Notes on Cine Europa 16, part 1

European Cinema will always remain an invaluable part of film history and culture. It was in Europe where the world first saw the birth of cinema. Europe was also a witness to a number of defining moments in world history and the place of origin of a number of world-renowned figures - the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, the Enlightenment and the two World Wars;Socrates and Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas and Dante Alighieri, Descartes and Hegel;William Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietszche, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Indeed, the bastion of world-shaping events, and of radical and revolutionary thinkers - a rich mining ground for any work of art, like cinema. Thankfully, we have here in our country the long-running and well-attended Cine Europa, a festival of select European films. Now on its 16th year ("sweet sixteen", as the organizers call it), the festival features 21 films from 17 member-countries of the European Union. What more could cineastes ask for? 

This film junkie was able to see the following films thus far: 

"A Royal Affair" (Denmark) by Nikolaj Arcel 

The festival's opening film is a rather conventional historical/costume drama with a conventional plot. Nothing groundbreaking or provocative here. One does not need to have the mind of a genius to figure out how the movie will progress and, eventually, conclude. This could have been an insufferably long and dull film - if not only for Mikel Folsgaard. In his debut performance as King Christian VII, a ragamuffin in a monarch's clothing, Folsgaard livens up the proceedings everytime he appears onscreen. Each time that he opens his mouth and utters his lines, the audience can't helped but be amused that we wonder if we are actually watching more of a court jester than of a man of royal blood. As Denmark's unstable and easily-swayed king at that time, the actor refreshingly comes across as both villain and victim that we wish the film was actually more centered on him than on the doomed romance. On a less epic scale, Folsgaard's performance reminds me of Tom Hulce's Mozart in Milos Forman's maddening "Amadeus". The other actor in the film, Mads Mikkelsen, is one fine actor as well. It's only that I like his work more in Thomas Vinterberg's thought-provoking "The Hunt" (where he won the Best Actor prize in Cannes last year) and in Denmark's Cine Europa entry last year, Susanne Bier's rich melodrama "In A Better World". While Alicia Vikander, who portrayed the troubled queen, even if she exudes passion, is definitely no Helen Mirren or Vanessa Redgrave. 

"Divided We Fall" (Czech Republic) by Jan Hrebejk 

Theme-wise, Czech Republic's entry this year is similar to its entry last year, "Lidice" - both films deal with the horrors of the Holocaust. My problem with the latter film was that its portrayal of the tragic historical event was black-and-white, with no hints at complexity or ambiguity, which downplayed rather than underlined the said horrors. I wish that I did not have any issue with Hrebejk's film. My beef with this one is that, while without doubt engaging, it can't really decide if it wants to come across as a comedy or as a drama, or both. I believe that such an "identity crisis" is problematic for a film dealing with such a serious and heavy subject as the Holocaust. When the film tries to be funny, it falls flat (definitely no "Life Is Beautiful");when it tries to be harrowing, it just feels detached (definitely no "Come and See"). It does not help at all that the character of the bespectacled lead actor comes off as rather aloof (definitely no Roberto Benigni or the young boy in Elem Klimov's masterpiece). By an act of grace, however, the final frame - a reworking of the Madonna and Child (which figures subtly in the film) and to the accompaniment of a classical piece often-heard in an Andrei Tarkovsky work - is rather uplifting.

"Mid-August Lunch" by Gianni di Gregorio and "The Son's Room" by Nanni Moretti (Italy) 

Both of Italy's film entries are typically small dramas that have those small and quiet moments that convey a lot about human emotions and relationships. Likewise, both works tread territories that may not be within the audience's "comfort zone" when it comes to film-watching. The first film deals with old age and the scenario of being left to the care of others by your own family. There are no glamorous, sultry or hunky personalities here;what we are shown instead are geriatrics, with all the wrinkled, spotted or loose physicality shown through extreme and slow-panned close-ups, as if being lovingly savored by the director, the film's lead actor and who himself has already approached old age. It does not always happen that we encounter films that focus solely on the old (and honestly, I can't exactly remember when was the last time I saw a film of such kind). That is why when we do, it somehow hits us hard, being fragile and sensitive as they are and as we all have old folks of our own. The interesting thing is that despite the delicate nature of the biological bracket of Di Gregorio's film, its feel is more casual and improvisational, ala-John Cassavetes. One may even daresay that the film has no story to speak of! This may even come as a surprise if one learns that "Mid-August Lunch" was produced by acclaimed filmmaker Matteo Garrone, who made such grim films as "Gomorrah" and "Reality". 

On the other hand, the Palme d'Or-winner ''The Son's Room'' deals with death and grief. The remarkable thing is that, given such heavy themes and even if it has moments that pierce one's heart, the film feels light, improvisational and even quirky at times. It has those short and small moments that appear to have been done offhand, as if ''life caught unawares'' ala-Dziga Vertov. The film moves at such a relaxed rhythm that even the pivotal moment where the grief-stricken family's Saving Grace is already introduced to the viewers has a random feel that almost amounts to being an ''anti-climax''. A film-buff friend told me before that ''The Son's Room'' was a change of pace for its director-actor Nanni Moretti whose previous works bordered on quirky and unusual humor (for example, ''Caro Diario''), as this acclaimed film took a more dramatic approach. I am not exactly sure how he would define ''drama'' in the context of Moretti's film, but we may somewhat argue that in this filmmaker's hands, drama need not be heavy-handed and serious-minded, even if you are working on sensitive themes.

(Next:''The Phantom Father'', ''Frozen Silence'', ''Beyond'' and ''Project Nim'')