JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (Directed by Edward Zwick) **

Not much to admire about this action film, other than the teenage girl who may or not be Reacher’s daughter.

She’s witty and unlike all other characters, seems real. The plot has Jack back trying to uncover the government plot that involves silencing those who have discovered an illegal clandestine smuggling operation run by a US army dude that involves Afghanistan. What I wonder is how does one get slammed repeatedly against a cement wall and keeping on duking it out. There was so much violence; it overshadowed all the characters and plot. It was as if the director knew nothing could save this lackluster film, not even the indomitable Jack Reacher A.K.A. Tom Cruise.

Presidential Debates Would Make the Best Reality TV Series Ever!

Think about it. Opponents and one of them has to get voted off. I think the three debates I witnessed between Hillary and Donald are true reality TV material. Conflict, comedy, accusations and bad behavior, plus the element of learning facts, discerning lies and listening to eloquence and buffoonery simultaneously delivered by two different characters. Now, is this not the quintessential reality TV show?

 

 

 If Trump and Clinton really want to make their money honestly, they ought to franchise out those debates and have them translated into a zillion languages, and this way the whole world would listen - laughing, crying and discussing who really ought to get voted off at the end of the series. November 8^th will reveal the winner. And whoever it is, they deserve a medal for TV showmanship and entertainment value. Sad thing is, these presidential debates are for real, folks.

 

                            Will the next president please accept his or her award?

 

MOONSHINE (Directed by Barry Jenkins) *****

 

                           Raw revelations in a heart-breaking coming-of-age film

On a drug infested quiet street in Miami, little Chiron, a Black American, is victim to his mother’s addiction and anger. He’s bullied at school – even beaten up by a group to which his best friend belongs. Little Chiron seeks refuge in a couple who offers guidance and love. The man teaches him to swim, but he sells drugs.

Sadly, Chiron ends up selling drugs. The future holds his best friend to unite with him in a way that references the past upon Little Charon’s sexuality. This stunningly crafted film is so real, yet delicate in its profound grip on us as it quietly aligns issues of socio-economic import, human relevance and the secrets we hold and can’t voice except under the light of the moon. The acting was brilliant.

ARION BAROQUE ORCHESTRA : COFFEE MUSIC BREWED TO PERFECTION

                                              Cafés & Jardins en Musique

                                              Bourgie Hall, Montreal, October 2 pm

Celebrating 35 years of performing baroque music to audiences around the world, Arion Baroque orchestra opened its 2016/17 season with a concert brimming with scintillating baroque flavours that once filled the café houses and gardens in Germany during the 18^th-century. One such place was Zimmermann’s Coffee-House where billiard cues, card games and lively conversation created the background buzz to Bach’s Collegium Musicum – a talented ensemble of student musicians who performed for those eager to taste coffee and enjoy the musical fare Bach was serving in front of them.

Arion’s performance was tantalizingly delicious; each work had me wanting to drink in more of the program’s stimulating brew. What a joy to hear the orchestra bring more than just a few sips of the past to an audience seated in anticipation, happy to hear the orchestra play the first of the season’s five concerts                                                           

Indeed, Bourgie Hall was jam-packed – much like those landmark Leipzig denizens for coffee-drinking addicts once were. And like them, our taste buds extended beyond the cups of coffee – that we were treated to pre-performance and during intermission – compliments of Faro Coffee that has now partnered with Arion.

Thus the stage was set to usher in the ambiance of Arion’s brilliantly brewed baroque program. The first work performed was Suite for orchestra in G-minor, BWV 1070, by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. He was J. S. Bach’s oldest son who may have used his father’s copyist, Christian Friedrich Penzel to create the work, but to this day it is attributed to J.S. Bach. 

Still, one is not sure just who wrote most of it. Whatever the case, the “school of J. S. Bach” – the provenance delicately assigned to this suite – comprises six contrasting movements. Each is appealing in texture and melody. From the opening Larghetto’s rather noble tone to the sweet Menuetto, and the robust joy and accelerated exhilaration of the final capriccio, the contrast between playful tempi, exciting fugues and gallant moods made for a spontaneous-like  satisfying mix of sounds and rhythms

.

Arion was warming up the pot for us to enjoy yet another delightful coffee music composition: Concerto for flute and strings in E-minor, L2.4. Arion’s artistic director, Claire Guimond took to the stage to perform what for me was the most moving music to greet my ears during this afternoon concert.  She mesmerized us in the opening Allegro con brio. A flurry of sparkling, fast ascensions on her baroque flute created images of birds and butterflies fluttering among flowers and bush. It seemed to be almost begging for a soprano to sing the melody.  She produced crescendos with finesse and despite the speed of this first movement every expressive nuance made itself heard without one note missing its clarity. Her sostenuto of breath made for strong note holding that further engaged our emotions. A delicate sonority transported us into a realm of exquisite beauty. The Adagio un pocco andante brought tears to my eyes; so profound was the expressive execution – stirringly gifted to us by Ms. Guimond. The final presto left us all breathless and cheering for more. Ms Guimond revealed to me at intermission that she had fun playing this piece and that Alexander Weimann, the guest conductor for the concert who brilliantly performed on the harpsichord was really great to play with; their timing cues were so tight. 

 

     

Together, like a cup and saucer set, the pair continually poured out coffee music which the orchestra magnificently bolstered without stopping. I left in a state of addiction – not to coffee but to Arion itself,

J.S. Bach, inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s work the Concerto for 4 violins, 2 violas, cello and strings in A-minor, BWV 1065 put his own spin to it, preferring that four harpsichords play the violins’ parts. Maestro Weimann also modified things flipping the composition by ensuring the four violins reappeared as they were in the Vivaldi composition – a humble gesture indeed on the part of Arion’s guest director/harpsichordist. It was spectacularly performed by Arion’s 12-member orchestra with Maestro Weimann at the helm directing and playing his instrument with exuberant ease.

The final piece was a true celebration of coffee. It’s interesting to note that Bach himself owned five coffeepots by the end of his life, and so it is not surprising that he wrote a charming short comedic opera, called  “Cantate du café Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht” BWV 211. It’s about a daughter who refuses to stop drinking coffee; she is in love with the taste. Her father is furious, and only the promise of a husband can get her to stave off her craving. A husband will be had, but she puts in her marriage contract that he must allow her to drink coffee.

This light-hearted creation of humour and wit was a delightfully delivered to us by the artists. The father, performed by bass, Jesse Blumberg acted ebulliently as the angry, frustrated father. He is charismatic – a talented actor whose singing was astounding. 

The narrator – tenor, Philippe Gagné also has an impressive voice.

Lightness and elegance combined to create tonal beauty that, despite M. Gagné’s smaller role as the narrator, he beautifully impacted our listening pleasure.

Soprano, Hélène Brunet as the daughter carried off the role with subtle charm. She reaches high notes like a magical bird. Crystal clear clarity, vocal purity and pitch were spot on. She has a beautiful voice, but I would have appreciated her more had she been more energetic in her acting, but nonetheless, she conveyed girlish stubbornness with enough gusto to inspire us to make our own pot of Faro Coffee once we returned home. 

All three singers – together with Mme Guimond periodically playing on her flute – performed an exhilarating recitative for the finale. It was a dashing, musically aromatic ending for this unique concert.

Impeccable in timing, taste, expression and sweetness, Arion was the coffee, cream and sugar in a cup. And no bitter after-taste greeted our tongues at the end of the performance – only resounding “bravos”, and they lasted long after the last pot of incomparable coffee music was poured.

Arion’s next concert takes place November 9^th, 11^th, 12^th and 13^th. Haydn and Mozart are on the program with two exciting artists performing with the orchestra. I’ll keep it a surprise.

For program and ticket information about this concert and all other upcoming concerts, go to:  www.arionbaroque.com.

You can also call (514) 355-1825

FNC Celebrates 45 Years of Film with a New Virtual Reality Experience

It’s the most avant-garde film festival in Montreal, and as the longest running film  festival in Canada, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma pumps into 11days a galaxy of genres in its cinematic fare. Its enormous apex of screenings boasts 340 films, including 138 features and  170 short films  (there are animations)from 62 countries. There are 43 world premieres, 13 international biggies and 30 North American premieres including 57 from Canada.  A series of timeless animation films are also offered free to the public at Agora, including  a "Wallace and Gromit" double feature. We love them.  You can enjoy this hilarious master/dog series along with a gamut of such animation films in FNC's Petit Loup series. All this  film fun stunningly reflects the vast inclusiveness and uniqueness of this innovative festival -  “innovative” being the catch-all word here.

This year, FNC is offering a total virtual reality film experience which seems to put you right inside the film. This new section, called FNC eXPlore comprises virtual reality works along with installations downtown as one strolls into the various spectator-friendly exhibitions. Phrases that thematically describe unique films include: A sensory experience of the other’s body (Be Boy Be Girl); your chance to become a magician (Break A Leg); and with Late Shift, the audience chooses the plot. No more passive viewing with these 20 unique immersive films. This fun journey is marked in Zones A to D; all are all within walking distance, and free.

 The festival runs from October 5^th to the 16^th.   

  FNC’s website is www.nouveaucinema.ca
 

 

    
                                                               opening film
                                             TWO LOVERS AND A BEAR*****
                                                      (Directed by Kim Nguyen)
                               

                          

   
Like the lonely woman standing in the beautiful but starkly barren snow white northern landscape – a painting by Québécois artist Jean Paul Lemieux, this riveting film captures the inescapable solitude and mystery that has shattered the lives of the two protagonists, Luc (Tatina Maslany from  the TV series, Orphan Black), and Roman ( (Dane DeHaan). 

They are living amidst 200 people in Iqualuit, an Arctic village. Both are fragile beings – haunted by their past; and the present and future look equally dismal. The magnificent tone spectacularly captured by the filmmaker is dark and ominous.

The relentless freezing temperatures are bearing down on these two young people – 

right to their bones that seem to be crumbling in this environment from which they can’t escape their individual imprints. 

Their intimacy inevitably becomes an obsessive retreat for one another – from the cold, their aloneness and their own childhood memories marked bitterly by their abusive fathers.

In the opening scene, we notice that large coffins whose contents are marked as human remains are being loaded onto trucks. This single foreshadows the doom that awaits both Lucy and Roman. As Lucy is determined to pursue her university acceptance into the biology department, Roman roars about staying on; he won’t leave; but he is beside himself with despair. His life spirals so far down that he ends up in a hospital bed after an attempt to end his misery.  Lucy keeps hallucinating about her father, and the mirage beomes a macro vision of colliding elements. Even a polar bear keeps muttering words of wisdom to Roman. Is this the father he always wanted, or his own conscience?

Finally, the pair of North-Star crossed lovers unites as they set out on a snowmobile to return home. Unfortunately, they lack the funds to fly out. 

 

They go into fast gear as their will to survive becomes their prime modus operandi. The film becomes surreal, and as the bear mutter philosophical phrases, we realize that raw reality is as profoundly frightening as any nightmare conjured during sleep.

Kim Nguyen has created an indelible work of rare substance .  
                                                                            

                                                                                 __________________________________________       




                                                            LE PEUPLE INTERDIT **
                                              (Directed by Alexandre Chartrand)

Catalonia has a case to make, and no matter what the Spanish president says, the fierce people of Catalonia - known as los trabjadores de Espana: very hard workers), are determined to have their own country - so much so that they even have their own de facto elected President Artur Mas i Gavarro.

This documentary vividly captures the resolute strategies used to carry out the people's own referendum - led by  key organizer, such as

Victor Curcuruli i Mirallesto.

       

                                     

With a team of thousands,  he manifested will and a peaceful show of solidarity for separation from Spain. Regardless of the illegality of it all, the action catapulted the underlying fact that holding a referendum should not be illegal - regardless of the voting result. 


 The striking sea of colours of the flag worn  now as T-shirts on over 2 million people snaking their way like a never-ending flag along the two streets of Barcelona that fork off into a V - the letter that symbolizes vote, peace and victory.  What an amazing sight, filmed from the heights of a helicopter.
On September 11th, 2014, almost 3 million people voted "yes" to separate, but Spain not only called the leaders terrorists, but completely refused to have any dialogue with the Catalan leaders who clearly had proven that the majority of the people wish for their own country. But first, they wished for Spain to allow and recognize a referendum of the matter.

Alexandre Chartran from Radio Canada and the director of this film also made a cameo appearance during the subsequent Catalan elections for their Assembly. It was pointed out by Gavarro that at least Canada allowed for a Quebec referendum to be held on separation - that this is legal and democratic.

The film was poorly edited, knitting together scenes that did not flow into political important dates that reflected the movement's growth and muscle. Still, the point was poignantly made if not over and over again, that Catalan's people would run a highly effective, common- sense country with passionate restraint - a sterling combination for democratic rule.

                         __________________________________________

  LA CHASSE AU COLLET ***+

(The squealing Game)

                                           (Directed by Steve Kerr)

Montreal has a little murderous maven running around snaring men who join a site for cheaters in their marriage. Little do they know that when she beckons them with her own dominatrix Internet name as Lolita, they are in for really rough ride that doesn’t include sex.

Élie (Julianne Côté) is the lesbian/hygienist culprit who is mentally ill; evidently hates men due to their adulterous ways - as witnessed when she was a little girl; her mother experienced this first hand, but she held no grudge.

Eventually, Éric (Paul Doucet) who started the secret sex website receives anonymous letters warning him to shut it down or else he’ll pay dearly for his amoral venture. He becomes extremely agitated and wants to stop, but he doesn’t. The site gains over 50,000 users within a short time. Eric is turning into a nervous wreck.

The irony in this thriller Québécois thriller is diabolically delicious; it favours the viewer, but even we can’t predict the shocking ending. The cast is superb and the editing is second to none. The message inherent in the plot is an important one that blames the Internet as an accomplice in facilitating and 
encouraging men to commit adultery.


                                       ______________________________________________________

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                               

MAQUINERIA PANAMERICA (Directed by Joaquin Del Paso) *

Completely absurd and not clever in its satire, this film relentlessly shows factory workers at a machine plant whose boss dies suddenly and their despair. They take over the building, drinking, cavorting, and dragging out hundreds of files looking for nothing. 

If this is a statement on the sludge and drudgery of working in Mexico in a machine company on the verge of bankruptcy, then that may be the reason why in Mexican most towns, every house and building is done by hand, and they do a terrific job. I can’t say the same for this film.

                                                                                                     

Completely absurd and not clever in its satire, this film relentlessly shows factory workers at a machine plant whose boss dies suddenly and their despair. They take over the building, drinking, cavorting, and dragging out hundreds of files looking for nothing. If this is a statement on the sludge and drudgery of working in Mexico in a machine company on the verge of bankruptcy, then that may be the reason why in Mexican most towns, every house and building is done by hand, and they do a terrific job. I can’t say the same for this film.

                                                                                                           

                       ________________________________________                

            

                                     NERUDA (Directed by Pablo Larraín) **+

Lead actor Luis Gnecco who portrays the great Chilean poet and communist,  Pablo Neruda carries the entire film. An artistic biopic that portrays Neruda in the midst of the Cold War  being hunted down by his nemesis, Oscar Peluchonneau, an upstart inspector who wants to be famous – known to be the one known bringing the communist poet Neruda in.

                                                                                                                 

 His character seems to figure in Neruda’s masterpiece, “Canto General”, and the film creates their relationship in a unique manner. Unfortunately, too many scenes repeat the lifestyle of salon erotica and poetic license (in every respect) that centered around Neruda who loved this denizen of free-spirited artists. 

Changes of dwellings in which he took refuge also became the main focus of the film, rather than him. Although artistically crafted, it bordered on pretension.

                       ____________________________________________

                                            LA PRUNELLE DE MES YEUX ***

                                   (The Apple of My Eye)                        

                                            (Directed by Axelle Ropert)

A charming French comedy with snappy dialogue of wit and sparkling repartee, this light-hearted quirky creation offers an unusual plot. A lovely blind young woman who tunes pianos meets up with a rather arrogant guy of Greek origin. He and his brother play rebetiko music from Greece, but he’s pretty bad on his bouzouki. The lady tries to improve his playing but ends up improving his will to catch the strings of her heart.

 He fakes blindness. After a series of hue hiccups, they end up falling blindly in love. Fun, wacky and wonderfully acted, the subplot of the two main characters is duplicated in another relationship of the other brother and the blind woman’s sister.

It’s a typically terrific French film.

                                   _____________________________________________________

                 LA TORTUE ROUGE (Directed by Michael Dudok De Wit)*****

                                                       (The Red Turtle)

                

  

An astounding film whose animation is so beguilingly beautiful. The soft hues and the grey tones capture the sublime feeling of loneliness and the wild wonder of a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. Colour infuses scenes at the right moments when lush jungle overrides brown humongous boulders that figure in the setting. The plot is serious yet magical. A man is swallowed up by enormous waves, but ends up being catapulted to the shoreline of a dessert island, he is completely alone. Using bamboo, he struggles to build a makeshift boat, but a huge thump from underneath once he is in the ocean, destroys it and his chances for landing in civilization.

 He builds another raft, and then another and then another – only to have the same thing happen to him. Suddenly a big red turtle appears on the beach, and he turns it on his back so he has no threat of the thump happening again, he knows it was a tortoise that had destroyed his boats, as he saw it once he dove down. The tortoise however turns into something else on that beach, and love comes his way. The touching story of love moves us all, but the ending is even more moving and tragic. Michael Dudok de Wit combined his animation brilliance with the incomparable Ghibli Studios to create a masterpiece that is both delightful and profound. This remarkable film is a timeless classic.

                                 _______________________________________________________

                  AUTRE PART (Directed by Ouananiche A.K.A Cedric)*****

                                       (Elsewhere)

A universal voyage into the benefits of travel, done with authentic voice-over testimonies by remarkable individuals who expose the bare bones of their own personal need to travel. 
                                    
Each has his/her own reasons as they analyze what pushed them into moving into the beyond .Shot in black and white with electronic music mixed into images that reference trains, planes, clouds, landscapes, city streets and more, this 4-year project presents a  theme rarely addressed. 

 

We discover people travel when they feel lonely; people travel to obtain the trance of the present; people travel to depart from hurts built into our DNA. Time is what we make of ourselves in the vast unknown that transports the mind and body into perhaps who we really are, unencumbered by society and those who think they know us.

This is a brilliant film that resonates with anyone afflicted with the desire to move, to change, to tread into the unknown space of that which lies ahead without knowing what to expect. 
A visual collage of great importance, I rank this film a 21^st-century innovative masterpiece that quintessentially uses film for what it is meant to do – to move us, to make us reflect and to make it seem that we are in fact a part of what we are watching.

               

                                          _______________________________ 


                                          BELGICA (Directed by Felix Van Groeningen) *****

 

 Two brothers - one stable, the other into sex, lies and drugs open up a club open to all. Soon things spiral out of control, due to the popularity of the Belgian club, and the irresponsible older druggie brother.

 It's a club run by all who work there, and no one wants their denizen of tremendous rock bands, bar drinkers and scantily clad girls. The younger sibling (Stef Aertz) keeps forgiving his bro (Tom Vermeir) until a climax can't be avoided. Belgica becomes a den of depravity and debt.

 

 The music in this film is as superb as the cast. The ending left two plot loopholes though.

                                             ______________________________

MOI, NOJOOM, 10 ANS, DIVORCÉE (Directed by Khadija Al-Salami)****

                                                                                                                                           

With Yeman’s tribal law, prepubescent girls are often married off. This horrid practice is vividly demonstrated in this angst-ridden film. Nojoom is the unfortunate victim here. Married off to a wicked man who rapes, beats and enslaves her, the little-10-year-old girl endures Yeman’s primitive male dominated dominion over the female sex, regardless of their tender age. In this film her sister is also raped and to avoid shame, she must marry the man who rapes her. It’s all about saving face in the village. How horrid that mothers support the husband in saving the reputation of the family value that inherently destroys the freedom of their own daughters. Fathers view their daughters as profitable “burdens” that can be bargained off – selling them into marriage regardless of age. In fact, Nojoom’s father became so destitute – caused by having to move out of his village after his older daughter was raped. No man would want her now that she is “soiled”, so the rapist became her husband.

Nojoom is feisty and rebellious and flees to court to have her case heard for divorce. She is actually taken in by the judge and his family for protection. The ending offers satisfying retribution for Nojoom.

                                      ___________________________________

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (Directed by John Carpenter) ****

It’s mayhem, magic, martial arts and mythology that constructs this completely ridiculously crafted plot that is a heck of s lot of fun. An evil /2000-year-old man/entity and his 3 martial arts cohorts kidnap a green-eyed woman who is set to marry Wang, one of the heroes whose American buddy is jack Burton (Kurt Russell). 

To rescue her along with another green-eyed chick who gets involved in the rescue, Wang, Jack and magical men must endure a rip-roaring series of near-death dangers. The special effects, creatures, sets and costumes make Dream Works look like a copy-cat company imitating the supernatural elements that fill this 1981 fantasy spoof cum James Bond exciting progressively creative hilarious film, a cult classic.

 Kim Catrall and Kurt Russell look like fresh Hollywood newcomers. The gag lines and style of delivery that intercept the non-stop action draw big laughs.  Ahead of its time, this riotous film and can match any recent martial arts/adventure work in terms of entertainment value and innovative scenes.

                                                ___________________________________________

                                                   

TONI ERDMANN (Directed by Maren Ade) ****

 Totally screwball Winfried Conradi lives in a small suburb in Germany. He’s a divorced has-been music teacher whose only student quits on him. No matter, because for this big, lovable man, life must be lived as a comedy. 
                                                                         

 

He lives this way with absurd in-your-face clown-like humour. No matter, who he’s with, he puts on a wig, false ugly buck teeth and pretends to be someone else lurking in his imagination that would fit perfectly into the social present context at hand.

 Even with his daughter Ines upon whom he springs a surprise visit while she  is working in Bucharest, Romania. Arriving one week before her birthday, he wears his silly disguises (the final one being the most outrageous) and stalks her no matter what important business meeting she has going on. He even joins her colleagues and clients; and to Ines’s anger and frustration endears himself to those who reluctantly but amusingly swallow up his stories about being connected to the right people. 

Ines is trying to snag a major player of an oil company’s German CEO whom she must bring on board if she is to make the petroleum project she heads in Bucharest successful.

When she learns Winfried’s dear dog, Willi has died, which has become the catalyst for her father trying to reconnect with her, she feels for him. Still, she can’t let go of her own inner stress, coldness and ambitious nature that is clearly causes the dividing wall between father and daughter personalities.  But her father never gives up trying to make her see that life can be lived with humour and joy. But his jokes can’t illicit even so much as a chuckle from her. 

 

The acting was superb. Peter Simonishcek as Winfried is outstanding. Having to play a buffoon while showing profound love for a daughter mixes the comedic with the serious, and he did just that with great mastery.

Sandra Hüller as Ines is a miracle. She portrayed with relentless taut tension all-consuming corporate ambition that eats up those who cannot accept any kind of failure                                                                                                                     

Having garnered overwhelming kudos at Cannes Festival, this movie – despite its unique and quirky tone is centered on the modern malaise of disconnection and awkward alienation affecting parents and children. The film vividly demonstrates that family estrangement can be eradicated if one is willing to go to any measure to accomplish that – even if it means making a fool of oneself.

                                                                            

 









View "Mademoiselle " review here:
http://sntravelandartswithoutborders.blogspot.ca/2016/10/mademoiselle-agassi-directed-by-park.html#.WA6WJfQ0WSo