Coluna Claquete - November 28, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "The Arrival"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "The Arrival"

Whenever people ask me what is my favorite director, I answer that I do not have anyone, because each film should be analyzed individually. But I must confess that this conviction was shaken with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, whose films always have surprised me positively, as is the recent case of "The Arrival".

Nowadays achieve an original idea, especially in the science fiction genre, it is very difficult. "The Arrival" brings something new to the genre, mainly by escaping the common-place of most blockbusters productions, seeking a deeper story and a message aligned to the needs of today's world.

In the story, the world is shocked to find that twelve alien ships appeared out of nowhere and pulled in different parts of the world. Without showing agressive or other nature intention, the ships simply hover a few meters above the ground, as if awaiting the initiative of humans.

Each country where hangs a ship, take their efforts to make contact with the newcomers. But their language seems incomprehensible, and the tension mounts among the civilian population.

The linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is sought by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) to help them in contact with the ship in the American space. Scientist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) is also called to work together, each in his specialty.

The first contact is a shock to Louise, used to the peaceful academic environment, and now exposed to an incomprehensible universe, strange even for experienced scientists.

The deadlock is broken when she seeks an approach using written language, and in response to words in English, she receives several extremely complex circular symbols, which will be the key to communication.

In addition to the difficult task with the aliens, Louise still lives a personal tragedy, and the world seems to be heading in maddened way for an interplanetary war. The main question still remains unanswered: Who are the aliens and what they came to do on earth?

In order for a movie to be good, besides a good director and a good screenwriter, there must be a good story as the basis for everything. In the case of this film, the idea came from a science fiction short story written by Ted Chiang in 1998, "The story of your life".Although working since 1989, the author of the collection has written about fifteen stories.The number seems small, but the writer has won a lot of awards, including the desired Nebula and Hugo Awards (four of each).

In the specific case of "The Arrival" and the original story, the interesting handling of information about language, the nature of time, and humanity is what makes the story (and the film) two treasures.

Villeneuve had the merit of carrying to the cinematic language the essence of the original story. Previous works of the director already demonstrated this brilliance, and among all, I highlight the fantastic "Incendies" (2010), that I always recommend to all movie lovers.

"The Arrival" is very well done from a technical point of view, with a well-constructed script, a perfect edition that leads to a surprising end, all this with the beautiful photography of Bradford Young, highlighting the beautiful locations in the Canadian province of Québec.

It is possible that viewers accustomed to the space-opera will not enjoy the slower pace of "The Arrival". However, I believe that those who like films that lead to a good discussion will be happy with this gem of the Seventh Art.

Original title: "Arrival"

Coluna Claquete - November 21, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "Captain Fantastic"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Captain Fantastic"

One of the hardest things in life is certainly how to properly educate our children. The truth is that each individual is unique, the conditions that permeate us also are, and everyone try to do what is right based on their own convictions. This is the implicit theme in the interesting movie "Captain Fantastic", from director and screenwriter Matt Ross.

Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) had made his choice.He lived with six children in a mountainous region of the state of Washington, in the forests of the American Northwest, near Canada.There they lived a spartan life, hunting, doing intense physical training, climbing, practicing self-defense, and a lot of studies in various areas of knowledge, foreign languages, philosophy, politics and more.

Amid this intense life, one thing was missing to the family, the mother, Leslie (Trin Miller), absent for health treatment. But when searching for news abaout the woman, Ben was surprised by the information that she had committed suicide.When contacting the father, Jack (Frank Langella), Ben was threatened by the menace of being arrested if he showed up at the funeral.

Still sad for the loss of the woman, Ben discovered that the last wish of his wife was to be cremated, which, after some indecision, led him to take the children in a long trip to New Mexico, to satisfy her desire.

The trip was a great novelty for the kids who only knew the small village close to their refuge. The sight of thousands of cars cluttering the roads, huge supermarkets and other capitalist icons surprised the children, always with a critical view of Ben about this world.

The first clash between these worlds was in the house of Ben's sister, Harper (Kathryn Hahn). Harper, with her husband Dave (Steve Zahn) and two teenage children, formed the typical American family, alienated and consumerist. While Harper and Dave made a thousand detours to explain the death of Leslie, Ben went straight to the point, explaining clearly what had happened to her.

But the expected scandal happened in Leslie's funeral, an elegant ceremony in a traditional church with dozens of guests. Even if Ben tried to show that he was trying to fulfill the last wish of Leslie, her father was inflexible and threatened to arrest him if he continued insisting it.

This clash of worlds affected everyone, including children. Bo (George Mackay), the eldest son, had applied to the best universities in the country, being accepted by several of them. Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton) wanted to stay with his grandparents. Ben itself began to question whether their choices were correct or not.

Matt Ross film brings fierce criticism of the American way of life, and their alienated way to educate children. Although Ben waldenistic way of life was also out of reality, there is no doubt about what the director considers the most correct way.

Some of the funniest scenes in the movie take place when the children question Ben about sex, situations that are usually embarrassing for parents, especially in a conservative society like the American. But the lesson of the film is: do not leave any question unanswered.

One point that generates controversy among viewers is how religion is portrayed in the film. Leslie considered herself a Buddhist, more for the philosophy than the religious organization.But what strikes most is when Ben replaces Christmas by Noam Chomsky's Day, considering a humanist more important than "a fictional magical elf".

The great message of the film is not to say what is right or not, but rather, to raise discussions on education and family relationships, questioning the alienated way of life of the society that we live, in a increasingly consumerist world.

The film, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, is technically very well done, and besides the beautiful children of the cast, brings exceptional performance of Viggo Mortensen and veteran Frank Langella. I recommend it to everyone, If only to find out where Leslie wanted her ashes to be deposited.

Original title: "Captain Fantastic"

Coluna Claquete - November 14th, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "The Siege of Jadotville"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "The Siege of Jadotville"

When we talk about the misfortunes of Africa, what comes to mind is the enslavement of its inhabitants by Europeans, who led them by force to various corners of the world to a life of suffering and bondage. However, the Dark Continent's problems are not limited to that, as the exploitation of natural resources continues today, with no benefit to the locals, causing wars with great loss of lives. A small example is shown in "The Siege of Jadotville" (2016).

In a recent review of the film "The Legend of Tarzan", I was able to speak briefly of what was one of the most brutal colonizations in Africa, the region that received the name of the Belgian Congo, when became colony of Belgium in 1908, changing the name successive times to reach the current one, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unfortunately, democracy is a rare commodity in the country, which has always been object of exploitation of Belgian, French, American companies, as well as guerrillas supported by United States and the former Soviet Union, always seeking the magnificent natural resources of the region, rich in gold, diamond, copper, cobalt and uranium.

The film shows a particular event of the so called "The Congo Crisis", a turbulent period that began with independence from Belgium in 1960, and ended with the seizure of power by Joseph Mobutu in 1966.

The story begins with the military coup led by General Moise Tshombe (Danny Sapani), with the support of Belgium, United States and France, who kidnapped and executed Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba (Richard Lukunku), leader of the independence movement, and who had been democratically elected.Tshombe took power in Katanga province in the south of the country, region extremely rich in minerals, with great performance of foreign companies, financiers of the coup.

The UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld (Mikael Persbrandt), gave permission for the UN forces launch a military offensive called Operation Morthor against mercenary military units in Katanga, supporters of Tshombe.According to its mandate, the forces of United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) should remain strictly impartial in the conflict.But the political leadership of Katanga believed that the UN had broken its mandate and were joining his opponent, the Congolese central government. 

The scapegoat of the case was a small unit of the Irish army, at UN service, consisting of 155 men, none of them having participated in any real situation of war, not even the commander Pat Quinlan (Jamie Dornan). The group was assigned to protect the small town of Jadotville.

The group did not have the sympathy of anyone, not even the locals who believed that UN intervention could lead to the closure of mines, generating unemployment. Thus, the group was surprised by a combined attack of mercenaries, employees of mines and Congolese soldiers loyal to Tshombe.

But if lacked experience to Quinlan, there was a lot of leadership and an outstanding strategist mind.With small number of soldiers and weapons, he foresaw the possibility of an attack, building a network of defensive trenches that saved the lives of his men.

Surrounded by thousands of enemies, the Irish group resisted for six days without support from anyone, killing more than three hundred attackers, plus an unknown number of wounded.The UN group was attacked not only by land but also by planes, with no air defense resources.

The situation was not confused only on the battlefield, as there were conflicting political and economic interests, reaching culmination with the death of the own UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash, that even today is suspected of been an attack .

The film is very well done, with great performances from little-known actors and a well tied script with remarkable fidelity to historical facts, as well as filming on location in South Africa.

It is always good when facts like that are exposed by the cinema, to remind the general public of the horror that hangs over the continent to this day. However, it is difficult to focus on the loss of the own inhabitants of the country, as in this case in which the most important was the heroic actions of white soldiers against a large enemy force.

But the Netflix production "The Siege of Jadotville" fulfills its role as both testimony of History as well as entertainment piece, leding the viewer to identify themselves with the characters of the film. I recommend to everyone, not only watch the movie, but also researching a little about the history of this country that suffers so much.

Original title: "The Siege of Jadotville"