It's been a season with no persuasive candidate, as of this writing, for the Palme d'Or. Three films found favor however, with many critics. One is
Waltz with Bashir from
Ari Folman, a notably original animated doc about reconstructing the memory of atrocities in Lebanon. What grabbed me about "Waltz" is the unexpected mix of politics and haunting surreal imagery.
The Changeling by
Clint Eastwood unspooled like silk, but was conventional, manipulative, and cursed by Angelina, could-we-hold-the-histrionics, doing acting. Third,
Conte de Noel from
Arnaud Desplechin, an ensembler about a wildly dysfunctional family. Rather than conventional narrative, Desplechin favors a fluid swirl of cutaways from truncated scenes and direct to camera confessions, all of it buoyed by Mendelssohn at his sunniest. The sight of
Catherine Deneuve's face conveying wry bemusement over life's unkind cuts is alone worth the price of admission.
I caught the first half of
Steven Soderbergh's Che, which was largely dismissed as unfinished -- though
Benicio del Toro drew praise as the titular character. Presumably titled "The Argentine," Part I traces Che Guevara's evolution from doctor with a ratag bunch of rebels, to military leader who unseated Batista. Soderbergh intermittently flashes forward to faux news clips in 1964 of Che's UN speech and interviews with an American journalist.
I admired the Fitzcarraldian folly of Soderbergh's effort, a labor of love that gives the finger to commerce -- I mean, four hours? With subtitles? I was relieved to find reverence for Che's mission, rather than pious put-downs of his role in what some consider Cuba's anti-democratic regime. What drives a revolutionary? asks the journalist. Love, says Che. Love for humankind. True, the impact of Part I is reduced by battle maneuvers which are hard to parse and often indistinguishable from other jungle shoot-outs. And though Benicio has charisma, his sleepy charm is less than ideal for a firebrand. And if the film is a hagiography, which is fine by me, the asthmatic revolutionary nonetheless remains an elusive figure. It's exciting to contemplate how Soderbergh will go on to sculpt this rich raw material.
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posted by Erica Abeel @ 5/24/2008 01:52:00 PM
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