These Movies Matter

DVDS Worth Watching,

How to Get the Films We Recommend:

Sources for the movie titles we recommend can be found by clicking the "read full review" link at the end of each critique below.

• Featured Title(s)
• Recommended Titles
• Worth a Mention
• Overlooked Comedy
• Better Mainstream
• Our Boxed Set Pick(s)

Hello, again, Loyal Subscribers: Due to the large number of wonderful films I'm seeing at the Vancouver International Film Festival, we haven't been able to make the switch to our new site yet. As you may know, I have been an International Program Consultant for this festival for the past ten years, and this is where I see many of the films that we watch for on DVD for MapToMovies; so I am working for you and therefore hope to be forgiven for having announced the new site a little prematurely. We'll get there. In the meantime, there continue to be interesting films that inspire, entertain, and can expand your experience of our world, and we are pleased to offer our new bi-weekly selection of DVD reviews below. Thank you. Angela Pressburger Editor-in-Chief

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Featured Title(s)

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LIVE AND BECOME (Va, vis et deviens), 2005, 140 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: October 2006, (Canada Only)
Director(s): Radu Mihaileanu

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What It's About: The story of Shlomo, a nine-year-old Ethiopian boy who is sent by his mother to be part of Operation Moses, a program that returns Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) to Israel. But Shlomo has a secret: he isn't Jewish and he isn't an orphan.

The story of the Falashas is generally unfamiliar to Western audiences. As described in the opening sequences of the film, they are the descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who made their home in Ethiopia until 1984, when the political situation brought persecution and encouraged many of them to flee to the Sudan. In the film, the trials of an entire displaced population are conveyed through the fate of one boy – who actually isn’t a Falasha. Living the hard life of the refugee camps, the boy who will become known as Solomon, or Schlomo, is the son of a Christian. But when a Jewish child dies on the day of the Operation Moses airlift, his mother seizes the opportunity and sends him in the dead child’s place, telling him that he must “live and become”.

What to Look For: This is at once the story of one small boy, and the story of anyone who starts over in a new land and culture. It is a story of self and identity, of love, race and hate. As the director says: "People are too often judged by old and dated stereotypes: Arabs, Jews... Such identities are restrictive… they fail to show how cultures interact, how individual paths and destinies cross each other" The essence of this film is about what it means “to be”. And, in this case, this is one of those rare and wonderful films where it works. In fact, it received a cheering ovation in Berlin, and you will want to give it one too. Highly recommended.

Why It Matters: In Israel, Shlomo has the good fortune to be placed in Israel’s most cosmopolitan city, Tel Aviv, with a happy and loving family of liberal-minded, French-speaking Jews. We observe his journey to adulthood through three segments – as a boy, as a teenager, and as a young man – each wonderfully portrayed by a different actor. Take note of Armand Amar's stunning score that links the stages of Schlomo’s life in Israel and his secret inner life by blending orchestral strings with the tribal instruments of his beloved homeland.

DVD available from our Canadian on-line sources

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Recommended Titles

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POWER TRIP, 2003, 85 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: October, 2006
Director(s): Paul Devlin (SlamNation)

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What It's About: Here, in prosperous North America, we’ve learned that the power grid is overtaxed and susceptible to breakdown, but our difficulties are as nothing in comparison to the dire situation brought on by the politics of electricity in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. In the late 1990s, multi-national AES Corporation of Arlington, Virginia, added the Georgian state power authority, Telasi, to its global power portfolio. The story of what happened is presented to us largely through the eyes of Piers Lewis, a good-humored British-born project director for the newly-minted AES-Telasi – and also a close friend of director Paul Devlin.

Clearly, management had no idea what they were facing in trying to move a former Soviet Union, state-controlled provider of free power into an efficient Western-style, profit-making corporation. Outraged to find monthly utility bills (about $24) amounting to half their incomes, the people rebelled by refusing to pay. Noncompliance was as high as 90 percent. Faced with mounting losses, AES-Telasi – who had invested millions to build a new power grid and secure metering system – adopted a get-tough policy in which whole neighborhoods were blacked out until bills were paid. This approach included the airport in the capital, Tbilisi, and other large industries with government connections. It led to country-wide street demonstrations and other resistance – both open and subversive. With the Enron scandal unfolding back home and Georgian resistance on their doorstep, the fate of AES-Telasi unfolds with all the drama of a dramatic thriller.

What to Look For: This film is a reminder that the basic services we take for granted in North America and Western Europe are often luxuries elsewhere. It also underscores the fact that political power and the distribution of energy are intimately connected – as we learned so painfully at the height of the Enron scandal. In presenting a story that poses more questions than answers, the director requires us to think about a number of hard questions. And this film certainly gives new meaning to the notion that ''we're all connected.''

Why It Matters: Shot mainly in 2001, on mini-DV, by the director, an editor of network sports footage by trade, this is an inspired tale of how an entire country that was already unglued by civil war and political corruption, also became unplugged. The director gives us a skillful assemblage of newsreel clips, cartoons, television commercials and interviews with both power officials and ordinary Georgians. The camera also catches the country’s gorgeous mountains, Tbilisi’s striking architecture, and various activities from grape-stomping and cheese-making to street rioting, all set to an excellent score of traditional and modern Georgian music. Watch for the interview with Dennis Bakke, AES’s CEO, who talks for the camera about being a "steward" for electricity, not profits. We understand that, at the time this film was shot, Bakke was the 312th richest person in the world and that his real goal in life is to be a Christian crusader….

Notes: Be sure to get the documentary directed by Paul Devlin; there are other movies with this same title – but not on the same page!

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

TOUCH THE SOUND, 2004, 99 min., Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: May, 2006, USA and October, 2006, Canada
Director(s): Thomas Riedelsheimer (Rivers and Tides)

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What It's About: A journey through the sense of hearing guided by acclaimed Scottish solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie who, as the result of a neurological disorder, is almost completely deaf. As we follow her performances from New York to Tokyo, and visit at her studio outside Glasgow, we hear her views of the sensory world and hear the sounds she coaxes from a variety of everyday items as well as traditional instruments.

What to Look For: A wonderful, inspiring film about the connections between sound, rhythm, time and the body which suggests that our sense of hearing can lead us towards a more attentive and meditative experience of the world. Not to be missed!

Why It Matters: This is not only a documentary about a delightful and articulate person, but also a poetic exploration of how we sense things in our world and communicate them. It asks us to consider whether we would perceive our surroundings differently if we relied as extensively on our ears as we do on our eyes.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Worth a Mention

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NORTH KOREA: A DAY IN THE LIFE, 2004, 48 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: October, 2006
Director(s): Pietr Fleury

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This film may be shorter than feature-length, but it is one of the best – and only – introductions to North Korea, the most secretive country in the world. The substance of the film is a day in the life of Hong Sun Hui, a female textile factory worker. Under the watchful eye of “Beloved Leader” Kim Jong Il, we follow Hong to work, her daughter to nursery school, her brother to English class and meet her father-in-law who teaches his compatriots to hate Americans. The endless and relentless assault of state propaganda, indoctrination and control comes across as both ridiculous and truly frightening so that we might well ask: is this the belligerent Eastern outpost of the “axis of evil”, or a brave nation that has been misunderstood? Since there is no voice-over narration, you will have to let the landscape and images speak for themselves.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

ONCE IN A LIFETIME: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE NEW YORK COSMOS, 2006, 97 min., Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: October, 2006
Director(s): Paul Crowder and John Dower

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The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of the New York Cosmos, a star-studded team that was supposed to introduce soccer to America – except that things didn’t quite follow the plan. It all started in the summer of 1977, in New York City. It was sweltering hot and there were blackouts, riots, the Son of Sam serial killer scare and the dawn of Studio 54, when Warner Communications Chairman, Steve Ross, set out to build the world’s most famous and successful soccer team. The stars included Brazil’s Pelé, who was coaxed out of retirement with the help of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Ross’s millions. However, the core of the film is the relationship between Ross and volatile Italian striker Girogio Chinaglia. The directors use newsreel footage and interviews – intercutting who-said-what-to-whom anecdotes with the players and businessmen who made it happen – to maximum advantage. Amazing footage of “best moves” by Pelé and other soccer legends vie with fascinating portraits of American high-rollers and a fabulous soundtrack of funk, soul and disco classics to create an utterly compelling story that will entertain even those of you are not sports fans. As the New York Times said: “it plays like the ‘Dynasty’ of sports documentaries. There’s even a little soccer.” And for Canadians, there’s the pleasure of watching the heroes brought crashing down to earth by the Vancouver Whitecaps, in the New York Giants Stadium, in front of 77,691 screaming fans.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

THREE TIMES (Zui hao De Shi Guang), 2005, 120 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: October, 2006
Director(s): Hou Hsiao-hsien

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Auteur of some seventeen films, Hou Hsiao-hsien is little known in the West despite having been voted one of the “three directors most crucial to the future of cinema” by a worldwide critics’ poll in 1988. Here the master is exploring our yearning to love and be loved – and the way our world seems to so casually dismiss this basic human need. He tells us that “evanescence is precisely what makes experiences special; we cherish memories because they come from a past that has vanished.” Presented in three “chapters”, all starring the same actors, but set in different time frames – 1911, 1966 and 2005 – the stories suggest that although fashions in love change, love itself stays the same. The first chapter is based on an episode from the director’s own adolescence and features a young man doing his national military service who’s desperately in love with a girl who works in one pool hall after another. The second part, set during China’s first revolution, introduces a tea-house courtesan who wants to marry but whose regular customer turns a blind eye to her needs. And finally, we’re in the contemporary world of a bisexual rock chick and a photographer, both of whom are involved with other people when they begin their liaison. This film is utterly beautiful to look at and highly recommended for art house fans looking for a romantic evening’s viewing.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Overlooked Comedy

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FUSE (Gori Vatra), 2003, 105 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: October, 2006
Director(s): Pjer Zalica

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Shortly after peace returns to war-ravaged Bosnia, the residents of Tosanj learn that President Clinton in planning to include their village on his upcoming tour. Eager to please such a powerful personnage, they decide that the best approach is to show a united face, putting cultural and religious differences behind them. Feeling a facelift is in order for the occasion, they embark on a veritable storm of activity that brings out all the local undercurrents of lust, greed and grudges – with some very amusing results. Everyone gets involved, including the black marketeers, the government, and Zaim, the corrupt local police officer, who is adept at playing both ends against the middle even as he mourns the disappearance of his son in the war and tries to figure out how he can make this family event into an international incident worthy of the US President’s personal intervention. Meanwhile the village is busy turning the local brothal into a “cultural centre”, renovating the church and rehearsing a school choir to greet the President with a wobbly rendition of “House of the Rising Sun”. The director’s background in documentary filmmaking stands him in good stead as he deftly mixes a little magical realism into the lives of very real people to produce this humorous and touching film.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Better Mainstream

Mentioned but not reviewed – these popular titles don’t really need us to publicize them, but we want you to know they’re now available on DVD.

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THE LAKE HOUSE, 2006, 105 min., Color

Director(s): Alejandro Agresti

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Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, 2006, 91 min., Color

Director(s): Mary Harron

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Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Our Boxed Set Pick(s)

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CENTURY OF SCIENCE FICTION, Color

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Hosted by Christopher Lee This is a history of the genre — not a collection of individual films.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

HUMPHREY BOGART: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION, Vol. 1, Color

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6 discs, (Casablanca – the two-disc Special Edition; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – two-disc Special Edition; They Drive by Night; and High Sierra) All are also available as separate DVDs

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

HUMPHREY BOGART: THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION, Vol. 2, Color

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7 Discs (The Maltese Falcon – three-disc Special Edition; Across the Pacific; Action in the North Atlantic; All Through the Night; and Passage to Marseille) All are also available as separate DVDs

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECES, Various, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: October, 2006
Director(s): Various

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Notes: 5 disc set
Marie Antoinette (1939), David Copperfield (1935), Pride and Prejudice (1940), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), and Treasure Island (1934)

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources