Jaime Rosales -- and a film that demands U.S. distribution: An appreciation (of sorts) and an interview

To clear the air immedi-ately, the film mentioned above is not Bullet in the Head. Rather, it's Rosales' earlier movie La Soledad (Solitary Fragments is the less than enticing English title). Not that "Bullet" doesn't deserve to be seen. But Jaime Rosales' new work is such an audience-unfriendly movie that only major fans of Rosales (I am definitely one) and perhaps a few new converts (those who demand something different, the less accessible the better) are likely to remain in the auditorium until the end.

If you've read anything about this new film, you'll already know what happens because there are really only two events in the entire movie, both toward the finale, one following the other in rather quick succession. What you've also heard (or will now) is that the film is dialog-free except for two words, shouted twice, I believe, just prior to the first "event." This is not a silent film, however; there is plenty of ambient sound throughout: of traffic and trains, mumbled voices, horns and whistles.

Because Rosales places his camera behind windows or glass, or far enough away that anyone positioned at camera-point would not be able to hear what the characters are saying, this lack of comprehensible dialog is believable. But "believable" just isn't enough. After a time (viewers will have to discover their individual breaking points) the lack of dialog guts the movie of any real context. Who are these people and why should we be observing them? Unless you can read Spanish, you may not even know in which country the film takes place (I believe it changes national locations at least once).

The film could also use a few subtitles translating signage that appears prominently in the background; during his excellent Q&A following the press screening of "Bullet" during the NY Film Festival, Rosales mentioned the importance of these signs, yet for anyone not fluent in Spanish, this will be lost. Consequently, you may find yourself, as did I, observing (and observing again) the color of the paint on the walls, some especially beautiful flowers in a vase, the composition of the frame -- if only to keep your mind from wandering into certain other areas (the world economic situation or what's for dinner).

Once the event kicks in, much of the context does, as well -- suddenly and strongly -- and if you have stayed the course thus far, you will certainly finish the film and, I warrant, think about it at some length, as did the small group that had come to the press screening. (The film made its once-only public debut last Sunday with a single NY Film Fest screening at the Ziegfeld Theatre.) Every question asked of the director by audience members was intelligent, thoughtful and demonstrated the viewer's interest in learning just why Rosales has chosen to make his film -- and make it in this peculiar manner.
For his part Rosales (shown above, on the set of La Soledad) proved a splendid co-host (with Richard Pena, the NY Film Fest selection committee chairman, who was his usual welcoming and helpful self). The director listened carefully to each question and gave the sort of thoughtful, intelligent and caring answer that demonstrates what a unique figure he is in today's film world. Did Rosales realize, one member asked, that his title, Bullet in the Head, was also the title of a Hong Kong movie by John Woo? Not when he first began the film, Rosales explained. Later he learned this, but because the phrase fit his film so well and was one he remembered strongly from one of his favorite movies -- Johnny Guitar -- he kept it.

The most compelling part of the Q&A came when Rosales told us of his feeling that, because of the condition of the world today, audiences around the world need a new motion picture paradigm, a new way to see things and understanding what we see. As much as loves Johnny Guitar, for instance, he feels that this kind of film no longer works well for the world in which we live.

After the Q&A, I arranged for a one-on-one interview with Mr. Rosales. What follows is a good portion of that interview (apologies for not being a fast enough typist to get it all).

Trust Movies: This Q&A for Bullet in the Head, considering how difficult a film it is for many people, was surprisingly good-natured and responsive. The press who stayed around to listen and ask questions were respectful and genuinely interested, I think.

Jaime Rosales. Yes, they were. In Spain the critical reaction was out of control -- very extreme. Yet I had a reaction in Paris similar to the one here in NYC, where people were quiet and respectful and truly interested in thinking about the movie. The ETA/Basque separatist movement is a very local problem. But it should not be such as difficult problem to solve, yet it is -- because it has now been so emotionally contaminated that it seems like such as huge problem. Yet the terrorists live normal lives, they do normal things.

Well, yes, until they don't.

The important thing to me is that this is NOT an understandable thing. It is not something we can fully comprehend. A key writer in Spain who is very much involved in this conflict has said that my film does not bring light onto this conflict. Well, I am not trying to bring light onto this.

One reason for different reactions from different countries may be that the Spanish are so close to these terror events. If you had made a film about the Algerian terrorists in France during the Algerian War, or a movie dealing with terror attacks now by Muslims in the USA, audiences would no doubt react a bit differently.

Yes, if I were to make a film about a terrorist living here in NYC or in France, my film would be different in some ways, yet it would be the very same in other ways. In Spain we say, "With terrorism you throw the stone but you hide the hand." Things are different in a conventional war in which you have fighting between armies, when uniforms are identifiable. But terrorism is extremely problematic: It's random. And when anyone from a mother and her children to a policeman or a politician can be killed, it seems very arbitrary.

I mentioned at the Q&A that your lack of dialog deprives the film of context. But I also realize that, in one sense, the terror event itself lacks context. This is what makes each event seem, on some level, so arbitrary.

This is contradictory to the basic ideas that the people who are using terrorism claim to believe: that they are simply trying to attack the power that is in place. One would say to them: I understand why you have these ideas and why you want to attack, but why do you do it through arbitrary violence? Why not do this through political activism?

Because, they might tell you, political activism has not so far seemed to work.
Above: from Bullet in the Head

We need to understand the psychological motivation that lies inside the human being. Every man has a monster inside the cage of his body, and sometimes this monster can get out. In Spain of late there has been much domestic violence -- husbands attacking their wives. (Ed: Interesting examples of this can be seen in the Spanish films Solo Mia and Take My Eyes.) It is important to understand that behind terrorism there is always irrationality. Always. No matter how good the cause it serves. No matter how much you might agree with it.

One of the things you talked about during your NY Film Fest Q&A was the need to find a new paradigm in film. Could you elaborate on this?

We need a new paradigm, a new model: a general model that binds our whole society together.

Do you mean something like what we refer to as The Social Contract?

Yes, like the social contract. Yes, the meaning of life, as connected to faith, metaphysics. For some the contact does not have to do with faith. But for me it does.

As in God?

The word God is problematic for me. I believe there is a part of us connected to the non-material. But we have to change our concept of God.

Yes, but how do we do this until we can understand this part of it? Really: how can something as insignificant as man claim to understand something as all-encompassing as "God"?

Through history, for one thing. Just as the social contract has changed over time, the way we interrelate with the world and among ourselves is something that also changes. So the paradigm has changed over time and must change again. This is something that we human beings can do: As when civilization, around the time of Abraham, moved from the belief in many gods to the belief in a single god. All this had its place and its meaning at the time. But now, with the development of science, it is very difficult for a rational person to believe in the old paradigm. So we must change our concept of the spiritual, of god, from something outside ourselves, to something inside our own nature -- and something in nature, in wildlife, too. This will mean the necessity of respecting nature differently. The main problem at the moment is that we cannot continue as we are.
Above: Images from La Soledad

The very manner in which we believe in god now allows us to kill people, whatever they are: Christians, Jews, Muslims. If we change this concept of god, we need to change it into one in which we can no longer kill people, because we are then killing god, since god is within us and within nature. If we can do this, we will be more civilized, move loving and much less aggressive. Our world now has an excess of negative energy. This is not sustainable.

I believe that your previous films, even more than Bullet in the Head, hew to a different or new paradigm -- particulary La Soledad. (The link is to my earlier review of the film, when it made its debut at the FSLC's 2007 Spanish Cinema Now.) The fact that this movie, which last year won the Spain's Goya award for Best Picture, has not yet been seen in the USA (outside of a few festival showings) is scandalous, stupid. This win was amazing. It would be something on the order of, uh... I can't even think of an American comparison: Maybe something like Scott Predergast's Kabluey (which is good but nowhere near as rigorous, artful or deep as La Soledad) winning Best Picture. My point is that nothing like this has ever happened (nor probably ever will) at our own Oscars. We can hope, of course. So how did this happen in Spain?

The win was very surprising to all our industry, as well. This was first time ever in Spain that an art film had won Best Picture. But still, even now there are forces at work to defend the old paradigm. There is an enormous resistance to change. These forces are strong. At the same time, there are people working to change things. The result of a changing idea comes only in years, decades. One puts a new idea out, then forces work hard stopping this idea. But if the idea is strong enough, it will happen.

Could you call La Soledad a success? I mean economically.

Yes! It was a huge success for an art film. Normally if an art film does around 10,000 admissions in Spain, this is considered average. 13,000 admissions would be very good. La Soledad did 125,000 admissions! It was released in England, where I know it opened theatrically and then on DVD worked very well. And it played in many other countries, too. For the United States, well, my Spanish distributor told me that my films are different from most. My first worked well in some countries but not others; the next did just the opposite in terms of where it was successful.

With Bullet in the Head, I know I am pushing the envelop and that my film is really, really difficult. I just knew I wanted to do it and that I wanted to do it in this way. While I was filming, I realized that, once I finished, I might not have any film at all. I know I took the money from my investors: 40,000 Euros from a French investor, and 80,000 from one in Spain, and I put up the other 80,000 myself.

What's next for you -- or do you even know at this point?

My next project is about the problem of the need to change how we see what god is. I think it will be a long complex film about the problem of spirituality in modern society. This is a lot to chew, so it is going to take me awhile to come up with a script and start the financing. The budget will be maybe $2-3 million Euros. My best-case scenario is that the film would be ready for principal photography in two years, then finished in three.

Jaime flies off to Europe later today, so we must let him pack and get ready. Meanwhile, listen up, you intelligent, truly foreign-film-loving distributors out there (all three or four of you who remain): Regarding La Soledad or even Bullet in the Head, contact Señor Rosales' distributor, The Match Factory. E-mail: michael.weber@matchfactory.de

I have it on good authority that terms to please all parties can be arranged.

New Kid on the (Distribution) Block: Mitropoulos Films & MJ Peckos

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What do the current critics' darling Ballast and the geriatric romantic-comedy Elsa & Fred have in common? More than you know. The former is enjoying a successful limited U.S. theatrical release, as did the latter a few months ago, opening in NYC at the fabled Paris theatre, the city's oldest continuously operating venue for foreign and specialty films. Both have come to theatres via the help and good work of a new distribution channel: MJ Peckos and her Mitropoulos Films.

"Here's a name I don't know," I thought to myself when I noticed Mitropoulos as distributor for Elsa & Fred. It was around this same time that various film distributors -- Picturehouse, Warner Independent, Tartan, ThinkFilm -- were either being shut down entirely or encountering such severe financial woes as to render them little more than useless. So the idea of any new distribution channel seemed encouraging.

It turns out that the woman -- MJ Peckos -- in charge of Mitropoulis Films (named for her husband, who's Greek) is no newcomer to film distribution. For ten years she was president of First Look Pictures; following that she ran Tartan for two years. "My father was in distribution at 20th Century Fox for 40 years. I was raised in the Boston area and my dad had that particular branch. Eventually he rose in the ranks and our family moved to Hollywood, where he managed distribution for Fox."

When we mention to MJ that nearly everything regarding distribution for independent and foreign films seems eventually to go by the wayside, she tends to agree. "I've seen this industry change -- a lot," she notes. "This is a very different time than it was several years ago. The playing field has changed. And I don't know whether it will ever return to the form it used to be."

Nonetheless, Peckos insists that there is room for small distributors who are savvy. "You just have to carve out your niche," she tells us. And what is her particular niche? "It's funny," she admits, "as I am doing a lot of different things at the moment -- including a number of 'service' deals. Like for Ballast."
We had heard that Lance Hammer (above) was doing his own distributing for his film, but Peckos explains that what Hammer has done is to put together a team headed by Steven Raphael and herself. "Then we hired some terrific publicists like Susan Norget & Marina Bailey, and we all are assisting Lance in getting Ballast out across the country. There is a great deal of interest in his film, and I have now booked the top 15 markets, including New York City, L.A., Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Boston, DC, Detroit, St Louis, Atlanta, Seattle, with Dallas/Houston in the mix but not booked quite yet. There are even some small locations, too. I have requests from Hudson , NY ; Omaha , Salt Lake City , Nashville -- and we're definitely going to try to get dates in Mississippi and throughout the south."

We ask about the film that piqued our interest in Mitropoulis: Elsa & Fred. "That was also a 'service' deal," Peckos explains. "And I handled the marketing and release, right through to distribution. We had a specific strategy with this film because it had a very specific demographic. While many films need to do very well during their first week, with movies that skew 'older,' this is not the case. Seniors tend not to rush out during the first week. They wait for word of mouth. Consequently, everywhere that Elsa & Fred held over, it did well. But if a theatre kept it for only one week, it did not. This is the way the senior demographic reacts to going to a movie: There is never a sense of urgency, but over time business builds."

Peckos explains that the original distributor for Elsa & Fred was a Mexican company called Distrimax --sort of the Lionsgate of Mexico. "They wanted to get into US market and so primarily became involved in Latino DVD distribution, Peckos says. "Now they have actually bought films that cross over to an Anglo audience."
Coming up from Mitropoulis? A film called La Zona (which was in the recent New Directors Festival from the Film Society of Lincoln Center), directed by Rodrigo Plá (The Dessert Within), whom Peckos calls a formidable force in Mexican cinema. Also on the agenda is Shadows by Milcho Manchevski, who, nearly 15 years ago, gave us the wonderful Before the Rain.

"I am also currently releasing the documentary Stealing America : Vote by Vote. It's been playing around the country prior to the upcoming election and will be out quite soon on DVD or via the web. This is another 'service' deal. And last year I released a documentary called The Price of Sugar. This year the same company has a film called American Violet, directed by Tim Disney and written by Bill Haney -- two really great guys. We are hoping to place the latter film with a bigger distribution company because of its interesting and timely subject matter and its stars (below) -- Alfre Woodard (center), Tim Blake Nelson (left) and Michael O'Keefe (right).

"Most of what we do these days," notes MJ, "are service deals, because more and more filmmakers have understood the facts about controlling their life and their destiny. Rather than selling their films for a small amount of money and never seeing anything beyond that, by using the service deal, they have the chance to do better. One of the ways in which they can finally see a profit is via DVD distribution and ancillary rights. I started the DVD division at First Look, so I understand the ins and outs of this."

Theatrical distribution, she explains, calls attention to the film, so that when the DVD appears, people will already have heard of it. "Elsa & Fred, for instance, played in 65-70 cities, so people will know the movie when it comes out on DVD. There'll be that necessary awareness."

Peckos says that her business has evolved over time into something to which filmmakers come in order to get this service. "I also consult for a foreign sales company called The Little Film Company. I do all their marketing. Over the many years I've been in the business, I have been involved in all the aspects of it, so I sort of know a little about a lot of things."

I'd say the lady knows more than a little. Filmmakers looking for help with distribution might do well to contact MJ Peckos and Mitropoulos Films via mj@mitropoulosfilms.com

DVD "Find" of the Week: Jack Brooks Monster Slayer

Rage has rarely seemed as endearing -- or finally as useful -- as when it comes

from the title character in JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER. This creme-de-la-Canadian horror comedy achieves almost exactly the right tone -- consistently, too -- as it spoofs the creep-and-splatter fests of a few decades back. The movie manages (better than any I can recall) to make this genre come deliriously alive again in all its silly/gory glory by treating it with the utmost respect while its tongue remains firmly in-cheek.

Director and co-writer (with John Ainslie) Jon Knautz has performed a wonderful service for anyone who might have thought no more fun and thrills could be found in this kind of film. The pair, along with an exceedingly good cast, have set the new benchmark for goofy pleasure and drooling, transforming monsters (some of whom look a bit "rubbery," which actually adds to the fun). Lead actor Trevor Matthews does anger like nobody else (Anger Management could have used some of his pizzazz), Robert Englund (above left) makes a terrifically game fall guy (his classroom gross-out scenes are, for a change, hilarious), and Rachel Skarsten (above right) as Jack's girlfriend from hell is simply a treasure.

How all this came together so seamlessly (except, of course, when seams are required to show) is one of those lovely mysteries of filmmaking, in which a clever idea finds clever interpeters and takes off like a bat out of hell. Good on ya, gang!

DVDebuts: Last Week's Mixed Blessings

Nothing I've seen over the past week or so rates as chaff -- which is a blessing in itself. The films below, which may not have made my "wheat" list, are still worth a watch for various reasons.
Receiving two-to-one negative

reviews, WAR. INC. turns out to be better than you might expect but not enough so to qualify as "good." What it does right is to take many of the particulars of our Iraq war and turn them into fodder for a satire on the uses of war via a new middle east endeavor. As the similarities build, often via funny/nasty juxtapositions, you'll be entertained and jogged, but after awhile, the heavy plot coincidences grow a bit too much. The cast --Cusack(s), Tomei, Kingsley, Ackroyd and Hilary Duff -- is excellent and well-used, and certain scenes (the kidnapping/video-ing of a reporter) recall recent history in a most troubling manner. But the movie outstays its welcome, even though, right up through the finale, it is filled with off-and-on-the-mark satire, jolts and laughs.

Colin Hanks is so very real as a pasty-faced, slightly flabby but very smart stalker that this alone makes viewing Eric Nicholas' ALONE WITH HER worthwhile. The story, too (how easy it is to legally obtain all the equipment you might need for a good "stalk"!) is timely and necessary. And for at least half the 78-minute running time, events and characters are so well wrought that you'll be hooked. Then melodrama sets in, and with it some over-the-top plotting. Still, the movie has the courage of its convictions, and that's worth something these days.

Since no one yet has been able to solve the Israel-Palestine problem, why would we imagine that Adam Sandler could manage it? That he adds some ideas and laughs to the situation will be welcomed by some. In YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, Sandler still insists on repeating his jokes far too often, and around half of them don't work. But when they do, it's bracing. And yes, the guy is learning to act and play characters (Spanglish, it seems, was no fluke).

The time and place -- Egypt in the late 1950s -- is captured to perfection in OSS 117: CAIRO NEST OF SPIES and lead actor Jean Dujardin manages to be sexy, dumb, funny and sophisticated (not an easy combo for most guys). But the timing is often off, and there's a lot of repetition (the lights in the chicken house, the men frolicking on the beach), so by the end, this one is pretty much a 50-50 proposition.

Laura Dunn's documentary THE UNFORESEEN is poetic, and this alone makes it stand out from the crowd. Its subject, too -- the selling (and selling out) out of a particular area of Austin, Texas, to developers is (or was) timely. And while Dunn makes her points and generally holds our interest, she distends her story too far. I appreciate that she gives what seems like more than equal time to her developer, however. He sure can't claim liberal media bias with this one.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young will have a place in the hearts of my generation till we're gone, I suspect. And so Neil Young's film of the group's reunion tour, CSNY DÉJÀ VU, can hardly miss with us seniors. I'd love to know how younger crowds look at it, however. We get some clues during the movie itself, as Young interviews some youngsters, some of whom are not positive. He also gives naysayers their due in the negative quotes from reviewers of the tour from around the country. If there is nothing much new here (except a few songs and the younger generation), there is little that's boring, either.

DVDebuts: Last Week's Wheat 'n Chaff

Wow: a week without chaff. Out of twelve new-to-DVD films, six are definitely worth a watch, and the other half are what I may start calling "Mixed Blessings": While they all have good stuff going for them, they manage to undercut the good with enough mediocre moments to lessen their overall impact. But let's get to the wheat.

A performance to remember anchors BOY A, and it comes via an actor you may have seen if you were smart enough to catch Robert Redford's underrated Lions for Lambs or the tiresome, silly bodice-ripper, The Other Boleyn Girl: Andrew Garfield. Here is near-perfect match of actor and role, and Garfield's face, changing moment-to-moment in a manner that keeps you glued to the screen, is a non-stop wonder. Everything in his performance works -- face, body, manner, voice -- and he's surrounded by other good actors, including the always excellent Peter Mullan and Katie Lyons doing some lovely work. If the story seems pre-destined, I imagine that tales such as this generally are. That renders Boy A no less effective, only sadder.

If you've ever wondered what Ken Russell's work was like prior to his his going off the deep end of the artist-biography genre, rent KEN RUSSELL AT THE BBC which offers three of his early work done for the BBC. I've only watched Disc One, but the films included there are enough to have me queuing up for the other two discs. Elgar (1962) is stately combination of re-enacted scenes and documentary footage, seamlessly combined into one beautiful 52-minute work that features much of his composer's music on the soundtrack. The black and white photography is stunning, and Russell has rarely seemed as reticent yet full of fine and thoughtful ideas as here.

The Debussy Film (from 1965) offers the 28-year-old Oliver Reed's bull-like body and gorgeous face/voice as French composer Claude Debussy. From the photos we see of the real Debussy, Reed was an inspired choice as both the actor playing the composer and the "La Mer" man himself (Russell turns this into a film about a film). At 82 minutes, this is the longest of the three films and also the least, though still worthwhile.

For my money, the best of the three is Always on Sunday (also from 1965), which details the strange and alternately sad and amusing later life of Henri Rousseau who did not even begin to paint in serious until his middle years--after his first wife and some seven (or was it nine?) children had died. As played indelibly by a man named James Lloyd (who, according to the IMDB, never appeared in another movie or television role), Rousseau seems a near simple fellow with a great gift who was determined to present it to the world. Thank goodness. (He actually imagined himself a "realist" painter, and this bizarre idea was used by his lawyer to have him acquitted of some trumped-up charges in a court of law.)

In this 45-minute episode, Russell begins using some of his heavy-handed approaches that would later become near-trademarks (the crowd laughing at Rousseau's work, which goes on far too long). But these moments are few and far between. What's left is Mr. Lloyd's splendid work, and another of Russell's interesting views of artists unappreciated and misunderstood in their own time. Maybe someday people will feel the same about Russell himself. For now, I plan to move on to Disc 2 in this very welcome DVD series.

Another subtle, sad Israeli ensemble film, JELLYFISH is even more fluid and tangential than ususal. It's poetic, too, in its conception, form and photography. Full of connections made and missed, it left me both saddened and oddly fulfilled, the way certain artful films can manage -- as though I were floating just slightly above the land-locked characters. Co-directed (with Shira Geffen) by Etgar Keret, the fellow who wrote the original short story upon which the movie Wristcutters was based), this one is elusive. My companion found it nowhere near as good as did I, but I must recommend it on the chance that you'll find it as special as I.

That's one of the things about movies: Not only should you trust them (to a point), as my blog title would have it; you should also give them a chance. Open yourself up to the experience your writer/director is offering. Try to connect. If you can't, fine. There'll be others. But when you do, ah, the chance to actually see things a little differently and then to understand a bit more of life in our world.

The other three "wheat" films of the week -- Snow Angels; Bigger Stronger, Faster; and Taxi to the Dark Side -- I covered individually last week. Scroll down a bit for the reviews. All three of these movies (two documentaries and one narrative) are good examples of my Trust Movies philosophy: Snow Angels because of the actors' and adapter/director's ability to connect so precisely to the emotion of the moment, "truth" continually appears from each character and new situation. Bigger, Stronger, Faster keeps expanding its reach until it is almost impossible to go away from the movie carrying the same attitude and preconceptions with which you came to it. And Taxi to the Dark Side simply explores again our doings in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo quietly and concertedly until -- unless you turn off your DVD player mid-movie -- there is no escape from its very troubling conclusion.

No more time today, so the "Mixed Blessings" I shall have to cover tomorrow:
WAR, INC.
ALONE WITH HER
YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN
OSS 117: CAIRO NEST OF SPIES
THE UNFORESEEN
CSNY DÉJÀ VU

Should David Gordon Green move north?

Could Arkansas-born, Texas-bred (and now-storied writer/director of southern movies such as George Washington and Undertow) David Gordon Green actually be a closeted cold-climate guy? Watching SNOW ANGELS, his best film yet (I haven't yet seen his work-for-hire Pineapple Express) makes we wonder. Such a moment-to-moment example of emotionally-truthful moviemaking that rarely takes a false step (when it does this is more a matter of camera-placement than anything else) belies both the tiring longeurs of Geo. Wash. and the heavy melodramatics (fun as they sometimes are) of Undertow.

His most accomplished movie in every respect, this Nova Scotia-filmed, northern-set story of small town life and several families whose lives entwine, Snow Angels handles tragedy, romance and quiet humor with a depth and profundity I would not have imagined possible. Green gets tip-top work from his cast: Kate Beckinsale is better than I have ever seen her, Sam Rockwell is his usual sterling self, and Amy Sedaris, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, Griffin Dunne, Tom Noonan and the rest are close to letter perfect. Green has adapted his film from a novel by Stewart O'Nan (unread by me) and he manages to balance the inevitable tragedy with an equal dose of hope -- without making either seem the least unrealistic. I have rarely felt, watching a movie, as close to and understanding of characters whose behavior I would not countenance.

My quibbles, and they are just that, involve camera work -- or maybe editing. One instance: There is a scene of a wonderful kiss in a high school hallway in which the camera is suddenly pulled back and the mood poorly broken. But within seconds the movie recovers and you're back on track. Mr. Green has given us a story and characters that, in other hands, could easily lose their credibility or topple into camp. That this does not happen -- does not even threaten to happen -- marks Green as a filmmaker who is growing by leaps and bounds. "Pineapple," here I come.

BIGGER STRONGER FASTER: What the hell is a "good sport"?

One of those rare documentaries that expands as it moves along, BIGGER STRONGER FASTER not only gets better as it unfolds, but its subjects broaden until they take in what appears to be the original problem, its contradiction, trends, morality, society and finally an entire country -- before turning in on itself and simply mirroring our flawed humanity. All of this happens in a manner that appears unplanned, which makes it all the more surprising and believable.

Christopher Bell, his entire family, and his co-writers Alexander Buono and Tamsin Rawady have put together a one-of-a-kind experience that includes our country's everlasting fascination with sports, as well as its current one with steroids and other body/mind/facial enhancers. Unless I am very far off base, Mr. Bell is more honest than many other documentarians in his willingness to admit to hypocrisy: his own, his family's and his country's. This makes for a particularly fascinating journey into our national psyche.

I am not going to provide more details, as I don't want to deprive you of the experience of discovery (and, oh boy, there is plenty of it here). Whether you are a sports fan or someone who despises, not sports themselves, but the manner in which business, the media, the owners and the players themselves have destroyed the integrity of sports, don't let "Bigger Stronger Faster" get by you unseen.

A MUST-SEE, which you probably won't

It won this year's Best Documentary award. It comes from the fellow who made ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room. It deals with one (yes, there are so many) of our most pressing moral/social/image problems. But since that problem is America's countenancing and use of torture in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo -- not to mention all the unknown places used for "rendition" around the globe (see the new-to-DVD TORTURED, for a look this sort of thing on our home ground) -- audiences will run for cover rather than for the box-office or, now that TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE has reached DVD, for the living room sofa.

I myself admit to not really looking forward to having to watch this film. It is, however, made with skill, feeling, intelligence and the kind of questioning needed to manage a good investigative documentary. While much of what I heard and saw, I already knew, writer/director Alex Gibney (above right) shows us quite clearly and convincingly something I had not considered: how and why the Bush/Cheney administration has broken America's military just has it has broken so much else -- the Justice Department, FEMA, our energy and environment, very nearly our entire federal government. Mr. Gibney does not tell us in so many words about the destruction of the military, nor do his talking heads, but the message seeps through interview after interview. Of course we knew there were problems here: low recruitment (often of exactly the wrong people) and a force stretched to the breaking point. But now we see what our military has become, who is responsible, and how only -- as ever -- the grunts, rather than their officers in charge, take the blame.

It is a horrible picture that Taxi to the Dark Side leaves us with, even though Gibney's final talking head offers a question that might possibly be seen as hopeful. Over the final credits, the director's own father (now deceased), a man who in is own day handled interrogations for the military, talks about the futility and waste of what has come to pass. As I say, this one is a must-see.

I Kiffe NY: This New New French Fest Is About to Boil Over

Get ready for one of the more interesting -- and certainly comprehensive -- French festivals to come to NYC for some time: I Kiffe NY, beginning this Monday, October 6, and continuing over three weeks until Tuesday, October 28. If you're imagining that this is a French "take" on the ever-popular "I Love NY" theme, you'd be

correct. However, Kiffe (pronounced keef) is French slang, borrowed from the Arabic language, and translates more like "I'm absolutely nuts-to-the-max" about NY. Another French word you'll need to know is banlieues, which, though correctly translated as "the surburbs," more accurately -- for urban Americans -- should read "the projects."

A celebration of the urban culture of France and its largely immigrant banlieues, the programs is a veritable grab-bag of the best the country has to offer in this vernacular. Included is everything from eight narrative films (shown in twelve screenings); nine more documentary programs, with speakers and/or panel discussions (most of these will be in English); two programs of dance (the Accrorap and Pockemon companies in five performances); three of music (Les Nubians, La Caution, Wax Tailor and Mangu); and three gallery shows of two visual artists and one photographer (Jérôme Lagarrigue, Fabien Verschaere and Denis Darzacq). Venues include everywhere from NYU to FIAF, Columbia University, Medger Evers College, the French Embassy Cultural Services, Hiro Ballroom and Joe's Pub.

Best of all, perhaps, many of these programs are being presented to the public free of charge: the documentaries, speakers and panels, as well as the gallery shows. Tickets for the narrative films are $10, the dance programs cost $25, and the music events $15, $20 and $25.

Since film's my forte, I'll concentrate on the eight narrative movies, five of which I've seen, and all of which I believe to be worth your time. If you have any interest in watching living/breathing/feeling banlieue kids on a downward roll, do not miss Audrey Estrougo's AIN'T SCARED, shown above, bottom left (the link is to my earlier review, which appeared on GreenCine: scroll down a bit once you've arrived). Ms. Estrougo -- smart, vivacious and extremely talented, if this first full-length feature is any indication -- will field a Q&A after the 7 pm, Tuesday, October 7, screening.

Two years previous to Estrougo's film, a little movie called L'ESQUIVE (or Games of Love and Chance on this side of the Atlantic), above right, surprised France by winning Césars (the French "Oscar") for best film, director and original writing. Though I prefer Ain't Scared, L'Esquive is no piker in the good-film department. Built around the banlieue students' rehearsal and performance of -- yes! -- a Marivaux play, the movie simultaneously tracks a budding love story between two of the characters who can barely communicate with each other, let alone with the text of this famous 18th Century playwright. The kids in this film use an argot/patois that the subtitles do not do justice (subtitling has rarely seemed more tricky than here), but their thoughts and feelings still shine through. The film's French release preceded the banlieue riots that started, yet again, the ball rolling toward better communication between the French and their Algerian immigrant population. (Speaking of, I suspect Americans might learn something they could use in their own country from the films, documentaries, speakers and panelists in this festival.)

The banlieue as a microcosm of the larger world is the subject of WESH WESH, WHAT'S HAPPENING? by Rabah Ameur-Zaimèche, shown above. Here, a man returns from an Algerian prison to his family in France and tries desperately to succeed -- on French terms, of course. This one was shot on an obviously low budget, but in the hands of a talented filmmaker and crew, it works very well and should leave you, as it does the central family, bereft.

Another, lighter view of the banlieues is provided by VOISINS VOISINES (My Neighbors), in which a rap artist discovers the material for his next album via the lively and diverse people all around him. This is what I'd call banlieue-lite, but it is delightful all the same and features a wonderful group of characters brought to life via some of France's best actors. You can meet the director, Malik Chibane, at the Tuesday, October 14, 7pm screening.

I reviewed Karin Albou's 2004 film LITTLE JERUSALEM (above left) some time back for GreenCine, and it, too, is worth a watch. Also showing in the series is this year's big César winner THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN (shown at top), which should be receiving its theatrical release later this year via IFC and is directed by the same fellow who did L'Esquive, Abdel Kechiche; TWO LADIES from Philippe Faucon (who will field a Q&A at the 7pm, Tuesday, Oct. 21, screening) and Jean-François Richet's MY CITY IS GOING TO CRACK, shown just below. (M. Richet did the very good 2005 remake of Assault on Precinct 13.)

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Without belaboring the point, it seems to me that there may be much to learn from our French compatriots, who, after all, embraced "democracy" around the same time as did the US, and in fact helped us fight the British for ours. With immigrants now providing as hot a topic here as there -- it's a hot one all over Europe -- the films, speakers, dance, music and art of this festival should be pointed, unpredictable and buoyant. Not part of this festival (though still playing around town), is one of the most popular foreign films in America this year -- TELL NO ONE (above right)-- which demonstrates well what connects a native population to its immigrant/banlieues and how the two support each other in ways that are vital and necessary, if sometimes surprising.

DVDebuts: Chaff of the Week

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Asia Argento surely is a devoted daughter. As much as I love my own little girl (who actually works with me in my PR business and is doing ten times the job I ever did), I hope I would not corral her into a mess like MOTHER OF TEARS. Late Argento (Dario's, I mean) seems not nearly up to his earlier work, which was very much a matter of taste, in any case. I found some of it (Suspira, Deep Red) fun and unsettling in my formative years (aren't all our years formative?), but I don't think the director comes anywhere near that level these days. Here, he has notions that could work -- the world gone crazy around us -- but does little with them: no consistency or follow-through. His major accomplishment still, unfortunately, is to find new and ever more disgusting ways to mutilate and murder women.

You can't fault the actors -- Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams --who do their usual, excellent job. But material this derivative and obvious is beyond anyone's help. The generic title DECEPTION (which manages to give away at the outset what little mystery the movie supplies) is a good example of the stupidity on view. The film is pointless -- unless it happens to be one of the first "mystery" movies you've encountered in your young life.

I try to give roundly criticized movies a chance (and I recall reading a couple of positive notices amidst the raspberries here) but SPEED RACER delivers only color and light. I would imagine its story is too complicated for children below the age of ten but too tiresome for most everybody else. (Is the brother dead, or isn't he? keeps being asked ad infinitum. By the time we find out, we don't care.) The question "What could the Wachowskis have imagined they were doing?" comes to mind as the credits roll.

Below are new DVD releases movies that fall midway between wheat and chaff. Think of them as a "matter of taste" or perhaps "chaff can supply necessary roughage." Your move...

Like watching three or more segments of the cable TV show, SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE goes on (and on) delivering pretty much what you'd expect. Which makes it OK -- or not -- depending on how your feel about these gals, who have exactly the depth (but from the looks of things, a lot more money) than most of the current USA population.

What fun to see Diane Lane and Laura Dern, not to mention Christine Lahti, in their younger years. But that's about it. LADIES & GENTLEMEN: THE FABULOUS STAINS seems particularly unbelievable at the very times it ought to work best. (Can it have ever been as easy to turn an entire audience around on a dime as it appears here?) While the film offers some interesting precursors to later music videos, nothing really clicks as well as it should.

Small scale in budget and ideas, THE FIST FOOT WAY hopes to make us care about (or at least become interested in) an egotistical clod of a martial arts instuctor. Evidently the movie manages this feat for some. As the song says: "But Not for Me."

Unlike the above film RUN, FAT BOY, FUN is large-scale in budget, but, again, small in ideas. It boasts a very nice cast, all of them trying hard. But David Schwimmer's movie (so unlike his earlier, dark and very funny high school reunion-themed Since You've Been Gone) proves far too tired, obvious, and finally phony-feel-good to rustle up much enthusiasm.

The title is certainly on the mark, as TORTURED offers quite a few scenes of just that. Its cast is more than competent, and for a time the story proves intriguing. But the downhill ride start midway and by the end I think you'll feel put through the mill to little purpose. I suppose you could say that the film opens up the subject of what our government has been doing in Iraq and elsewhere, then brings it home to our own neighborhoods. But I'm afraid that's stretching: This is mostly a convoluted thriller with a payoff that only works in half-assed fashion.