Mondays In The Sun

[oscar jubis]

I walked into the theatre with high expectations. MONDAYS IN THE SUN is the film submitted by Spain for consideration for our Academy's foreign film Oscar over the lauded TALK TO HER directed by Pedro Almodovar. MONDAYS IN THE SUN had cleaned up at the Spanish academy awards, winning 5 Goyas including Best Film, Best Director(Fernando Leon de Aranda), and three acting awards.

This socially-conscious drama concerns a group of middle-age, laid-off dockworkers who have been friends for many years. After a brief scene of labor unrest, the film flashes forward three years to find Santa (Goya winner Javier Bardem) still dealing with feelings of rage and regret, and Jose (Luis Tovar) trying to adjust to changes in his relationship with his attractive wife, a worker at the local fish cannery. Lino, the oldest of the group, has not lost hope of finding adequate employment in their economically depressed port town in Northern Spain. At the local bar, the trio meet other former colleages, including some who've managed to adjust better to the closing of the shipyards.

I had no difficulty empathizing with these men's plight. I was impressed with the script for deliniating characters clearly and managing to inject humor, even hilarity, into a rather grim scenario. The direction is mostly unobtrusive-Rosellini would approve. It's the performances that propel MONDAYS IN THE SUN and make it one of the best films of 2003.

[Chris Knipp]

This wasn't the film I thought it was, but I'm astonished that anything could have been chosen by Spain over the beautiful Talk to Her, one of Almodovar's best movies for sure.

[oscar jubis]

How did the film differ from your expectations? What was the source of your expectations?

[Chris Knipp]

I didn't make myself clear. I mean I didn't see this movie at all. I was confusing it in my mind with Segunda piel, Second Skin, from two years earlier, and also starring Javier Bardem, which I found pretty mediocre. How I knew it was Bardem but confused the two movies I can't imagine. I have not, in fact, seen Lunes al Sol.

I think that The Barbarian Invasions may have won the Best Foreign Language Oscar because of its great success at Cannes, just as the Spanish may have chosen Lunes over Hable due to the buzz and awards. I mentioned the former possibility in my review of Barbarian Invasions, which I just saw by coincidence for the first time on Sunday afternoon. http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?p=269#269

Sorry to disappoint you about my nonexistent expectations! I just saw Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and I expected it to be pretty bad, and it was -- though the dancing was fun and sexy.

[oscar jubis]

Mondays in the Sun is a must-see. It's been available on dvd since November. I like both films a lot. Mondays tied The Barbarian Invasions at #3 for 2003(Foreign list) and Almodovar's placed at #5 for 2002. Mondays is more effective, focused, conventional and predictable than Hable con Ella.

[oscar jubis]

I like your review of Barbarian Invasions but found your review of The Passion of the Christ even more congruent with my views of the film under consideration. I wish you'd share it with the members as it provides an alternative to the already posted ones. Save me from having to post about it, Chris.

[Chris Knipp]

I will do that but I don't know where to put it.

[Chris Knipp]

Mondays in the Sun is a must-see. It's been available on dvd since November. I like both films a lot. Mondays tied The Barbarian Invasions at #3 for 2003(Foreign list) and Almodovar's placed at #5 for 2002. Mondays is more effective, focused, conventional and predictable than Hable con Ella.

Do you mean you like Barbarian Invasions and Mondays...a lot, or Hable con Ella and Mondays?

I'll watch for Mondays. Don't remember its coming through the theaters of the Bay Area, though.

Where on this site should I put my review of Gibson's The Passion of the Christ or a link to it?

[oscar jubis]

I like all three films roughly the same: about 3 1/2 out of 4, for shorthand. It might perk your interest that these workers who are now free to sunbathe on mondays , if so inclined, are victims of globalization and that Bardem is as good here as anywhere else.

The other reviews of Passion are on the General Film Forum. You can open a new thread there. Johann also liked it and wished you'd post it.

[Chris Knipp]

I would rate Talk to Her quite a bit higher than The Barbarian Invasions; I found watching it somehow a beautiful experience, almost an enchantment; and I don't even like Almodovar, or I didn't think I did till then. Barbarian Invasions is quite good; it's smart, lively, and provocative; tonic sometimes compared to typical US conventions about how to live and how to die; but ultimately it seems somehow contrived--and since it's not surreal like Almodovar, that effect isn't desirable and undermines my sense of the film's value. See the second and second-to-last paragraphs in my review on my website http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=269. I will look forward to Mondays in the Sun, though I wish I'd caught it when it was in theaters.

What's going to happen on Passion, if you can just wait, is that Peter is going to post my piece on it separately using a somewhat new format -- he came up with this without my prompting -- so I'm leaving it up to him to edit and present the discussion of the movie, which will happen shortly. I'm sure there will be lively opinions! I'd be stunned if there weren't.

[oscar jubis]

My differences with you on The Barbarian Invasions seem to stem from differing perceptions of reality, not any aesthetic reason or value difference. I disagree with your observation that "the bribes and manipulations of Sebastien are a cinematic cheat. This is not the way things happen in real life". Consequently I find your conclusion that the film is "contrived" to be an overstatement.

Your last paragraph bemoans the lack of "logic" in the nomination process for Best Foreign Language film by the American Academy. In case you don't know already. Each country can submit only one film per year for consideration. This year, 56 countries submitted films. Brasil submitted Hector Babenco's Carandiru instead of City of God, and Belgium submitted Sea of Silence instead of The Son (one of 4 films I saw in 2003 that I consider masterpieces).

Glad to hear your review of Passion will be featured. The film has already generated some interesting debate in these boards.

[Chris Knipp]

It's always possible that in a review I write I may have overstated something or not made myself clear. But do you really think it's common for a rich son to bribe students to show interest in his dying father, get a heroin addict to administer heroin to him frequently, in a public hospital, and above all to construct for him a completely new private room on a separate floor of a public hospital? Your perception of reality is that that kind of thing is normal?

I take it you agree that aesthetically Talk to Her is much more pleasing than Barbarian Invasions? Is that what you mean by saying you don't differ on any "aesthetic reason or value difference"--a rather cryptic statement?


I knew those things about the Oscars. I based my remark on an article in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/movies/oscars/29CURT.html which is entitled "And the Oscar for Worst Oscar Goes. . ." which speaks of the "absurdity" of the Foreign Language category at some length. You may find this piece interesting. I gather we're in agreement on this, since you and I both agree that two masterpieces were bypassed. And worse yet, the nominations are films nobody's heard of or seen here. I think the choices should be made here, from the foreign films that have been distributed here in that year. Otherwise they don't mean anything to us. Maybe the Academy doesn't care, and has intentionally set up a system which undermines interest in foreign movies in this country. But that's ridiculous. It's not like a foreign movie is going to outgross the Hollywood blockbusters.

[oscar jubis]

I'm sure you remember our exchange regarding my issues with City of God, which I like more than the Oscar submission from Brasil (Carandiru) but less than you do. I love the nominated editing job on City and wished it had taken the Oscar from LOTR.

******

Perhaps there are some implausibilities in Arcand's script. I think he does so to advance the position that the world is guided by laws that Sebastien understands well, about the power of wealth and such. That people are motivated by greed and self-interest.

But I'll grant you that Arcand might be the one guilty of overstatement here, not you Chris. I will also own up to identifying with Remy in many aspects (not including his "chick magnet" status) so that the resolution here constitutes irresistible wish fulfillment for me. I cannot leave who I am outside the theatre.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm glad you grant the possibility that there are "implausibilities" in the Barbarian Invasions script; I also argue in addition to that, that the whole scheme of the de luxe death engineered by Sébastien is inconsistent with the worldviews of Rémy and his friends; arguably with Arcand's own world view. If he is arguing that the world is motivated by greed and self interest, which would be a negative critique of the world, why would he give Rémy such a well orchestrated, comfortable death? That undermines his argument, if argument it is, and is why I said the movie is "marred by internal contradictions". The "argument" you find is hard to see in the outcome of the story.

But I did say "This is a lively and intelligent movie" though, of course, Ciudad de Deus is a masterpiece on another level altogether. I did not critique Rémy's character or consider his shortcomings or irresponsibility toward women as a weakness of the film in any way. I hope your wife is not reading this exchange. Just kidding.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I think the choices should be made here, from the foreign films that have been distributed here in that year.

I want more foreign films to get distribution. When a film that lacks a distributor gets nominated, it increases the likelihood of the film being distributed or getting a wider release. The current nomination process has been responsible for our gaining access to several films over the years.

[Chris Knipp]

You miss my point. I guess I have to disagree. There must surely be other, better ways of getting distribution for foreign films; four or five nominations for one Oscar isn't that helpful. The point is that if the Best Foreign Language Film nominations and the Oscar in that category were all of movies we actually have already seen in the USA already, that Oscar would mean something to a significant segment of the American public, and this would stir up more interest in foreign movie generally -- which would indirectly contribute to more audience buzz about foreign language pictures and more box office would mean more distribution. As it is, the award doesn't even mean anything to most of the people who do go to see foreign films. Did you read the NYTimes article I referred to? http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/m...ars/29CURT.html

If subtitled movies were bigger money-makers, you'd inevitably get more distributions. That's the problem. When the Oscar nominations are mostly for foreign language pictures nobody here has ever heard of, the category remains no more exciting or interesting than makeup or some other very minor category of minimal interest to the public.

[oscar jubis]

I got your point. I'm just not convinced the chain of events would eventually, even indirectly lead to distribution for any film not nominated. Perhaps I lack long-range vision.

[Chris Knipp]

No you don't; we both want to encourage distribution of foreign language films. I just think that the current system, which leads to nominations of films nobody in the US knows anything about, doesn't encourage public interest.

At least we're lucky we get foreign movies undubbed now, unlike Italy for instance where even Bertolucci's last few movies have come to the Italian audience dubbed into Italian, and mostly American films are shown likewise dubbed into Italian. We're so "hip" or so they think that often now foreign movies are distributed with their original titles.