Notes on Cine Europa 16, part 2

Among the first 4 films that this film junkie saw in this year's edition of Cine Europa, it was Nanni Moretti's touching family drama "The Son's Room" (Italy) that made quite an impression. Let's see if there will be another one in these next 4 films. 

"The Phantom Father" (Romania) by Lucian Georgescu 

Theme- and style-wise, this Romanian entry is miles away from the films of the Romanian New Wave that we have been accustomed to - examples given, Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", Radu Muntean's "The Paper Will Be Blue" and "Tuesday, After Christmas", Corneliu Porumboiu's "Police, Adjective" and "12:08 East of Bucharest", Cristi Puiu's "Aurora" and "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu". But compared to the country's entry in the festival last year, "The Rest Is Silence", Georgescu's debut film is much better. Here the humor is wry rather than slapstick, which is just good for the film. And once again affirming what I have written somewhere else that in a film festival, there will somehow be one or two works that pay tribute to the wonders of cinema, it is "The Phantom Father" that falls under such a description (curiously, it was also the Romanian entry last year that fitted to such description). Part mystery film, part road movie and part homage to cinema, the film is an oddball that little by little takes a bizarre turn towards the end that one can't help taking it tongue-in-cheek. The last time that I felt unexpectedly bemused by a film's off-the-wall turn of events was with the Coen brothers' "Barton Fink", though the kind found in Georgescu's work does not approach the flamboyant proportions of that found in the Cannes-winning film. In its own way, "The Phantom Father" is a breather from the heavy-handed works of the Romanian New Wave. 

"Frozen Silence" (Spain) by Gerardo Herrero 

Reflective of the film's snow-covered warscape, this Spanish entry is a chilling and thoughtful war film that manages to wrack the nerves of the viewers in not a few instances, most notably in the Russian roulette sequence whose intensity parallels that of the same sequence in Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter". I can almost feel the audience covering their eyes every time the Spanish soldiers and officers point the gun at their temples as everyone else places his bet! But such risky scenes aside, a commendable quality of the film is the way it was written. As the film deals with fascism and war, the writer Nicolas Saad (adapting from a novel) could have taken the route of covering a much broader and general scenario. Instead, the focus is on a soldier/detective's investigation of a series of seemingly related murders, from which we get to encounter a host of indelible characters who may have been directly or indirectly related to the murders and from which arose intriguing questions in regards political beliefs, faith, trust, revenge and human nature. We know that the film is delicately structured in the way it is "divided" into 4 parts which correspond to the 4 verses of a prayer which is a key component in the film. How I just wish that "Frozen Silence" achieves the same level of impact as that of Jean Renoir's "The Grand Illusion" and Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory". But nevertheless, it is a gripping work. 

"Beyond" (Sweden) by Pernilla August 

There are films that are still able to deliver the goods on some other levels despite having a familiar strain to it. The Swedish film "Beyond" is one such example. This drama covers familiar grounds - being haunted by the past, parent-child conflict, domestic abuse, alcoholism and the eventual redemption. But all of these are elevated by the three lead actresses' superior performances - painful, truthful and layered. A simple glance, a quiet drop of tears, a seemingly banal mode of action all prove once again that an actor need not resort to histrionics to bring across the void and damage in a character's personhood. First-time filmmaker Pernilla August is one such competent actress (see Bille August's "The Best Intentions"), and such quality is without doubt instilled in her film's cast of characters. 

"Project Nim" (UK) by James Marsh 

Technically, this documentary is "British" because its director, James Marsh, is a Brit. But essentially, this is an "American" film as it is set in America and the host of people that the director interviews are Americans. Perhaps, it does not really matter, as the center of the documentary is a chimpanzee (Nim of the title), which is supposed to not have any "nationality". Anyway, setting such concern aside, the film starts out as seemingly affable and light, but progressively becomes sinister and disturbing, until it ends on a sad note. Just like in Marsh's earlier documentary, "Man on Wire", we have here in "Project Nim" people who want to defy conventions and cross boundaries, to push to the limits the capability of the human mind and will. Not a bad idea, it seems. But in doing so, man may actually do more harm than good, as what he/she initially thought so. With the fate of the chimpanzee serving as a catalyst, our so-called scientific "research" and "experiment" may in fact bring out the worst in us - selfishness, greed, being abusive and insensitive, even megalomania. "Project Nim" slyly shows that beasts may be more capable of being humane than us human beings. This Sundance-winning documentary is a provocative food-for-thought.

With these second set of films, what stood out for this film junkie was Marsh's documentary. However, there is still none of that cinematic work that has rocked my world. 

(Next:"With a Wolf's Gait", "Footsteps in the Sand")