Movie reviews

BE POLAR 3 FILM FESTIVAL

DOKUMENTY I FABULY W JEZYKU ENG KROTKI METRAZ (DOCUMENTARY AND ACTORS' SHORT FILMS IN ENGLISH) 

TO PLANT A FLAG (2018)

Watchable. A humorous Norwegian short film with American actors about testing the Lunar Roving Vehicle in Iceland 1966 where the culture clash and communication issues appear so alien you question the sense of the Moon mission.

GOVADAS (2019)

Watchable. Grainy aged black and white footage of 2018 is mixed with contemporary colour images - artistic impressions I couldn't remember an hour later.

NOTATKI Z ROGATEJ ZIEMI (1959)

Watchable. A very old black and white Polish documentary about life in Norwegian Lapland - interesting historically how quickly times change and how dogs were treated.

ULTIMA THULE - SIEDZIBA PIEKIEL (1961)

Watchable. This awarded black and white Polish documentary about Iceland depicts the country almost as if it were uninhabited. The forces of nature, here harnessed to generate wealth, make you ponder on the primeval forces and our place in the world. 

A problem was, even though the cinema provided live introduction, no one informed us not all films would be in English, even though it was supposed to be an English-language set. The first two were in English only, the next two in Polish, then I left disappointed. All those films were available online from the comfort of my home after all. And there was no info online either. 

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OBRAZKI Z ISLANDII (1961)

Watchable. Another short Polish-only black and white documentary, again about Iceland - interesting for its historic value, to compare how the island has changed over time. Grieg's "Peer Gynt" music forms the background.

MALY REPORTAZ SPOD BIEGUNA (1959)

Watchable. Again, a black and white short film, Polish-only. Here the origins of the Polish research station in Hornsund in Svalbard are of lesser importance than the climate itself - battling the elements from the sea journey when both people and dogs would get seasick to the fog and harsh wind on the island. It also shows how, in spite of technological advances, one still depends on the forces of nature in the Arctic.

U BRZEGOW SKANDYNAWII (1965)

Watchable. Again, a black and white short film, Polish-only. Janusz Czecz and famous Włodzimierz Puchalski's documentary on Norwegian fish and coastal birds. A chance to see a pike's jaw, other than that not much you wouldn't have seen already. 

All the black and white documentaries inadvertently illustrate how much is lost when the film lacks colour.

BRAINWASHED: SEX-CAMERA-POWER

Recommended. This documentary, in 2/3 produced by women, with 100% women executing it in high position roles, a majority of women in smaller production roles - well, we can forgive some men being gaffers and the like - is a true eye-opener. Apart from scholars, "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke or actress Rosanna Arquette speak up. The 50/50 men to women ratio in film schools only means plenty of American women yearly are ripped off being charged to acquire qualifications they won't be able to apply in their careers. Well, they won't have careers. Like Lara Dale, who was axed from a movie for refusing to do a sex scene which wasn't even in the script, as she was notified by a female agent. Or like numerous girls graduating from non-acting faculties, their films will be rejected and they simply won't be hired. The vicious triangle of the movie propaganda of "the male gaze", lack of employment and sex abuse is presented in no-nonsense terms. What young men were shouting at a university in the US doesn't bear thinking about. Amy Ziering, who wrote "The Hunting Ground", appears in this documentary. As for cinema, I'm happy others have noticed what I have found disturbing since childhood: objectifying female protagonists, sexualising actresses, movies made by lascivious, patriarchal men, who, as we find out, award those sexploitive movies at festivals which encourages directors even worse. The film makes you realise this objectification in cinema has been achieved mostly by fragmenting female bodies in pictures - we're all used to it but it even sounds dreadful when you think of it. Slow motion, fuzzy light, music - all glamourise sex violence. 94-96% of people working in the industry, depending on the position type, are men. Yet women are so brainwashed many shoot other women from a masculine, sexist point of view. Men get to be filmed fully-bodied, in action, only in "Mandingo" is one objectified - the way women are regularly. That does not change over time. The percentage of Hollywood women who have been harassed sexually is the flip side of the number of them working in the industry. 80% of world movie export is Hollywood. Heart-rending at times but stupendously smart. A must-see for all movie fans, regardless of gender. Nina Menkes really nailed the subject. 

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OM SKOGEN (ABOUT THE FOREST) (2021)

Watchable. This Swedish documentary is a bleak picture of greed depriving the country of its primeval forest. The trees that grew for centuries, lichen that started to overhang when the trees were 600 years old are insidiously felled. Unfortunately, while being comprehensive, the film loads you down with the minutiae of local regulations, where for a foreigner even the place or company names don't ring a bell. It's also overtalked which muddles the message. More value for the Swedes than outsiders certainly. Left me feeling despondent and helpless. 

Very small English subtitles hindered watching. 

KARAOKEPARATIISI (KARAOKE PARADISE) (2021)

Watchable. An observational Finnish documentary. What picture of the Finns and their country does it convey? Varying light of day and night, vast, forested spaces in between towns, people are well-off, have time but feel lonely in this vast land. I couldn't care much about some of the protagonists though. 

Very small English subtitles hindered watching. 

NA DALEKIEJ POLNOCNEJ WYSPIE (1960)

Recommended. A short black and white Polish documentary on the nature of the uninhabited island of Svalbard or Spitsbergen as it used to be called in Poland back then. Nesting birds and a curious, if apprehensive, polar fox star in it. All shot from hand up-close, cute. You get to feel how invasive this 'innocent' filming was.

No festival video introduced the films luckily so you could see more of the actual stuff than at other such screenings. The historical films proved to be more interesting than the two contemporary ones. But what astonished me the most was the fact this edition of the festival comprised of documentaries nearly exclusively. In this respect the selection felt poor. 

SKOLOWANI

Watchable. A remake of French ("Rolling to You"). The romantic comedy set-up, dialogues and especially the common "miracle" recognition are fun. Michał Czernecki is perfectly cast. While others are cast plausibly enough to look like two families, particularly the two women (as Anna and as Julia) are off. They and several protracted shots combined with slow, romantic music resemble a regular Polish drama about a disabled person. Other than that, it's sensibly directed. At least, unlike the original, it's not awkward - it's the people on wheelchairs who joke about their predicament, no blunders by fully-abled ones. Ah, I loved the terrace floor lowering to turn into a pool and the romantic scene with lanterns on the water. Also Poland looks certainly beautiful in the picture. It's well-produced. Just no more remakes, please.

UP ON THE ROOF

Watchable. A great opening gives you statistics: 8 billion people in the world, out of who we meet about 10,000 in our lifetime, we form about 400 friendships, of which only 33 last. Next a timelapse shot of London - ugly. In fact, it's the cinematography that ruins the movie - never has London looked that ugly, it's just cringe-worthy, it takes a special effort to make one of the world's most beautiful cities look so bad. The plot is trite, completely predictable, a copy-paste script, wooden dialogues, conversations empty. It's all politically correct: a black Scottish woman is married to a woman, people of various races share a house and call themselves 'family', everyone's kind to the Polish guy. Good translation into Polish, in spite of numerous idioms, by Aaron Welman is the movie's saving grace, as is Piotr Adamczyk who speaks English with fantastic British accent - truly impressed me. Sadly, the meagre script makes him blabber about nothing, just like everyone else. And the movie's seriously overtalked, not much happens otherwise. I watched out of my sentiment for London and British accents and culture and for spotting familiar places. The songs are OK, some quite good. Other than that, there's absolutely nothing in it. I seriously considered walking out.