Category: Shorts

‘Justice’ in Today’s China: LFM Reviews When Night Falls @ The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Ying Liang is an artist without a country. In large measure, this film is why. After it premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival earlier this year, word reached Ying that he should not to return to China—or else. A dramatized documentary about the suspicious irregularities surrounding the prosecution (or persecution) of an accused murderer is hardly the project to curry favor with the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, any production from a filmmaker of Ying’s integrity necessarily entails risk in today’s China. As a result, When Night Falls will be even more timely and significant when it screens during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

After suffering a severe beating at the hands of the Shanghai police, Yang Jia allegedly firebombed the police courtyard, stormed the station, and stabbed six active duty officers to death. This sounds like a man they should have recruited for their special forces. Instead, they tried and convicted him in a series of kangaroo courts, while holding his mother Wang Jingmei incommunicado for one hundred forty-three days in a Soviet-style mental hospital. None other than Ai Weiwei filed a missing person report on her behalf. By the time she is finally released, her son’s fate is effectively sealed, but the mother and a well-meaning but unwieldy group of human rights attorneys desperately try to overturn Yang Jia’s death sentence.

Without question, Night is a forceful indictment of the Chinese justice system, which the government has so cleverly rebutted by harassing Ying’s parents and threatening him with arrest. At each step of the case, Ying makes it clear the police and prosecutors disregarded their own rules to suit their purposes. Several times characters flat-out denounce the state, including the judges passing sentence, as the real criminals in this affair. That is rather bold filmmaking in contemporary China, some might even say foolhardy, but it in no way excuses the Party’s vindictive response.

Ying is a very good filmmaker, but he is also a demanding one. He definitely shares some of the aesthetic sensibilities of Jia Zhangke and the so-called Digital Generation of independent filmmakers. Severely restrained, Night is like an anti-melodrama, despite the gross injustice and tragedy unfolding around Wang Jingmei. Yet, there is no mistaking her terrible anguish thanks to Nai An’s remarkable performance. Viewers can feel in their bones how broken this woman is, as she struggles to find a way to keep fighting for her son.

Ying notably incorporates still photos (some courtesy of the real Wang Jingmei) to establish the facts of the case with economy and quiet authority. Nonetheless, though Night clocks in at a manageable seventy minutes, it is not a film for the easily distracted. Thoughtfully put together and honest in every way, When Night Falls is highly recommended for those who can handle its uncompromising style and a depressing shot of the truth when it screens this Thursday (9/13) and Friday (9/14) as a Wavelengths selection at this year’s TIFF.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on September 12th, 2012 at 11:25am.

LFM Reviews While We Were Here

By Govindini Murty. Kat Coiro’s While We Were Here (see a clip above) is the latest in a tradition of stories about travelers whose lives are transformed by Italy. From Goethe’s famous trip to Italy and its echoes in his Wilhelm Meister novels to William Wyler’s Roman Holiday, Merchant Ivory’s A Room With a View, and Mike Newell’s Enchanted April, Italy has long worked its magic on voyagers to its mythic shores.

While We Were Here presents an understated variation on this familiar theme. Jane (Kate Bosworth), a quiet and somewhat melancholy writer, journeys to southern Italy with her husband, the dour Leonard (Iddo Goldberg). Leonard, a viola player, has been invited to perform in a concert in Naples. While Leonard spends his days in rehearsal, Jane wanders the streets of Naples, experiencing life at second-hand. The mediated nature of Jane’s existence is reinforced by the fact that rather than interact with any of the locals, she spends her time listening to tape-recorded conversations of her Grandmother Eves (Claire Bloom) discussing her experiences during WWII. All this is purportedly for a book that Jane is writing, but Grandma Eves’ lively reminiscences about life during the war form a pointed contrast to Jane’s anomie in the peace and plenty of the present. One day Jane makes an impulsive decision to take a ferry to the island of Ischia off the coast of Naples – and there falls into a romance with an American lad named Caleb (Jamie Blackley) living a carefree existence on the island.

Kate Bosworth and Jamie Blackley in "While We Were Here."

While We Were Here is essentially a three-character chamber drama that plays outdoors in the glorious settings of Naples and Ischia. All the character’s problems are of an internal nature. Jane and Leonard have marriage problems, but even as Jane tries to address them, the gloomy Leonard prefers to disappear into the work of his viola rehearsals. Jane wants to write a book about her grandmother’s experiences in WWII, but she’s worried she can’t make the book interesting because of a lack of engagement on her part.

Kate Bosworth as Jane.

As for Caleb, his disruptive influence on Jane and Leonard’s lives is overtly likened to that of Dionysus, with one scene taking place in a grape arbor on Ischia and Caleb himself somewhat resembling Caravaggio’s portrait of the vine-bedecked god. However, even as Caleb pursues Jane, he has no job and no plans for his life. He quotes Vittoria Colonna’s sonnets to Michelangelo as he and Jane tour an Aragonese castle, he takes Jane riding on a scooter and swimming in the ocean, but their relationship doesn’t seem destined for much more than that. Indeed, it seems to be her grandmother’s voice-over about the fun she had with her American and Belgian boyfriends during WWII that spurs Jane on to her affair with Caleb in the first place. Ultimately, Jane makes her own choices, but the person having the most fun with life in the film may just be Claire Bloom’s earthy, albeit unseen, Grandma Eves.

While We Were Here is not only an homage to the great “voyage to Italy” films, but, with its black and white cinematography, also evokes the look of classic Italian Neorealist drama. As Jane wanders through the narrow streets of Spaccanapoli, one would almost expect a young Sophia Loren, in her role as a voluptuous pizza maker in De Sica’s The Gold of Naples, to appear around the corner. And though Kate Bosworth might be the physical opposite of Sophia Loren, her slim blonde beauty and reserved quality do resemble that of such ‘60s actresses as the pixyish Jean Seberg from Godard’s Breathless (even down to the striped sailor top) and the cool, lovely Monica Vitti in Antonioni’s masterpiece of alienation, L’Avventura. Beyond looks though, Bosworth’s strong, sensitive acting forms the emotional core of the film (in particular in one standout scene with Goldberg’s Leonard), and she and Blackley have a number of amusing scenes in which their easy banter make the movie eminently watchable.

Romance in Italy.

Regardless, it’s enough for me that the film is set in Naples and Ischia. Naples is one of my favorite cities, and although I haven’t yet made it to Ischia (I opted for Capri instead on a trip some years ago), it was delightful to see again the streets and sights of old Neapolis. I have many fond memories of wandering the narrow thoroughfares of Spaccanapoli (under which lie ancient Roman streets), down the long Via Toledo, through the 19th century glass and wrought iron Galleria Umberto I, and into the Cafe Gambrinus (den of literati and revolutionaries) for an espresso. Other favorite sights that appear in the film include the Teatro San Carlo, the vast hemispherical Piazza del Plebiscito with its Neoclassical church, and the impressive facade of the Bourbon-era Palazzo Real. The latter in particular has a charming old library surrounded by dusty palm trees that overlook the massive walls of the medieval Castel Nuovo (only in a land as ancient as Italy is a medieval castle described as ‘new’!). Even if the film’s characters don’t seem to revel in their surroundings, we certainly can.

While We Were Here is a pleasant diversion for a sunny summer day – which is hopefully when this film will be released. Screening at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, the film was produced by the same team behind the delightful With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, and was recently picked up for distribution by Arclight Entertainment.

LFM GRADE: B+

June 6th, 2012 at 7:15pm.

LFM Contributor Steve Greaves’ Tin Can Sailors Will Not Be Forgotten Premieres on The Documentary Channel, Memorial Day (Mon., 5/28)

Aside from Battleship and classic naval war movies, we want to encourage LFM readers  to spend Memorial Day watching a touching new documentary about real-life naval heroics from LFM contributor Steve Greaves, called Tin Can Sailors Will Not Be Forgotten. The film premieres this Memorial Day, Monday, May 28th on The Documentary Channel at 9:30pm EST/PST. You can watch Steve and other folks involved with the film talk about it above.

Tin Can Sailors tells the extraordinary World War II story of the USS Morris, a Sims Class destroyer that saw action from the North Atlantic all the way to the island-hopping campaigns against Imperial Japan. The Morris participated in a seemingly endless number of decisive battles during the war, including in the Battle of Coral Sea, the Guadalcanal campaign, the fighting around Leyte Gulf – and was nearly sunk by a kamikaze at Okinawa. For her efforts, the Morris received 15 battle stars for her action in World War II, placing her among the highest decorated American ships of the Second World War.

Tin Can Sailors tells the dramatic story of the Morris, and also documents how her remaining crew members to this day reunite to celebrate their service, and to honor their fallen shipmates who never made it back. Our own Steve Greaves co-directed the film, and also composed the film’s musical score. Tin Can Sailors is a moving tribute to the brave men and women of the Greatest Generation who fought the good fight and preserved our freedom, and we encourage LFM readers to take time out on Memorial Day to watch it on The Documentary Channel. You can also purchase the film here.

Posted on May 26th, 2012 at 12:14pm.

On Location with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo

For you classic movie lovers out there: Klara Tavakoli Goesche of the blog Retro Active Critiques recently put together this wonderful short video walking tour of the San Francisco locations of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, a video which recently debuted at Turner Classic Movies’ Movie Morlocks blog, together with an interview with Goesche conducted by classic movie blogger Kimberly Lindbergs. Check the video out above.

Posted on May 16th, 2012 at 11:57am.