Saturday, October 22, 2011

Glimpse

Marseille (2004) - Schanelec
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Angela Schanelec's Marseille is an enigma. With daring shifts, jarring jump cuts and elliptical structure, the film begs for your full attention. It starts out with a young German woman, Sophie, arriving in Marseille. First one third of the film is with Sophie. She is sitting in a passenger's side of a car driven by a French woman (named Zelda, we learn later on) who is swapping her apartment with Sophie's. While in Marseille, Sophie doesn't do much. She photographs random streets, meets a man who rents her a car, gets insulted by a rude friend of the man. We don't get to really know her. She seems to be a nice young woman, if not somewhat plain and living an uneventful life. Then we are back in Germany. There are Ivan the photographer who Sophie may or may not be in love with, Hanna, a stage actress/the wife of Ivan and their young son. We get to know them, well not really. But we can tell Hanna is not really happy. Then there is a stage play where Hanna has a small part.

It takes time to understand what Schanelec is up to with the film. We see the play three times- the camera slowly pans and we get to see only the parts of the play at a time. Hanna comes in to the frame and exits in different intervals. Then there is Ivan taking photographs of random factory women in profile. Some of them are chattier than others. Again, we see and hear only the glimpse of their lives. Schanelec sketches out these moments. There are a lot that are not shown nor explained. Sophie decides to go back to Marseille, something bad happens as soon as she arrives and we don't get to see what happens of course.

There are people we see in the streets and wonder why they are in their particular states. Sometimes we imagine their back story. What we see in front of us is not the full picture and often deceptive. Obviously it is impossible to get to know someone in one hour and thirty minutes. Schanelec understands that. Marseille can be interpreted as a much ado about nothing and that Schanelec's approach is cold and detached. I find it certainly a challenging, yet quite invigorating movie watching experience.

High Tension

Amer (2009) - Cattet/Forzani
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A grand homage to 70's Giallo, Amer strips away excessive gore, plot (which isn't saying much for the genre), and much of the dialog. What's left is mad style and amazing build up of sexual tensions. A total eye candy bordering experimental.

The world of Amer is always sizzling. It tells the three stages of life of Ana. It begins with Ana as a young girl, haunted by an old housekeeper who could be a witch. Then we jump to Ana as a sexy teen. Here, an ordinary walk to a local hair salon/grocery store with her sexually competitive mother becomes a heart pounding, sexually charged chase. The latter part concerns grown up Ana, where the limo ride becomes so tense, her dress rips at the seams. With Argento color palette and close-up/extreme close-up staccato edits, the film seduces you and never let you go. One of the rare cinematic treats in recent years.