MIFF 2021 is over – another festival completely online, to the great disappointment of the organisers. We still threw ourselves into watching as many as we could – ending up with 35 for me and 36 for Joe. Not all of the movies scheduled for the cinemas made it to MIFF Play but there were some very good ones all the same. This is the order in which we watched them – much easier access via Joe’s phone than last year. Maybe because we – which means Joe – have got the hang of it. No better way to spend lockdown than sitting on the couch watching three movies in a day – once we watched four! That was a step too far. Here are the films I thought were the best.
The Wasteland *****
A masterpiece. This was my immediate description and the word I used in recommending it to a person I follow on twitter. She described it as a poem of a film that words couldn’t do justice to. Which also captures my response. It was one of the last films we watched. Filmed in black and white it’s set in the most austere landscape imaginable; we could be on the moon. No vegetation, just earth with dust blowing constantly. A long structure – which turns out to be a brickwork kiln – and a single building, that houses all of the workers in single rooms, appear to be carved out of the earth. We watch as the foreman, Lotfallah, delivers ice to his fellow workers. Actually he tells them the ice has come and delivers it personally to only one, his voice falling an octave when he calls her name. Which tells us all we need to know about his feelings. Wonderful acting. The boss has called a meeting and as he starts his speech the camera hones in on one of the workers. We then see his back story – the first three are men. In each one Lotfallah encourages the worker to visit the boss and outline his grievance; while he, Lotfallah, undertakes the worker’s task. Harsh and unforgiving work it is too. In each interview the boss promises to deal with the issue raised – retirement, elopement, staying an execution. In each the worker makes a complaint about Lotfallah. The fourth worker is the woman who received the ice in the first scene. Her interview doesn’t take the same course, but she has a grievance that he promises to fix. Each time we return to the boss’s speech we get a bit more of it; while he repeats his opening lines about Lotfallah having lived his entire life at the brickworks. It’s no surprise, nor a spoiler, when he announces the closure of the works. In the film’s final moments we are left with Lotfallah as everyone else leaves. No words are spoken in the closing stages which come with an emotional heft not to be forgotten. The trailer is here.
Ninjababy ****
Great fun and would have got five stars only it fell away a bit toward the end. A terrific story based on a graphic novel. Set in Norway the protagonist, Rakel, is an aspiring illustrator who finds she is pregnant and unable to get the abortion she would have liked. She sets about investigating who the father might be. I loved the acceptance of women as free sexual agents that gets depicted during that search. All the time she is imagining the foetus – Ninjababy – talking to her. Having identified Dad she has to work out what to do. Having her half sister adopt would be a nice option. Also dragged into the story is an akido instructor she likes. There’s a spectacular scene when all the main characters converge in the kitchen. Laugh out loud territory. All of the performances are great especially from the lead, Kristine Kujath Thorp. I wholeheartedly agree with the MIFF programme that the director, Yngvild Sve Flikke expertly tackles taboos, subverts narrative conventions and entertains the audience, all in one rollicking bundle of cinematic joy. A good feminist take on motherhood. Norway is such a progressive country! The trailer is here.
Wife of a Spy ****
Exquisite looking film and compelling story. A cosmopolitan Japanese man, Yusaku, trader in silk, a wearer of beautifully tailored clothes lives in a beautiful Western style house with his wife and a couple of servants. He is a cinephile and they make films together. A woman at a safe, caught as she reaches in to take something. All in shaky black and white. Yusaku observes the growing nationalism and militarism around him with disdain. Seemingly unconcerned about the threat to him and his wife who both continue to wear western style clothes nothwithstanding the edict to wear traditional dress. The film opens with a client being taken in by the military police. Yusaku takes a trip to Manchuria and starts behaving strangely. His wife does some sleuthing of her own. Is Yusaku a spy? Should his wife trust him? Should he trust her? The local army officer is an old school friend and instils some suspicion into the mix. There is an unexpected pivot in the middle which some reviews have suggested is unlikely but I found it all believable. The film within a film takes on an unexpected significance. Some beautiful scenery along with a couple of gruesome scenes. Lots of tension towards the end. I enjoyed it enormously. The trailer is here.
The Nowhere Inn ****
You don’t need to know anything about Annie Clark (the singer St Vincent) or Carrie Brownstein (from the tv show Portlandia) – I knew neither – to enjoy this stylish, subversive film. A documentary is being made of the singer by her best friend. Question is: do we want boring authenticity or what we expect celebrity life to involve? Our documentary film maker is confronted with the question early on and makes a fateful decision. Be careful what you wish for. I don’t think I’ll look at a documentary about a famous person in the same way ever again. We’re taken on a roller coaster ride that examines the impact of celebrity – a cringe-worthy opening scene in a limousine – and what real friendship means. I even enjoyed the shows; incredibly stylish outfits and lights camera action! And I liked the softer ballads very much indeed. This was lots of fun to watch and very thought provoking. The trailer is here.
Dear Comrades!****
I loved this movie and until I saw The Wasteland I was giving it five stars. Black and white photography takes us back to 1960s Russia. Kruschev has just made his famous speech condemning Stalin but the folk in Novocherkassk are more concerned about rising food prices and reduced wages. We follow the tribulations of a loyal party functionary as her day rapidly deteriorates on both the political and personal front. Dad’s reverting to the good old Cossack days, her daughter’s on strike. All of her old verities are crumbling. If only Stalin was still alive! The deadening bureaucracy of the totalitarian state terrifies those above and below – the safest option is to shut up and see nothing. Based on a true worker’s uprising and subsequent massacre in the city that was repressed until the 1990s. Some beautifully composed scenes, great script and terrific performances. The trailer is here.
Center Stage****
This was such an innovative film. Watching I had no idea it was made thirty years ago – it could have been made this year. It tells the life story of one of China’s first movie star; Ruan Lingyu, the Chinese Greta Garbo of her day. She starred in several silent movies made in the nineteen twenties before taking her own life at the age of 24. We see Maggie Cheung playing Ruan in real life and as Ruan acting in her movies. These latter scenes are followed by excerpts of Ruan’s actual performance. We also watch the modern day actors talking about the people they are playing which include Ruan’s directors and two of her lovers. They discuss the different theories about why she took her own life. It was quite a cause célèbre at the time. Blackmail, cowardice, betrayal, courts and the tabloid press. All very modern. Terrific film-making. It’s a compelling story very creatively told. The trailer is here.
Azor****
Only a short film but quietly compelling. A surface appearance of civilised wealth and good manners is slowly revealed as built on quicksand. There’s no overt violence but that makes the horror more insidious. Our protagonist is Yvan, an urbane Swiss banker; small in stature, beautifully groomed. The epitome of old European money. Reminded me of Emmanuel Macron! He’s in Buenos Aires, with his wife, trying to find out what happened to his business partner, Keys, who has fled the scene. He visits his clients who mostly advise him that said partner was terrific. Except for the wife of one, who tells Yvan’s wife Keys was a monster. Who’s telling the truth? And what do these judgements mean in this city where, both people and property – even amongst this moneyed class – are being disappeared. What do these terrific / monster judgements mean? Was Keys appeasing the regime or resisting involvement in its crimes? Yvan is quietly baited by his wife to do whatever is required to advance the interests of the bank. He’s invited into the belly of the beast – the most exclusive club in the city. Where he meets the epitome of evil – the Monsigneur. A bravura performance. Evil doesn’t look like it’s caricature. Urbane and sophisticated he lures Yvan into the heart of the regime – which is distressing in its normalcy. The trailer is here.
Celts ***/*
I can’t decide on 3 or 4 stars for the next few movies! I didn’t know what to expect of this movie but I was very impressed. We’re in Yugoslavia in 1993 – Al Pacino winning an Oscar best actor, ninja turtles both feature. The action revolves around a child’s birthday party. We see the family preparing – mother, father, sister, grandmother. Living conditions in the town are spartan. People share information about where to get different foodstuffs like butter and barter things, like cigarettes, instead of cash. Times are tough. While there’s nothing much said or shown overtly about the political situation you get the sense all these lives are burdened by living under an authoritarian regime. This this comes to the fore during the party itself. The children are dressed as ninja turtles. Class distinctions emerge via the costumes. Children and adults demonstrate the same sort of behaviour. Forming alliances, excluding some, airing grievances, avoiding responsibilities. Children eat and drink too much sugar, adults drink too much alcohol. There’s quite a lot of sex – both talked about and performed and including a number of small but graphic close-ups. I found it all very human despite the lack of any truly sympathetic characters. A sign of good film-making. The trailer is here.
The Girl and the Spider***/*
A bit hard to watch initially. The central character is horrible, fermenting mischief whenever she can. You are immediately struck by the harsh, brightly lit, garish colours and extreme close-ups. Which suits the claustrophobic scenes of people performing the myriad jobs involved in moving house. Cleaning bathrooms, assembling furniture, fixing window frames and doors, unpacking wardrobes etc. The mother of the person moving is helping; but where’s Dad. Old flatmates are on hand. Over the course of all this activity we start noticing looks pregnant with meaning being exchanged. Between mother and the removalist, between the removalist assistant and the main character, between two of the former flatmates. Sexual attraction, jealousy disappointment, frustration. Very theatrical film-making – reminded me of Fassbinder’s Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. The trailer is here.
Moon. 66 Questions ***/*
Joe liked this more than me but I agree it was well done. Mostly because of the performances, in particular from Sofia Kokkali who we saw in Digger at MIFF in 2020. She plays a daughter long estranged from her father but who has come home to care for him after he is struck down by an auto-immune disease. It’s a bit unclear why that burden is imposed on her but that doesn’t matter. There are a few scenes where the rest of the family come together and seek to hire a nurse to do the job which are a bit surreal and didn’t add much. Unless it is to to show that the rest of the family is self regarding and rapacious which is extraneous to the matter in hand. The focus is on the daughter; Artemis, and how she deals with this new situation with her father, Paris. I was going to check out the relevance of these names but haven’t done so. Nor was I sure about the relevance of the moon and therefore the title. And there were tarot cards displayed from time to time. Flashbacks to her childhood show a distant, disciplinarian father. Now she has to perform intimate caring duties. A terrific performance shows the strangeness, embarrassment, pain involved. There’s a paternal secret revealed although I didn’t think the story needed that. A very moving final scene. The trailer is here.
Preparations To Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time ***/*
This was intriguing. You’re never quite sure where it is going but are enthralled anyway. Thinking about it later I would say it’s about loneliness and longing. It’s set in Budapest and there are some great views of the city. The whole film is held together by a great central performance by Natasa Stork – she of amazing blue eyes and white teeth! She’s a successful neurosurgeon with some sort of family link to Hungary but she’s been living in the US. Until now, when she has come to Budapest in pursuit of a man she barely knows – met at a medical convention in the US. She waits at the place on the bridge where they had agreed to meet. He doesn’t come. She decides to stay and seek him out; getting a job at the hospital where he works. We are impatient for them to meet. But when they do things don’t go to plan. Is she cracking up? Imagining things? Deluded? Is he? She’s certainly telling lies – to her analyst whom we see a few times, to her friend from back home who comes to get her, to herself? All of this is filmed beautifully; in ways that add to the mystery. A very strange ending might contain a clue to what we’ve just seen. The trailer is here.
Social Hygiene ***/*
This was a funny sort of film and wouldn’t be for everyone but I enjoyed it. Very French, very mannered. It opens on a beautiful landscape where two characters stand, completely stationary throughout a shouted exchange. It emerges they are brother, Antonin, and sister. She’s trying to find out how he’s living – which as it turns out, is not well at all. This is followed by Antonin in different parts of the same landscape engaging in similar, contrived dialogue with different interlocutors; all women. In addition to his sister who we see a couple of times we get his estranged wife, his proposed mistress, a tax official and one of the victims of his petty crime. ou get to see them all in the trailer below. For some reason the wife and mistress appear in period costumes. The landscapes are stunning. Everyone speaks in beautifully constructed sentences; full of wit and philosophical musings. Gradually a story emerges about Antonin’s life and relationships – the MIFF note describes it as a theatrical battle of the sexes but that didn’t immediately spring to mind. Weird but keeps your interest mostly because of the performance of Maxim Goudette who manages to make the potentially unlikeable Antonin quite sympathetic. The trailer is here.
Mr Bachmann and his Class***/*
Three and a half hours immersed in Mr Bachmann’s classroom. Where he gently cajoles a diverse group of young people to be better selves. They come from Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Brazil – and even Transylvania. Boys and girls; loud ones, quiet ones – just like young people everywhere. Filmed over a school year he gently queries their sense of nationality, attitudes to sexuality and future ambitions. Along the way we learn a bit about Stadtallendorf’s grisly history. We also meet a couple of the other teachers and see Mr Bachman interacting with a couple of friends. He’s approaching retirement and wondering what the future holds. It’s interesting to get a glimpse of the German education system; seems less rigid than ours. All three and a half hours quite absorbing. There are quite a few trailers one is here and another one here.
Gaza Mon Amour ***/*
I was expecting a comedy which was wrong. A slice of life in Gaza not often seen. The difficulties experienced by locals in their day to day lives are wryly observed – power outages, price rises, checkpoints and boundaries. A small community – no secrets here. A fisherman decides he wants to marry a seamstress with whose he’s never exchanged words. An unlikely romance indeed. A Greek statue recovered from the sea causes complications. As does a sister intent on match-making. And there’s an unsettling scene with a rocket. But there’s no overt polemical line being pushed here. These are people getting by, seeking happiness, and we’re rooting for them. Plenty of quiet humour along the way. The trailer is here.
Aurora***/*
Very slow-paced but ultimately beautifully realised film. About friendship, loneliness, uncertainty, how to plan for the future, motherhood, family – all the big issues really. But gently done. Beautiful cinematography – all soft blues and greys. Set in Costa Rica, which looks quite beautiful. Two very attractive leads – a young girl and an older woman. They bond over the girl’s unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. Everyone seems very enlightened about sex in Costa Rica! The girl’s reluctance to tell her parents is left unexplained. It appears that men in this part of the world have to go elsewhere in search of employment. So, a very female focussed film which was nice. The trailer is here.
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