Movies save my days faster than a book can do. Immersed in the images, my mind race is outpaced by the fast succession of the visual episodes. Reading takes time, as one need to read, figure out the word and then connect it with the others to create a context. Films are fast and instantaneous.
In the last week, I spent a couple of interesting hours watching a very eclectic selection of movies, that I am happy to share, as a possible inspiration for those in need of a visual heeling through films.
The Salesman directed by Asghar Farhadi
Iranian cinema is such a gem and often has a dominated strong social and moral message. It has its source of inspiration, besides the dramatic local everyday reality, into the Italian and Romanian cinema, mixing sometimes dream and reality in a very brutal way.
The Salesman by Asghar Farhadi (with whom I was already familiar through A Separation, which also raises in a very thoughful way deep dilemma about love and responsibility towards children). The film won a Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film. The title is inspired by the play by Arthur Miller which is played by the main protagonists of the movie, about a salesman disappointed with his life. The film plays as a thriller à revers, as the husband is searching for the man who attacked his wife in their newly rented apartment. The search is becoming an aim in itself, as the husband, a teacher by day and an actor by the evening is confronted with his fears and failures which are exposed in his cruel treatment of the perpetrator of the attack. The cultural context of the story - which takes place in Iran - is also relevant, but it goes beyond the everyday limitations, as it display a human behavior under deep distress.
Compared to A Separation I´ve found the movie too focus on the emotions but nevertheless it is a challenging approach that made me think about it for a couple of good days.
La Source des Femmes directed by Radu Mihăileanu
The Romanian-born France-based film director Radu Mihăileanu is always a winning choice for mz movie cravings, given his unique sense of humour and easiness of approaching no matter what life-and-death topics. I still have a couple of movies he directed to catch up and this time I went for The Source.
The main inspiration is the Lysistrata play by Aristophan about the women who refused to have any physical contact with their husbands until they will end the Peloponnesian War. The context is transposed in an unnamed Maghrebian (a geographical entity designating the North African part bordering the Mediterranean sea) country. The women in a remote village decided to start a ´love strike´ until their husbands will find a solution to the risky tradition of women carrying the water from the top of the mountains. It´s a permanent clash which ensues, between men and their wives - ending up in violent outbursts - within the women families themselves, especially their mothers-in-law, between the women themselves as well. The main character, Leila, a foreigner to the village, married with the village´s teacher who brought her there from the city, admirably played by Leila Behkti is ready to go against all odds to put an end to one of the main ways of domination the men displayed against women. Because, some of them will debate at the table where they lazily spend their days, if the women will have too much time on their sleeves, they will ask for more and more - like a washing machine.
There are many other topics inserted such as the corrupted city bureaucrat figure, or the love for Mexican soap operas which even inspire their love and relationship expectations as well as the tragi-comical use of technology in the village: such as the Ericcson mobile phone hanging on the laundry wire for catching up the signal.
As usual, Mihăileanu directed a movie which is both insightful about serious everyday life topics and humorous in its take. Life is too short to take everything too serious and not see the comic side of the tragedies.
Samia directed by Philippe Faucon
With Samia by Philippe Faucon I remained in the Maghrebian French-speaking realm. The six daughter of an Algerian family living in the outskirts of Marseille, Samia is a rebelious girl who wants to live her teenage life, while trying to escape an aggressive big brother who wrongly tried to assume the role of the family father. He is ruling his daughter with the motto: ´C´est la tradition, on la respecte´ - This is tradition, we have to respect it. For those Algerian family who moved to France in order to secure a better future for their children, virginity before marriage is more important than the studies, therefore the mother takes often their daughter to gynecologist for a hymen integrity checking.
As usual in the case of traditional families living in modern Western societies, they do not realize that sooner or later their children will not only be influenced by the values of the societies, but they will also want to be like them, including by finding mates belonging to other cultures.
Samia offer a good insight into those interactions between worlds and the expectations of youngsters belonging to traditional societies living in France.
Les Deux Amis directed by Louis Garrel
Les Deux Amis - Two Friends - directred by Louis Garrel, who is also acting in the movie (as the charming Abel), is all about puting friendship at test. Clement, a minor actor, is falling crazingly in love with Mona (played by the sensual Golshifteh Farahani), who sells sandwiches at the train station. Clement will ask the advice of his best friend Abel, who happens to fell for Mona too. But Mona has a secret that she is not keen to share with anyone therefore she is walking through life with the loneliness of people who have not too much to lose. As for now.
The story is simple but entincing, and Farahani plays good the role of the rebel that she actually is.
Yves Saint Laurent directed by Jalil Lespert
I had this movie, Yves Saint Laurent directed by Jalil Lespert, on my watching list after reading the beautiful graphic novel about Christian Dior and figuring out I hardly know too much about fashion history more than a couple of lines and logos and maybe some information about style.
With two main actors with stage experience, the movie is a testimony about the tormented life of the fashion creator and the price the genius may pay. It is focused more on the personality of the fashion creator than on his achievements and it pays off, particularly for curious people like me. It helps to understand the mentality of the one who contributed to the profiling of the ´new woman´, who not only wears smoking as a fashion statement but is also versatile and courageous and ambigous towards her sexual choices.
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