La graine et le mulet / Couscous mit Fisch (France 2007)

I have a movie to recommend! "La graine et le mulet" is set in southern France, in a pretty deplorable setting for starters - a breaking-down harbour scenery, with people living crammed-ly in GDR-looking apartment buildings losing their jobs one by one. The ship you see on the picture is the corroded cargo ship after it has been turned into a lovely Arabian restaurant with lots of potentiality (couscous and red mullet!) by Sliman and his family. (Sliman is the old guy in the picture who gets fired for being inefficient. He has a wonderfully contemplative look in his eyes.) You cannot see the apartment buildings in the picture, although they make for some quite poetic imagery towards the end of the movie. 

What I liked most about the movie is its way of realistic story-telling that reminded me of "This is England". It's not as harsh but it also must be made by someone (name's Abdel Kechiche) who knows these people in real life. (For instance, the clash between the families of the Arab immigrants and the French officials is hilariously accurate - for all its sadness in the storyline.) With the scenes being seemingly uncut and lots of characters depicted going on and on in their chitchat or crying for minutes on end (great acting especially on the part of the casual and straightforward girl "Rym" - Hafsia Herzi, also in the pic above) many of your cinematically trained expectations go down the drain. Especially at the end! Daniel wondered whether they ran out of money... but no, it's just that you cannot count on everyone to work according to plan nor for fortune to fill the gaps to make a happy ending, not even for great dreams. Nicely, the lose ends in "La graine et le mulet" leave a lot to one's phantasy to complete. 

Atonement (2007)

Finally a movie that deserves the Oscar nomination. I liked most things about it - from the sound to the camera, to acting and plot. Joe Wright (the 35yo director) puts together an new type of non-linear epic story that poses problems close to me. We'll probably see his name again. The image is fantastic - and I don't have in mind only the long shoot in the middle of the movie but the many little elegant camera movements and framings that are also meaningful. I have to mention the typewriter in the soundtrack and the way it stresses characters and situation but also as a meta-comment on the power of words. I liked the acting of Saoirse Ronan who can be wonderfully senseless. I will watch this movie again for sure. Let's see if it also ages well but for now I totally recommend it.

Juno (2007)

It's Oscar time and this is one of the nominated movies. This is just another American teen movie. However, I had the patience to watch it to the end and for somewhat of a good reason - it is better. The main character is much stronger, stronger out of its context, out of any expected proportion. Juno is stylized to a such a degree that she resembles the ideal 21st century women - cynical but sensitive, kind of stupid but learning, glacial but on fire. Ellen Page (I love her act) is and does everything-the bad and the ugly included, she is the undisputed center of attention. Trying to escape the attraction of the Juno sun I was happy to see Jennifer Garner the future mommy doing an exceptionally tensed role. I like the idea - she is this 20th century women with work, position and seemingly independent but also incapable of having her own children. I enjoyed this parallel enough to make the movie worth watching and the music also helped a bit. Ok - it is not the regular teen movie, it is even good, but is it really worth a nomination for the best movie? I would watch it again but not many times. Here's a trailer mixed with the song that I actually like >

Michael Clayton (2007)

Another nominated for this year's Oscars. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is 'mr. fix it' in a law firm. We do not get to see how Michael fixes things but we do see how he doesn't - he is in a middle of a too-obvious-to-be-real moral dilemma out of which he is lucky enough to get out. Mr Clooney does an normal job at acting - which in some contexts is praised as masterful. I find much better Tom Wilkinson who has fewer but poignant scenes. Also Tilda Swinton is great at creating tensions while all the tensions are only economically pointed at. The plot wants to be intricate but it ends up being just a bit convoluted. Another OK movie that makes me think there were better years in the life of cinema.

My Blueberry Nights (2007)

Eventually we went to the movies! My Blueberry Nights it was. Personally, I adore blueberries and I would never leave a blueberry pie untouched if Jude Law's café happened to be in my neighbourhood. Typically for Kai War Wong movies (Ulli says - I haven't seen it but "In the mood for love" is very nice she says), the images are strong. He plays a lot with colours the scenes are bathed in and he's not shy to make it fully orange or blue, with mirrors and café windows through which you watch everyday phrases gain deeper meaning, and his style is very slow. I liked for instance how the whole first part is set only in the café where Elizabeth (Norah Jones) tells Jude Law about her unfaithful boyfriend. We never get to see the boyfriend except once when she watches him through a window. There's a cheesy bit about keys that people left at his café and never pick up, and the love-on-first-sight way Norah Jones and Jude Law get in touch ("I need to talk to some one. Can I come in?") is also a bit unusual for a regular NYC café I'd say. But then it gives a nice frame for the road trip she's taking and she can write him postcards from everywhere ("I always had the feeling I could tell you everything"). - There's a strange contrast between the slowness of the images and numerous observation scenes, and the fact that there is No development of the relationship whatsoever. Really - if the love on first sight thing didn't work, it'd be pretty tough for them to get together. Norah Jones as an actress.. hm. It always seems she is watching very attentively something on the far horizon. But the song in which she sings "I don't know how to tell the story, it's all been told before" at the beginning and end of the movie is nice.

Maria Montessori: una vita per i bambini (2007)

These days I've been watching a twofold Italian TV film about Maria Montessori, the founder of the Montessori schools. As you can tell by the subtitle - una vita per i bambini - it's the kind of historic movie that's all in ochre and sunbathed colours, where even the real poor children beating each other up in the streets make you long for the good old times when life was so slow and colourful, before cars arrived and people started to sit with crooked backs like me right now. Because Maria Montessori (charismatic Paola Cortellesi) has a very straight back, you know. She also has a very strong character, especially in dialogue with the masses of men (Maria Montessori was the first woman in Italy to study medicine) that have no idea children don't need only clean beds but also warmth and affection - and a patient and warm side to it that makes all the rioting children come circle around her feet when she sits down in a corner with a baby in her arms. If only life was that easy for me! If only I was like that! - It's always nice to watch a movie where you can rely on the main character to remain true to (especially) her-self whatever dictator comes up. The impersonation of a pretty thought...

Prinzessinnenbad (2007)

We went yesterday to the movies in Kreuzberg, where this documentary is set. My first thought when I got out of the cinema was how little I know about the kind of world interpretation that happens just about where I was walking. The plot: there isn't much of one actually. The camera (and I wonder what person behind it, probably somebody much less morally challenged than me) follows three 15-year-old girls through their routine, through their growing-up. Lots of relationships and lots of experienced judgment on different kinds of men (I wasn't aware, for instance, that Germans are seriously out of fashion), no minced manners certainly (telling your ma "if you marry, i move out"), a demanding and annoyed attitude to life. I perceived it as radically different from my growing up which was so safe and sheltered. Yet - there seems to exist a parallel between them ("the kids today are exposed to too much. [The kind of bitch-vocab they use] Me at age 8 I was still playing with dolls. Well maybe 7") and me here (having the impression I still did with 15 - or do I now?). I guess what struck me most is how distinctly the lines are drawn. All three girls are amazingly conscious about what they won't be able to do, considering the lack of abitur, in fact it seemed to me they know this before they start making plans in the first place. It leaves the spectator to wonder whether to agree with them or not. In somma, a good milieu movie.

Freedom Writers (2007)

'Freedom Writers' is centered around Anne Frank's Diary. The movie re-presents life events that took place just years ago (the book was actually published in 1999). It is not a very good movie and it made me think how odd it is to depict reality in film. On the other hand I have to admit I fought back some tears. By the 'tears' standard the movie gets closer to Hotel Rwanda but it is sloppier and I found the acting less convincing. But...the defects and the problems make the film more convincing at the level where I know real life constitutes bad acting. I am not sure I want to watch it again. I may focus too much on the aesthetic problems and the tension between the technique and plot may just increase. In any case it was a good experience to watch it. PS: If you are willing to see it online let me know. PPS: the photo is the cover of the published book and not taken from the movie.