Film Difficulty 3

To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to Film Difficulty 3.

Film Difficulty Ranking 3: More of a challenge for those familiar with foreign films. Level 3 is like a mix between an intriguing European mime artist and your most interesting and demanding school teacher.

If you’ve mastered these films, move onto Film Difficulty Ranking 4.

If Only – International Competition – SBIFF

In If Only, Alma and her older brothers are sent to Rome to spend New Years skiing with their dad. Life with him is a world apart from their mother. He’s a disorganised failing scriptwriter with a young partner whilst their mother is a converted orthodox Christian with a strict husband. Instead of skiing, which is just a front to show his ex wife he is a success, he takes them to his friend’s beach house.

By the beach, the kids make friends with some of the locals whilst their father and his younger partner argue, make love, and write. They are your typical dysfunctional family.

Nothing much happens in If Only which feels for the most part like your typical light hearted Italian art house film. As a result, it’s quite hard to describe. However, it succeeds because of the performances of Alma, her dad and his partner.

Alma, the 8 year old daughter, has the benefit of the narrative voice, which she uses to comically picture her dreams of reuniting her mother and father. She’s the naive one – always blissfully unaware of her fathers current relationship with his partner and her and her brothers. Her rose tinted glasses make this a heart warming disfuncional family film rather than a more depressing one.

Her dad plays the stereotypical Italian dad. He’s all over the place and always emotional. One second he’s writing and angry at anyone who disturbs him, the next he’s a loving dad that’s present but will disappear in another second. His partner plays a free loving, spontaneous woman that doesn’t shy away from anything. However she’s always the one in control vs. Alma’s dad.

The other two brothers don’t offer too much, apart from two events which the director uses to help bring the film to a close.

Ultimately, If Only is a nice coming of age Italian art house film featuring a dysfunctional family. It’s a light and enjoyable watch. However, outside of the three characters, there isn’t much to distinguish it from other films in the genre.

The 10th Victim (Italy)

The 10th Victim Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Yes! There is a film which is a combination of Austin Powers and The Hunger Games. It’s called The 10th Victim and it was made in Italy in the 1960s. You may be thinking: “how does it work?” My answer is: don’t worry about it, the dystopian world that director Elio Petri creates is worth your time. It’s colours, setting, and subtle critiques of modern society make this film one of the most unique films and one that you should watch.

Why Watch The 10th Victim?

To watch the Italian 60s equivalent to the Hunger Games
This dystopia is complete with brothels, minimalist furniture and fashion, artificial insemination centres, and no old people!
It features Marcello Mastroianni from La Dolce Vita and Ursula Andress (the first Bond girl)
To find out more about ‘The Big Hunt’ – “Hitler would have become a member”

The Breakdown

The 10th Victim starts with a gun shootout between a man and a woman in an abandoned warehouse. As they are firing at each other, a narrator pauses the action to explain what is going on. The man and woman are members of ‘The Big Hunt’, a game where one plays 5 times as a hunter and 5 times as a victim. As a hunter, you are given a target to kill. However, as a victim, you must try and find out who your hunter is and kill them before they kill you. The one who comes out alive after 10 rounds is honoured and given $1million. Would you become a member?

The ‘Big Hunt theory’ is advertised throughout the film with it’s many slogans. Here’s some of the best:

“If you are suicidal, the big hunt has a special place for you”
“An Enemy a day keeps the doctor away”
“Hitler would have become a member”

The whole event was thought up as an outlet for violence (an idea also shown in The Most Dangerous Game based on the Spartan Crypteia event).

In The 10th Victim the violence is limited to those who choose to take part in the big hunt. Taking part is a quick way to find fame as the best killers are constantly stalked by paparazzi and dominate the news. These killers are the equivalent of today’s celebrity. They relish the spotlight, support the biggest brands, and always have to look good for the camera. This is one of the strangest, memorable critiques of capitalism on film.

Conclusion

Elio Petri’s The 10th Victim is a pop-culture blast. The world he creates is unlike anything you’ve seen, with bright colours, minimalistic architecture, and one-tone clothing. The wacky soundtrack confirms that Elio Petri’s tongue was firmly in his cheek when he was making this film. The cheesiness and laughs are all part of the satire that makes fun of consumerism, corporations, and celebrity culture. What a strange but awesome film!

Nofinofy – Life as a Barber in Contemporary Madagascar

Nofinofy Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you’re looking for a Madagascan film which documents a barber over the course of a few years, Nofinofy is the film for you. It’s mostly a humble slice-of-life movie that depicts the everyday nature of Romeo’s profession. But as one of Romeo’s friends mentions, his job is an honorable one; every day customers entrust him with their heads. But more than that, his customers also loan him their ears. Throughout each haircut, he gives his young customers unsolicited pieces of advice to help them through life, and for his older customers, he’s allowed to converse as he might to old friends, which gives him temporary relief from the burdens the government imposes on his barber shop. His dream of owning his own shop is repeatedly delayed by a city council that forces him to relocate every couple of months. His ever-moving barber shop mirrors the ever-changing city governments.

From: Madagascar, Africa
Watch: Trailer, Mubi
Next: Na China, Boxing Libreville, Inland Sea

Atlantiques (Senegal) – Get to Grips with the Perils of Illegal Immigration

Atlantiques Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Have you ever met someone who has crossed an Ocean/Sea in a canoe to find work? Here’s your chance to find out more about why some choose to migrate illegally, and about the perilous journey’s they take to find work. Watch Atlantiques for free here (Amazon – link may expire by 22.04.18).

Image result for atlantiques film

Why Watch Atlantiques?

Learn why some people choose to illegally migrate to Europe
Hear about the perilous journeys some immigrants take
To put yourself in the shoes of an immigrant and question what you might do if you had nothing to eat
It’s a short film directed by a female director!

The Breakdown

One day, Serigne chose to board a pirogue (a big canoe, often with sails) to travel from Senegal to Europe. The journey almost killed him. Waves as high as multi-story buildings whipped the pirogue that he was on making him feel like he was in a building that was tumbling to the ground. Simply put, the journey illegal immigrants undertake is often not pleasant.

Plus, the journey isn’t always the worst part…

You could reach your destination after a perilous and often expensive journey and immediately getting deported.
You have to say goodbye to your family, not knowing if you’ll ever come back home and see them again.

So why do so many people try and migrate every year? Serigne migrated because he had nothing but dust in his pockets and his family didn’t have anything to eat. Migrating was his attempt to put himself in a position to be able to feed his starving family.

How Mati Diop uses setting to bring the character’s and audience closer together

Most of the film is shot around a camp fire where Serigne and his friends debate migration and tell each other their experiences. It’s an intimate setting which draws us closer into their conversation and closer to their thoughts and experiences. Mati Diop deliberately chooses this setting because it brings the audience closer to the characters and to illegal immigration. By introducing us to Serigne (an illegal immigrant) in an intimate setting, we are more likely to sympathise with him and his experience, rather than judge him and illegal immigration without trying to understand it.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

For more Senegalese film, check out the brilliant Black Girl , the story of one Senegalese girl brought to France to work for a French family. It’s full of injustice and currently available to watch here on YouTube.

If you’re interested in seeing more films about illegal immigration, check out the Central American thriller Sin Nombre. Also check out the brilliant Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and the family friendly Paddington (Amazon) for films about the migrant experience.

The Harder They Come (Jamaica) – Tune in For Reggae and Guns

The Harder They Come Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you like reggae you need to watch The Harder They Come. The reggae soundtrack is the star of this film which brought reggae to the world. You’ll also meet Ivan (played by Jimmy Cliff) a poor man from rural Jamaica trying to make it in the city.

Why Watch The Harder They Come?

The soundtrack – it brought reggae to the world
It’s the first film made in Jamaica by Jamaicans speaking Jamaican Patois
If you like shoot-outs and general chaos (just like the good old Westerns)
Experience a bit of Jamaica by watching it here on YouTube

The Breakdown

Ivan is traveling from rural Jamaica to the city in search of work after his grandmother dies. On the way to his mother’s house in Kingston, his bus almost crashes as it tears round downhill bends and a porter almost runs away with all his belongings after he arrives. This opening is all set to a energetic reggae soundtrack, giving you a chaotic introduction to the life and sound of Jamaica.

Ivan comes to the city in search of work, however work is scarce. Everywhere he goes he meets unskilled people like him also looking for work. He eventually manages to get a job after he fixes a broken bicycle, but gets thrown into prison after he slashes the bikes original owner when he tries to take it back. It’s at this stage of the film that Ivan’s hate for authority starts building.

So, why does Ivan grow to hate authority?

He’s whipped by the police for slashing the man who tries to take his old bike back
A rich record producer forces Ivan to sell his hit song for a pitiful $20
The preacher he works for at the church bullies him

You’re led to believe that it’s a combination of these reasons that makes Ivan kill a cop. However, it’s the film he watches (Django) which causes him to continue killing cops. The film romanticizes the outsider fighting against authority. In the clip we see, Django takes on a whole regiment of KKK members by himself while the whole crowd cheers on.

And it’s these shots of the crowd cheering on Django that director Perry Henzell chooses to show us interrupting Ivan’s cop-killing spree. Ivan’s popularity and fame grows rapidly when he’s on the run, much quicker than after he sold his hit song to that rich record producer. Like Django, he becomes an anti-hero in Jamaica because he’s a poor, downtrodden man who stands up to authority. Even though cop-killing isn’t really justified, the public cheer him on.

Image result for the harder they come

Conclusion

Whilst Henzell gives Ivan enough reason to hate authority, he doesn’t really justify Ivan’s complete u-turn mid-film from a guy trying to find work into a full on criminal. As a result, a lot of the sympathy you feel for Ivan which is built up in the first half of the movie is forgotten.

Therefore, my advice is not to watch this film for it’s plot. For example, you wouldn’t watch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator for it’s great storyline. Instead, watch this film because it’s entertaining, it has a great soundtrack, and it finally brought Jamaica to the big screen.