Change Your Image
fechy
Reviews
Ma mondialisation (2006)
A dull and unfocused film on an interesting subject
At the outset, Ma Mondialisation had all the ingredients for a fascinating documentary movie: an exceptionally charismatic main character; interesting differences of scale as the film switches form his narrow French Alpine valley to booming Chinese cities; superheated discussions about differing business strategies among factory owners, some of whom appear to be cousins, and a rich array other conflict material.
The director makes very little of this as he plods from a travel sequence in Czechia to one in China. He fails to develop a clear point of view: is globalization good or bad for this valley, or both ? Is the large-scale investment by Anglo-Saxon venture capital a positive or negative development ? The valley certainly seems to prosper under the leadership of Mr. Bontaz and the capital inflow from overseas. By either remaining tiny or growing to global size, the metalworking factories have been able to preserve, even increase local jobs. So why does the film begin and end with a demonstration by a handful of labor union activists?
Ma Mondialisation also misses the mark when dealing with the factory personnel. It is not clear whether blue and white-collar workers are any more or less happy with their condition in China or in France, whether quirky Mr. Bontaz' leadership actually confers globalization a human face or whether he's just another industrialist chasing profits. Dramatic structure is absent.
Formally, Ma Mondialisation isn't any more satisfactory. Why these dull amateur video shots of computerized lathes in operation instead of startling images of their strange poetic ballet complete with sprays of cutting fluids and shiny, almost Dadaist shavings? Why boring mountaintop pan-zooms of the valley, all the while failing to give us a sense of its topography and its industrial development? A thrilling helicopter sequence would have accomplished all that plus some spectacular views of Mont-Blanc, Europe's highest mountain. And poor editing to boot !
Unless you're a specialist in metalworking or an expert in local lore, you'll watch this documentary with growing frustration.
Le dernier trappeur (2004)
Nonviolent portrait of violence
An excellent film. After having caught on - it took me a while, up to the middle of it - I leaned back and let the sumptuous landscapes overwhelm me. In the rapidly evolving 'documentary' genre, director and explorer Nicolas Vanier's film inaugurates a new variant which we could tentatively call "self-fiction".
As one would expect from an authentic trapper and his wife, dialogue is sparse. At times, the protagonists' embarrassment before the camera is palpable. Many scenes involving the couple seem posed, and the main incident involving Norman's sled breaking through the ice, (the re-enactment of what may or may not be a true episode) is not convincing. Voice-over representing the inner voice is omnipresent. One is left to wonder whether excellent actors would not have played Norman and May Loo more convincingly than they themselves. The documentary character of the movie might have remained partly intact, the director having resorted to constructs several times. Even so, the narrative arc remains fairly shallow.
This is a movie without apparent violence. Yet violence is subliminally present: it is, after all, the violence of the logging companies against nature's treasures which trigger the film's central action, Norman's move to less dis-equilibrated territory. One strongly senses the violence of advancing, all-devouring modern society. This film could not be more different from the 'classic' trapper movies like Jeremiah Johnson' .
For having succeeded with this nonviolent portrait of violence, and for having dared the climate and returned with such magnificent photography, Le Dernier Trappeur deserves 8/10.
Memoria del saqueo (2004)
Poignant docu lacks pacing, structure and humor
Michael Moore has done an outstanding service to documentary film-making, but he's also opened the floodgates for less worthy imitations.
While poignant and probably deserving (Argentineans must be the judge of that), Solana's very long docu sadly belongs to this category.
Sadly, because there is a great story to tell - not of social genocide perhaps as the filmmaker would want it, but of deeply misguided elites in a country blessed by the gods.
The film lacks three of Moore's chief characteristics: pacing, structure, and humor.
Dramatic but repetitive newsreel (or newsreel-like) images of street riots alternate with listless steadicam views of marble halls and government corridors. Cinematography is elementary, perhaps willingly, but disappointingly from such an accomplished filmmaker.
Additional testimonials seem handicapped by the one-sidedness of the questions and by the superficial economic and historical analysis behind them.
Structurally, the chapters (which are probably meant as theses) are ineffectual - they further obscure the narrative arc and provide no additional clues. The official thievery portrayed is poignant in its effects on everyday Argentinean life across all classes but offers no explanation as to why this country repeatedly trusts or elects demagogues who are lousy soldiers (the Junta who dragged the country into the Falklands disaster, and into the public debt load) or lousy managers (Menem and De la Rua).
Seriousness of the topic should not have excluded an occasional bit of humor - surely, all this official strutting, all these implausible interview comments would have provided ample opportunities.
Das große Fest (1992)
Interesting photography, predictable plot.
Plot is fairly predictable "Ossies" story about two brothers who meet again at the former family hotel after German Reunification.
Treatment of the West-East divide remaining after Reunification (one brother had fled to West Germany, the other stayed behind in the East) is shallow.
I liked the film though for its interesting photography - hues shift in opposition to moods - and for the character played by Iris Berben. She is the only to rise above rote predictability, but unfortunately she's not allowed to give it the deserved depth .
Ending is like entire script, hardly a surprise .