Tomorrow, the massively acclaimed, Camera d'Or winning, multiple AFI and IF Award winning Australian box office hit Samson And Delilah hits cinemas around this little island nation. Oh, it was shortlisted for the Foreign Language Oscar also. A few months back I did my little write-up of acclaimed short director Warwick Thornton's debut feature, and it was a 5 star occasion. It's truly beautiful, and the images have stuck around. GO OUT AND SEE IT! It's performance in its home country proved it was an audience hit (it opened well considering the fact that it is a little Australian film and wasn't on that many screens) and went on to something in the region of a 22 times multiplier on its opening - that means the word of mouth was hella strong. And with the Australian and British sensibilities being so similar, I'm thinking it's going to crossover quite well. Besides, there's hardly anything spoken in it, it all comes across without something so antiquated as 'dialogue', so anyone should be able to get it pretty damn easily.
Seriously. Check it out. There's some more info on the film here. But it's playing in a bunch of major cities, with a number of London locations. Go. Now.
Ahem. Shameless plug number 1.
Showing posts with label Samson and Delilah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samson and Delilah. Show all posts
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Prophetic.
It appears to be neck and neck this year for the Best Foreign Language Oscar between France's Un Prophète (A Prophet) and Germany's Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon), from Michael Haneke - I'm hoping to catch the latter over the next week as I only just realised it released here last November and somehow managed to slip by my radar, which has been hanging for it since it took out the Palme d'Or. This two-horse race of course means that something completely different will pull through for the win, though sadly not Samson And Delilah, which didn't follow through on its shortlisting to the nomination stage.
I caught director Jacques Audiard's previous picture The Beat That My Heart Skipped (I'm dead certain that it was released as The Beat My Heart Skipped in Australia, which I think sounds soooo much better) back when it was out and about in 2005 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was responsible for my infatuation with Romain Duris, in fact. I recall taking issue with a few points, but I think I gave it four stars at the time. His follow up, which took the Grand Prix at Cannes last year, I can't fault.
Un Prophète is the story of petty criminal Malik (Tahar Rahim), sentenced to a half dozen years in prison. French-born but an Arab by heritage, he falls in with the Corsican gang who run the Parisian prison he finds himself in. The Corsicans, led by César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), need someone to take out an informer in prison briefly, and call upon Malik, who has absolutely no desire to take part but is told in no uncertain terms that he has no option - now that he knows of the plan, either he does Ryad or the Corsicans do him. Once the job is done, however, he finds himself part of the Corsican gang, initially just doing their dirty work (literally - he makes them coffee and cleans up after them), but eventually, as the majority of the Corsicans are transferred to another prison, becoming right hand man and confidante to Luciani.
Meanwhile, the Arab contingent is building itself up, not willing to take more shit from the weakened Corsican faction in the prison. Yes, the Corsicans did once own the guards, but as they become fewer it starts to be the Arabs who are wielding more power. Malik, not one to be left out in the cold, is consorting with a few select inmates to run a small drug trade, which, on day leave as his sentence nears completion, whilst still running errands for Luciani, he converts into a powerful cartel using old Corsican contacts and another ex-inmate Reyeb, released on compassionate grounds after becoming quite ill.
As his parole date gets nearer and nearer, Malik realises he holds the power and takes over the Arab gang, leaving Luciani virtually on his own and utterly powerless, with no friends either inside the prison or on the outside, entirely unable to exact revenge for the traitorous actions of his once-protege.
Un Prophète is an intricate study of the economics of corruption. Malik says all along that he doesn't work for the Corsicans, he works for himself - when it is in his interests that work will cross over with the Corsicans, but when his interests change, he will quite happily double-cross to ensure his safety with the other side. In the process, he becomes incredibly powerful considering his young, innocent (for want of a better word) and naive roots.
Rahim as Malik is a true revelation. Virtually unknown previously, he is now up for a BAFTA Rising Star award for his portrayal, carrying this fairly long film almost entirely on his own back. His transformation from pitiful to powerful is subtle but definite, played out slowly but carefully so that by the end you are in no doubt of his strength. Arestrup as the prison kingpin is dominating but vulnerable. His downfall is not a surprise, as his reliance on other people fearing him (coupled with the fact that, outside of the opening, Malik really isn't) is so entrenched that, when his structure falls away, it is really just inevitable, a matter of time before he falls back to the bottom of the heap.
Cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine perfectly captures both the prison, the outside, and the fantasy world that Malik so often escapes to. Alexandre Desplat, who somehow managed to score only, oh, five other 2009 releases (including: Chéri; Coco Avant Chanel; Twilight: New Moon; Julie & Julia; L'armée du crime, and; The Fantastic Mr Fox - lazy bastard), does an extraordinary job with the soundtrack, aided by some ripping choices by the music supervisor - I'm always happy to hear Sigur Rós turn up, as I'm sure you can imagine.
And through all of this, Audiard keeps a very firm grip on things. Very firm. The film is spectacularly strong, riveting in every moment. It moves through relentlessly, not letting up, but without overbearing you. Worthy of every award going, it just remains to be seen whether Haneke will get his due from the Academy or whether Audiard can keep him waiting a few more years. 5 stars.
I caught director Jacques Audiard's previous picture The Beat That My Heart Skipped (I'm dead certain that it was released as The Beat My Heart Skipped in Australia, which I think sounds soooo much better) back when it was out and about in 2005 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was responsible for my infatuation with Romain Duris, in fact. I recall taking issue with a few points, but I think I gave it four stars at the time. His follow up, which took the Grand Prix at Cannes last year, I can't fault.
Un Prophète is the story of petty criminal Malik (Tahar Rahim), sentenced to a half dozen years in prison. French-born but an Arab by heritage, he falls in with the Corsican gang who run the Parisian prison he finds himself in. The Corsicans, led by César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), need someone to take out an informer in prison briefly, and call upon Malik, who has absolutely no desire to take part but is told in no uncertain terms that he has no option - now that he knows of the plan, either he does Ryad or the Corsicans do him. Once the job is done, however, he finds himself part of the Corsican gang, initially just doing their dirty work (literally - he makes them coffee and cleans up after them), but eventually, as the majority of the Corsicans are transferred to another prison, becoming right hand man and confidante to Luciani.
Meanwhile, the Arab contingent is building itself up, not willing to take more shit from the weakened Corsican faction in the prison. Yes, the Corsicans did once own the guards, but as they become fewer it starts to be the Arabs who are wielding more power. Malik, not one to be left out in the cold, is consorting with a few select inmates to run a small drug trade, which, on day leave as his sentence nears completion, whilst still running errands for Luciani, he converts into a powerful cartel using old Corsican contacts and another ex-inmate Reyeb, released on compassionate grounds after becoming quite ill.
As his parole date gets nearer and nearer, Malik realises he holds the power and takes over the Arab gang, leaving Luciani virtually on his own and utterly powerless, with no friends either inside the prison or on the outside, entirely unable to exact revenge for the traitorous actions of his once-protege.
Un Prophète is an intricate study of the economics of corruption. Malik says all along that he doesn't work for the Corsicans, he works for himself - when it is in his interests that work will cross over with the Corsicans, but when his interests change, he will quite happily double-cross to ensure his safety with the other side. In the process, he becomes incredibly powerful considering his young, innocent (for want of a better word) and naive roots.
Rahim as Malik is a true revelation. Virtually unknown previously, he is now up for a BAFTA Rising Star award for his portrayal, carrying this fairly long film almost entirely on his own back. His transformation from pitiful to powerful is subtle but definite, played out slowly but carefully so that by the end you are in no doubt of his strength. Arestrup as the prison kingpin is dominating but vulnerable. His downfall is not a surprise, as his reliance on other people fearing him (coupled with the fact that, outside of the opening, Malik really isn't) is so entrenched that, when his structure falls away, it is really just inevitable, a matter of time before he falls back to the bottom of the heap.
Cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine perfectly captures both the prison, the outside, and the fantasy world that Malik so often escapes to. Alexandre Desplat, who somehow managed to score only, oh, five other 2009 releases (including: Chéri; Coco Avant Chanel; Twilight: New Moon; Julie & Julia; L'armée du crime, and; The Fantastic Mr Fox - lazy bastard), does an extraordinary job with the soundtrack, aided by some ripping choices by the music supervisor - I'm always happy to hear Sigur Rós turn up, as I'm sure you can imagine.
And through all of this, Audiard keeps a very firm grip on things. Very firm. The film is spectacularly strong, riveting in every moment. It moves through relentlessly, not letting up, but without overbearing you. Worthy of every award going, it just remains to be seen whether Haneke will get his due from the Academy or whether Audiard can keep him waiting a few more years. 5 stars.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Finally.
It was a long time coming. I've been familiar with the work of director Warwick Thornton and producer Kath Shelper for a long time, through their joint efforts on award winning shorts Green Bush and Nana, as well as Kath's hella prolific work producing shorts over the last few years in Australia. When it was announced in, what, 2007 that they had fully financed their debut feature Samson And Delilah and were off to start shooting it in remote Australia I was very excited, couldn't wait to see the end product. Of course, it released in Australia after I left, then went on to win the Camera d'Or at Cannes last year. Yes, it played at the London Film Festival, but I missed out on tickets, much to my chagrin. And then an angel sent me a copy of the DVD, and I got to indulge in the joy of watching one of my most anticipated titles of last year.
It didn't disappoint, not at all, probably because everything I heard about it from reviews both at home and internationally seem to speak entirely true. The title characters (played extraordinarily by first-timers Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson respectively) are two teenagers living in an Aboriginal community out in the bush. Samson sniffs petrol to get through the boredom of his days and the fact that he doesn't seem to have any real discernible family or friends - though the concept of 'family' in Aboriginal communities is very broad, he seems to be alone. Delilah lives with her grandmother (played by Mitjili Gibson, who also played the titular character in the aforementioned Nana to much acclaim), a painter who sells her impressive canvasses to a white man for a couple of hundred dollars, who then onsells them to a gallery in Alice Springs, where they sell for thousands of dollars (sadly, this is a widely condemned but presumably still oft-practised ritual with Indigenous artists.)
Nana makes jokes about Samson being Delilah's husband, but Delilah seems to not want a bar of it. Samson pushes, forcing himself into her life, until he is sleeping alongside Delilah and Nana outside their little shack. As though seeing that Delilah now has someone else to rely on (however poor he may be at coping with real life outside of his petrol-fume haze) Nana soon passes away in her sleep. In response the two escape their community, stealing a car (which soon runs out of petrol) and making their way to Alice Springs.
They find themselves living under a bridge with alcoholic Gonzo (Scott Thornton - it's a family affair!), stealing to survive, siphoning petrol to numb the pain. Horrible events transpire, mostly directly affecting Delilah, while Samson appears to struggle with any sense of responsibility, friendship or love. He does love her, that is very obvious, but his desperation runs so deep that when something more happens, he does not know how to cope and recedes into his familiar drugged state. It is then left to Delilah to get angry, to get motivated, to get focussed. But the one thing they never give up on is each other.
It is an extraordinary film. There is very little dialogue, and at least half of it (presumably, since the Foreign Language branch of AMPAS qualified it in the shortlist of nine for Best Foreign Language Film last year) is Aboriginal language. Gonzo provides most of the talking, the rambling talks of a drunk, but nary a word is spoken between the two young lovers. In fact, Samson only speaks once, his name, a horrible stutter when entreated by Gonzo in exchange for food.
The performances all round are fantastic. Cinematography by Warwick is beautiful, but not corny beautiful. He doesn't linger on the romance of the outback, simply laying it bare, giving the film a foundation. He lingers just as long on the poverty, on the pain, on the slum-like residence under the bridge. But he doesn't judge it - it is presented, and it is up to you to interpret. Similarly, the story is simple and there for you to make what you want of it. As mentioned, very little is said through the film, at least from the characters mouths. Instead you have to watch the movements, the hand waves, the blinks, the stares, the lack of response, and draw from that what everyone is going through - and they are going through a lot. Warwick lays it all out on the table and allows you to make up your own mind. The film discusses drug abuse in Aboriginal communities, but doesn't lay blame or provoke animosity. He looks at white exploitation of the indigenous population, but doesn't aim for anti-colonialist sentiment. Instead, by seeing it through the eyes of these Aboriginal teenagers, you see that these things so often blown-up in the white media in Australia, so often held up as reasons, excuses or causes for interventions or policing are in fact just a fact of life for those in question. For Samson and Delilah, this just is, and through it they need to find a way to go on.
The film's reception was extraordinary. Outside of the Cannes prize it won a bunch of Australian Film Institute and IF Awards, the Audience Award at the Adelaide Film Festival, a couple of Australian Writers Guild awards, the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Feature... everywhere it goes it seems to be loved. And deservedly. Apparently the rating at rottentomatoes.com is 100% fresh - damn fine. But it is not only critically adored, but was a fair commercial success at home. In a stellar year for Australian films at the local box office, Samson and Delilah led the way for most of the year, taking in over AUD$3mil. That may not seem like a lot, but if you look at the track record, especially for non-blockbuster or non-starred films it is absolutely phenomenal. For a little Aboriginal film with virtually no dialogue, no known performers, from a first time filmmaker to go that far is virtually unprecedented, and is, quite frankly, encouraging. After years of being wary of local product after being pummelled by a whole pile of shit for too long, audiences finally returned when the going was good. To see that an Indigenous musical, Bran Nue Dae, is now pulling similar figures this year shows that it wasn't just a fluke, an aberration, either. Go team.
5 perfect stars. I don't know if it has a Nth American or UK distributor, but I hope it gets one. Otherwise, it's well worth checking out where you can order in a DVD copy from Oz. And here's hoping Warwick and Kath get to go for a second round soon.
It didn't disappoint, not at all, probably because everything I heard about it from reviews both at home and internationally seem to speak entirely true. The title characters (played extraordinarily by first-timers Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson respectively) are two teenagers living in an Aboriginal community out in the bush. Samson sniffs petrol to get through the boredom of his days and the fact that he doesn't seem to have any real discernible family or friends - though the concept of 'family' in Aboriginal communities is very broad, he seems to be alone. Delilah lives with her grandmother (played by Mitjili Gibson, who also played the titular character in the aforementioned Nana to much acclaim), a painter who sells her impressive canvasses to a white man for a couple of hundred dollars, who then onsells them to a gallery in Alice Springs, where they sell for thousands of dollars (sadly, this is a widely condemned but presumably still oft-practised ritual with Indigenous artists.)
Nana makes jokes about Samson being Delilah's husband, but Delilah seems to not want a bar of it. Samson pushes, forcing himself into her life, until he is sleeping alongside Delilah and Nana outside their little shack. As though seeing that Delilah now has someone else to rely on (however poor he may be at coping with real life outside of his petrol-fume haze) Nana soon passes away in her sleep. In response the two escape their community, stealing a car (which soon runs out of petrol) and making their way to Alice Springs.
They find themselves living under a bridge with alcoholic Gonzo (Scott Thornton - it's a family affair!), stealing to survive, siphoning petrol to numb the pain. Horrible events transpire, mostly directly affecting Delilah, while Samson appears to struggle with any sense of responsibility, friendship or love. He does love her, that is very obvious, but his desperation runs so deep that when something more happens, he does not know how to cope and recedes into his familiar drugged state. It is then left to Delilah to get angry, to get motivated, to get focussed. But the one thing they never give up on is each other.
It is an extraordinary film. There is very little dialogue, and at least half of it (presumably, since the Foreign Language branch of AMPAS qualified it in the shortlist of nine for Best Foreign Language Film last year) is Aboriginal language. Gonzo provides most of the talking, the rambling talks of a drunk, but nary a word is spoken between the two young lovers. In fact, Samson only speaks once, his name, a horrible stutter when entreated by Gonzo in exchange for food.
The performances all round are fantastic. Cinematography by Warwick is beautiful, but not corny beautiful. He doesn't linger on the romance of the outback, simply laying it bare, giving the film a foundation. He lingers just as long on the poverty, on the pain, on the slum-like residence under the bridge. But he doesn't judge it - it is presented, and it is up to you to interpret. Similarly, the story is simple and there for you to make what you want of it. As mentioned, very little is said through the film, at least from the characters mouths. Instead you have to watch the movements, the hand waves, the blinks, the stares, the lack of response, and draw from that what everyone is going through - and they are going through a lot. Warwick lays it all out on the table and allows you to make up your own mind. The film discusses drug abuse in Aboriginal communities, but doesn't lay blame or provoke animosity. He looks at white exploitation of the indigenous population, but doesn't aim for anti-colonialist sentiment. Instead, by seeing it through the eyes of these Aboriginal teenagers, you see that these things so often blown-up in the white media in Australia, so often held up as reasons, excuses or causes for interventions or policing are in fact just a fact of life for those in question. For Samson and Delilah, this just is, and through it they need to find a way to go on.
The film's reception was extraordinary. Outside of the Cannes prize it won a bunch of Australian Film Institute and IF Awards, the Audience Award at the Adelaide Film Festival, a couple of Australian Writers Guild awards, the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Feature... everywhere it goes it seems to be loved. And deservedly. Apparently the rating at rottentomatoes.com is 100% fresh - damn fine. But it is not only critically adored, but was a fair commercial success at home. In a stellar year for Australian films at the local box office, Samson and Delilah led the way for most of the year, taking in over AUD$3mil. That may not seem like a lot, but if you look at the track record, especially for non-blockbuster or non-starred films it is absolutely phenomenal. For a little Aboriginal film with virtually no dialogue, no known performers, from a first time filmmaker to go that far is virtually unprecedented, and is, quite frankly, encouraging. After years of being wary of local product after being pummelled by a whole pile of shit for too long, audiences finally returned when the going was good. To see that an Indigenous musical, Bran Nue Dae, is now pulling similar figures this year shows that it wasn't just a fluke, an aberration, either. Go team.
5 perfect stars. I don't know if it has a Nth American or UK distributor, but I hope it gets one. Otherwise, it's well worth checking out where you can order in a DVD copy from Oz. And here's hoping Warwick and Kath get to go for a second round soon.
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