Wednesday, 4 December 2024

December 5th 2024

The Dead Don't Hurt
Out of Season
My Favourite Cake

One Western with a modern sensibility, a French mood piece reflecting upon "what if", and a sublime picture of love in old age in repressive Tehran. Another great week for new release films, all on the big screen. 

The Dead Don't Hurt
Dir:  Viggo Mortensen
Length: 129 mins
© Transmission - a stunning morph of a 
relationship film with a Western. A winner!
French-Canadian immigrant Vivienne le Coudy (Vicky Krieps) is a woman unusual for her time - a highly independent and self-sufficient flower seller in San Francisco. When she meets much-travelled Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen), an immigrant from Denmark, they decide to set up a life together at his remote little cottage in Nevada. After a short idyllic period, Holger decides to enlist in the army to fight in the Civil War, leaving Vivienne to fend for herself. The local men are an unsavoury bunch - corrupt mayor Schiller (Danny Huston), powerful rancher Jeffries (Garrett Dillahunt) and his vile son Weston (Solly McLeod) who goes after Vivienne. When Holger returns five years later the pair must learn to adjust to what each other has become, and handle some hard truths. This is a Western with a welcome difference. The tenderness of the love story and the determination of a woman to stand up for herself could well be something from the modern era. The relationship between the lovers, both passionate but each fiercely their own person, is compellingly portrayed. Mortensen as a director and actor knows how to tap into humanity and gentleness, as well as depict the brutality of the era with its ruthless and violent men. Questions of revenge, forgiveness, heart-breaking loss and the meaning of fatherhood also feature in this moving love story. Shot mostly in Durango Mexico, the film is very lovely to look at, and as well as having scripted, produced and acted, Mortensen has written a very lovely musical score.
4 - highly recommended

Out of Season
Dir:  Stephane Brize
Length: 115 mins
© Palace - old flames meet up in this two-hander
Famed actor Matthieu (Guillaume Canet) has checked himself into a spa resort in Brittany, after suddenly doing a runner from a theatre production in which he was supposed to star. He's lost all his self-confidence. Out of the blue he gets a phone call from Alice (Alba Rohrwacher) who lives in that very town, and with whom he was involved 15 years before. The pair meet up and rekindle a past flame, as well as rehashing the nature of their break-up and what might have been. I'm as torn about this film as they are about their relationship, despite the movie being a nominee for the Golden Lion at Venice. Yes, there is a lovely chemistry between the pair, yes, the windswept bleak scenery of Brittany underscores an emptiness both characters now feel in their lives, yes the music is lovely, but for me there is something a little laboured about the whole thing. Perhaps it could have been severely edited, especially in the earlier sections. I found myself thinking constantly "get on with it!" Some scenes feel  contrived, such as when Matthieu and Alice go to the wedding of a lesbian couple, one of whom has reflected at length in an interview about finding her real self long after her marriage and motherhood are over. Overall there are enough good ideas here - the shallowness of stardom and the wellness industry; the idea of "sliding doors" and what could have been; the theory that it is never too late in life to find yourself - but the whole does not coalesce into something that is as emotionally satisfying as it could have been. The two leads however are good together with strong natural chemistry, and there is one incredible scene featuring two whistlers who make amazing bird noises - the film is worth seeing for that alone!
3 - recommended

My Favourite Cake
Dir:  Maryam Moghadam & Behtash Sanaeeha
Length: 97 mins
© Vendetta - sweet and touching, with a 
subtle political undertone
Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) is 70 and has lived alone in Tehran since her husband died thirty years ago. At a friends' lunch, the women laughingly speculate on whether it is possible to find love again at their age. Mahin decides to put it to the test. At a pensioners' diner she spots lonely taxi driver and divorcee Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi), and arranges for him to drive her home. The evening that ensues is unforgettable for them both. Winner of the Ecumenical Jury prize and the prestigious Fipresci prize at Berlin 2024, this film is a low-key wistful delight, that is not without its political agenda, albeit very subtly handled. Mahin is old enough to remember when women in Iran were not oppressed, and could wear low cut dresses instead of hijabs and sandshoes, and when nosy neighbours weren't watching your every move to report you. Much of the action is interior, but in one scene on the streets Mahin is fearless enough to defy the Morality Police when they harrass a young woman. Of course being alone with a man is considered a crime, but Mahin and Faramarz are determined to make up for years of bottled-up emotions. I love this sort of  gentle understated film; there is a sweet innocence about the characters, and it is always a joy to see love in the autumn years on-screen. The two lead actors conjure up a beautiful intimacy and the many tableau-style shots of them side by side reinforce this.  Unsurprisingly, the two directors  were not allowed out of Iran to go to collect their awards, just further testament to the life Mahin is against, and yet resigned to.
4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended

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