Gagarine (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): His little fight against the demolition to come

Posted on December 23, 2022 by kaist455

French film “Gagarine” is a little but interesting drama which alternates between reality and fantasy as observing its plain young hero’s defiant stand against the change to come. Although its overall result is uneven at times, the movie compensates for its several shortcomings via a vivid and realistic sense of life and location, and that is the main reason why a number of big fantasy moments during its last act work with enough interest and poignancy.

The main background of the film is Cité Gagarine, a real-life housing project in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the south of Paris. After they interviewed the residents of Cité Gagarine as requested by the architects working on its planned demolition, directors/co-writers Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh made the 2015 short film of the same name there, and they subsequently returned for making its feature film version before the demolition of Cité Gagarine was eventually started in 2019.

The story is unfolded mainly through the viewpoint of Youri (Alséni Bathily), a 16-year-old boy living in one of the apartments of Cité Gagarine. Because his mother has been absent for some personal reason for a while, Youri usually has to take care of himself alone, and he also spends lots of time on fixing many things in his apartment building. Because of it has lots of problems and damages here and there, Cité Gagarine, which was incidentally named for the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, has been considered for planned demolition, and, needless to say, that is the last thing Youri wants.

Mainly because both his first name comes from that famous Soviet figure, Youri is interested a lot in the space, and we often observe how passionate he is about space exploration. At one point, he gladly prepares a little nice setting for helping his neighbors get a good look at the solar eclipse on the sky, and everyone including him cannot help but amazed as beholding that rare cosmic happening later.

However, their harsh reality comes not long after that. Despite Youri’s diligent efforts in the housing project, those public inspectors conclude that Cité Gagarine should be demolished sooner or later instead of getting some extensive repair. Youri and several other residents naturally protest against that, but there is nothing they can do, and we soon see many of residents leaving the housing project one by one.

Youri is supposed to be picked up by his mother as she finally seems to find a place where she and her son can stay, but then she notifies him on some change in her plan. Youri eventually finds himself staying alone in the housing project without anyone else living around him, and that makes him more determined to stay there regardless of whatever will happen next. When those demolition workers come later, he decides to hide inside a little private place he made for himself, and it looks like he will be all right as long as he evades those demolition workers.

Around that narrative point, the movie has some little fun with how its hero attempts to make a self-sustaining space for himself. As a smart kid who apparently has considerable potential in engineering, Youri develops a number of various devices and equipments via many different stuffs left in the housing project, and his little private place eventually becomes more like the interior of a small spaceship. In fact, he even makes a control panel although he is not making a spaceship at all.

Meanwhile, Youri comes to befriend a teenage girl named Diana (Lyna Khoudri) more, who left the housing project along with her family but then comes across him when both he and she try to steal some stuffs at a nearby construction site at one night. He later takes her to his place, and she is certainly impressed by how he has managed to live there thanks to a bunch of devices developed by him. In addition, they also get themselves associated with a young local marijuana dealer, and the mood becomes merrier than before as these three young people gladly spend more time together in Youri’s private place.

Of course, their good time does not last that long as the demolition of Cité Gagarine is continued as usual, and Youri consequently becomes more desperate than before. During this part, the movie comes to lean more on fantasy, and that feels a bit jarring and baffling at first, but it still holds our attention thanks to Liatard and Trouilh’s good direction. Their cinematographer Victor Seguin provides a series of striking visual moments to be appreciated, and these wonderful moments are further enhanced by the ambient score by Amine Bouhafa and Evgueni and Sacha Galperine.

Liatard and Trouilh also draw engaging performances from their main cast members. Alséni Bathily is solid as the strong human center of the story, and he is also supported well by several other main cast members including Lyna Khoudri, Jamil McCraven, Finnegan Oldfield, Farida Rahouadj, and Denis Lavant, who steals the show as usual in his brief appearance.

On the whole, “Gagarine” is a modest but charming piece of work to admire, and Liatard and Trouilh make an admirable feature debut here after directing several short films together. Although it is a bit too thin in terms of story and characters, the movie has enough mood and details to engage me at least, and I will gladly pay attention to what Liatard and Trouilh will do next in the future.

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Corsage (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Royal Ennui

Posted on December 23, 2022 by kaist455

“Corsage”, which was recently selected as the Austrian submission for Best International Feature Film, is a dry but interesting character study loosely based on one real-life royal figure during the late 19th century Europe. According to the IMDB trivia, the movie is quite different from the history of its real-life heroine in many aspects, but it is anchored well by another strong acting from its very talented lead performer, and I admired that and the other strong elements of the film even while observing its story and characters from the distance.

Vicky Krieps, a wonderful Luxembourgish-German actress who has been more prominent thanks to her unforgettable breakthrough turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” (2017), plays Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who has incidentally been the subject of numerous other films for many years (In fact, the movie is one of five Austrian-German productions about Empress Elisabeth of Austria to be released between 2021-2022). The movie begins with Elisabeth preparing for another public occasional which she is going to attend along with her husband, and it is clear that she is not so particularly interested in that from the start. As a matter of fact, she feigns to be sick when she and her husband later meet several officials in public, and she enjoys the responses from others around her simply because she just wants to have a little fun.

Phlegmatically observing Elisabeth’s daily life in the royal palace in Vienna, the movie conveys to us more of her ongoing ennui. She and her husband do not have much affection between them, and he is usually occupied with handling numerous matters of his country day by day. While she is eager to discuss those matters with him in private, he does not listen or talk to her much, and he does not even provide much comfort or affection to her, though he respects and values her as his empress to some degree.

Naturally, Elisabeth lets herself getting involved with some other men out there, and one of them is King Ludwig II of Bavaria (Manuel Rubey), who is incidentally also a cousin of hers. Although they are more like friends instead of lovers, Elisabeth loves to spend some time with him anyway, and she willingly ignores her husband for that, even when her husband is ringing the bell right in front of the entrance to her private place.

However, King Ludwig II soon returns to his place, and Elisabeth gets bored again while her husband does not provide much help or support as usual. When she later tries to have some fun with her little daughter outside, that only leads to an unexpected trouble, and that causes more conflict between her and her husband, who still does not understand how much she wants more fun and freedom outside their palace.

In the end, Elisabeth’s husband allows her to have a little vacation in some rural area of England, where she has some other guy with whom she is willing to spend some time. Although this guy is just a plain horse trainer, Elisabeth enjoys flirting a bit with him, and he also seems to be interested in getting a little closer to her, though causing a scandal is the last thing he wants.

Not so surprisingly, their relationship is soon aborted as the people surrounding Elisabeth remind her again of her weighty social position, and Elisabeth is frustrated to find herself stuck in her royal palace again. She tries to get closer to her husband, but her little bold attempt only results in a joyless sex between them, and she is not so pleased at all when she comes to learn that her husband has been close to a girl much younger than her. As approaching to 40 day by day, she becomes more anxious about losing her beauty and youth, and that makes her all the more conscious of how her body is slim enough for her tight corsage.

Leisurely strolling from one episodic moment to another, the movie deliberately adds bits of anachronism for emphasizing its modern perspective just like Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” (2006), and director/writer Marie Kreutzer has some fun with that. For example, you may sometimes notice certain objects which do not fit well with the period background of the film, and you will also be caught off guard by certain key scenes where English songs are sung and performed for no apparent reason.

In the meantime, Krieps’ nuanced performance, which deservedly won the Best Actress at the European Film Awards (She was also jointly awarded with Adam Bessa in “Harka” (2022) when the movie was shown in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival early in this year), keeps holing our attention to the end. Effortlessly embodying her character’s longtime frustration and suffocation, Krieps is terrific especially when her character becomes more neurotic later in the story, and she is also supported well by several good supporting performers in the film including Katharina Lorenz, Jeanne Werner, Alma Hasun, Manuel Rubey, and Florian Teichtmeister.

Overall, “Corsage” will surely require some patience from you due to its detached attitude and slow narrative pacing, but it is still worthwhile to watch thanks to Kreutzer’s competent direction as well as another stellar acting from Krieps. I must tell you that Its ending may distract you if you know enough about its real-life heroine, but, in my trivial opinion, it mostly works in the context of the story, and you may come to reflect more on the feminist aspects of the film. After all, there are still millions of women constrained by social roles imposed upon them, and that certainly makes the film timeless to say the least.

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Lady Chatterley’s Lover (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): She simply wants him…

Posted on December 23, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix film “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, which was released early in this month, is more sensitive and thoughtful than you might expect. Based on that famous classic novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence, the movie surely provides enough sensuality and eroticism as expected, but it also focuses a lot on the mood and emotions around its two main characters, and the overall result is often interesting as really delving into those tricky matters of heart between them.

At the beginning, the story begins with its young heroine’s supposedly happy marriage with her wealthy husband in the middle of the World War I. Although her husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley (Matthew Duckett), will soon go to the front line as a military officer, Constance (Emma Corrin) is still excited because her husband feels like someone she can love for the rest of her life, and it looks like nothing can possibly go wrong for them despite the ongoing war.

Unfortunately, the situation is subsequently changed a lot when Lord Chatterley returns with a serious physical injury. Besides not being able to walk any more, he is now sexually impotent, and that certainly frustrates Constance a lot right from when they have their first night in his big family manor. As he starts to concentrate on writing a novel, she assists his writing process while constantly taking care of him, but, despite her sincere affection toward him, there comes a point where she cannot stand their isolated status anymore.

Eventually, her older sister comes to the rescue, and Constance finally can take some rest outside the manor while her husband is being taken care of by Mrs. Bolton (Joely Richardson), an old widow who once worked in the manor. She eventually befriends the newly hired gamekeeper of the manor, and it does not take much time for her to find herself quite attracted to this handsome lad. Although he is rather quiet and taciturn on the surface, Oliver Mellors (Jack O’Connell) turns out to be an intelligent and sensitive guy, and Constance becomes more fascinated with him as they often meet each other in a little cabin in the forest outside the manor.

As a matter of fact, there is really nothing which can restrain Constance’s growing interest and passion toward Oliver, because her husband already allowed that she can have a secret sexual affair behind her back just for having a son who will inherit his title as well as his wealth. Although she was rather hesitant about her husband’s suggestion, Constance eventually comes to follow whatever her heart feels at one point later in the story, and Oliver cannot say no because, well, the feelings between them turn out to be quite mutual.

As they heedlessly throw themselves into their carnal passion along the story, the movie surely presents a considerable amount of sex and nudity on the screen, but director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who previously made a feature film debut in “The Mustang” (2019), and her crew members including cinematographer Benoît Delhomme handle these sexual moments with enough sensitivity and lyricism. As surrounded by the vivid sights of nature, the two lovers are excited by not only their passion but also their freedom, and there is a lovely rainy scene where they get themselves completely naked and then freely roam outside together as feeling more love between them.

Of course, the circumstance becomes more complicated when Constance and Oliver become more aware of how tricky their respective positions are. Although his wife left him several years ago, Oliver still cannot get a divorce due to her selfish reason. As loving Olivier more and more, Constance actually begins to consider leave her husband, but she knows too well that she may lose everything in her life as a result. Her husband becomes more distant and less understanding as he comes to pay more attention to the local coal mining business instead of his writing, and he prefers to maintain the status quo between them without asking too much about the baby she may have sooner or later. Even her older sister reminds her of that cold and harsh reality, when she later comes to learn more about her ongoing affair with Oliver.

As the story is heading toward the expected finale, the screenplay by David Magee stays focused on the emotional details of its main characters, and Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell ably embody and express these fine character details to be appreciated. while Corrin, who recently drew our attention for her Emmy-nominated turn in the fourth season of Netflix drama series “The Crown”, wonderfully illustrates her character’s growing longing and passion along the story, O’Connell, who has steadily advanced since his breakout performance in “Starred up” (2013), deftly complements his co-star with his equally good performance, and their good chemistry on the screen is one of the main reasons why the movie works on the emotional level instead of merely scratching its carnal surface. Around Corrin and Jack O’Connell, several substantial supporting performers including Matthew Duckett, Joely Richardson, Ella Hunt, and Faye Marsay are also solid on the hole, and Richardson’s supporting performance feels particularly resonant, considering she once played Lady Chatterley herself in the 1993 BBC TV serial.

Overall, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is fairly engaging in terms of mood, storytelling, and performance, and it makes me more interested in reading the works of Lawrence (Full Disclosure: I still have not touched any of them even though I bought the Penguin paperback editions of three novels of his several years ago). In short, this is one of more entertaining offerings from Netflix during this year, and I sincerely recommend you to check it out during your spare time.

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Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A mid-life self-indulgent by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Posted on December 21, 2022 by kaist455

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s latest film “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”, which was released on Netflix after being shown in South Korean theaters in last month, is a self-indulgent misfire which jumps high for greatness but only ends up with occasional glimpses of greatness instead. When I watched it early in this morning, I often felt baffled and frustrated even as admiring those splendid visual moments, and I was eventually left with hollow impressions on whatever Iñárritu attempts to achieve here.

After the simple but mesmerizing opening scene unfolded on a vast barren field, the movie instantly thrusts us into a bizarre hospital scene involved with its hero’s pregnant wife. Her baby has just been born, but the baby does not want to be in the world outside according to her doctor, and we soon see the baby really put back into her womb. We later come to gather that this is more or less the magic realism presentation of what actually happened to her and her baby, but it is just weird to me without much emotional effect, and that is all.

Our hero, Sliverio Gama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is an ex-journalist who has been an acclaimed documentary filmmaker since he quit his reporting job many years ago, and we get to know a bit about his current status. He has recently released an ambitious docufiction titled “False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”, and he is soon going to be honored by some prestigious association in LA for his journalistic achievement in the past.

It goes without saying that he is at the top of his life and career, but Silverio cannot help but become agitated and conflicted at times. When he is back in Mexico City along with his family, he is reminded of how much he has been separated from his home and country, and it is implied that he is not wholly popular in Mexico because of the main subjects of his documentary works. For example, one of his documentaries is incidentally about the illegal immigrants crossing over the Mexico-US border, and we later get an extended sequence showing how he followed and recorded their plights and struggles.

At one point, Silverio goes to a big TV studio for being interviewed by a journalist who was one of his close colleagues during that time. As cinematographer Darius Khondji’s camera smoothly follows after our hero, we are served with a series of shiny moments including the one featuring a group of dancers wearing fluffy costumes, and then there comes a blistering moment as Silverio is subsequently roasted by his old colleague in front of many audiences watching them.

Silverio simply remains non-responsive throughout his “interview”, but he talks with his wife a lot when he returns to his residence in Mexico City, and you may be baffled a bit as listening to their conversation for good reasons. Was he really “interviewed” as shown on the screen? Was it just a pigment of his artistic imagination, just like what he and a certain American character behold at a big palace?

Without clarifying anything, the movie continues to flow from one episodic moment to another, and Iñárritu and his crew members deserve to be commended for the sheer cinematic prowess shown from these moments at times. In case of the sequence unfolded during a big party for celebrating another public honor received by Silverio, the camera confidently and effortlessly moves among lots of dancing people, and that eventually culminates to a little sublime moment as our hero slowly dances among others in the center.

It is quite evident that Iñárritu tries to emulate what was attempted in Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2” (1963) and many other similar films ranging from Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz” (1979) to Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” (2008), but, alas, he does not have succeed much here as failing to have enough control over various story materials. Each of them may look good and interesting individually, but they do not gel much together on the whole, and that makes us feel more lost and confused, no matter how much the movie tries. In the end, we only come to see lots of self-pity and self-indulgence from the distance without much care or attention, and the movie eventually fizzles despite a little plot turn during its finale.

Above all, its hero, who is clearly a fictional reflection of Iñárritu, is not particularly interesting enough to hold our attention. Daniel Giménez Cacho surely tries as much as he can do with the materials given to him, but his character is not that memorable compared to the filmmaker hero of “8 1/2” or the playwright hero of “Synecdoche, New York”. In case of a bunch of performers surrounding Cacho, they simply come and go without much impact, and I must confess that I remember more those three poor amphibian pets of Silverio’s son.

In conclusion, “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is not a total dud thanks to its admirable technical aspects, but it is a big letdown in contrast to Iñárritu’s two previous films “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” (2014) and “The Revenant” (2015). Considering how a considerable number of critics and reviewer are enthusiastic about it, I may give it another chance someday, but, for now, I will just move onto whatever I will watch next.

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Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Inside Louis Armstrong

Posted on December 20, 2022 by kaist455

Documentary film “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues”, which is currently available on Apple TV+, does more than merely presenting the life and career of Louis Armstrong, who has been regarded as one of the greatest American musicians in the 20th century. While it feels pretty conventional at first, the documentary eventually delves deeper into its surprisingly complex human subject as freely flowing from one point to another in his life and career, and the result is often engaging and enlightening to say the least.

Via a bunch of various archival materials including Armstrong’s private recordings, the documentary gives us a vivid presentation of his life and career. He was born to a poor black family residing in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1901, but he grew up fairly well under his parents along with his siblings, and then he came to show considerable musical talent around the time when he was sent to a house for black juvenile delinquents due to one minor incident. Not long after that, young Armstrong came to play trumpet in local jazz bands, and then his career came to have a big breakthrough when he later moved to Chicago, Illinois thanks to a mentor figure of his.

Eventually, Armstrong came to go his own way thanks to his growing prominence. He became famous not only in Chicago but also in New York City, and he soon found himself performing in London and Paris as he continued to draw more attention. While there was a little trouble with his lousy manager, Armstrong was fortunate enough to have a new manager right after firing that manager, and his new manager turned out to be more helpful and reliable than the previous one. He knew how to pull strings here and there for further promoting Armstrong, and that quickly made Armstrong one of the most famous entertainers in US during that time.

Armstrong steadily maintained his star status during next several decades, but he never forgot how he and many other black people often coped with racism and prejudice. While he mostly stuck to that familiar jovial persona of his in public, he was not your average Uncle Tom at all, and there is an amusing episode about when he gave hell to one white employee on a movie set in Hollywood because of how blatantly he was disregarded by that white employee.   

And that was actually mild compared to what Armstrong and many other fellow black musicians often had to endure. Especially when they were in the South, they usually had no choice but to conform to its local segregation rules, and Armstrong surely had many episodes of racism and prejudice to tell. When he was supposed to be introduced on the stage during one concert, the white master of ceremony refused to introduce him just because of his race, and Armstrong eventually had to step forward for introducing himself because there was no other option. 

When the Civil Rights Movement was ignited in US around the 1950s, Armstrong was frequently asked about his opinions on the Civil Rights Movement. While he often did not provide much comment, he did not restrain himself at all whenever it looked necessary in his view. As a matter of fact, he did not hesitate at all to criticize President Dwight D. Eisenhower for not giving enough response to a certain big issue of racism and segregation in Arkansas, and he was actually much more supportive of the Civil Rights Movement than he seemed on the surface.

Nevertheless, Armstrong was not regarded that highly among more progressive black people during that time due to his seemingly conforming public image. In an archival interview, late Ossie Davis frankly talks about why he and many others around him did not like much Armstrong as well as what he represented – and how he came to change his mind after accidentally having a private glimpse into Armstrong’s life and humanity on one day.

The documentary also pays some attention to the loving relationship between Armstrong and his fourth wife Lucille. She understood well how stubborn her husband usually was, but she was also equally stubborn to say the least, and that was how she managed to make her husband move into a permanent residence despite his initial reluctance. He did not like that much at first, but, what do you know, he came to love the house a lot more than expected, and he even came to have a little private room of his own where many of his private recordings were stored.

When he was about to be 70 in 1971, Armstrong seemed to be able to go on more, but he eventually passed away not long before his 70th birthday. Although more than 50 years have passed, his music has constantly influenced many musicians who came after him, and his distinctive vocal and instrument performance are still recognizable to many of us. As many of the interviewee in the documentary point out, he is indeed a great musician who brought considerable change to American music, and that should be appreciated more in my inconsequential opinion. 

In conclusion, “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues”, which is directed by Sacha Jenkins, did a splendid job of illuminating some less-known human aspects of Armstrong’s life and career, and it is certainly one of more interesting documentary films of this year. As far as I can see from the documentary, Armstrong was a good man besides being a first-class musician, and that will probably make you admire his lasting artistic legacy more.

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Good Night Oppy (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Two rovers on Mars

Posted on December 19, 2022 by kaist455

Documentary film “Good Night Oppy”, which is currently available on Amazon Prime, is gives us a close and intimate look into one remarkable space mission which came to last a lot longer than expected. When NASA sent two rovers to Mars in 2003, the expectation on them was not that high for understandable reasons, but, what do you know, these two rovers moved and lived much more than their human controllers ever imagined, and the documentary is often poignant as showing us how much human efforts and emotions were projected into these two very special rovers during a long period of time.

They were respectively named Spirit and Opportunity, and the early part of the documentary focuses on the early stages of their mission during the early 2000s. Once his proposal on the geological exploration of Mars was accepted, Steve Squyres quickly worked on the project along with a bunch of scientists and engineers, and some of his team members, who are both smart and colorful in each own way, gladly tell us a lot about their demanding but rewarding work experiences. Although anything could go wrong at any point during the upcoming mission, they carefully and thoroughly prepared step by step, and it is interesting to observe how meticulously they worked on some of numerous technical obstacles in their project.

Anyway, the rovers were eventually completed and then fully prepared before the deadline, but Squyers and his team members remained nervous as usual. While the two rockets respectively containing Spirit and Opportunity were successfully launched into the space, they still had to be watchful of any unexpected troubles, and there indeed came a very big trouble when Spirit and Opportunity were in the middle of their long journey toward Mars.

Fortunately, Spirit and Opportunity respectively landed on the opposite sides of Mars without much technical glitch, but now Squyers and his scientists and engineers had to prepare for the last step for beginning the mission on Mars. Both Spirit and Opportunity needed to be connected with the NASA control room on the Earth, and Squyers and his team certainly braced themselves during the next few minutes when the fate of their mission would be determined.

To their delight, both Spirit and Opportunity turned out to be fully functional in addition to being ready to move and explore, and they became more excited day by day as Spirit and Opportunity sent lots of scientific data as they hoped. Thanks to these two rovers, they could get a much closer look into those alien landscapes of Mars, and that certainly awed and excited them a lot. Furthermore, Spirit and Opportunity provided more detailed geological data, and it seemed possible that they might come across the concrete evidence on the past existence of water on Mar.

Spirit and Opportunity were actually expected to operate just for around 90 days due to the harsh environment of Mars, but they surprised their human controllers as turning out to be more enduring than expected. For example, their solar panels were expected to be useless sooner or later as being covered with dust day by day, but the solar panels could often be cleaned by occasional dust storms, and that made both Spirit and Opportunity operate longer than their human controllers predicted.

When these rovers passed Day 90, Squyers and his scientists and engineers were quite delighted, and they became all the more motivated as Spirit and Opportunity miraculously kept working on Mars during next several years. While the scientists looked for more areas to be explored and studied, the engineers often handled small and big technical glitches to be solved in one way of another, and they all found themselves more emotionally attached to their rovers day by day.

Sadly, there eventually came a point where Spirit, which had to endure a harsher condition compared to its fellow rover, stopped to function in 2009, but Opportunity continued to function during next several years. Although it surely came to suffer more of mechanical deterioration and software problem during its later years, its human controllers kept it moving as usual, and it kept amazing them as remaining fairly well and competent.

The most touching part of the documentary comes from a number of Squyers’ team members who confide to us a lot on how much they came to care about Opportunity. The older team members cannot help but become sentimental because they put a considerable part of their lifetime onto Opportunity and its fellow rover. The younger team members regard these two rovers with respect and reverence because, well, these two rovers inspired many of them to pursue space exploration when they were kids.

In the end, there came an inevitable moment when Opportunity could not go on anymore. Due to the massive planetary dust storm on Mars in 2018, Opportunity ceased to function on June 12th, 2018, and that day was certainly quite bittersweet for its human controllers. Although it was just a machine, it was an endearing entity to them for many years, and everyone felt quite sad as arriving at the eventual end of their miraculous mission.

On the whole, “Good Night Oppy” is pretty engaging as a sincere chronicle of the two memorable rovers at its center, and director/co-writer/co-producer Ryan White, who previously made “Ask Dr. Ruth” (2019), did a splendid job of mixing archival and interview clips along with the vivid visual recreation of Opportunity, Spirit, and their extraordinary time on Mars. To be frank with you, I do not really know when we can actually go to Mars, but I really hope that both Opportunity and Spirit will be retrieved and then preserved someday for representing the better sides of our humanity, and I think you may hope for the same thing after watching this lovely documentary.

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La Vie en Rose (2007) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Non, je ne Regrette rien

Posted on December 19, 2022 by kaist455

As your average inconsequential movie reviewer, I have seen heaps of musician biography films come and go for more than 20 years, and not many of them can top what is so powerfully achieved in Olivier Dahan’s “La Vie en Rose”, which is thankfully re-released in South Korean theaters in this month. Besides being constantly fueled by the absolutely stunning lead performance at its center, the movie also works a rather messy but ultimately dazzling presentation of the complex human personality of its legendary real-life musician, and its many highlights touch me a lot even though more than 10 years have passed since I watched it right before doing a 4-week military training in late 2007.

That real-life musician in question is Édith Piaf (1915-1963), who is still remembered for her indelible performances of various songs such as, yes, “La Vie en Rose”. Considering how Piaf’s life and career were quite dramatic as being full of many ups and downs, it is certainly difficult to compress her tumultuous life and career into one feature film, but the screenplay by Dahan and his co-writer Isabelle Sobelman manages to overcome that as freely hopping among numerous key moments in Piaf’s life via its non-linear narrative. The overall result often feels jarring and confusing at first, but it gradually generates a sort of emotional narrative as the movie focuses more on Piaf’s later years, because this is more or less than the reflection of how old Piaf struggles to regard her life and career before her eventual death.

The early part of the film mainly revolves around Piaf’s unhappy and miserable childhood years. Born to alcoholic parents who did not care much about her, young Piaf, played by Manon Chevallier and then Pauline Burlet, was separated from her street singer mother when her acrobatic father returned from the war and took her to a brothel run by his mother, and then she had to leave that place again when her father later came back several years later. While assisting her father on one day, she comes to demonstrate a bit of her natural singing talent, and that is the humble but significant beginning of her musician career.

Several years later, Piaf, now played by Marion Cotillard, is still on the streets of Paris while earning her meager living day by day via her singing, but then she comes across a local nigh club owner who instantly recognizes her considerable potential. Thanks to him, she gets a chance to show more of her talent at his nightclub, and that catapults her to a quick stardom, and, alas, her usual poor judgment of men around her leads to a devastating throwback to her burgeoning career.

Nevertheless, Piaf eventually makes a triumphant return mainly thanks to the tough tutelage from her new accompanist, and the movie quickly moves forward to her prime period when she had one big success after another in not only France but also US. As she goes for joie de vivre as usual, she finds herself passionately fallen in love with a famous French boxer, and she does not even care much about the fact that he is already married and will probably never leave his wife and children.

These and other good moments in Piaf’s life are freely juggled along with many bad moments in her life, and the striking dramatic contrast resulted from that lets us get to know more about those compelling human contradictions inside Piaf. While she is often quite vulnerable, she is also a tempestuous diva driven by her strong will to perform, and one of the most poignant moments in the film, which still moves me to tears, comes from where she is still determined to perform for her audiences as usual despite her increasingly fragile physical condition. Everyone around her understandably try to dissuade her, but she remains adamant because, as a professional dedicated to her artistic craft, she believes she must not stop no matter what happens.

However, there eventually came a point where Piaf could not possibly go on anymore around 1960. Like Judy Garland, Piaf often depended a lot on alcohol and drugs for many years, and that caused her severe health deterioration during her last several years. Although she was only 48 years old at the time of her death, she looked quite more aged than she actually was, and the later part of the film depicting her painful last years are bitter and devastating before followed by her last hurrah accompanied with “Non je ne regrette rien”, which could have been the title of her memoir if she had written it.

All these and other things in the film are held strongly together by Cotillard’s unforgettable acting, which deservedly won the Best Actress Oscar (The movie also won another well-deserved Oscar for its makeup and hairstyling in addition to being nominated for Best Costume, by the way). Fully embodying many different sides of her character, her electrifying performance deftly swings along her character’s high and low points throughout the film without any misstep, and she also looks quite credible during a number of small and big performance scenes where she gets Piaf’s mannerism absolutely right with her top-notch lip-synching job.

The main weak point of the film lies in a number of various supporting characters who come and go around Piaf. I wonder whether they could be developed more, but that would probably be distracting instead because the movie is intended to be all about Piaf from the beginning. At least, a number of notable French performers including Emmanuelle Seigner, Sylvie Testud, and Gérard Depardieu fill their small spots as much as they can with each own presence, and Jean-Pierre Martins clicks well with Cotillard during several tender scenes between them.

On the whole, “La Vie en Rose” is still a superlative film to be experienced, and its sublime qualities remind me again of how forgettable many recent musician biography flicks are. Here is a movie which wants to do a lot more than merely recreating the life story of its real-life human subject, and I am glad to report that it still shines magnificently even after 15 years.

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Perisan Lessons (2020) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A mock language for survival

Posted on December 19, 2022 by kaist455

“Persian Lessons”, which was Belarus’ official submission to Best International Film Oscar in last year but then was disqualified due to its technical ineligibility, is about one man who survives the Holocaust via a mock language invented by himself. Although the movie does not escape much of its genre conventions, it is fairly engaging to watch how he manages to concoct that mock language bit by bit for his survival, and that compensates for the conventional aspects of the movie at times.

The story, which is set during the World War II period, mainly revolves around a young French Jewish lad named Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), and the movie opens with Gilles and many other Jewish people being taken to a spot where they are all going to be killed. At the last minute, he pretends to be a Persian via a book he happened to acquire right before that, and that draws the attention of a German officer named Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), who happens to be quite eager to learn Persian for a little personal reason.

Once Gilles is taken to a concentration camp where Koch stays, Koch has Gilles work in a kitchen in the concentration camp along with several other Jewish people, and he also demands Giles to teach him Persian during next several months. Because the possibility of his survival depends a lot on Koch, Gilles has no choice but to agree to do the lessons for Koch, though he does not know any other Persian word besides “baba” (It means “dad” in Persian, by the way).

Because Koch wants to learn at least 20 Persian words per one day, Gilles must find a way to concoct and then memorize “Persian” words to be taught to Koch. While initially becoming quite panic and desperate, Gilles soon come to find his own way. At first, he simply invents words for the objects in the kitchen, and then, as handling the list of the names of all those Jewish people sent to the concentration camp, he gets one little brilliant idea. Based on those names on the list, he makes his fake words via his own simple word system, which surely helps him memorize and then teach all of them to Koch (A Russian philologist at Moscow State University was hired to make around 600 hundred fake words for the film, and these words were actually based on the real names of documented victims of the Holocaust).

The lesson scenes between Gilles and Koch in the film are the most interesting part of the film. While Gilles tentatively doles out each of his fake words, Koch eagerly try to memorize them all because he does not know anything about Persian from the beginning. As a matter of fact, he later shows a little poem based on those fake words he learned, and he surely shows Gilles that he is a good student who does not miss much from his accidental tutor.

However, that still does not change the fact that Koch can just let Gilles killed at any point, and Gilles is reminded of this grim fact everyday. While he is not sent to Poland where many other Jewish people are transported and then killed, he has to see those doomed folks come and then go at the concentration camp, and he feels more conflicted as reminded again and again that there is nothing he can do about that.

In the meantime, Gilles has to focus more on his survival as he is still suspected by not only Koch but also several other German figures in the concentration camp. At one point later in the story, there comes an unexpected peril via one certain new prisoner, and that naturally generates some suspense, but the screenplay by Ilya Tsofin, which is partially inspired by the 1977 short story “Erfindung einer Sprache” (It means “Invention of a Language” in German, by the way) by German writer Wolfgang Kohlhaase, resorts to a little too easy resolution in my humble opinion.

During the last act where everything eventually falls apart for the German characters (Is this a spoiler?), the movie becomes more predictable than before, and that is where my level of interest was decreased a lot. In addition, many of the main characters around Gilles and Koch are more or less than bland stock supporting characters to be despised or pitied, and a subplot involved with two Jewish brothers with whom Gilles gets involved during this part is superficial without much dramatic weight.

Anyway, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, an Argentine actor whom you may remember for his memorable performance in Robin Campillo’s “BPM (Beats per Minute)” (2017), dutifully carries the film as ably handling three different languages as required. His solid lead performance is matched well by the effective acting from Lars Eidinger, and Eidinger wisely does not overplay his character’s loathsome sides while also not making any excuse on his character. While it is rather amusing to observe Koch’s sincere passion toward learning Gilles’ mock language, we are also chilled by his casual attitude to what he is assisting everyday at the concentration camp, and he is surely another example of the banality of evil.

Director/co-producer Vadim Perelman, a Ukrainian-Canadian-American filmmaker mainly known for his powerful debut film “House of Sand and Fog” (20003), did a fairly competent job, but “Persian Lessons” is still less impactful than many other notable Holocaust movies such as “Son of Saul” (2015). On the whole, it just mildly intrigued me instead of really engaging me on the emotional level, but I did not feel like wasting my time during my viewing at least, so I will let you decide whether you should check it out or not.

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Life of Hae-Oak (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Will she ever make it through?

Posted on December 17, 2022 by kaist455

Watching South Korean film “Life of Hae-Oak” is not a comfortable experience at all. Closely observing its young heroine’s seemingly endless predicament, the movie palpably conveys us her growing conflict and frustration, and that will probably make you wince more than once. Sadly, what is depicted in the film is not so different from what countless young people in the South Korean society have to endure day by day, and you may come to reflect on that a lot after the movie is over.

Lee Tae-kyoung, who previously drew my attention more for her solid lead performance in “Unboxing Girl” (2020), plays Lee Ra-el, a young woman who has studied for a civil service exam during several years since her college graduation. Not long after failing to pass the primary test, Ra-el moves to a rather shabby one-room residence for more focusing on her study, and her mother is delighted when the real estate agent tells her that all the previous residents were lucky enough to pass their exams. It is clear to us from the beginning that Ra-el’s mother expects a lot from Ra-el, and Ra-el has followed her mother’s expectation as a good daughter, but we come to sense that she is not so sure about whether she really wants to pass the exam and then become a civil servant.

Anyway, Ra-el subsequently embarks on preparing for the upcoming primary test, but then she gets frustrated again due to another failure. While her mother is ready to support and cheer her up as usual, Ra-el feels more pressured and conflicted than before, and that is probably the main reason why she later comes to show an inexplicable allergic symptom.

Fortunately, Ra-el succeeds in the next attempt to pass the primary test, but there are still two next tests she must also pass before becoming a civil servant. She naturally tries to focus as much as possible, but, alas, she fails to pass the 2nd test more than once. To her embarrassment, that seems to make that allergic symptom of hers much worse than before, and there is a cringe-inducing moment when she inadvertently causes inconvenience in a study room full of young people who are also trying to prepare for their exams as much as they can.

Meanwhile, Ra-el’s mother keeps pressuring her daughter with her cheery expectation as usual, and she even suggests that Ra-el should change her name for bringing more luck to her another attempt to pass the test. Now Ra-el becomes “Hae-oak”, and we get a little amusement when she is reminded that she will have to do some extra paperwork for making her new name official on the record.

Around the narrative point where our heroine gives another shot at the test, you will probably expect something to happen sooner or later, and the movie certainly shows more of how fragile she really is. Yes, she is ready to give all the efforts she can muster this time, but, alas, she eventually finds herself quite more agitated than expected, and we are not so surprised when she subsequently reaches to a sort of breaking point.

This ongoing predicament of hers is often alternated with a series of moments involved with an all-you-can-eat pork restaurant where she works part-time. At one point, Ra-el has to handle a very rude male customer who seems to be enjoying bullying her just for the quality of the meat served to him, and Ra-el remains passive and helpless as usual. To make matters worse, her boss does not help her much, and she later finds out something bad about her boss while trying to do her job in the restaurant kitchen as demanded.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that these two narrative lines eventually converge around the end of the film, and the screenplay by director Park Jung-hwan, who incidentally makes a feature debut here after making several acclaimed short film, and his co-writer Jung Ji-in, sticks to its detached attitude even at that point. You may be a bit disappointed with how the story simply stops right before the epilogue scene, but you will be a bit chilled as the epilogue scene indirectly points out how many young people are letting their spirit and youth ground out there in the South Korean society even at this point.

The movie is definitely not something pleasant to watch at all, but it still holds our attention as vividly capturing its heroine’s trembling emotional status along the story. Quite different from her more active appearance in “Unboxing Girl” here in this film, Lee demonstrates again that she is indeed another interesting new South Korean actress to watch, and her good lead performance ably carries the film to the end while also supported by a few substantial supporting performers including Jeon Guk-hyang. Jeon is convincing as a mother who expects too much from her daughter without really asking what her daughter really wants to do for her own life, and her rather aggressive cheeriness in the film tells us a lot about why Ra-el cannot easily say no to her mother.

On the whole, “Life of Hae-oak” is one of those gloomy South Korean films presenting the harsh and unpleasant sides of the South Korean society, and I admire its dry but empathetic storytelling and Lee’s commendable efforts. Although I am a bit dissatisfied with its lack of resolution, I guess that is the point of the movie, so I will put aside my reservation to some degree as mildly recommending it to you.

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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Decision to End

Posted on December 16, 2022 by kaist455

Martin McDonagh’s new film “The Banshees of Inisherin” is a modest but undeniably compelling mix of comedy, tragedy, and some violence as you can expect from him. As calmly and morbidly presenting how one kind of relationship is gradually turned into another kind between its two different main characters, the movie ably pulls us into their problematic situation, and you will admire how dexterously it leads them to the inevitable conclusion of their little feud.

Set in a fictional Irish island named Inisherin during the 1920s, the movie begins with a sudden unexpected change between Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) and his close friend Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) on one day. Just because he does not want to spend time with Pádraic anymore, Colm decides to end his longtime friendship with Pádraic, and Pádraic becomes quite perplexed as wondering why his friend does not like him now. He later tries to approach to Colm more than once, but Colm adamantly refuses him, and he also says that he will do something very drastic if Pádraic attempts to talk with him again.

More baffled than ever, Pádraic tries to understand his friend’s adamant refusal to talk with him, though Colm makes it very clear to Pádraic that he simply wants to focus more on composing his folk music during the rest of life. Feeling a sudden hole inside his mundane daily life, Pádraic becomes more obsessed with getting his friend back, and his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and a local lad named Dominic Kearney (Barry Keoghan) are willing to help Pádraic to some degree.

However, the situation becomes all the worse as Pádraic tries more and more for getting close to Colm again, and Colm becomes quite angry and frustrated because he ironically finds himself interacting a lot more with Pádraic than he wanted. As he sharply points out as one point, he did not mind how dull Pádraic actually is, but now he puts his artistic activities way above his relationship with Pádraic, which is a lot more inconsequential to him than before. Pádraic cannot accept this at all, while feeling quite hurt and exasperated behind his passive aggressive attitude.

With the ongoing civil war in the distant background, the mood becomes more intense and brooding step by step, and McDonagh’s screenplay carefully builds up narrative momentum as letting us get to know more about its two main characters and their isolated little world. Like many of others around them, they have been stuck there for many years, and we come to discern more of how important Colm was to Pádraic’s mundane daily life. After all, he needs someone to talk with beside his sister, and he is not consoled much by spending some time with Dominic, while his sister turns out to have been quite eager to get out of the island as soon as possible.

The main surprise in the movie comes from how much Pádraic and Colm push and pull each other throughout the story, so I will be more discreet about what happens next between them, but I can tell you that you will get exactly what you can expect from McDonagh, who previously gave us “In Bruges” (2008) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017). Thanks to his sharp and efficient handing of story and characters, the movie constantly holds our attention despite its leisurely narrative pacing, and that is the main reason why several sudden moments of violence in the film are dramatically effective. At one certain crucial narrative point, the movie does not flinch at all from a little gruesome moment involved with Colm’s grim bow, and you will wince as seeing how that moment leads to a more disturbing moment later in the story.

The movie depends a lot on the darkly amusing comic chemistry between Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who previously worked together in “In Bruges”. During last 20 years, Farrell has steadily demonstrated his considerable talent and presence as appearing a number of acclaimed films such as Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017) and Kogonada’s “After Yang” (2022), and he is simply terrific in his seemingly plain but undeniably rich and engaging performance which recently garnered him the Best Actor award at the Venice International Film Festival. As watching how he skillfully handles his character’s incorrigible obtuseness throughout the film, I wonder whether McDonagh told Farrell something similar to what John Huston often said to Jack Nicholson on the set of Huston’s penultimate film “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985): “Remember, he’s stupid”.

On the opposite, Gleeson, who will surely be Oscar-nominated like his co-star, is a fantastic acting partner to say the least, and he is equally terrific as phlegmatically embodying his character’s deep stubbornness. As he and Farrell clash with each other in one way or another, they are supported well by a number of colorful performers, and Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan, a young promising Irish actor who previously appeared along with Farrell in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”, did a commendable job of holding each own small place around Farrell and Gleeson.

In conclusion, “The Banshees of Inisherin” is quite an absorbing piece of work as swinging back and forth between absurd comedy and intense drama, and McDonagh pulls off another notable success just like he did in his previous films. I really enjoyed how the story and characters move from one memorable moment to another with the growing sense of inevitability, and I am still reflecting on the eventual ending of the film, which incidentally takes me back to that famous line in Orson Welles’ great film “Citizen Kane” (1941): “Only you’re going to need more than one lesson. And you’re going to get more than one lesson.”

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