are cliched "innocents" in perilous situations, trying to evade the crossfire. Given the centrality of Chava, it was crucial for Mandoki to mold and guide the performance by Carlos Padilla, who's never acted before. Chava alternates between courageous, precocious, and cute, with little modulation or nuance to the characterization. The merits of Voces Inocentes are confined to creating a palpable sense of danger and staging credible scenes of warfare.

Those expecting to come away with an understanding of the specific conflict and milieu will be disappointed (this plot could be taking place in any of the 40 countries were allegedly minors have participated in combat). And those familiar with the historical record are likely to find Voces Inocentes somewhat tendentious, particularly in the romantic view of the rebels, described in the risible opening credits as "peasants fighting for land".

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A filmmaker of boundless enthusiasm and generosity, Jean Rouch (1917-2004) left a legacy of more than 120 films. The French director served as a bridge between the Italian Neo-realist movement that was a major souce of inspiration for him and the French New Wave (nouvelle vague). Exponents of the latter movement cited Rouch's films as having an essential, formative influence on their work. Godard for instance, called Rouch's Moi, Un Noir(1959) "the best French Film since the Liberation". It is one of several films called "ethno-fictions", made in collaboration with natives of the French colonies in Africa.

Rouch showed an interest in the peoples of both rural and urban Africa from the beginning of his career in the mid-to-late 1940s. He was particularly interested in the cultural traditions of tribes that had little contact with the outside world, the struggles for subsistence of young Africans, and the effects of Colonialism, especially in the French Colonies. Rouch was "violently opposed to film crews" and believed in forging long-term relationships with his subjects by living among them and learning their language and customs prior to shooting.

Rouch was simultaneously both an ethnographer and an experimental filmmaker. His films miraculously manage to incorporate both the poet and the scientist in him. Practically all his 40s and 50s films were made without synchronized sound, with music and narration added later, at a second stage in the creative process. Sometimes Rouch would narrate himself, alternating between description, interpretation and commentary. Other times, he would give the subjects free rein to provide their own narration. Half of what makes Moi, Un Noir such a unique masterpiece, is the interplay between footage of the daily routine of three young Nigerian laborers and the main protagonist's funny, probing commentary on what we are watching. What's remarkable to me is Jean Rouch's willingness to let his "subjects" dictate what is to be filmed. The "subjects" are in essence collaborators at every step of the creative process in most of Rouch's films. According to the experts who introduced the films, there was very little to be edited because essentially there was only one take. A few of the films, particularly Funeral at Bongo: The Death of Old Anai (about the elaborate funeral rituals for a 120 year-old Dogon tribesman) and The Drums of Yore:Torou and Bitti (about Songhay rituals involving spirit possession to eradicate locusts and crickets), are closer to an older documentary tradition and use synched sound because of the central role of music in the proceedings.

Rouch's best know film was actually made in Paris in collaboration with sociologist Edgar Morin. Chronicle of a Summer(1961) is an investigation into what Parisians_regarded as a "strange tribe"_ were thinking and feeling during the summer of 1960. Algeria's war of independence from France was a live issue, although many topics are discussed, both private and public. Amongs the "subjects": an Italian emigre who working as a secretary at the film mag Cashiers de Cinema, a student, a painter and his wife, an African student, a Jewish concentration-camp survivor, etc. Not only do we see them in diverse groupings and circumstances, including on holiday in St. Tropez, we also see them forging relationships over the course of the film. This is the film that best exemplifies Rouch's ethos that you best catch people "being themselves" if you film them "playing themselves", incorporating the social psychology concept of the person-in-public as a performer or a role player. Even more interesting are the comments made by the "subjects" and the filmmakers as a reaction to viewing a rough cut of "Chronicle of a Summer". It's one of many masterpieces by one of the greatest filmmakers in cinema history.

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Producing Adults (Finland/Sweden, 2004)

Antero and Venla heve different reactions to a condom malfunction. After many years of joyful cohabitation, olympic-hopeful Antero remains convinced fatherhood would "change everything". Venla, a counselor at a fertility clinic, is eager to have a baby. He knows it and fears losing Venla if she knew exactly hoe he feels. Antero proposes marriage and decides to covertly undermine any possibility of pregnancy. Increasingly aware of Antero's deception, Venla seeks help and solace from Satu, a bisexual co-worker with issues of her own.

Producing Adults is the directing debut of former mathematician Aleksi Salmenpera and Finland's submission to our Academy in the foreign-language film category. This dramedy has many entertaining plot twists in store, perhaps one too many. Yet it manages the difficult balancing act of dealing with grave issues seriously while injecting comedy and social commentary into the proceedings. Producing Adults gives equal weight to arguments for and against parenthood and treats the principals with positive regard while poking fun at their foibles.

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Nobody Knows (Japan, 2004)

The new film from director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Maborosi, After Life) is based on a real event known as "The Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo", which took place in 1988 in Tokyo. As the film opens, scatter-brained mom Keiko and her 12 year-old son Akira move into a new apartment. Keiko's two youngest are smuggled inside suitcases while 11 year-old Kyoko stays at the train station, waiting for the right time to sneak in. Keiko appears pleasant and playful but increasingly this single mom loses any sympathy from the viewer as her absences from her kids' lives lengthen. We learn that only Akira is allowed to leave the apartment and none of them has ever attended school. Nobody knows them, their births haven't even been registered. Akira and older sis manage to run the household fairly efficiently at first. Children can be remarkably resilient and adaptable, but up to a point. As time goes by, we see the consequences of the mother's neglect and abandonment. We get the sense that some sort of tragedy is waiting to happen, while mom is far away pursueing a happiness that does not include children.

Kore-eda shows these events entirely from the children's point of view. Nobody Knowns is rather whimsical at first, as the kids experience the joyful possibilities of being unsupervised, but the enormity of the gross neglect leads to a prevailing mood of sadness and a feeling of impending doom. The film was shot over the course of one year, with many scenes reportedly being highly improvisational. At 141 minutes, the film will feel long to audiences, "too long" or "boring" for some. Kore-eda seems to want to convey the slowed-time perception of kids waiting for their mom to show up. These kids deserve one's patience, particularly given the performances of the entire cast and specifically Cannes-winner Yagira Yuya as head-of-household Akira.

[Chris Knipp]

Obviously to be seen, and it's soon coming to Bay Area arthouses. How would you rate this against Koreeda's other films?

[oscar jubis]

I like the three Kore-eda films I've seen equally. After Life, the best known in the West, is beginning to look a bit like an anomaly in that it's an allegorical fantasy while all his other films at least borrow from the documentary tradition. Kore-eda's last two films, Distance and Nobody Knows are based on real-life tragedies well-known to the Japanese. His fiction debut, Maborosi, shares with Nobody Knows a primary focus on the day-to-day routine of individuals experiencing grief and loss.

Lila Says (France, 2005)

Lila says outrageous things to get attention. The blonde 16 year old has recently moved to Shady Grove, a mostly Arab neighborhood in Marseilles where "nothing actually grows". Lila lives with a mentally unstable aunt who states she saved Lila from being sent to a foster home. Lila sets her eyes on 19 year old Chimo, an introspective Arab who has recently turned down a scholarship to study in Paris. The would-be scribe lives with his mom and spends most of the time hanging out with friends. Chimo is fascinated with the sassy Lila but appears cautious and overwhelmed around her. He doesn't want his best friend Mouloud to know about their budding relationship. Mouloud is rather crass and rough. He becomes angry at Lila's firm rejection of his sexual advances. The inevitable confrontation is not quite what one would expect.
Lila Says was directed by Lebanese-born Zia Doueiri who got his film experience as a cameraman in Hollywood and debuted with the award-winner West Beirut. The follow-up feels slight and less ambitious for much of its running time, it simmers for a long stretch before racial tensions come to a boil in the moving, wrenching conclusion.

[Chris Knipp]

I'd love to see this.

Excellent remarks on Koreeda, thanks.

I've begun a little dvd catching up on unseen things: Hou's Puppetmaster, then the Magdelene Sisters, and not I've gotten Blind Shaft. Of course Puppetmaster was lovely and I enjoyed Howard's piece on it in Senses of Cinema, but I could have done without the bummer of Magdelene Sisters, however true it may be.

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Red Dust (U.K./2004)

Three individuals return to Smitsriver, South Africa to confront the past. In the back of a van, Dirk Hendricks is driven in handcuffs to the police station where he once served as a deputy. He has requested amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Committe in exchange for telling "the whole truth" about his activities during apartheid. On the same dusty road travels Alex Mpondo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a member of Parliament Hendricks beat and tortured during a long period of imprisonment. Mpondo feels ambivalent about the hearing. He's eager to confront Hendricks but harbors deep-seated guilt feelings regarding the fate of a comrade-in-arms who was captured the same night. Sarah Bercant (Hilary Swank) had to travel the farthest to get to Smitsriver. The sharp lawyer has been living in New York for a decade, but couldn't refuse to represent Mpondo at the request of her former lawyer and mentor Ben. Bercant has buried unpleasant memories from her youth. She once spent a night at the same police station for dating a black boy. The testimony presented at the hearing will force others in the small community to confront the ugly past, to come out of the shadows.

Based on Gillian Slovo's award-winning novel, Red Dust evolves from psychological to courtroom drama, appropiating elements of the thriller genre as it moves to its exciting conclusion. Widescreen compositions ably capture the barren South African countryside and the musical scores provides needed emphasis. The difficulties of dealing appropriately with the horrid legacy of apartheid and the ramifications of unearthing past events are properly addressed. The close, intimate ties between torturer and victim, and the issue of reconciliation given primacy over justice are perhaps not as deeply developed as one would hope. But overall, Tom Hooper's directorial debut is a successful, provocative film that deserves wide distribution. Given the casting of Ms. Swank in a central role, it's surprising that this BBC theatrical production does not have a North American distributor.

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Gunner Palace

Gunner palace is the nickname given by soldiers to the sumptuous digs of Uday Hussein, Saddam's son, now used as a command center for American troops. The debut feature of directors Michael Tucker and Petra Eperlein, Gunner Palace is a fairly objective account of what's like to be a soldier in Bhagdad after the fall of the regime, except for the fact that violent incidents are not shown, merely discussed. The film is being released in North America(March 4th) with an undeserved "R" rating due to a few instances of offensive language, nothing that your average 5th grader hasn't heard before.
There's not enough material presented that hasn't been reported on TV broadcasts thus it's not something I compel you to watch . We do hear some poignant comments from soldiers implying the intervention is a mistake:
"I don't feel like I'm defending my country and that's why I joined" and "I don't think anywhere in history when somebody killed someone else that something better came out of it". We hear a sargeant complain of lack of interest on the part of Iraqis undergoing training and another bemoan the lack of sufficiently armored vehicles. What sets Gunner Palace apart is the inclusion of soldiers performing for self-expression and entertainment: a rendition of our Anthem on electric guitar, a blues number, a skit of a soldier impersonating Saddam, an acoustic "Home on the Range", a poem, and various quite convincing hip hop numbers.

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Duck Season

The debut feature from writer/director Fernando Eimbcke has garnered festival prizes in his native Mexico, Greece, and Hollywood (AFI fest). Temporada de Patos is a prime example of what can be accomplished on a small budget by creative people. Except for two scenes_a brief flashback and a fantasy sequence, the story takes place inside a middle-class apartment, almost in real-time. Thirteen year old Flama has invited his 14 year-old buddy Moko to hang out for the afternoon. Flama's soon-to-divorce mother leaves some money for take-out and says goodbye. The attention-starved 16 year-old girl next door asks to come in to use the oven to bake some brownies. Flama refuses to pay the pizza guy because he was late. Pizza guy, who dreams of a future raising parrots in the countryside, decides to stay until he gets payed. Any doubt as to the influence of Jim Jarmusch is erased by a closing credit thanking him, but there's more going on here. Out of the blue, for instance, comes a post-modernist sequence in which the off-screen director asks the teen actress why she improvised a line about it being her birthday and everyone forgot about it. She retorts: "Why make a movie in black & white?". Somehow within this simple framework, issues such as the banality of work, sexual orientation, and the effect of divorce on kids emerge almost effortlessly. What's lacking at this early stage of Eimbcke's career is a consistent and original visual style.

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First Love (Italy, 2004)

Presumably through the internet, Sonia, a 25 year old shop assistant and artist's model, has arranged a blind date with goldsmith Vittorio. "You said thin", the disappointed Vittorio exclaims, but ends up convincing the svelte Sonia to stay for a chat. The pair become further acquainted over the next few days. Sonia lives with her caring brother (a redhead who bears no resemblance to Sonia) who openly distrusts the vaguely creepy Vittorio. Hesitantly, Sonia agrees to move into Vittorio's newly acquired manor on the outskirts of Verona, where his fixation on her weight begins in earnest. Sonia's weight is measured and charted regularly, and she's only allowed to eat in his presence. The visibly emaciated Sonia faints in public places but Vittorio makes excuses to avoid medical intervention. Vittorio's business fails as his focus narrows. While maintaining a benevolent facade, he cruelly takes her to gourmet restaurants where he eats a full meal while she consumes undressed salads. As her weight decreases to 40 kilos, Sonia appears almost catatonic and begins to hallucinate.

Director Matteo Garrone became known wordwide with his last film, The Embalmer, which received an Italian Academy award for its screenplay and good critical reception. The follow-up is a clear disappointment, and Garrone seems to be the one to blame for the shallow script (this one didn't even get a nom from the Academy) and inconsistent direction (for instance, a pivotal, dramatic scene in a restaurant's kitchen ellicits unintended laughs from the audience). Vittorio's odd behavior and bizarre delusions (something about the refinement process to obtain pure gold and the human body) are presented as matters-of-fact, as a given that needs no exploration. There's even less here about Sonia and why this particular attractive woman would submit to such humilliation and torture. It's a beautifully lensed (Marco Onorato) freak show, with a superb music score (Banda Osiris). The near sell-out audience appeared visibly disappointed.

[Chris Knipp]

This was shown on the UC Berkeley campus by the Italian students' association last year, but I missed it. My Italian tutor said, "Don't bother." The appeal of Garrone seems to be that he's so far from the Italian mainstream, and his achieving of strong regional flavor(s). I like that about Pupi Avati. I hope The Embalmer wasn't just a fluke.

I notice that on the Italian movie website FilmUp ratings of Primo amore seem to be mostly either Masterpiece or Crap with few in between. One viewer objects that it's too much in Venetian dialect. Another astutely points out that the movie doesn't show the real nature of anorexia, making it not a personal illness but part of a submissive relationship -- not the way it in fact usually works. Several comment as you do that it's just not that well done. Those who call it a "Masterpiece" may just be overreacting out of boredown with Gabriele Muccino and other conventional filmmakers.

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Salvador Allende

It's a privilege to watch a documentary directed by Patricio Guzman (Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case, Chile: Obstinate Memory) because they are so rarely screened in North America. This one is narrowly focused on the true gentleman who attempted to bring social justice to Chile via democracy, a velvet revolutionary. With Guzman himself providing carefully enunciated voice-over, the film combines interviews with found footage and photos to present Allende's life from his childhood in Valparaiso, through his political career, to his death.
Guzman's doc makes two points devastatingly clear: 1)The Nixon administration spent millions to prevent him from getting elected, waged a propaganda campaign to discredit him before and after the election, and murdered Allende's most powerful military supporter (Nixon-apointed Ambassador Ed Korry admits to this on camera), and 2) Although friendly with ruthless communist dictators, Allende refused the Stalinist model of control over media and armed forces, he refused assistance from USSR through Cuba, and refused to arm his supporters even when a coup was imminent. When he said: "There will be no civil war in Chile" he truly meant it.
Silent footage of planes bombarding the presidential palace "La Moneda" on September 11th, 1973 is eerie, then we watch his secretary emerge from the front door, followed by his ministers and closest allies, single file. Then we hear Allende's taped final statements just prior to his suicide.
The issue of his legacy and subsequent governments' successful efforts to destroy, erase, or downplay Allende's place in history (both Pinochet's dictatorship and the most recent democratically-elected administrations) is introduced but never explored. I wish Guzman had done so, as is Salvador Allende feels "unfinished" because Allende was so much more than a physical presence, he was the embodiment of the hopes of Chile's poor and working class.

[Chris Knipp]

This was showing at the MK2 Beaubourg when I was in Paris in September but I missed it. Lazy, I guess; it seemed too edifying. I'd have seen it if I could have gone with you, though, for sure.

[oscar jubis]

It'd be nice to watch a film together. You know I value your opinions in general, but perhaps most in the area of politics and current events. I'm glad the film below is coming to the Bay Area (April 15th) and other major markets because I'm specially curious about your reaction to it. My comments (last paragraph) may reveal plot elements you may want to discover on your own. I hate to do this but it's imperative in order to point out potential flaws and weaknesses.

Turtles Can Fly

The new film from Bahman Ghobadi ((Marooned in Iraq, A Time for Drunken Horses) won the big prize at the Chicago and San Sebastian festivals. The film is set in the refugee camps located in the Irak-Turkey border, mostly populated by Iraqi Kurds. The film starts just prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and focuses on two main characters: "Satellite", the resourceful leader of the orphan kids and an electronics wiz, and Agrine, a beautiful girl he attempts to befriend. Satellite is dynamic, caring 13 y.o. responsible for providing cable access to many villages in the vicinity. His English-peppered speech gives elders the impression he can translate news report regarding the impending US invasion, but it's Agrine's armless brother whose prophetic statements prove magically accurate. The sullen, suicidal Agrine rejects any human contact. She appears to be traumatized, shellshocked, and increasingly unwilling to care for Rega, a blind toddler she and her brother are raising. Satellite organizes the motley group of kids in activities such as stacking empty shell casings, and disabling and selling landmines to the U.N. or to arms merchants. It's a precarious existence. A helicopter drops leaflets with empty promises and naive pronouncements as the US invades Iraq.

There are two major aspects of the highly accomplished Turtles Can Fly that can be considered flaws or weaknesses:
1) The film is extremely subtle in terms of being critical of the forces that brought on the crisis tragically affecting these kids. The film assumes a great deal of knowledge and capacity for analysis on the part of the audience. The fact that the deformities and missing limbs on many of the children were caused by chemical weapons deployed by Saddam's army and landmines planted by his enemies is merely hinted at. There is a legibility problem for a mainstream audience. The World Socialist Web, for instance, states in its review that Ghobadi's focus on the here-and-now results in drama that is "squeezed and constrained", failing to assign blame in a clear, pointed way. Ghobadi's approach is the polar opposite of John Sayles' didactic, emphatic filmmaking.
2)There's a flashback scene showing troops attacking Agrine's village. We see tanks, people running under the rain, Agrine falling on a puddle and being grabbed and pulled by a soldier. She has stated earlier that the toddler (Rega) is "their child". I'm convinced we are to assume that Agrine (played by an actress who looks about 12) was raped about three years ago by Hussein's troops and got pregnant with Rega. But the casting and mise-en-scene make it unclear, vague, even unlikely. Several members of the audience I spoke with appeared confused. One review on-line simply states "Agrine saw her village attacked by soldiers and her parents killed", another states she and her brother are "responsible for a blind toddler", and a respectable Brit website refers to the toddler as "their infant brother". Given the primacy of Agrine's trauma and her relationship to the toddler in the narrative, I consider this a major flaw in an otherwise remarkable film.

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Oldboy (South Korea)

This film directed by Chan-wook Park (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes over well-received films by Wong Kar-wai, Emir Kusturica, Agnes Jaoui, Oliver Assayas, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and A. Weerasethakul. Some reports blame it on jury president Quentin Tarantino's arm-twisting. What I know is that Oldboy is a movie his fans will love. A shocking, hi-tech, fashionably gory tale of revenge that has nothing to do with the real world. Oldboy is an implausible, unpredictable, entertaining mystery thriller. I feel no animosity toward it until I read reviews/comments that regard it as anything more than disposable, transgressive fun. I won't spoil it for you by discussing the preposterous plot at all. UCLA grad Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow) will direct the English-language remake.

[Chris Knipp]

UCLA grad Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow) will direct the English-language remake.

I am one of those who liked Better Luck Tomorow, but this seems a dubious operation. Can you really call something a "remake" that is turned out immediately? I thought a remake was a movie made twenty years later. Hence this would be more like a profit-taking spinoff of something already rather schlocky and Mr. Lin would be heading downhill fast.

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Los Nombres de Alicia (Spain, 2005)

The debut from director Pilar Ruiz Gutierrez concerns the effects of a charming, mysterious girl on a burgeois family. It's known to the audience but not to Marisa and Juan Setien that Mina is not the live-in English teacher they intended to hire to teach their kids. The attractive girl has a catalytic effect on the whole family as Marisa and Juan gradually unravel the network of mysteries and lies that permeate her story and identity. The problems with Alicia's Names are numerous: Mina is played by a Portuguese actress who speaks English with an accent, several scenes are poorly staged, the script and acting fail to provide motivation for Juan's bizarre behavior, the plot seems carelessly put together,etc. It's simply a mediocre production overall.

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Ferpect Crime (Spain, 2004)

Director Alex de la Iglesia has a cult following among European youth via black comedies that skewer established genres (Day of the Beast, 800 Bullets, Perdita Durango). In his latest, Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) is an arrogant playboy who manages the women's section of a large department store. A promotion is offered to the manager of the department with the highest sales. The competition is fierce, so much so that Raf get into a fight with the effeminate men's dept. manager and accidentally kills him. Lourdes, the ugliest salesgirl is the sole witness. She will take full advantage. Ferpect Crime satirizes the male ego and consumerism with aplomb. The film is often crass though, somewhat repetitive and only occassionally witty. A hilarious dinner scene involving Lourdes' strange relatives provides evidence of what the director can accomplish when inspired.

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Live-In Maid (Argentina)

The debut feature from writer/director Jorge Gaggero won a Special Jury Prize (2nd place) at Sundance last month. Cama Adentro dramatizes the effects of Argentina's down-sliding economy on Beba (Norma Aleandro), an upper-middle class divorcee who struggles in vain to maintain her comfortable lifestyle. Most significantly, she has been unable to pay her live-in maid Dora (Norma Argentina) for seven months. Dora has been living at Beba's for 30 years. The unwritten codes of their complex relationship are gradually changing. Beba is forced to sell her jewelry and china, pour national spirits on imported bottles, and sell cosmetics at the beauty salon in exchange for services. But all this pales in comparison to the possibility of losing Dora, whose relationship with Beba is quite familial.
Live-in Maid pairs "la gran dama" of Argentine cinema with a complete novice and their scenes together are an absolute delight. The leads are perfectly cast, but Gaggero's script also deserves credit for its naturalism, economy and avoidance of cheap sentiment. At the present time the film doesn't have a North American distributor, but I recommend you look for it at one of the many Hispanic or Latino film festivals in American cities.

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Symetria (Poland)

A brief foreshadowing scene shows an anonymous hand drawing up a suicide report. Lukasz is introduced, an unemployed 26 year-old with a geography degree who lives with his mother and younger sister. He's pick out of a line-up by an old woman who was assaulted, although we're led to believe he probably is innocent. Shortly after Lukasz is jailed, the victim has a stroke and dies and there are no other witnesses. We gradually become acquainted with his cellmates and learn of their past crimes_including an intellectual who killed his wife's rapist, an older man who refuses to pay alimony, a roughneck who works for the mafia, and a quarrelsome brute. Slowly, along with Lucasz, we learn the culture of the prison_ the slang, the class divisions, and the unwritten rules that impact his daily life. Then, a new prisoner is brought into the cell, someone who will be a catalyst for tragedy.
Writer/director Konrad Niewolski's second feature was a critical and commercial hit in his native country, but hasn't made much of a splash abroad. Symmetry is a frank account of prison conditions , but perhaps appears tame compared to other prison dramas. A menacing mood is palpable throughout, but there are only allusions to male sodomy and overt violence is only shown near the conclusion. Niewolski's palette favors cool greys and greens, and the most dramatic scenes are punctuated by a quick montage of shots of the prison from an outsider's perspective. The performance of Arek Detmer in the lead role also deserves commendation.

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Day and Night (Sweden/Denmark, 2004)


The opening voice-over by Bergman-regular Earland Josephson leaves no doubt as to the outcome: Thomas shot himself in the head on September 11, 2003. The rest of the film takes place on that day. 40-ish Thomas (a superb Mikael Persbrandt), at the end of his rope, encounters his 13 year-old son, his ex-wife, his mother, his girlfriend, his friend (and ex's lover), and a prostitute. He needs to resolve some issues, settle scores, say goodbye. Borrowing from Abbas Kiarostami's 10, the whole film is shot from two DV cameras mounted on the car's dashboard. Some of the action takes place just outside an SUV, but most encounters occur inside while Thomas drives through city and countryside.
Day and Night was directed and co-written by Simon Staho and features a first-rate cast of Scandinavian actors, including Pernilla August (Fanny and Alexander) here cast against type. What drives the film is the intensity of feeling of the protagonist, his eloquence makes Day and Night quite revealing and engaging. Films like Day and Night are the raison d'etre of audience-friendly film festivals like Miami's_to give movie lovers the opportunity to watch excellent movies distributors have deemed to have poor commercial prospects.

[oscar jubis]

Hoam Rong aka The Overture (Thailand, 2004)

A fictitiuos biopic inspired by the last great master of the ranard-ek, a wooden xylophone indigenous to Thailand. Sorn, the imaginary protagonist, lives in a village where his older brother is killed by a rival musician. He eventually convinces his reluctant father to allow him to play the ranard-ek. He wins a village showdown but, during a trip to Bangkok, the overconfident youth is humilliated by a musician from the prince's court. Sorn swears he will one day replace his new rival.
Impeccably shot in exotic locations and featuring a compelling score, The Overture is enjoyable and entertaining. The film gains poignancy when the celebrated folkloric tradition comes under attack from a post-WW II government bent on westerization. The plot elements are extremely formulaic though, and the depiction of the protagonist is overly idealized. Hardly compelling but quite pleasant.

[Chris Knipp]

The sequence of movies you describe on this page shows the festival to have an impressive variety and range of offerings. I'm looking forward to your final survey and evaluaton, but I wouldn't envy you the formidable task.

[oscar jubis]

Quite formidable: 25 reviews of new films and one essay about the Jean Rouch retrospective (3 features, 2 shorts). I'm proud to have this fest in my town. The selection is good and, unlike many, every single director is offered a payed visit and most accept. I met fest director Nicole Guillemet (A French woman formely at Sundance) at the Liv Ullmann press conference and I told her I hope it never becomes an "industry event" for the sake of national headlines. I don't want it to be like Toronto or Sundance. Miami's is the type of fest in which if you plan a bit you can get into every single screening you want, without having to stand on "rush lines" like I had to do at Toronto. It's no different for out-of-towners. Just a few miles to the north is the Fort Lauderdale festival in November. Most of their selection is mediocre-to-watchable indies and fluffy foreign "miramaxicals". It caters to retirees who live in the coastal condos a bit too much. Of course it offers a handful of worthy films, last November they had the American premiere of Ken Loach's A Fond Kiss...on my dad's birthday. But the difference in quality and international flair between Miami and Lauderdale's is quite evident.
I still have 7 films to post about, including three I highly recommend (from Sweden, Argentina and Wales).

[oscar jubis]

A Way of Life (UK, 2004)

Writer/director Amma Asante just received a British Academy award for Best Newcomer for A Way of Life. Just like Day and Night, Symmetry and other films in the festival, Assante's film begins with a flash-forward prologue. A man is being beaten mercilessly by a group of teens. The only girl involved is Leigh-Anne, a young single mom who exerts a malicious influence on her brother and his two buddies. They live in a working-class neighborhood in South Wales and spend a great deal of time drinking and goofing off. Leigh-Anne's relationship with a boy named Gavin seems limited to casual sex. Then Gavin begins to show a growing interest in Julie, a pleasant girl of Turkish descent who lives nearby. Leigh-Anne's wrath will eventually involve Julie's dad, whom the white kids call "Paki".
Asante's film fits within England's social-realist tradition but Ken Loach's films, for instance, generally feature a somewhat sympathetic protagonist. Leigh-Anne (newcomer Stephanie James in a career-defining performance) behaves in ways that deem her unredeemable, not cardboard-thin evil mind you, but certainly not the sympathetic protagonist certain audiences demand. Hence, this assured, gripping film has yet to secure American distribution, no matter how glowing the reviews from film festivals worldwide.

[Chris Knipp]

Very interesting and a very good write-up, by the way. Well done!

[oscar jubis]

Los Muertos (Argentina/Netherlands/France, 2004)

The Dead is the second feature written and directed by 29 year-old Buenos Aires native Lisandro Alonso. Argentina is most definitely the Latin American country most influenced by Europe and its artistic legacy, something that has been historically evident in its cinema. Against this current, Mr. Alonso has aligned himself decisively within a Third World tradition in his two features. Both La Libertad and The Dead explore rural environments and the relationship between man and nature by imposing a slight, fictional narrative on the documentary form.
As the film opens, the camera meanders through the dense folliage of the Amazon. The focus is lost temporarily to painterly effect and regained to show two bloodied corpses floating on the river. Cut to 54 y.o. Vargas, waking up to his last day in jail. Upon release, he lives the small town by bus and begins his long journey back to the river, in search of a daughter he barely remembers. At a small village he buys some candy and a blouse (for his daughter he says) and something to eat, has sex with a prostitute, walks to the riverside, finds a fisherman who directs him to a canoe he's arranged to hire, and begins to make his way down river. The trek is recorded in what feels like real time. Vargas is obviously in his environment as he expertly extracts honey from a honeycomb, and slaughters and guts a goat. This part of the film is almost ethnographic, depicting the daily activities of a "river man" in detail. But the The Dead is much more ambitious, as it returns to themes of memory's impact on current reality and a man's re-insertion into a family unit after a long, traumatic absence. The film makes very minimal but powerfully effective use of both dialogue and music. Mr. Alonso is, based on the evidence, the most original of the Argentinian filmmakers who've emerged in recent years.

[oscar jubis]

Modigliani (USA/France/Germany/Italy/UK, 2005)

Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian Jew born in 1884, who became one of the greatest portrait artists of the 20th century. This new film written and directed by Mick Davis concentrates on the last years of his life, immediately after the end of World War I, when the artist was living in Paris. There he came into close contact with many of the greatest artists and thinkers of the time. Modigliani (Andy Garcia) moved through this bohemian world with a boastful, self-destructive swagger that inspired both admiration and scorn. Modigliani proposes that his poverty forced him to reluctantly enter the city's annual art competition, and that his most intense rival was Pablo Picasso (Omid Djalili). The other narrative thread advanced in the film involves Modigliani's muse, Jeanne Hebuterne, a Catholic art student who became his wife and gave birth to his only child.
I don't know whether the art competition was as significant to Amedeo Modigliani as it is to this film. It seems, on the surface, to be a commercial calculation on the part of the filmmakers. British stand-up comedian Djalili is an odd choice to play Picasso but he grows into the role. On the other hand, the underexposed French actress Elsa Zylberstein is perfectly cast as Jeanne, whose battles against her father's anti-semitism and her husband's vices are dramatized with great skill. The role of Modigliani is within Garcia's range, but perhaps what's best about Modigliani is its set decoration and, befitting an artist biopic, cinematographer Emmanuel Kadosh's colorful palette.

[Chris Knipp]

The Jewish Museum had a very big retrospective of Modigliani in NYC last summer which I attended. In quantity one could see the great beauty of his stronger portraits, but also a certain repetitiousness and lack of depth. In the end there seemed to be too many of them. But his work has great elegance and style and he did his very nude nudes with the lush smooth textures and the handsome earth colors, the elongated faces and bodies wonderfully. One trouble is that he has been so much copied in every kind of conventional imagery that he no longer looks original, which he of course was, as was his use of imagery from African sculpture, though he was not alone in that, since Braque, Picasso and others were of course also collecting African carvings and masks and being influenced by them during the same period.

I assume this was a theatrical showing; you forgot to mention where you saw it. Not yet announced in the Bay Area, I think. I wish you'd said a bit more about the look of the movie, its authenticity, its beauty, though you do suggest as others have that it's good looking. Another review suggests Garcia's strong performance is the main point of interest; that the focus on the competition with Picasso (which I don't remember from Richardson's bio of Picasso) is narrow and excessive; and a Toronto Festival review calls the movie a "paint by the numbers biopic." Other comments: Garcia good at being drunk but appears drunk when not supposed to be; his Italian awful and ungrammatical; at times he overacts; cameos of Gertrude Stein, FRieda Kahlo, William Randolf Hearst, and Renoir are fun. (What about Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Derain--also associates of his?) I am not excited, but artist biopics rarely do excite me. Watching an artist slap paint on a canvas lacks the charm of watching Ray Charles sing a song. There was plenty of music and high kicking chorus girls in John Huston's evocative and visually lush (1952) Toulouse Lautrec biopic, Moulin Rouge. A couple of fine recent ones, though are Schnabel's Basquiat (1996) and John Maybury's Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998). Also perhaps good a couple of Van Gogh pictures that I haven't yet seen. I wasn't as taken with Ed Harris' earnest and Academy Awarded (2000) Pollock, which tried too hard -- or Selma Hayek's also earnest and visually attractive Frieda. It was its looseness and élan that made Schnabel's Basquiat so good, plus the amazing Jeffrey Wright. I wonder why an American plays Modigliani in English in this movie, instead of Italians or French filmmakers making it in French?

[oscar jubis]

Modigliani opened the festival. It's scheduled for theatrical release in May. It has commercial aspirations. Films in English get better worldwide distribution than films in any other language. I loved the production design and Elsa Zylberstein's performance. She really looks like Jeanne Hebuterne too. You might have seen her in Farinelli and Time Regained. Some people will like Garcia as Modigliani, others won't. I think he's fine. The Toronto Eye review called his perf "fearless". As a commercial project, it's probably more along the lines of Frida. Some will find it over-familiar: genius artist is poor, unrecognized, sick, temperamental, abuses substances... The project's focus on the art competition is its major drawback, and the script lacks distinction. I would call it "worth watching" but not a "must see".

[Chris Knipp]

I'm confused that you described Modigliani only yesterday and it began the Miami Film Festival a month ago. The Italian festival also began and ended with lackluster items.I was wondering why French and Italians didn't make this film, I don't see exactly why the fact of better Eng. Lang. distribution means it must be made in English; do Americans prefer biopics?

[oscar jubis]

English language films get into more theatres worldwide. It's a fact. A movie in English with a known actor will likely make more money than a French and Italian film. Depardieu and Auteuil are too old to play Modigliani. Younger French or Italian actors are not well known by the world's masses.
I felt no compulsion to review festival films in the order they were shown. I only wanted to make sure I reviewed Whisky, Nobody Knows and Gunner Palace quick because their US release dates were fast approaching. All three are currently in theatres.

[oscar jubis]

Inconscientes (Spain/Germany/Portugal/Italy, 2004)

Barcelona, 1913. Free-spirited and pregnant Alma enlists the help of her uptight brother-in-law Salvador in searching for her missing husband, a Freudian psychiatrist. The investigation is guided by a manuscript on women and hysteria the missing man was writing, based on four of his patients. Director Joaquin Oristrell shapes this material into an amusing comedy with satirical tones. As Alma and Salvador dig for clues that may lead to Alma's husband, they encounter a world of forbidden pleasures hiding beneath the pretensions of polite society. The lovely Leonor Watling (Bad Education, Talk to Her) and Luis Tosar (Mondays in the Sun) have the required chemistry to propel the film past some plot holes and uninspired parts. Production values are top-notch. Unconscious has secured North American distribution.

[Chris Knipp]

At the festival, when shown?

[oscar jubis]

Closing Night film at the fest will be distributed here by Regent Releasing. Scheduled for this year but no specific dates announced. The type of crowd-pleaser that's typically picked for opening or closing night.

[oscar jubis]

Saraband (Sweden, 2004)

It's a privilege for an old master to grow old with dignity, in full control of the creative faculties that brought him recognition and fame. Two decades after Fanny and Alexander, presented as a final work at the time, a summation of his filmmaking career, Ingmar Bergman has come out of retirement to create this tough-minded, searing chamber piece, shot in Digital Video.

Bergman summons Johan (Erland Josephson) and Marianne (Liv Ullmann), the couple from his Scenes From a Marriage, not to create a sequel per se, but something altogether richer and multi-layered. Saraband is bookended by an epilogue, in which Ullmann introduces the story aided by photos and discusses her impulse to visit Johan, and an epilogue. In between, ten dramatic "dances" for two, only one used to revisit the issues that led to Johan and Marianne's divorce three decades earlier. Johan has inherited a large estate from his aunt and lives comfortably in the main house. Henrik, Johan's son from his first marriage, has moved to the estate's lakeside cottage with his 19 year old daughter Karin, after the death of his wife Anna two years ago. Both Henrik and Karin are cellists. The father is helping the talented youngest prepare for an audition for entrace into a renowned music school. The troubled Henrik is perhaps Saraband's central character. The hostile relationship he has with Johan is complicated by his financial dependency on him, and the huge void left by his wife's death is impinging on his relationship with Karin. The girl is pulled in one direction by her need for individuation and pulled in another by guilt over abandoning her grief-stricken father. Marianne is practically forced to intervene in these intense parental conflicts, which cause her to re-examine her feelings towards the two daughters born to her marriage with Johan.

Mr. Bergman has not lost one bit of his ability to write incisive, revealing dialogue, provide fresh insight into the human condition, create indelible images, and guide actors toward perfectly calibrated performances. Saraband is a reminder of what film can accomplish and an unexpected gift to movie lovers worldwide.

[oscar jubis]

Saraband was originally shown on Swedish television, and later had a limited commercial run in Europe. The film opens in the USA on July 8th, 2005 courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. I look forward to the discussion this film event will generate this summer. The purpose of my review was simply to give an idea about the structure and content of the film, and to provide some reasons why I think it's so good. There's a lot more to be said regarding the film's autobiographical aspects, the movie in relation to Bergman's entire filmography, his use of new technology, the use of music, etc.

[oscar jubis]

DRAMATIC

World Cinema Competition
Grand Jury Prize to A WAY OF LIFE (UK)

Ibero-American Competition
Grand Jury Prize to DAYS OF SANTIAGO (Peru)
The story of a former soldier adjusting to civilian life in Lima's slums.

DOCUMENTARY

Grand Jury Prize to LA SIERRA (Colombia)
Documents a Medellin barrio on the front lines of Colombia's ongoing civil war.


FIPRESCI AWARD

A WAY OF LIFE (UK)


AUDIENCE AWARDS

Documentary:
THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMETT LOUIS TILL (USA)

Dramatic (3-way tie):
RED DUST (South Africa/UK)
THE EDUKATORS (Germany)
THE OVERTURE (Thailand)