Britt Marling = Sundance Sweetheart

Move over, Parker Posey, there's a new It Girl on the Independent Film scene, and her name is BRITT MARLING. 

Considering where she got her start -- as a Econ major at Georgetown (a major near and dear to foreignfilmguy's heart) -- the lovely Ms. Marling has captured the attention of the parka-wearing set at Park City in a remarkably short time, with TWO films to her credit premiering in the same year: 2011's sci-fi "Another Earth" was well-received and nominated for two Independent Spirit awards (Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay). 


The second film she both starred in and penned, "Sound of My Voice" (in wider release in 2012) is sure to garner the same accolades (Well, not exactly the same, since she's already written her first screenplay). But there is no doubt she is destined for stardom, propelling the film as the mesmerizing leader of a bizarre cult whose motivations are never fully explained. As you can see from the pictures, her movie star good looks go a long way to sell the notion of this mysterious stranger leading a group of devout followers from a basement in southern California.


The screenplay, sadly, takes a nose-dive after setting-up a compelling story about a couple (the very good Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius) who infiltrate the cult in an effort to expose it. Another indie, last year's "Martha Marcy May Marlene" is both more nuanced and effective at depicting a cult's simultaneous allure and danger. But much like Darren Aronofsky's first effort, Pi, the brilliance is in the set-up -- outweighing the drawbacks of a hasty, poorly thought-out conclusion, and offering the promise of better things to come.

You-know-who's triumphant return to Cannes

(The lovely) Jessica Chastain continues her red carpet domination at the Cannes Film Festival by attending the Lawless premiere (one night after the Madagascar 3 premiere). One challenge with viewing the much-buzzed about Lawless -- Chastain has a very prominent nude scene which she will have to watch with hundreds of other viewers at the film's premiere. "It's going to be interesting to see this film in a huge theater," says Chastain, speaking at the Euphoria-Calvin Klein party on Thursday night. "Because I am, you know, more exposed." 

"It will be totally embarrassing," she adds, breaking into peels of giggles. "I am going to be bright red. I'll have to cover my eyes during that scene."

Chastain said a controversy about the lack of female directors in the line-up for the Palme d'Or was pointless. "I think it's silly," she told AFP in an interview. "I think a film should be judged on the film and not on the sex of the person who directed the film." 
>>Tell it like it is, JC! (ffg)


(More than a thousand women film-makers and others have signed a US petition in support of French feminists protesting the lack of female directors in the line-up for the Palme d'Or top prize at Cannes. There are no female film-makers among the 22 competing for the Palme, which will be awarded on May 27, and just two among the 17 in its new talent section).


This headline got my attention:

Cannes 2012: Jane Fonda, Jessica Chastain, Naomi Watts Vie for Top Gown at 'Madagascar 3' Premiere 

Best & Worst in the same week

I saw two movies this week that run the gamut from art to pointless waste of film. Reviewing chronologically, I'll start with the latter.

Damsels in Distress

Dir: Whit Stillman

I always had pleasant memories of Whit Stillman's 1990s films (while I've always thought his debut film "Metropolitan" (1990) far superior to his 1998 follow-up "The Last Days of Disco," in between he created a gem with 1994's "Barcelona"). He has inexplicably waited 14 years to direct again, and his talents as a writer-director have plummeted precipitously, judging from the vehicle he chose to make his comeback: "Damsels in Distress" is dreadful on so many levels, it will be hard to list them all. 

All attempts at wit, humor and pseudo-intelligence that Stillman crams into his script fall flat, like lead. I suspect he dusted off a screenplay he wrote BEFORE his breakthrough hit, and refused to change a word of it! (A sadder alternative is that he has been living  in a bubble for the past 20 years, and has no idea how young people think, act or talk nowadays). Of course his fans will say this is all a deliberate exaggeration, you know for comedic effect! The best comeback to that argument? It's not in the least bit funny. Released on the heels of HBO's new series, the anti-'Sex & the City' for Generation Y, "Girls", this movie feels even more dated and out-of-touch.

Nothing in this film has the slightest connection to reality (anyone's reality). The male students who inhabit this college come straight out of 'Animal House'--but with less wit and intelligence (you read that right). The female students speak like only a middle-aged white patrician would imagine a liberal arts major would speak -- circa 1950, perhaps (but I doubt even then).

I prefer to remember the good times!

The lead damsel, poor Greta Gerwig ("Greenberg"), is fast-earning a reputation for doing nice work in utterly unwatchable movies (let's hope her next one, "Lola Versus," fares better). The other young actors, all attractive and intelligent, make the most of the very little they have to work with.

The movie has two minor things to recommend it: 1) one character is a practicing Cathar, that 13th century Christian sect in the south of France that was persecuted out of existence by the Inquisition (it's about time they had a revival!); and 2) the incongruous song-and-dance number at the very end of this disaster is refreshing, given the overall inanity of the rest of the film. But even that moment recalls a similar scene in a much better movie: "500 Days of Summer," which has 10 times the wit, humor and intelligence that Damsels so obviously strives to achieve, AND it has a better song-and-dance sequence!

The Deep Blue Sea

Dir: Terence Davies

Speaking of incorporating song (and music) into a film, no one does it with more artistry than the British director Terence Davies who, like Stillman, has waited over a decade between feature films, but in this case, his absence only makes us miss and appreciate his undiminished talents. Davies has always had a very narrow focus. His films ("Distant Voices, Still Lives" (1988); "The Long Day Closes" (1992)) are quiet reminiscences of a time long past: Britain during and just after the War. To call them nostalgic would be damning with faint praise: his films are reverent meditations on the specific past of their creator. For his latest, he chooses material that nicely fits into his ouevre: Terrence Rattigan's 1950 stage play "The Deep Blue Sea." 

The opening title tips you off that you are watching a play: "Around 1950" (film is too concrete a medium to fudge on time like that). Then for the next five uninterrupted minutes the movie wordlessly takes you under its spell, as the strains of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto sweeps you back in time to homes heated by gas (only after you inserted a shilling into the meter), without phones or television, as the camera lingers over furniture, pictures, and finally, Rachel Weisz's lovely bare legs. The story takes off from there, but Davies' gift is in keeping his audience in his world for the next two hours, so much so that you can hear the crack of the fire, every squeak in the  floorboards, and can almost smell the old-fashioned gas furnace and the mixture of smoke and beer in the pubs.

The story, costumes and staging evoke David Lean's "Brief Encounter" -- a classic of the time period depicted here (1945), and a personal favorite of mine. The film's finest moments involve the music of the era (remarkably, some of the most emotional scenes have no dialogue): patrons in a pub sing along to "You Belong to Me"; Londoners wait out an air raid in the Underground during the Blitz while singing the haunting Irish traditional "Molly Malone." This is pitch-perfect filmmaking.

Ms. Weisz truly inhabits the depressive main character, Hester Collyer. You are willing to follow her downward spiral from bored wife to neglected lover because you can't take your eyes off of her. Her male counterparts are both fine -- Tom Hiddleston as Freddie and (especially) Simon Russell Beale as her spurned husband.

True, Davies cannot entirely overcome the play's inherent staginess: it does gets talky in the second half, and it is rather depressing throughout. But before it sinks too deep, Barber's majestic music brings the story to an emotional and uplifting close. Even during the closing credits, I was treated to Eddie Fisher's "Anytime" (I'm sure my mother knew that song) while I learned that the Barber recording used in the film was the same recording I've been listening to all these years: Hilary Hahn's excellent version with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which the lovely Ms. Hahn autographed for me at the Kennedy Center on March 27, 2003. No wonder I have an emotional attachment to that piece! 

Dispatches from the wild Sarasota Film Festival

Wildlife spotted at the CINEMA TROPICALE PARTY, Sarasota Yacht Club 

What little I had heard of the Sarasota Film Festival centered on the quality and abundance of its associated parties, so that was enough motivation for me to fly off to Florida for the final weekend of the 2012 Fest! I did not leave disappointed (in either the quality of the films or the parties). The SFF team runs an organized and professional two-week festival, in large part due to a large cadre of volunteers who, unlike many festivals I have attended (DC FF), actually know what they are doing! Many screenings sell out, and like all good festivals, the air is filled with buzz about which films to see and which to avoid. I love the camaraderie of strangers with a shared passion. And these festival-goers were passionate!

The lovely actress JENA MALONE ("Donnie Darko") graciously posed for a picture (she was there to promote her new feature "In Our Nature")

Of the six films I packed into four days -- if I had been serious, I could have squeezed in nine or 10 -- I would definitely recommend four of them. Here is the rundown (in order of preference):


1. "Under African Skies" (USA. D: Joe Berlinger) - I may be biased since I was a fan of Paul Simon's "Graceland" album from the beginning (way back in 1986!). The ostensible occasion for this 25-year retrospective of that ground-breaking and controversial album is Simon's return trip to South Africa in 2011 for a one-show reunion with many of the musicians who appeared on the album and tour. We see little of the actual concert, but that doesn't matter since Berlinger has filled all 108 minutes with footage and recordings from the original source. He and Simon do a masterful job explaining how each song was constructed using the rhythms and sounds of many native musicians, while collaborating with them to create entirely new music. 


The controversy surrounding Simon's breaking the cultural boycott during apartheid, as well as the criticism he received for 'stealing' their music, all seems rather ridiculous in hindsight, now that the album is regarded as one of Simon's best. This doc is a rare treat for fans (the sold out crowd I saw it with rhythmically clapped during the closing credits!) and I imagine will hold interest for music lovers of all stripes.

2. "Your Sister's Sister" (USA. D: Lynn Shelton) - a likable cast heads this indie romantic comedy that is edgy enough to hold one's interest throughout. The titular character, the lesbian sister of Emily Blunt's character, is played winningly by Rosemarie Dewitt, last seen as Anne Hathaway's sis in "Rachel Getting Married." She unwittingly comes between her sister and her male friend in a cabin they share, somewhere in Washington State. The male lead is played by indie star Mark Duplass -- I'm not convinced he's male lead material, but he is a decent enough actor. The script and direction are witty and lively: keep an eye out for this movie and for director Lynn Shelton.  

3. "Leave Me Like You Found Me" (USA. D: Adele (pronounced a-DAY-la) Romanski) - Film Festivals were created to showcase films like this one: and Independent, low budget, cast of unknowns, filmed during a 14-day camping trip in Sequoia National Forest, and without the Park's permission! (The Q&A with the director informs this review.) To the film's credit, you wouldn't necessarily know any of this by what's on screen: the script is intelligent and perceptive (following a young couple as they take the initial steps to getting back together after a one-year break-up); the acting is solid, especially by Megan Boone (a Kristen Stewart look-alike); and I didn't notice any drop off in production values. Accepting the confines of the story (the film is essentially two people talking, arguing, making up, repeat), I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it so much.


4. "Impardonnables/Unforgiveable" (FRANCE. D: Andre Techine) - Of all the films I saw, this had the highest pedigree: noted French director ("Wild Reeds"); accomplished cast, led by the ageless Carole Bouquet (former Bond girl); beautiful setting (Venice!). The trouble is, the story is so dark, the character's actions so selfish and hurtful, it is hard for even a Francophile like myself to wrap my arms around this one. The acting is first rate, however.

Of course, I have to mention the other two films I sat through. 

5. Regrettably, "Dancing on a Volcano" was an inartful, by-the-book documentary that relies on only three interview subjects and a suitcase full of old photos (slowly panned, of course) and stock footage of Nazis to tell a truly remarkable story of survival of two Jewish sisters in WWII Austria. The film lacks both style and historical context -- it is as if the filmmakers had never heard of Ken Burns. A compelling film could have been made from this material, but instead the story gets the standard History Channel treatment, complete with a ponderous narrator and incessant, maudlin music (but at least we were spared the endless info-mercials).

6. "The Loneliest Planet" should have been titled "Worst Camping Trip -- EVER!" It certainly felt like the longest camping trip ever endured. Director (I use that term loosely) Julia Loktev obviously threw her three actors together, dropped them into the stunning scenery of the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, and told them to 'improvise.' A director with a clear vision, something to SAY, and the trust of her actors might be able to get away with this method. Ms. Loktev has none of these, so she fails miserably. 

Scenes meander pointlessly while the actors (led by the fine Mexican actor Gael-Garcia Bernal) gamely try to create something out of nothing. To separate these so-called 'dialogue' scenes, Loktev uses the tiredest of cinematic devices to convey the characters' state of mind: a stationary camera shoots a vast landscape, as we watch three minute figures travel across it, from one end of the screen to the other, over and over again! The entire film reeks of pretension, but it is an empty vessel. 

Anyone who is familiar with the work of noted Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky will appreciate this comparison: imagine sitting through all 3-hours of his 1979 film "Stalker" (which consists of long takes of three men hiking through a primeval forest) and then strip the film of any intelligence, artistry, feeling, and mystery -- what are you left with? Three hikers with nothing to say. That is indeed the loneliest planet. 

Goethe! now showing at Sundance Houston

I'll bet when you had to read "Faust" in your college survey of European literature, you didn't realize that its author -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -- led as adventurous an early life as the young William Shakespeare depicted in "Shakespeare In Love." If you did, you should be writing scripts for the movies! For that is the premise of a charming new film from Germany, very loosely-based on the early life of the great Germanic poet/author/color theorist that recently opened Stateside. If the parallels to the previous Oscar-winner aren't blatant enough, the American distributor wants to make it perfectly clear, by changing the name from the German title "Goethe!" to "Young Goethe in Love." (clever!)


Despite the obvious debt to the previous film, Philipp Stolzl's film works for many of the same reasons: It is fast-paced, witty, well-acted by an attractive young cast (led by Alexander Fehling from "Inglourious Basterds" in the title role), and it's FUN! The story follows the young Goethe's apprenticeship in a law court in a 'backwater' German town, where he falls in love with a sensitive (she sings in the church choir), redheaded beauty named Charlotte (a fresh-faced Miriam Stein). Of course, it doesn't end well, or the world wouldn't have Goethe's first blockbuster novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther," written in a love-sick frenzy from a jail cell (or so this film would have you believe). I'm sure any similarity to the early days of the historical Goethe are purely coincidental, but it cannot be any more fictionalized than the Bard's story. I don't mind the dramatic license taken by either film, because they both entertain. It's about time this German literary great got the Amadeus-Shakespeare treatment on the big screen.

Oscar Night 2012

And the winner is . . . 

Full Oscar Predictions

Here's how it works: first I pick who I WANT to win in each category; then I pick who I THINK will win. (That's why we've called it a "Want-Think List" in my family ever since I can remember). Sadly, many of these picks seem a foregone conclusion--whatever happened to the mystery surrounding the Oscars?

Best Picture
Want/Think: The Artist (1)

Best Actor:
Want: Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Think: Jean Dujardin, The Artist (1)

Best Actress:
Want: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Think: Viola Davis, The Help

Best Supporting Actor:
Want/Think: Christopher Plummer, Beginners (1)

Best Supporting Actress:
Want: Jessica Chastain, The Help
Think: Octavia Spencer, The Help (1)

Best Director:
Want/Think: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist (1)

Best Foreign Film:
W/T - A Separation (Iran) (1)
Original Screenplay:
W - Woody Allen; T - Michel Hazanavicius
Adapted Screenplay:
W/T - Alexander Payne, et al., "The Descendants" (1)
Art Direction:
W/T - The Artist (Hugo-2nd Want)
Cinematography:
W - The Tree of Life; T - The Artist
Costume Design:
W/T - Sandy Powell, "Hugo"
Film Editing:
W - Hugo; T - The Artist
Makeup:
W - Harry Potter; T - The Iron Lady (1)
Original Score:
W/T - Ludovic Bource, The Artist (Hugo-2nd Want) (1)
Original Song:
W/T - "Man or Muppet" (1)
Sound Editing:
W- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; T - Hugo (1)
Sound Mixing:
W/T - Hugo (1)
Visual Effects:
W/T - Harry Potter

Animated feature:
W - Puss in Boots; T - Rango (1)
Animated short:
W/T - The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (1)
Documentary feature:
W - Pina; T - Undefeated (1)
Documentary short:
W - Saving Face; T - The tsunami and the cherry blossom
Live action short:
[no picks] (I have to see at least one of the nominees in any category)
(TOTAL = 15)

Oscar predictions Part 2 - animation

This will be a short post -- the Academy had to dig deep to find nominees this year. There are two foreign nominees in the Best Animated Feature category ("A Cat in Paris" sounds intriguing), and the  fifth slot was filled by "Kung Fu Panda 2" (say what?). I hope "Puss in Boots" wins (because it is the only one I've seen), but I suspect the award might go to "Rango," or a wildcard like "Chico & Rita."


The Animated Short Film category was a real disappointment this year: I paid $12.50 to see 58-minutes worth of 'cartoons' of varying quality. The absolute worst of the five is the British import "A Morning Stroll," a deplorable, disgusting piece of crap that is a disgrace to the memory of Walt Disney. The two Canadian imports are masterpieces by comparison: the visual artistry in "Dimanche/Sunday" and "Wild Life" are quite good; the stories are both a bit disjointed, however.


Of course, Disney/Pixar has a nominee, but this year the slick production values that are this partnership's hallmark might be a drawback for the clever but not particularly inspired "La Luna," in comparison to the free-wheeling originality of MY choice for this category (I both want it to win, and think it will win): "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." A product of that animation hotbed of Shreveport, Louisiana (!), this unique and imaginative tribute to the magical power of books it utterly original in concept, animation, and story. Three cheers for Louisiana animation!

Oscar Predictions, Part 1 -- documentaries

It was a great year for documentaries, but you'd have a hard time convincing the Academy of that fact, since they ignored three of the best docs that I saw this year: Bill Cunningham: New York, Buck, and Senna. (Not to mention the two Werner Herzog released this year (Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Into the Abyss), and Project Nim, none of which I have seen.) My money is on the one popular doc the Academy DID recognize, "Pina," Wim Wender's tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, brilliantly shot in 3D (proving the 3D technology is not just for action movies).


The documentary short category provides the real gems, as I found out at a special screening of four of the five nominated films. (Why the organizers of this year's "Oscar Shorts" series left out one title, "God is the Bigger Elvis" -- aren't you intrigued by that title? -- is a mystery). The clear weak one in the bunch is "Incident in New Baghdad," a re-telling of a tragic incident during the Iraq war where civilians and journalists were caught in the crosshairs by an over-anxious U.S. military. The filmmakers rely too heavily on cable news videos and the film wears its left-leaning politics too obviously on its sleeve (how is it that only Michael Moore can pull that off effectively?).


"The Barber of Birmingham" is a more effective piece of historical documentation, following a septugenarian 'foot soldier' in the Civil Rights movement of the Sixties, as he witnesses the election of America's first black President. Unfortunately, real life proved too messy for the arc of the story: barber James Armstrong was too ill to travel to Washington DC for Barack Obama's inauguration, then he died in 2009, before the movie was completed. Earnest and effective like a PBS documentary, it never reaches the depths of emotion as the next two nominees.


"The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" starts with a remarkable four-minute home video that encapsulates the magnitude and horror of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Taken from atop a hill overlooking a seaside village as that village slowly washes away, the voices of the witnesses (and survivors) provide the only soundtrack as they watch their neighbors run up the hill, literally for their lives. Those chilling images provide the backdrop for the interviews with the survivors that follow, still fresh and numb from their experiences. If that were all to this film, it would be compelling; what makes this film transcendent is the juxtaposition of this tragedy with healing power of the cherry blossoms which arrive and leave at the same time every year, another part of nature indifferent to human suffering yet somehow comforting to the survivors. The strength and serenity the Japanese people get from the blossoms' annual appearance is mysterious and timeless, and especially needed this past spring. That director Lucy Walker (who also helmed last year's excellent "The Waste Land," also an Oscar nominee) was able to capture these events with humanity and respect makes this the odds-on favorite to win the Oscar (and I think it will!). 


But I am holding out my want in this category to the brave Pakistani women whose stories are told in the equally-moving "Saving Face." A synopsis cannot adequately convey the power of this film, but here goes: it follows the stories of several women (of an estimated 100 per year) who have suffered acid attacks to their face, scarring them for life. What is insane is that many of these attacks come at the hands of their own husbands and in-laws, for whatever perceived slights or indignities they felt they have suffered. (Other cases involve jilted suitors). Often these women are physically abused to begin with. To make matters worse, they are ostracized by society to the point where one victim is forced by circumstance to return to live with the husband and family who perpetrated this crime!


The film does not shy away from showing the hideous scars these women have received, and the work of one ex-pat plastic surgeon who returns to Pakistan to help these women get their faces, and their lives, back. A secondary plot shows how the legal system is finally being changed to deal harsher sentences to the perpetrators of this unspeakable crime that oftentimes goes unpunished. If documentaries serve to open your eyes to a world you had no idea existed, this moving film more than achieves its goal.

TOP TEN MOVIES of 2011

I have finally seen all the 2011 releases I care to see, and up until last Sunday I was worried that I wouldn't have enough films to make an even ten. I wouldn't characterize 2011 as a BAD year for movies, more of a year of hits and misses, with the real gems ever-harder to find in the crowded movie marketplace.

Happily, the one discernible theme in the movies released at the end of the year is: "Movies Rediscover Their Past." That theme produced two wonderful films (see below), and Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" -- a Disney-esque throwback that positively wallowed in one-dimensionality.

This year your response to the titles below might be a collective "Huh?" (more so than usual!). I plan to link many of these films to a more expansive review. With that in mind, here are TEN BEST MOVIES of the YEAR:

1. THE ARTIST
2. The Mill and the Cross
3. Hugo
4. Midnight in Paris
5. The Descendants
6. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (UK)
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene
8. Meek's Cutoff
9. Tree of Life*
10. Weekend (UK) 

Honorable mention (alpha order)
The Adventures of Tin Tin
Contagion
The Debt*
Mission Impossible 4 ("Ghost Protocol")
Moneyball
Take Shelter*

"Saw & enjoyed" (a category reserved for good/not great movies):
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help*
My Week With Marilyn
Puss in Boots
Texas Killing Fields*

And one suggestion for a new category for the Oscars: BEST OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE:
This year produced two clear favorites:
RUNNER-UP: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (oily!)
WINNER: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (excellent!)

* these five films all featured the lovely Jessica Chastain. And they all made the cut! Go figure...