I love film festivals. The weekend I chose to be in Melbourne, the Iranian Film festival just happened to be on. As my loyal readers will know, I have a penchant for Iranian films – Rhino Season, Manuscripts Don’t Burn, Crimson Gold, The Past, A Separation, Radio Dreams, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. And at festivals you end up seeing films you know nothing about, that will probably never get a release in Australia. A risk, yes, but a risk worth taking for this surprising film that I chose only because of its time slot and the beautiful B&W image above. Continue reading
Tag Archives: B&W
Tharlo (2015)
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What a beautiful and sad film. Set in Tibet, we first meet Tharlo (pronounced tarlo), or Ponytail as he is used to being called, as he recites the words of Mao Tse-tung that he learned by heart when he was nine. He speaks of death being inevitable but not all deaths being the same significance; death after serving the people is ‘heavier than Mount Tai’ but death after serving the fascists is ‘as light as a feather’. He is reciting this to the local police chief who remarks that, with such a memory, he had great promise as a child and his forty years as shepherd, building up a small living, is a waste. Continue reading
Bleak Street (2015)
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Too bleak for me. Beautiful black and white but claustrophobically grim, this Mexican drama centres on two ageing prostitutes who struggle to make enough money to live. They are exploited by everyone and do the same to others in order to survive. The only true connection seems to be the friendship, or perhaps commonality, between them. Continue reading
I, Olga Hepnarova (2016)
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I love contemporary black and white films. It’s the beauty of the tone and the other-worldliness it creates. I, Olga Hepnarova is a quiet, thoughtful film. Based on history, Olga was the last woman executed in Czechoslovakia, at the age of 22, for deliberately driving a truck along a crowded footpath. This portrayal attempts to create some context to her life and glean the psychology behind this act. Continue reading
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (2016)
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Black and white – that adds half a star to my rating. Shallow, I know, but there is something about black and white that suffuses me with pleasure. This lovely Finnish film is about a boxer, Olli Mäki, who has the potential to be world champion, a first for Finland in 1962. That beautiful black and white camera follows Olli as he trains, grapples with the publicity and pressure and falls in love with Raija. Continue reading
The Event (2015)
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Like Ma, this film was a little challenging to enjoy as it made no concessions for the knowledge-base, or lack of it in my case, of its viewers. Made entirely of found footage with no narration or explanation, we watch the events unfolding in Leningrad in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapses. Continue reading
In the Shadow of Women (L’ombre des femmes) (2015)
StandardOr why sometimes it is better to cut and run. Pierre and Manon are married. They are documentarians who struggle to make ends meet. Pierre is silent and dour, Manon sparkles and pleases. Pierre meets a younger women, Elizabeth, and begins an affair. One day Elizabeth spies Manon in the arms of another man and must decide if she should tell Pierre. Continue reading
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
StandardHow have I managed to get through 50 years without seeing this classic Christmas film? I don’t know. The Deniliquin Film Society screened it this month and so, with mince pies clutched in our hands, my whole family and several friends reclined on the sofas at the front of the venue and submitted to a good dose of Frank Capra wit and sentimentality. It’s a cracker of a film and much less saccharine than I was expecting. Continue reading
The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) (2009)
StandardHere’s a bit of insight into living on a farm. We get our internet via satellite, which has never been as good as ADSL but it has been the only broadband option for us other than Telstra mobile. We were offered NBN satellite a couple of years ago which upped our monthly limit from 6GB to 60GB and guaranteed a speed increase over several years to rival city access. Then the government changed. About a year ago we got a letter from our ISP saying NBN satellite was oversubscribed and so they were being forced to restrict speeds and limits. Now we are down to 20GB and speeds are so slow that websites take forever and we don’t bother with videos. So what does that have to do with The White Ribbon, I hear you ask? Continue reading
In the Crosswind (Risttuules) (2014)
StandardHold the phone, Simone, and shut the front door, Lenore. I have seen my film of the festival. The one that blew me away and I would have started watching again if I could. In the Crosswind is an Estonian drama unlike anything I have seen before.
It tells the story of the forced removal of half a million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians from their homelands by Stalin, to be ‘resettled’ in Siberia and prison and forced labour camps. The only dialogue in the film is the reading out of the actual letters and diary entries of an Estonian woman, Erna, to her husband Heldur. She has been taken with other women and children to Siberia and lives in dire poverty and deprivation, he has been sent to a gulag. Continue reading
