Synonyms (France/Israel/Germany
2019 https://www.kinolorber.com/film/synonyms)
This very strange film from Israeli
writer-director Nadav Lapid, supposedly semi-autobiographical (and dedicated to
his mother as editor), was awarded the best film “golden bear” at the Berlin
film festival but will probably only appeal to a hardcore arthouse crowd. The central character is a young Israeli man
Yoav (Tom Mercier) who flees to a wintry Paris as if to erase his previous
identity. With belongings stolen and left naked in an empty freezing apartment,
he is rescued and befriended by a young couple Emile (Quentin Dolmaire) and
Caroline (Louise Chevilotte). Yoav
refuses to speak Hebrew and carries a French dictionary, obsessively talking to
himself in synonyms (hence the title).
He survives on an ultra-cheap subsistence diet. (Yet somehow Yoav stays in physical shape.
There’s a fair amount of male nudity and a pornographic “modeling” scene with a
photographer.) A security job at the
Israeli embassy ends badly. As Yoav
struggles to become French there are suggestions of rejection of his upbringing
and of post-traumatic stress disorder from his Israeli military service. Yoav
seems to be in the throes of some primal existential crisis or psychic
breakdown punctuated by manic outbursts. After Caroline seduces him there is even
talk of marriage so that he can become a French citizen. But that also provokes more aggression. It’s
another bizarre twist among many disorienting elements as Yoav searches to find
his place. It comes as no surprise that
he never does. The last (metaphorical?) image
is of Yoav furiously banging on a closed door. Be
prepared for a transgressive viewing experience if you open the door to it. C+
Belle Epoque (France
2019)
This frothy drama by writer-director Nicolas
Bedos which premiered at the Cannes festival benefits from the performances of
veteran actors, notably Daniel Auteuil as Victor, a cranky aging technophobe no
longer employed as a newspaper cartoonist.
There’s also Fanny Ardant as Marianne, his psychologist wife of many
years who’s not only cheating on him with his old boss but kicks him out of the
matrimonial home. Victor’s son sets him
up with a “Time Travelers” fantasy video operation run by Antoine (noted
actor/director Guillaume Canet) for wealthy clients. Antoine and his team stage elaborate escapist
re-enactments going back in time.
Victor’s indulgent nostalgic splurge is to recreate a scene in Lyon 1974
at a café/bar “La Belle Epoque” where he met Marianne and their story
began. Enjoying reliving his younger
self, Victor becomes entranced by Margot (Doria Tillier), the actress playing
Marianne. That leads to complications since Margot is in a fraught lovers’
relationship with Antoine who, although he walks with a limp using a crutch as
support, is apparently a tiger in bed. The
film veers between a comedy of manners between the sexes and fanciful layers of
artifice that verge on the absurd.
Replaying the past as comforting illusion adds up to a modestly amusing
farce. B
Atlantics (France/Senegal/Belgium
2019)
Now streaming on Netflix, this is
another drama inhabiting strange territory that received a major award—the
“grand prix” (effectively second prize) in the Cannes film festival
competition. The debut feature from French Senegalese director Mati Diop is set
in Senegal’s capital city of Dakar where outraged workers on a modernist
highrise tower are demanding months of unpaid wages. One of them is Souleiman (Ibrahima Traore)
who is loved by a young woman Ada (Mame Sane).
However Ada’s Muslim family has arranged for her to be married to Omar,
a rich businessman who spends much of his time abroad. Ada feels nothing for
the life of luxury he offers. Worse, Souleiman leaves without a farewell as he
and frustrated fellow workers take to the sea in a rickety boat (“pirogue”) on
the dangerous attempt to reach Spain like so many African migrants before them.
A presumption that they have been lost at sea leaves Ada emotionally at sea. Then incidents of arson at Omar’s mansion and
other occurrences suggest the possibility of Souleiman’s return. Or it could be the spirits of the dead who
are back for justice—some of these lost souls appearing through a group of
young women who act like a Greek chorus of lamentation and reproof. The Atlantic on which Dakar lies beckons with
the perilous possibilities of escape.
From the injustice of the young lovers’ Souleiman and Ada’s social situation
the story’s turn toward the surreal and supernatural suggests a persistent dream
to break from those confines and to find a better life beyond. B
Dark Waters (US
2019 https://www.focusfeatures.com/dark-waters)
Drawing on a 2016 New York Times exposé
by Nathaniel Rich, Todd Hynes directs this earnest account of aggrieved
citizens taking on a giant multinational corporation, in this case DuPont which
knowingly created new synthetic chemical compounds that proved to have toxic
effects. It started decades ago when an angry farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp)
from Parkersburg, West Virginia suspected that his cows were being poisoned by
runoff from a DuPont waste dump near a creek on his farm. A family connection led him to seek the help
of lawyer Rob Billot (environmental activist Mark Ruffalo, also a producer).
Billot seemed an unlikely choice as he was a partner in a Cincinnati firm that
usually defended corporate clients in such cases. But after being convinced, Billot was determined
to pursue the facts. The new chemical
(“PFOA” or “C8”) was used to make Teflon among other applications, and DuPont’s
own studies showed it was unsafe despite the company’s public reassurances to
the community in which it was a major employer.
Although Billot’s
dogged pursuit, verging on obsession, created frictions, as the evidence of
corporate malfeasance mounted (also the subject of a 2018 documentary The Devil We Know) he was supported by
his boss (played by Tim Robbins). A huge
7-year long scientific study of the Parkersburg population provided proof of the
serious health effects from contamination.
Although DuPont then refused to settle a class action suit, Billot had
success seeking settlements for individual clients. Synthetic substances like
that used in Teflon are called “forever” chemicals because they do not break
down naturally (and can now be found in the blood of almost all living
creatures). This may not be the
most thrilling dramatic treatment but gets full marks for effort in bringing an
important story to wider attention. B+
Assholes: A Theory (Canada
2019 https://www.assholesatheory.com/)
I went to see this on the recommendation
of my brother and was an audience of one at the discount theatre chain where it
played in Ottawa. A National Film Board
and Documentary Channel coproduction directed and narrated by John Walker, it’s
more than just an amusing riff on the common vulgar putdown. The source material is the eponymous 2012
book by University of California philosopher Aaron James who is among the
serious academics interviewed. Another
commentator is the comic actor John Cleese of Monty Python fame. There are varieties of “assholery” but all
have in common an inconsiderate attitude of entitled egotism. It’s debatable
whether this has become epidemic but it’s not hard to find examples, especially
among narcissistic powerful men. The
prime political example cited is Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. (There’s only
passing reference to the current occupant of the White House, a clear notorious
case, though a subsequent 2016 book by James makes explicit this application of
his theory). Our social media and public
discourse would no doubt benefit from fewer examples (see, for example, this
cautionary advice to Canada’s political class: https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/to-our-new-parliamentarians-dont-be-a-holes/). The film should be coming to television broadcast and is
worth catching if/when it does. B+
One Child Nation (US 2019 https://www.onechildnation.com/home/)
Since winning a grand jury prize at the
Sundance Film Festival this excellent documentary exploring Communist China’s
one-child policy has received numerous other awards. It’s co-directed by Nanfu
Wang who moved to the U.S. in her 20s.
In assessing Chinese attitudes and social impacts she adds a personal
lens by returning to her own native Jiangxi province, speaking to members of
affected generations including within her own family. She feels fortunate to
have a younger brother as a result of an exception in the policy. Intended to curb overpopulation, in effect from
1979 to 2015, the one-child limit was heavily propagandized and strictly
enforced through a Party hierarchy of control down to the village level.
Punishments for failure to comply could include homes being destroyed. Women
were subjected to forced abortions and sterilization. Unwanted newborns, especially
girls, were abandoned and many didn’t
survive. Some were sold to orphanages
for the international adoption trade. These
are just some of the disturbing consequences observed. Given China’s aging
population, the policy has been relaxed to fit current circumstances to
increase the birth rate. At the same time the film makes a powerful statement
about what happens when population policy is determined by a totalitarian state
that eliminates individual rights.
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. A
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