მძევლები ([Hostages], 2017, Rezo Gigineishvili)

Hostages is built on true events. In 1983 a group of young people attempted to hijack a plane to get to the side of the Black Sea, to Turkey. We get glimpses of Georgian everyday life: the underground market for Beatles LP's and American cigarettes. The omnipresence of KGB, the general distrust from the authorities. And of course the lack of mobility, where even a visit to East Germany is a priviledge. All this is a nuisance, but we don't see real oppression. Nobody seems to be in real danger to lose their lives, actually they seem to be better off than the average citizen in that society. Nevertheless they plan to hijack a plane.
In short, I don't see enough motivation for our protagonists to leave their families and careers behind. They appear unthinking. Their original plan fails, when they realize that they won't be the only passengers. Nevertheless they go through with their enterprise. They didn't know that the pilot is armed. The youthful folly becomes a deadly reality.
As a coda we see the staged reactions at the university of the co-students, demanding  maximum punishment, even think that the parents deserve to be put on trial. The most tragic figure is a priest-to-be who is tricked to take the role of the spiritual mentor of the hijackers and who is sentenced to death. This is the only innocent victim.
Although this is an interesting look into the production of a new film nation, it is overall not rally satisfying.
5/10

美人魚 ([The Mermaid], 2016, Stephen Chow)

We don't get this kind of film too often on the big screen and then even in 3-D! This was a blockbuster in Mainland China, so this would also be a good opportunity to get acquainted with Chinese mainstream culture.
This first part of this film is slapstick. It has a very physical humor. It is funny for people who laugh when somebody gets hit with a golf club.There were exaggerated performances, seemingly also meant to be funny and close to being unbearable.
A business tycoon is destroying the life conditions of the mermaids, so they decide to send an assassin. But they fall in love instead. The tycoon discovers that he has a conscience, but other parts of his empire are chasing the mermaid population. They need their DNA for purposes only they fully comprehend. The chase is the second part of the film. This chase is rather gory, but again too exaggerated to be realistic. The strangers with whom I watched this film also thought this was funny.
The message is (when people have finished laughing) that we should protect nature and the diversity of species.
Neither the comedy nor the action part of this film are convincing. The c9omnedy is just not funny and the action part is far from breathtaking. And the 3D? Mr. Chow didn't use it in a spectacular manner, so the extra dimension did not enhance my experience with this film. It can be watched on a DVD without missing anything particular - if you think you should watch it all.
4/10

Jugend ohne Gott (2017, Alain Gsponer)

Und ein Film ohne Ödön von Horváth, denn mit dem Buch dieses Autors hat der Film fast nur den Titel gemeinsam. Die aktuelle Gefahr wurde aktualisiert. Nun wird nicht die Geist- und Gottlosigkeit des Nazismus kritisiert, sondern es stehen die Auswüchse der Leistungsgesellschaft in der Kritik. Die erfolgreichsten Leistungsträger, so die Botschaft, erzielen ihre Erfolge auf dem Rücken der Leistungsschwachen., die dann ausgegrenzt werden. Eine Gesellschaft nach den Prinzipien des Neodarwinismus kennt eben nur die Eliteförderung. Das Schwache und das Gesellschaft nicht Zuträgliche wird in die Ransbezirke abgeschoben.
Der Kampf ums Umsteigen wird in diesem Film wie Hunger Games inszeniert. Der Skrupelloseste tritt am ehesten auf die Schwachen und wird dann Jahrgangsbester.
In diesem Film ist es der Protagonist Zach, dem Zweifel an der Einrichtung dieser Gesellschaft kommen. Ihm schwebt eine Solidargemeinschaft vor, in der die Förderung der Minderbegabten nicht nur Lippenbekenntnis, sondern Realität ist. Zachs Vater ist vor nicht so langer Zeit durch eigene Hand aus dem Leben geschieden (die Gründe werden nicht verraten, aber vielleicht war er auch einer derjenigen, die das Leistungssoll nicht erfüllen konnten. In einem Tagebuch hält Zach seine Gedanken fest, ansonsten ist Privatreflexion eher unerwünscht.
Die Besten einer Gruppe werden in einem Camp in den Bergen ermittelt. Dabei trifft Zach auf die "Illegale" Ewa. Wie üblich in solchen Dystopien wohnen sie im Wald. Liebe keimt auf - und eines Tages ist eine der Teilnehmerinnen tot.
Die Umstände des Todes werden in Rückblenden aus verschiedenen Perspektiven erzählt, wobei allerdings nicht die Gelegenheit genutzt wird, den neuen Perspektiven mehr Tiefe zu geben.
Am Ende gibt es einem kleinen Hoffnungsschimmer, aber der ist mehr Hoffnungs als Versprechen. Dieser Film ist ein Drama für Jugendliche, wobei man schon merkt, was später in der AG Ethik noch diskutiert werden muss. Die einzelnen Protagonisten bleiben Thesen und werden nicht zu Personen.
5/10

Piazza Vittorio (2017, Abel Ferrara)

This is about migration and about residents who have to endure the transformation of their place. The film repeats known statements of both groups. The "making of" (or rather staging of statements) is also part of this documentary piece.
This was my last selection from Sala Web of Venice Film Festival. It is not necessary to watch it in a cinema hall.
3/10

Mother! (2017, Darren Aronofsky)

I was excited before watching this film. Would I see it as a masterpiece or would I call it one of the worst films of this century.I hoped I could at least enjoy it rudimentally, but I have to think again. Mother! is indeed bad and beyond any repair.
It has been noticed before that there is use of theological imagery in the script. The two protagonists are called Him and Mother, although at the beginning of the film she is still without children. Him is a writer with a writer's block and possible also ED. While Him cannot get things done, Mother is trying to create "a paradise".
One evening a stranger calls. He has mistaken their home for a B&B. Him invites, although Mother is not so happy about this invitation. The stranger is called Man and claims to be a big fan of Him's works. Man, quickly behaves, as if he was living there. His wife, yes, of course, she is Woman, arrives and then Younger Brother and Oldest Son. Yes, we have understood that they are Cain and Abel.
During the course of the film we also understand Aronofsky's revisionist view: man creates through destruction, women are the fertile soil. This is very misogynist and revanchist. Yes, there is also the self-important ecological message: the destruction of the paradise that Mother had prepared with so much labour.
As more fans of Him arrive at the house, the more they destruct. At last Mother takes revenge and starts a general Apocalypse.
It seems to me that the apocalyptic show-down was mostly like a deus ex machina. The poor script could be read on various levels, but they are not properly developed. So they are cut off instead. Actually a very lazy solution.
We see good actors in mediocre performances, because the poor script doesn't give them much to work with.
This begs the question: Is this serious or maybe a sick joke? I don't see any ironic distance, so I fear that Aronofsky wants us to see this as an ambitious contribution to pressing ecological issues.
0/10

West of Sunshine (2017, Jason Raftopoulos)

There is a certain bias on IMDb. For this little film there are already listed five external reviews, while films in other languages remain without review. IMDb focuses on productions in the English language, both in searches and for indexing reviews.
So here is another contestant for the Horizons competition. It is about fatherhood.
Jimmy is addicted to gambling. He has debts and tries desperately to collect the money for a loan shark. He  has also to take care of his son Alex. They have a strained relationship.  Gradually we learn that Jimmy is copying the pattern he experienced with his own father. He decides to break with the past and make way for the future.
Much of this plot has been seen before. The gambling part is default household inventory, such as the run against time to get the money. Also the final shift, yeah, he was a good father after all is less than surprising. This could be labeled as Australian social realism, but Australia appears only as backdrop.
On the whole this appears more like a journeyman's piece - and a promise that we might expect more from this director in the future.
5/10

God's Own Country (2017, Francis Lee)

Love in the Time of Brexit
God's Own Country is a rather bleak and rough landscape. So are the people living there. Few words and restraint to display feelings. John Saxby (Josh O'Connor)  is one of them. He likes to binge drink. Actually the film starts with him vomiting after another trip to the city. John lives with his grandmother (Gemma Jones) and his father (Ian Hart). Father had a stroke and is not a help. Therefore they look for a farmhelp for the lambing season and get Gheorghe from Romania.
Jack has difficulty to express feelings, even to admit that he has any. Booze in the pub and casual sex with with men is enough for him.
Farmhand Gheorghe is emotionally more advanced than Jack. He fast decodes Jack's behaviour. With Gheorghe Jack learns for the first time that there is a difference between having sex and making love. Feelings sprout in him and he starts to become a more responsible person. However, to become completely mature, he needs to experience loss. Having realized that he nothing on his own, he starts to take responsiblity for the farm and his own life. (I wish them luck. It won't be easy for the two men to run a farm in God's Own Country.)
This film has often been compared to Brokeback Mountain, which might be true up to a certain point, but here we have a blunt agricultural realism that at times was too much for my sensitive urban mind. Also the intimacy between the two men is not as soft brushed as Brokeback Mountain. It's more in the tradition of British social realism. The sky has surprisngly many shades of grey, the sun is a rare sight, yet they describe it as beautiful.
The script doesn't discuss the same-sex issue. This makes it a strong script.Instead there is focus on the coming of age aspect, avoiding trite treatment of a plot that has been told before.
9/10

Beautiful Things (2017, Giorgio Ferrero)

Beautiful things are made from oil, but oil also destroys the environment. Oil creates employment, oil destroys environment. Without oil we would "consums" completely differently, actually our world would be different.
This is a visual-acoustic odyssey into different aspects of oil in our world. The different chapters are called Petrokio / Cargo / Metro / Cenere / Coppia. In each chapter one person narrates in his own language.
Ferrero, who is also active as composer, contributed to the soundtrack of this film. The music is composed in different styles and moods. (I can hear that, but I cannot name them.)
Both the visual and acoustical aspects of this film are spellbinding. Viewers should make sure that they are not in a hurry and allow themselves to be absorbed by this film.
6/10

Pane e tulipani (2000, Silvio Soldini)

I might never have stumbled upon this, if not my good friend, the film connoisseur A. had suggested that we see it together. Yes, I am not a general fan of "romantic comedies", only if they are set in a somewhat different environment. It should be something like Barakah meets Barakah or or Bread and Tulips.
This is romance among middle-aged, a pledge to have the courage to run away from duties and routine and to dare something new. Rosalba, a middle-aged housewife, is abandoned on a rest stop during a family vacation. First after some time her husband notices that she is actually missing. In the meantime Rosalba decides to head back on her own, but she turns to Venice instead. Yes, forget Paris - Venezia is the city of love. Here she meets a handful of lovable characters, a sad waiter in a Chinese  restaurant, an anarchist florist and a woman that applies holistic massage. Rosalba experiences to be esteemed for what she is really is. Instead of being a clumsy housewife she becomes a complete person. After a short come back to her former life she follows her heart. Well done, Rosalba. That's how it should be.
This is pure entertainment, charming and witty. Feel good, hopefully not only for the aged, but hopefully for any generation.
I wonder if Soldini had Pane, amore e fantasia in mind, when he thought for a title of this film.
Bruno Ganz seems to become specialist for seducing older women, as he plays a similar role in the Swiss production Giulias Verschwinden.
In one scene the sad Bruno Ganz watches a flower bouquet that Rosalba gave him before returning to her former life. He watches the leaves falling down -- an allusion to Truffaut's Domicile conjugal? Maybe there are more quotations and allusions that an alert viewer might notice.
8/10

Buon inverno (2017, Giovanni Totaro)

I wrote this for IMDb, so I think I may also publish it here:
This is called a documentary film, but it seems to be in the mockumentary style of e.g. Ulrich Seidl. There is very little going on: someone is selling refreshments, another guy is campaigning to become mayor - probably without having a chance. The peak event of the season is a karaoke competition on August 15. Sometimes they think of the future, but not very often.

To view this film, you need a good portion of patience and a more than normal interest for ordinary people's ordinary life on a Sicilian beach, then this film is very rewarding.
5/10