Shariq’s Département

As the 2009 Cannes Film Festival gets underway, I felt a need to explore and address some of the highly acclaimed films from Cannes last year.

“Three Monkeys”, a dark fable of loss and rupturing that can POSSIBLY be the start of redemption, from Turkey’s famed auteur, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, won the Best Director award at Cannes last year.

The film is gorgeously photographed with searing landscapes of sea, urban decay and modern living.  The color scheme is faded, almost lacking color, as indeed a lack of vitality has seeped out of the lives of our three main protagonists: a chauffer, his apparently stable, beautiful wife, and post-college son who is bored, searching for direction.

The movie begins with a car accident, hauntingly, eerily photographed.  The driver, a rich politician kills a pedestrian on a lonely rural road, flees, and convinces his chauffer (who was not in the car at the time) to take the prison rap for him in exchange for money.

And so starts a medley of change, for this politician is like a lighthouse (depicted symbolically by Ceylan right at the start of the movie), who ends up shining a light on the hidden secrets and desires of the 3 monkeys that comprise an apparently happy family, but instead have been “seeing no evil, hearing no evil”, hiding away reality in the dark, suffused colorlessness of everyday life.

While the chauffer is in prison, his wife ends up having an affair with the politician, and we begin to see the false life she has been trapped in with a man she does not love.  The chauffer himself ends up not being the benevolent person we expected him to be in the beginning of the movie, and the son moves to express a deep rage within himself that had been hidden till the politician-driven chain of events take over.

This film is an important parable for now.  As so many events in the world are forcing changes for many, regarding money, property, relationships, vocational aspirations, this is like the politician, the lighthouse, shining a light on those aspects of your life that are no longer working, that it is now time to change for you to grow internally and blossom into the life that will truly make you happy.

It is your choice whether you embrace change with joy or with fear.  At the end of the movie, the 3 protagonists seem to still be mired in fear.  But the movie ends with a panoramic view of a thunderstorm, delivering rain on the chauffer in a beautifully photographed scene on top on a roof, facing the water.  Perhaps spiritual redemption is around the corner, if only we will open our eyes.

One noteworthy reason to see “Milk” is the amazing, Oscar-winning performance delivered by bad boy Sean Penn.  After you watch his naturalistic, turn as gay activist Harvey Milk, you will wonder, as Robert de Niro suggested, how you ever saw him as macho and a bad boy before.  And this is what transporting method acting is all about.

The other reason to see “Milk” is the veracity and verve with which it delivers it’s core message: fight for what you believe to be true, to be fair, to be within the vibration of integrity.  Even if everyone tells you that you want too much, that things will never be equal or fair in this world, still try to change things, still try to make a difference.  For in the end, even if you ignite a few others to your world view, much can be changed over time.

This is what Harvey Milk achieved in his short tenure as a San Francisco city politician.  Even though he was assassinated, he managed to inspire so many gay men and women around the world that it was ok to stand up for your rights, to demand an equal voice, to be treated like family.  And so, as the movie points out, the gay movement carried on.  And it has grown.  And as the world’s consiousness expands over the next few years, even more barriers will be broken. 

It is ironic that this movie comes out just when Proposition 8 has passed in California.  But remember, things get worse only to get better.  Proposition 8 reminds us how many fearful people still live, even in the enlightened state of California, who believe that their close-minded beliefs are more important than the fair rights of every human being.

Bigotism is on the way out.  This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.  Harvey Milk was ahead of his times, but this movie is perfect for NOW, for this time of change on the planet.

Hanna Schmitz, as played by Kate Winslet in what will probably be the Oscar-winning performance by a leading female actress at the award ceremony on Friday, is a desolate, scarred soul.  She has a secret that will be uncovered during the course of the movie, but from the very first instant we see her, we notice the glaze in her eyes, the intense concentration she puts on small events, the weariness with life that is alleviated by the wonder of hearing others read fantastic tales of literature to her.

As the movie progresses, Hanna is put on trial for Nazi era crimes, and we feel a mix of horror and recoil from this simple-minded person who cannot comprehend the nature of her crimes (seducing an under-age boy, Michael in the first segment of the movie was just a start).

She ends up in prison partly because Michael (played very naturally by the talented David Kross) is apalled at what he learns and chooses not to disclose a vital piece of evidence that could save her.  He walks away.  But his life also falls apart.  He is haunted by his lack of compassion for this woman who was his first love (albeit under false pretenses).  He fails to connect to his wife or his daughter.

The adult Michael (played by the handsome Ralph Fiennes), revives by finding the fountain of compassion within his soul.  He reaches out to help and teach a Hanna who still disgusts him.  And he flowers with this act of kindess.

The ending of the movie (which I will not disclose) complicates things as Michael finds his embarrasment a deterrent for a more complete forgiveness, resulting in disastrous consequences.

But the compassion he shows for Hanna while she is in prison will stay with me for a long time.  For such acts are what brings out the divine within each of us and brings us happiness as we align with our soul.

Amidst the controversy over whether Indian slums are really quite as dire as the movie makes them out to be, “Slumdog Millionaire” shines because of the focused spotlight it puts on those forgotton beggars and indigents on the streets of Asia who are accepted as a part of everyday reality.

And what Danny Boyle is able to achieve in this movie, within the conceit of a “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” gameshow format, is quite remarkable.  The fact that there are still millions of children in this world who are denied schooling, forced to work and open to exploitation is graphically depicted in flashbacks as the slumdog protagonist Jamal (played amiably by Dev Patel) gets his day in the Sun.  The editiing is crisp, MTV-like, with quick jumps and panoramic vistas of slums extending in serpentine ways across Bombay, as a pulsating soundtracks underscores the harsh reality of that we would all like to avoid.

No matter how technologically advanced India is today with its software and global outsourcing industries, no matter how much growth is projected for its future, the world cannot allow such debasement of children and humanity, not only in India but in so many countries of the world in Asia and Africa. 

The movie heralds a clarion call to arms to the world to make the changes necessary.  No human being deserves such a life of misery.

And for this, in addition to being an entertaining movie with a satisfying ending, I would be happy if “Slumdog Millionaire” won the Oscar for best movie of the year.

Going in to see Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon”, I was a little skeptical.  Ron Howard has never been one of my favourite directors.  He has had a historical tendency to simplify stories and sugarcoat them, as he did in “A Beautiful Mind”.  So I wasn’t expecting too much from this new movie, but something was drawing me to see it.

First of all let me say that the movie is absolutely fantastic.  Even if you have no affinity for Nixon at all, the script is marvelous, maintaining constant tension as the two counterpunchers attempt to get the best of each other, and their initial successes go against our preconceptions of them, and away from the way we want history to go.  So when Frost (played by a fantastic Micheal Sheen, who, I am afraid, will miss out on another Oscar nomination) finally corners Nixon, there is a tremendous sense of satisfaction that ripples through the audience. 

Frank Langella as Nixon is riveting to watch (and he will get the Oscar nomination).  And here is why the movie is so important to watch right NOW.  Langella, in his portrayal of Nixon, captures the Cheyney-esque approach to power and politics: I’m a bigwig - I deserve the fancy houses and the private golf club memberships; I’m defending what’s right, and I’ll do what it takes to win.  This is the politics of fear, politics for the few and for the rich. 

This portrayal of Nixon’s admission of his failures is poignant and timely as we shift to the new Obama administration on January 20th.  An administration committed to hope and change where everyone can participate in the American dream, not just for a chosen few who got the golf club membership.  This is an amazingly exciting time, as the world and most humans will change dramatically in 2009.

Set the right tone by watching Nixon wallow and dissolve in this fine movie.  Then open a bottle of champagne and celebrate the future and stay positive through all the hiccups that change always brings about.

“Gran Torino” is a parable for our times.  A bitter old man who believes himself to be alone, who believes that the world is out to get him, slowly finds his beliefs shattered.  The so-called others, the chinks, the foreigners, those who are invading his turf and are responsible for all the ills in his life transform into loving, caring neighbours.  He realizes that we are all one, that outside racial characteristics that are different have no bearing on the heart, where true beauty lies.

We are talking, of course, about Clint Eastwood who brings a fusty, Dirty Harry-turned-protect-the-neighborhood-old-man-vigilante to the movie.  He makes racist comments and is a miserable man.  It is only when he allows himself to make gestures of kindness and generosity that he start to feel happy and at peace with himself.  Clint overacts a bit, but thats ok, since the move is interesting, and the ending is a surprise.

The Asian actors who play the neighbours, and whom Clint ends up protecting from street gangs have a certain non-acterly innocence about them, but the young boy, especially, seems like he is really ACTING in a very high school production sort of way.  Also, the script is very deliberate and obvious with 2 minutes scenes designed to define stereotypes - there is very little room for ambiguity or subtlety here.

As a parable, though, the movie still works, and is worth seeing.  As we go through 2009, more of the illusion of separation among the peoples of the world will dissove.  The more we love those who appear to be different from us, the happier we will be, the more fulfilled we will feel in our journies.

Allow yourself to transform and be happy, as grumpy old Clint does in “Gran Torino”.  And indeed he chooses to let go of his prized Gran Torino car, realizing that material possessions are ephemeral and cannot be the basis of our self-worth. 

Kudos to Clint for making the move.  Without his backing it probably would never have been made.

Marc Forster, that German auteur of indie flicks like “Finding Neverland” and “Monster’s Ball”, takes on the James Bond franchise to create a wonderful new experience.

The action is visceral, violent and frenzied.  I’ve seen a lot of action movies in my time, and I was absolutely riveted by the opening chase sequence through the catacombs of Siena, Italy.  The motion and action is realistic and hard-edged; you can almost hear the bones cracking, the blood flowing.  Bond, as played by the sexy, brooding Daniel Craig is a ruthless, efficient machine, tracking down the enemy with panache, focus and relentless execution.  You feel the body blows.  You feel his desire to capture and bring harmony and justice to the world. 

This movie is a far cry from the pedestrian Bond movies of old.  While Sean Connery was sexy, he was Welsh.  And Pierce Brosnan was Irish.  So, having a blue-eyed Bond who actually speaks in a true British accent is refreshing.

The movie focuses on an international cartel of financiers, politicians and men of power who try to control the world for power, domination and money.  Mathieu Amalric, of “Kings and Queen” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” fame is absolutely convicing as the unpredictable, frenzied frontman for this cartel.  The movie is also spot-on with its plot theme that the rush to oil will become a relic of the past and will be superceded by a rush for increasingly scarce sources of clean, drinkable water.

Tough guy Craig has his tender moments as well, when a close colleague is killed.  And the script cleverly cuts away for the minutes when Bond interrogates and presumably tortures a couple of his targets to extract information.  We don’t want our vision of this hero sullied by such details.

The movie is compact, tightly-paced, visually stunning, filled with exotic locales and peppered with amazing acting with spot-on casting across the Board. 

Enthusiastically recommended!

“Tulpan” the unexpectedly resonant movie about the harsh life and beauty of the Kazakhstan Steppe, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes this year, was one of the final showings at the NY Film Festival.

The hero, Asa, an iconoclastic former sailor who wants to become a herder on the steppe, like his traditional brother-in-law, must find a wife to be considered legitimate.  Part of the movie is his attempt to woo Tulpan, the only woman apparently of age and available in this desolate, sparse landscape.  But really the movie is more about Asa’s colorful personality and attempts to bring joy and beauty to a harsh, conservative mindset.  He is an artist, loves playing with children and seems in another world sometimes.  Yet, he harmonizes with the beauty of nature and the landscape.  And when he delivers a baby lamb on his own, in one of the most amazing animal birth scenes ever captured on film, he communes with Nature in a holistic way that allows him to regain confidence and move forward.

At some level, the movie is about finding your truth, even if others, the more traditional ones, try to undermine you.  Believe in yourself and just move forward.  And you might just discover how magnificent you truly are.

For New Yorkers stuck in a concrete jungle with few outlets for sky, sun and nature, it is a reminder for us take time out of our busy schedules to just be within the landscape, even in a small Park to find that part of us that is connected to the Earth.  And then we find the smile, the beautiful singing voice as children often do; and, in fact, Asa’s nephew and niece in their “tak-a-tak” horseplaying and singing, respectively remind adults to play and find beauty in the simple joys of life.

The film is still looking for a US distributor, but it has been submitted for the Foreign Film category at the Oscars.  So, if it gains traction, you might be able to find it in a cinema.  And, of course, it will find its way to DVD eventually.

Lucretia Martel, the talented Argentinian director who took “The Headless Woman” to Cannes in 2008, presenting a film for the second time in competition, is very much focused on mood, tonal changes and internal dissonances set within familial and societal class mileus.

The middle-aged woman at the center of this movie, recently screened at the New York Film Festival, seems unsteady.  She is kind, a wife, mother and dentist.  Yet she has an unfocused gaze and dyes her hair blonde, but she does not really seem to care about it.  Then she hits and kills a peasant boy on the road while reaching for a cell phone, driving away in a panic.  Now, she begins to unravel.  The actress, Maria Onetto, beautifully conveys this sense of internal dread, embarrassment, sadness and isolation within a crowded domestic and social environment.  The distant gaze in her eyes is expanded, and we feel that she has been already beheaded, a summary execution that in a way was expected.

She becomes a metaphor for the dissolving of societal institutions, such as large-scale banking, that no longer work.  The crash has already occurred, and now the sense of dread is there because things can never be the same.

That the movie might end more positively doesn’t undo this sense that class divisions, the basis for Onetto’s belief that she can get away with this crime, are inherently unjust and fragile.  Although Onetto might continue with her family life and change the color of her hair, she, like the rest of her family is shot out of focus in the last five minutes of the movie.  Her status of privilege is slowly dissolving.  It’s only a matter of time.  And so it is as we move into the New World extolled by Echarte Tolle.  Just as she is continually seeking water, showers and baths to nourish her, we are about to move on from ‘The Waste Land’ described by T.S. Eliot to a nourishing rain which dissolves that which must now be transformed.

Chabrol, that French master of sinister characters and situations has created a nasty, insidious movie in “La fille coupee en deux” now playing at the IFC, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.

At the center of the film is our heroine, Gabrielle, an ambitious TV weather woman (reference to Kidman’s “To Die For”?), played by the beautiful Ludivine Sagnier (who was also in “Les Chansons D’Amour”).  But, unlike Kidman, Gabrielle is one of those characters who you want to just shrug out of their stupor.  She is courted by two men, one a famous older man, the other a slightly unhinged millionaire playboy, both of whom are obviously not right for her, yet she makes incessant bad decisions, allowing herself to be used again and again.

This is where the insidious nature of the movie comes in.  It is full of unlikeable characters who use one another.  The playboy, Paul, played by Benoit Magimel (remember him in “The Piano Teacher”) is the more obvious nutcase, with hints of violence from day 1.  But what is unnerving about the movie, is that the learned, elder writer, played by Francois Berleand ends up being even more of a user and abuser, when, near the end of the movie it is revealed what he makes Gabrielle do on her birthday before dumping her later that night by simply changing his locks.

At some level, the movie, aside from being a satire of French social classes and the literary scene, is a commentary on feminine assertion in the context of sexual objectification by men.  Gabrielle knows that men want to sleep with her and she wants to use this to her advantage.  But she allows her feelings to creep in and always wants to please and give up her own needs for the other.  Hence, she opens herself up to being exploited.  There is a lesson here of being on your guard always and putting your own needs first, not those of others. 

I am reminded of another classic movie about female sexual subjugation between two men: “The Piano” starring Holly Hunter, set in Victorian era New Zealand.  Here, a mute woman, totally defenseless, given her position in a foreign, frontier society asserts her needs from the beginning of the movie, both sexually and in terms of her music.  Her will and belief in herself allows her to weather all kinds of challenges.  Gabrielle would do well to look her up and learn from her approach to life.