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Thursday, January 01, 2004 Cine City: The missingVegas theaters are getting more indie flicks, but great ones still pass us by
Las Vegas fans of indie flicks cannot complain that they're hard done by. Though it sometimes feels like we're living in a cultural desert, it's surprising how many "specialty" films do reach us. They may not turn up until months after they play New York and L.A., and they may stay for only one week at the Village Square or Suncoast. But most of the significant ones do eventually appear. All the same, an alarming number of memorable movies slip through the cracks to languish in video store oblivion (especially those terrifying foreign films with subtitles). So let's consider a few titles that missed Sin City but are worth adding to your want list on Netflix or Numberslate.com.
Now you see it... Like many foreign films that distributors don't deem worthy of a Vegas release, The Harmonists, Joseph Vilsmaier's heartwarming 1997 docudrama about a famous 1930s German mens singing group that ran afoul of the Nazi regime, belatedly turned up last fall at the Winchester Center. The Winchester is just one of numerous community organizations--West Charleston Library, Charleston Heights and West Las Vegas arts centers, NOTBAD (Nevadans Organized to Better Address Diversity), which screens offbeat programs at Clark County Library, and UNLV's film department (whose superb international film series is on hiatus, due to a budget crunch)--that offer one-time-only opportunities to catch the quirky pics you may otherwise overlook. Another place to find obscure but worthwhile films is at the valley's numerous festivals--the Las Vegas Celebration of Jewish Film, the Mercury Short Film Festival, Blue Sky International Film Festival and the pay-to-play New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. The most impressive, however, remains CineVegas, which, in 2003, presented The Magdalene Sisters and Whale Rider and, in '02, Bubba Ho-tep and 24 Hour Party People, which later returned to local theaters, but many more that didn't. Get a Way [Cavalcades], a gem of a first feature by Frenchman Noah Nuer, explores the difficulty of breaking down barriers to communication in dysfunctional relationships. Agns Roland plays Anne, a young woman despondent about failing an important exam, who literally bumps into Didier (Maxime Desmons), a flamboyant gay man, on the streets of Paris. As the mismatched couple spends time together, Didier devises a way to help Anne connect with her superficial, materialism-obsessed parents and she helps him cope with his homophobic father. Another CineVegas offering was No News from God [Sin noticias de Dios], with Spanish superstars Victoria Abril and Penélope Cruz as a heaven-sent angel and her diabolical counterpart battling for the soul of a soon-to-be-deceased boxer (Demián Bichir). Too bad Augustin Díaz Yanes' offbeat fantasy never returned to Sin City. Because old-timers who wax nostalgic about the glories of the Rat Pack era would love the notion that heaven is a vaguely prewar Paris, shot in lustrous black and white, where Abril's sexy nightclub act (part-Marlene, part-Marilyn) feels as sophisticated as any lounge act from the days of Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter and Joey.--Anthony Allison
Reality check Documentaries suffer most from the vagaries of multiplex programming, fighting the assumption that only residents of large cities will pay to see them--particularly if they're from outside the United States. This year, two excellent documentaries (both made in 2002) were given a limited American release: Bus 174, from Brazilian documentarian José Padilha, and To Be and To Have, by France's Nicolas Philibert. In the summer of 2000, a former street kid named Sandro do Nascimento hijacked a Rio de Janeiro bus and took 11 passengers hostage. On the surface, Bus 174 [nibus 174] is the dramatic story of the standoff between Sandro and the city's incompetent police force, viewed through the prism of the media circus surrounding the event. But as Padilha explores the tragedy of Sandro's life, and the forces that shaped him, the film becomes an indictment of Brazil's brutal treatment of the underprivileged and an examination of the seductiveness of reality television. When you are one of society's invisibles, how far will you go to be seen? By contrast, To Be and To Have [tre et avoir] appears to inhabit a world in which television has no purpose whatsoever. In a one-room schoolroom in provincial France, teacher Georges Lopez and his 13 students--ranging in age from 3 to 11--quietly go about the business of learning. As the seasons change, Lopez shepherds his charges through multiplication tables and sledding trips, writing assignments and the care of two pet turtles. With the patience of Frederick Wiseman, filmmaker Philibert uses his camera to illuminate the mystery of teaching and the love in the heart of one of its greatest practitioners. Not exactly a documentary, In This World uses the real-life experiences of two cousins as they try to escape an overcrowded refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, and make their way to London. British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom fattens the footage of their perilous journey with alarming statistics on the plight of the world's refugees, following his nonprofessional duo as they dodge patrols and negotiate with shady human smugglers. By putting a human face on the tragedy of the dispossessed, Winterbottom holds a mirror up to our indifference and the way it contributes to their plight. An affecting, and discomforting, film. Dispossession is also a theme of Lilya-4-Ever, a wrenching drama by Swedish writer-director Lukas Moodysson. When Russian teen Lilya is abandoned by her mother, she and her only friend--a glue-sniffing 11-year-old boy--begin a downward spiral of heartbreaking abuses and betrayals. Like the boys of In This World, Lilya dreams of escape; like them, she will discover that no one cares.--Jeannette Catsoulis
Unholy absentee With stories of suicide bombers pouring out of the Middle East on a daily basis, one could hardly expect a pro-Palestinian film to be a palatable experience. So viewers may be startled to discover that Divine Intervention [Yadon ilaheyya], which passed Vegas by completely, is an impudent and entertaining comedy about the buried longings, simmering rage and giddy desires of an oppressed ethnicity. Writer-director-star Elia Suleiman mopes with the hangdog stoniness of a Semitic Buster Keaton through this Kafkaesque comedy of manners, contemplating the agonizing burden of living as in intruder in a land one has always called home. Divine could be derided in some circles as anti-Jewish propaganda. But this farcical lark is not Triumph of the Will. In its rude and scatological way, Suleiman's perplexing, entertaining film declares that all Palestinians are not terrorists and all Israelis are not saints--merely mercurial inhabitants of a consecrated land teeming with warring factions consumed by their allegiance to a timeless blood feud.--Robert Chancey In Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest, Sean Penn says the human body loses 21 grams at the time of death. Not true. But the movie's so good, you wish it were. 21 Grams is now playing. |
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