Maggie (Marianne Faithfull) is a British widow in her mid-fifties. Maggie’s grandson is dying of a rare disease and the only possible cure is in Australia. His family already spent all they had to buy medicines and now they can’t afford the travel. Maggie, driven by that love any grandparents have, is determined to help with the money but she’s old and nobody wants to give her a job or a loan. When she finds a notice for “hostess wanted” on a door in Soho she unintentionally enters a night club. Read the rest of this entry »

1495, Japan is collapsing under US attacks. Their navy has been defeated at the Mariana Islands and now the last line of defense before invasion of the main land line is Iwo Jima, a black volcanic isle in the middle of nowhere. 20000 men are there preparing for the battle. They know they are in huge disadvantage and they’re going to die under US sheer power, but no matter what, they will fight to delay invasion as much as they can. To improve their resistance, they hide in tunnels they caved under Mount Suribachi, desperately trying to find a meaning in all of that, most of them taking off their lives hugging bomb, under cultural pressure. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I wanted to go to the movies, even if unfortunately in August you take what is available. The only open-air theater in town ran Borat. I knew I wasn’t going to like it, but I thought I had to see in order to better criticize… Read the rest of this entry »

Matsuko just died. Her nephew is given the task to clean up her filthy house, even if he actually never met her. He didn’t even know he had an aunt, so out of curiosity he begins to reconstruct aunt Matsuko’s story by asking people she knew and trying to find out whether she had any value. Read the rest of this entry »

Japan, 1941. Three high officials of the Japanese army get an order: find and attack a strategic target. They pick a place at random, and the target is…. Udine!

This video was shown in the theater before each movie.

In four days I’ve watched 19 movies: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m currently in Udine, where yesterday began the 9th edition of the Far East Film Festival. This is the 3rd year in a row I come here to attend the festival. In case you don’t know, FEFF is the largest showcase of popular Asian cinema held in the western world. Here you can see international previews of movies that will come to our theaters months ahead, and several movies that will never reach european theaters. Of course directors, producers and main actors come to Udine to present their work and feel the warm welcome this city can give them. They shoot movies from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, and so on.

Today I attended five movies in a row and now I’m exhausted. The most interesting was Eye in the sky. I’ll keep you posted!

You know those plots where half a dozen very different characters meet just by chance, talk, cross their lives, almost fall in love but actually never can create a stable relation because Destiny doesn’t want them to? Yes, this is one of those

Thierry is a real estate agent and is trying to find a good appartment for Nicole e Dan, a couple with a problematic relationship, never satisfied of Thierry proposals. Charlotte works in the same real estate agency, is a solid believer and likes to gift Thierry with videotapes of a TV show about religion, with a rather embarassing bonus track at the end. Thierry’s sister, Gaëlle, is looking for a partner by posting personals on newspapers. Dan spends his time confessing his problems to a barman, Lionel.

All of them are frustrated looking for love, escaping loneliness, including Nicole and Dan who are breaking their relation. In the round of random events, they got to meet in unexpected ways and help each other, but at the end of the day they are still alone. Oscillating among brilliant comedy, serious pathos and theater, Alain Resnais built a mysterious and fascinating atmosphere, light and candid as the snowflakes falling all the time on a cold Paris.

Sabine Azéma and Laura Morante both deserve a mention for their excellent interpretation.

Cœurs (aka Private Fears in Public Places),
France 2006, by Alain Resnais, Drama
with Sabine Azéma, Laura Morante, Isabelle Carré, André Dussollier, Lambert Wilson, Pierre Arditi
IMDB: 498120

This week in Florence there has been France Cinema, a festival dedicated to french movies. This year’s edition was dedicated to world class actor Philippe Noiret, an actor that both France and Italy literally love. I’ve had the opportunity to watch several movies, and Zazie dans le métro is just one of them. As soon as I have time I’ll write something on Coeurs, definitely a masterpiece.

Louis Malle authored this movie in 1960, starting from the experimental work that made Raymond Queneau famous the previous year. Yes, this is the same author of Excercises de style, the book where the same short story is repeated in 99 different styles.

Zazie is an 8-years-old high-energy dirty-talking metro-loving terrific girl, always spitting out horrific insults but somehow still so cute. Her mother wants to stay a weekend with her lover, so she brings Zazie to Paris and drops her off to uncle Gabriel, a professional drag queen interpreted by wondeful Philippe Noiret. No matter the ongoing strike, Zazie wants to try the metro, so she finds the way to escape custody and starts to wander around exploring the city, meeting unlikely characters.

I love surrealism and this movie is one of the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen. Several scenes were shot at 12 or even 8 fps, with main actors playing at half or one third speed while everything on the background looks hilariously accelerated. It’s so deliberatively absurd you can hardly believe what you find yourself staring at. Mustn’t miss it.

Zazie dans le métro,
France 1961, by Louis Malle, Comedy
with Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret
IMDB 54494