2012 a good year for cinema

[septimus_...@q.com]

So 2012 turns out to be a very good year for cinema.
Of all the films I've seen, _Deep Blue Sea_ will
clearly go into my decade-best list (not that anyone
cares but me), while _Zero Dark Thirty_, _Farewell,
My Queen_, and _Damsels in Distress_ are wonderful
but will be short of that mark. I missed _Unforgivable_
and _Sister_, and still haven't seen _Lincoln_. Of
all those, the Techine is clearly the film to catch.
I have not been the biggest Spielberg fan, although
many of his post _A.I. Aritificial Intelligence_ are
impressive. (I love _A.I._, needless to say.) Ursula
Meier is very overrated based on her _Home_, but
_Sister_ is shot by Agnes Godard, and Lea Seydoux makes
it a must see. (Alas, the temperature was in single
digit when it hits town!)

It was really hard leaving off _Zero Dark Thirty_, at
least for now. Jessica Chastain is just so good and
compelling in it; I'd have thought I know what she is
capble of by now but this film (and possibly _Mama_)
shows that she is still barely scratching the surface
of her range. _Salome_ (the Al Pacino film) should be
great too. And _Zero Dark Thirty_ is her star vehicle.
But when I compare it with _Agora_, which I consider the
first masterpiece of the decade, I can live with that
decision. _Agora_ depicts plenty of attrocities too,
but it has its central character (played by Rachel
Weisz), however imperfect, gives the film a hopeful,
redemptive center. It is a very impressive film with
a story even more convoluted and challenging than
Mark Boal's and Bigelow's screenplay, and it does
justice to that material without giving short drift
to the director's humanism.

Here's looking forward to the next crop in 2013!

[septimus_...@q.com]

I don't remember reading anything about _A Heavenly Vintage_,
Niki Caro's film based on the novel _Vinter's Luck_. If I
had, I might have avoided it, having steered clear of Caro's
previous films _Whale Rider_, _North Country_, and the hype
surrounding them. I guess _A Heavenly Vintage_ was dumped
because fans of the cult novel (which I haven't read)
revolted against it and the alleged removal of the gay
theme in this French-New Zealand co-production. There is
hardly any review of the film in the press. But it is a
surprisingly powerful film.

It is about a wine-maker in 19th Century France (Jeremie
Renier, for once not playing drug addicts or deadbeat
dads) who marries a slightly mad girl Celeste (played by
Keisha Castle-Hughes of _Whale Rider_), starts working
for an unmarried, enigmatic countess (Vera Farmiga) while
also dallying with a winged angel (Gaspard Ulliel). There
are love, betrayal, sickness, deaths, and reconciliation
over 20 years.

But what is interseting is that the director wears her
_Days of Heaven_ influences on her sleeves. The theme of
harvest and plague, angels and devils coming in circle is
there. Nature dominates; the lush vegetation growth, roaming
insects, wind and snow overpower the muted human stories.
(The Farmer's Russian Campaign misadventure is condensed
to a few seconds.) There is no voiceover, but the sedate
guitar score is ever-present as a Greek chorus. The night-time
burning of diseased grape stems clearly pays tribute to
the bonfire scene in _Days of Heaven_. It is a refreshingly
different film -- maybe I should take a look at _Whale Rider_
and _North Country_ after all.

This reminds of Paul Thomas Anderson's ham-handed imitation
of Malick's second film in _There Will be Blood_, which is
showy, long, interminable, and misses the quick wit at the
heart of _Days of Heaven_ that Niki Caro captures. Anderson
is the Mitt Romney of filmmakers; he doesn't have any vision
(thus he keeps copying other visionary directors); he cares
more about *being* (or perceived as) Artist than about
making art. One almost wishes that someone hands him an
Oscar so that this inauthentic fake will finally go away.
Not going to happen this year, either.

The American directors that I boycott are legion, but among
the French there was only Claude Lelouch. To that must now
be added Philippe Garrel. One lame turkey featuring two
completely boring characters (_Frontier of Dawn_) might be
an accident; a second, featuring *four* boring "lovers" who
are sick and tired of each other, cannot no longer be excused.
It is a film without any interest and little artistry.
Yet Garrel is a favorite with many respected reviewers.
Why? The actors have all been much better in other films.
The only one who makes an impression is Celine Sallette,
who must be very tall and spends her scene stooping. I
have never seen a lead actress with such unactorly postures.
It is an endearing trait.

Christophe Honore, in contrast to Garrel, has often been
crucified in reviews, probably because of his inane _Ma Mere_.
But _Beloved_ is the touching French film about "mad love"
that _A Burning Hot Summer_ can only pretend to be. There is
plenty of heartbreak, deaths, and even a suicide here, but
they involve characters who actually do something beside
bemoaning their soured affair. Chiara Mastroianni and
Catherine Deneuve play daughter-and-mother for the 100th
time, but I have never seen Chiara M. better.