By May be found at the following website: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:External_editors, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28862731 Incendies - (2010)
Incendies packs a lot into it's 130 minutes of drama and pain - a whole lifetime full in fact. On the death of their eccentric and troubled mother, a brother and sister are instructed to find the father they thought was dead, and a brother they never knew they had - to deliver a letter to them both. To find them, they have to backtrack and learn about what their mother went through in the Middle East. She'd disgraced her family by bearing a child out of wedlock, went to study after having it sent to an orphanage and then became involved in a war between Christians and Muslims. Her transformation from student to warrior is brutal and shocking, and what happens to her after that is even more brutal, and even more shocking. Learning the whole story is transformative for the brother and sister - and they learn things about themselves and their mother that she hopes will end in love and forgiveness. Denis Villeneuve never dwells for too long on one aspect of the story - which moves along at a steady pace with one pounding revelation after the other. With strong musical accompaniment, bright and harsh visuals and intimate flash-backs it tells a story you want to go back to and hear again. I feel aggrieved that this lost to
In a Better World when it came to the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, which I thought was average (but need to see again.)
9/10
Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 59/100
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7606783 Knife in the Water - (1962)
Something very different here. Modern movie-making and thrillers made me expect rape, torture and death in a film called
Knife in the Water, Roman Polanski's first full-length feature film. What it is though, is a more subtle interplay between three characters - a husband, wife and interloper. The interloper doesn't forcefully intrude on this duo's 24-hour sailing trip, he's almost forcefully brought along by the domineering husband who picks him up hitchhiking out of spite, to prove a point. There begins a game of machismo and wits, with both men trying to outdo the other, whether it be with words, actions, knowledge or physical prowess. Awfully difficult to shoot, if you look behind the scenes - but this seems to be the kind of film the Dogme 95 group of filmmakers were trying to reestablish. There's no cheap shocks or trickery to try and engender reactions from an audience - just a sense of foreboding these two men foster in their attempts to prove themselves superior, which this films examines uncomfortably closely.
8/10
Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 60/100
I also watched a whole progression of Roman Polanski's early short films :
Murder : Barely a minute long. A man enters a room, stabs some poor guy to death, and then leaves - thereby establishing the dead-on accuracy of it's title. 1/10
Teeth Smile : Creepy, creepy short about a peeping-tom looking in at an undressed lady, leering with a horrible toothy grin. He flees when interrupted, and when he goes for a second look it's the woman's husband that's there, leering in a similar manner. 5/10
Break Up the Dance : The most interesting thing about this short are the pictures of Stalin everywhere at this student dance, reminding one of the era in Poland this was made. Aside from that there's a silent-era type brawl that breaks out. There's a strong sense of this silent era in a lot of Polanski's early shorts. 2/10
Two Men and a Wardrobe : Two men carrying a wardrobe come out of the sea, like primordial creatures and venture around, trying to carry out their day-to-day life carrying this thing everywhere with them. Polanski himself has a short role as a thug who beats one of the guys up. This short has an
unbearable segment where a bunch of guys stone a kitten to death. WHY?
WHY???? No way/10
The Lamp : A dollmakers business, with unsettling creations abounding, catches fire and the dolls seem to burn in anguish as people outside pass by without noticing. This one was quite good - the imagery very catching and enthralling. 7/10
When Angels Fall : I think this was Polanski's thesis production, and it plays out like a large-budget epic of a short. An old, haggard woman holds down a job as lavatory attendant - but things she sees takes her back in time (with lavish colour) to her youth, and romance with soldiers from invading armies, heartbreak, having a child and that child growing up, disowning her and dying during the First World War. This prompts her to break down crying, and a visit from an angel. The scale of this, compared to the other shorts, is off the charts. It's like the
Ben-Hur and
Gone With the Wind of Polish short films. 7/10
The Fat and the Lean : A silly short with an older aristocrat and his poor, disheveled servant (played by Polanski) who keeps trying to please him, attempting to run away, being pacified and repeating that cycle again and again. Very much like an old silent short, played at the same frame-rate they were played back then. 3/10
Mammals : Another Keaton/Chaplin/Arbuckle-type comedic short with two men - one pulls the sled and the other rests. They keep feigning injury and sickness to get the other one to pull, swapping places again and again until they lose their sled - whereupon they start carrying each other on their back. 2/10
All of those shorts were put together from around 1957 to 1962, the year Polanski made
Knife in the Water