Strangers on the earth

Ever since The way directed by Emilio Esteves, the number of Americans pilgrims travelling to Spain and walk the road to the Cathedral to Santiago de Compostela has grown dramatically. In other words: It has become trendy. Films and documentaries on that subject have also been quite popular among certain crowds. Beside The way, there is a Quebec film, Les doigts croches by Ken Scott, Walking the Camino, a first film by Tristan Cook made in 2013. And now Cook in back with Strangers on the earth. The central figure is cellist Dane Johansen, who travels with his cello on his back. His plan is to record Bach’s Cello suites in 36 churches on the Camino. But Johansen was not planning to give concerts to other pilgrims. Johansen is interviewed about having to perform in cold churches after spending all day walking in the cold rain. He’s not the only one being asked to comment. Thankfully Strangers on the earth is not a talking head documentary. We never see the interviewees, they are heard in voice over as we see them walking down the road and interacting with each other, their commentaries serving to narrate the images we see. A series of photos are used to tell the story of a man meeting and falling in love with a woman on the road to the Cathedral. Soon though, the man tells us, the relationship goes sour. Another man angrily decries the false pilgrims who take a bus or a taxi to do part of the pilgrimage. One man (or maybe it‘s the same?) has a long tirade where he pompously theorizes about the meaning and importance of it all. If I would choose a film about Santiago de Compostela, it would be Strangers on the earth. Cinematographer Iskra Valtcheva’s images too are beautiful to ignore. Beside her contribution, there was little that could stir me. This is topic that I find tiresome and has a limited appeal.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Strangers on the earth

 

Directed by:
Tristan Cook

96 min.

Rated General.

In English, Spanish and German with English subtitles.

Song to song

Terrence Malick’s new film is Song to song. Song to song is a mess. The last Terrence Malick film, Knight of cups, was also a mess, but I think Song to song is worse. Song to song is, supposedly, about the Austin, Texas music scene. But what it turns out to be about is people aimlessly walking around. Rich people walking in their rich apartments. They walk in front of large windows. Malick is obsessed by large windows. Large terraces windows. Terraces with pools. The rich people also walk around the pools. Or on terraces. Or balconies. In voice-over we hear poetic passages read by the actors during their scenes. All dialogues are muffled. The story revolves around two couples. Faye is a struggling lyricist. Faye is played by Rooney Mara. Mara is seen on the stage holding a guitar during rock concerts, but she’s not playing. Faye is with BV (Ryan Gosling). Like he did in La la land, Gosling plays the piano, but any music in Song to song is muffled then soon cut and go to the next muffled moment. Then there is music mogul Cook (Michael Fassbender). Cook walks aimlessly with Faye and BV, most of the time looking lonely. Those who were hoping for a threesome (Mara, Fassbender and Gosling! Intriguing isn‘t it?) will be waiting a long time. Cook meets waitress Rhonda (Natalie Portman). Portman and Mara look too much alike. They’re interchangeable. Portman has blond hair, but Mara keeps changing hairstyles in every scenes. Every time the couple are fighting or are having a conversation, we don’t know what is being said because Malick has muffled or cut the sound of the conversations. We can hear traffic, the birds chirping or the dishes clanking. We can see the lips move but we can’t hear the words. The dialogue seems unimportant to Malick. People walking around, followed by a steady cam (a lot of back of heads): Yes. Dialogue : No. When Faye and BV break up, she has a lesbian affair with Zoey (Bérénice Marlohe), and BV an affair with Amanda (Cate Blanchett). We get cameos from music icons like Patti Smith, Iggy Pop and others, but the little music they play is soon muffled. The ghost of Val Kilmer appears in some scenes. Scary! Among the actors cut from the final film were Christian Bale, Benicio del Toro and Arcade fire. A mess! The most frustrating of all is that there is no chance that Malick is going to stop to make these pointless annoying films. If a director has nothing new to say, and only repeats the same failed experiments from film to film, he should shut up. I hate Terrence Malick! There! I said it, got out of my system. It feels so good. Let me say it again. I HATE TERRENCE MALICK!!! To avoid!

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Song to song

Directed by:
Terrence Malick

Screenplay by:
Terrence Malick

Starring:
Ryan Gosling
Rooney Mara
Michael Fassbender
Natalie Portman
Cate Blanchett
Bérénice Marlohe
Holly Hunter
Patti Smith

129 min.

Rated 14A

Frantz

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon coeur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure

Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

Paul Verlaine, Chanson d’automne, 1866

François Ozon’s Frantz is a rare film that touch you more by what is unsaid than by the what is onscreen. In 1919, Anna (beautiful and talented Paula Beer), a young German woman, visits the grave of her dead fiancé. Frantz was killed during the war, and Anna still lives with his parents. Doktor Hans Hoffmeister (Ernst Stötzner) and his wife Magda (Marie Gruber) are very fond of Anna and would like her to find another suitor. But she misses him too much, and, like the Hoffmeisters, is still in mourning. One day Anna learns that a strange young man has been visiting the grave and leaving flowers. When she meets him she finds out that he’s French and that he wants to meet Frantz‘s parents. But that’s easier said than done. After a bloody war, there are a lot of anti-French sentiments in Germany. Not surprisingly Hans and Madga are reluctant to talk to him. But they do. His name is Adrien Rivoire (Pierre Niney) and, he claims, he met Frantz in Paris before the war where they were both studying. He is overcome by emotions and starts to cry when he tells Anna and the Hoffmeisters how close he and Frantz were. In a flashback we see Frantz and Adrien visiting the Louvre. For that sequence, Ozon shifts from black & white to color. It is an idealized version of what happened. As if Adrien had romanticized the memories. Those “memories” of Frantz are painted with small touches of homoeroticism. Whatever reluctance the Hoffmeisters had is put aside as Adrien wins their affections. A scene where Adrien plays music on Frantz’s violin, also goes from black & white to color. Now it is Frantz’s parents who are trying to live through an idealized and colorized world, a world where everything is right again. Every characters in Frantz is living a lie, or rather a in make-believe world, the construct of their own fears and desires. This is at a their time when romantic ideas and ideals were the norms. They covered the truths to feel better, often without realizing it. Or they did, as Anna does, to avoid causing pain to their loved ones. And Adrien? You have to read between the lines to decipher Adrien’s truths. Every one will have their own interpretation. Pierre Niney is having fun playing a romantic, delicate young man who may also be a liar. Or is he telling the truth? We can never tell. That’s what I love about Frantz. It is a complex quagmire of unconscious desires. Frantz is a masterpiece.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Frantz

Directed by:
François Ozon

Screenplay by:
François Ozon
Philippe Piazzo
Based on Maurice Rostand’s play L’homme que j’ai tué and the Ernst Lubitsch film Broken lullaby

Starring:
Paula Beer
Pierre Niney
Ernst Stötzner
Marie Gruber
Anton von Lucke

113 min.

Rated Parental Guidance

In German and French with English subtitles.

Toni Erdmann

Initially, Toni Erdmann did not seem to be a film that would appeal to me. But as the film and its characters progressed, I came to like it and occasionally found it very funny. Peter Simonischek stars as Winfried Conradi. Winfried is an elderly music teacher who likes to play pranks on his friends and family. He especially likes to wear makeup and pretend to be someone else. Or the simple act of wearing false teeth is enough for him. He always carries them in his shirt pockets. But when Winfried’s daughter visits him, it is clear that they don’t exactly connect very well. Ines (Sandra Hüller) is a serious outsourcing consultant. Winfried is wearing zombie makeup and, of course, Ines is looking at him as if he was an alien. After she goes back to work, Winfried surprises her in the lobby of the building where she works. He is wearing those false teeth and sunglasses. After the initial shock, Ines invites her dad at a reception and they spend a few days together. But it does not go well. She spends her time on the phone or working, and all he thinks about is making jokes at the most inopportune moment. He soon leaves. But it is clear they love each other. So Winfried is going to call on his favourite persona, Toni Erdmann, to teach Ines how to let loose, let go and relax a bit. I won’t tell you more, except that it is extremely funny, surprising and unconventional. The force of the film is the screenplay and the two main actors. From the start Peter Simonischek creates a character that has the likeness of a sad clown, unafraid to dare the audience, as he does with Ines, to look inward. Hüller’s Ines is an awkward , unhappy woman who wears her heart on her sleeves. In the third act, Hüller surprises us by taking over the film. And the Maren Ade screenplay has a feeling of a comedy of errors of Shakespearean proportion without being too pretentious. At 2 hours and 42 minutes it is a bit long. But we need that build-up. Impressive.

And the Oscar went to… Toni Erdmann lost Best foreign language film to The salesman from Iran.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Toni Erdmann

Directed by:
Maren Ade

Screenplay by:
Maren Ade

Starring:
Sandra Hüller
Peter Simonischek
Michael Wittenborn
Thomas Loibl
Trystan Pütter
Hadewych Minis

162 min.

Rated 14A

In German, English and Romanian with English subtitles.

The idol (Ya tayr el tayer)

With The idol, Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad (Oscar nominated Paradise now and Omar) finds a lighter subject than his usual film projects. A fictionalized biopic of Gazan Arab idol winner Muhammad Assaf, The idol has plenty of youthful energy. It start with 10-year-old Muhammad (Qais Atallah) and his band playing at weddings to make a little money. The members of the band are: Muhammad who sings, his 12-year-old sister, Nour (Hiba Atallah) plays the guitar and two other boys. Atallah gives the assured performance of the first half of the film. Nour is a tomboy who is not afraid to push whom ever is in her way, boy or men, and ploughs through, even though girls, she’s told, are not supposed to play guitar at weddings or ride a bike. Nour does ride a bike with her brother and her friends, and they don’t seem to mind. As for playing at weddings, well, that’s another story. She has to play hiding behind a poster. The moment is so perfectly rendered by Atallah, that she manages to make it both sad and comical in the absurdity of the situation. It’s not long though before tragedy hits Muhammad and his family. In the second half, Muhammad is older and played by Tawfeek Barhom (the star of the film). It’s 2012 and Muhammad is driving taxis to help in the family finances. He still wants to make it as a singer, but his effort seems hopeless. Muhammad is auditioning for Palestinian idol, but because of travel restrictions, he has to perform over Skype. That is they could if they had electricity. They get a generator, but other problems keep popping up and piling up. This is a scene of great comic efficiency. But around Muhammad and his family and friends there’s ruins everywhere. And probably the possible threat of another attack at any time. Muhammad has to go to Cairo where the auditions for Arab idol are being held. Everyone he knows believes in him and encourages him to go. But getting there is easier said than done and quite an adventure. Hany Abu-Assad and co-screenwriter Sameh Zoabi have made a popular film, mixing comedy and drama, showing the difficulty of life in Gaza and the sociopolitical and cultural impact of Muhammad Assaf. Now at 27, Assaf has been named a Goodwill Ambassador by the UN. We are told that he can now travel freely across the world. Except in Gaza.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

 

The idol (Ya tayr el tayer)

Directed by:

Hany Abu-Assad

Screenplay by:

Hany Abu-Assad

Sameh Zoabi

 

Starring:

Tawfeek Barhom

Qais Attalah

Hiba Attalah

Ahmad Qasem

Abdel Kareem Barakeh

 

99 min.

 

Rated Parental Guidance.

 

In Arabic with English subtitles.

 

Florence Foster Jenkins

Those who thought that Meryl Streep’s bag of tricks was empty, will have to reconsider. Florence Foster Jenkins is about to challenge her staunchest critics. Florence Foster Jenkins was a New York socialite who liked to sing opera. Despite her total lack of talents, she performed at private recitals, recorded 78rpms and ended her career with a concert at Carnegie Hall. Nicholas Martin’s screenplay is very faithful to the real events n her life, although it is doubtful that Florence was as clueless about her singing as she is in the film. It is well-known that her life partner, St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), took all the necessary steps to avoid the inconvenient bad reviews when Florence performed at private recitals, and if reviews appeared he made sure they were written by friends. Once Florence announces to St. Clair that she wants to do a recital, they have to find an accompanist. Cosmé McMoon (The big bang theory‘s Simon Helberg) is at first ecstatic about getting the job. And comes the first reheasal. This the first time Cosmé hears Florence’s voice. He is in shock. And so are we. Streep’s face expressions are fascinating to watch. As Florence’s vocal coach (a petulant David Haig) is instructing her on the art of singing and falsely telling her she is good, her face twitches terribly. The scene is an instant classic. Cosmé, who thought that the gig would do wonders for his career, is now thinking of quitting, but is convinced by St. Clair to stay as Florence’s accompanist. We learn about Florence’s difficult life and that she is still suffering from the syphilis she got from her first husband on their wedding night when she was eighteen. She is now in her seventies. As a result of the disease, St. Clair Bayfield took a mistress. There is so much to like in Florence Foster Jenkins. The screenplay goes from campy comedy (if you like camp, this is the film to see) to the most effective tearjerker. Half way through of the film, I was surprised to find myself right in the middle of a classic comedy routine. The most touching moment happens at Cosmé’s apartment where Florence washes the dishes and she Cosmé play the piano. I think this is the best acting we’ve seen from both Streep and Grant. Grant shows the kind of range here we’ve rarely seen. St. Clair Bayfield’s character is like a master of ceremony. A little comedy bit here, a magic trick, oh! there you go, the bad man from the newspaper has disappeared, smile at the audience, a dance number here and a then dramatic scene, and another comedy routine and don’t forget to wink at your audience. Hugh Grant makes it look easy, no sweat. Some credit should go to costume designer Consolata Boyle and makeup artist J. Roy Helland (Streep’s personal makeup artist and an Oscar winner for her Margaret Thatcher makeup on The iron lady) for the creation of a unforgetable character. In every aspect Florence Foster Jenkins is the most accomplished film this year.

And the Oscar went to… Streep’s 20th nomination. A record. But she lost to Emma Stone in La la land. Costume designer Consolata Boyle lost to the great Colleen Atwood for Fantastic beasts and where to find them.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Florence Foster Jenkins

Directed by:
Stephen Frears

Screenplay by:
Nicholas Martin

Starring:
Meryl Streep
Hugh Grant
Simon Helberg
Rebecca Ferguson

110 min.

Rated Parental Guidance

I am the blues

Soon we won’t be able the music heard in the new documentary I am the blues. The blues musicians featured in the film are all seniors, and what they know about the blues is so valuable to the younger generations of music makers. I know next to nothing about blues, but that does not mean that I can’t recognize talent when I see it. The blues musicians in I am the blues are legends. All of them. Director Daniel Cross travels to places like the Louisiana Bayou, the Mississippi Delta or the Mississippi North Hill Country. He films them playing guitar or harmonica in their kitchen, front lawn, front porch. Musicians like Lazy Lester, RL Boyce, Henry Gray, and blues singer Carol Fran are happy to show us what they know. With her steel guitar Barbara Lynn is so funky, she probably invented the word. The central figures is Bobby Rush who seems to be traveling with the film crew. It is hard not to notice that those black entertainers are living in very poor conditions. We should not be so surprised, this is the South of the good old USA. But you hear no complaint from the musicians, as long as they have the music. One of the reasons to see I am the blues is the wonderful finger snapping music. You can’t get more real than that. I am the blues is aptly titled. The music legends featured in the film can proudly make that claim with their heads held way up high.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

I am the blues

Directed by:

Daniel Cross

Screenplay by:

Daniel Cross

106 min.

Rated Parental Guidance

Sing street

Fun at the movies? Who ever heard of such a thing? Yet, it may happen. Let’s say we go back in time. It is 1985 in Dublin, Ireland. Young 14-year-old Conor “Cosmo” (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is sent from private school to a public school because his parents have fallen on hard times. So it’ll be the Christian brothers. Brother Baxter (Don Wycherley), the tyrannical headmaster gives Cosmo a hard time for not wearing the regulatory black shoes. Next, Cosmo meets the school bully, Barry (Ian Kenny), who slaps him around a few times. But that bully is not your usual movie bully. Not the usual cliché anyway. At home, Cosmo’s older brother, Brendan (Jack Reynor), shows him the new musical sensation: music videos. Groups like Duran Duran, The cure, The clash… Cosmo, who plays guitar, decide to form a band, especially to impress a girl he met. Raphinia (Lucy Boynton) looks older than him, and probably is. Cosmo asks Raphinia if she would model in the videos they’re planning for the band. Cosmo enrolls other boys from school. Darren (Ben Carolan) will act as a producer and video technician. Then there is multi-instrumentalist Eamon (Mark McKenna). Cosmo and Eamon will get together and write new original songs. There are five musicians with Cosmo being the lead singer. The name of their band: Sing street! There is a series of scenes when they first get together to play where you can measure the level of acting of this young cast. One line after another, perfect timing. Could you say perfect pitch? And then for the remainder of the film I was awestruck. Watching Sing street is like listening to someone sing on key for two hours. It is not all perfect, but when it is, it’s because of this young cast and the music they do. It is because of the young lovers. Forget about the adults. Forget about the older brother (Boring!). Ferdia Walsh-Peelo is a wonderful singer and actor, and he literally carries Sing street. John Carney, who previously directed musical dramas Once and Begin again, knows a thing or two about how important music can be in someone’s life. It is an autobiographical film on Carney’s upbringing in Dublin. The soundtrack is full of wonderful songs from the era, but also new ones for the Sing street band. Some were written by John Carney himself. Sing street is about music, of course, but about the 80s too. And nostalgia (Boy, those costumes, the hairs!). And romanticism.  And, yes, fun!

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Sing street

Directed by:
John Carney

Screenplay by:
John Carney

Starring:
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo
Lucy Boynton
Aiden Gillen
Jack Reynor
Maria Doyle-Kennedy

106 min.

Miles ahead

Miles ahead is a film about Miles Davis, one of the most influential and innovative musician of the 20th century. Actor Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis. He is also the director, co-producer and co-screenwriter, and the composer of some of the music. The film is set in 1979 and it starts with self-described Rolling stone journalist Dave Braden (Ewan McGregor) dropping in unexpectedly at the jazzman’s New York apartment for an interview. Davis does not do interviews, but the studio sent Braden, he claims. At that time in his career, Davis was planing a comeback, but did not want the studio executives to have any control over his music. So Davis goes to confront them and when the arguments gets heated, pulls a gun on them. Still, executive Harper Hamilton (Michael Stuhlbarg) demands to hear his latest recording, which Davis has on reel-to-reel tapes (hey, this is 1979!). Of course, Davis refuses. That evening, during a party at his apartment, Hamilton manages to find and steal the tapes. The rest of the film has Davis and Braden trying to get the tapes back. There are car chases and shootings. All through that, Miles ahead flashbacks to 1956-66 and his troubled relationship with his first wife, dancer Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Davis wants her to stop dancing and stay at home. That does not stop him from sleeping around with other women. Cheadle’s film is an impression of Miles, his music and his art. Davis cannot be pinned easily into neat little boxes. And his estate refused to allow a standard biopic to be made. The film is like his music: Sudden frantic bursts of electric energy, unexpectedly surprising us with violent, impulsive sensuality. People may find this aproach problematic, but Cheadle and Corinealdi have real chemistry, they are attuned to each other. Corinealdi plays Frances Taylor as a goddess rather than a mere woman. That’s how good she is. I am not an expert on Miles Davis, so I can’t tell if Cheadle got it right. But the cool, the hip, the voice and the energy is right. Miles ahead in not your usual biopic, but rather like variations on Miles Davis.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Miles ahead

Directed by:
Don Cheadle

Screenplay by:
Steven Baigelman
Don Cheadle
Stephen J. Rivele
Christopher Wilkinson

Starring:
Don Cheadle
Emayatzy Corinealdi
Ewan McGregor
Michael Stuhlbarg

100 min.

Rated 18A

Song of Lahore

In Song of Lahore, the Pakistani musicians from Sachal studios in the capital city of Lahore are trying their hands at improvisational jazz. Although there are traditional instruments, like the tabla, the sitar, a flute and other less well-known instruments, the group is augmented by a string section and a guitar. They have recorded their own version of Dave Brubeck’s Take five, which has created a buzz around the world. Most of Sachal studios musicians are coming from a long tradition of  Pakistani music that dates back several generations. After a golden era in the 50s, the arrival of the Taliban made playing music almost impossible. Although things are better now, traditional musical instruments have been threatened to disappear because younger musicians are now into rock and electronic music. Izzat Majeed has founded Sachal studios so that they can keep the tradition alive. The decision to do jazz has paid off. They are invited by Wynton Marsalis to play with his Jazz ensemble at a concert at Lincoln Center. They arrive in New York (minus the string section) and the cultural clash is evident. Majeed sings John Denver’s Country roads with a street musician wearing only a cowboy hat and a bikini. During rehearsals, things don’t go as smoothly as conductor Nijat Ali would  have liked. They have to hire another sitar player. Directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Andy Schocken keep building up the suspense. There’s no need to worry. Not only is it a success with the audience but Marsalis and the other players from his Big band are happy. Song of Lahore should be seen mostly for the music and those Pakistani musicians and their love and passion for their art.

Rémi-Serge Gratton

Song of Lahore

Directed by:
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Andy Schocken

82 min.

Rated 14A

In Urdu  and English with English subtitles.