A Step into the Dark (orig. Krok do Tmy) [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CineEuropa.org listing
CSFD.cz listing*
FDB.cz listing*

Filmsk.sk interview with director*

Filmsk.sk (J. Dudková) review*
Kinema.sk (R. Tóthová) review*
RTVS.sk (R. Pospiš / J. Sklenár) review*
SME.sk (M. Ščepka) review*

Aktualne.cz (M. Svoboda) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*


A Step into the Dark (orig. Krok do Tmy) [2014] [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu] (directed and cowritten by Miloslav Luther [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu] along with Marián Puobiš [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]) is a SLOVAKIAN historical drama / post-WW II morality tale that played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.  The film served also as Slovakia's official submission to the Oscars' Best Foreign Film competition for 2014.

Set in a random town somewhere in central Slovakia largely in the early 1950s, hence after World War II and approaching the end of the worst period of imposed Soviet style post-War Communism, the film centers on Martin Dubovský (played excellently throughout by Marko Igonda [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]) a promising and still fairly young doctor / respected war hero (during WW II, he was the commander of a local partisan unit during the Slovakian National Uprising [en.wikip] [sk.wikip]* against the Nazi backed Slovakian puppet state of the time) with a lovely family - wife Eva (played again wonderfully throughout by Monika Haasová [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]) and two lovely young children.  In every ordinary sense of the word, Martin was a "good" and successful / respected guy, except ...

... for whatever reason, he allowed himself to get involved in an affair with a non-local/imposed/CZECH "Soudruška" (Comrade) named Soňa (played again very, very well, with multi-layer complexity by Kristýna Boková-Lišková [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]).  Why?

THAT'S A VERY GOOD QUESTION:  Why would someone who honestly has everything that one could reasonably hope for, one who's honestly lived by all accounts a good and honorable life, AND HAS RECEIVED THE HONOR / RESPECT THAT WOULD BE DUE SOMEONE WHO'S LIVED SUCH A GOOD AND HONORABLE LIFE ... even ABOVE AND BEYOND (again, he was A WAR HERO, A COMMANDER of a detachment of PATRIOTS / WAR-HEROES), why would someone like THAT fall into something SO STUPID / ALWAYS POTENTIALLY LIFE-WRECKING as enter into an affair with someone who -- okay she was good looking but not super-goodlooking, okay she had a personality (Martin's wife even liked her) and was something of a co-worker, etc -- taking two steps back (and if one was advising a friend) ONE WOULD SEE NOTHING BUT TROUBLE?

Was it simply a lapse of judgement?  "Falling (if for a moment) asleep at the wheel" as it were?  Did his moderate local celebrity "go to his head?"  Did he come to think that he "earned" this kind of "picadillo" (little sin / affair on the side)?

THEN WAS IT ALSO, AT LEAST IN PART, BECAUSE HE WAS SLOVAK AND SHE WAS CZECH?  The post-WW I, Wilsonian creation that was Czechoslovakia, this was a country made-up of two peoples in which BOTH peoples felt that there was an "inequality of status" -- BOTH PEOPLES kinda felt that the Czechs were some how "higher on the totem pole" than the Slovaks.  The Czechs (who were, after all, in this conception "on top") tended to consider this as "a matter of course," while the Slovaks, as a matter of course, tended to resent it: How many times did Slovaks during those years of a unified Czechoslovakia had to correct people who'd say: "Oh, so you're Czech!" responding, eyes rolling, blood pressure rising: "No I'm Slovak!"  So did Martin enter into this affair AT LEAST IN PART because "bedding a Czech" somehow made him feel "better about himself" than if he was simply "bedding a(nother) Slovak?" 

And then also WAS HE ACTUALLY TARGETED by the (Czech) "Soudruška Soňa" "in the service of the Party?"  WHAT?  That'd be insane? But ...

There;s a telling early discussion in this film at a "Political Education" meeting at the Hospital where Martin works, LED by the "Political Human Resources" person, who was, none other than Soňa (That was, in fact, her job in this "nice midsized Slovakian town in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains" serving as the "Political officer" at Martin's hospital).

Now as an aside here, Readers, you think that YOU HATE the H.R. "motivational" BS at your place of employment ... WELL THESE POLITICAL "LECTURES" / and (if one dared....) "DISCUSSION PERIODS" WERE MANDATORY IN THE SOVIET BLOC COUNTRIES OF THE TIME.  To this day, I get a good row out of my dad, when I mention similar if far-more-random H.R. "motivational" BS that occurs often at work, ANYWHERE.  He always responds: "YOU DON'T KNOW what it was like to sit there and listen to this BS and fear that you're not gonna 'clap loud enough' when it was over...")

Anyway, at one of these "Political Education meetings" early in the film, Soudruška Soňa mentions: "In the new Socialist reality, we have evolved even in our morality:  In the Past, we were told by our Oppressors that there were Rules given to us 'From on High' that we we had to follow under all circumstances.  Today, the Party teaches that ALL RULES CAN BE PUT ASIDE WHEN THIS WOULD BE IN THE SERVICE OF THE PARTY."  (I remember my dad, who spent his late teens through his mid-20s in this system, recalling EXACTLY ALMOST WORD FOR WORD this "Teaching" -- that "In Marxist-Leninist theory EVEN MORALITY must SERVE THE PARTY."

Well, in the film, the only person who lifts up his hand to challenge the Soudruška is Dr. Martin (even though he's ALREADY entered into an affair with her...).  He tells her, "No.  There are Eternal Truths.  There are actions that are ALWAYS GOOD and ALWAYS WRONG."  The Soudruška answers, "No that's the OLD WAY OF THINKING.  I am telling you here, that in that in our new Socialist Reality, EVEN OUR CONCEPTS OF RIGHT AND WRONG, GOOD AND EVIL, MUST SERVE THE AIMS OF THE PARTY."

Okay, why "would it serve the aims of the Party" for Soudruška Soňa to seduce the local War hero / respected man in the community Martin?  Isn't it obvious ...?  By falling into this extra-marital entanglement, the Party then could control him in ways that it previously could not.

AND YET, OF COURSE, MARTIN FELL INTO THIS HIMSELF.  He DIDN'T have to enter into this affair.  HE CHOSE TO.

Now "Soudruška Soňa" was NOT presented in this film as simply Evil.  As the film progresses, one gets to understand her as well:  She grew-up with her family in a small town in (Czech) Moravia.  Her father (played again wonderfully by Miloslav Donutil [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]) had been a lawyer in pre-Communist days.  After the Communists took-over he lost his position and had, indeed, been sent to "internal exile" to the far eastern reaches of Czechoslovakia to the borderlands between Slovakia and Soviet Ukraine.  Then 18-19 year old Soňa SLEPT WITH A LOCAL SLOVAKIAN COMMUNIST THUG, AND BECAME A PARROTING INDEED "SINGING" COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBER so that her father WHO THEN HATED HER FOR BECOMING A COMMUNST could at least move to serve out his term of "internal exile" in this Central Slovakian town where this drama played out: FOR THE SAKE OF HER FATHER, SHE BENT HER OWN / HER FAMILY'S MORAL RULES SO THAT HE WOULD NOT HAVE TO WORK IN A LUMBER GANG ON THE BORDER OF SLOVAKIA / SOVIET UKRAINE but instead live in _relative comfort_ in a moderately sized town in Central Slovakia.  Wow!
 
But once she took THAT STEP, she had to SING ... And here was Martin taking a different, perhaps less knowing, STEP INTO DARKNESS ... And much then ensues ...

An excellent and VERY thought provoking film!


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (4+)

IMDb listing
CineEuropa listing
Film-Zeit.de listing*

Der Spiegel (T. Andre) review*
Cinema-Paradiso.at (FAZ) review*
FilmKritiker.de review*
FilmReporter.de (T. Buschkämper) review*


Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014] [IMDb] [FZ.de]*[CEu] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Andreas Prochaska [IMDb] [FZ.de]*[CEu] along with Martin Ambrosch [IMDb] [FZ.de]*[CEu] based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Thomas Willmann [de.wikip]* [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is an IMHO spectacularly well done AUSTRIAN "Alpine Western" that played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.  An English dubbed version of the film is already available in the U.S. on the Amazon Instant Video service.  The German version is available on Amazon.de's Instant Video Service as well.

Set in the late 1800s in the Austrian Alps and introduced through the voice of a young woman named Luzi (played by Paula Beer [IMDb] [FZ.de]*) who presents herself as having been "present to all the events recalled," the film is about "a stranger" named Greider (played by Sam Riley [IMDb] [FZ.de]*[CEu]), twenty-something years old, who rides into town one late autumn day to ... Well that was the initial question, what was he doing there?  In the scattered villages of high Austrian Alps, everybody knew each other and everything about each other, but NO ONE knew him.  Yet he seemed to know something of this town.

After some conversation with Luzi at the local tavern, which she ran with her mother, he does reveal that he comes from America.  "Oh!  Did you ever see any Indians?" she asks.  He answers that he has.  Well, what was he, who grew-up in the Wild West doing in Austria?  He explains that he and his mother "came from these parts," and that ... "he always wanted to come back."  "Your German's not bad," Luzi complements him.  He answers, "I know.  My mother taught me well."

At this point their conversation is interrupted by a rather large thuggish looking guy, who offers the stranger a drink.  The stranger politely refuses.  "Hey when I offer you a drink, YOU DRINK," insists the man.  Knowingly, with some fear in her eyes, Luzi tells him, "Look you better drink."  He refuses.  Well the man punches him to the ground and forces a half a bottle of schnaps down his throat telling him "NO ONE REFUSES ME... I tell you to drink and you drink."  Well, he's now drunk.  What now?  After the man goes, Luzi tells him: "He's part of the Brenner Clan.  There's a father and six sons and they rule the roost in these parts."  The stranger answers: "I know."
 
In the days that follow, one Brenner son, then another, die of various "Alpine" (logging, then hunting) accidents.  The whole town is SHOCKED.  And since the Brenner family "RUNS THESE PARTS" they BETTER LOOK SHOCKED, WEEPING / GRIEF STRICKEN (Note here that the famous pass through the Alps between Austria and Italy is actually named the Brenner Pass).

Well, the town may be shocked but Luzi's supposed to get married.  She has a boyfriend and as a virtuous girl, she's told him that she won't sleep with him until they get married.  And, well, THEY REALLY WANT TO GET MARRIED ;-) ... So despite perhaps good form in any case (after all two locals just died in the town), and CERTAINLY when the local "mafia family's" "grieving" a sudden loss of two sons ... they decide to press on with the wedding anyway.

Guess who's the local priest?  ANOTHER of the "Brenner boys" ;-) ... AND HE GIVES PROBABLY THE CREEPIEST WEDDING HOMILY THAT I'VE EVER HEARD:

Starring straight at Luzi and her fiance', kneeling there in front of the altar, he CHOOSES to _extol the virtues_ of St. Joseph: "Now JOSEPH WAS A GOOD MAN, A MAN WHO KNEW HIS PLACE.  A MAN WHO RAISED A SON WHO WAS NOT HIS OWN.  And he did it GLADLY.  He considered it A BLESSING.  Because he KNEW THAT HIS SON'S SEED was GREATER THAN HIS..."

Guess what appeared in store for Luzi and her husband ... and perhaps why "the Stranger" AND HIS MOTHER "left these parts for America" when he was young AND why both his Mother and he prepared ALL HIS LIFE FOR HIS "RETURN" ...

The wedding ends, the party heads down to the tavern owned by Luzi's mother.  The stranger Greider shows-up at the Church, shot-gun in his hand, barrel pointing down, just as the preacher about to close-up the Church, and asks "to go to Confession."  Looking at the stranger, at the gun, barrel still pointed down, back at the stranger, the Priest acquiesces:

"Bless me Father for I have sinned.  In these days I've killed two of your brothers ..." By the end of the Confession, he's killed a third ...

Much still needs to play out.  Remember there are still three brothers to go, and then there's The Father.  There's also a wedding reception going on below.

This is a really great and EVOCATIVE ("Alpine") Western!  I saw it at the festival here in Chicago in the German with English subtitles.  The version currently available in the United States is dubbed.  Hopefully, it's just as good.  The scenery /  cinematography are absolutely beautiful as is the costuming, and then the absolutely AWESOME, EVER-FOREBODING SOUNDTRACK.   Note that with the exception of the locals wearing slightly different hats from the "cowboy hats" of the Old West, the clothing worn by the locals in the film was almost the same as that of the Old West.  And the mode of transportation was the horse.

So my "hat off" and kudos to the makers of this movie.  This was honestly one great and exceptionally well-executed film!


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Hany [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  iDnes.cz (2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD.cz listing*
FDB.cz listing*

Actualne (J. Gregor) review*
CervenyKoberec.cz (E. Bartlová) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
Lidovky (M. Kabát) review*

Hany [2014] [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* (written and directed by Michal Samir [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*) is a highly stylized young adult (twenty something) oriented film from the Czech Republic that played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.  American viewers would find thematic similarities in the film with the young adult (twenty something) oriented "post apocalytic drama" The Purge [2013] and stylistic similarities (notably with its "long/extended shot" camera work) to Bird Man [2014].

Combining the two - thematics and stylistics - one could perhaps call the film a Czechified / sanitized (to largely PG-13 levels) rendering of the "in the years immediately following the collapse of Hollywood's (censorship) production code," _intended to shock_, classic Clockwork Orange [1971].  The current film does disturb, at times, but it does not _shock_, much.  Now, this _isnt' necessarily bad_.  I'm just intending this assessment to be a statement of reality: The current film does not have the same bite as the "post Apocalyptic" / "post collapse of the previous social order" Hollywood productions mentioned above.  On the other hand, one could, largely (but then not completely... there are a couple of scenes near the end that would not be teen appropriate), take one's older kids / teens to see this movie ... and certainly hipper "older parents" could have a good discussion with their 20 year olds about the film as well.

The film's camerawork alone could interest a fair number of cinema lovers: The entire film, set "one night" on a street with a trendy/hipster bar that featured "poetry reading," gives the impression of  having been made with only two extended shots, the first extending for about 90% the film with a clear and conscious break occurring at the film's climax, the second (also extended) shot taking the film to its end and serving as something of film's "epilogue" / "coda."  Still interestingly enough, I recently saw and reviewed a recent Iranian film, Fish & Cat (orig. Mahi va Gorbeh) [2013], set outdoors by a lake in the context of an annual regional "kite festival" that used the same "one shot" technique (and, in fact, was choreographed in such a way that it really was done in said "one shot" even though it apparently took several tries to make it all the way from beginning to end).  I admit, I enjoy this kind of cinematic amusement ;-).
 
Back to the film:  It begins somewhat ominously with the radio announcing that some sort of a civil disturbance was taking place in town, with residents asked to remain at home until authorities give the all clear that it's "safe" again to go outdoors.  But it's instantly clear that said "ominous warning" was being (rightly or wrongly, as the film progresses, one could really go either way...) utterly ignored by the young attracted to this street / bar with its care-free atmosphere.

The film then, which advertised itself as something of a commentary on the life of the young / 20-somethings today in the Czech Rep, features some rather easily recognized young adult / twenty-something archetypes:

There's the "nerd" / "mamma's boy" Egon (played by Michal Sieczkowski [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*) who along with fellow, more techie "nerd" Dušan (played by Marek Adamczyk [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*) accompanying him on ... laptop :-) ... who begin the film at said "hip/ trendy poetry bar" presenting a reading from Egon's recent new play called "Marquis de Sad" (yes, that's "Sad" not "Sade").  The play's apparently about a French count who was NOT a sadist but ... just ... sad ;-).  On one level, it's hilarious ;-).   On the other ... let's face it ... would it surprise ANYONE that these two poor guys, one with HIS OWN MANUSCRIPT in hand, the other "accompanying him" with music ... from his laptop ... WOULD BE UTTERLY IGNORED by the bar's patrons (drinking their beers, scoping the establishment to see who's coming in/out who'd be "hit-on-able") as poor Egon recited from ... his play about "Marquis de SAD" ;-).

Then there's, of course, the hedonistic / nihilistic "A-hole" Jiří (played by Jiří Kocman [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*) who's the opposite of Egon.  He comes into the bar ... to sell drugs.  People know him, know that he's an often racist A-hole.  But they know that if they want coke, heroin or ecstasy, he's the guy to go to even as he makes fun of them as he steps into a backroom to "make the deal" / take their money.

Then there's Hana (or one of the "Hanas" in the film, played here by Hana Vagnerová [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*).  She finds herself between two guys, NO NOT between Egon / Dušan who are in their own worlds but between (1) a different more realistic "nice guy" Martin (played by Róbert Nižník [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]*), a Slovak, with whom she's had a long-term relationship (but despite being good, responsible, etc (and perhaps a little on the poorer side...) she's getting "bored" with AND then (2) the above mentioned Jiří, who yes is an A-hole, with whom she did not see any possible long-term relationship with, but ... "even if he certainly wasn't "Mr. Right" he _could_ serve as a "Mr. Tonight" (even if she does have the "Good Martyr" / "Martin" waiting for her back home ...).

So that then sets up the conflict ... even as people come in and out of the bar and the camera follows the people coming "in and out and all about..." throughout the film to tell the story.

Of course that "civil disturbance" that the young people at this hip / trendy bar on this hip / trendy street have dutifully ignored eventually comes to this street corner.  What happens?  Well guess ... ;-).  It's actually quite good / insightful ...

And so then, the story plays out ...

All things considered, I think the story is a good one.  Yes, it's NOT that shocking, but it does have a point and one that young people in their 20s (and perhaps their parents) could talk about afterwards.  All in all, good job!


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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The Divergent Series: Insurgent [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review


The Divergent Series: Insurgent [2015] (directed by Robert Schwentke screenplay by Brian Duffield, Akiva Goldsman and Mark Bomback based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Veronica Roth [wikip] [GR] [IMDb]) is the second cinematic installment of the Post-Apocalyptic "Hunger Games-like" teen-oriented Divergent Trilogy.  It follows the release of Divergent [2014], the first installment of the series, and for some better and for many others probably worse FEELS EXACTLY like the "second installment" of a series.

This is to say, for those enthralled by the possibility of "visiting alternate worlds," be they of Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or perhaps, closer to home here, Mad Max / The Hunger Games a "second installment" with a promised third / fourth on the way would be "just great (!)" even if the plot perhaps meandered because ONE WOULDN'T CARE IF "THE PLOT MEANDERED." The main point of viewing "the second installment" was to visit the "alternate world" of the first installment once more.  Indeed, "meandering" could even be seen as a positive thing ... it would mean that one gets to remain in that world for a bit longer.

Indeed ever since Hollywood split J.K. Rowling's final Harry Potter book to make Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2, it's been standard operating procedure to do the same with regards film versions of successful teen-oriented book series: The final book of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, was split to make Parts 1 and 2, as was the final book, Mocking Jay, of the Hunger Games trilogy, as indeed will the final book of this, the Divergent series.   Heck, J.R.R. Tolkein's Hobbit was famously (or infamously...) broken up into THREE movies [1], [2], [3].  "Meandering" pays ... and THE FANS of these "story-book worlds" don't mind.

So then, even if this second installment of the Divergent series feels very much like The Two Towers  [IMDb] (the second installment of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings) and we're still two films from coming to the end of the series, because Part III of the Divergent series will be almost certainly split once more into two films, fans of the series get to spend some more time in "Post-Apocalyptic" Chicago ;-) and a society radically divided into five high school-like cliques (err ... factions): the "granola-eating" / peace loving folks of Amity, the "geekish" but also increasingly "know it all" / arrogant Erudites, the similarly "wonkish" but more argumentative "debate team" types of Candor, the brave / "jockish" Dauntless, and the responsible, self-sacrificing "student council" types of Abnegation.

The two enemies of this system were, (1) those who didn't fit-in anywhere, that is, "The Factionless" and then (2) "The Divergent" who could actually fit quite well into several of the factions.

In the first film, we were introduced to the series' heroine Beatrice or Tris (played by Shailene Woodley) who grew-up in a (necessarily "rather boring") Abnegation household but at her "right of passage" / "choosing ceremony", _chooses_ to enter the seemingly "far more fun / crazy" Dauntless faction.  Most of those coming to the "choosing ceremony," choose to remain in the faction in which they were raised, only about 15% would change faction.  According to societal rules once one chose one's faction, one could not go back.

So why would someone skip faction?  Well, it would seem that those who'd skip factions were at least IN PART "Divergent" (again, something viewed as dangerous in this rigid society).  And, of course Tris proves to be somewhat _radically divergent_ able to "fit in" with most / all of the factions.  Ironically, since she was able to "fit in" with all the factions, in the society portrayed, that ability made her something of an "outcast" to those who were happily members of the (one) faction to which they had chosen to belong.  She was BOTH someone who could bring social harmony to a whole new level in that society AND "dangerous" to the social order as well.

So hers is the drama played out in this series ... and she does progressively build a coalition of friends/allies around her starting with (1) "past family" notably her brother Caleb (played by Ansel Elgort) with whom she had grown-up, then with (2) those who were perhaps "closeted divergents" as well, like her boyfriend Four (played by hunkish / Jacob of the Twilight Saga-like Theo James) and finally with (3) folks like "always Dauntless" Peter (played by Miles Teller) who initially really didn't like Tris, but as he's gotten to know her, has gotten used to her, even if he's always found her "odd."

This particular installment notes an interesting irony -- that for this radically rigid social order to be overthrown, an alliance between its two kinds of misfits, "The Factionless" who didn't fit in anywhere, and "The Divergent" who actually fit-in just about everywhere, had to be forged.

Can such an alliance be forged?  Well ... go see the movie ;-)

It all makes for a fairly long "Part II" of the story ... but it's an opportunity for those who are intrigued by the world / social order portrayed to bask in it for a couple more hours.


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After the Tone [2014]

MPAA (PG-13)  CineMagazine.nl (2 Stars)  FilmTotaal.nl (2 Stars)  MovieScene.nl (3 1/2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
Cineuropa.org listing

Cinema.nl (K. Wolfs) review*
CineMagazine.nl (L. van der Meij) review*
Film Totaal (T. Verhoeven) review*
MovieScene.nl (N. van den Berg) review*
NWTV.nl (D. Steneker) review*


After the Tone [2014] [IMDb] [CEu] (directed and cowritten by Digna Sinke [IMDb] [CEu] along with Henk Burger [IMDb] [CEu]) I found to be a fascinating movie from the Netherlands that played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

The concept was deceptively simple yet the effect, as time went on, profound: A Dutchman, known as Onno, some kind of an ad-man or graphics designer from Amsterdam presumably in his 30s maybe 40s, simply stops responding to his voice-mails.

After hearing Onno's own voice message that he gives in both Dutch and English, "You've reached the voice mail of Onno ... please leave a message after the tone," THE REST OF THE FILM IS ENTIRELY COMPOSED OF THE VOICE MESSAGES LEFT IN HIS VOICE MAILBOX -- from his quite betrayed business partner Adriaan (voiced by Dragan Bakema [IMDb] [CEu], his mother (voiced by Olga Zuiderhoek [IMDb] [CEu]), his sister (voiced by Rifka Lodeizen [IMDb] [CEu]) and his girlfriend (voiced by Josefien Hendriks [IMDb] [CEu]) -- AND THE VISUALS FOR THE FILM were composed (more or less) of what the callers would have been looking toward while leaving the messages. 

So what the heck happened to Onno?  Well that's the key question, right?  Now he didn't appear to disappear completely.   OCCASIONALLY he (or perhaps someone else) uses a credit card of his -- in far off locations somewhere in the South Pacific.  So presumably he was alive.   But he CHOSE for some reason to disappear.  Why?  Again, a fascinating question.  What was clear though was simply that ONE DAY he simply disappeared from the regular circles of those friends/family/business associates who knew him:

He didn't show up at work.  About half of the messages on that first day were from his increasingly shocked/angry business partner who was left stood-up at a meeting with an important overseas client: "I know that you've always been a perfectionist / primadonna but WHERE ARE YOU?  THE JAPANESE ARE SITTING HERE WAITING..."   (Needless to say, THAT MEETING didn't go well ...)

As that first day proceeds there are also casual calls from from friends / relatives.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  BUT as the days of strange silence proceed, it's the family that becomes more and more concerned.  It becomes clear that Onno hasn't necessarily had the best relationship with his parents, BUT they were old and it becomes clear that his Father was ill.  "WHERE ARE YOU?  Why don't you return my calls?" his mother asks with an increasingly desperate tone as she comes to realize as the days, then WEEKS go by that he's really not calling them (or anybody). 

His girlfriend / sister have more practical concerns.  Both report to Nano that (after about a week) the police came by his apartment and a couple of weeks later the police come back at the behest of various financial concerns (after all, he wasn't paying his bills) to confiscate whatever financial records he may have left behind.

The burning questions quickly become and remain WHERE was Onno and WHY did he (presumably) do this?  In any case, the film becomes a very touching exposition of what it would be like for the loved ones / acquaintances of someone who simply disappeared.  Even his business partner, whose business was crushed as a result of Onno's disappearance leaves a message along the lines of: "Look, all kidding aside, YOU WERE A FRIEND AND DESPITE ALL THIS (all that you've done to me) I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU."

It is a remarkable story.

Now THERE ARE (more or less) OBVIOUS FLAWS.  First, most phone services allow only a limited number of voicemails before the box becomes "full."  Second along similar lines, after a few months if no one was paying for that phone, it would become disconnected (the story here goes on for a full year).  Third, friends and family TODAY would NOT only communicate with Nano by phone but also by text, e-mail, Facebook, etc.  The film focused ONLY on voice messages.

Finally, with a larger budget, the visuals could have been better.  Almost all were "outdoor vistas," that is, what the callers leaving messages on Onno's voice-mail would have been looking at if they were looking out the window.  More compelling visuals would have included Nano's business partner Adriaan making a desperate phone call to him from a busy office hallway / corridor, or Nano's sister or girlfriend calling from Nano's clearly ransacked (by bank officials / police inspectors) apartment, and/or Nano's mother calling him from the bedside of clearly a hospital room (when his father was ill) etc.

Still what a story!   And one that certainly makes one think.  Not only is silence inherently "polyvalent" (open to all kinds of interpretations by the receiver(s) of such silence), it is also quite cruel.  Nobody deserved what Onno did to them.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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The Judgement (orig. Съдилището) [2014]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CineEuropa.org listing
Cinefish.bg listing* 
Kinopoisk.ru listing*

CineEuropa.org (S. Vahermägi) review

The Judgement (orig. Съдилището) [2014] [IMDb] [CF.bg]* [KP.ru]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Stephan Komandarev [IMDb] [CEu] [CF.bg]* [KP.ru]* along with Marin Damyanov [IMDb] [CEu] [CF.bg]*[KP.ru] and Emil Spahiyski [IMDb] [CEu] [CF.bg]*[KP.ru]*) is a lovely and very, very sad Bulgarian film that played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.
 
The film is about a middle-aged father named Mitio (played by Assen Blatechki [IMDb] [CEu] [CF.bg]*[KP.ru]*) and his son Vasko (played by Ovanes Torosian [IMDb] [CEu] [CF.bg]* [KP.ru]*) who is in his late teens.  They live in a Bulgarian village on the northern side of the Rhodope Mountains not altogether far from Bulgaria's border with Greece and Turkey.  If nothing else viewers will learn to appreciate WHY the historical border of Turkey and Greece in this part of the world was at these mountains.  They are haunting and beautiful but also ALL BUT IMPASSIBLE except by those who for proportionately desperate reasons have need to cross them.

Mitio (and thus also his son) are in trouble.  Why?  Well, Mitio's wife / Vasko's mother died sometime recently, presumably of cancer.   Yet before dieing, Mitio mortgaged their house to pay for medical treatments that had given them hope that she would survive.  She, of course, did not.  But now the home was in hock, and ... the milk company where Mitio worked was going bankrupt.

What to do?  Mitio goes to the only man in the region who could possibly save him from losing his home, a mafia figure that the locals would still call "The Captain" (played in the film by Predrag Manojlovic [IMDb] [CEu] [CF.bg]*[KP.ru]*) recalling "his time of service" in the Bulgarian army during Communist days.

Mitio hated this man from his own days of serving under him in the Bulgarian Army patrolling the border to the south.  But Mitio knew that he needed him, and "the Captain" clearly enjoyed the mafia-like respect if certainly NOT affection that he received from people like Mitio.  He knew well that Mitio hated him, but enjoyed that he had no choice but to come to him for help.

So what does "The Captain" have Mitio do?  Well, borders are generally well suited to make dirty money.  There's always some illicit cross-border traveling going-on, at some times more than at others.  In recent years, "business" has picked up: Today there are all sorts of desperate people fleeing places like IRAQ and SYRIA for Europe.  And despite the hardships, one of the easiest ways to get into Europe is over those mountains from Turkey to Bulgaria.  So "The Captain" has Mitio serve as something of a Bulgarian "coyote," smuggling refugees over raging rivers, precipices and still Cold-War era _mine fields_ that no sane person would really want to cross unless ... unless one was appropriately desperate.

Today, it's the Iraqis and Syrians who are often desperate enough to cross the border from Turkey to Bulgaria (and hence Europe).  But as the story develops, viewers are reminded ever more poignantly that a generation ago it was the reverse: All sorts of desperate people from (all over) Eastern Europe were coming to the same mountains hoping to cross from Bulgaria to Greece / Turkey.

So WHY then did Mitio and so many people like him living on that Bulgarian side of the Mountains separating them from Greece / Turkey HATE "the Captain" so much?  The answer didn't even lay so much in the present (even though "The Captain" was a dirt-bag even today).  No it had more to do with things that happened in those mountains "in the past."

GREAT FILM!  And one that ANY FAMILY (like mine) with memories of Eastern Europe's Communist past could very well understand.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Gemma Bovery [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)   aVaL (3.5 Stars)  LaCroix (3.5 Stars)  LeMonde (3 Stars)  L'Express (2 Stars)  FemmeActuelle (1 1/2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
Allociné.fr listing*

aVoir-aLire.org (F. Mignard) review*
La Croix (C. Renou-Nativel) review*
L'Express (E. Libiot) review*
Le Monde (F. Nouchi) review*
Femme Actuelle (C. Bernheim) review*


Gemma Bovery [2014] [IMDb] [AC.fr]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Anne Fontaine [IMDb] [AC.fr]* along with Pascal Bonitzer [IMDb] [AC.fr]* based on the contemporary novel by the same name (published in 2000) [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Posy Simmonds [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] in turn inspired by the 19th century French language classic novel Madame Bovary [en.wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] [AC.fr]* by Gustave Flaubert [wikip] [GR] [Amzn]) is a very well-made, often very funny French "dramedy" that played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

In the film that like the original Mde. Bovary plays out in "provincial Normandy", mild-mannered (and, truth be told, initially quite bored) Martin Joubert (played wonderfully throughout by Fabrice Luchini [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who had previously had "a life of excitement" out in Paris, but had returned back some 10 years previous with his wife Valérie (played by Isabelle Candelier [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) and now teenage son (played by Kacey Mottet Klein [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) to help-out and then take-over his dad's small-town bakery, discovers to his surprise that the neighbor's house had been bought by a 30-something couple English couple named Charlie (played by Jason Flemyng [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) and Gemma Bovery (played by Gemma Arterton [IMDb] [AC.fr]*). 

Noting immediately the name, okay, its spelling was one letter off, but also their appearance and lifestyle -- she was an artist, he some kind of an arts dealer / restorer -- poor 50-something mild-mannered "baker" Martin Joubert declared, in a voice-over, recounting to viewers the story: "I knew that 10 years of sexual tranquility were over."  And indeed they were ...

Now it wasn't as if HE was destined to have an affair with this generally kind / charming and with each passing scene ever more sexually EXPLOSIVE Gemma Bovery -- to her he was just a kindly (perhaps even somewhat odd) _old_ man who lived next door and ran the bakery (along WITH HIS WIFE) where she'd buy her bread each morning -- but she DID soon enough strike-up a truly TORRID and ultimately ART-PIECE SHATTERING (note again that her husband was an "art restorer ...") affair with a _rich_, "easy on the eyes" 20-something year old named Hervé (de Bressigny) (played again magnificently by Niels Schneider [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who lived, yes, in a palatial "chateau" nearby.  Poor husband Charlie, and odd/previously bored neighbor Martin for that matter ... they didn't stand a chance ...

Then, a past lover of Charlie / Gemma's age, Patrick (played by Mel Raido [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) passes through as well. 

Now this is just WAY TO MUCH, ahem, "energy" concentrating in WAY TOO SMALL OF A PLACE (all this was playing-out in-and-around a TINY, OTHERWISE UTTERLY NON-DESCRIPT TOWN in otherwise "sleepy" Normandy) SO THIS COULDN'T POSSIBLY END WELL ... and it doesn't.

Now throughout the story, Gemma keeps being startled by "field mice" both outside and more problematically inside her home.  And she keeps saying that she has to "go to town" to get some "poison" to get rid of them to which the older (perhaps wiser but mostly _odd_) neighbor Martin KEEPS TELLING HER "NO, _YOU_ don't want to be buying any arsenic" (That's how in the classic novel Madame Bovary finally kills herself... ;-).  So Gemma DOES NOT ... but (mild spoiler alert) SHE does die anyway ...

HOW Gemma dies is both terribly tragic but also, for those who see the movie, honestly "kinda funny."

But six months later, Martin's teenage son informs him that a new couple was moving into the neighboring house where Boverys had just lived the previous summer.  They're Russian ... guess their names:  They are the Kalenins ;-).

The film's not for everybody ... But a few older past "lit. majors" would certainly get a kick out of it ;-).  A good and very clever job! ;-)


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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