Rowan Sullivan

446

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.

 

447

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)

448

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.

 

449

Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution

Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

This film is 6 hours shorter than Melancholia but still just as hard to watch. You may not be accustomed to long takes and films which lack dialogue, so beware. That being said, those who take the time to watch Lav Diaz will be rewarded. He brings you as close to the Filipino psyche as you can get, allowing you to feel as if you are on the streets with the characters. Think of Lav Diaz’ films like a poem, the more you try to see and interpret, the more secrets you will find.

Why Watch Elegy to the Visitor from the Revolution?
  • To watch something that defies conventional film rules
  • Explore the effect of colonialism and dictatorship on the psyche of the Filipino people
  • For a quicker introduction to Lav Diaz than the 7.5 hour Melancholia
  • See the director playing electric guitar!
The Breakdown

All we see in the first shot is a road at night. Lav Diaz focuses on a zebra crossing with a restless woman pacing up and down at the other side of the crossing out-of-focus. No cars are passing down this street, it is empty. The woman lights a cigarette in frustration. As she walks a bit closer to us, we can see that she is a prostitute trying to signal a customer. Each minute, a single car approaches and she flicks back her hair and thrusts out her breasts, but she has no luck.

Just like in Melancholia each shot lingers for longer than we are used to, forcing us to observe each and every detail. As put by Lav Diaz:

I am capturing real time. I am trying to experience what these people are experiencing. They walk. I must experience their walk and I must experience their boredom and sorrows. I want people to experience the afflictions of my people who have been agonising for so long – under the Spaniards for more than 300 years, under the Americans for almost 100 years till now, under the Japanese [during WW2] and then under Marcos [and his 14 year fascist dictatorship].

Lav Diax splits Elegy to a visitor from the Revolution into three parts. An elegy to the first visit, an elegy to the last visit, and an elegy to the 2nd visit, in that order. Each part pieces together three scenes; of a prostitute, some gangsters, and a guitarist. Also, each part is visited by a ghostly figure of a woman who is the visitor from the Philippine Revolution of the late 1800s. She is a juxtaposition of the old and the modern. Her presence (and the three parts out of order) implies that Filipino history is cyclical. A cycle of colonisation/dictatorship and independence that has shaped the Filipino psyche. (Something that the recent election of brutal leader Duterte may replicate).

Conclusion

Elegy to a Visitor from the Revolution is another exploration by Lav Diaz of the Filipino psyche. Just as in Melancholia the Filipino people have not managed to escape the brutal history of colonisation and dictatorship. His long takes allow us to get as close to experiencing the silent suffering of the Filipinos.

450

I Killed My Mother

I Killed My Mother Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

You haven’t heard of Xavier Dolan? He’s the young darling of the Cannes film festival, and he deserves all the praise he has got. He proves that you are never too young to start (he wrote this script when he was 16) just as Ridley Scott and Michael Haneke prove that you’re never too old to start (directing their first feature films at 40 and 47 respectively). So watch I Killed My Mother for a semi-autobiographical look at one of the brightest stars in the international film world.

Why Watch I Killed My Mother?
  • Watch the debut of one of the film industry’s brightest talents, Xavier Dolan. He’s only 27 year old!
  • For another dive into mother-son relationships (also watch his Cannes Jury Prize winner Mommy)
  • Just in case you didn’t think he was talented enough, Xavier also plays the protagonist in this semi-autobiographical drama
  • Get familiar with Francophone Canada!
The Breakdown

We love our mothers unknowingly and only realise how deep-rooted that love is at the ultimate separation.

First we see Hubert’s eyes, then his face, as he is being interviewed by the camera. He talks about his mother and says that he could be anybody’s son. A montage of fake butterflies and kitschy statues precede a slow motion shot of Hubert’s mum eating a cream cheese bagel. Hubert begrudgingly tells her to wipe some food off her face.

Next, Hubert’s mum is driving him to school. All we see is a front-on view of the two characters through the front wind-shield sitting in the front two seats. The scene proceeds as follows:

  • Hubert berates his mum for putting on her make-up while driving
  • Mum complains that Hubert never talks
  • Mum then turns up radio when she hears something of interest
  • Hubert hates the ‘news propaganda’ and shouts at her to turn it off
  • Mum doesn’t so Hubert puts in headphones
  • Mum asks why he never wants to talk any more

The first 10 minutes are a portrait of the difficulty of motherhood and the difficulty of adolescence. It is always a battle of very few words.

It is the moments away from his mother that we truly get to know Hubert. With his mother there is no sign of himself; his creativity, his homosexuality, his sophistication, and honesty. Instead, at home, stuck within his mother’s suffocating furnishing and poor fashion style, there is no room for him to be himself. This is shown when he returns home from a party on speed and urgently tells his mother that he has so much to say to her but not enough time or words to say it. In this moment we see that he wants to be understood by her, he wants to tell her everything, but he cannot. He, like many adolescents can never get back the openness of communication they had with their parents that they used to have during their childhood.

Conclusion

Xavier Dolan’s stylish debut feature is a testament of his talent (which has been justified at Cannes). Use of special features, like slow motion, montages, and intimate black and white interviews contribute to his style. He is an auteur (meaning he is a director with a distinguishable style) in a world where they are harder to come by. Do yourself a favour and check out this film, and then some more of his films (such as Mommy).