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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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 Posted - 10/07/2008 : 04:28:31
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The last three films I've caught on the big screen have all been foreign language flicks, all have been unmentioned and unheralded so far on the fourums, so I thought I'd do a quick summary to let you know they are all highly recommended.
"Die Welle" (The Wave) is a German film based on events that took place in an American high school during the 1960s, where a teacher experimented with the ideologies of autocracy on the classroom to best explain to his students why Hitler was able to gain and maintain power in Germany. Over the course of a week events spiral out of control as the young minds exceed his expectations and the point he is attempting to prove goes further than he is able to handle. As a film it dwells a little too long on the trivial concerns of the teenage leads but it still packs an emotional punch come the end thanks to strong performances from J�rgen Vogel as the cocksure teacher and Frederick Lau as the desperately needy Tim, his most fervent acolyte. Although it may veer into fiction at its most
dramatic moments it does raise some disturbing questions about our susceptibility to the power of dictactorial control and makes you wonder if the same mistakes could be made again.
It's a brave subject for a German filmmaker to broach. Nazism is a subject still deeply ingrained in the minds of Germans, even among those who were born decades after WWII ended. Having spent several months this year on the road in Germany and talked to young Germans about their perceptions of their country in the wider world it was fascinating to see a film like this confronting the subject head on.
From Germany to Italy for "Gomorra", a film that borrows thematic and visual style from "City of God" and comes off no worse from the comparison. Concerning the Camorra organised crime syndicate of Southern Italy there are several story strands that loosely intersect but the film is predominantly set in a real life housing estate in Naples, stunningly shot and resembling a vile sprawling car park from a biblical hell, that breeds crime and gang culture and the simmering tensions of an oncoming gang war. It's violent and brutal, starting as it means to go on with a bloody series of executions in a tanning salon shot entirely in the otherworldly blue of the uv lights. There are many great scenes like it that had me on the edge of my seat as well as great performances throughout from a cast largely populated with unpleasant but always real characters, from the mafia money deliveryman desperate to get out of his increasingly dangerous position, to the teenage boys who think quoting Tony Montana and toting automatic guns make them a
match for the big men who run the gangs. For a dose of vital, visceral cinema it's essential viewing.
And from Italy to France for the simpler but no less impactful pleasures of "Il y a Longtemps Que Je T'aime" (I've Loved You So Long) the debut film by Phillipe Claudel. It concerns Juliette, a woman taken into the home of her younger sister and her family following many years serving a lengthy sentence in prison. To say more about the crime and the effect it has upon those around her would be to say too much, but Juliette is expertly played with deeply felt weariness and barely supressed emotional turmoil by Kristen Scott Thomas demonstrating again her aptitude for performing entirely in the French language (as in last year's thriller "Tell No One"). She is supported by an excellent cast, including a beautiful and expressive Elsa Zylberstein as her sister Lea and Lise S�gur, Lea's 9 year old adopted daughter who is delightful and natural as child actors very rarely are. From what starts as a fairly intriguing but slight family drama develops into a much more emotionally involving piece than I first expected, mainly thanks to the strong central performances and several scenes that have the force of real emotional weight; one where Juliette meets her mother again, now in a home and afflicted with Alzheimer's, and the
inevitable release of Juliette's stored up pain at the conclusion of the film had me brushing away tears.
If you get the chance - check them out.  |
Edited by - demonic on 10/07/2008 04:32:59 |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 10/07/2008 : 21:23:51
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| Demonny, thanks so much for that well-reflected post. You have certainly focused my radar for all three. There was a TV-movie done in America on the same classroom experiment maybe 20 years ago [also called THE WAVE], but this version may be more poignant since it comes from Germany. |
Edited by - randall on 10/07/2008 21:27:54 |
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 01:01:50
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I really enjoyed The Wave when I saw it, but afterwards became a little less sure. I didn't realize it was based in truth. I'd be interested to find out the real timescale as that in the film is implausibly short. I didn't find it brave as a German film in particular, though, as Germans are obsessed with the quite accurate idea that something like Nazism sweeping through the population again needs to be guarded against. Also, as far as I know, all educated people take for granted that in the right circumstances any population can be led in that way and that it was not an intrinsic characteristic just of Germans at that time, so I didn't find that concept as such much of a revelation. Probably still a high 4/5.
I found Gomorra a little hard to follow at times, as my facial recognition is not good and thus I could not distinguish between some of the characters. In some ways, it is a little pointless on top of City of Men etc. but then it's good to show this going on in Europe, especially in contrast to Guy Ritchie or glamourised mafia stuff. The decrepit housing estate was also kinda beautifully shot. Low 4/5.
I've Loved You So Long is good (I agree about that child and Scott Thomas in French) but would be better without the cop out salvation. Maybe a medium 4/5.
I saw El Ba�o Del Papa, based on the Pope's visit to depressed provincial Uruguay in the 1980s, today and definitely recommend that too. A very low-key story done very engagingly. A low 5/5.
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Edited by - Salopian on 10/21/2008 02:26:30 |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 03:27:04
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Thanks for your thoughts Sal.
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I really enjoyed The Wave when I saw it, but afterwards became a little less sure. I didn't realize it was based in truth. I'd be interested to find out the real timescale as that in the film is implausibly short.
I did some reading afterward and found it really was only a week long exercise which did get extremely out of hand, but perhaps unsurprisingly no one got shot or killed themselves as far as my reading revealed. What is concerning though is reports that the cult that he started carried on for a considerable time outside of the "safe" parameters of the classroom and spread into the community. Who knows how long those kids kept it up...
quote:
I found Gomorra a little hard to follow at times, as my facial recognition is not good and thus I could not distinguish between some of the characters.
I know what you mean, especially as the story strands leap without warning from one character to another, but once I got used to the idea I didn't find it hard to keep track of where we were.
quote:
I saw El Ba�o Del Papa, based on the Pope's visit to depressed provincial Uruguay in the 1980s, today and definitely recommend that too. A very low-key story done very engagingly. A low 5/5.
Great, I'll keep an eye out for that one. This weekend looks like a double bill of the Coens and the new Mexican movie "La Zona"... looks interesting.
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 09:37:43
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quote:
Originally posted by demonic
Thanks for your thoughts Sal.
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
I really enjoyed The Wave when I saw it, but afterwards became a little less sure. I didn't realize it was based in truth. I'd be interested to find out the real timescale as that in the film is implausibly short.
I did some reading afterward and found it really was only a week long exercise which did get extremely out of hand, but perhaps unsurprisingly no one got shot or killed themselves as far as my reading revealed. What is concerning though is reports that the cult that he started carried on for a considerable time outside of the "safe" parameters of the classroom and spread into the community. Who knows how long those kids kept it up...
Actually I was still in NYC at the time and everyone was talking about it. Many teachers used the "experiment" as a teaching aid in History classes. I recall the most potent effect was on those students who were rabidly racist and used to deride the Civil Rights movement, the marches, etc It seemed to shut them up for a bit.
I can't remember whether this followed or preceeded that other "shocking" experiment in which some university students were encouraged to administer electric shocks to an unseen victim. They could hear the "victim's" cries, but a majority kept upping the voltage. It's surprising how few refused to continue with the experiment. They were all told is was an experiment in pain threshold I think, although it was quite a different exercise. Needless to say, there were no real shocks administered and the victims were actors.
As wonderful as we all think we are - we never know how we'll react to stress until we're there. 
PS - the films sound intriguing, all four - I hope BAFTA sends me DVDs because I know my local ain't gonna play any of them. 
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 11:05:55
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
It's surprising how few refused to continue with the experiment. They were all told is was an experiment in pain threshold I think, although it was quite a different exercise. Needless to say, there were no real shocks administered and the victims were actors.
Shocking!
It's good to know that the experimenters were real humanitarians, and not willing to use real electric shocks, not even on actors.
(  )
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 14:08:41
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Offer an actor twenty quid and a free sandwich and he'll happily get electrocuted for you...
By the way Baffy - it's the Milgram experiment you're talking about. And yes, shocking in every sense of the word.
And then there's the astonishing Stanford prison experiment - the one where the volunteers were separated into prisoners and guards. Well worth seeing the excellent Das Experiment (another German film to keep somwewhat on topic) if you haven't already. |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 16:19:35
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Brando would have demanded real electric shocks, for authenticity.
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 16:25:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
Brando would have demanded real electric shocks, for authenticity.
Good thing he never played Othello -- we lose an awful lot of Desdemonas that way
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 16:26:56
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quote:
Originally posted by demonic
Offer an actor twenty quid and a free sandwich and he'll happily get electrocuted for you...
By the way Baffy - it's the Milgram experiment you're talking about. And yes, shocking in every sense of the word.
And then there's the astonishing Stanford prison experiment - the one where the volunteers were separated into prisoners and guards. Well worth seeing the excellent Das Experiment (another German film to keep somwewhat on topic) if you haven't already.
Milgrim! That's it! Thanks, Dem.
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 16:38:49
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N.B. A new film of the prison experiment is coming out next year.
The electrocution one is perhaps the most interesting as it does not come under the pack mentality of the others and thus is in some ways the hardest to empathise with. I've often thought about it and wondered how I would act. I really think that I would refuse to continue (as in any group of people I have always been one of the most anti-authoritarian and rebellious) but I admit that I may be mistaken in this. By the way, it was recordings of actors so that they would be consistent across each case. It would have been interesting had they shown them tapes of the actors in the guise of live feed, but perhaps that would have been technologically too difficult at the time. |
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Whippersnapper.
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 10/17/2008 : 16:56:35
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
Brando would have demanded real electric shocks, for authenticity.
Good thing he never played Othello -- we lose an awful lot of Desdemonas that way
Yeah, but they do die happy.
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 10/18/2008 : 00:30:41
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| In that case it's a good thing Brando never played Hamlet either... |
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 10/19/2008 : 17:16:14
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| Nice review for The Wave, demonic. |
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 10/21/2008 : 02:25:43
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Just a dead quick mention of Elite Squad too, because by strange coincidence it is also about the effect of the upcoming visit (set in the past) of the Pope to a deprived locality in South America.
I was a little sceptical at first, since films about Brazilian poverty and crime are well-trodden ground now, but it does show a different side (the police) and in the end was a high 3/5 or low 4/5. |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/01/2008 : 12:47:49
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quote:
Originally posted by dem9nic
And from Italy to France for the simpler but no less impactful pleasures of "Il y a Longtemps Que Je T'aime" (I've Loved You So Long) the debut film by Phillipe Claudel. It concerns Juliette, a woman taken into the home of her younger sister and her family following many years serving a lengthy sentence in prison. To say more about the crime and the effect it has upon those around her would be to say too much, but Juliette is expertly played with deeply felt weariness and barely supressed emotional turmoil by Kristen Scott Thomas demonstrating again her aptitude for performing entirely in the French language (as in last year's thriller "Tell No One"). She is supported by an excellent cast, including a beautiful and expressive Elsa Zylberstein as her sister Lea and Lise S�gur, Lea's 9 year old adopted daughter who is delightful and natural as child actors very rarely are. From what starts as a fairly intriguing but slight family drama develops into a much more emotionally involving piece than I first expected, mainly thanks to the strong central performances and several scenes that have the force of real emotional weight; one where Juliette meets her mother again, now in a home and afflicted with Alzheimer's, and the
inevitable release of Juliette's stored up pain at the conclusion of the film had me brushing away tears.
If you get the chance - check them out.
Finally caught up with this one [and will watch the Gomorra DVD later today or tomorrow], and it is as Demonic reports. I've always been a big fan of Kristin Scott Thomas, and her greatest strength here is the control she shows over releasing tiny bubbles of humanity through the barriers of silence she's constructed to keep hidden her all-consuming pain.
Claudel's direction, very mature for such an inexperienced filmmaker, puts the actors first and lets them get on with it. This almost laissez-faire story-telling style is just right.
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Recent foreign language release recommendations.
