Goksung (2016) - Review in english

Goksung (original title) or The Wailing (English title), the new film from South Korean director and writer Hong-jin Na (known for Chugyeogja - Chaser - 2008 and Hwanghae - The Yellow Sea - 2010), is already considered one of the great works in the horror genre, addressing a macabre part of eastern culture on legends, curses, evil spirits and mysticism, being one of the highlights at the Cannes Film Festival.

Coincidentally after the arrival of a stranger, a strange disease begins to spread in the small village of Goksung, triggering a series of brutal murders. What at first appears to be only crimes of passion just takes darker contours, since all deaths occur in mysterious circumstances. In charge of the investigation, the police officer Jong-Goo (played by Do Won Kwak, known for Ajeossi - The Man From Nowhere - 2010) searches for clues and explanations to the tragic events. When his daughter, Hyo-jin (played by Kim Hwan-hee), begins to feel the strange symptoms of the disease, he has to fight against time to solve the mysterious case and save her life.

With a rhythmic narrative, The Wailing presents a folk story associated with Eastern mysticism and also the occultism, marked by elements of mystery, horror and supernatural, as guardians, demons and shamans, and the unfolding of the plot gradually gets more intense and disquieting contours. The technical quality is one aspect that stands out in the movie. The picture and the soundtrack provide an immersive and engaging combination as ambiance, expressed by constant rain, the mud, the precariousness of the small village, the striking features of a small town, as well as makeup and massacre scenarios, consolidate the mystical and eerie atmosphere of the film, expanding the mystery and holding the viewer's attention.

The script plays well with expectations, building some characters in a dubious way, without specifying their actual intentions. A relatively simple story is presented in a complex and intriguing way, where apparently scenes with no great purpose show us much, requiring attention to small details, whether occult symbols or religious references (Biblical). Crows and goat's head are used throughout the narrative, symbolizing death and evil omen and referring to the profane and witchcraft.

The film manages to build an atmosphere of terror without abusing the typical genre tricks. The moments of humor are used to softer the approach of a subject that in itself is already quite tense. Here it is worth mentioning the great performance of Do Won Kwak in the caricatured role of the lazy, fumbling and fearful police officer, though well intentioned.

With a competent job of the cast, efficient direction creating an atmosphere that blends mystery, horror and comedy as well as providing much reflection with an end open to different interpretations and also for its originality, The Wailing is one of the most significant movies within the genre in recent years.

Original title: Goksung
English title: The Wailing
Director: Hong-jin Na
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5215952/

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Profumo di Donna (1974) - Review in english

Every time someone talks about the film Scent of a Woman (1992) comes in memory the modern classic starring Al Pacino, which finally recieved the Oscar award for Best Actor. What few people know is that this movie is a remake of an Italian film Profumo di Donna (Scent of a Woman - 1974), adapted from the literary novel Il Buio and Il Miele - 1969, by Giovanni Arpino, and directed by Dino Risi (known for Una Vita Difficile - A Difficult Life - 1961, II Sorpasso - 1962 e I Mostri - Opiate '67 - 1963).

Profumo di Donna tells the story of Captain Fausto Consolo (Vittorio Gassman, known for I Soliti Ignoti - Big Deal on Madonna Street - 1958, La Grande Guerra - The Great War - 1959, II Sorpasso - 1962, L'armata Brancaleone - For Love and Gold - 1966 e C'eravamo Tanto Amati - We All Love Each Other So Much - 1974), a retired soldier who lives alone with an old aunt in the city of Turin and decides to hold a 7-day train trip to Genoa, Rome and Naples. Having been blinded in an accident in a military operation, the army appointed a young soldier to accompany him on the tour, Giovanni Bertazzi (Alessandro Momo, known for Malizia - Malice - 1973), to whom Fausto nicknames Ciccio. Ruled by women and alcoholic beverages their adventures seem innocent and fun, but as the journey unfolds, an obscure purpose is revealed.

Gassman's interpretation is one of the highlights of the movie and he even received the award for Best Actor in Cannes. The actor manages to impeccably convey all the internal conflict of the main character: Faust is a blind man and maimed left hand, melancholic, cynical, exhausted from his life's routine, behaving in a cruel and arrogant way, despite having acquired notable ease of movement and precise notion of the objects location. Ironic and uninhibited, he acts in a natural way, as if he could see, and takes advantage of his privileged condition (blindness) to make fun of dissimulation and pretense of society, with disdain by the conventions of compassion which he is also hostage. This ambiguous feeling of admiration and disgust for a character who has a grandeur that sometimes makes us even forget his physical limitation, but who is also unpleasant, bitter and sarcastic, reflects his conflictive personality, but at the same time also charismatic. Womanizer and drinker, blindness accentuated his other senses, especially the sense of smell. Even from a distance the presence of attractive women is perceived by scent, which leaves him ecstatic, making a perfect analogy to the title of the film: Profumo di Donna (Scent of a Woman).

The film shows the efforts that a person can do to hide their feelings and feed a false appearance of strength and security. The internal tension which Faust suffers guides his behavior and relationships with the people around him. In rejecting compassion and pity he ends up also rejecting affection and love. So the journey of the main character symbolizes a journey in search of himself, self-acceptance and the consent of other's people affection.

With a parallel plot, the film highlights the contrast between the captain and the young soldier. While Giovanni is a mixture of inexperience, naivety and insecurity, Faust stands for his experience, invulnerability and security that he appears to have. Rather than being a victim of a misfortune, the captain shows himself as the true guide in the story, reversing the roles between the blind man and his companion. As the trip goes by the young soldier learns life lessons, such as how to distinguish between appearance and reality, love and fraud, words and actions. The interpretation of Alessandro Momo is quite convincing, making him another standout in the movie. It was a shame his career being interrupted so early. The actor died in a motorcycle accident a few days after the film was completed. Sara (Agostina Belli, known for Mimì Metallurgico Ferito Nell'onore - The Seduction of Mimi - 1972 e Telefoni Bianchi - The Career of a Chambermaid - 1976) completes the trio of main characters. She is a young woman in love with Faust and does not conform to his sickness, being the only one who knows all his facets. Here we must highlight the work of the director Dino Risi, who manages to capture the best of each actor, interweaving good comedic moments with great dramatic situations.

The soundtrack is beautiful, managing to convey different feelings interpreted by the actors in the scenes, aside from involving the viewer in the narrative. The script builds up fine characters, developing brilliant dialogues. Gassman's gesticulation, Momo's self-restraint and Agostina's sensuality are noteworthy. The movie won two seats among the Oscar nominees: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Foreign Film.

With brief notes, the photograph depicts a casuistry time of Italian society, full of meanings. On the streets, on trains, in hotels, terraces, at parties and in their own language, slowly arises a profile of a society. The Italians are cheerful and receptive, talkative, using a lot the hands to gesticulate, speaking loudly and not sparing swear-words in their conversations. They are religious, romantic and spontaneous, but as all patriarchal society, they have very strong male and female stereotypes. Faust is an authoritarian man, who has to be seen as strong, an imposing figure. Sara reflects the situation of women, in which they dream to feel indispensable to the life of the men they love. All these aspects clearly translate the Mediterranean spirit.

Finally, as it should be, a brief comparison between the American version (1992) and the original movie (1974) is inevitable. The remake of Scent of a Woman is completely different from the Italian film. Relying on Hollywood aspects, such as the need to have an episode of trial, the American version lengthen the story too much, spending too much time with the student, bad acted by Chris O'Donnell (Batman Forever - 1995 e Batman & Robin - 1997). The scenes of tango and Ferrari are some of its strengths, but by opting for melodramatic twists, it ends up falling in some clichés. Its great success and prominence is the exceptional performance of Al Pacino (to name a few of his films: The Godfather - 1972, Serpico - 1973, The Godfather: Part II - 1974, Dog Day Afternoon - 1975, And Justice for All - 1979, Scarface - 1983 e The Godfather: Part III - 1990). The two main actors in each version (Al Pacino and Vittorio Gassman) are impeccable, but the original movie has a special charm, being in many ways, more humane, sensitive, stripped-down and engaging. It's a pity that the American remake completely lost the Italian culture, both of everyday life in Italy and the Italian way of doing cinema of the 70s.

Original title: Profumo di Donna
English title: Scent of a Woman
Director: Dino Risi
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072037/

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Under Sandet (2015) - Review in english

Several World War II stories are not told in the books, being forgotten over time. Inspired by true events, the film Under Sandet (original title) or Land of Mine (in english) addresses one of these reports, which occurred in Denmark after the war. Fearing that a possible Allied invasion would take place from the Danish coast, Nazi Germany filled the entire length of Denmark's west coast with over 1.5 million mines. With the german surrender and the end of the war in May 1945, more than 2,000 german prisoners of war were sent to disarm those landmines. The story focuses on a small group of young germans who have the hard and dangerous task of clearing 45,000 mines from a danish beach to gain freedom.

The film, written and directed by Martin Zandvliet, is an excellent motion picture, managing to bring to the screen a work with a new approach, although all the other war films ever made before. With an original script, the director succeeds to convey the bitterness brought by five years of Nazi occupation in Denmark. He also portrays the exploitation of children dragged into war. One of the great successes of Zandvliet's direction and script is to show the war cycles: the winners, the danes, start to adopt the brutal practices of the losers, the germans. It was precisely for situations like this that the Second World War broke out. France and other winning countries of World War required repairs and imposed absurd sanctions to Germany.

The photography, by Camilla Hjelm, is to behold. And here, again, we have to highlight the director's work. The use of long shot captures the beautiful danish landscape, while more intimate moments allow us to monitor the interactions among those soldiers. Maintaining an intense pace, the tranquility and vastness of the beach are contrasted, at all times, with the danger that awaits them "under the sand", expression that names the film. The soundtrack is catchy and at times heartbreaking, fitting in the drama narrated in the film.

One of the elements that makes Land of Mine a memorable experience is the excellent performance of Roland Møller, playing the role of Sergeant Carl Rasmussen, protagonist of the story. Responsible to oversee the group of german soldiers, Carl struggle to separate his military duties from the hatred he feels for the old enemy. The actor delivered a complex character, moody, bitter and angry, but at the same time which has not lost humanity that exists within him. The rest of the cast was also well chosen and psychologically developed, in which the actors who play the soldiers have different personalities.

With a philosophical discussion about military conflicts as well as being very intense and beautiful, Under Sandet gives us a real view of the complexities of the Second World War and human behavior.

PS: the original trailer has some spoilers. If you are interested in seeing this movie, I suggest not watching it.


Original title: Under Sandet

English title: Land of Mine

Director: Martin Zandvliet

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3841424/

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Retour à Ithaque (2014) - Review in english

Cuba is a country that has always aroused much curiosity and interest of the people, either for its spectacular beaches or its culture and very peculiar history. Located in the Caribbean Sea, in the half of the twentieth century, the island undergone a revolution that would change the direction of Latin America, establishing and living the socialist regime since then. Thus, nothing more natural than the desire to know a little of the reality of the cubans. And this is exactly what the film Retour à Ithaque (in the original) or Return to Ithaca (in english) does: provides us with an understanding of the state of mind of the local population. The director is the french Laurent Cantet, known by its renowned Entre les Murs (The Class - 2008).

The story is set on the terrace of a building on the seafront in Havana, where five friends from youth, Rafa (Fernando Hechevarria), Tania (Isabel Santos), Aldo (Pedro Julio Diaz Ferran) and Eddy (Jorge Perugorría), now in their middle-age, come together to celebrate the return of Amadeo (Néstor Jiménez), who has lived in Spain for 16 years. His return awakens many dormant feelings in the group: lost loves, longings, frustrations, guilt and confrontations. In this period of less than 24 hours between the early afternoon and dawn of the next day, their destinations, the challenges of the past and present come to light.

The economic embargo imposed by the US government against Cuba brought grave consequences to the Caribbean country. The hardest period that the island known was the post-fall of the Berlin Wall, in the 1990s, with the end of the Soviet Union. The dissolution of Cuba's main trading partner caused a serious crisis in the cuban model, greatly impacting the lives of its inhabitants. During that time the protagonist of the story, Amadeo, left the country to live in Spain. The duality between stay on the island or get out of it is explicit in the attitude of each of the characters in the story. And here we are introduced to the sixth member of the plot: the city of Havana.

The panorama from a terrace of a building in the old center of the cuban capital covers the film's photograph with each one of its most important attributes: people living their little lives; crumbling buildings that resist time, carrying the weight of remote and recent history; the Malecón, a concrete boardwalk that runs along the edge of town, establishing the physical and psychological barrier which begin and end dreams and possibilities of many cubans; and the sea, as a promise and challenge, the boundary that divides the island from the rest of the world.

Cantet's direction produces an extremely vivid cinematographic array of rare authenticity and reality of scenes. Discussions are frighteningly credible, full of documentary features, with the camera circling the intimacy of the characters. The script, written with four hands by Laurent Cantet himself and also by Leonardo Padura (cuban author who gained notoriety with the book The Man Who Loved Dogs), contributes so that the dramatic narrative, filmed in one set, works. The story is engaging, cohesive and well written. In an interview to El País Padura told that the inspiration to compose the story came from one of his novels, La Novela de mi Vida. The actors, all cubans, gave convincing performances to their roles. With open scars and melancholy characters, they feel at the same time attraction and repulsion to the island, dream and disbelief.

Return to Ithaca is a movie that may well portray the current Brazil, which flirted dangerously with fascism/socialism/populism in recent decades and now finds itself plagued by the social/economic/political chaos. The brazilian population, as well as cuban, after having lived a moment of boom where everything seemed to work and that the nation finally seemed headed to be the "country of the future", see themselves deceived by false promises and realize that everything was no more than an utopia. The country (model) to be copied, the unwavering faith of the people in the "savior" of the fatherland and the joy of the people are some of the analogies that can be drawn between the two countries. In the midst of all this, both in Brazil and in Cuba, it is disillusionment, abandoned dreams and bitter life in which millions of people were sentenced. Return to Ithaca tells the story of five cuban friends who have lived, or rather survived, in Havana during the worst crisis in Cuba, which could well be the report of five brazilians in the worst crisis in the history of Brazil.

El Malecón, Havana.

Título original: Retour à Ithaque
English title: Return to Ithaca
Director: Laurent Cantet
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3480158/

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Coherence (2013) - Review in english

There is an expression in english that is often used to describe people or situations out of the ordinary: "it's a real gem". This is exactly how we classify the movie Coherence. But not for its millionaire budget, on the contrary, with an extremely limited budget it develops a complex and challenging narrative that can overshadow several blockbusters. Science fiction from the director James Ward Byrkit, with suspense and terror pinches, the film features four couples, Emily and Kevin (Emily Baldoni and Maury Sterling), Beth and Hugh (Elizabeth Gracen and Hugo Armstrong), Lee and Mike (Lorena Scafaria and Nicholas Brendon) and Laurie and Amir (Lauren Maher and Alex Manugian) that come together to make a dinner party at the home of one of them. The same night, a comet called Miller passes very close to Earth. Strange events are triggered, such as cellphones breaking, blackouts and people acting differently from how they usually do, turning the quiet dinner on a busy night of curious events.

The director (Byrkit) did a superb job since the film was recorded in just five nights, practically in one set (a house). The actors did not know what was going to be made​​, which contributed greatly to the suspense of the film. To them were given the characters and reported some personality traits and mood for the day of recording, then putting the triggers for what would pass and shooting what resulted. Here we must also highlight the cast. Although the movie does not have any known name, the actors do not disappoint and deliver excellent performances. The 8 characters have their importance well shared, with Emily (Emily Baldoni) being the protagonist.

The screenplay, also written by Byrkit, is bright and complex, exploiting to the full all its nuances. Developed with intelligence, everything that appears throughout the film is no accident: speeches, contextualization and objects. The smallest of details provides information that changes the understanding of the movie. Thus, the characters are part of a puzzle, making us constantly think about how each of its parts fits into the overall context of the film. Even the theory of Schrödinger's cat (a paradox of quantum physics) was used to make the film even more exciting. To make everything clear to the viewer, the characters themselves make notes to establish some things, being the protagonist a key part in monitoring and understanding the facts.

The photography, although simple, is so effective that makes it darker and more intimate. Filmed entirely with a hand-held camera and with some dark scenes, little can be seen in some scenes. These moments of pure darkness do not interfere at all at the understanding of the movie, but convey the right amount of tension and suspense to the viewer. The soundtrack complements the dark and suspenseful environment desired by the director. Alternating between quieter moments, with a discreet pace, and others more agitated, conveying a more frantic or dark beat.

Coherence is a movie full of twists that will leave you thinking about its many possibilities. Some people may want to watch it again, not only to understand it better, but mainly to capture several details that go unnoticed.

Original title: Coherence

Director: James Ward Byrkit

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/

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