THE MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
2005 DIARY

By Laurie Meunier Graves

DAY 7

Tonight is another margarita and nachos night, and Clif and I are joined by a number of our friends. As to be expected, the conversation centers on movies, and two that are discussed at some length are The Beat That My Heart Skipped and Le goût des jeunes filles. One of our friends loved the second movie but did not like the first. Both movies dealt with brutality and violence, but our friend was so overwhelmed by it in The Beat That My Heart Skipped that she couldn’t relate to the main character.

Later, Joel Johnson and I discuss the differences between the two movies. The protagonist in Le goût des jeunes filles is an innocent fifteen-year-old boy, Fanfan, trying to find his way in Haiti’s corrupt, violent culture. Although Fanfan faces real danger, the movie keeps the tone light as it follows him through his various adventures. With his fresh face and good heart, Fanfan is an endearing character who is easy to love.

On the other hand, Tom, the main character in The Beat That My Heart Skipped, is any thing but endearing and is, at times, downright unlikable. Tom, a violent, low-level thug, does things that are repellent, and it is not easy to watch this tense, edgy character hurtle himself through the movie. Yet, I found Tom’s struggle between being destructive and being creative absolutely compelling, and, except for the few saints who grace this earth, this struggle is something that most of us face in varying degrees. The Beat That My Heart Skipped is a raw film that goes deep into “the heart of darkness,” not a pleasant journey by any means but one that, for me anyway, was worth taking.

As I think about these two movies and talk about them with various people, I am reminded that one of the benefits of the film festival is seeing movies one after another and then being able to discuss their differences and similarities. I doubt we would have had this conversation with friends if we hadn’t seen the movies so close together. As a result, I really feel as though I gained a bit of illumination along the way. Who can ask for anything more from a film festival?

PRODUCING ADULTS
Finland/Sweden, 2004; 100 minutes; 35mm; in Finnish with English subtitles

1/2

As a rule, I do not like movies that focus solely on people and their romantic problems. I like to have something extra such as class or war or some other struggle thrown in to leaven the mix. I am reminded of this as I watch Producing Adults, a slow movie on the verge of being a soap opera. It does have its interesting moments and deals, in a rather nasty way, with the question of parenthood, but, in the end, it is essentially a movie about who ends up with whom.

Venla, a lovely but cool woman, is a psychologist at a fertility clinic. She has lived with her handsome but self-centered boyfriend Antero for fifteen years. She wants to start a family; he wants to focus on a skating career. As their two opposing desires come up against each other, Antero pulls a series of very nasty stunts to prevent Venla from getting what she wants. When Venla discovers one of the nastiest, she gives him a choice: either they have children or she leaves. Antero could be described as someone who wants to have his cake and eat it, too. Alas, Venla is one of those unfortunate women who puts up with way more than she should. Antero knows this and manipulates her.

But Venla does, after all, work at fertility clinic, and she has a few tricks of her own, which admittedly aren’t as nasty as Antero’s but are just as devious. To add a little more spice to the story, Venla and her coworker Satu discover they are attracted to each other, and the three-way-struggle begins. (Make that four. Satu’s goofy apartment mate, a man, is in love with the delectable Satu.)

By the time the movie is two thirds of the way through, I am squirming in my seat and am eager for the resolution. “Oh, just get on with it,” I think, tired of the various machinations of the sets of lovers. The ending is moderately satisfying, but the movie takes too long getting there.

THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL
USA, 2004; 74 minutes; video; in English and in Afghani with English subtitles



I want to begin by explaining why I gave this documentary four stars. On the face of it, The Beauty Academy of Kabul is good enough, but it does not qualify as great. The production quality is adequate, but no more, and the subject—Americans teaching post-Taliban Afghan women how to become beauticians—seems, well, a little frivolous when you consider how much else the people of that country need to live an even vaguely normal life. But, what it does achieve is so important that I think this film should be required viewing for everyone, and I mean everyone, in this country.

The first and most significant part of the movie is at the very beginning, when the filmmakers take a few moments to show clips of what Afghanistan was like before the Taliban took over. We see footage, shot thirty or so years ago, of men and women at gatherings and parties. The women are wearing miniskirts and are dancing with the men. They are laughing, drinking wine, and having a good time. There’s not a burka in sight, and both the men and women look like citizens of any country during that time. Then came the coups, the war with Russia, and finally the Taliban. In a few short decades, women went from wearing miniskirts to wearing burkas and to being confined to the home. It gave this viewer a chill to think about how fast it all happened, how quickly the fundamentalists were able to implement their brutal, repressive policies. If it happened in Afghanistan, it can happen anywhere, and this is something citizens of this country should keep in mind as our own fundamentalists try to control the country.

Second, while it is necessary for a country to have laws to protect its citizens, these laws should never extend to how people dress, how they wear their hair, or whether they wear makeup. Never. These are basic rights that only affect the individual and have no bearing on either the safety or the well being of its citizens.

Having written the above, I do want to add that the film is very much worth watching as it chronicles the beauty academy’s shaky start and its triumphant conclusion. There are plenty of problems, ranging from recalcitrant workmen who don’t like taking orders from pushy Western women to supplies that never seem to reach the academy. When the American hairdressers, all volunteers, arrive, they are shocked by how repressed the woman are, but they also admire the dedication of the women and how hard they work to combine classes with home life, and, in some cases, work life. One American hairdresser in particular, Debbie, is a large, brash woman with a booming voice and hair so red that it verges on being indescribable. As Debbie lectures, scolds, and cajoles, I would have given anything to know what the Afghan women thought of her.

Along with the hairdressers, various Afghan women are profiled, and the film gives us a sense of what these women have had to endure, especially as the camera pans to the street, and we see ruined building after ruined building as well as too many men with too many guns.

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