LFF 2015: First Feature Competition#1

3000 Nights

Reviews of the First Feature Competition at London Film Festival
By Kiomars Vejdani 


3000 NIGHTS
Director: Mai Masri; Palestine/France/Lebanon/UAE/Qatar, 2015

The film tells the story of a woman who for helping a young man on the run was charged with terrorism and spent eight years in an Israeli prison. Director Mai Masri with her background as a documentary film-maker has created a realistic, textured film with attention to details of environment and characters. Her powerful drama is based on clashes between Israeli and Arab women in the prison (at times amounting to violence), and cruelty inflicted on prisoners by a ruthless wardens (including torture). The horrifying atmosphere of prison well reflects the politically unstable situation in that part of the world where suspicion and hatred are the dominating sentiments.

LAMB
Director: Yared Zeleke; France/Ethiopia/Germany/Norway, 2015

The film is about loving relationship between a small boy and his lamb. The purity of his love is in sharp contrast with harsh attitude of adults who have to deal with realities of life. The boy's love represents innocence of childhood (his minor immoral acts such as petty thefts is carried out in all innocence to save his lamb), but eventually he realizes that a time will come to let his lamb go. Set in unspoiled landscape of Ethiopian mountainside, film tells its story with a simple technique to match the sentiment of is content.

THE WAIT
Director: Piero Messina; Italy, 2015

It is a study in bereavement and loss of loved ones. A mother who has lost her son find herself unable to break the news to her son's girlfriend, waiting for the right moment to do so. The film explores details of woman's grief from denial to acceptance. A suitable vehicle for Julitte Binoche who is expert in portraying women tormented by their emotions.

THE WITCH
Director: Robert Eggers; USA/Canada, 2015

In 17th century New England a devout Christian family living in a farm at the edge of the forest experience strange phenomena which they suspect is due to supernatural powers and work of devil. As the film progresses they gradually begin to suspect their teenage daughter to be a witch. The film's dramatic tension builds up as clashes between members of the family escalates to the histrionic level (similar to the case of Salem witches) ending in the climax of revelation. The film generates an undercurrent of horror in a Gothic atmosphere conveying the existence of evil force. In the final scene film shows the witch as the embodiment of our subconscious desires. Her victory and celebration conveys defeat of Christian faith in the hands of a more powerful enemy.

Taxi (Jafar Panahi, 2015) - LFF Review

TAXI (in the UK: TAXI TEHRAN)
Director: Jafar Panahi; Iran, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

Following This Is Not a Film and Closed Curtain, Jafar Panahi's Taxi Tehran seems to be first and foremost his reaction to imposed restriction. In his new film (winner of Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival) the restriction is a self imposed one by limiting himself to the confined space of a taxi. By playing the role of taxi driver Panahi beaks the boundary between cinematic illusion and reality of life. Although taxi runs though streets of Tehran there is nothing specific about places visited. The main purpose of using a taxi is for Panahi to express his feelings and views through encounters with a series of passengers, showing two extreme lines of thought in the society such as in the scene when a heated argument between a fanatic man and a liberal-minded female teacher is depicted. Other passengers include: a man selling copies of pirated DVDs; Two women carrying goldfish in a bowl, highlighting the grip that religious superstition can have on people; Pleasant encounter with a friend (human right lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh) voices social restrictions which Panahi himself has gone through.

But most interesting of all is Panahi's niece, a delightful little girl who is trying to make a film as a school project and is confused between restrictive instruction given by school and advice given by his uncle about how to search for reality. The film ends (or rather interrupted) by someone breaking into the taxi while Panahi is away for a short while. It is implied that it could be an act of surveillance rather than burglary. Panahi's final message seems to be he is prepared (and able) to work under any restrictive condition.

Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang (Walter Salles, 2015)

JIA ZHANGKE, A GUY FROM FENYANG
Director: Walter Salles; Brazil, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

A film about a great director, made by another great. Walter Salles' documentary on Jia Zhangke is mainly made of conversation between the two filmmakers, while they visit various places from Zhangke's past life, including some of the locations used in his films. Tone of conversation is informal and friendly. Zhangke talks freely about his younger days and mischievous acts. He mentions his favourite films including some he remembers from his childhood (interestingly among them we see Raj Kapoor's Awara).  Further comments come from people in his life, including his wife and actress of his films Zhao Tao. The film gives an informative picture of Zhangke's world and the relationship between his life and his work. Walter Salles, treatment of his subject is intimate and friendly. But his affectionate respect for his follow filmmaker is felt throughout.

Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015)

SUNSET SONG
Director: Terence Davies; UK/Luxembourg, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

Terence Davies is on top form with a film reminding us of his early works like Distant Voices, Still Lives. But while his new film is not autobiographical and is based on a novel by Lewis Grassic Gibon set in Scotland of the early 20th century, the familiar elements of romantic nostalgia is present. The film follows the life story of its protagonist from her days as a teenage girl, living in a farm with a loving mother and a tyrant of a father, and after their death becoming a farm owner, wife and mother, deeply in love with her husband until First World War brings her a sorrow that many women faced. A literary third person narration gives a film a poetic touch added to the visual beauty of its images, whether outdoors such as golden corn fields under the sun or indoors as lit by oil lamp or candle. Terence Davies at his most stylish.

Saul fia (László Nemes, 2015)

SON OF SAUL
Director: László Nemes; Hungary, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

The first shot of the film establishes its theme and style: a long take fixed on the close-up of the protagonist with stages of extermination gas chamber proceeding in the blurred background. The film is from the point of view of Saul, a Sonderkommando (a prisoner in concentration camp, carrying out the unpleasant task of helping Nazis with their extermination). In a succession of long takes all the horrifying aspects of life in concentration camp is shown with Saul nearly always at the centre of the frame. We share his experience as he carries on with his task, from seeing prisoners are undressed and moved into the gas chamber and afterwards collecting their clothes and possessions. Director László Nemes has created a nightmarish atmosphere covering every aspect of atrocities committed by the Nazis. We watch prisoners murdered (either sent to gas chamber or shot dead) and being poured into a common grave. We hear their screams and even feel the smell of rotten bodies (by seeing Saul covering his mouth with a piece of cloth).The only sign of humanity in this infernal setting is Saul's determination to give a descent burial to a young boy who briefly survived the gas chamber. Holocaust has never been watched more closely. A well deserved winner of Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival.

The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, 2015)

THE FORBIDDEN ROOM
Director: Guy Maddin; Canada, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

Guy Maddin's surrealistic experimental film with its disjointed storyline, a succession of colourful psychedelic and monochrome images dissolving into one another to create a kaleidoscopic dream world. The film is full of literary and cinematic references (such as Jules Verne's submarine) as well as symbolic and analytic allusions (with forbidden room the ultimate one). A funny dialogue and narration, odd situations and eccentric characters (portrayed by exaggerated performances) gives the film its dry sense of humour and edge of satire. The film despite (or perhaps because of) its total chaos, incoherence and confusion keeps our interest alive and propel it forward right through to the end. If there is one one word to describe Maddin's delightful mixture of humour and fantasy it would be fantastic.

Évolution (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015)

Évolution
Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic; France, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

Director Lucile Hadzihalilovic explores the sexual awakening of a young boy in the setting of a hospital in an isolated island, and his relationship with a young attractive girl (her nurse /carer). Film's approach is an analytical one with plenty of symbolism such as deep water for subconscious and final return to the shore of civilisation representing conscious level of mind. But director makes the picture even more complicated by taking the boy's relationship back to its origin in the system of evolution, thus adding Darwinism to Freudian psychology.

Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

ROOM
Director: Lenny Abrahamson; Canada-Ireland, 2015
Reviewed by Kiomars Vejdani

The film is from the point of view of a boy of five who has lived from birth in the confinement of a shed with no direct contact with the world outside. We share his restricted world and his confused perception of reality due to limited feedback he receives from his environment. For him a fly is real because it exists in his room but cats, dogs, and trees are illusion because they exist only on TV screen. The fact that he still has a good understanding of the world is because of her mother. She shares her son's confined environment and has made it the main task of her life to teach her son everything about world outside so that his perception of it remains normal. As the story progresses we come to realize the horrifying circumstances which has led to their present situation. The crucial question we face is how the boy is going to react to his own perception of reality after he reaches the world out side. The film answers this question in a most satisfying way. Lenny Abrahamson has built a powerful drama based on an unusual and emotive subject treated with great sensitivity and gentleness.

Murnau's 4 Devils - Production Design Drawings

http://cinearchitecture.tumblr.com/post/127147462097/4-devils-f-w-murnau-1928-lost-film

http://cinearchitecture.tumblr.com/post/128907291512/part-ii-4-devils-f-w-murnau-1928-lost

Feminine Vertigo [RIP Chantal Akerman 1950-2015]

Notes on Chantal Akerman's encounter with Hitchcock and Marcel Proust

Recently in a collection of articles in an Iranian film journal, dedicated to the Hitchcock’s Vertigo, one of my colleagues had chronicled the films influenced by Vertigo which covers many films from 1958 up to this day, directly inspired by Hitchcock’s masterpiece, or as an homage to it. Though a long and interesting list, it lacked one decisive title which in a sense is the most vertigoic of the all vertigo childrens; A film that presents love, death, voyeurism and obsession in the most contemporary context, reverses some of the gender issues of the original film, and significantly it’s been directed by a woman.  The film is La Captive [The Captive] (2000), directed by Chantal Akerman and an adaptation of Marcel Proust’s La Prisoniere (volume five of In Search of Lost Time).

The story follows Simon (Stanislas Merhar), survivor of a wealthy family who lives with his grandmother (Midge?), and in love with Ariane (Sylvie Testud), while she is in love with both Simon and Andrée (a girl with whom she has a close relationship). Simon is allergic and vulnerable even to the smell of flowers.  Such is Simon’s vertigo and interestingly, there are workers painting the walls, throughout the film, leaving him to cope with allergic reactions to the smell of paint. Simon wants to change Ariane and shape her, like a statue, to his own liking. He tries hard, but fails, as Ariane drowns (or get lost) at sea.

Akerman’s film has a prologue which serves as an equivalent to the roof chase scene at the beginning of the Vertigo. Simon is watching an 8mm film of a woman, whom he will be eventually following. The shots become closer to the woman and Simon is obsessed by her. This is Simon’s fall!

Then story more and less follows the pattern of Vertigo that is mostly evident in the two Hitchcockian themes of chase and gaze. Similarities are more than one can imagine: following her by car and the static medium shot of Simon, following her to the museum and the hotel, she is dressed in grey, he stands in the doorways and looks at her emotionless. In the museum there is a statue of a woman whose hair reminds us of Kim Novak’s famous bun. These alternations in Akerman’s work when become necessary, and even crucial, that the idea of possession turns into male looking at female as a museum piece, a lifeless object that could be the source of passion and inspiration. Akerman points his camera to the masculine mindsets of Simon. One of the most expressive scenes happens in the museum, when Simon is surrounded by statues of women who have missing arms, heads or legs. Simon is unable to link the real identities of the woman he loves, or he thinks he love, with his thoughts and temptations which are based upon “women as an object to worship and idolize”. There is a physical obstacle between him and women (as in the famous poster showing a glass barrier between Simon and Ariane) that makes him a mere observer.

In Akerman’s view, things could be simple, real and tangible for a woman. Woman lives and the man’s life is watching the woman live.  Ariane allows Simon to mold her into the object of his desires, obeys his every whim and wish. The combination of his authority and her total compliance leads the situation to a bitter end, Akerman’s version of the tower of death. During his long drive to the beach, Simon tries to search the real core of Ariane. For the very first time we see him trying to understand her. But his efforts are shattered by her death in the sea. The closing scene shows Simon (Scottie?) on a boat, searching for her body. As in the last scene of Vertigo, everything is in grey. If Scottie overcomes his fear, Simon seems to be lost forever.

La Captive is not a masterpiece, but it has many brilliant ideas in dealing with Vertigo which are executed almost flawless. I think this is one of the best tributes to Hitchcock’s cinema. If Vertigo between psychoanalysis and poetry choose the second, La Captive stays faithful to the first, and creates a powerful dreamlike story of the oldest notion of possession in history: man owning woman! She dismantles this concept, demystifies it, and stays calm all the way. •