Cinemania 2012: One Night

38 Témoins

2012/ Colour / 104 min / France-Belgium 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Lucas Belvaux
Scriptwriter : Lucas Belvaux 
Producers : Agat Films & Cie, France 3 Cinéma, Hérodiale, Artemis Productions, RTBF

Cast : Yvan Attal, Sophie Quinton, Nicole Garcia, Natacha Régnier, Françoia Feroleto
Sales : Films Distribution 

This film is adapted from the 2009 novel by Didier Decoin Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent? based on the brutal 1964  murder of Kitty Genovese. It is a deeply affecting drama by the Belgian director Lucas Belvaux. It forces a person to question himself as to what type of an action would he had taken in a similar situation.

A horrific crime happens in the middle of the night and no one claims to be a witness. But one man could no longer bear the sense of the guilt and comes forward, telling the police about what he had heard that night and what were his reactions. He is the only with a sense of responsibility for his lack of actions, the only person with consciousness. For that, his neighbours punish him with their hatred.

The film presents a situation where a person is deeply affected by the sense of his personal failings. It also states that there is no way out of the sense of deep guilt causes by the failed human responsibility. The main personage's consciousness turns him into a shadow of his former self. He claims that no one has a power to make him forgive himself, that no one could forgive him. Even the fact he is the only one with the sense of any responsibility and consciousness amongst 38 witnesses does not seem to redeem him in any way. The film ends on the note of deep disrepair. It shows the smashed reality of a broken life. But it forces one to ask if it is right to suppose that their is no possibility of redemption for this type of personal guilt and regret, no possibility of forgiveness of any kind?

Here is the film's trailer

  

Cinemania 2012: A Lady in Paris

Une Estonienne à Paris 

2012/ Colour / 94 min / France-Belgium-Estonia 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Ilmar Raag 
Scriptwriter: Imar Ragg 
Producers: Entre Chien et Loup, Le Parti Production, Amrion Ou
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Laine Magi, Fabrice Colson, Patrick Pineau
Sales: Pyramid International 

Jeanne Moreau, at 84, delivers an astonishing performance in this film by an Estonian film director Imar Raag. It is as if her acting talent has now matured to a full blossom. Her portrayal of the taciturn Frida, an Estonian émigré in her eighties, living alone in Paris, as well as her equally superb portrayal of a neighbour who comes for a visit in the film discussed in my preceding post below Cinemania 2012: Gebo and the Shadow, shows that the true talent never dies but if properly cultivated can even get much better as the years pass by. There is therefore no need for aging actors to complain that they cannot get roles to play because of their age. If they are not chosen for any roles it simply means they lack true talent and/or the ability to make their acting skills grow as they progress in age.

 The film treats with fineness the issues of the advanced age and the inability to care fully for oneself, and shows the ensuing tensions, despair, and frustrations. It also portrays the difficulties of those with the immigrant background, how they choose to cope with their new lives in a new country, and how they treat and judge each other within their ethnic community. Old hurts never seems to heal, but the new relationships are possible. This  as is the case of Frida and her new caregiver Anne (masterfully portrayed by Laine Magi) who comes from Estonia to take care of Frida, having never been to France before.

The film shows a triumph of warmth in human relationships that succeeds to replace the prior coldness and meanness.

Cinemania 2012: Gebo and the Shadow

Gebo and the Shadow

2012 / Colour / 91 min / France-Portugal

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Manuel de Olivera
Scriptwriter : Manuel de Olivera
Producers : Mact Production, O Som e a Furia
Cast : Michael Lonsdale, Cludia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau, Ricardo Trepa, Leonor Silveira
Sales : Pyramid International 

The film is a superb adaptation of a 1923 stage play by the Portugease drama writer Raul Brandão - O Gebo et a Sombra. Manuel Olivera, the word’s oldest working film director, had succeeded at the age of 103 to produce a masterpiece by breathing a new life into this Portuguese theatre classic. The period setting of the film, the décor and costumes are masterly conceived and portrayed. And the cast of this film is superb.

The film examines the always pressing issues of evil and honesty. The inability and the refusal to be dishonest and to behave dishonorably in order to gain personal standing and money is portrayed by the main character Gebo and is contrasted to that of his son’s extreme greed for money which he believes can offer him a more exciting and valuable life. He attacks and scoffs his family and their two guests for their mundane and meager existence, and does not at all hesitate to commit a crime against all his family members, most directly against his father, in order to have a more ‘exciting’ life. He is possesses by a force which he proclaims to be greater than him. This force, he also explains it to be a very powerful being, comes over him especially at night and tells him, and forces him to do the crimes he commits.

The film also deals with love of a spouse and of family members. It portrays the desire to protect them, and the issuing family illusions that are installed. At the end, this also a heroic personal sacrifice… 

Here is the official trailer of the film, in French

One can also find complete versions of the film on YouTube.

Cinemania 2012 - 18th Edition

The CINEMANIA Film Festival promotes French-language films. Since its inception in 1995, it has presented its wide audiences with a great number of original and some very remarkable films. The festival has grown from the modest beginnings at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts into an internationally recognized event. It is one of the largest dedicated French-language feature film festivals in the world solely devoted to premieres in North America, Canada, and Quebec. The Festival features many of the greatest names of French cinema, as well as young and up-and-coming talents.

The festival presents several special events:

- A tribute to the late film director Claude Miller, with his films being screened at the Imperial Cinema on November 2-3, 2012.

- A focus on Belgian cinema, also at the Imperial Cinema on November 5, 2012.

- A meeting with a French actress and film director Sandrine Bonnaire. Many of her films will be shown mainly at the Cinémathèque Quebecoise. Also, there will be a unique opportunity to meet her on November 7, 2012 at the Imperial Cinema at 16:30. This event is preceded by the presentation of the first feature film she directed Maddened by His Absence, which will be screened at 14:45.

To find out more information about the Cinemania film festival, visit the Cinemania website

http://www.festivalcinemania.com/