Peter Jackson's World War One visual/verbal 3D amazement, THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD opens in South Florida -- and nationwide

I've never seen anything quite like new film this over my entire 77-year movie-going life. (TrustMovies saw his first film, or so he was told, before the age of one year; by the time he was 2-1/2, he had run away from home in order to go to the "picture show.") What filmmaker Peter Jackson has accomplished in THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD -- he dedicates his film to his New Zealand grandfather who fought in WWI -- is so truly surprising and unexpected (even if, oddly enough, you have already reads lots about the film itself) that it will leave you amazed and shaken. This is hands down the closest thing to being in war itself that the movie experience has given me.

Most filmgoers best know Jackson (shown, left) via his Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, though early fans will remember his bizarre and oh-so-tasteful Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Dead Alive (my favorite of his -- besides this film -- still remains Heavenly Creatures).

Nothing he has done, however, could prepare you for this new documentary, in which archival photos and film shot during "The Great War" have been not simply restored but colorized, wide-screened and given the three-dimension effect, rendering them literally something heretofore unseen.

If this sounds like some mere stunt, the effect of actually viewing it on screen proves something else entirely. (We saw it in 3D, but it is also being shown in standard format.) This, combined with the film's narration -- which is nothing more or less than the actual recorded-during-interviews voices of the men who served in the war talking about the experience itself -- join forces to make what we see and hear seem like utter and unalloyed reality.

Very wisely and cleverly, Jackson begins with old, black-and-white small-screen footage, which continues for quite some time, as he first shows (and has the soldiers tell) of how the war began for England, along with all the rah-rah recruiting (often of boys as young as fourteen or fifteen), the training of the troops, and then the shipping of them all off to the war itself.

When, at last, one of those black-and-white photos suddenly changes to color, the effect is so startling, amazing and memorable that, for me, it outdoes any and every "special effect" I've had to sit through in our dismal array of current superhero schlock. Further, Jackson coordinates the visuals with the soldiers' narration extremely well.

Only once during the entire movie did I find the visuals amiss, due mostly to the overly repetitive use of one particular photo, of soldiers supposedly waiting for the battle to begin. Otherwise, the well-chosen combos of visual and narrative keeps us locked in, producing an immediacy that works like a charm. A deadly charm.

As amazing as the documentary is, They Shall Not Grow Old is not an easy watch. In fact, it is often grueling. But what else might we expect from a film that place us so squarely in the middle of wartime?  While the overt carnage is less than we often get from our usual slasher movie, the sense of fear, of odd isolation, of impending doom is so strong that (the acute and specific sounds effects are an enormous help here) that I found myself holding my breath and literally jumping slightly in my seat at numerous times throughout.

Particularly engulfing and horrendous was the trench warfare (and trench living) to which the soldiers were subjected. Their utter lack of cleanliness -- and their inability to do anything about this -- along with their decaying teeth and non-healing wounds will stagger you. At 99 minutes, the movie does not seem overlong, but by its end, as the war itself ceases, you will be more than ready to cry "enough!"

This is a fine and fitting way to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I. Though the press audience with whom I watched the screening were made up mostly of the elderly or near so, I would hope that a few intrepid young people will take a chance on this one-of-a-kind movie.

Though it seems that most of our youthful population can barely understand or be aware of our current and seemingly endless middle eastern war(s), let alone differentiate between our War for Independence, WWI, WWII, or our unnecessary and destructive wars in Korea and Vietnam, one can only hope that some few of these will want to learn something new, while having the kind of movie experience they will not have encountered anywhere else.

From Warner Brothers Pictures, They Shall Not Grow Old, after opening in special screenings last December, will now hit theaters nationwide this Friday, February 1. Click here to find those nearest you.

Another BFLF nominee better than the winner: Estonia's spare but rewarding TANGERINES

In the exalted tradition of fine anti-war films, TANGERINES, from filmmaker Zaza Urushadze, proves a major winner. Short (only 87 minutes), crisp, economical yet enormously affecting, the movie details what takes place in and around a tangerine grove in the Apkhazeti region of Georgia, back in 1990, as hostilities break out. Soldiers and the few remaining townspeople come and go, while the movie concentrates on a quartet of characters: the grandfather who owns a small factory in which the titular tangerines are crated, his friend who owns the grove in which they grow, and two soldiers -- from opposing sides.

How these four men come together and dance around each other in an increasingly fraught situation turns into a beautifully acted film of distinction and honor -- both directed and written by Mr. Urushadze, shown at left. It is by turns funny, thoughtful, surprising and extremely moving.

Of the two soldiers, one is a mercenary, which would normally change things from the usual my side/your side conflict -- except that in this case the mercenary has a personal stake in things, as his comrade-in-arms has just been killed by the "other side."

Via a series of plot machinations that seem easily believable given the circumstances, the four men end up together in grandpa's house, where a promise of non-violence is wrested from the mercenary by his host.

The dialog is aces, as are the performances of the four actors involved, the character of each emerging via incidents as much as from words. The musical score is simple and lovely, the direction fluid and smart, and the cinematography good enough to make you want to visit this place (in peacetime, at least).

Amidst the bucolic scenery of the area in which the film was shot, we see the stupid waste of war -- to both the landscape and its occupants. Nothing is baldly stated; it is simply shown. How these men bond, and how, even then, war insists on having its destruction is shown us with immeasurable force and sadness.

With all our best intentions, life -- and chance -- keep intruding, and Urushadze brings this home with poignancy, strength and affection for all. Burying the dead has rarely arrived with such an encompassing sense of waste. Tangerines, like Timbuktu, was one of the five nominees for this past year's Best Foreign Language Film, and both are better than the beautifully photographed but baldly predetermined movie, Ida, that actually won the prize.

From Samuel Goldwyn Films, Tangerines opens this Friday, April 17, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and on the Friday, April 24 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5.

A small movie miracle opens: Ari Taub's LAST LETTERS FROM MONTE ROSA -- plus a short Q&A with the filmmaker

Could there be, at this late date, anything left to say about World War II, specifically about the Germans, Italians and Americans who fought in the mountains of northern Italy as the war came to a close? On the basis of two new films -- The Man Who Will Come, which recently won Italy's Best Picture award and premiered during the recent FSLC's Open Roads, and now a small, independent American movie, LAST LETTERS FROM MONTE ROSA directed by Ari Taub (shown just below) and co-written by Nick Day and Caio Ribeiro (who doubled as cinematographer) -- there's plenty left to say.  And, boy, it this worth hearing (and seeing). Regarding Mr. Taub's new film, I believe that Sam Fuller would approve mightily.

Last Letters from Monte Rosa begins with the explanation that a long-buried mailbag of letters written by Italians and Germans toward the end of WWII was discovered.  (More about this satchel in the Q&A that follows.) Instead of the documentary we might expect from this beginning, we're thrust into narrative mode, in the north of Italy, jostling amongst a German platoon of soldiers that awaits the arrival of its Italian counterpart. In the surrounding forest are the Italian partisans, as well as a few Americans, one of whom visits a heavy-set Italian sleazebag who appears to be a some sort of crime boss, complete with his own set of goons, to finalize the sale of some cases of expensive black-market French wine.

It's an incendiary situation, what with the American military further encroaching on Italian turf, and the German and Italian soldiers at each other's throats.  Their respective commanders fare a bit better, however. Class will out, I guess.  The first thing you may notice is the terrifically real "look" of the film: From the costumes to the various equipment that the soldiers must use, from the men's faces to their anything-but-buff bodies, everything seems remarkably "as it was."  

The stories that Taub and his writer show us are small but telling, with moment after moment written and acted with quiet beauty and strength.  Best of all, I think, is that, by the end of this film, you'll have trouble finding any villains. Collectively, of course, you can pin the tail on the German donkey, or on the Il Duce's military.  But individually, even with plenty of bad behavior across the boards, the humanity of each of these men shines through -- and in no sappy manner. Taub, his writers and his actors, make you mourn the death of the individual Germans, even as you detest their cause.  As for the Italians, the difference between the partisans and those who "fought for their country" has seldom seemed less important, even as you know that it was, of course, all-important.

Last Letters is full of wonderful incident: that black-market wine deal (shown below); a conversation (above) between the Italian commander and his right-hand man in which the former wonders if Hitler is right: Are the Germans a superior people?   Then there's a deer that manages to first divide the soldiers -- German from Italian -- before bringing them together, and another scene of a German instructing the Italians on how to plant a land mine.  Best of all, perhaps, is an extremely suspenseful few moments between the Italian partisans and the Italian military.

Taub, who has built his way up to this film via earlier ones -- shorts and full-length -- shows surprising skill as a moviemaker.  He draws excellent performances from his cast members, recruited from Ger-
many & Italy who came to America to film (upstate New York, Mas-
sachusetts and Pennsylvania all stand in for Northern Italy).  Even the director's use of slow-motion is judicious; he manages to make that old cliché death seem somehow new -- and horribly unfair.

Taub's work is such a small movie, but it's one that deserves some real acclaim.  The director never bites off more than he can chew, yet he challenges us just the same.  Last Letters from Monte Rosa opens this Friday for a week's run at New York's newest home for independent cinema in Brooklyn: IndieScreen. You can find dates and screening time here.

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Once TrustMovies had seen the film, he turned to the press kit for further information. What a gold mine it proved, making him even more impressed with Mr. Taub, his writers and his cast of wonderful actors, who have given up so much to be able to make this fine film.

First of all, the movie was shot almost entirely here in the U.S., with the actors imported from Europe.  The verisimilitude is certainly achieved.  Performances are terrific, right down the line.  Indoor photography was shot on sets created in studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, hence the entirely appropriate venue in which the film is opening.  Most bizarre, I guess, is the fact that here is a piece of American independent cinema that is actually a low-budget WWII combat drama.

We catch director Ari Taub for a 30-minute phone call during which he fills us in with answers to a few on extra questions that the press kit did not address. In the following TrustMovies' question are in boldface, white Taub's answers are in standard type.

Were there actually that batch of letters mentioned at the beginning of the film? Can you give us some background on that?

Yes. everybody always wants to know about those letters! The satchel of letters does exist. Letters were recovered in Northern Italy maybe 10-14 years ago. A lot of them were rotted and only bits and pieces could be read. We only read a fragment from one letter --

Was that the letter from the German commander to his wife that we hear at the end?

Yes: the one that was read at the end. To prepare for this film, we read that fragment and also Last Letters from Stalingrad, a wonderful book written by soldiers who perished during the Battle of Stalingrad in Russia.  And so, from a single fragment, rather like one bone from a dinosaur, we created the whole piece.

According to the IMDB, you've made other films: shorts and full-length, and a number of these were war films.

Yes, I have made a number war films. Some of my war films, in fact, are earlier versions of this movie. The Fallen tells the story from the American viewpoint. This one is my favorite, though, because it seems unique. I really worked hard to get inside the hearts and minds of how men would act during this time.

After this initial week's run at IndieScreen, where might your film go?

We hope elsewhere around the country, of course, but we don’t have a big war chest for getting the movie out there.

What was the total cost of making  this film, start to finish?

The cost all told was $350,000, includsive of everything.  Our production budget was $210,000 and then of course there was post production.

And how long, total, did it take to film?

It took seven years to complete this movies.

Wow.

It's unbelievable, the amount of time and life that went into this work. Mostly because we did not have the money. There was a time that we couldn't even continue shooting for two years because we had no money.

Your cast really is wonderful.  So real.  Did they all come from abroad?

No: the guy who played the local gangster (Rossini, shown below), sort of the small town bully, he is a friend of mine (Carmine Raspaolo) who lives right here in Brooklyn. He had wanted to play one of the soldiers, but I had to tell him he just weighed too much. But we could -- and did -- cast him as that gangster.

How old are you now, Ari?

I’m 44 years old.

Is there anything else you'd like to say, since I have you for this quick interview?

Maybe I should say why I originally wanted to even make this movie.

Yes, good idea.

I wanted to tell a story that involved the cooperation between German and Italian men during WWII because I found these people to be so different from each other. I could not imagine how they could get along. And when I researched, I found copious amounts of material that corroborated the fact that they did not get along.

And yet, you make it so they do try to get along.

Yes. Some of my best friends are both German and Italian. So I don’t want people to think that I don't like either group!

Nobody's gonna think that.  Your movie is too full of understanding and appreciation for humanity -- of whatever country or group.