FOUR LOVERS: MECHANICAL LOVEMAKING IN AN OH, SO ADULT WORLD

There's nothing more curious than a movie that attempts to be sexy, grabbing a fistful from the ol' bucket of taboos to toss up on the screen, but ends up missing that mark by a wide margin.  Wife-swapping, deceit and supposedly hot sex before the ingestion of muddled cocktails are all on display in Antony Cordier's (Cold Showers) Four Lovers, a by-the-numbers drama about the damage done to the lives of two couples who decide to take a ride on the sexual swing (as in, to swing, darling).

Vincent (Nicolas Duvauchelle) and Rachel (Marina Foïs) find themselves thrust together as a result of a work relationship.  Shortly thereafter, they have a couples dinner with their significant others, Teri (Élodie Bouchez) and Franck (Roschdy Zem).  And, before you can say wham-bam, thank you ma'am, Teri and Franck are off to the races, stealing kisses while Vincent and Rachel are in the other room, setting the stage for the couples to exchange lovers for a season of sexual adventures.

Much of what follows comes off like b-grade Cinemax fare captured on film in a manner that visually exceeds the limp drama at play.  Unfortunately, Cordier doesn't seem all that interested in fleshing out these characters beyond the basic mechanics that lead to their arrangement, most of what we glean about the characters comes from ennui-stricken narration spoken aloud by Rachel.  Because they're underwritten as characters, Vincent, Teri, Rachel and Franck resemble nothing more than an avenue to explore scintillating notions, rather than a group of people who invite risk into their relationships for reasons of personal desire and sexual expansion.

Regrettably, the sheer practicality of their arrangement cuts much of the sizzle out of the onscreen acrobatics.  There's little danger expressed here; even the jealousies and revelations of duplicity that develop in the last half of the film can't fully redeem the picture.  You want a little steam with your cinema?  You'd be better off looking for a film that's a little less stale; the maneuvers being explored in Four Lovers are well past their sell-by-date.

Four Lovers begins its run at the Living Room Theaters on Fri.,  April 13th.  More info available here.



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PIFF 35 Preview: FREE MEN

There's a good chance that many people will come to Free Men because Tahar Rahim is its lead actor.  Fair enough, Rahim deservedly got a lot of attention for his electrifying performance in Jacques Audiard's 2009 prison crime film, A Prophet.  I hadn't read anything about Free Men before seeing it, so I wasn't even aware in advance that Rahim is in the film.  To his credit, he disappears so much into the role of Younes, a black market smuggler turned resistance fighter, that I didn't recognize him until the final scene of the film.

The movie that Rahim appears in is only slightly less nuanced than his performance, probably due to a lower budget than what Audiard's film was afforded.  Free Men is set in Paris during the Nazi occupation, focusing on Algerian men who threw their lot in against the occupying forces.  The main thrust of the story lies with Younes burgeoning friendship with Salim (Mahmud Shalaby), an Algerian singer whose true ethnicity is called into question by German forces.  Seeing the danger that is unfolding, Younes is forced to interrogate the ethical code upon which he has always relied, choosing between self-preservation or what he knows to be the right path.

Free Men contains a very good third act, but does take its time getting there.  There's a strong sense of economy at play in the film that, while delaying the thrills early on, saves the majority of the impact for when its best utilized, near the end of the story.

Free Men screens twice more for the public at Cinemagic on Feb. 14th at 6pm and at the Lloyd Mall 6 on Feb. 20th at 2:30pm. 

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PIFF 35 Preview: THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE

A gathering of scientists discuss, design and, eventually, pile into a spacecraft that takes them on a fantastic journey to our nearest satellite.  This simple outline constitutes the majority of the action in Georges Méliès' groundbreaking 1902 fantasy short, Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon).

The Extraordinary Voyage tells the tale of how Méliès came to develop the techniques and audience that would allow him to undertake what was the most ambitious film-making production of its time, described as both the first international blockbuster and the Avatar of the silent era.

Interviews with Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen), Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Costa-Gavras (Z) and, oddly, Tom Hanks (The Da Vinci Code) establish Méliès position in the canon as the first filmmaker to break away from the film as mere document, introducing dramatic devices pulled from the stage.


The crux of The Extraordinary Voyage is of more modern concern, detailing the discovery of a hand-colored version of Le Voyage dans la Lune and the painstaking restoration of that print.  The piece does a good job of detailing the challenges of the process without dwelling too long on the technical aspects of the task.  And its easy as a viewer to root for the restoration team and their small victories as the film is rescued frame by frame.

The real treat of the presentation, however, comes after the documentary reaches its end.  The chance to see the restored, color version of A Trip to the Moon projected on a large screen is not to be missed.  Featuring a new soundtrack by the French musical duo Air, A Trip to the Moon vibrates with an unexpected amount of energy, more than a century after its conception.  

Contemporary audiences may have endless amounts of onscreen fantasies and spectacle to choose from nowadays, but this is a rare opportunity to see one of the earliest examples as it was meant to be experienced, in a theater setting.  Do not pass it up.

The Extraordinary Voyage will screen for the public at the World Trade Center Theater tonight (Feb. 10th) at 8:45pm and at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 12th at 3pm.

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PIFF 35 Preview: THE FAIRY

Fans of absurdist humor shouldn't hesitate to rush out to one of the upcoming screenings of The Fairy, the newest comedy from the French acting/directing trio of Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy (L'iceberg, Rumba).  How to begin talking about this one?  It's a film powered by it's own off-kilter logic, beginning with a woman (Gordon) walking into the lobby of a hotel, bluntly declaring herself a fairy and offering the desk clerk (Abel) three wishes.  Odd as that sounds, the truly weird and wonderful thing about that moment (and the majority of what follows) is the wide-eyed acceptance by these characters of everything and anything that the story throws at them.

Take for instance, the romantic underwater dance scene that paves the way for a baby to enter the narrative.  Any other film that might orchestrate as pleasurably surreal a sequence as this would likely have it spring from the dream state of one of its characters.  Not at all the case in The Fairy.  The scene, which comes off as some kind of hybridized love child of the classic output of Buster Keaton and the Fleischer brothers, is played completely straight, as if there is no distinction between the reality of the hotel and the undersea dance palace where Dom and Fiona boogie the night away.

I'd never seen anything by Abel, Gordon and Romy before catching The Fairy (something I've since remedied with a home viewing of L'iceberg).  Their style strikes me as a fresh, revisionist take on farce that regularly slips into extremely amusing displays of whimsy.

There's really no one to whom I wouldn't recommend this film, unless there's someone out there with a grudge against laughter and fun.  It's entirely fine for older kids, although it certainly isn't aimed at a children's audience.  It isn't often that something with the potential to have such a wide demographic appeal plays the art house circuit (the last example I can think of is A Town Called Panic).  Seriously, don't miss it, okay?

The Fairy will screen for the public at Lloyd Mall 6 on Feb. 10th at 8:45pm and Feb. 11th at 3:30pm  A final screening will occur on Feb. 14th at the Lake Twin Cinema at 8:30pm.

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PIFF 35 Preview: THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO

A large group of men huddle outdoors as their union representative, Michel (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) calls out names drawn from a box.  He pulls his own name, thus joining the ranks of those laid off from working at the docks.  His brother-in-law Raoul (Gérard Meylan) asks if Michel is "crazy" for including himself in the drawing, while Michel's wife, Marie-Claire (Ariane Ascaride) comments that it's hard sometimes to live with a "hero."  These differing reactions describe the central tension of Robert Guédiguian's The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a meditation on how our values hold up when tested.

Essentially, it is Michel and Marie-Claire's faith in their own social status that is at stake in the film.  Shortly after entering into early retirement, the couple is robbed at gunpoint by Christophe (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), one of the workers whose name Michel had pulled during the layoffs.  When Christophe is apprehended by the police, Michel confronts the younger man about what he has done.  Instead of showing remorse, Christophe shocks Michel by challenging the comforts he will enjoy as a middle class pensioner, contrasting the safety net afforded Michel with the complete lack of security the other laid off men have available to them.

Though the scene between Christophe and Michel is brief, the debate rages on throughout the film as Michel and Marie-Claire are treated to a variety of opinions on the matter from friends, family and the police.  For their part, they seem more interested in direct action, coming to the aid of Christophe's young brothers, pausing only once to discuss the strain between the socialist views they've held and the class position they occupy.

It's a film anchored by the performances, especially the work of Darroussin, whose quiet expressiveness modulates masterfully between growing humiliation and graceful acceptance.  Even when the plot veers towards becoming an apologist piece, his solid presence offers the viewer something to embrace.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro will screen for the public at Cinemagic on Feb. 11th at 6pm and at the Lloyd Mall 6 on Feb. 13th at 8:45pm  A final screening will occur on Feb. 16th at the Lake Twin Cinema at 8:30pm.

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PIFF 35 Preview: DECLARATION OF WAR

Early on in writer-actor-director Valérie Donzelli's Declaration of War, written in semi-autobiographical collaboration with her co-star Jérémie Elkaïm, a young man and woman (Romeo and Juliette) have a chance meeting at a noisy nightclub.  After exchanging names, the woman states with some amusement, "so we're doomed to a terrible fate."  Her tossed off prediction, it turns out, is both true and false.

The scene is a flashback directly following an establishing moment with Juliette standing over their son, Adam, as he's undergoing an MRI scan.  His ailment, a brain tumor, is the prolonged concern of the film, which somehow is able to sustain an optimistic energy throughout, even with the plot centering on a parent's worst nightmare.

All credit for this result rests with the writing and performances; the entire film is grounded by the beautifully observed adult relationship that lies at the center of the film.  Romeo and Juliette's strengths, weaknesses and overall growth in the face of the circumstances they face as parents are all made available to the viewer.  Their love feels authentic and, even when the filmmakers take risks that don't entirely pay off; the awkward musical duet that plays out shortly after they find out about Adam's illness, for instance, watching the couple interact onscreen is a captivating and joyful experience.  Strange as it sounds, I'd argue that the film is essentially a romance, albeit one that folds childhood cancer into the mix.  Highly recommended.

Declaration of War will screen for the public at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 10th at 8:30p.m.


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PIFF 35 Preview: GOODBYE FIRST LOVE

And here we go again: the press screenings for the 35th annual Portland International Film Festival began yesterday morning.  First up, a film about young love or, really, recovery from first love.

Goodbye First Love is Mia Hansen-Løve's (Father of My Children) take on the puppy love, gone awry film.  Young Camille (Lola Créton) is hopelessly taken with her boyfriend Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky).  Sullivan claims to love her but also doesn't want to grow "too dependent," spending nights away from Camille at parties while planning a move to South America.  Predictably, it's not long before Sullivan is out of the picture, fracturing her immature view of what constitutes life.

The film spends an incredible amount of time focusing on Camille's emotional recovery, only to send her into the arms of her much older architectural studies professor, Lorenz (Magne-Håvard Brekke), a move that, like the initial breakup with Sullivan, one can see coming from a mile away.  This relationship is also strained, although, this time, it's her inability to fully commit that threatens it.

Overall, Goodbye First Love is a perfectly fine distraction.  It's well shot and the performances are admirable.  If there is something to complain about, it's that Hansen-Løve focuses so intensely on Camille's post-breakup depression that there's little room for plot advancement during a very large chunk of the film.  Most of the time, when it's not bogged down by pacing issues, it's a fairly pleasant, though somewhat slight, film.

Goodbye First Love will screen for the public at the Lloyd Mall 5 on Feb. 12th at 2pm and, again, at Cinema 21 on Feb. 17th at 8:45pm.

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Opening Night

Things get kicked off in style this evening for the 34th annual Portland International Film Festival.  The newest feature from French auteur François Ozon (Swimming Pool, Water Drops on Burning Rocks), Potiche, starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu, is this year's opening night film.  The festival schedule describes the film thusly:

"Updating a popular boulevard farce and employing a shrewd sense of its vintage camp elements, Ozon and his stellar cast poke fun at the foibles of French society and the war between the sexes. Set in the late 1970s in the provincial town of Sainte-Guenole, Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve) lives a bourgeois life dutifully waiting on her philandering husband Robert (Fabrice Luchini), who seems to be managing the family umbrella factory into bankruptcy. Everyone thinks that Madame Pujol is just “une potiche”—a trophy housewife—but when labor troubles break out at the factory and her husband has a heart attack, Madame has to take over the business. Aided by her Communist ex-lover Babin (Gérard Depardieu), she quickly proves that she’s more than mere decoration, setting in motion a suitably complicated power struggle for control of the business."



Information about the opening night screening (and the accompanying opening festivities) can be found at the official PIFF 34 site.  The madness begins now.
 

 

Portland International Film Fest preview day 5: CERTIFIED COPY & IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE

I'm not even going to bother pretending that Friday's press screenings for PIFF need much vetting, since the festival programmers saved two of the most critically acclaimed films at the fest for the end of the week.  Along with Monday's screening of Silent Souls from Russia, If I Want to Whistle I Whistle and Certified Copy were the finest features of the week.  Whereas viewing the previous day's screenings had felt a bit like doing homework, Friday's films were an absolute joy to watch.

Florin Serban's If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle peers deeply into the world of Silviu, a teenage inmate at a juvenile detention center in the Romanian countryside.  Two weeks before he is to be released from the institution, Silviu is visited by his younger brother, who informs him that their mother has returned and has plans to abscond to Italy in one week with the younger brother in tow.  Being the damaged product of his mother's care, Silviu is shaken by this news and enters into an unsteady campaign to prevent their mother from realizing her intentions.

Romanian films aren't exactly known for their light and airy approaches to narrative and this one doesn't stray at all from that preconception.  Serban's camera places Silviu in an emotionally unforgiving and cold terrain that owes a debt of influence to the films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Rosetta, La Promesse).  Like those Belgian filmmakers, the director abstains from the use of unnecessary exposition to tell his story, preferring to observe behavior rather than explain it.  It's a strategy that pays off in dividends, as we are placed intimately into the spaces occupied by the young protagonist and forced to grapple with his frustrations and decisions.  If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle is a great film by an emerging talent.

If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle plays at the Broadway Theater on Feb. 11th at 7pm, Feb. 12th at 5:15pm and Feb. 15th at 9pm.

Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (Ten, Close-Up) is without debate an established master in the contemporary cinematic canon, celebrated critically and at film festivals the world round.  Which, unfortunately, doesn't translate to most of his films being very accessible to the majority of film goers.  Experimental documentaries and narratives set almost entirely in automobiles apparently don't thrill the masses, regardless of how many film geeks gush at the mere mention of Kiarostami's name.  His new film, Certified Copy, starring French film star Juliette Binoche (who won the best actress award at Cannes for this performance) and the world-renowned opera baritone William Shimell, has more potential to draw in new viewers to Kiarostami's work than any of his films since the much loved 1997 feature, Taste of Cherry.

Which is not to say that Certified Copy is without its own experimental devices, as the film certainly blurs its narrative into an exercise wherein reality takes on the shape of the ideas being debated by the characters.  However, these unorthodox narrative tendencies are made entirely palatable by the sheer loveliness of the performances, the lush look of the film and the tireless wit of the screenplay.  I won't bother with describing the actual story, as it's best encountered freshly and without preformed notions about its plot.

At this point, there's still another two weeks (and twenty films) left in the PIFF press screening schedule.  For now, I declare Certified Copy the one to beat.

Certified Copy plays at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 12th at 3pm and Feb. 14th at 8:45pm.

Portland International Film Festival preview day 3: HIS & HERS and OF GODS & MEN

Wednesday's press screenings presented two films with very little in common other than their fixed focus on a single gender.  Even thought the title would suggest otherwise, the documentary His & Hers is made up entirely of interviews with women.  And, although a few women do show up in Of Gods and Men, the film places nearly all of its attention on a group of men and the uneasy decision facing them.

Ken Wardrop's His & Hers concerns itself with Irish women talking about the men in their lives.  As these women speak of their fathers, lovers, husbands and sons, the stories unite into a single and common tale of a life lived with men

Unfortunately, there's one glaringly big issue that keeps the film from blooming into something beyond a series of interviews on a related topic.  The choice to structure the film in a chronological order based on the age of the women, beginning with a baby and ending with a woman alone in a nursing home, is a great idea on paper that sadly doesn't bear as exciting of fruit as one might expect.  Instead, this editing strategy forms a film where the best interviews are delayed until the final quarter of the film, forcing us to wade through quite a lot of facile chit-chat beforehand.  While such a commitment to strategy is admirable, the actual application ends up producing a much weaker film than a non-chronological use of the interviews might have yielded.

I'm afraid I admired His & Hers more than I actually enjoyed it.  The final interviews with a series of widows are fantastic but cannot make up for the overall problems contained within the structure of the piece.  Pleasant enough but, ultimately, unsatisfying.

His & Hers plays at the Broadway Theater on Feb. 12th at 5:45pm.  Additional showing are at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 13th at 2:30pm and at the Broadway Theater on Feb. 15th at 6:15pm.

 

Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men, winner of last year's Grand Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, sets its sights on exploring the choice that a group of French monks in Algeria must make when war breaks out near their monastery.  Based on actual events during thee mid-90s Algerian civil war, Of Gods and Men masterfully establishes the pre-war peace of their monastic life, painting an admirable connection and ongoing dialogue between the Christian monks and the Islamic villagers who share the rural setting of the film.

The pivotal question that emerges when the danger of war draws ever close is this: does the threat of death negate the monks' obligation to God and the villagers?  Beauvois (Le Petit Lieutenant) explores that tension between faith, duty and mortal concerns via the daily meetings of the men and, most effectively, in the songs of faith that they sing throughout the film.  Those moments are supported by a gracefully elegiac pacing and tone that never ignores the dramatic circumstances of the characters but also resists being whipped into frenzy by them.

Of Gods and Men plays at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 12th at 8:15pm.