Dad, Meet Human nature

Attenberg, a delightfully frustrating father-and-daughter love story comes by way of Greece, from the minds of the people that gave us one of my favourite movies from last year, Dogtooth. Now if you read the first sentence carefully, alarm bells may well have gone off: yes, this is a father-and-daughter love story, but not in a psychoanalytic, deeply incestuous kind of way (as if Ian McEwan had written it). Rather, Attenberg is very playful – the characters like to play (the two lead female characters perform regular dance routines on the pavement); the film plays with the viewer (who has no idea what to expect from what they’re viewing – no instant gratification here!); the film plays with itself (what is shown or not shown; lingering shots of factories...). 

Yet Attenberg is a film to take seriously, for within all of this playfulness, Greece is falling apart, and her subjects want to know: did you not see this coming? How are we to survive? The relationship between Marina (Ariane Labed) and her father (Vangelis Mourikis), slowly dying from cancer, is sensitively handled. One scene has the father looking down at their town from a height, from where he speaks to Marina about Greece and her being. The two spend much time together watching television on a bed (now, now, none of that). Here the film obtains its title: Attenberg is a playful mispronunciation of “Attenborough”, as in sir David Attenborough the esteemed British scientist. It’s one thing to see these characters watch a documentary on animal behaviour; it’s something else to see them imitate this behaviour.

Such are the idiosyncrasies of Athina Rachel Tsangari’s film, which seems to be set in the town where Dogtooth’s patriarch runs a factory, thus inhabiting the same slightly otherworldly reality as George Lanthimos’s film. Lanthimos, by the way, co-stars as a man who may become Marina’s first real lover, if one discounts the lessons provided by her friend (Evangelia Randou), who involves Marina in some lesbian moments that cannot be called 'lesbian' because a framework of 'lesbianism' cannot be applied to the film. 

Attenberg is consistently eccentric but there’s something missing, preventing the film from being Dogtooth’s equal. It might be that while Dogtooth sucked you into its world with its particular rules and regulations, Attenberg gives you a lot of themes and quirkiness from the get go, creating too much distance between viewer and film. A certain sensitive playfulness gets you some way, but Attenberg is too ‘unbound’, too decentred, to be anything more than a delightfully frustrating companion piece to Dogtooth.

The Best Films of 2011

Let’s talk about the films of 2011.

Below is my top ten list of the best films of the past year. What qualifies as a 2011 film? Any film that was released in South Africa in 2011, either cinematically or on DVD, or any film that rolled over from late 2010 into 2011 either cinematically or via a January DVD release. Also, any film that came out in cinemas internationally in 2010 and had DVD releases in 2011 but never got any sort of release in South Africa. It’s unsettling how many great movies never reach SA screens or stores, but I sort of understand the thinking: who’s going to watch a Thai spiritual meandering on the big screen? I have never understood why non-American reviewers use an American release table for their lists.   

Honourable mentions

Javier Bardem was quiet and sensitive in the downbeat Biutiful, a trying but rewarding Spanish film about death that could only be made by Inarritu. Juliette Binoche was luminous and vital in Kiarostami’s Certified Copy, a film that cleverly plays with itself and audiences as it complicates the relationship between its two central characters – or does it? I’m still not sure. 

David O. Russell’s The Fighter was far more than just another sports movie, with Christian Bale winning an Oscar and Amy Adams doing supporting work. I still think that the film was too condescending towards some of the female characters though. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II was the perfect finale to a great franchise, and Alan Rickman deserves special mention for what he does with the character of Snape. If Part I was all tension and build-up, Part II is a Helms Deep showdown featuring characters we’ve invested in for over ten years. The year’s best animated film is Sylvain Chomet’s heartfelt, almost dialogue free The Illusionist. It tells the story of a stage magician who is left behind by the world and its many new innovations and technologies, and his new friendship with a young woman who finds herself traveling along with him. It’s sad and beautifully animated – hand drawn.

The funniest film of the year was Brit Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, a rollercoaster political satire of great sophistication. The British had a considerable Oscar presence in February, with Tom Hooper’s  delightful The King’s Speech taking Best Picture and Director, as well as Best Actor for Colin Firth. It’s the kind of film that the Brits make best: a character-focused period drama with a sure positive payoff.

I have fallen in love with South Korean cinema, and Boon Jong-ho’s Mother is one of the best, a gripping thriller about a mother (never named in the film) driven to prove her mentally challenged son’s innocence as he is arrested for the brutal murder of a young girl. The animated titular lizard of Rango starred in the year’s second-best animated feature; any film that so closely studies the conventions of the western and has time to reference Apocalypse Now and Hunter S. Thompson is worth the effort. Another type of animation featured in the rousing Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a better-than-it-should-have-been prequel to one of the most famous science fiction films. It features Andy Serkis as lead primate Caesar, and the great John Lithgow as a father struggling with Alzheimer's while his scientist son (James Franco) looks for a cure.

Finally, The Social Network is a near great film – a pity that the final third runs out of steam as it fails to maintain the energy that the first two thirds of the film showed. Fincher’s framing is, as always, worth seeing in itself. 

I do not have a “worst of” list, but surely the most disappointing film of 2011 considering the talent involved is Joe Wright’s Hanna, aka The Bourne Bore, aka I Was a Teenage Killer And Also I Can’t Blink.

And now, the best films of 2011 – that is, the best films I saw in 2011 that coexist on a list where their positions might change in a day or a year from now (with the exception of the top three, which will in all probability stay the top three in that specific order). The list below proves again, and it should come as no surprise, that the most fascinating films happen when the psychology and philosophy of characters and viewers are engaged.  Keep in mind that it is impossible to see every single film, and I have missed many, including such potential greats as Incendies and In a Better World. So be it.

          

10. CARLOS 

Edgar Ramirez is the star of Olivier Assayas’ film about the infamous international terrorist. The five-hour plus film does not glamourise its subject, nor does it pander to action or thriller conventions. 

9. SKOONHEID 

The best South African film in years, Oliver Hermanus’ drama about desire and repression is unsettling and thought provoking. I know of many people who do not like the film at all; I have a suspicion it’s more about these peoples’ feelings towards the film’s content than the film itself. Seek it out, but not for sensitive viewers.

8. THE CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH

Harrowing Chinese anti-war film about the Rape of Nanking; the black-and-white imagery is uncompromising, and the film not easily shaken. Again, not for sensitive viewers, but as with Skoonheid, nothing is sensationalised.   

7. DRIVE

A smooth, meticulous action thriller featuring the return of the mythological hero (Ryan Gosling). As usual, the hero’s trouble begins when he pursues a relationship with (literally) the girl next door (Carey Mulligan). One of the most beautifully shot films of the year, and with a fitting soundtrack. This bodes well for director Nicholas Windig Refn. The film's most memorable asset is Albert Brooks as the cold blooded Rose. May the Oscar come his way.

6. BLACK SWAN

Natalie Portman received a well-deserved Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the steadily-losing-her-mind ballerina. This nightmarish and claustrophobic thriller demonstrates that Darren Aronofsky remains one of the most exciting contemporary American filmmakers.

5. OF GODS AND MEN

Xavier Beauvois’ Cannes favourite is a moving, human tale of ethics, religion and politics set in an increasingly unstable Algeria in the 1990s. Some have criticised the film for what the characters do towards the end, but to do that denies the quiet force of one of the most visually impressive films of 2011. It is a film to revisit and cherish.

4. DOGTOOTH

Greek filmmaker Giorgios Lanthimos has made, I think, the definitive dysfunctional family drama. The less you know about the film beforehand the better, and with its themes of incest and the gross manipulation of others, it makes for selective viewing. Of all the films on my list, this one is the least likely to work for anyone. Watch at own risk. Whether you adore or detest it, you won't be able to forget it.

3. UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES

I gave Uncle Boonmee a negative review earlier this year, and the joke is on me, the egg on my face: it is, in fact, a masterpiece. It was my own lack of understanding and, I suppose, my mood at the time of the original viewing that lead to my initial negative write-up. I’m not going to re-review the film, or edit my original review, so I’ll say it here: I was wrong, and now I can see. Uncle Boonmee is deeply spiritual (mortality, reincarnation, the presence of the dead among the living) and as deeply concerned with an increasingly materialistic Thai society in general. From now on, I’m rooting for Team Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

2. TRUE GRIT

Can the Coen brothers do no wrong? No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading (which gets even better the more you watch it), the existential hilarity of A Serious Man, and now this gripping remake of a John Wayne original. One the one hand True Grit is a well-crafted western with The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, proving an unconventional and flawed heroic figure for young Hailee Steinnfeld’s spunky protagonist. On the other, True Grit is a typically Coen film in terms of quirkiness, characterisation and framing, which results in a genre film littered with moments of death and hilarity. It happens to have my favourite opening and closing scenes of all films on this list.

1. TREE OF LIFE 

Malick’s autobiographical-cosmological family drama is the most divisive film since Antichrist. Either people loved it, and loved it deeply, or they hated it, and hated it with much passion. I’m not going into the debate here except for saying that I understand where and how the film loses so many people, and that they all have my sympathy. An ambitious, life-affirming masterpiece by a master filmmaker. 

             

Family values, lies and a cat

At least there's no severed ear

"Dogtooth", by Greek filmmaker Giorgos Lanthimos, gives us one of the most dysfunctional families I've ever seen on screen. The film started out as frustrating and pretentious, but the minimalist imagery won me over eventually and I was riveted. Unencumbered by traditional notions of setting, plot and context, Lanthimos presents us with a family trapped in a bizarre capsule-like existence. Here, when an airplane flies overhead, the mother throws a toy plane from behind a shrub and then watches the three children - all moving through or beyond their teenage years - fight for ownership of the fallen object.


Forgive me, for I think I've just given something away; not a plot twist or anything that changes one's perception of the film, but how the film plays with the viewer, keeping you in the dark on how exactly the family works. Some things are hinted at through the film and then unexpectedly a flashback (which is not signaled as a flashback) appears to clarify what's going on. It's in this that the domestic cat gains great significance, and I will say no more on the matter. The mother teaches the children language and vocabulary that fail to correspond to what we know about the words used to signify things. A daughter asks for the phone while seated at the dinner table, and the mother hands her what we'd refer to as "salt". If language constructs reality, then take a deep breath.    

Oh, the story. Best to keep it simple. An upper middle class family - mother, father, two daughters and a son, who's the oldest - live in a house that seems to be geographically isolated from the rest of the world. They could be anywhere. There's nothing concrete or manifest to keep everyone inside, but the children have been told from very young that they cannot exit the gate or a dark fate will befall them (or something like that). So, they don't leave the premises. The mother and father are perfectly aware of what they are doing, and while mom stays home, dad goes out every morning to the factory he owns (he has to fund the fantasy somehow).

How can he leave home while the children cannot? He does so in a car. Such is the logic of the world constructed and controlled by the parents. Even sexual behaviour is controlled; if the son cannot find a suitable woman to relieve his needs, why, he has two sisters, hasn't he?  

"Dogtooth" excels at alienation. The family imposes some sense of exile, while the film's language - static lingering shots, limited editing - avoids an emotional connection to any character. Nothing is sensationalised; we are simply shown what happens through a detached lens. Lanthimos does not give us a single character to align with; one character that does serve as a kind of entry point into this bizarre setup has her own needs, desires and whatnot to tend to, and does not stay very long. Much like the children, we are trapped in the movie with people we do not know, and we don't necessarily want to be there.

The film is the opposite of escapism. By showing us a world constructed around the avoidance of life as we know it, we are forced to reflect on what we know, especially about family dynamics. Power shifts from father to mother and back; theirs seems to be a functional partnership, with added sexual benefits. Somewhat surprisingly, there is a narrative turning point in the film. At the same time, it is exactly what we expect and not at all what we expect. This turning point even feeds into an ambiguous climactic moment, with a final shot suggesting that Schrodinger was right.

The film may be ambiguous about a lot of things, but it's far from inaccessible. There's no palm-to-the-head viewer reaction suggesting a eureka-like realisation, or a complete failure. On its own terms, within its own world, the film makes perfect sense. We've never seen a family drama like this.

Did I mention the cat?

Some thoughts on the Oscar nominations

See the full Oscar nominations at www.oscars.com or any other movie related website in the universe.

Overall, a predictable affair, with "Social Network" and "The King's Speech" getting nominated as expected, while popular favourite "Inception" squeaked in for Best Original Screenplay and Picture. Admittedly, "Winter's Bone" got more love than I anticipated. As I wrote yesterday, the film has some striking dialogue which is rewarded in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. My favourite surprise is that John Hawkes is nominated for his stunning character work as Teardrop.

Another surprise: "Toy Story 3" getting nominated for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature, and getting attention for its writing as well.

I'm looking forward to the Best Documentary showdown since "Restrepo" is the political choice while "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is, from what I've read, the kind of intellectual game that Banksy would be associated with, calling into question the authenticity of the film itself.

I'm disappointed that the much adored Cannes winner "Life Above All" did not get nominated for Best Foreign Film, but the Danish Golden Globe winner is there, as is the intruiging looking Greek "Dogtooth" and the latest Inarritu (all hail!) film, "Biutiful".