My Week in Film: 29 Jan - 04 Feb
I’ve decided to watch a film every day this year. Here’s all the films I watched in the week ending 4th of February.
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29th January - The Secret In Their Eyes (2009)
I kicked this week off with a desire to explore foreign cinema. Given my frustration with a certain mainstream English-language film 1 last week, I scoured my streaming services for something interesting.
The Secret In Their Eyes is an Argentinian-Spanish legal thriller and whodunit set over the course of decades in politically volatile Argentina. A woman is raped and murdered, the law is bent in the course of justice, corruption takes a hold of proceedings and two people fall in love. It’s a lot of story for over two hours.
Good performances all round, Guillermo Francella’s Sandoval especially; the alcoholic prosecutor steals a few scenes and is amusing. There are a few faintly ridiculous scenes involving coincidence, assumption and accusations of having a small cock but they didn’t detract much from the otherwise level-headed tone.
Director Juan José Campanella uses a non-linear technique, honing in on the Ricardo Darín character’s fixation on past mistakes. There’s a constant tug-of-war between the need to reconcile the past with looking to the future, a political statement about the country itself. The politics of the time is almost a character itself as it changes and mutates throughout time.
That being said, this film requires a certain understanding of an era that I didn’t possess. References went over my head, other assumptions I didn’t register until after the fact. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it does explain why I feel the film didn’t grab me like I thought it would.
There’s one scene, set in a football stadium during match day, that’s mind-blowing. I’m still trying to understand how on earth Campanella managed to swoop a camera down from the sky, onto the pitch and then back up into the stands with thousands of fans in one fluid movement. The only film yet that truly replicates being in a packed crowd when a crucial goal is scored. Phenomenal.
30th January - Disco Boy (2023)
As a filmmaker I draw inspiration from my favourite films, naturally. However this does lead to occasions when outlining stories or creating shot lists, for example, that I take a step back and realise that there’s too much of my favourites in the material I’ve written. This is what Giacomo Abbruzzese should’ve realised as he made Disco Boy.
Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) is a young Belarusian who, after sneaking through Europe, joins the French Foreign Legion. Jomo (Jorr Ndiaye) is a Nigerian rebel fighting against Western oil companies in the Niger Delta. Their lives intersect on the banks of said river and far beyond.
Abbruzzese is not interested in subtlety. The neon-soaked nocturnal scenes tells us this much, but the story receives the brute-force aesthetic treatment. It’s drawing a lot from Claire Denis’ Beau Travail2, also focused on Foreign Legion soldiers, and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now with Refn or Noé thrown in. Having these influences is fine but Disco Boy leans on the look and grammar of the aforementioned films too much.
This results in a familiar watching experience but by no means a terrible one. I enjoyed it but I had seen many of the elements before. The story redeems, sharply drawing on themes of identity and colonialism to create hypnotic sequences of disassociation. Abbruzzese focuses on the contrast between the two leads - a man with a lack of identity, a man with a strong one - to great effect, though there are moments where it veers into gently beating the audience over the head.
It’s an impressive technical debut (notably the score and cinematography) but I’d like to see something with more originality in the future. Rogowski and Ndiaye are both excellent, with the latter deserving more praise for having zero acting experience. I hope he goes on to great things.
31st January - The Other Lamb (2017)
Your run-of-the-mill folk horrors tend to have a focus on family. The family unit is ancient tradition and is relatable to a vast amount of people, it works well. The Other Lamb is about a different kind of family.
Young Selah (Raffey Cassidy) is a member of a woodland cult of women and girls led by an enigmatic and creepy Jesus lookalike called Shepherd (Michiel Huisman). They are his flock; a combination of many wives and daughters who he has in his thrall. Shepherd starts giving Selah attention, he reveals his dark side, Selah’s faith waivers and things turn sour. An unimaginative story.
This is not a bad picture. It’s average, which people may dislike more than if it was bad. I’d prefer to watch an average film over a bad one. I can’t stand boredom however and The Other Lamb is boring in a lot places. The Kubrick inspired cinematography (a cliche unto itself in horror now), the expected plot points and the sluggish direction all contribute to a tame film.
The sad part is that I appreciate the aim of the film: to create a feminist tale of patriarchy, systemic misogyny and female agency. However there’s little agency in Selah’s story. That’s quite important considering the message? Most of the characters don’t even get named. It’s a shame because Cassidy is a good actress and the premise is an interesting one but it could’ve been done much better.
1st February - Bird (2024)
In my review of Scrapper last week, I said that Charlotte Regan attempted to make something in the vein of Andrea Arnold or Mike Leigh and failed. Well now I’ve watched Arnold’s latest film and I’m convinced there’s no one like her.
Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives in a squat with her dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and older brother Hunter (Jason Buda). Tensions flare as Bug announces his plan to marry his new girlfriend and move her into their home. Meanwhile, Bailey meets a mysterious man called Bird (Franz Rogowski) who’s searching for his lost family.
It’s an incredibly authentic portrayal of modern childhood that doesn’t shy away from harsh, uncomfortable moments which often punctuate the lives of working class kids. I saw scenes from my own childhood at times. It’s compounded by Adams’ flawless performance. Expect big things from her in the future.
What makes this different from Arnold’s previous work is a touch of magical realism. I’ve read a few reviews which compare it to Hayao Miyazaki’s films which I can see, although whether the meshing of mundanity and fantasy works for you is a matter of taste. I enjoyed it because Rogowski is a rare talent, whose own performance captures the feeling in an authentic way.
There’s an argument that the first half is aimless. A story like this, however, relies on that lack of direction to reflect a childlike experience. As the stakes and urgency rises in the second half, the focus becomes sharper as adulthood raises its head.
The end did make me cry, the first film this year to do so. It was incredibly sweet and infused with that hopeful magic that great coming-of-age films try to instil.
2nd February - The Settlers (2023)
Another South American film, this time from Chilean director Felipe Gálvez. The Settlers deals with colonial violence and the meaning of national identity.
Segundo (Camilo Arancibia) is a ‘mestizo’ (half native Chilean, half white) working for a powerful landowner in the wilderness of Patagonia. He’s hired to establish the boundaries of the land along with MacLennan (Mark Stanley), a ruthless former British soldier, and Bill (Benjamín Westfall), a cynical Texas cowboy. However, Segundo realises that their true mission is to wipe out the indigenous population by any means necessary as he comes face to face with the brutal violence used to establish a new republic.
It’s a fine example of a revisionist Western which utilises a time and place unfamiliar to many in the Northern Hemisphere, emphasising the themes of alienation and identity. At first we empathise with Segundo as he struggles to work with the abusive White settlers but we see how his own morals become compromised as a result of the system he is forced to survive in.
Gálvez uses symbols of the genre to highlight the stark difference between the reverential myth-making inherent in the foundations of countries like America and Chile, and the reality of their respective blood-soaked histories. Violence is a currency that is traded to build nations and image is of paramount importance, not morals. Image builds identity. Identity creates nationalism. Nationalism fortifies the state.
The leads are all incredible, each playing the role of a uniquely awful person with unique motivations. For MacLennan it’s an opportunity to start anew and make a name far greater than the one he left behind. For Bill the job is strictly a job but arrives with twisted notions of proper conduct, butting heads with his British counterpart. While for the first half of the film we could believe that Segundo is a victim. His silence and complicity in the genocidal quest, whilst it may protect him physically, does nothing to save his soul or preserve who he is.
The Settlers moves at a jagged pace which did dampen the effect of the story toward the end. A shift in genre to drama hamstrings an important section where we meet Kiepja (Mishell Guaña), an indigenous woman who later becomes Segundo’s wife. She is the heart of the film, the only person who I felt comfortable identifying with. Her story could’ve been explored in greater detail but she is at the centre of The Settlers thematic crescendo.
I would recommend this film for any Western fans. It confronts you with colonial history and genocide in an arresting and skilful way.
3rd February - Pushover (2023)
My weekly, pressed for time short film viewing.
It’s a simple film about a man harassed by a mysterious knick knack company asking him to leave a review for a paperweight.
It’s funny and surreal. Solid performance from the lead actor. A well made portfolio piece, but nothing spectacular.
4th February - Dahomey (2024)
If you asked me to categorise this film, I’d be hard pressed. It’s not exactly a documentary, at least not in the traditional sense. The lack of interviews, of anyone acknowledging the camera, the inclusion of (essentially) a fictional character.
Dahomey tells the story of Benin and its people through the repatriation of twenty-six cultural artefacts from France, the colonial power in the former Kingdom of Dahomey for many decades. The film starts in a Parisian museum at night and finishes at the Palais de la Marina, the Beninoise president’s residence.
The stars of Dahomey are the artefacts themselves, with “Number 26” the lead. It’s given a voice in the form of a narrator, hypnotically monologuing in one of Benin’s ethnic languages.
One of the most interesting scenes is a lively debate between university students that touches on colonialism, self-determination, class and ethnic identity. Mati Diop creates a captivating document of a people’s struggle for self-determination against a global society that doesn’t care about them. What makes this even more compelling is the variety of arguments on display; if it were just the one Diop was interested in showing, the film would risk presenting as a diatribe or mouthpiece. But by including a variety of views, through the device of a student debate, it asks the audience to think of these arguments.
26 asks us to think of the future in its closing monologue. The uncertainty faced by the artefacts, by Benin and by Africa as a whole is juxtaposed by the face of a young girl as she looks upon the cultural treasures of her people. Whilst we start in the darkness of Paris, we end with an image of a new dawn and a new generation in the daylight of Benin. A beginning, not an end. A new question rather than an answer.