New Directors/New Films and Film Comment Selects

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail. I was merely explaining why my response was different from yours.

"With all due respect," you comment, "while I am interested in what others say about a film, everyone's in a different space and reacts differently. In the final analysis, like viewing a painting, I always go with my experience and what it means to me on a personal level."

Indeed. But I was consulting with other people on what actually happened in the film. One can get that wrong. Especially in this case. There were a number of places where I was not sure. And I consulted further this morning with people who had seen the film with me last week. As I said, a couple bits in your own summary of the action of BELLE ÉPINE seemed to me to be almost certainly slightly off: "Franck (Johan Libereau), [who] takes advantage of her for his sexual pleasure. When she walks out of a movie leaving Franck feeling angry and deserted, she goes to his house to try and talk to his mother."

By my own impression and by consulting with others the other day and today, I found we all felt this was not accurate. Of course I may still be wrong about all this. I may have misunderstood the film, and the lady who loved the film and seemed to have observed and understood it best, and you. That is my point. The film is hard to follow. And so I don't know what it means, and I don't find it ultimately satisfying. I know it is meant to reflect the confusion of feeling of its young protagonist. But there is such a thing as too much of an objective correlative.

Another discerning and very well informed person whom I often talk to waved all these questions aside and said they didn't matter and said, "It's just a little film, but it's promising."

Can we leave it at that?

[Howard Schumann]

A couple bits in your own summary of the action of BELLE ÉPINE seemed to me to be almost certainly slightly off: "Franck (Johan Libereau), [who] takes advantage of her for his sexual pleasure. When she walks out of a movie leaving Franck feeling angry and deserted, she goes to his house to try and talk to his mother."

If you think this is certainly slightly off, please explain to me why it is incorrect and what you think actually happened. I'm sorry that you think you still don't understand the film.

[Chris Knipp]

Mainly just this part:

Franck (Johan Libereau), who takes advantage of her for his sexual pleasure. When she walks out of a movie leaving Franck feeling angry and deserted, she goes to his house to try and talk to his mother. . .

...that it's misleading to say that about Franck, because she wants it. He may seem aggressive, but that doesn't mean she didn't seek the sex just as much herself. And as I recall she was at the hotel for the sex, and then went downstairs and talked to his mother the next morning. The way you tell it seems a bit off in the nature of the event and the sequence. But I may be wrong. However Marcia L, a lady I have talked to at the screenings who loved this film and obviously "got" it much better than I did, did not think "takes advantage of her for his sexual pleasure" gave the correct impression. She said Prudence wanted to go to the hotel to talk to Franck's mother, so the sex may have been partly an excuse, but she didn't feel Prudence was taken advantage of.

She was at the hotel

[Howard Schumann]

Mainly just this part:

Franck (Johan Libereau), who takes advantage of her for his sexual pleasure. When she walks out of a movie leaving Franck feeling angry and deserted, she goes to his house to try and talk to his mother. . .

...that it's misleading to say that about Franck, because she wants it. He may seem aggressive, but that doesn't mean she didn't seek the sex just as much herself. And as I recall she was at the hotel for the sex, and then went downstairs and talked to his mother the next morning. The way you tell it seems a bit off in the nature of the event and the sequence. But I may be wrong. However Marcia L, a lady I have talked to at the screenings who loved this film and obviously "got" it much better than I did, did not think "takes advantage of her for his sexual pleasure" gave the correct impression. She said Prudence wanted to go to the hotel to talk to Franck's mother, so the sex may have been partly an excuse, but she didn't feel Prudence was taken advantage of.

She was at the hotel

Yes, I can see the way I put it leads to a misunderstanding. What I meant was that she was seeking a relationship and not just sex but he wasn't interested in a long term relationship, so in that sense, he was using her for his immediate pleasure. I will have to edit my review so it communicates my intent better.

By the way, I'm not sure if you've seen this review, but I think it may help to make the issues clearer for you:

http://www.quietearth.us/articles/20...NCE-BELLE-PINE

[Chris Knipp]

Okay, we're straight on that. I read that review, but I think yours is just as good. I would like to see much more detail. I have scanned a number of the French reviews but not taken the trouble to read through all of any of them. I think I've seen enough, but I am certainly willing to see the director's next film.

[Howard Schumann]

Okay, we're straight on that. I read that review, but I think yours is just as good. I would like to see much more detail. I have scanned a number of the French reviews but not taken the trouble to read through all of any of them. I think I've seen enough, but I am certainly willing to see the director's next film.

Thanks fir the complement. My only problem now is whether or not he really wanted her for a sexual relationship or that was just her perception.

Clarification of that will have to wait until it comes out on DVD, if it ever does. I will also look forward to her next film.

[Chris Knipp]

Well he obviously was hurt when she walked out on him in the cinema.

[Howard Schumann]

Well he obviously was hurt when she walked out on him in the cinema.

True enough.

[Chris Knipp]

Vladimir Kott: Gromozeka (2010)

This Russian film follows three men who were fellow band members thirty years earlier, now facing mid-life crises. Their lives partly coincide.

Shown in competition at the Rotterdam Film Festival. In Russian. 103min. Seen and reviewed as part of New Directions/New Films, presented March 23-April 4, 2011 by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.

ND/NF screenings:
2011-04-01 | 6:00 PM | MoMA
2011-04-02 | 3:45 PM | FSLC

[Chris Knipp]

Daniel and Diego Vega: Octubre (2010)

In a dry style consciously indebted to Kaurismäki and Jarmusch the Vega brothers, of Peru, depict the slight thaw of a Lima moneylender's stony heart when he's saddled with a baby that is probably his, and hires a local spinster to care for the child, all of which happens in October, locally celebrated as the month of miracles.

Whether the Vega brothers themselves will emerge as distinctive stylists still remains to be seen, but their work as anointed by Cannes is guaranteed a place on the festival circuit. The film has a limited US theatrical release coming May 6, 2011. Seen and reviewed as part of the New Directors/New Films series, presented by MoMA and Lincoln Center from March 23 through April 4, 2011.

ND/NF screenings:
2011-04-02 | 9:00 PM | FSLC
2011-04-03 | 4:00 PM | MoMA

[Chris Knipp]

Deron Albright: The Destiny of Lesser Animals (2011)

A Ghana policeman gives up his plan to return to America after a futile search for a stolen counterfeit passport. Yao B. Nunoo, who wrote the screenplay also stars. He may have had a little more than he could handle. This film is the fruit of a year that director Albright spent in Ghana recently on a Fulbright research grant. Albright is an associate professor of film/media at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. His 2006 short film, The Legend of Black Tom, has played at festivals and won awards. He has also worked in television.

87 min. In Fante, English, Pidgin, Twi, and Ga with English subtitles. The HDCAM cinematography is serviceable and the film provides views of the Ghanan urban landscape.

ND/NF screenings:
2011-04-01 | 9:00 PM | MoMA
2011-04-02 | 6:30 PM | FSLC

[Chris Knipp]

Athina Rachel Tsangari: Attenberg (2010)

This "certainly works as a wacky, decidedly arthouse coming-of-age narrative," says Variety. It is a study of "Eros" and "Thanatos," being a Nouvelle Vague-influenced study of an adult daughter belatedly discovering sex while attending her dying architect father in a Greek seaside town. It may not work for you so well if you balk at its constant inserts of symmetrical travelling shots of two young women walking arm and arm up and down a crunchy stone pathway kicking their feet in the same direction. The director produced last year's similarly provocative and much praised Dogtooth.

Click on the title above for the Festival Coverage review.

ND/NF screenings:
2011-03-31 | 6:00 PM | MoMA
2011-04-02 | 1:00 PM | FSLC

This was the final press screening of New Directors/New Films 2011.

ND/NF selections I did not see or did not review:
Circumstance (Maryam Keshavarz 2010, Iran)
El Velador (Natalia Almada 2010, USA/Mexico)
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (Matthew Bate 2010, USA)
Some Days Are Better Than Others (Matt McCormick 2010, USA)
Summer of Goliath (Verano de Goliat Nicholás Pereda 2010, Mexico)
For details see the FSLC webpage.

[Chris Knipp]

STILL FROM MARYAM KESHAVARZ'S CIRCUMSTANCE (NOT COVERED IN MY REPORTS)

NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 2011

There are a few outstanding films this year, and a number of ones that show the directors have talent and should be watched. Then there are some uncertain cases. And some strong differences of opinion at screenings. I also missed some.*

Bogdan George Apetri's OUTBOUND
An intense, non-stop Romanian story about a young woman released from jail for one day. Its powerful ending evokes the great Italian neorealists. This is a pretty nearly flawless film, which follows the current Romanian style of focusing on a minute-to-minute saga.

J.C. Charndar's MARGIN CALL
A fresh, elegant look at the beginning of the Wall Street financial meltdown by a new American director, featuring Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. It all happens in a dark steel-and-glass box but it's quite cinematic nonetheless.

Denis Villeneuve's INCENDIES
A powerful, visually rich look at a personal family heritage of Middle Eastern confict. The director is a French Canadian, whose films have four times been nominated for the Best Foreign Oscar. From a stage play but the realization is thoroughly cinematic.

Paddy Considine's TYRANOSAUR
A brilliant, harrowing portrait of English violence and alcoholism with all the focus on the superb acting. Peter Mullan is the star, with Olivia Colman. You may want to look away but you cannot.

These are the standouts. They have some flaws. Margin Call could be more engaging; it's a little too dry at times. Incendies is far-fetched; its mashup of nationalities and history may seem absurd to some from the region and its surprise final revelation strains the credulity of anyone. Tyranosaur's ugliness and violence are over the top and so it can't be recommended to the faint of heart. Outbound seems best overall precisely because it doesn't have any single notable flaw.

Notable or promising
At another level are some movies that showed a high level of competence or promise. Dee Rees' Pariah, a young black lesbian coming-of-age story, has some beginner's flaws but is warm and colorful, one of the most enjoyable of the series. Ahmad Abdalla's Micorphone, the musical mélange about Alexandria, Egypt, is also enjoyable, if rambling. Fukada's Hospitalité is very clever; this Japanese writer-director has it all together, but his film degenerated into silliness; one hopes his brilliant films come to have a bit more warmth and depth. Anne Sewitsky's Happy, Happy is an adultery comedy (from Norway) that's quite funny but a bit too condescending toward its characters. Göran Hugo Olsson's Black Power Mixtape has a wealth of new footage about the Sixties and Seventies. It may add little that's new to our basic fund of knowledge of the period, but it may yet be new for and fresh for a younger audience. The Vega brothers from Peru, whose Octubre was shown, seem already well established on the festival circuit, with a slightly derivative dry stylishness to which they have added a tiny dab of uplift. They have a style; time will tell if it's their own.

I was not enthusiastic about the French films. Copacabana, with Isabelle Huppert and her daughter, which I reviewed last year, seems lackluster, Huppert doing an "eccentric" shtick that ill-suits her. Mikhael Hers's Memory Lane, a generational reunion, is unfocused and slight. People differed on Rebecca Zlotowski's Belle Épine. I can grant that this dark girl's coming-of-ager shows promise and originality, not that the film makes any sense. People also differed on whether the searing Tyrannosaur can be recommended. I'd warn people about its ugliness and violence, but it's far too masterful not to be warmly endorsed.

Arabic language films were well represented, with four if you count Incendies, which has a lot of Arabic dialogue though it's French Canadian. Besides Microphone, there was another engaging Egyptian film, Mohamed Diab's Cairo 678, and Sameh Zoabi's mild-mannered Palestinian entry, Man Without a Cell Phone. Cairo 678 was the best received, but I found Microphone enjoyable and it was a prize-winner in the Arab world.

I will draw a veil over a few entries that were lackluster or seemed mere stylistic exercises. One can still see why they might have been included because they had previous festival champions, not totally deluded, or they fill some niche. Other films in the series didn't quite come together, but the filmmakers are worth watching.

I missed the new Iranian director Maryam Keshavarz's Circumstance, which is highlighted as the closing night film. It depicts two young women going to parties and listening to outlawed music and beginning to "explore their true feelings for each other." Several people told me this was one of the best, so I wish I'd seen it. My world was rocked anyway a couple of times, I enjoyed myself, and I became acquainted with the work of a lot of interesting new directors and several, like Denis Villeneuve, whom I ought to have known about already.

*ND/NF selections I did not see or did not review:
Circumstance (Maryam Keshavarz 2010, Iran)
El Velador (Natalia Almada 2010, USA/Mexico)
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (Matthew Bate 2010, USA)
Some Days Are Better Than Others (Matt McCormick 2010, USA)
Summer of Goliath (Verano de Goliat Nicholás Pereda 2010, Mexico)


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[Subway ad for the New Directors/New Films series 2011].

A.O. Scott's introduction to the series, "Modest Methods, Big Ambitions," appeared in the NY Times today (March 23, 2011) as the series begins public screenings at MoMA and the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.

[Howard Schumann]

"not that the film makes any sense"

I can't believe you said that. Are you still insisting that the film does not make any sense after the review I sent you, and all the discussion we had? Some people thought it made perfect sense, but hell, what do they know?

[Chris Knipp]

You should not take my reviews personally. They only express my own views.