beyond the levees (Film: Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin, 2012)

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a very different kind of movie. I am actually quite pleasantly surprised that it got four Awards nominations, but I do not believe that it holds serious chances of wining any because it’s too much out of the beaten tack and the regular taste that dominates mainstream American cinema. I would be happy to be proven wrong in my predictions in this case.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125435/

 

The story is apparently simple but it’s not so easy to tell. A small and poor community lives a life in isolation in the Southern extremity of Louisiana. Life is tough and on the edge, but people seem to be happy coping with the elements and getting the best of the little they have. Among them a six-year girl everybody calls Hushpuppy (maybe this is her name, but it does not matter) her world is marked by poverty but also by the thirst of knowledge and understanding of a smart kid, of the longing for her mother who left or maybe died but is present permanently in her thoughts and a confrontation with her father who at first sight seems to be only violent and abusing, but who we learn (and she learns) eventually that is running a race destined to be lost against malady and death. Overall this mini-universe is under a larger global threat – and this is where reality (ecological threat, meteorological phenomena reminding hurricane Katrina) meets with political messages (the area is neglected, when waters start to rise it is abandoned and left to be flooded in order to protect mainland) and with the fantastic dimension – huge mythical animals are permanent threat, breaking the barriers of the dreams, actually nightmares world and intruding into the real world – or what may or may not be the real world.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF7i2n5NXLo

(video source FilmTrailerZone)

 

It does count and tremendously help the film the fact that the actors are not professional. A face like Dwight Henry‘s is not easy to find, he succeeds to be at the same time anonymous and expressive as a Hollywood star, he passes emotion but the emotions are genuine, he suffers and disturbs, mixing brutality and tenderness. Quvenzhané Wallis is another very young actress who reminds everybody that best female acting happens before they are nine. Documentary realism mixes with computerized fantastic cinematography, Kusturica meets Tarkovsky (the one who made Stalker) and all in the fogs, fumes and waters of the Louisiana swamps. A strange, different, beautiful film that deserves all the awards that it will not get.

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evil and allegiance (Film: Hannah Arendt – Margarethe von Trotta, 2012)

Hannah Arendt ignited controversies during her life, and many of these controversies continued after her death. Margarethe von Trotta‘s filmed biography catches some of them (like the fascination that turned into a love story between the bright Jewish student and the much elder philosopher Heidegger, a Nazi sympathizer) and focuses on one specifically – Arendt’s coverage of the Eichmann trial and her relationship with fellow Jews, the Jewish state and eventually to her own Jewishness. A precipice separated Hanna Arendt’s views from the one of the Jewish Israelis. Where the survivors in Israel were seeing a process of justice in the name of the millions murdered with no justice of mercy, the American refugee was seeing a public revenge that was not judging the deeds of Eichmann but the wrongs of the system to which he belonged. Let me say that as an Israeli I have little sympathy for her lack of sympathy towards Israel, yet I believe that on the ideas plan Hannah Arendt (the film) makes a convincing case for the humanistic views of Hannah Arendt the philosopher. Unfortunately this does not turn into a good movie.

 

source www.movie-magazin.de

source www.movie-magazin.de

 

The story in the film starts with the kidnapping of Eichmann in Argentina by the agents of Mossad. The next scene introduces the American philosopher of Jewish origin and German culture learning the news and commenting them with her husband in their apartment with a view in New York. She had written a book (maybe even the ultimate book) about the roots of evil, so she must travel to Israel and watch the trial of Eichmann in order to understand and see the instantiation of evil with her own eyes. Arrived in Israel she comes to the realization that the source of the crimes of Eichmann is not in ideology and not in some malady, but in the blind allegiance to rules, and in the refusal to measure the orders he received and his own deeds on a human or moral scale. This brings her in conflict with the greatest majority of her Jewish and Israeli friends, as the gap between the perceptions is immediately obvious. Despite having lived through similar ordeals, her conclusions are different and among all she misses the tribal instinct that brings together people of the same ethnic origin. She loves people and friends, not nations and countries, not even her own.

 

(video source The Match Factory)

 

The problem with Hannah Arendt (the film) is that it is plainly and completely uninteresting film-making. It seldom exceeds the borders of respectful but boring biographical movies. There is only one memorable scene in the film, the one where the philosopher talks to her students and the staff of the university – Barbara Sukowa is passionate and convincing, succeeding to bring on her side not only the audience in the film, but also the viewers in the cinema hall. The rest is full with banal and rhetoric verbiage, a lot of stereotypes, and non-significant domestic intrigue. I wonder if Hannah Arendt, the rebellious philosopher and nonconformist character would have liked this film. I doubt it.

 

 

 

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Carte: Florina Ilis – Vietile paralele

‘La sapte ani de la apartia bestsellerului ‘Cruciada copiilor’, noul roman al Florinei Ilis va lua prin surprindere nu doar lumea romanului romanesc contemporan, ci si teoria si istoria literaturii. Aceasta carte monumentala va bulversa in totalitate orizontul de asteptare al cititorului. Romanul ‘Vietile paralele’ debuteaza la 28 iunie 1883 si se incheie la 15 iunie 1889. Doua date inregistrate in memoria colectiva, care consolideaza si, deopotriva, submineaza mitul Poetului national.’

Acest fragment din prezentarea de pe coperta a IV-a a primei editii a romanului ‘Vietile paralele’ al Florinei Ilis, aparut la editura Cartea Romaneasca, 2012, nu poate fi acuzat de exces de modestie. Ceea ce este surprinzator este ca asteptarile create de o astfel de ambitioasa promovare sunt in mare parte indeplinite.

Ce ati zice daca omniprezenta Securitati, politia secreta a regimului comunist (si la randul sau mostenitoarea Sigurantei ‘burghezo-mosieresti’) a carei influenta malefica multi considera ca a existat parca din totdeauna si ca este continuata pana astazi in viata politica si culturala a tarii, s-ar datora printre altele stapanirii unei tehnologii care sa ii permita sa trimita agenti in trecut si in viitor, agenti care supravegheaza marile personalitati ale literaturii romane, care trimit rapoarte operative, care se amesteca in viata publica si privata a acestora? Aceasta este premiza cartii Florinei Ilies, si daca o banuiti de aderare la genul stiintifico-fantastic va pot linisti, caci tehnologia in sine nu este descrisa nicaieri, si nici nu este nevoie. In definitiv obsesia influentelor secrete si oculte, a manipularii si a intruziunii in viata privata exista la romani cam de cand s-a trezit constiinta noastra nationala. Parca in nicio alta parte a Europei si a lumii ‘civilizat-occidentale’ nu au atata trecere teoriile conspiratiei, nimic nu ne mira, si inca o teorie in plus cum este cea inventata de Florina Ilis in romanul sau este acceptabila si acceptata de cititori fara prea multe semne de intrebare.

 

sursa www.bibliotecaeuropeana.ro

sursa www.bibliotecaeuropeana.ro

 

Poetul national este obiectul unei permanente supravegheri, iar cei care il inconjoara, toti fara exceptii sau cu foarte putine exceptii sunt ‘surse’. Agenti secreti sunt trimisi din anii proletcultismului in perioada vietii poetului, implantati in epoca si pusi sa redacteze permanente note informative, prezente in corpul sau ca notite in subsolul paginilor cartii. Cand nu este vorba despre agenti speciali calatori in timp, informatorii sunt cei din jur, personalitatile mai mult sau mai putin cunoscute ale epocii, de la Titus Maiorescu pana la poet insusi care redacteaza note informative despre … noptile de amor cu Veronica. Scopul este punerea in ordine a Dosarului poetului national:

‘Era un dosar al naibii de voluminos, dar in totala neoranduiala. Continea informatii destul de interesante si, in unele locuri, contradictorii. Ba ca vederile Poetului national (ma refer la cele politice, din publicistica) erau democratice (de stanga), ba nationale (de dreapta), incat nimeni nu mai intelegea nimic. In poezie, ba ca era genial si neintrecut, ba ca nu era decit un versificator oarecare, nici perfect, nici capabil sa duca o poezie pana la capat. Ancheta trebuia sa stabileasca adevarul ce si cum si, in functie de asta, poetul sa fie primit sau nu in patrimoniul national. (pag. 181-182)

si mai incolo:

‘Procesul de recuperare si de integrare in patrimoniul cultural a operei lui Eminescu Mihai, de pilda, a scapat de sub controlul ideologic, existand pericolul unei mitizari (fortate si nedorite) a imaginii poetului national. Acest proces de mitizare, daca nu e oprit la timp, poate conduce la formarea unor idei si conceptii gresite despre opera si personalitatea poetului. Comitetul pentru “eternizarea” memoriei lui Eminescu si-a cam depasit atributiile, incurajand un cult exagerat al personalitatii acestuia.’  (pag. 406-407)

Fascinanta este reflectarea stilistica a perspectivelor diferite asupra vietii, bolii si gandurilor poetului, asupra modului in care este perceput de contemporaneitate si in perspectiva istorica. Florina Ilis combina in romanul sau naratiunea aparent subiectiva cu modul de gandire al unui creator implicat in lumea din jur dar si dotat cu o capacitate de analiza si de abstractizare mult peste medie. In paginile cartii regasim metaforele si metricele versurilor eminesciene, nelinistea si cautarea permanenta din manuscrisele poetului combinate cu limba de lemn a propagandei comuniste sau cu limbajul semi-cifrat al notelor informative si rapoartelor de urmarire. Este poate pentru prima data in literatura romana cand limbajul denunturilor turnatorilor securitatii capata un rost si o lucire stilistica.

Naratiunea cartii impartita in patru mari sectiuni si 71 de capitole se desfasoara pe trei planuri paralele intre care exista o continua osmoza si comunicare. Primul este cel al evolutiei (pe care ar fi mult prea simplist sa o numim cadere in nebunie) poetului de la data primei sale internari in ospiciu in vara lui 1883, trecand prin perioadele de tratament la Viena, revenirea la Iasi, internarea la Neamt si pana la faza finala bucuresteana, premergatoare mortii poetului in 1889. In paralel este rememorata biografia vietii active a lui Eminescu si mai ales a relatiei sale pasionale si pasionante cu Veronica Micle. Totul este invaluit in actiunea de supravegere permanenta a Securitatii eterne, dar si aceasta are o evolutie, plecand de la un dosar intocmit pe vremea ‘vechiului regim’, trecand prin perioadele stalinismului, dezghetului relativ si pana la reminiscenta national-comunista. In pofida structurii complexe si a numarului mare de pagini cartea se citeste cu interes sustinut, pastrand suficiente surprize si schimbari de perspectiva care intretin permanent interesul lecturii.

 

sursa citynews.ro

 

Aflam ceva nou despre Eminescu? Poate ca intrebarea ar trebui pusa putin altfel – mai putem afla astazi ceva nou despre poetul ale carui versuri le-am invatat a declama fiecare dintre noi in scolile noastre (desi ele nu erau, functie de epoca istorica in care ne-am format, neaparat, acelesi versuri)? Despre ganditorul, iubitorul, bolnavul, visatorul si vizionarul ale carui cuvinte insotesc viata si simtirea oricarui roman, despre ziaristul si omul de opinie care a fost analizat, idealizat, studiat si denigrat in toate felurile posibile? Nu cred ca Florina Ilis a avut neaparat ambitia sa adauge noi informatii exegezei stiintifice eminesciene. Mai degraba cred ca ea a plecat de la cele scrise de catre si despre poetul nepereche si le-a extrapolat intr-o carte voluminoasa si stufoasa, pasionanta si intriganta, care este numai a ei. Daca Florina Ilis a adaugat ceva nou la cunoasterea noastra despre Eminescu, cred ca esentialul trebuie cautat tocmai in noi, in modul in care romanii ne raportam la Eminescu, il asumam cu pasiunile si cu erorile sale, cu talentul si cu slabiciunile sale omenesti. Sunt multe pagini interesante, pasionante chiar, in carte despre scrierile politice ale lui Eminescu, despre fixatiunile sale xenofobe si antisemite, despre iubirea sa pentru Veronica si modul in care ii raspunde aceasta – dar cartea aceasta cred ca poate fi citita mai ales ca o carte despre societatea romaneasca, despre legendele sale urbane, obsesiile si temerile ei, si despre modul in care stie sa isi iubeasca si sa isi devore proprii idoli.

 

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The Voice of the Gatekeepers (Film: The Gatekeepers – Dror Moreh, 2012)

Israelis abide to very few myths. In a young country that is a melting pot of people coming from almost one hundred different countries, where a majority of the population is either born some other place or belong to the second generation of children of immigrant parents, what unites even more than the shared traditions (respected in various manners and to very different levels of obedience) or the common history which is for many yet to be learned (if not to be written) are above all the permanent external menaces perceived in many moments, rightly or wrongly, as existential dangers. In such moments the trust of the nation is not that much focused on politicians but on the people who defend the country, some with the arms in hands, other in wars that are more secret than visible. The heads of the military and the heads of the security services – the legendary spy agency Mossad and the internal Security Service ‘Shin-Beth’ as it is called in this film  are living legends for most of the Israelis. Until recently some of them were known only by their initials as long as they lived and were active. Their opinions count, and when they converge, as seems up to a certain extent to be the case in this film, people listen. The first major achievement of director Dror Moreh and the team that made this film is to have brought together six of The Gatekeepers, the former heads of the internal security service of Israel and make them talk about the history of the service, the war on terrorism, the relations with the Palestinian neighbors of Israel, the situation of Israel today, and the perspective ahead. The convergent views of these men should worry all Israelis who have seen or will see the film.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt2309788/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt2309788/

 

There is a lot of good and interesting information that is presented in this film, but of course, not all history and the whole complexity of the conflict could have been brought on screen in a documentary that lasts about 90 minutes. Lacking facts will certainly expose the film to critics from all directions, but these critics would be to some extent unfair. In fact for the Israeli audiences there is nothing completely new here, investigative reporting in the Israeli press, TV documentary movies, and books written by political experts and historians have exposed sometimes in much more details different aspects of the stories presented in this film. What is new and different is the candid manner the makers of the movie succeed to make the six different personalities who successively lead the service talk about the events that took place in the last 45 years, their meaning, their implications. Attentive spectators who also know the differences between the views and positions of the six leaders will perceive also the differences between their opinions and their approaches into presenting the facts, but overall a fascinating perspective is built by getting together their testimonies and the history of the area in the period between the Six Days War and today, the initial euphoria, the lost opportunities, the achievements and the mistakes in the fight against terror, the moral dilemmas and the price of the occupation, the human risks and morality of lack of morality of some of the methods – all come together in a perspective which is amplified by the coherent message delivered by each one of the speakers. If you search for information in this film you will not get the whole picture, and I am quite sure that the film will be much better understood from this point of view by Israelis than by audiences abroad. If you look for the historic trends and for indications about things to come, it’s mandatory viewing, and it does not look like good news, but rather like a very strong warning signal from people who were in the middle of the policy making and security actions of Israel.

 

(video source SupaDupaMovieTrailer)

 

I believe that this film should be seen by as many people as possible and debated in Israel. Best would be probably a screening on prime time TV, but I am not optimistic about this happening soon as prime time TV in Israel seems to be almost fully booked by (i)reality shows. At least, by now The Gatekeepers is distributed commercially and the audiences seem to be interested. However, the more echoes may come from abroad, especially as the film is a candidate for the Oscar in the documentary category, certainly if it also wins the award. The editing of the film is smart, the combination between historical footage and computerized effects puts even more life into the illustrations, and the permanent images of the big screens as a symbol of the technology used to permanently supervise the territories is haunting. I have seen however much more sophisticated technical means put at work in documentaries. ‘The Gatekeepers’ is eventually a talking heads movie and is important because of the stories that the talking heads tell and the message that they deliver.

 

 

 

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Mike Del Ferro in Tel Aviv

An encounter between jazz and opera is an intriguing proposal. Jazz of course takes inspiration from all places, but opera and jazz are considered two quite distinct disciplines, with apparently few people enjoying both genres and even fewer musicians knowing, understanding, loving both and bringing them together. The opportunity of meeting one of these musicians is thus a rare event, and thanks to the Hot Jazz series at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art for creating this opportunity last night.

 

 

Mike Del Ferro has a classical formation, but switched to jazz quite early and built upon it all his career. His father was an opera singer, but for quite a while his jazz inspiration was taken from the music he met during his extensive travel around the world – Asia, Africa, South America. It’s only recently that he returned to the music that must have impregnated his childhood, and the fusion he is created is both expressive, reverent to the sources, and full of the freedom of imagination and creation that jazz allows. His style is quite original, he seems to be playing permanently with the piano, fighting and challenging the instrument, and the result is energetic in many moments, melancholic in other, catching the audience inside permanently.

 

(video source edovansanten)

 

The evening and Del Ferro were blessed by the presence of an experienced and talented group of Israeli accompanying musicians. Saxophonist Amikam Kimelman has an impressive stature on stage and good technique.  Bassist Simon Starr (who made alyah from Australia three years ago) had only two solos the whole evening, and I would like to listen to him more. The drummer last night was Eitan Itzkowitz who was skilled and expressive during his solos, discrete and supportive of the other musicians during the whole evening. The program included jazz versions of arias and orchestral preludes of several very popular operas as well as of Neapolitan canzonettas so close to the tradition of the Italian bel canto.

The last concert with this program is scheduled for tonight in Haifa and is worth attending for these who have the opportunity. Mike Del Ferro’s Web site can be seen at http://www.mikedelferro.com/.

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Tarantino vs. Spielberg (Film: Django Unchained – Tarantino, 2012)

I saw yesterday Tarantino‘s Django Unchained. The film deals approximately with the same historical period as Spielberg‘s Lincoln, but what a difference!

Spielberg and Tarantino are without any doubt two of the most important American directors today. Both come from the let’s call it commercial cinema like let’s say both had remarkable blockbuster successes which translated into financial success enabling them to produce and direct everything they dream. Both use this success to explore with their personal craft tools, style and talent – various genres which they change and put their own imprint in. Both made films about the Second World War and about the Holocaust, and now about U.S. history, and the horrors and abolishing of slavery.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/

 

Concerning the movies about the Holocaust and the Second World War I think Spielberg and Tarantino are tied at the highest possible level. Schindler’s List was impressive and Saving Private Ryan is simply  the best war movie I’ve seen, while Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds rewrites with a Tarantinesque chutzpah and expressiveness  one of the final pages of the history of the Second World War.

Lincoln and Django produced me completely different reactions. Spielberg appears to wish to say by all means that ‘I can do serious films’ and the result is Lincoln – a rhetorical film, in which characters make speeches even when they are in bed with their wives, a film in which I miss the thrill of discovery and emotion and the fluency of the story telling I love in Spielberg. On the other hand Tarantino tackles that time in history in Django with his usual boldness and lack of complex, he uses violent action cinema and makes a deep reverence to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. The result is a sparkling film that is both  fun to watch and passes the message.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUdM9vrCbow

(video source The JoBlo Movie Network)

 

This is certainly a violent film, but maybe I should say something about Tarantino’s violence (on screen) the way I see it. The exaggeration and complete lack of realism in the violent choreography of Tarantino’s movies is his way of saying – do not take me too seriously. There is something more in this film however – the introduction creates the message of abhorrence towards slavery in a manner at least as efficient as Lincoln’s speeches in Spielberg’s movie.

There is a lot of good cinema in Django which makes the film enjoyable also for the passionate of quality cinema. Jamie Foxx‘s rendition of Django, the liberated slave who turns into a professional killer in order to save his wife is dark and compassionate at the same time.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson are a fabulous pair of suprisingly bad guys, and Tarantino himself and Franco Nero show up in minor but memorable appearances. And the story telling … well … it’s good like in the good Spielberg movies.

Django is my preferred 2012 film about the period of abolition of slavery.

 

 

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Abraham Lincoln deserved a better film (Film: ‘Lincoln’ – Steven Spielberg, 2012)

‘Lincoln’ is one of the bigger favorites for Oscar Awards this year and will certainly be one of the heroes of the evening in Hollywood a few weeks from now. It is made by one of the greatest directors of our time, it tells a big American story and features a big American hero, it enjoys some fine acting and is very accurate in searching into history and retrieving a moment and a story that continues to impact the American social and political fabric until today. And yet, ‘Lincoln’ did not turn to me into a cinema experience to enjoy. Actually something interesting happens with my relation with Steven Spielberg. The film I liked most is one of his first – the very little known Duel, a minimalistic masterpiece, followed by the wonderful Close Encounters … and E.T. I enjoyed the Indiana Jones and The Jurassic Park series for what they are meant to be – great entertainment. However my personal experience with his ‘serious stuff’ is mixed. While Saving Private Ryan is for me the best war film ever made, and Schindler’s List is one of the best in the Holocaust genre, other stuff looks sometimes pretentious, sometimes too naive. As much as he tries to prove, Spielberg cannot do films about any subject, I mean he certainly can, but not all are that good.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/

 

Most of the action in ‘Lincoln’ takes place during the month of January of 1865. After four years of Civil War victory is quite close for the North, but the ending would have been meaningful only if the 13th Amendment making slavery illegal was adopted, making the reason of going to war and the temporary judicial war decisions part of the Constitution. Timing is critical, as the nation is tired and aspires for peace and recovery, and without the adoption of the amendment the end of the war may mean a compromise that leaves slavery in place. Abraham Lincoln will make all possible political maneuvering in order to have the amendment pass, in a Congress where he did not have the required majority. There is an interesting dilemma here about using ‘unclean’ political means in order to achieve a just cause and this is one of the principal themes. There are two problems here however in my opinion. One is that the political intrigues occupy a good half if not more of the film, and what we get on the screen is a painfully long succession of bearded gentlemen under top hats arguing and bribing for the good cause. I guess some of the American audiences are more familiar with the historical characters, but even so this is a long and repetitive succession of more of the same, and even the climax scene of the voting in the House misses some of the thrill I have expected. The other problem is the political speak which is attributed to almost all characters in the film. Maybe the script writers used fragments from speeches, I do not know, but there is too much rhetoric, too many historical sentences are being said by many characters (not only by Lincoln) and even in what should have been day-to-day situations.  The overall result seemed to me tiring and emphatic. It is actually the non-political secondary threads that seemed more interesting – for example the agonizing decision of the parents Lincoln not allowing their elder son to fight in the war. This dilemma would have deserved a film by itself, a smaller but maybe better one.

 

(video source Movie Trailers)

 

Much was said and written (even a cover story in TIME Magazine) about Daniel Day-Lewis‘s impersonation of Lincoln. He is good but far in my opinion from his own creation in ‘My Left Foot’ or from Joaquin Phoenix’s act in ‘The Master’ (best acting of the year in my view). The way he is filmed does not help, too many frames are looking towards catching his silhouette or making his profile look like the pictures which represent Lincoln in his time. Again, when he is human, when his words are not taken from speeches he looks and sounds better, but this is only for part of the time. Rhetoric prevailed in the building of this role, and Spielberg’s scope looks like creating as many scenes to quote, but less to link them in a fluent story as he knows to do that well. I liked much more the supporting roles of Sally Field as a Lincoln’s wife, or maybe the wife of all presidents or great men who sacrifice their personal lives for the greater causes, and of Tommy Lee Jones as the radical pro-abolitionist politician Thaddeus Stevens, a man whose life was dedicated to the fight against slavery, but who knows to make the right political move at the critical moment to achieve the legal confirmation of the dream, at a tough personal price with respect to his own ideals. In a movie where so many characters including the one that gives the name of the film are no more than rhetoric symbols, these two living heroes played by the two great actors make a refreshing difference.

 

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under the spell of The Master (film: The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master is one of the best acted and the most impressively filmed movie of 2012. And yet, I am concerned that as with another amazing film a few years ago which also enjoyed the acting of Philip Seymour Hoffman (I am talking about Synechdoche, New York written and directed by Charlie Kauffman) it is too smart, too complex, and too out of the mainstream taste of the majority of the viewers and of the Academy to get the Oscar Awards it deserves.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1560747/

 

Unfortunately I know too little about Scientology and about its founder L. Ron Hubbard in order to give an educated opinion about how close the image of the charismatic healer and cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) is to historic truth. Not it may matter too much in the logic of the film which is not that much about a specific cult or ideology and more about the relation between master and disciple, between the strong and the weak, between the castles of imagination people build in order to cope with hardships of life and reality. On the way the film tells a lot about surviving wars (the other hero acted by Joaquin Phoenix is not much more than a human wreck having survived WWII with psychological sequels, a dependency on alcohol, and a lack of purpose in life), but also about seeking and finding guidance in life, about relations between men and the different ways of human beings relying and becoming dependent one of the other. The more I think about this film which I have seen less than 24 hours ago more details come to my mind, and I am sure that a second or more viewings will let me discover new meanings and new angles of the story. This is not a film to see, enjoy and forget, this is an experience to carry and develop.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALMMIoxTzY

(video source Movie Trailers)

 

Joaqin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman give in this movies two of the best performances I have seen in the last years and each in part and the two together deserve Oscar awards for what they do in this film. Phoenix (I am so happy that he is back to making movies) carries on his face, body, voice the whole pain of the broken lives of young people who went to war and were not able to put together the pieces of their lives when they returned. Hoffman apparently has the allure and the charisma of the preacher, but he hides a whole universe of darkness behind this glamor, and acting has the merit of building a complex image of the character without placing a sentence, letting the audiences judge by themselves. Cinematography is another great asset of this film that makes the experience of viewing memorable. Mihai Malaimare jr. who already worked in two films directed by Francis Ford Coppola uses in this film non-digital cameras and a film format (70 mm, I am not a technical expert, some comments say it’s seldom used nowadays) which both makes the image crystal clear and is similar to the one used for projections in the period the action of the film takes place. This format and the selection of colors make the viewing experience really special. The Master is a very special cinema experience which I feel only starts its path now but may become more appreciated in the future, finding its place among the best works of Paul Thomas Anderson.

 

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Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker in Tel Aviv

The Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center (or the Opera House as it is popularly known) has a very solid dance program each season which brings every year to Tel Aviv most of the best ballet and modern dance companies world-wide. We used to be subscribed for a few years to the series, but the lack of time pressed us into giving up and attending only occasionally the ballet performances here or in other places in Israel. This time we changed the tickets to a cancelled opera performance for what was probably one of the picks of the ballet (actually modern dance) season this year.

 

source http://www.costanorte.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/12foto02.jpg

 

Deborah Colker was born in Brazil in 1960, she started her own company named now Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker in 1993. The style she developed is based on the celebration of the human body and on the artistic and acrobatic skills of her dancers. Some of the more recent performances show more sophistication in combining music, dance and stage accessories that amplify and enhance the efforts of the dancers. It’s no coincidence if the style reminds Cirque du Soleil, as Deborah created one of the most recent performance of that company.

 

(video source Cia Deborah Colker)

 

The program brought to the Israeli audiences is named Mix and brings together parts of the two first shows of the company created in 1994-1995. Six different pieces with a duration of around 10 minutes each deal with the relations between the human body and the environment, between men and machines, and between couples. The most daring piece and the one that will be remembered by all audiences who have seen the show is is the final one, which is danced on a vertical plane, creating a very special experience for dancers and viewers and challenging the sportive skills of the dancers. I have seen the idea perfected in the Cirque du Soleil’s ‘K’ show one decade after this program was created, and it seems that Deborah Colker really pioneered an idea that is still striking and daring even today.

The dancers gave last night a fantastic show, and even if the acrobatic thrills in some places seemed to prevail over the artistic emotions there can be no doubt about their dedication to the art they are making, and about their passion (and the evident pleasure of the leader of the company who showed up on stage at the end to thank the audiences) to dance and to be here. A great evening of modern dance.

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intelligent sci-fi thriller (Film: Looper – Bruce Willis, 2012)

Once the future was projected in movies as a colorful and peaceful environment, where most of the human challenges will come from encounters with other civilizations and the confrontation with humanity’s own thirst in discovering the Universe and breaking all its frontiers. Then the dark political fiction interfered, as movies like 1984 and Brazil brought up to screen the social nightmares  of a world dominated by totalitarianism. Nowadays almost all movies that deal with the future seem to be dark dystopias that describe the planet after some kind of atomic, biological or ecological apocalypse, or in the best case a society that became some kind of Orwellian nightmare. Director Rian Johnson‘s Looper is no exception, as the world of 2044 or 2074 in the film is dominated by violence, human life has lower price than ever, and the technology progress did not bring to mankind any happiness (neither cleaner streets). Time travel was invented but quickly forbidden, as organized crime took over, and as with any forbidden substance or weapon it is the mafia that controls the illegal trade.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1276104/?

 

‘Loopers’ are paid killers whose mission is to execute in cold blood in the year 2044 the victims targeted by the mob of 2074 to die. The trick and the trigger of the story is that 30 years later it may be decided that the looper is the one to die, and then if the sentence is not put in action a loop is created. Loopers are not allowed to feel any mercy, not even to their own self in the future. The smart script of this film, one of the smartest that I have seen lately avoids with the twist of a sentence the hard questions asked when the two instances of the same paid killer (Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meet in one of the scenes that is hard to forget for anybody who saw the film. ‘Too complicated, let us not enter the details’. And if details are left apart, this story works perfectly, and the ending makes a lot of sense in a story which could easily get too complicated and too hard to follow.

 

(video source SonyPictures)

 

It’s hard to tell from this film that writer and director Rian Johnson is almost a newcomer in the world of Hollywood. Not only the pace of the film is perfectly tuned accelerating and slowing as the story demands, and the cinematography choices he made seem efficient and the story and dialogs create the atmosphere of distrust that lets the viewer ask all the time what is meant by the sequence he watches and what comes next, without explaining things too early or too late – there is also something in the realistic style he picks that makes the story credible and the characters resonate with viewers despite the unusual situations they are facing. Bruce Willis proves once more that he is much more than an action hero actor (although the fans of Die Hard will find here a few scenes that will remind them their beloved character), Joseph Gordon-Levitt approaches the role with a self-confidence and a palette of nuances that makes me believe that we may have in him another megastar of tomorrow,  while Emily Blunt confirms the good vibrations I felt watching her in The Adjustment Bureau. Looper is a more than satisfying action thriller, it is one of the best written, directed and acted films I have seen in the last year.

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