MIFF 2005 FILM FESTIVAL NOTEBOOK
By Joel Johnson
DAY 4
Bearing Witness
If you live in the
United States and do not live the life of a hermit, it is virtually
impossible to go an entire day without reading, hearing, or seeing something
about Iraq. Living in Maine, I may go weeks without a reference to North
Dakota, Wyoming, Arkansas, or dozens of other states. People living in those
states may go weeks without anything about Maine. The reason we receive so
much information about Iraq is that there’s a war going on there and, most
importantly for our ongoing news barrage, it is being fought by Americans.
Bearing Witness is the story of five brave women who have been
committed to reporting the news from the war-ravaged places of the world so
that we will know what is going on. This is difficult and dangerous work. It
is work that most of us would shrink from. Although films and television
often portray the life of the war correspondent as being full of glamour and
romance, it is a very demanding life for which it is next to impossible to
have and maintain the kind of personal life and marriage that most of us
take for granted. Academy award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple and Bob
Eisenhardt intertwine the powerful stories of photographer Molly Bingham,
reporter Marie Colvin, reporter Janine di Giovanni, television camerawoman
Mary Rogers, and television news producer Mary Ying Welsh. Joan Churchill
and Richard Connors’ cameras make us see the horrific destruction of war
that is part of their daily existence. Molly Bingham revisits Abu Ghreib
Prison where she was held for about a week noting that she, though in fear
for her life, had been treated humanely by the Iraqis while we failed to
treat our Iraqi prisoners humanely. Marie Colvin wears an eyepatch as a
souvenir of being hit by a grenade while working as a war correspondent.
Janine di Giovanni must cope with changes in her life that make her reassess
what she does as she finally in her late thirties marries and then prepares
for the birth of her first child. Mary Rogers needs to play with her
sister’s children in order to rejuvenate herself from what she experiences
during her work. Mary Ying Welsh grew up as the product of a mixed marriage
and as an American working for Al Jazeera continually experiences that sense
of not belonging and finds herself distrusted by those on both sides. Her
distress, fear, and fatigue made me think about the cartoon character Mr.
Wizard from my childhood during the 60’s. Mr. Wizard would reluctantly allow
Tooter the Turtle to have his wishes come true only for Tooter to find the
life he had desired was much more dangerous than he had thought. At the
height of danger, Tooter would call for help and Mr. Wizard would return him
to safety with the words, “time for this one to come home.” Without
question, one of the best and most powerful films at this year’s MIFF.
Reel Paradise
And now for something completely different, Steve James’ Reel Paradise
chronicles independent film insider John Pierson’s decision to spend a
sabbatical year in Fiji showing movies. This was a return by the author of
Spike, Mike, Slackers, and Dykes and the host of the TV series
Split Screen to his original point of entry into the film business:
showing films to an audience. We quickly learn that this was John’s idea
and, despite the misgivings of wife Janet, 16 year-old daughter Georgia, and
13 year-old son Wyatt, this became the family’s year-long adventure. The
same enthusiasm and drive that had helped numerous would-be independent film
projects become real films overwhelmed any family opposition. Less easily
conquered would be the Fiji Islanders. Pierson is soon facing the challenge
of selecting films that would appeal to his audience and repeatedly receives
emphatic advice from his son about Fiji tastes. He also needs to work with
Fiji projectionists and becomes frustrated with their concepts of timeliness
and responsibility. He adapts the least to his surroundings. The family must
cope with their home being broken into and the disturbing likelihood that
someone they had considered a friend is involved. The children must cope
with new schools and make new friends. Though Wyatt recognizes that “being
the white kid” means that he can’t get away with some things his schoolmates
are able to do, he makes friends easily and enjoys always having a group of
friends visiting. Georgia provides most of the film’s drama by defying her
parents’ attempts to place limits on her behavior. She also makes friends
easily and being an exotic white girl favoring hip-hugging pants and bare
midriffs, her parents have concerns regarding her activities on her
unscheduled overnight outings. Her exchanges with her parents are
particularly disconcerting as we, the film audience, witness the “dirty
laundry” that most families would be addressing behind closed doors. The
film has many comic points, but audience members likely will be
uncomfortable seeing them bicker, and certainly not be entirely pleased that
this family has served as our cultural emissaries to Fiji.
Nine Songs
British director Micheal Winterbottom, unlike some directors who repeatedly
make versions of the same movie over and over, never makes the same movie
twice. Although his work has rarely been more than marginally successful
commercially, his films are nearly always daring and provocative. This can
not be said strongly enough in addressing his Nine Songs. This film
intends to tell the story of a relationship primarily in concert footage and
explicit sex scenes. Director Martin Scorcese resists using nudity in his
films because he feels that it tends to shock audiences out of the story the
film is trying to tell. Explicit sex has a shock value that is at least a
click or two beyond the shock produced by full nudity. This makes it very
difficult material for many filmgoers. Winterbottom’s film is meticulously
shot by cinematographer Marcel Zyskind. Winterbottom’s expressed intent is
to capture the intimacy of a relationship, not simply record sexual acts.
The relationship doesn’t have much nonsexual interaction between the two
actors playing Matt (Kieran O’Brien) and Lisa (Margo Stilley). We hear some
chit-chat about old boyfriends and teasing for attention, but little to
gauge their appeal for each other beyond their physicality. We see them
embracing and kissing during concerts in which the audience is only hearing
the music of a particular punk music group. This music is well-suited to
capturing the intensity and rawness of sexuality, but not as useful in
imparting a message based on the lyrics which tend to be swallowed up in a
wall of sound. Interspersed within these segments of sex and song are
sections where we see Matt working as a researcher in the Antarctic. The
significance of this rather unique occupation is not clear except that it
may provide a visual “cold shower” for certain members of the audience. We
never see Lisa when she is not with Matt nor do we learn much about her
life. It will be very interesting seeing how this film does when it is
released. Film frequently serves the voyeuristic impulses of the audience,
so this film is likely to attract as well as repel potential viewers. When
the film initially started being seen in festivals and its distribution
rights were being negotiated, some had wanted to temper the sexuality.
Winterbottom himself was reported willing to tone down the explicitness of
the sex scenes, but the distribution company that bought the rights wanted
to release it without any cuts. Perhaps one day we will see a director’s cut
of this that does exactly that. For now, Winterbottom’s experiment noble or
otherwise would have to be considered a failure.
Additional Review
Asylum
David Mackenzie’s Asylum
is an adaptation of Patrick McGrath’s novel. McGrath must have a thing about
mental health because this is about a mental asylum and another of his
novels was Spider adapted into David Cronenberg’s film with Ralph Fiennes
devastatingly portraying a schizophrenic. Alas, this film seems to lack that
same type of central performance even though it boasts a renowned cast with
Natasha Richardson, Ian McKellen, Hugh Bonneville, Marton Csokas, and Joss
Acklund. This film is Mackenzie’s follow-up to Young Adam, a portrayal of
the adventures of an amoral young man played by Ewan McGregor. That film
achieves a powerfully gritty sense of reality by its raw sex scenes between
McGregor and his lovers—especially Tilda Swinton’s adulteress. There’s a
similar illicit relationship between Natasha Richardson’s bored, neglected
housewife and Marton Csokas’ mental patient at the core of this film. This
film is somewhat more discrete than Young Adam in its portrayal of the sex
scenes, but seems to spend more time showing us their numerous sexual
encounters than showing us what was happening emotionally to the two
characters. Richardson’s 30-ish mother Stella comes off as an impetuous,
out-of-control teen having discovered both furtive sex and alcohol. The
audience and Stella eventually both learn that Csokas’ tortured artist has a
terrible track record as a lover having landed in the asylum because he
savagely murdered and mutilated his wife. Csokas has the good looks and can
show the charm that could disarm a vulnerable woman. He also demonstrates
the furious jealousy of a man afraid of losing control of that woman, but he
never is able to make the charm and the fury seem part of the same
personality. Bonneville, as Stella’s alternately neglectful and demanding
husband Max, is never able to rise above cliché in his portrayal. Ian
McKellen, as the shrewed scheming Dr. Peter Cleave, is the character who
eventually emerges from the background of the asylum tableau to become a
very key character. Yet one suspects that his role has probably had the most
difficult transition from the novel where what he thinks may be critical to
the script by Patrick Marber and Chrysanthy Balis which is constrained to
focus on what he does. One isn’t sure if he has significant culpability for
what transpires or whether he just happens to be around to pick up the
pieces when things go bad. And they do go bad—very bad indeed. After the
simmering heat of the first half of the film’s clandestine affair, the film
loses whatever warmth it had heading off on a trajectory of one disastrous
turn after another. With the exception of Max and Stella’s son Charlie, the
failure of the main characters to ingratiate themselves to the audience
means that the pain of seeing their personal tragedies becomes somewhat
blunted.
Day 5 -->
