Beloved (2011)

Promotional still from the film

Christophe Honoré is by far my favorite director. I first came across his films in high school when I rented his film Dans Paris from Blockbuster. Since that chance encounter with him, I have not been able to get enough. I've seen pretty much his entire filmography, and that includes films produced by him, presented by him, written by him, and of course those directed by him. Until seeing Beloved, however, I had never seen one of his films in theaters. So when I saw that the Criterion Cinema in downtown New Haven was showing it, I knew it was a chance I couldn't pass up.

Honoré has a very distinct style. It is often celebrated by critics, but also condemned. After the release of his 2004 Ma Mère and 2006 Dans Paris, Honoré was praised as the grandchild of the New Wave, which is one of the most influential film movements of the recent age. In recent years, however, he has been criticized as becoming too sentimental. With this last sentiment, I would have to disagree. 

Beloved is Honoré's second musical. It follows the lives of two women over the course of their lives, documenting their loves and their losses and everything in between. The two women are mother and daughter. The mother, played by legendary Catherine Deneuve, has long standing affair with the love of her life, father of her child, and once husband, even though she divorced him and married again. The daughter falls in love with a gay man, all the while ignoring the one man who loves her for who she is. 

The film is documented in segments of decades. This allows the exploration of various facets of the women's lives and how time has or hasn't changed them. There is also a parallel created between mother and daughter. Decisions that have been made by the mother are decisions that the daughter tries desperately to replicate, but the gravity of her situation of being in love with a gay man forever blocked her from any type of true happiness or contentedness that her mother might have found. This can show the affects of an upbringing and the environment that a child grows up in, not to mention the changing of the times. While the mother remains married to her current husband, having an affair on the side, she finds a way to balance her lives and have some semblance of happiness. The mother is from a time of the past, where a sort of restrained nature is applauded over acting out. This is a time that the daughter can't replicate. Even with the openness of relationships and sexuality in the modern age, the daughter cannot hold together the two relationships she has, the one with the gay man and the one with the man who truly loves her.

As a whole, the film was very well put together. It was very distinctly Honoré, which is what I love to see. There is a lack of explanation in his films, but rather a focus on shots to do the explaining lost in the dialogue. A lot of what you feel when watching Beloved comes from from exactly that, watching. There is much more to pick up from the photography than from the writing. The only thing I would have to put in the negatives for this film was it's soundtrack. The fact that the film was a musical greatly took away from its impact. Aside from one or two of the songs, most of the music felt forced and out of place. It felt like I was watching a musical rather than a film, which Honoré has avoided in the past. Over all I give this film a B-. 

2012 Film Challenge

This post isn't going to be a movie review this week. Sorry folks! I had a very interesting experience that I felt would be relevant to share in place of a review.

This weekend I participated in a 48 Hour Film Challenge. The basis of this challenge was to write, shoot, and edit a film within 48 hours. The only catch is that you don't know what film you will be shooting until 7:00 pm on the first day. The challenge gives each team a genre, line of dialogue, prop, and character, and each team must incorporate those elements into their film in order to be qualified.

This isn't my first time participating in a 48 Hour Film Challenge. I, along with three other teammates, participated in the New Haven festival over the summer. Unfortunately we didn't submit our film on time and were subsequently disqualified. This time around, however, went much more smoothly.

My team name was Lemon Difficult, and I had the pleasure of working with Matt Lumas, Matt Scripter, Nicole Caputo, Marc Womp, Joe Brown, Paul Kazmierski, Caitlin Read, and Albert Prempeh. Our elements are as follows:

Genre: Western,  Prop: Skeleton Key, Character: Cassidy Denver, drummer, Line of Dialogue: "And that's how I learned..."

Friday Oct. 19 we received our elements and began brainstorming. We finished our script around 9 pm and began storyboarding. By midnight our story and shots were hammered out and we were ready for a day full of shooting. We had a call time of 8:30 am Saturday, at which all of the cast and crew transferred all of the equipment to our location and set up. By 11:30 am we were film, and by 4 pm we call it a wrap. We spent the rest of the day editing and didn't finish editing until 11 pm on Sunday.

Out of a hectic 48 hours came "No Better Justice." I am very pleased with the final product. I am especially pleased considering it was my first time directing a crew for a creative piece, so I was glad to expand my boundaries and pick up some experience. I also got to try my hand at a little editing, although the bulk of the editing was left to the very talked Matt Scripter.

Above I posted the video to our film. Feel free to give it a watch and don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Argo (2012)

Photo courtesy of mubi.com

Argo is a film directed by and staring Ben Affleck. It is Affleck's third feature length release, following the highly successful The Town, which came out in 2010. As soon as I saw a trailer for this film, I knew I was interested in seeing it. Affleck has been praised for his ability to make engaging and commercially successful movies. The film also stars Bryan Cranston and John Goodman.

The film follows the Iranian Hostage Crisis which happened from 1979-1981. It does not follow the 54 Americans that were held hostage, however, but the 6 American's that managed to flee during the storming of the American Embassy. It follows their stay at the Canadian ambassador's house and the CIA mission fronted by CIA operative Tony Mendez that resulted in their rescue. The operation that saved the Americans followed Mendez's idea that the American's and himself would pose as a Canadian film crew in Iran to scout locations for an exotic science fiction thriller. Mendez arrived in Iran and gave the American's all new identities that they would need to memorize overnight. At first they were skeptical of this mission, unsure if trusting Mendez would result in their rescue, or their capture.

All in all, the film was entirely gripping. For it's duration, I found that I was on the edge of my seat and unable to contain my anxiety. A lot of the films greatness came from it's ability to hold the audience in the palm of it's hand. Through the use of shallow focus and the gradual change from long shot to extreme close up, and occasionally the drastic juxtaposition of long shot and close up, added to it's thrilling nature. I never once found my mind drifting to another another topic. The film is exactly 2 hours in length, but the pacing was genius in that I thought I had only been watching the screen for an hour.

Argo has very positive prospects for being nominated during the upcoming award season. The acting credentials were massively impressive, however I find it difficult to believe that any of the actors will receive nominations, especially with the minimal screen time given to any of the actors. The main focus of the film was the rescue of the Americans, instead of any exploration of any character strange.

I suggest this film to anyone who loves fast paced and thrilling adventures. Also anyone who is mildly interested in history. I give this film a B+.

Bullhead (2011)

Screen Shot captured from film

I've been wanting to see Bullhead for a very long time, and thankfully my roommate ordered the film off Amazon.com so we had the pleasure of viewing it on Oct. 3. The film's country of origin is Belgium, and therefore it's proper title is Rundskop, although it's anglicized title is Bullhead. It was directed by Michael R. Roskam and was released in 2011.

The film follows Jacky Vanmarsenille, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, a young cattle farmer who enters into a shady deal with a Flemish beef trader. Their agreement involves Jacky illegally injecting his cattle with undetectable steroids to be sold to the trader. As soon as Jacky enters into this agreement, he realizes his mistake and does everything in his ability to somehow break their contract. While that main plot unfolds, there is also a subplot that follows Jacky's own drug addiction which stems from an early childhood trauma.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It may have had the facade of your run of the mill gangster saga, but unlike Lawless, Bullhead played to it's strengths. Yes, the main plot followed a gang related tale, but it was the subplot that propelled the film, and at times overshadowed. The main plot of illegally injecting cattle with steroids acted as a sort of metaphor for Jacky's drug addiction. It is startling to see in one shot Jacky injecting his cows, and then in the very next shot Jacky injecting himself. Most of the time, shots of Jacky shooting up where juxtaposed with close ups of the cattle moving through their pens.

 Jacky's code name to the police is fittingly "Bullhead." It makes sense to compare Jacky to his animals, especially a bull. The reason Jacky started injecting drugs was due to the loss of his testicles when he was a child after being brutally attack by another boy. Jacky feels entirely useless in the sense that he cannot give live or provide for a woman the way he feels is natural. He looks to himself as a steer, which is a castrated bull, and views himself to be wholly useless to the collective. He is entirely singular and alone. It makes sense that he is called Bullhead, however, because he projects the image of normalcy onto his life, and his desire to be a "bull" overshadows any other desire he might have. He injects steroids to numb the pain of his loss of masculinity and to make up for the fact that he can't ever be what he so yearns to be.

The metaphor of animality in the film is a strong one. Quite plainly, Jacky is a beast. He views himself as one, as do most other characters of the film. His cruel and untamable nature is showcased when he tortures two mechanics, brutally beats a man outside of a nightclub, and when he climactically ends his own life by overdosing on the very drugs that he injects into his cattle. And strangely, just as it is natural to feel remorse at the fact that animals are put on hormones and injected with steroids, it is remorseful to see Jacky go. Just as an animal is helpless, Jacky is helpless.

I would recommend this film to anyone who has an interest in foreign film, as well as an interest in film that works as a metaphor. It is vastly engaging, and also makes for a good conversation after you finish viewing. I give it a B+.

Lawless (2012)

Lawless is a film directed by John Hillcoat. I viewed this film a couple weeks ago at Criterion Cinema located in Downtown New Haven, which, as a side note, is my favorite of all theaters in the greater New Haven area. The film is based on the true story of the Bondurant brothers and their exploits as bootleggers of moonshine during the Great Depression. The film stars Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, and Gary Oldman.

I was skeptical when going into this film, having followed its progress through pre-prodution, filming, and post-production. It had many reshoots and renamings, all clues to the instability of the production process, which lead me to question its merit as a film. Once the trailer was released, my fears were confirmed. A once interesting concept had probably been shaped into a flimsy Hollywood action release. The cinematic merit that had shone during its early days had obviously been lost under the corporate hands of The Weinstein Company, the films distributor.

All in all, the film was a major disappointment. Not even halfway through, I felt myself huffing and puffing at the overly genre-likened writing and bland cinematography. I could not find anything remotely unique about this gangster era gunslinging movie. It could not come close to competing with the likeness of Bonnie and Clyde (1967), a film that took the gangster genre to a level not yet explored. Bonnie and Clyde added a depth and motivation into their characters, where as the writing in Lawless striped the characters of any true meaning, and placed all motivations under sexual desire without allowing for any explanation.

My largest complaint, however, was the over sexualization of the female characters. The Bondurant brothers essentially used their bootlegging business as a means to acquire the female body, and because of this, the women of the film were automatically subjugated to only live in the eye of desire. An example of this is when Shia LaBeouf's character wishes to join in with his brothers and become a successful member of the Bondurant team. He makes it a point to become the most successful and flashy member of the family through the purchasing of new stylish clothes and high end cars. He does this only to impress a lowly amish girl who has caught his eye. He does not actually care for the business of bootlegging, only the business of watching the amish girl remove her clothes. Mia Wasikowska, who plays the amish girl, is over sexualized throughout the duration of the film because she is seen through the horny eye of LaBeouf's character. The way this is done is through the "peeper technique," in which the camera stealthily hides itself from the person being captured. In various scenes, she is caught in compromising positions due to this technique. Also, instead of focusing entirely on her face during important scenes between LaBeouf and her, the camera instead hovers over the curve of her collar bones or focuses directly on her moving lips. She is no longer a woman, but an object reduced to the sensual portions of her body.

I would not suggest this movie to anyone who does not want to waste their time. However, if you are looking for a fast passed and meaningless action film, please be my guest.