So the annual showcase at the Cineteca Nacional is over and that usually leaves me with an emotional void from the lack of that photogramme orgy that a bunch of films represent to my eyes. So it’s sad that yesterday I was watching Hannah Montana: The Movie with my dad on tv. Really REALLY sad.
I had the chance to see great films over the last weeks, films that are usually awarded in top European festivals and that may have a very slight chance to be distributed comercially.
Miss Kodak and I went to see the new Aki Kaurismäki film, Le Havre. After six years in hiatus, the most international Finn after Nokia brings us his classic Scandinavian cold humour, the almost unexpressive faces of the actors and a heart warming story without being corny. Kaurismäki’s fans (like me) will not be disappointed. In this film, shot in the harbour city of its title, an old shoe polisher helps a young illegal immigrant to reunite with his mother.
Argentinian and Brazilian cinemas are the best in Latinamerican. In general, their great quality is not only technical but also in the stories they depict and it is produced under very difficult conditions since budgets are not normally huge. This time, the Argentinian film El Hombre de al Lado (The Man Next Door) by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat is about how a small neighbours’ incident grows and grows like a snow ball with a great and surprising twist in the end that will leave viewers thinking. It is a film that will not leave anyone indifferent. It is a great balance between the macabre and a very black sense of humour. The weight of the film lies on the two neighbours in dispute played by Daniel Aráoz and Rafael Spregelburd, a light-minded redneck and an obnoxious architect, respectively. In short: a remarkable film! Mexican cinema has still a LOT to learn from its Latinamerican neighbours.
It was not disapointing but Le Gamin au Vélo is not the best film by the Dardenne brothers. As usual, in the almost documentary style that characterises the Belgian fraternal duo of filmmakers, Cyril, a kid is abandoned by his father in a youth farm where he can have the chance to get a new family. A kindhearted hairdresser welcomes Cyril to her life to stay over the weekend where they will start to develop a mother-son bond that goes beyond the blood links. For the first time in their fiction work, they include music and a famous actress (Cécile de France) but the characters feel a little dumb whereas in their other films they are naïve and almost fighting in the wild to survive, most notably in Rosetta, 1999 Palme d’Or winner. As I told before, not their best film but still a good one.
Once upon a time in Anatolia is Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s new film. Long takes inside cars with equally long conversations that reminded me of Abbas Kiarostami‘s certain film, this is like a CSI episode Turkish-style since an heterogenous group of policemen, a district attorney, militars, crime scene technicians and a mysterious doctor is lead by a couple of criminals who do not seem to remember where they buried another man after a drunk quarrel. This film reaches poetic heights with beatiful images and a stroy that needs the viewer’s commitment through his/her interpretation. Indeed an interesting film full with lyrical imagery, bucholical landscapes, nostalgic rainy weather and subtleties. Highly recommended.
Next Sunday, I’ll finish the review of the films seen last week and a reflection about the state of filmmaking in the world. Hey! iCarly is on! Oh my, how sad! Really sad!
Have a nice week and remember: in the cinema, the man who always has the final word is the guy who selles you pop-corn!
twodopeboyz 