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ScreenDaily - After enjoying the biggest commercial success of his career with the tightly disciplined genre film Inside Man, Spike Lee returns to his freewheeling ways in Miracle At St Anna, an Italy-set World War II story which plays like a jazz improvisation from its composer Terence Blanchard – long, meandering and full of asides – with not enough attention to the plot momentum or characterisation that a 166-minute war film requires.
It will be a tall order to draw wide audiences to this story of four black US soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in 1944 Tuscany. The tone here is inconsistent to say the least, and screenwriter James McBride, who also wrote the film’s source novel, doesn’t take any one character’s point of view throughout, leaving the narrative decidedly unfocused.
In box office terms, it is more likely to perform along the modest lines of Enemy At The Gates or The Great Raid than Saving Private Ryan or Pearl Harbor. African American audiences in the US and audiences in Italy might see it as an event, but remaining global audiences will be unlikely to consider it a must-see, especially with the lack of name stars in the cast… [Full Story]
Archive for 2008
Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick) – ScreenDaily Review
Monday, September 8th, 2008
ScreenDaily - Discreet, old fashioned, traditional and altogether admirable, this is Jan Troell in what he does best, a period drama about a woman photographer living in Sweden at the turn of the last century. Paying minute attention to the smallest details, taking its time but never appearing to drag its feet, immensely sympathetic to its heroes and villains alike, this is an intimate family portrait and at the same time a rich canvass of working class life at that particular time.
A natural for Troell, who was a photographer before starting to direct (his latest, the 2003 documentary feature Presence was dedicated to a photographer friend), this picture has quality stamped all over it, awards are likely to come its way whether for direction, photography or the performances of Maria Heiskanen and Mikael Persbrandt, and if this may not be the most suitable material for impatient under-20 audiences, Everlasting Moments could easily charm all the rest, going beyond the strict confinements of art house and festival crowds.
Agneta Ulstater Troell, the director’s wife, based the novel she wrote and its subsequent screen adaptation on the life of her own ancestor, Maria Larsson, a simple woman married to a charming but hopeless redneck, who became a photographer at a time when no woman would have dreamt of embracing such a profession and no man, certainly not the kind of working class lout she had for a husband, would condone it… [Full Story]
Unspoken – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Variety.com - Talented Belgian writer-director Fien Troch engages in a difficult dramatic game with her second film, “Unspoken,” and falls short of the mark. Intensely involved with the emotionally alienated and disoriented parents of a teenage girl who went missing four years earlier, Troch’s work is so bundled in elliptical moments and scenes without context that it will test — and break — most viewers’ patience. Certain invites to many prestige fests will be countered by general distrib indifference, despite the strong presences of Gallic stars Emmanuelle Devos and Bruno Todeschini.
“Unspoken” is far different from Troch’s superbly realized “Someone Else’s Happiness.” While her confident feature debut was shot and staged in powerful master and wide shots and ingeniously balanced between tragedy and comedy, the new pic is made in a relentless and eventually stultifying series of extreme, albeit often beautiful closeups, in scenes that frequently don’t seem linked in any revealing way.
The method is meant to express the psychological difficulties Lucas (Todeschini) and Grace (Devos) endure in the wake of daughter Lisa’s disappearance, the facts and basics of which aren’t revealed until well into the film. Until then, both parents seems to be in their own worlds — Grace loitering in a mall looking for any sign of Lisa, Lucas at work and unable to deal with news of his father’s brain tumor. The home phone regularly rings, with silence on the other end, which Lucas begins to imagine is coming from Lisa… [Full Story]
It’s Not Me, I Swear! (C’est pas moi, je le jure!) – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Variety.com - Advertised in Quebec (where it opens Sept. 26) as a wacky comedy about a rampaging child terror, “It’s Not Me, I Swear!” is in fact a bittersweet portrait of one prepubescent kid acting out against his dysfunctional family in ways that would send any teen straight to the reformatory. Delicately balanced between absurdity and tragedy by director Philippe Falardeau (”Congorama”), adapting Bruno Hebert’s 1997 novel and its 2000 sequel, this adventuresome, accomplished piece should ride critical acclaim to solid home-turf returns and a fair shot at offshore arthouse distribution.
Ten-year-old Leon Dore (Antoine L’Ecuyer) has a history of what he calls “my deadly accidents” — near-fatal incidents that might be interpreted as genuine suicide attempts, cries for attention or just expressions of very warped humor. Older brother Jerome (Gabriel Maille) pines for familial normalcy, something denied by the actions of Leon — who thinks everything is abnormal, and behaves with the antisocial freedom such belief allows.
Their frustrated-painter mom (Suzanne Clement) doesn’t help much; she doesn’t discourage Leon’s antics so much as cover his tracks, advising, “It’s bad to lie, but it’s worse to lie badly.” She’s always fighting with their dad (Daniel Briere), a public-interest lawyer. Leon’s method of ending their quarrels is to set the house on fire… [Full Story]
Good – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Variety.com - Onstage, British playwright C.P. Taylor’s “Good” excited less for its rather obvious parable of moral corruption than for the cinematic sweep of events as a conscience-stricken protagonist passively let himself be pushed up the ladder of Nazi favor. On film, however, this oft-revived work reveals its theatrical roots all too clearly, underlined by the decision to have a roster of German characters speaking the Queen’s English. Toplining Viggo Mortensen, shot in Budapest and directed by Brazil’s Vicente Amorim, this tepid adaptation has an international-pudding feel unlikely to spark much critical or aud enthusiasm.
First produced in 1981, the year of its author’s death (and subsequently mounted with such leading thesps as William Hurt and Charles Dance), “Good” remains a rather heavy-handed lesson about “good” people seduced by evil, albeit one that stimulated theatrically, thanks to multicast thesps and a hurtling narrative that broke the fourth wall. There’s little such novelty left in this literal-minded translation, however, leaving one aware of how broadly the characters are etched and how predictable their trajectories to tragic understanding will be.
John Halder (Mortensen) is a literature professor unnerved in 1933 by the National Socialists’ book burnings and other shows of incipient fascism. But he’s too harried by the needs of an unstable wife (Anastasia Hille), their two children and a senile mother (Gemma Jones) to take a real stand. Four years later, he’s unexpectedly summoned by the chairman of the censorship committee at Hitler’s Chancellery… [Full Story]
Genova (2007) – ScreenDaily Review
Monday, September 8th, 2008
ScreenDaily - A family’s struggles with loss, grief and guilt form the basis of a frustratingly insubstantial drama in Genova. Michael Winterbottom’s latest effort is commendable for its refusal to indulge in easy sentimentality but the price for that is an elusive, low-key tale that keeps the viewer at arm’s length. The audience for a Winterbottom film tends to be modest at the best of times but its hard to see who will be attracted by a story that is mildly intriguing without ever becoming compelling. Theatrical prospects look marginal.
Genova begins with a classic set-up for a tv-movie weepie. Mary-Ann (Hope Davis) and her daughters are driving along an icy road in the depth of winter. They play games and exude contentment signalling that tragedy is only a
heartbeat away. Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine) is the unwitting architect of an accident in which her mother dies. Five months later, her father Joe (Colin Firth) accepts a teaching job that will involve spending a year in Italy. Soon, Joe, Mary and her older sister Kelly (Willa Holland) are heading for a fresh start in Genova.
Thus far, the film remains reasonably promising. Winterbottom is then able to capture Genova as a city full of possibilities. Prowling the narrow, winding streets, dead ends and back alleys helps to create a sense of oppression and a mild degree of threat at what could be lurking around the next corner – although comparisons with Nicolas Roeg’s use of Venice in Don’t Look Now (1973) seem wildly overstated and unconvincing… [Full Story]
Kanchivaram – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Variety.com - Hitting a sweet spot somewhere between Bollywood and earnest independent fare, South Indian writer-helmer Priyadarshan’s poignant historical drama “Kanchivaram” offers the universal resonance of a tragic fairy tale. Mostly set in the two decades prior to Indian independence, plus a powerful 1948 coda, this compelling Tamil-language yarn about exploited silk weavers also provides a primer on the rigid social structures and traditions of the times and a fascinating analysis of the failure of communist ideology. With production values as gorgeous as the cloth the main characters create, this multilayered pic deserves some kind of international exposure beyond the fest circuit.
The seeds of tragedy are planted during a traditional “first feeding” ceremony when ambitious weaver Vengadam (Prakash Raj) makes a public promise that his infant daughter will be married in a silk sari. Neighbors are aghast at his hubris: Craftsmen of his caste could never afford such a luxury, and feudal overlords harshly control the means and materials of production.
Determined to keep his pledge as a matter of pride, Vengadam starts stealing a silken thread each day so he might weave in secret. Over the years, he becomes a spokesman for his fellow craftsmen, leading them in collective action to obtain better wages and working conditions. When a prolonged strike coincides with preparations for his daughter’s wedding, Vengadam is torn between his communist ideology and his desire to keep his oath… [Full Story]
TIFF Review: VINYAN – Twitch
Monday, September 8th, 2008
Twitch - There is a scene in Fabrice Du Welz‘s new film where the white folks, stranded in the jungle without guide or means, are viciously ridiculed, teased and denied the simplest of sustenance: a small ball of rice. It is a moment of uncomfortable horror in the so-called global village, a moment of extreme retribution for casual western exploitation of so many southeast Asian countries. Vinyan, the title of the film, is loosely translated as “drifting soul” and it can be applied to the film in several meaningful and stimulating ways. Those few who were enthusiastic about Du Welz‘s (criminally underseen) Calvaire will recognize the rice-ball scene as his budding auteur moment. While the films are miles apart in setting, language, and tone, there is no mistaking that they are the product of a master horror filmmaker rising to the top of his game. I said after reviewing AJ Anilla‘s Sauna that if I see a better horror film than that one in 2008 that I’d eat my shirt, who knew that I would be having to set the table less than 24 hours later! Taking the large Tsunami’s as the divine hammer for a sinning population, Vinyan is both poetical and political; those who take it literally are bound to get a little stuck with the film. Taken as a visceral meditation, it is a sublime success.
The film starts off thrumming and pounding on the audiences senses. A close up of unidentifyable static turbulence and titles so large they threaten to swallow the audience, it is not a surprise that the cinematographer was the same fellow who shot Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. The camera eventually comes into focus to reveal the static to be air bubbles frantically trying to get to the surface of the ocean. Jeanne (a radiant Emmanuelle Béart) rises from the drink to greet her equally attractive husband, Paul played by Rufus Sewell. Curiously, she offers him a pair of shoes she found in the marketplace. Not really what he needs or even want, but perhaps they will do. An interesting bit of foreshadowing to one of the films audience straining narrative pathways. Du Welz’s intent seems to be to challenge the audience while simultaneously alienating them. Paul and Jeanne have lost their son 6 months ago in the Tsunami that wiped out a lot of the southeast Asian coastline, and they have lingered in Thailand with the thin hope that he may still be alive somewhere. At a charity even, a woman has a video of the extreme poverty of the villages along a river in central Burma. Jeannne is convinced she has spotted her child in that video. Despite protestations of her skeptical husband, it is not long before Jeanne is wandering through the seedier parts of the red light district looking for a Triad contact to get her into closed off Burma. What follows is a decent into the heart of darkness, into the void where the void most certainly looks back. The allure of violence and sexuality that attracts westerners to Bangkok is woven throughout the proceedings as well in the form of primal sexual hum particularly in a curious inversion of the form of the foreign aid worker encountered by the couple… [Full Story]
TIFF Review: REAL SHAOLIN – Twitch
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Twitch - Shaolin. If you have even a passing knowledge of Chinese culture the name instantly conjures up a stream of powerful images. The Shaolin Temple is believed to be the historical source not only of Chinese Kung Fu but also of Zen Budhism. It has been the center of legends, home to icons, immortalized and film. And though it was burned to the ground in the 1920s and the original Shaolin kung fu largely banned by Mao Tse Tung – the disciplines have since essentially split into wushu and sanda – it is still there, still active and still inspiring pilgrims from around the globe to make their way there hoping to learn the wisdom of ancient masters.
Enter film maker Alexander Lee. Himself a one time pilgrim to the Shaolin Temple, Lee returned after his own sojourn there armed with his camera and the desire to capture the Shaolin experience from a variety of perspectives. He has succeeded admirably.
Lee’s film, Real Shaolin, tracks a quartet of students from various backgrounds, studying at four different schools in four slightly different disciplines at the temple itself and martial arts schools in the nearby city of Dengfeng. Representing the Chinese experience of Shaolin are Yuan Peng and Zhu. Yuan is a ten year old orphan abandoned at the temple and adopted by one of the Shaolin masters. Yuan is being prepared for life as a Shaolin Warrior Monk, his entire life built around his training, training the shifts to Qigong Iron Body techniques when renovations to the Shaolin Temple force him to move out for a time. Zhu? Zhu is a nineteen year old boy, the child of poor farmers training in sanda – a competitive martial arts sport that combines kung fu techniques with take down maneouvers – in the largest martial arts school in the world, a school with over fourteen thousand students at any given time. Zhu dreams of being crowned the Sanda King, failing that he relies on his sanda training opening up a future career for him as a police officer, bodyguard or the like… [Full Story]
TIFF Review: INJU, THE BEAST IN THE SHADOWS – Twitch
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
Twitch - Powerful cast, compelling source material from a legendary writer, a glimpse into a closely shielded world. There are a lot of things to like about Inju, Barbet Schroeder’s adaptation of Edogawa Rampo’s novel of the same name. It is a strikingly formal picture, beautifully shot and constructed, loaded with a very strong Japanese cast and compelling imagery. IT also, however, has a pair of major flaws that prevent it from ever really reaching its potential.
Alex Fayard is the darling of the literary world, the young French author of a striking new crime novel that has proven to be a major critical and commercial success all around the globe. Fayard is also a man obsessed with the work of Shundei Oe, a mysterious Japanese master of dark crime novels who Fayard has consciously styled himself after – even landing a publishing deal with the same Japanese publishing house as Oe and having his book released with a cover in the exact style of his idol’s. But Oe is a mystery for a reason, he is a reclusive man who has never been seen even by his publishers and many believe that his work could only come from a man with many of the same psychological and emotional problems shown by the criminals he writes about. And, as Fayard will quickly learn when he arrives for a book tour of Japan, Oe does not appreciate having a new rival for his fans’ affection …
Existing in a world of geisha and sexual bondage, Inju is a showcase of the themes that run throughout Edogawa Rampo’s work. It is loaded with a sort of formal dread and high melodrama, laced with bursts of extreme violence and kinky sex. On that score Schroeder gets Rampo exactly right, which is good news for fans. But, as already mentioned there are two significant flaws… [Full Story]
Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick) – ScreenDaily Review
Monday, September 8th, 2008ScreenDaily - Discreet, old fashioned, traditional and altogether admirable, this is Jan Troell in what he does best, a period drama about a woman photographer living in Sweden at the turn of the last century. Paying minute attention to the smallest details, taking its time but never appearing to drag its feet, immensely sympathetic to its heroes and villains alike, this is an intimate family portrait and at the same time a rich canvass of working class life at that particular time.
A natural for Troell, who was a photographer before starting to direct (his latest, the 2003 documentary feature Presence was dedicated to a photographer friend), this picture has quality stamped all over it, awards are likely to come its way whether for direction, photography or the performances of Maria Heiskanen and Mikael Persbrandt, and if this may not be the most suitable material for impatient under-20 audiences, Everlasting Moments could easily charm all the rest, going beyond the strict confinements of art house and festival crowds.
Agneta Ulstater Troell, the director’s wife, based the novel she wrote and its subsequent screen adaptation on the life of her own ancestor, Maria Larsson, a simple woman married to a charming but hopeless redneck, who became a photographer at a time when no woman would have dreamt of embracing such a profession and no man, certainly not the kind of working class lout she had for a husband, would condone it… [Full Story]
Unspoken – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008Variety.com - Talented Belgian writer-director Fien Troch engages in a difficult dramatic game with her second film, “Unspoken,” and falls short of the mark. Intensely involved with the emotionally alienated and disoriented parents of a teenage girl who went missing four years earlier, Troch’s work is so bundled in elliptical moments and scenes without context that it will test — and break — most viewers’ patience. Certain invites to many prestige fests will be countered by general distrib indifference, despite the strong presences of Gallic stars Emmanuelle Devos and Bruno Todeschini.
“Unspoken” is far different from Troch’s superbly realized “Someone Else’s Happiness.” While her confident feature debut was shot and staged in powerful master and wide shots and ingeniously balanced between tragedy and comedy, the new pic is made in a relentless and eventually stultifying series of extreme, albeit often beautiful closeups, in scenes that frequently don’t seem linked in any revealing way.
The method is meant to express the psychological difficulties Lucas (Todeschini) and Grace (Devos) endure in the wake of daughter Lisa’s disappearance, the facts and basics of which aren’t revealed until well into the film. Until then, both parents seems to be in their own worlds — Grace loitering in a mall looking for any sign of Lisa, Lucas at work and unable to deal with news of his father’s brain tumor. The home phone regularly rings, with silence on the other end, which Lucas begins to imagine is coming from Lisa… [Full Story]
It’s Not Me, I Swear! (C’est pas moi, je le jure!) – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008Variety.com - Advertised in Quebec (where it opens Sept. 26) as a wacky comedy about a rampaging child terror, “It’s Not Me, I Swear!” is in fact a bittersweet portrait of one prepubescent kid acting out against his dysfunctional family in ways that would send any teen straight to the reformatory. Delicately balanced between absurdity and tragedy by director Philippe Falardeau (”Congorama”), adapting Bruno Hebert’s 1997 novel and its 2000 sequel, this adventuresome, accomplished piece should ride critical acclaim to solid home-turf returns and a fair shot at offshore arthouse distribution.
Ten-year-old Leon Dore (Antoine L’Ecuyer) has a history of what he calls “my deadly accidents” — near-fatal incidents that might be interpreted as genuine suicide attempts, cries for attention or just expressions of very warped humor. Older brother Jerome (Gabriel Maille) pines for familial normalcy, something denied by the actions of Leon — who thinks everything is abnormal, and behaves with the antisocial freedom such belief allows.
Their frustrated-painter mom (Suzanne Clement) doesn’t help much; she doesn’t discourage Leon’s antics so much as cover his tracks, advising, “It’s bad to lie, but it’s worse to lie badly.” She’s always fighting with their dad (Daniel Briere), a public-interest lawyer. Leon’s method of ending their quarrels is to set the house on fire… [Full Story]
Good – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008Variety.com - Onstage, British playwright C.P. Taylor’s “Good” excited less for its rather obvious parable of moral corruption than for the cinematic sweep of events as a conscience-stricken protagonist passively let himself be pushed up the ladder of Nazi favor. On film, however, this oft-revived work reveals its theatrical roots all too clearly, underlined by the decision to have a roster of German characters speaking the Queen’s English. Toplining Viggo Mortensen, shot in Budapest and directed by Brazil’s Vicente Amorim, this tepid adaptation has an international-pudding feel unlikely to spark much critical or aud enthusiasm.
First produced in 1981, the year of its author’s death (and subsequently mounted with such leading thesps as William Hurt and Charles Dance), “Good” remains a rather heavy-handed lesson about “good” people seduced by evil, albeit one that stimulated theatrically, thanks to multicast thesps and a hurtling narrative that broke the fourth wall. There’s little such novelty left in this literal-minded translation, however, leaving one aware of how broadly the characters are etched and how predictable their trajectories to tragic understanding will be.
John Halder (Mortensen) is a literature professor unnerved in 1933 by the National Socialists’ book burnings and other shows of incipient fascism. But he’s too harried by the needs of an unstable wife (Anastasia Hille), their two children and a senile mother (Gemma Jones) to take a real stand. Four years later, he’s unexpectedly summoned by the chairman of the censorship committee at Hitler’s Chancellery… [Full Story]
Genova (2007) – ScreenDaily Review
Monday, September 8th, 2008ScreenDaily - A family’s struggles with loss, grief and guilt form the basis of a frustratingly insubstantial drama in Genova. Michael Winterbottom’s latest effort is commendable for its refusal to indulge in easy sentimentality but the price for that is an elusive, low-key tale that keeps the viewer at arm’s length. The audience for a Winterbottom film tends to be modest at the best of times but its hard to see who will be attracted by a story that is mildly intriguing without ever becoming compelling. Theatrical prospects look marginal.
Genova begins with a classic set-up for a tv-movie weepie. Mary-Ann (Hope Davis) and her daughters are driving along an icy road in the depth of winter. They play games and exude contentment signalling that tragedy is only a
heartbeat away. Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine) is the unwitting architect of an accident in which her mother dies. Five months later, her father Joe (Colin Firth) accepts a teaching job that will involve spending a year in Italy. Soon, Joe, Mary and her older sister Kelly (Willa Holland) are heading for a fresh start in Genova.
Thus far, the film remains reasonably promising. Winterbottom is then able to capture Genova as a city full of possibilities. Prowling the narrow, winding streets, dead ends and back alleys helps to create a sense of oppression and a mild degree of threat at what could be lurking around the next corner – although comparisons with Nicolas Roeg’s use of Venice in Don’t Look Now (1973) seem wildly overstated and unconvincing… [Full Story]
Kanchivaram – Variety.com
Monday, September 8th, 2008Variety.com - Hitting a sweet spot somewhere between Bollywood and earnest independent fare, South Indian writer-helmer Priyadarshan’s poignant historical drama “Kanchivaram” offers the universal resonance of a tragic fairy tale. Mostly set in the two decades prior to Indian independence, plus a powerful 1948 coda, this compelling Tamil-language yarn about exploited silk weavers also provides a primer on the rigid social structures and traditions of the times and a fascinating analysis of the failure of communist ideology. With production values as gorgeous as the cloth the main characters create, this multilayered pic deserves some kind of international exposure beyond the fest circuit.
The seeds of tragedy are planted during a traditional “first feeding” ceremony when ambitious weaver Vengadam (Prakash Raj) makes a public promise that his infant daughter will be married in a silk sari. Neighbors are aghast at his hubris: Craftsmen of his caste could never afford such a luxury, and feudal overlords harshly control the means and materials of production.
Determined to keep his pledge as a matter of pride, Vengadam starts stealing a silken thread each day so he might weave in secret. Over the years, he becomes a spokesman for his fellow craftsmen, leading them in collective action to obtain better wages and working conditions. When a prolonged strike coincides with preparations for his daughter’s wedding, Vengadam is torn between his communist ideology and his desire to keep his oath… [Full Story]
TIFF Review: VINYAN – Twitch
Monday, September 8th, 2008Twitch - There is a scene in Fabrice Du Welz‘s new film where the white folks, stranded in the jungle without guide or means, are viciously ridiculed, teased and denied the simplest of sustenance: a small ball of rice. It is a moment of uncomfortable horror in the so-called global village, a moment of extreme retribution for casual western exploitation of so many southeast Asian countries. Vinyan, the title of the film, is loosely translated as “drifting soul” and it can be applied to the film in several meaningful and stimulating ways. Those few who were enthusiastic about Du Welz‘s (criminally underseen) Calvaire will recognize the rice-ball scene as his budding auteur moment. While the films are miles apart in setting, language, and tone, there is no mistaking that they are the product of a master horror filmmaker rising to the top of his game. I said after reviewing AJ Anilla‘s Sauna that if I see a better horror film than that one in 2008 that I’d eat my shirt, who knew that I would be having to set the table less than 24 hours later! Taking the large Tsunami’s as the divine hammer for a sinning population, Vinyan is both poetical and political; those who take it literally are bound to get a little stuck with the film. Taken as a visceral meditation, it is a sublime success.
The film starts off thrumming and pounding on the audiences senses. A close up of unidentifyable static turbulence and titles so large they threaten to swallow the audience, it is not a surprise that the cinematographer was the same fellow who shot Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. The camera eventually comes into focus to reveal the static to be air bubbles frantically trying to get to the surface of the ocean. Jeanne (a radiant Emmanuelle Béart) rises from the drink to greet her equally attractive husband, Paul played by Rufus Sewell. Curiously, she offers him a pair of shoes she found in the marketplace. Not really what he needs or even want, but perhaps they will do. An interesting bit of foreshadowing to one of the films audience straining narrative pathways. Du Welz’s intent seems to be to challenge the audience while simultaneously alienating them. Paul and Jeanne have lost their son 6 months ago in the Tsunami that wiped out a lot of the southeast Asian coastline, and they have lingered in Thailand with the thin hope that he may still be alive somewhere. At a charity even, a woman has a video of the extreme poverty of the villages along a river in central Burma. Jeannne is convinced she has spotted her child in that video. Despite protestations of her skeptical husband, it is not long before Jeanne is wandering through the seedier parts of the red light district looking for a Triad contact to get her into closed off Burma. What follows is a decent into the heart of darkness, into the void where the void most certainly looks back. The allure of violence and sexuality that attracts westerners to Bangkok is woven throughout the proceedings as well in the form of primal sexual hum particularly in a curious inversion of the form of the foreign aid worker encountered by the couple… [Full Story]
TIFF Review: REAL SHAOLIN – Twitch
Sunday, September 7th, 2008Twitch - Shaolin. If you have even a passing knowledge of Chinese culture the name instantly conjures up a stream of powerful images. The Shaolin Temple is believed to be the historical source not only of Chinese Kung Fu but also of Zen Budhism. It has been the center of legends, home to icons, immortalized and film. And though it was burned to the ground in the 1920s and the original Shaolin kung fu largely banned by Mao Tse Tung – the disciplines have since essentially split into wushu and sanda – it is still there, still active and still inspiring pilgrims from around the globe to make their way there hoping to learn the wisdom of ancient masters.
Enter film maker Alexander Lee. Himself a one time pilgrim to the Shaolin Temple, Lee returned after his own sojourn there armed with his camera and the desire to capture the Shaolin experience from a variety of perspectives. He has succeeded admirably.
Lee’s film, Real Shaolin, tracks a quartet of students from various backgrounds, studying at four different schools in four slightly different disciplines at the temple itself and martial arts schools in the nearby city of Dengfeng. Representing the Chinese experience of Shaolin are Yuan Peng and Zhu. Yuan is a ten year old orphan abandoned at the temple and adopted by one of the Shaolin masters. Yuan is being prepared for life as a Shaolin Warrior Monk, his entire life built around his training, training the shifts to Qigong Iron Body techniques when renovations to the Shaolin Temple force him to move out for a time. Zhu? Zhu is a nineteen year old boy, the child of poor farmers training in sanda – a competitive martial arts sport that combines kung fu techniques with take down maneouvers – in the largest martial arts school in the world, a school with over fourteen thousand students at any given time. Zhu dreams of being crowned the Sanda King, failing that he relies on his sanda training opening up a future career for him as a police officer, bodyguard or the like… [Full Story]
TIFF Review: INJU, THE BEAST IN THE SHADOWS – Twitch
Sunday, September 7th, 2008Twitch - Powerful cast, compelling source material from a legendary writer, a glimpse into a closely shielded world. There are a lot of things to like about Inju, Barbet Schroeder’s adaptation of Edogawa Rampo’s novel of the same name. It is a strikingly formal picture, beautifully shot and constructed, loaded with a very strong Japanese cast and compelling imagery. IT also, however, has a pair of major flaws that prevent it from ever really reaching its potential.
Alex Fayard is the darling of the literary world, the young French author of a striking new crime novel that has proven to be a major critical and commercial success all around the globe. Fayard is also a man obsessed with the work of Shundei Oe, a mysterious Japanese master of dark crime novels who Fayard has consciously styled himself after – even landing a publishing deal with the same Japanese publishing house as Oe and having his book released with a cover in the exact style of his idol’s. But Oe is a mystery for a reason, he is a reclusive man who has never been seen even by his publishers and many believe that his work could only come from a man with many of the same psychological and emotional problems shown by the criminals he writes about. And, as Fayard will quickly learn when he arrives for a book tour of Japan, Oe does not appreciate having a new rival for his fans’ affection …
Existing in a world of geisha and sexual bondage, Inju is a showcase of the themes that run throughout Edogawa Rampo’s work. It is loaded with a sort of formal dread and high melodrama, laced with bursts of extreme violence and kinky sex. On that score Schroeder gets Rampo exactly right, which is good news for fans. But, as already mentioned there are two significant flaws… [Full Story]
