The Fairer Film: Female Directors Marathon

[Lobby]

I saw The Tree in the beginning of 2011 and I must admit that it has faded a bit in my memory already. But at the time I thought it was a good take on portraying a family in grief (while not as strong as Rabbit Hole).
 
Morgana Davies as Simone was fantastic. I was also fascinated by the threatening Aussie landscape, the tree coming alive. There was a bit of magic realism in this that I enjoyed quite a bit.

[Bondo]

Yeah, Morgana is charming. For a bit there I was like "is she lisping or is that just an Australian accent" but looking closer she just seemed to be at that point with losing baby teeth. It was kind of endearing though. In terms of degree of difficulty, it doesn't quite match up to Sarah's Key for best performance by a pre-teen. Anyway, I like a lot of elements of the film more than how the film came together, I think that's why it is likely to be a passing experience like you say.

[Bondo]

Jellyfish (Shira Geffen, 2007)

Jellyfish is an Israeli film that weaves together the story of three women, Batia (Sarah Adler), a waitress with a catering outfit, Keren (Noa Knoller), a new bride (whose wedding Batia worked) and Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a Philippine maid assisting a man's elderly mother. Each faces a complication. Batia discovers a lost child playing on the beach and decides to look after her until social services can. Keren breaks her foot at the wedding and kind of limps through her honeymoon. Joy deals with being a fish out of water, not knowing Hebrew and missing her home where she has left a child behind.

Keren's story seems mostly about her complaining about everything, often for good reason, often not. Her story seems more about her husband and a mysterious woman in the same hotel who he keeps bumping into. It wasn't quite clear to me how everything fit together. There's a certain sense of loss or absence in the stories. Keren misses her honeymoon. Batia has just broken up with her boyfriend and has found this this lost girl. Both Batia and a photographer who she becomes friends with lose their jobs. Joy is missing her child, amplified when she loses the photo she has of him. Working with elderly individuals, she's also party to people losing their parents. But this could just be me forcing a connection, it doesn't really have a strong resonance.

Frankly, I could have spent the whole film with with Batia and the girl. The girl, seemingly mute at 5 years old, just has this perfect sense of wonder with the world. It is kind of joyous to behold all these little moments. When they were together the film was divine, but it is a fairly small portion and the rest is pretty middling. Some nicely framed shots show a good vision, too bad I can't wish screen captures into existence. Bonus for having the worst Hamlet adaptation ever though. Some promise here but not ultimately a film of great distinction.

3/5

[jim brown]

Bondo -
Please add Chilly Scenes of Winter by Joan Micklin Silver to this list.  It is a wonderful and unsung film.

Thanks.

JB

[Bondo]

And on Netflix Instant, always a win for recommending.

[1SO]

Did Meshes of the Afternoon remind you at all of Lynch? (beyond you despising them both equally?) I saw a lot of Lynch's use of symbolism wrapped up in Meshes.

[Bondo]

Meshes was less infuriating. For one it was shorter, but it also felt like all it had was this mood poem. Lynch makes it feel like there is something but he isn't willing to let you have it and thus is more frustrating.

[Bondo]

Sugar Sweet (Desiree Lim, 2001)

It's fun what you can call legitimate when a female directs it that would just seem sketchy if directed by a man. Sugar Sweet is the story of Naomi (Saori Kitagawa), a maker of lesbian porn (of the feminist variety) who signs on to work on a reality TV program where there is a story arc between her friend Azusa (Saki) and another woman.

It opens with men berating Naomi for failing to make something that would appeal to men. The brief clip of the work certainly makes it look a bit avant garde; not sure if that's the kind of thing that works for women. Still, at least it isn't off-putting like the example the guys throw up for her to aspire to. This is all interesting enough as a take on portrayals of lesbians in the media.

This is a very poorly produced film though. Extremely ugly cinematography, poor acting, shoddy script. It's about as subtle as a bag of hammers. Being feminist lesbian erotica isn't the same as being good feminist lesbian erotica. I'm not that easy.

2/5

P.S. Is it really necessary to put a condom on a strap-on? Inquiring minds want to know.

[mañana]

To make clean-up easier?

[Bondo]

Nothing Personal (Urszula Antoniak, 2009)

I think there is a reasonable question to be asked, just how ambiguous can you really be about characters and still have them be interesting? Nothing Personal explores the interaction between a young Dutch widow (Lotte Verbeek) and an older Irish widower (Stephen Rea). She wanders the Irish landscape (which is not as green as the nickname would indicate) camping and hitchhiking until she happens upon a house where he offers her food in exchange for some work in her garden. She is initially very hostile in her behavior and ultimately she agrees to stick around and help out on the condition that they share no personal details.

Given this agreement, we aren't really able to gather that much about the two characters. In fact, calling her a widow is a supposition on my part. Eventually she does soften and they fall into a more comfortable silence but share little else. There are intertitles through the course of the film that indicate a relationship unfolding in reverse, starting with loneliness after the relationship, yet it is pretty evident that the story is being told chronologically. And while there are certain things that could fit the idea that there is a certain mirrored effect as one works from the loneliness of a lost relationship back into a relationship, the film doesn't do enough to sell it.

A truly pan-European affair, the film is directed by the Polish (though living in Holland) Urszula Antoniak. Reading some other reviews I saw comment on a certain religious/philosophical notion of humans aspiring to be alone when they are with people and aspiring for people when they are alone. There is a certain cyclical nature to the film but I'm not sure it really fits to that theory. Ultimately, the strongest argument against this film is that I have no motivating arguments in favor of the film. It just feels kind of inert; blank characters and blank themes.

2/5

[1SO]

Unfortunate review. But how is Lotte Verbeek? Is she a compelling actress?

[Bondo]

Being Dutch I'm sure her English is top notch*, maybe she has more lines on The Borgias but here it is two or three words at a time. It's virtually a silent film. She does have a very expressive face though, which always bodes well.

*Dutch joke

[Bondo]

An Angel at My Table (1990)

Jane Campion is one of the more acclaimed female directors, yet between The Piano and Bright Star I've found her films a bit of a bore. But to give her a fair run I figured I needed to try some of her earlier films of acclaim. An Angel at My Table may have been a poor place to start though as I've never been particularly taken by biopics. In this case we see the life of New Zealand poet Janet Frame, played as an adult by Kerry Fox.

This film had its start as a television miniseries and it shows. The first third of the film is a whirlwind as Janet comes of age. It felt like each scene was rushed to the point that it lost a lot of its significance. It is just a stream of "this thing happened and then this thing happened." I guess this is an issue I often have with biopics in general, even when they are not edited down from larger works. The obligation to cover all this territory deprives it of a narrative vigor.

One scene that did strike a chord was when Janet first attempts to student teach. I can totally understand the desire to be a teacher but stopped by the utter inability to handle the anxiety of being on display, compounded by the pressure of living up to others' expectations. It was interesting for me to discover that there is a bit of a controversy involving a doctor who speculated that Janet was autistic based on her memoirs, a claim that Janet's niece vehemently denied (in a rather uncomfortable way that seems to denigrate those with autism even though her own daughter is autistic). I certainly saw suggestion within Fox's performance of autistic traits.

Ultimately, I'm not sure I'd be interested in the longer version of this story, it doesn't strike me as that interesting. Oh sure, it is noble for someone to have succeeded as a writer in spite of such challenges but nothing strikes me as notably universal about the story to give it more teeth. I might have slightly preferred a more focused, stripped back version but I'm not sure this story was ever going to be a smashing success for me.

2/5

[Bondo]

Open Hearts (2002)

Coming off an Oscar win in the Best Foreign Language Film category for In A Better World and nominated for After The Wedding a few years prior, Suzanne Bier has to be considered one of the higher profile women in world cinema. And yet, beyond these two films I hadn’t watched any of her other work. I perhaps shamefully watched the, admittedly really great, English adaptation of Brothers and thus am less driven to watch her presumably great original version. As such, Open Hearts seemed like a good place to start, especially since it is a Dogme 95 film.

Knowing that the film is Dogme 95 certified, it was rather disruptive having the film open on a brief interlude shot in infrared with music overlaid. But it resolves quickly to the gritty, low-res look that is pretty much the standard. We see Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) propose to his girlfriend Cecille (Sonja Richter) and within two scenes see them as a charming and deeply in love couple, though Cecille expresses some concerns about the safety Joachim’s rock climbing trip. Unfortunately, he is hit by a car as he is climbing out of the car to leave on the trip and is paralyzed. Marie (Paprika Steen) is the drive of the car and her husband Niels (Mads Mikkelsen) is a doctor where Joachim is being treated. Niels reaches out to Cecille as she and Joachim have no family in Denmark.

Niels and Marie have three children, daughter Stine, who was in the car with her mother, and two sons, one of whom charmingly insists he is gay after his father informs him he can’t have a horse because horses are for girls. This could be a bit offensive as gender norm enforcement but Niels concession that he would get a horse for his son if he were gay at least humanizes him a little. He may be drawing gender lines but at least he doesn’t seem to be homophobic. Ultimately, the film follows these two families as they respond to this one tragic incident.

The Dogme 95 movement continues to really impress me, as does Suzanne Bier. There are some awkward edits here and there but the overwhelming impression is of the raw and real emotion. Joachim, paralyzed, lashes out and pushes away Cecille, naturally feeling undeserving of affection and she increasingly relies on Niels for emotional support. For all the heaviness of the scenario, there are enough moments of levity to keep it from being just a miserable viewing experience. The acting all around really carries all this off in top form.

5/5

Spoiler Section: The real dramatic conflict here is with Cecille and Niels affair. This could easily feel like overblown drama but it just feels so authentic. There was a time where infidelity was a heavy mark against a film, impossible for me to sympathize with. I reckon it is a sign that I’ve lost my romantic idealism (or naivety) in that I’m generally willing to go with it now. It now seems more or less a fact of life and the true test isn’t the lack of infidelity but the ability of people to not let it destroy their lives. This film certainly handles that balance with respect to the characters.

[Monty]

Glad you liked Open Hearts Bondo. I mentioned it one of the threads about a year ago, as a film people should check out. However, you have much more clout than me round here , so maybe your review will encourage people to watch this film.

[Bondo]

I don't know about clout, sometimes being the first through the door can be lonely no matter who you are, it is the repetition that breaks the film into people's awareness. I think I heard about this one from Lobby after I watched The Celebration and praised Dogme 95.

[oneaprilday]

 I just started watching In a Better World this morning, and I'm eager to finish it - loving it so far.   I've been very much wanting to catch up with Open Hearts since I've loved everything else of Bier's that I've seen (Bondo, please do watch Brothers - I haven't seen the re-make, but I cannot imagine it cancelling out the wonderfulness of the original), so thanks for your review, Bondo.   

I forgot about  - or missed - your mention of Open Hearts, Monty - your appreciation for it, along with Bondo's review, has me all the more interested in seeing it!

[smirnoff]

Me too. I didn't realize there was a good Bier out there I'd missed!

My advice for checking out Broder is to wait a while until the remake fades. Your instincts are correct, the original is better. Right up there with everything else she's done.

Oad, so glad you're enjoying In A Better World!

[oneaprilday]

Oad, so glad you're enjoying In A Better World!

Been a crazy day - hoping to finish it tonight!

[Bondo]

Variety (Bette Gordon, 1983)

It's the early 80s, the economy is in the crapper and Christine (Sandy McLeod) needs a job. Through a friend she hears about an opportunity selling tickets at a porn theatre, this being pre-clean up Times Square. Through this she encounters both consumers and participants in the sex industry. As such, the film acts as a bit of an insight into the underbelly.

The film does feature early appearances from Will Patton, playing Christine's boyfriend of sorts, and Luis Guzman, playing a co-worker at the theatre. Their characters make for a contrast with the more anonymous customers, one of whom she takes a bit more interest in, agreeing to go to a baseball game with him and then following him discreetly when he abruptly leaves in the middle of the game. Patton is given very little to work with but Guzman definitely delivers in his scenes with some of the limited humor the film has to offer.

I wish I grasped some profound statement on pornography or feminism from this, but it features some rather off-putting elements that scream Indie with a capital I. From a number of long shots or abstract montage to Christine's increasing tendency to spout what sounds like the trashy romance novels that women might read instead of the porn shown at her theatre. Or is it a novelization of those films?

Anyway, this may be a twist on classic film noir and a feminist argument countering the anti-pornography feminist crusade of the likes of Andrea Dworkin around when the film was made. But it isn't a captivating film and no amount of good intentions in the conceptual design of a film can really overcome that.

2/5