My Uncle Antoine

Mon oncle Antoine; drama, Canada, 1971, D:  Claude Jutra, S: Jacques Gagnon, Jean Duceppe, Lyne Champagne, Olivette Thibault, Claude Jutra, Lionel Villeneuve  

A small town in Quebec, 23-24 December. An employee working in an asbestos mine dies, so his co-worker Jos Poulin quits and informs his wife and kids that he plans to find another job. Benoit (15) works as a clerk in a store of his uncle Antoine and aunt Cecile. Benoit, who has a cast on his arm, decorates the store for the upcoming Christmas holidays, and flirts with assistant Carmen. When Mrs Poulin calls in that her teenage son Marcel died from fever, Antoine, who also works as an undertaker, brings Benoit with him on a sleigh to pick up the corpse. They place it in a coffin, but it falls down from the sleigh in the snow. Benoit wants Antoine to help him pick up the coffin, but Antoine is too drunk to help, lamenting how he never wanted to be an undertaker. Back at the store, Benoit discovers Cecile had an affair with Fernand, the assistant. When Fernand and Benoit return to the Poulin house to find the coffin, they find Jos, the wife and the kids inside, mourning the dead Marcel.   

Included in Roger Ebert’s list of Great Movies, generally considered one of the best Canadian films of the 20th century, “My Uncle Antoine” is good, but still an overall overrated film. It builds its premise as a ‘slice of life’ film set a day before Christmas, but it never reaches the level of a ‘winter-style “Amarcord”’: not all of its episodes are equally interesting, and its characters are not that engaging. Its virtues are the subtle social commentary (the boss of the asbestos mine is English, while miner Jos is French, signaling the ambivalent relations between Quebec and the rest of Canada), as well as a lot of quiet little episodes from the townspeople: just before the funeral, Antoine struggles to unclinch the rosary from the fingers of the corpse in the coffin; a man generously throws packaged meat on the street from his carriage, while kids pick it up; Benoit (15) spots the girl Carmen wearing a wedding veil and starts chasing her across the room, all until she falls down and he puts his hand on her chest; Benoit and an assistant secretly peak through a door to observe a woman, Alexandrina, taking her bra off in front of the mirror and trying on a corset topless (a pure fan service scene, and a weak one, which is even repeated in a pointless dream sequence near the end, in which Benoit dreams that a topless Alexandrina is jumping in front of him). The storyline meanders until it aligns into a more proper narrative an hour into the film, when Antoine and Benoit travel in a carriage to pick up a corpse in a desolate house. The viewers learn that Antoine is unhappy with his life; that his wife is cheating on him; while the miner from the opening act, Jos, simply disappears from the film until the finale, where he plays no role anyway—all these subplots seem half-baked, incomplete or underdeveloped, and thus do not connect as a whole on a greater level. The director Claude Jutra directs with a steady hand, creating a genuine feeling of this small community, whereas the ending is powerful: it juxtaposes the arrangement of the Nativity of Jesus toys with the arrangement of the anti-Nativity of the Poulin family (their dead Marcel) to contrast how idealism is shattered by dark reality and death, whereupon the teenage protagonist Benoit grows up.  

Grade:++

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming; fantasy action, USA, 2017, D: Jon Watts, S: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Laura Harrier, Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Donald Glover, Robert Downey Jr., Jon Favreau, Tony Revolori 

Peter Parker tries to keep up with his duties as Spider-Man even though he already has a busy schedule due to his high school life, where he is preparing at a chemistry contest in a decathlon. Things get out of hand when Adrian Toomes and his team steal the alien Chitauri technology, use it to manufacture weapons and sell them to criminals on the black market. Likewise, Peter’s friend Ned finds out about his secret identity. When Tony Stark gives him an advanced Spider-Man suit, Peter uses it to stop Adrian / Vulture, but thus misses his homecoming dance with Adrian’s daughter, Liz.  

The first stand-alone film featuring Tom Holland as Spider-Man and his second appearance in Marvel's Cinematic Universe (he was introduced in "Captain America: Civil War") is one of the best contributions in Marvel's film franchize: refreshing, lively, funny, genuine, with a great sense for conjuring up the feeling of the chaotic high school life reminiscent of J. Hughes' style, thus making "Homecoming" the best Spider-Man film since Raimi's "Spider-Man 2". It already starts off charmingly creative: right after Marvel's logo, instead of opening credits, this text appears: "A Film by Peter Parker", as the film follows the hero's humorous mobile phone recording as he travels to Berlin with Happy. The movie isn't quite as creative afterwards, and its pace is at times too fast to truly let some moments "sink in", yet it compensates this with a lot of humor and fine performances. One of the best "throw away" bits revolve around the local Midterm High News hosted by teenagers Jason and Betty, who have ridiculous exchanges—in one, Jason looks at the camera and says: "Students, don't forget about your homecoming tickets. Do you have a date for homecoming?", but Betty then randomly turns her head towards him and unexpectedly replies: "Thanks, Jason, but I already have a date", as the camera zooms in on Jason's face, just awkwardly staring forward. 

In another, after the decathlon team was saved from an elevator in the Washington Monument, the Midterm High News give this announcement: "Midtown's Academic Decathlon team defeated the country's best to win the national championship. Later that day, they also defeated death!" Michael Keaton has a field day as the villain Adrian / Vulture, as well as Jacob Batalon who is excellent as Peter's best nerdy friend Ned, and gives the most hilarious joke in the entire film: after communicating with Spider-Man online over a laptop in the library, a teacher shows up and asks what he is doing there so late, so Ned closes the laptop and tries to hide his secret by telling this: "I'm... looking... at porn". But the protagonist is also a highlight, since the story depicts Peter trying to balance his private life, where he is a loser, and his secret superhero life, where he is a popular hero, so when he starts experiencing failure as Spider-Man and becomes a loser even as a superhero, scolded by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. in a delicious guest appearance), he enters a crisis, which he has to resolve. The director Jon Watts isn't as inspired in his directing as much as the screenwriters are inspired in their writing, and the story lacks more emotions, yet "Homecoming" simply ties everything down to a T, demonstrating that popular entertainment can also be clever and satisfaying in its own way.

Grade:++

Pale Flower

Kawaita hana; crime drama, Japan, 1964; D: Masahiro Shinoda, S: Ryo Ikebe, Mariko Kaga, Isao Sasaki, Takashi Fujiki, Chisako Hara

Released from prison after serving a sentence for killing a rival gangster, Yakuza Muraki returns to his Funada clan, but is surprised that the two rival clans joined forces in the meantime. He has sex with a woman who works as a prostitute in a local clock shop. Muraki enjoys gambling, and meets Saeko, a woman who gambles because she is excited by thrills. They spend time together, even though he is surprised by her instance of searching more and more thrills, either by driving fast during the night or taking drugs. When a member of their clan is killed, the Yakuza boss orders that he must be avenged, so Muraki volunteers, and informs Saeko, who is excited to watch this. Muraki enters a church, walks to the rival gangster and stabs him to death, while Saeko watches, emotionless. Muraki lands in prison again, and is informed that Saeko has been killed by Yoh.

Inlcuded in Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, "Pale Flower" is more of a character study than a crime drama, since it is a meditation on emotionally stunted people who yearn for more and more excitement to feel something, until they ultimately burn out. The director Masahiro Shinoda has a sense for great shot compositions, framing even the conventional scenes into something more cinematic and asethetic, and the black and white cinematography helps him in capturing this look of dread. "Pale Flower" starts off with a great opening monologue of the anti-hero Muraki, who laments at the world ("Why are so many people crammed into cage-like boxes? People, such strange animals. What are they living for? Their faces are lifeless, dead. They are desperately pretending to be alive"), yet the rest of the film is less so literately philosophical, and more observably philosophical, through its events and character interactions. Several sequences stand out due to their unusual context: the anti-hero is in a bowling alley with his Yakuza friends, a young lad walks up to him, asks if he is Muraki, and after Muraki confirms this, the lad suddenly draws a knife at him, but Muraki beats him by hitting his head with a bottle while the Yakuza take the would-be assassin away; the Yakuza boss laments to a colleague that he is over 50 years old and is thus practically ashamed to show himself outside; Muraki is about to perform an assassination himself, yet the boss advises him to get his teeth fixed first, before going to jail; Saeko randomly starts a car race with a stranger with a beard through the streets during the night, and all of a sudden said stranger stops his car, Saeko stops as well, and the stranger just laughs, pats Muraki and Saeko on the back, and drives away, as if to congratulate them for being such good sports on such a spontaneous notice. The movie is flawed in its loose storyline which kind of gets lost after 40 minutes, meandering until it becomes almost vague at times, and the epilogue is superflous, yet it brings its point across: in Saeko's final close-up, it demonstrates the limits of ever greater sensation of thrills, which, once crossed, lead only to numbness and death. 

Grade:+++

The Hairdresser's Husband

Le Mari de la coifeusse; romance, France, 1990, D: Patrice Leconte, S: Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena, Henry Hocking, Anne-Marie Pisani, Roland Bertin

At the age of 12, Antoine enjoyed going to a hairdresser shop just because he enjoyed getting his hair cut by Mrs. Sheaffer. He found the experience so sensual, he vowed to one day marry a hairdresser. As a grown up man, Antoine gets his hair trimmed in a saloon run by Mathilde, and proposes her. Eventually, she says yes, and they get married. They enjoy their marriage, and meet several customers in the saloon: an adopted kid who is afraid of a haircut; a man hiding from his wife; a lonely old man abandoned by his family... One day, after many years in marriage, after passionate sex, Mathilde runs off into the rain and commits suicide by jumping into the sea, since she wants to preserve their love in an ideal memory before it turns into routine. Antoine stays alone in the hair saloon, telling himself that the "hairdresser will return".

Included in Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, "The Hairdresser's Husband" is one of the most peculiar film meditations on sensuality and erotic obsession in cinema, here presented in the symbolic form of the hero Antoine being utterly fascinated by a hairdresser giving him a haircut. It is not really a romance, but neither is it a drama nor a comedy, since it avoids typical genre qualifications, and instead just presents a depiction of a fascination of people by something, which gives them energy, inspiration and a will to live. The sequence alone in which the 12-year old Antoine enjoys being shampooed by hairdresser Mrs Sheaffer sounds normal on paper, but the director Patrice Laconte films it in such a pasisonate way that it almost feels like a soft porn. This flashback is told with a lot of charm, creativity and wisdom ("My father said life was simple, that if you wanted something enough you'd get it... Failure was proof the desire wasn't strong enough"), yet the main segment involving around a grown-up Antoine is a bit weaker. 

One problem is the sequence where he goes to a hair saloon, gets a haircut by Mathilde, and, acting on impulse, suddenly proposes her. She doesn't say anything, naturally, since he is a stranger, and Antoine then just politely leaves. However, when he returns for a second time, she says yes—but why? She doesn't even know his name, nor was there any scene that illustrated their joint chemistry or connection, and thus this feels unconvincing and unearned, way too easy. Their marriage is so ideal that the movie feels kind of lost as to how to fill up its time, since nothing much happens. Here and there, Laconte adds a few clever metafilm solutions, such as the scene where the grown-up Antoine wakes up on the floor with Mathilde in the morning, looks up and spots his 12-year self looking through the window. It may have been a mistake to cast Jean Rochefort in the leading role, since he looks a little bit too old to portray a man who discovers the culmination of his passion at that age. Also, the bizarre ending simply does not work, and feels like a cheap way to gain some dramatic intensity through random (and unconvincing) death. Still, the movie has a great mood to it, depicting how passion works as a rejuvenation to people, but that even this rejuvenation does not last.

Grade:++

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Kiss of the Spider Woman; drama, Brazil / USA, 1985, D: Hector Babenco, S: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sônia Braga, José Lewgoy

Two people share the same jail cell: Valentin, a left-wing revolutionary, and Louis Molina, a gay window dresser, for being in the way of the right-wing Brazil military dictatorship. Valentin and Molina form a friendship, as Molina recounts a film about a French woman falling in love with a Nazi officer during World War II, and betraying her homeland for him. Unbeknownst to Valentin, Molina is spying on him because the prison Warden promised his release if he finds out about Valentin's revolutionary group. Molina is released, and Valentin tells him how to contact his group. Molina makes a phone call and a car stops to reach out to him on the street, but the secret police shoot and kill him in an ambush. 

Hector Babenco's most famous film, "Kiss of the Spider Woman" is a dark, bleak and depressive 'kammerspiel' drama playing out almost exclusively in one prison cell, just between two inmates, Valentin and Molina, both played brilliantly by Raul Julia and William Hurt, except for a few flashbacks revolving around their past in freedom, and an epilogue outside jail. The film has strengths, but it is not without flaws, since their dialogues are too conventional, whereas the only more imaginative creative solutions are in the form of escapism: one subplot involving Molina recounting a film about a French woman betraying her homeland because she fell in love with a Nazi officer (as a parallel to both Molina's betrayal and the cyclic history of persecution of minority groups defying an autocratic repressive order in society) and a dream sequence about the Spider Woman. There is only one truly great line in the film, said by Molina, but it is indeed poetic and memorable ("The nicest thing about feeling happy is that you think you'll never be unhappy again"). The film tackles several agonizing moments between them, one of them including Valentin getting diarrhea from poisoned food, while Molina helps him change clothes. However, a fair share of the story becomes rather stale, monotone and too grey after a while, exhausting itself with this confined premise. Nonetheless, it is a quality and ambitious philosophical piece that makes the viewers think.

Grade:++