Category: 2006

Reel 82: In the Style of Ingmar Bergman

In most arts, there’s a fine line between homage and imitation. Go too subtle and nobody gets the references. Go too hard and chances are, you get dinged for pandering.

This time around we land on a couple of films that may do a little of each (in my opinion; Sean might disagree), but they’re good enough that you don’t really care.

We start with Away From Her, a 2006 film written and directed by Sarah Polley. We’ve talked about Polley as an actress in The Sweet Hereafter way, way back in Episode 5. You may recall that the director of that film was Atom Egoyan. In this film Egoyan acted as an executive producer for Polley’s feature directorial debut. In this film Julie Christie is a woman whose Alzheimer’s is advancing to the point where she has to go into a nursing home. Her husband (Gordon Pinsent) has to deal with the guilt, the loneliness, and a few other unexpected consequences of that decision.

From there we go to 2021’s Bergman Island, written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are a filmmaking couple who travel to Faro Island to attend a film screening and generally be Bergman Tourists. Krieps’ character is having trouble working, while Roth’s is very productive. In Bergman style, we see a film-within-a-fim, along with reminders that we, as audience members, are watching a film in progress. If that looks confusing, my apologies. But if you’re familiar with Bergman’s films, you’ll get it as soon as you see this movie.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Next time around, the influential director is Howard Hawks, and we look at another pair of modern-era films. We begin with Speed (1994), directed by Jan de Bont. (Some people call it The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.) Then we move on to The Martian, from 2013 and directed by Ridley Scott. This may be the only science fiction movie that has an inaccuracy in it that has actually turned off some viewers completely. Fie on them, I say.

Join us, won’t you?

Reel 81: In the Style of Hitchcock

Can I just take a moment to sit back and look proudly upon this episode’s cover art? It wasn’t tough to make but I really like the way it came out.

Okay, onward:

It’s often fun to see a film and realize that there’s something about it that reminds you of another filmic work. Maybe it’s a plot point. Maybe it’s the director’s use of the camera. Maybe it’s the overall feel of the thing. And maybe it’s just homage.

In this episode we’re looking at a pair of films that look and feel as though they’d been directed by Alfred Hitchcock. But in fact, Hitchcock was long dead by the time these films were released. (To be fair, he may have been alive while the first one was being made, but still.)

We begin with Diva, a film from 1981 that was directed and co-written by
Jean-Jacques Beineix. Based solely on the title and perhaps the artwork, you’d never have any idea that it’s a taut thriller. It’s got corrupt cops. It has French mobsters. It’s got opera singers and their groupies. It’s got a teenage thief who doubles as a muse for an artist-cum-philosopher. And, because it’s in the style of Hitchcock, it’s got a McGuffin. (MacGuffin? Research says they’re both right, but “Mc” looks better to my eye.) And that’s not all.

From there we jump ahead to 2006 and a film called Tell No One, directed and co-written by Guillaume Canet. This is one based on Hitchcock’s “innocent man” tropes, where a person finds themselves at the center of a big mystery, and everyone thinks he’s the criminal. We spend the film watching him struggle to prove his innocence as the forces around him get closer and closer. Does he know more than he lets on? Is he, in fact, innocent? You’ll be guessing until the very end.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode we move from Hitchcock to Bergman. Reel 82 looks at two films made in the style of Ingmar Bergman: Away From Her (2006) and then the aptly-titled Bergman Island (2021). Join us, won’t you?

Reel 57: Wedding Blues

To quote from a certain Very Impressive Clergyman, “Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today.”

Weddings are kind of weird. You get a lot of friends and family together, and it’s a multi-day thing leading up to a relatively small amount of time for the ceremony and subsequent reception. (It reminds me of the Super Bowl in that respect.) And as we learn during this stop in our Twenty Films Around the World series, there’s a certain commonality to them. It doesn’t matter what the specific ritual is regarding the wedding itself. Lots of people come. Some are related, some aren’t. People get stressed. Tempers flare. Emotions run high and truths are revealed. And often, the wedding/reception leads to a couple of people becoming couples themselves.

And we see all of these things and more in today’s episode. First on the projector is 2001’s Monsoon Wedding, a comedy directed by Mira Nair. It’s a little bit Hollywood, a little bit Bollywood, and does a wonderful job of bringing multiple cultures together in one place. And there are a couple of subplots which start in one place but end in a very different one.

From there we jump to another Indian neighborhood, but only briefly, as the story for After the Wedding makes a jump to Denmark. Suzanne Bier’s 2006 film takes its main character to Copenhagen for what’s ostensibly a business deal, but it turns out that there’s a lot more than meets the eye. And, as I said earlier, truths are revealed.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Our journey Around the World in Twenty Films continues with visits to Japan and Spain. First up is When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, from 1960. Then it’s 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a slightly misleading translation of the original title. Go watch them! Then come back here!

Reel 55: Another Brick in the Berlin Wall

Or, “Sean Gives Me Hell For Writing Another T00-Clever Title.”

Our tour Around the World in Twenty Films lands us in Germany this time around, and we begin with  The Lives of Others, a 2006 drama which is set in Communist East Germany in (go figure) 1984. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck wrote and makes his directorial debut with this film. Sebastian Koch plays an East German playwright who winds up under government scrutiny not because of his political views, but because his girlfriend doesn’t want to date the Minister of Culture. There are lots of twist and turns in this film, and a couple of surprises besides, but while the ending has a little bit of a bleak feel, there’s also a lot of hope attached to it.

From there we move on to The Baader-Meinhof Complex, from 2008. This film, directed by Uli Edel, takes us on a ten-year journey as we follow the true-story activities of a terrorist group that had the political world of West Germany tied up in knots. As the group goes from simply causing damage to intentionally killing people, the pressure ratchets up to break the back of this group. Do they succeed? Go watch the film, or read a book. (You know there’s an expectation that you’ve seen the film before listening to the episode, right?) (Not that it matters, who are we to tell you what to do?) (Either way, we won’t tell.)

Our deep-dive into this film will settle a few mysteries except for the title. So be prepared to live with that.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

In Episode 56 we begin studying films from different countries rather than looking at same-nation pairs. We start with Exotica, a 1994 Canadian film written and directed by Atom Egoyan, and then we check out The Edge of Paradise, a German-Turkish film from 2007 with a non-linear storyline. Don’t worry; you’ll be able to follow it just fine.

Reel 15: Foreign Exchange, Part 2

Our look at non-English language films and their English counterparts continues. First up is our review of the film Infernal Affairs (2002), co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Then we turn our attention to its American cousin, The Departed, the 2006 film directed by Martin Scorsese.

In this case the films aren’t clones of one another to the extent that we saw in the last episode, but the storylines remain quite close despite the big cultural jump from Hong Kong to Boston. But whether you watch it in English or in Chinese (or both—no reason not to watch both!), you’re in for a tension-filled good time.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next time we get to Part 3 of this mini-series, as we look at The Seven Samurai (1954) and The Magnificent Seven (1960). Brace yourself, those are a couple of lengthy films, but well worth your time. And in-between Reels 15 and 16, there’ll be another bit of bonus audio as Claude takes some time to complain about the American educational system with regard to Arts programs.

Reel 11: Apocalypse Later

In this episode we’ve chosen a couple of near-future films in which humanity seems doomed for one reason or another. First up in our Double Feature is 1995’s 12 Monkeys, directed by Terry Gilliam, involving a plague, time travel, mental illness and, of course, World War One. 

After the Intermission we’re looking at Children of Men, co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón and released in 2006. Was there a plague? We don’t know. Will this situation resolve? Again, we don’t know. But for all the unknowns in this film, we get some powerful, powerful moments and we guarantee you’ll want to watch this one several times. 

COMING ATTRACTIONS: We’re going to lighten the mood a little bit with a couple of older films: Stage Door (1937), featuring Katharine Hepburn in the role that led to so many people doing the same Katharine Hepburn impression, and All About Eve (1950), featuring Bette Davis in the role that led to so many people doing the same Bette Davis impression.