skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Film: Mamma Roma
Year of production: 1962
UK Release date: 25th April 2011
Distributor: Mr Bongo
Certificate: 15
Running time: 106 mins
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Starring: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini, Luisa Loiano
Genre: Drama
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Italy
Language: Italian
For some, the name of Pier Paolo Pasolini conjures up images from films such as Salo and Oedipus Rex, but his second feature, Mamma Roma, is beautiful, raw and poetic. Full of contradictions and imagery that can be read on many levels, it is a class tragedy that marked the end of Pasolini’s neorealist style.
We first meet Mamma Roma at the wedding of her pimp, ushering three pigs into the hall where the reception is taking place. She sings bawdy songs and cackles like a witch, but she is happy, for it marks the moment she is free to live her life with her son, a life away from prostitution.
Mamma Roma moves her son to Rome from the countryside to set up a market stall and start a new life, but her son, Ettore, is forming some unhealthy attachments to a local promiscuous girl, a group of thieves, and a fence for stolen goods.
In her many efforts to set Ettore on a path that will make him the man she wants him to be, Mamma Roma will stop at nothing, but her actions have tragic consequences…
Pier Paolo Pasolini has never been known for subtlety, as anyone who has seen Pigsty or Salo can testify, and Mamma Roma is no exception. The language is crude and colloquial, the shots of Rome show nothing of the city’s beauty and the characters are all deeply flawed. From the opening reception dinner and the entrance of Mamma Roma, escorting three pigs into the room where the diners are eating, it is clear that we are watching a richly layered film. The entrance of the pigs has significance not just in their presence at this particular wedding reception, but also their representation of Italy. Pasolini adds layers to the scene with close-ups of the bride and groom’s facial expressions throughout, juxtaposing them with the laughter from Mamma Roma and other guests. It gets more complex when we find out that the groom is a pimp, and Mamma Roma has, in that moment, been released from his service. The whole scene, complete with a singing exchange, is by turns funny, tense and uncomfortable, and we’re only five minutes in.
From there, we follow Mamma Roma as she moves with her son to Rome. It is clear that class is high on the agenda, and the characters we follow all occupy the lowest rung. As a former prostitute, it is almost tragic to watch as Mamma Roma tries to force her son to understand the need to climb the social ladder. Her obsession with money and what the people of Rome will be like shows us how low these characters are, for when we arrive in Rome, we find concrete towers and wasteland, but still they feel they are stepping up, away from being ‘hicks’.
Pasolini’s camera treats every scene with reverence, as though the characters inhabited the finest architecture, and operated in the upper echelons of society. His long takes, beautiful tracking shots of Mamma Roma walking her beat, chatting (or in some cases lamenting) with potential clients, show a great deal of respect for the characters, and the actors - the majority of whom were not professionals.
Every scene is shot with more attention than perhaps the situations deserve. Considering the position these characters occupy, you could be forgiven for thinking the director was overdoing things just a little. His use of classical music and the grand shots of the landscape, in particular the concrete jungle with a lone dome (symbol of hope perhaps, or the unattainable) show affection for their predicament, and, ultimately, the tragic consequences of Mamma Roma’s flawed attempts to direct her son are all the more powerful for the imagery used.
For all the artistic qualities of the director and the cinematographer, this is Mamma Roma’s film. Anna Magnani dominates every scene with sheer presence. She plays Mamma Roma as one of the great matriarchs in cinematic history, chewing her dialogue and towering over every other actor, deafening the audience with her maniacal cackle. To Ettore she is a dictator, and despite wanting only to make sure he has everything he could want, she goes too far. She sets up a local businessman for blackmail in order that Ettore can work, she asks a prostitute friend to sleep with her son to take his mind from the local tramp, Bruna, and desperately tries to shield him from her past. As with all tragedies, the past catches up, and Ettore is forced away from her by her actions and her attitude into a life of crime with the people he calls friends. This life ends badly, and the final scene of Mamma Roma being held back from an open window, staring out at the dome, past the concrete blocks, is a powerful moment.
It would be easy for such a presence as Magnani to overpower the film, and even unbalance it, but such is the power of the storytelling, the realism portrayed by the amateur cast, and the handling of the drama by Pasolini, that her presence here brings everything vividly to life.
It is at the ending that we begin to see a little more into the mind of Pasolini, as in a prison hospital we hear an ageing inmate reciting the Divine Comedy to fellow convicts. It is here that perhaps we should ask ourselves which circle of hell we have ended up in, and which ones we have travelled through to get there.
Mamma Roma is relevant, rich and beautiful. Somehow the ugliest of settings is cast in a beautiful light by Pasolini, and as an audience we feel for Mamma Roma and Ettore as they struggle on the bottom rung of society’s ladder. For fans of Pasolini’s later work, it is interesting to see where he started, and to see the difference in the ways he chooses to share his views. Before the forays into depravity, and the anger of his later works, we can see tenderness for those on the bottom. RM
Film: Il Posto
Year of production: 1961
UK Release date: 25th April 2011
Distributor: Mr Bongo
Certificate: U
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Starring: Loredana Detto, Sandro Panseri
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Italy
Language: Italian
Characterised by grim, authentic locations and a mundane sense of the 'routine', neo-realist cinema had had its heyday by the time Ermanno Olmi's Il Posto entered the fray. Part of a wave of post neo-realism, his film (the English translation of which is ‘The Job’) stresses the precarious fiscal position that families find themselves in, and the introduction of a culture which promotes economic benefit as a substitute for happiness. While many see 1961 as belonging to Federico Fellini’s lavish La Dolce Vita, Il Posto represents a drastically different side of Italian society, devoid of cocktails, buxom blondes and moonlit terraces.
Part of a post-war generation, graduate Domenico (Panseri) is put under pressure to work by his strict parents, who encourage him to attend a recruitment event for a large, well-known corporation. In doing so, he undergoes an exam, an aptitude test, and meets love interest Antonietta (Detto), whose striking features and comparable family situation attract his attention.
Many days pass until Domenico is informed that he has been given a job at the company, and from there the film follows his efforts to fit into his new workplace, as well as his endeavours to secure the affection of his attractive colleague…
Particularly in the first half of the film, Olmi’s style draws us into the tentativeness of his leading man, but is also fiercely satirical towards the subject matter. The recruitment process Domenico takes part in consists of a simple problem-solving task, and an interview comprising of thoroughly absurd questions which probe his level of alcohol dependency and physical fitness. A medical exam consists of candidates taking it in turns to hold out their palms and squat in front of a panel of physicians. Olmi mocks corporate ideals of what makes a perfect ‘candidate’ in a similarly wry way to how Sofia Coppola critiques ‘celebrity’ in her films Lost In Translation and Somewhere, reducing characters to pawns within a commercial network.
Above all, Il Posto and Panseri instil awkward tension into their depiction of what is a very daunting ordeal. It details all of the intricacies of the protocol of starting a new job; not knowing where to put yourself, gauging what your superiors want to hear, etc. Domenico enters an alien environment with the convincing trepidation of a kid thrust into the world of work, with a healthy degree of interest and promise in tow. The film shows how his inherent expectations become moulded with the realities of working life (especially at such a tender age) and rarely surrounds the boy with overly-uniform representations of restriction. But for some fussy moments with his parents, Domenico encounters people who you can believe were once as fresh and hesitantly self-aware as he, and who have been believably indoctrinated into a capitalist way-of-life. These folks aren’t obstacles, but rather signifiers of the bigger picture, and watching this kid try to suss them out and try to adapt somewhat to their way-of-thinking helps to make Il Posto a truer story of fledgling professionalism.
As is usually the case with social commentary, the film is by no means a celebration of this lifestyle choice (neither is La Dolce Vita, really) and Olmi is carefully selective not to make the tender moments of relativity between Domenico and Antonietta too open or electric. They aren’t sure of how they feel about each other, and it shows. Their time together feels precious, but not so distracting as to take away from the central conceit of tackling the pressures of instantly getting on the career ladder, and Il Posto doesn’t get too romantic or sentimental until much nearer the close. Instead, Olmi (not even 30 when this movie was filmed) uses Panseri’s raw and beautifully adept performance to chronicle the difficulties of having no bridge between education and employment. The final scene, in which Domenico comes across his first spar with workplace politics, perhaps demonstrates best the unforeseen implications of being a young professional, and the film’s bleak ending and grinding final credits only serve to reinforce the sense that this young man has been sold out.
The patience of Il Posto is one of its strongest features, and it succeeds through not being too overtly opposed to the attitude its character is pushed into. We aren’t made to rally valiantly behind him in the moments where he does face resistance, and for large periods Olmi’s well-observed style proves an effective way of studying this pocket of social transition in Italy.
Some may find the sparse narrative and anti-climactic ending a tad slight, but as a cultural examination, the pickings are so rich that it’s difficult to complain. As mundane as the workplace is, Il Posto uses that to its advantage, summarising a commonplace arc in the new age of social mobility and reworking it as a personal portrait of the solitude of youth. CR
Film: Sons Of Cuba
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: E
Running time: 88 mins
Director: Andrew Lang
Starring: Yosvani Bonachea, Cristian Martinez, Santos Urguelles
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: UK
Sons Of Cuba documents the pupils of The Havana Boxing School as they are subjected to a physically demanding training regime. Despite having an average age of 8, the pupils are pushed to their very limits - told that victory in the sport is not just a matter of personal pride but of national duty.
Cuba, 2006 and Fidel Castro has just taken ill. Paranoia begins to spread that the Americans might try and attack while their beloved leader is incapacitated.
As their country stands on a razor’s edge, a group of young boys are being indoctrinated into athletic acts of violence. The boys are told that failing is not an option, and that far from being merely a sport, boxing is Cuba’s opportunity to show that their country is the best, and that the revolution was an unmitigated triumph.
While the film focuses on a larger group of boys, our main protagonists are Cristian, a boxing prodigy, Santos, a boy whose passion for pastries stands in the way of his boxing success, and Junior, lovingly referred to as Dalmatian because of the bald spots found on his scalp.
As the day of the Under-12’s championship approaches, the training becomes more extreme, the punishments more harsh, and it soon becomes apparent that the sport, far from being a simple matter of national pride, is actually becoming detrimental to the stability of the children involved…
Sons Of Cuba ignores the emotional bombast and political posturing of so many modern documentaries. The film’s resistance to caricature and moral absolutism allows us to emotionally engage in all the characters involved. It is this skill that elevates Sons Of Cuba from other films of its ilk, leading to a movie that has genuinely aimed for a balanced account of events, allowing for opinion; both political and emotional to form at the viewer’s digression. That’s not to say that what is shown is vacant - quite the contrary. Its ability to invoke an open-ended discussion is derived from just how rich the images are. We hate seeing these children being reduced to tears by their environment, but we are allowed no villain to pin the blame on. The coach is shown as a loving and gentle man, and Castro himself is a ghost, appearing as an image on the wall, a reflection on TV screen - a holy icon. With no scapegoat in sight, we are forced to concentrate on the matter at hand, which is the children, and the relationships that they form.
This refreshingly humanist approach is aided by Andrew Lang’s beautiful images. Storms forming over Cuba, ripples in the puddles outside, and close-ups of the boys crying all invoke emotional responses as multi-layered as the political issues they explore. Images of nature, water in particular, mix the threatening (the storm clouds) with the fragile (the tears), which culminates in the ring - little children as innocent and confused as any children being forced to unleash torrents of violence and choreographed abuse (these visuals allow us to see the politics as being almost inconsequential).
While Castro and the revolution are imprinted in every part of their culture it has become so second nature that it is given no great importance. The real tragedy here is the growing link between innocence and responsibility. These are boys that are being made to take on the reasonability of men, which is not just a Cuban problem, but a worldwide one. When Santos lies cuddling into his grandmother, it is a visual reminder that these people are just children, and it is to our shame that their youth is easily forgotten in the faux-maturity they have been forced to exhibit.
But Sons Of Cuba is by no means a tear-jerker. The images that stay with you after the film’s end are images of warmth. The boys comforting each other, mother’s crying with pride. Here we have a documentary that is all the more important for focusing not on a single ideological vantage point, but on the human experience.
A beautifully shot and well considered documentary that is as emotionally engaging as it is informative. Andrew Lang’s film exhibits a fragile beauty that is never allowed to indulge in the sentimental. A filmic experience not easily forgotten. AC
Film: Casanova ‘70
Release date: 6th September 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 111 mins
Director: Mario Monicelli
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Virna Lisi, Marisa Mell, Michèle Mercier, Enrico Maria Salerno
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Italy/France
Mario Monicelli’s 1965 comedy Casanova ’70 is very much a product of its time, starring Marcello Mastroianni as a suave ladies man hot on the heels of roles in Fellini classics La Dolce Vita and 8 ½. Despite its frothy ‘60s comedic stylings, the film (attributed to six writers) was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1966, highlighting the clever wordplay between characters.
As the smooth talking and globetrotting NATO Officer Andrea Rossi-Colombotti, Marcello Mastroianni has a way with the ladies that rivals even Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. With a high-ranking job taking him to glamorous locations (including France, Switzerland and Italy), Andrea catches the eye of a number of beautiful women, including his original first-love Gigliola (Virna Lisi).
However, Andrea has a significant problem; he can only seduce women in dangerous circumstances, and is addicted to risk. This leads to a procession of hijinks and comedic mishaps as Andrea stumbles from one beautiful woman to the next, constantly enticed by danger in order to fuel his libido.
As the element of danger increases from woman to woman, Andrea eventually finds himself wrongly accused of killing off the wealthy husband of one of his lovers in a court of law. Consequently, he faces trial by judge, with his demented psychiatrist, and all of his (almost) conquests appearing as witnesses, detailing his obsession with sex and jeopardy…
From a modern viewpoint, Casanova ’70 does appear somewhat antiquated with its ‘60s sensibilities and washed out style. The idea of a risqué sex comedy in this style seemed very prevalent at the time of the uninhibited swinging ‘60s, and familiar to British audiences in films such as the Carry On... series. Yet Casanova ’70 does feel somewhat different, and perhaps edgier with its subject matter, with the central character in Andrea appearing as an early parody of James Bond-esque conquests and well-travelled thrill-seeking (even before Peter Sellers in the 1966 version of Casino Royale).
The film relies heavily on the performance of Mastroianni, who charmingly mixes suave sophistication in his initial pursuit of attractive ladies with the inevitable slapstick pratfalls he takes in an attempt to instigate danger for himself. Mastroianni somehow maintains the charm of NATO Officer Andrea, where otherwise a character who is effectively a compulsive liar able to leave one beautiful woman in pursuit of another on a whim might be viewed much more unsympathetically. For instance, when Andrea travels to the Swiss Alps following his psychologist’s diagnosis of “the devil inside him” in an attempt to change, he once again falls in love. This time, however, he proposes marriage, and promises commitment. Yet before long, on a date with his bride-to-be at a circus, Andrea is enticed to answer a female lion-tamer’s challenge for any man brave enough to kiss her in a lion’s cage. Of course, Andrea kisses the woman a little too passionately in front of the circus audience, where his Swiss engagement is effectively ended leaving him to make a swift getaway from the country.
There are numerous sequences in the film that all ultimately end in this way, with Andrea seemingly stumbling from one set piece into the next. Thus, while the character remains rather endearing through the natural charisma of Mastroianni, Andrea is unquestionably shallow and two-dimensional in his motivations. The only signifier perhaps of any depth to Andrea beyond his ‘condition’ is in his respect for the true love he shared in his youth with Gigliola, where Andrea cannot bear to seduce a woman he truly cares for, so instead leaves to spend the night with a woman who is said to bring bad luck to all men who have a liaison with her.
The film is well staged and directed by Mario Monicelli, despite the fact that the cinematography is showing its age on DVD. One stand-out scene involves a multiple car chase of Andrea from a group of men angry at his method of duping them into allowing him to seduce a local Sicilian girl in their family, where Andrea’s car is unexpectedly nudged off a cliff only for the NATO Officer to miraculously escape. Also worthy of note is the extended cameo performance of Enrico Maria Salerno as Andrea’s psychiatrist, who increasingly reveals his own eccentricities after spending so long with the mentally unstable. For instance, in an exchange which sums up the humour of Casanova ’70, the psychiatrist reveals a predilection for women’s stockings. Andrea agrees that he too likes a woman in stockings; only for the psychiatrist to reveal that he means he has a predilection for them because he likes to wear them himself.
Casanova ’70 features a fine central comedic performance by Marcello Mastroianni, bringing a somewhat two-dimensional James Bond-esque role to life with a curious mixture of suave cool and charming slapstick panache. Monicelli’s Italian language film is most definitely a product of its era, and somewhat repetitive in parts, although with an added comedic edge that makes it worth a watch. DB
Film: Fellini's Casanova
Release date: 1st May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 148 mins
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne
Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Biography
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Frederico Fellini’s biopic of the infamous womanising Venetian author is a little unusual to say the least. In Fellini’s favourite of his own films, we follow Giacomo Casanova (Donald Sutherland) throughout his life, witnessing his various loveless sexual exploits as he travels across 18th century Europe. Boasting striking visuals and heavy symbolism, it won’t be to everyone’s taste.
The film opens in Venice, where the annual carnival is taking place. After witnessing the festivities, Giacomo Casanova begins his run of sexual adventures. First, in Venice, he puts on a sexual performance with an actress dressed as a nun for the voyeuristic pleasure of a rich noble. Then, after a brief imprisonment for supposedly practicing the dark arts, he escapes to Paris, where he conducts an insane ritual designed to transform an elderly aristocratic woman’s soul into that of a young man’s (predictably, using sex, with the addition of a candle headdress!). Later, after apparently losing his sexual potency (after inevitably catching a venereal disease), he travels to London, where he is fascinated by a giantess, and gets a kick out of watching her being bathed by two dwarves.
Over his life, his sexual encounters become less and less fulfilling, to the extent that in Dresden, a woman rejects his advances and he instead participates in a bizarre orgy with a hunchback and two heavyset women. He lives his final days sad, ridiculed and alone as a librarian at a count’s residence in Bohemia…
The visuals are striking, if a little unusual. Each city Casanova visits is represented in a very theatrical way, by a minimalist set (the ocean is represented by billowing bin liners in one scene, for instance, whilst London is shown as a single cobbled street shrouded in fog).
The costume design is also very impressive, deservedly winning an Academy Award. Each of Casanova’s outfits is extravagant to the extreme. They become less over-the-top throughout the course of the film (in early scenes and flashback sequences, he appears as a strutting and garish peacock, but he gradually becomes more subdued and dapper as he spirals into old age and depression).
Everything about the character of Casanova is designed to make him grotesque – from the horrific hair and makeup (including rolled and bunched hair, and a shaved crown to make the hairline more severe) to his sickening expressions during intercourse and, of course, the very fact that it’s Donald Sutherland playing him (not exactly the most conventionally attractive man). He’s portrayed as largely emotionless – an automaton seeking sexual gratification while avoiding attachment. At no time do we feel anything for his younger self; on the contrary, he is quite repulsive. Only in the final act to we feel any empathy (or is it pity?) for him, when he’s being mocked.
The whole film represents a man’s need to gratify his desires and his inability to connect on any emotional level. No matter where Casanova travels, no matter what he goes through, he will never find happiness, he will never find love. Easily the most poignant scene is a fantastical moment where Casanova falls for a doll-like woman, and, after seducing her, continues to dream of her for the rest of his life. She is, in reality, his ideal woman – she will never resist his advances, and never require him to engage with her on anything more than a physical level. In this moment, the true sadness of Casanova’s character is revealed: he is utterly unable to love a real woman, and has to make do with a mannequin.
Some scenes may appear a little laughable to some, as the acting and characterisation is, at times, very exaggerated. This is still in keeping with the dreamlike, theatrical feel of the film, but it may annoy some viewers.
It’s not the symbolism, exaggeration and flights of fantasy that irritate the most, however. What really grates is the clumsy Italian dubbing of Donald Sutherland on this particular DVD, which distracts to the point of having a detrimental effect on the story!
Despite the heavy-handed dubbing of Sutherland, and the love-it-or-hate-it theatrical visuals and acting, Fellini’s Casanova effectively tells the story (impressive considering the lack of real plot points) of Italy’s most famous libertine. The film’s unusual visuals are effectively simple, and though the film begins emotionally shallow, it becomes quite poignant by the conclusion. SSP
Film: Lola
Release date: 6th September 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Jacques Demy
Starring: Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Italy/France
Lovingly restored under the supervision of his widow Agnes Varda, Jacques Demy’s debut feature interweaves the lives and loves of its characters in beguiling fashion in this early New Wave classic.
Fifteen years after the Second World War, Lola (Anouk Aimee) works as a dancer at L’Eldorado Cabaret in Nantes, entertaining an enthusiastic clientele largely comprising American sailors on shore leave. She has a fling with Frankie (Alan Scott), one such sailor who reminds her of her lost love Michel, who left Lola and their young son seven years ago to seek his fortune abroad, promising to return when wealthy. But a chance encounter between Lola and the romantic Roland (Marc Michel) reignites a flame the young man has held for her since childhood. And just who is the white-suited stranger cruising the seafront in his white limousine?
Over the next three days, the lives of the three protagonists – and the memory of Michel – are choreographed masterfully in a routine worthy of the Moulin Rouge. Lives overlap with more chance encounters and missed opportunities as Lola capriciously entertains the advances of Frankie and Roland, while pining for Michel. To add further intrigue, enter the lonely, frustrated widow Madame Desnoyers, and her adolescent daughter Cecile. While Roland befriends the pair in a bookshop, Frankie rather unwisely accompanies 14-year-old Cecile to the fairground.
It seems the characters are destined to play out an endless cycle of uncertain emotions, but time is against them. Amid the social whirl and romance, financial realities kick in for the jobless daydreamer Roland who agrees to a diamond smuggling trip to South Africa for a local barber. Lola is tiring of a life as a low-grade cabaret artiste and, looking for a way to force the issue of her undecided future perhaps, accepts a job in Marseille. Frankie is due to sail back to his homeland shortly, while Madame Desnoyers plans to pursue her disaffected daughter Cecile, who has run away to her uncle in Cherbourg.
And so Demy has designed an enticing dénouement. All the main characters look set to leave the scene, while Michel may return at any time. Will they all go their separate ways? If not, who will leave – or stay – and with whom?
In the hands of a less gifted director, Lola may have become a contrived rom com, but Demy’s delicately balanced piece of theatre is anything but. So confident is his handling of the plot, which he also wrote, that he adds many more carefully woven coincidences than most would dare to conceive, as if deliberately emphasising that this is just a wonderful piece of fantasy within its very real setting. All his characters are likeable, too – Demy realises there is no need for a clichéd bad guy, even within the diamond-smuggling sub-plot, since the inner torments of the characters create sufficient tension on their own.
The multi-layered structure is a fine tribute to the techniques of Demy’s hero, the German actor and filmmaker Max Ophüls, to whom Lola is dedicated on the title screen. And, of course, the choice of name for his lead character pays more than a passing nod to those other feisty femmes of the big screen, Ophüls’s Lola Montes and Lola-Lola from von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel.
A big responsibility for Anouk Aimee in the lead role, then, but she carries it admirably, as she did her roles in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita the year before, 81/2 the year after, and around seventy films since. In Lola, she creates a complex emotional character, bringing real psychological depth to a role that would otherwise have been ripe for a miscue as some kind of hackneyed ‘tart with a heart’.
What’s perhaps even more remarkable is that this film is about as far away from Demy’s original vision as possible. A great lover of musicals, he originally conceived it as a Technicolor extravaganza, like his 1964 ‘pop opera’ Umbrellas Of Cherbourg which followed it. But when advised that if he wanted to make Lola “any time soon” he’d have to seriously scale back his production ideas, Demy turned to New Wave cinematographer Raoul Coutard, lauded for his work on Goddard’s A Bout De Soufflé in 1959.
Coutard’s trademark technique employed hand-held camera work and natural lighting, creating the sense of fast-paced realism that so defines the New Wave genre. In Lola, the expansive backgrounds, coupled with subdued foreground lighting, enhances the claustrophobic atmosphere of the characters’ lives, not least because we’re often unable to see facial expressions in the shadows.
Michael Legrand’s score is wonderfully atmospheric, too – perhaps only the French can mix Beethoven, Bach and Bebop – complementing Demy’s direction and Coutard’s camera work perfectly. Not surprisingly, the budget-minded result was a blessing in disguise, producing two BAFTA nominations.
The success of Lola also inspired two semi-sequels – Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, reprising Roland’s role, and The Model Shop in which Lola has moved to Los Angeles. In the hands of Demy, it’s certainly a story worth telling.
Instantly likeable, with a considerable performance from Anouk Aimee, Lola is another standout work in the careers of Raoul Coutard and Jacques Demy. CS
Film: Fellini's Casanova
Release date: 1st May 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 148 mins
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne
Genre: Drama/Biography
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Giacomo Casanova is a writer, a wit and an aesthete. Venturing out from his native Venice and passing through the hedonistic capitals of Europe, he seeks to be recognised for his manifold and self proclaimed talents in the higher arts. But in his reckless wanderings, Casanova comes to realise that all anyone is interested in are his sexual escapades. Fellini called this film his masterpiece.
The film opens during one of Venice's famous carnivals. A statue of Venus is to be raised from the Grand Canal, but the supports break and she is one again engulfed by the water. Subsequently, Casanova, who has witnessed this while masked, is brought a note, asking him to attend an island where a nun excitedly awaits his ravishment.
On arrival, he learns they are to be watched by the French Ambassador who proclaims Casanova's sexual genius, only to disappear when Giacomo asks for a reference to the King.
On the return from the island, Casanova is accosted by the inquisition, who imprison him in a cell he can barely stand up in. However, he shortly escapes and embarks on a travel across Europe; Italy, Germany, Britain and France, hoping to make his mark as a man of letters, but everywhere he finds debauchery and disappointment - his string of sexual conquests hollow as he chases nonexistent dreams.
In Dresden, Casanova chances upon his mother in an empty Opera House. She can no longer walk and he carries her to her carriage, but after she drives away, he realises he has forgotten to ask her address to write to her. Finally, at the end of his travels, Casanova finds a position as Librarian at Waldstein. But he has become an object of ridicule, forced to eat with the servants. He is left to dream about the one woman he found in his travels whom he considered perfect. An automated doll…
Fellini's Casanova is a haunted dream journey through spectacular sets, populated by a bemused Giacomo and a surreal circus of grotesques. Deliberately as un-erotic as possible, Fellini meditates on the emptiness within Casanova, and the artifice that surrounds him in the debauched European nations - artifice that Casanova cannot help but beg for recognition from. The film is an incredible vision that does not readily open itself to explanation, but rather needs to be felt emotionally through the absurd chaotic journey on which Casanova is our steadfast guide.
The occasional narration by Giacomo provides the reinforcement that the madness we are witnessing is in fact Casanova's madness, even while Donald Sutherland provides an imperious and unrelenting presence as the stillness at the centre of each scene. Sutherland, despite being possibly the least likely actor ever to portray Casanova, radiates a softness and unnatural beauty that is quite unexpected. It is a triumph, therefore, that he never allows Casanova to become an object of sympathy or to allow his naiveté to overcome his dialogue with the audience. Fellini despised Casanova. Sutherland allows him to become an object of ridicule without compromising the character's integrity. The audience are left unmoved by Casanova's journey, upon which he learns nothing, tells the audience nothing, creates nothing, leaves nothing, and ends up with nothing except a dream about a hollow woman. When other stories about Casanova focus on tremendous amounts of sex and ribaldry, this is a film that dares to show the dark side of the very first ‘playboy’.
However, this does not make for easy viewing. The plot is nonexistent, the Brechtian theatrical techniques are many, constantly reminding the audience that they are viewing a facade of a facade, and the main character is a perpetually deluded freak for whom sex becomes such a routine, that it has all the eroticism of training for and participating in an Olympic sport, and for whom women drift into nonexistence.
For all that, Fellini keeps his audience through incredible scenes. London is a perpetual road in a pea soup fog, inhabited by a 7ft woman fighter who is attended on by two dwarfs. Casanova blunders through, lost and alone. In Germany, he finds a hall filled with pipe organs, played discordantly, and then concordantly, presided over by a comatose Dudley Sutton. As pure cinema, this is as good as it gets. Scenes that will etch themselves into the brain and never leave.
Fellini called Casanova his masterpiece. It is. However, that does not make it easy viewing, nor does it make a whole lot of narrative sense. Casanova is very much a film that requires its audience to feel rather than to think, and what is more, promises to leave them unmoved. It is a brave filmmaker who desires to pull off such a feat and a rare filmmaker that succeeds. A compelling film. PE
Film: Earth
Release date: 17th May 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 78 mins
Director: Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Starring: Stepan Shkurat, Semyon Svashenko, Yuliya Solntseva
Genre: Drama
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Russia
The third film in director Alexander Dovzhenko’s ‘Ukraine Trilogy’, Earth was filmed in 1930 to the backdrop of social revolution in the Soviet Union. Detailing a struggle between two sets of farming groups, Earth follows an ensuing insurrection as the peasant farmers find themselves subjected to a takeover by the wealthier Kulaks landowners.
Opening with the almost poetic death of an old man in the shade of a pear tree, the farmers come to the realisation that they must somehow find a way of compensating for all his years of hard work, and the experience that he possessed. Their answer is to pull their collective resources and invest in a tractor, sacrificing the traditional farming methods for what they believe to be a speedier, more efficient and, ergo, more profitable venture.
The machinery’s arrival causes a great deal of uproar in the community, as the collective farmers rejoice at the presence of what they believe to be their future, while the Kulaks look on with a mix of fear and anger at this brazen act by the villagers.
From the tractor’s arrival, an ever-spiraling sequence of events is put into motion. As the collective farmers band together in order to work together, and for each other (even collectively urinating on the tractors’ radiator to cool it down), the Kulak’s begin to fear this is the beginning of the end for them and their affluence. One evening, they take it upon themselves to kill Vasili, the farmers’ ringleader, in an attempt to drive a stake into the heart of the villagers’ new found optimism, yet it yields an opposite outcome. Instead of permitting the church to undertake the traditional funeral ceremony, the collective, with their new sense of spirit, decide to create their own brand of religion, as they bury him in the earth on which he worked, while singing songs about new life…
Earth, or Zemlya in its native language, is a film that takes us back to a time of cinema that has long since been archaic. The film is completely silent bar the evocative score that continually ploughs through the film, proving to be its heartbeat, as Russian intertitles tell the audience what the characters have said.
The director has a penchant for long focused still shots that are incredibly emotive, almost to the point of surprising, given how rudimentary many will view this film as being. Dovzhenko captures some unbelievable cinematic moments, as he does not simply create delightful compositions of nature and the earth that prove to be the bedrock to the themes in this film, but captures the expressions and emotions of his actors with powerful close ups and superb editing. Not only this, but his implementation of ‘day for night’, where he films Vasile dancing the kozachok (a traditional Cossack dance) through a red filter at dawn, provides for startling imagery that is light years ahead of its time.
Given the backdrop to the film’s creation, it would be naïve not to comment on the political scenery at the time, and address whether or not this film is in fact a machine in itself for Soviet propaganda. The signs are certainly there, if you want to go looking for them - the collective farmers being repressed by the wealthier Kulak landowners is a theme that was endemic of Stalinist Russia. Earth can be viewed as highlighting the plight of the peasants that for so long were forced to work in squalor, and how they can break free from the shackles imposed upon them by working together and supporting each other for a better future. It is an unsettling prospect to think, however, that not long after this film’s creation, Stalin undertook the first of his mass extermination of the Kulak’s, where the fortunate ones were those that did not have to go to the mines in Siberia to spend the rest of their lives.
However, Dovzhenko’s message is a much more ambivalent and ambiguous one when you factor in all the equations, and don’t subject it to hindsight and our minds, which have been subjected to their own forms of propaganda. Dovzhenko intertwines messages of life, hope, love and death as the primary driving force throughout Earth. He is more concerned with being anti-church than pro-communist, yearning to break away from the conformity and controlling patterns of church, and looking for the true religion in each and every individual – and, more to the point, connecting with Mother Earth. Every character within the film has their life and livelihood based on and around the ground, and when they pass on, the villagers return them to the soil, completing the life cycle that is the true focus of Dovzhenko’s Earth.
Earth is poignantly powerful with an immense amount of layering and depth to its ostensibly minimal construct. While it is a highly polysemous work, most who watch this will agree that it is undeniably a work of art that can unashamedly rank alongside Riefenstahl’s Triumph Of The Will or Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin as sublime works of cinema. BL
Film: Lucia
Release date: 1st March 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 160 mins
Director: Humberto Solas
Starring: Raquel Revlizita, Eslina Nunez, Adela Legra
Genre: Drama
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Cuba
In 1969, Humberto Solás - one of the greats of Cuban revolutionary cinema – released Lucía. Shot in three parts, and spanning seventy years of Cuban history, it focuses on the changing attitudes of the Cuban people through the political turmoil of Cuba’s fight for independence.
The film is separated into three stories, each about a different female central character called Lucía, and each living in politically relevant times in Cuba. The first is set in 1895, amidst the Cuban war of independence, and sees well-to-do Lucía become embroiled in an infatuation and romance with a stranger who’s hiding a politically scandalous secret.
The second story is set in the 1930s and sees socially isolated society girl Lucía fall for a guerrilla resistance fighter, and she herself becomes mixed up in the political struggle.
In the third and final film set in the 1960s, we see a newly liberated Cuba, the resistance in full swing. Everywhere, societal advances are being made and cultural freedom is flourishing. Except for Lucía that is, who’s seemingly idyllic new marriage quickly turns sour as her husband reveals himself to be an insanely possessive and controlling bully…
To show Cuba’s struggle for independence through the eyes of three different women over a number of years is a brave and visionary idea which has its fair share of hits and misses. No-one can deny Solás’ extraordinary eye as a filmmaker and his unique approach to bringing his vision to the screen. Lucía features some strikingly beautiful imagery, including some hypnotic dream sequences which rival Fellini at his best. Equally, the chaos and brutality of war is filmed with shocking realism and surprising savagery in contrast to the beauty and care he lavishes on his protagonists - and this is a film that’s clearly in love with its three female leads. In many ways, it is a film which deals with the beauty of women and how they are betrayed, captivated and often destroyed by the ignorance and fear of men and their wars.
It’s also a film about the insanity of conflict. The theme of insanity runs strongly throughout Lucía, particularly in the first story ‘1895’. Here, much is made of the mental casualties created by the awful atrocities and inhumanity of war. Its hard going at times, with some of the imagery and unfeeling cruelty proving tough to watch, but it is a subject which Solás handles compassionately and intelligently. Indeed, strangely, some of the characters who appear most delusional prove to have the most rational grasp on the events surrounding them. It’s a clever paradox which illustrates the madness of the circumstances.
Lucía’s greatest achievement is as a film primarily of the heart. Solás breathes incredible life into his characters, and succeeds in wrenching extraordinary performances from his actors, with all three of his Lucía’s veering from moments of ecstatic joy to hysterical anguish and back again. It’s to the actors’ credit that, for the most part, the performances are entirely credible and intensely soulful, with the cast clearly giving their all to realise Solás’s vision.
With so much in its favour, it’s a crying shame that Lucía’s inadequacies often overshadow its virtues. Granted, it’s a film principally about and for the Cuban market, but to anyone who isn’t well versed in South American history they may really struggle when it comes to keeping up with the plot. Solás makes no effort to explain the political events surrounding the stories for an outsiders’ point of view, so, as a result, many of the references are obscure and exclusionary, in turn making the plot almost indecipherable. You might argue that the main themes of Lucía are of the affects of war and political climate change in general, and so the specifics of the conflict are unimportant. However, since the plot often hinges on the protagonists’ political beliefs, and their roles in shaping these events, if you’re not already familiar with the events themselves, you’re going to struggle to stay completely absorbed in the narrative.
Technically the film suffers also from some atrocious editing, which results in scenes and set pieces jumping about randomly unannounced. There are many instances where it appears as if dialogue – particularly expositional dialogue - has been lost on the cutting room floor, and none of this helps the flow of the stories. It’s also lamentable that sometimes Solás slips over the line into self-indulgence, and the film undoes all its own good work, slipping almost into parody. The finale of the first story springs to mind as an example, where, in the midst of a raging battle, a posse of naked black revolutionaries suddenly appear from nowhere riding on horseback, and proceed to join in the fray. It’s an unnecessary detail, and without the relevant explanatory detail – frankly bizarre.
Lucía is an adventurous, brave attempt to represent a nation in change through the suffering of its women. It has many successes, but sadly just as many failures. Worth seeing for the extraordinary visuals and intense performances, but if you haven’t read up on your Cuban history expect to emerge confused. LB
Film: Antonio Das Mortes
Release date: 28th June 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Glauber Rocha
Starring: Maurício do Valle, Odete Lara, Othon Bastos, Hugo Carvana, Joffre Soares
Genre: Western/Drama
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: Brazil/France
Director Glauber Rocha was the leading light of the Brazilian Cinema Nuovo, which revolutionised cinema in that country during the 1960s. But the movement was stunted by the emergence of the Generals, who feared its radical films posed a threat to them. One of those films, Antonio Das Mortes, won Rocha the Best Director award at Cannes, and his popularity in Europe and America was assured. Because of the problems in Brazil, Rocha decided to start filming in Africa and Spain, but instead of moving on to bigger and better things his popularity declined. He turned to alcohol and drugs, dying at the age of 43 in 1981.
Antonio Das Mortes is the sequel to 1964’s epic God And The Devil In The Land Of The Sun. Das Mortes appears in the first film as a hit-man nicknamed ‘Cangaceiro Killer’, hired by the local church to kill the last Cangaceiro (‘Pirates Of The Desert’). In the sequel, he plays the main protagonist, returning to Jardim Das Piranhas after being hired to take down another Cangaceiro, twenty-nine years after they had seemingly been wiped out (almost single-handedly by Antonio).
Colonel Horacio is the blind landlord desperate for Antonio’s help, not wanting to share his land with people led by Coirana. A duel leads to Coirana’s lengthy but inevitable demise, during which Antonio comes to the realisation that he is fighting for the wrong side. Coirana is merely an idealist, a leader of the hopeless and the hungry whose families were destroyed by post-colonial exploitation. Colonel Horacio and Police Officer Mattos are disturbed by Antonio’s decision not to finish off Coirana when he had the chance, and sensing betrayal, they panic - lies and deceit suddenly spilling from every open wound.
Mattos sees his chance to overthrow the Colonel and tries to convince Antonio to kill him. When he refuses, Horacio’s wife Laura, who Mattos has been having an affair with, convinces him to kill the Colonel, but he isn’t brave enough. Horacio catches wind of the affair, and hires Mata Vaca to murder Mattos and his betraying wife Laura. Holed up in a bar, Laura decides the only way out is to kill her cowardly lover, sparing her life. Vaca continues his unforgiving rampage, wiping out the families and devotees Antonio had sided with, searching for the Cangaceiro Killer to end the feud. A shootout at the church is inevitable - bringing with it a climax and resolution that finally offers meaning to Antonio Das Mortes’ life, an existence devoid of anything for the last 29 years...
Although technically a sequel, Rocha’s story is just as powerful regardless of its predecessor. The only thing it lacks is a revealing backstory that might explain Antonio Das Mortes’ motives and thoughts. Too often he carries a silent, passive demeanour, even when all hell breaks out around him. All we know is that he refuses to be paid for the assignment - curious to see if the rumour of one remaining cangaceiros is correct. Being proud is all well and good, especially if you claim to be the man who killed the last pirate, but sometimes it’s quite comical to see him just standing there like a statue as others fight and argue around him.
The first act is a slightly plodding affair; too much talk and not enough action. It isn’t until Antonia fatally stabs Coirana that things start to happen, and a plot lacking in direction suddenly explodes into life - twisting and turning to reveal genuinely exciting moments. In fact, sometimes it’s all a little too much; especially a love triangle, with a character called Teacher, only becoming obvious when Laura is dispatched in the final act. There’s a bizarre scene where the drunk Teacher is smothering her in kisses (to reveal his crush on her), as she is draped over the dead body of her dearly departed lover, crying her eyes out, before returning his affections in kind.
But without Teacher’s help, Antonia would never be able to confront Mata Vata and his disciples, all baying for blood. In fact, even he and the vengeful Teacher, good with a rifle, shouldn’t be able to survive without a single scratch - the shootout climax wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of 24, as Das Mortes picks off each foe one by one with disappointing ease.
The soundtrack offers more backstory than the screenplay, and the chanting and ritual songs from the disciples add another layer to the tension, drawing the viewer in, especially in the film’s manic second act. It really is rather exhilarating and a powerful trick by Rocha, complementing the stark and natural beauty of a Brazil that is no more.
The potential Glauber Rocha had is evident in this violent film. Some revelations are a little hard to swallow but the films power is undeniable, and worthy of your attention. DW
Film: The Stranger
Release date: 15th February 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Satyajit Ray
Starring: Dipankar Dey, Mamata Shankar, Utpal Dutt, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Robi Ghosh
Genre: Drama
Studio: Mr Bongo
Format: DVD
Country: India/France
The Stranger represents the final statement from acclaimed Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who would pass away soon after due to heart complications.
Without any back-story, the film opens rather abruptly with Anila opening a letter from an uncle she had long thought had past. He disappeared some thirty-five years ago, but intends to return and stay with her as his only surviving family. The husband’s suspicions are instantly perked, but he bows to his wife’s desire – even if she’s not completely sure herself (hiding ornaments before her guest arrives).
When her uncle arrives, he does little to ease their concerns (openly stating that his passport could well have been faked), and though their son is pleased to have “a fake great uncle” to play with, and enthralled by his stories of travel and adventure, both Anila and her husband grow increasingly weary – enlisting the help of a friend to interrogate this ‘stranger’ – with their thoughts quickly turning to the financial repercussions of his return…
The key characteristics of any Satjajit Ray production are in place, with an orderly approach to filming that lends itself to long, drawn out scenes and verbose dialogue (at times making very little sense – particularly the scenes involving their inquisitive actor friend). And not forgetting the entertainingly bad acting from the supporting cast (stiff and expressionless), that serve to lift the efforts of the leads - Utpal Dutt is suitably questionable in his performance/appearance (a face that shouts villain).
As a story, the rational is weak. It’s more than questionable that any sensible person, especially a couple who are clearly so defensive of their material gains, would allow a complete stranger into their home - even if he is who he claims to be - and more so would then allow him to be alone with their child (soon after he arrives, their son sits alone with his new uncle on his bed). The father provides the only voice of reason (continuously griping and feeding his wife with doubts to his true identity and intentions), but given how it’s made very clear his standing (breadwinner and therefore waited on – even for the door to be opened for him), and where his wife’s place should be in the household, he would not have conceded to her wishes quite as easily.
There’s also a lack of tension and a number of possibilities instantly generated from this premise are ignored – whilst Utpal may be perfectly cast, his actions within the film rarely suggest foul play. Although he uses his intelligence to play a little on the father’s insecurities, it’s never worse than jovial, and he is kind and helpful (particularly with the son, who he gives a science lesson to, talks of explorations, and generously gifts coins collected from his travels – seemingly more attention and interaction than he gets from his own parents). Quickly warming to the suspected scoundrel of the piece renders the fears and doubts of his hosts irrelevant.
Ray does threaten to turn the story on its head, as the parents’ greed rises to the surface (visiting lawyers to find out if he can lay claim to inheritance behind the uncle’s back), but he seems to bottle out as we head to a gentle and almost sugary conclusion.
Although the meandering pace is representative of a Ray production, as if to allow time for you to digest any given point, the scenes here have been limited, which results in unnecessary scenes elongated even further (particularly where Anila sings and plays a sitar-type instrument for her guests). The director is also far less subtle in airing his opinions within the story – the questioning friend allows for a fairly unsubtle voice box rant on science, religion (something that creates barriers between people), mythology and westernisation (reference to junkies).
The film offers many interesting observations of India at the time: the characteristics/mannerisms adopted (bending to touch the feet when they greet someone); the wealthy; the treatment and expectancy of women (waiting on the men as they eat before eating themselves) and the underprivileged within their society; and how they, or more accurately Ray himself, viewed the outside world and how their country was changing (talk of how English was creeping into the vocabulary and the referral to the “white skinned”).
Commendably avoiding the obvious to take this story down a thrilling psychological route, Ray unfortunately uses the premise as a thin veil to air his own philosophical views. A tame conclusion to a career that would see Ray awarded an Oscar just months before his death. DH
