Review: Balada triste de trompeta (Spain, 2010) - Alex de la Iglesia

Image: Courtesy of Stockholm International Film Festival

Alex de la Iglesia’s intentions are very clear at the start of Balada triste de trompeta. He wants to take the audience for a wild ride. The year is 1937, the place: Madrid in the middle of civil war. A clown gets recruited by a communist rebel leader to fight the Francistas. The following scene is one of the most hilarious scenes ever. A clown with blonde corkscrew curls and a beard, armed with a machete butchering Franco’s fascists like John Rambo in his heyday. When the audience is just catching it’s breath after this openings sequence de la Iglesia rattles them with one of the most powerful opening credits ever. Fascist Franco symbolism is intercut with popular icons from 1937 to 1973, the present time of the movie from this point on, cleverly jumping from one point of the narrative to the next spanning more than three decades. The film sustains this visual bravado till the very end on this rollercoaster ride through the violent recent Spanish history.

Balada triste de trompeta is shot in a way reminding the old master Fellini. Multiple absurd characters and chaotic events happen in rapid succession taking place in a mise en scene set up like a choreography. The art direction is flawless and reflects the period, yet pumped up to surrealistic proportions. Think ‘La Strada’ on acid.

The characters are bigger than life. Carlos Areces convinces as the lovesick Sad Clown (son of the ‘warrior clown’ mentioned before), craving for Natalia, the beautiful acrobat of the circus he just joined, trying to save her from a violent relationship with the Happy Clown, Sergio. Antonio de la Torre as the Happy Clown delivers the best acting performance of this film and one of the best I’ve seen all year round. He plays an irresistibly charming bad guy. He’s a misogynist, he’s cruel and mean, but you can’t stop loving him. Natalia is touched by the kindheartedness of Javier, thus arousing intense jealousy in Sergio. Neither man backs down commencing a bloody battle for Natalia in which both clowns turn into grotesque figures of themselves. It all results in fear of Natalia (read: Spain) for both men (read: Francistas and the communist rebels) and leading up to an exhilarating culmination, in which the admiration of the director for Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang is clearly visible.

Beneath all absurdity there is a malicious undercurrent, represented by the fascist colonel belonging to the inner circle of the Generalissimo. A colonel who seeks vengeance against Javier for something he did to him in the past when he was vindicating his father. An undercurrent reflecting the central theme of this black comedy is the, at times literally, explosive atmosphere of the country de la Iglesia grew up in. Balada triste de trompeta is a highly creative, exciting and well crafted cinematic experience of the very complex history of a torn nation threatening to destroy what they love most.

Rating: ****

Director David Michôd of Animal Kingdom at the Stockholm International Film Festival

Image: M. Demir

Review: Animal Kingdom (Australia, 2010) - Competition Stockholm International Film Festival

Image: Courtesy of Stockholm International Film Festival

It’s a first timer’s dream to make such an intelligent and mature film that works on different levels. Animal Kingdom has depth, is entertaining and consists of images that linger in the mind long after viewing. What really impresses is the fact that David Michôd consistently underplays all aspects of the crime genre. By doing so he sets Animal Kingdom somehow apart from this genre.

This style of underplaying kicks off with file footage of bank robbers in Melbourne banks during the eighties, accompanied by heavy synthesizer music. These are by the way the only images of any bank robbery throughout the film you’ll see. Crime is never romanticized. Instead the criminals are portrayed as lazy, badly dressed inhabitants of suburbia killing time with boozing and fiddling with the barbecue under the Australian sun. The score is minimalistic without crescendos, contrary to the more usual style of bombastic orchestrated music to enhance menace and anxiety. Even production design has a minimalistic approach creating no specific sense of period thus making the movie somewhat timeless.

The story revolves around Josh, a 17-year old boy who after his mother dies from a heroine overdose, get’s taken in by his grandmother nicknamed Smurf. Smurf rules over her three sons who form a bank robbing crew like a real Don. When the armed robbery squad of Melbourne declares war on the bank robbers nobody seems safe, and a struggle for Josh’s loyalty gets underway. Smurf and her oldest son Pope try to maintain Josh on their side while good cop Guy Pearce is the only one who wants to protect him and tries to persuade him to take the stand and testify against his own family.

There is an ominous feel to the film, a major contribution to this feel are the exquisite performances by Ben Mendelsohn and Jacki Weaver. Mendelsohn plays Pope, the leader of the three brothers who as the film progresses slowly shows a side that gets darker and darker. Weaver is equally terrific as the sinister ‘Smurf’ the mother of the family who resembles most of all a snake in her motions and actions. James Frecheville is well cast as the seemingly emotionally numb Josh at the center of the narrative. Star quality is added to the project by the mere presence of Guy Pearce as the detective.

The use of violence is rare, but raw and shocking because it takes place when you least expect it. Michôd never builds the tension towards such a moment in a conventional way. He manages to surprise the audience with his realistic touch. This dazzling debut is hard to label (which is always a good thing) but if I would be forced to do so I would qualify Animal Kingdom as a study of how evil can manifest itself in Australian suburbia disguised as a gangster flick. David Michôd obviously has the maturity to mould the conventions of a genre to his own will to expose a complex and profound theme.

Rating: ****

Director of Winter's Bone Debra Granik at the Stockholm International Film Festival

Image: M. Demir

Review: Winter's Bone (USA, 2010) - Competition at Stockholm International Film Festival

Image: Courtesy of Stockholm International Film Festival

Behind the faces of the crystal meth scarred mugshots of white trash America, lies more than meets the eye. Once these faces belonged to a people establishing new frontiers conquering the vast landscape of mainland America, a people of character and perseverance. Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik’s second feature is a fascinating tale about seventeen-year old Ree’s search for her father. Ree Dolly, a magnificent performance by Jennifer Lawrence, has to find her father, a crystal meth cook, who fails to show up at court, to prevent bounty hunters from seizing the house her remaining family, a confused mother, two younger siblings and herself live in. Ree seems to be the personification of the strength and courage the people in this God forsaken region still posses.

The film takes a while to get underway because Granik really wants to convince the audience that Winter’s Bone takes place in a region immersed in addiction and desperation. The result is lots of shots of run down farms, car wrecks and hillbillies fiddling with their banjos. The film takes a turn for the better when slowly it becomes clear that Dad isn’t somewhere living it up, but has vanished from the face of the earth. Ree’s search for her father gets hazardous when she is confronted with the fact that the very people, most often family since everybody in the film seems related, who she turns for help try to shut her up in menacing tone. Everybody is afraid ‘The Law’ might get wind of the whole thing. A whole community of users/producers unravels along the process. Entire families are hooked on their own supply. Despite the many wide shots of the open spaces a feeling of claustrophobia creeps up by this entanglement of users, cookers and families.

Even though everybody is suspicious, Ree is liked and gets clues about who to turn to concerning her father’s whereabouts. They lead to ominous, dark characters with names like Teardrop and Thump. The tension builds when she’s instructed not to ask the mysterious and powerful Thump anything directly to his face. As if he’s like the Medusa from the Greek myth, which made you turn into stone if you gazed in its eyes too long. This mythical quality of the movie gets enhanced by the many hardships Ree has to endure on her quest (like Odyssey and Hercules for that matter). She deals with them like a true heroin, never losing faith in herself.

This is one of the reasons the film was ultimately well received by the population in the concerning area in the state of Missouri. Many were weary of yet another portrait of a lost people, mainly maid up by criminals, addicts and stupid rednecks who got what they deserved. But Granik won their trust by casting minor roles from the area, Ree’s little sister actually lives in the house the whole story begins with, and using actors who work on the coasts but grew up near the Ozark Mountains to enhance authenticity (Jennifer Lawrence is from the neighboring state of Kentucky). She also gives their music an important role in the movie. But what’s most important is the fact that Ree represents the same values as they do, namely courage, perseverance and willingness to sacrifice. The Ozark people identify with Ree and not with the depressing image the American media paints of them.

This movie has been in the international film festival circuit for a while now. Ten months after winning the Grand Jury Prize of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, Winter’s Bone was well received at the Nordic Premiere of the movie at the Stockholm International Film Festival on November 24. When the credits started rolling and Granik appeared on stage, the Swedes gave her a warm applause. And Granik for sure deserved it. The film is solid, authentic, and - most important - gripping. A perfect example of the, in my humble view, still leading American Cinema.

Rating: ****

COMING SOON TO STOCKHOLM FILM FESTIVAL

Strongman Sandow will be visiting the 21st edition of the Stockholm International Film Festival. Starting from November 23 get ready once again for movie reviews and festival impressions.