Romance & Cigarettes
Wouldn’t it be fun if life were like a musical? … everybody signing and dancing all the time? Well, although this idea sounds utterly appealing to me, I must admit I didn’t like the film. It had everything going for it: witty musical numbers, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken, sex, cigarettes and romance. Unfortunately the end result didn’t meet expectations. Most of the musical numbers are great but the plot of the film and the characters are not so interesting. By the end of the film we don’t care about them and the film never ends – it just goes on and on and on. This is the feeling you want in most musicals—after all, like Selma in Dancer in the Dark, don’t we all want to leave after the next to last song in musical so that the film goes on forever in our mind ?—, not for this film however.
Keane
Still searching for his daughter several months after her disappearance, a light minded father disturbs everybody on the screen as he asks them if they’ve seen his missing daughter. That and the troubling steadycam cinematography extremely close to the characters successfully transpose this feeling to the spectators. This is the kind of film during which you keep telling yourself “I hope he’s not going to do anything stupid”, especially when the father has the chance to be alone with the young daughter of a woman he befriended in the stinky motel where he lives. As the moment approaches we can’t help but to foresee something bad happening. For that the film succeeds very well; it messes with you real good!
L’Enfant (The Child)
In life there are great mysteries; do aliens exist?; what is going on at the Bermuda Triangle?; how were the pyramids built?; why did this film get the Golden Palm at Cannes?. In addition to sharing many themes, L’Enfant and Le Fils both share the same heavy camerawork that put you right in the action—right where you don’t want to be! The Dardenne brothers put you right into the film as the drama intensifies on the screen and, just when you think you can get out, they face you with despair and hopelessness with their rather raw/realist cinematic techniques. The films is definitely worth seeing (it’s the opening film of the festival), but it’s hard to see why it won the Golden Palm.
Yaji & Kita
Two young gay lovers must leave their village to make their way from medieval Edo to Ise, where one of the character will be treated for his drug addiction. This ain’t your average period musical queer road movie. In fact, this film is probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The premise of taking apart a serious film about 2 men running away from their wives and perverting it (for post-modernity’s sake?) to this trashy queer musical is interesting; so are the first few minutes of the film. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last long. The film has many hilarious moments but—unless you’ve consumed illicit substances prior to watching the film—it quickly becomes boring, especially considering that most jokes are in spoken Japanese and that the subtitles often fail to make them funny in English.
Good Night. And, Good Luck.
George Clooney’s second feature tackles the difficult issue of McCarthyism in America with a big “A”. Despite its early fall release (much before the usual Academy Awards contenders release dates), an Oscar nomination for Good Night. And, Good Luck. is to be expected. And it would truly be justified. The 8 million it cost to make is a deep contrast with the luxurious visual aesthetics of the film; it’s a pure visual treat to watch the black and white reproduction of what CBS was in the 50s. Clooney’s characters are very well developed and their politic and personal struggles are cleverly portrayed on the screen. Quite interestingly, while the film’s main focus is one about the Murrow/McCarthy war, one can’t help but to think about modern US politics. Things have changed since then McCarthyism—or have they?.
