By Joe Bendel. It is so tragically appropriate that the latest film from unjustly persecuted Iranian film directors Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi uses tears as a major plot device, that it is almost embarrassing to point out the aptness. However, it is the repressive Iranian government that should be ashamed. It has sentenced both filmmakers to six year prison terms, on the flimsiest of pretexts. To its credit, the recently wrapped Berlin International Film Festival went out of its way to protest their plight, holding Panahi’s invited place on the Berlinale jury vacant, while screening five of his films in various festival sections. Now the Asia Society follows suit with an equally timely retrospective Panahi’s work, starting this Friday with Rasoulof’s The White Meadows, a strange and unsettling cinematic fable edited by Panahi.
The water has never been saltier and the people living on Lake Urmia’s sandy white isles have never been so miserable. A karmic hand seems to be at work. Seeking relief from their sorrow, they turn to Rahmat, a tear collector, who gathers his watery harvest during their funerals, confessions, and inquisitions. However, after leaving one grieving family, Rahmat is surprised to find a stowaway on his small boat, the young Nissim, who has set out on a truly archetypal quest to find his prodigal father.
From "White Meadows."
As Rahmat and his unexpected apprentice travel from one island to another, Meadows subtly grows ever more fantastical and sad. Indeed, its episodic nature seems like a conscious attempt to evoke the spirit of ancient epics like The Odyssey, while keeping its exact time-frame deliberately vague.
Though he functions as an enigmatic journeyman, Hasan Pourshirazi’s Rahmat is still fascinating to watch as he slowly yields up his mysteries. As young Nissim, Younes Ghazali shows talent beyond his years, effectively serving as the audience’s proxy, viscerally and believably expressing horror at the various injustices he witnesses.
Totally absorbing despite its unhurried pace, Meadows is a testament to the filmmaking talents of director Rasoulof and editor Panahi. As lensed by cinematographer Ebrahim Ghafouri, it is a visually stunning film, often utilizing arresting wide angle shots of its black-clad figures, standing out as contrasting specks against the blinding sunlight and Urmia’s eerie white sand and saltwater vistas.
Given the prevalence of tears and suffering in Meadows, it is hard not to read additional meaning into its story. Rasoulof wisely keeps the political allegory largely shrouded (though evidently not obscure enough). Still, there seem to be clear parallels between the bad karma the islanders are suffering and the sins of the Islamic Revolutionary government. Certain critiques of Iranian society are also inescapable, especially its rampant misogyny. Indeed, when a beautiful woman dies terribly young, one Islander tells Rahmat it is for the best, lest she should inspire unfulfilled lust in the men. Also worth noting, Meadows scrupulously adheres to Iran’s stringent regulations forbidding all forms of physical contact between men and women on-screen.
The standout film at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Meadows is a masterfully crafted work that resists lazy categorization (such as “political allegory” or “Arabian fantasy”). Filmed under difficult circumstances, it is also recommended beyond reasons of its considerable cinematic merits. Clearly, the current Iranian regime would like the outside world to forget Rasoulof, Panahi, and their films. Instead, make a point of attending White Meadows at Asia Society this Friday (2/25) and return for Panahi’s films in the coming days and weeks to enjoy their art, but also to remain mindful of their perilous situation.
By Joe Bendel. Only the current Iranian regime could make patriotism subversive. Supposedly to protect women from harsh language and rampant testosterone, the paternalistic Iranian regime will not allow women to attend men’s sporting events. It may not be the most pressing human rights abuse in Iran, but it is emblematic of the Islamic Republic’s institutionalized misogyny. Produced under difficult circumstances without official sanction, Jafar Panhi’s Offside depicts the unfortunate drama surrounding several young Iranian girls’ coordinated attempt to sneak into a crucial World Cup qualifying match. Like several of his characters, Panahi would soon find himself behind bars. Currently facing a six year prison term on trumped-up charges, Panahi is not likely to attend when Offside screens this Saturday at the Asia Society as part of their important retrospective-tribute to the persecuted filmmaker.
Disguising themselves as boys, with varying degrees of success, a group of teenage girls successfully bluff their way into the forbidden stadium. Eventually though, they’re rounded up by the equally young military conscripts working the security detail, to be turned over to the morals police at the end of the match. As the young women cool their heels in a holding pen, they try to engage their captors, who have difficulty defending the policy they reluctantly enforce. In fact, several of the female fans seem much more knowledgeable about the game than the soldiers guarding them.
Since Panahi was (not surprisingly) denied official permission to film Offside, he shot rebel-style on digital video, which gives the film a definite cinema vérité look. Panahi’s brave cast of non-professionals duly avoids any sense of affectation. Although some young actors are perhaps a tad uncomfortable in their roles, many, like Shayesteh Irani as the tomboyish “Smoking Girl,” are consistently quite good.
As a film Offside is certainly engaging, as a sort of the dystopian version of Bend it Like Backham, but only too real. Yet it is particularly valuable as an intimate, unfiltered snapshot of Iranian life. Far from a full scale indictment of the Iranian regime, Offside is a small, but telling, slice of everyday absurdism. To borrow an American cliché, one cannot use the film to question Panahi’s patriotism. In fact, the film is suffused with a love of country, as the young fans want nothing more than to chant and cheer for their beloved national team.
Reportedly, even though Offside had only been screened once in Iran at the time of its initial American release, word of the film helped temporarily overturn the ban on women at sporting events, until the religious authorities vetoed the policy change. Offside might seem slight—a group of women simply trying to watch a sporting event—but it signifies the act of questioning authority, even ending with a very minor rebellion of sorts, foreshadowing the Green almost-Revolution.
In addition to his six year sentence, the Iranian government has also imposed a twenty year filmmaking ban on Panahi. This punishes not just the filmmaker, but all Iranian citizens and world cineastes. Winner of the Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), Offside is an excellent example of what the world is losing through the mullahs’ oppression. It screens this Saturday (2/26) at the Asia Society and tickets are free.
Alex Pettyfer and Teresa Palmer in "I Am Number Four."
By Jason Apuzzo. THE PITCH: Sexy alien teenagers flee to planet Earth on the run from another alien race out to exterminate them. One such teenager, played by Brit star Alex Pettyfer, hides out in a small Ohio town (‘Paradise’) where he falls for a cute blonde at his high school – played, conveniently enough, by Glee‘s Dianna Agron – and otherwise learns to love Heartland America, pickup trucks, pet puppies and middle class life.
THE SKINNY: This very solid, D.J. Caruso/Michael Bay adaptation of the popular young adult novel, I Am Number Four, works effectively because of its excellent casting and detailed attention to the emotional lives of its young characters. The film also works as an affectionate encomium to the values and lifestyle of middle America, right at a time when those things seem most under assault. Frankly, I never thought Ohio could look like such a great place to live – especially post-LeBron.
Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron.
WHAT WORKS: • The cast, top to bottom. Alex Pettyfer as the teen alien ‘John Smith,’ and Dianna Agron as his girlfriend Sarah steal the show. Pettyfer comes across as a brooding hunk, and Agron has an ironic, quirky quality to her that makes her appealing. The two have definite chemistry – and, not surprisingly, they’ve apparently been dating off-screen since making this film.
• The depiction of ‘Paradise,’ Ohio as, well, a ‘paradise’ of warm suburban families, football games, Halloween carnivals … I’m ready to move right in. Hollywood so rarely tries to make the Heartland look appealing; here they actually make it look lyrical and inviting.
• Aussie Teresa Palmer nearly steals the show in the third act when she swoops in from Planet Michael Bay on her Ducati motorcycle and starts laying waste to the alien bad guys. Even though she looks to be about 85 pounds – and has a thin, raspy voice – she’s perfectly convincing as an ass-kicker due to the vaguely insane look in her eye (á la Jolie). Also: Aussie accents are sexy, especially when burnished by cigarette smoke.
• The alien creatures were excellent, and suitably menacing. Nice wok, as always, by ILM.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK: • The appearance of the alien bad guys. Essentially they’re 7-foot tall white guys with tattoos, pig-like faces, wearing dark trenchcoats. For some reason they reminded me of ‘Birdman’ Chris Andersen of the Denver Nuggets. It was, however, admittedly rather creepy when they walked into the high school with assault rifles near the end of the film – because they looked like the Columbine killers.
• The general sense that you’ve seen films like this a thousand times; especially films featuring white teenage guys with ‘special powers,’ who need to learn to use them responsibly, etc. Just for variety’s sake, I’d love to see someone make a movie about, say, a chubby Hispanic gal with ‘special powers’ who needs to use them responsibly. Continue reading Aliens in the Heartland: LFM Mini-Review of I Am Number Four
By Joe Bendel. Word to the wise, take care crossing the streets of Guangzhou and the surrounding suburbs. If you are hit by a car, the driver might just try to stuff some cash in your pocket and toss you out of the way. For their part, the police appear woefully inadequate at managing accidents. It is all rather messy and unfortunate, but it’s easy to understand how such episodes caught the attention of scores of Chinese digital video enthusiasts, whose most “youtube-able” footage has been edited together in Huang Weikai’s collage-like Disorder, which screens during the 2011 Documentary Fortnight now underway at MoMA.
China has a reputation for being a tightly regulated society, perhaps tragically so. However, the amateur video assembled by editor-director (emphasis on editor) Huang paints a more anarchic picture. At times, it is somewhat amusing. The face of a restaurant customer finding a roach in his ramen is pure movie gold. Indeed, there are plenty of “you-don’t-see-that-everyday” moments in Disorder, as when a group of men try to corral a pack of panicky pigs on the highway – while the cops watch disinterestedly. They do that quite frequently in Disorder.
However, Disorder is not all light-hearted corruption and incompetence. There is real tragedy as well. Frankly, Huang somewhat downplays the most shocking incident, most likely a by-product of China’s strict one-child policy. Still, his concluding sequences logically have the most political bite, capturing full-scale police brutality in an incident that teeters on the brink of a legitimate riot.
They might be so-called amateurs, but the videographers who recorded these scenes deserve considerable credit for standing their ground and getting their shots. In his editorial judgment, Huang demonstrates a shrewd eye for visuals and a subversive sensibility. Whether he intended to or not, he conveys a sense of the anger and frustration bubbling beneath the surface of many average citizens. Yet they never seem to release it in a coordinated, efficacious manner, as the audience witnesses in graphic terms.
At just about an hour’s running time, Disorder is a particularly manageable dose of the Digital Generation-style of independent Chinese filmmaking, appropriately distributed by dGenerate Films, the Chinese indie specialists. Short but sometimes shocking, it is a strong selection for this year’s Documentary Fortnight. It screens again tomorrow (2/20) as the annual doc festival continues at MoMA, and it might be a ticket in high demand. There were a few technical glitches at last night’s screening (ultimately resolved well enough), so some of the near capacity audience might be back for the second go-round.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley watches things blow up in Michael Bay's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."
By Jason Apuzzo. • I’ll start today’s Invasion Alert! with J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg and their forthcoming alien invasion thriller Super 8. A new trailer for the film ran during the Super Bowl – and although I’m very much looking forward to the film, the trailer itself didn’t do much for me, frankly. More interesting, actually, was a lengthy interview Abrams recently gave to The LA Times, in which he discussed the small town/middle America vibe of the film, its sentimental roots as a father-son reconciliation story, and the generally Spielbergean ambience of the whole project.
It’s becoming fairly clear that this film is going to be a return to the sort of family-oriented sci-fi projects Spielberg was doing in the late 70s/early 80s with E.T., Close Encounters and his TV work (incidentally, Close Encounters is coming to Blu-ray shortly) – although I sense a trace of anxiety in Abrams’ remarks as to whether such softer fare can still sell in the era of Michael Bay and James Cameron. My sense is that it can.
Many people tend to forget that most sci-fi films from the 1950s, for example (like Invaders from Mars or Invasion of the Body Snatchers), were actually set in small towns – and were highly evocative of middle American life and its values. Those films are still beloved today, not unlike Close Encounters (E.T. has aged somewhat) and if Abrams and Spielberg have done their homework on this one, they’re likely to pull off a crowd-pleasing hit – because I don’t yet sense any home runs in this current crop of edgier sci-fi invasion projects green-lit in the wake of Avatar.
I happen to like Abrams a lot, by the way. He talks in the interview about how he doesn’t do Twitter, how he still has a tape deck in his car, how he doesn’t really like the current film scene – in which everything has to be pre-marketed, pre-branded, franchised, etc., with no mystery left by the time a film is released. This remark from Abrams seems to sum up his thoroughly old-school attitude:
“We have such a challenge on this movie [Super 8],” Abrams said. ”Yes, we’ve got Steven’s name on it and my name on it — for what that’s worth — but we’ve got no famous super-hero, we’ve got no pre-existing franchise or sequel, it’s not starring anyone you’ve heard of before. There’s no book, there’s no toy, there’s no comic book. There’s nothing. I don’t have anything; I don’t even have a board game, that’s how bad it is. But I think we have a very good movie.”
I know much of this is being said tongue-in-cheek, but isn’t it amazing that we’ve gotten to this point – a point at which a guy like Abrams, who is himself helming the new Star Trek franchise (the screenplay for the next Star Trek, incidentally, will apparently be delivered in about six weeks), feels compelled to say such things? I wish filmmakers working on the big scale would go back to telling personal stories, about actual human beings. In an era of formulaic entertainment, it’s the one formula no one seems willing to try.
Brooklyn Decker ("Battleship") preps for Sports Illustrated.
• … and so now on to Michael Bay. Among the alien invasion movie Super Bowl trailers (of which there were no less than four) his Transformers: Dark of the Moon trailer certainly took the prize for spectacle, hands down. It actually looked a lot like Battle: LA, albeit in quasi-music video form.
At the recent premiere of his other alien invasion thriller, I Am Number 4, Bay actually compared Transformers 3 to Black Hawk Down – something which leads me to wonder why he doesn’t just do a movie like Black Hawk Down about our current war effort, rather than channel his energy into yet another toy franchise movie. Oh, wait! I think I know why; it has something to do with cross-platform marketing and casting Victoria’s Secret models. But that’s just a hunch.
Don’t’ get me wrong – I basically like Bay. He’s old-school in his own way. But there are reasons why he never really breaks through and has the Lucas/Spielberg/Cameron-sized hits, you know? There’s always just too much marketing there, and never enough imagination.
On the marketing front, incidentally, Bay and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley were out helping to hawk new Transformers toys recently (toys which seem to be revealing plot details about the movie), and Rosie finally talks about the project herself, here. So far she isn’t calling her director Hitler yet, unlike certain prior Transformers leads …
Not encouraged in Iran.
• Brooklyn Decker, of the forthcoming $200 million alien invasion thriller Battleship, is basically everywhere right now – appearing in the stupid Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie (two people who need to disappear for about five years), and now, of course, she’s on the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Did you really think we were going to miss that here at Libertas? Not a chance, amigo.
Also: the Hollywood Reporter just did a big feature on her, and you can watch the video associated with her SI photoshoot here. The video is probably NSFW (Not Suitable For the Workplace) – but at the same time, if your workplace doesn’t want you watching an American blonde prancing around in a bikini, perhaps you should simply work someplace else. This isn’t Iran.
• Cowboys & Aliens also had a Super Bowl trailer, and it was terrible – even though it featured the obnoxious Olivia Wilde going semi-topless. I’m getting the strong feeling that this film is going to be the turkey of the lot. If Jon Favreau’s got anything else to show us from that film, he’d better show it fast …
… although actually, he is doing that, as the LA Times followed Favreau recently to the Alamo Drafthouse where he showed the first two reels of Cowboys to an audience that apparently liked it a lot. Go figure.
One enthusiastic fan apparently even remarked, “You made Harrison Ford kick ass again!” Actually, Ford kicked alien and commie ass to the tune of $750 million worldwide for Indiana Jones 4 – but after all, who’s counting …
Also, Favreau recently talked to EW, and revealed some important clues as to his alien invasion film’s larger ‘meaning’:
EW: Instead of “cowboys and Indians” it was “astronauts and aliens.” So the idea of visiting an indigenous culture, invaders who in the Westerns would be the pioneers and settlers, is it reversed in this story? Are the cowboys essentially the natives and aliens are like the conquering Europeans?
Favreau: Yeah, in the frustration of not having the technology to allow you to prevail. It’s always the low-tech culture that feels powerless when faced with an enemy that has technology on their side. And of course the culture with technology on their side feels like it’s manifest destiny: They’ve been granted this gift by the divine and intend to use it. So yes, it is a bit of a flip, because the cowboys find themselves as the low-tech culture. And what’s also fun is it allows the cowboys and Native Americans to come together, which would be impossible had there not been a greater common enemy. It sets the Western up in a very classic way and then turns it on its ear.
I’m a little uncomfortable with this line: “[T]he culture with technology on their side feels like it’s manifest destiny: They’ve been granted this gift by the divine and intend to use it.” Why do I think he’s talking about us, when he uses the phrase ‘manifest destiny’? I thought Favreau was on our team; perhaps he’s now gone Eastwood/off the reservation.
Teresa Palmer in "I Am Number 4."
In any event, it’s interesting – and somewhat grating – that from Avatar through to Cowboys & Aliens, V and Battle: Los Angeles, ‘imperialism’ and ‘oppression of indigenous populations’ are obviously emerging as key themes in this genre.
• The rumors have now been confirmed: Charlize Theron will be joining Noomi Rapace in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus; and, also, there is further confirmation – from cast member Michael Fassbender – that Prometheus is more-or-less going to serve as an Alien prequel. Fassbender says there is a “a definite connecting vein” in the film with the Alien series.
Incidentally, I’m not a fan of Charlize Theron – she’s a bit frosty and left-wing to my taste – but she can project intelligence and I’m otherwise glad to see that Scott is keeping the Alien franchise focused on compelling female characters. Prometheus may do Avatar-type business, if he plays his cards right.
• Speaking of blondes, Aussie blonde Teresa Palmer – who plays “a fearless, Ducati-riding alien” babe (every film should have one) in the Michael Bay-produced I Am Number 4 – talked to the Wall Street Journal recently; also check out this interview with I Am Number 4‘s highly perky blonde Dianna Agron.
• One of the other big alien invasion projects with a Super Bowl ad was, of course, Battle: Los Angeles – and Battle: LA also has a new extended trailer and a new TV spot.
The best thing this film has going for it, though, is this cheeky, History Channel-style documentary short about the original ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ from World War II. The video features Bill Birnes of UFO Hunters and is a real hoot. Check it out below.
The marketing campaign for Battle: Los Angeles has been nearly flawless, even without any blondes. We’ll see if the film itself matches up.
• In other Sci-Fi/Alien Invasion News & Notes: Men in Black 3D is experiencing more shooting delays, and the script is being re-written mid-shoot (ouch); Steven Spielberg’s/Fox’s hugely expensive Terra Nova TV series had an ad during the Super Bowl, and it looked like ridiculous Avatar-style liberal claptrap; Shawn Levy will be directing the James Cameron-produced 3D Fantastic Voyage remake; Logan’s Run is getting re-made; Roland Emmerich may be taking on Isaac Asimov’s acclaimed Foundation novel series, which he apparently would do in 3D, plus he confirms that there’s no action currently on an Independence Day sequel; Jerry Bruckheimer apparently wants to do a new space adventure film, to be written by the guy who wrote the first draft of what became Prometheus, and who also wrote the forthcoming alien invasion thriller The Darkest Hour 3D; Roberto Orci talks here about his hoped-for adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s alien invasion epic Ender’s Game; the indie alien invasion thriller Attack the Block will be showing at the SXSW film festival; and, finally, for some unknown reason, Gareth Edwards’ indie alien invasion thriller Monsters – which hardly made a dent at the box office, and which nearly bored me to tears – may still get a sequel or even a TV series, although Edwards himself won’t be involved.
Alice Eve of "Men in Black 3D."
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … you would think that with Brooklyn Decker writhing around the beach in a bikini for Sports Illustrated, she would be today’s official pin-up. Or perhaps the prickly Olivia Wilde, who goes semi-topless in the latest Cowboys & Aliens trailer. But the alien invasion genre has a deep bench, my friends, so instead I go today with Alice Eve, who just joined the cast of Men in Black 3D – playing a younger version of Emma Thompson’s character. Oddly enough, though, I don’t remember Emma Thompson looking quite like this in her youth …
And that’s what’s happening today on The Alien Invasion Front!
By Joe Bendel. Marian Kołodziej’s art is not merely art, but testimony of the unimaginable. It is displayed not in a gallery, but in a labyrinth nestled beneath a small Polish church near Kołodziej’s former residence, Auschwitz. Through his darkly distinctive art, Kołodziej bears witness to the Holocaust in Jason A. Schmidt’s documentary The Labyrinth, which screens this Saturday as part of the shorts program at the 2011 John Paul II International Film Festival in Miami (as well as at the Boulder International Film Fest on the same day).
A youthful member of the Polish resistance, Kołodziej, number 432, was one of the first prisoners at Auschwitz, who were forced to build its architecture of death. Surviving the ordeal, he established a successful career as a set designer, but almost never discussed his horrific experiences. However, when Kołodziej began drawing as part of his therapy for a considerable stroke, the ominous images of the concentration camp came bursting forth.
Explaining the real life sources of his work, Kołodziej’s stories are mostly harrowing, but in rare instances also inspiring. The artist movingly pays tribute to Father Maximilian Kolbe, the Catholic priest who was canonized as a “martyr of charity” for taking the place of another man condemned to die in a starvation chamber. In drawings that are particularly powerful but just as gruesome, Kołodziej often depicts Kolbe comforting his fellow prisoners.
Almost Boschian in their nightmarish detail, Kołodziej’s work conveys the true nature of the Holocaust more compellingly and directly than any narrative feature could ever hope to. No matter how well intentioned or painstakingly produced, audiences are always conscious of a film’s artifice on some level. After two hours screen time, everyone goes back to life as usual. By contrast, each of Kołodziej’s pieces is a moment of agony frozen for all eternity. One can avert one’s eyes, but it will always be there as a silent indictment of the National Socialists’ crimes against humanity.
Respectfully crafted, Schmidt lets Kołodziej’s drawings and words (heard in translation) speak for themselves. Elegant in the simplicity of its approach, the thirty-eight minute Labyrinth is a hauntingly poetic documentary. It is also a perfectly fitting selection for the John Paul II Festival, considering that it was the Polish pontiff who canonized Kolbe and strived to improve the Catholic-Jewish relations throughout his tenure. Highly recommended, it screens this Saturday (2/19) at the FIU Marc Pavilion as part of the JP2FF’s shorts program.
