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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Women on War, Revenge, Boxing ... and Love
Wednesday 28 February @ 15:28:24 |
 By LYDIA HOWELL
February’s Washington, D.C., meeting of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reminded Congress that film is a major U.S. export. Yet only 2 percent of the Directors Association of America’s members are women, so Hollywood exports a grossly lopsided view. Most foreign films Americans see are (literally) man-made, too.
Walker Art Center’s 14th annual Women with Vision Film Festival (March 2-17) presents films deserving much wider audiences. The movies, which include thrillers, comedies, documentaries and experimental works, look at subjects as diverse as war in Yugoslavia and Iran, teen and working-class love stories and even women’s boxing.
"Grbavica: Land of My Dreams" (Fri. Mar. 2, 8 p.m.)--Bosnian writer/director Jasmila Zbanic wrote the script in between breastfeeding her daughter. Looking at the Balkan wars through Esma (played by internationally acclaimed Serbian actress Mirjana Karanovic), a single mother working two jobs, and her 12-year-old daughter Sarah, war assaults daily life in intimate ways. Music called "ilahijas" (meaning "dedicated to God") expresses the characters' inner lives, and is contrasted with current, aggressive "turbo folk." Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. Croatia. English subtitles.
Girls in the Director's Chair (Sat. Mar. 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)--See Twin Cities female filmmakers of the future, ages 8 to 18, for FREE. From animation to documentary to personal fiction.
"As The Shadow Comes" (Sat. Mar. 3, 7 p.m.)--Perhaps Americans can get a fresh view on immigration and undocumented workers through Marina Spada's film set in her hometown of Milan. Claudia, a lonely travel agent, agrees to shelter a Ukrainian woman who has been smuggled into the country. With silences and character-study, Spada eloquently shows the shifting power-relations and the disconnection marking modern society. Italy. English subtitles.
"Avenue Montaigne" (Sat. Mar. 3, 9:30 p.m.)--France's Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film. In a style similar to Robert Altman's, director Danielle Thompson perfectly interweaves the film's plotlines through a bistro serving theater people, musicians, stagehands, an auction house and hotel workers. Cecile de France plays Jessica, a radiant young waitress, who's the connection between a weary concert pianist, a bi-polar soap actress (who seeks a role in an American movie directed by Sidney Pollock), an art collector father and his academic son, and others. Highly recommended for those who've resisted foreign films. With its joie de vivre--love of life--where director Danielle Thompson observes "a fit of crying [as it] gives way to a fit of laughter," this Parisian romantic comedy is a perfect delight. France. English subtitles.
"Red Road" (Sun. Mar. 4, 2 p.m.)--UK director Andrea Arnold's psychological thriller revolves around Jackie (Kate Dickie), whose typical workday involves watching Glasgow's surveillance cameras. With a cold, continually tightening grip, this study in alienation shifts inexorably into a risky take on the standard redemption-through-revenge film. Move over Charles Bronson! "Red Road" lingers insidiously in a way its formulaic predecessors never could, a portrait of lonely grief under Big Brother's watchful eye. Scotland.
"Longing" (Wed. Mar. 7, 7:30 p.m.)--This hit from the 2006 Berlin Film Festival depicts the tender triangle of a happily married welder who falls in love with a waitress. Director Valeska Grisebach uses non-actors to moving effect in this working-class love story, influenced by the filmmaker's documentary background. Germany. English subtitles.
"Falling" (Thu. Mar. 8, 7:30 p.m.)--Barbara Albert's 21st-century, female "Big Chill" has five thirtysomething friends reunite for a beloved high school teacher's funeral. Written for actresses the director knows, this hit at the Toronto Film Festival doesn't shrink from women's differences--including class divides--even as it explores the importance of female friendship. Germany. English subtitles.
"Day Night Day Night" (Fri. Mar. 9, 7:30 p.m.)--Inspired by a Russian newspaper article, director Julia Loktev has made one of the most tense films I've seen in years. An unnamed 20-year-old woman (played with quiet intensity by first-time actor Luisa Williams) arrives, waits in an anonymous hotel room and is visited by masked men with instructions for her "mission." Disturbing and utterly unforgettable, Albert makes particularly effective use of everyday sounds and silence to ramp up tension. Avoiding political debates and psychoanalytical explanations, the viewer is forced into the visceral experience of being put inside the skin of someone usually known only as "enemy." To reveal more would be to ruin the stunning blows this film delivers over and over. Don't miss it!
"Not Reconciled" (Fri. Mar. 9, 9:30 p.m.)--The late French experimental filmmaker Daniel Huillet said she was most influenced by Fritz Lang ("Metropolis"), Carl Dreyer ("Vampyr") and of course, Godard. This, her first feature made with her partner, Jean-Marie Straub, is based on German Nobel Prize winner Henrich Boll's novel "Billiards at Half-Past Nine," and also draws from playwright Bertolt Brecht. In the film, three generations of a German family respond to life during Hitler's rule. Huillet re-imagined Boll's book, challenging his thesis that the Nazis' rise to power was inevitable, resulting in a lawsuit that delayed the film's screening. Considered one of the most important films of New German Cinema, it should be required viewing. Germany. English subtitles.
"Music of Regret" and "Intolerable" (Sat. Mar. 10, 7:30 p.m.)--Photographer Laurie Simmons' debut film is a quirky musical starring Meryl Streep and featuring the African-American modernist Alvin Ailey's Dance Company. Director Alison Maclean and actor David Rakoff introduce their dark comedy "Intolerable," about staged auditions from hell. Laughing at these actors' nightmares-come-true might make you feel a bit guilty--but laugh you will.
"Boxers" (Sat. Mar.10, 9:30 p.m., Sun. Mar. 11, 8 p.m.)--TC activist-filmmaker Joanna Kohler proved she takes her camera where others don't in her first feature, "Moving in a Mirror," about the Israeli/Palestinian struggle. "Boxers," set in a Northeast Minneapolis woman-owned gym, looks at female boxers without glamour. Sterotypes about female athletes in general, and boxing in particular, go down for the count. Seven women directly confront their physicality and power while also acting as a supportive team in an ultimately exhilarating film to cheer for on many levels.
"In Between Days" (Sun. Mar. 11, 2 p.m.)--So Yong Kim's debut feature explores a Korean teen adjusting to life in Canada, along with the confusions of first love with her Korean best friend--who's drawn to Canadian girls. Trained in painting, this young filmmaker has a patient eye for atmosphere and allowing images to reveal as much as dialogue about her protagonist's inner life. Universal elements of the struggles of immigration and adolescence make this one touching for teens and adults.
Animation from Zagreb (Wed. Mar.14, 7:30 p.m.)--London-born animator Nicole Hewitt (with years in Croatia) presents five different animated works, including one that shows the limbo between objects as recycled treasures and trash.
Each "Women With Vision" film seems to trump the last. Watch for reviews of the final week of Women with Vision, which includes Iranian films, Brazillian female hip-hop and TC "urban explorers."
$8 general/$6 Walker members, Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin (next to the Sculpture garden), near downtown Minneapolis 612-375-7600; www.walkerart.org.
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