Films: Fados, The Fall & One Hundred Nails
The last 3 films I saw from the DC International Film Festival, which ended yesterday.
Fados
CARLOS SAURA
Spain, Portugal, 2007, 92 minutes, ColorMore than 15 years ago, legendary Spanish director Carlos Saura initiated a series of musical documentaries that has resulted in such popular and riveting titles as Flamenco and the Oscar©-nominated Tango. Fados continues in the tradition; Saura has set himself the challenge of painting a faithful portrait of the Portuguese soul through its most emblematic musical genre. Using Lisbon as a backdrop, the film explores the intricate relationship between the music and the city and fado's evolution over the years from its African and Brazilian origins to the new wave of modern fadistas. The film features one of the finest world music soundtracks to date, gathering the best of new Portuguese talent like Mariza and Caman´, foreign legends like Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque, up-and-coming stars Lila Downs and Lura, and a dozen others. -26th Vancouver International Film Festival, 2007
My Thoughts: Wonderful. This film was entirely a series of beautiful fado performances by some of the most wonderful fado performers today, including 3 pieces with Mariza. Many of the performances were accompanied by interpretative dance, and the sets were very simple and yet suggestive. My favorite was toward the end: they showed us a pub-like room where tables of people listened to a fado singer and as one singer finished, another would stand and continue with a new song which culminated with two male singers in a kind of fado battle-duet (for lack of better terminology). The film did a terrific job of showing us a wide range of fado performers (it's a music style that stretches across race and class and gender) as well as the variety of fado styles (hip hop to very traditional).
The Fall
TARSEM SINGH
India, United Kingdom, USA, 2006, 118 minutes, Color and Black & WhiteThis unclassifiable work from music video superstar Tarsem Singh is easily the most visually innovative in recent memory. He has created 2 hours of astonishing images with color palettes that literally dazzle the viewer with their complexity. Roy Walker, an injured stunt man, is convalescing in an austere hospital. A respite from his deep depression comes in the form of a little girl named Alexandria, who broke her arm while picking apples. They make a deal: he will tell her the most fantastic story imaginable and she will steal morphine from the hospital pharmacy for him, just in case he cannot take it any more. So begins an extraordinary tale featuring five heroes, each from a different corner of the globe. The Fall was filmed in 23 countries and features a cast of thousands. This is the power of cinema at its grandest and most expansive. Awe awaits. - 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
My Thoughts: This film was eyepopping, to say the least, The Fall was a vivid story that was alternatively hilarious, tragic and gripping to the end. I would LOVE to have a special edition DVD of this with director's comments because so much of this film was just jaw-droppingly spectacular from a visual perspective that I want to know how he was able do it. Definitely a film for anyone who is willing to take a magical journey (fair warning: there are a couple scenes of a child in distress). It contains elements of The Wizard of Oz and The Princess Bride and yet remains wholly original.
One Hundred Nails / Centochiodi
ERMANNO OLMI
Italy, 2007, 93 minutes, ColorEchoes of The Da Vinci Code abound in what director Ermanno Olmi has vowed is his last movie testament, which harkens back to some of his earliest work in its simplicity and divinity. A librarian at the University of Bologna makes a shocking discovery: 100 ancient volumes from the library's storied collection have been laid to waste, nailed to the floor and torn into pieces. All signs lead to an odd culprit: a young, well-established university professor who has apparently vanished into thin air. Actually, he has taken refuge in an old ruin on the banks of the Po River, where he interacts with the inhabitants of a nearby town and is greeted as a reincarnation of Christ. When the professor volunteers to pay a fine levied on the community for presumed unauthorized constructions on the Po, the Carabinieri find him out.- 26th Vancouver International Film Festival, 2007
My thoughts: This film was pure tripe: awful, awful, awful. We have no idea how it made it into the festival! I think N was ready to leave the theater halfway through because it was just that bad. Unbelievably pretentious, superficial, and just downright ridiculous, this story obviously imagined that it was deep and meaningful but instead it was a load of absurd, badly-written BS (N said that the Italian dialogue was so bad that the English subtitles were actually trying to make the lines sound better - which is frightening when you consider that the subtitles read like something a ten year old had written). It's rare that I see a film that I dislike as much as this one. If you come across it, please run away.