Film Review - Resistance

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 31 March 2020 16:06

Written by Gilbert Seah

RESISTANCE (UK/France/Germany/USA 2019) ***

Directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz

(Note: Though set in France, thee is hardly any French spoken.)

The closing credits read that we should not forget the WWII efforts of the RESISTANCE workers.  With that, one would find it difficult to fault a well-intentioned film that pays tribute to the Resistance fighters of the Nazi Regime.  Still, RESISTANCE is a flawed, if earnest look at too many stories told in a WWII setting.

The first and foremost is the story of the world’s most famous mime of all time, Marcel Marceau.  I was unaware that this person served in the Resistance saving thousands of Jewish children.  Thanks to writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz for bringing the information to light.  Jakubowicz researched his material from many books - on Marceau, on Klaus Barbie, the French Resistance as well as from the testimonies of contemporary survivors. 

RESISTANCE is clearly about paying tribute to Marceau and the Resistance fighters who have saved millions of children from those damned Nazis.  The story is told from the point of view of Marceau, who is also a talented theatre performer and painter.  His painting skills allowed him to forge passports.  Marceau falls in love with a local girl, Emma.  They get pulled into helping Jewish children.  They soon realize that the Nazis will get the children sooner or later and the only option was to move the children out of Occupied France.  Unfortunately, the film swings from one premise to another.  At one point, it is about Mareau’s entertaining skills, next it is a WWII action flick, then it attempts a biography of Marceau and then a tribute to the resistance fighters.  Of those mentioned, the latter stands out and forms the at least satisfying climax of the film.

Where the film works, is when it gets a bit emotional though the sappiness is thankfully held back.  The debate between Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg) and Emma (Clémence Poésy) is particularly moving.  The opening segment where a young girl Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey) watches her parents killed by the Nazi’s and Marceau’s mime performance at the end are worthy of mention.

Eisenberg, the Oscar nominated actor (for THE SOCIAL NETWORK) with the motor-mouth surprisingly speaks much slower in this film, for obvious reasons.  Eisenberg speaks English with an odd Jewish slant, as do all the Fresh actors in English.  The Germans speak German.   Eisenberg could be better in this role but the script does not allow him to excel as in THE SOCIAL NETWORK.   Eisenberg does ok with the miming, but he is not that good.  But who can blame him?  No one could ever be better than Marcel Marceau.  Ed Harris has a cameo as General George S. Patton but his performance lasts no longer than 5 minutes.   Matthias Schweighöfer, who also is one of the film’s co-producers plays Klaus Barbie, the ruthless Gestapo agent who is shown with a nice quiet side with his family.

RESISTANCE feels pretty depressing, especially if watching during the COVID-19 self-isolation/lockdown all over the world.  One can feels for the Jewish isolation with regards to fear of an outside incontrollable threat.  RESISTANCE opens on iTunes March the 31st, so you will be able to see it.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3863133977?playlistId=tt6914122&ref_=tt_ov_vi

TIFF Cinematheque Presents - The Films of Robert Bresson

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Friday, 28 February 2020 04:07

Written by Gilbert Seah

The Films of Robert Bresson 

Robert Bresson, one of the most highly regarded filmmakers of all times has gained the respect of many directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

Godard once wrote, "He is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music.” 

In the Sight and Sound International Film magazine’s critics poll, three of Bresson’s films, A Man Escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1959 and) Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) were ranked among the Best 100 greatest films ever made.  These three films are capsule reviewed below and they are really excellent films.

Bresson’s films are minimalist, but full of emotions regarding human hardships. Depressing undoubtedly, but these are films that will leave one moved.

CAPSULE REVIEWS of Selected Films:

AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (France 1966) ****
Directed by Robert Bresson

This dramatic portrayal of innocence lost in AU HASARD BALTHAZAR makes one of the most riveting of all the Bresson films that I have seen and which remains one of my dearest favourites.  There are two innocents in the film - one a young farmer's daughter (Anne Wiazemsky) who loses her virginity and innocence to a black jacket delinquent who is as evil as evil can be.  On the other hand, this her coming-of-age story and she matures to a woman of knowledge who eventually learns how to use people like the old ugly man she gets food and shelter from.  The other innocent is an animal - a donkey who is abused under different owners.  The donkey is christened a saint.  The segments showing the animal abuse is a real difficult watch.  Bresson shows evil in man as what it is, often with no hope or redemption for the ma.  Life is also shown to be cruel and heartless, with the dignified man (the farmer) coming out at a loss at the very end.  Whether one agrees with Bresson’s look at life in his film, one cannot but emerge emotionally moved by the experience.

A MAN ESCAPED (UN CONDAMNE A MORT S’EST ECHAPPE) (France 1956) ****
(altenatuvetitle: LE VENT SOUFFLE OU IL VENT)

Directed by Robert Bresson

When the film opens, the audience is informed of the late number of French prisoners-of-war who have lost their lives during the German Occupation.  Director Bresson himself spent over a year in a prisoner-of-war camp−an experience which he utilizes in the movie.  Lieutenant Fontaine is imprisoned and awaiting news of his trial.  Fontaine is locked solitary in his cell where he plans his escape using a spoon stolen from his meal.  Just on the day when all appears clear fort he escape, his cell is doubled up with another prisoner.  Fate has put Fontaine in a prison cell and Fontaine decides to change his fate with his ease but fate again turns the tide on him.  Quite the depressing film, but nevertheless compulsive watching for the care and detail director Bresson provides.  A MAN ESCAPD is one of Bresson’s best films and anyone who sees it will concur.

PICKPOCKET (France 1959) ****

Directed by Robert Bresson

PICKPOCKET feels a little like Vittorio De Sica’s THE BICYCLE THIEVES as both films deal with making a decent honest (or dishonest) living.  In PICKPOCKET, the audience wishes the subject never to be caught as director Bresson invests so much of the film into the subject’s character ((Martin LaSalle) that it is almost impossible not to dislike him.  The character also believes himself so good that he is above moral reproach.  Bresson also shows the mechanics of the pickpocketing art (director Cockteau calls it ‘the ballet of thievery’), though not entirely credible, still looks incredibly smooth, camera-wise.  Bresson gets away with it.  One of Bresson’s finest, admired by many French directors of the say and one that should be seen.

QUARTRE NUITS D’UN REVEUR (FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER) (France/Italy 1971) ***1/2  Directed by Robert Bresson

Based loosely on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s ‘White Nights’, Bresson’s rare colour film follows 4 nights in the adventures of one dreamer called Jacques.  At the Point Neuf in Paris one night, he saves a girl called Marthe from suicide.  He falls in love with her while learning the reason for her attempt was the no-return of her lover.  She eventually falls in love with Jacques but her lover returns.  Dostoyevsky’s  is reset in Paris and it works.  The film is stunning to look at with Paris par nuit beautifully captured by cinematographer Pierre Lhome.  Bresson gets into his characters, both the boy and the girl while keeping the film artistic at the same time.  The innocence and nativity of youth are celebrated at the same time.

Film Review: Bacurau

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Sunday, 29 March 2020 15:56

Written by Gilbert Seah

BACURAU (Brazil/France 2019) ***** Top 10

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles

If the name of one of the directors Kleber Mendonca Filho sounds familiar, the reason is that it belongs to the one who has directed two of the best known Brazilian films recently, the brilliant NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS and AQUARIUS.

Bucurau is the hit from Brazil that has been seen by more than 1 million Brazilians.  The film plays like a Sergio Leone western adventure coupled with a sci-fi mystery element in which an entire village is forced to take up arms to protect itself from extinction.  The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2019 sharing the prize with LES MISERABLES.

The welcome sign to the fictitious village of Bacurau reads: “If you go, go in peace”.  The film begins with a girl, Teresa (Barbara Colen) coming to the village, riding on the water truck to attend her grandmother’s funeral. 

BACURAU was filmed in the village of Barra in the municipality of Palelhas and in the rural area of the municipality of Acari, at the Sertão do Seridó region, in Rio Grande de Norte.

Something is amiss.  When a political candidate, Tony Junior (Thardelly Lima) enters the village, he is greeted with hostility, accused of shutting off water the village obtains from the dam.  This is the reason water has to brought by the water truck.  The truck shot with holes indicate that someone higher up wishes the village to disappear.  The climate gets worse.

Directors File and Dornelles build up audience anticipation very well, starting from the welcome sign to the village.  Then, things get dicier.  First the water truck is riddled with bullet holes from shots out of nowhere.  Then the local teacher, when attempting to show Bacurau on the map to his students find that the village has disappeared from the online map.  The cellphone signals then disappear.  Out of the blue, two strangers from motorbikes appear.  Are they intruders or just innocent tourists out to tour the country?  Bacurau runs 2 hours and ten minutes, is a bit slow moving but never boring for the above reason.

The directors also pay attention to detail, like a brief camera shot of a dog scratching itself as two bikers enter the village.  The flies on the food emphasize the heat, stink and the rural setting.

Sonia Braga, the sex bomb from past films like DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS and KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN appears in the supporting role of a doctor in the village.  Braga is now 70 but still commands a powerful screen presence.  Her character is given key lines and Braga is till a pleasure to watch.  Most of the villagers are played by non-professional from a similar village in the area.  Udo Kier, the German actor who is famous for play crazed madman has his role of a lifetime as an over-the-top crazed mercenary.

At one point in the film, a dialogue line goes: “You are staying here like the fag, Che Guevara.”  There is absolutely no reason for that gay decretory term and it is films like this one that creates the notion in people’s minds that comments like these are ok.  Still there is a queer element in the film that won it the Palm Queer award. 

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the partners of Kino Lorber, the film distributors are setting up virtual theatres in order for audiences to view the film

There are 2 Toronto theatres presently on this initiative: Details below: ($12 for a 5-day pass)

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi961003289?playlistId=tt2762506&ref_=tt_ov_vi

Film Review: Terra Willy: Planete Inconnue

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Wednesday, 19 February 2020 03:13

Written by Gilbert Seah

TERRA WILLY: PLANETE INCONNUE (France 2019) ***1/2

Directed by Eric Tosti

Note that the film also known as ASTRO KID is also known by its French title ‘Terra Willy: planète inconnue’.

French animator Eric Tosti who has helmed other children’s classics like SPIKE (2008) and THE JUNGLE BUNCH (2017) returns with an imaginative boy’s space adventure, that takes nods from the famous TV series LOST IN SPACE.

The film begins on the spaceship of an explorer space family.  The boy age-10, Will loves video games and has the nickname of Captain Arrowboard.  When the spaceship is hit by an asteroid storm, the boy and his trusty robot is hurled in a pod into outer space, landing on an unknown planet.  But there is more the meets the eye.  Upon closer examination, TERRA WILLY is actually the coming-of-age story of 10-year old Will as he matures from a kid playing video games to one understanding survival, friendship, loneliness and other human values.  “You are right, Buck.  I cannot keep doing what I want,” says Will at a key point during the film.

At this point, the film could be an episode (out of the total 84) taken from the LOST IS SPACE series that aired on TV from 1965 - 1968.  In LOST IN SPACE, the Robinson family (headed by actors Guy Williams and June Lockhart) travel through space with their son, also named Will played by child star Billy Mumy.  The family often land on unknown planets where adventures begin.  Will is also accompanied by a faithful robot.   One of the key lines in the movie is the robot warning the boy: “Danger, Will Robinson…… Danger, Will Robinson!!”   One would expect similar words coming out of Will’s robot as well.

Director/animator Tosti’s imagination is at its peak in TERRA WILLY.  The unknown planet with unknown creatures and vegetation allow Tosti to use his entire palette of colours to feed his imagination.  There are orange, blue heart-spotted like human companions like Flash similar to a dog (or even Toothless in the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON films) but with two tails and 8 legs, pink butterflies, glow-flies and a myriad of colourful fruits that often have side effects when eaten, even after analyzed to be non-toxic by Buck, the robot.

The film might appear a bit too childish for the average adult but Tosti’s imagination more than makes up for it.  There is new wonder around very corner and in an unknown planet, any kind of animation can pop up.

The film is made in two versions in the French and English versions, with different actors (French and English) doing the characterizations.   Timothy Von Dorp and Edouard Baer voice Will and Buck in the French version while Landen Beattie and Jason Anthony do the English honours.  The film also contains a couple of songs (‘Everlasting Holiday’ and ‘Flash and I’).

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi845265433?playlistId=tt8329148&ref_=tt_ov_vi