Anatomy of a Fall, this time with English subtitles

So, I watched Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet), winner of last year’s Palme d’Or (and screened at WIFF) and it’s easy to see why. The acting is taut, subtle, nuanced, and convincing. This is the film I walked out on last fall in Athens, Greece, thinking more of it would be in English. It’s actually in French, German and English but the English is very limited. And in Greece there are subtitles – yes – but only in Greek! But it's available now on YouTube for $6.99. The film, co-written by Triet, has an interesting premise as a crime story and courtroom procedural. It’s actually about a physical fall – someone falling from a third-floor window – and ensuing indictment and trial. But it could have been about anything. Triet draws great performances from Sandra Hüller (with whom she collaborated on 2019’s Sibyl ) and the rest of the cast. I’m not big on court dramas but the acting is so well done, the plot so paced, and the cuts to "scenes of the crime" providing proper relief,  that it makes the film compelling. No more about this because it’s a subtle whodunit. A key animal, Dog Snoop, also has a starring role and won the Palm Dog Award - it exists!

Also on YouTube is Nicole Holofcener’s You Hurt My Feelings (2023), the latest from the director of comedy-dramas about contemporary, female-focused and often overthinking American urban liberals. The focus of the plot is slight but enough to keep your attention on an incident in the marriage of yet another oh-so-modern-couple played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies. I didn’t recognize Louis-Dreyfus because her hair is shorter and she almost looks like Tina Fey. Holofcener is a one time protégé of Woody Allen and it shows, since these neurotic Manhattan characters could be right out of his films. Nothing special here but I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday night.

The best rebuttal to the “it’s so unfair” chorus that Barbie (Greta Gerwig) didn’t get an Oscar nom for Best Picture and Best Director is Rich Lowery’s NY Post column. Check it out at Margot Robbie's 'Barbie' Oscars snub is no loss for feminism (nypost.com)

I hate to say it. But now when I see minorities in a film I have to wonder if this is because their inclusion is designed to fulfil diversity quotas. Starting with this year’s Oscars a film must meet two of four standards for Best Picture including at least one minority lead actor or significant supporting actors and the main storyline being the same. I never questioned who was in a film previously but now the thought is in the back of my mind.

And I’m still waiting to see Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (2023) that seems as elusive as the sun these days. It’s getting rave reviews but not available in any theatres nor even to rent online. Wouldn’t it be great if cinemas made available all 10 Best Picture nominees just before Oscar time?

Canada's most politically incorrect film

Quebec filmmaker Denys Arcand's Testament, released last fall, screened this month at WIFF  and now available online, is the most politically incorrect film, at least coming from Canada, possibly ever made, or since there's been the term “political correctness.” This is an almost guffaw-a-minute send-up of contemporary modern mores, aka woke. That it has been made in Canada is stunning. But, as we've seen in that province’s official rebuke to issues like religious symbols, in Quebec there may be more tolerance, shall we say, for questioning bien pensant opinion. And Testament does it in spades. Jean-Michel Bouchard (popular Quebec actor Rémy Girard) is an aged archivist living in a retirement home, the name of which oozes satire "Parizeau-Duplessis." The film opens with a pianist performing for residents and a zoom in on a background mural, of Jacques Cartier meeting the Iroquois with Mont-Royal in the background. Oh oh. Will this soon be controversial? Bouchard is a little "out of touch,” as an office subordinate says, because he doesn’t use electronic gimmicks to pry into people's lives to gather archival information. At an awards ceremony stereotyped activist writers climb over him to accept prizes for works like Vaginas on Fire and Oppression & Vengeance. He’s told to leave a discussion of "the intersexualization of identities." But Bouchard’s is a peaceful life, the elder bachelor, going for cemetery strolls. "I’ve spent my life in a peaceful province in a boring insignificant country," yet such places are "the happiest." A friend, a fitness freak and competitive cyclist, mocks his inactivity, only himself to come to an ironic end. "He never smoked or drank alcohol...we went vegan" wails his distraught wife. But the archivist gets caught up in a predictably contemporary crisis when a woke mob starts picketing the retirement home. The Cartier mural "is a painting of a foretold genocide," barks a non-native protester. Home director Suzanne Francoeur (Sophie Lorain) is intimidated and contacts her health ministry superiors in Québec City who tell her in no uncertain terms to fix the problem. "The last thing we need is a conflict with the First Nations." Francoeur (spoiler alert) acts accordingly but creates a bigger scandal when the art world denounces her as a philistine, sacrificing a famous mural and artist – “The French-Canadian Michelangelo" - on the altar of political correctness. That, ironically, sparks demonstrations by Québec nationalists shouting, “Save our Heritage” and “Quebec is our history” with Quebec’s unofficial anthem Gens du pays playing in the background. Francoeur, for her part, is to be "exiled to Quebec City." The movie has myriad mocking asides, from sending up video games to pronouns, tattoos, gender neutral washrooms to Quebec culture itself. "I saw a boring Quebec film at a matinee," sighs Jean-Michel. Also slighted are sacred cows Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion. And the province's response to Covid, arguably the worst in Canada when it came to nursing home outbreaks, also comes in for a shellacking. The Quebec City minister tells Francoeur "during the pandemic the government was completely lost" but kept up “appearances” like it has to do on this issue. That this movie was made in any country in an otherwise woke film industry is remarkable. That it was made in Canada, in 2023, albeit in Quebec, is rather astounding.

 

Doc overturns accepted George Floyd narrative

Throw away all you know about the George Floyd case. A new documentary The Fall of Minneapolis gives a totally opposite narrative from what the world has come to know as the “murder” of Floyd on Memorial Day 2020 with the complicity of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, now convicted and serving more than 20 years. Made by former local CBS affiliate anchor Liz Collin, the documentary is remarkable in showing reams of police body camera video from numerous angles and from an overall context of prior to the arrest to the ensuing detainment of Floyd outside a party store that fateful day. Why were we never exposed to these images and voluminous evidence? Here are some of the film's salient points. Floyd’s “I can’t breathe” iconic quote - used as a universal rallying cry against police brutality and to Defund the Police – was said many times before Chauvin pinioned him to the ground, including sitting up in a patrol car. The body cams show the immense struggle police had with Floyd, who was arrested after allegedly passing counterfeit bills. The bodycam footage was denied as trial evidence. What about Chauvin allegedly kneeling on Floyd’s neck preventing his breathing? The official autopsy found “no physical evidence suggesting Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation” as he did “not exhibit signs of petechiae, damage to his airways or thyroid, brain bleeding, bone injuries, or internal bruising.” But toxicology tests showed Floyd had a “fatal level of fentanyl” in his blood along with methamphetamine, suffering from Covid, severe “arteriosclerotic heart disease,” with one artery 75% obstructed, and “hypertensive heart disease.” The documentary says the FBI intervened and the report was changed to find Chauvin to blame. Cause of death had become “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” What about Chauvin’s knee restraint? This is by the book MRT (maximal restraint technique) which all police officers were trained in. This despite the police chief’s denial on the witness stand. Judge Peter Cahill refused that manual evidence. There’s more, a lot more. The images and content are shocking and make you ask how such a miscarriage of justice, by the state and prosecutor’s office, could ever have taken place. The answer? The braying mob outside the courthouse, and media and political opinion in the charged racialized atmosphere, demanded a sacrifice. Watch yourself at The Fall of Minneapolis | A Crowdfunded Documentary (www.thefallofminneapolis.com)

Uh, what city was this filmed in?

From time to time there are certain things that preoccupy me about a movie. It may have nothing to do with the plot or characters. Indeed, that was the case with the new film by Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, screened this week by the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF), Dream Scenario. Sure, the plot was intriguing and fantastical, about a man who starts showing up in hundreds – nay, multitudes – of people’s dreams. Poor bearded Paul Matthews (Nick Cage), mild mannered biology professor at some obscure college named Osler. Learned, middle class and envious of colleagues’ professional achievements, Cage finds fame in today’s world of social media-like influencers, by benignly making guest appearances in an ‘I‘ll see you in my dreams’ sort of way. The film did and didn’t work for me. Quirky and interesting, yes. But pedestrian and predictable too. But, say what you will, what I’m really trying to get at here is that, watching it, I wanted more than anything to know where the movie was made. There were certain background or atmospheric scenes that raised the question. Obviously, it was set in the autumn but with astonishing maple tree colors, so it has to be in the North American Northeast. Massachusetts, Vermont? I thought I spotted a Massachusetts license plate. But there was something different about the streetscapes. They didn’t especially look “American.” Nor the houses. Where had I spotted streets like this before? But the greater giveaway was in the institutional college settings' emergency exit signs showing the international green running figure, which Canada adopted a few years ago. Even the house that the Matthews family lived in had a “Montreal or Toronto” look. And those deep leafy streets and vivid fall colors? Even the college’s name was a giveaway “Osler,” a TO institutional name if ever there was one. Sure enough, the movie was shot in The Big Smoke.

I re-subscribed to Netflix this summer, opting for the cheapest ad-based plan at only $6.77 (Cdn) a month. And what I got hooked on, for the first time, were binge-watching TV series, like Maestro in Blue (from Greece), The Tailor (Turkey), Catastrophe (UK) and Love and Anarchy (Sweden). While I watched a few movies – among them Despite Everything, Le Weekend and Fair Play - more numerous were all the ones I discarded as utterly unwatchable – slow-paced, derivative, cliched, losing the plot. Here they are: Do Not Disturb, Side Effects, The Age of Adaline, Forgotten Love, NYAD, Capitani, Rebecca, Crazy Stupid Love, Manifest, Transatlantic, Florida Man, Love is in the Air, Bodies, Sleeping Dog, Marcella, Love….Glad I’m only paying $6.77 a month!

Film clips: Windsor the next Telluride?

After receiving a WIFF email today the thought occurred to me that Windsor could be the next Telluride or Sundance. Such has the festival’s gravitas picked-up, like an increasing snowball – and now garnering national recognition – that WIFF is taking on the trappings of the “small festival that could.” International stars increasingly are attending, as are audience members from outside the area with Windsor more and more being seen as a destination festival. Accordingly, says WIFF in the email recapping the past year and most succesful yet, with 186 features and over 300 screenings. “Most importantly, we had people from all over North America visit Windsor to experience film and community at WIFF, affirming our vision of becoming a nationally recognized, industry-leading cultural destination.” 

The Globe and Mail recently did a story about the Toronto’s film festival’s touring series called the Film Circuit, which distributes TIFF films to communities across Canada. Windsor’s fest director was quoted. “We were part of Film Circuit for 18 years and grew with them, learned from them about building relationships with distributors and filmmakers and how it all works, and now we’re here,” says executive director Vincent Georgie of the Windsor International Film Festival. “We then forged our own path forward, but absolutely with a debt due to TIFF.”

I’m in Greece. But before leaving home in Canada I had re-signed with Netflix but to its low budget platform for less than $10/month but which includes commercials. Really no big deal as they are few and far between and don’t last long and are sometimes even interesting. I was able to watch Netflix in England but this cheaper platform isn’t supported in Greece. Different strokes for different countries, I guess.

In England, in Exeter in southwest England, there’s a little idiosyncratic gem of a museum at the city’s university, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (photo above). Douglas, now deceased, was a British filmmaker and as importantly a major collector of thousands of pieces of cinema paraphernalia. What’s most intriguing is the display of early 20th century and pre-20th rudimentary moving image machines or contraptions that mimicked motion such as mirrors, peep shows, optical illusions, dioramas and phantasmagoria or modified magic lanterns to project “supernatural” images. 

 

In Greece, movies still have intermissions

At first I was startled when, during a screening of Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet), halfway through the movie, the screen went dark and a blue “intermission” sign (in Greek and English) flashed as the house lights came up. This wasn’t that long of a film, was it? To tell truth it provided an opportunity to escape the screening. I’m here in Athens and attended Anatomy because I knew it was in three languages including English. I was a bit skeptical of just how much English would be spoken and hoped for subtitles accordingly. I had reason to be. Rather little, it turned out, and the subtitles were only in Greek. The film is also a court drama and I’m not turned on much by courtroom procedurals. But I used the handy intermission to escape, not after taking a few photos of this classic Euro theatre, which looked like it had the same signage since the 1950s. That’s one thing I like about Europe – the old cinemas haven’t closed, there are still plenty of them in the city centers and people of all ages attend. At Anatomy perhaps half the crowd was 60-plus…..While I walked out of Anatomy, the other night I attended May December, Todd Haynes’s latest take on ennui and mental illness and starring previous collaborator Julianne Moore. Moore as Gracie is a sex offender implicated in the seduction of a 17-year-old, some twenty years later and now husband Joe (Charles Melton). (The plot is roughly based on a true story, that of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau.) Just as she was in a previous Haynes’s film, Safe (1995) outwardly Moore’s character is upbeat and together but underneath seething is disassociation and trauma. Playing opposite is Natalie Portman, an actress, Elizabeth Berry, who wants to portray her story and is doing research. Why Gracie would allow such a thing is beyond me but the irony of her interrogating Berry on being an actress, as per the real Portman,

isn’t lost. The film, set in Savannah Ga., is visually filmed through a southern summer haze, and really doesn’t come to a conclusion about anything. But the theatre I saw it in, the Ideal, is Athens’ oldest, dating from 1921 and hosting the largest screen (top photo) in Greece. And did I mention there also was a 10 minute intermission, as the film was cut right in the middle of a scene (a car travelling along a highway)?…..And last night, I walked a few kilomtres along Leoforos (boulevard) Vasilissis Sofias, past the first modern-era Olympic stadium (1896), the city’s massive art museum, its giant concert hall, its under-renovation iconic Hilton, and yes, even the American Embassy, to see Napoleon (Ridley Scott). Now, Napoleon is almost three hours long. What did I think of it? The battle scenes are among the very best ever filmed, the period settings fantastic. As for Joaquin Phoenix as N? Well, let's say we'll just stick to the sweeping history.  And of course this theatre, the Athinaion (second photo), had an intermission. At first I thought these Greek cinema intermissions were a throwback and kind of bizarre. But then I got it. They provide the perfect opportunity for the audience to order another snack (the theatre makes money) and go to the restroom. In North America we would have to leave the film and miss part of the movie. These Europeans are smart!

It's now film festival season in Windsor

With the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) closing out another boffo – if not yet its most boffo year – Sunday, it’s time to plunge right into the city’s second-in-a-row – count ‘em – film festivals: Media City, which got under way last night and runs until Nov. 11 Yes, it’s now film festival season in little old Windsor, Ontario, Canada, fast, it seems, becoming a cinematic destination on international festival circuits. But Media City, now in its 26th season, is clearly the senior festival (WIFF celebrated its 19th), and has always had a large international presence. And, for the genre it screens, holds an important niche among avant-garde festivals. It’s a lesser known festival than WIFF because it screens edgier, more abstract and experimental works. The event shows films in Windsor and Detroit but is centred around Windsor’s Capitol Theatre. Some 60 cineastes from Germany, France, Serbia, South America and Asia are here for tonight’s launch party. And influential Argentinian director Narcisa Hirsch is the focus of tonight’s post-party screening. “Hirsch has spent seven decades as one of the foremost figures of the South American avant-garde,” the festival, long headed by Oona Mosna, says. Tonight's event features rare films never before screened outside of Argentina. Over the next several days some 70 films altogether will be screened. The festival is underwritten to the tune of more than $200,000 in provincial and federal funding. Media City’s guide is 120 pages. A full festival pass is $30 CAD and single tickets are “pay what you like.”