Africa And Coffee.

Isabelle Huppert fest! Though, going to write this film made me realise ANOTHER film that I had failed to write up, 35 Shots Of Rum. Seriously, every time I think I'm making some headway on this backlog of lists, I come across things I forgot and it just keeps growing. On the plus side, it does make the deficit I need to make up somewhat shorter.


So, the amazing Isabelle Huppert. We may remember that we love her almost as much as life itself. So it is shocking to me that this is only the third time she has shown here, after this one and this one. But here you go, her third appearance here, for her latest French film White Material.

Frail. But oh so strong.

Claire Denis (who did 35 Shots Of Rum, hence why that memory was triggered) takes Ms Huppert to Africa where she puts her in charge of a coffee plantation, whilst all around her civil war rages. It's a damaging state of affairs, where being white makes her the enemy, regardless of how fair she may be to her black charges. Complicating this situation is the presence of her family, particularly her rebellious, antagonistic teenage son Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle), the fact that this plantation is her home and she does not desire to leave it for the safer confines of her native France, and the added fear of fiscal problems relating to the fact that the plantation is failing anyway and she wants to at least get in the final crop that is ready for picking.


Maria (Huppert) risks everything in order to get this last crop. But it is definitely more complex than merely wanting or needing the money. Maria will see giving up and running away as failure of the highest order, especially coupled with the financial problems they will face. To avoid this she is very willing to put the safety, and even the lives of herself and her family on the line - and it is definitely Maria making the decisions. Her husband André (Christopher Lambert) is present but weak, castrated even in the face of the much stronger, more independent and awesomely willful Maria. This is pussywhipping that could cost a life. Plus, Maria complicates matters again by beginning to shelter a rebel officer - she is drawing attention to herself when they should just be trying to slide under the radar and hope for the best. But it is not in Maria's nature to fly under the radar, not when she is being hard done by. She is hardwired to fight back, no matter what the cost.


Huppert is perfectly placed for the role, her wiry frame (looking scarily tiny in the loose and flimsy frocks she was donning for the African heat) adding an outward fragility that was reversed by her steely demeanour, allowing her a contrast that, sure, has been used before, but with her expressive eyes able to radiate iciness like no others this always proves impressive. Duvauchelle's very European looked contrasted well with the African locale, making his obstreperous rebellion almost valid due to how out of place he was. Lambert's presence was limited but very strong, appropriately submissive but never to the point of fully bending over to his wife. Rather than a passive husband doing what he was told, you get the opinion that he has very strong views and that he will fight for them, but he is ultimately steamrolled without mercy, a much stronger force of nature barreling him out of the way.


Denis has crafted a good film, though not quite a great one. Strong performances can't quite get past the fact that the film seems to keep wandering down the one track, and the subplots are never fully fleshed out of given time to take hold. The dominant narrative is very clear, but everything underpinning it is murky. It provides some support, but not quite enough to stop the primary forces from feeling a bit repetitive. The elements were almost universally strong, but they were let down a little in the ultimate grand scheme.


But it's a good film. Definitely a good one. 3 stars.

Pianos & Porn.

Have I mentioned today how much I love Isabelle Huppert? No? Well there is no time like the present. And combine Huppert with Michael Haneke - glory.


The Piano Teacher (or La Pianiste) obviously clicked, with the Cannes jury at least - Huppert won Best Actress (her second such recognition from the festival), her costar Benoît Magimel won Best Actor and Haneke won the Grand Jury Prize. Based on Elfriede Jelinek's novel, the film centres around the horrifyingly sexually repressed piano teacher Erika (Huppert) and her relationship... well, with the world around her, manifested in a gifted pupil Walter (Magimel.) Erika, in her forties, lives at home with her mother, even sharing a room. She frequents video rooms in sex shops, even sniffing discarded cum-soaked tissues as she watches. She cuts her genitals while sitting on the edge of the bath, right before dinner. And she is cruel and hard with her students.


She meets Walter, who falls for her cold distance due to her talent with the piano, and some glimmer of humanity and weakness he is able to discern within her. What he doesn't realise, however, is the twisted sadomasochism that takes the form of that weakness. Despite her attempts to distance him, Erika finds herself drawn into some sort of relationship, of sorts, with him, which sees her make public her desires for the first time, much to the horror of Walter. It is only later, when her dreams come true, that she realises how unpleasant they really are.


Huppert is extraordinary. She is always extraordinary, but here... here she is something else. She is so incredibly there, within this horrid creature that she plays, but managing to imbue Erika with the frailty of her own fear and shame. Rather than hating her tormenting ways, from the get-go you feel sorry for whatever has driven our protagonist to this point in her life.


Magimel does a fine job opposite Huppert as the young, beautiful, precocious but ultimately arrogant and unaware student of music. He was good, though whether I'd plant him as the best of the fest I don't know. Having said that, I can't actually be bothered looking up who else was in contention, so we'll let him have it, shall we?


Haneke does his twisted thing so well, and he does it again beautifully here. Erika is a tough cookie, very mean and dark and often shocking, but Haneke, of course, doesn't ever flinch away from showing her, from emoting with her and discovering empathy for her. He's not afraid to open the door to each of our hearts and remind us that, somewhere inside, we are all as desperate as she is. Cinematographer Cristian Berger shoots the film coldly and clinically to match the leading character, the first collaboration between Haneke and Berger before Hidden and The White Ribbon.


Riveting, striking and quite shocking, The Piano Teacher is high on my list of favs of the last decade. Haneke is pretty damn good, and Huppert is pretty damn amazing. 5 stars.

White Material

I can't WAIT to see this next month. Isabelle Huppert is quite possibly my god. Quite possibly.

Last Time, Last Year - Not So Good.

I have eons of time for I Heart Huckabees. Literally, eons. Well, not literally, but eons in the sense that Vivian and Bernard might use the term considering we are all one and therefore my matter and energy shall continue forever. 

Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) is having a crisis. He is the head of the Open Spaces Coalition, devoted to preserving open space amongst the urban sprawl in America. In doing so he gets involved with the Huckabees corporation, a large kind of K-Mart or H&M or something type company - a corporate sponsor who are responsible for a lot of the sprawl but can raise their profile and aid their own PR. To this end he becomes involved with Brad (Jude Law), a marketing exec dating the face of Huckabees Dawn (Naomi Watts.) Whilst meeting with him he finds the card for a pair of existential detectives, Vivian (Lily Tomlin) and Bernard (Dustin Hoffman), who he contacts with a view to solving a coincidence involving Stephen (Ger Duany.) However, he bites off a bit more than he can chew as they set about pulling apart his entire notion of existence. He is paired with his 'other', Tommy (Mark Wahlberg), and the two are meant to strengthen each others resolve as they attempt to realise that everything is the same, nothing is different, we are all connected. But Tommy is splitting up with his wife and getting involved with another existentialist, Caterine (Isabelle Huppert), who used to be Vivian and Bernard's best student but has gone along very opposite lines, espousing the notion that nothing is connected, everything is random, life is cruel. Hilarity ensues.


Seriously, hilarity does ensue. It's all existential waffling, notions of reality, those kind of 'hippy' ideas of togetherness, separateness and being that seem quite trite, but writer/director David O Russell's dealing of them makes them sublimely ridiculous whilst still ringing somewhat true. The writing is truly exceptional, with so many quotable lines that in the days immediately following any of my viewing it is virtually impossible to get a straight word out of me - it's all 'there's glass between us', 'infinite nature' and 'I'm in my tree, I'm talking with the Dixie Chicks and they're making me happy.' And the performances are suitably ridiculous without parodying themselves. Tomlin is crazily esoteric while Huppert (marry me) is brilliantly cold and distant, but at the same time so powerfully seductive with her rejection of anything of meaning.


There are some great cameos from the likes of Tippi Hedren and Shania Twain, and the music from Jon Brion is perfectly suited to the serious yet whimsical nature of the entire concept. It's hard to say too much without going into ramblings on various aspects, which I won't do. But if the idea of an existential comedy makes you want to chew out your own eyes, then this isn't for you. If you like the idea of a comedy that makes you think while you're holding your sides from laughter, but doesn't really make you think that much if it does make you think, but maybe you've been thinking it all along and we're all actually the same person but perhaps this is just random that you're now watching this and maybe maybe maybe you see what I mean.


It's worth YouTubing scenes that made it onto the internet of Russell abusing cast members as well. They're kind of scarily hysterical... he is seriously an asshole from the looks of them (they made it onto the net a few years back), but they make you wonder why the fantastic cast stuck around. 5 stars.