Brooding brothers: One is a fascist and the other is a communist (the communist is the spunk with dreamy eyes who’s in front of Stalin). Picture courtesy of Aztec International.
If you’re looking for an interesting, intelligent and at times amusing film with political and familial conflict at its core, you’ll enjoy My Brother is an Only Child. I give it four out of five stars. If anyone can recommend other good movies, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Here’s a synopsis of the film from the aforementioned Aztec International:
Set in the southern Italian city of Latina against the backdrop of the turbulent ’60’s & ’70’s, this wonderfully rich and passionate family drama centres on two politically estranged brothers. When we first meet Accio (a fantastic performance by Elio Germano) he’s young, impulsive and volatile. The bane of his parent’s existence, he pick fights relentlessly, expounds fascist ideology, and is a constant source of family embarrassment. His older brother Manrico (Italian heartthrob Riccardo Scamarcio), in contrast, is handsome, charismatic and loved by all. Perhaps not as naturally politically minded, Manrico is nonetheless swept up in the communist fervour after following his working class father into factory work. With the events of Italy’s history marching on in the foreground, the brothers’ adventures unfold, and despite their differences, the men that emerge may be less at odds than their adolescent politics suggest. Infused with a good dose of Italian energy and humour My Brother is an Only Child is a vibrant film of social conflict and brotherly love.
That film is on my list Darlene.
One film I saw yesterday quite by accident on World Movies: Tsotsi
Simple, affecting story of a thug who steals a car with a baby in it in Johannesburg. Won the foreign film oscar a few years ago, but blowed if I had heard of it before. I swear, you have to sit through forty boring french boob films before they show something interesting on that channel though.
“Forty boring French boob films”…:) Hilarious. That’s our SBS. Years ago I saw a film called “A Heart in Winter” (I think) and after it was over another audience member said with some exasperation, “Blasted French films”. It wasn’t a booby film, however.
Tsotsi sounds like a very interesting film. It’s the simple affecting ones that often leave the most impression. Will check the foreign film section of my local DVD store.
I was thinking about a film I saw, mmm, ten or so years ago the other day. I think it was called The Butcher Boy. It was by Neil Jordan. I couldn’t find it in the DVD store, but I’d be interested in having another look at it.
Darlene wrote:
I got a lot of enjoyment out of “The Brotherhood of the Wolf” – big, dumb, action adventure from a few years ago. I get the impression that the French are sort of stuck in a rut of making these sort of polite middle class movies about angst in the same way Australians seem to be stuck making gritty films about Melbourne (or used to be). I blame Kieslowski – he seems to have doomed them to making red/white/blue over and over again.
I haven’t seen “the Butcher boy” – but it’s times like this that you wish they’d just get on and build that video-on-demand system that’s been threatened for 10 years or so instead of having to rely on the vagaries of broadcast TV, borrowing DVD’s from friends or be at the whim of your local rental outlet.
Yeah, “Brotherhood of the Wolf” was fun.
Re – French films – I have the impression that the equation of French films with quality is a hangover of the Truffaut/New Wave period. What we get these days is largely romantic comedies (almost all involving a love triangle) and costume dramas – which are really light entertainment but are marketed as “art house”.
And, yep, Darlene, the communist is a hottie!
“What we get these days is largely romantic comedies (almost all involving a love triangle) and costume dramas”
No, I’d recommend anyone go and see Flight of the Red Balloon. Well, actually, I don’t know if that counts as a French film (starring Juliette Binoche, set in Paris, homage to an earlier French film) or a Taiwanese film (director from Taiwan, first film outside of Taiwan). But it is wonderfully meditative, slow moving, slice of life.
Which makes me think of Into the Grand Silence, another recent french film about trappist monks: surely not a romantic comedy (but perhaps a costume drama!). I remember it totally confounded David Stratton who kept saying: but nothing happens! They don’t do anything! When, in fact, they worked and prayed, which is precisely what trappist monks do do – and it’s hard work I gather. I haven’t seen nor heard his review of Flight of the Red Balloon, but I hazard a guest he DID NOT say but nothing happens (which it doesn’t, just Juliette Binoche and her son getting on with their life, which is also hard work)
The Italian movie sounds like any number of Italian movies from the past decade: one brother a communist, one a fascist, living through the turbulent sixties and seventies… sheesh, I mean to say, really. Italians can make wonderful political movies, but only if they step outside this tired formula. Go back and have a look at Bertolucci’s Before the Revolution before you praise this stuff. Or The Conformist. Or Nani Morretti’s films. Or Good Morning Night. This latest sounds like politics by numbers.
Which has its place if the leads are spunky, and it looks like they are
Good point about French films. As for Australian films, one feels we’re a bit stuck in making films about the bush and the battler etc etc
The commo is, as a girl in an Australian film might say, “a deadset spunk and that”.
Interesting that you enjoyed Flight of the Red Balloon, Anthony. I know someone who thought it was boring, but these things are subjective.
Nice to see Hou Hsiao-hsien getting a mention on this blog. His 1989 “City of Sadness” has to be in the running for a Top-5 Greatest Films Of All Time, literally a film as an historical monument. I really liked “Three Times”, too. Hou’s compatriot Tsai Ming-liang has delivered some amazing films over the years, and my favourite is “Goodbye, Dragon Inn”, which is a film about watching films, with almost no dialogue, yet filled with pathos and humour.
Truth be told, as much as I’d like to be watching more interesting fare, it gets short shrift in a house of munchkins. I’ve got a long, long list of childrens movies to avoid at all costs (even the kids) but these were truly outstanding in new lows of childrens entertainment:
The Bratz Movie.
High School Musical / High School Musical II
Zoom, Academy for Superheroes (gah!)
Cinderella II (my eyes!!)
The Jungle Book still rocks though, man what a beat!
And one hollywood chick flick:
27 Dresses
If you enjoyed dinner so much you want to see it again, go and rent that. I had to ask fearfully before viewing it “you promise it doesn’t have Julia Roberts in it”, but it was so awful it didn’t matter.
Anthony wrote:
Tired, done well can still make for a hell of a film. Some of the originals might have dreadful actors, or awful writing, or the new version might have a twist or bring a new insight into a genre or just be plain old good fun, beautifully shot or feature an actor you really like to watch.
I really dislike the argument that things have to be “novel” before they are pronounced good. If you liked it, that’s good enough. Sometimes I think it’s helpful to suggest other films based not so much on some vast number of movies you’ve seen to display your extensive knowledge of film as a social indicator, but simply on good old fashioned enthusiasm. Here endeth the lesson.
Anyone seen Dinner Rush? It’s American, of course, starring Danny I.L.O. … my mongrel mate still has my videotape of it …
“Go back and have a look at Bertolucci’s Before the Revolution before you praise this stuff. Or The Conformist. Or Nani Morretti’s films.”
I agree Anthony, and speaking of fascism, the resistance movements & Italian cinema, I recommend The Spider’s Stratagem, a peculiar, technically interesting, insightful film that doesn’t get screened often:
The René Magritte (Belgian surrealist artist) connection is important:
A consummate technician, his work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe, This is not a pipe (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. (In his book, This Is Not a Pipe, French philosopher and critic Michel Foucault discusses the painting and its paradox.)
Magritte pulled the same stunt in a painting of an apple: he painted the fruit realistically and then used an internal caption or framing device to deny that the item was an apple.
The 1960s brought a great increase in public awareness of Magritte’s work. One of the means by which his imagery became familiar to a wider public was through reproduction on rock album covers; early examples include the 1969 album Beck-Ola by the Jeff Beck group (reproducing Magritte’s The Listening Room), and Jackson Browne’s 1974 album, Late for the Sky, with artwork inspired by Magritte’s L’Empire des Lumieres.[5] Alan Hull of UK folk-rock band Lindisfarne used Magritte’s paintings on two solo albums in 1973 and 1979. Styx adapted Magritte’s Carte Blanche for the cover of their 1977 album The Grand Illusion, while the cover of Gary Numan’s 1979 album The Pleasure Principle, like John Foxx’s 2001 The Pleasures of Electricity, was based on Magritte’s painting Le Principe du Plaisir.
Jethro Tull mention Magritte in a 1976 lyric, and Paul Simon’s song “Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War” appears on the 1983 album Hearts and Bones. Paul McCartney, a life-long fan of Magritte, owns many of his paintings, and claims that a Magritte painting inspired him to use the name Apple for the Beatles’ media corporation. Magritte is also the subject and title of a John Cale song on the 2003 album HoboSapiens.
In the 2004 film I Heart Huckabees, Magritte is alluded to by Bernard Jaffe (Dustin Hoffman) as he holds a bowler hat. According to Ellen Burstyn, in the 1998 documentary The Fear of God: 25 Years of “The Exorcist”, the iconic poster shot for the film The Exorcist was inspired by Magritte’s L’Empire des Lumieres.
——-
Furthermore, on the set of The Spider’s Stratagem
director Bertolucci worked intensely w/ cinematographer Vittorio Storaro:
His credits include 1900 (Novecento), The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, Apocalypse Now, One From the Heart, Reds, Bulworth, The Sheltering Sky, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Ladyhawke and Tango.
Storaro is widely regarded as a master cinematographer with a sophisticated philosophy largely inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory of colors, which focuses in part on the psychological effects different colors have and the way in which colors influence our perceptions of different situations. With his son, Fabrizio Storaro, he created the Univisium format system to unify all future theatrical and television movies into one respective aspect ratio of 2.00:1. In 2002, Storaro completed the first in a series of books that attempt to more substantively articulate his philosophy of cinematography.
(wiki pedia)
Another interesting connection is Jorge Luis Borges. Bertolluci apparently wrote the screenplay based on “Theme of the Traitor and Hero”.
Warning, the following review contains SPOILERS…but it’s partially worth absorbing if you haven’t seen the movie…or in totality if you have:
http://italian.vassar.edu/bertolucci/spiders.html
Wally, your mate is a mug.
David I agree that things don’t have to be novel to be good. There’s hardly an original idea in the world at any rate. I note that Chris Lilley’s Summer Heights High is suffering in the UK because of comparisons to The Office etc. Summer Heights High is a really good mockumentary of its own accord, stuff the comparisons.
I saw My Brother is an Only Child last night, and really enjoyed it. Well made, well acted, and a lovely story line. Definitely worth a look.
“There’s hardly an original idea in the world at any rate.”
Agree.
Not a criticism Darlene…just a recommendation if you haven’t seen it.
Here’s another:
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-citizen26sep26,2,2184670.story
It’s a rough ride but reveals how some influential people play their own sick games…gawd lord, thinking about it, imagine if top policeman, or media barons (or a journo or two) &/or top politicians came along & set-up false flag events or constructed events in order to gain power, make moolah?…& in turn, see how much they could get away with. What a frightening future that would be. Particularly if some, a cabal, came together on a yacht, or in a backroom/vault of a secret society or such, and decided to play this GAME w/ the people. Chessplayers. Puppet masters.
I often wondered about how much Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes: A Study In Scarlet) & the owners/publishers of certain magazines & papers in the 1880-90s would’ve benefitted from the dreadful Jack the Ripper murders. brrr…
Thanks for the feedback, Kymbos.
I liked the film and the ending, although I know others haven’t (e.g. David – David is like Madonna, he only needs to use one name).
There was quite a bit of eye-candy in it as well.
Watched Bertolucci’s 1900 a couple of weeks ago on DVD. (Borrowed it from next door. About thew fourth time, I think. Loved it, mostly, though the boring symbolism near the end with the red flags etc was a bit much.
Yeah, loved Brotherhood of the Wolf.
On my list for these kind of movies – Land and Freedom (about the Spanish Civil War – have I got the title right?)
Visconti’s The Leopard; and his The Damned.
A delightfully obscure (ie not known) British film called (I think) Beneath Clouds. About the 1930s and 40s. (It at Video Ezy in Armidale, David.)
Warren Beatty’s Reds.
The Oz movie Children of the Revolution.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley – about the Irish Civil War.(Another Ken Loach, I think. That’s the one I mean. Hope I haven’t confused the title.)
Paul Burns wrote:
Really? Last time I went in there, they had 20 copies of the “40 year old virgin” and enough childrens garbage to drain your synapses of all sentient activity, but not a single thing I wanted to watch. I shall have to go back for another look.
How’s this for the world’s shortest video of a revolution? Flag waving
(warning – may contain indecipherable and nonsensical lyrics, enormous hair, is not rickroll, but is funny)
I get the impression that the French are sort of stuck in a rut of making these sort of polite middle class movies about angst in the same way Australians seem to be stuck making gritty films about Melbourne (or used to be).
Australians are stuck in a rut of making films about wacky, crazy, lovable zanies, eccentrics and battlers. Often ticking all boxes – wacky crazy lovable zany eccentric battlers (Kenny, Little Miss Sunshine, etc, etc…)
Cripes, you have a better DVD store than me, Paul, and I live in inner-city Melbourne. I thought Children of the Revolution failed on many levels, but I would be very interested to see Reds and Land and Freedom.
I agree, Helen, however, Little Miss Sunshine is an American film starring the wonderful Steve Carell….
Helen wrote:
That’s a better explanation. I was horribly put off Australian film making for a long while by Angel Baby which clobbered the viewer with depression without really having anything to say. A dreadful film.
Thought John Lynch did well in Angel Baby as a young man suffering from schizophrenia, however, Jacqueline McKenzie was a little too much…too much (as she was in Romper Stomper).
It’s important for mental illness to be portrayed in honest ways on the screen. It was a depressing film, although that doesn’t of itself doesn’t indicate that a film doesn’t have worth.
Here’s a link to an interesting article about the portrayal of mental illness in movies:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/capturing-the-pain-within/2007/09/06/1188783410357.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
The Boys was a deeply disturbing and depressing work(starring David Wenham as the murderous leader of a pack of bogan brothers), however, it did have something to say. The ending remains one of the most chilling I’ve seen (having said that, some idiot sitting in my vicinity seemed to find the idea of a murder and rape amusing – perhaps the film’s failure to show the act disappointed him).
Speaking of mental illness – some prefer to say, mood disorders – the French film Kings & Queen/Rois et reine(2004) is worth a look. Demonstrates that not is all what it seems in life. Noone is perfect. Not man, nor woman. It comes down to how you handle the chaos…who judges you…& why…and if lessons are learnt. And that people need to think wider & more compassionately. Understand addictions & the limitations of each other in a wobbling world. It’s quite a challenging film.
Think it’s on World Movies.
Darlene, you’re right about Little Miss Sunshine – what film was I mixing it up with? oh well. A couple of further examples are The Castle (of course!) and Crackerjack, as well as the Oz series like Seachange and Grass Roots which are full of lovable, wacky zanies.
Actually, now that nasking mentioned World Movies again, we did see a nice little French love story on there recently: The Light (L’Equipier), not political but satisfying and quite funny in parts, about a manually operated lighthouse off the coast of Brittany in the 1960’s. Nice to curl up on the sofa with the fire going.
Wacky zany characters are good…Bliss, Malcolm, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Dish, Strictly Ballroom…& movies that deal w/ struggle like Monkey Grip, Proof, Angel Baby (as you mentioned Darlene), Waiting, The Getting of Wisdom…
but I also like the “out there” stuff from Aussies like Alex Proyas:
The Crow (1994)
Dark City (1998)
Garage Days (2002) not so great…& the more American: I, Robot (2004)
the film Knowing (2009) sounds cool
A professor (Cage) finds that the contents of a time capsule at his son’s elementary school makes predictions of the future that have come true. The predictions lead the teacher to believe the world is ending, and that he and his son are involved in the apocalypse.
(wiki pedia)
Tho I guess it could feed into the NONSENSE PANIC in news factor.
Rolf de Heer & Alex Cox are two of my fave Aussie directors.
I also have a wee crush on Radha Mitchell…:)
And I reckon Tracey Moffatt, Craig Monahan, Ivan Sen, Gregor Jordan (I think he is), Bob Ellis & The Spierig Brothers should make more movies.
Were you thinking of Japanese Story Helen? Tho I guess that’s not real light-hearted.
So Australian movies are about the outback/bush, gritty tales of Melbourne, or stories about wacky eccentrics. Yep, pretty much sums up our national cinema. BTW could ‘The Black Balloon’ have been the film confused with ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, right down to the everyone-up-on-the-stage happy ending?
One of my bugbears about looking at foreign cinema is the imposition of a schema ‘US = commercial pap, foreign language = arthouse’ onto judgements. Most of the French movies we get here are mainstream entertainments that just happen to be in French. The pleasure and enjoyment I get out of something like ‘Priceless’ or ‘I Do’ have little to do with their being challenging works of cinema, and everything to do with their being entertaining well constructed fun.
It’s just that with American mainstream cinema being so dire (my exceptions to this probably won’t please many at LP – ‘Iron Man’ is the best of the recent crop), a well made piece of fun from France (or Germany, or Italy) seems so much more superior that it HAS to be ‘arthouse’.
I quite enjoyed Crackerjack and Grass Roots (which wasn’t so much filled with wacky characters as filled with just the sort of people you see in politics). I can’t think what movie you’re mixing it up with…hmmm, it’ll probably come to me later. Rod might just have the answer.
That’s right, Rod. A good movie is a good movie, and what might be arty to us (because it’s got subtitles) is often popular fare in the country where it came from.
A good movie is a good movie and different styles suit at different times.
I’m a Judd Apatow fan, and I’m looking forward to seeing The Dewey Cox Story on DVD. which is hardly arty fare. Different styles for different moods. Speaking of which, nasking, the term “mood disorder” sounds like a bit of a euphemism.
The best thing about Monkey Grip, nasking, was the lovely performance of the young Alice Garner. Beautiful. Strictly Ballroom was very sweet. Perhaps the zany character thing isn’t a bad thing, after all it suggests an acceptance of difference. I remember Radha Mitchell when she was on Neighbours. I later saw her in a pretentious flick about something or rather (having a lesbian relationship seemed to be the point of the story).
Rod C has a very fair point on the automatic assumptions that apply to various nationalities’ cinema output.
And a hearty “hear hear” to the point in particular regarding the French films that arrive on our shores. They are more often than not lightweight projects that present as so much more. And I’d also endorse Nasking’s recommendation for Kings and Queen. It’s a dense pudding that really pays off the viewer’s investment. The director in question, Arnaud Desplechin was reponsible for a cracker film at Cannes this year, A Christmas Tale – in Roubaix! The exclamation mark is part of the title, I’ve no idea why.
And yes, Iron Man is a sensational film – a true comic book movie. The first superhero film produced by Marvel, and it shows. It spares no-one in its scatter gun social critiques, but importantly is whip-crack funny, and just another step in the rise and recovery of Robert Downey Jr. I gave it 9 rusty oil cans.
Iron Man is a crock of re-worked Commie-killing Cold War propaganda, except he/it is killing Arabs this time instead of Communists.(Ot so I gather). Just sayin’.
Darlene,
Unfortunately, Armidale Video Easy doesn’t have Reds. It did have Land and Freedom, but on Video, not DVD.
David Rubie,
Haven’t been to Video Ezy for a couple of months myself. Too busy buying books.
all, couple of other movies – George Clooney’s relatively new movie on the middle-east oil industry (Syrianna?) and his b/w masterpiece on McCarthyism. (annoyingly it doesn’t have subtitles).
Paul Burns wrote:
Yes, other bits of life tend to get in the way of film appreciation lately. I hate to toss another bad movie in here, but I think it deserves an honourable mention.
I have recently watched what I think was one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve ever seen: Time After Time.
Being a bit of a Malcolm McDowell fan, his output post-Caligula was always a bit iffy, but the following synopsis lead me to think “so bad, it must be good!” like Caligula itself.
The movie involves H.G. Wells building an actual time machine, but before he can use it, Jack the Ripper escapes in it. Wells then has to chase Jack the Ripper into late 1970s San Franscisco, where Jack has found himself quite at home with the endemic violence of the future.
I mean, WTF? H.G.Wells AND Jack the Ripper in one story? Time travelling?
It is grindingly stupid, from premise to plot to performance. Perhaps not just bad, but crushingly bad. Career ending bad. For some strange reason, it gets a 7+ on IMDB’s ratings, but that seems like some grand cosmic joke to me. You don’t need to try hard to avoid it though.
Man, Rubie – that just sounds like a ripoff of the Star Trek TNG eps with Moriarty in them, without the plausibility factor of a malfunctioning holodeck.
“Rolf de Heer & Alex Cox”
Make that Paul Cox of course…Alex is the Brit who made the intriguing Sid & Nancy…& crazy Repo Man.
Kim & David mentioned Brotherhood of the Wolf. I enjoyed it, cool atmosphere, great shots, lighting & editing….some fancy footwork & interesting storyline:
The film is loosely based on a real-life series of killings that took place in France in the 18th century and on the famous legend around the Beast of Gévaudan. Parts of the movie were filmed at Château de Roquetaillade.
(wiki pedia)
Director Christophe Gans also made Silent Hill w/ Radha Mitchell in it…I didn’t get into it at first, but a second viewing w/ some red wine in me made it more tolerable. A bit HP Lovecraftian w/ a touch of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser.
David, I saw Time after Time at the movies in 79…it was fun…but has aged badly.
Darlene, you must be talking about High Art…not my fave of hers. I liked her in Silent Hill, When Strangers Appear, Pitch Black, Visitors, Phone Booth, Melinda and Melinda & Love and Other Catastrophes. Not the greatest films…but all have their moments.
@FDB: ‘Time after Time’ was made in the late 70s – I haven’t seen it since it was the “wednesday Night Sci-Fi Movie” on channel 7 back in the 80s, but I remember enjoying it. It was written by Nicholas Meyer, who wrote the two “lost” Sherlock Holmes novels ‘The 7% Solution’ and ‘The West End Horror’ and also wrote and directed The Wrath of Kahn, so there’s a kind of synthesis in your comparison. :^)
(And the through the magic of the intynet, here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnT-9-EWDxQ)
Sondheim wrote a song for the film of 7%, and partly composed the soundtrack for “Reds”, which I saw about the same time as “Time after Time”. (He was unable to finish the score for Reds and says that he owed Warren Beatty some music, which resulted in him writing the songs for “Dick Tracy”) Beatty’s co-star in Reds is Diane Keaton, and was nominated for her second Oscar, following her win for “Annie Hall” which is the last good movie I saw, about a week ago. :^)
The “good movie” prior to that was ‘Primer’, a time travel movie that works really, really well.
d
A communist and a fascist, as if there were any other choice. The lamest premise to a film since that Edward Nortin/Jenna Elfman/Ben Stiller film about the priest, the rabbi and the chick. Even if I wasn’t busy you wouldn’t catch me there at gunpoint. It’s all been said and done better elsewhere, and there’s something sad about sad old premises being trotted out once again without much new to say. Sadder still that a gushy review should fall back on PR bumf from the distributor.
Yes Darryl, Primer has an interesting time travel concept. A bit dark tho. But probably fairly realistic responses if it came about. At least based on the mentality of some over the past decade.
My fave French films since 2000:
(You can see them on SBS too if yer lucky. Or download in the future. Or DVD shops if you have a half-decent one. I probably saw most on World Movies. 2 are missing., couldn’t remember their names. One is about a lady investigator who often sees red clues. The other is a war drama that integrates Arabs into French army. Anyone?)
Kings and Queen
The Man on the Train
The Crimson Rivers
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Time Out
Irreversible (Very brutal & some think homophobic…great technically, but thematically problematic)
Red Lights
Children of the Marshlands
The Last Mitterrand
Little Senegal
Immortel (ad vitam) (bit of a Euro production)
The Triplets of Belleville
Amélie
Asterix Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (dopey but fun)
He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not
The Housekeeper
Read My Lips
Save Me
The Mystery of the Yellow Room (based on Gaston Leroux murder mystery)
The Perfume of the Lady in Black (the sequal)
A Very Long Engagement (a wee bit long)
Intimate Strangers
8 Women (has its moments)
St. Ange (a bit weak…but interesting)
Here’s a good list of French films if yer interested…it’s in French, so click on the movie & beneath the credits they usually supply the English title:
http://filmsdefrance.com/2000s_aff.html
I have plenty more to see, including The Widow of St. Pierre.
Andrew E wrote:
Er, it’s a film based in Italian history Andrew, which makes it not only plausible but probable. It’s not set in Melbourne.
I hope they show that again before the cycling starts, c’est magnifique!
On a totally unrelated note, you should also probably see Napoleon Dynamite (has a french word in it!). My kids love it and I think it’s an absolute hoot.
“A communist and a fascist, as if there were any other choice. The lamest premise to a film since that Edward Nortin/Jenna Elfman/Ben Stiller film about the priest, the rabbi and the chick.”
.
Adrian is right. Its situated in a historical past which uses the brothers’ relationship to explore the tendencies of political polarisations prevalent in Italian history. Its sketchy and sweeping but its broad strokes reveal a country which has a penchant for such divisions and has seen sporadic descents into violence because of it. And its exploration through fraternal relations is not unrealistic. My family, for instance was riven with tension between these two movements for quite some time during the 70’s. Both communists and fascists can and did exist within one family. I attended what the communists called “Festivals of Unity” up North and it was quite an experience. I also listened to fascists give their view of benevolent colonialism (same old narrative of savagery vs the civil) in Africa and the modernisations brought about by Mussolini, particularly in the South of Italy where peasants still existed in semi feudal systems. In the midst of this was the old but solid pull of the Catholic church attempting to stem the power of communism. Much of this is explored in the film. The final conversation between the brothers suggests that neither movement did much to help the working poor in the long run, themselves often exploited by democratically elected govts which allowed corruption to flourish.
It is also pertinent that Accio, the brother who turns to fascism is portrayed as an alienated child in the family, almost driven into the arms of the fascist movement by his sometimes violent treatment as a the less favoured son and also by the indifference of the catholic church which runs his seminary school. This says something about how alienated individuals are attracted by right wing extremism and how these movements manipulate their fragilities, offering a solidarity that is lacking. It is no accident that Accio’s story begins in this way. Mussolini himself, like Accio, was taught and expelled from a seminary and I think this is an important aspect of the film.
The French make over 200 films per year. We get maybe 10% of that output. Distributors think the punters want the light and fluffy ’sophisticated’ rom-coms. But you can’t judge the output of their cinema by the small amount we get to see. It’s really unrepresentative of their industry.
‘Kings and Queen’ is an amazingly good film. If you like that and you live in Melbourne, the Cinematheque is having a retrospective season of his work later this year. Arnaud Desplechin is one of the best contemporary French directors and none of his work has been released commercially in Australia. Like I said above, we often don’t get to see the best stuff here.
Clare Denis is another example of that. She’s made films like ‘Beau Travail’ which is brilliant and none of her work has been released here either. A lot of them don’t get on World Movies, or sometimes they’re films that are meant to be seen in cinemas, not on the telly. There’s a big difference, you know.
MH, I think ‘Goodbye, Dragon Inn’ is a great film and one that needs to be seen in the cinema. My favourite Hou Hsiao Hsien is ‘Flowers of Shanghai’. Again, it’s a piece of cinema and needs to be seen on the big screen. It’s all about pictures, sound and the nuances of performance that don’t work on television.
Yes, it’s a beautiful film. City of Sadness remains for me his best, a film that grows in power and profundity every time I see it, and I think achieves as much in terms of film-making but also in history-writing and the politics of democratic change as any film could possibly achieve.
nasking,
O’ve seen heaps of French movies, so its hard to remember them. But here are a couple I really like – Queen Margot
Cyrano de Bergerac
“sometimes they’re films that are meant to be seen in cinemas, not on the telly. There’s a big difference, you know.”
True…but as someone who has an occasional disc problem, tired of paying extravagant prices for cinema food, squeezing in to dreadfully uncomfortable seats, in-your-face ads & talking/packet crunching fellow watchers, i’m quite content to view these films on my BIG plasma screen w/ stereo volume up full-bore. Means we can also drink, eat, pause, analyse, rewind, check on the computer for other films/info related to the cast, crew, writer…& go to the loo whenever we feel inclined…:) It’s an EXPERIENCE. Sometimes it takes my wife & I 4-5 hours to get thru one film…lol. Sometimes we just let it run straight thru.
Certainly I agree we need access to more foreign films…World Movies & SBS & the odd DVD rental shop don’t offer up enuff choice…but I imagine we’ll all be downloading them soon enuff. Film festivals serve a positive purpose, one of the out of home ventures I’ve enjoyed over the years, particularly if the filmakers & such show up to introduce the film & provide some juicy/insightful details.
A City of Sadness is indeed a MUST watch. As is Three Times, saw it recently…brought to mind E.M. Forster.
And if I did venture out of the house to hit the cinema I’d probably opt for an indie cinema…I used to go to The Schonell (super food), The Dendy (cute & compact), the Metro (proximity to other cool places, like 2nd hand music & book stores), Village Twin (when in the Valley etc.) & The Classic (windy city…was madness I tell ya, addictive madness, and great Chinese cinema festival)…haven’t been to any for years since saving money to pay mortgage & give to charities etc…have any of them survived the plague that was the Howeirdian Greed Emporium & Suck the Life outa anything Alternative Campaign? I think Mark mentioned last year that The Village Twin was still breathing.
I’d be inclined to see: Mio fratello è figlio unico (Darlene & Casey have sold me on this one), The Edge of Heaven, Mongol, The Painted Veil, Hope (anyone seen this?…is it the Canadian doco?) and The Flight of the Red Balloon (which looks marvellous).
Would love to see Le Ballon rouge (1956)/The Red Balloon somewhere. And Albert Lamorisse’s doco made in Iran, The Lover’s Wind. Unfortunately he died during the making of this supposedly “visually stunning helicopter tour of Iran” (Katz’s Film Encyclopedia).
Here’s a bit of trivia: Lamorisse was the creator of the board-game RISK, a game that I was obsessed w/ as a youngun. Had Australia on the board map.
I’m increasingly disinclined to attend an actual theatre – dirty prints, out of focus projection, out of sync audio, crowds etc. Our solution was a cheapish data projector (now a few years old), a cheap screen and a slowly acquired set of A/V castoffs from sales or from ebay and junk shops. Sure, you’ve got to watch in the dark, and dust and black levels are a constant niggle, and bulbs are expensive but the picture is HUGE. I can’t remember the last time I went to see something for myself, as all excursions over the last 10 years have been kiddie flicks. If you’ve a bent for fiddling with acres of cables, I highly recommend it.
“O’ve seen heaps of French movies”
et moi Paul…plenty of good stuff. They know how to compete w/ Hollywood. Even merge w/ it at times.
“so its hard to remember them. But here are a couple I really like – Queen Margot
Cyrano de Bergerac”
Oh yes, both are marvellous. I particularly got into Cyrano…noone like Gerard Depardieu when he hits his stride, a unique fella, has constructed some memorable characters…I still have the following films running thru my head partially because of his efforts: Danton, Jean de Florette, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs/Préparez vos mouchoirs, Novecento, Buffet froid/Cold Cuts, The Return of Martin Guerre/Le Retour de Martin Guerre, Moon in the Gutter/La Lune dans le caniveau (under-rated I reckon)…can’t say I’ve seen him in much lately, or anything memorable…tho he does play Obélix for a laugh…& I’ve heard he’s making an ‘integrity’ comeback w/ Vie en rose, La…& The Singer.
“Clare Denis is another example of that. She’s made films like ‘Beau Travail’ which is brilliant and none of her work has been released here either.”
Yes, she is a great director. And her work does get released: I saw her ‘Chocolat’ in 1990, at The Longford I think, and then saw ‘Beau Travail’ several years ago, at The Kino perhaps?
Claire Denis has been the subject of retros in Melbourne a time or two b/w Cinemateque and MIFF. She’s been quietly making denser and denser films. They’re not for everyone, but by christ they’re superb if you’re in the mood.
Her 2006 film, L’Intrus is as eliptical a film as I’ve seen, makes Beau Travail look like Shrek. She’s got a new one in post-production now.
nasking @ 46,
I’ve never quite got over either of the Jean de Florette movies.The horror still lingers in my mind.
Loved Piaf, but I haven’r seen the latest version.
Danton must be one of the great movies about the French Revolution. There aren’t many, or am I just unaware of them.
I don’t think anyone quite does historical epics like the French, the Russians aside,though sometimes the Brits do it really well, eg, Waterloo, Zulu, Lawrence of Arabia. We don’t do enough Australian ones nowadays, I reckon.
L’Intrus is a mysterious film, but I still like it. Beau Travail only got a very brief release at the Lumiere which doesn’t exist anymore.
nasking, ‘Hope’ is an Australian doco about a survivor of the SIEV-X tragedy. It’s a bit rough around the edges because it was made on a miniscule budget, but it’s an important film. I couldn’t stand stopping a film and talking about it. That’s second viewing experience for me, not a first. I buy DVDs of films I really like. I have about 400 now and that’s when I stop and have another look at them.
Thx for the info Fine…now that HOPE is well worth seeing…ya know, I’ve always thought there was something fishy about the way that it sunk. Does it mention such? I still reckon Liberal moneymen & Aussie covert operators had something to do w/ the sudden flood of refugees, the Siev-X tragedy & the Tampa situation. It was all too suspiciously timed, w/ the election revving up, some events prior to, some just post-9/11 & such. I’m a suspicious guy. Still, even if it did come down to an accident, it says alot about the courage of some of the refugees, and the sheer bastadry of the Howard govt. And about displaced people & why they feel the need to leave their homeland.
http://www.sievx.com/
That sounds like a superb collection of DVDs Fine going by your taste…or what I’ve read of it so far. We have about 20….including Fahrenheit 451 & Harvey, given to me by a wise man a few years back. Also have the original The Haunting, Withnail & I, Cube, Bowling for Columbine, Terrorstorm (by Alex Jones…a history of false flag events), Rufus Wainwright live at the Fillmore, Mark Sandman bio: Sandbox, Not Drowning Waving: Tabaran, Kerouac: King of the Beats, Concert for Bagladesh & Dick York’s Wardrobe: The Wedding Present…gotta have a bit of music…;)
and a bunch of videos including Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice, My Life as a Dog & Taste of Cherry.
I’m waiting for Emusic or such to offer a subscription movie download service. But I envy you.
I agree w/ you on the epic films Paul…I was given a free ticket for Gallipoli in Vienna by the Aussie embassy, thought to myself, “crikey, Aussies can make epic films”. Also enjoyed Breaker Morant & the Mad Max films back then. Followed on TV by All the Rivers Run, Vietnam & a few more of those Kennedy-Miller mini-series. I hadn’t been in OZ since 1973 so it was quite eye opening. All kinds of history telling on film & TV in the land of OZ.
Jedda was an epic. So was Walkabout…but I guess that was an English director. The Dad & Dave films were epically funny. The Sentimental Bloke was cool. The Fringe Dwellers & The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith weren’t cool…but certainly well done & enlightening. As was The Devil’s Playground. The Silence of Dean Maitland was odd…nipple & all. And wouldn’t it have been something travelling like The Picture Show Man?
I’m not watching ‘Australia’ tho…not for ages…I reckon it’ll just be Fox-style patriotic hype & propaganda. Similar to some of the stuff I heard emanating from a radio jock’s mouth today at a funeral broadcast ad-nauseum by SKY NEWS. Poor lass, a sad loss for her husband…but pink is the color of healthy pigs & looks good on Transvestites. And what was w/ those stupid Marks & Spacks undies comments? Fancy turning a funeral into propaganda…is there no SHAME on the Corporate side of life?
David, that projector sounds cool. I used to watch films like that years ago at Uni. It can be fun.
“L’Intrus is as eliptical a film as I’ve seen, makes Beau Travail look like Shrek.”
Ha de ha! Like I said, I saw Chocolat, then (at either MIFF or Cinematheque) Americans Go Home, then (possibly on late night TV) that one set in Marseilles. So when I got to the challenge of Beau Travail I trusted this woman completely (and, given the two previously mentioned films, Gregor Colin as well) and I gave myself over to it. So I’m interested in whatever she is doing next. And yes, perhaps it was the Lumiere that I saw Beau Travail. Like the Longford (where I saw Chocolat all those years ago) it’s gone, and now there’s a certain ‘mainstream’ French film that makes it’s way to what were formerly cinemas showing ‘arthouse’ but now ‘arthouse’ has just become a brand for cinemas such as the Nova and Palace
“trusted this woman completely”
That’s a nice description of the relationship between viewer and director that’s integral to the notion of auterism I guess. I’ve always felt the same about Billy Wilder, or Pedro Almodavar. And backing up some, after watching “Zathura” on DVD, and “Iron Man” at the cinema, I’d put Jon Favreau in a must-see category as well.
Gregoire Colin is fantastically compelling. He totally ruled a fine 2007 film named “Voleurs de Chevaux” which I thought might turn up at a festival here someday. He plays a horse-thief with the same vigour as his role in Beau Travail.
You know, I never actually enjoyed The Lumiere for a moment as a physical space, but gee it gave some space to the outer edges of cinema – for whatever that’s worth. Ditto for the much-missed Schonell in Brisbane as referred to above. And for Sydney, it was The Valhalla.
A few films (not surprisingly) about the integration of Arabs into French army in recent years, but I suspect it’s Days of Glory by Rachid Bouchareb that you’re thinking of Nasking. “Indigenes” is the French title.
A breath-taking film, one that truly needs to be seen on a big screen, and a stunning soundtrack as well featuring mucho mucho Rai goodness.
Or maybe “Mon Colonel”? That was B & W if it helps….
L’intrus – doubt I can say how good I think that film is – well, masterpiece doesn’t describe it. It’s like a Mayan city built by aliens
It annoyed the crap out of me at first. My hunch is that the feeling that the movie is abandoning you, or talking over your head, is not to be explained away, or gotten over in the natural course of time. It begins in medias res and stays there. Quite an achievement. It’s impossible not to wonder whether surrendering yourself to bewilderment, letting it wash over you like a dream, will buy you into the film, but I don’t think it can, because it’s not as if the movie is simply executed in an unfamiliar style which you can learn to read clearly with practice, its foreignness goes much deeper than that.
There is a little book on Denis by Martine Beugnet which argues that Denis’s ouevre is working toward undoing both spatial groundedness and temporal verisimilitude, & that’s borne out by L’intrus. (Amazing and exhilarating that such a thing is even possible given the weight of convention and the specific physical reality of the world photographed) Where the book lost me was when Beugnet went on to deduce that this makes Denis a postmodernist in the weightless / rhizomatic / disoriented manner.
L’intrus at least is the other way around – it’s a very unmannered, specific and exact recounting of a story / condition which just doesn’t have time & space binding and defining it, or not as we know it anyway. Where the movie goes past Beau travail (and films like Mulholland Drive) is in not explicitly enclosing that way of thinking inside a naturally and normal irreal episteme like memory or dreams or wishes or art. This is about diagnosing a species of worldly life made possible – liveable? imaginable, anyway – by the arrival of a set of recognisable conditions: post-communism, posthumanism (the heart transplant and the dogs), postcolonialism. Globalised unregulated trade transcends personal identity and goes everywhere – pure nameless and untraceable exchange.
This doesn’t destroy the logic of storytelling but it cuts out a huge chunk, the heart perhaps? from its middle which can’t be filled in afterwards. On one side of the gap is an archetypal familiar fairytale world, full of ancient meaning and ritual – the Lapland world of dogsleds and furs and berries in the snow, the daughters of the robber kings, and the young woodcutter and his wife and child. And the mythical incarnation of young apollonic Handsome Sailor Michel Subor who did adventures and explorations in the old movie. It’s a bit messed up, but we recognise the elements. But when Subor crosses over, the dogs are abandoned – a terrible moment – the young man turns up disembowelled on the other side – the polynesian son is a simulation created to fill a gaping need – I’m at a loss what to call this except to say that it seems to describe a dialectical fulfilment or development of the European narrative logic (which is already entropically winding down, or being drained of life, as the movie begins).
I suppose this is the kind of story novelists & poets have been telling very well for a good long while now – but I think it might be new to film. I don’t know of any other filmmaker where what we are shown is so consistently vivid and real and crystal clear but at the same time it’s consistently impossible to know and say what it is we’re looking at. Like what was that ribbony thing they cracked on the side of the boat? The dead bloodstained girl in the ice, is that real? and which girl was/is she? I gathered that Denis names both a J-L Nancy book called The Intruder (which I think is a philosophical work) and RL Stevenson’s Polynesian narratives as antecedents, and I haven’t allowed myself the luxury of reading those, but when I can get some of my current workload out of the way I intend to.
Ideally this reading would take place on the beach of a Polynesian island.
Be Careful He Might Hear you. Msagnificent evocsation of Sydney, with the dreadful ferry tragedy at the end.
Liked the Heath Ledger Ned Kelly too.
And The Proposition – the woerful Nick Cave.
“but I suspect it’s Days of Glory by Rachid Bouchareb that you’re thinking of Nasking. “Indigenes” is the French title.”
That’s the one via collins. Merci. Yes, now that’s a film that certainly needed to be seen on a larger screen. Certainly moving & gripping, in the vein of Saving Private Ryan. The info at the end regarding the pensions certainly got my ire up…but I’m pleased that Chirac apparently dealt w/ aspects of that issue upon viewing the movie. So often we see this kind of injustice, individuals putting their lives on the line for a nation or cause & yet not being treated by those who benefit as an equal. Tears into your heart.
Digressing a bit…I also find it pathetic that some states in America permit younguns to be drafted into the military, some sacrificing their lives, or having the healthy path in their lives changed irrevocably, yet they’re told they can’t drink or drive. It’s scandalous…treating people like second class citizens even tho they’re willing to help defend American shores &/or contribute to a bankrupt war. Whilst those who send them sit in their mansions & oval rooms & sip on rare brandy or vintage wine.
And what about the people in Guam who are contributing to the war machine but don’t get to vote in the general election? And look at how many families in the so called Americas send their kids to war in order to get a Green Card…how many return to equal rights?…or the appreciation of the citizenry?…& receive full benefits? And if they reveal they are gay? Do returned soldiers who admit they are gay at a later date have the right to marry? Can their civilian partner receive the same benefits/assistance as a hetro-soldier’s partner?
Also, we hear this constant griping about other languages being spoken in America. Personally, I wouldn’t give a crap about someone writing home to their Mum in another language from training camp, having a conversation on the phone w/ their partner in a language I don’t comprehend…I imagine once yer on the front-line, it’s having someone w/ nouse & courage & loyalty that makes the difference, not whether they are fluent in English enuff to read you ‘The High Tide at Gettysburg’ w/out a hitch.
Not “drafted”…”recruited”
It’s like a Mayan city built by aliens
Laura, that’s such an apt one-liner for L’Intrus. Your writing about it is great and really spot on.
For those who don’t know about it, there’s a really good on-line film mag in ‘Senses of Cinema’. It’s at http://www.sensesofcinema.com
It’s free subscription and a really good read. There’s an interview with Claire Denis at about the time L’Intrus came out.
Thank God for MIFF, ACMI and the Cinematheque. Our viewing habits would be impoverished without them.
For those interested for an alternative take on Oz film, MIFF has a retrosepective on Ozploitation movies and the opening night film is a doco about such. The name of it escapes me, but it will be getting a cinema release.
nasking, your DVDs sound pretty cool. I spend far too much money on them.
“It’s like a Mayan city built by aliens”
Hey, I’ve read Erick von Daniken, and I thought Mayan cities WERE built by aliens! Were they not?
Seriously, folks, I’ll have to stew over Laura’s comments (and get to see L’intrus: how do I do this?). What strikes me, then, is the progression in Denis’s work. Chocolat was a fairly simple narrative, as was the (short) Americans Go Home, then it all began to get a bit more elliptical.
Vendredi se Soir is a little easier to digest, though compelling as well. Set largely in the peak hour Paris traffic on a Friday night as I recall.
Her relationship with musicians is key to her work too, the superlative soundtracks to “Chocolat” and “No Fear No Die” are Dollar Brand pieces. The latter composed for what may be my favourite of her films.
And then, The Tindersticks. “Trouble Every Day” is a film that doesn’t work much for me, but the soundtrack remains long after the picture. But her finest moment with the ’sticks is “Nenette & Boni” I reckon.
How to see them? In the absence of a fine video shop run by some poor struggling soul, downloads are just around the corner. Or so they say.
Agree with posters above, Laura’s essay has opened my mind up again to “L’Intrus”, and am now fair fanging to see it again.
You can buy L’Intrus off Amazon, or get an import copy from a really good DVD shop.
“And then, The Tindersticks. “Trouble Every Day” is a film that doesn’t work much for me, but the soundtrack remains long after the picture”
A wonderful soundtrack.
This is one of my favourite French films:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNYG9cXTSds
(City of Lost Children/Cité des enfants perdus, La – 1995)
The mise en scène, cinematography, sound…all brilliant.
Yes, effective review Laura, tho I did think of getting my old film theory & criticism texts out to do a search for “irreal episteme”, but instead I did a search on the web…has someone been reading Michel Foucault? …;)…now you’ve got me curious about L’Intrus. I was a bit bored by Chocolat (not quite sure why)…but this one sounds interesting.
I don’t think its a film theory or an anything theory term, nasking – I meant places or modes of existence where reality is not broken or defective but nevertheless it still doesn’t paradigmatically rule the roost – memory, dreams, wishes, art. On reflection that doesn’t leave much.
It’s a good shot at describing the undescribable though Laura. I recall watching those Polynesian scenes for the first time and genuinely feeling reality shift.
Particularly powerful placed against the long, cool, grounded opening sequences in the mountain forests. It’s all quite unforgettable.
“I don’t think its a film theory or an anything theory term”
Which is why I decided to web SEARCH instead…:) I’m pleased you brought it up Laura.
“I recall watching those Polynesian scenes for the first time and genuinely feeling reality shift.”
Darlene, via collins, Fine, Laura, Anthony, Paul & others have you seen Robert Le Page’s films? He’s French Canadian…yes, Canadian.
I so much want to see Possible Worlds (2000):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7odlad7TOc
Both Le Confessional & Far Side of the Moon have grown on me. There are scenes that create strange sparks in my being…a “reality shift” as such.
I experience similar w/ some of Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s films…Icelandic gems…quite moving & haunting in places…you feel reality gradually slide away.
I highly recommend Children of Nature (91), Movie Days (94), Cold Fever (95), Angels of the Universe (2000)..I haven’t seen his last 2 films. Or should I say, those he directed/constructed w/ the assistance of many others? I can get into the Auteur thing too often sometimes.
Sigur Ros’ music has a similar effect, it’s other-worldly, almost…they contribute to the soundtrack for Angels of the Universe.
Nasking,
Have seen The Confessional and one other whose name escapes me. Again, there’s a considerable corepus of great French-Canadien movies, and all the ones I’ve seen are of a uniformly high standard. Who can forget Jesus of Montreal?
“Who can forget Jesus of Montreal?”
too true Paul. Denys Arcand is another fave director. And I agree w/ the “high standard” comment.
Canadian directors Patricia Rozema & Atom Egoyan also hit the spot.
Dummy me, I got Chocolat by Claire Denis confused w/ Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat. Similar dates.
Here’s a clip from Beau Travail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqSHkiUWw6A
Reminds me of Michelangelo Antonioni & Pier Paolo Pasolini in places.
If you haven’t seen Russian director Elem Klimov’s Come & See’ then it’s worth tracking down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMKwMzLj8Ow
Same goes for Andrei Tarkovsky & Nikita Mikhalkov & Andrei Konchalovsky.
nasking,
I think my favourite Russian movie is the 3 part War and Peace. When all three parts were swhowing in Paddington years ago I took the day off work to watch them one after another. They had them on video here in Armidale years ago and I watched them 3 or 4 times.
Also love Peter the Great, but not that keen on Ivan the Terrible.
Looking forward to Mongol.
Es Canadian movies – we’re very luycky here we only see the top class ones. One is never disappointed.
“Es Canadian movies – we’re very lucky here we only see the top class ones. One is never disappointed.”
lol…there’s some truth in that.
Whilst at Uni. in Toronto, Canada for a few mths (dropped out twice) back in 79/80, 80/81 I can remember a group of us trying to come up w/ our fave Canadian films (My taste would’ve been fairly commercially-oriented back then, tho I did take a trip to see La Cage Aux Folles w/ the insurance money from a bus accident…it was a hoot, I needed a good laugh & something different at the time)…anyway, it didn’t take us long to agree that Canada put out superb docos but seemed to be lacking on the “memorable films” front.
I think Lies My Father Told Me, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz & Mon Oncle Antoine got a mention…alongside Ivan Reitman’s soaring career. And Christopher Plummer’s roles in Murder By Decree (I was a a Sherlock Holmes nut in those days…& it offered up fellow Canucks & hometown favourites Donald Sutherland & Geneviève Bujold) & The Silent Partner – I recall my Dad proudly relaying the info. that “parts of it had been shot in the brand, spanking new Toronto Eaton Centre…joint country productions & letting the Americans shoot here are the future for the struggling Canadian film industry”. He was a smart businessman.
And of course there was real buzz in our circle of easily-excitable film students over emerging director David Cronenberg…Shivers, Rabid & The Brood fed into the obsession w/ horror in Toronto at the time, assisted by the mesmerizing yet disturbing viciousness of Halloween, the Canadian-set Black Christmas & TV shows such as The Night Stalker & Ghost Story…& of course, the gore & shock tactics of Jaws & Grizzly. However, I think even then, as fairly ‘wet behind the ears’ film scrutinisers we realised that there was more underlying the works of Cronenberg than could be taken in by a casual viewing.
I might add, at the same time we’d been awestruck by the screening of The Tin Drum…apparently the film was going thru a censorship battle and a fellow York University class mate, the daughter of a lawyer (?) representing the distributors, I think, was able to sneak out a copy & provide us aspiring filmmakers w/ a private viewing…it was a heck of an experience for this fairly naive lad wrestling with the late adolescent angst of “to rebel or to conform to my parent’s expectations?”…
The ‘need to know’ was given a boost by such hypnotic filmic experiences…& the realisation dawned at 18 that “damn!, Europeans can make brilliant movies”, particularly as this starving student was offered up such illuminating, addictive gems as 1900, Il Conformisto, 8½, L’avventura, The Passenger, Blow Up, Bicycle Thief (part of the admission’s interview process was to analyse this Neo-Realistic treasure)…it wasn’t long before I’d grown bored w/ the demands of Uni (far too young, impetuous & curious & in need of passionate relationships, the excitement of the road…& to be honest, financial & trauma determinants had a great deal to do w/ the decision to dropout)…it was goodbye academia & hello Europe, film viewing being an obsession country by country, picture palace by modern box.
And yes Paul, War and Peace is a classic, a bit clunky in places, but I can remember as a Napoleonic war fanatic, begging my Mum to allow me to stay up late in the early 70s (was in Eight Mile Plains, QLD then) to watch this epic over a coupla nights. She relented & this young fella ate up that visual feast w/ a fervour.
Sergei Bondarchuk’s Waterloo was another favourite at the time.
I have just watched this movie with my boyfriend. And we really like the soundtracks of the movie. I have been searching around for their titles but got no luck. Does anyone know their titles and the artists presented them? Multiple thanks…!
That’s a good question. I have just tried searching on the web, but to no avail.
It doesn’t seem like they have released the soundtrack as a CD, which is a shame. All I can tell is that it’s Italian music from 1960s and 1970s.
Hopefully somebody can help.
Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico/My Brother is an Only Child
Composer:
Franco Piersanti
Released in:
2007
Country:
Italy, France
Sony BMG 88697096112
Country
Italy
Format
CD
Release Date
2007
UPN
8-8697-09611-2-7
Track listing
1. Accio (03:42)
2. Questo e quello (02:23)
(Beppe Servillo)
3. Pagnottelle e ideologia (04:11)
4. Chimere d’evasione (03:31)
5. Manrico e Accio (02:26)
6. Ancora i ‘60 (02:07)
7. La pineta (01:49)
8. Accio e Manrico (2da versione) (03:38)
9. Anni bui (04:58)
10. Un rabbioso esilio (02:42)
11. Una volta sola (02:53)
(Beppe Servillo)
12. La fabbrica (05:01)
13. Scorribande (04:22)
14. Torino settantaquattro (01:28)
15. “Me sei mancato Accio” (03:42)
16. L’occupazione delle case (02:53)
17. Questo e quello (03:38)
(Beppe Servillo)
18. Ma che freddo fa (03:00)
(Nada)
19. Chariot (sul mio carro) (02:42)
(Betty Curtis)
20. Riderà (Fais-la rire) (02:59)
(Little Tony)
21. Amore disperato (03:46)
(Nada Trio)
Total Duration: 01:07:51
That info was at soundtrackcollector .com
Thanks heaps for that, nasking.
You’re welcome Darlene.