By Alex Deleon
The 73rd edition of the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematigrafico, otherwise known as the Venice Film Festival, is off and running.
With an overwhelming cornucopia of films of all kinds to choose from --new Hollywood star vehicles, old restored classics, documentaries and feature films from around the globe, shorts, experimental films, etc. one is faced with what the Italians call "l'imbarazzo della scelta" -- Choice Overload -- which is par for the course at major festivals like Venice.
In such a situation veteran festivaleers such as Yours Truly try to see unusual films which are not likely to turn up elsewhere and, for the time being, take a pass on most big name films which which will definitely show up at other festivals or at commercial screenings on the streets of all major cities.
In the first couple of days the first five films I have looked in on were all in different theaters and all in different languages, to wit; Icelandic, Hebrew, English, Croatian, and Korean. (Capsule reviews below)
The grand opener on August 31 was the American biggie "LA LA Land", starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, about a jazz pianist who falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles. Youthful director. Damien Chazelle, 31, had a critical success "Whiplash" two years ago which also dealt with musicians. The stars graced the opening night red carpet and the pic went over big with the Italian audience and critics.
Photos of the arrival of hot new couple Irish-German Michael Fassbender (39, bravura star of last year's Steve Jobs) and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, 27, dominated all the local newspaper festival pages. Vikander made a big splash right here in Venice last year in "The Danish Girl" which earned her a supporting actress Oscar this year. Some see her as the next Ingrid Bergman. All they gotta do now is a remake of Casablanca with Fassbender as Rick Blaine and Vikander as Ilsa Lund to solidify that in cement.
Oh yes, the film they are in together has the unwieldy title of "The light between Oceans", and is apparently a heavyweight tearjerker set in an Australian lighthouse after WWI.
Also on the red carpet and party scene in the first days of the fest, Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams with a film called "Nocturnal Animals" billed as "a noir melodrama laced with vicious crime and psychological suspense" by first time director and former Gucci fashion designer Tom Ford. Save that one for later.
Also here Jude Law, playing, of all things, A catholic bishop from New York who will become the first American Pope -- named "Lennie". Directed by Italian Paolo Sorrentino this is not a theatrical film but the first two parts of a TV miniseries entitled "The young Pope". Such borderline blasphemous material is very titialating for Italian audiences and has unleashed a cascade of newsprint here.
As for the films I have seen so far on these opening days:
1. Hjartasteinn (Heartstone) Iceland, director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, 34, Debut film.
It's been a while since the films of Friðrik Þór Friðriksson put Iceland on the Cinema map in the eighties and nineties. This epic scale coming of age drama set in a remote fishing village far from the capital Reykjavik looks like the start of a new Icelandic wave. Fresh energy snd a keen reobserving of what it's like to be a teenager on the verge of puberty and even dabbling a bit in homosexuality makes this coming of age story something else. Against a magnificent backdrop of sea and mountains Guðmundur follows the entanglements of two simple outback families and their kids. The film centers mainly on Thor, a sensitive twelve year old boy and his slightly older, taller, buddy Christian, but also their rough friendship with a couple of teenage girls and their oroblems with roughhewn parents. The performances of the two boys is astounding and Guðmundur's direction is totally assured. Given the setting this is a one of a kind new film experience on a set of old themes. Bravo!
Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson with his incredible teenage stars and Italian interpreter after screening of Hjartasteinn
2. Laavor et ha-Kir (Through the wall), Israeli, directed by Rama Burshrein. This is theoretically a comedy about a stubborn religious young woman in her thirties, Michal, who desperately wants to get married before it's too late but keeps turning down all prospective suitors who show interest in her. At the beginning we meet her arranged marriage fiancé but he doesn't love her and breaks off the engagement. Against all odds Michal hires a wedding hall for 200 guests in spite of the fact that there is no groom in sight. The date is set for the end of the Hannuka holiday just twenty days away. Will her unshakably stubborn faith in G-d deliver a groom in time?
All the actors are excellent, especially Noa Kooler as Michal, however, the script which starts out auspiciously with the first couple of suitors, soon turns into a stale one joke melodrama that becomes less and less convincing and more ridiculous as time goes by. Hefty Ms. Burshrain and her entire entourage were present at the screening but applause at the end was polite to nonexistent .
A better title Would have been "Off the Wall -- from Hunger".
Strictly for the glott Kosher crowd and even then, with reservations.
With Strictly Kosher Israeli director Rama Burshtein ...
It ain't over until the fat lady sings ...
3. Ne Gledaj me u Pilat (Quit staring at my Plate), Croation,) -authors week. I stopped staring at this after about ten minutes when I realized I didn't feel like spending 105 minutes with a dysfunctional Croation family and an overbearing bully of a father in the ugly city of Zagreb.
4. Mil Jeong (밀정 ~ The Age of Shadows). Tremendous Korean epochal drama about life and resistance under the oppressive Japanese occupation in the early decades of the century. Director Kim Jaewoon really knows how to set up drama and suspense mixed with blazing action. There was so much in this film that I felt like I was watching a Beethoven symphony. Dark Sepia toned photography used to good effect enhances period feel. Musical soundtrack employs jazz and adrenalin tensor stretches and final shootout in the train station is orchestrated deftly to Ravel's Bolero. 139' running time is long and winds up with several anticlimacric codas but never kets you out if its grip. For Koreans this is clearly a film with heavy patriotic messages. The final theme is don't ket your failures stop you -- buikd onnthem and rise to the next level -- until victory is achieved.
I would love to see this film with a Korean audience and would expect to see people on their feet cheering at the end.. A young Italian I met afterwards said he loved it even though he knows nothing of the history involved. I could easily see why -- in a way this is something like a Kimchee spaghetti western and actor Kang-ho Song, 49, has got to be the Korean equivalent if John Wayne, or at keast, Robert Mitchum.
Kang-ho Song (leather coat) in the opening scene of Mil Jeong (밀정 ~ "The Age of Shadows"
ps: The English language film was a perfectly restored print of John Ford's 1931 "The Brat". Ford made Westerns but this was one of his early Easterns and -- one of his best before he was declared a cinema maestro.