Cineforum "Vere bugie false verità"

I'm planning a filmforum that i'm running from the 3rd march in milan. everybody's invited. if you have friends in milan tell them to join.

here are the details:

Da Lunedì 3 marzo a Lunedì 7 aprile 2008

VERE BUGIE FALSE VERITÀ

Il gusto dell’inatteso. La moderna tendenza del racconto cinematografico e i suoi film simbolo tra rivelazione e ribaltamento della verità

A cura di Flavia Costa

Con “Vere bugie false verità”, prima rassegna a cura di Flavia Costa, ci inoltriamo nel territorio dell’inatteso.

I cinque film della rassegna appartengono a una tendenza sviluppatasi negli ultimi quindici anni, che raccoglie tutti quei film che ci raccontano una verità che nel corso della narrazione verrà completata, con l’effetto di sorprenderci.

Ci lasciamo condurre dal racconto e, citando Matteo Columbo, «il rischio è quello di innamorarci di una verità e leggere ogni indizio come una conferma della nostra immagine mentale. Ma questi pericoli non sono forse i tranelli in cui caschiamo volentieri in quella rischiosa abitudine che è guardare un film?».

Idea principale è quindi tendere un tranello allo spettatore, ma sempre con l’intento di intrattenerlo, per lasciarlo a bocca aperta. In questa rassegna vedremo come i diversi autori perseguono questo intento, con meccanismi di narrazione riconducibili a quattro diverse tipologie.

Vedremo quindi che la vera star di questi film è la sceneggiatura: è come ci vengono raccontati la loro cifra; e proprio grazie alla sceneggiatura originale, in quasi tutti i film scritta dal regista stesso, essi hanno ricevuto numerosi premi e riconoscimenti.

03.03.2008: IL SESTO SENSO (1999)

10.03.2008: MEMENTO (2000)

17.03.2008: MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001)

31.03.2008: I SOLITI SOSPETTI (1995)

07.04.2008: MATCH POINT (2005)

Circolo Familiare di Unità Proletaria

Cineforum del Circolo

(dove c'è il teatro Zelig)

Viale Monza, 140 – Milano

MM1 Turro - Gorla

info@cineforumdelcircolo.it

www.cineforumdelcircolo.it

Inizio serate ore 21,00

INGRESSO LIBERO

Rassegna stampa:

Corriere della Sera: 03 Marzo 2008, pag 12

Milanodabere
La Sinistra in Zona

Enchanted (2007)

Director: Kevin Lima

I went to Sofia to visit a friend, Maria and celebrate New Year's Eve. we decided to go to the cinema (as there everything is in the original version with subtitles) and we just chose a film that could be entertaining. well.... we had a lot of fun and the film was above our expectations!

The story is about a princess, who's marrying the Prince Charming but... she's sent by the Wicked Queen to the real world, where "the Happily Ever After doesn't exist".

is it true? is she going to marry the Prince Charming? will she find a "real" Prince Charming?

this is a Disney film. it's really clear at the beginning and I found myself back to when I was a child. really nice! so we can say it's self-referential, it's like a recap of all the classic Disney movies but.... self-ironically!!!! that's where you start laughing!

since the beginning it's clear that the classic fairy tale model is no longer suitable, because it collides with the real world. but is the real world so lacking of romance?

we have the charicatures of the King, in love with the Queen, submitted to her orders. The Prince Charming is personally one of the best characters.
Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy Mc Dreamy, plays the role as we expect it.

what about the Princess? the story is focused on her and her way to love awareness: when can you really be sure that you found your Prince Charming?
is it a matter of the world you live in? should you always give a look outside to test if there's something more? how can you know when to stop looking?
besides, there is a new balance: we had the classic fairy tale with the Prince saving the Princess; then we had the inversion of the roles, the Princess saving the Prince; here we have the perfect balance as both save each other as a team work; love makes you stronger.

as you can see, you can watch the movie naively, but also with a deeper point of view.

I do think that the creators of this film, before writing the story, questionned themeselves about what the contemporary fairy-tale is, and I can say successfully!

Eastern Promises (2007)

Director: David Cronenberg

Alessia, my sister, suggested me to watch this film. we had an interesting conversation about it, to which I owe many starting points of my view.

the story is about Anna, a midwife, who delivers the baby of a 14yearold prostitute. the girl dies and Anna tries to find some relatives not to give the child to foster care, but she ends up dealing with the Russian mafia in London.

as I was writing for A History of Violence, we can see how Cronenberg's films belong to the body horror's thread.
about identity we have different lines.
the first one is about knowing Tatiana, the 14 yearold girl, and her identity to get to her relatives and to her child's father: this is the story mover.
this bring to state identity through a DNA test, in which you need 2 elements to compare. if you miss one, you are not able to come to a result.
then we have Anna (and we) getting to know the Russian mafia and in particular Nikolai, the driver.
then there is the matter of the tattoos. identity intertwined with bodymarks. as we know from the film, the tattoos in Russian mafia and Russian jails tells the status and the crimes of a man. quoting the movie: without a tattoo, you don't exist.
so a tattoo is stating the identity, but is it really and deeply so? does the same combination of tattoos brings univocally to one person?
then for what concerns the inadequacy of the body, that's not enough to describe a person, you do need tattoos, as an ancient tradition, to mark it. it's a primitive way in an organized society such as Mafia. that leads us to Nikolai's upgrade, where he is just in his underwear, being tattoed with the marks of his new status. an then we can see the main fighting sequence, where there is Nikolai naked, dressed just with his tattoos, that reminds of the warriors.
so are you really naked, or a tattoo as a permanent mark is a permanent expression of yourself?

about violence: it's used as a necessity to keep people silent, most of all killing them.

I found this film really interesting; you get to know the characters and the situation watching it and until the end you don't know everything, but you are willing to.
again Cronenberg shows his mastery in cinema.

A History of Violence (2005)

Director: David Cronenberg

I watched this film, because there is out in the cinemas (here in Italy) Eastern Promises, and I wanted to watch it as well.
but as E.P. it's considered a sequel in Croneneberg's violence thread, I wanted to be fully prepared ;).

the story is about Tom, a diner's owner, in a small US-town. he's a simple man, with a family, his own business, until he becomes a local hero for killing two criminals who were assaulting him, his employees and customers in the diner. this fame implies some changes in his life.

the plot looks simple. that's because often in Cronenberg we can find 2 layers in the narration. you can watch a movie plainly, and many times the plot is not even so complicated or suprising, if not even silly.
but here it comes the second layer: Cronenberg is an exponent of the body horror, in particular we have the research of identity. according to the body horror the psychological matters are linked to the physical ones. in particular in this film we can notice how every improvement (the viewer's or Tom's: who knows?) in getting to know Tom's identity, takes to wounds and injuries.
besides there is the inadequacy of the body. When Tom is dealing with unpredictable and uncommon events, it looks like if he's borrowing someone else's body.
all this changes reflect in his family, too. in particular we can see as the starting "necessary" violence primes different reactions in Tom's son, too.

this leads to another matter: violence. all the movie is about one act of violence that brings to a chain of further violence and how this chain can be broken, with violence of course.

so maybe would it have been better not starting it at all? this is up to you.

it's Cronenberg and it's really really difficult to sum up (and to notice) everything, but I can say I really liked this film. It's not one of my favourite genre but it's always amazing watching movies of one of the greatest contemporary directors.

You, the living (2007)

(Du levande)
Director: Roy Andersson

it's a Swedish film that was also presented in the Cannes Film Festival.

we cannot say that there is a plot. it's a movie about different "episodes", about people. different topics are presented some of them frivolous, many of them serious.

it's theatrical: we have a static camera, so there is no movement in any of these episodes, which remind me the tableaux vivants; every frame is build with its own characters, that don't change place, with only few exceptions.

I have to say it was difficult for me to watch this film, also because I don't know so much about the Swedish filming tradition. nonetheless it's a good example of a different way of conceiving the cinema as art.

Then She Found Me (2007)

Director: Helen Hunt

I don't remember how I got to this film. what I know is that it's new and I haven't heard so much about it, yet.

so the story is about a schoolteacher, April, who is 39, she wants a baby but her husband leaves her. on the same day, as she was adopted, her biological mother asks her to meet.

we have then 2 story lines: her path to motherhood and her building relationship with her mother.
of course there is romance, I have to say quite simple but realistic; but most of all there is the issue of parental love: the realtionship with her foster mother, how her "new" mother tries to find a role, how April finds her own role with his boyfriend's children and the main thread that moves the story, how she is going to be a mother.

I can say that I liked this movie. it has a quite unusual topic in the latest year's films, maybe more typical of tv shows, maybe because it usually needs more then 2 hours to be told: in this the film is really successful to draw the situation; besides the characters have their own depth.
as you can imagine from the topic, it's not a light film but on the same time you don't feel the effort to watch it.

as a debut for Helen Hunt as a director, I think she is successful bringing something new.

Little Mosque on the Prairie (2007-...)

Creator: Zarqa Nawaz

due to the WGA's strike, I had to stop watching my usual series and I started with this one: as it's Canadian it shouldn't be affected.

it was a casuality that I found an episode, even though my friend Victor already showed me a video about it months ago.

In Canada the second season is already on air, even though the show is new (it started in January). this states the success that this show had.

the title is a quote from the "Little House on the Prairie", but there is no other link to this show.
this serie is about the muslim community in a small town, Mercy, in Canada.

the episodes are 20 minutes long, that's why the characters are more like caricature. we have the 2 "extremists" (not in a violent way), those who are not so strictly believers, there is the mixed married couple, the feminist, the rebels... the wicked is represented by a "western" radio presenter that resembles the way the media increase the hatred between cultures, in this case not so successfully. on the opposite side there are the imam and the anglican priest, who give each other suggestions about how to deal with their communities.

this muslim community tries to find its place in this town, trying to keep its own tradition and on the same time trying to integrate with the town costumes.

it's a really nice and light example of what integration may be for all the cultures, and it offers a really good humour.