The Liberator (orig. Libertador) [2013]

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

IMDb listing
FilmAffinity.com/es listing*
SensaCine.com listing*

El Espectador [Bogota, Columbia] review*
VenezuelaySuHistoria.blogspot.com (Profeballa) review*

TheHollywoodReporter.com (T. McCarthy) review
Slant Magazine (O. Moralde) review


The Liberator (orig. Libertador) [2013] [IMDb] [FAes]* [SC]* (directed by Alberto Arvelo Mendoza [IMDb] [FAes]* [SC]*, screenplay by Timothy J. Sexton [IMDb] [FAes]* [SC]*) is a largely VENEZUELAN funded VENEZUELAN / SPANISH joint-venture biopic about Simón Bolivar [es.wikip]* [en.wikip] the "George Washington of Latin America."  The film recently opened the 2015 - 31st Chicago Latino Film Festival.  The film can also be streamed online for a nominal fee using the Amazon Instant Video service.

It must be said from the onset, however, that there are "things to note" about this film ;-).

While Simón Bolivar [es.wikip]* [en.wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film, IMHO quite excellently throughout, by Édgar Ramírez [IMDb] [FAes]* [SC]*), was without doubt _revered_ across Latin America especially in the parts of Latin America that he did, in fact, liberate (Venezuela, Colombia (then New Grenada) and Panama, Ecuador and Peru) and then perhaps even more-so in Venezuela where he was from, his legacy has been appropriated in recent years by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez [en.wikip] [es.wikip]* as a "model" / symbol of his own contemporary efforts to bring a far greater level of social justice to common Venezuelans than was the case until, well, his (Chávez') arrival on the scene.

This contemporary "battle" about the legacy of Simón Bolivar [es.wikip]* [en.wikip] [IMDb] needs to be kept in mind as one watches this film (which after all largely funded by the "Chavista" Venezuelan government), the central question being: When Bolivar called for a "liberation for all people" who did "all" include?

This may _seem_ like a silly question, but Readers here should remember when the Founding Fathers of the United States wrote in the Declaration of Independence that: "All men are created equal" it was more or less clear that the vast majority of them assumed that "all men" meant "WHITE MEN" (meaning NOT non-white men, and NOT women) and then many of the Founders would further stipulate conditions on the "equality" of the "white men" -- Originally only _landed_ white men (those who actually owned property) had the right to vote in the United States.

So, it's certainly plausible that to Bolivar, who grew-up as a son of very wealthy Venezuelan "landed gentry" (Washington, Jefferson and later Robert E. Lee all would have certainly been considered as members of a similar well-educated / landed gentry class  ... ), "all" could have meant something similar.

It's Chávez and other (more) left-leaning Latin American writers like Gabriel García Márquez [es.wikip]* [en.wikip], who began to explore the ramifications of taking Bolivar at his word, that is that "all" would really have meant ALL, and opponents now to Chávez's legacy are left defending a rather embarrassing diminishment of Bolivar's: "Yup, the father of our nation, set out to liberate ... only _some_ of us." ;-)

It is more-or-less clear that the current film takes the view that ALMOST FROM THE BEGINNING Bolivar clearly preferred the more inclusive even utopian understanding of "all," that is, that "ALL really meant ALL." 

And the film expresses this, in part, in its treatment of Bolivar's relationship with his wife Maria Theresa Bolivar (played by María Valverde [IMDb] [FAes]* [SC]*), portraying her, a Spanish born daughter of Spanish nobility, as very much sitting in on AND PARTICIPATING in the "great political / philosophical discussions" that Bolivar's circle of friends would have "over dinner" and during the years prior to his taking-up the ideals and cause of the American and French Revolutions in his part of the world.

In reality, Maria died (of yellow fever) very early (only 8 months) after her arrival with Bolivar to Venezuela from Spain.  So it'd be very hard to know if the film's portrayal of the relationship between Bolivar and his wife, both then still quite young, was accurate or would have continued to have been accurate if she had lived longer.

Similarly, when Bolivar is portrayed taking-up the cause of armed insurrection against Spain, he's shown setting up a stronghold, while still accessible to the sea, nevertheless "at the edge of the jungle wilds."  This allows the film to portray Bolivar's subsequent army to be composed of not merely of other like-minded Venezuelan colonists (as well as Irish / English mercenaries, er "volunteers") but also to be composed  _above all_ of INDIGENOUS PEOPLE and POORER, BOTH WHITE AND BLACK PEASANTS / "FOREST DWELLERS." 

This is possible, perhaps even PROBABLE (after all one can't really build a serious army out of MERELY "landed gentlemen" -- there'd never be NEARLY ENOUGH OF THEM ;-).  But it's CERTAINLY A "STICK IN THE EYE" to various elites today to remind them that PRETTY MUCH _ANY_ MILITARY ADVENTURE REQUIRES A LOT OF POOR(ER) PEOPLE to do the fighting.

LOL ;-) even the American Confederate Civil War "Hero," Robert E. Lee would have been simply sitting on his white horse, leading NOBODY, if he didn't have an army of poorer Southern white people WHO NEVER HAD THE MONEY TO OWN ANOTHER (DARKER) PERSON at his disposal to then command ;-).

So the portrayal of Bolivar's army in this film is both "kinda realistic" AND amusing / argumentative and even propagandistic -- giving due honor to the multitudes of "little foot soldiers" who would have done most of the actual fighting as Bolivar fought to Liberate his part of Latin America from the Spanish yoke.  Perhaps the ONLY potentially surprising aspect to this take on the Bolivar's campaign was that Bolivar is portrayed in this film as actually caring for the freedom / destiny of these "little people" under his command.

Finally, many of the Venezuelan (anti-Chavist?) critics of the film have chafed at its assertion that Bolivar was assassinated rather than having died (officially) of tuberculosis.   Yet even conceding that medical diagnoses in the early part of the 19th century would not have been what they are today, "tuberculosis" seems like a rather ODD cause of death for a presumably previously VITAL LEADER.  Tuberculosis TODAY would be understood as a progressive debilitating lung disease not something that one comes down with and then _rapidly_ "just dies of."  Yet perhaps there could have been all kinds of similar (and more rapidly mortal) diseases that he could have died of that AT THE TIME WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED to be (like) "tuberculosis."

So all in all, this film _is_ more-or-less a "Chavista propaganda tract" about the life of Simón Bolivar [es.wikip]* [en.wikip] [IMDb] who recent Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez [en.wikip] [es.wikip]* considered something of a model and certainly a hero.

Still it remains a PLAUSIBLE and at times even PROBABLE take on Bolivar's life that puts Chavez' opponents in a difficult position:  Does one really want to argue that one's nation's FOUNDER and REVERED HERO really didn't want to free (or even respect) everybody?

As such, I smile and have to say that I enjoyed the film ;-)


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

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The Longest Ride [2015]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

The Longest Ride [2015] (directed by George Tillman, Jr, screenplay by Craig Bolotin based on the novel (2013) [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Nicholas Sparks [wikip] [GR] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is largely what it is -- a "weapy (largely white oriented) romance / chick flick."  BUT I would add (1) it's actually A PRETTY GOOD "weepy (largely white oriented) chick flick" and (2) IT CHOOSES, TIME AND AGAIN, TO BE POSITIVE.  I want to say here that I APPRECIATE VERY MUCH THIS SECOND POINT.

I write this because this film about "an impossible romance" between a hunky/ever smiling North Carolina born-and-bred, 4th generation rancher's son / BULL RIDER named Luke (played by Scott Eastwood) and previously bookish/destined to be a NPR-listener, Wake Forest U. (on scholarship) attending art history student, New Jersey (city) raised daughter of more recent Polish (perhaps Solidarity-era) immigrants Sophia (played by Britt Robertson) -- the two first meet late in Sophia's senior year in college at quite literally HER "first rodeo" ;-) -- could have EASILY gone "more negative" and in all kinds of ways.  INSTEAD, Sparks / Tillman CHOSE to make this contemporary Red-State / Blue-State potentially "Romeo and Juliet"-like romance into a celebration of both and arguably ALL backgrounds / worlds.  IMHO this is quite a feat and it deserves to be celebrated here.

Indeed, the entire state of North Carolina is presented in far different terms than most viewers / readers would be used to.  Yes, North Carolina is part of America's "Deeper South."   However, it was _always_ actually more moderate than the states that neighbor it.  When North Carolina's legislature voted to join the Confederacy during the Civil War Era, its vote for Secession from the Union succeeded by only a few votes.  In more recent times, Charlotte its capital has become something of a banking center / transportation hub and the state has become as "purple" of a state as one gets in the South.

The current film focuses _a lot_ actually on the University / intellectual side of the State.  Again, Sophia was an art history major at Wake Forest U. and though "on scholarship" she went there because she was interested in the legacy of the Black Mountain Art Movement.  "Black Mountain" what? ;-) BUT THAT'S EXACTLY IT ... For DECADES many intellectuals across the South have been screaming "We have much more here than cotton fields and racists."  To some extent, Rick Linklater's film Boyhood [2014] sought to make the same point with regards to Texas.

Then "the second story" presented in the current film, that somewhat parallels the contemporary challenges faced by Sophia and Luke as they try to make their romance / budding relationship work, again playing out in North Carolina (and then North Carolina of the 1940s (!)) involved a lifelong romance / relationship between two people who were JEWISH -- Ira (played as a younger man by Jack Huston and as an older man by Alan Alda) who was already born/raised in North Carolina whose family ran furniture shop there, and Ruth (played wonderfully by Oona Chaplin) who along with her family fled Nazi occupied Vienna just before WW II -- "Jews in North Carolina?  How'd they ever get here?" ;-)  But why should that be surprising, given again Universities like North Carolina, Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest, as well as an entire art colony built around Black Mountain College? ...  Again, there's MORE to North Carolina (and to the whole of the South) than cotton, tobacco and racism.  

Then Luke's character is portrayed throughout quite honorably.  He BEGINS the story as ALREADY A GOOD GUY and he ENDS as A BETTER GUY.  And I can personally attest (and many times over) to the reality of Southern good manners, that again have to be taken into account when one thinks of the South.  Yes, there are many problems in the South (as there are anywhere).  But there is a charm / elegance in the South that extends across the various social (and racial...) strata that needs to be recognized as well.  And so Sophia is also charmed / changed (POSITIVELY) in this regard as well.  It _is_ a good thing to be nice ...

So, yes, while the film is "schmalzy" at times (as these kind of films often are), I have to give it a definite "thumbs up" because it does portray "the better angels" OF A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE and that inspires hope. 

And I do wish that a lasting romance between a Luke and Sophia would indeed be possible.


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Kumu Hina [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Official website

Kumu Hina [2014] (directed by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson) is a documentary about Hina Wong-Kalu a contemporary native-Hawaiian māhū (transgender person) who as māhūs often did in traditional Hawaiian/Polynesian society serves as a Kumu (or master) at a hālau hula (traditional hula school) in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The film played recently as part of Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center's 20th Annual Asian American Showcase and will air in May, 2015 on PBS's Independent Lens program.

I found the film's subject matter interesting because as questions surrounding gender -- gender roles, gender identification, gender relationships -- become more and more prevalent in our time (and across the globe...) there have been some fairly interesting films made about various traditional, non-Western approaches to these questions. 

I think here of an excellent recent film set in China called Snow Flower and the Secret Fan [2011] that was about a laotong (or "sworn sister") kind of relationship that apparently existed in traditional Chinese society. 

The current film is about a person who began life as a Hawaiian man and in his twenties/thirties did undergo a sex change operation to become physically a woman but who did certainly claim that all his life he identified with being a woman.  While certainly most people would not go to the point of undergoing a sex-change operation, most of us do know people from our childhoods who ALSO more-or-less clearly identified more with the opposite sex/gender than than with the one which they physically were -- the "harder-core tomboys" and the "boys who dressed-up / played with dolls."

Well, the point of this film, which I do find interesting (and humane), was that in traditional Hawaiian / Polynesian society THERE WAS A RESPECTED _MIDDLE_ PLACE FOR THESE FOLKS.  And they often became the TEACHERS, to some extent even PRIEST-LIKE TEACHERS (mediating between "the old traditions" and "the people"), of the society.

This film is without question "not for all", BUT also it is also (without question) an INTERESTING one and IMHO on a whole bunch of levels.

One of the most interesting levels for me is simply: Is Christianity / Catholicism (which is about a Universal Church big enough FOR EVERYBODY who sincerely belongs there) capable of learning from other cultures / traditions?

I obviously think that it is.  And in our generation, we are asking if there is there a place for the "tom boys" and the "girly boys."  We have them in our midst and even in our families.  We invite them to our family Christmas and Mother's Day dinners.  Is there a place for them in Church?

It would seem that Pope Francis with his now famous "who am _I_ (!) to judge?" comment has opened-up the door IN THE CHURCH for this discussion.

If we can be kind to our "more butch," "effeminate," and even more generally to our "generally (!) harmless but strange" (Addams Family-like ;-) relatives in our families, why can't the Church?

Again, I think _we can_ be so kind and, honestly, if we believe in a Church "big enough FOR EVERYBODY who belongs there," I believe we must.

Yes, this is not necessarily a film for everybody, but one certainly for adults to see, consider and then talk-about.


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While We're Young [2014]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  


While We're Young [2014] (written and directed by Noah Baumbach) is a dramedy about growing-up / growing middle-aged that many who become entranced by the film may want to see again or perhaps even a couple more times.  Why?  IMHO because the film sneaks up on you.  It initially feels like a rather straight forward nostalgic celebration of "what it is/was like to be young," and then ... it changes into something else, perhaps darker, but (again IMHO) worthy of a second and even third look.

Josh and Cornelia (played by Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts respectively) are an intellectual 40-something New York couple, Josh a documentary filmmaker, Cornelia a producer of such films, first for her dad (played wonderfully / intentionally somewhat distantly by Charles Grodin), then with her husband, then for her dad again.  Cornelia's bouncing between her father and her husband actually says a lot ... about Cornelia and ... even Josh:

Though 40-something neither really seems to have grown-up (and out from the shadow of their parents'/inlaws' generation).

Josh (with Cornelia) made exactly one, if excellent, documentary feature ... some twelve years ago.  He's been struggling (and Cornelia's long since given-up on working with him) for the past TEN YEARS to make a second one.  But though he has the footage, again TEN YEARS OF IT, interviewing some New York intellectual about "the important political/cultural forces of our time," SINCE HE HAS TEN YEARS OF INTERVIEWS, BOTH HE AND THE INTELLECTUAL HE'S BEEN INTERVIEWING VISIBLY AGE (!!) IN THE FOOTAGE.  At best, he's gonna have to REDO a good deal of the interviews if he's ever going to get the project finished ... BUT apparently EVERYTIME HE DOES THAT, SOMETHING "NEW" COMES OUT OF THE DISCUSSION SENDING HIM IN A NEW DIRECTION ... ;-).

In the meantime, Cornelia's (and if one's honest, Josh's) "biological clock" has first sputtered and then run-out.  They TRIED a number of years back (apparently in their mid/late 30s) to finally have a kid and well, after many fertility treatments and several miscarriages, Cornelia at least has arrived at the reality that "that ship has sailed."

So ... recapping ... at 40-something, Josh finds himself lecturing at (presumably) CUNY "about documentary film-making", Cornelia works for her dad and they've come to the realization that they are probably not going to have children ... EVEN AS ONE OF THE LAST CHILDLESS COUPLES THAT WERE AMONG THEIR GENERATION / FRIENDS ... JUST HAD A BABY.

So where the heck is the comedy in this? ;-)  It's that kind of comedy / dramedy ... Even clowns can both smile and have a tear running down their cheek ...

Enter a hipster 20-something couple, Jamie (played by Adam Driver) and his wife (!) Darby (played by Amanda Seyfried), who just show-up one day at one of Josh's classes.  Not recognizing them, Josh asks who they are.  Jamie answers that they're "just auditing the class."  Josh tells them that his is a continuing education class, one that one can't "just audit" (listen in on / take for free).  The two twenty somethings just smile and shrug their shoulders, apparently either not understanding (or nor caring).   Cornelia arrives to pick-up Josh after his class ... and ... so Josh / Cornelia meet Jamie / Darby ... and Act II of the story proceeds from there.

Josh and Cornelia find Jamie and Darby to be almost from another planet, A NICE PLANET, A NICE RESPECTFUL PLANET that _they_ almost wished they belonged to BUT A DIFFERENT ONE NONETHELESS.  So for a good part of the film that follows, 40-something Josh and Cornelia are simply ENCHANTED by the little retro-Bohemian world that 20-something Jamie and Darby live in: (1) Jamie and Darby GOT MARRIED.  Even in Josh / Cornelia's 20-something days "NOBODY" (at least of their intellectual class) got married "that young," (2) they were somewhat dirt poor but didn't care, (3) they seemed to make EVERYTHING themselves, (4) they LIKED "old things" (Jamie's vinyl 33 record collection was bigger than Josh's ever was, and all that Josh owned today was a bunch of CDs).  Who were these "Amish city-dwelling Bohemians"??  BUT THEY LIKED THEM.

And so at one point, Josh and Cornelia REALLY CONSIDER _dropping_ THE "FRIENDS WITH CHILDREN" OF THEIR GENERATION to simply hang-out with these younger 20 year olds, WHO WERE SO NICE, SO SIMPLE, SO INNOCENT, SO RESPECTFUL OF THEM ... AS "ELDERS" ... even if THEY THEMSELVES NEVER THOUGHT OF THEMSELVES AS SUCH BEFORE.

Of course, in the third act, THIS CHANGES.  Jamie and Darby turn out to be MORE than "sweet children of the corn" ;-) ... (no they are not space aliens or zombies or anything like that ... but they BECOME MORE than JUST "innocent hipster Amishlike Bohemians" ...).  And I have to say that I found the transition fascinating, unsettling and perhaps ultimately honest.

And so this is why I do believe that this film deserves several views.  What happens in that third act?  (Yes, the plot sequence is not that hard to figure out but ...) BUT HONESTLY why does Cornelia's ever distant if ever looming FATHER (!!) suddenly / quite literally "come into the picture" and then seem to understand JAMIE (and his generation) BETTER than JOSH (and his)?

Fascinating ;-) -- the Prodigal Son and Job wrapped into one ;-)


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A Girl Like Her [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  ChicagoTribune (3.5 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3.5 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (C. Darling) review



A Girl Like Her [2015] (written and directed by Amy S. Weber) is a very well done film using a fictionalized documentary format about bullying at a random upper-middle-class high school somewhere in the United States today.

Jessica Burns (played by Lexi Ainsworth) was an utterly random high school sophomore, perhaps kinda bright, perhaps kinda shy, whose social world went into a nose dive after an _utterly random_ incident some 6-9 months back with her former best friend from grade school named Avery Keller (played spot-on perfectly by Hunter King) who, in turn, was turning/blossoming into "the popular girl" in their class: Basically SOMETIME during the middle of their previous (Freshman) year, during a test, Avery KINDA looked over to Jessica's desk PERHAPS looking to copy an answer to one of the questions AND Jessica KINDA turned away and covered-up her work.  And THAT ... was that. 

THAT UTTERLY RANDOM 1-2 SECOND "INCIDENT" SENT THEIR PREVIOUSLY YEARS LONG "BFF" RELATIONSHIP, QUITE LITERALLY INTO A _DEATH SPIRAL_.  AVERY, becoming "the popular girl" in their class decided to _socially destroy_ Jessica, and spent (along with her growing "multitude" of new friends) the NEXT 6-9 MONTHS, RELENTLESSLY PICKING-ON her (perhaps somewhat-less good-looking, perhaps somewhat more socially awkward, perhaps somewhat SMARTER) FORMER BEST FRIEND JESSICA.  

... and Jessica's social world COLLAPSED to a single somewhat adoring, somewhat nerdy friend named Brian (played again wonderfully by Jimmy Bennett).  Seeing what was happening to Jessica at the hands of Avery and her legion of "popular friends," HE came up with the idea of "documenting this."  How?  At some random electronic store, he bought Jessica a little spy cam.  Basically it was a little camera inside a butterfly-like pendant and he asked her to wear it. 

Why?  Why would she wear it?  Well, Brian gave her a plausible story that he was simply interested in computers / video (which he was) and he thought it would be kinda cool that she wear this camera to document her life.  OF COURSE he mentioned that it could be useful to document some of the bullying that's happening to her.  BUT he makes it more positive sounding, telling her that he just wanted to see if together they could eventually make a movie about "a random high school girl's life" (and that random high school girl would be Jessica).  And Jessica, otherwise DOWN AS COULD BE, found this "project" ("for her friend") positive / interesting.

Well, of course the bullying of her does not stop, and eventually, Jessica (something of a SPOILER ALERT, but IT HAPPENS SO EARLY IN THE FILM, that it arguably helps set the film up) tries to commit suicide.

Why (does she do that)?  Well, that "spy footage" of course is going to help explain why ...

But in the meantime, something else was going on at school.  A professional documentary team arrived at the school just before Jessica's suicide attempt to do a piece about the school because it had just been selected as "one of the 10 best high schools in the country."  Then in the midst of their filming to do that piece, word comes out that one of the school's students tried to commit suicide.  SO WITH THE SCHOOL ADMINSTRATION'S PERMISSION, the documentary crew decides to pursue _that new angle_ as well: "Even though this would be one of the best schools in the country, nevertheless it's not free of teenage problems ..."

Anyway, this then sets up the film and to writer / director Weber's credit the film doesn't make the bully, Avery, simply into a monster.  She arguably becomes the central character (star?) of the film and the film leaves both teens and parents WITH MUCH TO REFLECT ON and TALK ABOUT. 


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Woman in Gold [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review

Salzberger Nachrichte (M. Meidl) review*
Der Spiegel (K. Heinrich) review*

ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  

Woman in Gold [2015] (directed by Simon Curtis, screenplay by Alexi Kaye Campbell) tells the story of Holocaust survivor Maria Altman (played magnificently in the film by Helen Mirren) and her young, still intimidated by the stories of his elders, lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg (played again spot-on by Ryan Reynolds) who was also the son / grandson of Holocaust survivors and of a family that was friends with Maria's since both families lived in Vienna BEFORE THE NAZIS.

Together, they acheived a remarkable (and poignant) feat of restorative justice -- the recovery of a famous portrait of Maria's aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer (played in flashbacks in the film by Antje Traue) painted by Gustav Klimt (played briefly in a flashback by Moritz Bleibtreu) that once graced the childhood home of Maria (played in flashbacks as a child by  and a young, newly married woman by Tatiana Maslany) in Vienna before the Nazis took-over and which, since the Nazi-era, had hung in Vienna's Belvedere Gallery. 

Now it had been her Adele's wish that following her death (which actually occurred in the 1920s - due to meningitis) her Klimt paintings hang in the Belvedere.  HOWEVER, her husband was the actual owner of the paintings (he paid for them).  And he wanted them to continue to hang in his brother's home where he, since he and Adele had no children, he also lived.  When the Nazis came, they confiscated the Altman's property, (the family was Jewish).  And it was actually BY UTTER ACCIDENT THAT A NAZI HIMSELF "donated" (the STOLEN) painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer to the Belvedere while the Nazis still ruled the roost in Vienna, where the painting stood hanging as "Austria's Mona Lisa" ever since.

Anyway, in the 1990s, fifty years after the end of WW II, the Austrians, trying to improve their images, besmirched again by the "outing" of former U.N. General Secretary and then Austrian President Kurt Waldheim as a probable WW II war criminal (during his service in former Yugoslavia during the war), decided to "revisit" the question of restoring art stolen during the Nazi era to their rightful owners.  AND BY THEN 80+ year old Maria Altman decided THEN to pursue the matter of recovering this famous picture of her aunt.

Yes, the case was _somewhat_ "complicated" as there was written proof that Adele had wanted her paintings to (eventually) hang in the Belvedere.  But, as I already mentioned above, she never really owned them (her husband did).  Then, of course, the paintings were stolen by the Nazis, who killed almost everybody but Maria and her sister from this family.  And so this was a battle over a picture of "a woman painted with Gold," but also a picture of a Maria's Aunt whose family the Nazis had "drenched with Blood" ...

Still egos are egos, and the painting, heavily painted with gold as it was, was actually very, very valuable (worth $135 million apparently) ... so a years long battle ensued ... presented then in the film.

However, what I most liked about the film was its portrayal of Maria Altman's family's life BEFORE THE NAZIS CAME.  It was _full of life_.  At one point, Maria explained to her still so young lawyer that even Sigmund Freud had visited her family's home in Vienna during that time.  AND ALL THIS WAS DESTROYED BY THE NAZIS and most of the people that Maria knew from that time WERE MURDERED BY THEM.

So this was truly a lost world, and yes, Maria did deserve to get least this picture of her aunt back.

In any case, AN EXCELLENT FILM.


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

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Open Up to Me (orig. Kerron sinulle kaiken) [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Cineuropa.org listing

Iltalehti.fi review*
nyt.fi (L. Virtanen) review*
cinemagazine.nl (H. Wouters) review*

Open Up to Me (orig. Kerron sinulle kaiken) [2014] [IMDb] [CEu] (written and directed by Simo Halinen [IMDb] [CEu]) is a FINNISH drama that that for many viewers (including myself) would probably be one of the most challenging films to be shown recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

This is because the film is about the struggles, "after the fact", of a person who had undergone a sex change operation.  Leave it to the Europeans and specifically the Scandinavians to tell a story like this... ;-).

But honestly, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT FILM -- A "THIS IS HOW IT IS / THIS IS HOW IT WILL REMAIN" sort of a story.  And if one thinks that this is some sort of a glorification of this sort of decision, IT CERTAINLY IS NOT.  Instead, the film is an _eyes quite open_ exposition of "these are the conflicts / issues that one still is going to have to deal with, if one does decide to go in this direction" (so, in fact, one could make an informed decision):

Maarit (played magnificently/thoroughly credibly throughout by Leea Klemola [IMDb] [CEu]) is a 40-something person who had recently (in the past year or so) undergone a sex change operation from male to female.

She had previously been married (as a male) to an ex who now hates him/her.  Why?  Well she tells Maarit: "Thanks to you, no one will ever touch me again."  Why?  Well, WHEN / HOW does one explain to a potential new boyfriend, fiance', or husband (and then HIS family and circle of friends) that after 15 years of marriage, one's ex decided to have a sex change.  Yes, this was Maarit's decision, but ...

Similarly, Maarit's teenage daughter Pinja (played again wonderfully by Emmi Nivala [IMDb] [CEu]), already quiet, average, perhaps a bit overweight, has to deal with school-mates who pick-on her for the chosen-unconventionality of one of her parents.  Yes, Maarit's decision was his-now-hers and not his-now-her daughter's BUT ... how does one explain that to other teens when ALL OF THEM are already insecure, trying make their way in the world as it is?


Then previously, Maarit was a social worker by profession.  NOW, she's a cleaning-lady.  In the course of the film, she's trying to get herself back into social work, applying for a job at a Helsinki women's shelter, BUT ... her potential employer asks her: "You know, as a matter of course, we do a google search on potential employees here ... and there's no 'Maarit <last name>' of Helsinki anywhere to be found on the internet."  And she has to explain.

The potential employer tries to be open minded / compassionate, BUT ... she's _also_ thinking about the various troubled / traumatized women who come to their shelter and wondering (at least inside her head) if it'd be fair to them already dealing with so much to be "helped" by someone who'd need to give at least a paragraph's worth of explanation about who she was and how she got to be who she was ... before she would help / counsel them ...

Finally, Maarit does try to find a guy.  And she kinda does, Sam (played by Peter Franzén [IMDb] [CEu]) who's married but with marital problems.  In fact, when Sam first meets her, Maarit, he still thinks that she's a counselor (and he meets her then in the context of a counseling session).  Maarit tries very hard to be honest with him about who she is, who she was, and tells him, quite soon enough, that she's no no longer a counselor.

Initially Sam doesn't seem to mind (or really comprehend) her previous history.  But eventually it does bother him and then when his estranging wife Julia (played again quite well by Ria Kataja [IMDb] [CEu]) finds out that he's been carrying on (having an affair) with someone who had a sex change operation ... well, (would ANYBODY be surprised ...) SHE ABSOLUTELY HITS THE ROOF ... telling him "the only way you're ever going to see OUR kids again is with a court order" (she does cool down a few days later, but ... Sam-Julia's marriage comes to an end and it's pretty clear that Sam's own life/history is now very much changed by his ever so brief affair/fling with Maarit.

SO ... THIS IS NOT A PRETTY MOVIE.  IN FACT, it's A QUITE SOBERING ONE.  One's left wondering if Maarit knew how difficult (SOCIALLY / RELATIONALLY...) it would be to go through a sex change operation would he/she have done so?

One does get the impression that Maarit would have done it anyway.  And many others like Maarit do so anyway.

AND ONE CAN ONLY BEGIN TO APPRECIATE THE AMOUNT OF PAIN THAT THESE PEOPLE ALREADY ARE IN when this ALWAYS quite _radical_ (and irreversible, on all kinds of levels) option becomes a serious one for them.  One gets the sense that ONE REALLY DOESN'T DO THIS LIGHTLY ... because it really involves a huge amount of social-relational pain.

So this is one heck of a film, well done and certainly very, very thought provoking.


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

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