If you love great film or want to be guided around 1970s Mexico City, you’ve come to the right place. Roma is one of the best films you’ll see this century. It’s stream of consciousness narrative feels like life and memory, and the acting and cinematography is a visual treat. Open you’re mind and immerse yourself in Roma.
Soviet-made Cuban films don’t do half measures, they go all in. I am Cuba is no exception. The cinematography is more stylish than most films you’ll ever see and some of the shots are truly unforgettable. Add in Cuban history from the 1920s to the 1950s and you’ve got one truly epic film.
If you’ve ever dreamed of falling in love under the Italian sun, this film may just take you to dreamland. Call Me by Your Name has all the ingredients for a perfect romantic film. It’s got sun, fresh food, beautiful people, lakes and rivers, and freedom. All you’ll need is a glass of wine.
Why Watch Call Me by Your Name?
If you like sensual romance (also see Guadagnino’s I Am Love)
To escape to the beautiful Italian summer
It’s been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars
If you like coming-of-age stories
The Breakdown
Call Me by Your Name starts with 17 year old Elio. He’s chilling in his parents house in Northern Italy with his girlfriend Marzia for his summer holidays. A few seconds later, Oliver arrives, a grad student from Elio’s dad’s university class in America. He’s come to Europe for the summer to help Elio’s dad with his research and lap up the Italian sun.
The Italy we see in Call Me by Your Name is the Italy we dream of. The sun is forever shining and the warm colours almost give off the heat. As this is set in the 1980s, before Internet, there are no phones or computers as we know today, and these guys don’t watch TV. Instead, they swim, play volleyball, lounge in the sun, eat Al-fresco, and read. It’s pretty much the ideal summer holiday – everyone is happy and relaxed. Plus, the beautiful environment heightens the beauty of everyone within it.
It’s also no surprise that Elio and Oliver are attracted to each other. Everything you see in their environment symbolizes the ripeness of their relationship. There are trees laden with ripe fruit, flies buzzing on and off the screen (you can always hear them), and fresh water. In addition, there’s the constant sun. The environment is a metaphor for their growing love for each other, identifying it before they do.
Whilst the sensual environment reveals their growing love to the audience, Elio and Oliver are still unaware of each other’s feelings. Instead, they performing an intellectual mating ritual in which they both try to show-off their proficiency in high art to the other. Firstly, Oliver manages to prove his intelligence by correcting Elio’s dad on the origins of the word ‘apricot.’ Secondly Elio gets his chance to show-off when he plays the guitar and piano. The ‘mating ritual’ finally ends when Oliver admits defeat and asks Elio if there is anything he doesn’t know which gives Elio the confidence to subtly declare his love.
Conclusion
If you’ve seen any of Guadagnino’s other films, you’ll know that he’s a master of sensuality. In Call Me by Your Name he doesn’t disappoint. It’s the perfect coming-of-age story of Elio’s first love. You’ll almost forget it’s a gay romance (if Oliver doesn’t keep repeating ‘let’s be good’) as this film is first and foremost a beautiful romance.
Is Moonlight a future Oscar winner? It is everything an Oscar winner should be: beautifully shot, emotional, powerful. Furthermore it is also what the Oscars have lacked: a great non-biographical black film. This film reminded me of the early chapters of Ta-Nehisi Coate’s Between the World and Me or Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City because it shows the influence of environment on people. We are not always what we portray on the outside.
Why Watch Moonlight?
Change the way you think about people – did you know that the script writer was taught how to ride a bike by a drug dealer who saw him struggling to learn?
For beautiful Miami cinematography – sweat glistening in the moonlight
Could this be an Academy Award winner?
Is sexuality the biggest taboo in Western society?
The Breakdown
The first things we hear are Boris Gardiner’s ‘Every N****r Is a Star’ playing on a car radio. The driver, Juan, parks his car and walks over to another guy standing on the side of the road. They chat small talk to each other – the drug selling is all good. As Juan walks back to his car a kid runs past him, chased by a group of kids. The kid runs into an abandoned house and hides as the others throw stones through the window. Later, Juan tears down one of the window boards where the young kid is hiding and takes him under his wing.
Split into three chapters portraying another stage of Chiron’s life, Moonlight tracks Chiron’s progression. In each, he is almost unrecognisable physically, as he transforms from little kid to lanky teenager to muscly man. However, his eyes never change – he is always the shy kid found by Juan in chapter one.
In the final chapter you can see that Chiron has tried to bury the person he is. This is emphasised in the music he plays in his car. His music is ‘chopped and screwed’ – aka it is slowed down, scratched up, and cut up. You often can’t recognise music which has been ‘chopped and screwed’. Similarly you can’t recognise Chiron. He has been ‘chopped and screwed’ like the music. The person he was has been distorted so much that we no longer recognise him.
Conclusion
Moonlight is not just a ‘black film’, Moonlight is a universal film that sheds a light on everyone who cannot be who they are. It applies to those who try to repress their sexuality, those who try to fit in by being someone they are not, and those who cannot be who they want. Most people have compromised their self to fit in at some point (at school or beyond).
In a similar way, this film never tries to be something pretentious or important. It has no idols or figures to be revered like the fiction or non-fictional films featured at the Academy Awards before. This is a real story in a sea of films filled with their own self-importance. Go and watch it!
If you’ve seen Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan you need to see Loveless. If you haven’t seen Leviathan, what are you waiting for? Loveless is another dark drama from Zvyagintsev of epic proportions. It’s comparable to one of Shakespeare’s dark plays updated for the digital age. Plus, it’s not just a reflection of Russian society, but a reflection of all our lives.
Why Watch Loveless?
You can’t find better drama than this
It’s a story you usually don’t see on screen – what happens after the happy marriage – and yes, it’s dark
It’s the follow up to Zvyagintsev’s award winning Leviathan and it’s already won the Cannes Jury prize, you don’t have to rely on our opinion!
The setting! The snow and empty spaces make it even more chilling!
The Breakdown
Loveless starts with snow. It makes the town it falls on seem more serene; the calm before the storm. It’s the end of school for the day and the camera follows 12 year old Alexey as he walks home on his own. He finds a strip of police ‘do not cross’ tape and waves drags it along with him through the snow before throwing it into a leafless tree. Unlike his parents, he’s just a regular kid.
The opening 5 minutes of the film are focused on Alexey, but then the film is hi-jacked by his parents. When Alexey returns home, we find his parents arguing (they’re getting divorced). From their argument, we follow them through a day of each of their lives at work and their affairs for the next 30 minutes of the film. Alexey’s parents are doubly selfish. They steal the film’s narrative from him and also indulge in their own self-interests whilst they have the limelight. They force Alexey out of the film.
You may also notice the abundance of empty spaces and silence in the movie. The director may linger on a shot after the character has left or remain fixed on a character for slightly longer than normal. Zvyagintsev left these visual and audible pauses for us to give us time to think. This allows us to become ‘co-authors’ as we have time to add in our own interpretations. You’ll see that whilst Loveless is a Russian film, the message is relevant to all of us – making it possible to interpret.
Conclusion
Loveless was one of the stand out films for me at the London Film Festival 2017. Just like Leviathan (which you should watch if you haven’t already) it’s storytelling is at the top level. On top of that, the visuals are a perfect compliment – they make the dark bits of the story darker, and offer us breaks to become co-authors.
Is Moonlight a future Oscar winner? It is everything an Oscar winner should be: beautifully shot, emotional, powerful. Furthermore it is also what the Oscars have lacked: a great non-biographical black film. This film reminded me of the early chapters of Ta-Nehisi Coate’s Between the World and Me or Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City because it shows the influence of environment on people. We are not always what we portray on the outside.
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