Rowan Sullivan

441

Portrait

Portrait Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Image result for portrait loznitsaAnother long day at work? Take a 30 minute break and watch the calming, Zen like images of Loznitsa’s Portrait. It’s a collection of portraits of people living in the snow draped countryside of old Soviet Russia. The pictures are eerie, soothing remnants of a time gone. There are no signs of technology here so hide your smart phone screen and transport yourself to another place.

Why Watch Portrait?
  • You’ve seen Ansel Adams’ photos of depression era U.S. and want to see a collection of eerie moving images of Russia from the same time
  • To see how ordinary folk lived in Soviet Russia
  • For a bit of calm in your hectic routine
  • It’s only 28 minutes long, and you it’s currently here on YouTube
The Breakdown

Grey clouds move across a grey sky above a barren field. The first image is of a man holding a knapsack with a train and electricity pylons in the background. Snow covers the ground and the immobile train. The electricity pylons show no signs of life where this man lives. The second image is of a man in layers of winter gear. His coat wavers in the wind. The only things in the background are a few small sheds and a couple of snow laden trees.

In the Soviet countryside there are signs of progress but there is no evidence of it serving the people on camera. Instead the stationary trains and electricity pylons depict unfulfilled promises of advancement that ignored the rural people. Just like the affected people in Ansel Adams’ pictures of post-depression America, Loznitsa’s film documents the lack of progress for rural Soviet Russia.

Unlike Adams’ pictures, Loznitsa’s images move in the wind. The historic images are alive, but are also frozen in time. It is as if we have stepped out of a time travel machine to find all the people staring at us, like the birds in Hitchcock’s thriller. But there will be no jump in this documentary, just a collection of eerie images. The people have become part of the landscape and have become weathered along side it. Only the wind moves, carrying time with it.

Conclusion

Loznitsa’s Portrait is almost Zen-like film that documents a way of life frozen in time. Whilst signs of progress appear in the background, it has not touched the people of the Soviet countryside. They are statues of a life that will not be changed. They are statues captured in film. To transport yourself away from your routine, take 30 minutes out to watch Potrait.

This film can be found here on Youtube

 

442

Battle In Heaven

Battle in Heaven Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

This film is provocatively shocking! Even more so than the most shocking scenes of Heli or Y Tu Mama Tambien. If you’re not a fan of provocative images then this might not be for you. But if you can handle it, watch on, and see Mexico City. Witness the power structures, class divides, religion, and football.

Why Watch Battle in Heaven?
  • For something very provocative, like a lot of Mexican films!
  • To see Mexico City: the streets, the people, the shops, the rich neighbourhoods, and more
  • Big juxtapositions: Ugliness vs. Beauty, Rich vs. Poor, Powerful vs. Weak
  • For a pretty cool soundtrack (which often ends up distracting Carlos)
The Breakdown

In one of the most controversial openings of a film ever, the film opens with a close up of Carlos’ chubby face. He is middle aged, bearded, has dishevelled hair, and wears big glasses. He is not attractive. The camera then slowly pans down his naked body, showing us his man boobs and huge belly. However instead of showing us his penis, we see the back of a female head with matted hair. Just in case it is not obvious what she is doing, the camera cuts to the side, showing her young face sucking the penis of this fat, middle aged man.

It is not the oral sex that is that is the most shocking part of the introduction but the pairing of the old man with the young woman. These two people should not be together. However, Reygadas later challenges our prejudices when he shows the naked bodies of Carlos and his even more chubby wife. Their paired naked bodies are even more repulsive than the opening scene, even though their pairing is way more normal. Provocation is a theme of Battle in Heaven, and Reygadas shows us shocking images of things that are wrong, and things that are not wrong, but equally shocking.

Outside of the provocation, Battle in Heaven portrays Mexico City well. Reygadas shows us the streets, the stall run by Carlos’ wife, and the rich neighbourhoods and the city centre. He also depicts two of the biggest things that constitute Mexico: Religion and Football. Firstly, there are a lot of football fanatics. The chief police inspector is wearing a football shirt, there’s an entire scene at a football game, and the Pumas win the Championship. Secondly, religion dominants the mise-en-scene (the setting) throughout. There are plenty of religious icons and pictures in all the houses (although not Ana’s house), there is a religious march of pilgrims, and we are shown the real image of La Virgen in the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.

Conclusion

Battle in Heaven is dominated by some controversial film that, on one hand, challenge us, but on the other, might put you of from watching on. If you can look past the provocation, and the relatively bare plot, Reygadas’ film is a well thought out portrait of Mexico City. It is an opportunity to see what drives the city (football and religion), the rich/poor divide, the power structures (military and police), whilst watching city life.

443

Toni Erdmann

Toni Erdmann Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

“Don’t lose your humour”

The message of Mr. Erdmann is one we should all live by. Never lose your humour and do not take life too seriously. This film is for anyone who wants to have a laugh (granted there haven’t been many comedies featured on this site). Luckily for you, Toni Erdmann, will keep you laughing until after the film has finished. You’ll understand once you’ve seen it – no one saw that coming! It’s also up for an Oscar at the 2017 Academy Awards!

Why Watch Toni Erdmann?
  • It’s hilarious (suitable for Monty Python fans, Airplane fans, Napoleon Dynamite fans, Some Like it Hot fans, and more)
  • Like the best comedies, this one is also explores other issues, most notably where we look for happiness
  • You thought your dad was embarrassing? Mr. Erdmann is the next level!
  • See a little bit of Romanian society, and a Bulgarian Kukeri suit
The Breakdown

Toni Erdmann starts with a postman delivering a package to Mr. Erdmann. He rings the doorbell, and seconds later Mr. Erdmann answers and confusedly asks the postman who the package is for. It is addressed to Toni Erdmann. Mr. Erdmann then says that his brother must have ordered it – he’s fresh out of jail for using mail bombs. He disappears into the house whilst the postman stands there worrying about if the package is another mail bomb. Mr. Erdmann reappears, this time dressed in glasses and goofy teeth, posing as his ‘brother.’

Mr. Erdmann sees his daughter a few scenes later at his wife’s house but she is always on the phone setting up meetings and working. She is only in Germany for a few days, having taken a few days off from her job in Romania. To surprise her, Mr. Erdmann decides to fly to Romania. He obviously hoped to find a happy daughter because of her very successful career, but we can tell that this is not the case. We know she has not found happiness by the sad frown on her face (she never smiles), the dying plants in her apartment, and her fatigue (from her awful sleeping pattern).

Her life is full of superficiality. She is too focused on her career to be happy, she does things she doesn’t want to do, like take her clients’ wife shopping, and loses herself at fancy parties. Mr. Erdmann tries to awaken her through his strange humour. He dons a wig, glasses, and fake teeth and pretends to be her CEO’s ‘Life Coach’. Of course, she doesn’t see the funny side of his antics. However, he hilariously keeps making fun of himself and her fake life to try and help her out of her sombre life.

Conclusion

In a world where there is a glut of unfunny American comedies that all seem the same, Toni Erdmann is a breath of fresh air. Through the laughs which rise to a crescendo in the last 20 minutes, there is also a message: never lose your sense of humour. Mr. Erdmann certainly hasn’t and spends a month trying to make sure his daughter has not lost hers.

 

444

Tabu

Tabu Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Are you up for seeing one of the most interesting and unique films of the 21st century? Here’s Tabu. It will introduce you to life in Lisbon and life in the old Portuguese colonies of Africa. It will also get you trying to figure out the film’s meaning whilst you are lulled by the gorgeous black and white cinematography. The best thing to do is to sit back, relax, and let Miguel Gomes tell you this story.

Why Watch Tabu?
  • It’s one of the greatest Portuguese films of the 21st Century
  • For a completely different take on colonisation to Embrace of the Serpent
  • To hear an awesome soundtrack (and a goofy band picture shoot)
  • Learn about saudade: a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return
The Breakdown

A Portuguese explorer wanders the African wilderness looking for something. He stares into the abyss whilst Africans carry his belongings past him. From the soothing voice of the narrator and the tingling piano we learn that the explorer is searching for an end. Not the end of the world, but an end to his life after his wife died back in Portugal. To end his life, he throws himself into a swamp as prey for the crocodiles. Ever since that moment, locals see apparitions of a woman sitting beside a sad looking crocodile.

Tabu is broken into two parts, following the introduction. The first part, titled ‘A Lost Paradise’ follows a middle aged activist called Pilar. She lives alone in an apartment in Lisbon. The only thing she looked forward to was a visit from a young Polish girl, however, at the airport the girl rejects her whilst posing as someone else. Her only friends are her old neighbour Aurora and Aurora’s assistant, Santa. Pilar is captured perfectly in one shot of her looking out across Lisbon from her balcony at night. Because of the darkness, she merges into the darkness and the city she looks at, connecting her loneliness and melancholy to the city she lives in. Both are full of melancholy and looking for definition.

The second part is titled ‘Paradise’ and focuses on Aurora’s years in Africa. ‘Paradise’ is filmed without dialogue. Instead the director, Gomes, opts for a narrator. Because of this, the whole section becomes a nostalgic ode to the past. It shows saudade (definition in the bullet points above) for the colonial times, a time when Aurora was free to define her life, in contrast to Pilar’s vague life in Lisbon. Whilst Tabu celebrates the freedom of living in a colony, it does not condone colonialism. Instead it offers a critique of the state of contemporary Portuguese society, that it still looks back to an imperial past for self definition.

Conclusion

Tabu is the perfect representation of saudade in film. It offers a nostalgic look at Portuguese colonialism whilst critiquing it. Watch this gem alongside the beautiful Colombian Embrace of the Serpent for an exploration of European colonisation.

(For the more advanced film viewer, I’d also recommend pairing either Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution or the 7.5 hour Melancholia by Filipino Lav Diaz with the above)

445

Aniki Bobo

Aniki Bobo Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Looking for a place to start with Portuguese films? Well here’s your perfect introduction. Aniki Bobo will take you back to the Golden Age of Portuguese film so you can witness the debut film from one of Portugal’s most respected directors: Manoel de Oliveira. In addition, this film has an easy narrative to follow and some adorable and scary schoolkids!

Why Watch Aniki Bobo?
  • You like Coming-of-Age films
  • For a look at the golden age of Portuguese film – a precursor to Italian neo-realism
  • See some street urchins ruled by mob-mentality Lord of the Flies style (this film came out 12 years before Lord of the Flies)
  • To see Manoel de Oliveira’s first feature film from a career spanning 8 decades!
The Breakdown

The film starts with 9/10 year old Carlitos reciting the Aniki Bobo nursery rhyme (a Portuguese version of eenie-meenie-miny-moe). His Mum reprimands him for moving around while she is combing his hair and the doll he is playing with falls to the floor and breaks. His mum forces him out the house with his school bag which has “Always Choose the Good Path” written on it. He runs to school, bumping into policeman on the way.

On their way into the classroom, all the little schoolkids throw their hats up onto a row of coat pegs and rush into the classroom. No one is interested in their reading lesson which the director shows by a Battleship Potemkin style tracking shot. The shot moves from the back to the front of the classroom, showing all the kids are playing around. The shot stops on Eduardo smiling widely. The teacher shouts his name to start reading, but he can’t read. So one of the nerds (he has slick parted hair and glasses) takes over and reads perfectly.

Eduardo can’t read, but he does win the attention of the girls. He also leads the other kids in games of thieves and policemen. As a result of the following equation, he is obviously the bully.

Illiteracy+Games Ringmaster+Girl getter = The Bully

Sure enough, he gets into fights with Carlitos over a girl that Carlitos pines for. It is their rivalry which is strongly reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies, and the lack of adults in the film.

Conclusion

Aniki Bobo is one of the best examples from the Portuguese Golden age of cinema. In this film, children replace adults which both conveys the lack of adult authority in Porto during the Second World War and serves as a metaphor for adult class relations in Portugal. A classic from a director that witnessed both the silent and digital age of film.