Melbourne Cinematheque- The Politics of Corruption: Francesco Rosi’s Engaged Cinema (week III)

To finish off the Francesco Rosi season at Melbourne Cinematheque is Many Wars Ago (1970) and Carmen (1984).

Many Wars Ago was funded by Rosi himself and the gritty, angry and unforgiving story presented to the viewer could explain why no one else would fund it. Based on the memoirs of Emilio Lussu’s experiences as an Italian troop in World War I, Rosi tells the story of front-line soldiers facing the Austrian army in the Alps. When they are ordered by their general to enter the Austrian camps- despite their lack of provisions- the Italians mutiny. Not only drawing on class-conflict and struggle, Rosi also looks at the personal anguish soldier’s face between obeying military orders and obeying their conscience.

Carmen is Rosi’s film adaption of Bizet’s opera and, clocking in at 152 minutes, it is a forced to be reckoned with. Keeping with Bizet’s well-known opera of a soldier falling in love with a factory worker who does not reciprocate his feelings (and yet flirts with him relentlessly) the film was shot on location in Andalusia by Pasqualino de Santis who was also responsible for the photography in Many Wars Ago. Just as Carmen does not shy away from Don Jose, Rosi does not relent from highlighting the similarities between unresolved sexual attraction and violence, all in highly stylised and choreographed shots.

Next week Melbourne Cinematheque will begin a three week retrospective of the films of Josef con Sternberg.

Melbourne Cinematheque- The Politics of Corruption: Francesco Rosi’s Engaged Cinema (week II)

It’s time for some more post-neo-realist, pseudo-documentary, politically driven cinema!
It’s time for Melbourne Cinematheque!

Salvatore Giuliano (1962) is a non-linear docu-drama that brilliantly highlights Rosi’s use of real-life events and people within a fictional narrative. Here, Rosi focuses on the rise and fall of Sicilian gangster Giuliano who was found shot in a terrace-garden in 1950 at the age of 28. Naturally, things are not as simple as they first appear. Giuliano, along with many others, had been hired by politicians to do their dirty work as they tried to create an independent Sicilian State, promising the gangsters immunity from their crimes. Now these politicians are in power it seems that these promises will not be kept.

Next is Lucky Luciano (1973) wherein Rosi explores the life of Charley ‘Lucky’ Luciano through a series of flash-backs and flash-forwards. Luciano was a Sicilian gangster turned naturalised American who went about killing his rivals and was sent back to Italy so the American government did not have to deal with him. With an outstanding cast, Rosi’s ‘gangster’ film defies all Genre types whilst looking at power, greed and corruption.

Melbourne Cinematheque- The Politics of Corruption: Framcesco Rosi’s Engaged Cinema

Another three week retrospective starts at Melbourne Cinematheque this week, this time focusing on Italian filmmaker Francesco Rosi. Having worked under Antonioni, Monicelli, and Visconti, Rosi took guidance from all whilst creating his own distinct style, often incorporating real life figures, events, and issues. A frontrunner of the Italian Post-neorealist movement, Rosi’s films are often overlooked. Thankfully Cinematheque has a vast array of his works in the coming weeks.

To begin we have Illustrious Corpses (1976). Formatted to be a film that follows along Breton’s surrealist drawing game Cadavre Exquis, the film is set in the political upset of Italy in the ‘70s, with leftists clashing with the conservative government and riots, disappearances, and murder becoming commonplace. Inspector Rogas is trying to find who killed two high-profile judges, the case leading him to realise that many prisoners the judges incarcerated were actually innocent. Whilst Rogas looses faith in the government system he has sworn to protect the revolutionaries he is investigating are also forced to face up to their ideals and recognise that the implementation of them can change them

Whilst set in West Germany, I Magliari (1959) still deals with the trials and tribulations constantly present throughout Italy and its inhabitants. Mario Balducci (Renato Salvatori) is first presented as living in Hannover. He then settles in Hamburg to sell cloth on the advice of a gregarious new acquaintance who turns out to have connections with organised crime. A beautifully shot exploration of the exploiting of immigrants and the marginalised.

What’s on around Melbourne-town? CineCult!

Looking for a super camp martial arts film starring Jean-Claude van Damme and supposedly based on a true story to fill in your Tuesday night? Well, we have just the thing.

This month at CineCult we are screening BloodSport (1988) which follows the career of Frank Dux, an French-Canadian martial artist who infiltrates Asia’s underground martial ring –‘Kumite’- in order to win the championship. Meanwhile the American government are trying to hinder him because they need him to fight on their side.

Cinecult takes place at 303Bar (303 High St Northcote) with the film starting at 7.30pm and open from 7.
A gold-coin donation at the door is all you need to experience the greatness that is this film.

Check out CineCult303 on blogspot and CineCult303 on Facebook for more updates.

Melbourne Cinematheque- All is Grace: The uncompromising spirituality of Robert Bresson

“My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.” -Robert Bresson.

Let us talk about Robert Bresson. A French filmmaker who inspired many of the Nouvelle Vague, Bresson himself was influenced by three major aspects of his life; his Catholic childhood, his time as a painter, and his experiences as a prisoner of war. Over forty years he completed thirteen feature films, all distinctively his own. His characters battle against the situations they find themselves in as they search for redemption and meaning in life. They try to find if their life is being driven by their own free will, or by the determinism of a higher power.
Bresson is also noted for having his actors (often non-professional actors to begin with) rehearse scenes so often that the actions of the characters became seamless and second-nature, thus allowing Bresson to capture some of the most naturalistically shot acting sequences in cinema. Bresson also attempted (and essentially mastered), through cinematography, the fusing of sounds and images together in order to create an effect that he believed could only be found within the cinema.

Based on the memoir of Andre Devigny, a prisoner of war held by the Nazis at Fort Montluc, A Man Escaped (1956) follows the plight of captured French Resistance fighter Fontaine. Filmed within the walls of the actual prison, Bresson captures the actions of a man sentenced to death who will now stop at nothing to escape. Filmed with outstanding precision, attention to detail and a shared understanding between director and subject, the film won Best Director at Cannes in 1957 and was Bresson’s most critically and successful film.

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) follows the lives of two beings; Marie a girl growing up on a farm, and Balthazar, her donkey. Eventually the pair becomes separated and the film follows both as they are mistreated and victimised by various people they encounter, passively taking the abuse. Balthazar’s suffering allows him to become a saintly figure in death, a faint that is not so certain for Marie.

Melbourne Cinematheque- Helen Levitt

Photographer Helen Levitt is the focus of this week’s Melbourne Cinematheque with two feature films and two shorts she worked on screening. Levitt, a staple of the New York arts scene from the 1940s to her death at 95 in 2009, has been noted for her ability to capture the everyday life and moments of joy and heartache in the working class lives of those in New York. She also transferred to colour prints quite early, experimenting with overexposure, saturation, and dyeing the image. After being introduced to Luis Bunuel she took an interest in film and worked for many years as a consultant and cinematographer on various low-budget and collective films.

The Quiet One (1948) is a semi-documentary directed by Sidney Meyers which follows the life of a ten-year-old African-America boy growing up in Harlem. Having never been shown kindness or compassion in his home or school life Donald Peters lashes out against society. Eventually he is sent to the Wiltwyck School for Boys which focuses on rehabilitation and reform where psychiatrists try to find out what is ‘wrong’ with him, never realising that it was societies neglect that meant that Donald never had a chance.
Following this feature is the short In the Street (1948) which Levitt worked on, showing life in Spanish Harlem.

The Savage Eye (1959) is an essayistic documentary, the product of a four-year long collaborative between various directors (Sidney Meyers, Ben Maddow, Joseph Strick) and cinematographers (Helen Levitt, Jack Couffer, Haskell Wexler). Barbara Baxley is recently divorced and looking for a fresh start in Los Angeles. The film takes the viewer to various instances in Barbara’s new life from car accidents, to religious fanatics, to burlesque shows- all beautifully shot.
Following is Emotions of Everyday Living: The Steps of Age (1950), a short directed by Ben Maddow and produced by Levitt that focuses on the retirement of a crane driver and the effect this has on the relationship he has with his wife.

MQFF- An Ordinary Family

Though films focussing on ‘coming out’ and ‘family reactions’ do appear a lot in Queer cinema, and at times one does wish everyone could just move past it, it is because it is a process that is constantly being faced by both those in and out of the Queer community. Whilst societies consciousness at large may be changing toward the LGBTI community and such issues as equal marriage, adoption rights, death rights, and so on -with many being played out and debated more and more in mainstream outlets- it is still something quite different to have a direct family member to put a face to the cause. It is this struggle of going from only hearing about or have a distant acquaintance with such an issue to being thrust into a position where you are expected to make a decision that will have real-life effect, and it is the build-up and consequences of one brothers decision that An Ordinary Family (Mike Akel) focuses on.

Seth (Greg Wise), having apparently tried for years to be what his family wanted and expected of him, eventually gave up, moved away, and started a relationship with William (Chad Anthony Miller). Yet a few years on the need for family approval and acceptance is still strong. Thus, summer finds Seth going back to Texas for the annual family vacation and bringing William with him. However it quickly becomes apparent that only his sister-in-law new that Seth was not only bringing William but that he was gay. Cue awkward family dinner, awkward family breakfast, awkward family conversations, etcetera.
With the father now deceased, the family patriarch is Thomas (Troy Schremmer), a Minister who not only disapproves of Seth’s “lifestyle choices” and doesn’t want William to be alone with his children, but also resents Seth for abandoning the family after their family died. It is this strained relationship that the film centres around as other family members slowly come to accept William. One such convert is Chris, who is married to Seth’s sister Sharon and has a habit of making the most inappropriate comments. Initially he not only denies that Seth is gay but then becomes worried that William will make a pass at him. However, as the week plays out, Chris and William end up bonding over various aspects of their lives.

Akel’s tight directing and strong ensemble cast make this film one of the better films that focuses on the issues still facing many individuals and families over coming out and everything attached to it.

MQFF- Insects in the Backyard

Banned in its native Thailand, Insects in the Backyard (2010) looks at the dysfunctional relationship between Tanya (played by the writer and director Thanwarin Sukhaphisit) and her teenage charges- Jenny and Johnny. A melancholic study into the three characters lives, the film chronicles the descent of their barely-there family.
Jenny (Suchada Rojmanothum) is seventeen and has a habit of falling obsessively in love with boys she has been dating only a few days and then not understanding when they suddenly disappear, driven away from her obsessive need of knowing where they are. Fifteen year old Johnny (Nonpavit Dansriboon) has dreams of killing Tanya, and plays computer games whilst talking about girls with his even more socially awkward best friend Man. And then there is Tanya. Tanya is in her mid-thirties, an alcoholic, a transvestite, a chain-smoker, lives her life inspired by Classical Hollywood actresses (whose many portraits adorn her walls), writes cliché romance novels, and is completely alienated from Jenny and Johnny.

As a form of teenage rebellion -or just as something to do because neither seems to go to school- both Jenny and Johnny, without the other knowing, become prostitutes. Jenny because her latest boyfriend is, and Johnny because, well, it is never really explained why Johnny has become an underage rent boy but his apathy and disaffected attitude don’t seem to matter to his mainly male clients.

From what I could infer, Tanya is actually the children’s father who, after the death of their mother, assumed the ‘mother role’- both physically and mentally- he thought they needed. It is unclear though, as are many elements of the film. The scene where Tanya is attacked by male youths in the neighbourhood was awkwardly shot, making the attack much harder for the audience to process, especially since it is unsure if it is real or imagined, much like the rape fantasy that soon follows. There are numerous cut away shots and unnecessary scenes, and this, coupled with the slow pace of the film, make the 91 minute feature seem much longer. Though there are some funny moments, mostly centred on Tanya and her obsession with becoming the ideal Western housewife.

Melbourne Cinematheque- Asian Australia

Blazing Continent (1968) is a Japanese film by Shogoro Nishimura that was filmed in New South Wales but never officially released in Australia. It follows the trip taken from Japan to Australia by Keiichi (Tetsuya Watari), an artist who wishes to explore the barren Australian landscape. When he arrives, however, he runs into an ex-lover who is now engaged to an Australian mining engineer. This meeting leads all three into a downward spiral and into events that they cannot control.

Fun Fact!- The Man From Hong Kong was the first ever Australia/ Hong Kong co-production. It is also one of my favourite Brian Trenchard-Smith films.

Anyway, to begin with, the film stars Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby (Australia’s own James Bond) and has the two of them fight it out, martial arts style, around an open fire place (spoiler alert: it doesn’t turn out too well for ol’ Lazenby and his hands).
Secondly, the film opens with a fight scene on Uluru. Not just at the site of Uluru but literally on Uluru and the fight is complete with cartoon influenced sound-effects. Ahh, the things you get away with in 1975…
Wang Yu plays Inspector Fang Sing Leng, a Cantonese martial arts specialist who has come to Australia to help clean the Sydney streets of drugs. Whilst doing this he is also wooing a journalist, showing Jack Wilton (Lazenby) who is boss, and up-showing the Australian police (Hugh Keays-Byrne and Roger Ward) every chance he gets. He also manages some hang-gliding and horse riding in his down time.

MQFF- Break My Fall

Break My Fall (2011) documents the last four days of a couple in their mid-twenties as they try to navigate through the indie-scene of East London where people wake up at night and taking drugs every few hours to get through the day is par for the course. As Liza’s (Kat Redstone) 25th birthday approaches her 4-year relationship with girlfriend Sally (Sophie Anderson) seems to unravel before the viewers eyes. The characters themselves, however, seem to be completely unaware that not only is their relationship crumbling around them but, really, the relationship ended long ago and they are really just clinging to memories of the past and a misguided hope for the future.
The insecure Liza and disaffected Sally are also in a band together, yet can barely manage a rehearsal due to their chaotic home life. This band opens up the introduction of their two closest friends; Vin (Kai Brandon Ly)-a hustler trying to woo Sally away from Liza-, and Jamie (Collin Clay Chace) -a barman who is trying to find the perfect man- with the two men being as oblivious about the dark undercurrent as the two girls.

Written, produced, and directed by first timer Kanchi Wichmann the film has a very ‘this is my first film’ feel to it. Edgy youths with asymmetric haircuts and cool clothes, music (Wichmann also has a history in music, and film-clip style montages are abound), un-focused images, relationship angst, hand-held camera work… you name it, this film has it. But it appears to work, largely due to the strong casting of Redstone and Anderson.
The film does lag in places, especially when dealing with elements outside of the central relationship, possibly due to the fact that the film was originally conceived to be a short. But Wichmann is able to pull your attention back to the lives of the protagonists, most notably with the scenes where she appears to interweave what feels to be memories with current events taking place in the lives of the two girls, leaving the viewer recognising that this bleak and doomed relationship was once something fertile and beautiful, and not something to be taken lightly.

Another screening of Break My Fall is on Thursday 22nd, 5.30pm at Greater Union.