FESTIWAL NOWE HORYZONTY (NEW HORIZONS FESTIVAL)

Here's what to expect, in the order it was presented by the organizers: This year's festival is going to last 11 days and encompass more than 600 movies, including 224 full-length, 124 will be premieres, from 54 countries. Free screenings will take place in the Wrocław market square. Xavery Żuławski will present his latest film "Mowa ptaków" ("Bird Talk"), written by his father just before his death 3 years ago but very up-to-date, "for now". Olivier Assayas's - "Clouds of Sils Maria", "Personal Shopper", "Doubles vies" ("Non-fiction") - retrospective is hardly enticing, I've seen three of his movies, each was dull and about nothing. Albert Serra, known for "Roi Soleil", just like Godard, started as a critic. Serra's retrospective is planned as well. "Liberté" ("Freedom"), which will be on general release, is going to divide the audience, it's kind of "Sade". Albertina Carri's, from Argentina, film includes incest, BDSM etc. "La flor" ("The Flower") is a film in 3 4-hour parts divided into segments, each in a different genre, it's like a serial but it's not necessary to see all of it. There'll be the 2nd part of the "Oslo/Reykjavik" section. The 70s are the leitmotif of this year's festival so there'll be a section on erotic cinema which used to be parallel to ordinary cinema but has virtually disappeared by now, even in Paris and London - it was popular in the 70s, before the video revolution. Apart from that, the "Body" section is going to treat the body as the battlefield of culture and politics, e.g. in a story about a teenager from Mauritania who has to gain weight before her marriage or about a girl whose face gets damaged by acid and she wants her life not to change but that's impossible nowadays. The "Third Eye" small section is all about spirituality, witches, e.g. about Luster Fuego from Brazil who danced with snakes and was murdered for "talking to Satan" for this. Also a witch debate will take place. A film about the world from fungi perspective has been scheduled as well, just as an exhibition on pregnancy and an installation where "Roi Soleil" will be played on a loop. The 4-hour-long director's cut of "Loro" will be shown, in two parts, only in Italy and Poland. "Polish Days" will be an event where representatives of the biggest festivals, e.g. Toronto, Sundance etc. and sales agents will be presented with films in different stages of development right from pitching. The program of the festival includes this movie:

LE DAIM (DEERSKIN)

Watchable. It's weird. A budget film which tells a cohesive story. The murder spree is predictable and the 79 minutes feel lengthy but the simplicity of means results in a clear storyline. Is Georges a western-genre hero? Or is it a fallow deer revenge? Is he plain mad? Or is there a method in this madness? With a mid-credit.


THE SALT OF THE EARTH

Recommended. It's engaging even in the beginning when you learn how Sebastiao Salgado became a photographer and what's it like to do this job. His ability to compose a picture impresses. But the power of the documentary lies in what is shown and even more in what you hear: on the one hand human brutality, atrocities of war, the genocide in Rwanda where corpses covered 150 km and on the other the beauty of the natural world. Most astonishingly, it proves a forest can be replanted the way the Salgados did in Brazil reforesting 600 ha with 2,5 million trees. So there is hope for the planet.


PRZEGLĄD KINA SZWAJCARSKIEGO (SWISS CINEMA SCREENING)

PAUSE

Watchable. Hardly a comedy. I chuckled about twice but most is on the sad side. Mediocre western-style music. "The Future Is Now" spectacle in the film looks more impressive than the actual movie. Engaging enough due to a relationship story but skippable.


FIGHTER

Watchable. The new Polish production about MMA and boxing is swiftly directed, easy to follow. The script is pretty standard for the genre, with reasonably good dialogues. The two main protagonists act well, especially taking into account that the actors have no idea how to fight. Editing creates fight dynamics, Piotr Stramowski and Mikołaj Roznerski provide muscled silhouettes.

Большое Путешествие (THE BIG TRIP)

Recommended. This tale enthrals. Not only is the animation delightful, with detailed and varied textures, rocks along the river looking like real and the animals resembling big cuddly toys, the story's adorable too. The hare is totally lovable and cute even when he's reckless and irresponsible. The dialogues are the highlight, e.g. the pelican says he played a part in "Pelican America" but turned down an invitation to the premiere because there was a Falcon Millennium. References to cultural and social life abound. Some situations are hilarious, e.g. when the bear has woken from a nightmare where all other animals tell him he's their dad and he sees the hare sleepwalking calling him "daddy". The music includes widely recognizable folk song "La cucaracha", pop hits and classical pieces perfectly matching the action.

DRUNK PARENTS

Watchable. The hapless upper middle-class parents in financial troubles, who, trying to resolve the situation, find themselves in dire straits makes you root for them. But the film's moronic rather than funny. Decent music.

CHILD'S PLAY

Watchable. The remake of the 1988 horror gets a modern on the verge of futuristic twist: smart homes, self-driving cars. No voodoo, just a malicious Vietnamese factory worker installing malware. The doll's decisions come from learning software. It all makes the story realistic. Psychological motivations sound true as well. The plot's based on three kinds of fears combined: of a stalker, of robots killing people and of creepy masks. The tale is adrenaline-driven so it soon becomes tediously action-packed. A curious fact is that Mark Hamill sheds his lovable image of Luke Skywalker and gives the murderous doll his voice. 


PRZEGLĄD KINA SZWAJCARSKIEGO (SWISS CINEMA SCREENING)

WIN WIN

Watchable. I did not laugh out loud but was smiling throughout this cheerful silly comedy. It's well acted, especially by the lead Jean-Luc Couchard as the small town mayor and by Yin Bing and his supporting actresses as Chang and his staff. It's a pleasant story where all ends well.


SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME 3D

Recommended. It has really good 3D, coming out of the screen towards the viewer at times and closing the gap, e.g. when the Venice flood commences. References to contemporary social obsessions abound, e.g. photographing everything, posting silly videos, cyberbullying and sexual harassment and, foremost, the lack of faith in science. Even the science teacher facing an unknown phenomenon declares: "It's witches." This and other comic situations made me laugh better than at some comedies. The film is in fact a lighthearted comedy about a school trip to Europe. Ah, and there's that delightful (to the British side of the globe anyway) joke about saying "London Bridge" meaning "Tower Bridge" on purpose. Jake Gyllenhall is in. And acts convincingly as Mysterio. The world with superheroes in it is complete, e.g. Spider-Man's movie choice on the plane includes a film on Iron Man's life. Best of all, the mid-credit turns the whole story around for the second time and the post-credit for the third time.

PAVAROTTI

Watchable. No Atmos sound in Poland even though it's a music documentary. Still, my greatest problem with it is that I've never been such a fun of operatic singers. And the film is also a bit too long. Still, it's an engaging story about a cheerful, chubby, always joyful tenor with a penchant for home food, Italian of course. You learn about all the good he did in his life, e.g. aiding children afflicted by wars in 6 different countries as well as about his shadow side, like having a  mistress while he was married. Most importantly, the documentary presents him fully, letting you feel what kind of person he was as well as teaching you it's the ability to sing the high C that makes one great. As expected, there are excerpts of his performances aplenty.

MIDSOMMAR

Recommended. After Ari Aster's "Hereditary", I was sceptical about "Midsommar" but it enthralls. It's a higher category of horror. I guess "Hereditary" was just a not-too-successful warm-up. The movie again starts as a psychologic drama but ends in a horror. And it's very consistent and psychologically true. Paweł Pogorzelski's cinematography whitens the light, creates an eerie climate, uses an upside down shot or air views at a close distance. Pageantry, as the celebration is aptly described in the film, is impressive. Floral patterns and warm bright light are imbued with suspense and menace. The whole film seems quiet and toned down. Even screams are muted. Yet every minute feels sinister. Christian's collar pattern before the sacrifice resembles drops of blood. Even the end credits are - flowers open like in the May Queen's crown. Some scenes are utterly brutal but it's the suspense that creates the horror here. The immediate after effect on me was feeling frightened at the sight of floral patterns on clothes on the bus back home - unavoidable nowadays. I guess I won't be going to Sweden at this time of year. The movie will make you doublethink before making friends with a nice Swede.

TEEN SPIRIT

Watchable. Predictable but well-made by 34-year-old actor Max Minghella. Elle Fanning looks and acts plausibly Polish, her Polish language is sometimes incomprehensible at all, sometimes astoundingly apt and sometimes has a strong English accent. In fact her lines had to be rewritten by the Polish staff on set because what she had been taught in the US before flying into the UK sounded so unnatural no Pole would say it. Also her name: Violet Valenski sounds like an umpteenth generation American, not a Polish-born Brit. Witty dialogues do a good job. Music, as expected, gets better and better. Still, it's no quality onto itself. The pictures look too dark at times. The ending implies a sequel. I'd rather they stopped at part one.

POLAROID

Watchable. Boring - and it's a horror! Very run-of-the mill plot. Cheap-looking spooks. I barely sat through it till the end. It gave me an after-effect in the form of getting scared at the sight of mirrors and window panes though. 

FIVE FEET APART

Watchable. Two terminally ill teenagers in love - can anything be tackier than this? Fortunately the nurses are sweethearts and Cole Sprouse who impersonates Will is remarkably good-looking. Cynthia Evans who acts as the girl's mum looks so young at first I thought she was a school friend.

TRANSLATLANTYK FESTIVAL 2019

The festival, taking place in Łódź, Poland from 12th to 19th July, sounds intriguing. Paweł Borowski, the director of recent "Ja teraz kłamię" ("I Am Lying Now"), together with two foreign film critics, will be in the short films jury. VOX bed cinema offers 50 beds for special in-bed screenings with individual screens showing the same movie, with the option of pulling curtains. One bed accommodates 2-6 viewers. SWPS (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) will hold lectures for listeners in the beds at 6 p.m. every day. Rafał Woś will moderate debates on unconditional basic income, on robots working for us rather than instead of us and on Europe as a community it no longer is. A Kamera Akcja debate will try to answer whether movie makers and critics speak the same language. Instant Composition Contest will have composers playing to the picture straightaway. There's free entry to the contest and viewers are encouraged to bring children, especially babies, in order to test how much the composers can bear. Meetings for the film industry will feature a new one - on "Women in cinema" and their problems. The main cinema at the festival will be Cinema City Manufaktura where most of the movie screenings and all masterclasses will take place. Cinema City is also a sponsor. The fantastic "space" poster was created by a Polish artist living in Ibiza. There are versions of the poster with an alien. The artist's exhibition of sculptures will be hosted at EC1. The festival spot is superb too. Free screenings will be held in Łódź libraries. A movie which will have its Polish premiere at the festival is:

SYSTEMSPRENGER (SYSTEM CRASHER)

Recommended. Heavy stuff. Heart-wrenching and tear-jerking. Good psychology. The unruly kid is shown from both perspectives: of the child and of adults. The story explains how sometimes nothing can be done. The end credits look funny and include "war lecker" ("was tasty") at the catering data.

PRZEGLĄD KINA SZWAJCARSKIEGO (SWISS CINEMA SCREENING)

HIVER NOMADE (WINTER NOMADS)

Watchable. It's tranquil: snow-clad pastures, cute dogs, beautiful donkeys and lots of sheep. The mixed-age couple is agreeable. The season presented in the documentary tells you what it's like to be a shepherd. Unbelievable even nowadays some people sleep in tents or even without all winter when walking through the countryside with their herds. The only disturbing bits are the mentions of the sheep going to be slaughtered for meat.

ROCKETMAN

Watchable. An old-school musical. Awfully shallow for the first half. From the 69th minute, it gains depth and you soon find yourself fully immersed in the tragic loneliness of yet another celebrity. The songs, performed not by Elton John but by Giles Martin, all sound the same and only the final (before the credits) "I'm Still Standing" is joyful. The story ends well too.

MY GENERATION

Recommended. An excellent documentary about social changes in the UK. I would have never thought Michael Caine is Cockney. But he is and he explains how in the early 60s movies didn't have any protagonists they could relate to and how music was a pass to riches for the uneducated and how grammar schools offering free education empowered the working class. Excellent editing, lots of the 60s music and stories about how they became the first generation which was shaped by the young. Shows history when it was being made.

JA TERAZ KLAMIE (I AM LYING NOW)

Recommended. Genius! Resembles Bodo Kox - at first, I thought it was his movie, especially since there's a bar called "Box". But no, it's scripted and directed by Pawel Borowski whose earlier films I haven't even seen. It's foremost amazing architecture, scenography, costumes, make-up and hairstyling stylised for futuristic 1960s, with extra bits of creative design e.g. when the door-bell is shaped like an ear and the spyhole like an eye. Even the clock face on telly resembles one from a few decades ago. But the presented celebrity world lacks no comfort. Even the drug they inhale comes in the form of gold powder. The plot is equally intriguing but not SF, more of a psychologic game. Most importantly, the film doesn't look Polish.

PUTIN'S WITNESSES

Watchable. FSB tried to plant explosives at a block of flats in Ryazan before the famous Chechen terrorist attacks where blocks of flats were blown up at night killing innocent people. Then Putin's ratings rose from 2% to 50% within 6 months. He gave a cold shoulder to Yeltsin after he had nominated him. And he's ruthless to the opposition. He brought Soviet-style dictatorship back. That's all you learn. The documentary extends for nearly 2 hours, most of it is unnecessary.

Update: on 12 September 2021 the director said the film had never been screened in Russia, not even once.

OFFLINE - DAS LEBEN IST KEIN BONUSLEVEL (OFFLINE: ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT LEVEL?)

Watchable. For and about teenage gamers. Very light entertainment which doesn't require thinking. Fully professional visuals and audio. The game features a tournament called Ragnarok and a character named Loki so it's a clear reference to the cinematic series "Thor".

DZIEN CZEKOLADY

Walked out. Totally amateurish, often looks like filmed theatre rather than a movie. Only the kids act naturally. It's a slow-paced series of disconnected events, with funeral music, for parents of children with problems, not for children.

MA

Watchable. A typical, predictable slasher movie. Some bits are more brutal than I expected but it's a high school flick regardless. Well scripted, with a clear structure and good music. Director Tate Taylor also acts as Office Grainger. 

ANNA

Watchable. Well re-heated "La Femme Nikita". The bathroom scene with a gun gets a makeover. Eric Serra wrote the score again and Thierry Arbogast was responsible for cinematography here as well. I watched with great pleasure, it just lacked the novelty of its predecessor.

PRZEGLAD FILMOW WIETNAMSKICH (VIETNAM FILM WEEK IN POLAND)

DAO CUA DAN NGU CU (THE WAY STATION)

Watchable. All this domestic violence, including sex, drunkenness, animal slaughter and betrayed feelings are tolerable only because of attractive cinematography. The movie's chaotic and it takes long to start to understand the story.

Just to put the scale of Vietnamese cinematography in context - 40 films were shot in Vietnam in 2018.


POKEMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU 3D

Watchable. Decent 3D but not a must, I've seen better. Opening credit typography is stylised for katakana. Polish dubbing in dialogues sounds superb. Top-notch CGIs: Pokémons have a wide array of facial expressions and the dragon changes eye colour. The whole thing is cute and enjoyable. Outstanding music by Henry Jackman extends till the end of the credits. Available in Atmos too.


PRZEGLAD FILMOW WIETNAMSKICH (VIETNAM FILM WEEK IN POLAND)

TOI THAY HOA VANG TREN CO XANH (YELLOW FLOWERS ON THE GREEN GRASS)

Recommended. Beautiful cinematography matches the enchanting story where the world's seen from children perspective. Set in an obscure Vietnamese village. Ends in mesmerising music over end credits.

TRUNG SO (JACKPOT)

Watchable. A silly but cheerful comedy at which I didn't laugh. Vivid characters and an implausible plot.

There was one more movie but the air-con at Kultura cinema wasn't working properly and I got up with the Vietnamese who would talk during the movies or bring little noisy kids to adult screenings. It's a shame because the films had really good cinematography and interesting plots.


BIG BOOK FESTIVAL

ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH

Recommended. Stunning imagery of gigantic mines, landfills, multimillion metropolises, a church built for one million people, bleached coral reefs all serve one purpose - they show the scale of man-made devastation of the earth.

MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL

Watchable. Fun. People are a bit worse but aliens better than before. There are plenty of fantastic aliens - some are cuter, all more colourful and none as revolting as in previous parts. Tessa Thompson passes the exam, Chris Hemsworth is so-so, acts a bit over the top. And there's no real banter between them, they act parallel to each other, not together. Other than that, the plot's much in line with the rest of the series, with the addition of mind-blowing inventions like intercontinental trains. No mid- or post-credit. 

KREW BOGA (THE MUTE)

Walked out. I've heard from somebody deciding about movie financing in the Polish Film Insititute that what determines if a movie is bankrolled is how cheap it is. This one looks like such a movie. Amateurs with dreadlocks perform experimental theatre, probably not knowing what they act, and with bad lighting. The light is always too something: overlit, underlit, too blue etc. Nerve-wracking music and shrieks were just other unbearable elements of this work. No script or directing to speak of. It's all pathetically unprofessional. And odd. Ah, and bad sound: the shrieks are too loud, dialogues unintelligible, just some mumbling.

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX IN DOLBY ATMOS

Watchable when seen for the 3rd time. I noticed further details, e.g. that she's resurrected and goes to heaven, but felt overwhelmed with psychology this time. Atmos is audible mostly in sound effects but, of course, the music and dialogue are much clearer too. 

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS 2D VS. 3D

Watchable. I enjoyed only the end credits. They looked good, had great music and made sense. Unlike all the rest before and after (the post-credit). It's a class B movie about gigantic monsters, some of them looking like insects, with amateurish acting, wooden dialogues and, worst of all, poor CGIs: for a larger part you see just the silhouettes of the monsters, with no detail. And all this nonsense lasts long. Barely managed to sit through it. I did only because the predictable plot indicated there would be several monsters. There were 4 shown. And then I waited till the very end to see what might happen in a sequel. Unfortunately, I was right - it looks set for another rubbish film. Shame, after an exquisite part one. Blurred in 2D so 3D is better just for clarity of the picture.

The trailers of "Joker" and "Annabelle Comes Home" looked uninviting too. 

MARNIES WELT (MARNIE'S WORLD)

Watchable. Still fun even though the part of the plot in the air doesn't make much sense. But it's such a crazy story that who cares. Looks very pleasant too.


PRZEGLAD FILMOW WIETNAMSKICH (VIETNAM FILM WEEK IN POLAND)

CO BA SAI GON (THE TAILOR) (2017)

Recommended. Uplifting music and lots of fabulous colourful outfits from the start. A Western-style family comedy about fashion with fantasy elements. Moving at times. Ah, and with the best: time travel. Wonderfully acted too. There's a funny post-credit.

QU'EST-CE QU'ON FAIT A ENCORE FAIT AU BON DIEU? (SERIAL (BAD) WEDDINGS 2)

Recommended. I laughed quite a few times. Further predjudices are added to the ones from part 1. But the well-known protagonists still have their adorable foibles. The scene of meeting a daughter's fiance in a restaurant is recreated with different protagonists. Great music till the end of the credits. Now I feel like seeing the first part again.

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX IMAX 3D

Recommended. I much prefer 4DX. 3D at Imax is just satisfactory and the huge screen lets you spot more wrinkles on Magneto's face or a hand sticking out of a shield in one of the combat scenes but the crash and flares of light made a bigger impression in 4DX. Still, the movie's worth seeing again. It was only at the second time that I noticed Christian inspirations in the picture. Jean is coaxed by the alien woman on the high floor of a building the way the Christ was tempted on a mountain, next she makes a cripple walk and then she gets crucified (with safety belts). The movie's deeper than it seems. 

The "Men in Black: International" trailer at Imax looked little short of spectacular.

ALADDIN

Recommended. The old oriental tale (shot in Jordan) gets a modern social twist but retains the opulence associated with the Orient, lavish costumes, naturally looking CGIs, dancing and singing incl. songs by Will Smith and the actor in the leading role Mena Massoud - looking hot and dashing in the movie. Beautiful and magical. You can even forgive them for making it into a musical. The story alterations mean everyone has a mind of their own: the princess, the genie and even the magic carpet. 

ALADDIN 3D

Recommended. This version is only dubbed in Polish but the songs in Polish are even better than in the original. It's still witty at times, especially the dating bits, even with changed dialogues. And I discovered further items in this detail-rich movie.

HBO PLANS FOR SUMMER AND AUTUMN 2019

What after "Game of Thrones" and "Chernobyl"? An HBO representative who's been a fan of both recommends "Years and Years". What else is coming up this summer? I've noted down the potentially interesting titles:

•  "Big Little Lies" season 2 with a different director than season 1.
• "Krypton" season 2 - about Superman's grandfather, has superb music.
• Spanish "Los Espookys" - about horror fans who've turned their passion into a business, the trailer implies black humour.
• "The Loudest Voice" - about the Fox News founder.
• "Divorce" season 3 with Sarah Jessica Parker.
• "The Magicians" - about people who discover magic exists and is addictive, the trailer didn't convince me but the concept is intriguing.
• Spanish documentary series "El Pionero" - about Jesús Gil, a populist politician.
• "Pico da Neblina" - by the director of "Cidade de Deus" ("City of God"), about a drug dealer at the time when marijuana becomes legal.
• "Beforeigners" - people from the past, e.g. Stone Age, 19th century, Viking times turn up on the coast of Oslo and no one knows why.
• "Succession 2" - media, power, politics.
• "The Handmaid's Tale".
• "The Righteous Gemstones" - about deviant televangelists.

Some serials are still in production with a release planned for the autumn:

• "Catherine the Great".
• "Discovery of Witches" season 2.
• "Watchmen" - based on the graphic novel, by the director of "Leftovers".
• "His Dark Materials" - based on the novel by Philip Pullman, with James McAvoy, 6 episodes.
• "The "New Pope" with Jude Law, John Malkovich, Sharon Stone, Marilyn Manson.
• Czech "Bez vedomi" aka "The Sleepers" - late communism, a woman's dissident fugitive husband disappears when she's in hospital after a car crash they both were in.
• Romanian "Umbre" - about a taxi driver's double life, with dark humour.
• Polish "Wataha" season 3, 6 episodes - season 1 was autumn, season 2 winter and this one is spring, probably early judging from the snow in the trailer, this time the action includes Lviv and Odessa.

I'm mostly looking forward to "Beforeigners", "The Righteous Gemstones" and "The New Pope". In the meantime "Euphoria" starts today:

EUPHORIA EPISODE 1

Watchable. By Sam Levinson and similar to "Assassination Nation" in the way he sexualizes teenage girls. I repeat, this guy is disgustingly pervy. It's just ridiculous how the girl protagonists act exactly like guys do. The serial also glamorizes drug use. It doesn't change the fact the story's engaging. I wonder what's going to happen next to the drug-abusing narrator and her sex-crazed peers. 

POKEMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU

Watchable. A pleasant tale for teenagers and older kids with cute Pokémons and top-notch CGIs. Starts with a teenager trying to catch a Pokémon and with several mentions of Pokémon training. Apart from the popular mobile game, there are numerous references to movies, e.g. the old detective movie footage in Tim's room is the same Kevin used in "Home Alone", Pikachu wears a Sherlock Holmes hat, some Pokémons have faces like the dragons in "How to Train Your Dragon" and they take Pikachu to a sacred place to heal with shiny jellyfish hovering in dark blue air reminiscent of "Avatar". The whole plot is predictable and fights protracted. Early end credits are comic book style and fun to watch, the second part of credits is accompanied by nice and light pop songs in English and Japanese. 

BRIGHTBURN

Recommended. First comes a sex scene with Elizabeth Banks. It's not what you're thinking! You don't get to see anything up from her toned thigh. The genre quickly changes. What stays the same is Elizabeth Banks - perfect in each kind of film. Even in a science fiction horror. And bloodcurdling it is. Especially the extra info in the scenes along with early end credits. Maybe not that much during watching, when the gruesome murders are intertwined with a story like no other before only your adrenaline levels go up. But I was looking back over my shoulder constantly as I was leaving the cinema late at night.

The "Men In Black International" trailer looks totally enticing. I bet it'll look awesome at Imax.

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX 3D 4DX

Recommended. While 3D enhances the movie to a point, it does not stand out. 4DX does. Out of all the films I've seen in this technology, this one applies it the best. Gusts of wind match the directions of blows received by the heroes. Flares of light take up not just the screen but the entire room. Both fragrances are released once each and water's sprayed twice in one scene. The shakes make full sense too and let you experience a crash more realistically. Other than that, Quicksilver looks a few years older and works at the school where he tells a kid to "slow down". An "X-Women" joke has made its way into the plot too. But most of the story's tear-jerking, a popular superhero dies. Hans Zimmer's score makes an impression, especially the partly vocal bit in the outer space. Having said that, the action starts before the opening credits and then gets hot right after again. No Stan Lee cameo even though he was one of the executive producers. No mid- or post-credit either. 

HEAVY WATER

Watchable. The first half of the documentary is overtalked and chaotic, I couldn't see where it was headed. But the second half is more focused, finally shows the waves, not just talking heads and the acid drop attempts are thrilling. The surfers, especially teenage, look like in "Breath".

CATALINA

Watchable. Don't let the director's Bosnian name fool you. It's very Polish. In a bad sense. Starts hard with a disturbing scene of a strip-search and then a series of other mistreatments Catalina experiences. You begin to wonder what mystery of her past has made her accept all the humiliation with humility. And then the story gets diluted. And diluted again till it becomes so watery you no longer know what it was supposed to be. The producer introduced the movie talking about identity issues and having it imposed on you and rejected and how it shows when you're threatened. But I found none of it in the film. To me, it's about people with no clear goal in life. None of them seems to know what they want for themselves, let alone how to achieve it. Does the director know?

MARNIES WELT (MARNIE'S WORLD)

Watchable. Very pleasant mostly due to good, witty dialogues. I laughed when the woman at the police saw her cat as a criminal. But Marnie has become Roxy in the Polish version for some reason, even though she gets a cake with letter M, not R. And some motivations of characters are inexplicable, e.g. the gangster's sudden confession.


FIVE FLAVOURS FILM FESTIVAL 

From the summing up of the 2018 edition I learnt about the typical viewer profile: mostly educated women attracted to Asian cinema. As for 2019, Fruit Chan, "Dumplings" director's retrospective is going to be one of the festival sections and chances are he'll come to Poland to meet viewers.


BIG LITTLE LIES SEASON 2 EPISODE 1

Watchable. It's still not my favourite. Although I like the actresses, I can't find a connection with any character since I'm not a mother, not a housewife and not rich. Also, my favourite Reese Witherspoon overacts, especially astonishment. On the other hand, Nicole Kidman is surprisingly convincing. The crime part of the plot is engaging and the episode ends with such a cliffhanger you immediately want to see episode 2.

NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE MARATHON OF JOHN WICK

JOHN WICK

Watchable when seen for the 2nd time. The bottle next to John Wick in Aurelio's garage says "peligroso" ("dangerous"). Air views of NYC add space. The casual remarks exchanged between the hitmen are highlights. Pounding techno and guitar riffs enrich the climate. And both pups are cute. As for "a man of focus" his missing targets a few times is annoying and his swerving the car stands in contradiction to the focus too. His tattoo says "Fortis fortuna adiuvat" ("Fortune favours the bold").

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2

Recommended this time. Visually stunning. The soundtrack and plot quality like in part 1. I was dying to see how it ends. Chapter 2 and 3 enjoy Atmos sound.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM

Watchable. This part is tongue-in-cheek. Music has got even better, there are also some spectacular visuals, e.g. combat accompanied by Vivaldi's "Winter". Judo and karate aplenty. Apart from martial arts, it's a bit more brutal than previous parts. My fave joke was: "He killed my dog!" "I get it." Though the irony and combat are overdone at times.


16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

Recommended. About the position of women in Hollywood. Directed by a man but made by a team consisting of women in 75%. A female director of a high-grossing film with 2 Oscar nominations couldn't land a job for 9 years afterwards. The most terrifying though is the visualisation of movie funding. Normally 99,5% of movie funding goes to men. It's like having 100 cookies on a plate where men grab 99,5 cookies and women fight for the remaining half a cookie. No horror recently has scared me that badly.

The audience at the screening was over 90% female.

Letizia Battaglia's photography exhibition at Iluzjon was interesting though not as striking as what she said about living in Palermo when people were murdered daily and she received death threats and was spat on. Also, a curious fact is that heads of the mafia "were bossy at the time" meaning: they're not any more, "they acted like they ruled the court" and instigated great fear in her. 

BELLINGCAT: TRUTH IN A POST-TRUTH WORLD

Watchable. I didn't understand who or what certain people and some organisations were or what the cases were about but all the more I'm strongly impressed with those citizen journalists' skills. They often solve complex high profile cases faster than specialized agencies. The documentary proves Russians were the ones behind shooting down MH17 and shows how fake news is used by that same country, e.g. video game footage presented as real or when people lied down after a staged explosion. Social media, personal posts, Google Earth and other publicly available websites turn out to be more credible than what politicians spin.

SOYALISM

Watchable. A depressing documentary about international devastation brought on by offshore hog-growing and soybean plantations both resulting from the Chinese eating increasingly more meat. Also on how smelly it is to grow animals in large numbers. More detail than necessary, too long interviews. And the final message nearly goes missed since it's only said briefly that we can feed the world only if we go vegetarian.

I went to the meeting with the director and a protagonist of "Diagnosis". Making the film took 6 years from research till the end and was distressing till the last day of editing. The director only felt relieved when she passed it on to the sound technician. Then he got depressed. 


WIATR.THRILLER DOKUMENTALNY (THE WIND. A DOCUMENTARY THRILLER)

Watchable. Nothing special. Just everyday lives of a handful of people in Podhale (Zakopane and around). Meant to be limited to those who feel some connection to the halny wind so the topic is forced. Shot with small Sony Alpha - easy to carry around. But it has resulted in the pictures being dark. Feels lengthy so I don't really recommend it. 

ZLOGONYE (THE WITCH HUNTERS)

Watchable. It's not fantasy! It's slow and mundane in the first part. Later it gains some psychology. All in the movie world where all adults are kind and caring to all children. But even within this genre, I've seen better films.

GLORIA BELL

Watchable. Pleasant, cheerful, uplifting. Follows in the footsteps of "Roma" in the way it tells about a strong woman and an irresponsible man. With light 80s and 70s pop music and in colour. Set among people in their fifties burdened with families so the setting is like a different world to me. Julianne Moore often appears naked in it and she produced it so I guess she wanted to show off her young-looking body. And mostly for that reason, it feels a bit sad she needs a movie to feel better about herself. 

ALL IS TRUE

Watchable. More form than substance. Kenneth Branagh has slowed down recently. His previous film, "Murder on the Orient Express", was bland. Here, with the same pace and scarce contents, the first hour is terribly boring. On the other hand, the scenography and costumes render details of the period and a peculiar kind of cinematography makes each shot look like an old painting. The director impersonates Shakespeare. Amazing acting, also by the young: Kathryn Wilder and Lydia Wilson, attracts you to the screen and compensates for the directorial and plot shortcomings. The plot, in the second hour, when it becomes clear the movie's onto something, under the guise of Shakespeare times, tackles the widely discussed contemporaneously issue of women's value in the society and in the family. Or at least such was my first impression. The 58-year-old director and the 60-year-old scriptwriter claim to have made a film about one's creative heritage, the passage of time and the place of the family in an author's life. They probably don't realise themselves how feminist a message it conveys.

UGLY DOLLS

Watchable. A heartfelt tale about lovely monsters and loving ugly dolls and about the loneliness of the world of the pretty. It's cute when it needs to be and suitable for nursery and primary school children. Pitbull and Ice-T dub the English version, songs are by the likes of Nick Jonas in English and by nobodies in Polish. 


10. PRZEGLAD NOWEGO KINA FRANCUSKIEGO (10TH SCREENING OF NEW FRENCH CINEMA)

LA DOULEUR (MEMOIR OF WAR)

Watchable. The topics of a relationship with someone first incarcerated, then severely changed by a concentration camp and of psychologic consequences of the loss of loved ones in the result of an ideologic purge are fascinating but here get nearly ruined because the movie drags and the philosophic commentary, presumably taken from the book it's based on, dissipates the emotional part through overintellectualizing it.


THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR

Watchable. A sappy teenage love story set in picture-perfect New York and with excellent music. On a (slightly) deeper level it deals with destiny versus creating your life history, preserving traditions after emigration and making the most of a day. A tear-jerking flick.

HERETIKS (THE CONVENT)

Watching. First, due to an error, I arrived half an hour late. I thought the movie had just started and was surprised to see spooks straightaway. After finding out I missed 1/3, I went to see the beginning again. To my amusement, scary images appear already in between opening credits. Lisping whispers, gore, gouged eyeballs and colour lights in eye sockets, including in the post-credit. Nearly all nuns get slain one by one. Next, even their corpses are slain. It's an engaging story in spite of all. And set in England in 1619. The lead's name is Persephone - like the goddess of nature abducted to the underworld. 

RED JOAN

Recommended again. Gripping again all the same. Great attention is given to detail, e.g. Tom Hughes as Russian Leo pronounces "think" like "sink".

DE DE PYAAR DE

Watchable. A very pleasant romantic comedy mixed with a comedy of errors. I did not laugh but I was smiling all the time. Well-paced, you can't take your eyes off the screen. Pleasant music, lavish residences and beautiful garments typical for Western-targeted Bollywood which I enjoy the most. What detracted from the pleasure was the sexism of the script: a man's betrayal is forgiven.

CAVAD XAN (JAVAD KHAN) (2009)

Walked out. This Azerbaijan picture looks and sounds as if it had been shot 50 or more years ago. Poor cinematographic quality and official speeches.

SAUVAGE

Watchable. The topic of male prostitution is less unusual in cinema than the director imagines but here it's rendered engagingly, with a wide range of situations the whores encounter and the silver lining of a love story. And with occasional great techno music. It's predominantly an intimate portrait of a homeless/squatting youngster, gay, benevolent to clients and in love with a colleague. It's presented through his social caste, e.g. he feels uncomfortable on a couch and in (new) clothes. It's an insight into a world a viewer can't get to know otherwise. The film also shows how intrinsic the human need for love is.

Camille Vidal-Naquette explained a lot after the screening. The director's convinced he's explored a topic non-existent in cinema. Even if the film reality appears brutal, there's more violence in the community than in the movie. For the protagonist getting beaten is the only chance of contact with the one he loves. Later he's battered but then feels better, it's like a resurrection. And he still gives love. Camille Vidal-Naquette first wrote the script, then spent a few hours with homeless prostitutes working on the street. The hours turned into days, months, finally years. The street ones are the very bottom. Others work online. The director met around a hundred men working on the street, made friends with 10. 90% of gay prostitutes are straight men. They stop feeding and washing their bodies but still have affections. In real life, they take cash upfront. They live close to nature - in the Bois de Boulogne. Sometimes a whore would disappear for a few months to live comfortably with an older guy but always returned on the street because "he told me for the 10th time to put on slippers so as not to ruin his wooden floor". They're often immigrants so have no protection from the police or any other institutions. One Romanian guy walked through Europe. When the director observed the group, once a female psychologist from the foundation aiding the homeless stopped him from intervening. Their world is ruled by different rules. A normally calm boy was beating another one nearly to death. What was it about? He beat him because the other guy had stolen his tent and the boy faced the menace of freezing to death so he beat him so that that guy never steals it again. 

16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

A DOG CALLED MONEY

Watchable. A social + music documentary. It starts with stories. One took me aback - I'd never expect racial segregation in the US to be so deep that even the Washington metro won't reach a black neighbourhood so as to prevent them from going to the white posh "DC". Then, music and pictures take over the narration. Lyrics first, rhythms next. The music definitely gets better as the film rolls on, incorporating more sounds of Kosovo, Washington and Kabul. Unexpectedly to me, since it's not my kind of music, it becomes quite captivating.

THE 16TH MILLENIUM DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY AWARDS CEREMONY

I haven't seen any of the films awarded at the ceremony. The atmosphere was pleasant, in spite of both presenters making mistakes in Polish, English and French. Electro music enjoyed state-of-the-art sound quality. I also learnt that the team of Against Gravity select films all year round.

16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

CAMINO, A FEATURE-LENGTH SELFIE

Watchable. I'm happy to have seen it. Now I know I'm not going to undertake such a journey. Not without alarming French and Spanish health authorities beforehand anyway. Apparently, all hostels along the route are bedbug-ridden. The trail may be picturesque but I've seen similar sights in the countryside before, even here in Poland. Such a long walk strengthens your leg muscles, including those around your knees but people don't do it for health as their drinking evenings show. I expected an internal journey of the protagonist. Instead, he decided to inform the audience of his defecating. Well, a shallow person will stay shallow no matter what they experience. The mobile phone footage does not provide the quality of a film camera but is just enough to give you a complete picture of what it's like to go on the pilgrimage.

#FEMALE PLEASURE

Recommended. I couldn't even cry. 5 cultures, including the world's largest religions, all designed by men, most likely in order to oppress. Not only to subjugate society and create subservient roles for women. More wars have been instigated by religion than by any other cause. 5 women who've spoken up. Hard-hitting and informative even when you know a lot about the topics. Most importantly, men want their women to feel sexual pleasure too so there's hope for female genital mutilation to be eradicated. And as Leyla Hussein says: "it's not female circumcision - it's child sex abuse, there's no child marriage - it's legalised paedophilia." The film later received the viewers' choice award.

And here are some facts I learnt in the meetings with the director and the protagonist: Pope Francis is aware that 30% of nuns get raped by priests. Doris Wagner, the nun in the picture, studied theology and got Ph. D. in philosophy. The director will probably shoot a documentary about male sexuality, their fears and anxieties next. Her parents had the '68 attitude so she grew up in a liberal family. She used to be a lawyer. She says that female directors have 40% lower earnings than male. Orgasm through clitoris doesn't exist in mainstream porn. There's also a lot of violence there. Among Christian countries, No. 1 in pornography consumption is the Philippines and No. 2 is Poland. Three days later Doris Wagner herself arrived at the festival. In canon law, rape on a female is not a crime, it's just breaching celibacy. In the 1990s 40% of nuns were harassed sexually in the US. Some were forced to abort and some died. The Pope knew about that. Nuns have no monies so no way to leave the convent. She got a scholarship so that was her way out. After the rape, she talked to a priest from her convent - today he's her husband. Nuns sometimes don't even get medical treatment. Priests have their own bank accounts. She's seen Sekielski's documentary "Don't Tell Anyone".

Afterwards, I went to the debate on polyamory. While it was conducted with respect to all the speakers: on stage and in the audience, the only new thing I heard was from a psychotherapist working with men. It clarified why women got involved in hopeless relationships like polyamorous ones or other. It's the saviour role - the role fulfils the need of importance but the person always loses.

THE RAFT

Watchable. Advertised as an aggression experiment and a "raft of love", it disappoints, The scientist assembled men and women of various ethnicities, religions and backgrounds, but only attractive ones, and put women in charge. Small space and forced isolation for 101 days were to create friction. Instead, the only sign of aggression, with a coup attempt, was on his part. All others grew closer and more tolerant. While it restores your faith in humanity and feminity - menstrual cycles didn't affect aggression levels, it's about as interesting as reading a scientific paper with no possibility to scan it faster. There's a mid-credit.

THE HUSTLE

Watchable. Alex Sharp positively stands out in the otherwise perfectly satisfactory cast. The Mallorcan locations add the glitz. It's clear-cut and eventful. But the only amusing gag was with regaining eyesight: "Can you read this?" "No, that's in French." The rest is lower-end vulgar humour. Songs include Meghan Trainor. A good translation by Elżbieta Gałązka-Salamon. A lesson to remember is: "why are women better cons? Because men never believe they can be as smart as them." I enjoyed the comedy but wished it weren't so moronic, including the dorky post-credit.


16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

SAKAWA

Watchable. It's an instruction of scam avoidance. Don't post your pictures on Facebook or Ghanaians "in the fraud business" may use them as bait. Never discard your hard drives. And don't tolerate spelling mistakes. Even voice-changing phones are used by male cons to sound female. On the other hand, just like white men in their 50s believe in love and horny damsels in distress, the con artists in Ghana are taken for a ride by voodoo priests. Eye-opening but not earth-shattering.

The meeting with Sergei Loznitsa after "The Trial" focused on the film and was surprisingly dull. I found out that only "Maidan" and "Donbass" were banned in Russia. "The Trial" is seen as part of their history. Also, in the 1920s and now medicines are used to affect people's will. Apparently also a hypnotiser worked on the subjects. But the police left no traces of any coercion. 

16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

The director of "Anthropocene: The Human Epoch" talked about shooting a documentary. She doesn't believe in preaching or in writing a script. Basically, when the material's ready, she goes in for 1 year and thinks what to do with it. The schedule is: 1-year research, 1 year to get to the places, 2-year shooting and 1-year editing. She often shows a beautiful detail, then the camera moves back slowly in order to attract the viewers. The beauty of the pictures instead of preaching. The film is going to have a worldwide release with UN assistance. As for China, the next day her previous film premiered it was pirated so everyone watched it. She was asked about what source of energy she believed in most since renewable ones are insufficient for the current level of consumption. Hydrogen is highly combustible - work has started on using it as a new energy source. And what can we do? A Buddha monk asked how to save the planet, answered: "go to sleep".

Letizia Battaglia's much-younger partner looks her age. She smokes. She'd want marijuana legalised but not hard-drugs because of the mafia. Where there's no money, there's no mafia. Taking photos she was looking for people dying alone, in silence. Her 3 daughters and even her nephews were interviewed for "Shooting the Mafia" but did not appear in the film eventually. The mafia is no longer brutal, girls can come home at night alone. Now the mafiosi deal in drugs, politics, police, business, public corruption. They're simple minds no more.  

The judge in Radko Mladic's trial, who featured in "The Trial of Radko Mladic", talked about the war criminal's behaviour in court. Mladic sounds like a psychopath to me: no remorse, outbursts in court. 

LET'S DANCE

Watchable. Based on the "Streetdance 3D" script so it had quite a potential. But everything in this movie looks so amateurish it ruins the experience. Actors, dancers, pictures, choreographies, the script, music are all just sufficient. But a strictly dance movie should use at least a decent choreographer! It's just all barely there.

16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL

Watchable. What a wisecracker she was! I'd love to be able to emulate her style. I wonder what she'd say about this film. Plenty of movie excerpts with a voice over reading her brilliant, sharp reviews. I found it interesting that what directors found to be their signature, in her eyes was just boring repetition. The documentary tackles the morals of art criticism, talks about the difficulties of making a living off it but while it's insightful, it's shallow. The only part of it that still matters in nowadays' world is how to write entertainingly and memorably without trying to please or persuade anyone.

TOLKIEN

Recommended. An English village with rolling meadows like in "Hobbit", black warriors with spears in South Africa where J. R. R. Tolkien briefly lived in childhood, his mother's tall stories, the brotherhood he formed out of the high and the low, land burnt by war in reality and by a dragon in his imagination, "The Ring Cycle" by Wagner, a pal who later became Sam, the horrors of the First World War lieutenant Tolkien saw with his own eyes, "a war to end all wars", a quest he undertook as "a journey you take to prove yourself", "little in stature, not in spirits", "a mortal man who fell in love with an Elvish princess" - you can stalk facts from his life (the film presents fictionalised real events) and even quotes in search for tropes from his books. He came from an impecunious family, then lost friends in the war - I had tears in my eyes. But his sorrow led to the creation of the best-known fantasy realm ever. Led me also to ponder over war when a poet died - what a loss of talent it is when bright men partake in brutality contradicting their destiny. Remarkable cinematography. LOTRish music over the end credits.