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.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Director: Clint Eastwood

It's a really popular film and I didn't want to watch it. then it was for me easy to have it and I left it there for about two months. Yesterday I decided to watch it.

What was stopping me? First: I don't like Clint Eastwood. Second: I don't like Hilary Swank. DETAILS. what made me change my mind? a couple of really good films I watched previously and that gave me a renewed trust towards the latest years' films :D

To be concise, it's a story about a girl who wants to become a boxer.
at least we think this is the main character from the title and from the narration.

so this is my first point. we have a narrator of the story that is also a supporting character. while I was watching it, I considered this narrator like a literary one, so just helping the viewer to "read" the situation when that couldn't be clear just from the story.
then at the end (don't worry i'm not going to spoil anything) we find out that there was an aim to this narration and also that the main character of this narration wasn't exactly the one the film was focusing on.

the story developes chronologically. the viewer is led through it and we can say that it's a nice topic told in an interesting way and not so understood. its naivety is its own strength. it has some important issues but told simply.
there are a pair of imperfect details: first when we get to know the story of her life. it's been put there more for the story itself than with a coherence to the development of the conversation.
second: the track of time. we don't have it so much, just as a recap to validate the trainer than to make us understand how long did it take to her from the beginning to the end of the film.

the actors are what I expected. Clint Eastwood used to have two expressions: one with the hat and one without the hat. well here he wears no hat :D

the wicked are of course German and communist just to sum up 2 WW films and after 2 WW.

at the end I can say it's a pleasent film to watch, it kept my attention till the end and it was above my expectations.