Kamikaze Girls

"How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and enjoy It)" is an informative and lively documentary about the important African American film maker/Renaissance man, Melvin Van Peebles. The film gets its title from a ridiculous article that offered African Americans tips on how to eat with whites without making waves. The film’s a bit raw, but it compares favorably with "Badassss!" which was also made on the same subject, by Van Peebles’s son, Mario.

It includes generous amount of film clips which still have the power to shock and provoke. The clips are interspersed with revealing interview footage with his son, Mario; Spike Lee; Gordon Parks; "Village Voice" film critic; Elvis Mitchell, and many others.

Van Peebles had a strong drive to succeed, but early on he was an abject failure at everything he tried. He was fired from his streetcar operator job for writing a book about his work experiences. Later, he was denied a promotion when the men from his fellow platoon members reported him for spending time with a Caucasian girl.

But the film is ultimately inspiring. It shows how Van Peebles overcame tremendous obstacles and helped break the artistic racial barriers in the arts. He became a successful novelist, musician, photographer, film maker, play wright, and even a Wall Street broker. He turned all his defeats into opportunities for self improvement.

The film offers some insight into why Van Peebles was such a great deal maker. His tailor father had him go out and sell unclaimed clothing in the streets. If he asked for too much money the older boys might take the clothes and beat him up, and if he asked for too little his dad would beat him. So he was forced to find a compromise that would please everyone, and this lesson served him well in his artistic career.

Van Peebles was in equal parts an artist and a conman. He fakes out a producer when he pretends to lose the alternate ending to "Watermelon Man," so that he could get the ending he favored in the film.

Van Peebles’s boundless energy also was reflected in his private life. He was also extremely promiscuous, and the film shows that he had a different woman lined up for every day of the week.

"How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and enjoy It") should please most film buffs, especially lovers of the blaxploitation genre.

"Poet of the Wastes" is a raw, powerful, and visceral film about a romantic dreamer that works as a street cleaner in Iran. He disobeys orders and begins to get involved in the lives of some of the townspeople.

The look of the film is cheap and the film stock has washed out colors, so it looks like a Neorealist or Dogma 95 film. These characteristics effectively mirror the film’s subject, the economic underbelly of Tehran. It’s as slow moving as an Aki Karismaki film and very little happens. so the power of very little occurrence is magnified tenfold.

The narrator/protagonist tells us some sobering facts. He tells us that there are 3 million unemployed and only 1 out of every 1,000 people has a job. At first he too has trouble finding a job. He applies for a position, and the employer asks him intrusive questions, like how many times does he pray a day. He is turned down because he can’t commit politically (some may make the same accusation of the maker of this film.)

He eventually gets a coveted street cleaner job and he spends his time taking away garbage. Because of his job, he seems to develop a love for the refuse in society including a forlorn hermit poet with a long beard, and a sad woman mourning the death of her fiancé.

The poet speaks in mostly aphoristic statements reminiscent of the ones uttered by the lead character in "Being There." He delivers all the most memorable lines in the film.

His fatalistic view of his role in society is summed up when he says: "I am a cow who cannot flee the country. He stays so they can behead him in honor of his fellow citizens." He also says: "Cows consume grass and produce milk. Poets consume newspapers and produce poems." Finally, he suggests that in order to become a poet one must plant his or her feet in the ground.

The lonely woman continually gets turned down for a visa, and she is on the verge of starvation. To cheer her up, the street cleaner sends one of the hermit’s poems to her-- pretending to be an admiring friend of her husband’s.

The film does an exemplary job of depicting the grim social realities in Tehran, and the characters are unforgettable. It also has one of the most gorgeous/ugly conclusions within memory.

"Lola Montes" is a dreary, snail-paced historical biopic, about the rise and fall of a famous courtesan in 19th century France.

Considered a masterpiece by many critics, and according to the Chicago Film Festival brochure, Andrew Sarris called "Lola Montes" the greatest movie ever made.

But the film has many dull spots, and it is vastly overrated. It’s the only "classic" that put me to sleep twice.

The film was directed by the respected filmmaker Max Ophuls, who also did the vastly superior but more obscure "Earrings of Madame de…." "Lola Montes was his last film, and it was recut as he lay dying because the investors thought a shorter version would be less likely to bomb at the box office. When the film was originally released in 1955, it lost a large sum of money in it’s first run.

The film begins with Lola Montes being humiliated in a circus, which is run by the peppy but sadistic Peter Ustinov. Circus goers are encouraged to ask any questions they want of the famous courtesan.

Eventually we see huge chunks of her scandal filled life depicted on screen, and it turns out she is responsible for the fall of many powerful men. We see her affairs with King Ludwig of Bavaria, and even the composer, Frank Liszt.

The film’s biggest problem lies in the casting. Lead actress, Martine Carol is fine in the lead role in the early parts of the film, but she looks about ten years too old in the flashbacks to Lola’s youth. She lacks the otherworldly allure of Marline Dietrich, the cool eroticism of Greta Garbo, or the gutsy charm of Barbara Stanwyck.

As a result, it’s impossible to understand what all the fuss is about or why every other man on the planet is dying to be with Lola. Without a charismatic actress in the lead, there is a big void in the center of the film.

"Lola Montes" is an occasionally interesting curio, but it is not a classic in any of its cuts. The original version of "The Blue Angel" and "Pandora’s Box" accomplish all the goals of this film much better.

"The Conformist" is an intoxicatingly beautiful and highly intelligent political film about a young Italian named Marcello. He works for the fascist secret police in World War II era Italy, and they order him to assassinate his former college professor.

The two parted ways when Marcello quit his thesis, which dealt with Plato’s "Allegory of the Cave." This is highly significant because Marcello is as short sighted as the men in the allegory that believe the shadows constitute reality. Apparently Marcello never learned the allegory’s lesson.

Based on a celebrated novel by Alberto Moravia, this film version follows the novel’s basic plotline, but it is much less linear. The film even has flashbacks within flashbacks.

"The Conformist" is somewhat minimalist and it does away with many stock and trade flashback devices, such as fade-ins, fade-outs, and voice over narration.

A noted and respected scholar, Jessi Klein wrote that the early scenes the film "…not only lack causal and chronological coherence, they operate by condensation, displacement, projections and doubling—all techniques of what Freud termed latent dream work."

The brilliant Vittorio Storraro (he later shot "The Godfather," 1972) provides some of the best ever cinematography. Overall, "The Conformist" is Bernardo Bertolucci’s strongest and most fully realized work.

Along with Marco Bellocchio and Lina Wertmuller, Bertolucci was part of a new generation of film makers that emerged in Italy in the 1960’s. Most of them were radical leftists, and they avoided the wide eyed sentimentality of their predecessors: Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica.

Early in his career, Bertolucci was highly influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.

His early films (such as "Before the Revolution" (1965), "Partner" (1968), "The Conformist" (1970), and "The Last Tango in Paris" (1973), are marked by political intrigue, and their protagonists tend to have deep seated psychosexual problems.

In "The Conformist" Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), was traumatized by a boyhood sexual encounter with a depraved man. Also, his father went insane from syphilis. Marcello tries to forget his past by becoming a total bourgeois conformist.

One of the ways he tries to join society is by marrying the ravishing but empty headed Giulia (well played by Stefania Sandrelli who was in four of Bertolucci’s films). He seems to have no strong feelings for her one way or another, but he thinks marrying her will make him "respectable."

Marcello travels to Paris with her, to assassinate his former philosophy professor, who happens to have the same address as Bertolucci’s real life cinematic mentor, Jean-Luc Godard. Interestingly enough, this film was Bertolucci’s least Godardian movie up until that point, and it conforms to more of an Orson Welles influenced style.

In Paris, Marcello immediately falls for the professor’s sexy, bi-sexual wife, Anna (Dominique Sanda). At first she resists his advances, but eventually she becomes attracted to him. The scenario becomes more complicated when a sexual spark also ignites between Giulia and Ana during a provocative tango. The dance seems to be one of the few places where the norms in a fascist society can be violated. This is justifiably one of the most celebrated and written about dance sequences in film history; and it was even used for the cover photo for Peter Bondarella’s seminal film book "Italian Cinema: from Neorealism to the Present."

The violence filled finale of the film, which takes place in the Coliseum on the night of Mussolini’s fall, packs a punch.

The conclusion and the film as a whole are hypnotic and unforgettable. "The Conformist" is a quintessential ‘70s art film, and it holds up better than almost all of the other films of its era.

"Entre Ses Mains" is a slow moving, substandard murder mystery, made in France. The title translates to "In His Hands," which is apt since it’s about a veterinarian who may also be a killer.

This predictable, cliché filled film was directed and co-written by Anne Fontaine, who played a memorable role in the delightfully lusty 70’s romance, "Les Cousins." Funnyman Benoit Poelvorde fails to impress in the role of the suspected killer.

"Entre Ses Mains" plays like a third rate imitation of Claude Chabrol’s "Le Boucher," minus the suspense and great acting. Both films are about weak-willed women that may be dating murderers.

The film begins when a distinguished looking, seemingly respectable veterinarian named Laurent (Benoit Poelvoorde) pays a visit to an insurance office to file a claim. He meets a pretty but bland insurance assessor named Claire (Isabelle Carre). She becomes attracted to him for reasons that may escape the audience. She has a caring, handsome husband, and Laurent is utterly without charm. Perhaps she is one of those people who must sabotage their own happiness.

It turns out that Laurent is a rakish womanizer, he even has a rendezvous with Claire’s best friend, Valerie, behind Claire’s back. It comes as no surprise when something terrible happens to her. In fact very little in the film is surprising. I basically had the whole thing figured out in the first five minutes.

Claire learns that there is a serial killer roaming around town stabbing women to death. She begins to suspect that her mysterious lover may be the culprit, and the film crawls like slug toward its unsatisfying conclusion.

It’s difficult to get involved in the film’s plot when none of the characters are likeable or well developed. The only character that the audience may feel some sympathy for is Claire’s husband, and he’s on screen for about three minutes.

Part of the problem with the film is that the music does nothing to heighten the film’s paranoid, threatening atmosphere. It’s too bad that the "Vertigo" score composer, Bernard Hermann is long deceased. He might have been the only composer that could’ve pumped a little life into this still born mystery.

This may be one of the weakest and least involving films to play at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival.

"Return of the Living Dead" is a surprisingly effective and stylish rip-off of George Romero’s zombie films. It deftly combines repulsive gore with riveting action and sly humor. A chemical accident unleashes a plague of zombies, and a group of creatively dressed punk/new wave fans, a few preppies, and some "normal" adults fight against the growing zombie hordes.

"Return of the Living Dead" differs from "Night of the Living Dead," because the living dead can run fast, they possess greater than mortal strength, and they occasionally use their intelligence to trap the living. Also, they only eat brains because it relieves the pain of being dead. The cannibalism scenes in the film are convincing looking because the film uses real cow brains.

The seminal 80s horror film will be shown at the Music Box on October 16 at 3:05 as part of the Music Box Massacre, which will feature 24 hours of horror films including the classic silent vampire film, "Nosferatu" and the premier of the new Japanese terror flick, "Pulse."

There will also be a Halloween costume contest, and an appearance by the popular horror host, Count Midnight. Appropriately enough the excellent local punk/horror band Mucus will also play live at the festival at 2:30 p.m on October 16. Tickets can be purchased for $20 in advance at www.ticketweb.com or for $24 at the Music Box on the day of the festival. For more info and a complete schedule go to http://movieside.neweyefilms.com.

"Return of the Living Dead" is one of the festival highlights. It was originally released in 1985, and it was so successful that it spawned its own cycle of zombie films, the best of them, "Return of the Living Dead III" was famously panned by former mayor Ed Koch in a film review that was part of a TV talk show.

"Return of the Living Dead" starts out announcing that the events of "Night of the Living Dead" actually happened, but they were fictionalized to avoid a lawsuit. The real zombies were created by a chemical spill, and the chemical containers were accidentally sent to a business that provides corpses for the medical establishment.

Of course a pair of numbskulls (hilariously played by Thom Matthews and James Karen) accidentally release the gas. One of the cadavers comes back so the men cremate him, which releases the gas into the air. The man who helps them cremate the corpse listens to German music, and he may be a Nazi. An acidy rain spreads the gas into the graves at the aptly named Resurrection Cemetery.

Some punk and new wave fans are partying in the cemetery waiting for their friend Freddy--oblivious to the fact that they are about to become zombie food. An exhibitionistic female punk named Trash (Linnea Quigley) does a strip tease. She shares her necrophilia fantasies with the group, but she gets more than she bargained for. Linnea Quigley later went on to become the supreme scream queen in the ‘80s. She was always much better than her films

This film includes some blistering punk tunes, which works ideally in the film. I particularly liked Rocky Ericson’s "Burn the Flames’" when a noble zombie cremates himself. The soundtrack also includes songs by The Cramps, The Damned, and the Flesheaters.

"Return of the Living Dead" does not break new ground, and it is not nearly as thoughtful as the recent George Romero film, "Land of the Dead." But it is well directed, and wonderfully campy, so it richly deserves its fervid cult following.

From the director of Rivers and Tides, this foray into capturing the essence of something as intangible and transitory as sound, though not quite as compelling, is successful as a fascinating look at one woman and the processes she uses to access sound. Thomas Riedelsheimer follows Scot musician Evelyn Glennie performing and creating music that she experiences largely through her sense of touch. A childhood hearing loss claimed most of her ability to hear normally through the eardrums. That loss is not what this film is about. An accomplished world renowned percussionist, she is revealed to be gifted through all her senses rather than limited by just one. Her additional gifts include her drive to communicate how the sound might be touched by anyone, hearing, sighted or otherwise.

In the award winning Rivers and Tides, Goldsworthy’s art captured time on film, the intense visual nature of his work being the perfect partner for the medium. Glennie’s artistry is a different animal and takes a bit more coaxing to get over to the audience, but the reward is worth the effort. Through a myriad of sounds at the outset – drums, traffic, wheels, heartbeats, construction, tap dancing, footsteps, wrecking ball, raindrops, ocean waves, cracking ice, wind and silence, Riedelsheimer hooks us into listening with more care to everything that follows. Through performances, improvisational recording sessions and considerable first person narration from Glennie, her drive to feel sound and live inside the rhythms of the world is illuminated.

One tour of the US takes her to New York’s Grand Central Station where passersby are drawn and held by her unique solo drums. There in the Great Hall, in an abandon factory with its variety of sound-reflective surfaces, in the great outdoors, and throughout the film the camera moves around her in 360 degree turns to add more visual interest. With fellow musician Fred Firth, she makes extraordinary percussive music. Glennie describes in meticulous detail how the whole body can be used to feel and sense the endless variations of rhythm and vibration until we begin to touch the sound with her. Riedelsheimer’s focus is on Glennie’s reverberations and he stays away from her hearing loss and personal life. Though not totally successful at involving the audience in her experience, it’s not for lack of trying. By nature, the difficult task of crystallizing the essence of a fleeting sound through a visual medium is paradoxical.

In the end, one is left with a greater appreciation of sound and certainly a greater understanding of how Evelyn Glennie’s boundless energy and supportive family allowed her to forge new musical territory.

"Innocence" is a hypnotic and atmospheric French coming of age drama that tells the story of a new pupil in a repressive all girls’ school. Nothing terrible happens in the beginning, but the school has a sinister atmosphere. We never find out exactly where and when the film takes place, and for all we know it could be hell.

"Innocence" (2005) should not be confused with the superb Paul Cox film from 2000 with the same title, which is about elder lovers having an affair.

Directed by Lucille Hadzihalilovic, who is the current paramour of Gaspar Noe, the director of the even more disturbing "Irreversible," "Innocence" is shot by Benoit Debie, the cinematographer who also did "Irreversible." The lush cinematography of "Innocence" is as ripe and gorgeous looking as "Walkabout" or "Picnic at Hanging Rock." All three films do a great job of creating an aura of sexual repression and foreboding evil.

The film opens with swirl of colors and some languid water imagery (the water imagery is repeated in the end.) The opening makes the audience falsely feel as if "Innocence" will be a safe and comforting film.

This is followed by a terrifically disturbing sequence in which a living six-year-old, Iris (Zoë Auclair) is taken out of a coffin. She is placed in a private school in the woods with no visitation and many stringent rules.

The girls spend much of their time exercising and the ballet teacher is fairly strict and she frequently speaks cryptically. At one point she tells the girls: "You’re ugly little caterpillars, you have to work hard—sadly not all caterpillars become butterflies."

Most of the faculty members practice a not so subtle form of mind control on the students. The girls are told that obedience is the only path that leads to happiness. The girls are also ordered that they must not walk down certain paths or go out at night.

But the oldest girl in each of the five houses disappears all night, and she doesn’t tell where she goes. Viewers may suspect that some kind of abuse is going on, but we can’t be sure what form it takes. Iris looks up to the older Bianca who is one of the disappearing girls.

One scene of shocking cruelty has sado masochistic overtones. At one point, an older girl is tickled then beats a younger girl for displeasing her. This is perhaps one of the most disturbing sequences of youthful evil since "The Bad Seed."

"Innocence" is an excellent portrayal of imprisonment disguised as education, and it would make a fine companion piece to the even more powerful "The Magdalene Sisters," which explored a similar subject.

Marco Tulio Giordana, the acclaimed director of the three-hour plus epic, "The Best of Youth," also brings us "Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide." Here Giordana’s direction is spare and economical. Although, it's a work of fiction, the film was shot in quasi cinema verite style. "Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide" is a competent, socially conscious drama about immigration in modern day Italy.

The film breaks down into two sections. The first part depicts the lifestyles of the Italian upper class, and the second half deals with the newer multi-ethnic lower class Italian immigrants.

Bruno and Lucia are a well off couple that owns a factory in Brescia, a city in Northern Italy. Their ten-year-old son Sandro encounters an African man trying to use a phone in a public booth. When Sandro tries to explain that the phone is out of order, the African screams out a phrase in his native tongue. We later find out the phrase means, "Once you're born, you can no longer hide."

The father and son vacation on a boat off the coast of Greece. But the boy gets sleepy and falls off the edge of the boat. It takes hours before Bruno even notices his absence. The son's disappearance sends his mother, Lucia into a deep depression.

Sandro, however, narrowly escapes death. He is picked up by a ship filled with immigrants coming to Italy. He gets to see the deplorable conditions immigrants live in. The boat is overcrowded, and people defecate in public. He also meets an exotic prepubescent girl who has the habit of prostituting herself.

The boy has an epiphany when he becomes aware of the plight of the underclass. He tries to get his parents to adopt two of the immigrant kids but this doesn't go as planned.

This film differs from the '50s Neorealist films because no effort is made to romanticize the working class. They are not long suffering martyrs in this film but ordinary flawed people.

"Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide" is a reasonably interesting and solid look at immigration related problems in modern Europe. But the film lacks style, and it could have done more with its subject matter.

"Stoned" is a lackluster and rather demoralizing portrait of Brian Jones, the late guitarist for the Rolling Stones. The story is told in a non-linear fashion with many flashbacks.

It focuses on his hedonism and mostly ignores his considerable musical accomplishments—including his breakthroughs in world music and using exotic instruments. Jones comes off as just another burned out rock and roll psycho.

The film features a charisma-less lead performance by Leo Gregory. Gregory looks a little like Jones, but he usually fails to capture his charm or creativity.

Loosely based on accounts of Jones’s life by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, the film was in development for 10 years but it was not worth the time and trouble.

In the film, Jones spends most of his time in isolation with his comely Swedish girlfriend, Anna (well played by Tuva Novotny). Their relationship is brutal and laced with sado masochism. At one point, she even complains that he can’t get excited unless he’s hitting her.

There are also flashbacks depicting Jones’s relationship with the witch/society woman Anita Pallenberg (Monet Mazur), who dumped Jones for fellow Stone, Keith Richards.

The film suffers immensely because it contains no Rolling Stones recordings, so we never get to see Jones work his magic in the studio. Instead we get some tunes that the Stones later recorded, but here are earlier versions by other artists, like Robert Johnson. We also hear some covers of songs associated with the Rolling Stones by the Bees and the White Stripes. Predictably, when Jones does acid, Jefferson Airplane’s "White Rabbit" blares in the background.

After the film is over, viewers will probably be far less interested in Brian Jones than before. "Stoned" is even more boring and repellant than "Last Days," Gus Van Sant’s recent deconstruction of Kurt Cobain.

Ushpizin

Director:  Gidi Dar
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Rating:  PG-13 for mild thematic elements

Winner of the 2004 Best Actor award at the 2004 Israeli Film Academy for writer-star Shuli Rand, director Gidi Dar’s film, Ushpizin (roughly translated to “holy guests”), is a revelatory - and humorous - look at the daily lives of ultra-Orthodox Jews learning, living, and loving in modern-day Israel. Disarmingly funny, the film also startles in its universality, depicting members of the ultra-Orthodox community in scenes of ordinary living, drinking, smoking, dancing, arguing, reconciling, listening to popular music, and grappling with their faith.  

In its ultimately celebratory, fable-like quality, Ushpizin is a completely unique moviegoing experience: equal parts Isaac Bashevis Singer and It’s A Wonderful Life.

Loggerheads

Director Tim Kirkman (DEAR JESSE) returns to his native North Carolina to weave a tender and thought-provoking drama about the longing for family and the challenges of keeping one together. Three stories, all centered around Mother`s Day, intertwine to tell a singular tale about the strength of the human heart and the love of family. Tall and world-weary, a handsome young gay drifter, Mark (Kip Pardue), arrives in a small coastal town to watch over the endangered loggerhead turtles that nest there. He finds a kind smile and a bit of solace in a local motel manager, George (Michael Kelly). Grace (Bonnie Hunt), a Southern woman approaching middle age but still lost in the world, returns to her hometown and a domineering mother to search for the son she gave up for adoption long ago. Elizabeth (Tess Harper), the tight-lipped wife of a conservative, small-town preacher, must decide whether to break with both her husband and the church to do right by her son. Anchored by nuanced and inspired performances, a dramatically mature script, and exquisite landscape cinematography, Loggerheads beautifully depicts the lives of characters who are ultimately driven by their hearts and souls to deal with the repercussions of their past actions and to make things right again, no matter how difficult.

OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2005 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, DRAMATIC COMPETITION

WINNER - BEST FEATURE FILM, GRAND JURY PRIZE, OUTFEST 2005 (LA)

WINNER - BEST FEATURE FILM (AUDIENCE AWARD), 2005 NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER - BEST FEATURE FILM (AUDIENCE AWARD) - 2005 FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL

"Pale Eyes" is a touching, well developed, and highly romantic film made in France. It’s a dysfunctional family drama about a mentally unstable woman who struggles to achieve a small measure of freedom.

It is the second film directed by Jerome Bonnel, who received critical acclaim for his debut, "Le Chignon d’Olga (2002)," which also starred Natalie Boutefeu." "Pale Eyes" is bound to get some positive notices as well.

The film is a modern Cinderella tale with the Fanny character in the role of the abused young woman. Her daughter-in-law behaves like a wicked step-sister, and a German hermit who lives in the forest serves as the film’s unlikely Prince Charming.

Natalie Boutefeu gives a convincing performance in the lead role. She is able to perfectly simulate wild mood swings, and schizophrenic behavior. Fanny is a sensitive and lonely young woman who spends most of her time listening to music. She suffers from delusions, and she is occasionally violent. She is basically loveable but living with her would try anyone’s patience.

She lives with her brother, Gabriel, and her catty sister-in-law, Cécile, and Fanny’s presence clearly puts a strain on the marriage. Fanny gets along fine with her quiet and somewhat submissive brother. But one day, she gets into a violent tussle with the adulterous Cécile. Fanny ends up pulling her hair and physically accosting her.

Gabriel doesn’t know what to do. He locks Fanny in her room, and considers returning her to a mental hospital. But Fanny escapes in the family car. She looks for her father’s grave, and ends up finding romantic adventure.

The screener that I was given flashed "Europacorp Property" throughthe center of every scene, who may encourage some critics to see the film as intellectual property rather than art.

"Pale Eyes" is a fairly convincing depiction of mental illness, and it’s filled with effective, quiet moments that sneak up on you. It also has a wonderfully tender and thrilling conclusion. The film has some slow parts, but it’s definitely worth seeing.

"Johanna" is one of the strangest films I’ve seen all year. It’s a musical version of the "Joan of Arc" story in which the main character is a former crack addicted prostitute. It’s sure to offend many people, but it is fairly involving.

The film was made by the Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo. Some of the ideas in "Johanna" previously appeared in his 24 minute short "Joan of Arc of the Night Bus." That film depicts the first scene of an opera triptych, and it’s about a modern day Joan of Arc who participates in staged accidents.

"Johanna" is quite a bit less profound and sublime than Carl Dreyer’s "The Passion of Joan of Arc" and Robert Bresson’s "The Trial of Joan of Arc." But it sure beats "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc," Luc Besson’s worst cinematic debacle.

But "Johanna" is most similar to the Lars Von Trier film, "Dancer in the Dark." Both films are wacky/tragic musicals about martyred women destroyed by unfeeling societies that turn against them. "Johanna" even has a low budget look similar to "Dancer in the Dark," but it is not nearly as fresh or groundbreaking as the Von Trier film. Also, "Dancer in the Dark" has far better singing and music.

But "Johanna" benefits greatly from a low key, natural performance by Orsolya Toth in the lead role, who somehow manages to radiate sensuality and holiness at the same time.

Joan survives a terrible traffic accident, and she is admitted as a patient in a Budapest hospital. Her doctor learns that she is a drug addict and prostitute. He takes pity on her, and gives her a job as a nurse. Since she has no medical training, this plot development is completely ludicrous. The doctor keeps looking at her cleavage, and he seems obsessed with her.

After Johanna awakens from a coma, she finds that she can cure male patients by sleeping with them. Of course the doctor gets jealous, and he organizes the medical establishment against her.

Despite the intriguing plot, the film was sometimes difficult to sit through. It was so badly subtitled, that it was often difficult to read what the characters were saying.

"Johanna" is by no means the quintessential Joan of Arc film, but it is fairly creative and engrossing. It does a good job of presenting a novel twist on a classic story.

Capote (R) êêê½

 On November 15, 1959 the brutal murder of a family in a small Kansas town sent shock waves through the nation. One-of-a-kind author Truman Capote was sent to Kansas to pen an article about the crimes for The New Yorker magazine. He ended up writing one of the most celebrated books of the century.

The film follows Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on his odyssey to create the landmark bestseller "In Cold Blood." With style and caustic wit – and his friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) in tow – Capote attempts to charm the locals and work his way into the story behind the murders. He’s soon shocked, however, to find himself forming a friendship with one of the killers, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.). As the book nears completion and execution day approaches, Capote finds himself torn in directions he never anticipated and is forever changed by his experiences.

Doom

coming reel soon

G

An action packed picture, with the promise of twists, we were expecting a far better film than "Domino" turned out to be. It looks good, but you never really care about the characters; possibly because they are such foul-mouth, low life’s for one thing. Another is that after a bit, the profanity crosses over into the vast wasteland of gratuitous obscenities. It’s about this time that the plot starts running in place. The film might have "played" much better if the running time had been closer to 90 rather than 120 minutes (e.g. Red Eye).

  Consider the ritual greeting "How are you?" The standard ritual answer is to say everything is fine. Whether around the block or around the world, this convention does not seem to change much and it is often deceptive, intentionally or not. In the first feature film from Iranian director Bizhan Mirbaqeri, this is the preferred response to the question when it comes to the family of eldest son Jimshid via a friend of a friend. Six years after Jimshid left Iran seeking better fortune, a stranger shows up at the door with a message asking that the family make a video to send to him.

"Gabrielle" is an emotionally devastating but overripe drama about a marriage that's falling apart. It has some similarities to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe" because both stories feature married people that constantly torture their partners. The film also takes aim at the hollowness of bourgeois married life, but it doesn't always hit the target.

The film was directed by Patrice Cherneau, who is probably best known in the United States for "Queen Margot," his lush cinematic adaptation of the Alexander Dumas classic. That film did a fine job of showcasing the full acting range of Isabelle ("Story of Adele H.") Adjani. Gabrielle" was based on the short story "The Return," by Joseph Conrad, the stylistically brilliant writer of "Heart of Darkness."

"Gabrielle" was screened at both the Venice Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival. The Chicago screening was followed by an informative question and answer session with its director.

Sumptuous sets, crisp cinematography, and riveting performances mark "Gabrielle." Daniel Auteuil ("Cache") and Isabelle Huppert ("The Piano Teacher") are often excellent, but Auteuil overacts in some scenes.

Huppert is stunningly beautiful, but for "Gabrielle" she bravely allowed herself to be shot in an extremely unflattering manner. She constantly looks pale and full of pain in the film, which befits her character.

The film begins with a single tracking shot that follows Jean (Auteul) from the train station to his magnificent estate. He finds a letter from his wife announcing that she has left him for another man. The content of the letter is revealed to the audience in an interesting manner. We see phrases from the letter on screen, but it is still enough to give us an idea of its contents.

The film then jumps around a bit from past to present. The film also jumps from black and white to color, which helps to differentiate scenes from different periods

Most of the rest of the film takes place on one set. This may cause the viewers to feel maddeningly claustrophobic, but this was undoubtedly the filmmaker's intention.

We find out that Gabrielle returned. She is unhappily married to Jean, and she is always going though the motions in public. The couple is living in the lap of luxury, but their great wealth cannot medicate the deep wounds in their relationship.

It's easy to see why she left. Jean seems more concerned about what his friends will say, than discovering what is ailing the marriage.

The only time the couple seems happy is at their lavish, crowded dinner parties.

The film is filled with heavily dramatic, quasi-poetic dialog, which often illuminates the relationship. For instance, Jean admits in the beginning: "I loved her as a collector loves his prized sculpture." Gabrielle later announces to Jean, "The thought of your sperm inside of me is unbearable."

The dialog that Jean thinks about saying is often conveyed by title cards at the same time the action is halted in a freeze frame. The title cards emphasize his unspoken words, and encourage the audience to contemplate the gap between spoken language and thought. The technique was used in a different manner in some of Peter Greenaway's films.

"Gabrielle" doesn't always work, and it is often stagy, phony, and annoyingly artificial. But the film is strong overall, and the powerful emotional effect of the film's final conclusion is difficult to shake off.

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