Saturday, June 20, 2009

Update June 20

It’s the old Transformers at Vista! 3 films today at “Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival”!

 

Chiang Mai movies update, Saturday, June 20, 2009

 

 

by Thomas Ohlson

 

1.  Three films will be playing today at the very interesting “Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival” in the auditorium of the Chiang Mai University Art Museum on Nimmanhaeman Road.



At 12 Noon:  Bridge Over the Wadi /يداً بيد جسر عبر الوادي/ יד ביד גשר על הוואדי  Written, directed, and produced by Tomer Heymann and Barak Heymann – 55 mins – Israel, Documentary.

 

For the first time in Israel, a group of Arab and Jewish parents decide to establish a joint bi-national, bi-lingual school inside an Arab village. The film follows the school's first year and portrays through the personal stories of its characters, how complicated and fragile is the attempt to create an environment of co-existence against the backdrop of the complicated reality around.

 

Adults expected the bi-lingual, bi-cultural education would lead to peace, but they themselves eventually become the obstacles for that peace.

 

The school “Bridge over the Wadi” has an equal number of Arab and Jewish students; each class has two teachers, one Arab and one Jewish, the school has two co-principals, Arab and Jewish. The school teaches bi-lingually, in Arabic and Hebrew; the students' achievements in both languages are comparable to the achievements of students in single-language schools in Israel.

 

The school exposes the students to the three cultures: Jewish, Islamic and Christian, and demonstrates in a straight-forward and practical way the principles of democracy and social equality. [Wikipedia]

 

There is a fascinating discussion of this film at

http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?film_id=12596

 

Some excerpts:

 

Bridge Over The Wadi packs a tremendous emotional punch. It doesn't offer complete answers. It does show a significant attempt to move forward in reciprocal understanding rather than mutual narrow-mindedness. . . .

 

Things come to a crunch over religious festivals, not unexpectedly. One particular memorial day is shared by both sides. For Jews, it is known as Independence Day. For Arabs, it is known as Nakba (catastrophe) Day. . . .

 

Teachers look for language that simply expresses facts. Beliefs and emotions should be handled separately from history. The Arab teacher gets upset, shedding tears: "Left is not the same as uprooted!" That one small word offends. 'Uprooted' makes the Jews feel like wrongdoers. 'Left' suggests the displaced Arabs simply decided one day to leave the land of their own accord.

 

The film’s website is quite interesting, at:

http://www.heymann-films.com/Films/Details/Bridge-Over-the-Wadi#/Images/Films/Wadi_1.jpg

 

At 13:25:  Flowers of Rwanda / Flores de Ruanda (2008) by David Muñoz – 24 mins – Spain, Documentary/ Short. Rwanda, 14 years after the genocide that took away the lives of more than 800,000 people. What's the current situation of the people of Rwanda? What feelings prevail in the hearts of the victims of the Rwanda genocide? Can genocide victims and killers live together? What's the importance of education in a post-genocide society? Could films become a way of educating the people of Rwanda, and especially Rwandan children? Can a film festival make a difference? May the history of the Rwandan genocide happen again? Who should act when genocide is taking place? Do we, as individuals, have any responsibility for stopping genocide?

 

Flowers of Rwanda was produced as a collaboration between the Rwanda Ministry of Education and Culture and the Rwanda Film Festival. This documentary movie was completely filmed in the country of Rwanda under the direction of David Muñoz.

 

There is a beautiful website for the film, where you can see much of the film and much about the film and the events of the Rwanda genocide:

 

http://www.floresderuanda.com/flowers-of-rwanda.html

 

 

At 15:45:  Colors of Our Hearts (2009) by Supamok Silarak – 90 mins – Thai, Documentary.

 

A series of lives that cross paths and reveal the fates and struggles of:

 

a Mon boy who dreams of a proper schoolbag and a chance to meet with the Thai King,

 

a migrant teacher who lives a life under shadows,

 

a stateless woman who has been on a long journey to find a way home, and

 

a young Northern teenage girl and a little bird.

 

This is the second feature film by the Friends Without Borders foundation, based on true stories told by migrant workers, stateless persons, and the local northerners. It was created by diverse national and ethnic casts and crews, including the Mon migrant workers in Mahachai, Samutsakorn province.

 

 

2.  The Transformers playing now at Vista is the original Transformers, the last one, the 2007 entry, and not the new one opening throughout the world on Tuesday. Maybe they were hoping to fool us. They fooled me! It’s a Thai-dubbed version, with no English subtitles, at 50 baht a ticket.

 

Here’s my original review from 2007:

 

Transformers:  144 mins – US  Action/Sci-Fi – It is indeed big, loud, and full of testosterone-fueled car fantasies – a gigantic, spectacular, and funny summer blockbuster movie, with truly exceptional and unprecedented visual effects.  See it, you’ll have fun.  You may think it way too long, but if so it’s simply too much of a good thing.

 

The story:  For centuries, two races of robotic aliens – the Autobots® and the Decepticons® – have waged a war, with the fate of the universe at stake.  When the battle comes to Earth, all that stands between the evil Decepticons® and ultimate power is a clue held by young Sam Witwicky, an appealing and average 11th grade schoolboy.  He doesn’t look like a teenager to me, but he certainly acts like one.  Sam is consumed with everyday worries about school, friends, cars, and girls.  After he makes friends with the Autobots®, he gets to save the world, and get a car!  And even the girl!  Actually, it’s great fun, although I must think the depiction of suburban American family life, with the weird interactions of teenagers with their parents, must puzzle Thais.  Sam’s parents here are so believable that they come across as monsters.  Other monsters include the US government and US military, but they are bumbling monsters that can’t really get their act together.  Good put-downs of American foibles.

 

 

 

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Whats On starting June 18

It’s still Up!

 

Chiang Mai movies beginning Thursday, June 18, 2009

 

… through Monday, June 22

 

by Thomas Ohlson



Best Bets: Up.  Drag Me to HellAngels & Demons.  A Frozen Flower (when and if shown).

 

Here is my list of movies playing in Chiang Mai at Major Cineplex at Airport Plaza and at Vista at Kadsuankaew for the week beginning Thursday, June 18, 2009. There’s also information on film programs at the Alliance Française and CMU’s Film Space.

 

Programs change next Tuesday with the advent of what the movie folk hope is the next blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

 

The EU Film Festival is scheduled for Chiang Mai November 5 to 15 (not 14 as previously indicated), before moving on to Bangkok. Unfortunately, this conflicts with Bangkok’s World Film Festival, scheduled for November 6 to 15.

 

Another film festival is in town, the Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival 2009, at the auditorium of the Chiang Mai University Art Museum on Nimmanhaemin Road. The film programs began last Saturday and continue through this Saturday; there is a list on this blog of the remaining films. The program is sponsored by the 10-year old Friends Without Borders Foundation, based here in Chiang Mai, which is devoted to giving a voice to the indigenous people of Mae Hong Son and Tak provinces, and to the refugees and migrant workers there. Some of the films are harrowing accounts of the life and deaths of the Karen people, fleeing from a brutal repression in Burma to find a questionable future in Thailand. Others are more joyous, such as the concert film Sleepwalking through the Mekong of the Los Angeles music group Dengue Fever, which specializes in Cambodian music (there is a very large Cambodian community in Southern California) and the group’s concert tour to Cambodia, where they were greeted with great enthusiasm by the Khmer people.

 

Meanwhile, the most loved mainstream film of the year so far has arrived and doing fine business here: Up. It rates high with reviewers, and with the public as well, already the third-highest earner of the year in the US. I particularly like how the Bangkok Post reviewer Kong Rithdee sums it up: “A real joy. … It’s buoyant and marvelous.”

 

And don’t forget that Drag Me to Hell has gotten the best reviews of any horror film in years; I thought it a hoot!


Also, A Frozen Flower seems to reappear from time to time at Major Cineplex Airport Plaza, so if by chance you haven’t seen it yet, there is still hope. You can keep checking this blog for the latest info.

 

There’s now a blog for Pattaya, too, at http://thomatpattaya.blogspot.com/.  

 

This is Issue Number 34 of Volume 4 of these listings.

 

 

 
Now playing in Chiang Mai    * = new this week

* Pee-Toom-Tim / Phee Tum Tim / ผีตุ๋มติ๋ม: Thai, Comedy – 90 mins – A goalkeeper on a Thai football team cracks his head on a goal post and dies. But wait, that’s just the beginning! Somehow his body is possessed by the spirit of a transsexual who has a burning desire to see the Thai football team make it to the World Cup. Shown in Thai only with no English subtitlesAt Airport Plaza only.

 

Up: US (Disney/Pixar), Animation/ Action/ Adventure/ Comedy/ Family 96 mins – Everyone’s current favorite! An animated comedy/fantasy adventure about a 78-year-old balloon salesman (voiced by Ed Asner) who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. Also starring Christopher Plummer (see picture above), and a speech-assisted dog. Reviews: Universal acclaim: 88/86 out of 100.

 

Rotten Tomatoes: Another masterful work of art from Pixar, Up is an exciting, hilarious, and heartfelt adventure impeccably crafted and told with wit and depth.

 

Drag Me to Hell: US, Horror/ Thriller – 99 mins – Director Sam Raimi started out making perversely entertaining horror fare like the Evil Dead movies before directing blockbusters like Spider-Man. Well, he's back, and in outstanding B-movie form. Alison Lohman stars as a loan officer who becomes the victim of a curse, with evil spirits on her trail and certain damnation in her future – unless she can break the spell. Drag Me to Hell is a wickedly good time: blood-curdlingly scary and ghoulishly funny, it's also taut and timely. It’s the best-reviewed horror film in years. Reviews: Universal acclaim: 83/78 out of 100. The Vista version is dubbed into Thai, with no English subtitles; in English at Airport Plaza.

 

Rotten Tomatoes: Sam Raimi returns to top form with Drag Me to Hell, a frightening, hilarious, delightfully campy thrill ride.

 

Terminator Salvation 4: The Future Begins: US/ Germany/ UK, Action/ Sci-Fi – 130 mins – With Christian Bale, Moon Bloodgood, and Common; directed by McG. In this highly anticipated – in some quarters – fourth installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind. If you’ve seen any of the other three installments of this series, you know what to expect: Plenty of chases, explosions, and great effects. Mixed or average reviews: 52/51 out of 100. Vista has one version dubbed into Thai with no English subtitles; also an English version.

 

Night at the Museum 2: Escape from [Battle of] the Smithsonian:  US/ Canada, Action/ Comedy – 105 mins – If you liked the first adventure, you’re sure to like this one even more – bigger, better, and with fantastic special effects. After a wacky night at the New York Museum of Natural History, the perpetually hapless Larry (Ben Stiller) must infiltrate the Smithsonian after some of his resurrected friends were shipped to Washington for storage. He finds himself in the middle of a vast conflict between many of the museum's most noteworthy historical figures. Mixed or average reviews: 42/50 out of 100.

 

Angels & Demons: US, Crime/ Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller – 140 mins – A tight, taut thriller. The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Ron Howard again directs. Mixed or average reviews: 48/50 out of 100.

 

Dek Khong / อนุบาลเด็กโข่ง:  Thai, Comedy/ Drama – 90 mins –  The “King Kong Gang” is a powerful and invincible gang that rules and terrorizes all the kids in the kindergarten, led by a boy of such immense size that a high-school girl who thinks he’s in high school falls for him, rendering him incapable of leading his gang.

 

Roommate / รูมเมท เพื่อนร่วมห้องต้องแอบรัก: Thai, Romance/ Drama90 mins – About three young females and two young males who live together and play together in a rock band named Roommate. As you might expect, includes the band’s music as well.  (In Thai only/ no English subtitles.)

 

Blood: The Last Vampire: Hong Kong/ Japan, Action/ Horror – A thoroughly disgusting mess of violence and killing. A remake of the 2000 movie of the same name about a vampire who is part of a covert government agency that hunts and destroys demons in Japan and who is inserted into a military school to discover which one of her classmates is a demon is disguise. I think the film is depraved and shameful, and serves only to brutalize the people who come to see it. Rated R in the US for strong bloody stylized violence. In English, mostly. Skip it!

 

 

Scheduled for Chiang Mai cineplexes on Tuesday, June 23 (yes, Tuesday)

 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: US, Action/ Adventure/ Sci-Fi. It’s Autobots® versus Decepticons®, Round 2, in Michael Bay’s film based on Hasbro’s Transformers™ action figures. Look how we have to write about it! It’s all about trade names and merchandising! The action figures for sure will be on sale in the lobby. Start saving your money, they won’t be cheap. With Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) again joins with the Autobots® against their sworn enemies, the Decepticons.

 

Hollywood Reporter: Bay's team of four editors stitch together smashing but meaningless images, though it's as difficult to make out which machine is which as it is to tell what anyone is saying. The noise level -- not helped by Steve Jablonsky's relentless score -- is super-intense and everyone yells lines at high speed. Because nothing they're saying makes any sense, it's hardly important.

 

Eye for Film: Despite the intervening years, neither Sam nor the franchise that features him has exactly matured. This sequel is essentially a recap of all the bludgeoning biffo from the first film, only with more characters, and more Transformers on both sides of the (good) Autobot/(bad) Decepticon spectrum. It is bigger and longer than the original – but certainly no better, and this time round lacking even a novelty factor.

 

The action revolves around a long-buried machine capable of destroying all life on Earth, and an ancient Transformer known as The Fallen (in case anyone misses his Luciferian identity) who returns to set those old cogs a-whirring and take vengeance on the humans he so inexplicably hates. The Fallen orchestrates the resurrection of mega-bad-robot Megatron to help him find the hidden 'Matrix' ignition key for the machine – and so Sam finds himself once again drawn into helping the Christ-like Autobot leader Optimus Prime (cue solemn stirring music whenever he appears) to save humankind.

 

Both Prime and Sam must make some messianic sacrifices (again) in order to beat the Decepticons to the Matrix and then beat The Fallen to kingdom come – but since their martyrdoms are not permanent (there's the franchise's future to consider), they lack all substance. Here, as in a video game, all the players can call on more than one life, which serves to reduce considerably any sense of real peril.

 

Much-needed (if very hit-and-miss) comic relief is provided by Sam's embarrassingly all-American parents (Kevin Dunn, Julie White), by former agent Simmons (John Turturro), by new roommate-cum-geek Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), and by a perky pair of rap-speaking Autobots named Mudflap and Skids. Beyond that, it's a series of mindless, pounding, effects-heavy set-pieces, no doubt all technically brilliant, but still numbing on the attention, and cut so fast and furious that it is often, as in the first film, difficult to divine (let alone care) who exactly is doing what to whom. 

 

 

And looking forward:

 

Jul 1 (Wednesday) Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: US, Animation/ Action/ Comedy/ Romance. After the events of Ice Age: The Meltdown, life begins to change for Manny and his friends: Scrat is still on the hunt to hold onto his beloved acorn, while finding a possible romance in a female sabre-toothed squirrel named Scratte. Manny and Ellie, having since become an item, are expecting a baby, which leaves Manny anxious to ensure that everything is perfect for when his baby arrives. Diego is fed up with being treated like a house-cat and ponders the notion that he is becoming too laid-back. Sid begins to wish for a family of his own, and so steals some dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid ending up in a strange underground world where his herd must rescue him, while dodging dinosaurs and facing danger left and right, and meeting up with a one-eyed weasel known as Buck who hunts dinosaurs intently. With the voices of Ray Romano and John Leguizamo.

 

Jul 16Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: Latest Harry Potter episode. As the boy wizard Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) enters his sixth year at Hogwart's, danger is afoot thanks to the growing forces of He Who Shall Not Be Named. But that's not the only hazard Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to contend with, as another sort of fickle magic is in the air: teenage hormones. Expect director David Yates to serve up the usual brand of Harry Potter excellence (he directed the last HP film, Order of the Phoenix) although screenwriter Steve Kloves has taken some liberties with the material, so Potterites, beware! Voldemort (… oops! I named him!) is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds, and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. If, indeed, ever it was.

 

Jul 23 – Public Enemies: With Johnny Depp as Dillinger! Michael Mann’s latest film pits Johnny Depp against Christian Bale as the two star as career criminal John Dillinger and G-man Melvin Purvis, respectively, in Public Enemies, a Great Depression-era drama about the FBI’s attempts to shut down organized crime. The film features a strong supporting cast, including Billy Crudup, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, and Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard.  

 

Aug 20 Inglourious Basterds: US/ Germany, Action/ Adventure/ WarDirector Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds with Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, and Mélanie Laurent, begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

 

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.

 

Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited tale of Jewish-American troops on the hunt for Nazi scalps in WWII France is unlikely to get usurped as the most bad-ass movie of 2009, thanks to the fact that, well, it's a Quentin Tarantino film. Inglourious Basterds stars Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of the titular squadron that includes Samm Levine, Eli Roth, and B.J. Novak; along with German actress and Allied agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), they attempt to bring down the Nazis -- in the bloodiest way possible. Mike Myers, Cloris Leachman, and Samuel L. Jackson also star in the exploitation throwback, so look forward to a star-studded (and gore-filled) good time.    

 

Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival 2009

Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival 2009

 

Sponsored by the 10-year old Friends Without Borders Foundation, the film programs began last Saturday and continue through this Saturday. Shown in the auditorium of the Chiang Mai University Art Museum on Nimmanhaemin Road.



 

 

 

 

Alliance Française schedule

At Alliance Française on Fridays at 8 pm

 

The Alliance Française concludes its series on Eric Rohmer this week.

 

At Alliance Française on Friday, June 19:  Le beau mariage / A Good Marriage (1982) by Eric Rohmer – 100 mins – France, Comedy/ Drama/ Romance. English subtitles. Generally favorable reviews: 73 out of 100.

 

With Béatrice Romand, André Dussollier, Féodor Atkine, Arielle Dombasle.              

 

Sabine, whose family lives in Le Mans, studies Art in Paris. One evening, she breaks off with her lover who is already married and decides to find herself a husband…

– Alliance description

 
The second of six films in Eric Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs series.

 

epinions, metalluk: We know from Rohmer’s general body of work that he is a moralist of traditional Catholic persuasion. He disapproves of young men and women, but especially women, sleeping around and engaging in meaningless sex. Considering that he lived in France, clearly his view is largely out of touch with his country's consensus approach to love and sex. In The Good Marriage, however, Rohmer dispenses with that theme early on, having his protagonist find her own dissatisfaction with the life of sleeping around with married men. This film tackles, instead, another kind of adverse male-female relationship, the gold-digger and the eligible bachelor. Here’s a category of male-female interactions that worse than meaningless – it’s downright predatory and exploitive. Having tired of giving away her physical beauty for sexual purposes and getting nothing substantive in return, Sabine has determined to market her physical beauty toward the purpose of securing a “good marriage.” Her ideal marriage, however, is not predicated in any way on love. It’s not even predicated on what she might have to offer to a husband – other than her youthful sexiness. A “good marriage,” in her mind, is one that will provide for her independence, idleness, and access to financial resources.


Although men are often victimized by their own libidos, most also exercise basic good sense in selecting their mates. In addition to a sex partner, a man might want a woman who is nurturing – if not for his own sake, that of his children. He might want a woman who is intelligent, accomplished, or personable. The relative importance of each of those items will of course vary from one man to another, but most men aren’t going to settle for nothing more than sexiness, especially a man as eligible as Edmund. He can afford to demand more. From my vantage point as a male viewer, I would have behaved like Edmund in this film, extracting myself as quickly and as efficiently as possible from Sabine’s clutches, despite her pleasing physical attributes. Sabine leaves a whole lot to be desired. Not only is she unintelligent in a bookish sense, more importantly, she is ignorant about human relationships. She is self-centered and full of pride despite having little in the way of qualities to justify such pride. She has no employment skills, she is disinclined to develop her artistic potential, she has no ambition, and she has no desire to give love. She merely wants to be idolized and kept.


Le Beau Marriage covers approximately the same thematic territory as Jane Austin’s great novel Emma and the film adaptations of that novel. Emma was the quintessential matchmaker whose aim was to provide her friend Harriet Smith with a “good marriage.” Emma had a distorted view of Harriet’s worth on the marriage market as we often do in relation to our good friends. Clarisse is equivalent to Emma and Sabine is equivalent to Harriet Smith, so one difference between the two stories is that Emma is told from the viewpoint of the matchmaker while Le Beau Marriage focuses on the woman who is to be matched. The comparison of the two stories reflects very adversely on Le Beau Marriage. It is deficient in every respect relative to Emma. The characters in Le Beau Marriage are relatively undeveloped and one-dimensional. Emma has seven or eight characters that are all better developed than any character in Le Beau Marriage. The moral issues are more complex in Emma because Harriet Smith herself is not really a gold-digger. Emma isn’t either except that she is a gold-digger of Harriet Smith’s behalf. Harriet, despite having dubious lineage and few accomplishments is at least a pleasant and selfless kind of woman. Sabine has nothing going for her but her looks. Rohmer is most admired for his witty, penetrating, and circumspect dialog, but even in his area of strength, Rohmer’s script can’t withstand comparison to Austin’s elevated language.


Besides the obvious "gold-digging is bad" theme, Rohmer scores some points in Le Beau Marriage, as in nearly all of his films, by illuminating the contrast between overt human communication and underlying intents. Rohmer develops double-speak and circumlocution about as well as any director. His work is psychologically penetrating, though even here, Austin does it better.

 

Available from Amazon.com.


At Alliance Française on Friday, June 26:  Casque d'or / Golden Helmet / Golden Marie (1952) by Jacques Becker – 96 mins – France, Crime/ Drama/ Romance. B&W. English subtitles. Reviews: Universal acclaim: 84 out of 100.

 

With Simone Signoret, Claude Dauphin, Serge Reggiani, Raymond Bussieres, Gaston Modot, William Sabatier.              

 

1898. The magnificent love between Marie, nicknamed Casque d’Or, and a carpenter named Manda. Marie was the girlfriend of one of the hoodlums of Leca’s gang. Manda faces and defies the gang, kills Leca...

– Alliance description

 

Rotten Tomatoes:  Starring international sex symbol Simone Signoret, Casque d'or is often considered director Jacques Becker's masterpiece. Becker was an assistant to the legendary Jean Renoir, and Renoir's influence on Becker is readily apparent in this poetic, impressionist film. Signoret plays Marie, the girlfriend of a minor gangster, who falls in love with a working man. Their love affair leads to a power struggle within the gang and speeds everyone inexorably towards tragedy. Casque d'or features a diligent and careful production design that recreates Paris of the late 19th century, and was based on actual criminal cases from that era. Though dismissed on its initial release in 1952, aside from a BAFTA acting award for Signoret, the critical reputation of Casque d'orgrew in subsequent years and is now generally considered one of France's great artistic films

 

 

At Alliance Française on Friday, July 3:  La marche de l'empereur / March of the Penguins / The Emperor's Journey (2005) by Luc Jacquet – 85 mins – France, Documentary/ Family. English subtitles. Generally favorable reviews: 79/78 out of 100. Note: This is the original French version, not the US release with Morgan Freeman narrating.

 

With Charles Berling, penguin father's voice; Romane Bohringer, penguin mother's voice; Jules Sitruk, penguin baby's voice.              

 

A film on the annual journey of Emperor penguins as they march, single file, to their traditional breeding ground in the Antarctic...

– Alliance description

 

Rotten Tomatoes: Coming from a French director, Luc Jacquet, the miraculous March of the Penguins would have to be a love story. And so it is. The film explores the mating rituals of the emperor penguin, one of the most resilient animals on earth. Each summer, after a nourishing period of deep-sea feeding, the penguins pop up onto the ice and begin their procession across the frozen tundra of Antarctica. Walking doggedly in single file, they are a sight to behold. Hundreds converge from every direction, moving instinctively toward their mating ground. Once there, they mingle and chatter until they find the perfect mate--a monogamous match that will last a year, through the brutal winter and into the spring. During that time, the mother will give birth to an egg and then leave for the ocean to feed again. The father will stay to protect the egg through the freezing blizzards and pure darkness of winter, which would be deadly to practically any other species. Finally, with spring, the egg hatches and the baby penguins are born. Mothers return from the sea to reunite with their families and feed the starving newborns, while the fathers are finally relieved of their protective duties after months without food. This remarkable story is narrated by Morgan Freeman [not in this version], whose dignified voice gives the penguins the grave admiration they deserve. But even more incredible is the photography, which shows the penguins hunting underwater, sliding on the ice, and even what definitely looks like kissing. At one point the camera even zooms inside the mouth of a penguin as it regurgitates food for its young. A story of love and, more strikingly, survival, March of the Penguins is a stirring, eye-opening, and educational experience.