Female ensembles take centre stage in this week's Hidden Treasures. Spanish women after Franco, British women under Thatcher, and American women in the recession, of different ages, cultures and temperaments, in films melancholy, experimental and uplifting, and barely a Y chromosome in sight!
CRIA CUERVOS (1976) - CARLOS SAURA
A mournful film, but not a moribund one. The mysteriousness of death, revealed to us adults only now through the perspective of a child. Ana's apathetic distance from the deaths of her parents, and her obsession with death as a result. She is devastated, emotionally, and though she may react with measure, she does not react with sense. A fascinating, surprisingly soulful, spirited film, with one of the exceptional child artists in film history at its fore - the extraordinary Ana Torrent.
DROWNING BY NUMBERS (1988) - PETER GREENAWAY
One of Peter Greenaway's most mischievous cinematic theorems, and also one of his most adroit. He administers a mathematical reason to Drowning by Numbers that is delightfully recalcitrant to the emotional reason that it wants to pursue. When, eventually, he amalgamates the two, he produces a wonderfully absolute vision of the logic of chaos, and the chaos of human existence. Stunning in every respect.
PLEASE GIVE (2010) - NICOLE HOLOFCENER
Nicole Holofcener has such a charming demeanour about her filmmaking style that she makes every slap of dialogue, every observation feel like a tickle. Her women are bright, balky and bawdy, and her men are by no means under-developed or demonised in comparison. She deals with drama, but puts on it a cheekily comedic spin. There's a liveliness to Please Give, yet it doesn't use this attribute to escape the robust themes that pervade it.
No comments:
Post a Comment