Tulpan (2008) Review
Dreamer and eternal optimist, Asa embarks on his goal of owning a steppe, herd, and finding a wife to aid him. To Asa the desolate landscape of rural Kazakhstan is awash with opportunity, in reality it’s depleted of available women. Tulpan is the name of the only unmarried woman left and she’s not very fond of Asa, she refuses to see or speak to him. Nonetheless, Asa falls in love and aims to woo her so he can begin the life he’s always dreamed of.
Documentary director Sergei Dvortsevoy naturally brings a touch of realism when capturing life on a Kazakh steppe. Every character (and animal) is lovingly crafted, no matter how minor, and given a memorably unique personality which radiates amongst the harsh conditions. Even the vicious and beautiful landscape is given a life of its own via the roar of the wind and the dance of a sandstorm.
Gentle comedy, served deadpan, slips seamlessly into an already heart-warming story. Charismatic performances help you sympathize with Asa’s desires and the pleasures of living on barren plains. Tulpan might not knock you over with feel-good feelings, however it gets under your skin as a film about a way of life, one where no matter how tough, you should never give up on your dreams. In a wondrous moment, as we witness a lamb’s birth, Tulpan breathes new life into the film and it becomes more than a light-hearted comedy about unrequited love, it transforms into a serious piece of cinema.
Treeless Mountain (2008) Review
Treeless Mountain is a picturesque portrait of childhood at its most painful and delightful. Sisters Jin (Hee-yeon Kim) and Bin (Song-hee Kim) are left at their aunt’s house while their mother attempts to find their father. Their mother gives them a large red piggy-bank and the children are told if they’re well behaved they’ll get coins, and once they’ve filled the pig, she’ll come home. With little support from their aunt they are left to their own devices as they attempt to find money for their piggy and bring their mother home.
The acting from the children is phenomenal. Jin, the eldest, carries the heaviest burden when her mother leaves, having to care for her little sister while she grieves for her loss. The wealth of emotions she experiences are not expressed through words, but are drawn from her face and amplified by close-up cinematography. Jin’s face fills the screen with feelings of hope and longing for her mother’s return.
Free from any explosive drama, Treeless Mountain slowly casts its lens over poignant memories of barbecued grasshoppers, climbing heaps of rubble, peeling garlic, and the ever changing appearance of the sky. The plot is limited, with little motivation and no strong conclusions, it may be prone to lull viewers to sleep. However, should you allow you’re eyes to be drawn into Jin and Bin’s lives, Treeless Mountain is abundant with cherishable subtleties to be enjoyed.
Desire (2009) Review
Ralph (Oscar Pearce) is an agoraphobic writer who desperately needs to complete his screenplay. His wife is preoccupied with her career as a soap-star, but he has new plans for her: a part in his film. She will be playing herself in a story based on their life, and she will play alongside their new au pair, Nene (Tella Kpomahou), who is the object of his desires. The moment Ralph hits the keyboard and the writing begins, the film begins, and the line between fact and fiction is blurred.
Desire attempts to discover the power of desire and how it effects our lives and creativity. Nene becomes an obsession for Ralph, and so does the idea of desire, how it both inspires and destroys. The tease of not knowing what is reality and what is Ralph’s script is intriguing and a platform for quickly delivered comedy. The moment it attempts to confuse you it throws in a witty line to great comedic effect. However, the confusion really lies in the motives of the characters which are simply unbelievable. Ralph is egotistical and all his desires are focused on Nene’s flesh. He contemplates the nature and meaning of desire, but while it remains only a sexual one, its depth is shallow. Desire fights its way through the claustrophobic sexual battlefield, but due to frequent unbearable dialogue and deplorable characters, Ralph’s screenplay becomes more soap-opera than cinematic masterpiece.
Navidad (2009) Review
Aurora (Manuela Martelli) and Ale (Diego Ruiz) are a young couple who are escaping their families this Christmas, they break into an empty house and make themselves at home. The two have grown distant and they fight and bicker over their feelings for one another. When they find a sick girl hidden in the greenhouse they take her under their wing and the three begin an unconventional relationship. Together they help each other through their problems and discover where their lives should go from there.
Navidad lingers on precious moments of troubled and inhibited adolescence. Sebastián Campos exposes beautiful teens taking those tentative steps into adulthood with maturity and sensitivity. The three teens are not only the central characters, they exist in the film almost entirely alone, meanwhile the camera is flirting with them just as much as they are with each other. Stunningly shot, Navidad offers a picturesque view of family issues and young love. While such a subject has already been explored numerous times in cinema, Navidad might not offer anything new, but it does present three strong individuals with enough quirky nuances to hold your gaze. Depth quickly unfolds from nothing and as each character’s personal narrative is gradually chipped away at, it brims with empowerment and warmth. The film is filled with endless musing, shot at a leisurely pace, with a threesome of daddy-issues aided by a superb cast; it all comes together as a neatly wrapped gift tied tightly with a ribbon.
The Agent (2008) Review
‘Black’ is the latest novel by Stephen Parker: a nervous, timid writer who’s desperate to see his book published. Just one man stands in his way: the agent, an egotistical number-cruncher who has no time to read manuscripts and has no interest in the soul that lies within the novel. Stephen has battled long and hard to get a meeting with his agent, and now he’s finally there, he won’t back down without a fight. The two set off on a day long battle of wit and determination, each will use whatever tricks they can muster to seal a deal.
A sharp criticism of the cruel publishing industry, The Agent becomes a relentless rant on how a desire for profit blinds the industry to possible works of art. As The Agent makes clear, because of the tribulations an artist has to go through to get noticed, it’s almost terrifying to think of the body of work that remains unrecognised. However, both characters invoke sympathy and animosity, each a victim of the industry rather than the perpetrator.
For a film which is nothing more than a barrage of conversation on the deplorable state of the publishing industry, it’s strangely compelling. Once everything that could possibly be said on the subject has been said, the events that unravel become immensely satisfying. The Agent is imbued with passion and anger, and like Stephen Parker, after seeing the agent, you’ll be seeing red.
Cambridge Film Festival 2009
As of today, the 17th Septermber 2009, the 29th Cambridge Film Festival will be underway. 11 days of some of the best new independent and foreign cinema with a dash of old favourites revisited, short films, documentaries, and special features. It’s one of the largest film festivals in the UK and worth visiting for anyone in or around the area. The Film Festival website says:
First established in 1977, the Cambridge Film Festival Festival has been committed to delivering high quality independent films to the widest possible audience. Bold and imaginative in its presentation of films, the Festival embraces the latest technology, while also showcasing its passion for the heritage of cinema.
Since 2007, the Festival has been run by a registered charity, the Cambridge Film Trust, as the highlight of a year-round programme of events that aim to bring challenging and provocative cinema to Cambridge and the Eastern region.
I will be visiting as it’s an event I have attended for many years and is partially responsible for my passion in cinema. Sadly I can only see as many films as my budget and time will allow me, but I will be attempting to report on everything I see. I will also be reviewing some films for the Film Festival Daily, where you can get full coverage on the entire festival.
World of Glory (1991) Review
Roy Andersson’s short film on living with guilt when one turns a blind eye, World of Glory, makes a bold statement with a stylistically limited colour pallet. The opening shot sees naked people herded into the back of a van and then gassed as others look on. Here we are introduced to our central character as he turns to glimpse at the camera behind him. We next see him presented in front of the camera, thin and grey, he begins introducing us to his family, his job, and his life. Every environment and person is lacking in pigment and expression, meanwhile the film occasionally looks over its shoulder at you and uncomfortably gazes into your eyes before it resumes its internal exploration. With the opening scene always in the back of your mind the film remains cold and harrowing throughout.
Andersson’s strong personal style shines even in such a dark and serious film. Although everyone is presented in smart, dark grey suits throughout, Andersson manages to portray individuals as obscure and grotesque in a world seemingly detached from our own. If the ghostly appearance of the man who’s life we survey isn’t plain enough, the long shots and static camera work sucks all life from this film, but not without good effect. The surreal unreality of this film, shrouded in dust and fog, isn’t just a parade of sombre visuals, but is a disturbing and powerful short piece of cinema.
This film is currently available on the Cinema16: European Short Film collection.
Happy Together (1997) Film Focus
“Turns out that lonely people are all the same.”
Wong Kar Wai’s film Happy Together, about a gay couple stranded in Argentina, is a passionately vivid portrait of alienation and romance turned sour. The title itself is ironic, Lai Yiu-fai (Tony Leung) and Ho Po-wing (Leslie Cheung) break up at the beginning and continues an on and off explosive relationship throughout the film. Kar Wai’s films are filled with subtle moments of passion, no sweeping romantic gestures, where electrifying connections can form between two people who never meet. Happy Together is no exception, gestures of romance and jealousy are touching, no matter how wrong the relationship seems to be. And there is an element of truth we might not like to admit, flawed people in a flawed relationship is a pure and honest depiction of love we don’t often get to see in cinema.
Béla Tarr (Director)
You would think that creating a film that is so long it’s nearly impossible to screen in a cinema, that would push even the most avid art-house film fan to the edge of their patience, director Béla Tarr could have killed his career. However today he’s still making films that challenge and captivate audiences around the world. Over a period of 30 years he’s only managed to make a handful of films, each film taking years to complete, and when watching his films it’s clear to see why. The most noticeable part of Béla Tarr’s films is the photography. The subject, the people, the places, they’re all so ugly, but every shot is mystically beautiful. Every shot lasts for minutes and Tarr would make the shot longer if he could get film long enough. The camera sometimes dances around a scene, or a scene will dance for the camera, everything can come alive in these long shots no matter how banal. A shot of two men walking down a street becomes a moment in cinema that will stick in your memory forever just because of the way the wind blows rubbish around them (Sátántangó). Tarr focuses on these moments, and he makes something out of them.
Encounters at the End of the World (2007) Review
What one might expect to encounter and the end of the world; mystical beauty, ugly degradation, the narrow line between life and death, they can all be found there. Director Werner Herzog visits Antarctica to see what exists there and what it is like to live in a place that is said to feel like being on the moon. There is 24 hours of daylight and if the wind is calm you can hear a silence that is so abnormal it can wake you from your sleep. As he arrives he finds what looks like a space settlement, it’s filled with the most eccentric people, people who have seen the world, it is here they accumulate. The people who he meets are intriguing enough, but Herzog desires to encounter more than just what is inside McMurdo Station and steps out to find those at the further limits of this harsh frozen land.
Herzog doesn’t want to make a film about cute fluffy penguins, but the drive for the documentary isn’t always clear. He is more interested in the people and how they experience life in Antarctica rather than anything seen in nature programs. It’s the impact of this unusual continent on those who live and work there that peaks our curiosity. But it’s impossible for Herzog to ignore the apocalyptic and destructive nature that hides there. And in spite of his reservations towards making a film about penguins, they contribute profoundly to the pleasure and heartache found at the end of the world.
