Fill the Void (2012)

Fill the Void
Directed by Rama Burshtein
Starring: Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein, Irit Sheleg
Grade: B [71]

Despite its deployment of age-old commentary Rama Burshtein’s drama about arranged marriages in orthodox Jewish religion integrates its Austen-derived brand of feminity with a remarkably non-judgemental insight into faith and custom. As a participant of the Jewish faith Burshtein fails to shy away from the difficult pressures of marriage as a confluence of morality, duty, necessity -- and, yes, love -- but does so by revealing how these elements can be shaped into making a decision wise for one’s own future both logically and emotionally. I’m a long way from believing that commitment should stem from anything more than it should stem from love, but this film offers an uncommon, ingrained viewpoint by which to consider the issue more closely. Dramatically repetitive but thematically rich, it’s a film which compels discussion more than most I’ve seen this year.

Venice Film Festival 2010: A Review of "Black Venus"

Black Venus (Vénus noire)

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Starring: Yahima Torres, Andre Jacobs, Olivier Gourmet, Elina Löwensohn, Jonathan Pienaar

Grade: B

While some will attest that the armless Venus De Milo is a work of art, actual physical faults are treated with considerably less vigour – even when they’re a result of nature itself. The Venus in Abdellatif Kechiche’s biographical drama never comes close to attaining the stature of a God, but nevertheless provides the basis for a fascinating meditation on how one can be judged by the sum of their apparent parts.

The Venus in question is one Saartije ‘Sarah’ Bartman (Torres), who has been brought to England by Hendrick Caezar, a entrepreneur who believes he can find a niche within London’s entertainment industry in the early 1800’s. He markets the woman, whose sagging breasts and abnormally huge buttocks (as well as her African descent) turn heads, as the “Hottentot Venus”, creating a show around her alien features and exploiting his public’s general fear of the unknown. This vision extends to incorporate Saartije as a star, but does so by compromising the grace of the woman for an approach that emphasises her as a dangerous freak of nature.

Kechiche’s depiction of nineteenth-century London successfully brings the squalor of the city to the fore, gaudily presenting the low-brow tastes of working class, pre-Victorian England, and all of its sensationalist hypocrisy. In the very first scene there we sense that this is an ugly place to reside, the folk attracted to businessman Caezar’s star attraction tangibly beying to be entertained, and gladly feasting on the novelty of an unusually-shaped African woman. Saartije is playing along with the theatrical aspect of the turn, engaging in tribal-style dancing, and behaving like an aggressive animal whenever a member of the audience dares to approach her.

Even if the unsightly deformities and circus escapades suggest that “Black Venus” be some feminised form of The Elephant Man, Saartije is at least aware of the meretricious aspects of the production, and appears to neither want nor need rescuing. The film addresses the implications of Caezar’s use of Saartije (whether she is his slave or his colleague) early on, profiling this case in a lengthy, over-staged courtroom scene that lathers tabloid-style brushstrokes onto the argument. It’s rather surprising that Saartije’s issue is held so firmly within the public sphere at all, an observation noted by the British bravura of a court official; “It is a credit to this country that it protects the interests of even a Negro woman.” As well as demonstrating a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the indefinitely flawed logic behind moral hierarchy, Kechiche asserts that individual accountability is a peripheral concern within his film, and as he formally deals with the motives behind Caezar’s governance of Saartije “Black Venus” becomes much more of an indictment of society’s failures than anything Caezar does personally.

The film’s primary theme of exploitation unravels slowly, Saartije’s iconisation as the “Venus” shrewdly de-humanising her as a commodity to indulge in. This is a completely different world from John Hurt’s refined surroundings, as Saartije has to contend with Parisian sex parties rather than formal dinners, but their journeys follow the common trope of the outsider’s need for acceptance. Black Venus stresses how one can become so dependent upon habitual pleasures, and bound by the constraints of a circle of friends, that we can so easily conform to a lifestyle that we haven’t chosen for ourselves. Social indoctrination can occur on a multitude of levels, and in this story Kechiche finds a way to demonstrate how a person’s unique qualities and attributes can be modulated to accommodate a certain gaze.

The richness of "Black Venus" and its assured sense of the period extends (and “extend” really is the key word here) to several lengthy scenes in which Saartije is on display, gyrating her hips and bearing her teeth. As a debilitation of her dignity and condition the surfeit of spectacles serve a purpose, but Saartije’s fetishisation leads to a disconnection between her and the audience. Kechiche seems short on ideas to demonstrate the effect that British life has had on her, opting instead to distract with displays of degrading 19th century pornography. “Black Venus” and its prolonging of the inevitable is a torturous emotional device, which pads out the film to a dauntingly overlong 160 minutes and produces a dawning sense of the anti-climactic.

In the Venus role Yahima Torres – who, to my knowledge, doesn’t even have an IMDB page – gives a display that is so introspectively devastating that it defies belief. Often an escalating vessel for the film’s thematic presentation, rather than an active proponent within the narrative study, her moves to suggest Saartije’s ideological shifts (both past and present) add valuable substance to the character. As she gives a personal account to a packed courtroom she states, “I am an Actress,” with such an inflected sense of motioned duty, realising just as she utters the words that they are ridiculous. Torres reveals Saartije’s sense of performance, ensconced in a culture that shuns any real esteem, her bemusement with science reflecting that, on some level, she has accepted what she has become.

Although the film opens with a scientific lecture about the Black Venus and the cultural derivation of her various bodily intricacies, it then veers to a much looser, freer tone, almost mythologising the concrete knowledge already offered. This is not a well-known pocket of history, and so its sudden shift into a detached world reads as a way of spurning encyclopaedic technicalities and proclaiming that there was more about this woman than her female form. The sad truth about Saartije is that few people in the film realise this, her objectification in the five or six years of her life that “Black Venus” covers maintaining that the woman was never treated as anything other than an ephemeral study: her legacy defines her.

The film’s value lies in its ability to interconnect human sciences with medical science, genuinely accessible as an historical biopic of sorts, but never exclusively tied to a timeline. In avoiding becoming too self-righteous towards his subject Kechiche achieves a lot with his ambitiously-scoped examination of cultural ignorance, and integrates conventional biopic stamps into his outlandish topic. Even if a chunk of “Black Venus” could acceptably be consigned to the cutting room floor, it’s difficult to condemn its unrelenting vision, and the level of interest in its unique appeal makes for a thoroughly worthwhile experience.

Venice Film Festival 2010: Prize Winners

In the last few minutes, Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere" unanimously won the Golden Lion for Best Picture at Venice. I'm fairly surprised that it stuck out enough to warrant the big award, but there we go. Ariane Labed's Best Actress win for "Attenberg" is also a little out of the blue, given the vast amount of competition. Still, it's good when things aren't so predictable.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Golden Lion: "Somewhere" by Sofia Coppola

Silver Lion: Álex de la Iglesia for "A Sad Trumpet Ballad"

Special Jury Prize: "Essential Killing" by Jerzy Skolimowsi

Volpi Cup - Best Actor: Vincent Gallo for "Essential Killing"

Volpi Cup - Best Actress: Ariane Labed for "Attenberg"

Screenplay: "A Sad Trumpet Ballad" by Álex de la Iglesia

Venice Awards Speculation (2): Oscar Potential

Of the dozens of films shown at the Venice Film Festival this year, few will make it onto US cinema screens at all, never mind in 2010. Even those that do are often much too tiny, obscure, or hard work for industry bigwigs and media pundits to truly get behind. These are the main films that might have had a chance at Oscar attention.

Black Swan

Natalie Portman's dynamite performance in "Black Swan" could and should receive awards attention, but if the film is mauled by critics in some quarters (as I suspect it may be) then it and her could be entirely dismissed. Portman is the perfect age to break into the established Best Actress nominee mould, and her profile is still very lofty, but she needs people to take her seriously even if they don't do the same for the production as a whole.

Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt's film is too minimal to capture enough backing for major nominations, but its period pull may prove fruitful for the experienced, overlooked costume designer Victoria Farrell. Sadly, I'm inclined to believe that it'll probably be released in very few theatres and make a pittance, since it admirably doesn't flaunt what it has.

Miral

I didn't feel that "Miral" was doing enough in any sense to upset a portion of the Academy, but my Jewish, part-ambivalent friend thought otherwise. If the film is indeed seen to be pro-Palestine, as she felt it came across, then the Weinsteins may have a difficult job in getting it a Best Picture nomination. Still, while "Miral" is dull and misguided, it does fit perfectly into the AMPAS realm of the middle-ground ("We want peace for both sides" etc.), and so it's the kind of movie that can manage awards attention without great international acclaim.

Somewhere

I think that Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere" is finished in terms of awards opportunity, even in the Original Screenplay category. It doesn't appear to have the support of "Lost in Translation", and certainly doesn't have the same comedic impact. Destined to be drowned out by the post-Toronto flurry.

The Town

If "The Town" makes a big enough splash stateside then it may benefit from an early-ish release. Ben Affleck has the respect from "Gone Baby Gone" (and is an Oscar-winner after all) to command call for a Best Picture nomination, but probably only if similar films follow it and falter.

From the Rest:

One can make a case that if Catherine Deneuve wins Best Actress here, and should "Potiche" turn into a box-office hit in the U.S., then we could be looking at a sentimental nomination for its star. I think that that's very far-reaching, especially since the Actress race is looking particularly crowded at the moment. "Potiche" is also a possibility for France's Foreign Language submission, although they have a history of going against the grain in that regard.

Other Foreign Language submissions may emerge from Antonio Capuano's "Dark Love" (Italy), which is very good. I also think that Colombia would be wise to submit "Little Voices", an animation about the difficulties of children growing up with the threat of Guerilla warfare on their doorstep. It's very baity, and can probably coast a little on the animated, war-themed success of "Waltz With Bashir" a couple of years ago.

Venice Awards Speculation (1): Festival Prize Predictions

Having only just recovered from yesterday's delayed slog back to the North of England, I'm now ready to provide some reaction to the Venice trip. As well as speculating on where the festival's awards may go (Guy Lodge has already stuck his two cents in), I'm also going to be discussing the Oscar potential of some of the films. I don't pretend to be a shrewd Oscar prognosticator, but talking about some of Venice's awards hopefuls in greater detail will hopefully convey my doubts about their ability to appeal to the Academy collective.

First to the anticipated festival prizes, which are even more difficult to judge given that it's essentially decided by seven people locked in a room until decisions are made. Add to that the fact that the head of those seven people is the off-the-wall auteur Quentin Tarantino, and things become even hazier.

Predictions as follows:

Golden Lion: "Black Venus"

Alternate: "Post Mortem"

A film that commands respect for a fascinating and hard-to-depict subject matter, even as it prolongs so many similar scenes and doesn't evolve to the state that one feels it should. Hard to argue with as a showcase piece.

Silver Lion: Kelly Reichardt for "Meek's Cutoff"

Alternate: Darren Aronofsky for "Black Swan"

Perhaps this is wishful thinking as I felt that these were the two most assured pieces of Direction. Reichardt's Western is sparse and delicate, even as it brings up difficult subjects. In any case, her film is a Director's film, and despite the less-than-enthusiastic overall response, I don't think this coup is out of the question.

Special Jury Prize: "Essential Killing"

Alternate: "Post Mortem"

I have a feeling that "Essential Killing" may be popular among the male-dominated jury, but that it won't win the top prize. I found it tiresome in the worst ways.

Volpi Cup - Best Actress: Yahima Torres for "Black Venus"

Alternate: Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"

If I was on the jury I'd be fighting tooth and nail for a Torres victory here, since I felt her performance was one of the most impacting, introspectively devastating things I've witnessed in a cinema for a long while. Her role is certainly the most sympathetic, and so I'd suggest that she be a strong favourite for this.

Volpi Cup - Best Actor: Vincent Gallo for "Essential Killing"

Alternate: Bruce Greenwood for "Meek's Cutoff"

Involved in three films at the festival; two of which he directed, and two of which he starred in. He's also rather handy in the Skolimowski picture, and has a no-dialogue gimmick that may work in his favour.

Screenplay Prize: Athina Rachel Tsangari for "Attenberg"

Alternate: Denis Osokin for "Silent Souls"

Two films that may fly in a tad under the radar, and that I've heard trusty positive word about. Again, if you're spreading the wealth (as so often happens), then these may even pop up in the above prizes.

Coming Up: Judging the Oscar potential of the Venice crop.

Venice Film Festival 2010: A Review of "Somewhere"

Somewhere

Directed by Sofia Coppola

Starring: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Chris Pontius, Michelle Monaghan, Benicio Del Toro

Grade: B -

Sofia Coppola's work frequently requires you to delve into the minds of her characters, and of her four feature-length productions, "Somewhere" is the film that most guiltily holds back on emotional expression. The story of the disillusioned celebrity is hardly a new concept, but Coppola finds a way to tell a story that doesn't play up to conceits or formulae, crafting a genuine father-daughter relationship and maintaining a rather scathing stance on "celebrity", and its tendency to distract from real-world connections.

Sparsely-shot scenes litter the first act, curbing the film's accessibility considerably. For instance, there are two separate pole dancing scenes within ten minutes of each other, and don't contribute enough to our view of Stephen Dorff's Johnny enough to warrant inclusion. The film feels wallowing and suspended before the entrance of Chloe (Fanning), and at only 90 minutes more scenes between them is needed to fully grasp the looseness of their relationship. One feels that Coppola is selling this story a little short.

Still, there are many moments where she effectively conveys the distance and distortion a life of luxury can create, and in a tenderly different way to the dislocation in "Lost in Translation". This film is more about the dangers of taking things for granted, and the denouement of Coppola's film somewhat atones for the overall slightness of its scope.

Venice Film Festival 2010: A Review of "Miral"

Miral

Directed by Julian Schnabel

Starring: Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Alexander Siddig, Yasmine Elmasri

Grade: C -

Although the film is titled "Miral", after the Palestinian revolutionary, it's over an hour before Miral herself -- a plucky Freida Pinto -- makes an appearance. Much of the film's first half is made up of flimsy exposition (some of which isn't even relevant), and the story becomes somewhat of a burdened timeline representation of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"Miral" doesn't work as an overview because it is so uniformally-written, with a definitive solemnity about the middle-eastern battle and its talking points over the past sixty years. This would be much easier to take were Julian Schnabel able to connect his characters to their surroundings and create a tight enough bond between the four principal women that he highlights. Instead, "Miral" suffers from a lack of focus, historically-aware but hesitant about whether to centre itself around Miral or her mentor Hind Husseini. In terms of time, the span between them is rather great, and resultantly the plot becomes far too strained and indeterminate. Key shifts in Miral's political and emotional attitudes are bypassed to accommodate a progressive trawl through the history books.

Schnabel's unorthodox method of filmmaking aids in richening the appeal of "Miral", well-shot for the most part and even occasionally moving. Nevertheless, the script's early misgivings lead to a disjointed and uneven feel; there may be a lot to say about this subject, but "Miral" isn't the film to say it.

Venice Film Festival 2010: Day 2

A strenuous day 2 began with the harmless "Machete", Robert Rodriguez's latest idea for a movie, adapted from the spoof Grindhouse trailer of the same name. While occasionally hilarious the film is a strong rival to "The Expendables", in that its fatefully lazy plotting emphasises both the good and bad of its manic tone.

My second viewing was altogether different, the tender Italian film "Dark Love", about a girl who is gang-raped and her psychological post-struggle, as well as the struggle of one her incarcerated assailants to cope with what he has done. Director Antonio Capuano deals with the subject modestly, and successfully avoids any offensive contrivances.

I then made a brief return to my hotel room to freshen up before the evening's double-screening of Julian Schnabel's "Miral", and Anh Hung Tran's "Norweigan Wood". The former constantly frustrated me with its tepid approach to a heavy subject matter, and a wildly miguided narrative structure. By contrast, "Norweigan Wood" is a much more sincere, gripping take on adolescence, as well as being profoundly beautiful. While it gets a tad bogged down in repetitive teenage exchanges about love, and depicts an over-reliance upon sex as a cure for solitude, it proves remarkably fruitful on an emotional level.

Coming Up: A Review of "Miral"

Notes on "Black Swan"

Black Swan

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Grade: B+

In 1948 Moira Shearer's red shoes led her down a path to destruction, shaming the ambitions of its dancing devotee. Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" is a fairy-tale all about self-reflection, reverent of ballet's expressionistic qualities and ambiguities, and the dark promise of a dancer's modus operandi.

"Black Swan" is extraordinary in its frenetic, close-capture sense of spectacle, maintaining an ornateness through all of its gruesome attempts to rattle and drastic character escalation. Natalie Portman as Nina suffers for her art, visibly strained from the duality of the character, and evolves from meek to precocious to jealous to erratic, effectively shading Nina's arc with glimpses of unpredictable self-loathing and scrupulous behaviour.

Aronofsky is often as impulsive as his heroine, exercising some really blatant creative license, with an admittedly coursed fable, but his film gains such boundless energy as it moves and transforms in our minds, that I hardly cared. "Black Swan" is tremendous, and not to be missed.

Venice Film Festival 2010: Day 1

While many folks profess that the worst part about going overseas is the flying, I don't subscribe to that mode of thought. Sure, airports can be stressful, but once you're past all of the rigmarole and protocol a flight can actually feel like a euphoric wave. My flight from East Midlands to Marco Polo proved to be a handy transition, a chilled prep for the buzzed atmosphere of Venice and its lavish Lido.

On the flight there I met a well-to-do, elderly couple, oblivious to the fact that a Festival is even going on in the city for the next eleven days. It puts things into perspective somewhat - we aren't all slaves to cinema, and the isolationist feeling you get when attending the festival isn't solely psychological.

Days like this confirm to me that the film industry is one of the greatest in the world, and even as I lounge in my hotel room, wondering whether tonight's premiere of "Black Swan" will be special or backfire somewhat, I realise that it doesn't matter a great deal. For now I'm a romantic, and I highly doubt that bi-curious ballerinas and their flamboyant psychosis can truly spoil that.

Coming Up: Reaction to "Black Swan"

Volpi Cup Winners: Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

(Won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 over Pier Angeli in "Teresa", Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday", Nora Swinburne in "The River", and Simone Valère in "The Night Is My Kingdom".)

Grade: *****

In an awards haul that would eventually net her a second Oscar, Vivien Leigh brings to life -- from the pen of Tennessee Williams -- surely one of the most introspectively challenging characters ever depicted on screen. Her Blanche Dubois is rather like what a 48 year-old Scarlett O'Hara might have amounted to, had she developed a feminine strain of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and forgot that the American Civil War even happened.

Arriving by streetcar Blanche at first appears to be one of those annoying relatives, who come to stay with low expectations of the life that you have made for yourself, and leave with an even sourer opinion. Upon her arrival she flounces around, primly studying Stella's bowling alley surroundings as one would a herd of cattle, and immediately addresses the issue of her sister's downward class-convergence. She coos, Miss Jean Brodie-esque in her Estuary version of Southern drawl, "Oh Stella, do you really live in this place?", continuing to spout from meaningless subject to meaningless subject. It's obvious that Blanche is a narcissistic conversationalist, content to talk through you if she thinks she's constructing a positive image of herself, hiding from the implications of her presence at the Kowalski residence.

Leigh's chatter, with its kooky erratic pitch, and its focusless shifting intonation, makes her so opaquely inaccessible that it's no wonder that Stella's husband Stanley finds her presence a maddening bother. As she flirts with a hapless, lovestruck Karl Malden like a sixteen year-old awake past her curfew it suddenly dawns on you that this woman is never going to face up to her age or her past. Leigh addresses Blanche's complete loss of identity, telegraphing the fluid literary majesty of a Jane Austen heroine into an ageing spinster, playing up to multiple facets and ideals of respectability to attain a marriage that she isn't sure that she wants anyway. Is Blanche just bored with existence? Destined to live a life more ordinary than the ones she teaches in her English class?

When you get two people that are either unwilling or unable to back down from their ideals, things are bound to end messily, and Blanche's inability to curb her worldly outlook eventually makes her the victim of the piece. The permanent state of self-imposed, disillusioned fragility etched on Leigh's face in Blanche's never-ending soliloquies, distort her playful artistry into such an artificially condescending tool. In the scene where Blanche and Stanley have their final showdown she flirts as Kay Francis would in the Thirties, attempting to mould Stanley into the fellow that he just ain't. Leigh lets Blanche revel and strain in gathering control of their exchange, fretfully backtracking as Stanley's infuriation grows. Blanche isn't sure whether she wants to be the sister that everyone loves, the "older" temptress, or the virgin bride, but whichever it is she wants it on her terms. Leigh does an incredible job in making each sly remark, each flippantly false self-diminishment, a clamouring attempt at affection, painfully exposing Blanche's motives when we least expect her to crack.

Leigh's own well-documented precarious mental state has often been cited as a reason behind the ambiguity in her "Streetcar" turn. However accurate an assessment that is, her work here is a complete physical embodiment of identity crises, and a gauntlet-throwing emotional immersion into the pressures of repressed female sexuality.

Venice Screening Schedule and Anticipation

As I've already mentioned I'm off to Venice again this year for the film festival. This is just a quick heads-up to let you know what I'll be seeing and when.

I'm planning to provide commentary on as many of the films as I can, and there'll also shortly be a special section added on the sidebar for gradings, as they filter in. Meanwhile, there'll be plenty of reaction to each film over on my Twitter page, with little zingers and the odd catty comment. Just six nights to go!

My screening schedule:

Wednesday 1 September

Black Swan

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

Directed by Andrew Lau

Starring: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo

Thursday 2 September

Machete

Directed by Robert Rodriguez & Ethan Maniquis

Starring: Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson

Dark Love

Directed by Antonio Capuano

Starring: Irene De Angelis, Gabriele Agrio, Luisa Ranieri, Corso Salani, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Gifuni

Miral

Directed by Julian Schnabel

Starring: Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Willem Dafoe, Yasmine Al Masri, Vanessa Redgrave

Norweigan Wood

Directed by Anh Hung Tran

Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara, Kengo Kora, Reika Kirishima

Friday 3 September

Sleeping Beauty

Directed by Catherine Breillat

Starring: Carla Besnaïnou, Julia Artamonov, Kérian Mayan, David Chausse

Somewhere

Directed by Sofia Coppola

Starring: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Chiatti, Simona Ventura

Reign of Assassins

Directed by John Woo & Su Chao-Pin

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Jung Woo Sung, Wang Xueqi, Barbie Hsu, Kelly Lin

Saturday 4 September

A Woman

Directed by Giada Colagrande

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Jess Weixler, Stefania Rocca, Michele Venitucci

Potiche

Directed by François Ozon

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith Godrèche, Jérémie Régnier

La Passione

Directed by Carlo Mazzacurati

Starring: Silvio Orlando, Giuseppe Battiston, Corrado Guzzanti, Cristiana Capotondi, Stefania Sandrelli, Kasia Smutniak

Sunday 5 September

Little Voices

Directed by Jairo Carrillo

(Animation)

Monday 6 September

Meek's Cutoff

Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Starring: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson

Tuesday 7 September

Essential Killing

Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski

Starring: Vincent Gallo, Emmanuelle Seigner

Wednesday 8 September

Promises Written In Water

Directed by Vincent Gallo

Starring: Vincent Gallo, Delfine Bafort, Sage Stallone, Lisa Love

The Town

Directed by Ben Affleck

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively

Black Venus

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Starring: Yahima Torres, Olivier Gourmet, André Jacobs

Expect notes on previous Golden Lion and Volpi Cup winners before the festival begins; plus a review of a recent release.

Golden Lion Winners: Vera Drake

Vera Drake
Directed by Mike Leigh
Starring: Imelda Staunton, Philip Davis, Eddie Marsan, Sally Hawkins, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly, Heather Craney, Peter Wright
Grade: A -

(Won the Golden Lion of San Marco in 2004, over "3-Iron", "Birth", "Howl's Moving Castle", "Kings and Queen", and "The Sea Inside")

It was around this time six years ago that "Vera Drake" was gathering buzz for its awards push, the height of which was for its little-known star Imelda Staunton. The film and Staunton went on to win the Golden Lion and Volpi Cup, before collecting three Oscar nominations. Although my feelings regarding the film's quality are unchanged, when I initially watched "Vera Drake" I considered it to be more of a parable, a tale of naivety being punished, than a social study. A recent viewing suggests that Vera herself is less sure or representative a heroine (she isn't made a martyr by Staunton or Leigh), and the production ultimately benefits from a more flexile approach towards the subject of guilt.

One of Mike Leigh's most enviable assets is how he compels his Actors to adapt to their filmic surroundings, to think about how their characters would react to the different social situations they find themselves in. As with any family the Drakes encompass an array of personality-types which flourish depending on the circumstance, the extended familial links allowing for nervous exchanges of budding relationships. It works well, meek daughter Ethel and her new fiancée Reg provide a platform for Vera to exercise her typical caretaking abilities; Stan's brother Frank and his wife Joyce act as an interesting aside on the growth of consumerism, part of the post-war baby boom that places Joyce on decidedly unsteady ground with the Drakes once Vera's revelation comes.

"Vera Drake" is much in the grain of theatre, subjecting its title character to a trial by proxy, rather discouraging us from taking a side in the moral issue on show. Abortion is a polarising enough discussion as it is without drawing attention to the spectrum of opinion, and for the most part the film is successful at relaying the matter to fearful glances and tension within the home environment. Leigh concentrates his focus and helps to richen our voyeuristic experience by using his Actors' own instinctive observations to broaden our sense of the period. Scripturally, his cast are making the best of what they have, and so the Drake family become a canny approximation of working-class post-war England, muddling through life without really taking it for granted. The literalisms of the narrative are strengthened by the aomebic, confined set-plays, anchored significantly by Dick Hope's squalid, tempered cinematography.

Imelda Staunton thrives on the responsibility of her character, ingratiating Vera's selflessness through her insistent tone. For a small woman she projects such a formidable air, and gives the impression that by allowing her to help you it will benefit her life as well as yours. One could imagine this frail, stubby woman carting bricks around, having hoodwinked builders into believing that her presence is indispensable. Vera's self-expository opening serves to create a sense of routine, of this being just another Monday in her busy life, and only enhances the dolorous fervour of her casual nursemaid act being violently upturned in the film's second half. Staunton reacts to the police's arrival with a mixture of firm acceptance and tangible collapse, and when forced to confront the severity of her crime in the subsequent interrogation, the geyser of shame has well and truly burst. A harrowing scene sees Vera whisper her secret inaudibly to distressed, faintly resilient husband Stan, the final fall from grace of a woman that appeared to be such an untouchable character.

While Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark so painstakingly draws attention to its politics, Godardian in the ferocity with which it questions why we think the way that we do, Vera Drake isn't on anywhere near as lucid a plain, since essentially Vera is guilty of the crime she is charged. That doesn't prevent her demise from bearing resemblances to Dancer's Selma: the creative, theatrical side of Selma -- where she isn't following instructions so much as exercising her rite as a leading lady, basking in a rare limelight -- is somewhat relative to the way that Vera wants to craft a path for her children, in a facilitative but harmlessly-maternal capacity. The primary function of both women is to serve their family, and when Vera is eventually confronted about her actions, the assimilating dread of being unable to organise family events, or oversee the births, marriages, and deaths in her period of impending absence, is the most sympathetic part of her plight.

Volpi Cup Winners: Victoire Thivisol

Victoire Thivisol in "Ponette"

(Won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1996 over Oyanka Cabezas in "Carla's Song" and Irene Papas in "Party")

In her role as a girl who suddenly loses her mother Victoire Thivisol (Four years old during the filming of "Ponette") has emotion and sentiment on her side; rarely are children afforded an entire feature-length picture with which to display such a wrenching sense of loss. It's understandable since surely people as young and technically fledgling are somewhat of a loose cannon -- few kids beyond Jackie Cooper have commanded continual respect as a leading character actor. Thivisol never again attained the level of admiration she managed with this performance, but at the age of 19 one would certainly never count her out. A follow-up role in Chocolat brought promise, and she is still working, so perhaps if a hefty role comes her way she may become the next Marion Cotillard, however much you view that as a success.

"Ponette" is a brave film, not least because most of the dialogue centres around infant playground chatter, innocent remonstrations on religion and whether when people die they are truly "gone". Writer/Director Jacques Doillon modifies religious scepticism to accomodate the naivety of youth, and rarely over-calculates the spats Ponette has with her wily friends. He recognises the whys and why nots of grief, the struggle of accepting loss, and especially the problems that children have with understanding ideological difference (or indifference) in adults. Ponette's early reaction to the death of her mother -- a result of a motor accident involving the two -- is churlish, stroppy, as she clambers atop a car, part-rebelliously and somewhat uncertain of how such a vehicle has contributed so heavily to her mother's demise. Thivisol immediately asserts that Ponette is thinking about her situation, not merely reacting to finality by bursting into tears and stamping her feet. She accepts the "death" but evidently doesn't know how it will affect her life, whether she should even cry, since her father has confronted the event with a boulder-like sense of resentment. Even at such a dizzyingly-unidentifiable age Thivisol is able to impart an impressive amount of detail into the relationship she has with her father, reacting to him with fluid, unrehearsed fear, and recognises that this fear stems from emotional-not-physical abuse. Her later scenes with him possess a more aggressive dynamic, and you can see that Ponette wants him to cry, to confirm the pain that she is feeling instead of launching into a verbal coming-to-terms speech that doesn't help to explain what is buzzing around inside of her head.

Thivisol's emotional intelligence is such that even the intermitten breakdowns that come from prayers that don't produce, kids that attack her weakness, a growing inner-conflict between faith and logic, are telegraphed as waves of uncertain emotion, rather than wailing releases of surefire showmanship. She palpably wrestles with the internal unanswered questions we ask ourselves when someone dies, and therefore captures grief in its purest form. Keisha Castle-Hughes' Paikea also had an absent mother in 2003's "Whale Rider" (a role that made 13 year-old Castle-Hughes the youngest ever Best Actress nominee at the Oscars), and while I admire that performance immensely her efforts feel more orchestrated (either by her or Director Niki Caro) to generate sympathy for their protagonist. Thivisol benefits from the fly-on-the-wall style of her director, occasionally unsure of where to look and what to do, and subsequently the plight of Ponette is a much looser, organic prospect. Even at her blankest moments of extreme close-up Thivisol is crafting something for herself and the film, which I find astonishing given the enormity of the task involved and the obvious limitations imposed by her minimal acting experience.

In the late stages of Doillon's film Ponette is crouched over the grave of her deceased mother, clawing at the soil that separates her from the source of parental affection that she isn't getting elsewhere. When asked about this scene, or more specifically about how she managed to make herself cry, Victoire replied that it was normal for Ponette to cry because her mother was dead. It's an observation that only serves to reinforce the instinctual impression Thivisol brings to "Ponette", a generous respondent to her Director's studious childhood melancholy.

The Volpi Cup and its History of Best Actresses

(Note: Years skipped are those where the prize was not handed out, for whatever reason.)

• 1934 Katharine Hepburn in "Little Women"

• 1935 Paula Wessely in "Episode"

• 1936 Annabella in "Veille D'armes"

• 1937 Bette Davis in "Kid Galahad" & "Marked Woman"

• 1938 Norma Shearer in "Marie Antoinette"

• 1941 Luise Ullrich in "Annelie"

• 1942 Kristina Soderbaum in "Die Goldene Stadt"

• 1947 Anna Magnani in "L'onorevole Angelina"

• 1948 Jean Simmons in "Hamlet"

• 1949 Olivia de Havilland in "The Snake Pit"

• 1950 Eleanor Parker in "Caged"

• 1951 Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

• 1953 Lilli Palmer in "The Four Poster"

• 1956 Maria Schell in "Gervaise"

• 1957 Dzidra Ritenberga in "Malva"

• 1958 Sophia Loren in "The Black Orchid"

• 1959 Madeleine Robinson in "À Double Tour"

• 1960 Shirley Maclaine in "The Apartment"

• 1961 Suzanne Flon in "Tu ne Tueras Point"

• 1962 Emmanuelle Riva in "Thérèse Desqueyroux"

• 1963 Delphine Seyrig in "Muriel"

• 1964 Harriet Andersson in "Att Alska"

• 1965 Annie Girardot in "Trois chambres à Manhattan"

• 1966 Natalya Arinbasarova in "Pervyj Uchitel"

• 1967 Shirley Knight in "Dutchman"

• 1968 Laura Betti in "Teorema"

• 1982 Susan Sarandon in "Tempest"

• 1983 Darling Legitimus in "Rue Cases Negres"

• 1984 Pascale Ogier in "Les Nuits de la pleine lune"

• 1986 Valeria Golino in "Storia d'amore"

• 1985 Kang Soo-yeon in "Contract Mother"

• 1988 Shirley Maclaine in "Madame Sousatzka" & Isabelle Huppert in "Une Affaire De Femmes"

• 1989 Peggy Ashcroft & Geraldine James in "She's Been Away"

• 1990 Gloria Münchmeyer in "La Luna en el Espejo"

• 1991 Tilda Swinton in "Edward II"

• 1992 Gong Li in "Qiu Ju Da Guan Si"

• 1993 Juliette Binoche in "Trois Coleurs: Bleu"

• 1994 Maria de Medeiros in "Três Irmãos"

• 1995 Sandrine Bonnaire & Isabelle Huppert in "La Cérémonie"

• 1996 Victoire Thivisol in "Ponette"

• 1997 Robin Tunney in "Niagara, Niagara"

• 1998 Catherine Deneuve in "Place Vendôme"

• 1999 Nathalie Baye in "Une Liaison Pornographique"

• 2000 Rose Byrne in "The Goddess of 1967"

• 2001 Sandra Ceccarelli in "Luce Dei Miei Occhi"

• 2002 Julianne Moore in "Far From Heaven"

• 2003 Katja Riemann in "Rosenstrasse"

• 2004 Imelda Staunton in "Vera Drake"

• 2005 Giovanna Mezzogiorno in "The Beast in the Heart"

• 2006 Helen Mirren in "The Queen"

• 2007 Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"

• 2008 Dominique Blanc in "L'Autre"

• 2009 Kseniya Rappoport in "The Double Hour"

I have see 12 of these 56 performances, and there isn't a bad one among them. I've probably been spoiled there. The win that sticks out the most has to be Shirley Knight for "Dutchman", victorious over Catherine Deneuve in "Belle de Jour" (the Golden Lion that year), and in a sex comedy that lasts less than an hour. Still, who am I to judge?

Analysis of some of these women to follow soon, beginning with the youngest of them. Stay tuned!