THE IMPURE
Recommended. Disturbing how huge the trafficking of Polish women into brothels of Buenos Aires was. Pimps would marry them or kidnap from streets and houses - the result was the same. When already captured, for disobedience you could be put outside naked and poured on with cold water. 6000 women asked for help but later failed to testify rendering the pimps free to go. By law an "impure" woman could quit first serving men for free for a month. All that in the early 20th century among Jews. And it's the first time somebody is bringing these facts to light.
NURNBERG UND SEINE LEHRE (NUREMBERG: IT'S LESSON FOR TODAY)
Watchable. Surprisingly dull. It recounts the whole history of Nazi conquest and then you hear the meaningless blablabla of the masterminds defending themselves. It was worth seeing only to learn two things: Hitler always issued a statement proclaiming friendship between 2 countries less than a year before invading it. The defendants at the trial each pretended to be unaware of what was going on right under their noses and of the consequences of their political decisions. Unbelievable in the face of what they did. Luckily most were hanged or got life imprisonment.
LE SENS DE LA FETE (C'EST LA VIE)
Watchable. A romantic comedy with the emphasis on romantic. Just a handful of situations are funny, e.g. a guy wearing trousers looking like pyjamas hears comments about it even in Tamil and the groom flies away at his wedding reception because the staff forget to hold onto the balloon. The event gets saved by Indian staff who all played in an orchestra back home which makes for one little social comment in the movie. It's basically about a party where everything goes wrong but, as one of the characters remarks, where things get awry, everything is as it should be. So in the morning all relationships and positions, at work and society, are either newly created or refreshed.
14TH JEWISH MOTIFS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THE JEWISH UNDERGROUND
Watchable. It's better to be familiar with what Shin Bet is to understand it well. But even without background knowledge you see how close in geographic terms the Israeli and Arab worlds are and how distant they are mentally. You only hear the Jewish side and the discussion is about the effects rather than moral grounds. There's so much hostility towards Arabs that the terrorists have got enormous social and political support. They enjoyed big privileges in prison and were to be pardoned even before they were sentenced. Now they are major political advisors. A clear sign law never matters as much as a salient idea does.
SHALOM BOLLYWOOD: THE UNTOLD STORY OF INDIAN CINEMA
Watchable. Traces Jewish origins of the notion of a heroine in Bollywood and the story of Jewish women and men in Indian cinema. Sadly it ends in the 80s. Is there no one now?
SHOW DOGS
Watchable. 80s style music and fun action in the style of "Beverly Hills Cop" with the difference that here the guy is not black. He's a dog in a movie full of glamour: pampered pedigree dogs, beautiful women in cocktail dresses, opulent parties. The dog can't wait for someone to "finally train" his human partner. Lots of slapstick with dogs and a cute baby panda. Very entertaining even if just like all other talking animal comedies. In the finale the dogs set up a team with a licence to bite. Deleted scenes followed by set stills are shown over the credits. Some of the photos show Will Arnett cuddling "Max".
Even children in the audience were well-trained.
14TH JEWISH MOTIFS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
(Я ДОЛЖНА РАССКАЗАТЬ) I MUST TELL
Recommended. A very emotional, very personal account of a woman who, at the age of 14-17, was in the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius and in the Stutthof concentration camp. Harrowing. Impressive how she was lucky, or had to help her luck, repeatedly to survive.
NUSSBAUM 95736
Recommended. A less intimate story, in fact you get the impression he skips the most horrid experiences. But it's a deepened testimony of how you perceive others. Are you going to sacrifice a stranger's life to save your brother's? Will you accept a German daughter-in-law after the experience of 2 concentration camps? It's peculiar how a patchwork family was formed out of those who lost parents and who lost a child. While the film highlights the hypocritical "Arbeit macht frei" on the gate, it's another testimony that those few who survived were the ones who worked.
MISS HOLOCAUST
Watchable. The Holocaust survivors' beauty pageant serves only to show it's there and that you can celebrate your survival and have fun in life. Other than that it only presents the competition step by step. No obvious depth.
BLOCKERS
Watchable. Not as ludicrous as in the trailer which comprised of the worst bits. Still, it's silly enough. I recognised right away the tale about parents trying to stop their daughters losing virginity on prom night was written by a bloke. As it turns out, it was scripted by two men. Their idea of girls' world is downright masculine and presented as if they wanted to persuade girls to have sex more eagerly. Luckily it's all quite entertaining. Glamorous dresses, music ranging from Taio Cruz ("Dynamite"), through Chick Norris, to Mozart, eye-catching interior decors. Lots of slapstick, mildly funny, e.g. a guy tripping over the same boy twice, with one hilarious bit when a mum sneaking on her daughter gets electrocuted. Homosexuality is treated lightly too. Serious undertones apply to parents who won't let their teenage offspring experience life on their own, even if they adamantly state they will.
RAMPAGE
Watchable. Starts promising: first comes a note about illegal genetic engineering and then you get an awesome view of a space station. But action quickly brings you back to Earth where giant: gorilla, wolf and fancy reptile, looking like a dragon and emerging from the Chicago River like Godzilla, wreak havoc in the city. Dwayne "Rock" Johnson, who I took to after "Jumanji", saves the day. Unsophisticated fun.
THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR
Recommended. A truly extraordinary modern-day fairy-tale taking you across the globe and all layers of the society. You meet pickpockets, cons, a blind beggar, refugees as well as a marketing VD and a film star. In the colourful world the main topic is inequality and what determines our lives: luck, karma, parents' status? I cried and laughed, e.g. a refugee to a British immigration officer: "I don't want to stay in England." "Why? Is it weather?" Shot in Paris, Mumbai, Brussels, Rome but featuring the UK, Libya and Spain as well. With "Madaari" dance number and 2 more Bollywood and Burkinabe songs.
GOD'S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN DARKNESS
Should have walked out. The black priest first says he understands Swahili the best, then he utters his last words: "Mungu ni mzuri wakati wote" ("God is good all the time") in Swahili and a few minutes later he's mentioned as a priest from... Ghana. Swahili's not spoken there! The characters in this part are barely tolerable, the adult brothers' bickering is silly. I waited all the time for the trial which eventually didn't take place. Waste of time. Can a church be located on a state university campus is a valid question but the movie lacks a decent storyline.
HEREDITARY
Watchable. The family story is so engaging you don't notice what rubbish horror it is till it's too late. Starts with death, then comes talking about signs, then the omens appear and towards the end more and more characters act insane. Not scary.
UN BEAU SOLEIL INTERIEUR (LET THE SUNSHINE IN)
Watchable. Overtalked but overly realistic - about trying to rebuild your love life in middle age. The road of romance takes her from a fat, old, married, rude chap, through a few affairs, again including a married guy, in which she's desperate for love or at least commitment. It's quite life-like when the men manipulate her one after another.
LOVE EXPRESS. ZAGINIECIE WALERIANA BOROWCZYKA (LOVE EXPRESS. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF WALERIAN BOROWCZYK)
Recommended. From Docs Against Gravity to HBO. A big chunk of the history of cinema. With a clever observation that the sex revolution in the cinema of the 70s was male: by males and for males. Also an intro to Borowczyk comprehensible to people who didn't watch movies back then. Fully autonomous artistic vision appears to be quintessential to creating a good film. With amusing close-ups on Slavoj Žižek (famous for "The Pervert's Guide to Ideology") who's "quite an actor" that the director "would be happy to cast again".
LE TRIP À TROIS
Watchable. Not funny at all. Are all francophones obsessed with sex? It's Canadian so at least music is moslty in English.CZUWAJ
Watchable. The very beginning with the air view of a coach going into the woods is tacky - resembles trashy horrors. Then comes quite a reasonable introduction with ambiguous characters. But from the first murder on it's more and more stereotypical and, even with the movie lasting 90 minutes, feels protracted. You eventually learn who killed and why but the final scene is frustratingly inconclusive in terms of punishment. There's a black and white version of the movie as well but the cinematography is poor either way. So is the acting. Worst of all the whole film looks as if the creators couldn't make up their minds if it's going to be crime/thriller/psychologic/Catholic-nationalist drama.
At the premiere the young actors got their costumes (scout uniforms) as memoirs. Artur Barciś, who acted as the priest, joked he "wasn't even given a cassock".
THE CHANGEOVER
Watchable. Fantasy with elements of horror for teenagers. A weird movie. The magical story has little suspense and is poorly acted. Shot with plenty of close-ups. Uneven music ranges from barely bearable to really catchy - the best piece is played along with the credits. The post-credit takes you back to the reckless and joyful beginning.
BLANKA
Recommended. Watch your wallet if you ever wander into the slums of Manila. The little girl begs and steals so primarily it's a warning for potential tourists to the Philippines. But the whole story's more than that. It's poignant. The world of slums is one of extreme poverty: sleeping right on the street in a city that never sleeps, stealing from strangers and friends alike, bathing in the contaminated and littered sea, being vulnerable to robberies and kidnappings and of desperate attempts to form a family. The story's quite unusual, the girl's tough and resourceful, yet her naive dream is one coming from a world where money's everything. Every human is for sale. Crosses everywhere: round people's necks and in their ears, God slogans on walls look alien. Money only can't replace what the treet children truly covet. An important picture but so depressing I don't want to see it again.
LOVING PABLO
Recommended. He was outrageous, audacious and smart as hell. Whatever Pablo Escobar did was bold. His first depicted move was getting the beautiful journalist divorced. Achieving that his own way. Fast forward and a special 500-men unit was formed to apprehend him. He even served his prison time on his own conditions. Javier Bardem impersonated the drug lord convincingly. The movie's got good suspense, twists of action - based on facts - and a great score, even over the credits. Clever entertainment. It also explains what sicarios are (teenage hitmen whose families will get 20 000 dollars, which is more they could ever earn, if they get killed on the job) - right before the release of the second part of "Sicario".
PRZY PLANTY 7/9
Recommended. It was the first time I heard about the incident from 1946. The pogrom was so shockingly brutal. How was it possible that a few dozens people gathered murder 42 people in total for a few hours. The police, soldiers, civilians, including plenty of women. After those testimonies you just see different ways of coping with the guilt but the whole documentary is tear-jerking, not just the harrowing accounts.
RACE 3
Watchable. Nefarious gang dealings, the megarich and family at the core of motivation. The production follows the stalwart rules of blockbuster Bollywood: obligatory muscled men in glamourous cars, gorgeous women in breathtaking dresses, spectacular choreographies, with scantily clad mostly blonde dancers and with music getting better and better as the plot develops and brings in new twists of action. The very first choreography was dreadful though - duck faces and actors out of the rhythm. Later pole-dancing finds its way into the movie, clearly getting worldwide recognition, it features in one of the dance bits in the middle of the film. Combat scenes are realistic, based in actual martial arts. Russians are invariably stereotypical blondes, with women being whores and men inept suitors of Indian beauties. My first impression, however, was of overdone editing and camerawork giving dynamic scenes an artificial look. Slow mo's fine but what they did additionally was accelerating the picture which made it all appear fake and at times quite absurd, e.g. when a car gets sped up and you see a background woman suddenly walking unnaturally fast. Of course, it is all fictitious and far-fetched - obvious in the genre - but the visuals are spoilt. In one scene an actress has eyeshadow visible on her lashes and unconcealed skin blemishes. Quite a lot of imperfections for one cinematic release. Still, Salman Khan, who produced the movie and probably got digitally de-aged again since he looks younger and younger in subsequent productions, voluptuous Jacqueline Fernandez and curvaceous Daisy Shah together with opulent residences, designer cars and glamorous outfits provide enough break from reality. Catchy tunes stay in your mind after leaving the theatre.
The screening renewed my deliberation on why Indian cinema, matching the quality of American films, doesn't find following in the West. Action with music videos in between would be fine with European viewers. I think the reason may be Indian audience. In Poland that is. In Britain I saw dozens of Bollywood movies with no greater disturbance. Does a different sort of Indians come to Poland than to the UK? I usually try to sit far from others, even at western movies, so as not to hear others' conversations - couples and groups of friends occasionally can't refrain from talking. But this time it wasn't enough. First even mere turning off the lights and then each star's (Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Saqib Saleem, Jacqueline Fernandez, Daisy Shah) first appearance on the screen was met with deafeaning applause. The same happened at key moments or whenever actresses' legs were shown, even not the leads', an extra in hotpants prompted a roaring cheer as well. Apart from that some kid was talking along with the film, a guy would shout out something loud, clearly eager to be heard by the audience. No one objected. Being probably the only white person in the room I felt helpless. I've noticed that the cinema plays Bollywood louder than other films. Must be for a reason. Yet, the volume from the loudspeakers and the extra decibels from the audience can be tolerated only by those hooked on Bollywood already.
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