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: PATAGONIA

Patagonia does something that's become quite common in contemporary cinema; it attempts to tell parallel stories based around a single theme.  Like with Robert Altman's Nashville, pretty much the model for how this structure works, director Marc Evans (Snow Cake) chooses to make the setting of his film the lead character; in this case, the South American region referenced in the title.

As an audience, we're allowed to watch as two separate couples travel the land; one a romantic pairing (Nia Roberts and Matthew Gravelle) that drifts apart as the story develops, another a young man, Alejandro (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) tricked into voyaging to Patagonia with his elderly neighbor, Cerys (Marta Lubos).  

The latter tale is the more interesting of the two and I couldn't help wishing that Evans had chosen to focus only on Alejandro and Cerys' journey.  The other story arc comes off as overly soapy in a film where the tone doesn't justify the dramatic excesses of the material, resulting in a film that feels more than a little schizophrenic at times.  Even though you can easily guess how Alejandro and Cerys' story will end, it's lovely to watch as the two meander through Patagonia, searching for the farm where Cerys' mother used to live.

Patagonia will screen for the public at the Lake Twin Cinema today (Feb. 11th) at 8:30pm and at Pioneer Place 5 on Feb. 14th at 8:45pm  A final screening will occur on Feb. 16th at Cinemagic at 6pm.

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PIFF 35 Preview: MONSIUER LAZHAR

Philippe Faladeau's Monsieur Lazhar travels well-trodden cinematic ground; it's easily filed into the inspirational teacher genre, of which there are already some fairly successful models out there (To Sir, with Love and Stand and Deliver come to mind).  So it's nice to see that what could have been yet another by-the-numbers entry is, in fact, an intelligent and humanistic look at a group of students and the adults mentoring them through the healing process in the wake of a tragic event.

Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) is a man who has recently immigrated to Quebec from his Algerian homeland.  He shows up at the elementary school where most of the action of the film takes place, seeking to replace a teacher who has recently died.  While the circumstances behind Bachir's move are complicated, they make him the ideal candidate for dealing with a classroom packed full of children who have recently experienced their own loss.

While Fellag is wonderful in the film, exuding both deep sorrow and empathy, often in the same moment, the children's performances are amazingly nuanced as well.  This is especially true of the work of Sophie Nélisse and Émilien Néron, both of whom fearlessly project a complexity beyond their years.

Monsiuer Lazhar is an excellent film with an emotional core that has the potential to resonate for all ages (however, younger children might have difficulty with the themes or the fact that the film is subtitled).  In many ways, it reminded me of Thomas McCarthy's The Visitor, another film that tackles difficult subject matter in an optimistic fashion without attempting to declaw the more troubling emotional aspects at play.

Monsiuer Lazhar will screen for the public at the Lake Twin Cinema today (Feb. 11th) at 3pm and at the Lloyd Mall 6 on Feb. 13th at 6:15pm  A final screening will occur on Feb. 15th at Pioneer Place 5 at 8:45pm.

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PIFF 35 Preview: CAFÉ DE FLORE

When writing during PIFF 34 about Le Quattro Volte (The Four Times), I noted that every year there's at least one film at the festival that seems to come out of nowhere, surprising me to no end and causing me to wonder how it escaped being caught up in the festival-circuit hype machine.  This year, Café de Flore is that film.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria), this French-Canadian import had me aware that I was watching a truly great film in the first fifteen minutes, something that always makes me nervous, worrying about the path that the rest of film will take, hoping that the delicate balance struck by the filmmakers doesn't dissipate before the end credits crawl across the screen.

Café de Flore did not disappoint.  Vallée is unapologetic in his attempts to wow the audience with the sheer audacity of how he intends to tell the story.  His technique is an invigorating mixture that pulls from familiar scenarios; a man who regrets where his choices have led him, while pushing the tale with a structure that offers unique thrills throughout.

At the beginning of the film, we're introduced to three characters: Antoine (Kevin Parent), Jacqueline (Vanessa Paradis) and Carole (Hélène Florent).  Thanks to the fact that dreams are heavily involved in the story; one of the three characters is a somnambulist, it's initially unclear if all of the characters are real, due to the disruptive nature of the quick shifts between sleeping and waking states and Vallée's clever use of differing color palettes.  This ambiguity, coursing through the whole of the picture, heightens the storytelling beyond the base realities of the lives portrayed.  The result is a film that dares the audience to care; a drama with all the dressings of a tense thriller.

I'll be very surprised if I am still not raving about Café de Flore at the end of the year.  So far, I've seen twenty-four of the features programmed for this year's festival.  Of that number, Café de Flore easily rests in the top three overall.

Café de Flore will screen for the public at the Lake Twin Cinema on Feb. 11th at 5:30pm and at the Lloyd Mall 5 on Feb. 13th at 6pm  A final screening will occur on Feb. 20th at the Cinema 21 at 7:30pm.

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PIFF 35 Preview: BULLHEAD

The organized crime genre is a pretty crowded field but I'm fairly certain that Bullhead is the only film I've ever seen centered on the Flemish mafia.  Directed by Michael R. Roskam, Bullhead doesn't romanticize it's characters or their trade; these mobsters deal in bovine growth hormone, forcing the local ranchers and farmers of the Belgian countryside to produce "their cows."  The film begins just as a police investigator has been killed on the order of a crime boss.

If the crime angle is the wide view of the story, the close-in perspective lies with Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts), a mountain of man whose own daily use of steroids and hormone treatment therapy darkly parallels the business in which he is an enforcer.  Roskam slowly paints the details of Jacky's back story, showing us how a young child of promise was turned into a man who intimidates for a living.  Schoenaerts plays Jackie as a maladjusted child in a giant's body, aching with loss, unable to connect with others, and placed into dire circumstances where he stands to lose everything.

This is a gritty, excellent character piece masquerading as a crime thriller.  The majority of Belgian cinema I've encountered has been inspired either by the Dardenne brothers or the wry comedy of Finland's Aki Kaurismäki (Eldorado or Aaltra are examples of the latter's influence).  In this regard, Bullhead feels fresh and without precedent in the realm of Belgian imports; its nearest comparisons in tone being Steve McQueen's Hunger or David Michôd's Animal Kingdom.  It's a fascinating and disturbing ride, well worth the price of admission.

Bullhead will screen for the public at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 11th at 12:30pm.  A second screening is scheduled on Feb. 14th at the Whitsell Auditorium at 8:45pm.

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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: WHERE DO WE GO NOW?

The tensions of the Muslim/Christian divide in Lebanon are reproduced in miniature in actor-director Nadine Labaki's (Caramel) Where Do We Go Now?; a film set in a secluded, sleepy village where landmines and the daily news reports are constant reminders of the violent struggle raging elsewhere in the country.  The twist of the piece rests in yet another division in the town, that of gender.  Fearing that their men are being stimulated to mirror national displays of sectarian violence, the women take it upon themselves to manufacture distractions aimed at the men to keep the town from falling into chaos.

This leads to some very hilarious results, including the hiring of a group of seductively-dressed, Russian dancing women and a cooking scene involving the use of "special" ingredients.  There's also a musical sequence, a dance routine, more than a little bit of tragedy and a love story peppered throughout the film.  All this furious activity leaves Where Do We Go Now? feeling a little overstuffed with subplots, making me wish that the story had been more streamlined.  As it stands, the film is a wee-bit schizophrenic in tone, shifting often between scenes infused with manic energy to moments drenched in sorrow.

Having said that, much of the film is quite enjoyable.  It's just ends up feeling at times like a kitchen sink (not this kind of kitchen sink) approach to storytelling.  Overly cluttered in parts, but a worthy diversion, nonetheless.  

 

Where Do We Go Now? will screen for the public at the Whitsell Auditorium on Feb. 11th at 8:30pm and at the Lake Twin Cinema on Feb. 13th at 6pm and 8:30pm.

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