Don't Look Now (1973) - Nicolas Roeg

Refreshingly Frightening - despite a 1973 release date
4 stars

I got the opportunity to see this incredible horror film from 1973 on the big screen thanks to the BFI. It was part of the Julie Christie month, but the film really shines due to Donald Sutherland's acting, the refreshingly frightening script, visuals and audio. This film makes many recent horror films look child's play, and this is an incredible accomplishment considering the film doesn't rely on special effects, heavy make-up or a Japanese script.

It all starts when an American couple, the Baxters, lose their girl in their own backyard as she drowns in the river in her red rain cloak. Taunted by this horrific event, the couple move to Venice to recover. Unfortunately, two old ladies in Venice, one of whom claims to be psychic, don't leave the couple in peace. The ladies' ominous claims of seeing their deceased daughter drives Christie's character into half madness whereas it throws Sutherland's character into more dangerous territory.

The brilliancy of the film is in its cinematography, for which it received a BAFTA award, and editing. The setting, Venice, is used to full effect in the film as every shot is carefully planned out with the city in mind. The juxtaposition of Sutherland's character with the gargoyles of the church he's reconstructing are fantastic. As for the editing, it's highlighted to most meaningful impact in perhaps one of the best sequences I've seen in my entire life. As the Baxters are recovering from their daughter's death, there comes a time when they eventually feel 'fine enough' to embrace life by finally acknowledging each other sexually for the first time since their loss. In this sequence, the images of the couple taking their clothes off and embracing each other naked is intertwined with shots of them getting dressed up. This editing technique in this sequence almost visually proves that the Baxters can only start putting on their new clothes and hence their new life by first taking them off and accepting each other again as man and wife.

This beautifully shot film is surprising in its script and really frightening. Director Roeg doesn't use any cheap scares and special effects to get the job done. He actually relies on the script, acting, locale, cinematography and editing to do the job. I wish more modern directors would follow Roeg's lead and create more refreshingly frightening films.

Sehnsucht (2006) - Valeska Grisebach

Grisebach's Latest is Overrated
2.5 stars

The only reason I went to see Sehnsucht (English title Longing) is because the British Film Institute went a long way to describe how unexpectedly good Grisebach's film was. Having a membership to the BFI, it didn't take me too long to buy into it. However, the film is slow and the script too predictable.

Given the film's shortcomings, the acting is top notch. The psyche of each character is revealed perfectly through the subtle and silent depictions of each of the main actors. The actors actually manage to create a perfect sense of disillusionment, so well done that the viewer completely believes that these characters are real and regular. Perhaps, this ordinary feeling that dominates the acting is what makes it so successful.

I will definitely watch out for Grisebach's next release, even though I didn't like Sehnsucht as much as the BFI. I still see the glimmer of a potentially great director in her and I'll be waiting for her greatest film yet. This can't be it.

the Painted Veil (2006) - John Curran

Same, same but different
3.5 stars

The Thai have a saying for things that are essentially the same but somewhat different in some aspect. As I was walking along the aisles toward the exit after the film credits rolled, I couldn't help but be reminded of this phrase that so perfectly describes Curran's latest. The Painted Veil is the love story that is same, same but different.

What makes it essentially different are the surroundings in which this love flourishes and the levels of character growth that's usually missing from such romantic dramas. A remote Chinese village beset by cholera is not the most enviable setting where love can easily flourish, but this situation actually pushes the characters into coming to terms with their own core personalities, which in turn encourages mutual respect and love between a married couple who hasn't felt much of either for each other until then. Having said that, the character development goes beyond allowing love and respect but actually changes the characters forever personally, not just in relation to each other, and so has a deeper impact for the end of the film. I must say I'm very pleased with the depth of character development that Curran offers. It's a breath of fresh air for a romance drama.

This eventual yet doomed love affair is portrayed in a very mature manner by the two brilliant actors, Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. Although I must say I am willing to fore go Watts' somewhat disappointing British accent, especially during the first half of the film (I guess she got better as the shoot continued or I just got used to her accent), just because of her beautiful and graceful depiction of her character. She truly is a great actress who can match Norton's proven range of characters any day.

The last thing I want to mention is the cinematography. This film is simply beautiful and graceful in its imagery. The effective use of wide screen aspect ratios bring out the beauty of the Chinese countryside while Curran's close-ups delve deep into the eyes -and thoughts- of Kitty and Walter. All in all, the Painted Veil is a film that's worthwhile to watch because it delivers its story extremely well.

Spiderman 3 (2007) - Sam Raimi

Nothing special, besides the special effects
3 stars

Not too much to say here, but there aren't too many expectations either. Let's face it. We're simply expecting a good ride with the third installment of Spiderman, and in my opinion, it delivers this perfect Hollywood ride. It has good special effects, very funny scenes, not one but two super evil characters and a mighty boss fight that reunites some old friends. If you liked the first two (both by Raimi as well), you will definitely like the third one.

Btw, the more I thought about a title for this film's review, the more I was convinced that I had it right all along. As my Serbian friends typically say about their weekends, this film was 'nooooothing special.'

Dans Paris (2006) - Christophe Honoré

Godard and Truffaut Would Be Proud
4.5 stars

Since the success of the French New Wave in the 50s and 60s, many film-makers, mostly French, have tried to pay homage to the great minds behind the movement. Godard and Truffaut's distinctive styles have inspired countless fans to bring something similar to the big screen time and time again, to achieve that playful approach of the New Wave to any material, no matter how serious it is. Honoré clearly not only appreciates the New Wave and its auteurs but also has a deep understanding of what makes the movement so popular, especially in recent times. As a result, he successfully presents us with something more than a tribute with his latest Dans Paris.

The film is mainly about a depressed man, Paul, who is having a very hard time coming to terms with himself, with what he wants and most importantly with the woman whom he loves. His brother, Jonathan, is the mischievous wild spirit who tries to help him in his own way, while in the meantime kissing naught but three girls over the course of it. This is where the playful treatment of the subject comes to its best, as the film proves that life goes on and you can still get laid no matter what!

The story may be about these brothers, but the central character of the film makes her appearance in the first few minutes of the film: the city of Paris. Paris is not just the city these odd characters are living in. It's their tumor and savior. The city is suffocating yet it breathes life into this depressed man, as he recovers in his cocoon of a bedroom. In fact, the film starts and ends in Paul's bedroom.

The New Wave aspects of the film are obvious from the beginning, as Jonathan addresses the audience, reminding them that he is not the main character of the film despite the obvious connections one would make by seeing him first. This playful address reminds the viewer of Godard's À bout de souffle (1960) and Bande à Part (1964) where Godard's characters acknowledge the existence of the viewer by not only talking directly to it but also by bowing and going through a dance number.

Even though Honoré doesn't reinvent the wheel, he successfully manages to pull together a film that lives and breathes New Wave aesthetics, acting, script and spirit. It's worth applauding him just for the fine execution of New Wave theories for the 21st century audience.

Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) - Terence Davies

Highly Stylistic Portrait of a British Family
3.5 stars

Davies' autobiographical film was essentially shot as two separate films at different times with the same actors. The partition is made very clear as the parts are titled separately within the film. The first part, 'Distant Voices,' covers the tightly-knit family's memories of the father of the house. Most of the memories depict how the family stuck together throughout years of violence inflicted by the father. It also serves in developing the characters, but paints a pretty stereotypical violent father role. The second part, 'Still Lives,' mainly focuses on the lives of the family's remaining members after the father's death. It is not a hopeful final part to the film, as it highlights that all the other members have gotten into their own terror-inflicted households. Escaping from one violent household, only to become the main actress of one's own violent household.

As the title suggests, the film stylistically feels very still, like a selection of family portraits that come alive and provide snippets of information about the family. Davies doesn't try too hard to tie these small informational pieces together and leaves it up to the viewer to make sense out of the whole picture. Having said that, it is quite easy to tie the knots and arrive at the overall meaning. Going back to the stylistic aspects of the film, the use of extremely smooth camera work feels very modern, even in our time. The stylistic weight is so prominent in the film that the work comes off as mainly an art piece, rather than a fictional, realistic story-telling device.

Another interesting aspect of the film was the extensive use of music to convey a sense of melancholy and drive the plot. The majority of the script consists of traditional British songs, which seem preferred over dialogs. Coupled with the camera work and the highly stylistic mise-en-scene, the music completes the atmospheric value of the film. Even though it's not the best film I've seen, it is a film that "comes as close to poetry on film as possible" as one of IMDB's users suggest. Davies should be more prominently touted as one of Britain's best film makers.

Sunshine (2007) - Danny Boyle

Sunshine completely misses what it could be, ends up a meaningless sci-fi
1.5 stars

After creating such sensations as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, Boyle now joins the crowd of directors who should be ashamed of themselves.

Sunshine has some moments that give hope to the viewer that something clever and unique is about to happen for the sci-fi genre. The relation of God, space and madness pave the way for very interesting ideas for the film, but Boyle doesn't explore any of them. Only hinting at this potential brilliance hurts the film even more, agitating the viewer. The seeds of these moments are quickly crushed under unimaginative writing, a huge anti-climax and the appearance of one of film history's least explored villains. The sad thing is that this villain could have profited the film exponentially if explored in depth and not only used as an excuse for violence to accelerate the plot.

It is very obvious that Alex Garland, also writer of 28 Days Later, got trapped within the Hollywood confines of the sci-fi genre, where the characters die in order of importance and don't develop at all, where one of the characters is weak and another a complete tough soldier, where the plot twist is completely predictable, and where the story is oriented towards the action and occasional suspense. As a typical Hollywood sci-fi, special effects take precedence over everything else in the film and do not add any additional meaning. Special effects do help the viewers visualize things better, but when overused, they take over the film and suffocate it.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Trust me, you have seen this all before. Boyle offers nothing new to the table, which is unfortunate given his previous success that charted him as a promising director. I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt just because I believe the mishap is completely script-driven. What I can't forgive Boyle for is how he accepted to shoot this film, given the horrible script.

Namesake (2006) - Mira Nair

Nair does it again.
4 stars

The screen adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer-winning novel is cradled to success in Mira Nair's skillful hands. Just like she did in 'Monsoon Wedding,' Nair achieves an excellent balance of giving enough screen time to each of the story's characters, allowing them all to develop, change and grow throughout the film. The issues of identity, family, culture, immigration, and the idea of 'home' all get tackled within the same heart-warming 122 minutes. Amazingly, the film doesn't suffocate by the density of neither issue, as it doesn't focus on the issues themselves, more so on the journey of the characters within these issues. This is a film that must be seen.

My personal reaction to the film was on a family/home perspective. As an immigrant who has lived in the United States and now lives in the UK, I felt a deep connection to the characters who were experiencing a different sort of loneliness. No matter how well we adapt to our new environments and blend into the cultures of our hosts, how much at home do we really feel? Further to that argument, what do we call our 'home?' We don't feel completely at home in our home country, not do we feel at home at our host country. We belong to both worlds and never feel at home in neither. We might convince ourselves that we have completely adapted, but we never fully do. Our kind of people are the chameleons of this world: those who are both happy and sad at the same time.

Yes, the world is going through globalisation and there is such a thing now as a 'world citizen,' but how satisfying is it really to be such a citizen? Our identities are mostly constructed out of a sense of belonging to a certain group, be it familial, national, religious, or otherwise. If we can't define ourselves within the limits of one of these concepts, how can we identify ourselves? And if we truly are world citizens, why do we still crave to identify ourselves within the confines of preset identities- Turkish, Muslim, European, etc. Is it because it's easier or because human nature needs a certain level of comfort that these established identities can provide? Consider the following by Yi-Fu Tuan:

"Singing together, working together against tangible adversaries, melds us into one whole: we become members of the community, embedded in place. By contrast, thinking--especially thinking of the reflective, ironic, quizzical mode, which is a luxury of affluent societies--threatens to isolate us from our immediate group and home. As vulnerable beings who yearn at times for total immersion, to sing in unison (eyes closed) with others of our kind, this sense of isolation--of being a unique individual--can be felt as a deep loss. Thinking, however, yields a twofold gain: although it isolates us from our immediate group it can link us both seriously and playfully to the cosmos--to strangers in other places and times; and it enables us to accept a human condition that we have always been tempted by fear and anxiety to deny, namely, the impermanence of our state wherever we are, our ultimate homelessness. A cosmopolite is one who considers the gain greater than the loss. Having seen something of the splendid spaces, he or she (like Mole [in The Wind in the Willows]) will not want to return, permanently, to the ambiguous safeness of the hearth."

The film also made me question my relationship with my parents and family back in Turkey. I have been living away from them for so long, I realized how much I've started to grow apart from them. The film was sort of a waking call for me to realize my roots -my family- and pay respect to those people who have worked, sacrificed and died so that I can be here with this knowledge. I owe them my life and I pay them my respects.

This has been a fairly personal review of the film, but it just speaks to the power of the connection this film achieves with its viewers. Nair is a genius who can strike different variations of our hearts' chords within a span of two hours, just like real life can.

Das Leben der Anderen (2006) - Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Strong Performances Highlight Von Donnersmarck's Latest
4.5 stars

It's no surprise that Von Donnersmarck's latest film won the best foreign language film award at the Oscars this year, among 33 other international wins. Everything from the convincing and natural acting to the atmospheric mise-en-scene provided by the sets, costumes and camera work, the film portrays a vivid picture of East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In particular, Ulrich Mühe and Sebastian Koch shine through as the best actors of European cinema so far in 2007, Koch reappearing on the silver screen after his successful part in last year's Zwartboek (Verhoeven). Mühe's acting is so brilliant that, even though he is a man of few words, you know exactly what he's going through. His character is extremely powerful, literally all-knowing. During the surveillance, he ends up becoming more than a spectator of other people's lives and transforms in reaction to what's happening around him, becoming a 'good man.'

The film might appear to be a historic drama, but it really questions the nature of man- the 'good man.' Is there such a thing as a 'good man' when our biggest incentive is our envy of others, when we want what they have? Are there any good deeds that are purely for good? Von Donnersmarck's characters answer these questions in a bitter-sweet end that will remain in my memory forever and regain my hope that the fable of the 'good man' can be true.