Heavenly Creatures (1994, Peter Jackson)

YES! a movie by Peter Jackson that is worth the time it takes to see it! Pauline and Juliet are two schoolgirls with a vivid imagination. They inhabit their fantasy world and thus the real life becomes more and more repugnant. The grown-ups want to expel them from their home-made heaven. Especially Pauline's mother becomes gradually their main adverser. So they decide to kill her.
All thsi is based on a real story that happened in the beginning of the 1950s in New Zealand. It seems that the juvenile murderers still are alive, one even became a writer. Before the credits we are put into the picture about the trial  - the later lives of the girls are not mentioned.
I liked how Jackson blended reality with the fantasy creations of the girls, they appear as overlapping reality. (Oh - if Jackson never had touched the Tolkin world and had stuck to movies of this kind, then he might have become an instructor whose output is worth to follow Wasted talent.
Solid entertainment : 6/10.

Two girls in their homr-made fairy tale country.

Cánh đồng bất tận (2010 "The Floating Lives" Quang Binh Nguyen Phan)

I learned that the Vietnamese title of the film means "The Endless Field". however The Floating Lives is a brilliant translation. All is floating, lives, rivers,fates, all constantly ever changing.
A dysfunctional family, always on the run. One day the son observes that furious village women beat up a woman. The son helps her. We learn that she is a prostitute. Also she comes from a dysfunctional fa,ily without a father. The daughter sees in the woman some kind of elder sister, the son discovers am erotic attraction. The father is a bit of a tyrant, floating on the rivers, refusing to put down roots.
The quartet makes a living from ducks and avian flu puts an end to their quiet lives. They may be able to hide from the authorities, but they fail to hide from the envy of jealous peasants. Their lives change completely and all continue their lives on a new stage.
The last part, the avian flu still seems an integral aprt of the plot, as the point of no return, but the outcome and the end of the floating life seems to me too unanticipated. Maybe there are cultural clues, I missed,but I understood this ending as a gesture to the communist authorities: order has been restored.
There are many layers in this film, Vietnamese cinema at its best!
8/10.

Endeless Marks -- fragments of reality

Vi är best (2013, Lukas Moodysson)

This is coming of age and finding one's way. A drama about three girls, outcasts in their own way, who find their strength in rebellion and music. Without any musical experience, let alone education, they decide to start a band, mainly in opposition to some bullies from their school. They are joined by an outcast of another type, Hedvig, who comes from a Christian family. She influences both girls and is also influenced by them. At last they perform publicly and the consensus there is that they are the worst. However, they have gained enough confidence to confirm to themselves that they are the best.
Moodysson uses in this movie actors  who seem to be unknown. It will be a pleasure to follow the career of the three girls; they perform with distinction and great credibility.
The script is, as I have learned, based on a  graphic novel and works very well on its own  The scene is set in the beginning od the 1980s. Only few clues indicate that the tale is not ageless, most spectacularly for present-day young viewers the use of land-line phones.
7/10

Drive (2011, Nicolas Winding Refn)

Best director? Come on, you must be kidding! This film is anything, but notable it is definitely not. It is stylish and tries to evoke speedy movies from days long gone by.
Driver is about Driver, yes we don't know his name. He is a getaway driver, a stuntman and a mechanic, so a dubious character, yet we are asked to accept him as a good boy. He doesn't say very much, as if the processes involved in phrasing correct demand too much effort from him.
One afternoon he realizes that he has a neighbor and what is more, an attractive one. She is nice and they have fun and good times and driver is a good uncle for the woman's boy. One day her husband returns. It seems to surprise her that he had been in jail. However, she noticed at least that he was away. The husband is involved in more crimes and soon a deasly chase is about to start.
Refn is fascinated by brutality. Some killings are really graphic, such as the elevator scene which was singled out as a memorable moment. Yes, there are carefully staged car chases, there is the single man against a bunch of criminals and there are cliches around every corner  Carey Mulligan, that beautiful and mysterious neighbor appears to get more and more away from the order of the day. In Shame (also from 2011) we have seen that she actually can act. And Ryan Gosling should keep away from Refn.
This is time pass disguised as entertainment.
3/10

시 (Poetry, Lee Chang-dong 2010)

A wonderful film! Mija is an elderly woman who starts forgetting words, it's the beginning of Alzheimer's disease. She enrolls in a poetry class - an attempt to find words again. She also has a problem to use the words she still has, as she is communicating very badly. Her grandson is living with her and this lout doesn't talk at all, at least not to his grandmother.
The teacher of the poetry class asks his students to look carefully at things. Mija starts to write words and observations in her note book.
It shows that the grandson has raped a girl for some time and that that girl committed suicide. Too make a long story short: the tales of the girl and of Mija melt together until Mija gives her voice to the raped girl.
Yes, the film is proceeding slowly, but never standing still. And as Mija is learning about poetry, poems form a considerable part of the film. Mija's way to find her own voice is central, the supporting roles never develop completely.
So beautiful - left a deep impact on me.
10/10
 

Seeing an apple for the first time - Mija learns poetry

En cas de malheur (1958, Claude Autaunt-Lara)

I have many, too many, controversial films recently. Brutal movies, provoking movies, nothing that is there just for the fun of it. This film caused a minor scandal by the end of the 50s, now it is showed in the afternoon schedule of mainstream channels.
An elderly lawyer falls for an youthful delinquent; they start a life together, but the girl is much too flirtatious, so the tragedy is inevitable.
Georges Simenon wrote the novel on which this film is based. The theme of old guy and young girl may still provoke some viewers, as sexuality of the mature segment of society still seems to be  too naughty, however Jean Gabin is no Benny Hill and Brigitte Bardot makes us believe that she finds something worthwhile in an elderly lover.
It is still the older guy who loses most: reputation and marriage are gone at the end of the film. The movie doesn't tell us how he is continuing his life.
Enjoyable, with an elegant sound track and good craftsmanship A good work from the second league
7/10

This was a scandal in 1958; was Bardot butt-doubled?

Tore tanzt (2013, Kathrin Gebbe)

Und noch ein ziemlich schwer zu ertragender Film: eim Martyrium eines tief religiösen Menschen, der seinen Weg mit bestürzender Konsequenz geht.
Tore ist Mitglied bei den Jesus Freaks. Jesus ist sein bester Buddy. Er trifft Benno, der ihn in seine Familie aufnimmt, doch schon bald zeigt sich, dass Benno nicht der sorgende Familienvater, sondern auch ein vertrunkener Psychotiker.  Benno reizt der naive unerschütterliche Glaube Tores. Je mehr Tore Demütigungen und Misshandlungen erträgt, desto ausgeklügelter werden Bennos Versuche, Torezu demütigen und von seinem Glauben abzubringen.
Gebbe gab an, Dostojewski sei eine Inspiration für diesen Film gewesen. Tore ist auch Epileptiker, ebenso wie Fürst Myschkin. Es ist offenbar noch nicht gelungen, die wahre Begebenheit herauszufinden, auf der dieser Film aufbauen soll. Vielleicht ist es auch egal, ob sich so etwas in der Wirklichkeit abgespeilt hat oder nicht, denn alle Personen sind modellhaft angelegt, etwa in dem Sinn: Was würde geschehen, wenn Jesus heutzutage unter uns wandelte.
Gebbe hat einen interessanten Film abgeliefert; vielleicht nicht ein perfektes Produkt, aber doch ein gutes Gesellenstück. Warum hört man nicht mehr von ihr?
7/10

Tore wird nass gemacht - und das ist erst der Anfang

In Cannes ausgebuht zu werden ist dann auch eine Auszeichnung.

Irréversible (2002, Gaspar Noé)

It seems that I recently am catching up with a lot of high-rated junk. This is a disgusting film with very graphic violence, revolting actually.
The film starts actually with the end with the titles running backwards. So we are alerted of a reverse chronology. The picture is shaking, the soundtrack sounds like a factory, photography like a darkroom. Yes, we are in a gay SM club. Two guys are looking for somebody called Le Tenia. A suspect is killed with a fire extinguisher, a long almost unwatchable scene. We continue and understand that Le Tenia is a rapist. We witness the rape also - again a long and painful scene and see how that couple had a good time in their marital bed.
Yes, Noé has a powerful message. It is an unpleasant subject. Roger Ebert wrote: "By placing the ugliness at the beginning, Gaspar Noe forces us to think seriously about the sexual violence involved. The movie does not end with rape as its climax and send us out of the theater as if something had been communicated. It starts with it, and asks us to sit there for another hour and process our thoughts. It is therefore moral - at a structural level."
I agree with this, but it is still a disgusting and disturbing film.
4/10

Irreversible ends idyllic at the beginning, domestic pleasure

뫼비우스 (Moebius, 2013 Kim Ki-Duk

This is a daring experiment and also a vastly repulsive film. Hard to believe that it was made by Kim, whom I like for his poetical films. Also the underlying theme, an exploration of the connection between lust and pain is far from what I like to see.
We don't need subtitles, as nobody is saying anything in this movie, yet it is action-packed. Man cheats wife, wife wants revenge and tries to castrate him. Husband can defend himself, so instead she castrates their only son and eats his willy. At this point 10 minutes of the film have gone - what more in there?
The mother leaves the house and roams around the city. The father also castrates himself. The former mistress of the father gets a crunch of the son, who, of course, cannot answer her flirting. When a street gang rapes that mistress, the son is sent in to rape her also and then he fakes an assault.
The father is looking for sexual satisfaction and finds a web site that explains that pain also can induce orgasm (the whole body is a genital). They practice that kind of self-content. The boy also gets a penis transplantation, but still isn't capable of intercourse. One day the bell rings and the mother returns. Now an incestuous relationship with the mother is about to begin, but the father first shoots his wife and then himself. The boy castrates himself  again.
Take that! A rough world, a world without words. There may be heaps of hints to mythology who cares? It may also be equipped with a thick layer of Freudian junk, but I still don't care when the central message is that pain is lust. I just don't agree (and maybe this is why I have a problem with Haneke and especially The Pianist). And I am not interested in the subject of incest either.
However, in terms of story telling there is a lot of praise here. It's an action-packed movie without words, but with lots of grunts, moaning and screaming in agony in this bleak world.
A beautiful disgusting movie.
5/10

Father, Mother and Son - a trinity united by lust and pain?

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014, Ana Lily Amirpour)

This is an American movie that was produced in Farsi, yet it was announced everywhere as Iranian vampire western. The setting is intended to remind of an Iranian ghost town, some props might remind of a Western setting.
There is not a lot of plot: a female vampire haunts the city of low lives. We meet a prostitute, a drug addict, a pusher and a boy who is to become the lover of the vampire. I suppose the rest of the town is dead already
Of course it is not in compliance with the role of women in Iranian society that females go out and walk home at night, alone. In this respect the film may be viewed as a feminist answer to a repressive theocracy.
Everybody is lonely in Bad City: the drug-addicted father; the pusher who seeks satisfaction with a hooker and of course a little boy who is there for no apparent reason. There is also a cat, maybe the only free creature in this film. The boy who was trying to look after his father at last flees from Bad City with the vampire. The lights of the car look like eyes of  a cat.
This movie has been highly praised for its stylistic mix  I don't think that movie watching should be like an Easter egg hunt for cliches you  have seen before. Amirpour puts style above substance. Impression above content. Much of the attention is certainly given because she decided to film this production in Farsi; had it been in English it probably wouldn't have managed to attract so much attention.
I don't mind slow films, but this is painfully slow. In the beginning the music starts at normal speed, but then slows down, like a like a record played at the speed of an LP. As a graduation film it could be promising.
2/10

This chador doesn't cover teeth.

Robert und Bertram (1961, Hans Deppe)

Ja, dies  ist eine Belanglosigkeit aus den Aufbaujahren der Bundesrepublik. Was sollte man auch anderes erwarten, wenn Willy Millowitsch und Vico Torriani die Hauptrollen haben. Aber auch eine Banalität sagt etwas über die Mentalitätsgeschichte aus. Was war Unterhaltung mit Breitenwirkung im Jahr 1961?
Robert ist ein Kleinbürger ohne spezifizierten Beruf, dafür aber mit einer resoluten Frau, die ihn finanziell sehr knapp hält. Robert würde aber gerne sein Einkommen auf Kneipenrunden mit seinen Kegelbrüdern gibt. Man hat in diesem Film ein liberales Verhältnis zum Alkohol. Halb betrunken aufzutreten ist keineswegs peinlich oder unakzeptabel.
Seine Frau spart jedoch für ein Eigenheim, das Objekt der Begierde aus dieser Zeit. Ach - Kinder hat dieses Paar nicht. Wie hat die Babyboom-Generation das wohl gesehen?

Robert begibt sich mit dem singenden Karikaturisten Bertram auf eine reklamefinanzierte Wandertour. Dabei kommen sie durch blühende Landschaften und romantische Städte. Hier kommen dann noch Elemente des Heimatfilms hinzu. Landschaften und Schlager strecken die dürftige Handlung auf Spielfilmlänge. Das soll Unterhaltung sein, aber die Witze sind flach und Klischees geben einander die Hand. Bemerken sollte man auch einen Italiener, der sich an alle Berockten heranmacht und belissima bionda schmachtet. Es stellt sich übrigens heraus, dass dieser Italiener Österreicher ist: Klischees sind eben auch austauschbar.
2/10

Es knutscht sich gut im Öko-Heu.

Night Moves (2013, Kelly Reichardt)

This is basically Raskolnikov among fundamentalist environists. Three people plan to blow up a dam as an alert how it is damaging the environment. However they also kill some innocent campers.
The movie is mainly busy with the preparation of theact and laying out the motivation of the activists as conscientious, but deluded. We only get a glimpse of how they will continue to live with their guilt afterwards. The girl might give the others in, s she is killed. The two others continue with their lives - so should we. It is as if we are missing Night Moves, the Sequel.
6/10

 

Does this guy have the Raskolnikov potential?

I skuggan av värmen (2009, Beata Gårdeler)

The main problem with this film was for me the premise: how can somebody work as a guardian and be a heroin addict at the same time. But as this movie is based on an autobiographical novel it is obviously possible anyway.
The movie follows the well-known schemes: neglected as child Eva starts an early career as addict. Once she became drug-free, but then the alleged voidness of life throws her back into the world of artificial dreams. - Can Erik prove that love is stronger than addiction? This movie gives the obvious answer.
The interesting part is to dive into this shadow world of drug addicts; miserable lives altogether.
The main actors (Malin Crépin and Joel Kinnaman) have become sort ofhalf-famous in the mean-time, Crépin through film versions of Markelund novels, Kinnaman as supporting actor in Hollywood.
There is not much to say about this film: 4/10.

Maybe the book had a quality the film is lacking.

Auf Wiedersehen Amerika (1994, Jan Schütte)

Mosche und Genovefa leben schon mehrere Jahrzehnte in Amerika. Während er sich so einigermaßen durchschlägt, ist sie mental nie dort angekommen. Sie redet polnisch, verkehrt in polnischen Geschäften und verehrt den Pfarrer, dem sie einst den Haushalt geführt hat. Nun wollen sie auf ihre alten Tage die alte Heimat noch einmal besuchen. - Mosches Freund Isaak arbeitet als Buchhalter für ein zwielichtiges Unternehmen. Als die Polizei den Betrieb ausnimmt, schließt er sich dem Ehepaar an.
Auf dem Weg erleben sie natürlich diverse Zwischenfälle, in Berlin treffen auf Ziffer, (grandios Georges Tabori in einer Nebenrolle) und treffen schließlich in einem Polen ein, das eben das Amerika, das sie gerade hinter sich gelassen haben, als Rollenmodell auserwählt hat. Die Erwartungen an die alte Heimat Polen werden an der neuen Wirklichkeit des Landes justiert.
Isaak freundet sich mit einer Schlesierin Danzig an und nimmt sie mit in die USA, während das Mosche und Genovefa in Danzig ein neues Zuhause finden.
Der Plot ist episodisch, wie bei einem Road Movie und entwickelt sich anekdotisch. Das ist alles sehr hübsch und am¨sant gemacht. Wie begleiten halb wehmütig, halb lächelnd die Darsteller auf ihrer Odyssee und grübeln miut ihnen, wo und wie man Wurzeln schlägt und was der Begriff Heimal denn eigentlich beinhaltet.
6/10

An jedem Starnd ist ein Horizont.