Damaged Goods

Il futuro/The Future (2013) - Scherson

Based on Bolaño's novel A Little Lumpen Novelita which I haven't read, Il Futuro tells about two adolescent Chilean siblings living in Rome, recently orphaned by car accident- Bianca (Manuella Matelli), slightly older than her brother Tomas, who is still in high school. In order to get their dead father's pension and preventing Tomas to go to an orphanage, Bianca accepts the responsibility of being the head of the household, suggested by a social worker. Soon they are living in filth- cigarette butts everywhere, unwashed dishes pile up, leftovers strew the floor. Bianca starts working at a hair salon as an apprentice and Tomas at a local gym. Easily impressionable, Tomas brings two young trainers (who shows him how to break the cable code so he can watch porn) from the gym in to the house and they start living in their with them, doing dishes and taking charge of cooking. Bianca in turn starts having sex with them regularly.

One day the trainers have a plan: there is an old English or Australian recluse (Rutger Hauer) living in a mansion. He is a retired movie star/former Mr. Universe, who used to be known as Maciste (old Hercules style sword-sandal action movie hero). He must have a safe of some sort in his house. Maybe Bianca can sacrifice herself a little, earn his trust and rob him. It will be a big break for all.

Bianca finds out that Maciste is blind the first night when he put massage oil all over her naked body. For some reason, those lunkheads didn't mention his disability. Night after night, one intimate encounter after another, having great conversations, Bianca falls for this old man. Does he feel the same way about her, or is she just another whore at his disposal?

The way it is shot and its hazy atmosphere, Il futuro has an enigmatic quality that pulls you in. Matelli, with her cat eyes, small body and asymmetrical hairstyle is stunning as a girl who is thrown into an adulthood. With strong acting from both Matelli and Hauer, Alice Scherson makes the film about two damaged individuals getting together very poignant and seductive without ever becoming sentimental. Great premise, I'd love to read the book now.

Bruegel on Film

The Mill and the Cross (2011) - Majewski


Jesus and the cross is right underneath the mill on top of the protruding rock in the middle, obscured by commotions among the crowd. Bruegel (Rutger Hauer) with his big black canvas and his patron in a top hat (Michael York) are in the foreground on lower right corner.

Polish director Lech Majewski's recreation of Bruegel's Procession to Calvary with the stories and characters surrounding it is first and foremost a visual feat & a technical marvel. Rutger Hauer gives us a grand tour of hidden meanings and messages in said painting, as the famed Flemish renaissance painter. Like many of the renaissance paintings, Procession is an update on the Passion Play and features ruthless Spanish mercenaries in red tunic in place of Roman soldiers. With every frame a work of art, you can't look away from its beauty.

I like Majewski's unobtrusive, less bombastic filmmaking when compared to Greenaway's Night Watching, in making a scholarly investigation in art. And I'm a sucker for tableaux in films (von Trier uses in his films quite a lot, I even like Tarsem's slick, cartoonish ones) and this one doesn't disappoint.

I Have Found What I'm Looking For

Eureka (1983) - Roeg
What a weird film. It starts out with a bang literally, then comfortably slips into a melodrama peppered with fate, chance, mysticism, true love and discovering oneself. Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) hits the jackpot in Alaskan gold rush in 1925. He became filthy rich and now lives on some Caribbean island. His daughter Tracy (Theresa Russell) is madly in love with beguiling, yet sinister Claude (Rutger Hauer in his prime beauty). It's the gold and wealth that puts rift on McCann's relationship with the world- his family and others alike. McCann and Claude don't see each other eye to eye. Daddy's a little more than possessive. Then there is Miami businessmen (Joe Pesci and Mickey Rourke) trying to buy McCann's island and build a casino. They won't take no for an answer. They will take it with force if necessary.

All this is told in true Roeg fashion- crazy zoom-ins, expressive editing, dizzing set pieces: all in the first 20 minutes (visually, the rest of the film doesn't hold the candle to its strong beginning). Even though it's messy as hell, it retains that organic Roeg quality- beautiful, ugly, sensual, abrupt, violent....

The eclectic mix of actors in Eureka can be distracting. I guess John Malkovitch and Christopher Walken weren't available for the roles. Hauer resembles David Bowie in Roeg's Man Who Fell to Earth. Obviously he is an actor with limited range, but here has the most complex role in his career as a vain man who floats through life without searching for anything. Russell always strikes me as an odd duck and no exception here as the millionaire's daughter, but personally I like her working class delivery and her edginess. Hackman is all volatility and cockiness as always.

One can easily draw a comparison between this and There Will Be Blood. But where Daniel Plainview is merely a one dimensional insatiable greed personified, McCann's pathos runs deeper. The film is a spiritual one. McCann sums up the film nicely when he says, "Yesterday I had it all. But today, I just have everything." In essence, McCann's journey to find that 'Eureka' moment in one's life ends in the beginning 10-15 minutes of the film. The rest is 'now what?' But like all Roeg films, it's an interesting one.