One day before the end of 2021, and I am ready to share my latest movie selection of the year. In the last 12 months, I had the chance to explore many new films, different genres, topics and perspectives. I tried to go as often as possible outside my comfort zone and learned to read movies from different angles.
As for now, here is my latest eclectic selection of movies.
Fireworks Wednesday directed by Asghar Farhadi
The eve of the Wednesday before the Nowruz, the Persian New Year (Chaharshanbe Suri), is a day of celebration with fireworks and outdoor parties. The houses are clean and all looks like new. The young family features in Fireworks Wednesday by the fine observer of relationships and family secrets, Asghar Farhadi whose films I frequently featured this year on my blog, is going through a sad drama of betrayal, observed through the naive eyes of a bride-to-be.
Women actresses are very good in outlining not only their underpriviledged position and fragile status, but equally their complex situation of always being under observation and scrutiny, including by the other women.
One 2 One directed by Mania Akbari
Mania Akbari has a more direct personal take on the situation of women in Iran that in the end pushed her into exile in London. One.Two.One (Yek.Do.Yek) questions what happens to a women when her much praised beauty is taken away by the will of a man. The dialogues between women and the multi-media language in general are different of the classical interpretations of the Iranian cinema breaking with taboos and chosing the less diplomatic way to tell it.
Yalda directed by Massoud Bakhshi
This was my first encounter with the Iranian film director Massoud Bakhshi, but I´ve encountered some fo the actresses from Yalda in other films. Yalda is the celebration of the winter solstice, when families come together and share red-foods - watermelon, pomegranate etc. In the movie, inspired by a local reality show, on this occasion, a woman condemned to death because presumably she killed her very old husband, is pledging again her cause in the front of the daughter of her husband. Poor girl, she is the victim of her mother´s web of lies and the lucrative interests of her husband´s family, but at least she will convince the public that she deserves to live, and the public pressure will push the daughter to forgive her publicly, although with a price.
Another sad story of how cheap women´s lives can be.
A Prophet directed by Jacques Audiard
A Prophet directed by Jacques Audiard is very out of my intellectual comfort zone. Featuring the excellent actor Tahar Rahim it follows the transformation during the prison years of a 19 years old from a slave of the powerful Corsican mafia to a dangerous power breaker. It is a very violent movie but nevertheless offers a very interesting survival game. I had sometimes the feeling that Rahim does not always matches the expectations of a 19yo, but his game is well played anyway.
L´invention de la cuisine - Pierre Gagnaire
The French series L´invention de la cuisine do introduce gourmet chefs through their food creations. It is more than food, it is more than art: it is a dramatic (re)invention of the art of eating. My first installment was dedicated to Pierre Gagnaire and besides making me long for Paris more than I usually do it, it reveals a new perception of food as a cultural act. I would probably continue in the next weeks with the following stories.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn directed by Radu Jude
I follow closely the works by Radu Jude and I was never disappointed by his courageous take on the definitive moral weakness of the post-communist self-righteousness. Awarded with this year´s Berlinale Golden Bear, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (I know, the title sounds horribly kitsch) is shot during the Corona lockdown. When a private video of a teacher become public on a porn site, the parents and other teachers are outraged. How dare she...to have sex? The everyday grotesque haven´t changed in a long while and the everyeday language is very strong - I´ve followed it in original Romanian with German subtitles and thanks Goethe, many many ´local expressions´ cannot be translated. But the right of a woman of being intimate with her husband is not so matter of factly, comrades...
Jackie directed by Pablo Larrain
Natalie Portman is the last person I would imagine playing Jackie Kennedy, but in Jackie directed by Pablo Larrain she looks like the perfect candidate. The film covers her last days as Mrs. President, following the JFK´s assasination. Although I´ve felt like Jackie was represented like a kind of ´Lady Di´, being forced to play a role she never wanted to - ´I never wanted fame, I just became a Kennedy´, the movie is an unique take on a very special historical and political episode from America´s recent history.
Priceless/Hors Prix directed by Pierre Salvadori
Not all my movies are serious reflections of life and politics. Some or just comedies. Like, for instance, Priceless/Hors de Prix directed by French director Pierre Salvadori. Audrey Tatou plays the role of a seductress of old men, at work at the French Riviera, meeting an attractive yet poor waiter played by Gad Elmaleh. Will love win? Is worth watching for finding the answer, as the movie is very entertaining.
Kiss Me Kosher directed by Shirel Peleg
Let´s further play the love score. This time, in Israel, where a German lady is about to start her life together with her Israeli love, but recent history may or may not break them. Kiss Me Kosher by Shirel Peleg has a hysterical humour, particularly if you have that sense of humour that you don´t get it for sure from living in Germany. Another love story that one may want to follow until the very romantic end.
Dr. Ketel. Der Schatten von Neukölln directed by Anna&Linus de Paoli
An horror science fiction based in the Neukölln borough of Berlin: the health insurance system failed, people are breaking into pharmacies to steal medicine. A black-and-white story of a doctor who is not a doctor but nevertheless is trying to save people. I rarely watch science fiction and this one would be my last for a long time as it was a huge waste of time for a grotesque film.
Fargo directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Based on a true story that happened in Minnesota in 1987, Fargo - situated in North Dakota - is a black mystery with a smart dosis of irony. The perfect background to meditate about greed, lifechoices and why a smart pregnant woman who solved the mystery does not get any praise.
That´s all for now. Stay tunned for another special selection of movies in one month!
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