Funny Games

Funny Games; psychological horror-thriller, Austria, 1997; D: Michael Haneke, S: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, Stefan Clapczynski

A married couple, Georg and Anna, travel with their little kid Georg Jr. to a desolate cottage in the forest. A young lad, Peter, shows up at their cottage, claiming to be the friend of their neighbors, and wants to borrow some eggs. Another lad shows up, Paul, feigning politeness, but refuses to leave the cottage. When Georg shows up, the two lad break his leg with a golf club, taking the family as their hostages in the cottage. Paul and Peter speak in riddles, ordering Georg and Anna to do trivial things, punishing them whenever they refuse. Georg Jr. flees during the night, but is caught by Paul, who confiscates his rifle. After another random game, Paul and Peter shoot Georg Jr. and leave. Anna manages to untie herself and run outside to try to get help, but is caught by Paul and Peter who return. The two criminals kill Georg with a knife and throw Anna from a boat. They then go to the neighbors to repeat the pattern.

Even though he received the most awards and acclaim for his drama films, Austrian director Michael Haneke will somehow stay remembered the most for his two peculiar excursions into the thriller genre in which he faithfully emulated Hitchcock's style, "Cache" and "Funny Games". The latter starts off like a typical drama, but 10 minutes in, when the psychopath Peter shows up at the door and enters the cottage, the movie establishes some unbearably chilly, alarming tone that never eases until the end. "Funny Games" is 98% atmosphere and only 2% violence, creating a peculiar amalgamation of static takes and threatening suspense caused through anticipation of fear—even more so, the violence is almost never shown, just implied or heard off screen (the sound of the dog howling after Peter and Paul presumably hit it off screen; the rifle shot; the knife stabbing). This is a highly disturbing, unsettling film, a one that you only see once and never again—probably because absolutely no context is given. 

It is never explained why the two criminals are doing this to the family, leaving the viewers disoriented. Even in "A Clockwork Orange", the hoodlums have some motivation for assault, but here, no reason is given for the two criminals—they don't want money, they don't want to rape the mother, they just do these tortures because they can. And the viewers are just helpless voyeurs to these acts of cruelty. Several interpretations were presented to try to explain the story—maybe Paul and Peter, dressed all in white robes, represent the upper class oppressing the middle class; maybe they just symbolize the tendencies of a group having the urge to dominate over others; maybe it shows the audacity of modern evil, where the "invincible" think they can get away with anything due to their unlimited power, twisting everything to belittle their victims, 'gaslighting' as if it is the victims' fault for everything, while they present themselves as noble and just. However, none of these interpretations are fully satisfying. At a couple of moments, Paul looks into the camera, as if to talk to the audience, which is probably Haneke's take on the viewers who cannot resist watching violent horror films, and thus enabling these kind of films to be made in the first place. The ten minue long take of Anna freeing herself and wounded Georg, tied to chairs in the room, is masterful, whereas despite weirdness, the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. The major flaw is that all the characters are one-dimensional, and thus we do not find out much about the villains. "Funny Games" is a puzzling experience—it is a slasher art-film with actus reus, but without mens rea. As if it is telling us that violence itself is pointless and mindless, and doesn't even deserve the courtesy of explanation or rationalization.

Grade:+++

Dune

Dune; science-fiction, USA / Canada, 2021; D: Denis Villeneuve, S: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Jason Mamoa, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Zendaya 

In the year 10,191 after Space Guild, desert planet Arrakis, nicknamed “Dune”, is the only source of ‘Spice’, a special liquid that enables interstellar travel. Its main miners, the house of Harkonnen, is replaced with the house of Atreides, on the orders of the Galactic Emperor. The young lad Paul Atreides arrives to Arrakis and has trouble adjusting to its warm climate, and is accompanied by his father Leto, mother Jessica with special mental powers, Mentat Thufir Hawat, guard warrior Duncan Idaho and others. The Harkonnens stage a surprise attack on the headquarters at night, since Dr. Yueh disconnected the shields, and kill many, including Leto, taking back power over Arrakis. Leto and Jessica disappear and hide in the desert, where they form a friendship with the native Fremen tribe, including girl Chani.  

After the failures with Lynch’s “Dune” (which is more coherent in the pirated, unapproved 3-hour cut, though) and Harrison’s eponymous TV series, the director Denis Villeneuve, a new patron of Sci-Fi movies, finally adapted Frank Herbert’s famous Sci-Fi novel the right way, achieving probably the best possible “Dune” film. This edition is far more faithful to the novel, though not to the fullest (sadly, some of Paul Atreides’ philosophical contemplations were left out, though they could have left them in just in the form of texts on the screen), and abounds with creative solutions in creating such a futuristic world with unusual gadgets and designs, yet follows only the first half of the story, and thus the uninitiated may find the ending like a “to be followed”-bait. The whole film is magnificently ceremonially clinical: everything in it, from the technical aspects up to the actors, is so refined, filtered and micromanaged that it became sterile, even the characters who became mechanical and too lifeless. Out of some twenty characters, only three feel truly alive and genuine: Lady Jessica (casting the brilliant Rebecca Ferguson was a stroke of genius), who at first feels too passive, but later on proves to be a real lion during crisis situations, and is in the best sequence of the entire film (the one where, after being abducted, she manages to free her mouth and use it, since her special mental powers create a voice that can command anyone to do anything. The villain quickly covers her mouth, but she moves her head away and just says “Stop!”, which is enough to hypnotize the villain into freezing); the selfish bad guy Vladimir Harkonnen; and the sympathetic, chubby Thufir Hawtat, Mentat and commander of Atreides' Personal Guards (great Stephen McKinley Henderson). The classic story of scramble for power and growing up during crisis times has its moments, but overall, Villeneueve seems more interested in setting up neat, aesthetic images than actually creating thoroughbred, emotional or engaging characters, resulting in "Dune" feeling dry at times: everything here is done right, and yet, it simply has no flavour.

Grade:++

The Tortured Soul

The Tortured Soul; crime drama short, USA, 2021; D: Andrew de Burgh, S: Bianca Stam, Nicolas de Burgh Sidley

A woman sits in a room with the murderer of her husband. The murderer is tied up to a chair. She accosts him, scorns him, tells him she cannot forgive him for killing the man she loved. She then shoots the murderer, and aims a gun at her own head.

An unusual twist on the serial killer films, a one where the killer is confronted and has to listen to one the people who cared about his victim, "The Tortured Soul" is a thought-provoking, minimalist kammerspiel consisting just out of said two characters, with the woman of the killed husband taking the role of the prosecutor and judge, setting up her own private Tribunal. The film has an elegant camera and great cinematography, but is overburdened with didactic preaching of the woman, which exhuasts itself into monotone rambling after a while. Too much babble to handle, yet for a 9 minute short, it is consistent and compact, just enough to sustain the attention of the vewers, while the actress Bianca Stam is great, especially considering that she is the only one who says anything in the entire film, while the killer is speechless.

Grade:++

The Match Factory Girl

Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö; drama, Finland / Sweden, 1990, D: Aki Kaurismäki, S: Kati Outinen, Elina Salo, Esko Nikkari, Vesa Vierikko  

Iris works in a match factory. She lives in a shabby home, and pays the rent for her mother and abusive stepfather. Bored from this grey existence, she goes to a dance hall and lands in bed with the bearded Aarne. The next morning, he leaves money for her. She tries to contact him, but he was only interested in a one-night hook-up. Iris finds out she is pregnant, but Aarne wants her to abort. When she is hit by a car, Iris has a miscarriage. She loses patience, buys rat poison, mixes it and puts it into Aarne’s drink. She also poisons drinks of her parents. Afterwards, two police inspectors take Iris outside of the factory.  

Included in Roger Ebert's Great Movies list, "The Match Factory Girl" is an untypically serious and almost humorless film by Aki Kaurismaki, depicting a grey existence of the heroine Iris who gets so fed up with this bad life that she rebels and explodes, "Why Does Mr. R. Run Amok?"-style. In some other aspects, this is typical Kaurismaki, depicting desolate, plain outsiders disappointed by life, constructed on minimalist, unglamorous storyline, similarly like Jarmusch did, and flat cinematography. The movie is remarkably simple, proving once again that Kaurismaki is consistenly good, but rarely rises to some greatness or a more versatile spectrum of a viewing experience. Some subtle touches work nicely: for instance, the opening act depicts characters watching TV news reports of the Tiananmen Square protests, which could be seen as a parallel or foreshadowing to Iris' state of mind, who will also protest due to her frustration with her rigid life. In the hospital sequence, the stepfather's head is not shown, the camera is lowered and just depicts his torso, to imply how distant he is and has no emotions towards her. Also an interesting contrast is presented in the moment where Iris is watching a Marx bros. movie in cinema—but instead of laughing, she is crying from sadness. When Iris goes to a botanical garden at night, she sits next to a Selenicereus grandiflorus, a flower which blooms only once a year during the night—was it to imply that Iris' dark side untypically awakened during these circumstances? Disappointment and disillusionment are the main themes of "The Match Factory Girl", yet it is somewhat too slight, thin, simplistic and ordinary to truly engage on a higher level, with deliberately artificial gestures, Bresson-style, which inhibit the emotions of the characters. Everything in it is good, but it is difficult to pinpoint when it gets great.

Grade:++

Squid Game

Ojing-eo Geim; mystery thriller survival series, South Korea, 2021; D: Hwang Dong-hyuk, S: Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi  

After winning money at a horse bet, but having it stolen by a pickpocket, Seong Gi-hun has had it: in order to pay off his huge debt to the loan sharks, he accepts the offer of a shady man to enlist in a mysterious tournament game on a remote island. The prize: 45.6 billion won. He is given the number 456, being the last of the over 400 participants. He meets other players there: Sang-woo, whose firm went bankrupt and is sought by the police; Sae-byeok, a North Korean defector; an old man suffering from brain tumor; Deok-su, a bully; Ali, a Pakistani immigrant... The games are various, but the losers always lose their lives: Red Light, Green Light; having to carve up a triangle, circle or an umbrella from a cookie; two teams pulling a rope over a high altitude; walking over a bridge made out of solid or fragile glass platforms... The games are played to entertain spoiled rich people wearing masks. In the end, only Gi-hun and Sang-woo survive to the finale, the squid game. However, Gi-hun refuses to win and wants to cancel the game, but Sang-woo commits suicide, making Gi-hun the winner by default. Back on the streets, he meets the old man again, who admits of being one of the rich people who orchestrated the games for fun. The old man dies, while Gi-hun contemplates to take revenge on the game hosts.

Netflix’s most watched TV series at that time, “Squid Game” is a Korean variation of “Rollerball”, “The Running Man”, “The Prize of Peril” and other dystopian survival films from the 70s and 80s that predicted how the very powerful may one day get so bored that the only thing that amuses them is to watch people playing games for life or death, as some sort of modern deterioration back to the mindset of the Gladiator games. “Squid Game” is a giant dark allegory on capitalism, showing how poor people would do the strangest things just to get money from rich people in charge. Even greed outside games is rewarded, obvious in an episode when a bully beats up a man to death, which just increases the reward money, since there are now fewer contestants. In episode 2, the contestants vote to leave such a brutal game tournament, since over 200 of them were shot in the first round, but that is tantamount to quitting a job—they are free, but back on the streets in debt, and thus decide to return “back to work” to get money. The message of inequality and the clash between the upper and lower class is shaped far better here than in Bong’s clumsily written social issue film “Parasite”.   

“Squid Game” is also an allegory on integrity, presented in the honest hero, and on power, depicting a strange dictatorship of the spoiled tycoons who perversly watch these bloody games for entertainment, because they feel they have superior power over others. This series is strange and hermetic at first, but it is a world which is so addictive that once you enter it and see only 2-3 episodes, you have to see it to the end. The writing is rather conventional, since the dialogues are standard, and it is not that suitable for repeated viewings once you have seen it, losing its surprise factor, yet it is suspenseful when you watch it for the first time. The characters are mostly archetypes, nameless players reduced to numbers, but are sufficiently modeled to recognize them: from the religious fanatic who thinks God will save him; through the immigrant who wants to stay polite and kind in this rough game of competition; up to the bully whose brute selfishness knows no limits (and is thus immediately set-up for the viewers to cheer for his fall). Sadly, the last two episodes are underwhelming, ending on an anticlimactic note—yet the high impression was still achieved previously, confirming Korea's pop-culture "new wave" in the early 21st century.

Grade:+++

The Spirit of the Beehive

El espíritu de la colmena; art-film / drama, Spain, 1973; D: Victor Erice, S: Ana Torrent, Isabel Telleria, Teresa Gimpera, Fernando Fernan Gomez 

A small Castillan village after the end of the Spanish Civil War. A truck screening movies arrives, and screens “Frankenstein” to the public. Among the viewers are little sisters Ana and Isabel, who are fascinated by the movie. They live in a remote house with their mother and father, a poet and a beekeeper. Ana goes to a desolate shack and finds a wounded Republican soldier there; he is later shot during the night. Ana flees to the forest and imagines meeting Frankenstein’s monster there. A search party is sent after Ana. She returns back home.  

Hailed as one of the highlights of Spanish cinema, included in Roger Ebert's Great Movies list, “The Spirit of the Beehive”, one of only three feature length movies directed by Victor Erice, is a gentle, minimalist, but anti-nostalgic recollection of growing up in Francoist dictatorship. Almost everything here is allegorical: the four-member family is never shown together in a frame, and mother and father are almost always shown separately in the house, to illustrate the emotionally torn up state of the country under the regime; their desolate home is surrounded by a wasteland, to depict Spain’s isolation under Franco; the leitmotif of bees in a beehive are akin to blind obedience to one absolute ruler; whereas the two little girls are glimmers of hope that their generation may live to see a change. However, symbolism alone does not make a great movie. A cinematic vision is more than that, and sadly the movie is at times boring and heavily overstretched, not always offering a more versatile viewing experience or achieving some universal appeal outside its country of origin. The opening act of kids joyously welcoming a cinema truck, and the projectionist promising them they will see the best movie ever, as well as their petrified faces while they are watching a screening of "Frankenstein", is endearing and magical, yet it is a pity the entire film never repeats that simple perfection. Such scenes as Isabel and Ana pouring soap on her chin, to pretend she is shaving, are cute, but not that great. The minimalist story shows very little. So little, in fact, that it becomes too little to keep the attention of the viewers to the fullest.

Grade:++

Skyfall

Skyfall; action, UK / USA, 2012; D: Sam Mendes, S: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney

An unknown agent managed to steal a list of top secret undercover MI6 agents, and is now revealing five new agents each week online. The head of MI6, M, is accosted for such a failure and pressured to retire, with Mallory as her possible successor. British agent James Bond is sent to investigate. As he falls in love with Severine in Macau, they are both abducted by cyberterrorist Raoul Silva, an ex-MI6 agent who wants to take revenge on M for leaving him behind when he was exposed and tortured in '97 by the Chinese soldiers. Severine is shot by Silva, but the latter is arrested by the MI6. However, he escapes in London and wants to kill M. Bond and M flee to Bond's childhood home in Scotland, where they set up a trap. In the shootout, M and Silva are killed. Bond's new superior is now Mallory.

The 23rd film of the James Bond franchize, and the 3rd one featuring Daniel Craig in the title role, is one of the better 21st century Bond films, mostly thanks to the competent directing by Sam Mendes, an unusual but refreshing choice for this action spy genre. The opening action chase sequence in Istanbul is great, featuring one genius moment where Bond is pursuing an agent on a speeding train carrying cargo, but as the agent starts shooting at him, Bond simply enters an excavator on one of the wagons, turns it on, and swings its bucket at the agent as a shield. The ensuing chase ends on a high note "cliffhanger", when Moneypenny wants to shoot the agent, but accidentally shoots Bond who falls down from the train into a river—in any other movie, this would ignite suspense and uncertainty, but, predictably, here Bond survives without much problems, as if it was just a minor inconvenience to him. Such deus ex machina solutions reduce the realism of the storyline, yet Bond movies rarely went out of their mainstream comfort zone, anyway. Luckily, the authors manage to compensate with a lot of style, great action choreography and fast pace. Among the flaws is the main villain, Silva, because he at one point practically gains superpowers akin to the Joker in "The Dark Knight", since he has a plan-within-a-plan-within-a-plan that enables him to always have the upper hand, even when he is arrested, so he is unstoppable, which is unconvincing and far fetched. Actress Berenice Marlohe is sadly underused in the story. The most nostalgic and surprising moment arrives when Bond goes back to his origins, to his derelict childhood home in Scotland, where he wants to set up a trap for Silva's henchmen, reminiscent of "Home Alone" in a more action oriented edition. While mostly stale at its core, "Skyfall" gave a momentum of spark and passion, and features a very unusual ending that speaks about the passage of time, almost as an intruder in this genre.

Grade:++

The Plea

Vedreba; art-film, Georgia, 1967; D: Tengiz Abuladze, S: Spartak Bagashvili, Tengiz Archvadze, Rasudna Kiknadze, Ramaz Chkhikvadze, Otar Meghvinetukhutsesi, Zurab Kapianidze

A Georgian village, 19th century. A Poet has a vision of Good, in the form of a woman in white robes, and Evil, in the form of a brute man hiding in shadows. The Poet tries to reform the villagers to stop killing animals and fighting with neighboring tribes, to reform them towards good, but gets rebuked... Khevsureti, a clan holding a town on the hills, sends Aluda to punish Mutsali from the neighboring clan, the Kistins, for stealing their animals. Aluda kills Mutsali, but refuses to cut off his right hand, as the tradition orders, because he realizes Mutsali has a family, and does not want to desecrate his corpse. Aluda is thus rejected by his clan when he returns, his house set in flames... In a mountain town, Jokola meets the wandering Zviadauri and invites him to be his guest at his home. However, when the local Kistins identify Zviaduri as the enemy clan, they tie him up, bring him to a desolate place and kill him, despite Jokola's objections... The Poet does not know how to bring good to the world, but accepts the message of Good that kindness can be found in every person.

If there is one spiritual analog to the abstract art-film "The Plea" by Tengiz Abuladze (brilliant Stalinist satire "Repentance"), it would be Pasolini's "Theorem": both present a highly subconscious tale that is aggravated by allegorical images that speaks about some universal human issues—and in this case, it is the problem of evil. "The Plea" is remarkable by unraveling almost like a completely different movie once you watch it for the second time, with scenes and images taking on a second, deeper meaning later on. It is framed by a story of a Poet who has a vision of Good, embodied in the form of a woman in a white robe, and a vision of Evil, embodied in the shape of a brute man hiding behind shadows. He is disturbed by the existence of evil in the world, but Good tells him: "I am alive as long as you are alive." Profoundly awakened, the Poet tries to reform people to become good, but the villagers scold him: "You say that killing animals and felling trees is a sin. Why consider it a sin if God has given it all to man?", as the camera shows a shot of the Poet standing over a lamb, almost as if he is trying to protect it. The villagers continue: "What shall we do, then, to those who trample on our land?" It immediately contemplates how difficult it is to maintain civility if both sides see the other one as the enemy, and refuse to try to understand and cooperate with the other. How to keep up a pacifist society if it can be destroyed in an instant when just a couple of brutes can attack them with force and cause an angry backlash?  

The two stories within this framework are of two men trying to understand and reach out to the other side, the enemy village / clan. In the first story, Aluda rejects the tradition of desecrating the enemy he killed, and is thus shunned by his own kinsmen. In the other, a mountain village kills a stranger for being from the enemy clan, even though he meant no harm. Both these stories tell of a fundamentalist dogma in which primitive men react violently to any kind of people trying to cause a change, a progress from their dogma of "we are good, everyone else is evil". The whole movie is thus a giant contemplation on trying to conquer evil within yourself and having the courage to do something good, even if it is not socially acceptable. While weird and alien, Abuladze's film is filled with wonderful shot compositions of the mountain settlements (huge contrasts of close ups of a person with tiny people in the far background walking down the mountain; the snowy landscapes...), but also with some disturbing imagery (a bull with a cut off head rolling down the hill). It also has some neat moments, such as when Jokola tells the stranger: "My village is just within a stone's throw". In the finale, men are shown digging graves, while the Poet laments such a state of mind which just causes more and more deaths. The woman is shown hanged, but as she falls, the light of the Sun is revealed above her, illuminating the camera. The woman then appears walking on the meadow, almost as a triumph of good: it cannot be killed, as long as there are people doing the right thing, it is alive—any person dedicating his or her life to creation, instead of destruction, keeps goodness alive. "The Plea" may seem frustrating at first, but the longer you endure it, the more you will get addicted to it. It is not meant to be fully understood rationally, but subconsciously. It is as close to a visual poem as it gets.

Grade:+++