Movie reviews

ANNETTE

Recommended. Two celebrities are at the pinnacle of their careers as we can see on billboards. As their love burns out, his "star's in decline". It's an unusual story about "a beauty and a bastard". The daughter is the token of their love and she's a puppet - until she grows into a girl with a mind of her own. And consequently with the hardest question of all: forget or forgive? The whole thing is little short of controversy and I don't mean Adam Driver smoking infamously when an audience was applauding him - he just stayed in character. Just watch his/Henry's outrageous show. On the other hand it explores why people feel the need to tell jokes and, subtler, what entertains us and why. Another obvious controversy is a parent's attitude to a gifted child - is it child exploitation or ensuring a prodigy has a future? An unusual story requires extraordinary means. Genre-wise it's an opera bordering on horror and crime. The male lead's called Henry McHenry like Henry VIII who had 6 wives, had 2 of them killed and 1 died shortly after childbirth. And 6 violence victims, of various races and beauty types, do appear - connecting history with the present famous sex abuse scandals. Ominous signs, typical for horror, take place as well. A blood-like mark on Henry's face is initially in the shape of them both cuddled up in bed. In the club the mark is presented as a mirror reflection on his left cheek and you may wonder if it's a lipstick stain. After the second kill the mark splits in two. And the wedding ring on Henry's finger is demonstrated close up. Angelic singing with wonderful music by Sparks gives this musical an operatic scale. Mesmerising city shots only match. Woods are treated differently. There's a forest where the diva can see no light and you hear her sing, next, a different grove is the scene of a body being carried away while forest sounds can be heard. The forest location is peculiar too: once it borders the stage, the other time the residence. A bizarre animal turns up on the pool bottom: a reptile which looks like a prehistoric tadpole - as if to be born or transformed, to undergo an evolution. Speaking of life, breathing is vital: first you're told you're not allowed to breathe during the show, Henry McHenry chokes on smoke every time he commences his performance, Ann's birth giving involves intensive breathing, in another scene Henry's a gasping castaway, also two people are drowned hence deprived of their breath forever. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard show off their acting chops. And muscles, especially Driver. Stunning visual effects have been created e.g. the Hyperbowl but even the homeside pool glows green at night. Surreal scenery and visual effects are awe-inspiring. The film is just phenomenal. My eyes welled up at some point but didn't water as if the tears were afraid to drop. The ending of the credits shows a different family unit giving a new angle to the already complex story.

HOLIDAY

Recommended. Contrary to the title, it's not a light story. A middle-aged man hears of a place he didn't manage to visit two decades earlier and is inclined to go, especially as a guide recommends the place to "find his purpose in life and who he really is". The couple are middle-aged, lost on many levels and their exotic adventure unpredictable. You never quite know which turn their journey will take. Superbly maintained tension means info is revealed gradually. You have a feeling the protagonists are being lured to the volcano and you wait in suspense to find out what ceremony is to take place. Indonesian without translation, strangers with unclear intentions, unknown customs and several omens create an impression of a horror. It is not, but the psychological drama is powerful. Ah, and both protagonists do find their purpose in life. An engaging Polish drama making a superb use of horror means of expression.

NOWE HORYZONTY FESTIVAL

Festival screenings will start earlier and finish later so that the staff have time to disinfect the rooms in between. To compare, Berlin ones started even 8:30 a.m. Several movies will be screened up to 7 times. No Festival Club at Arsenal this year. 20 movies have been brought from Cannes. All the Polish film crews are coming to Wrocław.

VIAPLAY STREAMING PLATFORM

The platform was created in 2007 as an add-on to the linear TV and radio stations of the Nordic Entertainment Group and was reshaped for the future in 2013. The Group is in 2/3 based on linear TV and radio which bring sound revenue which is reinvested into Viaplay. The Group is enlisted on Nasdaq in Stockholm. Created in Sweden, it rolled out to the Nordics and is looking to cover other areas as well. The Nordics constitute about 12 million households so far fewer than Poland. Another reason for the expansion into the Polish market is that Poland is close to home which matters in the technical world. Also, there's broadband in the ground and in the air - that needs to work well, here it does and is improving. Also, local Polish broadcasters haven't fully embraced streaming. Streaming is cheaper for the viewer, so how to earn? Netflix wasn't so concerned about making money in the beginning. So the Group invested over 1 billion euro into the technology to deliver solid, stable user experience. They provide 70 000 live hours of sport - the most streamed sport in the world. That content has been there from the beginning, it's embedded in what they are. That includes some original sports content, exclusive to Viaplay, the only way to watch is there. Formula 1 will be screened shortly via helmet cameras. Bundesliga is one of the main partners - all matches are shown there, as well as all Cup matches. Since they prefer the stability of long-term contracts, the Bundesliga one extends to 9 countries till 2029. Łukasz Piszczyk, who still plays for his club, will appear in the studio as well, at Bundesliga and Cup games. As for shows, they're a prominent partner in Hollywood but, just like Disney or HBO Warner, the Group acquire but also produce a lot of content themselves. Their ambition is to have 50 Viaplay originals. So the new proposition will be their own content, predominantly born in Europe and some Hollywood. Their credo is: content matters, language doesn't. Their own Swedish series "Partisan" won the best series prize in Cannes last year. A lot of reality and documentaries will be on too. No linear channel is planned for Poland but it's not excluded if a local sports partner approaches them. Their belief is the market will consolidate over time, partly because of difficult investment in technology, partly due to the question of how many sign-ons viewers  want. Local Polish content is coming - already in one month the first Polish version of a popular game show will be offered, one whose trailer looked ridiculous to me. On the more ambitious side, they've started 3 Polish developments, including one based on Katarzyna Bonda's book "Polskie morderczynie" ("Polish Female Murderers"). She's a bestselling crime author so that sounds much better to me. All productions will have Polish and English subtitles, the content is often translated into Nordic languages and new market languages too. The new to Poland platform, available since 3 August, is easy to use. You just download the app and off you go. 34 zl, the 1st month free, no commitment period, no commercials, no layers of subscription.