March 6th
Everybody Knows
The House that Jack Built
Reflections in the Dust 
French Film Festival

What an exhausting week! I review several films from one of the most popular festivals around - the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, plus a superb Spanish thriller starring Penelope Cruz and husband Javier Bardem. Then there are the seriously disturbing films, the latest nightmare from Danish auteur Lars von Trier, plus a challenging Aussie arthouse film highlighting violence against women. In fact violence seems a strong theme, including in a couple of the French films. No wonder I'm feeling slightly unhinged.

Everybody Knows
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Length: 133 min

© Universal - with top shelf acting, and a 
complex plot, this is well worth seeing

Laura (Penelope Cruz) lives with husband Alejandro (Ricardo Darin) in Argentina. With just her two children she travels to the wedding of her sister in the small village in Spain where they grew up. Amidst the joyous festivities, and after a blackout, Laura discovers that her daughter Irene has gone missing, apparently the victim of a kidnapping. Paco (Javier Bardem), once Laura's lover, runs a vineyard bought from Laura's family. He will be called upon to help in a way that affects his whole life. As the mystery deepens, fault lines within the local community and Laura's family emerge, exposing grievances and shocking secrets from the past. Farhadi is a master writer and director, especially skilled at portraying the nuances of interpersonal relationships. With a stunning cast (Cruz and husband Bardem are dynamite on screen), and a beautiful Spanish village setting, he fashions a moving and complex story that interweaves many themes and emotions, taking us from the uplifting joyousness of celebration, into the depths of despair.
4 - highly recommended!

The House That Jack Built
Director: Lars von Trier
Length: 153 min
Exclusive to Cinema Nova and Lido Hawthorn

© Umbrella - Uma Thurman doesn't last long in 
this serial killer extravaganza.

It's hot out of last year's Monster Fest, and the operative word here is monster. It's the story of sadistic serial killer Jack (Matt Dillon) who discusses in voice over his philosophy of everything (especially art, religion and killing) with Verge (Bruno Ganz) who is unseen for most of the film. Von Trier has always been a divisive director, but this one should divide to the max. The film's strength is definitely Dillon's performance - he manages to balance an almost prosaic ordinariness with an absolute maniacal and narcissistic side.  He sees each of his kills as some form of high art. But here's what I'm left thinking - this really is nastiness to the max, as women (even ducks and children) are strangled, mutilated, bludgeoned and shot, then stored in a freezer. The horrific "experiment" Jack sets himself at the end is almost unthinkable. There is copious philosophising upon many ghastly "icons" of history (think Auschwitz, Hitler, Stalin, Mao), proposing them as all some sort of art. Music and religion are also fodder for intellectual ponderings. The self-reflective (read "wankerish") side to the film could be seen as an attempt to elevate to high art what is basically murder porn masquerading as something more. At a lengthy runtime, and despite being uncompromising, well-made and well-acted, I find it a real torture course.   
1 - avoid! (unless you are a die-hard von Trier or Dillon fan) 

Reflections in the Dust
Director: Luke Sullivan
Length: 74 min
Exclusive to Classic cinema Elsternwick

© Backlot Films - fresh from the Czech Karlovy Vary 
Film Festival, this Aussie offering is certainly 
something totally unusual

Somewhere in an undefined post-apocalyptic place in Australia, a father (Robyn Royce Queere) and his blind daughter Freckles (Sarah Houbolt) are surviving. She is blind and he is (according to the media notes) a paranoid schizophrenic clown. He alternates between telling her he loves her and will never hurt her, and being verbally and physically abusive. Interspersed between the very loose narrative, shot in stunning black and white, are several vibrantly colored interviews, in which each character talks of their fears and hopes (or lack thereof). It's a beautiful piece of film-making, and is definitely powerful stuff, supposedly an allegory for the violence against women in society. Freckles must constantly navigate the emotional terrain with her father, constantly on guard against his erratic form of craziness. The performance by Houbolt (a circus performance artist who suffers a rare disability syndrome which gives her a birdlike appearance) is brilliant, and at no time is the film less than intriguing and disturbing, all enhanced by the impressive score. I have to say it's a maybe because, depending on your taste for seriously art-house fare, you will either love or loathe it.
2.5 - maybe!  

Alliance Francaise French Film Festival
Melbourne March 6 - April 10
For other states, times and ticketing visit  https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/
Palace Cinemas Astor, Westgarth, Balwyn, Brighton, Como

It may be hard to believe, but the FFF is in its 30th year! This year's 54-film line up promises to be as good as ever, with something for everyone. A highlight this year will be the restored version of the 1961 classic Last Year at Marienbad. For fashionistas there will be docos on Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves St Laurent, plus an eclectic selection of dramas, comedies and animations. As always, I'm the lucky duck who has previewed a number of these films.

© FFF - delicate and poignant adolescent drama

Genesis: Half siblings Guillaume and Charlotte are going through their experiences of young love, in this sweet, delicate story set in Canada. The film-maker captures poignantly and compellingly the dramas of emerging sexuality, first heartache, and questioning of sexual identity. In effect three different story threads are interwoven, the final one seeming like a bit of an add-on, but overall the young actors are so authentic, and the camera work so strong, you will easily be transported back to your own youth.  

© FFF - The bravery of the Kurdish fighting women
is highlighted in this wonderful film

Girls of the Sun: Now here's a must-see in the festival. This gripping and emotional story centres around Kurdish women who were abducted and kept as sex slaves by ISIS, only to escape and become fighters, alongside men. Nominated for a Palme D'or, it focuses on Bahar, leader of the battalion, as she alternates between the harsh realities of her present life, and her past, which went in one fell swoop from middle class lawyer and mother, to living nightmare at the hands of ISIS. Vital also to the plot is Mathilde, an embedded French reporter, who feels compelled to risk her own life to report on the atrocities, and the bravery of those amazing women prepared to stand up to the brutality of ISIS men.  
The Sisters Brothers: Touted as "a modern masterpiece", this film is a Western, starring John C Riley and Joaquin Phoenix, and is in English (but with a French director, Jacques Audiard). Set in the Californian gold rush in the 1850s it is the story of two brothers sent to kill a mysterious gold-panning chemist (Riz Ahmed). Another hired assassin (Jake Gyllenhaal) is also on the trail. This is definitely a western with a difference as these brothers manage to explore their emotions and what it means to be a man. This festival is your only chance to catch the film and the director is a festival guest.
Revenge: Here's a thriller/horror/slasher for the #metoo age. Bimbo Jen goes for the weekend with her married boyfriend Richard to his remote American desert hideaway. When two of Richard's hunting mates turn up, things go pear-shaped for Jen, after which she turns from Bimbo to Rambo. If you want misogynistic men, blood-thirsty revenge, glorious desert scenery, and bucket-loads of blood and gore, this could be just the film for you. Its credibility is stretched at times, but there is nevertheless something riveting about a woman sticking it to a group of really nasty guys.
Knife + Heart: Vanessa Paradis plays Anne, a producer of third-rate gay porn. When the stars of one of her films are murdered one by one, she finds herself caught up in a bizarre investigation. This is an odd mixed bag of comedy, slasher film, love story, the retro gay porn scene and possibly a commentary on a genre of film I fail to fully understand. 
Place Publique: Agnes Jaoui star and directs this amiable comedy about a washed-up TV talk show host Castro (Jean-Pierre Bacri) who goes to a house-warming party in the French countryside. His producer/girlfriend Natalie, and his ex-wife are there, along with an upcoming rapper in line to take over his show. Nothing dramatic happens - it's more an expose of shallow bourgeois life versus those who still believe in something, along with the powerful effect of  social media.
The festival is, as always, highly recommended!