Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (orig. Romanzo di una Strage) [2012]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
TrovaCinema.it* listing

Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (orig. Romanzo di una Strage)[2012] [IMDb] [TrCin.it]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Marco Tullio Giordana [IMDb] [TrCin]* along with Sandro Petraglia [IMDb] [TrCin]*and Stefano Rulli [IMDb] [TrCin.it]* based on the book by Paulo Cucchiarelli is a critically acclaimed and award winning Italian historical drama (earning among other awards 3 Italian David di Donatello awards in 2012 and 14 additional nominations) about the December 12, 1969 bombing of the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura at the Piazza Fontana in Milan [Eng] [Ital].*  It played recently as an Italian contribution to the 16th Annual European Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, IL.

During the Cold War (1947-1991), both Superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, jockeyed for advantage wherever they could, seeking to destabilize allies of the other side, while seeking often brutally to keep their allied nations in line.  The opening credits of this film make known that the events presented in the film are to be understood in the context of the 1967 U.S. supported Military Coup in Greece and the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Communist Czechoslovakia.  Italy, though a NATO ally throughout the whole of the Cold War also sported the largest Communist Party in the NATO bloc.  Hence it was always considered at least potentially "in play."  

The film begins presenting Italy in 1969 as a nation perhaps not in chaos (yet) but near the brink with Anarchists and militant Communists on the Left, and neo-Fascists on the Right (Remember World War II was still less than 25 years past, and Italy had entered that War on the Axis side with Fascist leader Mussolini having been in power for some 20 years previous.  Hence there would have been still plenty of people from that fallen regime still around who would have remembered it "fondly").  The Soviet Union was presumably backing the militant Communists (and perhaps the Anarchists) while the United States was certainly backing the ruling Italian Christian Democratic Party and presumably the more law-and-order hardliners in the Italian Military propping it up (and perhaps even the neo-Fascists lurking in the shadows). 

In the midst of this chaotic stew, a wave of anarchist bombings was taking place in Italy in 1969.  The bombs, while "small" (thus not producing significant casualties) were nevertheless serving their purpose -- sowing fear among the populace.  And on the other side there was Junio Valerio Borghese (Eng) (Ital)* (played in the film by Marco Zannoni [IMDb] [TrCin]*) from an old Noble / Fascist era family calling for a "Restoration of Order."  (Borghese did actually plot a coup, that became known as the Golpe Borgese (Eng) (Ital) for Dec. 8, 1970.  However, it never materialized and after being discovered, he was forced to flee the country).

Then suddenly, on Dec 12, 1969, a BIG bomb explodes in the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura at the Piazza Fontana in Milan (Eng) (Ital),* killing 18 and wounding over 70.  Was this the beginning of an escalation?  That's what the fear was as Milanese police brought in noted local anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli [Eng] [Ital]* (played in the film by Pierfrancesco Favino [IMDb] [TrCin]*) for questioning.  Pinelli had been even seens a few days before the bombing near the Bank.  Had he been casing the location? 

However, after several days of questioning, Pinelli is suddenly dead, having "fallen" out a four story window.  Did he commit suicide?  Was he pushed (or dropped) by Italian investigators?  The story that the police present is that he simply "fell" (went over to the window to smoke a cigarette and simply/tragically fainted, falling to his death).  Few, of course, would believe a story like that. 

Suspicion regarding Pinelli's death fell on Luigi Calebresi [Eng] [Ital]* (played in the film by Valerio Mostandrea [IMDb] [TrCin]*) the detective responsible for Pinelli during the questioning.  Yet, Calabresi always maintained his innocence, insisting that he wasn't present when Pinelli died.  Also, despite rabidly inflammatory denunciations made against him by the Radical Left, he was actually investigating the trafficking of bomb making material by Right-wing extremist groups when he was assassinated in front of his home on May 17, 1972. 

Left-wing extremists were blamed (and convicted) for his assassination.  However, as time when on, suspicion regarding the perpetrators of the bombing of the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura at the Piazza Fontana (Eng) (Ital) did actually move to from the Far Left to the Far Right and with it to hard-right elements within the Italian security services and even to the CIA.  Why?  It's partly conjecture (remember the beginning credits to the film making note the recent interventions by the Superpowers in nearby Greece and Czechoslovakia) and partly because apparently right-wing groups in Italy were, in fact, being found with explosives as well.  And ominously THOSE explosives that the Right had its hands on, apparently originated from NATO stockpiles.  Were they stolen?  Were they sold?  Were they handed to right-wing extremist groups to further a cause?  What cause?  The thesis of the film would argue: to create an environment justifying a military coup.

The film, intended naturally for primarily an Italian audience, nevertheless offers American audiences a glimpse into what the experience of the Cold War was like in Western Europe:  Lot's of "ins" and "outs," most of the "players" with agendas and with it often being very difficult to understand who to trust. 

And in the midst of this "big game of shadows," little people like Milanese Inspector Calabresi, with a wife, two children and a third on the way, could find themselves dead, not necessarily knowing by whom or why. 

Incidently already Pope Paul VI began the process of beatifying Luigi Calabresi as a "Martyr for Justice" by the Catholic Church [Eng] [Ital].*


* Machine translations into English of the Italian links provided are most easily viewed through use of Google's Chrome brower.

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Paris-Manhattan [2012]

MPAA (PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
AlloCine.fr listing*

Paris-Manhattan [2012] [IMDb] [AC.fr]* (written and directed by Sophie Lellouche [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) is a French romantic comedy that played recently at the 16th Annual European Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago and has been advertised as a French thank you to American director Woody Allen for his film Midnight in Paris [2011].

Indeed from my 3 years in Italy during the seminary, I do know that Woody Allen and his films have been enormously popular in Europe.  He's been a regular and welcome guest at the annual Venice International Film Festival and his films have been anticipated and well received from London/Paris all the way to Moscow and, my sense is, everywhere in between.  Why?  Well, his humor (and yes, at times, his life ...) have been, well, "very European" ... ;-) or :-[.

So then, this film, about a young Parisian woman named Alice (played by Alice Taglioni [IMDb] [AC.fr]*), always happy-go-lucky and stunningly beautiful though she may be, but somehow "unlucky in love" -- Pierre (played by Louis-Do de Lencquesaing [IMDb] [AC.fr]*), the guy she falls for when she's still in college, falls instead for and marries her younger sister Hélène (played by Marine Delterme [IMDb] [AC.fr]*).  So Alice spends the rest of her young adult years (and as the film enters in the present, the beginning of her "soon to be beyond her young adult years...") being setup by a very guilty (if themselves very happy) Hélène / Pierre with just about every friend that Pierre's ever had ... ;-) to no avail, even if the last one, a Vincent (played by Yannick Soulier [IMDb] [AC.fr]*), appears to strike her fancy at least somewhat.  His presence in her life allows her to go to social occasions with (and, well, to occasionally sleep with...).  But both Alice/Vincent know that the Other lacks that je ne sais quoi... and hence both know that the Other isn't "the One."  What Alice does "have" in her life is a love for Cole Porter / jazz and a big poster of Woody Allen on her wall with whom she converses about her troubles, and who always makes her laugh. 

Enter Victor (played by Patrick Bruel [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who comes into her life as a security system installer (hence somewhat more "blue collar" than she, a college educated pharmacist).  Alice's father (played by Michel Aumont [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) who ran the "family business, a "corner pharmacy" somewhere in Paris wanted to hand over the business to Alice.  But as a typically "good parent," he was concerned about Alice's "safety."  So he brings in Victor's firm to install a security system that would keep his (very much adult, mid-late 30-something) daughter "safe."  And Victor, a small business owner himself, comes with some very original ideas ;-).  My favorite was the "chloroform system" that would "knock out everyone" in the shop (including presumably Alice) within 10 seconds after she presses the security button under the counter ;-). 

Much, often classically "Woody Allen" / neurotic ensues ... but as is typical of Woody Allen's humor, it's always very gentle and, often enough, its message is "things are not really as they seem" (they're better, kinder, nicer than they seem).

Anyway, I do believe that most Woody Allen fans (including myself, as I've been one since my own college days) would approve.  And I do agree that the film is a fitting tribute to a film-maker who, yes, has at times lived "an artist's life" but has also tried very hard to always keep his fans / audiences smiling.  Good job!


* Machine translations into English of the French links provided are most easily viewed through use of Google's Chrome brower.

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Perfect Days - I ženy mají své dny [2011]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 stars with explanation)

IMDb listing
CSFD* listing

Lidovky (M. Kabat)* review

Perfect days - I ženy mají své dny [2011] (directed and screenplay by Czech filmmaker Alice Nellis, based on the play Perfect Days [1999] by Scottish playwright Liz Lochhead [IMDb]) is a comedy that played recently at the 16th Annual European Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. 

In many respects, the film reminded me of the Polish romantic comedy Letters to Santa (Listy do M) [2011] (directed by the Slovenian director Mitja Okorn) that played last November at the Polish Film Festival in Chicago.  While Polish and Czech/Slovak cinemas are different animals, it is interesting to note that both Nellis and Okorn took advantage of talent/materials existing "outside" and applied them to their projects at home.  In the case of Nellis' Perfect Days, she took a translated play by Liz Lockhead (which Nellis apparently already directed onstage* in Prague) and then set-about putting it on-screen.  In the case of Okorn's Letters to Santa, he took the Polish script for the comedy that he was given by the film's producers, had it translated into English, sent it to Hollywood to have it reworked, and then had it re-translated back into Polish, producing, in fact, a product that became the most successful Polish romantic comedy as yet ever made.  (Interestingly enough, the "commercialism" of Nellis' work here irritated a number of Czech/Slovak film critics,* a critical community that rightfully considers itself (and then even Czech/Slovak cinema) on par with anybody).

I chose to see this film, even though I've already seen a couple of Czech and Slovak films (one each) at the the EU Festival because being of Czech descent and reading the Gene Siskel Center's capsule description for the film I knew that for better or for worse the film's thematics would be perhaps all-too "contemporary."  This is because while Prague is certainly a beautiful city and every rock or street corner has a history to it, for many foreign tourists, it is known above all for being a rather libertine place.

As such, this film is about a good-looking, fashionable and otherwise successful 40-something woman named Erika (played by Ivana Chýlková [IMDb] [CSFD]*) who decides that what's been missing in her life is not a husband.  She's had one, Viktor (played by Bohumil Klepl [IMDb] [CSFD]* and has been on amicable terms if separated from him for years.  She's not looking even a relationship with anyone (again, she's "made it" on her own).  All she finds that she wants is simply a kid.  So at 44, Erika sets about looking for a sperm donor.

Now she's still interested in knowing and liking the person from whom she would get the requisite sperm.  But she's clear that she does not want to be otherwise involved with him and, while not completely opposed, she'd be profoundly ambivalent about the presence/absence of father in the future child's life.  She just wants a kid.

Hers makes for a fascinating (and challenging) counter-position to today's rather radicalized Catholic theology (as sometimes happens when the Church finds itself in controversy/under attack) that insists that a child is created by God (with the secondary collaboration of the parents) even in the case of rape where the woman emphatically would not have collaborated in the child's creation but would have had it imposed on her, first by the male and then arguably by God.  Indeed, to get out of this theological coule-de-sac, I honestly would like to see today's moral theologians revisit the medieval theory of "postponed ensoulment" as a means of allowing for dialogue between the man, woman AND GOD prior to ensoulment to so as to protect God from inadvertently becoming a secondary rapist as a result of  inadvertently over-radicalized theology.

In this film, all that Erika asks her friend Richard (played by Ondřej Sokol [IMDb] [CSFD]*) for is his sperm and then sets about creating the child without ANY particular thought of requesting GOD's approbation.  It's a reminder to all of whose collaboration is absolutely necessary to create a child and bring that child to term.  The male can't do this on his own, and God would have to resort to extraordinary means (a miracle).  The ordinarily indispensable party in the creation of the child and bringing him/her to term is, in fact, the woman.

This is not to say that what Erika chooses to do in this movie is anything but appalling morally, and I am positive that the intention of the movie was to make movie-goers "wince" and ask themselves "Wait a minute, there's something (deeply) wrong here."  Yet the simple fact is that children can be created the way that Erika seeks. 

Secondary arguments can come into play: Should a woman be forced to endure an abusive relationship to have a child?  How about not an abusive relationship but a deathly stifling one or a even simply really really boring one?   (Erika and her husband apparently didn't want children when they were together and for one reason or another they apparently "drifted apart" over time).  What if one's relationship wasn't particularly bad but just fell apart and now it's "too late" to presumably try to fix again? 

The standard Catholic position is, in fact, that no one has a "right" to a child, that children are, in fact, gifts from God.   And sometimes God for inscrutable reasons chooses not to give a couple a child (just like God does not answer every faithful wannabe the talent and circumstances to become "Michael Jordon" or "Bill Gates.")  We are told, in fact, by the 9th and 10th commandments (Exod 20:17) to be happy with what we have.

So while Erika could choose to do what she chose to do in the film, it would still be considered morally wrong (certainly according the Catholic teaching).  She was attractive, successful, even did have a husband with whom she could have had a child "back in the day" if they had only wanted one.  But both she and her husband didn't want one then.  And now, at 44 and single again, suddenly she wants a child.

This then is the problem presented in "comedic" form in the film:  Erica wants a child, (so long as she can get her hands on some sperm), she's certainly capable of making that child, but should she?   Much ensues ...and it really is a Brave New World, pretty much everywhere.


* Machine translations into English of the Czech and Slovak links provided are most easily viewed through use of Google's Chrome brower.

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Emperor [2012]

MPAA (PG-13)  Chicago SunTimes (3 Stars) Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
Chicago SunTimes (R. Roeper) review

Emperor [2012] (directed by Peter Webber, screenplay by Vera Blasi and David Klass based on the book His Majesty's Salvation by Shiro Okamoto) is IMHO an excellent historical drama about the early days of America's post-WW II occupation of Japan.

The film begins with the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur (played superbly by Tommy Lee Jones) and his entourage, including his Japan expert, Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers (also played excellently by Matthew Fox), in Tokyo a short time after Japan's formal surrender. 

They arrive in a plane, landing on Tokyo's airport -- one plane with 20 some odd American occupation officials.  Yes, Japan had surrendered, but could they trust the Japanese to not just shoot them as they stepped off the plane and then drove from the airport to MacArthur's designated headquarters (a multistory building across the street from the entrance to the Emperor's palace)? 

Fellers tells MacArthur that they can trust the Japanese because their surrender came directly from the word of the Emperor.  Whether MacArthur believes him or not, he knows well that THERE'S NOTHING HE COULD ABOUT IT ANYWAY, if the Japanese decided to just shoot them all.  So before stepping off the plane, he tells the entourage to take-off their side arms and leave them on the plane and simply step off the plane showing some "Good ole American swagger..."

They get off the plane, MacArthur poses for some pictures.  They hop on a jeep and take the drive to HQ.  As they do, both MacArthur (and the audience) can not help but notice that as their jeep passes the assembled Japanese honor guard, the soldiers methodically turn around and face AWAY from the jeep.  Why are they doing that?  Is it a sign of contempt toward the arriving occupiers.  Fellers tells MacArthur, no, this action does not express contempt but rather respect: "They're taught to turn away their gaze from the Emperor as well."   Arriving MacArthur realizes that he's being greeted by the Japanese as a quasi-God and is reminded that the Japanese have considered their Emperor as a God as well.  Wow.  (And remember folks that MacArthur was famous/infamous for having an enormous ego as it is ...)

A few days after arriving at HQ, Fellers is commanded by MacArthur to lead the rapid (as simultaneous as possible) arrest of pretty much the entire leadership, political and military of Japan's previous regime.  Fellers tells the arresting MPs that the arrests must be as rapid and coordinated (simultaneous) as possible to avert the possibility of the figures being arrested committing suicide.  Of the 25 some odd leaders being arrested (including Japan's Wartime Prime Minister, Tojo) only three committ suicide before the American MPs are able to get to them (Tojo tried to commit suicide but when he put his revolver to his chest and shot himself the bullet just barely missed the heart).   By getting all but three of Japan's leaders including Tojo, Fellers once again proves himself to MacArthur.

A few days after that, MacArthur gives Fellers a new task.  He tells Fellers that they've been ordered by Washington to determine IN TEN DAYS whether or not Japan's Emperor himself should be arrested, tried and presumably hanged as a War Criminal.  Fellers tells MacArthur that it'd be impossible to determine the Emperor's war guilt that all of Japan's wartime leadership would go to their deaths rather than implicate a Man they considered a God.  MacArthur tells Fellers that he's been spot-on in everything else since they've arrived in Tokyo and that he had complete confidence that FELLERS would be able to give him (and MacArthur's superiors in Washington) the necessary information to make this call IN THE TEN DAYS they were given.  Wow.  Fellers and MacArthur exchange salutes, Fellers returns to his staff and tells them that they have 10 days to answer this most crucial question.  The rest of the film unspools from there ...

A good part of the film that unspools deals with Brig. General Fellers' competence for arriving at an answer to MacArthur's/Washington's question.  And it turns out that he really was someone who knew Japan about as well as anyone from the United States at the time:

Yes, while studying Japanese culture/language in the United States, he did fall in love with a young Japanese woman who was studying in the United States.  Her name was Aya Shamida (played in the film by Eriko Hatsume).  What was a Japanese woman doing in the United States in the 1920s/30s studying English?  She tells him, "I haven't necessarily behaved as a good Japanese young woman..." (She was "sent away" by her family, in part, because she apparently caused them some trouble back home).  However, she does return back to Japan (quite suddenly, in fact).  Fellers, given a post-graduate task by the U.S. army to write a report on the values driving the Japanese military, goes to Japan some years later (from his post, then in the Philippines) and while there looks her up.  He lucks out.  The U.S. and Japan were still not at War at the time and Aya's uncle was a General in the Japanese army.  Through his friendship with her, he gets to know her uncle and the uncle then helps him understand the values and honor driven mentality of Japan's military and its soldiers.  Eventually Fellers finishes his paper and has to leave.  Then the war comes.  When Fellers arrives with MacArthur following the war he tries to find and reconnect with Aya and her family...

The film is a reminder of the value of friendships and being able to talk to one's potential adversaries.  Thanks to Fellers' knowledge of Japan through his friendship with Aya and her family, he helped MacArthur and the United States not merely "win the war" but above all win the subsequent peace.

I also believe that the film offers a much needed reevaluation of Gen. MacArthur's character as well.  During WW II and much of the Korean conflict, he was lionized in the United States as a hero.  Then after Korea and during much of my life time, MacArthur has been portrayed primarily negatively, as an ego maniac, who nearly plunged the world into a third World War during the Korean conflict. 

This film is reminder that MacArthur's greatest legacy was not actually his generalship during war, but his ability (thanks to his willingness to take the advice of his advisers like Kellers) to listen and turn Japan from a country mistrusted by much of the world into a stable bastion of peace in the Far East.  And yes, the whole world is better for for MacArthur's achievement in this regard.

Finally, as a Catholic I could not help but note with some pride that the film made quietly but "for those with eyes to see" absolutely clear that Aya was a Catholic, recalling the 500 year long (since the arrival of the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier in Nagasaki in the 1500s) often tortured history of Catholicism in Japan. 

All in all, I found this to be an excellent historical drama about a critical time in history that easily could have turned-out far worse than it did.  MacArthur, for all his faults and monumental ego, turned out to be a good man in Japan.


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Oz the Great and Powerful [2013]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-II) Richard Roeper (2 1/2 Stars)  AV Club (C+)  Fr Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Chicago SunTimes (R. Roeper) review
AV Club (S. Tobias) review

Oz, the Great and Powerful (directed by Sam Raimi, screenplay by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsey-Abaire, inspired by the L. Frank Baum's [IMDb] children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [1900] and the beloved MGM film The Wizard of Oz [1939]) is IMHO a surprisingly good (if often the key word here is "surprising"), star studded, Disney produced prequel to the much beloved story that offers parents/adults much to think about (and off-screen "intrigues" to contemplate/investigate) even as the kids just enjoy the show.

To give a sampling: Why did DISNEY make this film?  (Apparently back in the 1930s Disney was busy preparing to make L. Frank Baum's book into an animated feature when it discovered that Baum's family had sold the rights to rival studio MGM).  And why did DISNEY choose to use this prequel script by Kapner / Lindsey-Abaire where the focus is on the MALE character of the "Wizard of Oz," rather than one based on Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West [1995] and the subsequent musical Wicked [2003] (ever an on-stage hit but as yet not put on the screen), which was a more feminist re-imagining of the original story and where the focus was on how Eldora (born green) came to receive (unjustly) her moniker as the "Wicked Witch of the West?"  (In Wicked, the "Wizard" wasn't exactly portrayed flatteringly...).

Part of the answer to the second question (Why "Oz, the Great and Powerful" as opposed to "Wicked?") can be found by taking a look at wikipedia's / the IMDb's listings of books and films/shorts inspired by L.Frank Baum's original creation.  Wicked has been by no means the only spin-off from the original story (if IMHO in our time the most culturally significant).

Perhaps more positively, however (and I realize that there will be women reading this review who will be rolling their eyes as do so), while much of contemporary American culture "gets" Maguire's inspired critique in Wicked of Baum's original story / 1939 MGM film, today there may be a cultural need to "better understand" the (Male) wizard in the story than to simply continue to beat-up on him.  Already in the 1939 film, he was portrayed as something of a goof / charlatan.  In Wicked he was arguably a villain. Here I do honestly believe that James Franco does a surprisingly good job playing the 2-bit turn of the 20th century Kansas circus magician named Oscar (who knows he's a petty charlatan/fraud) but who after a turn of fate finds himself reluctantly in the role of Oz's "Wizard."  (There are certainly folks who don't like Franco as an actor, but honestly, I do believe he was perfectly cast).  Repeatedly, Oscar confesses to characters he meets in the Magical land of Oz that he's "no wizard," and repeatedly, he's told "we know that, but try anyway."  It's a fascinating take on contemporary male self-awareness / doubt.

Again, I realize that plenty of women who'd read this essay would roll their eyes ("Poor fraudulent 'male authority figure' surrounded by various clearly competent, arguably superior women...").  But here we are ... Bruce Willis' "Die Hard" character notwithstanding, the last truly "macho" "in control" traditional archtypical male roles in American cinema were created in the 1980s (and Willis' comes from that era) Even macho-man Steven Seagal found himself Under Siege [1992].  Since then, males have generally been portrayed as "bums" (Homer Simpson, Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas [1995], etc) perhaps more sympathetically more recently as "bums with stories" (Mickey Rourke's character in The Wrestler [2009], Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark in Marvel comics' Iron Man franchise, Liam Neeson's character in the Taken films) but still bums or people with many regrets.  In that cultural continuum, "Oz, the Great and Powerful" appears to be a plea to men to "step up" even to fake it if they have to, to "step up" for the sake of the greater good.

But is "faking it" a sustainable approach?  (And would women in the long term want men who have to "fake it" on a near continuous basis in order to keep above water?) These are some of the "big" or "deep" concerns that the film leaves adults even as the their kids watch smiling ear from ear a world arguably as magical as that of James Cameron's Avatar [2009] or Tim Burton's recent uptdate to Alice in Wonderland [2010].

The current film, Oz, the Great and Powerful, actually offers an even bigger challenge (or source of anxiety) to religionists, like myself, because it's not hard to see that "The Wizard of Oz," deep down a fake/charlatan though he may be, plays a God-like role in the Land of Oz.  Are we, religionists/priests, deep down ... fakes...? (Boy, as a Catholic priest, do I hope not ;-) ;-).  Nevertheless, the question has been "out there" for a while.  Interestingly enough, L. Frank Baum, wrote his The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [1900] (Amzn 1, 2) about midway between Friedrich Nietsche's proclaiming "God is dead... and we killed him" in Also Sprach Zaratustra [1885] (PDF), and Franz Kafka's writing his nihilistic horror The Castle [1922] (Amzn) in which, after much struggle to finally reach "the Castle" which was always in Inspector K's view, but always "unattainable," he discovers that "no one's there."  So there is, actually, an unsettling religious backdrop in the Oz story. 

Va bene ... okay, after all these high-minded musings, let's get to the movie itself.  How does the current Oz story play out?

Set in 1905 (some twenty years before the 1939 film), we meet Oscar (played by James Franco) a scheming 2-bit traveling circus magician in Kansas, who soon finds that he's deceived one one many young ladies.   Barely escaping the clutches of a jealous husband (or vengeful family member) he jumps a ride on a hot air balloon just as a powerful thunderstorm is arriving.  Like Dorothy in the 1939 film, he gets sucked into the vortex of a tornado ... and when he comes out of it, finds himself in far away from the dreary two toned world of Kansas and in the eye-popping colorful world of Oz. 

Among the first people he meets is a nice, somewhat naive (and dressed in red, perhaps like "little red riding hood") young lady named Theodora (played by Mila Kunis) who introduces herself to him as a "witch" though a "nice one."  Since Oscar's a stranger and his name begins with Oz, she immediately suspects that he may be "the One." What does she mean?  Well it was prophesied that "a Great Wizard" was going to arrive in  Oz to restore harmony after the death of Theodora's father, the last "Wizard of Oz." 

Seeing a good looking young lady and needing her help and two-bit con-artist that he's been, Oscar takes advantage of her kindness as he tries to regain his bearings.  "Wizard? why not?" he had been a magician after all.  So he accepts her invitation to join her on the "yellow brick road" and travel the Emerald City to "do what he can" to fulfill the prophesy.

When he gets to the Emerald city, he meets a green dressed sister of Theodora, named Evanora (played by Rachel Weisz).  She's not nearly as naive as the red-dressed Theodora, and immediately sees a use for the good old wizard (who she understands to probably be a fraud from the get-go).  She sends him on the errand to go and capture/kill their evil sister Glinda (played by Michelle Williams) who Evanora says (and Theodora believes) killed their father.  Much ensues as the Wizard heads from the Emerald City to the Dark Forest to take care of Glinda, among these is both his/the audience's realization that Glinda doesn't come across as all that evil after all.  What's going on?  Could there be lying/deceit in the Land of Oz?

Finally, while all three sisters -- the red dressed Theodora, the green dressed Evanora and the turns out white dressed Glinda -- are actual witches with actual supernatural powers, Oscar's remains, as always, someone who survives only by his wits.  What to do?  And how to restore peace/tranquility to Oz when all one has is THE REPUTATION of POSSIBLY being "The Wizard of Oz?"  Great story ;-)

There is honestly a lot in this story: Oscar strives for "Greatness" while it's clear that all that Glinda (and the girl that she reminds him of back home in Kansas) really want of Oscar is "Goodness."  And while Oscar finds himself repeatedly overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy, he _is_ able to (and repeatedly) perform small (and yet profound) miracles: faced with a weaping/orphaned "broken china doll" (voiced by Joey King) he finds THAT HE REALLY HAS a "magical elixir" in his bag (glue ;-) that can "put her back together" :-) ;-).  Little "aw" events like this occur throughout the story, and do over time leave someone like me in my own at times precarious profession in awe.

And indeed, there are those who do know me, especially from back in the days when I was stationed in a lovely parish in central Florida where I repeatedly said that I felt like Jesus' disciples encountering themselves in an impossible situation with only "five loaves and two fish," and yet MIRACULOUSLY the situation turned out well.  I was telling young people quite often back then that "You can actually do a lot with only 'five loaves and two fish.'"

It may be then, that a similar message can be found in this story.  James Franco's Oscar finds himself REPEATEDLY almost "empty handed" and yet HE IS, IN FACT, able (yes, often with the help of others) perform miracles and thus be for the community "The Wizard of Oz."

Remarkable, huh? ;-)  What a neat (if perhaps initially surprising) contemporary adaptation of a beloved children's story!


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Blind Spot (orig. Doudege Wénkel) [2012]

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

IMDb listing

Blind Spot (orig. Doudege Wénkel) [2012] directed and cowritten by Christophe Wagner along with Jhemp Hoscheid and Frederic Zeimet is a crime thriller from Luxembourg that played recently at Chicago's 16th Annual European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a tiny country (a constitutional monarchy) nestled between Germany, France and Belgium.  Tiny though it is, its history is ancient.  Its royal family stretches its roots back to Charlemagne.  Its all too strategic location between put it on Germany's invasion route of Belgium and France during both World War I and World War II.  American readers/history buffs here will probably most remember Luxembourg for having been the site of much of the fighting during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge.  Small, yet strategic, made Luxembourg a founding member of both NATO and the European Union following World War II.

The tininess of Luxemburg repeatedly plays a fascinating subtextual role in this current film.

First, the film is above all a police drama.  Brothers Olivier and Tom Faber (played by Jules Werner and Mickey Hardt respectively) are police officers, cops, in the City of Luxembourg.  As such, their characters speak and most of the film is filmed in the local language Luxembourgish (with English and French subtitles.  Apparently, Luxembourgish is close enough to standard (High) German that there wasn't a need for subtitling into German as well). One simply can't be a "beat cop" or otherwise LOCAL cop without being able to speak the LOCAL language.

Then characters, both foreign and local speak throughout the film in Luxembourgish, French or German (with the occasional English pop-cultural term finding its way into the characters' speech patterns as well).  And the character's language preferences are all significant to the story:  Tom (one of the two brothers) is found dead early in the story.  The Luxembourger investigators put themselves in contact with a crime lab in Hamburg (Germany) to investigate it.  Then a young Belorussian prostitute named Elina (played by Irina Lavrinovic) who was one of the last people to see Tom alive is brought in for questioning and talks to investigators in French.

What would a young attractive Belorussian prostitute be doing in Luxembourg to begin with?  Well, tiny countries like Switzerland (small), Luxembourg (smaller), San Marino/Andorra (still smaller) and Monaco (smallest) need reasons to exist.  In almost all these cases, these small countries have been ("wink, wink") financial and in some cases gambling centers.  And Luxembourg is, indeed, a banking center, and the seat of various finance related institutions of the European Union, including the European Investment Bank.  Where these is money, there's fertile ground for corruption (and crime thrillers ... ;-).  So Tom's contact with this prostitute serves as only the tip of a proverbial iceberg that involves all kinds of characters, both Luxembourger native and foreign, that have (and have had) reasons to come to, stay and leave this little largely city-state of Luxembourg. 

However, the story is not simply about financial or linguistic intrigue.  At its core, it's about two brothers.  And actually Tom, who was found dead near the beginning of the story, had been considered by all to be the "better" of the two.  He had been the stellar cop while Olivier had been the volatile screw-up.   Tom had had a nice stable family including two small children.  In contrast, Olivier's wife was leaving him and they were childless.  Imagine therefore the internal conflict that Olivier would have faced after finding out that his "perfect brother" had spent a good part of his last hours with a young Beolorussian prostitute.  And yet, Tom was his brother, who had two young children and Tom and Olivier had a mother who had simply adored Tom ... What to say / do? 

So it all actually makes for a rather compelling (and supremely contemporary European) crime thriller (with all those languages and much intrigue).  I'm honestly glad to have seen it, and feel that I've learned something about Luxembourg that previously I knew little about as a result.  Good job!


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Faith, Love and Whiskey [2012]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing

Faith, Love and Whiskey [2012] (directed and cowritten by Kristina Nikolova along with Paul Dailo) is a simple, poignant and award winning "indie feeling" Bulgarian film that played at Chicago's 16th Annual European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago.

Neli (played by Ana Stojanovska) is a young Bulgarian woman who's "made good."  She came to the United States some years back and bagged a nice (and successful) American fiancé named Scott (played by John Keabler).  Yet, one evening as she's gently leaning over the railing on the balcony of her and her fiancé's Manhattan apartment basking in the skyline, she realizes that she still has to go home.  Her fiancé is completely supportive.  So she packs her bags and flies back to Bulgaria (alone) for one last time before getting married.

When she arrives in presumably Sofia, it's exactly as she remembers it - louder, perhaps less sophisticated but alive. (Last year, while reviewing another GREAT Bulgarian film, Avé [2011], that played at this same film festival, I noted that "Bulgaria sometimes seems to me like the New Jersey of Eastern Europe," and this film, while sunnier than the other one, continues to offer an American viewer that possibility for comprehension: Neli may have flown back to Bulgaria, but she could have simply crossed the Hudson River to visit her family and friends in Hoboken (Frank Sinatra's hometown) or Asbury Park (immortalized by Bruce Springsteen), NJ and the story would have been very similar. 

When Neli comes back, she goes straight to her grandma (apparently her mother had died when she was young).  And Neli's grandma just loves her and is PROUD AS PIE that her grand-daughter is marrying an American "named SKOT."

She then also visits her friends, and this is a little more tense.  One of her friends asks: "So how are those Americans?"  She answers: "Well they're more goal oriented.  Success is a major value to them."  Val (played by Valeri Yordanov) who turns out to have been her old boyfriend before she left Bulgaria, interrupts her and says: "So you're saying that they're not losers like us Bulgarians..."  Val's subsequent blue streaked mohawk wearing girl-friend Sophia (played by Lidia Indjova) quickly sizes up the situation.  Soon afterward, she asks Val: "Did you sleep with her?" Of course he had ...

Yet despite Val's "uncoothness" (he has an ENORMOUS tattoo or perhaps simply GIGANTIC green tattoo stain that covers most of his back), it becomes obvious that he still loves Neli and, yes, in a way that the otherwise far-and-away leagues more successful Scott never could.  After all, they grew-up together.  They knew each others unspoken moods and mannerisms.  And it's almost certain that Neli could never know Scott the way she knew Val.  What the heck to do?

So things between Neli and Val soon reignite.  In the meantime, Scott's back in New York and after a number of missed calls and hurried texts, he gets worried.  So HE buys a ticket and flies out to Bulgaria to reconnect with Neli.

THIS IS AN OUTSTANDING FILM that ANYONE who's been living "between cultures" (or DATING SOMEONE "between cultures") would understand and/or OUGHT TO SEE.

And one can not but feel for Neli.  She has two people who clearly love her and offer her two very different kinds of lives/futures AND HONESTLY BOTH LIVES/FUTURES ARE GOOD.  Yet there she is, and she's doomed to have to hurt one of these two guys...

Again, there're "a few" Springsteen songs that touch-on the same dilemma ;-)


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