Nightwatching
Peter Greenaway, Netherlands
Greenaway is one of the most distinctive and divisive filmmakers of the past few decades. His visual mastery cannot be denied even by his biggest detractors, but as far as narratives go.... His latest is one of his most visually lush and theatrical, which considering his filmography (
Prospero's Books, The Pillow Book, The Draughtsman's Contract, A Zed & Two Noughts) is really saying something. In
Nightwatching Greenaway returns to the subject of Art, this time the Dutch master Rembrandt and the creation of perhaps his most famous and widely interpreted painting,
The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, more commonly known as
The Night Watch. Rembrandt, played by Martin Freeman (the original
"The Office",
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), was commissioned to paint the Captain and nearly twenty other members of the citizen's militia guard of Amsterdam in the 1640s, to be hung in their hall, a sort of deluxe private club. It was to accompany paintings of other previous incarnations of the guardsmen done by other artists. These were all of the same type, essentially glamorous portraits of the men in their best uniforms. Even though he was paid a large sum for the work, as Greenaway's film tells it once Rembrandt met and spent time with these men he became incensed by their immoral behaviors and painted an unusual piece that, in the film's interpretation, most definitely does
not portray the company as anything approaching heroic.
Any piece of art is open for interpretation, and great art even more so. With a painter like Rembrandt and a piece as dense and layered as
Night Watch, wow. The theories presented in the movie are fascinating and as valid as any, including one surprise "twist" left for the end for anybody not overly familiar with the work. The very ideas and of course the visuals, which perfectly recreate Rembrandt's palate and lighting, are magnificent. Freeman is surprisingly perfect in the lead, and the script has him speak directly to the camera like Albert Finney in
Tom Jones (1963) throughout. The narrative does get a bit bogged down in the complicated web of offenses and scoundrels within the guard and elsewhere and the last half before the glorious revelation of the painting become repetitive. But overall it is a bold and exciting response to the kind of light, mainstream paintingography as exhibited in
The Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003) and the other such novels written by Tracy Chevalier. Like him or lump him, Greenaway
is one of the most consistently interesting filmmakers around.
Nightwatching will start debate among art lovers and likely delight his fans, possibly even winning him a few new converts as well.
GRADE: B
Karamazovs - Karamazovi
Petr Zelenka, Czech Republic
A theatre troupe from Prague travels to Poland to present Evald Schorm's play based on Dostoyevsky's novel
The Brothers Karamozov at a special art festival. The festival is being put on at a functioning steelworks. As they arrive by bus for a rehearsal at the factory, they intermingle with the workers still on the site. Much like Louis Malle's
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), the actors have conversations in and out of character, often in the same scene, and one of the key audience members is an older steelworker whose son has been recently injured on the job and is fighting for his life at the hospital. The staging of the play, which is an inventive take on Dostoyevsky's themes of faith, doubt, murder, reason, God and the Devil wrapped in patricide, is fascinating in and of itself, so much so that I would love to see a "straight" adaptation of the play with these same actors. But the addition of the other textual layers moving between the novel, the play, the movie and "reality", whatever in the Hell that is, is quite well done. The Byzantine structure lends itself perfectly to the project, which I suppose may be maddeningly confusing for some and a pleasure to decipher for others.
GRADE: B
The Necessities of Life - Ce Qu'il Faut Pour Vivre
Benoît Pilon, Canada
Set in 1950s Canada, Tiivii (Natar Ungalaaq) lives off the land in the northeastern most territories with his wife and two young daughters just as his ancestors have done for generations, if not centuries. But after a government-mandated medical checkup reveals he has tuberculosis he is forced to leave his family and eventually is placed in a sanitarium in Quebec City. There he is stripped of his clothes and given a shave and haircut, but he speaks no French and certainly nobody on the staff or any of the other patients understand his native tongue. It is beyond alienating, both the culture shock but also the worrying about his family a seeming world away. When he understands enough of the diagnosis that it may take as long as two years to cure him, he makes an unsuccessful escape attempt, then starts slipping quickly toward despair. But a thoughtful young nurse on the ward (Éveline Gélinas) finally has the bright idea to bring in somebody else Tiivii can talk to in Inukitut. It's a young Eskimo orphan named Kaki (Paul-André Brasseur), also suffering from TB, who she has moved into their sanitarium.
It's a fairly straightforward but pleasant little drama, and Ungalaaq has a winning screen presence. The scenes on the tundra are magnificent, and even with the movie-of-the-week melodrama plotting the two Native characters seem plenty authentic.
GRADE: B-
Under the Bombs - تحت القصف
Philippe Aractingi, Lebanon
Powerful mix of fictional narrative and documentary footage set in Lebanon and filmed around the aftermath of the Isreal & Hezbollah warfare in the summer of 2006. The film opens with actual footage of the bombs and missiles landing all around Lebanon and then we meet Zeina (Nada Abou Farhat), a woman who steps onto the docks that so many are trying to flee from. She has made her way from Dubai via Turkey, though she was born and raised in the southern part of Lebanon, near Tyre, which isn't far from the Israeli border and has suffered greatly during this most recent of the never-ending wars. She has to make her way down there now since over a week ago she lost contact with her sister, who has been keeping her only son for her. The only cab driver willing to take her is Tony (Georges Khabbaz), a young man willing to make the risky journey for enough money. Along the way they witness firsthand the destruction and sadness left in the wake of the bombs.
Director Philippe Aractingi took his cast and small crew into the actual countryside in the days during the U.N.-sanctioned ceasefire after nearly a month of explosions, so the reality of the warfare isn't at all faked. The two main characters and the people they are searching for are fictional constructs, but the rubble and wails of pain and loss are most definitely the real thing. This doesn't come off as exploitative in the least bit, instead a worthy use of such unnecessary devastation, to reflect the tragedy back upon itself as cinema. Nada Abou Farhat and Georges Khabbaz are both particularly good, but it is the inherent power of the ruins captured for the drama that elevates the nightmare road odyssey of
Under the Bombs.
GRADE: B-
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