24 City [& film club news]

With each of Jia Zhang-Ke’s films, I get a better idea of what he is about, as he negotiates the shifting boundary between documentary and fiction filmmaking, and between old Maoist and new capitalist regimes in China. This film about a strategic aircraft plant in Chengdu being torn down to make way for the modern apartment complex of the title looks like straight documentary, with direct to the camera testimony from various participants and witnesses. But some of the characters are “real” and some are actors, a split that seems seamless, unless you recognize the actor. Even to the uninitiated the game is given away by a character who introduces herself by the nickname of “Little Flower,” which she was dubbed because of her resemblance to the famous Chinese movie character played by Joan Chen – and she is played by none other than Joan Chen. Each of the witnesses narrates a segment of the history of Factory 420, as it was created by equipment and workers being moved across the country into an all-encompassing factory village within the city, turning out military parts to combat “American imperialism” in the wake of the Korean War. The progress of the generations from hardship through proud productivity to globalized consumerism is portrayed through the succession of witnesses, and adds up to a compelling story. With the added twist that Chengdu was the site of a major earthquake in Sichuan just after the film was shot in 2008. (2009, dvd.) *7* (MC-75.) (24 City ranks #16 in the indieWire critics survey for 2009, and as I work my way down the list, I also watched #15 You, the Living, Roy Andersson’s deadpan series of black humor vignettes set in the monochrome landscape of urban Sweden, but it was lost on me.)

Jia’s 2004 film on globalization within China, The World (MC-81), will be the next screening for the Cinema Salon Film Club at the Clark, on Friday, February 26, at 4:00 pm (I’ll start my introduction at 3:45 since the film is over two hours), and I expect it to be a revelation on the big screen, which is a must for searching out detail in the meticulous framing of Jia’s long-shot, long-take style.

Following up on the last session, I recapitulate the Iranian films I recommended:
Abbas Kiarostami: Close-Up (1989), The Taste of Cherry (1997), Ten (2002).
Mohsen Makhmalbaf: Gabbeh (1996), Kandahar (2001).
Majid Majidi: Children of Heaven (1997), The Color of Paradise (1999), Baran (2001).
Jafar Panahi: The White Balloon (1995), The Circle (2000), Crimson Gold (2003), Offside (2006).
Not technically Iranian, but informative about Iran and highly recommended is Persepolis (2007), the animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoirs.

For access to these DVDs, I refer you to this Netflix listing of Iranian films, ranked by viewer ratings.

An Education

In contrast to The Hurt Locker, this was a film in which I identified with or related to each character, even though I am no more a bright 16-year-old schoolgirl in 1961 London than I am a bomb disposal specialist in Iraq. As a big fan of novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby, I went in highly predisposed to find this film right on my own wavelength, and I came out a big, big fan of Carey Mulligan in the lead role, bedazzled as everyone else seems to be. The Audrey Hepburn comparisons are not out of line. Peter Saarsgard’s recessive mix of charm and guile is perfect for the role of a gentle seducer of a girl half his age. The supporting roles are all spot on, from Alfred Molina as the girl’s father to Emma Thompson in two brief but telling scenes as a headmistress. Not only are all the characters clearly and deeply drawn, but so is the time and place -- England on the cusp between postwar austerity and the Swinging Sixties. And the implicit moral dilemmas are honestly faced. Like it’s adorable but flawed heroine, this film is funny and smart, moving and meaningful. Chastely directed by Dogme 95 veteran Lone Scherfig, An Education delivers truth, humor, and feeling without pyrotechnics. (2009, Images.) *8* (MC-85.)

The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow’s film begins with the premise that “war is a drug” -- and then delivers repeated strong doses. This ambiguity of motive in the movie prevents me from joining in whole-hearted acclaim. I cannot dispute that the film is well-made, and provides a useful “you are there” feel for what American servicemen (no women -- except the director!) have experienced in Iraq. But for me the gold standard is still Generation Kill, which has many more dimensions than this stripped-down action flick. Yes, the action is cleanly and brilliantly depicted, but its implications are slighted. Is this a recruiting pitch for adrenaline-junkies? You could not ask for a more vivid demonstration of what a bomb disposal unit does when confronted by an IED, and what the battlefield is really like in Iraq. But larger questions hang in the air and remain unaddressed. As a portrait of men at work, it is unsurpassed, but as a portrait of the men themselves, it leaves plenty to ask. I found the characters sometimes obvious and sometimes obtuse. Jeremy Renner brings great intensity of focus to his job, along with bravura nonchalance, but I don’t see the Best Actor nomination. All the other characters seem genuine enough, except for a straw man military psychologist, but none engaged me deeply. I went in expecting more than sharply delineated action sequences, but found myself remote from any deeper involvement in meaning or motivation. Is this just another movie that loves to blow things up, with only an added dose of reality? (2009, dvd.) *7* (MC-94.)

Humpday

"Mumblecore bromance" would have to be the shorthand designation for this film, but I found the result much more engaging than I expected. The premise – two straight friends decide to make a gay porn film – seems both familiar and ridiculous, but Lynn Shelton’s film is neither, instead very canny about male bravado and self-deception. Whether scripted or improvised, or some combination of both, the dialogue between Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard rings true, sometimes painfully so, sometimes hilariously so. They are college friends ten years out. The former has settled in Seattle, married and working as a transportation planner; the latter remains a would-be artist and world traveler, who blows into town on a whim and shows up in the middle of the night at his old friend’s house. Let the joshing and rassling begin, and the meandering conversations. The bemused observer is Alycia Delmore, the hopefully ovulating wife, and she gives the guys – and the film – ballast and a tether to reality. As a low-budget, three-person chamber piece, this film is as surprising and satisfying as Richard Linklater’s Tape, though much funnier. Another obvious comparison would be Kelly Reichardt’s well-received Old Joy, but I liked this much better. My unexpected enthusiasm for this film urges me toward a plus, but an acknowledgement of the limited appeal of Cassavetes-inflected indie fare suggests a minus, so they balance out to a simple, solid recommendation. 2009, dvd.) *7* (MC-74.)

The Headless Woman

The title deliberately evokes a B-movie ghoul-fest, but celebrated young Argentine director Lucrecia Martel delivers horror of a subtler sort, a dissociation of personality much realer and more common than gory decapitation. Maria Onetto carries the film as the title character, a well-off dentist who hits something in the road as she reaches for her cellphone. She bangs her head as she lurches to a stop. Slowly she gathers herself, looks in the review mirror and sees something, starts to get out but then drives on. We next see her getting a head x-ray at the hospital, and falling asleep repeatedly, seemingly either aphasic or amnesiac, at any rate a complete stranger in her own life. Her disorientation is ours, as together we try to make sense of an unknown world of relationships -- familial, social, economic, racial. Gradually her situation comes into focus, and she resumes her identity or some semblance of it, while her moral quandary plays out. If you’re willing to work at it, this is an engrossing mystery of psychological and sociological depth, but does take patience and attention even at its modest 87-minute length. Though not widely noticed, this film ranked highly in critics’ polls for best of 2009 -- #2 for Film Comment and #6 for indieWire. (2009, dvd.) *7* (MC-81.)

More Than a Game

A fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers can only take heart from the loyalty portrayed amongst LeBron James’s teammates from 5th grade through a national high school title in 12th at St. Vincent’s-St. Mary’s of Akron. Kristofer Belman’s documentary does not come up to Hoop Dreams, but that’s an impossibly high goal to reach, like LeBron himself possibly the best there ever was. Though not ideally structured nor visually dynamic, this is still an exciting and eye-opening film about high-stakes high school sports. If you are a follower of the Chosen One, a Witness to the wonders he works, this goes beyond self-promotion to an early gospel of the religion of hoops, the acts of the apostles in the wilderness of Akron. It’s about a group of boys saving themselves through commitment and communion on the court. Feel free to keep a skeptical distance, but if ye would heed, gather round and share the legend. Forget next year in Jerusalem, it’s this year in Cleveland. King James rules! (2009, dvd.) *7-* (MC-59.)

Red Beard

This was one of those Netflix disks that lies around for months before I watch it, and then in fits and starts. It turned out to be well worth watching, but you might be as daunted as I was. In essence this Kurosawa almost-classic is a Japanese Dr. Kildare set in the early 19th century and, clocking in at a little over three hours, might have been a miniseries. In the final collaboration between director and actor, Toshiro Mifune plays the title character, a wise old doctor who runs a village clinic for the poor, to which a hotshot young doctor has been exiled. Initially rebellious, the hothead gradually comes under the sway of the elder samurai -- er, doctor -- in caring for a variety of patients and learning their stories. Besides the length, this impeccable Criterion dvd is compromised by the film’s widescreen splendor in luscious black and white. Unless you’ve got a big HD screen, you’ll be missing much of the appeal, which is considerable. (1963, dvd.) *7-*

Taking Woodstock

In the tradition of bands of that era, this film might be named the Vanilla Cacophony – it’s bland and disorganized. I wouldn’t have seen it except that it was shot in the neighborhood, and thus fun to spot local scenes and watch for the name of my daughter’s boyfriend as the credits rolled. There’s some appeal to the casting and scene setting, but the film is under-written by James Schamus and uncertainly directed by Ang Lee. Though they are longtime successful partners, this story was too close for one and too distant from the other. So the point of the project is elusive, never more so than when it emulates the well-known Wadleigh (and Scorsese) documentary. Coming at the event from a tangent, the film slights the music onstage and highlights a variety of peripheral characters, too many and too varied for any character development. Demetri Martin is a cipher as the central character, the tentatively-gay son of Russian Jewish parents who own a run-down Catskills motel. He has the all-important permit for a music festival, and sets the madness in motion. Eugene Levy is good as Max Yasgur, on whose farm the festival landed, and several other actors make an impression, but in the absence of an overall impression, it’s all loose ends. (2009, dvd.) *5* (MC-53.)

Film Club resumes

The Cinema Salon Film Club will resume free screenings and discussion in the Clark auditorium on Friday, February 12, at 4:00 pm, and on alternate Fridays thereafter. The theme of this series will be “What in the World is Going On?” featuring a different country or region in each session. Steve Satullo, an independent film scholar who programs films at the Clark and writes the Cinema Salon blog, will select a representative feature film from each country, introduce it in the context of the director’s career and that nation’s film history, and lead a discussion afterward.

The subjects of the first three sessions will be Iran on February 12, China on February 26, and Africa on March 12. Thereafter subjects will be determined by consensus of the club, with reference to areas currently prominent in international news. Please note that each of these films earns a Metacritic rating that connotes "universal acclaim."

Friday, Feb. 12, 4:00pm: Offside. (directed by Jafar Panahi, 2006, 92 min.) A highly pointed satire on women’s status in Iran follows a group of girls who try to get into a World Cup soccer match from which they are barred. (MC-85)

Friday, Feb. 26, 4:00pm: The World. (directed by Jia Zhang-Ke, 2005, 143 min.) The hottest young director from China follows a group of internal immigrants from the countryside working at a Beijing theme park with reduced-scale copies of landmarks from around the world. (MC-81) [Please note: my introduction will begin at 3:45 due to length of this film. By the printed calendar, we are locked into 4:00 timeslot, but in future I will schedule screenings earlier, as requested]

Friday, March 12, 4:00pm: Moolaadé. (directed by Ousmane Sembene, 2004, 124 min.) The title translates as “sanctuary,” which is offered to girls in a Senegalese village who do not want to be subjected to the traditional practice of female circumcision. (MC-91)

For information on specific film selections and schedule of future screenings, as well as news of supplemental screenings at other times, there are three ways to keep current: online at www.cinemasalon.blogspot.com; by email notification requested from ssatullo@clarkart.edu; or by phone message at 458-0415.

The Cinema Salon Film Club is intended for interested viewers who approach film as a medium of engagement rather than entertainment, who wish to grapple intellectually and emotionally with the serious art of film, and to find in world cinema a way of engaging with the world and extending one’s understanding and empathy for other cultures. The point lies in actively entertaining new ideas and impressions, and not in being passively entertained by appeal to familiar feelings. Ideally the screenings will attract not just sophisticated film fans, but participants with particular interest or expertise in the region under discussion.

Up in the Air

Count me among those for whom George Clooney is the new Cary Grant – he dignifies and dapperizes whatever he’s in (though one Ocean movie was more than enough for me). But here he has a vehicle that keeps him aloft and grounded at the same time. Jason Reitman’s snappy adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel kicks off with a perfect mood-setting title sequence, with descending plane’s-eye views of cities and countryside set to a bluesy version of “This Land is My Land.” Clooney lives in airplanes, airports, and hotels – and loves it – as he jets from city to city on contract to fire people. Traveling light is for him not just a strategy, but a philosophy of life. In motivational speeches, he advises people to “empty their backpacks” of any attachment to things or people. Then two women come into his life, a go-go recent business grad (played deliciously by Anna Kendrick) with a scheme to take him and his ilk off the road and do the company’s firing over the Internet, and a sultry fellow traveler (played beyond deliciously by Vera Farmiga), who have him forming attachments he never anticipated. The film follows some rom-com conventions, but is ultimately subversive and grounded in the mood of this recessionary moment, as Clooney comes down to earth in a highly-debatable denouement likely to spark post-film discussion. I liked this film so much I wanted to give it an *8*, but it is certainly not a better film than A Serious Man or Summer Hours, so I guess that calls my numerical rating system into question. Anyway, it’s a recommendation with a little extra oomph. (2009, Beacon.) *7+* (MC-83)

Up

Pixar’s latest from Disney is just about as joyful as a corporate entertainment could be. Similar -- but preferable -- to Avatar in two ways, this 3-D animated feature (I would definitely see it in a 3-D theater if it came around again) is a mash-up of many familiar movie tropes, but with coherence and depth of emotion. The brilliant opening is reminiscent of Citizen Kane’s famous breakfast table anatomy of a marriage, in its swift and almost wordless portrayal of a lifetime shared by Carl and Ellie. We pick up with Carl as a cranky, square-jawed, white-haired widower voiced by Ed Asner. Though drawn together as children by a passion for a Lindbergh-like character with the message “Adventure is out there!”, the couple leads a quiet stay-at-home life that leaves the bereft Carl full of regret for the adventures they never had. As skyscrapers encroach on Carl and Ellie’s tidy “Little House,” just as on Virginia Lee Burton’s, Carl escapes by lifting the house into the sky with millions of colored balloons, reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle (and indeed the whole film is deeply imbued with the spirit of Miyazaki). He winds up with a stowaway boy scout, a rotund tyke who might be a refugee from Wall-E. As you would expect, adventure ensues, which I will leave you to discover for yourself. But I will take especial note of a mythical bird of paradise -- large, lithe, and brightly-hued -- and a pack of dogs with collars that hilariously translate dog-thought into English. The action cranks up, as it must, but not in a way that wearied me, as some otherwise admirable animated films have done, and returns at last to the quiet warmth of feeling that is the film’s hallmark. Plenty of “oh wow!” in this movie, but its miracle is in the expressiveness of its characters’ cartoon faces. (2009, dvd.) *8* (MC-88)

In the Loop

Armando Ianucci may not have been totally successful in graduating from British sitcom into feature film, but this political satire travels pretty well. Think The Office, but in government offices instead, and higher up the food chain, with a much higher quotient of profane invective. You can put on a better suit, but a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, public or private. The plot, such as it is, is driven by obvious parallel to the run-up to the Iraq war, but is disconcertingly nonspecific. No matter -- at this level of ministerial maneuvering, it’s just the perpetual careerist game of kiss and knife in the back, dither and bluster, preen and shirk. So a British cabinet minister (Tom Hollander) makes a clueless remark about war being “unforeseeable” and gets to crank up his cluelessness on both sides of the Atlantic, as he becomes a pawn in the game, “meat in the room.” At least he can flatter himself that he is “in the loop,” however loopy. But the star of the show is the manic Peter Capaldi, spewing nonstop hilariously filthy insults, in apparent parody of Tony Blair’s communications director. This isn’t “The West Wing,” though they talk even faster. I don’t doubt the scalding truth of the satire on how Washington and London work on a day to day basis, but the Iraq parallel is a bit of a tease, and gave me unease. Nor did the pacing of the film seem to fit the 100-minute length. So this won’t make my top ten films of the year, as it did in the indieWire poll, but if you have a taste for wit with a sharp, cynical tang, it’s worth sampling. (2009, dvd.) *6+* (MC-83)

Lorna's Silence

Ah, the ambiguities of iconic status. The Dardenne brothers swept to prizes at Cannes and international critical acclaim with a severe style and difficult outlook on the world, a Marxist view of underclass moral quandaries. So when they make their work just a little more accessible, the critics don’t like it as much. Here the camera is not so jerky, the setting not quite so circumscribed, the action more scripted, the parable of poverty more neatly laid out. Well, I liked this as much as my previous favorite of theirs, Rosetta, and for much the same reason, a captivating female lead. Here Arta Dobroshi (looking to me uncannily like an older Ellen Page) is an Albanian immigrant in Liege, who has acquired Belgian identity by marrying Jeremie Renier (familiar from other Dardennes’ films), a heroin addict expected to die soon. Or so you figure out, if you are watching closely. Turns out Lorna is being used to turn around as a widow and marry a Russian mobster, to earn him citizenship. With her share of the take from the scam, she hopes to open a snack shop with her Albanian boyfriend. What happens then is subject to debate, but as Lorna’s choices become more circumscribed, it’s safe to say that she awakens to a moral light within. If you are unfamiliar with the Bressonian films of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (La Promesse, Le Fils, L’Enfant), this is not a bad place to start. (2009, dvd.) *7* (MC-80)