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To watch or not to watch? I will tour around Amsterdam’s cinemas and answer this crucial question every Friday. Without mercy, of course. Sucky movies will be slaughtered, cinematographic pearls will be appreciated as such. Or the other way around. After all, good taste is in the eye of the beholder.
Beginners
This Filmfetish will be all about trailers and how confusing they can be. For example, the trailer of Beginners tells the audience that a very, very old man comes out of the closet, after being married for 44 years. ‘I’m gay’, he says to his son (trainspotter Ewan McGregor). My first thought was:’yeah, right! Like that would éver happen.’ Apparently, it did happen, because Beginners is pretty much an autobiographic film by director Mike Mills. Mills, who also made music videos for Moby and Air, had a homosexual father that started living his gay life at 75. And, just like in the film, his father died five years after his coming out. While Oliver (McGregor) grieves for his dad (an amazing Christopher Plummer), he also finds new love (Mélanie Laurent). So Beginners isn’t just about gayness, it’s also about mourning, loneliness and ‘magic’, according to the trailer.
Watch this film in Cineville’s Cinecenter, The Movies and Kriterion.
A Separation
Usually, a trailer tells you a bit about the film. About the story, the characters, the tone, you know? I saw the trailer of A Separation a couple of times and every time it left me confused. It also seemed too dramatic, so never mind then. A friend of mine really wanted to see it, so last week I went anyway. Good decision! A Separation is about an Iranian couple with marital problems. The woman wants to leave the country, the man wants to stay to take care of his demented father. The woman leaves and asks for a divorce. In the meantime, their eleven year old daughter stays with her father and grandfather, hoping that everything turns out okay. That seems to be more and more unlikely, due to a law suite her father gets into.
Very intriguing film, not only because of the story, but also because of the insight you’ll get in Iranian society. A Separation won the Golden Bear for best film in Berlin and all the actors got an award for best actor.
Watch this film in Cineville’s Rialto and De Uitkijk.
Habemus Papam
Seeing the trailer made clear that this film has something to so with the pope. And with a psychiatrist. I haven’t seen it yet, but the papers told me Habemus Papam (‘we have a pope’) is about a newly chosen pope, that doesn’t want to be the pope. Result: the pope, played by Michel Piccoli, an icon of Italian cinema, takes off. Interesting starting point. The fact that director Nanni Moretti (also playing the psychiatrist) is anti-catholic promises an interesting film as well.
Watch this film in Cineville’s The Movies and Rialto.
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