Visual treats in QCinema

There was such a strong and impressive international film line-up in the recently-concluded QCinema International Film Festival (Oct. 22-31 at Trinoma, Gateway and Robinsons cinemas) that it became such a cinematic wonderland for avid cineastes. The films were just irresistible that it was practically a now-or-never scenario for us. I was able to see 12 of all the international films shown and if I were to choose just one best film among them (no matter how hard), that would be Indian filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane's perceptive and striking "Court", which makes use of the absurdist trial of an ageing folk singer to lay bare the failings of the Indian legal system as well as the class differences of the court denizens. Yet, one of my favorites, if not the best, among those that I've seen was Ana Lily Amirpour's "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" (2015, Iran). 

Not since I saw on the big screen Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" and Pawel Pawlikowski's "Ida" (both shown last year, with the latter also in QCinema), have I seen another film that makes such an impressive and evocative use of deep black-and-white cinematography. Which is something that's just apt for the Iranian film's prevalent atmosphere of decay, danger and sadness, the kind of modern-day suburb that David Lynch would paint a picture of. Those smoke-spewing factories, those dark and quiet sidewalks and street-corners, those shady and mysterious characters, those landscapes that look like something etched in a nightmare - it wouldn't come as a surprise if these would also constitute an apocalypse. On the outset, we may look at "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" as a vampire film, as it follows the story of a lonesome and mysterious goth (played by the director herself), donning a black veil and riding on a skateboard, who roams the streets of a city unsubtly-named Bad City at night to prey on men who have done not-so-good things. 

Yet, it may be interesting to note that the film could very well be a subversive piece of work. For one, it features the kind of violence, nudity, sexual situations and drug use not often found, if at all, in Iranian cinema, which is popularly-known to cineastes for its child protagonists and its portrayal of a world as seen through a child's eyes. Another is its featuring of a potently-malevolent and probably-avenging female lead character who can have at her mercy no less than those male do-no-gooders, something atypical - or even taboo - in a highly-patriarchal Iranian society. More so, it doesn't often happen that we come across an Iranian film that can be steeped in existential brooding, in contrast with the socially- and/or politically-conscious works of Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Asghar Farhadi. Abbas Kiarostami may also dwell in the philosophy of human existence in his films, but perhaps not as downbeat as in Amirpour's film. 

Another thing that's fascinating in the film (probably owing to the director being US-based) is its quirky fondness for some hallmarks of Western pop culture, which is, again, something that we may not expect from an Eastern culture that's fundamentalist and protectionist by nature. Notice the James Dean-like male lead character, with his tucked-in white shirt and black jeans and angst and anger toward a burdensome parent, and the utilization of some retro-cool songs. Haunting, mysterious and brooding, "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" shows how certain social conventions and rigidity can be challenged under the guise of a well-known western movie genre. 

Since we're already at it, let me just briefly mention something about Peter Greenaway's "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" (2015, UK), another film shown in QCinema. Likewise, this one is a visual treat, albeit more flamboyant and playful. Anyone who's familiar with the director's "The Pillow Book" and "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" knows that he's as restless and as ingenious as he can be when it comes to the visual aspect of his films. In "Eisenstein in Guanajuato", viewers are in for a parade of one bag of visual cinematic trick after another (geometric, physical, structural, textural). Or should I say that it's really a rollercoaster ride? It's such one breathless ride that the visuals nearly overpower the narrative, which in itself is provocative for its postulation of the titular master filmmaker's (homo)sexual awakening during his few-days stay in the titular Mexican town to shoot an eventually-botched film, while at the same time affectionate for it shows Greenaway's respect and admiration for one of world cinema's influential auteurs. Yet, it can't be denied that the style and method of the film - or, for that matter, any Greenaway film - is unlike any other that we normally see in the movies. Plus the fact that the two main actors (the Finnish Elmer Bäck as Sergei Eisenstein and the Mexican Luis Alberti as Palomino Cañedo, the object of desire) are so game in their characters that we manage to have someone to hold on to as we go along the exhilarating trip that is the film. 

Ana Lily Amirpour's "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night": No-good men are put under the mercy of a malevolent female