February 16th 2024

Fallen Leaves

Europa! Europa Film Festival

Let the film festivals begin for 2024! This one is a winner bringing the best and latest of Euopean arthouse cinema to the big screen. Plus Finland's most famous director brings us another quirky offering.  

 

Fallen Leaves

Dir: Aki Kaurismaki

Length: 81 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7n8IXlIcS4

© Palace - a low-key love
story of two loners finding each other

Ansa (Alma Poysti) works a dreary job in a supermarket. She is fired for stealing out of date food. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) does various manual labouring jobs, but progressively gets fired from each one because he drinks on the job. The pair meet briefly at a karaoke bar, he later invites her to a meal and film, them promptly loses her phone number. They seem to be made for each other  but will their paths ever cross again? Winner of the Jury Prize at last years Cannes FF, Fallen Leaves is the latest offering from Finland's best known director. Like Wes Anderson, I think he is an acquired taste, and interestingly, while critics swoon over this film, audiences are divided (according to Rotten Tomatoes). There is a deep humanity and an ordinariness to these two, something to which many viewers may relate. A Kaurismaki trademark is the way he employs deadpan humor, that at times for me masks the underlying depth of his themes and characters. There are plenty of fun cinematic references in the settings, a good use of music, along with reminders of the grim world political situation in the form of radio broadcasts. Yet overall, in the midst of this somewhat depressing personal and global angst, there remains a quirky core of optimistic possibility.

3.5  - well recommended  

Europa!Europa Film Festival

Now until 10th March

Classic Elsternwick and Lido Hawthorn 

www.europafestival.com.au

Here's your chance again to see the very best and latest of European cinema. 47 films from 28 countries across Europe - many of them films that you don't get to see elsewhere. Try movies from Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia, Bosnia, Cyprus plus, of course, the usual favorites such as France, Sweden and Britain. There is also a Yiorgos Lanthimos retrospective featuring his six films prior to the recent Oscar-nominated  Poor Things. 

 

The Promised Land

(Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany)

Dir: Nikolaj Arcel

Length: 127 mins

Set in mid 1700s Denmark, this is the sweeping tale of Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen), who sets out to conquer the seemingly uninhabitable heathlands and build a colony there. He represents the king, but comes into deep conflict with landowner Frederick de Schinkel who believes he owns all the lands. Kahlen is determined not to succumb to the evil Schinkel, but standing his ground will be at the expense of people who have come to mean something in his life. Without giving away too much plot here, I confess I find this an utterly engaging film, in an epic old-fashioned way that we don't see so much of nowadays. Its narrative is broad ranging (and loosely based on history), it is visually stunning, and performances are compelling - especially Mads (of course), and Melina Hagberg as orphaned gypsy girl Anmai Mus. With such visceral themes as revenge, ambition, repression, self-worth, family and love, there are all the ingredients needed for a deeply rewarding film exeprience. (note is has 17 big wins to its name). 

The Volunteer

(Spain, Greece)

Marisa (Carmen Machi) is a retired doctor who goes to a Greek island to help out with the refugee situation there. She quickly bonds with an orphaned Arab boy Ahmed, but the managers of the refugee camp are constantly pointing out to her that she must not form a close bond with any of the "inmates". The officials all seem more concerned with the rules, than with basic humanitarian values. Driven by increasing love for the child, and a deep inner loneliness, Marisa makes a reckless decision. This film raises many important and unsettling questions, not the least being the fine line between altruism and self-interest. 

Blaga's Lessons

Bulgaria Germany

Blaga (Eli Skorcheva) is a recently widowed retired teacher, who is scrimping and saving to pay for her husband's gravestone. One day she receives a phone call from a man purporting to be a policeman on the trail of a gang of scammers. Panicked and intimidated she manages to give away her life savings only to realise she has been scammed. But opportunity presents itself in the form of a dubious job, one in which Blaga has the possiblity of recouping money, only to lose her values and integrity. This is a confronting and very disturbing film (especially the shock ending). As well as being highly relevant in today's scam-ridden world, it explores the dark depths to which people will go, even those who think they are upstanding citizens. 

Stella. A Life

Germany

Often truth is even more bizarre than fiction, as in this shocking drama based upon the true story of Stella Goldshlag, an aspiring Jewish singer in the early forties when the Nazi regime ruled Berlin. After she is forced into hiding, Stella becomes desperate to save herself and her parents, and so delivers umpteen of her fellow Jews into the hands of the Gestapo. Paula Beer is wonderful in the lead role, representing a character one can loathe and pity at the same time, as she is both a victim and a perpetrator. Therein lies the interesting moral dilemma. It's a gripping tale with a strong lead performance and impressive recreation of the era.