A film that brings home the conflict between Ukraine and
Russia in all its searing hatred is Donbass. Released recently on the Criterion
Channel the movie was actually made long before the present Russian invasion – in
2018 in fact – but when there was still simmering anger and military action in
Ukraine’s eastern region, known as Donbass, from an earlier Russian incursion. Ukrainian
director Sergei Loznitsa won best director at Cannes for this. Donbass is one
of those films so realistic it seems like a documentary and where you ask
yourself, 'how can they have acted out these scenes?' There are 13 segments or
chapters that show various incidents. In one, a German TV crew rolls up to a
Ukrainian armored personnel carrier. The journalist asks who’s in charge and
the crew mock him by each taking a turn saying, “I’m in charge…No, I’m in
charge!” Just as the reporter starts interviewing the real officer in charge a
shell explodes in their midst, killing them all. Many of the scenes are filmed
in alleged Russian-occupied territory (though really not shot there) and it’s surprising how loyal the citizens are to
Russia and not Ukraine. A boisterous bride at a wedding praises to the hilt all
the Russian defenders of the town. A captured Ukrainian soldier (photo) is tied
to a lamp post and assaulted by a variety of ordinary citizens, including the
most mild-mannered housewives just walking along the street otherwise going
about their business. A businessman has his SUV captured by Russian occupying
forces but they won’t return it to him unless he offers up his bank savings to
help finance the new civil “defense” protecting him. He’s taken to a hall where a
couple of dozen other businesspeople are frantically phoning their banks pleading the
same. An intercity bus is stopped at a roadblock, only the men are ordered out, made
to strip and are immediately conscripted into the army. Virtually all of the scenes, even ones
of merriment like the wedding, are awful in the underlying sentiment of hate
that’s either expressed or implied. And they’re so otherwise real because all
the other aspects of modern life go on as usual, whether it be people driving their contemporary model cars, shopping or taking selfies.
More recently watched films:
Seconds: John Frankenheimer’s 1966 flic is a cut above and
then some to his more celebrated The Manchurian Candidate (see my Aug 16 post).
This is a Kafkaesque mind bender starring of all people Rock Hudson whose
character undergoes an involuntary life change - yup.
Hit and Run: Hugo Haas’s 1952 film noir is a clever twist on
the plot of The Postman Always Rings Twice, so well-acted and paced you’ll be
as mystified as the characters are about one of their real identities.
Look Back in Anger: Tony Richardson’s 1959 remake of John Osborne’s
famous play, the seminal film of the British New Wave, has a performance by
Richard Burton so intense you’ll feel almost seared. No wonder Burton is
considered one of the world’s forever best actors.
A Taste of Honey: Also by Richardson this 1961 film
introduced the famed of-the-era Rita Tushingham as a free spirited schoolgirl
in industrial Manchester with a story that, for its time, broke racial and gay
barriers.
After the Fox: This 1966 comedy by otherwise dramatic film
director Vittorio de Sica and starring Peter Sellers and bombshell Britt Ekland
had all the makings of a send-up of 1960s spy thrillers. But, that is, for an interminable
put-you-to-sleep plot. The highlight, though, is actor Victor Mature, a kind of Dean Martin
on steroids.
Damnation: Hungarian director Bela Tarr’s 1988 flic seems
the archtypical slow-moving Eastern European meditation on the bleakness of the
human condition. Not especially my forte but even I found this interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment