TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘Behind Blue Skies’

Posted on September 11, 2010 by admin

Behind Blue Skies x650By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Swedish filmmaker Hannes Holm turns a jaundiced eye on 1970s idealism and nostalgia in “Behind Blue Skies” but its discordant elements leave it not as funny and penetrating as it was no doubt intended to be.

Satirical pokes at Swedish society at the time are unlikely to strike too many chords overseas and while there are some appealing performances, the picture seems bound for a cloudy time beyond home territory.

It doesn’t help that a brief and needless but jolting hard-core image at the start of the film gives a false impression since it is not repeated and nothing like it. Bill Skarsgard (pictured), fresh-faced, tall and engaging, is Martin, a young man eager to take a summer job with his best friend Micke (Adam Palsson) not least to get away from his drunken and abusive father.

The job offer from Micke’s father, however, involves grunt work at a posh yacht club at an island resort which the manager, Gosta (Peter Dalle) runs like boot camp. Bluff and confident, Gosta holds a morning inspection in which he sniffs every young face for traces of booze from the previous night and dismisses anyone who breaks his rules.

When Martin helps another worker steal some beer for a party, he’s the only one to confess in the morning. He is fired, but Gosta admires his honesty and promptly offers him a different line of work.

Naïve and eager to please, the boy fails to realize that his boss is in the drug-dealing business even when he demonstrates that he has interests in a brothel and a strip club. Not even when the man’s henchman beats him up does Martin appear twig that he’s in the middle of a criminal enterprise.

There’s an undercover sting operation involved and a love affair with a young woman played with unadorned simplicity by a very pretty blonde named Josefin Ljungman.

The writer/director’s wish to wrap up everything in a tidy package, however, undermines the satire, and a scene toward the end that signals deeper corruption seems merely half-hearted.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Nordisk Film); Production company: Fladen Film; Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Peter Dalle, Josefin Ljungman; Director, screenwriter: Hannes Holm; Producer: Patrick Ryborn; Director of photography: Goran Hallberg; Editor: Frederik Morheden; No rating, running time 110 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Kristian Petri’s ‘Bad Faith’

Posted on September 11, 2010 by admin

Sonja+Richter+Bad+Faith+Premiere+2010+Toronto+-MASXpnfRa-lBy Ray Bennett

TORONTO – The banality of evil takes a hammering in Kristian Petri’s “Bad Faith,” a stylish but illogical tale of ordinary people with an appetite for murder.

Thrillers don’t necessarily need to be plausible but the coincidences in Magnus Dahlstrom’s are so extreme that they remove the essential ingredient, which is to say thrills.

Petri’s cold and distant approach to the story of a woman in thrall to a serial killer provides some inventive imagery but scenes appear to be staged for their visual impact rather than to move the plot. Some more festival exposure should be expected but not mainstream interest.

Sonja Richter (pictured) plays Mona, a solitary woman from Copenhagen in a new job in a new city, Stockholm. Resistant to the friendly approaches of colleagues at work, she stumbles one night upon the victim of a violent assault.

It’s of some significance to the director that she stares into the eyes of the dying man, and such eye contact becomes a recurring theme although to no great effect.

It becomes apparent that there’s a serial killer at work in the city using a knife with the point snapped off to pierce victims’ eyes. Mona somehow contrives to show up not only to see more killings but also to see the police finding more bodies. She gets into staring contests with a man who has punched another to death and also with a police investigator.

Meanwhile, she has encountered in a church a sinister fellow (Jonas Karlsson) who also makes a fuss about staring. She tells him that she knows who the killer is and while he hovers she spends several nights following the mysterious X (Kristoffer Joner), although how she knows where to find him is a mystery.

The fates of the woman and the two men become entwined with murderous intentions being the common thread. There are scenes in which she hides under cars, under beds and in attics while the camera shows searching hands and the feet of a potential killer. All of them curiously devoid of suspense, just like the film itself.

Venue: Toronto International Film Festival; Sales: Trust Nordisk; Production company: St. Paul Film; Cast: Sonja Richter, Jonas Karlsson, Kristoffer Joner; Director: Kristian Petri; Screenwriter: Magnus Dahlstrom; Producer: Johannes Ahlund; Director of photography: Hoyte Van Hoytema; Production designer: Charles Koroly; Music: Fredrik Emilson; Editor: Johan Soderberg; No rating, running time 106 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s ‘Hair’

Posted on August 13, 2010 by admin

hair x650By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – Turkish director Tayfun Pirselimoglu’s “Hair” is a dreary and dispiriting tale of a wig seller dying of cancer who becomes obsessed with a woman married to a man who washes corpses for a living.

Shot in tawdry shops and dwellings, the film’s drab and forlorn characters seldom have anything to say. In one long scene in a colorless room, the morgue worker eats a meal with his back to the camera while his wife sits on a couch watching television. Neither says a word.

Two hours of this is more than most viewers will likely want to sit through, and the film is unlikely to travel beyond its home market.

The wig seller (Ayberk Pekcan) is a slovenly, unshaven man who smokes constantly while trying to sell his products or buy long hair from needy women. When one woman (Nazan Kesal, pictured with Pekcan) cries as he cuts her hair, he begins to follow her around and his interest turns to obsession.

There’s one small visual note of irony that a man who sells hair for a living is losing his own due to chemotherapy but the film could do with much more than that.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, In Competition; Cast: Ayberk Pekcan, Nazan Kesal, Riza Akin; Director, writer: Tayfun Pirselimoglu; Director of photography: Ercan Ozkan; Production designer: Natali Yeres; Editor: Erdinc Aydogdu; Production company: Zuzi Film; Not rated; running time, 120 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Hongqui Li’s ‘Winter Vacation’

Posted on August 12, 2010 by admin

wintervacation x650

By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – There are many slow and uneventful scenes in Hongqi Li’s labored comedy “Winter Vacation” that are intended to show how slow and uneventful a break from school can be for teenagers in a snowbound urban wasteland with nothing to do.

There are two or three moments worth a chuckle in the film but there cannot be many audiences that will share the view of the Locarno International Film Festival competition jury, which gave it their top prize Golden Leopard.

That honor means the film will likely get airings at other festivals but viewers will discover a production that uses a static camera for a series of scenes in which people gather but say little or nothing.

There is a running gag involving a very proper but grouchy grandfather who imposes silence and stillness on a dutiful but resentful little kid, but its humor dwindles.

That same child has the only funny line in the picture when a visiting little girl asks him what he wants to be when he grows up. Hearing his reply, she regards him scornfully and says, “You are a pitiful child.”

Otherwise, it’s one scene after another of four or five teenagers in winter clothing standing about or sitting on a sofa in the snow saying not very much.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival. In Competion; Cast: Ba Junjie, Zhang Naqi, Bai Jinfeng, Xie Ying, Wang Hui, Bao Lei

Director, writer, editor: Hongqi Li; Director of photography: Qin Yurul; Music: Zuoxiao Zuzhou, The Top Floor Circus; Production company: Ning Cal, Alex Chung; Not rated; running time, 91 minutes.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: ‘The Human Resources Manager’

Posted on August 11, 2010 by admin

human resources manager x650By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – Despite its ungainly title, “The Human Resources Manager” is a typically humane and observant drama from Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis about a personnel officer who goes beyond the call of duty for a deceased employee.

When a young Romanian woman is killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, the HR manager at the bakery where she worked takes on the job of making sure her body makes its way back to her faraway home.

The film has wit and character, and the central mission sees many unexpected complications before Riklis and screenwriter Noah Stollman arrive at a warm and compassionate conclusion. Following the director’s successes with “The Syrian Bride” and “Lemon Tree,” it will travel far and wide to appreciative audiences and pick up some prizes along the way.

Mark Ivanir plays the title character at an industrial sized Jerusalem bakery where the bread is fine but many employees tend to remain anonymous. When his boss calls late at night to say that an unidentified woman killed in a blown-up bus had a pay check from the bakery but did not appear to work there, he must investigate.

It turns out that the night supervisor was having an affair with the woman and had fired her when his wife found out but kept her on the payroll. With the woman’s body lying ignored at the morgue, a tabloid newspaper reporter (Guri Alfi) runs a story indicting the bakery for inhumane behavior.

The HR man’s boss decides she needs some much better press so she orders him to sort it out, which involves tracing where the dead woman lived and the discovery that she has a bitter ex-husband (Bogdan Stanoevitch) and a troubled son (Noah Silver) in Romania, neither of whom is permitted legally to identify her.

It means he must ship the body to her home village 1,000 kilometers deep into rural Romania so that her mother can make the formal identification. That’s especially awkward because he has promised to accompany his young daughter on a dance trip in a couple of days’ time. Bad weather prevents flying, so he sets off in a van with the coffin on top accompanied by the helpful Israeli Vice-Consul, the unruly son, the weasel reporter, and an ageing chauffeur.

The motley crew argue and fight, and must deal with awful weather and a surprising change of vehicle as they make their way into increasingly grim-looking parts of the former Soviet Union.

Rainer Klausmann’s cinematography takes full advantage of the mix of bleak wintry landscapes and some unusual resting places while French composer Cyril Morin contributes a jaunty and teasing score that draws smartly on gypsy influences.

Clashes between generations, creeds and cultures all surface as the mission progresses and Riklis lets his cast find riches in their characters that help illuminate a thoughtful and well-crafted tale.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, Piazza Grande; Cast: Mark Ivanir, Guri Alfi, Noah Silver, Rozina Cambos, Julian Negulesco, Bogdan Stanoevitch; Director: Eran Riklis; Writer: Noah Stollman; Director of photography: Rainer Klausmann; Production designers: Dan Toader, Yoel Herzberg; Music: Cyril Morin; Costume designers: Li Alembik, Adina Bucur; Editor: Tova Ascher; Producers: Tudor Giurgiu, Thanassis Karathanos, Talia Kleinhendler, Haim Mecklberg, Elie Meirovitz, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg; Production company: 2-Team Productions; Sales: Pyramide International; Not rated; running time, 103 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Bogdan George Apetri’s ‘Outbound’

Posted on August 11, 2010 by admin

outbound 2 x650By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – Romanian director Bogdan George Apetri’s first feature film “Outland” is a hard-nosed little thriller in which a no-nonsense woman takes a one-day release from jail for her mother’s funeral in order to flee the country.

The clock is ticking as Matilda, played with grim intensity by Ana Ularu (pictured), tries one last time to get help from her family, persuade a former pimp to cough up some cash, and locate her abandoned son before heading for the coast where a boat is waiting.

Only a vague ending lets down Apetri’s otherwise gripping film, which he co-wrote with Tudo Voican, and it should find a place on the festival circuit and in certain markets. It boasts solid performances and Eugen Kelemen’s crisp editing makes the most of vivid images provided by cinematographer Marius Panduru.

In the lead role, Ularu is all tight biceps, butch haircut and determination as she bobs and weaves through the obstacles that could ruin her scheme to avoid serving another three years in prison. These include sister-in-law Lavinia (Ioana Flora), who has no intention of letting kindly husband Andrei (Andi Vasluianu) go soft on his runaway sister just because their mother died.

An atmospheric scene at the cemetery fills in a lot of the jailbird’s background as Apetri focuses on the family’s traditions and prejudices that she has abandoned. Each sequence is titled and time-stamped so that soon Matilda is knocking on the door of an indifferent thug named Paul (Mimi Branescu, perfectly swinish) who owes her money.

Matilda took the rap for a crime committed by both of them two years earlier leaving Paul with the proceeds and their son Toma, whom he carelessly placed in an orphanage. Getting him to share the funds turns out to be harder than she expected, and the tension rises as he involves her in some dirty dealings with a car full of hoodlums.

outbound x650

The search for her son, played with a mixture of innocence and street-smarts by Timotei Duma (pictured with Ularu), and their flight together take up the rest of the story as events break in Matilda’s favor and then steeply against it.

Ularu carries the film with assurance, letting the character’s femininity and mothering instinct show only in subtle smiles and gestures. There is considerable suspense but the film’s cryptic conclusion leaves something to be desired beyond the notion that we reap what we sow.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, In Competition; Cast: Ana Ularu, Mimi Branescu, Andi Vasluianu, Ioana Flora, Timotei Duma; Director, writer: Bogdan George Apetri; Writer: Tudor Voican; Director of photography: Marius Panduru; Production designer: Simona Paduretu; Costume designer: Brandusa Ioan; Editor: Eugen Kelemen; Producer: Alexandru Teodorescu; Production company: Saga Film; Sales: MK2; Not rated; running time, 87 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: ‘The Little Bedroom’

Posted on August 10, 2010 by admin

The little bedroom x650By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – The circle of life is given warm and redemptive treatment in “The Little Bedroom” (La Petite Chambre) written and directed by Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond. An encounter between a private nurse who recently lost a child and an old man tired of living affords each of them the chance to reassess their fate.

Set in the Swiss town of Lausanne with the nearby alps to play a key role before the story is over, it’s a showcase for Florence Loiret Caille as the traumatised woman and Michel Bouquet as the grouchy and alienated old gent.

Interest should be strong in international markets and festivals although it’s probably not a powerful enough work to make it an art house hit.

Caille plays Rose, who has just returned to work after delivering a son still-borne after eight months’ pregnancy. Diligent and patient, she does more for her patients than she’s strictly supposed to. Bouquet plays one of them, the hard-nosed Edmond, whose son is about to depart for Chicago and wants to place him in a nursing home.

Meanwhile, Rose’s husband Marc (Eric Caravaca) has a lead on a major advertising campaign design contract in New York and must go there to cement the deal. He is torn by the conflict between his ambition and his concern for his wife.

Writer-directors Chuat and Reymond supply information about the characters subtly so they become gradually fully formed with Rose refusing to think of her lost child as dead and Edmond declining to show his son the slightest kindness.

As the odd couple of nurse and patient discover more about each other and Rose conspires in Edmond’s absence from the nursing home, they develop an odd but pleasing kinship. Caille’s supple features convey the warm personality that loss has curdled while Bouquet uses silence and stillness to register a very active mind.

Emre Sevindik’s sonorous score, aided by several piano selections from Bach, Beethoven and Sibelius, enhance the impressively textured images of cinematographer Pierre Milon.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, In Competition; Cast: Michel Bouquet, Florence Loiret Caille, Eric Caravaca; Directors, writers: Stephanie Chuat, Veronique Reymond; Director of photography: Pierre Milon; Production designer: Daniel Raduta

Music: Emre Sevindik; Costume designer: Magdalena Labuz; Editor: Thierry Faber; Production companies: Vega Film, Iris Productions; Sales: Vega Film; Not rated; running time, 87 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Cedric Anger’s ‘The Counsel’

Posted on August 10, 2010 by admin

the counsel 2 x650By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – French director Cedric Anger’s ambitious legal thriller “The Counsel” (L’Avocat) looks good and has a fine cast but his script covers familiar terrain and is so naïve that the whole thing becomes laughable.

Told in flashback, it’s the story of a brilliant young lawyer who goes to work for a mob boss but gets in too deep and discovers that his only way out is by incriminating the man, or by dying.

It’s as if the director believed the film could exist in a vacuum and ignore the fact that such predicaments have been explored and picked over in an endless number of books, films and television shows. The film will face scorn from fans of crime yarns who expect their puzzles to have a lot more intelligence.

Handsome and keen eyed Benoit Magimel cuts an effective dash as Leo, a sharp and driven attorney whose skill at courtroom oratory wins him a job at a top legal firm. He proves his mettle fast but is soon bored. There’s no suggestion that it’s a mob operation such as the one in “The Firm” but when a hoodlum big in waste disposal seeks to hire him, the head of the legal firm, played with imperial elegance by director Barbet Schroeder, tells him the client is always right.

Gilbert Melki gives the mobster, Paul, the smooth veneer of a polished psychopath as he involves Leo deeper in his criminal activities with the lawyer failing to hear any of the most clanging alarm bells.

Violence against witnesses, bribery, double books on the waste disposal and the income it generates, none of these bother the counsellor a bit. He’s not suspicious when Paul offers him tens of thousands over his usual salary, and talk about the illegal storage of toxic hospital waste troubles him not a whit.

the counsel 1 x325

His beautiful pregnant girlfriend (Aissa Maiga, right) doesn’t push him for riches and Anger’s script gives Leo no motivation for his greed and willingness to be a party to criminal corruption. He is pleased that Paul appears to like him and even befriends Paul’s enforcer Ben, who is made both sinister and engaging by Samir Guesmi.

Eric Caravaca gives an oily touch to the inevitable law officer who comes knocking on Leo’s door with the option of giving evidence or going down with the bad guys.

The howlers keep coming although delivered with a straight face and only the handsome shape of the production maintains interest. Guillaume Schiffman’s cinematography has a classic structure and there’s even an old-fashioned montage showing Leo’s quick career path.

If only Anger the screenwriter had plugged the many gaping holes, Anger the director could be proud of this film, rather than leaving viewers to shake their heads or just burst out laughing.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, Piazza Grande; Cast: Benoit Magimel, Gilbert Melki, Aissa Maiga, Eric Caravaca, Samir Guesmi, Barbet Schroeder; Director, writer: Cedric Anger; Director of photography: Guillaume Schiffman; Production designer: Antoine Platteau; Music: Gregoire Hetzel; Costume designer: Marielle Robaut; Editor: Simon Jacquet; Producer: Thomas Klotz; Production company: Sunrise Films;  Sales: Snd Groupe M6; Not rated; running time, 100 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Nikola Lezaic’s ‘Tilva Rōs’

Posted on August 9, 2010 by admin

tilva ros x650

By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – An almost documentary look at the wasted summer of a group of youngsters in a defunct mining town in Serbia, “Tilva Rōs” strives for bright spirits but ends up being simply depressing.

First-time feature director Nikola Lezaic takes on most of the filmmaking chores following a local gang of skateboarders who swear and gesture like rappers and videotape themselves attempting stupid pranks inspired by the likes of “Jackass.”

The region’s dark war-torn past and economic problems are a stark backdrop to the pointless shenanigans of kids who appear to have little ambition beyond getting a video on YouTube. The film’s prospects beyond local markets appear slim.

Best buddies Toda (Marko Todorovic) and Stefan (Stefan Djordjevic) lead the pack of pretty inept skateboarders and are the most keen to punish each other for a lark. They stick assorted pins in their cheeks and noses, leap off high places, punch and beat one another and generally abuse themselves, while a video recorder haphazardly captures their antics.

Dunja Kovacevic plays Stefan’s sometime girlfriend and while their parents are involved mostly in protesting the closure of the copper mines, the kids idle between school and college or work with little to do except drink, party and make each other bleed.

There’s no story, just a sequence of rather dull events including a mass attack on a junk car, a swarming attack on a supermarket and a street march supporting the industrial action.

The three non-professional leads have some presence and charm but Lezaic makes few demands upon them besides urging on their stunts. It’s all a bit sad.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, Sidebar: Cinema of the Present; Cast: Marko Todorovic, Stefan Djordjevic, Dunja Kovacevic; Director, writer, producer, editor: Nikola Lezaic; Director of photography: Milos Jacimovic; Production designer: Nikola Bercek; Producers: Uros Tomic, Mina Dukic; Production company: Film House Kiselo Dete; Sales: Visit Films; Not rated; running time, 103 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Daniele Gaglianone’s ‘Pietro’

Posted on August 9, 2010 by admin

locarno-2010-pietro-casella-e-nel-cast-di-pietro-di-daniele-gaglianone-171161By Ray Bennett

LOCARNO, Switzerland – Daniele Gaglianone’s “Pietro” tells of a slightly brain damaged man whose heroin addict brother involves him with bullies and criminals until one day he snaps and things get very nasty.

Pietro Casella (pictured) gives a poignant performance as a man surrounded by people who either order him about or make fun of him, but writer and director Gaglianone leaves too many holes in the story and allows most of the other players to over-act unconvincingly.

Casella’s performance might gain the film attention but its lack of a satisfying background to the unpleasant events that take place offscreen suggest it won’t gain much traction outside Italy.

Francesco Lattarula plays the stoner sibling who likes nothing more than to take Pietro to his favorite bar and have him do impressions and make funny faces. His friends egg on the unfortunate man and react uproariously even though Pietro’s behavior is thoroughly humiliating and hideously unfunny.

The brother and his cohorts all scream and laugh and yell a lot without making any sense. It’s as if the filmmaker bothered only with the central character and left the others to get along as best they could.

The troubled man makes a kind of living delivers fliers for another bully who barely pays him and mistreats his other employees. The film follows Pietro as he goes diligently about his deliveries but there’s no attempt to draw any significance from his work.

After the worm turns and the violence is over, Pietro speaks quietly to the camera and relates how he came to be this way. The film then just peters out with no resolution, offering little by way of insight or purpose.

Venue: Locarno International Film Festival, In Competition; Cast: Pietro Casella, Francesco Lattarula, Carlotta Saletti; Director, writer: Daniele Gaglianone; Director of photography: Gherardo Gossi; Production and costume designer: Lina Fuca; Music: Evandro Fornasier, Walter Magri, Mario Actis, Plus; Editor: Enrico Giovannone; Production company: Babydoc Film; Sales: Ellipsis Media International; Not rated; running time, 80 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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