The 22nd Miami International Film Festival

[oscar jubis]

The 22nd edition of the Miami International Film Festival starts tonight and the city is buzzing with unprecedented excitement. Even casual filmgoers appear to have caught fest fever, lining up to purchase tickets weeks in advance of screenings, many of which have already sold out. The festival, under the leadership of director Nicole Guillemet, has expanded to a 10-day lineup of 117 films from 47 countries. Projectionists will be kept quite busy at five different venues throughout the city, from small multiplex screening rooms to the grand, historic, 1400-seat Gusman Theatre.

This year, the Festival bestows its Career Achievement Tribute to the incomparable Liv Ullmann. World-renowed for her ground-breaking work under the direction of Ingmar Bergman, her talent extends behind the camera as well_her directorial effort Faithless will be screened. Ms. Ullmann latest collaboration with Mr. Bergman, Saraband, will be shown following the tribute on February 8th.

The festival's Jury will be headed by maverick director Bob Rafelson, who's unforgettable Five Easy Pieces will be shown in a new print to celebrate its 35th Anniversary. The jury will select films for recognition in the following categories: Best Dramaric Feature, Best Ibero-American Dramatic Feature, and Best Documentary. There will also be an Audience Award and a FIPRESCI prize presented by the International Federation of Film Critics.

The Festival will include two programs of Film Shorts, screenings of Classics of the 50s, several educational seminars, a Professional Development Series comprising workshops for film, video and entertainment professionals, and a very intensive 2-day event called "Jean Rouch: A Celebration of Life and Film". This pioneer of experimental and ethnographic cinema is the subject of a number of conferences, colloquiums and screenings organized by the Festival in collaboration with the University of Miami and the French Consulate. I've been waiting all my life for the opportunity to watch some of Monsieur Rouch's films. What a treat!

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Whisky (Uruguay, 2004)

Jacobo Moller has no reason to smile. He's spent his life taking care of his elderly mother and managing his run-down sock factory in Montevideo. The sullen bachelor leads an existence dictated by dreary routine. His brother Herman moved to Brazil many years ago, has a wife and family, and has prospered. Herman didn't bother to return when their mother died a year ago, but now he wants to visit. At the factory, Jacobo depends on the loyal and trustworthy Marta, the only person with whom Jacobo seems to have any contact. Desperate to prove to Herman his life has added up to something, Jacobo meekly asks Marta to pose as his wife during Herman's visit. Marta agrees and visits the beauty salon, not that Jacobo would notice. They go have a picture taken, and finally we see Jacobo smile momentarily when asked by the photographer to say "whisky". The jovial Herman arrives and a game of deception begins. The experience seems to rejuvenate the lonely Marta, particularly when Jacobo reluctantly agrees to visit a resort for a couple of days. Unresolved issues between the brothers resurface but Marta is the one likely to undergo a more permanent transformation.

Whisky is the second film from Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll, who again share writing and directing duties. Their debut 25 Watts was awarded at the Rotterdam Film Festival and was compared to Fassbinder's Katzelmacher and Linklater's Slacker. Whisky is a richer, more assured film, presented at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section and winner of two awards at that most prestigious festival. The rather inexperienced acting trio, Andres Pazos, Jorge Bolani and Mirella Pascual, do a superb job of providing a wealth of character detail with a minimum of means. Whisky stays with you long after you've left the theatre. It's a strong candidate for the Jury Prize for Best Ibero-American Dramatic Feature at the fest.

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Voces Inocentes (Mexico, 2004)

Innocent Voices is driven by a worthy agenda: to dramatize the plight of minors during wartime, more specifically, their use in combat. Director Luis Mandoki showed interest when Oscar Orlando Torres pitched his story to him on the set of When A Man Loves a Woman. The resulting film is a disappointment despite worthy subject matter.

Mr. Torres emigrated to the US in 1984 to avoid being recruited by the Army during the Civil War in El Salvador. The whole film is set in his hometown of Cuscatanzingo, based on his experiences and inspired by the folk song "Casas de Carton". It's not only the houses that are made out of cardboard, the melodramatic script doesn't attempt to provide any depth or detail to the characters. Twelve-year old Chava, his siblings and mother are cliched "innocents" in perilous situations, trying to evade the crossfire. Given the centrality of Chava, it was crucial for Mandoki to mold and guide the performance by Carlos Padilla, who's never acted before. Chava alternates between courageous, precocious, and cute, with little modulation or nuance to the characterization. The merits of Voces Inocentes are confined to creating a palpable sense of danger and staging credible scenes of warfare.

Those expecting to come away with an understanding of the specific conflict and milieu will be disappointed (this plot could be taking place in any of the 40 countries were allegedly minors have participated in combat). And those familiar with the historical record are likely to find Voces Inocentes somewhat tendentious, particularly in the romantic view of the rebels, described in the risible opening credits as "peasants fighting for land".

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A filmmaker of boundless enthusiasm and generosity, Jean Rouch (1917-2004) left a legacy of more than 120 films. The French director served as a bridge between the Italian Neo-realist movement that was a major souce of inspiration for him and the French New Wave (nouvelle vague). Exponents of the latter movement cited Rouch's films as having an essential, formative influence on their work. Godard for instance, called Rouch's Moi, Un Noir(1959) "the best French Film since the Liberation". It is one of several films called "ethno-fictions", made in collaboration with natives of the French colonies in Africa.

Rouch showed an interest in the peoples of both rural and urban Africa from the beginning of his career in the mid-to-late 1940s. He was particularly interested in the cultural traditions of tribes that had little contact with the outside world, the struggles for subsistence of young Africans, and the effects of Colonialism, especially in the French Colonies. Rouch was "violently opposed to film crews" and believed in forging long-term relationships with his subjects by living among them and learning their language and customs prior to shooting.

Rouch was simultaneously both an ethnographer and an experimental filmmaker. His films miraculously manage to incorporate both the poet and the scientist in him. Practically all his 40s and 50s films were made without synchronized sound, with music and narration added later, at a second stage in the creative process. Sometimes Rouch would narrate himself, alternating between description, interpretation and commentary. Other times, he would give the subjects free rein to provide their own narration. Half of what makes Moi, Un Noir such a unique masterpiece, is the interplay between footage of the daily routine of three young Nigerian laborers and the main protagonist's funny, probing commentary on what we are watching. What's remarkable to me is Jean Rouch's willingness to let his "subjects" dictate what is to be filmed. The "subjects" are in essence collaborators at every step of the creative process in most of Rouch's films. According to the experts who introduced the films, there was very little to be edited because essentially there was only one take. A few of the films, particularly Funeral at Bongo: The Death of Old Anai (about the elaborate funeral rituals for a 120 year-old Dogon tribesman) and The Drums of Yore:Torou and Bitti (about Songhay rituals involving spirit possession to eradicate locusts and crickets), are closer to an older documentary tradition and use synched sound because of the central role of music in the proceedings.

Rouch's best know film was actually made in Paris in collaboration with sociologist Edgar Morin. Chronicle of a Summer(1961) is an investigation into what Parisians_regarded as a "strange tribe"_ were thinking and feeling during the summer of 1960. Algeria's war of independence from France was a live issue, although many topics are discussed, both private and public. Amongs the "subjects": an Italian emigre who working as a secretary at the film mag Cashiers de Cinema, a student, a painter and his wife, an African student, a Jewish concentration-camp survivor, etc. Not only do we see them in diverse groupings and circumstances, including on holiday in St. Tropez, we also see them forging relationships over the course of the film. This is the film that best exemplifies Rouch's ethos that you best catch people "being themselves" if you film them "playing themselves", incorporating the social psychology concept of the person-in-public as a performer or a role player. Even more interesting are the comments made by the "subjects" and the filmmakers as a reaction to viewing a rough cut of "Chronicle of a Summer". It's one of many masterpieces by one of the greatest filmmakers in cinema history.

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Producing Adults (Finland/Sweden, 2004)

Antero and Venla heve different reactions to a condom malfunction. After many years of joyful cohabitation, olympic-hopeful Antero remains convinced fatherhood would "change everything". Venla, a counselor at a fertility clinic, is eager to have a baby. He knows it and fears losing Venla if she knew exactly hoe he feels. Antero proposes marriage and decides to covertly undermine any possibility of pregnancy. Increasingly aware of Antero's deception, Venla seeks help and solace from Satu, a bisexual co-worker with issues of her own.

Producing Adults is the directing debut of former mathematician Aleksi Salmenpera and Finland's submission to our Academy in the foreign-language film category. This dramedy has many entertaining plot twists in store, perhaps one too many. Yet it manages the difficult balancing act of dealing with grave issues seriously while injecting comedy and social commentary into the proceedings. Producing Adults gives equal weight to arguments for and against parenthood and treats the principals with positive regard while poking fun at their foibles.

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Nobody Knows (Japan, 2004)

The new film from director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Maborosi, After Life) is based on a real event known as "The Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo", which took place in 1988 in Tokyo. As the film opens, scatter-brained mom Keiko and her 12 year-old son Akira move into a new apartment. Keiko's two youngest are smuggled inside suitcases while 11 year-old Kyoko stays at the train station, waiting for the right time to sneak in. Keiko appears pleasant and playful but increasingly this single mom loses any sympathy from the viewer as her absences from her kids' lives lengthen. We learn that only Akira is allowed to leave the apartment and none of them has ever attended school. Nobody knows them, their births haven't even been registered. Akira and older sis manage to run the household fairly efficiently at first. Children can be remarkably resilient and adaptable, but up to a point. As time goes by, we see the consequences of the mother's neglect and abandonment. We get the sense that some sort of tragedy is waiting to happen, while mom is far away pursueing a happiness that does not include children.

Kore-eda shows these events entirely from the children's point of view. Nobody Knowns is rather whimsical at first, as the kids experience the joyful possibilities of being unsupervised, but the enormity of the gross neglect leads to a prevailing mood of sadness and a feeling of impending doom. The film was shot over the course of one year, with many scenes reportedly being highly improvisational. At 141 minutes, the film will feel long to audiences, "too long" or "boring" for some. Kore-eda seems to want to convey the slowed-time perception of kids waiting for their mom to show up. These kids deserve one's patience, particularly given the performances of the entire cast and specifically Cannes-winner Yagira Yuya as head-of-household Akira.

[Chris Knipp]

Obviously to be seen, and it's soon coming to Bay Area arthouses. How would you rate this against Koreeda's other films?

[oscar jubis]

I like the three Kore-eda films I've seen equally. After Life, the best known in the West, is beginning to look a bit like an anomaly in that it's an allegorical fantasy while all his other films at least borrow from the documentary tradition. Kore-eda's last two films, Distance and Nobody Knows are based on real-life tragedies well-known to the Japanese. His fiction debut, Maborosi, shares with Nobody Knows a primary focus on the day-to-day routine of individuals experiencing grief and loss.

Lila Says (France, 2005)

Lila says outrageous things to get attention. The blonde 16 year old has recently moved to Shady Grove, a mostly Arab neighborhood in Marseilles where "nothing actually grows". Lila lives with a mentally unstable aunt who states she saved Lila from being sent to a foster home. Lila sets her eyes on 19 year old Chimo, an introspective Arab who has recently turned down a scholarship to study in Paris. The would-be scribe lives with his mom and spends most of the time hanging out with friends. Chimo is fascinated with the sassy Lila but appears cautious and overwhelmed around her. He doesn't want his best friend Mouloud to know about their budding relationship. Mouloud is rather crass and rough. He becomes angry at Lila's firm rejection of his sexual advances. The inevitable confrontation is not quite what one would expect.
Lila Says was directed by Lebanese-born Zia Doueiri who got his film experience as a cameraman in Hollywood and debuted with the award-winner West Beirut. The follow-up feels slight and less ambitious for much of its running time, it simmers for a long stretch before racial tensions come to a boil in the moving, wrenching conclusion.

[Chris Knipp]

I'd love to see this.

Excellent remarks on Koreeda, thanks.

I've begun a little dvd catching up on unseen things: Hou's Puppetmaster, then the Magdelene Sisters, and not I've gotten Blind Shaft. Of course Puppetmaster was lovely and I enjoyed Howard's piece on it in Senses of Cinema, but I could have done without the bummer of Magdelene Sisters, however true it may be.

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Red Dust (U.K./2004)

Three individuals return to Smitsriver, South Africa to confront the past. In the back of a van, Dirk Hendricks is driven in handcuffs to the police station where he once served as a deputy. He has requested amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Committe in exchange for telling "the whole truth" about his activities during apartheid. On the same dusty road travels Alex Mpondo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a member of Parliament Hendricks beat and tortured during a long period of imprisonment. Mpondo feels ambivalent about the hearing. He's eager to confront Hendricks but harbors deep-seated guilt feelings regarding the fate of a comrade-in-arms who was captured the same night. Sarah Bercant (Hilary Swank) had to travel the farthest to get to Smitsriver. The sharp lawyer has been living in New York for a decade, but couldn't refuse to represent Mpondo at the request of her former lawyer and mentor Ben. Bercant has buried unpleasant memories from her youth. She once spent a night at the same police station for dating a black boy. The testimony presented at the hearing will force others in the small community to confront the ugly past, to come out of the shadows.

Based on Gillian Slovo's award-winning novel, Red Dust evolves from psychological to courtroom drama, appropiating elements of the thriller genre as it moves to its exciting conclusion. Widescreen compositions ably capture the barren South African countryside and the musical scores provides needed emphasis. The difficulties of dealing appropriately with the horrid legacy of apartheid and the ramifications of unearthing past events are properly addressed. The close, intimate ties between torturer and victim, and the issue of reconciliation given primacy over justice are perhaps not as deeply developed as one would hope. But overall, Tom Hooper's directorial debut is a successful, provocative film that deserves wide distribution. Given the casting of Ms. Swank in a central role, it's surprising that this BBC theatrical production does not have a North American distributor.

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Gunner Palace

Gunner palace is the nickname given by soldiers to the sumptuous digs of Uday Hussein, Saddam's son, now used as a command center for American troops. The debut feature of directors Michael Tucker and Petra Eperlein, Gunner Palace is a fairly objective account of what's like to be a soldier in Bhagdad after the fall of the regime, except for the fact that violent incidents are not shown, merely discussed. The film is being released in North America(March 4th) with an undeserved "R" rating due to a few instances of offensive language, nothing that your average 5th grader hasn't heard before.
There's not enough material presented that hasn't been reported on TV broadcasts thus it's not something I compel you to watch . We do hear some poignant comments from soldiers implying the intervention is a mistake:
"I don't feel like I'm defending my country and that's why I joined" and "I don't think anywhere in history when somebody killed someone else that something better came out of it". We hear a sargeant complain of lack of interest on the part of Iraqis undergoing training and another bemoan the lack of sufficiently armored vehicles. What sets Gunner Palace apart is the inclusion of soldiers performing for self-expression and entertainment: a rendition of our Anthem on electric guitar, a blues number, a skit of a soldier impersonating Saddam, an acoustic "Home on the Range", a poem, and various quite convincing hip hop numbers.

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Duck Season

The debut feature from writer/director Fernando Eimbcke has garnered festival prizes in his native Mexico, Greece, and Hollywood (AFI fest). Temporada de Patos is a prime example of what can be accomplished on a small budget by creative people. Except for two scenes_a brief flashback and a fantasy sequence, the story takes place inside a middle-class apartment, almost in real-time. Thirteen year old Flama has invited his 14 year-old buddy Moko to hang out for the afternoon. Flama's soon-to-divorce mother leaves some money for take-out and says goodbye. The attention-starved 16 year-old girl next door asks to come in to use the oven to bake some brownies. Flama refuses to pay the pizza guy because he was late. Pizza guy, who dreams of a future raising parrots in the countryside, decides to stay until he gets payed. Any doubt as to the influence of Jim Jarmusch is erased by a closing credit thanking him, but there's more going on here. Out of the blue, for instance, comes a post-modernist sequence in which the off-screen director asks the teen actress why she improvised a line about it being her birthday and everyone forgot about it. She retorts: "Why make a movie in black & white?". Somehow within this simple framework, issues such as the banality of work, sexual orientation, and the effect of divorce on kids emerge almost effortlessly. What's lacking at this early stage of Eimbcke's career is a consistent and original visual style.

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First Love (Italy, 2004)

Presumably through the internet, Sonia, a 25 year old shop assistant and artist's model, has arranged a blind date with goldsmith Vittorio. "You said thin", the disappointed Vittorio exclaims, but ends up convincing the svelte Sonia to stay for a chat. The pair become further acquainted over the next few days. Sonia lives with her caring brother (a redhead who bears no resemblance to Sonia) who openly distrusts the vaguely creepy Vittorio. Hesitantly, Sonia agrees to move into Vittorio's newly acquired manor on the outskirts of Verona, where his fixation on her weight begins in earnest. Sonia's weight is measured and charted regularly, and she's only allowed to eat in his presence. The visibly emaciated Sonia faints in public places but Vittorio makes excuses to avoid medical intervention. Vittorio's business fails as his focus narrows. While maintaining a benevolent facade, he cruelly takes her to gourmet restaurants where he eats a full meal while she consumes undressed salads. As her weight decreases to 40 kilos, Sonia appears almost catatonic and begins to hallucinate.

Director Matteo Garrone became known wordwide with his last film, The Embalmer, which received an Italian Academy award for its screenplay and good critical reception. The follow-up is a clear disappointment, and Garrone seems to be the one to blame for the shallow script (this one didn't even get a nom from the Academy) and inconsistent direction (for instance, a pivotal, dramatic scene in a restaurant's kitchen ellicits unintended laughs from the audience). Vittorio's odd behavior and bizarre delusions (something about the refinement process to obtain pure gold and the human body) are presented as matters-of-fact, as a given that needs no exploration. There's even less here about Sonia and why this particular attractive woman would submit to such humilliation and torture. It's a beautifully lensed (Marco Onorato) freak show, with a superb music score (Banda Osiris). The near sell-out audience appeared visibly disappointed.

[Chris Knipp]

This was shown on the UC Berkeley campus by the Italian students' association last year, but I missed it. My Italian tutor said, "Don't bother." The appeal of Garrone seems to be that he's so far from the Italian mainstream, and his achieving of strong regional flavor(s). I like that about Pupi Avati. I hope The Embalmer wasn't just a fluke.

I notice that on the Italian movie website FilmUp ratings of Primo amore seem to be mostly either Masterpiece or Crap with few in between. One viewer objects that it's too much in Venetian dialect. Another astutely points out that the movie doesn't show the real nature of anorexia, making it not a personal illness but part of a submissive relationship -- not the way it in fact usually works. Several comment as you do that it's just not that well done. Those who call it a "Masterpiece" may just be overreacting out of boredown with Gabriele Muccino and other conventional filmmakers.

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Salvador Allende

It's a privilege to watch a documentary directed by Patricio Guzman (Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case, Chile: Obstinate Memory) because they are so rarely screened in North America. This one is narrowly focused on the true gentleman who attempted to bring social justice to Chile via democracy, a velvet revolutionary. With Guzman himself providing carefully enunciated voice-over, the film combines interviews with found footage and photos to present Allende's life from his childhood in Valparaiso, through his political career, to his death.
Guzman's doc makes two points devastatingly clear: 1)The Nixon administration spent millions to prevent him from getting elected, waged a propaganda campaign to discredit him before and after the election, and murdered Allende's most powerful military supporter (Nixon-apointed Ambassador Ed Korry admits to this on camera), and 2) Although friendly with ruthless communist dictators, Allende refused the Stalinist model of control over media and armed forces, he refused assistance from USSR through Cuba, and refused to arm his supporters even when a coup was imminent. When he said: "There will be no civil war in Chile" he truly meant it.
Silent footage of planes bombarding the presidential palace "La Moneda" on September 11th, 1973 is eerie, then we watch his secretary emerge from the front door, followed by his ministers and closest allies, single file. Then we hear Allende's taped final statements just prior to his suicide.
The issue of his legacy and subsequent governments' successful efforts to destroy, erase, or downplay Allende's place in history (both Pinochet's dictatorship and the most recent democratically-elected administrations) is introduced but never explored. I wish Guzman had done so, as is Salvador Allende feels "unfinished" because Allende was so much more than a physical presence, he was the embodiment of the hopes of Chile's poor and working class.