Movie reviews

UKRAINA! FILM FESTIVAL

ГУЦУЛКА КСЕНЯ (HUTSULKA KSENYA)

Watchable. Painfully slow. It's a musical comedy with unbearable music, in addition all songs sound the same, and it's not funny at all. I was only curious how the romantic story would end and I liked the folk costumes. The scenography resembles Wes Anderson's films. The actors act as if separately, directly to the camera - no chemistry possible between characters.

ГЕРОЙ МОГО ЧАСУ (HERO OF MY TIME)

Watchable. A well-paced social satire. It takes the Mickey out of contemporary art, e.g. when an installation consisting of a pile of used everyday objects is put in the gallery, a gallery attendant wants to clean it up. Also, off-duty he wears a tiger T-shirt while the upper class guests wear bizarre dresses. I did not laugh but both the upper and lower class are ridiculed cleverly. There's a mid-credit.

To recap: Poor translations into English. Food at the opening gala was so bad I spat out most of the snacks. If that's the kind of food they have in Ukraine, no wonder they emigrate in droves. But the movies are getting better and better every year. 4 and 3 years ago most productions dealt with Maidan or war and were of poor visual quality. But Ukrainian film-makers have learnt the ropes at an astonishing speed, have created their own cinematic language, especially in comedies and have improved technically as well. This year the festival took place in just one cinema, times were set in such a way that movie beginnings didn't overlap with other film endings which was perfectly legible both in the catalogue and in the fold-out brochure. The catalogue had one movie per page (only short ones were two per page), leaving white space on a kind of paper which allowed you to take notes easily. While most films were fiven in the alphabetic order, some specials were separate but still easy enough to find.


KNIVES OUT

I've seen it already but have to wait till the midnight of 5/6th Nov. Polish time to be allowed to publish my review.


WARSAW KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL

영하의 바람 (SUB-ZERO WIND)

Walked out. Some family life. Deprived of emotions. And it drags.


UKRYTA GRA (THE COLDEST GAME)

Recommended. A difficult to crack spy game with moles on both sides. Set in the Palace of Culture and Science - the famous gift from Stalin, rumoured to have secret passages. I watched the movie in Kinoteka which is housed in the very Palace - the stairs in the movie are the very stairs I climbed to get to the cinema. The chess match lasting a few days is only most apt for the hidden game of two superpowers. The 60s threat has been brought back to life this year when Putin and Trump cancelled the nuclear treaty as the final note menacingly reminds the viewers.

AMAZING GRACE

Watchable. Listening to Aretha Franklin, young Mick Jagger clearly felt the rhythm. I could barely stand that bathroom singer screaming wildly to the mike. Jazz removes melody even from the most loved song. She wore beautiful outfits so while my ears felt sore, my eyes had some pleasures. In the second half some women from the audience performed an amazing dance. Then her father, a pastor, enriched the live album recording with his talk about Aretha's talent. But it was only the final "Never Grow Old" that I almost enjoyed. The song and other sounds over the end credits were the best part.

It's one of Sydney Pollack's last revealed films before his death, recently discovered after it had been shelved for 40 years for technical reasons. The "Amazing Grace" album became the best selling in the history of gospel and Aretha Franklin's.


WARSAW KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL

1987 (1987: WHEN THE DAY COMES)

Watchable. It tackles the same period (the 80s) of brutal repressions covered by "택시운전사" ("A Taxi Driver") but in a less shocking way. Basically, it's too expressive and has a tacky love plot but the ending, showing huge mass demonstrations all over the country makes impression nevertheless. 

This festival showcased a selection of movies from different years, in varying genres and styles and on a wide scope of topics. The films, a seminar and a Q&A started and ended perfectly punctually. You just felt impeccable organization, like clockwork. Sadly, the movies were translated into Polish from English instead of from Korean directly. The brochure and leaflet had a difficult-to-read font, with additional small on the sides. The pictures were all dark purple-brown to black and as hard to see as the writing. Also, the opening gala catering appears to have been Polish instead of Korean like in previous years.


MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL

Watchable. Exquisite costumes, make-up, stunning scenography, lots of fantastical creatures. Even the battle and a death are colourful. And the finale just blows you away. Many elements, however, have been derived from "The Lord of the Rings", e.g. walking trees or forging iron and from "Avatar", e.g. plants glowing blue in the dark, landscapes, colourful flying creatures with big wings. The plot's more complex than in part one. There's even a bit of humour, e.g. Maleficent's advisor telling her what small talk is. It's set to be a trilogy. Luckily, even the war was fairy-tale-like. No mid- or post-credits.

MOJ KRAJ TAKI PIEKNY (MY COUNTRY, SO BEAUTIFUL)

Watchable. It's all obvious if you follow Polish news but at the end the quotes from the Bible juxtaposed with fascists' speeches highlight how un-Christian their supposedly Polish Catholic ideology is. One expert rightly notices that they wear the same clothes which equal to uniform values in the group.

DZIURA W GLOWIE (A HOLE IN THE HEAD)

Walked out. Empty and pointless. It's incredible a 20-strong team worked together on the movie and created such nothing. You need it like a hole in the head.