Filmmaniak

The meditative and spiritual Memoria has been described as Apichatpong’s most accessible film, but because of the extremely slow pace of the narrative, the length of some of the static and narratively empty contemplative shots and the ambiguous symbolism, it will be appreciated by, at most, one percent of potential viewers (I am not a member of that one percent). For the first time, the Thai filmmaker ventured beyond the borders of his own country and dispensed with Asian mythology and culture, but he retained his unmistakable poetic trademarks and techniques. Set in Spanish/English-speaking Colombia, Memoria is the story of a widowed woman (portrayed by Tilda Swinton in an intentionally subdued performance) who tries to uncover the origins of the clamorous wounds that occasionally ring in her head. Together with the spiritual quest to make sense of and analyze the randomly echoing noise, Apichatpong also focuses on contrasting metaphorical motifs, referring either to the decay and extinction of life (the thousand-year-old remains, the unknown illness of the protagonist’s sister) or, conversely, to its long-term preservation (the refrigerator for orchids). Overall, however, it is difficult to stay awake during this film, and neither the healing and cleansing immersion in the arms of nature in the second half nor the strange final sci-fi/fantasy point can do anything to change that.

Paris, 13th District is an extremely elegantly directed film exploring the amorous and interconnected life stories of three Parisians in their thirties. Experienced filmmaker Jacques Audiard proves that he still has his finger on the pulse of the times and modern cinema and that he has a feel for writing intelligent and, at the same time, fully believable dialogue and for constructing convincing and well-developed characters. He also does a great job of guiding the actors and works superbly with the music. The black-and-white cinematography is also magnificent, as it offers more than just very aesthetically filmed erotica. Some of the themes seem a bit needless, but the film as a whole works very well indeed.

In his highly mature and firmly grasped debut, the talented Panah Panahi clear does not disavow his father. Hit the Road is essentially a drama about a family’s parting from their adult son, who is leaving his homeland. Despite the seriousness of the situation, however, the film falls more into the genre of comedic road-movies in which humor and bitterness are perfectly balanced. From the very first scene, the film abounds with directorial ideas, finely honed humorous (and occasionally sad) situations and funny verbal interactions between the individual family members – besides the brooding introverted older son, the passengers in the rental car include the extroverted and extraordinarily energetic younger son (one of the best performances by a child I have ever seen in a film), the talkative dad with a broken leg, the caring mother who promised not to cry and a sick dog. The confined interiors of the car alternate with carefully composed shots of vast exteriors filmed from afar. The cinematography is generally beautiful. The film does have its flaws – the humor occasionally misses the mark (the ceaseless ridiculing of the elder son doesn’t seem very funny, though it was probably supposed to), the somewhat unclear context of the reason for the son’s journey dilutes the emotion a bit, and the ending is needlessly sentimental. Otherwise, Hit the Road is a huge surprise that arouses extreme curiosity about what this filmmaker will come up with next.

This original romance about the gradual coming together of opposites has great actors and the perfectly crafted poetic-realistic setting of the worn-out interiors of Russian trains (which look quite similar to the interiors of the trains operated by Czech Railways), as well as excellent camerawork and colors. Upon reaching the final destination, however, the wheels basically come off the film and the central couple’s mating call is no longer nearly as interesting as their preceding quarrels. Mainly due to the incompatibility of the two characters, which is built up from the beginning, as she is an intellectual lesbian university student and he is a primitive, uncouth, drunken miner (though with a good heart), the romantic plot in their case is somewhat beyond the realm of believability.

A macabre story of a young married couple and their friend who get lost in the woods and have to spend the night in an old monastery with strange monks and a mysterious room that they are advised to stay far away from. Unfortunately, the three main characters are quite bland, the directing is rather mediocre even in the context of 1930s horror movies, and the film relies heavily on dialogue instead of building suspense through the creation of scary scenes. The plot drags and neither the silent monks nor the interiors of the old monastery can keep up the gothic atmosphere on their own. The only interesting thing is that the whole horror element is present in the film primarily to serve as a moralizing device to deter one of the protagonists from violating the last of the Ten Commandments, i.e. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife”.

Noomi Rapace delivers lambs with her bare hands in this folkloric Icelandic fable that captivates with masterful image compositions featuring animals, but it otherwise falls into the category of pure festival bizarreness that apparently exists only to put viewers on edge and confound their expectations. The theme of the sudden awakening of maternal feelings for an obscure creature/being on a farm in the middle of desolate plains straddles the line between cuteness and perversity. The idea itself is amusing, but in terms of emotional content and discombobulating atmosphere, the similar Scandinavian curiosity Border, for example, is in a completely different league in terms of working with the story, layered motifs and the overall message.

Vortex is a slight departure from the previous work of the visually distinctive provocateur Gaspar Noé – the inventive creative form using a split picture and bold dividing lines in the editing remains, but in terms of content, the extreme wildness and liveliness has been replaced by a cadaverous slowness, which goes hand in hand with the story of the restless lives and dying of two elderly spouses, one of whom is a few years removed from a heart attack and the other progressively succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease. For some, this could be an original artistic horror movie that naturalistically depicts the last stage of life without shying away from even the cruelest moments (and with great acting performances), but on the other hand, it’s also painfully soul-crushing, unbearably long and exceedingly boring due to its insistence on showing the two main characters’ endless tottering through the interior locations of their labyrinthine apartment. Noé fulfilled his dream by casting the famous Italian director Dario Argento in the film and adapting the color stylization to suit the nature of his work, but the other noteworthy aspect of Vortex is the camerawork, which captures the same story from two different perspectives, which you have to watch at the same time. The combination of all of these elements may evoke in you the distressing feelings of a helpless and sick pensioner at the end of life, but in this case death is a form of liberation mainly for the viewer.

At first, Best Sellers comes across as a black comedy about an intergenerational clash between a coarse, very peculiar and grumpy writer and a diligent young publisher who, despite initial disagreements and antipathy, eventually learn to get along and grow fond of each other (i.e. an often seen cliché), but in the final third, Best Sellers slips into a sentimental drama in which the humor practically goes missing (not that it was anything to write home about before). Furthermore, the tonally discordant dramedy often runs out of breath and Michael Caine overdoes it a bit with his irritability and intolerance of everyone and everything, so instead of being a funny wisecracking cynic, he comes across more as an annoying, unlikable old man (though his performance is solid). As a result, it’s not possible to sympathize with the characters and the generally mediocre and bland execution makes the film a downright mundane and unremarkable imitation of much better, funnier and more well-thought-out films on a similar theme, such as The Intern with Robert De Niro.

Pleasure is enticing with its attractive behind-the-scenes view of the porn industry, the hardcore 18+ visual component and the depiction of this environment from the perspective of an aspiring actress, which sounds highly promising and original, and could even spur non-trivial discussions. At its core, however, it is a hackneyed, clichéd morality tale with a formulaic story about the single-minded effort to reach the top for the false illusion of the American dream, in which the protagonist gradually sacrifices friends, her own dignity and part of her personality, only to ultimately become one of those people she used to despise. This is an extremely physical film, but it doesn’t actually have much to say about what goes on behind the scenes in the porn industry (unlike documentaries like Rocco, for example), because regardless of the authenticity of the locations and the practices depicted, as well as the appearance of real porn personalities, it is undermined by its artificially formulaic narrative.

The height of the Bosnian-Serbian conflict in the mid-1990s depicted from the perspective of a Bosnian translator who is trying to protect her family during an evacuation of many thousands of people, while continuously interpreting communications between the two sides and high representatives of the UN. Her story and the depiction of the whole event are powerfully tense and incredibly absorbing from start to finish, told at a consistently brisk pace with the exception of a few quieter moments, and besides the firmly grasped direction and sophisticated screenplay (except for a few conspicuous coincidences that heighten the drama), the film is captivating due primarily to the lead actress’s excellent and entirely believable performance. The brutal climax is extended with an even more devastating ending bordering on emotional blackmail, thus making the film a very depressing affair which, however, corresponds to the actual events that inspired it.