Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Intelligent and well directed Argentine film about a retired judge’s clerk who decides to write a novel about a case twenty years previously that was never quite solved to his satisfaction, as was a potential love affair that never got off the ground with the judge’s secretary.  Consequently, the film is shot with plenty of flashbacks which fits in with its mystery theme and the element of romantic memory that it contains.  Juan José Campanella is a more than competent director and is well supported by favourite Ricardo Darin, the very able Soledad Villamil, an effective Pablo Rago and the most surprising comic actor Guillermo Francella who turns in a remarkable performance as the alcoholic sidekick Sandoval. Great photography from Felix Monti too.  While there may be some quibbles about time frames and continuity, this is a satisfying work of art without rising to great heights.

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Marco Tullio Giordana is noted for his period pieces for RAI television and his latest film smacks of the same careful reproduction of the period and rather monotonous pacing.  There is no denying the seriousness of the cast and crew as they recreate this real story of the death of two actors famous during the Fascist regime in WW2 Italy.  The story of how the regime tried to influence the art and muzzle the noted directors of the time and how the wannabe’s tried to use this opportunity to grab fame is well portrayed as is the climactic persecution of such upstarts as the war ends.  The flashback technique is a little irritating in this respect as it takes time to work out who is who.  Acting credits go to Luca Zingaretti who is excellent as Osvaldo Valenti and Monica Bellucci is ever magnetic whenever on screen as the siren Luisa Ferida. All in all the film is a good opportunity to learn about an episode of war and Italian history that has lessons for posterity, but as a movie it does drag in parts and lacks a certain something to lift it into a better category. Interesting but not vital.

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Indie darling of a couple of years back, there is no doubting that this is an original little movie about a bunch of interconnected people in the suburbs – child sexuality, child molesting, lost adults, etc etc.  Parts of it I found almost irritating and writer-director Miranda July as the leading lady and performance artist is definitely close to maddening, but the sheer inventiveness of the script and the stories makes up for her character.  There are some good performances from a non famous cast and a nice brevity to the film but it also falls short of the great revelation I perhaps expected.  July is an artist to be watched and there may be more than one actor here to go on to better things, so at the end of the day it gives plenty to enjoy and think about.

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A curiosity that ends up being less than curious.  VS Naipaul’s first novel set in Trinidad and brought to the screen by Ismail Merchant of the Merchant and Ivory team.  As a work designed to depict a certain period in Trinidad’s history (1940’s and 50’s) it is sound enough, the great problem being that the story of this Indian upstart becoming a masseur, magic man and politician is not that fascinating and despite the efforts of actors and screenwriter Caryl Phillips, the film has a plodding predictable nature that kills our interest. Only the lush countryside and the fact that this is a ‘new’ subject for a film kept me going to the end.

* *

German remake of an American independent film of the 80’s and both are based on a real incident at a Californian High School in the 60’s.  It recounts a week project by a political science/civics teacher who decides to show his students how an authoritarian society can come about by leading them through a simulation of the process.  Trouble is that the students buy into the project to such an extent that they start taking it way too seriously and things get totally out of hand. The film itself is nothing special with an upbeat staging and direction by Dennis Gansel and a solid leading man in Jürgen Vogel, but it is the issues that the film raises,  which keep one interested and the fact that it is made in Germany has a special relevance.

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