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Category: Cinéma - Movies
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Published: Saturday, 17 August 2024 23:16
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Written by Gilbert Seah
MEET THE BARBARIANS (Les Barbares)(France 2024) ****
Directed by Julie Delpy
Actress Julie Delpy (star of films by Godard, Kieslowski and Linklater) directs her own film proving herself totally apt and a force to be reckoned with. She centres her sights on comedy with a message with a film that matters that she delivers in style with lots of hilarity, drama and a bit of satire. The story is set in Paimpont, a small town in France preparing to welcome a Ukrainian refugee family and is surprised when a Syrian family shows up instead. Every town has its patriots, loyalists and racists all of whom show their influence on the Syrian family, but that is not perfect as well. Delpy shows the good and bad of both sides with a touching romance between the young Syrian teen in the family and a local French boy to bridge the gap of racism. It might be too obvious but the ploy works. And the town actually exists. Paimpont sits nestled in Brittany, content with its centuries-old heritage, its crêpes (the Brittany people cook everything with lots of butter, which is also disincorporated in the script), and its flattering self-image. A marvellous surprise from Delpy.
LES COURAGEUX (The Courageous)(Switzerland 2024) ***
Directed by Jasmin Gordon
Shot in French and set in the idyllic town in the stunning Valais region of Switzerland — known for its proximity to the Matterhorn, Alpine resorts, and upper Rhône river valley vineyards — 40-year-old Jule (Ophélia Kolb) is a single mother dreaming of a stable existence for her young family. Her children — 10-year-old Claire, eight-year-old Loïc, and six-year-old Sami — have learned to take care of one another, and, while the whereabouts of their gregarious mother are sometimes a mystery, the siblings know that she always returns to their home with a smile and a fantastic explanation. Director Gordon’s feature is impressive, though not without faults. At its best, Gordon is able to grab and maintain her audience’s attention to worry and care about what happens to the family - more of the children than of the mother. Her film omits Juke’s past likelier arrest and details of the children’s father, who one assumes could be of more than one, from the looks of the children. Jule does what she wants, breaking all the rules and expecting society to look after her. Society does not work that way and it is hard to feel sympathetic for her. But the sympathy is all for the children who are at a loss in terms of respect and doing the right things.
ELSE (France/Belgium 2024) *
Directed by Thibault Emin
Playing like an experimental rather than horror film,, but with impressive special horror effects, this time in the form of melting humans into a molten mess, ELSE is, unfortunately, lacking a solid story base makes the entire exercise seem long and ineffective. Introverted and uncomfortable in his own skin, Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) does not consider himself an obvious partner for Cass (Édith Proust), the feisty whirlwind of confidence he finds himself waking up alongside after a presumed one-night stand. And yet a romance begins to bloom. However, the nascent relationship is threatened when a strange disease spreads throughout the world, gradually causing the infected to merge with whatever they touch. Finding themselves quarantined to Anx’s claustrophobic apartment, the couple is soon besieged by their very surroundings, which have begun coalescing with their neighbours into a spongy new life form that seeks to add the lovers to its mass. At best, the film captures the Pandemic atmosphere of dread and the worst is that nothing happens after.
EMILIA PERES (France 2024) ***** Top 10
Directed by Jacques Audiard
There are many reasons to make EMILA PEREZ compulsive viewing. For the younger audience, Selena Gomez has a solid supporting role, while Zoe Saldana delivers also a riveting performance. But mostly, it is another film from French auteur Jacques Audiard (UN PROPHET, RUST AND BONE) and this is arguably the best trans movie there is currently out there or has been out there prior. Though essentially a French film, the film is shot in Spanish and set in Mexico City where drug kingpins rule. The film is about one successful, in fact very successful one, who trans and repents his ways. Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldaña) is a Mexico City defense attorney whose brilliant strategies have kept many murderous but wildly affluent clients out of jail. Her reputation draws the attention of Manitas Del Monte (Karla Sofia Gascón), a notorious kingpin, who is secretly transitioning. He hires Rita to arrange an itinerary of under-the-table procedures with the world’s best surgeons, while making a plan for the wife (Selena Gomez) and kids he is leaving behind. The process is a success, Manitas’ murder is staged, and Emilia Pérez is born. This new identity affords Emilia the ability to create a whole new life for herself, but the past begins to creep back, threatening to undo everything she and Rita have worked so hard to achieve. It is a brave and progressive film with the script co-written by Audiard covering key issues like retribution, LGBT+ issues and the drug cartel problem in Mexico. The film bears several parallels with Audiard’s best film UN PROPHET. There are the main characters leading a new and better life. prison scenes and innocence lost. The story contains twists that arrive every 30 minutes or so, unexpected to any audience. Yet, the film feels believable. There is suspense, melodrama, and thrills with a bit of violence that was also present in UN PROPHET. Though the ending can hardly be called a happy one, it is a satisfactory, credible and effective one. The film is one of the best at TIFF 2024, which also premiered at Cannes this year.
ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND (France 2024) ****
Directed by Raoul Peck
Director Raoul Peck’s (I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO) latest doc is a mind-blowing one that won the Best Doc Prize at Cannes this year. As the title implies, the doc would not have been made if not for the revelation in 2017, when 60,000 unknown negatives of Ernest Cole’s work were discovered in a Swedish bank vault. Through all his adversity, Cole never lost his power to take stunning pictures, trying to see those who spend their lives going unseen. “It’s a matter of survival,” he wrote, “to steal every moment.” Director Peck tells Cole’s story, like a biopic mainly through voiceover using mostly the photographs he took in South Africa and the United States. the plight of the black men and all the adversity is vividly portrayed and deeply and emotionally put across to audiences in what might be deemed a must-see well-crafted documentary.
JANE AUSTEN A GACHE MA VIE (Jane Austen Wrecked my Life) (France 2024) **
Directed by Laura Piani
As in Jane Austen novels, this is a romantic comedy from the female's point of view with a setting of the present trying to recall the past. It is only slightly funny, a film more for the female that celebrates female independence where men post a secondary role. As a clerk in the legendary British bookshop in Paris, Shakespeare & Co, Agathe (Camille Rutherford, OK, TIFF ʼ23) loves her job. But there are faint stirrings of discontentment when she realizes how long she has been surrounded by stories of others’ desires and adventures instead of chasing her own. The romance is forced and it does not take a genius to see who the heroine will end up with.
MISERICORDE (France 2024) ****
Directed by Alain Giuraudie
MISERICORDE has the feel of a Claude Chabrol murder film in which the cat-and-mouse tale is mainly the mouse outwitting the cat with the aid of his cohorts. The film is a prized twisted macabre tale with bouts of unexpected humour from the director of the 2014 gay hit L’CONNU DU LAC (Stranger by the Lake), this one with the fabulous Catherine Frot as a widow. who takes in Jérémie as a lodger whose sensual presence is immediately and progressively destabilizing to all around him. Martine (Catherine Frot) happens to be the mother of his childhood friend, the brutish Vincent (fJean-Baptiste Durand). The duo’s interactions are terse and laden with resentment, but clearly erotically charged. When a fight goes awry, Misericordia swerves into noir territory with absurdist undertones, and an ensuing investigation spirals around a loner neighbour, ineffectual gendarmes, and a nosy country priest — seemingly the only inhabitants in this dewy, mountainous village perpetually bathed in twilight. No sex scenes but there are two with full penises on display, that are both erotic and hilarious. MISEROCORDE, extremely well plotted and executed is a total wicked delight!
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (Iran/France/Germany 2024) ***½
Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG is yet another film about women’s rights in Iran, a country that still forces women to wear face coverings. A very strict husband and father, Iman (Misagh Zare) is an ambitious middle-class lawyer working for the Iranian government. He has just been promoted to state investigator — the stepping stone to becoming a revolutionary court judge — and, alongside an increase in income and social cachet, his family has received clear instructions on what is required of them as Iman’s star rises in the eyes of the state. His wife (Soheila Golestani) and adolescent daughters (the scene-stealing Setareh Maleki and Mahsa Rostami) must fall in line and never let anyone know of the father’s work lest the family get persecuted by activists. When the father finds his gun missing, all hell breaks loose in the family tearing it apart. The stakes get higher when social media learns of the father’s work and there is a post on the internet causing the family to leave the city. The social and family drama works well in a gripping dramatic account but when it turns to a cat-and-mouse thriller at the end, the transition does not really work. Still - the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
A SISTERS’ TALE (Iran/Switzerland/France 2024) **
Directed by Leila Amini
There are many restrictions for women in Iran. It is up to the pioneers to break them.
These are the words spoken by Nareen at one point in the doc. Director Leila Amini creates a stunning portrait of her sister Nasreen in her new doc A SISTERS’ TALE. (the plural is used because the tale is told by two sisters and the singular article is used as it is one story. Nasreen pursues her difficult dream of becoming a singer in Iran, a country where women are banned from performing in public. Nasreen has starlike charisma and gives Leila access to all her highs and lows. She is always striving to fulfill her artistic ambitions while navigating the needs of her two children, her marital tensions, and patriarchal pushback at every turn. Nasreen frequently clashes with her husband over her music and his nighttime absences. A simple-looking doc that took 7 years in the making that shows the resilience of the human spirit amidst gender prejudice. Personally, I do not find the songs that spectacular but rather the courage and determination of the singer that shines.
SHEPHERDS (BERGERS)(France/Canada 2024) ****
Directed by Sophie Deraspe
Following a medical wake-up call, Montréal copywriter Mathyas Lefebure (Félix-Antoine Duval) abandons his life in Canada to reinvent himself as a sheep herder in the French Alps. After a rough start, he’s joined by Élise (Solène Rigot), a civil servant tempted by his stories of pastoral life, and together they commit to a summer on the mountainside. Just the two of them. And one border collie. And 800 sheep. Though what might sound like a boring premise for a movie, SHEPHERDS is arguably the most charming and beautiful while at times harsh and gripping, film to be seen at TIFF this year. Mathyas learns the harshness of a shepherd’s life, especially working for free for a very violent and angry boss, who would use his truck to run over the sheep that would not mount the ewes. After quitting in disgust, Mathyas finally uses his learned skills to tend sheep in the mountain for a much more kindly couple. The most moving scene involves Mathyas throwing a stone at Hola, the border collie for wanting to follow him to leave the farm. With a female director, the film also has a strong and positive female slant.
THE SUBSTANCE (USA/UK/France 2024) ****
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
French director Coralie Fargeat wowed TIFF’s Midnight Madness crowd in 2017 with her breakthrough slasher revenge movie REVENGE, a movie that many will remember for her extremes in violence, blood and gore. She returns with much more of the same violence, blood and gore in higher-budget horror satire with stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid adding to the mayhem. Desperate to stay pretty as a fitness celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) purchases a black market substance that turns her into a younger and prettier double, calling herself Sue (portrayed by Qualley). They are one body but have to switch every 7 days, old to new and back - NO EXCEPTIONS. However, the younger Sue extends her 7 days with disastrous results that climax into a complete blood fest on New Year’s Eve. The wild build-up to the climatic NYE show is excellently paced in this stylish fable of the strife for eternal beauty. Super gory makeup and special effects have to be mentioned as well.
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Category: Cinéma - Movies
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Published: Sunday, 04 August 2024 22:17
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Written by Gilbert Seah
LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2024
The Locarno Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. It specializes in after-cinema, supposedly showcasing the best of auteur cinema, Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, short, avant-garde, and retrospective programs. The Piazza Grande section is held in an open-air venue that seats 8,000 spectators.
The top prize of the festival is the Golden Leopard, awarded to the best film in the International Competition. Other awards include the Leopard of Honour for career achievement, and the Prix du Public, the public choice award.
This is the first year afro-toronto is covering the Locarno Film Festival.
The embargo for film reviews will be lifted 30 minutes after the first public screening Locarno time. If a film is reviewed here before its Locarno opening, it means that the film has been screened at other festivals before such as Cannes and the Annoy Animation Film Festivals.
This article will be updated daily till August 31st, as reviews are added, Capsule reviews only, with full reviews banked upon full release in Toronto.
CAPSULE REVIEWS OF SELECT FILMS:
BANG BANG (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Vincent Grashaw
After two moderate hits, WHAT JOSIAH SAW (2022) and COLDWATER (2013), writer/director Vincent Grashaw returns with a gritty boxing grandfather/grandson drama that pulls all the punches or the lying low life. Tim Blake Nelson stars as "Bang Bang" Rozyski, an eccentric retired pugilist obsessed with rectifying the sins of his past who is forced to look after his grandson while his daughter needs to work for a living. Nelson is an excellent actor with a fine C.V. including THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (the Cohen Brothers) which he again proves in the film, smart-talking and moving around in a wheelchair because his dick is too heavy to carry around, Director Grashaw captures the atmosphere and mood of the city’s underbelly while showing that there is a glimmer of hope aided by the resilience of the human spirit, Never has a feel-good themed film look so gloomy. The film comes complete with smart-ass (merde de putain) French subtitles.
FIORE MIO (A Flower of Mine)(Italy/Belgium 2024) ***
Directed by Paolo Cognetti
In the vein of the success of the Cannes Winner THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS in 2022, based on his novel of the same title arrives the much touted Paolo Cognetti’s new ‘mountain’ film A FLOWER OF MINE (Fiore Mio). As the director saw the spring run completely dry at his home in Estoul, a small village about 1700 metres above the valley of Brusson, Cognetti tells the story of his mountain. The film begins with stunning scenes of the mountain and valley as the audience sees a man (with skis to help him walk in the snow) and his dog take into the mountains during spring when the ice is melting. This is a film about the beauty of the mountains, with not much story nor dialogue. Singer-songwriter Vasco Brondi, a friend who is like a brother for Cognetti, wrote the entire original soundtrack for a film. also performing a new song, “Ascoltare gli alberi” (Listen to the Trees), which is the closing music to the documentary.
FOUL EVIL DEEDS (UK 2024) ***
Directed by Richard Hunter
Writer/director Richard Hunter’s feature debut intertwines a collection of stories involving FOUL EVIL DEEDS showcasing the wide variety of evil behaviour human beings are capable of. Among them is a man coming to grips with his new life cleaning toilets, a family man dealing with a moment of weakness, an accountant submitting to his needs, a group of friends fumbling a prank, a vicar and his wife disposing of an accident, and a lawyer ending his marriage. Director Hunter initially shows promise in the first 30 minutes displaying a wry sense of filmmaking similar to Roy Andersson. However, the fire sizzles out fast for the prime reason that these stories are not foul or evil enough. Do not expect anything as wild as the Argentine festival hit WILD TALES an anthology of wild tales told one after another.
LIVING LARGE (Czech/Slovakia.France 2024) ****
Directed by Kristina Dufkova
(Premiered at Annecy)
A coming-of-age story of 12-year-old Papethca, as he juggles what paths are considered the most pressing at the time. On the first day of school, he is bullied for his weight, and falls in love with a fellow classmate, while venturing into his career as a chef or as a rap band member with his buddy. At the same time, he has to deal with his divorced parents - he is living and cooking for his mother and coping with his father and his new girlfriend. All this is a lot to take in for a 12-year-old but director Kristina Dufkova blends all the issues effortlessly in an entertaining film that is both hilarious and emotional. You have to love a movie that has on its soundtrack classic opera, rap, ac/dc and piano. The film shifts into full gear when Papethca decides to go on a diet. The film is based on the novel ‘Ma Vie, En Gros’ and has the look of the Academy Award-nominated MA VIE EN COURGETTE, the recent animated claymation feature also on the topic of adolescence. One of the strongest points of this best-animated feature is the positive and feel-good message it has for people living large.
https://mubi.com/en/films/living-large/trailer
MEXICO 86 (Mexico 2024) ***½
Directed by César Díaz
After winning Cannes' Camera d’Or with OUR MOTHERS (NUESTRAS MADRES) (2019), César Díaz returns with a very tense and intimate dramatic thriller MEXICO 86, inspired by his own story. The film’s setting is 1976. Death threats force Maria (Argentine-born actress, Berenice Bejo), a Guatemalan rebel activist fighting against the corrupt military dictatorship, to flee to Mexico, leaving her infant son behind with her mother. It is 10 years later when the boy is forced to come to live with her when his grandmother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Maria is forced to choose between her duties as a mother and continuing her revolutionary activism. Director Diaz is clearly an expert manipulator of moods and atmosphere, filming in the shadows when conversations become brutally for example, honest between Marianna and her son. At one point, he shows that the cause Maria is fighting for has no sympathy for her former or her son. Having worked prior in editing documentaries, Diaz also brings a credible reason to his tale aided by Bejo’s often mesmerizing performance.fould
LA MORT VIENDRA (DEATH WILL COME)(Germany/Luxembourg/Belgium 2024) ***
Directed by Christoph Hochhäusler
Inspired by the crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville, Christoph Hochhäusler’ s crime thriller which contains stunning cinematography reminiscent of Melville, follows a hit man or rather hit woman who goes by the name of Tez. LA MORT VIENDRA is shot in French. Tez is not short for anything, says the girl with very little background. Tez kills for money. Charles Mahr, a legendary gangster, hires her to avenge the murder of one of his couriers. Once in Brussels, Tez gets caught up in the thicket of intrigue in which she herself becomes the prey. Tez has to decide whose instrument she wants to be. Director Hochhäusler displays his fascination for gangster films looking at how now can speak of fate and death, circumventing the realisms of contemporary cinema. LA MORT VIENDRA achieves a good blend of action and realism.
SLEEP #2 (Romania 2024)**
Directed by Radu Jude
Romanian director Brady Jude returns to Locarno after his Award-Winning film last year DO NOT EXPECT MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD. Jude is an award-winning director known best for the previous film and BAD LUCK BAGING OR LOONEY PORN. Jude is what I would label a badass director. SLEEP #2, his latest film, however, is rather tame and indescribable. The film comes with the title of a desktop film by Radu Jude. There is no plot or structure just camera work using timelapse photography. The audience has to suffer through 10 minutes to watch objects on a hill slope at the beginning followed by an extended watch on the grave of Andy Warhol lasting from summer to winter and the entire film, including night photography in which one can see a deer nibbling by the grave. Not a leaf was stirring. An awesome Summer.” come the words. One has to sit through this hour and 1 minute film.
