Blog Archives
Enter The Void
This film does not need an introduction but the one that is the opening titles.
Welcome to a kaleidoscopic world of aural and optical, sensorial assault. This smorgasboard of sound and vision epic is the embodiment of celluloid dreams. Do not hesitate to immerse yourself in the spectacle of cataclysmic cinematography that is Enter The Void. Director Gaspar Noé brings to the auditorium a dream state diaspora that will leave you reeling. The film depicts the myopic portraiture of a seemingly infinite post life-cycle within an extra-world narrative. If you can withstand 2 and a half hours locked in an bangin’ club, astral-travelling over cityscapes and myriad visceral imagery; this is your wet dream. It is a film you will wait such a long time to see but fortunately it will be screening at a cinema near you soon. Wait no longer.
INFX says: C’est une présentation qui n’est pas ‘feint art head’.
-Rock The Boat
Videocracy
Fortunate in that between the 60s-era ‘changeover’ cinematic operation we have on the flagship MIFF site, the Forum; I was able to to catch Erik Gandini‘s documentary in near entirety.
This curiously Swedish film is presented by Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa -the production company that vyed for arthouse supremacy in the early 90s and has since made a resurgence with such titles as The Idiots, the Dogville trilogy and Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself.
Having an awareness of the manic that is politica Italiano, I found myself engaged in this perspective of Silvio Berlusconi‘s grasp of Italian media outlets. The film opens with a summary of erotic cinema; Ron Jeremy at the fore amidst shots of scantily-clad women in both popular ‘underground’ video and shopping malls on the continent, alike.
The film is at times tedious in its depiction of billionaire girls and television production impresarios: namely in its pursuit of t.v. ‘turncoat’ Fabrizio Corona but ultimately frames Berlusconi‘s hard hand on a post-modern propaganda machine that is both daunting and amazing; a description I use without any flattery.
This is a film perhaps best viewed on video but au contraire worth a visit to your supposedly ‘local’ or ‘independent’ cinema.
-Rock The Boat
Black Cat White Cat
I recently regained a grubby grip on this film masterpiece. Emir Kusturica‘s depiction of the charm and chaos between a sprawling Balkans family consisting of rival ‘gypsy gangsters‘ never ceases to amaze. The film consistently cements itself in any respectable top 5 favourite film lists. The film opens on the banks of the Danube, with the seminal techno classic ‘(I‘m a) Pit Bull Terrier‘ -a track crafted from the minimalist group Zabranjeno Pusenje, long before downtempo anthems bum-rushed the Eastern European dance music scene. However, this is just an opening sequence.
Do not be fooled by these wanna-be gangster buffoons and their hilarious bumbling bastardry -the plot opens up as the head of the family, Matko Destanov, unites his mob to make sure his daughter is wed and wed in a proper & timely fashion. The outcomes of these endeavours are heartfelt and often ill-concieved but ultimately, when played out on celluloid they will have you retching with laughter. You‘ll be gagging on your incomprehension of the trials and tributaries (yes, waterways) that the wedding party encounter.
And War…
Having been fortunate enough to traverse Bosnia a few years back; Kusturica‘s film is certainly reminiscent of the uneducated madmen that roam the countryside. Somewhat similar to the bogan or twit, this cariacature of clueless peasants from the Balkans is as interesting and humorous as it is sad and disappointing; with Bosnia a country particularly dire in despair. A place that an 80 year old professor who I stayed with in Mostar deemed “it is everyone against Bosnia. They have us land locked and it is each for their own“. Upon asking how he felt about the Croats, Serbs and other socio-political groups: “How do you think I feel when 100,000 people were slaughtered in this very town during a 2-day campaign“. A chilling reminder of the devastation of war. And it was less than 20 years ago. A ‘contemporary‘ war.
