BLACK DOG - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “It’s 2008 and, far from the Beijing Olympics, Lang returns from a stint in prison to the decaying hometown he hasn’t seen in years. There, he finds no-one is happy to welcome him back, and the arid settlement is about to be demolished to build large-scale factories. Haunted by the past and confronted with an uncertain future, Lang tries to get work as a ‘bounty hunter’ of stray dogs but ends up falling into an unlikely camaraderie with a rabid dog he’s forced to quarantine with.”

I saw Guan Hu's “Black Dog” during the first weekend of this year's MIFF, where it immediately became one of my favourites. The film is about a guy, Lang, who returns to his home town after spending a lengthy period of time in jail for manslaughter. When he arrives, he notices that everything has changed; most of the houses have either been demolished or are in line to be and the place is something of a ghost town......with the exception of the large number of stray dogs roaming the streets. When people fled the town, they left behind their dogs to fend for themselves, to the point they have now overrun the place. From a personal point of view, Lang's father is a shell of the man he once was, now sickly and frail. Whilst he still works at the local zoo, most of the animals have already been relocated or set free. Lang, who was once a local celebrity due to the band he used to play in, is not welcomed home with open arms, instead the gangland uncle of the man he killed is after his blood. Lang, himself, is unhappy and rarely speaks. He is totally bereft of emotion, and appears to care little about living. Needing to survive, the only job he can find is one where he rounds up the stray dogs of the village. He particularly becomes enamoured with a feisty “thin, black” dog who is very sneaky but has more character than any of the humans living in the town. While Lang attempts to catch this dog, he is bitten on the bum by it, and is soon told that it is a dog that has rabies. His friend says that the dog needs to be put down, but Lang disagrees and wants to capture the dog, which they do together. Lang and the dog quarantine together, where Lang's friend says if the dog is still alive in a week, he doesn't have rabies and you are both fine. During this week, Lang and the dog form an unbreakable bond, as they both find in the other someone to love and someone who will love them back. With the dog now in his life, Lang sees a future worth living again, and he starts to grow once more, with his emotions free again to come out.

I know that it probably seems like a gave away the whole film there, but I would say that I have talked up until the halfway point of “Black Dog”, as there is a lot more that happens from this point onward. I thought “Black Dog” was an absolutely beautiful film, and the dog in the film is extraordinary. The dog's real name is Xiao Xin, and he won the Palm Dog's Grand Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival for best dog in a film, and it is so deserved. Not only does he have character and cheek, but all the things he has been trained to do in the film, like ride in the sidecar of the motorbike are both brilliant and hilarious. There is a very funny sequence when Lang and the dog first meet, as Lang urinates on a wall of a dilapidated building. Once he is finished, he walks away and the dog runs out and urinates on the wall himself to re-mark his territory. It becomes a daily ritual for Lang to urinate there, and each time the dog runs out after he is finished. It is very funny. As good as Xiao Xin's “tricks” are, he actually gives a genuine “performance” as well, because early on he comes across as very aggressive and territorial, but the longer he spends with Lang you can see a real connection between the two of them. Just in the way the dog looks at him later in the movie, you can sense a real love.

The other member of this duo is Eddie Peng, who is just outstanding as Lang, in a near wordless performance. Peng rarely gets to speak in “Black Dog” but is brilliant at showing his character's state of mind through eye contact and body language. Early on, he rarely makes much eye contact with anyone, and he kind of shuffles through life. He doesn't feel worthy of a life with any good in it, so keeps to himself and says nothing. After the dog enters his life, and he feels like he has something to live for, he straightens up more, and starts to look people in the eye. He is also bolder in the decisions he makes in life, because he actually wants to start living again. However, Peng never smiles throughout the film........until the film's final shot, and it is totally worth it; it is such a great moment, that is well earned too.

While overhearing people's conversations at MIFF, the talk about “Black Dog” was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone seemed to love it, but something else that most people noted was that it was a very slow film. This shocked me because I never once thought the pace was slow or that the film was overlong. My brother saw “Black Dog” later on in the festival and when I asked him what he thought, the first thing he said was “It was slow, but really good”. Again, I just never felt this slowness, which is either a sign that I was totally entranced by the film, or that I thought “Black Dog” was perfectly paced. The only section of the film that seemed extraneous was the romantic subplot with the circus performer which ultimately led nowhere, but which did add a female presence to the film that was sorely missing.

“Black Dog” was actually the second Chinese film I saw at MIFF this year that brought up the destruction of these smaller towns, all in the name of progress (the other film was Jia Zhang-ke's “Caught by the Tides”). Both films actually use the Beijing Olympics of 2008 as a backdrop for this change. It is really sad seeing these villages disappear slowly, bound to be forgotten one day. The abandoned zoo in this film just gave a real sense of sadness and melancholy of what once was, and this sadness permeates through “Black Dog”. That said, the desert locations of “Black Dog” are quite beautiful, with cinematographer Weizhe Gao making the most of the location with his lovely widescreen images.

Overall, I thought “Black Dog” was a really beautiful film about a man's love for his dog, without the need for sentimentalism. Watching this man, who previously was bereft of happiness, finding the joy of life once more through his connection to a dog was really touching. Thinking back on “Black Dog” though, there is so much that happens in the film that I have not even touched on, so if you are worried about spending two hours with a man and his dog, do not fret, there is a lot more going on in “Black Dog” then just that. On a lovely side note to finish this review, I have to mention that after filming had finished on “Black Dog”, Eddie Peng had so fallen in love with Xiao Xin that he ended up adopting him, and he is now his dog, so the love story between man and dog extended beyond what was onscreen into real life.

4 Stars.

 

 

MY OLD ASS - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Elliott is queer, about to turn 18 and can’t wait to leave her Canadian cranberry-farming family for college in Toronto. Camping beside a lake with her besties Ruthie and Ro, she sips some magic-mushroom tea that somehow summons her jaded 39-year-old self. Elliott can’t resist asking for some tips on what’s ahead. Her future self is cagey, not wanting to alter Elliott’s path, but she insists on one thing: “Stay away from Chad.” What? Elliott’s not even into guys! But then she meets the family’s goofy new summer farmhand, and guess what his name is?”

Out of all the films that I saw at MIFF this year, Megan Park's “My Old Ass” was definitely the most “Hollywood”, and not the kind of film that I would usually see, so I really wasn't expecting that much from it. Instead I ended up loving it; it is such a sweet film, with fantastic characters and scenarios, it is funny, poignant and even has something to say about life and love. The whole learning from your future self trope is well worn by now, but what I loved about “My Old Ass” is the best piece of advice actually comes from the younger version of Elliot, and not the older, which is a change from the norm in these time-travelling coming of age stories.

I believe the reason I booked a ticket to “My Old Ass” was due to the casting of Aubrey Plaza as the older version of Elliot. This in itself is amusing because I have a love/hate relationship with Plaza in that sometimes her performances drive me bananas, and other times I find her quite endearing. She has made a name for herself, and quite the career, thanks to her ironic, eye-rolling persona. Her characters often seem pissed off for some reason, and they never seem to give a shit about anything. Depending on the film, sometimes it works, and other times it gets tired fast. However she is wonderful in “My Old Ass”, and totally does away with this persona she is known for. Her version of Elliot is so likeable, happy and fun. I am not sure that the younger Elliot would ever grow up to look like Plaza though (which amusingly is briefly made fun of a couple of times throughout the film, like the fact that Plaza has a gap in her teeth whilst the younger Elliot does not). The thing that I was most surprised by though, was just how little Plaza is seen onscreen in the film, seeing she is all over the marketing for the film. She is essentially only in the film for two scenes: the scene at the campfire at the beginning when Elliot is tripping on mushrooms, and another scene towards the end. She is still present within the film via a number of phone calls the two Elliot's share, but in these we only hear Plaza's voice. Anyway, she is excellent despite how brief her onscreen time is.

The heart and soul of “My Old Ass” though is Maisy Stella who plays the younger Elliot. She is absolutely outstanding in the role, and the complete definition of “cute as a button”. She is so adorable in this!! Stella does such an excellent job at playing Elliot and she isn't afraid to go anywhere with her character. There are times when she is totally endearing, other times she is a total goofball, she knows what she wants when it comes to the girls that she wants, and there is a beautiful side to her when engaging with her mum. The role gives her a huge range of emotions to play and she nails every single one of them. I especially liked the way Stella was able to honestly express the confusion Elliot feels as she begins to fall in love with Chad, because until this point in her life, she was so sure within herself that she was gay, and for her now not to be sure or understand what she now is if she is in love with Chad, it scares Elliot. Maisy Stella does an excellent job of portraying this confusion, fear and excitement of falling in love all at the same time. As I said, she also doesn't mind looking ridiculous, and one of the best moments in the film is when she wants to reconnect with her older self again, so decides to trip on mushrooms once more. This time her trip is absolutely hilarious with her dancing to a Justin Bieber song as if she is in a concert. It is such a funny scene, especially when director Megan Park cuts from this awesome concert footage of Elliot, to the reality which is her dancing badly by herself in the forest. Its brilliant!

Percy Hynes White plays Chad and he is just as adorable as Maisy Stella, and when the two of them are together, there is a cuteness overload, but they are super sweet as a couple. One of the very few issues I have with “My Old Ass” is that Chad is almost too perfect. We never see him do anything offensive or anything slightly bad or weird that could upset Elliot or turn her off. He is always charming, says the perfect things at the perfect time, is great with her parents etc. He is almost too good to be true, and that is one of the things that Elliot herself questions, because if he is this good of a person, why would her older self warn her against spending time with him?

Aubrey Plaza's version of Elliot doesn't give Maisy Stella's Elliot too much advice, because she fears that it will effect her future if they change too much, but one thing she does say is to spend more time with your brothers and do not take for granted your parents. The younger Elliot takes this advice onboard, and we are given a number of really lovely scenes between Elliot and each family member as she gets to know them all a little better before she leaves for college. She is a little heartbroken when her eldest brother lets her know that he felt that she was embarrassed to be seen with him, to which she replies in the negative. It sounds simple but it is a really sweet and real moment between the siblings. The scene with the mother is even more emotional, as the mother is in a weird state of being so proud of her daughter but so upset that she is leaving. Elliot says that she will always need her mother, no matter how far away she is leaving from them. Again, it doesn't sound like much but director Megan Park is really able to extract the truth and heart out of these scenes to give them so much impact on the audience.

I mentioned that the younger Elliot gives her older self the best piece of advice in the film which is that living life safely so there is not chance of getting hurt in the process is not really living at all. You have to attack each moment front on, and with gusto, and if you do end up getting hurt, it doesn't make the experience any less worthwhile, because you still have those memories to look back on. As opposed to doing nothing, and thus having nothing to show for it. It is actually really sage advice from the younger Elliot, and it is something that is brought up in another favourite film of mine, Denis Villeneuve's “Arrival” from 2016.

Overall, “My Old Ass” was a really nice surprise and quite the delight to watch. Maisy Stella is sensational as the younger Elliot, and is the heart and soul of the film, while she is ably supported by an excellent Aubrey Plaza, playing the older version of Elliot. Whilst I would call “My Old Ass” a coming-of-age comedy, it also has a number of heartfelt and dramatic scenes within, that director Megan Park handles with sensitivity and honesty. If I was to have anything negative to say about the film it would be that it my be a little bit too sweet and offensive-free, but I don't care, I had a fantastic time with “My Old Ass”; it is worth seeing just for the hilarious Justin Bieber mushroom trip scene.

3.5 Stars.

 

 

SHE LOVED BLOSSOMS MORE - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Using a time machine concocted from a wardrobe, a trio of siblings venture to bring their long-gone mother back to the world of the living. As they deal with their delusional father and a girlfriend who plies them with drugs, their wayward experiments catapult them into a time-warped journey of grief and longing that is as visually arresting as it is comedic and disturbing.”

Unfortunately I saw director Yannis Veslemes's “She Loved Blossoms More” on the second-last night of MIFF when I was suffering from both exhaustion and burnout, whilst also coming off my worst film at this year's festival just prior to walking into this. To say that my concentration levels during “She Loved Blossoms More” may have been affected is an understatement, and to be totally honest my memory of the film is a little cloudy in parts, but I do remember liking it a lot and thinking that it was the weirdest film I saw at MIFF this year.

This is a sad tale about grief and a family who is struggling to let go or move on since their mother's untimely death. Instead of dealing with their grief, the three brothers, who have the bizarre names of Hedgehog, Japan and Dummy, (along with their French father) all attempt to make progress at bringing their mother back to life, by creating a time machine out of a simple wardrobe. The brothers theorise if they can send something to another dimension, then it stands to reason that they can bring something back also. However their attempts have been disastrous, including one try which left a chicken headless with his body in one dimension and its head in another. Taking a drug-fuelled break from the experiments, the brothers along with Samantha (one of the boy's girlfriend) attempt to relax, before Hedgehog starts talking to a giant flower (that looks remarkably like a woman's vulva) coming from his mother's grave, that insists that he should try his experiment with Samantha. Since the flower speaks with his mother's voice, Hedgehog goes ahead with the flower's plan, which doesn't go at all well, especially for Samantha.

Did I happen to mention that “She Loved Blossoms More” is bloody weird? Even though the two films share nothing in common, while I was watching “She Loved Blossoms More” I could not help but be reminded of Panos Cosmatos's “Mandy”. The reason you ask? Because both films have a singular and unique vision, that may not make sense to the audience the whole time, but I am sure is exactly the world that the director wanted us to see. Even when certain scenes or moments are not entirely successful, it is still 100% true to their vision. There are so many weird elements in “She Loved Blossoms More” but they feel real and believable in the world Veslemes has created. One thing I loved about the science fiction elements to the film was how analogue everything felt. The computers and their graphics have a retro feel to them, as does the “time machine” itself.

As soon as “She Loved Blossoms More” started, with its thick visual appearance, I immediately thought that it had to have been shot on film, and possibly even 16mm film. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any information to confirm my hypothesis on this, but I will say that it is a stunningly shot film by cinematographer Christos Karamanis who moves the camera in a very slow manner which matches the character's own speed of movement, while using cramped compositions and a large array of neon lighting to create the brother's obsessive world while leaning into a retro sci-fi aesthetic. When talking to someone recently, I mentioned that the film looked like it was taking place through an opium haze (which I feel is also apt due to the amount of drugs the characters take, and the pace they themselves move through this world). I also mentioned that the look reminded me of a combination of those early Jeunet and Caro films like “Delicatessen” and Lucile Hadzihalilovic's 2021 film “Earwig”.

One of the greatest elements of “She Loved Blossoms More” is its wonderfully detailed production design. While the entire film essentially takes place in one location, the boy's house, you never get bored because there is so much to look at in each room. The special effects team also deserve a huge pat on the back for their glorious practical effects, like the piglet who gets turned inside out during a failed experiment (in an obvious nod to David Cronenberg and “The Fly”), to the headless chicken that wanders around the house, to the split face/three-eyed version of Samantha, to the very weird puppet effects used for the father late in the movie. It is all brilliant and gory stuff, and most importantly tangible because it was made for real and not on a computer.

I am not going to go through everyone's performances but I will say that the three guys playing the brothers do a great job of portraying their obsession of bringing their mother back to life, with more than a hint of melancholy. What is interesting about this is that it is alluded to that she is not the lovely woman the boys remember or idolise as such. This is even shown via the title which is a truncated line in the film, which the full version is “she loved blossoms more than her own kids”. Who I do want to mention is Sandra Abuelghanam who plays Samantha and totally steals every scene she is in. She is a burst of energy and light in this quite dark film, and like all the brothers, you immediately fall in love with her and her love of life. She is just fantastic. Dominique Pinon shows up in the brief role of the boy's French father, and while he is his usual excellent self, his inclusion in the cast screamed that French money was used to help produce the film.

As great as “She Loved Blossoms More” is, I must say that I didn't think its ending was totally satisfying; in fact I found it more than a little confusing. Maybe that is on me for thinking a film as weird as this one would end on a concrete note, but I found the last ten to fifteen minutes muddled some of what came before it. Is what we are seeing real or is this a fantasy of one of the boys? I have my own theory but I cannot speak of it without destroying what happens at the end, so I will just say that it wasn't as strong as the rest of the film before it.

Overall, I thought Yannis Veslemes's unique and very weird vision he had for “She Liked Blossoms More” was something special and I enjoyed it immensely. It is a gorgeous looking film, filled with brilliant practical effects and some absolutely weird-as-all-heck story beats. While it isn't always successful, I loved its boldness and vision, and always prefer when something is original compared to the same old stuff. “She Liked Blossoms More” was a total blast, a wild trip, and the weirdest film that played at MIFF this year. Highly recommended!

3.5 Stars.

 

RUMOURS - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “The G7, led by German chancellor Hilda Ortmann, have descended on a remote retreat to draft a do-nothing communiqué that passes the buck on a looming ecological catastrophe. Only it’s too late for their inaction: it appears the apocalypse is already here. As strange creatures awaken all around them, Hilda must corral her fellow exasperatingly hopeless world leaders – including the Swedish secretary-general of the European Commission and the presidents of the USA and France – on a wild goose chase into the woods.

Way back during MIFF 2003 was when I first fell in love with Canadian director Guy Maddin and his eccentric, experimental films, as that year they screened “The Saddest Music in the World”; a film about a beer baroness who organises a competition between the world's nations to see just who has the saddest music in the world. The film was bat-shit crazy and unlike anything I had ever seen prior, but I remember what drew me to it was that the baroness had no legs, and thus wore glass legs that were filled with beer. To me that was just madness and genius all rolled into one, and I knew I had to see what that looked like, and it and the film did not disappoint. I also fell in love with Guy Maddin's distinctive aesthetic to his films, which look like silent films, and often employ the camera trickery that was used in that era. Since “The Saddest Music in the World” I have caught up with some of Maddin's back catalogue, and always try to see his latest, as they usually end up screening at MIFF. I do not always love every film he makes, but I rarely hate them, and I always find them at the very least visually interesting.......which brings us to Maddin's latest, “Rumours”.

The new film from Guy Maddin, along with co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson, “Rumours” is a satire about a group of world leaders at a retreat attempting to put their heads together to write a statement about a crisis-in-progress that basically tells the world not to worry, we have everything under control, without committing themselves to actually do anything about it. It is making fun of our world leaders and how they spend so much time talking about doing something, but never actually do anything. Unfortunately, I found it unfunny and the satire too obvious, but the biggest question I have about “Rumours” is how world class actors like Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander ended up in this drivel. That might sound like a pissy throwaway comment, but I am actually serious about the question, and curious why Blanchett in particular would sign on to something as dreadful as this. While I am sure that the answer is to work with Guy Maddin, “Rumours” is the least Maddin-like film of his entire filmography, and Blanchett is terrible in it. I have to wonder if the Johnson brothers were the key directors on the film, with Maddin just helping where he could, because with the exception of a giant brain which shows up half way through “Rumours”, I would struggle to find any of Maddin's influence on the film anywhere.

As I mentioned above, when I come to see a Guy Maddin film, I want to be wowed by his pseudo-silent film aesthetics which sadly is nowhere to be seen in “Rumours”. Instead we get a visually uninteresting and very flat looking film, with random explosions of the colour green onscreen. It is such an ugly looking film, lacking in production value and frankly production design. The images just look so bare, like no thought at all had been put into them; it was just point and shoot, we got it, lets move to the next shot. The lack of artistry on display was depressing frankly. The satire itself wasn't much better. As I said it was so obvious, which made it all so unfunny. Yes, politicians do nothing, yes they use big intellectual words to convince us of the opposite, look at the French diplomat needing help from the other nations, etc etc. It was all just low-hanging-fruit. Oh, let's not forget the masturbating bog creatures demonstrating what the statement they are writing for the world really means! That's edgy isn't it? Ho-Hum.

As you can probably tell, I did not have a good time with “Rumours”, but was there anything that I did enjoy about it? Actually there was. I thought both Charles Dance and Rolando Ravello were very good in their roles, playing the US president and Italian prime minister respectively. Dance is amusing as a president who has a bad habit of nodding off, but it was Ravello who particularly made me laugh portraying has character as a nice dimwit, with him forgetting his phone and sharing the meat he stole from the dinner table being the only real laughs I had during the whole film. Hang on, I also chuckled when the world leaders questioned how in the world Canada became part of the G7.

Because I disliked the film so much, I do not have a lot to say about “Rumours” but the last thing I will mention is when the statement was finally “written”, filled with all the latest buzz words and posturing that you would expect in a statement like this, it was scary how close it sounded to some of the real statements we hear when politicians try to appease the public. It is a whole lot of words saying nothing, which makes the metaphor of the bog monsters masturbating like crazy while the Canadian prime minister reads it aloud pretty obvious; the whole thing is a wank!

Overall, I thought “Rumours” was a juvenile experience and a total disappointment from the usually interesting Guy Maddin. Here, with his co-director Johnson siblings, they have created an unfunny and obvious satire on world leaders, who are big on talk but small on any real action. The film contains one of Cate Blanchett's worst performances yet, a strangely cast Alicia Vikander who speaks only in Swedish, a pointless giant brain and the blandest visual display ever seen in a Guy Maddin film. Sadly I thought “Rumours” was terrible (but if it means anything, apparently I am in the minority here).

2 Stars.

 

THE BALCONETTES - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “It’s midsummer in Marseille, and heat-crazed residents are taking to their balconies – including boisterous cam girl Ruby and quiet writer Nicole. After their starlet friend Élise shows up from her latest film set, exasperated by phone calls from her possessive husband, they flirt with the hunky fashion photographer across the street. He clearly fancies Ruby, so the others head home. Then Ruby shows up covered in blood, having lethally fended off a rapist. Now the Balconettes are on body-disposal duty … which is the worst possible time for Élise and Nicole, who are having their own issues – both real and otherworldly.”

I initially became a fan of Noémie Merlant after seeing her in Celine Sciamma's exquisite “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”. Until then I was not aware of her, nor how prolific she actually is. Since then I have seen heaps of films with her in it, but I wasn't aware that she had directed anything. Her second film as director, “The Balconettes”, was a “surprise title” at MIFF this year, in that it wasn't initially announced with the rest of the programme but about a week into the festival (along with six or seven other titles). It has become a tradition for MIFF to announce surprise titles each year, and it is usually a source of frustration for me because if something does interest me, it usually doesn't fit into the schedule I have set for myself over the festival. This year though the only title that interested me was Merlant's “The Balconettes” and I was both shocked and ecstatic when I realised it actually fit into my schedule. Two other things shocked me about “The Balconettes”, the first being that Merlant had made what has been described as a horror or slasher film, and the second that Celine Sciamma had a hand in writing it alongside Noémie Merlant.

“The Balconettes” opens with a fabulous scene that sees the camera glide around the balconies of an apartment block. In the middle of a heat wave, most of the residents are outside, trying to cool themselves whilst the camera continues moving (in an obvious nod to Alfred Hitchcock's “Rear Window”). Passing many apartments, and floors of the building, the camera eventually settles on a woman who we assume is laying on the floor of her balcony for some respite against the heat. However it soon becomes obvious, through the many bruises on her body, that she has just suffered a beating from her violent husband. While lying there in extreme pain, the man verbally abuses her, telling her to get up and make his dinner. This is the straw that broke the camel's back, as the woman rises with a gardening trowel in her hand, before belting her husband across the back of the head with it in a bloody attack. The man attempts to crawl to safety, but the woman sits on his face, suffocating him until he eventually passes away. Meanwhile life in the neighbourhood goes on, with the same original camera shot continuing, no one noticing the man being murdered near by. The camera sets off again, this time settling on another neighbour, Nicole (one of our three main characters), who is fantasising about the hot new neighbour that has just moved in, masturbating to her fantasises, just as her roommate Ruby walks out on the balcony and almost catches her in the act. The brilliance of this opening scene (besides its bravura camerawork) is that it sets the tone of the film perfectly; you know that it is going to be fun, funny, full of colour, bloody when it needs to be, and very sexually frank. Merlant is able to set this all up in just one scene and a couple of minutes. Right from the outset, she proved to be a much better director than I was expecting, particularly when it came to her visual expressionism.

First off, let me get this out of the way, “The Balconettes” is NOT a horror film and it is nothing like a slasher film. I would describe it as a black comedy, with horror elements, and I suppose from a tonal point of view, I think it is similar to John Landis's “An American Werewolf in London”, although that film definitely skews more towards horror than “The Balconettes” despite all the blood and gore within it. The film has been made by women, for women, and it is essentially a call of “enough is enough!!!” (like the woman killing her husband in the opening scene). Merlant is out to illuminate just the kind of things women are exposed to and the social standards they are expected to adhere to, and then crush these expectations to show that these women are human like their male counterparts, and not just sexual objects for men to objectify. In the film her characters fart, have hairy armpits, masturbate, have their own sexual fantasises (instead of being the subject of someone else's), and they enjoy sex just as much as men. Ruby is even a cam-girl who enjoys her work both for herself, and her customers. These are not the mothers, librarians, teachers or girlfriends of other films.

Eventually Nicole and Ruby are joined by their friend Elise (played by Merlant herself), an actress who has just finished shooting a television movie about Marilyn, and the three of them end up partying with the new, hot neighbour over the courtyard. After drugs and alcohol are consumed, wild dancing has taken place, a camera is brought out. Nicole and Elise head home, leaving Ruby with the guy as she wants to be photographed. We cut to the following morning with Ruby in tears, topless, covered in blood, and find out that during an attempted rape, she killed their neighbour. The girls decide to band together to clean up the apartment and dispose of the body, so Ruby is in the clear from the authorities. However, during the clean-up, Nicole starts seeing the ghost of the man just murdered.

“The Balconettes” is such an enjoyable film although it is tonally inconsistent. It is filled with brilliant ideas, that I loved for their inclusion but some of the execution of these ideas could've been done better. The chemistry between the three friends is what makes “The Balconettes” so entertaining, and Sandra Codreanu, Souheila Yacoub and Merlant are excellent together. One of the key messages made in “The Balconettes” is about consent and Merlant makes the point so well by using Ruby as the poor rape victim. Ruby is the pro-sex member of the group; she loves sex, is totally fine with nudity, and doesn't leave much to the imagination in the clothes she wears. However, that still does not give any man the right to touch her or force himself on her if she has no interest in having sex with that person. I am sure in the real world if this went to court, his defence would be “did you see what she was wearing? She wants it” or “c'mon, she is a cam-girl, its what she does for a living”, but that should have no bearing. If she says “NO!” that is the only thing that matters.

As I said at the start of this review, “The Balconettes” is both extremely bloody, and sexually frank. What is funny is that most of the violence is played for laughs, like when they are cleaning up the apartment, which has blood everywhere and they realise that Ruby has cut the man's penis off too. Very amusingly Nicole finds it and takes it home with her to use later, until she realises how stupid she is being and returns to sew it back on him. The film is also filled with nudity, a lot of it supplied by director Noémie Merlant, yet none of it is titillating in nature. It is either used to enhance just what women have to go through in their lives, or like at the end, when it is used more like a “We are woman! Hear us roar!” type anthem, with women walking the streets topless (but not all of them, as again it is about a woman's own choice) and in unison and solidarity. Probably the most confronting scene, from a nudity perspective, is when Elise has a gynaecological exam, and she strips naked and casually spreads her legs wide right in front of the camera, hiding nothing. It is a way of saying that this is something we women go through every day, it is normal, but to see the film's director perform such a scene is so brave.

I mentioned earlier the bravura camerawork at the start of “The Balconettes”, but all of the cinematography by Evgenia Alexandrova is outstanding, giving the film a bright, bubble-gum look to it. However it is the camerawork that is the most special, as it glides through scenes, performing the most incredibly difficult and complex choreography, that it reminded me of the way the camera moves in the films of Gaspar Noe. The only time I didn't like the camerawork and cinematography was during the party scene with the neighbour, as Merlant then resorts to handheld favouring that shaky-cam look that I hate so much.

The one aspect of “The Balconettes” that I felt didn't really work was the inclusion of all the male ghosts, who had been killed by women (who they themselves were victims of either physical or sexual abuse). I understood the point of them (the fact that these men still refuse to acknowledge that they did anything wrong, and think that they are actually the victims), but I still don't think it works and it affects the film's tone too. The only other issue I had with the film was I felt that some of the scene transitions and editing made the film a little more confusing than it should have been.

Overall, I had a great time with Noémie Merlant's “The Balconettes”. While it is definitely not a horror film, it is a fun and bloody black comedy, that sees the women of the world standing up, together as one and saying enough is enough. It has been wonderfully directed by Merlant, and the camerawork is to die for. The film is not perfect, and some of the elements are a little clunky, but mostly it is just a hell of a lot of fun.

3 Stars.

 

THE MOOGAI - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “Ensconced in a comfortable life with her husband Fergus and young daughter Chloe, successful city lawyer Sarah is initially sceptical of her Indigenous birth mother’s cultural practices and shuns her heritage. After a difficult delivery with her second kid, however, Sarah is swamped with terrifying hallucinations and eerie visions of a storied child-stealing creature lurking in the shadows.”

Back in 2020, director Jon Bell presented his short film “The Moogai” at MIFF where the response was bigger and better than he could have hoped for as the film took out the Best Australian Short Film Award at the festival. This award gave Bell's film exposure, which led to it receiving the Grand Jury Award one year later, this time at the SXSW Film Festival. Four years on from the short's premiere and Bell has returned to the scene of his original triumph, with his new feature length expansion of “The Moogai”, a horror film steeped in symbolism about the horrors of the Stolen Generation which took place in Australia between 1910-70.

Being a brand new Australian horror film, especially one about such an important part of our country's history (despite how shameful it is), I really, really wanted to love “The Moogai” but unfortunately I found it to be very middling. That is not to say that there was nothing good about the film, there certainly is, but it could have been so much better. Unfortunately I have not seen the original short film so I am unable to compare the two or talk about where the story has been expanded upon, but I felt that “The Moogai” was really at its best when it was working as an allegory or allusion to the Stolen Generation; this was when the film was at its most chilling and powerful. However, as a horror film that is also intended to be scary while having something to say, unfortunately this is where “The Moogai” really struggles to separate itself from an already overcrowded genre to announce itself as something special. Rather it comes across as bland and very generic.

The biggest problem of “The Moogai” (for me, at least) is the character of Sarah, who is just insufferable right from the opening second of the film. She is an exhausting character to be around, with her constant whinging and negative outlook on everything. I understand that she is going through a hard time after the premature birth of her second child, and she is exhausted, but even before the birth Sarah had this self-obsessed world view that rubbed me the wrong way. I also wasn't convinced by Shari Sebbens's performance in the role either; it was far too broad and over the top for my liking. Sebben's actually reprises her role from the short, as does Meyne Wyatt who plays her husband Fergus. Wyatt is much more believable in his role as both worried father and worried husband, however his character sadly disappears in the final act of “The Moogai” leaving the women of the story to fight against the monster terrorising them all.

Another issue I had with the film was that a lot of the story beats just didn't work, as in Bell would set up scenarios and then do nothing with them, or else when he finally would follow through on something, it would be completely undone in the very next scene, destroying all the tension of the film. The worst example of this is when the Moogai finally steals the baby from Sarah and takes it back to its cave. The very next scene, Sarah's birth mother Ruth says to not panic and that she knows where the Moogai has taken the baby. The two of them then enter the cave and find the baby unguarded lying on the ground, where Ruth says “don't worry, the Moogai is sleeping” and they pick him up and take him back without a fight. Um,....what? This demonic entity has been trying to get this baby all film, he finally does but then decides to have a nap straight after???? That doesn't cut it for me, I'm sorry; that is very poor writing! It makes no sense! As for the look of the Moogai himself, I wasn't really a fan of that either. For the most part, he keeps to the shadows, and we see very little of him, but for the big finale he steps out of the darkness and we witness that the demon actually has two faces; one on top of his head, so he can look at you when he is crawling on his hands and knees, and then his real face below it. It is a good idea, but the face on top of the head is just so goofy looking that his victims would die from laughter before dying from fear. I think if they got this face looking nastier or scarier, it would be an excellent creature, but I wasn't a fan. The Moogai's long arms are creepy, but is something of a cliché now in horror. I am not blind to the symbolism attached to the design of the creature (being “two faced” with long arms “of the law”; reflections of the government's involvement of the Stolen Generation) and I think the idea is a great one, but the execution itself needed work.

“The Moogai” is a stunningly beautiful film, with Sean Ryan's gorgeous cinematography being the highlight of the film. Particularly the scenes set in the outback, Ryan is able to highlight the natural beauty of the area which to me, when I think about Australia it is this kind of terrain I picture as indicative of our wonderful country. I was less a fan of the look when the film takes place in suburbia, but when the characters go bush, I thought it looked amazing, particularly the brilliant pre-credits sequence that begins the film. Set in 1970, we watch two Aboriginal girls being chased by authorities in an attempt to separate them from their mother. It is a scene both chilling, and beautiful, and it is also the best scene in “The Moogai” which is kind of a problem if your film reaches its peak in its opening five minutes.

For me, “The Moogai” only works well in reference to the Stolen Generation, and what those poor women went through having their children forcibly removed from them. Director Jon Bell isn't subtle with his metaphors, but that doesn't make them any less powerful or chilling. In fact the scene that I thought was the most horrific and scary of the entire film is the one when Sarah suddenly wakes up to realise her daughter is no longer with her, and she bolts out of the house, running aimlessly through the bush land screaming and searching for her daughter. To me, this moment was absolutely chilling because you know that this exact scenario played out in reality to hundreds of Aboriginal mothers. The girl turns out to be fine, and sleep walking in the bush, but it was the one moment in the film that really had my heart racing. The other thing that I found tragic was just how hard it would have been for these birth mothers trying to re-enter the lives of their children after they had been stolen from them and brought up by white parents. As we see in “The Moogai”, Sarah wants little to do with Ruth, and does not consider her as her mother, staying close with the white parents who brought her up. You can imagine how painful this would have been in reality of these poor Aboriginal women essentially being pushed away by their children over something they had no control over.

Overall, I really wanted to love Jon Bell's “The Moogai” but outside of its metaphors and allegories to the Stolen Generation which were potent, I thought it was a poorly acted and written film, that was as generic as it comes in terms of being a horror film. While Sean Ryan's gorgeous outback cinematography was a highlight, sadly besides that there isn't a whole lot to recommend about “The Moogai”, which ended up being quite the disappointment simply for being so generic and dull.

2.5 Stars.

 

 

MISERICORDIA - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “When his friend and former employer Jean-Pierre dies, Jérémie returns to the small town of Saint-Martial to attend the funeral, taking up lodging at the house of Martine, Jean-Pierre’s widow. Martine suggests that he take over Jean-Pierre’s bakery, much to the chagrin of the couple’s son, Vincent. The latter takes aim at the intruder for outstaying his welcome (and apparently trying to woo his mother) as nervy suspicions boil over during a long walk in the forest. Add into the mix a mushroom-foraging priest with his own agenda and a wayward loner who loves pastis, and it’s not long before an intoxicating concoction of guilt, sexuality and comedy brews over.”

This is only the second film I have seen from director Alain Guiraudie (the other was “Stranger by the Lake”) and one thing that is readily apparent is that the man knows how to put together a movie. He is a superb director with his handling of character, tone, atmosphere and pacing all very much sublime. Before seeing “Misericordia” I began to play the film's trailer that was included on the MIFF website and it only took me a couple of seconds to know that it looked amazing and that I wanted to see it, so I immediately stopped the trailer from there so I could go in as cold as possible.

So much of “Misericordia” has to do with the history of its characters well before we know them, with a large chunk of this history never explained to us. It is obvious that Jérémie grew up in this small country town and was friends with Vincent and his mother Martine. However you sense that something happened between them all before Jérémie left for the city because the tension between them all when they reconnect after Jean-Pierre's funeral is simmering below their (what appear to be) simple interactions. Then there is Vincent's friend Walter, who Jérémie knew growing up but didn't really hang out with, and just how close was Jérémie to Jean-Pierre when he worked for him at his bakery? All this history is never really explained, but you feel uneasy because of it right from the start and while they appreciate Jérémie returning for Jean-Pierre's funeral, he is not really wanted there and they hope for him to soon leave. The interactions between Vincent and Jérémie are interesting because at times it feels like they want to reconnect by having fun wrestling and the like, but this wrestling also feels dangerous like it could turn serious at any moment. Despite his tiny frame, against Vincent's hulking figure, we work out just how manipulative Jérémie actually is, and how antagonistic he can be as he essentially stays on after the funeral because he knows it upsets Vincent, nothing more. His torturing of his friend continues when he strikes up a friendship with Walter, and when Martine, Vincent's mother, gives Jérémie Vincent's childhood bedroom to sleep in as he casually manipulates the people around him to extend his stay. All of this just drives Vincent insane (as he also believes that Jérémie wants to sleep with his mother), who you feel is a ticking time bomb, and Jérémie is doing whatever he can to set it off. Why though, he himself does not even know.

For those who want to go into “Misericordia” as spoiler-free as possible, stop reading this review now, because I am going to be talking about some of the film's surprises.

Eventually, everything comes to a head when Vincent collects Jérémie in his car, drives out into the forest to have a punch on with him before making him leave for the city, never to return. However it is Vincent who is never to return when Jérémie violently and quickly kills him by bashing his head in with a giant and sharp rock. It is such a violent moment, but happens so quickly, making it all the more brutal. From here on out “Misericordia” becomes like a rural version of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” as he buries the body and goes about worming his way further into Vincent's family and friends lives, all while acting shocked when they report Vincent missing after his car is found abandoned at a train station. I absolutely loved everything about this film during these scenes, as Jérémie finds himself caught deeper and deeper in a web of lies he has created himself, and can find no way of getting out of.

Felix Kysyl plays Jérémie, and he is an actor I was not familiar with, but who I thought was excellent in the role. He has a very young, boyish, almost angelic-type face, which is an interesting juxtaposition to the dark things he does in this film. I thought Kysyl was particularly good in the scenes where the walls are closing in on him, the police are getting closer, and the guilt is becoming far too much for him to handle. You can see the fear on his face that he is going to be caught out, and yet you can also see his brain working overtime trying to come up with his next move or an explanation to a question the police may have. The other actor who I thought was very impressive in “Misericordia” was David Ayala who plays Walter. He is a big man, buy Ayala gives him a shyness and an awkwardness to him. It is a quiet, sensitive performance, as Walter really wants to find a friend in Jérémie, even as things are not quite adding up around him. I was less impressed with Catherine Frot's role as Martine, not because she is bad, but most of her interactions feel the same in every scene she is in, and I feel she is a little underused.

Besides Alain Guiraudie exemplary direction, the highlight of “Misericordia” for me was definitely Claire Mathon's cinematography which is to die for. I am a big fan of Mathon's work with director Celine Sciamma, and this is the third time Mathon and Guiraudie have worked together. The way she uses light is so different from her contemporaries and I think that is due to the fact that she likes to use as much natural light as possible, but the light always looks so soft in the films she photographs. The scenes set in the local forest are just stunning with the autumnal colours of reds, browns, yellows and oranges giving her images a painterly look. It is actually very similar to “Petite Maman”, the most recent film she made with Sciamma.

Now on to the negatives of “Misericordia”, and I did have a few misgivings about the film. The first was the way characters always seemed to keep bumping into each other in the strangest places, no matter the time of day or night. It took away from the reality of the situation, as everything seemed to rely on coincidence or happenstance. I know that the priest character states that he was doing everything in his power to meet up with Jérémie, but some of the times they “casually” meet in the thick of night is ridiculous. Speaking of the priest, his character was one that also annoyed the hell out of me. That said, he is also part of what I consider the best scene (or at least the best written scene) of “Misericordia” which takes place in the confession booth, although with Jérémie and the priest swapping their usual places. So much is told, explained and laid out in this scene, but it is done in a natural and believable manner. The priest is also in the funniest moment in the film which I will talk about soon.

As I mentioned, I thought “Misericordia” was a brilliant little rural thriller, clicking on all cylinders, when about two thirds of the way in, director Alain Guiraudie makes the strange choice to abruptly change the tone of his film towards comedy and the absurd, and sadly from this point onward, the film totally lost me. It was still impeccably made, but the sillier it got, the less interested I became in it. All the tension that had been building is lost due to this sudden change in tone, which then heads towards a seriously underwhelming and sudden ending. I must admit that I was a little disheartened that this film that I was loving so much, ended up becoming so bland (from a story point of view) by the end. Almost none of the comedy elements worked for me, but rather they destroyed a perfectly good and tense thriller. However there was one scene involving Jérémie, the priest, two cops, and the priest's erect penis that was absolutely hilarious. It is a quick visual gag, but so so funny.

Overall, I thought that Alain Guiraudie's latest film “Misericordia” was both a superbly directed and shot film that I was loving for two thirds of its running time, before it made a turn towards comedy and the absurd and a very underwhelming finale. Up until then though, I thought it was a fantastic thriller, filled with homo-eroticism, that I likened to a rural version of “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. While it didn't end up as the classic I originally thought it was destined to be, “Misericordia” has been so well made that, despite the fact I disliked the final forty minutes of it, I would still give it a recommendation as something worth seeing.

3 Stars.

 

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE - MIFF 2024

 

As per the MIFF guide: “In a re-imagined Winnipeg that looks a lot like 1980s Iran – just with a few more turkeys and Kleenex factories – two young kids find a banknote, leading them on an odyssey that takes them out of childhood and into the unforgiving world of adults. A disillusioned teacher shows up late to a class, only to insult his students. And a filmmaker arrives back at his family home and discovers that another man has taken his place.

I went into Matthew Rankin's “Universal Language” thinking it was something completely different than what it was, and as such my initial reaction to it was poor. I actually thought that the film was meant to be a parody or spoof of Iranian films from the 1980s and 90's, and as such didn't think it worked at all because it just wasn't funny enough. It wasn't until I was already about half an hour in that I realised and thought “hang on, this isn't a parody but rather a loving tribute to these brilliant Iranian films from the past”, and once I got onboard with what the film really was, I ended up falling in love with “Universal Language”. That said, the film is still very much a comedy and does have fun with the tropes of these Iranian films, but it is so much more heartfelt and real too, which is something a flat out parody could never be.

The central conceit of the film is that Canada (specifically Winnipeg) is still a dual language nationality, but instead of English and French like in the real world, English has been replaced with Farsi. Almost the entire film is spoken in Farsi, with some French thrown in every now and then, but not a word of English is spoken. Right from the opening titles, “Universal Language” feels exactly like an Iranian film with the credits themselves (both opening and closing) being fully in Farsi and subtitled in English. The print quality during these opening credits are damaged (obviously added in post-production) and rough but look like the genuine article. The opening scene plays outside the window of a classroom, before the school teacher arrives at class running late. The camera stays outside the room in the same static shot, and immediately Matthew Rankin gets the tone and look of the film absolutely perfect, despite the freezing climate being very different to that of Tehran. This opening scene is long, but very funny with the teacher chastising the children for mucking around in his classroom while he was late. He then asks one of the boys to read something off the blackboard, who cannot because he has lost his glasses (he says a turkey run off with them). Furious, the teacher suspends all of the students and tells them none of them can return until the boy has found his glasses or got a new pair. This begins the film in earnest as the kids leave the school and start their journey.

From this point on, we meet a large number of colourful characters, adults and children, who appear to have no connection with one another. We start with a pair of siblings, Nazgol and Negin, who, on their walk home, find a banknote frozen in the ice. While attempting to find a way to get it out, they meet an adult man, Massoud, who says he has a friend who has an axe that could get the note out, so if the girls go to his friend, he will keep an eye on the frozen money. They do not trust the man, and assume he will steal the money for himself, but they have no other way of getting it out so begrudgingly go. We follow the girls for a while, before we are suddenly thrust into the life of Matthew (played by the director himself), who is returning to Winnipeg, after being absent for a long time, to visit his mother. It is a bit of a shock when the story changes so abruptly but as it goes along and we meet more characters, just like a Robert Altman film, these characters and places all start to merge into one big story, that is funny, heartfelt, touching, and even a little bit heartbreaking. While it is a bit convenient that all of these characters happen to cross each other's paths over the course of the film, I was impressed how it didn't feel overly planned and mapped out. Like the Iranian films that it is honouring, “Universal Language” has a simple story, but is full of genuine emotion, particularly at the film's end.

Director Matthew Rankin and co-screenwriter Ila Firouzabadi both attended my screening of “Universal Language”, (doing a Q&A after the film), and they explained that they didn't want the film to be too Iranian nor too obviously from Winnipeg, more of a combination of the two. I mentioned earlier how strangely familiar the film looks and feels despite the completely different weather conditions of Winnipeg. The flat buildings on display are similar to the ones you see in Tehran, but the use of long static takes also help in giving the film the look of those Iranian films. One aspect I loved was all the signage around town now being changed into Farsi, as well as the advertisements both in print or on television, or the designs of famous shops like the Tim Horton's coffee shop having its logo now designed in Farsi. It is brilliantly done, and speaking of the coffee shop, it is very amusing that everyone in there is drinking tea (in those little glasses), sitting around and conversing with friends, like they do in Iran. All the little details just feel spot on, that you can tell this has been made by someone who respects the films and culture that he is honouring. During the Q&A Rankin mentions that he actually lived in Iran, due to his love of their films, in an attempt to study cinema there. He is also fluent in Farsi (and English and French too) himself.

Another thing Rankin mentioned was a lot of the film was autobiographical with the story of the banknote being one that his grandmother used to tell, and happened to her when she was young. Apparently her story goes pretty much the same way as it does in the film, which is surprising because it is also very similar to Iranian director Jafar Panahi's debut feature “The White Balloon”. Other autobiographical elements include the Iranian tour guide showing off the questionable “landmarks” of Winnipeg which was based on his dad, and an eccentric old woman who used to walk around with Christmas ornaments on her clothes, which has morphed into a woman dressed as a Christmas tree in the film.

Again, like those Iranian films of the 80's and 90's, Rankin used non-professional actors with the majority of them being his friends. Apparently the only professional actor he used, was the guy who plays the teacher (who is hilarious in his meanness to his students), but the rest were all friends or people they knew from the community. Everyone is so great though, but I have to say that the guy who plays Massoud looks and sounds so much like Borat. My favourite bit of trivia from the Q&A though was when it was mentioned that the title for the film in Farsi is completely different to that of its English title “Universal Language”. Instead the Farsi title translates to “The Song of the Turkey”, which is hilarious, but has to do with one of the side characters, who is a butcher and who lovingly looks after the turkeys he sells. Late during the film, he sings almost a love ballad to these turkeys. Speaking of the turkeys, they are hilarious throughout the film. Seeing a turkey sitting on a seat on the bus (because the butcher paid for a seat for him, so it could be delivered to him in style) is so funny, and when we finally see a turkey with a pair of glasses caught around his legs, you cannot help but laugh because until this moment, you assume the young boy who lost them was lying.

“Universal Language” is a funny movie, but it has the most beautiful, if heartbreaking ending, when Matthew finally meets up with his mother, thanks to Massoud who has been helping her out. Sadly, she does not remember Matthew, and actually confuses him for her snow shoveller (which used to be Massoud), thinking Massoud is her real son. It is so incredibly sad, but Rankin (as director) does an amazing switch with the actors swapping roles on screen from this moment on, so the guy who plays Massoud now plays Matthew, while Rankin himself plays Massoud (as that is how the mother sees them). It is very clever, but you cant help but feel bad for poor Matthew. The visual style of the film also changes towards the end becoming more expressive and surreal. It is really quite beautiful.

Overall, “Universal Language” is a gem of a film. It is funny, charming and genuinely heartfelt. Being a big fan of Iranian films, I really connected with it, but I am not sure if being familiar with those past films is needed to appreciate how great “Universal Language” is. Everything about the film just feels so Iranian, from the sounds of the conversations, the tea drinking, the relationships between people, right down to the film's visual style and especially it's credits. It is a unique film, and I really hope that it finds an audience outside of the festival circuit, because I think “The Song of the Turkey” deserves to be seen by as large an audience as possible.

3.5 Stars.

 

TRANQUILITY IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS - MIFF 2024

 

As per the film's imdb page: “A former army colonel comes from a village to live in the city with [his] daughters where he finds it hard to adapt with the modern life.”

I have just finished writing a review of “Tall Shadows of the Wind” where I stated that of all the films that were part of the “Iranian New Wave: 1962-79” sidebar that played at this year's MIFF, it was my favourite. I was torn between that film and director Nasser Taghvai's “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” but chose the former due to it being a larger scale movie with bigger ambitions, but Taghvai's film is just as great even though it takes place on a much smaller canvas. The other thing that may have swayed me (which is no fault of either film) was while “Tall Shadows of the Wind” was shown via a lovely digital restoration, sadly the print quality of “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” was very poor, and definitely the worst of all the films of this sidebar. I guess it is a testament to the film's quality that I was able to look past the presentation problems and see the quality of the film underneath which at its most basic is what you would call a family drama.

The first thing that I loved about the film was its wonderfully poetic title: “Tranquility in the Presence of Others”. It is so beautiful and lyrical, and yet I am sure that it is used ironically as the tranquility of the title is very rarely seen, with a lot of angst evident in its place. Besides being a family drama, the film can be seen as a generational drama as we see the differences between the two generations, the father's and his daughters, as neither seem to approve of the other's traditions and beliefs. When the film begins and we meet the two girls, they are carefree and frivolous with their time. They enjoy going out and spending time with their boyfriends and they make no attempt to hide it from their maid when these men spend the night over. However as soon as the father arrives (and he shows up in a weirdly agitated state), that all changes as they are forced to hide that they have boyfriends at all, let alone that they may be sexually active, since they are not married and their father would disapprove. Losing this part of their life depresses the girls as they start to feel the oppression their father's arrival brings.

When the girl's father, a former army colonel, arrives to Tehran he brings along with him his new wife, who is much younger than himself. There is no malice between the wife and her husband's two daughters but they are genuinely interested in how she married a man that she does not love and who is so much older than herself. Being from a newer generation, the girls believe in marrying for love, and they do not understand how anyone could be happy in an arranged marriage, which is something the father wants to organise for his own girls. They question the wife and she happily explains that it is what she believes, that a woman is there to help the man out, and hopefully in time she will love him. Until then she has security, and is financially looked after by her husband, while she looks after the household chores. The girls tease the wife about how they would hate to live a life without sex or to have sex with a man they didn't love. She smiles, but does not engage in this type of talk. Her husband, on the other hand, almost immediately seems to struggle with the modernity of Tehran, and with the fast paced life his daughters lead. He also misses the structure, discipline and stature of being an army colonel; he used to be somebody that deserved to be respected, where now people even barely make eye contact with him. This sends the poor man into a deep depression, who even attempts suicide by jumping out of the window before his family grab him just in time.

My favourite scene of “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” is the long party sequence, when the girls organise a party at their house in an attempt to introduce their boyfriends to their father. Many people arrive, and with the drinking and loud modern music, it is all too much for the father who heads to bed barely meeting the men in question. However the father's new wife decides to stay up, enjoying the conversation and energy in the room. From memory, she does not touch any alcohol but does engage in many conversations and even catches the eye of a young man who starts to flirt and wants to dance with her. It sets up a moral dilemma about whether the wife will stay true to her ideals and her husband, or will she follow her sexual desire (which is obvious she has for this stranger). The answer is she stays true to her husband, where on the other side of the coin, one of the daughter's boyfriend's ends up leaving the party with another girl and thus unexpectedly breaking up with the daughter in the process, which sends her into a downward spiral of depression similar to her father's. So while the girls feel high and mighty that marrying for love is the better decision, when push came to shove, one of them was left empty handed, while the wife with her old school values still went home to her husband (but was that what she really wanted?), so which does end up being better?

The thing that impressed me most about “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” was just how modern it felt. It is very sexually frank, with a number of sex scenes (although with no nudity) and the girl's regularly walk around in various states of undress, totally free in their own home. There is no shame in this either, it is just a part of every day life and every day life to them is fast paced, which the film itself mirrors. Unlike a lot of Iranian films which often have a very deliberate pace, Nasser Taghvai's film always feels on the move. The film starts with a burst of energy from the daughters and continues this way until the very surprising and tragic finale. Speaking of the end of this film, I must admit I was shocked by how graphic it was in it's reveal. Whilst absolutely tame compared to today's standards, the fact that it was shown rather than implied startled me a bit. As sad as it is, I thought that the ending was brilliant.

With the quality of the print that we watched being in such bad shape it is hard to make a proper judgement on the visual quality of the film, but I thought that the black and white cinematography was outstanding, and would really love to one day see “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” restored to its original glory, but from all reports, that seems very unlikely. Much like everything else in the film, the cinematography also felt really modern.

Overall, I thought “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” was outstanding and an interesting look at the pros and cons between the beliefs of two generations of the same family. Whilst the film begins with fun and frivolity, it ends with angst, sadness and tragedy which you may not see coming. Sexually frank and thoroughly modern feeling, this is another pre-revolutionary Iranian film that exposes just how different their world was before the events of 1979 took place.

4 Stars.