Scheinmann bros' cutting-edge ensemble delight -- THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR

A good friend of mine, who is also a psychotherapist, once told TrustMovies that any two people could form a successful relation-ship and/or marriage. There were only two necessities: They had to be mature (that is, autonomous) adults, and they had to want the relationship. Granted, that first necessity precludes at least three-quarters of the world's adult population but, still, this is a very interesting concept. It came to mind while TM and his companion were watching a British movie he had only just become aware of -- THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR -- though it was actually made in 2006 but released solely (and all too briefly) in the U.K. at the end of that year.

The WWA, as I'll now refer to it, is a rom-com set partially in the titular tiny village, located in the West Sussex district of England. The movie features a quartet of smart performers. Later a younger, fifth wheel is added to the group, but for most of the movie it's this foursome that captivates and annoys us (most humorously). As rom-coms go, the movie is light years ahead of most, whether British, American or whatever country of origin. This is due to the diretor, a fellow named David Scheinmann (at left), an evidently well-known British photographer and music--video creator, here helming his first full-length film; to his splendid acting ensemble, who play together like the pros they are; and to the screenwriters (two of this ensemble: the director's brother, Danny Schneimann, and Sarah Sutcliffe).

The actors are all new to me and probably will be to you. All the better, then, to enjoy their novelty, ability and spontaneity. The movie begins by flashing forward and back in time, days and/or weeks before or after West Wittering, as the "event" has evidently come to be referred to. That event turns out to be kind of "date" arranged by one woman (Ms Stucliffe, below, left) to get to better know the young caterer, Jamie (played by Mr. Scheinmann, above) to whom she's become attracted. Another couple has been invited, but only one person, the female half (Rebecca Cardinale, below, right) shows up. Things go both badly and well, depending on how you view them -- which is pretty much true about everything that happens in this movie, consequently giving it such an interesting, "adult" edge.

The four characters, the last of whom is a therapist (played by David Annen, shown at right in the penultimate photo) involved with one of the women, are quite good at sizing up the other three. It's understanding themselves that gives them -- as it gives most of us -- such trouble, while peppering the movie with resonance and pizzazz. There's one other thing that distinguishes the film, but I hesitate to tell you what it is -- because, when I learn that a movie's been made in this manner, I tend to resist it from the outset. This is unfair, particulaly when a film works as well as does The WWA.  (You can learn what this "magical" ingredient is by watching the maybe 15-20 minute interview with the director that appears as a extra on the DVD. Scheinmann comes across as a very smart and intuitive guy, and what he has to say about his movie and how it was made is consistently interesting and vibrant. Listening to this interview (it's all audio, against a photo of the director) added immeasurably to my understanding and enjoyment of the film.)

I don't say this about very many movies, but The West Wittering Affair -- by tracking these characters as they attempt to create viable relationships -- flirts with profundity, even if it does not finally consummate it. But for a rom-com to make us laugh and entertain us so well, while locking us into its stories of these crazy but believable characters, and then make us consider seriously the ways in which our uses of sex and food and romance and loyalty conspire for and against us -- well, this is one hell of an achievement. Not to mention the smart, sharp style the director uses in his odd time shifts, his introduction of a men's sex therapy group, and finally the addition of that very important fifth character.

All of this brings up another interesting point: How did those guardians of our film culture let this movie slip past them?  While they were sleeping, another much less worthy filmmaker like Ben Wheatley got his two movies -- Kill List and Down Terrace -- praised to the skies. While these films are indeed "different," stylistically they both clunk and neither works that well in terms of simple credibility. Could it be that Wheatley's insistence on giving us the blood, gore, murder and mayhem that so many of us crave above all else, makes him a worthier object upon which to heap praise?  Just asking.

Meanwhile, track down The West Wittering Affair, watch it and weigh in. You can rent it, as did I, from Netflix (Blockbuster has it, too), or purchase or stream it from Amazon and elsewhere.
Whatever: See it.

Fifth annual FILMS ON THE GREEN festival spotlights free French films in NYC's parks

It's back -- and better than ever. This summer's edition of the annual FILMS ON THE GREEN festival, organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, begins next Friday, June 1. For the fifth consecutive year, Films on the Green will present French films in New York City parks in June and July, as well as a special screening at Columbia University in September. The 2012 Films on the Green Festival will feature 8 free French screenings all adapted from French and American Literature. Through an array of different cinematic genres – thriller, comedy, drama, romance and musical -- the 2012 line-up includes films adapted from a wide range of literary styles, from fairy tale (“Donkey Skin”) to poetry (“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”) and graphic novel (“Persepolis”) – and highlights how great French directors like François Truffaut, Jacques Demy or Costa-Gavras have adapted certain works of literature to film.

The series begins on Friday June 1st in Central Park with the screening of the comedy, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies directed by the 2012 Oscar-winner (for The Artist) Michel Hazanavicius and featuring the two stars of that film: Bérénice Bejo (above, left) and additional Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin (above, right), who here plays a would-be James Bond who unfortunately possesses only a shred of the brain-power (but ten times the pomposity) of 007. Based on the series of novels “OSS 117” by French writer Jean Bruce (said to be the inspiration for the character of the famous Mr. Bond), the film provides an example of a literary (it's a bit of a stretch to call it that) adaptation from novel to screen.

The real highlight of this year's series, however, is the following week's film, to be shown in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, on Friday June 8th: The Snows of Kilimanjaro by one of the worlds most progressive filmmakers, Robert Guédiguan. Despite the film's title, forget Hemingway; this one's adapted from the Victor Hugo poem, “How Good are the Poor,” and it is a gem of movie-making. First shown in NYC last March, as part of the annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema series (my earlier review is here), the film ought have been immediately snapped up for U.S. release. Alas, no such luck, so if you want to see a remarkable movie about such important themes as family, love, employment, crime, justice, and what we owe our fellow man, this open air screening may be your only opportunity. Don't miss it. (The rest of this year's crop of films are easily available via DVD in the USA; this one, made just last year, is not.)

Friday June 15th will see the screening, also in Washington Square Park, of the famous family-movie, War of the Buttons (the 1961 version by Yves Robert), which was the first of four film adaptations of Louis Pergaud’s novel -- two of which arrived almost simultaneously last year in France, where they both did well at the box-office.

Screenings in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village will feature the dark thriller The Axe by acclaimed director Costa-Gavras, adapted from the bestselling novel by one of America's favorite authors, the late Donald Westlake, on Friday, June 22nd. This nifty little thriller with black comedic over- and under-tones tackles the western world's current employment crisis in a most intriguing fashion.

Also showing in Tompkins Square Park on Friday, June 29, will be one of Jacques Demy's most precious (in both senses of the word) films, the classic musical Donkey Skin based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale on Friday 28th. Next to Demy's one-of-a-kind musical The Young Girls of Rochefort, I think this is my favorite of all his work. It's enchanting, colorful and delightfully irreverent  -- oh, those horses! -- in a manner that nearly no one has managed before or since.

The festival continues in Riverside Park – Pier I, Upper West Side, on Friday July 6th with one of the great thrillers of our new millennium: Tell No One directed by Guillaume Canet from the novel starring François Cluzet (above, left), also known for his lead role in this year’s hit, Intouchables, makes a terrific everyman searching for his dead wife -- who's suddenly sending him emails.

Friday, July 13th, will serve up -- no, not a horror movie, although you could look it that way -- the black-and-white (with a bit of red now and then, and lots of luscious grays) animated film Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, which tells the story of Satrapi’s childhood in Iran and Austria. Tackling everything from fundamentalism to feminism to immigration, the movie is a surprisingly rich and thoughtful coming-of-age story.

The series will conclude on Thursday September 6th on the campus of Columbia University with an iconic film of La Nouvelle Vague, Jules and Jim by François Truffaut, presented in partnership with the Maison Française of Columbia University. If you've never seen this one, or haven't for a few years (or decades), now's your op.

All film screenings are held at dusk, and the films are in French with English subtitles, and are screened free of charge. A full film description is available by clicking on each film's title, above.

The youngest of the city's outdoor film festivals, Films on the Green is already a much-loved event of New York summers and is made possible with the cooperation of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Last year the festival reached over 3,000 viewers and, with the support of its official sponsors, Air France, BNP Paribas and TV5 Monde, the 2012 series has expanded to feature eight classic or contemporary French films in five different locations. DJs from New York University’s radio, WNYU 89.1 FM, will spin tunes before screenings.

Here's the FILMS ON THE GREEN schedule at a glance:

All screenings are held at dusk

June 1 - 8:30pm OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies, Central Park – Cedar Hill (79th St. & 5th Ave.)

June 8 - 8:30pm The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Washington Square Park

June 15 - 8:30pm War of the Buttons, Washington Square Park

June 22 - 8:30pm The Axe, Tompkins Square Park

June 29 - 8:30pm Donkey Skin, Tompkins Square Park
            (that's Catherine Deneuve, in the photo above)

July 6 - 8:30pm Tell No One, Riverside Park – Pier I (at 70th St)

July 13 - 8:30pm Persepolis, Riverside Park – Pier I (at 70th St)

September 6- 7:30pm Jules and Jim, Columbia University – Low Library Steps

For more information about Films on the Green, simply click here.

Toledano/Nakache's French Box-office bonanza THE INTOUCHABLES opens....

First seen in New York City nearly three months ago -- via RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA -- the second most popular movie in French cinema history, THE INTOUCHABLES (Intouchables), proves one of those rare, audience-pleasing hits that deserves every penny it rakes in. Why? Because it takes what some of our more cynical critics are happy to call "stereotypes," turns them on their head and then opens them up into living, breathing and above all surprising human beings.

If you appreciate foreign films already, you'll have no problem; even if you're resistant to subtitles, Intouchables may win you over because it moves fast and possesses a simplicity and charm that clearly grabs audiences and doesn't easily let them go. It's a lovely piece of film-making, a model of classy discretion compared to movies of the "buddy" genre that are made over here.

To begin with, the main characters -- one of France's richest men, now a paraplegic, and a hunky Black African from the banlieues -- are so much more than the usual oil and water types that people this genre. In the typical version the movie always takes us -- and its characters -- from "They hate each other now" to "They've grown to love each other over time."  Not here.

These two guys -- played superbly by the gifted François Cluzet (above, right, of Tell No One and In the Beginning) and Omar Sy (above, left, who walked away with this year's Best Actor award in France, beating out even Jean Dujardin) -- are in each other's corner from almost the beginning. They can help each other, and they know it. So they do. While this might weaken the suspense and anticipation in a lesser film, here it simply allows the filmmakers, Eric Toledano (below, right) and Olivier Nakache (below, left), to concentrate on how all this happens and to give us the succulent, enjoyable details. These details are handled, by the way, with the kind of brevity, subtlety and wit that you do not often find in American "buddy" movies.

Among the many details, I'll just mention two: the movie's wonderful use of art -- appreciating it and creating it -- and the burgeoning interest (sexual, romantic) of the caretaker in the beautiful young woman who acts as secretary to the paraplegic. How these are handled by the filmmakers combines surprise, humor and credibility in equal doses. Each scenario plays out to a satisfying, though not necessarily expected, conclusion.

Above all Intouchables is a great love story, albeit one without sex or even much eroticism (well, ears do get rubbed erogenously, as above). Yet it puts you on cloud nine and keeps you there for most of its near-two-hour running time, as it bonds classes, races and men. No wonder it has raised the ire of a slutty and racist politician like Jean-Marie LePen. More power to it! Though based on reality (these two characters do exist; they helped each other in this manner and remain friends today), the movie is still a lovely fairy tale, one that has a lot to teach us. That combination, of course, is one of the prime reasons that we love -- and trust -- movies.
Some of 'em, anyway...

The Intouchables (112 minutes from The Weinstein Company) open tomorrow, Friday, May 25, in the Los Angeles area at The Landmark and the Arclight Hollywood, and in New York at the Paris Theatre and the Angelika Film Center.

Quad Cinema launches Quad Classics with three great silent films: Metropolis, Battleship Potemkin and The General

 

Beginning this Friday, May 25, New York’s renowned art house Quad Cinema launches a new series, the first program of which should be a cinematic treat for silent film lovers.

When Elliott Kanbar, the President of New York City's Quad Cinema, first approached Isil Bagdadi (independent film producer, publicist, distributor, and the co-founder of NY-based CAVU Pictures), about helping him launch a new film series highlighting classic films, she jumped at the opportunity. "As someone involved in so many aspects of independent film, it was a natural progression for me to want to move into programming the kinds of iconic films that I grew up watching and admiring as a kid, and later as a film student," explains Isil.

Based on the success of this year’s Academy Award-winning film The Artist, this team of film mavens felt it was fitting to start off the first series with a theme: The Great Era of Silent Films. So -- beginning this Friday, May 25, and running thru May 31 -- the Quad Cinema will offer three masterpieces of the Silent Era: the 2010 restoration of Fritz Lang’s amazing sci-fi epic METROPOLIS (1927), Sergei Eisenstein’s unforgettable 1905 Russian Revolution drama BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925), and Buster Keaton’s Civil War comedy THE GENERAL (1926).

Discussions with New York-based film critics and scholars will follow select screenings on the opening weekend. "Our hope," notes the Quad's Kanbar, "is to re-introduce New Yorkers to these great classic works of art, which have now all been immaculately restored by Kino Lorber. These post-screening conver-sations are meant to create a film class atmosphere where audiences, along with film-makers, film profes-sors, critics, distributors, and other industry professionals can dis-cuss these legendary films and their impact on world cinema today."

In an additional plus for New York-area film buffs, all three movies will be projected in full High Definition Blu Ray using a high-end Eiki LC-X85 projector and OPPO BDP-93 player. Really, folk: You can't get this at home!

For complete information on this new series, its performances, and which critics and scholars will be introducing which films, simply click here and keep scrolling down. For more information on the films themsevles, simply check out the Kino Lorber web site.

Wes Anderson's at it again--with an absolutely "dear" MOONRISE KINGDOM

His best film since The Darjeeling Limited (which, for TrustMovies, remains his best yet), Wes Anderson's newest work, MOONRISE KINGDOM, will probably not convert the as-yet unconverted, but it should please his fans something fierce, while adding a few new ones to the club. It's got all his trademark tropes: It's fey, it's twee; it's got family upended and odd ducks galore. This time, gracious a-me, it even offers young love and pubescent sexuality. At one point I actually thought, whoa -- this is Wes' version of The Blue Lagoon! But, no, it's much more. And much different.

Can this writer/director, shown at left, be mellowing? Why not? Most of us do. (Yes, of course: He was never Tarrantino-like or Gaspar Noé-esque. Still, compare this new film to Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums and you'll see what I mean.) I believe there is a kind of acceptance here, along with the usual, No, I won't, I won't, I can't fit in! Fortunately, there are enough of us film-goers internationally who probably feel all this, too, so that we embrace each new work with relish and delight. (For me, the least embraceable of his movies is The Life Aquatic; you'll probably disagree.)

Over the past few weeks we've been graced with three wonderful movies, the work of filmmakers who could never be mistaken for each other -- or anyone else. These are Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress), Bobcat Goldthwait (God Bless America) and now Mr. Anderson. These three are among the most original (and certainly diverse) filmmakers we possess. While we should treasure them, TM thinks it's safe to say than among the three, only Mr. Anderson possesses real movie-making skills. Stillman and Goldthwait get by purely on their originality and daring, and the fact that no one is making anything like what they come up with. (Not to say they won't improve as filmmakers over time.)

Mr. Anderson, though, is a wonderful stylist, with such knowledge of editing, casting, acting, art direction, set design, credit sequences and all the rest (or at least he has the sense to hire the right people and give them their lead) that he is able to bring his visions to impeccable, if always odd, life. Some films sour; his generally soar. This one certainly does -- mostly in its quiet, deadpan manner, although the final half-hour does possess a rather exciting "boy's best adventure" quality.

Anderson has assembled his usual starry (independent-style) cast (above), beginning with Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban and Tilda Swinton -- all of whom, I believe, are new to this director -- plus his usual suspects: Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. They perform with the skill and ability of a solid repertory ensemble.

As the town's single police officer, Willis in particular (shown above, right, with Ms McDormand), is just lovely, for the filmmaker mines the star's history of heroics and combines this with a new-found sweetness that works beautifully.

Norton (above, flanked by scouts) adds another singular portrait to his portfolio of riches, while Ms Swinton (below, with Murray) surprises by showing us, as she did in The Deep End, that she can appear absolutely real and normal, representing bureaucracy with the best of them.

Mr. Balaban, below, as the film's sort-of "narrator" uses his dead-pan delivery and elfin quality to great effect, filling us in on the fictitious town and its history, while only Mr Murray (above, left) seems a little wasted here, either not having been given much to do or not finding much special in it. No matter; this remains a strong ensemble supporting cast. The movie's real stars are elsewhere.

They are two new actors of wonderful visage and spirit: Jared Gilman (below) and Kara Hayward. Master Gilman, who looks like he could grow up to be Orson Welles, is a delight: full of energy and youthful arrogance (balanced with enough charm to defuse it).

Ms Hayward (below), is a young actress of odd, slightly "off," visual beauty that only adds to her appeal, and she -- as the female of the pair often does -- seems older, wiser and more generally mature than her goofy, sweet love interest.

Both characters come complete with family trauma, as we now expect from any Anderson film. But here they are given an array of kindly, older-consequently-wiser adults to guide them. Plus a director who so thoroughly understands what he is doing that he is able, as (almost) usual, to bring us and his movie home. I should also note how terrific is the film's use of music (the score is by Alexander Desplat). Anderson uses his classical selections in a manner exciting, eccentric and rich, just as he did using Joe Dassin to sing the sweet Aux Champs Elysées in The Darjeeling Limited.

Moonrise Kingdom, from Focus Features with a concise running time of 94 minutes, opens this Friday, May 25, in New York City at the AMC Lincoln Square and the Regal Union Square; in Los Angeles, look for it at The Landmark and Pacific's Arclight Hollywood. Over the next two weeks it will open across the country in another 15 to 20 cities. Click here to see the whole shebang.

Kinji Fukasaku's BATTLE ROYALE finally hits a U.S. theater--in New York City, at least....

For all those movie fans who were appalled by the deadly dull, soporific Hunger Games -- who may have wondered why anyone would create a story like this (children forced to fight to the death by their society) and then pull every single last punch so that a tale this horren-dous is rendered fodder for feel-good soap-opera -- well, the answer is upon us. Its title? BATTLE ROYALE.

This incredible, and incredibly difficult-to-watch, movie  came about at the turn of this past millennium and was immediately judged too horrific to be viewed by American audiences (as well as those in some other western countries). Directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku, shown at left) with a screenplay by the filmmaker's son Kenta (from the novel by Koushun Takami), the film posits a society on the brink of collapse that, when it's young people misbehave, takes a pack of randomly chosen kids off to a deserted island and forces them to fight to the death. Sounds familiar, huh? I think there is no way in hell that Hunger Games novelist Suzanne Collins and the people behind the filmed version of her trilogy had not heard of (maybe even read) the original Battle Royale novel and/or seen its filmed version -- before putting together their own watered-down mix (yeah, but it got a PG-13 from our obtuse ratings board!).

TrustMovies finally caught up with Battle Royal on DVD back in 2005 (via Netflix) and was properly shocked. He didn't love the movie. It's too horrible for that kind of response, but he certainly admired its premise and follow-through. It's a dark work -- figuratively and literally -- with lots of night scenes (that I understand come to life much better on the Blu-ray version, which I hope will eventually find its way here). It's bloody, too -- and garish, in its ice-cold manner. Perhaps the most difficult thing about it is witnessing how these so many of these children lose all sense of kindness, and consequently humanity -- something that The Hunger Games doesn't come near.

Apoplexy and paranoia run rampant here as the craziness mounts and everything from coat-hangers to pots and their lids become weapons of choice. As we grow into the mindset of these kids gone berserk, thing go from worst to beyond. When I saw the film I was unfamiliar with any of the cast members -- save Takeshi Kitano, below, center, who plays their martinet of a teacher -- but each actor fills his/her role as well as possible under these odd circumstances, in which violence and death, blood and killing aces out character at every turn.

I suspect that, having watched perhaps five times as many Asian movies in the past seven years since seeing Battle Royale, than I did in my entire life prior to 2005, I might cotton onto some of the specific Japanese cultural tidbits more readily now than before. Even back then, however, I found the movie original, shocking and undeniably prescient. If you in any way found The Hunger Games interesting, you owe it to yourself to see what its ten-times-better progenitor looks like.

The film, running time 122 minutes, is being released in at least one theater -- New York City, IFC Center, starting this Friday, May 25 -- by Anchor Bay Entertainment, before being distributed on DVD and Blu-ray. (It also looks to be coming soon to Landmark's Main Art Theater in Detroit.)

DVDebut: Jang Hun's THE FRONT LINE -- Korea's choice for Foreign-Language Oscar

Making its USA east coast debut this past January as the opening attraction of the Korean Cultural Service's 2012 film series, this knock-out of a war movie is not to be missed by anyone interested in war films, anti-war films (of which it is one of the best) and especially the war that separated Korea into two countries back in the early 1950s. THE FRONT LINE -- directed by Jang Hun and written by Park Sang-yeon -- opened briefly in New York for a (very) limited theatrical run during the week of its KCS debut and then arrived on DVD last month, which is the format in which TrustMovies has finally caught up with it. The film, South Korea's submission for last year's Best Foreign Language Film, though it did not even make the short list, most definitely, in the words of another Oscar winner, "shoulda been a contender."

The filmmaker, shown at left, serves up a good and gritty mix of well-drawn characters against a vast, horrific canvas of war. Full of incident and filmed spectacularly well, the movie works equally as adrenaline rush and a quiet, consideration of how this war "worked," from headquarters downward. A North Korean spy is suspected of infiltrating the South's front line, and so a certain Lieutenant Kang (Shin Ha-kyun, below, left) is sent there to ferret out whatever information he can via his old friend, Lieutenant Kim (Ko Soo, below, right), who is also at the front.

The USA is seen here only as airplanes that fly over the hills and bomb them, after which the soldiers from the south scramble up and down those hills trying to kill the soldiers of the north. As one of these men explains, they take the hill, lose it, take it again, lose it again, and on and on without end. This has resulted in certain soldiers from one army burying a little treasure (food, liquor, chocolates, whatever) to have when they return to that hill, as they know they must. The other army finds this, leaves it own nasty "message," but then, eventually, the two are actually "communicating" -- even, in fact, gifting -- each other.

It's this thread of the "buried treasure" more than any other -- it also, by the by, explains the "spy" situation -- that carries the film along, providing much of its irony and sentiment. It becomes almost iconic to the the situation of this particular war -- equal parts humorous and heart-breaking. The director excels at creating genuine sentiment, especially in one scene involving two children, an old injury and a question of "healing." Instead of milking this for undue tears, the director and writer use it to unveil more fully the clashing character of the lieutenants.

The film grows into something both spectacular and hideous, complete with a surprising sniper, who is picking off the platoon all too easily. The climax, it turns out, is not that. No: There's something far worse in store, and by the time the credits roll, all the deadly absurdity, the shocking waste of this entire situation is brought home about as well as I've seen it done.

The Front Line, 133 minutes, from Wellgo USA Entertainments, is available now, for sale or rental, on DVD only -- no Blu-ray -- but I must say that the transfer is pretty much impeccable. Those of us with Blu-ray should not mind at all watching a DVD of this quality.