Monday Links (25/07)

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) kicked into gear on the 21st, with the feedback coming through for films like Senna, A Separation, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Take Shelter and The Guard rightfully praising just how great these films are. This week I reviewed several wonderful films, All About Eve, The Wages of Fear and The Double Life of Veronique, and a couple of average new releases, Beautiful Lies and 5 Days of War. Expect plenty of activity over the next week, with reviews of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs Trilogy (Bleu, Blanc and Rouge) and new release reviews of Hanna, The Conspirator and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Here are some great articles to get you through your Monday (after the jump):

New Release Review: 5 Days of War (Renny Harlin, 2011)

5 Days of War is an action-packed international thriller from Finnish filmmaker Renny Harlin. Harlin's patchy but noteworthy career ranges from the solid action blockbuster (Die Hard 2 and The Long Kiss Goodnight) to the forgettable disaster (12 Rounds). His most recent film, which was originally funded on a budget of 12 million dollars from a Georgian Governement fund, is based on the true events of the devastating five-day conflict between Russia and the Georgian Republic in August 2008. It chooses, predominantly, to focus on the fictionalized (and at times ridiculous) account of a renegade American journalist, Thomas Anders (Rupert Friend, The Young Victoria), against the backdrop of this conflict. 

The events transpire in August of 2008, a month where the world’s attention was directed towards the Beijing Olympics. With Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (Andy Garcia, City Island) seeking support from European nations to their west in a desperate attempt to maintain Georgia’s independence, Russia primes itself for an invasion of the geopolitically significant Georgian province of South Ossetia. Anders is a veteran war correspondent who has a history of risking his life to report from the battlefield. This is relayed in a brief, early sequence in Iraq, which establishes that Anders has lost colleagues in the past and that he has a dedicated partnership with his British cameraman, Sebastian Ganz (Richard Coyle, Coupling), who joins him in Georgia. Lured by the rumors of a brewing conflict between the nations, relayed by an on-site maverick journalist (a washed-up and overweight Val Kilmer, The Doors), the men find themselves at a local wedding and subsequently caught between enemy lines when the invasion starts, seeking the help of a local woman (Emmanuel Chriqui, Entourage), whose family fall victim to the violence. Anders is determined to not only survive, but also inform the blind world of the truth about the atrocities taking place.

Classic Throwback: The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991)

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 1991 feature, The Double Life of Veronique is a beautifully crafted little gem. It functions a little bit like a mysterious jigsaw puzzle, with Kieslowski choosing to refrain from providing too much exposition and placing a lot of faith in his audience to put the pieces together. You feel like he has imbued a confidence, a trust, into his craft, challenging the viewer to stick with the narrative, while simultaneously assuring them that they will find emotional reward along the way. It’s really quite a feat. The Double Life of Veronique is an immediate personal favourite of mine.

Irene Jacob plays Weronika, a Polish girl whose career as a pianist was crushed, along with her finger, when it was slammed in a car door. Having turned to singing, she journeys to Krakow to live with her Aunt. Sitting in on her friend’s rehearsal, she impresses the director and earns an leading role in the choir. On a random day in the street of Krakow a tour bus from France travels through the city square. Looking at the bus, Weronika spots Veronique (also played by Jacob) hop on and photograph the square. Veronique is the exact double for Weronika (her doppelganger), which is something the Polish woman instantly recognizes. They each go their separate ways following this encounter, but share a connection, even if one of the pair has not discovered it yet.

New Release Review: Beautiful Lies (Pierre Salvadori, 2009)

Beautiful Lies continues the partnership between Audrey Tautou and Pierre Salvadori (Priceless and Apres Vous). It tells the story of 30-year-old Emilie (not to be confused with Amelie), played by Tautou, who runs a tight ship at her local hairdressing salon where she provides an endless stream of well-meaning advice to her clients and friends. The only person she cannot seem to help is her lonely, despondent mother, Maddie (Nathalie Baye), who has still not recovered from her husband leaving her for a younger woman four years earlier.

Jean (Sami Bouajila), a friendly Arab handyman who works for Emilie, is secretly in love with her but a pathological shyness prevents him from declaring his feelings. Finally, unable to contain himself, he opens his heart in a passionate and anonymous love letter. When Emilie opens the letter, her initial instinct is to throw it in the trash. The skeptical woman has a change of heart, however, when she realizes what such a sentiment would mean to her mother, typing a copy of the letter and forwarding it, along with several more.

DOTM: Henri-Georges Clouzot and Krzysztof Kieslowski

At the beginning of the month I allocated brilliant French director Henri-Georges Clouzot and Polish master Krzysztof Kieslowski as the directors to focus my independent viewing on. It has taken a little while, but I am finally starting to work through their resumes.

For Clouzot, if any director can compete with Alfred Hitchcock as the master of suspense, it is this man. Starting with Les Diaboliques, the story of two women who conspire to murder their husband and lover and then experience some strange phenomenon following, I was suitably impressed. But it was The Wages of Fear that really secured his elite status. The mission of four European deadbeats to drive two trucks of nitroglycerine across hazardous terrain to the site of an oil fire is some of the most intense cinema I have ever witnessed. The rest of his relatively brief filmography are hard to access, though The Truth, starring Brigitte Bardot, interests me. But both The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques should be considered amongst the classics of the suspense genre. If I were to choose 100 films that I find to be truly great, The Wages of Fear would comfortably make the list.

For Kieslowski, I have a little bit of a head start, having seen the Trois Couleurs Trilogy before. My favourite of the three was Rouge, which I own and have watched a number of times again. But it has been years since I saw Bleu and Blanc, so I intend to re-watch them too. This evening I watched The Double Life of Veronique, which was a beautiful story. With a compelling performance from Irene Jacob (with whom I have developed an immense crush for following both Veronique and Rouge), stunning cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner's enchanting score, this is immediately a personal favourite. In addition to Trois Couleurs, I hope to fit in The Decalogue, Kieslowski's ten episode television drama series.

What are your thoughts on these master directors? What films of theirs have you seen? Do you have any further recommendations?

Classic Throwback: Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

Having declared it quite impossible to judge Persona after one viewing, I decided to re-watch the fascinating film again today. I first watched it in May last year, when I was working my may through Ingmar Bergman’s most acclaimed works. Though Persona has divided fans and critics, it is often considered to one of Bergman's most important films. The word ‘pretentious’ also pops up now and then. While imbued with a haunting, otherworldly ambivalence and transforming into quite an unsettling psychological drama in it’s second half, it is strangely unsubtle in its messages and yet simultaneously indecipherable. Still, I prefer his more accessible films, notably The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. 

The film opens, accompanied by the unnerving score that returns at intervals throughout the film, with a bizarre prelude, starting with images of a film projector lamp and several fragmented and disjointed images; including a spider, an erect penis, the slaughtering of a lamb (and the squeezing of its eye, which could be a reference to Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou), a crucifixion, and shots of elderly corpses. I’m not sure what other images were included in the 85-minute cut, but the version I own is inclusive of some of the images initially trimmed from the theatrical release and has a running time of only 80 minutes. To be honest, it feels like a very, very long 80 minutes.

Releases 21/07

Following the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last week, it seems like studios have decided to hide the trash in it's shadow. This week's line-up would have to be one of the worst of the year to date. Opening in cinemas tomorrow are Bad Teacher, Larry Crowne, The Eagle, 5 Days of War and Beautiful Lies. All, with the exception of 5 Days of War (which has not accumulated a rating yet) are sitting on 'Rotten' at Rotten Tomatoes.

My 10 Favourite Firsts

Following the pretty rad lists concocted by Anna @Split Reel and Nicholas @ Cinema Romantico, I thought I would join in. It's a list of 'Favourite Firsts'. This required some deep thinking. 

My Favourite Directorial Debut

American Beauty by Sam Mendes

My Favourite Acting Debut

Edward Norton in Primal Fear

THE REST AFTER THE JUMP...