New international films

[Inspector Norse]

I've got an online pass to the Gothenburg Film Festival and though they haven't treated us to some of the festival's headline attractions (Memoria for example) there are more than enough interesting ones there - three or four come up online each day and are available for 24 hours.
Halfway through now so maybe not worth people's time but the festival website is Draken Film for the interested VPNer.

Anyway I've watched a handful of films so far and thought if I'm going to jot my thoughts down anywhere it might be here, in case anyone's seen them too or is interested in doing so at some point in future:

Captain Volkonogov Escaped It's 1930s Leningrad and some muscular young men in red jumpsuits are getting up to hi-jinks. But when one of them realises that their time is up, he goes on the run, taking with him a file with the personal details of their victims' nearest and dearest, determined to earn some forgiveness before fate - and a grim, sickly, hangdog major played wonderfully by Timofey Tribuntsev - catch up with him.
I enjoyed this one a lot, a tense thriller with a lot of visual style: from the playful contrast of the red jumpsuits with the beige backdrops and grubby greys and browns of civilian clothing to an unusual clash of sweaty, sometimes surreal suspense with deadpan camp humour. Yuriy Borisov was compelling in the lead, his emotionless determination

Spoiler alert

(which pays off with the brief grin he flashes once his business is finally wrapped up)

[close]

helping us to wonder whether or not the character really is deserving of forgiveness, as we see his attempts to apologise rub up against flashbacks of the brutality he and his friends meted out to their prisoners.
I give it five buckets of popcorn and two sodas, but the sodas are flat because like the directors said in the intro, they're not sure people should really enjoy a film like this.

Great Freedom Classy Austro-German drama, set in the 60s with a couple of flashback storylines, about a gay man who keeps getting arrested for breaking the sexual deviance law Paragraph 175.
Franz Rogowski is predictably very good in the lead, as is the Austrian actor Georg Friedrich as the initially homophobic cellmate who helps him get through prison life.
It's all very worthy and well-made, fine performances and direction and an important topic, but I found it a bit too predictable and also felt they botched the ending.

Compartment No 6 Finnish student in '90s Moscow takes a train - without her hard-partying girlfriend, who it's clear is the less involved in this relationship - to Murmansk to look at some rock carvings and finds herself sharing a compartment with none other than Captain Volkonogov, who in this reality has escaped and become a vodka-slamming sausage-munching nutter. After the initial shock has worn off, the two find ways to communicate and grow to like one another, and in a similar way I really grew into this film after being unsure about it in the beginning: it's really well-handled by the Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen, and the relationship between the two leads (Borisov, who resembles a harder Ewan McGregor, is clearly a name to watch) develops in a way that fells both natural and unexpected.

Leave No Traces Warsaw, 1983, and a student dies in hospital after a brutal beating by the militia. His best friend, the only witness, is forced to go into hiding as the state apparatus desperately try to mount a cover-up.
A long and slightly dry film based on true events, this feels very important - and surely is for Poles as many of those involved in the case were never properly dealt with, including a former Prime Minister - and for much of the running time I was absorbed. It initially felt like it would be a suspense/chase thriller before moving more into a Kafkaesque drama, and though both phases had their merits, it did lose some steam towards the end and could have jettisoned a couple of subplots or characters, and the ending lacked clarity and power given the care and attention put into the lengthy build-up.
Still, a worthwhile and well-made film: the direction was particularly strong in an understated manner.

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? Unusual Georgian film following two young people who fall in love at first sight, only to be changed by some vague curse into completely different people, having to find one another all over again over the course of a fictional World Cup summer.
I found it hard to get with the particular style of this one to begin with, as we were treated to an expository voiceover and lots of still, slow shots of people and furniture, but once the film moved outside and followed its protagonists out into the life of their town, it really came to life: the plot, it was revealed, was unimportant, the director Alexandre Koberidze more interested in following vignettes or images or people around the town, framing them prettily and with joyful music (and at one point an awful bit of '80s rock). Indeed, a lot of the time the plot is moved forward simply by the voiceover as we see the actual actor just sitting around or working - in one scene, a character stands waiting on the pavement as the narrator speaks, then sets off walking when he's finished. It's all quite charming, guileless and open and occasionally beautiful, if at other times a bit awkward: despite its meandering pace, though, I found that the two-and-a-half hours really flew by.

[zomgmouse]

Thanks for starting the thread!

Compartment No 6 I'm looking forward to as Juho Kuosmanen made the wonderful The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, which I'd very much recommend.

[non capisco]

Compartment No 6 I'm looking forward to as Juho Kuosmanen made the wonderful The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, which I'd very much recommend.

Absolutely adored '..Olli Mäki' so definitely gonna be all over this.

[Inspector Norse]

Thanks for starting the thread!

And thanks for the compliment! I have Olli Mäki on my watchlist on the Draken Film website (among many other things), I was definitely impressed by Compartment No 6 so it'll be moving closer to the top now.

Watched these over the last three days:

Private Desert Daniel is a Curitiba police instructor on the cusp of middle age: though he seems a careful and conscientious carer for his father, suffering with Alzheimer's, he is also suspended from work after a violent altercation with a trainee, and reacts with frustration on learning that his sister is a lesbian.
Eventually he needs to break free, and drives the length of Brazil to look for the internet girlfriend who has stopped answering him after his outburst made the news.
This is one of those films where the plot is fairly unimportant - the twist is obvious from just looking at the cast list - and it's the characters's interior journeys that matter; the way in which it handles this, though, is very impressive, as the focus shifts away from Daniel in the film's second half.
I read it as an analogy, or state-of-the-nation comment on Brazil in general, and an optimistic one in many ways, as the conservative patriarchy (witness Daniel's BIG TRUCK revving up as he waits for his drive gate to open) meets the flamboyant liberalism and is won over. But I feel there's more to unpack. The performances are excellent, likewise the cinematography, by turns bleached and saturated, with a lot of close-ups as the characters' feelings cascade but plenty of nice wide shots for those of us who like a bit of vicarious tourism in our world cinema.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy Tripartite film from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi with each story following women in awkward but unpredictable situations: a young woman realising that the man with whom her best friend is infatuated is in fact her own ex; a bored young housewife trying to pull a honey trap on her lover's hated former teacher; and two women who meet after a school reunion and try to remember how they know each other.
I really enjoyed this one, three perfectly-formed stories, talky and graceful but never slow, minimal in their setting but somehow epic in scope thanks to the compelling dialogues and whirling possibilities, and the excellent performances. Another film where the cinematography deserves a particular shout, with lots of exquisite, graceful framing.

Hamaguchi's other acclaimed recent film Drive My Car was one of today's options but it's three hours long and it was too late to start. So I watched the shorter Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn instead, I see there's a dedicated thread for that so will post there in the morning.

[zomgmouse]

Hamaguchi's other acclaimed recent film Drive My Car was one of today's options but it's three hours long and it was too late to start. So I watched the shorter Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn instead, I see there's a dedicated thread for that so will post there in the morning.

You should definitely watch this as soon as you can! One of my favourites from last year and I think better than Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. The long runtime you barely notice.

[Inspector Norse]

The last few I caught at the festival, don't let the thread die here though!

Reflection Timely film about the Ukraine-Russia conflict (the ongoing one after Russia invaded in 2014, not the new one where they're going to invade the bit of Ukraine they haven't already occupied, even though people seem to be treating that as a new war), told in a series of long, mostly still frames following a surgeon who signs up to help the Ukranian army and is swiftly captured; the second half of the film follows him as he returns to civilian life and tries to come to terms with his experiences but also his actions.
I think that there was a powerful film in here, and the direction and staging certainly contributed to that by not glamourising, sensationalising or underplaying anything, but I did struggle a bit, especially watching on a TV rather than the cinema screen, because the still camera's distance from the action simply meant that at times it was difficult to really see the actors' expressions and in one or two scenes I failed to recognise cast members from earlier, which meant that a major plot point almost passed me by.

Pilgrims Debut from Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareisa about the brother and girlfriend of a murdered man who travel, some years later, to the scene of the crime, feeling despite its having been solved and the killer sentenced that they still want... closure? revenge? understanding? It's never entirely clear, which is not an issue: this is a really impressive film about people trying to come to terms with trauma, not just from the perspective of the victim's family but also from the killer's family and acquaintances, who are suspicious of the outsiders trying to stir things up, sometimes helping but also warning them off.
The direction is low-key but never flat, lending tension and danger to the plot and also hinting in a manner reminiscent of, say, Blue Velvet at suburban darkness and the way anyone can get accidentally drawn into it.
The acting is really impressive too, particularly Gabija Bargailaite - who IMDB suggests made her debut in the film - as the victim's girlfriend Indre, on the surface more calm and well-adjusted than his clearly damaged brother Paulius, who struggles to remain stable.

The Girl and the Spider The final film of the festival and the first one I really couldn't get with. It's directed by the Swiss Zürcher twins and is about the emotional entanglements that result from a young woman moving into a new flat, helped by her friend and roommate, her mother, and a couple of others.
This was more an "it's not you it's me" case, because the direction was smart and the acting good and there were lots of ideas and subtexts going around, I just didn't like the style, with its clean, detergent colours and frequent close-ups of people giving little smiles or knowing glances; quite a lot of the time, too, I found the cast's interactions and dialogue implausible. The whole thing had a bit of a glib, raised-eyebrow feel which I didn't care for.

[Inspector Norse]

The last few I caught at the festival, don't let the thread die here though!

.... sad emoji

Watching films from this year's festival now so might as well do a review dump for those who are interested.

Brother Clement Virgo directs this adaptation of an acclaimed novel about two black brothers growing up in the '90s Toronto suburbs. It's on the face of it your standard coming-of-age in a marginalised neighbourhood, facing racism and hopelessness etc, but it's a very good example of its type, thanks to Virgo's smart cinematography and excellent lead performances from Lamar Johnson as the younger brother, edgy and withdrawn, and especially London-born Aaron Pierre as older brother Francis, sweating dangerous charisma as he is torn between trying to hold the family together and trying to break the shackles of circumstance. Recommended.

Passengers of the Night One of those French films where people talk and smoke a lot, Charlotte Gainsbourg is a newly-single mother of teenagers in '80s Paris who gets a job at a night-owl radio show and takes a homeless guest under her wing. Nothing really new or exciting, but one of those things the French tend to be good at where they let everyday dialogue and brief glimpses of people's lives reveal what's going on inside. Lovely mood and soundtrack, though I felt that the character of the homeless girl Talulah was never developed in a satisfying way, being instead more of a prop for the family's own interior lives.

The Happiest Man in the World A middle-aged woman signs up for some kind of experimental blind-dating program in Sarajevo, but the man she has been partnered with realises they have a shared past linked to the Yugoslavian war. Intensity ensues. Powerfully acted single-set drama (apart from a short worldless prologue as the lead walks through the city, it all takes place in a hotel conference centre), as the couple explore the modern repercussions of civil war and the nature of forgiveness, trust, nationality and so on with some possibly-too-colourful supporting players.

Blaze Uncomfortable but striking Australian film about a 12-year-old girl who is traumatised after witnessing a violent crime and retreats into a fantasy world. Another film powered by good lead performances, from young Julia Savage as Blaze and Simon Baker off that TV show The Mentalist that seemed to be on all the time as her frustrated father. The human drama at the centre is complemented by some psychedelic production design: first-time director Del Kathyrn Barton is better known as an artist.

1976 Another one that is carried by a top-notch central performance, this time it's one Aline Küppenheim as a middle-aged bourgeois housewife shaken out of her complacency when she gets tenuously involved with the resistance movement in Pinochet's Chile. Another first-time director, Manuela Martelli, does a really good job of framing and soundtracking the character's growing dread and paranoia. Another good one.

[Small Man Big Horse]

.... sad emoji

I really like hearing about these films and you've got a great way of writing about them, but I think the problem is that as you see them at a festival it might be a fair old while before they get an official release, and by that point some might not even remember where they read about them (well, my memory is fucking terrible these days at least, and the CaB google search seems very choosy about what it indexes). But I hope it doesn't put you off writing about them, perhaps giving each film a new thread might be better, though I guess they too would suffer from the (minor) issues I mentioned above so that could be a terrible idea. Either way, I'll definitely try and track down some of the 2022 films now, as a good few of them sound like my cup of tea, so thank you for that.

[Inspector Norse]

Yeah, I think my idea (when I started it a year ago!) was probably that other people could bung thoughts on new stuff they've seen here as well, to keep it going as a parallel to the non-new movies thread (any notable Hollywood things tend to get their own threads anyway).
Still, works as a place to get a bit of writing done, stave off the old Alzheimer's.

[Inspector Norse]

Couple more

Alam (The Flag) Thoughtful but lazy Palestinian teenager living in Israeli territory is arsed cigs about politics and that until the new girl in the neighbourhood draws him into the resistance movement and he starts waking up to the outside world.
Handsome film which does a really good job of filtering familiar coming-of-age tropes through this dark, fraught situation: really makes you take stock of the characters' priorities, from the attempts to live a normal teenage life revolving around exams, weed, driving lessons, booze, hip-hop and girls to the shadows of oppression and history that keep intruding on what otherwise seems a calm and friendly neighbourhood. Really well-acted, again, and I liked this one a lot although it did have that didactic made-for-foreign-audiences feel at times.

Sorcery The first one this year that didn't really work for me, this one was about a young girl on a 19th-century Chilean island who wants to get revenge on the German settlers who killed her father, and turns to the local indigenous population and their magic.
It's got that authentically brown, rainy period feel to it, it was absorbing and atmospheric and intelligent and worthy, and yet I just felt it lacked a real hook or connection; everything was a little too hazy, careful and worthy. Supposedly based on the true history of La Recta Provincia, though the Wikipedia page on this is in Spanish and I haven't bothered reading through it all.

[Small Man Big Horse]

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? Unusual Georgian film following two young people who fall in love at first sight, only to be changed by some vague curse into completely different people, having to find one another all over again over the course of a fictional World Cup summer.
I found it hard to get with the particular style of this one to begin with, as we were treated to an expository voiceover and lots of still, slow shots of people and furniture, but once the film moved outside and followed its protagonists out into the life of their town, it really came to life: the plot, it was revealed, was unimportant, the director Alexandre Koberidze more interested in following vignettes or images or people around the town, framing them prettily and with joyful music (and at one point an awful bit of '80s rock). Indeed, a lot of the time the plot is moved forward simply by the voiceover as we see the actual actor just sitting around or working - in one scene, a character stands waiting on the pavement as the narrator speaks, then sets off walking when he's finished. It's all quite charming, guileless and open and occasionally beautiful, if at other times a bit awkward: despite its meandering pace, though, I found that the two-and-a-half hours really flew by.

On another day I think I would have loved this to pieces, but today was not the day unfortunately, as I was recovering from a hangover (having all but given up alcohol in 2022) and the pace of this very unusual film is extremely slow. And I just wasn't in the mood for it, and felt frustrated at the deliberate lack of narrative (which I knew nothing about as I went in to the film  blind) and even though there are some really stunning shots, and some lovely ideas, and the narration amused, for me I just wasn't in the mood to do the cinematic equivalent of people watching. 5.0/10

That all said I think I'll revisit this in maybe six months time or so, and knowing what will follow it may well become something I really admire.

[Inspector Norse]

Yes, I liked that but it was definitely a not-for-all-tastes kind of thing.

The last three I saw from this year's festival:

Burning Days Excellent thriller about an eager but naïve young lawyer posted to the arse end of the Turkish desert, who gets in way over his head as he attempts to take on some sleazy local bigwigs.
Not the most subtle of films, but that fits the brazen corruption of Erdogan's Turkey, and it goes to awkward lengths trying to make a comment on homophobia without upsetting the Turkish censors by actually outing the protagonist, but it's gripping as a drama with fine performances and some powerful, intense cinematography.

Corsage 1870s Vienna and Empress Elisabeth of Austria is bored out of her mind and looking to escape, or at least momentarily distract herself from, her restrictive, tedious life at court.
Vicky Krieps is excellent in the lead and the film is splendidly mounted, doing a much better and less flashy job of incorporating some modern elements than the obvious comparison Marie Antoinette; that's fitting, as it's a slower and more melancholy affair, and it's interesting that Krieps never tries to portray Elisabeth as some kind of saint: she has the pettiness and selfishness of the aristocracy too. Good work too from Florian Teichtmeister as her husband Franz Josef, suggesting inner turmoil and sadness of his own rather than just being the dull patriarch Elisabeth wants to escape.
I did come out of it wondering exactly how much I cared - another case of poor little rich girl - but it's generally speaking a very good film.

Mediterranean Fever Low-key thriller with darkly comic touches about a depressed Palestinian in Haifa trying to establish himself as a writer and forming an attachment to his dodgy new neighbour. This one won the screenplay award at Cannes but its strongest feature was again two fine performances, from Amer Hlehel and Ashraf Farah, steering away from buddy clichés and instead showing two men who are interested in each other's lives but wary and ultimately disdainful of one another.
It effectively shifts through the gears and grows darker in its second half, and though it doesn't emphasise the characters' situation as Palestinians in Israel, the politics are constantly there in the background, on TV news reports or even in the schoolroom, and ultimately the whole film takes on an allegorical feel.

[Herbert Ashe]

Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France, out in UK cinemas at the moment).


Lots going on here. Race in France (Specifically, the legal system); anxiety and fear of motherhood; mentions of Marguerite Duras and Wittgenstein (and I see that one of the writers was the novelist Marie N'Diaye) also makes me wonder what stuff is going on with language that I am oblivious to.

Most of it (80%, I guess, or more) is set in a courtroom, often in a way that makes me thing of Frederick Wiseman (I think this is Diop's first fiction film but she's made a fair few docs so I'm sure she knows Wiseman), especially early on. (later on it has some other cards to play). The main character Rama is a writer attending the trial of a woman, accused of abandoning her baby to drown, to write a piece on it; Diop herself did this for the case the film is based on, so there is the obvious temptation to regard Rama as a proxy documentarian (and facing the pitfalls of that).

Anyway it's pretty great, better than what I've seen of her documentaries.