DVD/streaming debut for João Moreira Salles' IN THE INTENSE NOW, a quiet yet rhapsodic look at revolution, politics, marketing, culture and home movies

It's hard to describe the spell cast by IN THE INTENSE NOW (No Intenso Agora), the 2017 documentary by João Moreira Salles that had its U.S theatrical debut a few months ago and hit DVD and streaming this week.

Although the film deals primarily with the students' and workers' revolution in France back in 1968, it also expands its view to the ill-fated Prague Spring of the same year, and other sort-of revolutions of similar hope, at the same time detailing bits and pieces of the filmmaker's own mother's trip to China and then to Japan -- and what these excursions meant to her.

If this sounds a bit all-over-the-place, the film actually coheres quite beautifully, thanks to Salles' visuals and narration -- the filmmaker, shown at right, who both wrote and directed the documentary, is brother of another noted Brazilian movie-maker, Walter Salles (of Central Station) --  which combine to create a kind of poetry, as well as yet another version of "people's history" (as opposed to what you'll find in most school textbooks).

Though often dealing with violence, trauma and intensity, the movie's overall tone is one of quiet intelligence and thoughtful conclusions, while offering some extraordinary (often actually conflicting) views about events that those of us old enough to remember may find troubling and/or surprising.

Salles is especially good at demonstrating the ways in which politicians, media and ad men can turn just about everything and anything into marketing. Yet he does this in such quiet tones and humble demeanor that, instead of becoming at all hostile to his words and pictures, you'll likely stop, think, and then agree.

The film is full of "home movies" taken at the time of the events that are not what most of us actually saw at the time. Early on Salles tells us that home movies often show us so much more than the filmmaker may have intended, and then proceeds to some fine examples of this, one after another.

My favorite scene in the film (perhaps Salles' too, since he comes back to a still shot of this at his finale) is of a young woman (above) working in the office of the demonstrators during the French upheaval. She is trying her best to allay the fears of the mother of one of the demonstrators who did not come home the preceding night. It's one of the loveliest and most different scenes of this sort I've ever viewed, showing the human side of a would-be revolution in all its glory.

There is so much to see, hear and experience in this 127-minute documentary that I hope you will available yourself of the opportunity. In the Intense Now, from Icarus Films, hit the street on DVD and streaming (via Amazon and iTunes) this past Tuesday, April 2.

Netflix streaming tip: Álex de la Iglesia's under-seen AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT

By now Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia has shown us pretty clearly that he works in a couple of modes: the over-the-top variety (Day of the Beast, Perdita Durango, La Comunidad, 800 Bullets and The Last Circus) and his tamped-down versions, which would include to some extent The Perfect Crime, most definitely The Oxford Murders, and now, his latest work, AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT (La chispa de la vida). Though de la Iglesia is quite good at both modes, die-hard fans, not to mention most critics, seem to prefer his over-the-top movies. Which is fine -- except that they then downgrade (unfairly, I think) his quieter but every bit as interesting work.

With As Luck Would Have It, the filmmaker, pictured at right, is attempting -- succeeding, too -- at several things. He's taking a look at life these days in our very down economy (Spain's situation makes the USA's look good); he's showing us, sometimes comically, sometimes not so, how far individuals will go to enrich themselves and their reputations; he's making fun of our media-obsessed, twittering times; he's offering up the world as one big marketing event; and finally he's exploring differences between men and women and how the former looks to work and money for salvation, while the latter puts love of family above all else. If this sounds like it's going to be every bit as serious as it is funny, you're on to something. As usual, our critics wanted things more obvious and simple (and comedic) -- maybe a no-holds-barred satire of our marketing society, as though this hasn't been tried already.

So, yes, this filmmaker has bitten off quite a chunk here, but what's most impressive about his movie is how well he negotiates the twists and turns of his story as the mood changes from bitter to sweet, comical to moving, and back again. Our hero is a smart ad man named Roberto (José Mota, above) who's been out of work for too long but today has what might be an important interview with an old friend.

Roberto's Mexican wife, Luisa (Salma Hayek, gorgeous as ever but more sympathetic than usual in this role) stands by her man, and in fact by her whole family, as events, led by one near-disaster, pile up until all of Spain is holding its breath over Roberto's fate.

Perhaps the most unusual, certainly the most spectacular, thing about the entire movie is its setting that houses the event and then the remainder of the film. It's a huge amphitheater (in the background, two photos above) created from ruins (above) discovered under the site of an old hotel where Roberto and Luisa spent their honeymoon. This no-longer-extant hotel serves as the link to before and after the "event." (That's a very good Fernando Tejero, above, as Roberto's "agent.")

The town's mayor (played by the late Juan Luis Galiardo, above, right) and his underling (the great Blanca Portillo, above, left) bring humor and bureaucracy to the proceedings, while Robert and Luisa's children (that's the couple's son, played by Eduardo Casanova, below, right) put us in touch with today's youth.

We get such a good look at everything from the medical profession to newscasters, agents, media moguls (below), advertising mavens, public officials and more that the film is like a window into western society, whose values at this point are -- how to put this? -- upside down.

There are so many wonderful moments in this movie -- funny, moving, pointed, surprising -- provided by the screenwriter (Randy Feldman of Tango & Cash!), the direction, and the many actors playing characters both major and minor that there is no way in hell the film doesn't merit a recommendation. (For the agent's "product placement" moment alone -- don't blink or you'll miss it, below -- the movie merits an extra star.)

Luisa's final decision, in fact, is a kind of amazing endorsement/
deal-breaker. The fact that so many of us will refuse to believe that this decision is even possible or that anyone today would actually opt for it simply shows how debased and cynical we've become.

In its style, setting, beauty, odd juxtapositions and moral clarity, the film is unlike just about anything else you will have viewed. Don't let it go by unseen.

From IFC Films and running 98 minutes, As Luck Would Have It is available now via Netflix Streaming -- and perhaps elsewhere.

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.