A Short Synopsis of Film

Eleven-year-old Marek dreams of a trip to Venice. He even owns a portable, fold-up model of the city. In his spare time, the boy likes to memorize Venetian street names and nag his parents to take him to Italy the “next time” they go. Why the f&@% he wants to visit Venice, no one ever says–Maybe Venice is just a fairytale vacation he will never have, whereas WWI will soon be his and everyone else’s reality.

This movie opens with Marek’s alcoholic mother and visibly nervous father picking him up at boarding school. The boy is whisked away to an aunt’s farm in the Polish countryside where he has been sentenced to spend his summer vacation. As other aunts and cousins arrive at the farm, the mood is almost that of a family reunion. The mood is almost festive.

However… keep in mind that Poland is part of Eastern Europe, and Eastern European dramas rarely end happily. I think the last scene of this film where a crazed Russian soldier-turned-piano player sprays the room with bullets and kills the last character we even care about sums up my point nicely 🙂

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Country: Poland
Language: Polish, German, and Russian
Genre: Drama

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Marjane Satrapi introduced people to modern, Iranian culture with her graphic novel ‘Persepolis’. In some ways, Maryam Keshavarz’s film ‘Circumstance’ is a live action version of what Satrapi describes about her life growing up. We’re taken into backroom black market music stores, private dance clubs, ultra strict schools, and extorted by the morality police–It’s always seemed ironic to me that the morality police can [and must] be bribed.

This is the story of Atafeh, Shireen, and Mehran. Mehran is Atafeh’s brother. Atafeh and Shireen are lovers. Mehran is a musician and recovering drug addict who joins the morality police. Mehran becomes obsessed with Shireen. The three are living together in Atafeh’s and Mehran’s parents’ house. For some reason, Mehran has outfitted the house with CCTV cameras and is monitoring everyone’s movements. The circumstance of their living arrangement seems like a recipe for disaster.

I like how the movie is shot, and I appreciate the plot more as time passes. Oh, and in their spare time, the young women and their friends like to dub porn and other movies into Persian (that’s the humorous part of the film).

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Country: France, USA, Iran
Language: Persian, English, French
Genre: Drama

IMDB

A young couple must wait 30 days to adopt an injured cat. These are their last moments of freedom before they become “animal parents”. But, they’re not responsible people. They forget to pick up the cat from the shelter and it’s euthanized. Maybe I’ve given away too much about the plot, but the cat’s demise is foreshadowed early on.

Miranda July’s first feature film (Me and You and Everyone We Know) had some hilarious scenes, but this new feature has a dreamy, drugged feel to it. I found the characters’ lives depressing, and their self-destructive actions unbelievable. “What if I just quit my job, or What if I have an affair, or What if I … etc.” If you’ve ever considered radically altering your life just to see what happens, maybe this movie will provide you with some ideas of how to go about that.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Country: USA
Language: English
Genre: Drama, Comedy

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This film is a good mix of levity, gravity and absurdity. It’s sweet and sour without a bitter aftertaste. It’s not too mainstream, nor is it too fringe. The actors looked familiar, but it wasn’t until afterward while searching IMDB that I realized from where (Jane Eyre, An Education, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980, and The Sarah Jane Adventures).

This is the story of 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts). Oliver wants to lose his virginity to a bully-loving, pyromaniac psychopath named Jordana (Yasmin Paige) before his next birthday. Actually, what Oliver really wants is to have Jordana shrunk down to microscopic size and pilot a tiny submarine through his veins. This story isn’t as shallow (or deep) as I’ve implied–The relationship between these kids is sort of complicated. Jordana hates romance, precluding development of a sappy love story. Throw in the potential for illness and death and the teenagers’ lives aren’t that carefree.

Throughout the film, Jordana wears the same red jacket in most scenes. I realize this is an important plot point (for reasons I will not divulge), but it also adds an extra bit of realism to the character. Recall how growing up you often recognized people from a distance, not by how they moved, but by the color of their jacket? I thought it was a nice touch.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Language: English
Genre: Comedy, Drama

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Official Site

The tagline could read “Dead people are useful in many ways.” I wouldn’t describe this film as a black comedy, because there’s very little humor–Perhaps all of the jokes were too subtle for me to appreciate. The movie starts with a young immigrant woman (named Yolanda) leaving a dear John letter for her boyfriend. Unfortunately, and with the help of socialized medicine, she soon learns that she’s pregnant and decides not to leave her lover–She’s trapped.

To make more money to buy a new refrigerator, Yolanda (Sonia Almarcha) takes extra work caring for an elderly, sick gentleman named Amador. Amador’s daughter and son-in-law are busy building a house in the country, so they hire Yolanda to house-sit their father.

The running time of 112 minutes is far too long. Once the old man dies (and it happens rather early in the film), any charm or witty conversation dies with him. We spend much of the middle half of the film watching Yolanda silently trying to come to terms with a rotting corpse and her secret pregnancy.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Country: Spain
Language: Spanish
Genre: Drama

IMDB