Emilie Muller - Yvon Marciano (in italiano)

The Ugly Swans (Gadkie lebedi) - Konstantin Lopushansky

Konstantin Lopushansky ha fatto pochi film, e tutti da vedere.
non sono facili, ambientati in situazioni estreme, con qualche disastro o apocalisse in corso,
magari non è  semplicissimo entrare, ma se riesci poi sei catturato dalla storia, non sono mai storie banali.
a me è piaciuto molto, anche se non è il suo migliore, ma anche questo merita molto - Ismaele

QUI il film completo, con sottotitoli in inglese

… Qualcosa di simile vale per i "Gadkie lebedi" (i "brutti cigni") del film omonimo, ragazzini dotati di un'intelligenza superiore, iniziatori di una nuova razza probabilmente destinata a soppiantare la nostra, ma la cui consapevolezza superiore li porta soltanto alla coscienza del Nulla di cui è fatto l'uomo ("...Qui, nel punto della maggiore indefinibilità, della non garanzia e della non confermazione dell'esistenza umana per la prima volta appare la nota chiarezza, s'illumina la notte del mondo. Il senso terribilmente reale della nostra esistenza non nel mondo, ma da qualche parte tra i mondi, non è nella delimitata realtà, ma è nello spostamento e formazione, non è nell'assestamento casalingo, ma è nell'insensato pellegrinaggio...è stato possibile solo rovesciare il velo di Maya e osservare tutto dalla parte opposta, non da quella parte che ti culla e ti dona un senso di calma, ma dalla parte del Niente, che rivela la nostra presenza vitale come un avanzamento del Niente."), tematica affascinante ma che purtroppo non viene sviluppata del tutto lasciando il film un po' irrisolto.

Lopushanskij è forse l'erede più originale di Tarkovskij (almeno fra i pochi pervenuti), non il più grande (un Sokurov gli è probabilmente superiore), il suo cinema è imperfetto ma viscerale, le sue immagini veicolano un'angoscia sincera e nascono da un'urgenza espressiva che a tratti diventa quasi esigenza didattica.

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Ugly Swans is based on the Arkady and Boris Strugatsky book of the same name and is set in an unidentified, but near, future. Lopushansky doesn't appear to make happy films and so far all his movies that I have seen are prinicipally about how humanity destroys the world. In Ugly Swans the protagonist is a writer and a UN officer who goes to Tashlinsk to find his estranged daughter and bring her safely back. What he finds when he gets there is a town that looks similar to the world in Letters from a Dead Man: A single colour (red in this instance) dominates the landscapes and the perpetual rain has flooded much of the city - the boat trip to the town through the submerged houses is strikingly haunting. His daughter is in the school for the gifted and has no intentions of leaving when he suddenly reappears in her life. To call it a school for the gifted is a bit of an understatement: the children are almost inhuman and closer to the kids in Village of the Damned. They are taught by a small group known as wetters. These are strange people with skin like stone - are they alien or human's with a strange disease? It is a question often asked but no concrete answer is forthcoming. As the rest of the world fear these 'new' people and the strange anomaly occuring in the town they take the decision to eradicate the problem all together…

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… Nonostante le forti suggestioni fantascientifiche, nonostante i volti inespressivi dei bambini prodigio ricordino inevitabilmente le celebri sequenze di un film comeIl Villaggio Dei Dannati, THE UGLY SWANS risulta un'opera difficilmente catalogabile all'interno di un genere ben preciso.  Alla suspence e al gore (del tutto assente), il regista preferisce la suggestione, veicolata attraverso scenografie di sicuro impatto e un'interpretazione, quella di Gregory Gladiy (Victor Banev), di grande intensità.
Il ritmo posato e le oculate scelte registiche risultano funzionali alla lettura personale di una tematica dalle molteplici sfaccettature, mentre la splendida colonna sonora sottolinea la poesia malinconica di un film che raggiunge il suo momento di maggior commozione in un finale capace di offrire un ultimo , ma cruciale, spunto di riflessione, lasciando un segno indelebile nell'animo dello spettatore.

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…Le film ne propose aucun effet spectaculaire. L'utilisation de filtres: jaune, rouge puis bleu, suit l'évolution de l'histoire. Le rouge, qui domine la partie centrale du film, provient du dôme de protection mis en place par les mutants. Rouge -qui signifie aussi beau dans la langue russe-, comme si malgré la décrépitude de Tashlinsk, la beauté résidait encore dans la pensée…

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Lopushansky firma The Ugly Swans (2006) all’età di 59 anni ritornando ai temi così cari abbandonati nel lontano ’89, data in cui girò Posetitel muzeya al quale l’inizio di questo film sembra strizzare l’occhio: un treno che avanza nella notte buia illuminata improvvisamente da fuochi sparsi nella campagna circostante. L’aggancio non solo con il film appena citato, ma anche con il resto della sua filmografia, è la costante rappresentazione di ambienti che sovrastano l’uomo obbligandolo ad un’esistenza ancora più misera di quanto gli toccherebbe. Più che di post-nuke per questo regista è lecito parlare di post-mankind poiché il suo obiettivo affonda il coltello sui residui di humanitas piuttosto che concentrarsi sugli aspetti fantascientifici…

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In un certo cinema visionario ormai è diventato una costante: ogni volta che l'umanità deve confrontarsi con una civilizzazione aliena agisce sempre allo stesso modo: distruggendola o cercando di sottometterla. La triste storia dell'umanità è strapiena di esempi di questo tipo. Si continuano a sterminare indigeni e diversi in nome di non si sa cosa figurarsi con gli Alieni... Sembra che gli errori commessi non siano serviti a nulla...

Un giornalista alla ricerca della figlia giunge in un villaggio sperduto della Russia dove sono atterrati gli Aquatters, un popolo (se ne vedono solo due: incappucciati e con una maschera) proveniente da un altro pianeta. La zona naturalmente è off limits ed è controllata dai soldati (ma chi controlla chi in realtà…

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Altiplano - Peter Brosens - Jessica Woodworth

Magaly Solier è Saturnina, bravissima attrice di tanti film, come in questo.
la storia è di sfruttamento e colonialismo solito, indios si ammalano e muoiono, bravi medici europei (tra cui Oliver Gourmet) aiutano, ma non scalfiscono i meccanismi di morte.
la fotografia è davvero eccezionale, un film da non perdere - Ismaele

A mercury spill within the village of Choropampa during 2000 from a silver mine in the Andes is carried downslope to those living immediately below, producing blindness and other forms of sickness. In Altiplano the event is portrayed within a fictional Turubamba, Perú, where non-Spanish-speaking indigenous people center their lives around a Catholicism that puts much stress on the Virgin Mary. A clinic run by foreigners provides cataract operations, but none of the ophthalmologists is a general practitioner. When some die, they revolt against the only outsiders they know—the physicians, not the miners. One ophthalmologist is killed by the mob, whereupon the clinic closes, leaving the native people to cope with traditional if ineffective resources, and the mining continues operation as before…

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…Altiplano is both a criticism of the economic and ecological crimes that occurred in Peru in 2000 and a quasi-ethnological investigation into the mystical rituals of the local population. The film also explores the subject of the power of the image ("A photo has never stopped a war" - "I won’t die silently or invisibly"). This host of issues and a highly personal approach make this a fascinating and resolutely unusual work…

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…Brosens and Woodworth use the breathtaking natural scenery of Peru as the stage for their symbolist theater, populated with masked Sun, Moon and Spirit figures that form a colonnade of trumpeters. Garments of the dead are burnt to bitter ashes; the river carries the sorrow. Familiar symbols unite the two distant planes: Grace’s shot of her Iraqui guide at the moment of his death resembles the crucified Christ; the masked Spirits lay the body of Saturnina (Magaly Solier) under the long shadow of a stone cross.

Long shots from moving cameras compose the landscape, revealing each element like successive lines in a poem. Unexpectedly, it is the Belgian segment, away from the bleaching sun of the high altitude, that takes on the look of magical realism; the sets are abstract, time is contiguous. A ruined cathedral is a picnic ground, then a cemetery. When the camera pans past a pillar, the mourners have disappeared, and it is Grace contemplating a journey to the high plains, where Max had breathed his last. This Europe under an overcast sky is for Grace unreality itself, floating between there and now…

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Derrière les qualités esthétiques indéniables de ce film belge, magnifiant les paysages et l'architecture rurale de l'Altiplano (Cordillère des Andes), se cache un film où chaque détail est sur-signifiant, où la symbolique l'emporte sur la moindre logique de narration. D'autant que l'idée du traumatisme initial vouant une photographe à ne plus suivre les conflits dont il est sensé rendre compte, ne sert finalement pas à grand chose. Et le retrait du monde, en un territoire isolé, n'en cache pas moins d'autres horreurs, on l'aura vite compris, cette fois-ci liées à la cupidité de l'homme, exploitant ses semblables…

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Trade - Marco Kreuzpaintner

un film che non è piaciuto quasi niente alla critica, una (la) storia di tratta di ragazze e bambini, e la corsa contro il tempo di che vuole salvare Adriana.
c'è un grande Kevin Kline e una bravissima Alicja Bachleda.
a me è piaciuto molto, ci sono ritmo e colpi di scena, magari troppo facili, ma l'ultimo colpisce molto - Ismaele

A brutal, shattering story of child trafficking that is intended to deliver a sobering punch about the global human trafficking trade, Marco Kreutzpaintner's powerful drama is in fact based on investigative reports in the New York Times. That fact further deepens the impact of the film, a story that is depressingly familiar to thousands, (a million according to the cards at the film's end), around the world.
Kevin Kline creates a melancholy and understated character as the ranger whose personal demons contribute to his determination to help Jorge (Cesar Ramos) find the 13 year old Adriana, beautifully played by Paulina Gaitan. The bad guys are ruthless and credible, the music helps with the shifts in mood, but the overall tone is well measured, lightened occasionally by the banter between Kline's Ray and the young Jorge, as they take to the road across the US, heading for New Jersey, where the auction is held for some of the girls captured in this round.
The journey of the kidnappers and the pursuing duo is managed with intercutting and the sense of danger drives every frame. The online auction, albeit a small part of the story, is well staged, ratcheting up the tension as we near the climax - which takes place in an ordinary suburban house, just like the one next door ...
Quite apart from its role as a warning and an alert to complacency, the film has genuine merit as a gripping entertainment.

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…What is fascinating, in a scary way, are the details of the Internet auction business, how it works and the money made in it. When I watch those TV shows where pedophiles are pounced on by cops, I think "entrapment," but you know what? Some people are asking to be entrapped. How about that Florida federal prosecutor just the other day who flew to Michigan hoping to meet a 5-year-old girl? Your rights to do what you want in your sex life run into a dead end, I believe, when they involve someone else doing what they don't want.

All obvious, although not to some deranged creeps. But what is the purpose of this movie? Does it manipulate its subject matter a little too much in its quest to be "entertaining"? Why should this material be entertaining? Anything that holds our interest can be entertaining, in a way, but the movie seems to have an unwholesome determination to show us the victims being terrified and threatened. When I left the screening, I just didn't feel right.

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…The filmmakers, director Marco Kreuzpaintner and writers Jose Rivera and Peter Landesman, tell the story of Adriana, a girl from Mexico City who has just celebrated her 13th birthday when she is abducted and funneled into a sex trafficking operation. When her older brother Jorge, no more than a teen-ager himself—finds out what has happened to her, he sets off on a mission—one that takes him across the border to the United States—to keep her from disappearing forever into the land of those simply classified as “missing.” 
The frenetic prologue of “Trade” is a dizzying montage of images from Mexico City—(will someone please explain the lines of naked women and the lines of men with their pants pulled down?) It then slows down to a family pace, when we meet Adriana (Paulina Gaitan), Jorge (Cesar Ramos) and their mother. The texture of the first half of the movie remains the same, though, as if the viewer is watching the action in the family’s neighborhood, either up-close or at a distance, with a handheld camera.

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…Trade isn’t perfect, isn’t without problems, but that doesn’t make it any less astonishing. Rivera and Kreuzpaintner have crafted one of the more thought provoking and emotionally charged dramas I’ve had the pleasure to see this year. Simply put, the film is very, very good, and for that fact alone I can’t help people venture out of their comfort zone and take a chance. Lord knows the movie is worth it.

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…The film obviously works well know theme, by now we are all aware that sex trade, in women and children, is alive and growing. We are also aware that the former Eastern Europe, impoverished by new systems, supplies a large portion of the victims, mostly by promising them work abroad.
We would like to forget is that it is not just one bad man, or few men, but large networks of people, sex , nationality and age making no difference, who trade in humans, and that these people are not drug addicts but opportunists living next door and looking for fast money. They are aided and abetted by official indifference, laziness and corruption. 
Veronica is dismissed when she tells to an American guard that she was kidnapped. Jorge is dismissed by a Mexican official when he seeks help in finding his sister. The victims and their families are neither rich, nor powerful, the sex traders are both.
The film points out people's perception of others as inferior beings: for the Mexican rapists Veronica is just a communist whore, for the American patrol the captured Mexicans are just illegals, for Jorge Ray is just a stupid gringo. Our own sense of superiority prevents justice.
It is sadly absurd that the critics tout the film as an: "abduction of 13 years Mexican girl"and pass over Veronica's fate completely. Alicja Bachleda has a strong screen presence and I'd like to see her again. Cesar Ramos and Paulina Gaitan both come across as street smart but young people well aware of the ramifications of their birth circumstances. Kevin Kline is tired man, who often gave up before he had to and came to a conclusion that he does not want to do that again.
Unusually strong music score and sometimes astounding staging.

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Wesele (The Wedding) - Wojciech Smarzowski

un film che ti incatena fino all'ultimo minuto, un matrimonio e una festa con qualche difficoltà, che ingigantendosi diventano valanga.
un meccanismo a orologeria verso lo sfascio totale, senza nessuna pietà.
un gioiellino da non perdere - Ismaele

Una vittoria schiacciante quella diWojciech Smarzowski e del suo film Wesele ("The Wedding") alla cerimonia di premiazione degli Orly, i premi al cinema polacco che sono stati assegnati ieri sera a Varsavia.
Con sei statuette, tra le quali quelle per il miglior film, regia, sceneggiatura e attore (Marian Dziedziel), il regista, classe 1963, si impone come uno dei più promettenti della sua generazione. Prodotto da Grupa Filmowa e coprodotto da Telewizja Polska, Filmi It e Agencja Produkcji Filmowej, Wesele racconta la storia di una disastrosa giornata di nozze. Il padre della sposa tenta di impressionare gli invitati in ogni modo, ma la sua organizzazione fa acqua da tutte le parti.

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…The Wedding is a delightful satire on Polish marriage traditions but much of what it features is so universal that people all over the world will be able to identify with it. The temporary loosening of the rules which applies on such a special day makes it easy for the wedding attendees to find themselves sucked into scandalous and criminal behaviour, and what seem like minor infractions have big consequences.

Everybody there has secrets and as these come to light their carefully structured lives collapse like a row of dominoes. What makes this so fascinating is that the film never seems contrived in the way most farces do. Each of the characters is richly developed and their actions all make sense within their own personal narratives. The ensemble acting is perfectly judged and the script brings disparate stories together to create a tale much bigger than the two hours it fills.

Don't be fooled by the title - The Wedding is not by any means a conventional romance. But if you enjoy observational comedy and character driven stories, this could be for you.

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…Smarzowski's expert control of the picture's tone means that potentially melodramatic, episodic or sitcom-like happenings feel integrated within the organic whole. This is pitch-black satire, with everything crucially cranked a notch into mildly caricatured extremity: a comedy of riotous, debauched, gleeful excess, carefully observing classical dramatic unities of geography and chronology. But The Wedding isn't just a catalogue of calamity and cynicism: Smarzowski smoothly builds up to an unexpectedly romantic and optimistic finale – one so very hard-won that it feels anything but sentimental. Sensitive souls, however, should perhaps steer clear – like that socially-lubricating, tongue-loosening firewater which is gulped down in liver-mushing quantities throughout,The Wedding leaves us intoxicated, a little demented, and giddily eager for more.

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Passion Fish (Amori e amicizie) – John Sayles

uno di quei film che partono piano, poi crescono fino ad affezionarti alle due protagoniste, e non solo.
e poi vorresti sapere come stanno oggi, mica capita con tutti.
John Sayles, per chi ancora non lo conosce, è un regista di serie A, provateci - Ismaele

…At the heart of the movie is the uneasy relationship between May-Alice and Chantelle. May-Alice is used to being willful and spoiled. Chantelle does not find her behavior acceptable. But May-Alice has the money and Chantelle needs the job, for more urgent reasons than we first realize, and so it seems that Chantelle may have to put up with May-Alice's behavior. Yet in a deeper sense, one that only gradually reveals itself to May-Alice, what she needs most of all from Chantelle is the other woman's ability to stand up to her.

There are elements here of a vaguely similar relationship in "Driving Miss Daisy," but Sayles has his own film, direct and original, and in the struggle of wills between these two characters he creates two of the most interesting human portraits of the year.

The struggle at the heart of the movie is lightened by the comic portraits of May-Alice's many visitors (I would have liked to see a whole movie about Uncle Max, and an old friend named Precious deserves a short subject of her own). The romance is handled with a delicate, tentative touch that reflects the character's feelings for one another. "Passion Fish" begins with a scene from May-Alice's soap opera, and by the end we see how far such canned melodrama is from the real lessons of life.

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For feminist film lovers John Sayles's new offering "Passion Fish" is a "must see" film.   Sayles is among the very best U.S. independent filmmakers and though many of his films are about men and their struggles (for example "Matewan," "Eight Men Out," and "City of Hope") when turns his attention to writing films about women such as  "Lianna" and now "Passion Fish," the characters are drawn with such understanding, respect, and compassion that I have to call Sayles a feminist filmmaker…

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…Passion Fish is for those who enjoy watching real-seeming people struggle through everyday crises in the wake of a tragedy. Sayles gets all the details right, and keeps his screenplay away from the worn-out melodrama that always lurks around the corner in films about the injured and infirm. Passion Fish a small movie about changes in attitude and understanding, and it knows when to be serious and when to laugh.

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En la cinematografía mundial no es frecuente hallar obras en las que los personajes protagonistas pertenezcan al género femenino; no me refiero a historias protagonizadas por mujeres: me refiero a que sean las féminas quienes ocupen casi la totalidad de las escenas.
Dejando aparte panfletos supuestamente feministas pero sin calidad, tan sólo en vehículos de lucimiento de grandes actrices hallaremos piezas en las que los varones prácticamente pasen desapercibidos. Podríamos contarlas casi con los dedos de una mano si acotamos la selección a piezas por lo menos interesantes.
Dando muestra una vez más de su carácter de cineasta independiente, ajeno a modas e intereses mercantilistas, John Sayles, como siempre en su amplia labor de guionista, Director y montador, se detiene a primeros de los noventa del siglo pasado en una historia ideada y escrita por él mismo en la que serán dos mujeres, de condiciones muy distintas, las que se enfrentarán y lucharán por salir a flote.
Passion Fish, estrenada en 1992, es una obra diferente desde su planteamiento: May-Alice Culhane (extraordinaria Mary McDonell, justamente nominada al Oscar por su trabajo) es una actriz de fotonovelas que, un buen día, despierta en la cama de un hospital: ha quedado paralítica de piernas a causa de un atropello en las diabólicas calles de Nueva York...

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Delizioso affresco sui valori supremi del rapporto interpersonale, con predominanza di quello dell'amicizia. Qui un'ex attrice, rimasta paraplegica a seguito di un incidente, riesce ad instaurare una sorta di empatia perfetta con un ex cocainomane che le fa da assistente, malgrado il caratteraccio che la contraddistingue. La regia e la fotografia sono di buon livello e il cast altrettanto valido, forse si può obiettare un'eccessiva prolissità ma di pellicole come queste non ci si lamenterà mai.

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Zero - Christopher Kezelos