France

1

La Haine (Hate)

La Haine Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

This film was so provocative and great that the French Prime Minister at the time commissioned a mandatory screening for all entire French cabinet. The film brings social unrest to the big screen, showing us that Paris is not the romantic and happy city that Hollywood and beyond have portrayed it as. Here are the people we have forgotten. Like Taxi Driver and Do the Right Thing, La Haine gives a voice to the marginalised.

Why Watch La Haine?
  • You have been to Paris and seen the Eiffel Tower
  • If you love a good cinema verite film (other cinema verite favourites include Che, and Battle of Algiers)
  • For a male equivalent to Girlhood
  • Because just like Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, this film is a timeless representation of social unrest
The Breakdown

I’m not even going to narrate the opening scene. Instead here’s the opening quote, read over the top of ‘documentary’ film of rioting in Paris.

Heard about the guy that fell off the skyscraper? As he falls, he tries to reassures himself by repeating:

“So far, so good. So far, so good.

It’s not the fall that matters. It’s the landing.

But it’s not just the powerful narrative that makes La Haine a great movie, the film is also full of incredible camera work. Pay attention to the introduction of Said. He is introduced, facing forward, in the middle of the frame with the housing projects behind him. His eyes are shut, but as the camera zooms into his face, they open. The director cuts to a POV shot with only the back of Said’s head in focus. As the camera moves towards Said, it focuses on what he is looking at, a bunch of policeman who are as static as the birds in Hitchcock’s Birds. They are not here to serve and protect. This sets up the rising tensions between Said and his crew and the police.

For all of you who are familiar with New York City hip-hop, this paragraph is for you. For all of those who aren’t familiar with New York City hip-hop, go listen to Nas’ Illmatic and tell me if it could be a soundtrack to La Haine. Here’s my reasoning:

  • Hip-hop culture is prominent throughout the film, from breakdancing to DJing, it’s all covered.
  • The words “The World is Yours” (the main track on Illmatic) feature on a billboard which Said changes to “The World is Ours” to claim the streets and city which he lives in despite their disenfranchisement.
  • Both portray teenagers trapped within urban poverty and categorised because of it – there is no way out.
Conclusion

This film garnered so much critical buzz at Cannes and beyond. It is a timeless portrayal of disenfranchised teenagers growing up in the forgotten realms of cities. In addition, the camera work is extremely innovative. This might be the earliest film you’ve seen which uses drone cameras. In fact, apart from the appearance of Francs in the film (France’s old currency), I would have believed someone if they said that this film was made in the last few years.

(For an excellent piece on this film I’d recommend reading Indiewire’s review of the film 20 years on right here, although beware of Spoilers!)

2

Girlhood – A New-Wave of French Film?

Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

More in line with the likes of Adulthood than Boyhood, Girlhood is an artistic dive into the black working class blocks of Paris. Marieme is our heroine/anti-heroine, a black female who is forced to make a life for herself after she is denied high-school education. Can she weave her way through all the obstacles thrown her way? Or is she confined by her identity and social standing?

Why Watch Girlhood?
  • To see Paris as you probably haven’t seen it before – where concrete towers replace the Eiffel tower.
  • You’re a fan of coming-of-age films
  • Witness the potential of GIRL POWER
  • Check out some beautifully coloured cinematography
The Breakdown

An heavy techno beat breathes life into the darkness of the opening credits. Floodlights break up the darkness as a group of American football players run out of a dimly lit tunnel onto the pitch. One of the girls scores a touchdown and everyone starts celebrating and singing, before the lights shut off and darkness is back. The opening briefly shows us the power of girl groups and also marks the first screen-wipe of darkness.

Pay attention when the director black-washes the screen as each time marks a key point in Marieme’s adolescence. Each time is like the ending and beginning of a new chapter. Each time also follows either a happy or sad moment that defines Marieme. I’d also recommend paying attention to the soundtrack, as the director chooses particular moments for when the songs are played. For example, Marieme and her friends sing along to Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ at a time when their happiness and freedom is high. At this moment, the song emphasises their happiness and camaraderie.

Whilst the screen-wipes and songs signify key moments of the film, I am not sure what the role of the colours are. Nevertheless, the colours are beautiful. From the pale blue and pink hues of Marieme’s bedroom walls, lit up by a dim lamp to the slightly washed out colours of daylight in the concrete jungle. The vivid dark blue and black hues of the hotel-room party strongly reminded me of the beautiful cinematography of Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. See the beautiful colours for yourself and leave a comment if you think you know what they signify.

Conclusion

Girlhood is an important film. The director’s goal was to capture the stories of black teenagers, characters that are mostly underdeveloped in French films. In addition to race, this film is important because it also challenges conceptions of gender and class. All three; gender, class, and race (in that order?) come together to put obstacles in Marieme’s way. Can she escape?

 

 

 

 

3

Towards The Battle – Spain/Latin American Competition – SBIFF

In Towards the Battle, Louis, a French photographer, gets lost in French occupied Mexico in the 1860’s. He wants to photograph the French-Mexican War, but gets lost in the Mexican wilderness trying to find it. However, his encounter with Pinto, a Mexican peasant, gives him the companion and support he needs to carry out his quest.

Louis is in Mexico as commissioned by the French army. He holds a permission slip from the French general which acts as his pass to freely travel the region without reprimand from the roaming French army. It’s the only thing that separates Louis from the rabble of the French army. If he loses it, he’d be conscripted into the army, or, if he’s lucky, sent back to France.

Whilst he can escape from the marauding French army, he can’t escape from the Mexican wilderness. As the scenery changes from mountainous scrub-land to deep rain-forest, Louis is (literally) one step away from a premature death. It’s obvious he can’t survive by himself with two horses carrying his huge amount of photography gear. Luckily for him, a Mexican peasant named Pinto finds him when he’s starving and gives him the food he needs to survive.

From that moment on, they become Don Quixote and Sancho Panza-esque partners. Louis is Don Quixote: a leader of a well off background that loses himself in the quest of one of his hobbies. Instead of chivalry, Louis drags a mountain of photographic equipment across the Mexican wilderness in search of a war that doesn’t appear to exist. When Pinto finds him, he’s already gone a bit mad in his quest to capture a photo of the elusive war. Pinto is Louis’ Sancho Panza: a Mexican peasant that knows Louis is mad, and doesn’t understand him (he doesn’t speak French), but happily goes along with Louis’ delusional quest because he’s got nothing better to do. Along the way, he saves Louis a couple of times, and subordinates himself to him to allow Louis to live out his fantasy. The Don Quixote allegory gives Towards the Battle a timeless feel, and gives an extra layer to Louis’ madness and his slow progression to his own awareness which he reaches in the final scenes.

From the scenery to the setting to the characters, Towards the Battle was one of the films that flew under the SBIFF radar. It’s a well made update of Cervantes’ Don Quixote applied to the French occupation of Mexico. It’s used to show the madness of the French in Mexico and the absurdity of the French occupation of Mexico. The French (Louis) and Don Quixote both live a world away from the reality.

4

Three Lives and Only One Death (France) – Enter a Dream World+

Three Lives and Only One Death Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Do you want to get lost in reality? Try watching Three Lives and Only One Death. It follows Marcello Mastroianni as a character that spans a few storylines in and around Paris. At times the story lines seem normal, but before long you’ll realise that they are just illusions. See if you can find your way around Raul Ruiz’s world – free to watch here on YouTube.

Image result for three lives and only one death

Why Watch Three Lives and Only One Death?
  • If you like your films mysterious (think David Lynch or Ingmar Bergman)
  • For Marcello Mastroianni in one of his last roles (the great actor from La Dolce Vita, Divorce: Italian Style, and many more)
  • To question your own reality
  • You can watch it here on YouTube
The Breakdown

A narrator that looks like a late night news anchor starts the film. As he starts narrating about a man who wakes up because of a baby crying, we see the man he is talking about. The narrator tells us that the man has a headache and goes to the pharmacy, and then, as if controlled by the narrator, the man on screen does the same.

In the pharmacy queue, another man starts talking to our protagonist. It starts off like the normal expected small talk before becoming much more unnerving for our protagonist. This stranger reveals that he knows exactly where this man lives, who he is, and who his wife is. Our protagonist wants to get away from him but the man offers him a lot of money just to sit down and chat with him.

From then on, it gets even weirder. The man reveals that he was the previous husband of our protagonists wife. He tells him he didn’t disappear for 20 years but rather lost 20 years of his time watching these little fairies (yes that wasn’t a typo). He even takes our protagonist into another room to show him these fairies. At this point the camera goes completely red and zooms in and out to disorientate us. Where are we? And what is real? Only the director Raul Ruiz knows!

Conclusion

You’ll experience a lot more of the unnerving world that Raul Ruiz has created if you watch the full film. There’s plenty of things to throw you off. Just like in the great David Lynch and Ingmar Bergman films you’ll be questioning a lot by the end of this film, but it is a great ride!

 

 

 

5

Only The Animals – International Competition – SBIFF

Only The Animals features a bunch of interconnecting narratives spanning across France and Cameroon. Each narrative is connected to the murder of a French woman during a snow storm in rural France. It’s weird, entertaining, and satisfying as every piece of the puzzle falls into place. Even the initially out of place opening of a man riding his bike through Abidjan with a goat on his back is eventually linked in and understood.

It’s a fun ride but I haven’t figured out what’s the point or message beyond ‘things happen by chance’. Not saying that it has to have a message – this film was enjoyable to watch – but it would turn a showy multiple narrative film into something better. Maybe I’m asking for too much after seeing the Trump era unravelling of a white upper class family in 2019s stand out murder mystery, Knives Out.

If anything it could be that everything the people aren’t grateful for gets reversed on them. E.g. Joseph is an inanimate loner who can’t love that ends up loving an inanimate loner who can’t love.

Only The Animals covers a lot but doesn’t feel slumped. While every character could have been given more of a backstory, it does fit the movie to not dwell so much. The fun is in watching the transcontinental story slowly unravel as each characters viewpoint layers onto the next.

Side note: slightly stereotypical story of witch doctors and scammers in Africa, even if it is hilarious watching them do their work to a horny middle aged white guy.