weirdo! (Film: The Gift – Joel Edgerton, 2015)

Joel Edgerton is not a completely anonymous actor, but not a big star either. We know his face from a few supporting roles in a number of movies, but none of them really made it to the Academy Awards. This makes even more remarkable the fact that with The Gift he is completely in control. The resulting movie is packaged as a psychological thriller set in that part of California populated with apparently happy couples or families enjoying the good life ensured by their success of their corporate careers. Yet, not everybody succeeded as well, and happy facades can hide unhappy relations and dark secrets surfacing from the past.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4178092/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4178092/

 

A game is played during all this film between the director-script author and the viewers. It starts like a yuppies-go-to-California film, and a seemingly incidental encounter between the successful Simon (played by ) and a former school colleague called Gordo () who does not seem to have done that well. A feeling of un-easiness starts to install in a very subtle manner. It’s not only what happens on screen (although the visits and the small gifts and favors made to Simon and to his attractive but fragile wife Robyn () start to look more and more like stalking, but also the simple dialogs of the couples seem to indicate that not all is pink and bright in paradise. As the story continues we start to discover more details about the past, the angle and judgment on the characters changes, and the feeling of uneasiness increases. To put it in one of the words used by Simon to describe his ex-colleague – weirdo!

 

(video source Movieclips Trailers)

 

Actors directors are said not to be too successful in directing themselves, but Joel Edgerton is the exception. He is actually the best designed character in a triangle in which all three actors play crisply defined characters, which succeed to be true even as the perspective and the judgment of the viewers about them changes. Hitchcock is the obvious source of inspiration for the movies in this genre, and if Rebecca Hall was a blonde she would have made a perfect Hitchcockian character (Edgerton cannot even avoid filming not one but two shower scenes).

There is not much violence on screen, certainly not on the scale of the 2015 violence in movies, but the feeling of terror is present almost all the time, and its remarkable that it results from psychology rather than from effects. The ending is somehow disappointing in its making, but it includes enough dose of macabre and weirdness and it’s open enough to let us wonder what really happened. ‘The Gift’ is not easy or pleasant viewing, but it gives enough reasons of satisfaction to be worth spending the time with it.

 

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how do you say Tarantino in French? (Film: Mauvais sang – Leos Carax, 1986)

I am fascinated by . In more than 30 years he made just a handful of long films, but what films these are. Each of them reminds me when I get to see them why I love and I am fascinated by cinema, and what an art film making can be under the hands of a director who knows the secrets and ingredients of turning each film, and each scene in his films in something different, something that charms, shocks, can be enjoyable or repulsive, but cannot leave us indifferent.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091497/

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091497/

 

Mauvais Sang (Bad Blood is the literal translation) will be 30 years old next year. Yet it is not only as fresh as it was made yesterday, but it also has the quality that will make it relevant 30, 60, and 90 years from now (I do not make bets about future that extend between one century 🙂 ). It’s a gangster story in the
French tradition, Melville’s movies come to mind immediately, and the fact that some of the bad guys are American is actually also a French noir films tradition. Although the making of the film is closer to David Lynch’s peak period, Mauvais Sang precludes the best of what Tarantino will make 10 or 15 years later. I actually have almost no doubt that both Lynch and Tarantino saw this film several times and were deeply inspired by it. It is however more – it is a double love story, or two love stories which are sensitive and beautifully told. And then, the final scene makes – so it seems to me – a reverence to ‘Casablanca’.

 

(video source Carlotta Films US)

 

What gives such quality to Mauvais Sang? First, the actors. – at the edge of seniority, playing the gangster – combinator whose combines not always succeed best. Breathtakingly beautiful and young in one of her first major roles. And, of course, , Caras’s best acting asset ever. Then the cinematography. I do not know how much we owe to Caras and how much to the director of cinematography Jean-Yves Escoffier but almost each shot is a piece of art, and the colors combinations are sublime and uniquely expressive – just watch the repeated combinations of blue, white and red! There are the ingredients, but the ultimate merit belongs without doubt to Leos Carax, a master chef of the French cinema.

 

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Meryl Streep rocks (Film: Ricki and the Flash – Meryl Streep, 2015)

This may be the rock film of the year. Meryl Streep plays an aging supermarket cashier who spends her evenings playing Stones and U2 music in a club for a faithful audience of a few tens of people, many of them her age if not older. She has a history. She left her family, three kids, a comfortable life as the wife of a corporate executive about 25-30 years ago in order to follow her dream. Playing music. She does play music, but never could make a living out of it. She actually hardly makes ends. Then, the past calls. Her daughter goes through a divorce, tries to commit suicide. She is called on mother duty. She, who left mothership to fulfill a dream that never happened.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3623726/?

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3623726/?

 

The film worked for me on several levels. Music is part of the life of the characters and there is good music in this film, and some of the best scenes are the ones filmed in the music club. Whoever played music or just loves music will immediately relate to the characters that play on stage and those who sit in the audience, vibrate at the sounds they like and are stoned while tunes that they do not like are played, jump and dance when the right music is played. To a certain extend the film is about the differences between the world of passion and the world of conventions and routine. But then it’s also a film about the relation between following individual happiness and sharing time and life with the family. Ricki in this film follows her dream and leaves everything behind. She could have been the happy rich wife of a corporate executive and live in a luxurious cottage in a privately guarded exclusive area, but chose a different path. This path practically failed, success did not come, she hardly meets ends, and never did a second disk. The highest price however is the broken relation with her children who grew to call another woman ‘mother’ and did not even bother to invite her to their weddings. She has just one thing to balance all these losses – her music. Will this be enough?

 

(video source Sony Pictures Entertainment)

 

Need I say again that is phenomenal? It seems nowadays that any role she plays is up to the Academy Awards nominations level, and this one is no exception. She also sings, and she also brings to screen the insecurity, the age and the dilemmas of the character. , Streep’s daughter in life is also her daughter on screen, and her creation is remarkable. It’s not easy to share screen with your own mother, and even less when the mother is Meryl Streep with all her charisma – yet Gummer’s Julie is alive and real, fighting her personal daemons and breaking gradually the wall of mis-communication between the two. does the fine expected role especially when on stage and all the rockers club numbers are credible and emotional. One can see that director (of Philadelphia fame) loves music and is also well exercised in documentary. He made a film which looks a little conventional and melodramatic in it’s family drama part, but comes to life and is at best when it deals with music. Probably the best rock film of the year.

 

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a mob story that works (Film: Gangster Squad – Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, 2013)

A few days ago I have seen the brand new ‘Black Mass’ which is also a mob story made in Hollywood and enjoying the participation of a fine cast. I was not enthusiastic. ‘Gangster Squad’ directed by has the few ingredients that I was missing in that film, which make the genre ‘mob story inspired by real characters’ much more enjoyable to me. It does start with ‘inspired by a true story’ (or ‘true characters’), inserts the inevitable ‘true crime’ photos, and ends with the even more unavoidable text and pictures about the years spent in jail by the surviving bad guys, and the years happily spent fighting crime and raising kids by the good guys (those who survived, of course). In the middle it does better.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1321870/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1321870/

 

The story of ‘Gangster Squad’ is set in the post-war LA, and this certainly helps as the place and the period seems to gather interests because of the classical ‘noire’ thrillers that it inspired followed by a number of successful movies (starting with The Maltese Falcon, of course, set and filmed in 1941). The despicable bad guy’s name is Micky Cohen and his overtaking of the city could not (at least according to the script) be fought but by unconventional vigilante methods, because most of the police and judicial system was corrupted by hum. Find the right cops, motivated enough by having fought and survived WWII in order to build a world worth being lived by their kids, add the necessary dose of romantic, get a stunt master and a good choreographer for the fights and chases, and success is almost ensured.

 

(video source Movieclips Trailers)

 

The story may be more remote from the truth than in ‘Black Mass’, the capabilities of the squad in fights and shooting may seem overrated, but at the end of the day the result was more enjoyable for me. It certainly helped to have on board such a fine team of actors, including as the ultimate bad guy, ‘can’t do wrong’ , and beautiful who always seems to create around her a fascinating touch of mystery very appropriate in this movie. ‘Gangster Squad’ is a mob story that works and succeeds to be an entertaining film.

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saving the world again (Film: World War Z – Brad Pitt, 2013)

Sometimes you see a film which has great premises and it disappoints. Some other times however a film which according to the subject and taking into account previous experiences in the genre is doomed for failure succeeds to surprise in a good way. This is exactly the case with World War Z directed by starring The .

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/

 

The human race is in danger and the enemy is inside. It is actually us and our neglect to the environment that causes a destructive virus to take over and spread by means of the global airlines network. In a few days or weeks, the danger cannot be hidden, as the virus turns almost on the spot human beings into zombies with enhanced powers and infinite hunger to bite and infect other human beings, and cities and countries fall one after the other into Z dementia. Only tiny Israel (one of a few movies my country comes with some kind of a positive face) succeeds to delay the fate by isolating itself and building a wall separating healthy people from the world-wide infection, but no wall is high enough to stop such an invasion (hear! hear!).

 

 

(video source JoBlo Movie Trailers)  

 

The resulting film is pretty entertaining, although the story is not much different that the one told at least ten if not one hundred times. Director seems to try something else with each of the films he makes, and here his rehabilitation of a genre compromised by too may bad B-series movies succeeds, as he can tell a story and creates a few memorable images like the one of the hysterical zombies pyramids, beings that may have lost humanity but gained social grouping instincts,  which had a ‘Lord of the Rings’ quality. Brad Pitt may seem to be a little bit regressing in his acting career, but as he approaches the mid-age roles time he must have felt happy to act again as the sexy savior of mankind, blessed with both muscles and brains.

The word is saved again. The only bad news may be that WWZ 2 is in preparation 🙂

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Carte: Dan Stanca – Ghetsimani ’51

“Ghetsimani ’51” aparuta la Editura Cartea Romaneasca in acest an este al 22-lea roman al lui Dan Stanca de la debutul sau in 1992. Ma intreb de ce succesul si popularitatea par sa-l fi ocolit. Desi nu este un anonim, desi cel putin o parte a criticii l-a semnalat si receptat pozitiv, desi a fost nominalizat de cateva ori in ‘listele scurte’ ale unor premii importante, Stanca nu a reusit sa se impuna in aceeasi masura ca unii colegi de generatie. Dan Stanca este nu numai un scriitor prolific, dar si scrie bine, cartile sale au consistenta si abordeaza subiecte in care realitatea se confrunta cu fantasticul, iar personajele sale au de facut fata nu numai suferintelor personale si suferintelor vremurilor, dar si unor imprejurari care pun sub semnul intrebarii sistemele de referinta si stabilitatea lumii in care traiesc. Este si cazul lui “Ghetsimani ’51” o carte unica din anumite puncte de vedere in peisajul literar romanesc actual.

Doua obsesii principale domina cartea. Prima dintre ele este raportul dintre realitate si miracole. Unul dintre personajele cartii spune:

‘Oameni buni, … sunt un idiot fiindca va spun asemenea porcarii, dar eu stiu si alte lucruri de care o sa va cruciti. In tara mea s-au intamplat minuni mari. si doar eu le cunosc fiindca sunt singurul care cred in ele.’ (pag. 20)

‘Tara mea’ este desigur Romania, sau in primul rand Romania, a carei istorie este presarata de Dan Stanca cu personaje si o poveste in care miraculosul incearca la un moment dat sa sparga peretele de sticla opaca al existentei.

A doua obsesie este cea a gravitatii. Cartea incepe cu o rememorare a atentatelor teroriste din 11 septembrie 2001. Unul dintre personajele principale este un fotograf american care are nesansa sa surprinda pe pelicula caderea in vid a unuia dintre nefericitii care blocati la etajele de sus ale turnurilor gemene si-au cautat scaparea aruncandu-se in hau. Instantaneele ‘ne-patriotice’ pentru acele zile il ostraticeaza pe erou, (‘In asemenea momente grele pentru marele nostru popor nu ati putut alege ceva mai nimerit decat poza unui nefericit care se omoara?’ – pag. 10) si il determina in cele din urma sa plece in cautarea unor evenimente din trecutul familiei sale, care sunt si ele legate de gravitatie, sau de contrarul ei mai exact. Biografia tatalui sau, polonez la origine, fusese legata de un fenomen straniu petrecut in ajunul celui de-al doilea razboi mondial, legat de persoana preotului Maximilian Kolbe, cel care avea sa aleaga nu mult dupa aceea o moarte de martir la Auschwitz, pentru a salva viata unui strain (tatal sau!). Intr-o biserica in Varsovia, in august 1939, se petrece un fenomen de levitatie, care pare a da o sansa interventiei divine si evitarii – poate – a ororii:

Iesisera toti din timp, fiindca erau atunci numai in spatiu, spatiul saturat de lumina, copt liturgic, aur spiritual care schimbase componenta atmosferei si modificase regimul de greutate al fiintelor. Atractia gravitationala nu mai functiona si tot ce era acolo intrase intr-un alt raport cu determinatiile cosmice sau nici nu mai putea fi vorba de vreo determinare, ceea ce inseamna ca nu numai corpurile de acolo levitau purtate de duh sau ghidate de harul supranatural, dar insasi cladirea de piatra, sticla si fier a catedralei suferise aceeasi desprindere si urcase in vazduh.’ (pag. 82)

 

sursa http://www.elefant.ro/carti/fictiune/literatura-romana/literatura-romana-contemporana/ghetsimani-vi-248078.html

sursa http://www.elefant.ro/carti/fictiune/literatura-romana/literatura-romana-contemporana/ghetsimani-vi-248078.html

 

I s-ar putea reprosa lui Dan Stanca folosirea exagerata a coincidentelor in construirea naratiunii si a relatiilor dintre personaje. Tocmai fiul celui salvat de Kolbe se va intalni dupa o jumatate de secol cu fiul celui care il asistase si ii fusese un fel de discipol acestuia, luat de valurile istoriei si aruncat tocmai pe tarmurile Romaniei, pentru a retrai acolo o alta versiune a evenimentelor. In logica romanului lui Stanca insa, coincidentele par firesti. O zicere des atribuita pe Facebook lui Einstein dar de fapt apartinand lui Theophile Gautier suna cam asa ‘Coincidentele sunt felul in care Dumnezeu ramane anonim’  (‘Norocul este pseudonimul lui Dumnezeu atunci cand nu vrea sa semneze’ in varianta originala a lui Gautier). Cartea aceasta repeta in doua secvente succesive ale istoriei despartite in timp de numai cateva decenii miracolul petrecut in gradina Gat Shmanim (‘presa de ulei’ in ebraica – Gethsemane sau Ghetsinami in variante in alte limbi) aflata pe Muntele Maslinilor din Ierusalim, locul in care Iisus s-a rugat si a ales calea scrificiului in noaptea arestarii sale.

‘Gandul ma conduce totusi spre acea gradina inserata din Evanghelie, Ghetsimani e numele ei, si care asa va ramane pana la sfarsitul vremurilor, unde Domnul s-a rugat cel mai fierbinte, o rugaciune nesfarsita care a urcat la cer pana la auzul Tatalui si apoi s-a intors pe pamant. … Aceasta inseamna Ghetsimani, trecerea de la omul cel mai suferind la Domnul cel mai suav, o alchimie a suferintei pana cand cerurile se deschid si coboara de acolo duhul imperceptibil.’   (pag. 160)

 

sursa http://www.bible-history.com/jerusalem/firstcenturyjerusalem_mount_of_olives.html

sursa http://www.bible-history.com/jerusalem/firstcenturyjerusalem_mount_of_olives.html

 

Dan Stanca preia tema sacrificiului evanghelic dar ii acorda o dimensiune contemporana si il combina cu unul dintre miturile culturale cele mai populare ale romanilor – cel al Mesterului Manole. Doar ca in naratiunea lui Stanca sacrificiul pare a se impotrivi mai degraba decat de a da soliditate constructiei, ceea ce nu este de mirare tinand cant ca edificiul din naratiune este monstruoasa si lipsita de suflet cladire a Casei Scanteii. Max Kolbe si alter-ego-ul sau Michal Kaminsky se confrunta cu falii ale istoriei reale in care magicul pare sa incerce sa se impotriveasca regresiunii istorice spre haos si razboi (in cazul lui Kolbe) sau spre pustierea sufleteasca adusa de comunism (in cazul lui Kaminsky).

‘Am plecat spre granita si am rugat-o din nou pe fecioara. O rugam sa nu mai rasara soarele atunci, in dimineata zilei de 1 septembrie 1939, sau dimpotriva, o imploram sa nu se intample nimic deosebit? Dar soarele a rasarit si am asistat la o invazie crancena. Catedralele nu mai dansau in aer, venise randul avioanelor sa inegreasca cerul …’ (pag. 123)

Dan Stanca a creat in ‘Ghetsimani ’51’ o colectie de personaje care se confrunta intr-un fel sau altul si din perspective deosebite nu numai cu o istorie comuna presarata de episoade greu de crezut sau de explicat, ci si de permanenta relatie dintre cunoasterea sacra si cea stiintifica. Este aceasta relatie antagonica, sau mai degraba intre metode elementare? Ramane ca fiecare cititor sa judece. Iata intrebarile reflectate in gandurile preotului Emilian Pena (care se si confrunta cu ierarhia birocratica a Bisericii Ortodoxe Romane) si fizicianul Gabriel Urseanu:

‘Slujea liturghia si-si dadea seama ca toate au loc aievea. Nu era pic de repetitie si de uzura in ce facea. Ritualul aducea cerul pe pamant si cu cat era credinta mai puternica, cu atat si venireaa celor de sus mai persuasiva. Cerul prin coborarea sa nu siluia pamantul ci il modela, modelul li se arata tuturor celor care deschideau ochii fiindca stiau ca sub ochii lor si nu sub cei ai stramosilor se petrece minunea.’  (pag. 57)

‘Drumul de la materie la antimaterie era tot ce putea fi mai fascinant si mai halucinant, creandu-i o excitatie intelectuala cum numai marea poezie si muzica le ofereau celor cu adevarat sensibili. … toate marile descoperiri care fragilizasera ideea de timp si de spatiu fusesera mai intai fulgerante intuitii, aidoma unor metafore, dar care nu esuasera in poezie, ci-si gasisera limbajul stiintific adecvat, de unde putea sa plece orice.’ (pag. 62)

Confruntarea cu miracolul, incercarea de a-l intelegere, sau chiar simpla expunere care nu poate fi stearsa din memorie au un impact enorm si tragic in destinele personajelor. In general personajele lui Dan Stanca, atunci cand supravietuiesc nu termina prea bine povestile din cartile acestuia. In cazul lui Getsimani ’51 originea nefericirii sau a neimplinirilor se afla clar in intalnirea cu manifestarile miraculoase ale sacrului. Acesta pare a esua si in misiunea sa globala – de a pune stavilar alunecarii universului in haos –  si in misiunea personala – de a salva macar destinele celor care sunt expusi lui.

 

 

sursa http://filme-carti.ro/carti/craii-si-mortii-de-dan-stanca-37094/

sursa http://filme-carti.ro/carti/craii-si-mortii-de-dan-stanca-37094/

 

Cele aproximativ 220 de pagini ale romanului sunt completate in editia de la Cartea Romaneasca de o ‘ADDENDA” care include un amplu interviu luat scriitorului de mai tanarul confrate in ale scrisului si ziaristicii Constantin Pistea, de cateva pagini de referinte critice, si de o ‘Nota biobibliografica’ incluzand lista tuturor romanelor sale. Interviul este foarte interesant si poate fi privit nu numai ca o completare a cartii care ne ajuta sa cunoastem mai de aproape un autor nemeritat de putin cunoscut, ci si ca o lansare tarzie, dar sper, recuperatorie a autorului in ochii cititorilor sai. Ghetsemani ’51 dovedeste ca in Dan Stanca literatura romana are unul dintre cei mai interesanti, profunzi si originali romancieri ai momentului.

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the merry Reformation (Film: Le tout nouveau testament – Jaco Van Dormael, 2015)

You can hardly get a better set of premises for a film than the ones of Le tout nouveau testament or The Brand New Testament by Belge director Jaco Van Dormael. Bored being, one day, God created Bruxelles (quite a fun city actually, but this is a tourist perspective, not the one of the inhabitants and certainly not the one of God). Then he moved together with his wife and daughter (his Son JC died about 2000 years ago, as we all know) in a secluded apartment, from where he controls the world by means of a PC and an Internet connection. He is quite a nasty guy, making happen to people on Earth all the unpleasant things we know about, and an abusive father, who does not allow any TV but sports in the apartment. Until the day when his pre-teen daughter decides to take revenge and run away, not before using her Father’s computer to let all people on Earth know the date and time of their death. When arrived on Earth, she needs to find six extra-apostles chosen randomly from the population of the planet (or of Belgium better said). Why 6? Because 12 + 6 = 18 – the number of players in baseball, the preferred sport of Mother.

 

source http://www.cinenews.be/en/movies/le-tout-nouveau-testament/

source http://www.cinenews.be/en/movies/le-tout-nouveau-testament/

 

Before you get angry on me, these are only the first 5 or 10 minutes of the story. The rest is about how these wonderful premises are being used. Director Van Dormael seems to have had two models in his mind. The first is of course the eternal masterpiece of historical satire Life of Brian. Because of the subject. The second is the eternal masterpiece of sweet feel-good movies Amelie. Because of the kid-actress who is in control of all the action and all good or at least well-intentioned things that happen on screen. The result is also middle-of-the-road. Too middle-of-the-road. Because Van Dormael does not have (yet?) the daring insanity of Monty Python and because Pili Groyne is not (yet?) .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HezBj-b4N2s

(video source European Movie Trailers)

 

Much of the film is spent with telling the stories of six brand new apostles, what they chose to do with the rest of their lives now that they know precisely how long it will last, and how the Brand New Testament and the team of 18 are performing better than the previous editions. As one may expect, the ending is kind of DEUS EX MACHINA.

This sweet merry Reformation on screen is fun to follow for most of the time. Just the pleasure of seeing in a new role (one of the apostles, no more or less) is enough reason to go and see it and there are other. Yet, director Jaco Van Dormael took a bet and partly lost it in starting from such bright ideas and producing just a nice film.

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an American anti-hero (Film: Black Mass – Johnny Depp, 2015)

The season for screening films with ambitions for Academy Awards must have started. Black Mass is directed by – a relative newcomer (this is only his third film) but a rising star among directors at Hollywood if we are to judge the impressing cast he succeeds to enroll – better and better and certainly more expensive from movie to movie. It seems to meet at least a few conditions to enter the competition for Academy nominations. It stars in a role we barely recognize him which may well get him into the Final 5. It tells a story that captured at some point in time the interest and imagination of big audiences, and it deals with a Big American character. The fact that this character is a despicable gangster, who was in control of one of the lead Mafia gangs (‘the Irish one’) in Boston in the 80s and early 90s and was responsible for numerous murders and organized crime felonies may eventually matter when the jury will debate. Or maybe not. Until then, let us take our places in the theaters or download from the Internet and watch the movies.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355683/

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355683/

 

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger now serving a couple of life sentences is the kind of anti-hero America is fascinated with. The story starts in 1975, when Bulger is enrolled as an informant by the FBI – a status which together with the family ties (his brother played by Benedict Cumberbatch was a state senator) ensured him two decades of immunity and the almost total dominance on the crime industries in the Boston area after eliminating (with the help of the police and justice system) the Italian rival gangs. The story on screen mentions nothing about the still not elucidated episode of the murder of the “Lady of the Dunes” that took place a year before, but does include the death of Bulger’s only child that actually took place in 1973. From this episode we may or maybe are supposed to understand the motivations of his violence and lack of respect for law or human life? Quite thin for an explanation in my opinion. Despite Depp’s fantastic acting the man behind the crimes remains an enigma.

 

(video source Movieclips Trailers)

 

The rest is a ‘true crime’ story (the film is inspired by a true crime book) with the relations between the boss and his acolytes, the treasons and executions of the traitors, the have-heard-it-already rants about the Mafia honor code, with corrupt cops and victimized girlfriends, and with a twist towards Bulger’s support for Irish nationalism and terror movements, which was part of the reasons that led to his eventual fall. It started quite confusing to my taste, it improved as the story grew and the relation between characters became more clear (and the number of characters decreased 🙂 ) but it did not reach any of the peaks of the genre like in Scorsese’s films or in Mystic River. Depp’s performance is hypnotic, I will try a metaphor and say that he brings death to his hero on screen. Cumberbatch on the other hand will not get another Academy nomination for his role here. I know nothing at this point about the other candidates, but in an average to weak year I would bet for a couple of awards.

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Aferim, Radu Jude! (Film: Aferim! – Radu Jude, 2015)

What critics and audiences call ‘the Romanian New Wave’ is not that new any longer. Already in its teens it has focused on the present times, and the recent past of Romania – the last decade of the Communist era and the ‘transition’ period the country went through after the fall of the Communism. By doing so it neglected a tradition built into the history of the Romanian cinema – the historic movies. The first grand Romanian movie made more than a century ago was already a historic film, bringing back to screen the War of Independence of Romania in 1877 several decades after the event. The genre was taken over and polluted in the Communist period by many films which not only brought on screen heroic episodes and heroes of the Romanian history but also distorted it on the lines of the National-Communist propaganda of the regime. This may be the reason Romanian directors, producers, and audiences as well avoided the genre for a while. It is only in the last few years that historical themes came back to screens in more significant movies – the war period and the Holocaust first. Now ‘Aferim!’  by Radu Jude goes further back in the past, to the first half of the 19th century. His film (blessed with an important prize at the Berlin Festival early this year) however has also strong and explicit implications in the realities of today’s Romania as well.

 

sursa http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4374460/

sursa http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4374460/

 

Folks who know the history of Romanian cinema and remember some of the films made decades back will recognize elements of atmosphere and quotes. The ‘Eastern’ genre which took the structure of the classical American Westerns bringing on screen local characters or even changing the landscape to the fields, forests and mountains of the Romanian countries was popular in the 70s with the ‘Haidouk’ series but also in the works of Dan Pita (the ‘Ardelenii’ series). The inspired black and white cinematography credited to Marius Panduru  and the very conventional generic that opens the film brought in mind the even older ‘Tudor’ by  made in 1962 which dealt with events that took place 14 years before the year 1835 when ‘Aferim!’ is situated. The violently naturalistic nature of some of the scenes has also its roots in the Romanian literature (Liviu Rebreanu’s novels) which were also brought to screen.

Yet, this film aims more. The story of the local sheriff (let us use this name for the sake of the international audience) and of his son searching for a fugitive gypsy in the forest and swamps of Wallachia is not just a road movie or an initiation story from the perspective of the young lad destined to inherit the profession of his father. It is a deep and cruel reflection of the prevailing attitude not only of the ruling class but of the whole or great majority of the population of Romania towards other nationalities. The story and the characters come in a frontal manner against deeply rooted stereotypes like the welcoming attitude of Romanians towards strangers or the positive role of the Orthodox church in the moral fiber and education of the masses. It is actually a priest who speaks on screen a tirade full of prejudice against all categories of strangers living or getting in contact with the Romanian at that time – Gypsies of course, but also Jews, Turks, Russians, etc. Folks less familiar with the history of Romania should know that by 1835 Romania was still broken into smaller countries under Turkish, Austrian and Russian rulers – so what is seen on screen has a historical perspective. It is however the relation with the present that comes in mind immediately for those who know history and present. Romania as other East European countries have a big social and ethnic problem with the lack of integration of part of their Roma (gypsy) minorities. The roots of this situation lay to a great extent to the slavery practiced on this minority until mid 19th century. Slavery was abolished (in 1855-1856) but prejudices stay.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmTYOY_jQWc

(video source Agentia de Film)

 

The merit of Radu Jude is to avoid any excuse or sweetening of the historical facts, while telling a coherent story and creating characters who are not only credible but also memorable. He carefully builds the atmosphere, habits, language of the time in a well documented manner. He is helped by a fine team of actors –  and as the father and son, as the fugitive (would have deserved maybe more screen time to give more complexity to his character), and  as the cruel but credible landlord. Two of the best actors of Romania from the older generation  and  appear in short roles, which shows that even important artists were interested to be part of this cinematographic experience. I feel that ‘Aferim!’ is a film that was much talked about since its release, and will be even more talked about in the future.

 

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at crossroads in Mexico (Film: Eisenstein in Guanajuato – Peter Greenaway, 2015)

‘s career is beyond any ambitions of commercial success – his most successful (audience-wise) movies were made in the 80s. Even then the combination of colors and music, architecture (he is an architect by formation) and composition, his obsessions for sex and death and his bluntness in approaching them were much out of the beaten track. For the last two decades his projects became more and more exploratory, with the moving images being only one of the tools in combinations of multi-disciplinary explorations and experiments that brought together almost every artistic discipline that was invented. Eisenstein in Guanajuato can be seen almost as a return to the more conventional tools of film making. It has a story, and it has a hero and it has a theme, one of these themes film makers love to bring to screen, maybe the ultimate film theme – film making!

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1702429/

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1702429/

 

If you listen to what Peter Greenaway has to tell about his film (and he speaks a lot as he promotes the film in the international festival tour) Eisentein in Guanajuato is before all a homage to one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema who was Sergei Eisenstein. It also is a social and political commentary, as it deals with what was probably the most exuberant, liberal and care-free period in the life of the screen director of the Soviet Revolution, and also with the sexual orientation of Eisenstein which was kind of a well known secret in his biography, tolerated by the Soviet authorities but maybe also a tool of blackmail by the KGB. The period spent by Eisenstein in Mexico while shooting material never gathered and edited for a film about the country and its revolutions may have been the happiest time in the life of the director already famous for Potemkin and October. It allowed him not only a unique encounter with a culture that was so different from some aspects yet so close from other compared with the Russian culture he knew from home, but also an encounter with himself, with his own demons, his self-denied homosexuality, his tendency to the luxury and the decadence of the bourgeois life, so different from the austerity he left in the Soviet Russia and to which he was condemned to return.

 

(video source Films Boutique)

 

There is almost nothing in this film about Eisenstein’s film making. At no point does he shout ‘Camera!’ or ‘Action!’ – at some moment he even refuses to do so. Peter Greenaway does not try to expose any secrets of the film making art of Eisenstein, but rather deals with the surrounding context that made his films possible. Finnish actor  brings on screen an Eisenstein who hides his doubts behind exuberance, and his fears behinds carelessness, who is sure of his artistic genius but unaware about his personal charisma. Mexican actor  builds a fine counterpoint to Eisenstein’s character and a credible gay love interest. The camera work does not try to replicate anything that Eisenstein has done on screen, but rather quotes and incorporates fragments of Eisentein’s movies with the visual commentaries of Greenaway. I read some critical opinions about viewers ‘getting tired’ by the too intense camera work – I do not agree with them. When what you see on screen is expressive and interesting you cannot get tired, as one does not get tired of seeing more masterpieces in an art museum, or of listening to fine opera or classical music. Sets are as exuberant and as complex as an architect mind like Greenaway’s can conceive. Overall Eisenstein in Guanajuato was for me a very satisfying and surprisingly entertaining experience.

 

 

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