Ziad Doueiri's THE INSULT opens, shortlisted for this year's Best Foreign Language Film

When Ziad Doueiri's The Attack hit theaters back in 2013, TrustMovies was impressed with everything about that film, from its concept and complexity to its execution and disquieting semi-resolution. Now comes this Lebanese filmmaker's latest and, if possible, even more impressive work, THE INSULT, which has already been shortlisted for this year's Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. Along with The Square it is up there with the best I've seen for this past year. And it is also perhaps the most important.

What Mr. Doueiri, who directed and co-wrote (along with Joelle Touma) has to say goes to the heart of so much that is going on throughout our world today. Instead of moralizing, this supremely talented and generous filmmaker concocts an incident that sets individuals, a community and finally a small country on their ear and in the process explores the situation from angle after angle until we understand more than we ever imagined we might about the participants. (And they, praise be, have begun to better understand, in maybe the smallest of increments, each other and themselves.)

The Attack was set mostly in Israel and put us into the experience of a highly successful Arab-Israeli doctor who suddenly learns that his wife has killed herself, along with a number of others, in a suicide bombing. How he and his Israeli friends and co-workers respond to this is as complicated and often unnerving as you might guess.

Now, in The Insult, Doueiri returns to Lebanon and pits a Lebanese Christian (Adel Karam, above, left) against a Muslim Palestinian (Kamel El Basha, above, right) who, along with his wife, has taken refuge (as have so many other Palestinians) in Lebanon. The filmmaker's canvas opens up to explore Lebanese society and culture in ways and from angles that I doubt most of us have come anywhere close to previously seeing. It is eye-opening, to say the least.

The workplace, the justice system, family matters, history and much more is given us in a tightly-woven plot that avoids melodrama but manages to stay sharp and on course throughout. Most wonderfully, there are no villains here. Oh, you may imagine there are and perhaps feel quite some hatred for certain of the characters. But wait.

The great blessing Doueiri bestows upon us is to allow us to finally understand what his characters have experienced, while allowing them to do this, too. Don't worry. There are no huge "breakthroughs" or eureka! moments here. Yet the filmmaker's steady accretion of small, incremental information builds beautifully and believably to completion.

How Israel -- so often the main agenda but here seen sidelong -- plays into all of this is particularly unusual and gratifying. Like so much else that Doueiri manages, Israel, too, becomes something we must view in a different light.

I am obviously leaving out almost all reference to plot here because the manner in which the filmmaker gives this to us is simply too good -- too nuanced and surprising -- to ruin for you. Do yourself a favor and go see The Insult as soon as you're able -- and before you've read much more about it.

From Cohen Media Group, the movie -- in Arabic with English subtitles and running 112 minutes -- opens this Friday, January 12, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and The Quad, and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Elsewhere? Hope so, but I can't find any further playdates on the Cohen web site for the film.

On video -- at last -- Richard Brouillette's brilliant, necessary economic-theory twosome: ENCIRCLEMENT and ONCLE BERNARD

Twelve years in the making -- and worth every last minute of those years -- ENCIRCLEMENT is the documentary product of French-Canadian filmmaker Richard Brouillete in which, via economists, philosophers and (in the words of the film's press material, with which I would agree) "some of the world's most transformational thinkers," he confronts the west's ideological conformism and brainwashing regarding the neo-liberal philosophy that still controls so many of today's so-called western "democracies."

One of those "thinkers" is Bernard Maris, aka Oncle (Uncle) Bernard, whom we see bits of in Entitlement. In ONCLE BERNARD, the 80-minute interview devoted entirely to the noted economists's views, we get the full dose of the late M. Maris, and it is a revelation. I have never heard any economist speak more intelligently, cogently, forcefully or entertainingly about the situation in which the western world has placed itself, thanks to the idiocy and horror of neo-liberalism -- the primary tool of the wealthy, corporate and powerful.

What M. Brouillette, shown at right, has done here is simply give us the major explanation for why the world and its people, particularly in the west, but also in most-if-not-all developing countries, is growing poorer, while the rich, as ever, grow richer and "business" and the banks keep reaping larger profits at the expense of the populace. Yes, this is "left-wing" stuff, but so expertly and honestly do these talking heads, in particular Oncle Bernard, lay out their case that anyone with a genuinely inquiring mind will have trouble negating what s/he has learned here.

TrustMovies watched Oncle Bernard first, since this doc lasts only 80 minutes, while Entitlement goes on for two hours and 23 minutes. (I needn't have worried about length, however. Once into the latter film, I was soon and permanently hooked.) Bernard Maris (shown above and below) is simply an amazement: Listening to and learning from him proves an unalloyed treat. Whether he's talking about economic theory as a kind of religious faith or the pointless and perverse pretense of confidence and transparency, the "neutral" unemployment rate, and inflation and lending, Maris is an alert, funny and exemplary teacher.

This black-and-white film, during which, every ten minutes or so, the reel must be changed, has a delightful, old-fashioned (the interview was filmed in March of 2000), off-the-cuff charm that is contagious. By the time our "Uncle" arrives at derivatives and pension funds (remember: this interview took place well prior to the upcoming financial crisis), as well as how the banks (even back then) were reporting only half of their transactions and so were consequently under no real government control, it will hit you just how special this economist was and what a loss it is to have had him murdered at the hands of the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

In fact, watching and listening to Maris and how he takes apart France and its governments, you may find yourself wondering if, after all, that Charlie Hebdo massacre wasn't an inside job. Really: How could a man this set on telling truth to power -- and then spreading that truth all around -- be allowed to live?

The subtitle of Encirclement is NEO-LIBERALISM ENSNARES DEMOCRACY, and once you've experienced this combination of history, economic theory, and very, very smart talking heads, you wont just understand this ensnarement and how it has happened, but you'll probably be quite able to explain it all to your children and parents, too. The documentary is that clear, concise, and rigorous. My biggest quibble is that I wish that M. Brouillette had identified all his speakers as each first appeared, rather than waiting until the end to show us their names. Consequently, although I can remember what was said, I can't recall in many cases who said it.

Still, what an array of speakers we have here, and after all, it's what they say that proves most important. One early fellow explains how both left and right adhere to this same neo-liberal theory,  (I did not know that Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's government transformed public companies into private at the same rate as did right-wing governments.) We get plenty of theory here, as well as some interesting info on the men who gave it to us. I did not realize that Hayek -- Friedrich not Salma -- held Utopian views that benefited society's strongest, rather than its under-privileged. (One of the many speakers here is the stalwart Noam Chomsky, below.)

Rather than simply giving us the Collectivist/Socialist talking heads, Brouillette allows neo-liberal thinkers to pontificate, too. And he offers them plenty of time -- and rope -- with which to hang themselves. They do. After one fellow's lengthy, ridiculous speech, my spouse (who does not follow economics at all closely) called out from the bathroom, "What a bunch of bullshit that was!"  Another Libertarian tries to explain how privatizing water would help solve both our environmental and economic problems, and the result is pure, sad hilarity.

Toward the end of this truly monumental undertaking, Susan George (the political scientist, rather than the actress) and others tackle the WMF, World Bank and WTO and show us, point by point in wonderful detail, how these organizations have toppled democracy and especially how they are decimating developing countries. The doc was made prior to the 2008-and-beyond financial collapse, but what these organizations have done since the turn of the century -- hello Greece! -- is equally disgusting. Another quibble, however: I do wish the filmmaker had not used such heavy-handed piano music on his soundtrack. The information we get here is troubling and important enough not to need unnecessary goosing from the musical score.

Otherwise, Encirclement is a masterwork of its kind. I can't imagine any intelligent, pro-active viewer who cares about the direction of western society not immediately giving it a view. Or two. From IndiePix Films, both Encirclement and Oncle Bernard will be available as of this coming Tuesday, September 26, on DVD, digital HD and via IndiePix Unlimited's new streaming service -- for purchase and/or rental.

As Ferzan Ozpetek's LOOSE CANNONS hits DVD & VOD and MAGNIFICENT PRESENCE opens the recent FSLC Italian fest, we do a quick Q&A with one of Italy's top directors

From his directorial debut Steam, though the gorgeous Harem Suaré and the surprising, bracing Ignorant Fairies (best know here on DVD as the tritely-titled His Secret Life) to the ever more sophisticated in style and story Facing Windows, Sacred Heart and Saturn in Opposition, Ferzan Ozpetek, born in Turkey but raised in Italy, has become one of the latter country's currently most famous and loved filmmakers.

As Ozpetek's penultimate (for now) movie Loose Cannons, has just becomes available on DVD, VOD and iTunes via Focus Features, and his latest film, Magnificent Presence, was chosen as the opening night selection at the recent FSLC Open Roads fest of new Italian film, this seemed a particularly good time to speak to the man.

Just below, I have re-posted my earlier coverage of Loose Cannons -- from its appearance at the Tribeca Film Fest (where it won two awards) two years back -- followed by my recent shorter review of Magnificent Presence. Following these is the interview with Ferzan that took place on Friday afternoon, June 8, 2012.

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Who'd have imagined that a current movie about a gay man coming out to his family might have anything remotely new or interesting or even particularly entertaining to say?  Turkish-born, Italian-bred Ferzan Ozpetek (shown below): that's who -- and so he made this film.  Bless him for it -- because LOOSE CANNONS (Mine vaganti) turns out to be not only new, interesting and entertaining but deeply felt, lavishly funny and one of the most visually beautiful movies to arrive on our shores in quite some time. (It was filmed in Southern Italy, in and around the city of Lecce.)

Premiering this past February at the Berlinale, it was chosen for the just-concluding Tribeca Film Festival, where -- the evening I viewed it -- audience response seemed overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Because you can never be certain that a foreign-language film, even from a director as well known as this one, will secure distribution these days, I recommend you see this movie now.

Signore Ozpetek has been to the gay well a few times before -- Steam, Ignorant Fairies, Facing Windows, Saturn in Opposition -- always from a different angle and always successfully.  What he consistently manages, and what I think I love most about his work, is that he approach homosexuality as one part, sometimes hugely important, other times less so, of the world at large, in which so much else is terribly important, too.  Family, friendship, work, health (mental and physical) are prime among these, and in Loose Cannons, they come together in a combustible mix that offers everything from drama to farce, fantasy to a reality that moves from chuckles to tears.

A young man named Tomasso (Riccardo Scamarcio, shown above, left), from a wealthy family whose business is pasta-making and who is about to join forces with another prominent family, has deci-
ded to own up to his homosexual orientation -- after which, he ex-
pects his father to chuck him out of home and business, freeing him to move in with his lover and pursue a writing career. Not quite. One big surprise lies in store, followed by several lesser -- most of which cause ebullient laughter but sometimes a deep loneliness.

You may know young Scamarcio from My Brother Is an Only Child, or from Costa-Gavras' still unreleased Eden Is West. After being swaggering and studly in the former, frightened and vulnerable in the latter, he is by necessity manipulative and quietly thoughtful here -- and is proving himself a more versatile actor than the pretty face with the very sexy body that we might have initially imagined.  While this movie is primarily Tomasso's story, Ozpetek insists on seeing things from many angles, and so we slowly begin to understand -- and feel for -- several generations.

The film begins, in fact, with a reminiscence of the grand-
mother (Ilaria Occhini, at right, seated) regarding her younger days (the penulti-
mate photo, below).  We learn what happened to her only slowly. The co-writer (with Ivan Cotroneo) and director gives us enough information to begin to piece together the story of this now aged but still gloriously strong woman, but we do not know it all until the finale.  Meanwhile we meet a group of people -- family, friends, business associates -- who are as diverse as they are memorable.  Dad (the wonderful Ennio Fantastichini, shown at right, three photos above), mom, Aunt Luciana (dizzy and sweetly sad Elena Sofia Ricci, shown two photos above, center, with glasses), brother Antonio (a terrific Alessandro Preziosi, standing, above right) and especially Alba, the daughter of the prospective business partner, played by the alluring Nicole Grimaudo (below, center).  Ms Grimaudo, in particular, captures a character -- nasty, funny, distant, dark, needy -- who grows more complex with each scene until she very nearly breaks our heart.

One of the great strengths of Ozpetek is allowing us to view life and sexuality from so many points of view: Here we see how the parents looks at things, the grandmother, the younger generation, straights, gays and a couple who may be more bi-oriented than they might like to admit.  There are moments between the two outsiders, Tomasso and Alba, that bond them in ways both sexual and on a level of deep friendship.  There is also some delightfully criss-crossed humor when a group of Tomasso's friends from Rome, shown at bottom, pay a visit.

The film's finale is an amazing blend of fantasy and reality, of time present and past, of what we deeply wish for but may never see.  This scene may remind you of the finale of some other films -- the little-seen-in-America Flight of the Innocent came immediately to my mind -- but Ozpetek makes it his own, and it seems as if everything he has ever learned about cinema is incorporated here.  Threatening to be too much, instead it keeps unfurling until love, sex, family and friends join in a spectacularly vibrant and moving dance of life.

About as arthouse/mainstream as it is possible to get, Loose Cannons delivers the goods.  As I go to press, the film has just won one of the two Tribeca Fest Special Mention Awards. Will some distributor -- Strand, IFC, Film Movement -- please step up to the plate and gift movie-lovers with this joyous celebration?  (Current after-thought: thanks, Focus Features, for at least making the film available on DVD/VOD.)

**************

MAGNIFICENT PRESENCE

written and directed by Ferzan Ozpetek

When TrustMovies departs this world, one of his regrets will be his inability to see any more of the films of Ferzan Ozpetek -- which are gorgeous to view, deeply felt, and usually deal in some way with the gay experience. What he loves most about Ozpetek is that this filmmaker always places his (often gay) protagonist as simply one element among many within the vast canvas of the world as it is. Granted, it's an important element, but it never -- as happens in so many "gay" movies -- treats the rest of the world as less important, less special or less good (or, for that matter, bad). Usually Ozpetek gives us ensemble dramas/comedies. In his newest work, Magnificent Presence, the filmmaker stars Elio Germano -- extending his past work as a prime Italian everyman to now include a glorious Italian every-gay-man -- as a fellow soon surrounded by that ensemble. And they're all ghosts. However, these are a very classy, retro and delightful bunch of spirits, being part of a left-wing theatrical troupe in the Italy of the 1930s and 40s.

Our hero, Pietro (played by Germano, below, who has already given us a gallery of remarkable performances, from Do You Like Hitchcock? to My Brother Is an Only Child and The Past Is a Foreign Land to name a few), has come to Rome to be an actor, as well as to seek out a filmmaker fellow he's in love with -- though he tells his rather too-amorous female cousin that he is not even sure what sexual preference he possesses. As feel-good a film as Ozpetek has concocted -- and it is: I don't remember feeling this good, this moved, at a movie's end in a long while -- the writer/director also provides us with a couple of surprising scenes in which he unveils character flaws so great that they change not only the individual but make waves that can topple others and maybe even society itself. One of these involves Petro's would-be boyfriend, the other a member of that theater troupe who is now an elderly lady (played by Anna Proclemer, above).

Ozpetek also gives us some glorious, richly funny and appealing moments (the ghost group's introduction to modern technology and the internet is one such). But this tale of Pietro and his unusual houseguests builds into something more than a mere ghost story. If we accept the homosexual -- as I think we must at this point in our society and for all the supposed strides we GLBT's have made -- as yet remaining an outsider, an "other," then Pietro's inability to fit into society takes on great meaning. Our young man has finally found the place where he belongs, and the film's finale -- a wonderfully sustained piece of movie art -- offers such beauty, sadness and joy that it defines the word poignant.  Magnificent Presence, which made its Italian debut only last month and scored big at the box-office by being both accessible and special, plays twice at Opens Roads. Both screenings are at the Walter Reade theater. Note: The director and his star will both appear at the Friday evening performance. (All this is over now, but, if interested, you can view the entire Open Roads series here.)

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TrustMovies was late for his interview with Ferzan Ozpetek, but he has an excuse, sort of: He was on the M104 bus coming uptown from the special luncheon at Barbetta to celebrate the opening of Open Roads, and he was chatting with the FSLC's Richard Peña, who was also on that bus, discussing the work of Mr. Ozpetek. It was so much fun (Peña's a font of good information and a lively conversationalist) that TM missed his stop and arrived ten minutes late. Ferzan and his translator (the filmmaker speaks English pretty well but prefers to have a translator for certain moments -- and idioms) were most graciously forgiving, however, and so we set right to it: 

Ferzan – it’s good to see you again, and before I forget, I bring you greetings from Ivan Cotroneo, at whose table I sat for the Open Roads luncheon this afternoon. I haven’t seen his movie KRYPTONITE! yet, but what a lovely man he is! (Now, a couple of weeks later, I have seen it and it’s wonderful. You can read about it here: click and scroll down) 

He’s a wonderful guy. We worked very well together and I hope in the future that we can work together again. (Ferzan's attention is taken by a photographic portrait on the wall opposite.) Who is that lady, there? I do not recognize her…. (Ozpetek points to a photograph hanging on the hotel wall of Leona Helmsley. We’re sitting in the lobby lounge of the Park Lane on Central Park South, a hotel once owned by the late tax-evading dog-lover.) 

Oh, that’s Leona Helmsley who used to own this hotel, and now, I guess, her estate does. She was among the most hated women in New York City in her day. They called her the Queen of Mean. (Our excellent translator, who is clearly familiar with Leona and her history, chuckles and then fills Ferzan in, and I hear bits and pieces reminiscent of “Only the little people pay taxes,” and something about the immense fortune she left to her dog. The translator suddenly turns to me and asks--) 

How much money did she leave that animal?

You know, I’m not sure. But it was a lot. And it made sense, actually, since I doubt she had many human friends left at that point. And please tell Ferzan that, were Leona still alive and heard him ask the question "Who is that it in the photograph on the wall? she would have had him barred from this hotel immediately! If Ferzan is familiar with the term narcissist, he'll understand her personality. (The translator laughs and translates to Ozpetek) They also made a TV movie about her some years back that starred Suzanne Pleshette -- of The Birds. 

(But we’re digressing badly so we talk about Ferzan’s latest film: the absolutely lovely, funny and poignant ghost story Magnificent Presence.)

The last time I interviewed you, it was the year, I believe, that your film A Perfect Day played at Open Roads…. So that was three years ago, maybe...?     

Yes, because two years ago Loose Canons did not come to Open Roads but came to the Tribeca Film Festival. So, yes, three or four years ago was A Perfect Day…

Which I thought at the time was your darkest film. It was good to see you work in such a dark vein. But then you made Loose Canons which is one of your funniest, most delightfully expansive movies – and which Ivan says was his favorite experience, ever, working on a movie. (Ferzan grins) Ivan also told me that Focus Films is releasing this movie on DVD and VOD, so America will finally get the chance to see it. 

Yes.

And now we have Magnificent Presence – which is my favorite of yours. But actually, each time you make a movie, it’s hard not to feel it’s my favorite of your films. 

Thank you.

And you don’t always make the same kind of movie. Which is wonderful, too.

But I think I do make the same things but ….

In different ways? 

Yes. I always do the same thing, I think, I but I treat each one differently. There is a connecting thread to all my films -- but each time is different. They are always about similar topics: human relationships, friendship, sentiment, emotion, but always treated differently. Or at least, I try.

One theme I find throughout your films is “How does this protagonist fit into the greater world around him? 

In this film, one of the topics is purity-of-heart. For example, this fellow has been to bed only one time, three years ago, with this person, yet he imagines that this man must be the love of his life. He has a very unusual view of things, and while this makes him something of a fool, he is also rather pure. In a way he is goodness personified in this world of egotism and people thinking only of themselves. My actor Elio Germano, whom I admire a lot. He is so strong.

He’s wonderful -- and so versatile. 

At one point in the filming I just told him, Well, be like Bambi. That’s it!

Bambi? The deer? 

Yes! While I was saying that I could see his eyes widening in understanding. So he was able to perform.

That scene when the man he imagines to be his true love comes to dinner is shocking -- but for two reasons. First, because Elio – Pietro – seems like a stalker. But when you think about it, the fact that they had sex once and for Petro it was wonderful, so of course he imagines that they will follow up on this. But for the other guy, it didn’t matter at all -- just another one-night-stand, business as usual. He doesn’t even have the courtesy to respond to Pietro by email -- to say something like, “Look, I am sorry if I misled you, but I have no interest in pursuing this.” But he doesn’t bother to tell Pietro anything. So while you can see Pietro as a stalker, you can also see this other guy as a real piece of shit. 

One of my issues, my challenges in the script was that I had to create the situation where the first contact between Pietro and the ghosts seemed like something that was credible. So when they sit down to dinner, it’s a repetition of that earlier dinner scene with the other man. You sense that Pietro is so desperate, so close to rock bottom, that he will now accept even these ghosts and so will not be afraid.

Yes, and this makes the finale of the movie all the more moving -- when you realize that he is now where he belongs. And he knows this, he feels it. 

Since Pietro is the only person who sees the ghosts, I tried to make that mostly apparent on Pietro’s face at the finale. Originally I made the end five minute long, and you didn’t see the ghosts performing onstage. You only saw the expression of Pietro’s face.

Wow – really? 

There was a critic, a friend of mine, actually, who told me what made the film so moving for him was that there would seem to be only two ways to react to these ghosts. You could try to make them leave, exorcise them, or you yourself would have to leave. The fact that you would take them all on the tram and go to the theater with them is what makes the ending so interesting and moving.

Again, this is about the protagonist finding his place in the world. And while this may limit his further growth, he certainly has found a place. 

Perhaps, but at the same time this experience will have changed him. His happiest times were those he spends with the ghosts. But once he leaves the theaters and goes back home, perhaps he will strike up a relationship with the guy next door, who clearly likes him.

But how terrific that you did not end the movie that way! (He smiles and shakes his head, yes.) Tell me something about that wonderful actress, Anna Proclemer,  who plays the old lady, the one person left from the theater troupe who is still alive. I went on the internet and found photos of her as a young woman – quite beautiful.

She was a very famous theater actress. She made only a few films, and her last movie was the Vincente Minnelli film with Ingrid Bergman and Liza Minnelli – Nina.

Yes, we called it A Matter of Time. That scene with Proclemer in your movie is so wonderful, because it darkens the film in a way that it needs, and this works so well. So: What’s next for you? 

I write now. I write with Gianni Romoli – with him I make five movies: Ignorant Fairies, Facing Windows, Sacred Heart, Harem Suare and Saturn in Opposition.

Sacred Heart was shown at Open Roads years ago. That was one movie that has no gay element.

Yes, and neither does A Perfect Day. I remember that at a Q&A at a screening in Florence at the time, they asked me, Why did this movie has nothing gay in it? I was sort of taken aback at this because usually, they ask you, Why does your movie have a gay element in it? So I thought quickly, and told them, "Well, you know the aunt in the movie is actually a lesbian. But I preferred not to show this in the film."

As we have to end now for your next interview, I just want to say that you are one of my favorite moviemakers in the world. But of all the moviemakers who makes films that deal with gay themes, I love yours the most because they show gays as part of the world at large, in a way that makes them included but not seeming to be the center of that world. Thank you for that. 

My aim is always to show life, but not necessarily to make gay films. But at the time that I made Ignorant Fairies, people told me, Finally – this is a really radical gay movie showing characters who are loved and appreciated. It didn’t show the usual conflict and was far more inclusive of humanity as a whole.

All you movies do this, I think. Thank you, Ferzan. Thank you so much for your wonderful films.

The photos above are from the respective movies, 

except for the first and final photos, 

which come courtesy of greenobles.com

Léa Pool's PINK RIBBONS, INC. questions our standard response to breast cancer

This could be the most important documentary of the year. Forget that: of the decade. You might say that it goes against conventional wisdom, except that this isn't wisdom, really: just conventional, follow-the-leader, lemming-like behavior in the quest for a feel-good quick fix. In any case, the film is going to be extremely unpopular among the powers-that-be in the corporate and medical world.

PINK RIBBONS, INC., the new documentary from Canadian film-maker Léa Pool, shown at right, is likely to make those people apoplectic even a few minutes into the movie. Not that Ms Pool or any of her many interviewees ever raises their voice. No. These people are quiet, concerned, informed -- and fed up. As you may be, too, once you've watched the movie in its entirety.

Believe me, I have nothing against the color pink or against ribbons in general. In fact, hearing the story of the woman, now elderly, who first came up with the idea of a ribbon as a symbol for breast cancer, proved both a heartening and appalling experience. Appalling because her initial ribbon was the color orange -- nothing wrong with that -- but when a very well-known corporation wanted to buy from her the right to own that ribbon and use it to hawk product and make money, she said no. And so, clever company that it was, it simply changed the color to pink. And that's how we've become stuck with pink products galore that would have you believe that they are all helping to fight breast cancer.  

Are they not? Well, Pink Ribbons, Inc. shows us why they not only are not helping but may actually be hindering, as well. Ms Pool and her researchers get down to the nub of things by pointing out how certain companies, while going "pink" to raise money to help fight breast cancer, are simultaneously manufacturing products that are linked to causing the disease.

This is capitalism run typically amok, and further encouraged by the huge commercial success of the entire "pink" campaign that has, as the movie so insightfully demonstrates, raised millions of dollars in the name of breast cancer -- very few of which are devoted to prevention of the disease or to the real education of the public, but rather go for "research" and that long promised "cure." As social critic Barbara Ehrenreich (above, who leads off this fine film) quietly explains, "The effect of the whole pink ribbon culture has been to drain and deflect the kind of militancy we had...." As the movie points out, with specifics that encompass psychology, sociology, economics and politics, the breast cancer movement has changed from activism to feel-good consumerism.

We watch, aghast, as Pink seems to take over the world: from the expected Teddy Bears to food product (what Barbara A. Brenner, below, ex-Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action, says about a certain company's yogurt campaign is highly instructive, while what we learn about the Kentucky Fried Chicken campaign is downright shocking). Even Niagra Falls and the Empire State Building go pink! Starting back in the 1970s -- with the Reagan administration's push toward "private" and "business" solutions to health, social welfare and charity -- the film moves on to the Pink Campaign's selectively leaving out those women who are dying via Stage 4 Breast cancer (come on, this campaign is about surviving, not death!), quietly and effectively raising your hackles in the process.

By the time it gets to exactly where all the money raised for breast cancer actually goes, and why, and to the big pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lily who appear to be working both sides of the street, you'll  be ready to cry uncle. After watching this 97-minute documentary, TrustMovies has come up with a couple of slight rhymes that he plans to live by from now on:

If it's pink, it'll likely stink

and

If there's a ribbon, 
 somebody's fibbin'

Or, to put it even more succinctly by quoting the objective of this compassionate, well-reasoned documentary: to persuade the word's citizenry to simply "Think before you pink." 

Pink Ribbons, Inc., from First Run Features, will open this Friday, June 1 in New York City (at the IFC Center) and in the Los Angeles area (at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex and Playhouse 7), and will begin a limited release that will hit at least 20 more cities across the country in the weeks to come. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.

Lionel Rogosin's problematic COME BACK, AFRICA, re-released after half a century

Hot (well, warm) on the heels of its autumn 2010 re-release of Lionel's Rogosin's 1957 classic On the Bowery comes Milestone Films' re-release of Rogosin's follow-up  COME BACK, AFRICA (made surreptitious-ly in darkest South Africa in 1959): a movie as odd and memorable in its way as was On the Bowery (a film that kept winning documentary awards -- although it was and is no documentary at all).

Come Back, Africa is even less like a doc than its predecessor, yet there, on the IMDB, in black and white, it is categorized as -- yup! -- a documentary. Instead it is a narrative movie about a relatively young black man living in South Africa during that country's dreadful near-half-century of apartheid. In it, Rogosin, shown at right, tracks the activities of this man (his name is Zacharia, and he is played somewhat haltingly but exceedingly believably, and with great humanity and warmth by Zacharia Mugabe -- shown below) in his first and only role as a performer.

Rogosin made his film on the sly, so to speak, fooling the South African powers-that-were into thinking that he was making, first, a travelogue for an airline company, then a movie about South African native music, and finally (to the delight of those in power) a film about the Boer War. But he did it. Despite incredible obstacles, the fellow got his film.

Before I go further, however, I need to make clear that, despite its being an amazing endeavor and coup, I don't think Come Back Africa is a terribly good film. Yet it is an important one as a social/political document and a project that shows what an engaged filmmaker can accomplish against great odds. No one else had attempted anything as bizarre and dangerous as this -- to show the world what life for Blacks under Apartheid was like -- but Rogosin had the courage and strength to try it, and succeed, even if the finished product is wanting.

What's wrong with Come Back, Africa? A lot. The story grows more melodramatic as it goes along, ending up in a frenzy that, as sad as it is, and as good a job as the leading actor manages, is still too heavy-handed by half. (Not that the events themselves are unbelievable, but as Rogosin shows them, they're just too much -- shown too quickly.)

The white (liberal, anti-apartheid) folk recruited to play nasty white South Africans are also not very good. But they're not actors, and so they overplay it. Again, not that real people weren't as obvious and unpleasant as we see here. But they were undoubtedly a lot more real, for the acting on-view tends to be one-note. The screenplay strains to encompass a wide swatch of Black life, but is almost always most effective when it simply shows rather than speaks. The street scenes of young musicians performing before a white audience (above) are clearly documentary and much more real than most of the "acted" situations.

There is one particularly interesting scene in which a group of Black men discuss everything from socialization to religion to the behavior of one of their own criminals. This scene has the sound of improvisation -- from men who know what they're talking about, and so it grabs you. The guys are joined eventually by Miriam Makeba who sings a terrific number that suddenly takes the movie into ultra-professional territory. As was the case with the documentary The Perfect Team, made by the filmmaker's son Michael Rogosin, and which told of the filming of On the Bowery, I believe you should not see the original Come Back Africa without also seeing the documentary (again made by the younger Rogosin), An American in Sophiatown (where much of the film was shot, and which the whites-in-power tore down soon after Rogosin's visit), which tells of the making of this difficult-to-film movie.

The excellent, 52-minute documentary fills in a lot of gaps and also allows us to understand why some of the film doesn't work all that well. As its fine Swiss co-cameraman, Emil Knebel explains, "Some sequences are weaker, but the spirit of the film is very strong." They are, and it is. But it is Ms Makeba, the single most professional person to appear before us -- whom we learn eventually rejected Rogosin's help and went off with Harry Belafonte; hell, even Marlon Brando got into this act) -- who puts the nail in the coffin of Rogosin's "art." She is said, according to a newspaper article of the time, to have called the filmmaker an "amateur." Once you've seen Come Back, Africa, you'll understand what she meant. Rogosin's work was necessary and important, and it is also amateur in many ways.

Come Back Africa -- black-and-white, 85 minutes -- returns to theaters after a 50-year absence (in order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the African National Congress) in a beautiful new restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna, with the assistance of the Rogosin Heritage, with a one-week run at New York City's Film Forum, starting tomorrow, Friday, January 27 (you can order tickets for Film Forum here).  If there will be other theatrical playdates prior to a DVD release (which I suspect and hope will include Michael Rogosin's documentary). The first of these will be in San Francisco, at the Roxie Theater, beginning February 3. More to come...