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Friday 17 October 2014

More London Film Festival

As I'm sure I've said before, when choosing festival films to book, we usually go for those most unlikely to secure a cinema release -- which doesn't really mean worthy movies about Bulgarian tractor drivers, starving Scottish crofters, or the like, but usually interesting-sounding films not in the English language. So it will come as no surprise that three of the four pics seen since I last wrote are foreign-language films; and while the fourth may indeed be an American production, it is a recently rediscovered and restored semi-silent, and therefore unlikely to hit the local multiplex:

French Riviera (2014) - The French title of this intelligent film from director Andre Techine translates as 'The Man who was Loved Too Much' which tells you rather more about the movie than the wishy-washy English title. Based on real events in the 1970s, the story follows the fortunes of wealthy casino owner Catherine Deneuve, her ambitious young lawyer (Guillaume Canet), and her recently divorced daughter Agnes -- a brave performance from Adele Haenel. When Canet fails to manipulate the widow Deneuve into making him the casino manager, he focuses his charms on Agnes. While initially ignoring the married masher's attentions, she is gradually sucked into his manipulative grasp, especially since she has not been able to obtain her full inheritance from her cash-strapped mother; he brokers a deal with a local Mafioso which effectively destroys the mother-daughter relationship and Deneuve's control of the business. Once Canet has feathered his own nest, his interest in Agnes wanes as she in turn becomes more and more dependent and demanding.

Then Agnes disappears and Deneuve spends the next 30 years and all of her fortune trying to establish her daughter's fate -- which is unknown to this day. She suspects murder and eventually brings Canet to trial. Her performance from the aging glamourpuss of the 70's to a bitter and impoverished old woman in the final scenes is without any conceit for an actress who was once one of the screen's great beauties. This long film stays watchable albeit more than a little leisurely and the end titles bringing the viewer up to date seem tacked on in haste.

Cub (2014) - This Belgian film was a late addition to our original selection since it sounded like something that we might have chosen at FrightFest had it been showing there. It concerns a Cub Scout pack's camping expedition in a dark forest, led by two overbearing, bumptious pack leaders. Our attention immediately focuses on young Sam who seems something of an outcast and ill at ease with all of the others. Folktales speak of a werewolf who roams the woods, but the scout leaders dismiss this as little more than campfire chills; Sam thinks differently. However, there are far worse threats lurking in the shadows, as the expedition members discover to their misfortune. In truth the story was more than a little muddled and the action difficult to follow (or rationalise) with the dark cinematography. (I shudder to think how unwatchable this movie would be on the small screen). I'm glad we saw it but it was far from the best horror/slasher movie ever.

The World of Kanako (2014) - The Japanese director Tetsuya Nakashima was responsible for such excellent films as "Confessions" and "Memories of Matsuko", so it was a no-brainer to select his first film in four years. The elderly Tetsuya was amazingly on his first visit to London and jokily introduced the movie via an interpreter, inviting comments at a Q & A to follow -- not that we stayed for this. I can just imagine the questions the audience might have had for him, since this stunning film was full of complex twists. The hero, a recently fired police detective, gives good psycho as he rampages through the film at the behest of his estranged and divorced wife, to discover what has become of their darling daughter Kanako who has gone missing. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that she might not have been the little angel that her parents remember and that she may well have been more of a devil to her schoolmates, teachers, and besotted boyfriends. Tetsuya keeps the action and cartoony violence flowing, possibly a little too long (I was beginning to think that the movie would never find its ending), with some brilliant cinematography and use of pop music, combined with lashings of mind-blowing and eye-blinding flashing images. It is all quite a tour de force with some strange characters -- in particular a lolly-sucking, fresh-faced policeman -- who counterpoints the increasingly bloodied anti-hero in his obsessive quest for Kanako.

Why Be Good? (1929) - Finally we have this curio which should have been a whole lot better and more entertaining than it was. In 1929's Hollywood, all of the studios were getting on the sound bandwagon, so it seems more than a little strange that this newly re-discovered movie is in fact devoid of dialogue. It boasts a Vitaphone 16-inch disc music track and sound effects. which don't really sit well with the silent era large-gestures acting style and copious inter-titles. It's the sort of combination one expects in the early 30's from the backwaters of China or India (or from Charlie Chaplin!).

Apart from the hype in the programme, we were curious to view this movie to see a leading role for the little-known Colleen Moore, a popular flapper of the period, who retired from the movies in 1934. She plays a shop-girl and would be swinger, an energetic dance contest entrant, who is really a good girl under her sexy, knowing façade. She's madly in love with a millionaire's son (after one short encounter!), but his Daddy tries to warn him off 'that sort of girl'. It's all rather predictable and stilted, and Moore comes off as the poor man's Louise Brooks. She's certainly not as good looking and even lacks the "it-ness" that makes Clara Bow's films so appealing. I'm all for discovering lost movies, but this really is little more than a strange and mildly diverting curio.

1 comment:

mgp1449 said...

French Riviera is typically glossy Techine with fine
central performances as you say.
Cub was rather a mess with the eponymous lead's
motives far from clear though the overall concept
was interesting.
How little do parents know their children, especially
when the latter are up to no good; The World of
Kanako demonstrates this admirably.
Why Be Good - when you can be as bad as this film
is despite the eulogising introduction from a BFI
curator.