Dark Night of the Soul: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA

The name—Once Upon a Time in Anatolia— will likely remind cinephiles of Sergio Leone’s classic Spaghetti Westerns, which Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan said are not what he had in mind when he made his film. In fact, the title is uttered by one of the characters, Arab the driver (Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan), when he half-jokingly tells Doctor Cemal (Muhammet Uzuner) that perhaps one day he can tell his children about how they spent a night looking for a body in the vast fields of the Anatolian countryside. The pair belongs to a team of investigators, including Prosecutor Nusret (Taner Birsel) and Police Chief Naci (Yilmaz Erdogan) among others, who have brought along the two suspects of a murder in hopes to locate the body they buried. Unfortunately for them, the primary suspect Kenan (Firat Tanis) has a difficult time recalling the where he buried his victim and they are all set for a long night.

Festival Review: Latin Wave 2012

Miss Bala

Breaking away from Latin Wave’s tradition of acting as the Houston premiere of the newest Latin American cinema, festival director Monika Wagenberg brought back Gerardo Naranjo’s Miss Bala, which already had a short run at Sundance Cinemas in January, to a full house at the MFAH. Studiously filmed and edited, the Mexican film about an aspiring beauty queen, who is inadvertently dragged into the violent world of Tijuana cartels, is an express train to hell for its protagonist Laura, played by the promising Stephanie Sigman. The film shows a glimpse of depth in its portrayal of Laura’s fight for survival in a ruthless world where she was used as nothing more than an instrument of the operation. It is a shame that Naranjo’s mise en scène leaves little room for the performance and the story to expand beyond its high-octane panic attack.

Stick it again: Alex Luster of STICK ‘EM UP answers our questions.

A little more than a year ago, Houston’s street art documentary Stick ‘Em Up! premiered at Landmark River Oaks Theatre with the kind of fanfare that is unheard of for a local production. The tickets to the screening hosted by Aurora Picture Show were in such high demand two extra showings were added that very night. We interviewed director Alex Luster shortly afterwards (which you can read here). On the first weekend of May, Luster and his crew will present the film once again at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Meanwhile, a poster show in honor of the film is opening at Domy Books. We asked Luster a few questions ahead of the highly-anticipated screenings:

 

Film Monitor: It’s been a year since we lasted interviewed you for Stick ‘Em Up! after the sold-out screenings at River Oaks Theatre. What are some of the changes you’ve made on the film?

Alex Luster: Not anything major. We just tightened up some edits, shaved a little time off of some interviews and made the music a little louder.

 

The Other Side: Robert M. Young’s ¡ALAMBRISTA!

Thirty-five years after its release, ¡Alambrista! remains a notable example of life for millions of migrant workers who have crossed over into the U.S. / by Giovanni Guillén

When Jean Renoir spoke about The River and his intentions behind filming in India, I found it compelling how attached he was to reality. The River is a work of fiction yet the French director strived to portray his subjects in an honest light, eliminating myths and misconceptions about India and its people. Renoir understood, however, that his film would be from the perspective of an outsider, a foreigner looking into a culture he could never fully understand. In many ways, ¡Alambrista! is also the work of an outsider. The story takes place in the U.S., but focuses on a young Mexican man and his efforts to support his family back home. Director Robert M. Young, who didn’t speak Spanish, made a film about an issue few Americans understood. What is noteworthy about Young’s first feature-length film is despite his outsider background, it is an extremely true-to-life portrayal of undocumented workers living in the U.S.

Editor’s Picks: The Top Films of 2011

*from our February issue.

Honorable mentions: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Poetry, Last Train Home, 13 Assassins, The Mill and the Cross, Le quattro volte, A Separation, Le Havre.

A Tale of Two Tributes: THE ARTIST and HUGO

Jean Dujardin is Old Hollywood in The Artist

Critical Dissent: My case against The Artist

Any honest discussion of The Artist’s “Vertigo-gate” has been rendered irrelevant after Kim Novak’s overt theatrics have virtually swayed the public opinion to the French film’s favor. To be fair, the first half of Michel Hazanavicius’s silent film tribute is enjoyable. Actor Jean Dujardin has the looks and expressive facial muscles of a swashbuckling star of the ‘20s. The slapstick humor of a bygone era works in harmony with the dry wit of a present day comedy. And everyone likes to see puppies do cute things. But we already have YouTube for that. As much as The Artist was appealing with my nostalgia, I could not help but wonder how it was going to “pay homage” to silent cinema as it progressed. Well, it didn’t. Hazanavicius made a silent film about how a silent actor merely has to get over his pride and find a way in the new medium because silent films has become outdated—which is, by and large, historically accurate. Hazanavicius also did such a fine job with dosing the film with a saccharine version of Hollywood, chances are you’ll agree silent movies are cute— cute enough for the people of ‘20s and cute enough to you to check out The Artist before the awards season. And that’s where the interest ends.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre.

Marcel Marx (André Wilms) and Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) in Aki Kaurismäki's LE HAVRE.

If Aki Kaurismäki is to be believed, Le Havre is still the kind of neighborly town where you can wake up your doctor from down the street in the middle of the night because your wife is ill. Such heartwarming hospitality depicted in the Finnish filmmaker’s fictionalized version of this port city in Northern France is closer to a Yasujiro Ozu movie of the 1930s than that of real world in the 21^st century. I can guarantee you will see the word  “fairytale” in any given review of this film.

A snapshot of this special new issue…

A peek into our year-in-review issue, featuring the amazing artwork by guest illustrator Jason Poland (who had drawn for us last year). It’s now available at all the usual locations, inlcuding the MFAH, Cactus Music, Brazil, Agora, River Oaks Theatre, Tacos A-Go-Go, Amy’s Ice Cream, Sound Exchange among others.

This month's sponsor

Ernst Lubitsch’s DESIGN FOR LIVING

What is “design for living”? According to the three protagonists of the film by that title, it sure as hell is not monogamy. Based on a play by Noel Coward, Ernst Lubitsch’s 1933 comedy about a ménage à trios was highly controversial but, nonetheless, a smashing hit. Mind you these were the waning days in Hollywood before the moralistic production code started to censor every motion picture for decades to come. And there is so much more in Design For Living than its racy setup. It has the depth and smarts that is often thought to be lacking in the comedy genre.

Third Time’s a Charm: A look back at Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2011

A festival patron in Lynne Hershman Leeson's !WAR installation

Judging by the audience’s mixed reaction to the opening night’s feature, Downtown Express, it was hard to envision that the 2011 edition of Cinema Arts Festival Houston would exceed the heights of last year, which ended inside the halls of Ryan Middle School with an ecstatic audience cheering on the hometown heroes of Kashmere Reunion Band at the end of the almost-cancelled screening of the documentary Thunder Soul. Although Downtown’s screening at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston was well attended, the crowd’s reaction was lukewarm at best, despite cautious praise for the film’s music performed by musicians such as singer-songwriter Nellie McKay and violinist Philippe Quint. But the festival’s programming in days to follow had thoroughly exceeded my expectations and it was encouraging to see how the festival’s unique identity has taken shape in its third official year.