Movie reviews

WEEK OF SPANISH CINEMA

ORO

Watchable. A group of men seeking Eldorado. They slay each other off, often not to share the prospective gold or to manifest their power, and as their number is dwindling, you just wait to see who's left. The clergy sanctify killings. The movie shows how people are eager to kill and die for a prospect of fortune and a myth. Women are treated as property and Indian ones hunted like animals. Set entirely in the New World, shot entirely in Spain. Ends with a flamenco song over the credits.


FINDING YOUR FEET

Watchable. For and about elderly people and awfully predictable so for ones who don't go to the cinema often or have Alzheimer's. Quite tiring for a representative of a younger generation. The locations brought back some of my memories both from London and from Rome - pleasures of which are displayed. The final dance in Rome was fun. The film wasn't really amusing but was cheerful enough. It's about how wealth and class don't protect you from heartbreak and how helpful ordinary working folks can be. Also on 'want' which should prevail over 'should'. There's some annoying product placement in the movie.

"Mary Magdalene" is coming out shortly. I wonder if it's going to restitute her actual importance as an aide to Jezus or if it's going to spread the Church's lie of her being a former whore who devoted her life to serving the prophet.

WIEZA. JASNY DZIEN (TOWER. A BRIGHT DAY)

Watchable. Another pointless and weird Polish movie: a conflicted family with an estranged member coming back after 6 years similarly to "Cicha noc" but at least not as vulgar and with amplified sound effects reminiscent of magnified visuals in "Pokot" ("Spoor"). Here at least the visual side is normal. The only interesting bits are those where you see and hear the same thing twice: first from the point of view of the older sister, then the younger, prodigal one, but they are very brief, like glimpses of both women's thoughts. It's "based on future events" which is intriguing in the beginning but leads to nowhere. The title tower must be the church bell tower but when the bell tolls it reverses the sisters' parental chores for a while only. Theoretically, though the movie doesn't show it, it may be a referral to "migdal" from which Mary Magdalene got her nickname and which meant tower. This personage would be also ambiguous: in reality she was an apostle and an aide to Jezus but has been considered a converted whore for centuries following a pope's slander. That would reflect the movie character of Kaja. There's anger mixed with envy on the older sister's side while the mother suddenly gets healed on Kaja's arrival. Also temporarily. Are the "future events" just possibilities? The mother remembers her both birth givings and seems to favour the younger one who was easier to bring to the world. The family is boring, only talking about silly things though. The whole thing is protracted and tiring.