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
• Classics
• Worth a Mention
• Overlooked Comedy

Dear Subscribers: This is the last newsletter you will receive from MapToMovies -- but don't be sad, because we are growing up and our new site is going to be even better! As of October, 2006, we will become Moonrise Movies.com. The new site will have the same free bi-weekly newsletter, but it will also offer a Premium Subscription with access to our searchable database of films -- just over 700 to date -- a Wishlist feature and, as we continue to grow, additional information on various aspects of the art of the moving image and its place in our world today. We're very excited about the new possibilities and want to thank you for supporting us through our initial birth pangs. We hope you'll stick with us through the "terrible twos" that always accompany new launches, and will continue to enjoy our movie picks and reviews. You will be receiving a more detailed letter about the new site shortly. I'm off to the Vancouver International Film Festival next week, where I'll be

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Featured Title(s)

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EVE AND THE FIRE HORSE, 2005, 93 min., Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: September 2006, Canada Only
Director(s): Julia Kwan

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What It's About: The story of nine-year-old Eve and her eleven-year-old sister, Karena as they try to assimilate in the Canada of the 1970s, at a crucial moment of growing up. Eve was born in 1966, the year of the fire horse, which occurs once every sixty years in the Chinese calendar and is notorious for producing troublesome children – especially girls. When Eve’s mother miscarries and her paternal grandmother suddenly dies, Eve’s nine-year old mind suggests that she is to blame. And then, a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses arrive on the Eng family doorstep and Karena discovers Christianity. She is quick to share this new belief with her sister thinking it may be a bridge between her family’s Asian Buddhist heritage and the Western religion of the Canada they now call home. Armed with a courtesy copy of “Living Together in Heaven on Earth”, Karena and Eve dub themselves “the Girls of Perpetual Sorrow” and set out to “do good in this world” through such activities as after-school conversion parties. Their new-found faith produces surprising results – and some of the film’s funniest and most moving moments.

What to Look For: A magical and charming small film about finding your place in the world. It’s not only children who are perplexed by the complexities of family relationships and the challenges of trying to fit in, yet still be yourself; to understand the links between the pragmatic world and the magical unseen. This film may be modest and unpretentious but it’s also funny in a most delightful way and universal in its implications. Highly recommended!

Why It Matters: The multicultural Vancouver neighbourhood where the Eng family live – it turns out to offer a number of amusing surprises as the diverse cultures, and religious beliefs rub up against one another. The first-generation working-class Engs see superstition everywhere. Although they’re not particularly devout small rituals are how they navigate their lives, and so Eve’s mother pragmatically places a crucifix next to Buddha on the mantelpiece in the hope that two faiths will offer more protection than one. Note the moments when lyrical realism mixes with wry social commentary – for example, when Eve’s fertile imagination has Jesus dancing with the Buddha while the goddesses of the sense perceptions look on benignly. Such moments help her navigate her world of cultural and pre-adolescent confusion.

Notes: Note: This DVD available only in Canada. If you want to see this film and live in the US, you will either have to purchase it – join together with a few friends and it won’t cost you any more than a rental. Alternatively, you may be able to find a specialty video store who has it for rent or who will be willing to order it.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

MACHUCA, 2004, 120 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: September 2006 US Only
Director(s): Andrés Wood

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What It's About: A sensitive and touching account of the tragic events of Chile's 1973 coup as seen through the eyes of two eleven-year-old boys growing up in Santiago: Gonzalo Infante, a shy but bright child from a well-to-do suburban family – loosely based on the director’s own childhood – and Pedro Machuca a smart, fearless child from an illegal shantytown which has grown up just a few blocks away. The two meet as the result of the efforts of Father McEnroe, the headmaster of a private English-language boy’s school who, flush with the experimental, egalitarian spirit of the Allende government, has granted scholarships to a few boys from the nearby slums. Obviously, there is a huge wall between their two worlds of but our young heros surmount them with the natural curiosity of youth and the pure excitement of adolescence. However, other walls don’t come down so easily, and the film ends with soldiers taking over the school and “restoring order” in the shantytown, laying bare the realities behind the political euphemisms. The outbreak of violence signals a disturbing end to the childrens’ innocent friendship.

What to Look For: As a viewer of this film, we’re always aware that the military coup against Salvador Allende’s government is lurking on the horizon and that the central characters are living a childhood shadowed by anxiety and dread. But, at the same time, we get to taste the freshness of the experience of childhood, which is full of wonders as well as the social tensions that contributed to the destruction of their nation. The achievement of this film is the way it presents the single bittersweet taste of those apparent divisions, showing how affection and decency can overcome personal arbitrary differences while, at the same time, rubbing up against a sense of community impotence.

Why It Matters: Watch the way the director builds the political and emotional energy as the children’s awakening to their circumstances parallel the state of the nation and the school’s experiment in democracy. Chile’s volatile political situation is presented as a backdrop via television programs playing in the background, graffiti the boys pass on their bicycles and adult conversations they overhear. Enjoy the lighter scenes with Pedro’s flirty cousin Silvana, and the ones where the threesome accompanies her father to help distribute flags at various political rallies around the city. And finally, try to understand how Gonzalo, purely by circumstance, becomes the betrayer, awakening Pedro and Silvana to the depth of the divisions in their society.

Notes: Note: This DVD available only in Canada. If you want to see this film and live in the US, you will either have to purchase it – join together with a few friends and it won’t cost you any more than a rental. Alternatively, you may be able to find a specialty video store who has it for rent or who will be willing to order it.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Recommended Titles

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BALLETS RUSSES, 2005, 118 min., Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine

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Sergei Diaghilev, (March 19, 1872 – August 19, 1929), founder of the Ballets Russes, was the artistically-inclined son of a wealthy Russian family. He initially studied to be a composer but was so bad that his professor, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, reportedly threw his compositions in the trash. Diaghilev moved on to art criticism, the organizing of exhibitions and theatre production. In 1908, he brought the opera “Boris Godunov”, and star, Fyodor Chaliapin – the Pavarotti of his day – to the Paris Opera. This led to an invitation to return the following year with ballet as well as opera, and thus the Ballets Russes were launched. The company included the best of the young Russian dancers, such as the acclaimed Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky. The company’s first night, on 19 May 1909, was a sensation. Diaghilev went on to commission ballet music from the greatest composers of his day, including Claude Debussy (Jeux, 1913), Maurice Ravel (Daphnis et Chloé, 1912), Erik Satie (Parade, 1917), Richard Strauss (Josephs-Legende, 1914), Ottorino Respighi (La Boutique Fantasque, 1918), Francis Poulenc (Les Biches, 1923) and others. His most notable composer collaboration was with Igor Stravinsky who created “The Firebird” for the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev’s choreographer, Mikhail Fokine, often adapted well-known contemporary music for the ballet, as did the company’s famous dancer and ballet master Leonid Myasin (aka Massine). Together with his artistic director, the Russian artist Léon Bakst, Diaghilev developed and promoted a new form of ballet with showy elements intended to appeal to the general public, rather than the more refined Russian aristocracy of his original audiences. The Ballets Russes hired some of the most famous avant-garde artists of the day, such as Picasso, Dali, Matisse and Leger to create its curtains, costumes and scenery and its exotic appeal had a lasting effect on the Fauve school of painters and strongly influenced the nascent Art Deco style.

What It's About: The story of what happened to the world's greatest ballet company after the death in Venice of its founder, the legendary Russian impresario, Sergei Diaghilev (1872 – 1929). Leaderless, the original troupe quickly split into two competing companies: the Ballets Russes de Montecarlo, run by dancer/choreographer Leonid Massine, which made a relationship with Hollywood and began to hire North American dancers, among them the famous Native American ballerina, Maria Tallchief; and the Original Ballets Russes, overseen by Colonel Wassily de Basil, which eventually ran into financial difficulties.

What to Look For: Diaghilev made the evanescent ballet into a magical performance, which sparked box-office wars between theatres on the international cultural circuit. Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky were his stars. Most of the great composers of the day, including Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Strauss, collaborated, and Stravinsky created the magnificent Firebird specifically for the Ballets Russes. The most famous avant-garde artists, Bakst, Picasso, Dali, Matisse, and Leger among them, vied to create the curtains, costumes and scenery. This is the story of an era when ballet was on fire and every famous artist, whatever their medium of expression, wanted to be part of it.

Why It Matters: The warm, informative and entertaining interviews with many of the surviving members of the company, now in their 80s and 90s, as they remember their "glory years" for the camera.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

LA PETITE JERUSALEM, 2005, 96 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): Karin Albou

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What It's About: The charming Laura lives in tight quarters with her extended Orthodox Sephardic Jewish family in the Little Jerusalem district of Paris. Every day she takes a walk in an effort to bring fresh air and clarity to the irrational physical demands of her body – for the unthinkable has occurred and Laura has fallen in love with a Muslim man.

What to Look For: This is a quiet but persistent examination of ancient Jewish tradition rubbing up against contemporary culture. It provides an opportunity for us to consider what happens when one finds oneself in a situation that requires choosing between the faith of one’s ancestors and the desires of one’s heart.

Why It Matters: This is a beautiful film to look at. Pay attention to the way the filmmaker uses Laura’s inner dilemma to mirror the situation on the streets of Paris where synagogues are being fire-bombed and Jewish men are being beaten by street gangs.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Classics

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DESTROYER OF ILLUSION, 1985, 113 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Documentary
Release Data: September 2006 US Only
Director(s): Rick Kohn
Narrator: Richard Gere

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Set in the Khumba (Mount Everest) region of Nepal, in the autumn of 1984, the film introduces an important Tibetan lama, His Eminence the eleventh Trulshig Rinpoche, whose name means “Precious Destroyer of Illusion”. After escaping Tibet, Trulshig Rinpoche settled in this spectacular setting and became abbot of a group of monasteries which preserved many of the teachings and dances unique to Tibet’s famous Mindrolling monastery which was all but destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In this film, Rinpoche is seen presiding over the annual Mani-Rimdu festival in which the participants seek to become the Lord of the Dance – a form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion – in the establishing of Buddhism over the earlier shamanistic Bon tradition of Tibet. Trulshig Rinpoche traces his lineage back to Lama Pelgyi Dorje who, in 842, assassinated the evil King Langdarma, who sought to drive Buddhism from Tibet, so he is considered somewhat of an expert on this dance cycle.

The ceremony consists of a nine-day preparation and celebration, which culminates in a renowned series of lama dances in which the monks seek to defend the Buddhist faith against attacks by Bon demons. The film shows the detailed construction of the sand mandala, grain-by-grain, mantra-by-mantra, and includes a number of fascinating ritual dances. Among them are a dance depicting the Four Protector Kings; one featuring Padmasambhava – considered by Tibetans to be a second Buddha – subduing the evil spirits of the Bon religion to create a pure ground where Buddhism can flourish; and a Dakini dance, done without masks, which portrays the consorts of Padmasambhava. This film is an excellent anthropological record and should be of great interest to students of Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices, but it could seem long and slow, and at times incomprehensible, to the general public.

DVD available in the US Only at this time

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SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE, 1973, 97 min., Subtitles, Color

Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): Victor Erice

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Spanish director Victor Erice’s debut film, which was made towards the end of General Franco's dictatorship, but unfolds in rural Castille shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War. The film explores the fears and anxieties of childhood, filtered through the mysteries of everyday life. Ana, and her older sister Isabel, live in a run-down mansion in a small town that has been decimated by the Civil War. The family moved there so that their father, Fernando, could have space to pursue his study of bees. Meanwhile, Teresa, their mother, feeling lonely and disconnected in the small village, passes her time sending letters of hope to wounded soldiers she has never met. Ana and Isabel are generally left to their own devices and one day they go to a screening of Frankestein in the village hall. Already obsessed with death and the world of spirits, Ana is deeply unsettled by the film. Naughty Isabel, who takes a certain pleasure in torturing her sister, tells her the monster is a spirit who cannot die and takes her gullible sister to an abandoned barn, where she claims to be able to see a spirit in the well. Things unravel when they discover there really is a monster – of a kind – there…. The film is visually poetic and haunting, drenched in atmosphere and filled with compelling images that make it more of a painting than a movie – so don’t expect a plot you can follow with ease. It is also a lyrical allegory on innocence, illusion, and isolation – like the bees in Fernando's experiments, the children are the unwitting subjects of an unnatural, artificial environment. The recurring imagery of the beehive also draws parallels between the insect swarm and Franco’s authoritarian government, while the sparsely inhabited village can also be seen as a symbol of Spain's internal destruction after years of civil war.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Worth a Mention

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THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, 2005, 153 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): Cristi Puiu

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We didn’t actually like this film about a smelly old Romanian drunk who calls for an ambulance after having a headache for four days and gradually dies over the ensuing twenty-four hours – almost in real time. However, since it is the foreign picture of the moment, which has won important awards and is being made widely available, we thought we should present our point of view: You will likely find it interminably long and you’ve seen most of the sordid details on various TV programs – although some audiences have apparently found it funny. The film is a portrait of an ordinary, unremarkable death, presented as an indictment of impoverished Romania’s almost non-existent health-care system. If the minutiae of death, without the dignity of dying, is of interest, you’ll love this film.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

THE PROPOSITION, 2005, 104 min., Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): John Hillcoat

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An intense and savage Western set in the late 19th century Australian Outback. If you’re a fan of the genre and don’t mind a bit of superbly done bone-chilling violence, then you might enjoy this film. The facts are that Captain Stanley and his men have captured two of the Burns Brothers, a gang held responsible for attacking the Hopkins farm, raping the pregnant Mrs. Hopkins, and murdering the rest of the family. Arthur, the eldest brother and the gang’s mastermind, remains at large, having retreated into the mountains. The “proposition” presented by Captain Stanley is that he will release Charlie and Mike, the two captured brothers, and if they can find and kill Arthur by Christmas – which is nine days away – they will not swing from the gallows but rather receive a pardon. And, oh yes, Charlie loves baby-brother Mike and doesn’t want him to die, so he’s really motivated – even if it means killing “family”. This is a hard film to watch as the none of the Burns boys have much in the way of redeeming characteristic. However, it is a compelling story with a great cast so we think it’s likely a future cult classic and thus worth a mention.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

UNIFORM (Zhifu), 2003, 94 min., Subtitles, Color

Genre: Drama
Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): Yinan Diao

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This film presents a humorous and realistic portrait of clashing values in the “new” China. The story focuses on Wang, a young man who works in the family tailoring business, in the director’s not-so-prosperous home-town of Xi’an. The tailoring shop does a lot of work on credit, as is traditional, and so when his father has to go into hospital, the family can’t pay the medical bills. Wang tries various ways to get more money, but somehow none of them work out. Then a solution arrives in the form of a policeman’s uniform whose owner never collects it from the shop. Upon learning that the officer was killed in a traffic accident, Wang dons the uniform and quickly learns that he can make a good living fining those who do wrong... and even those who do right. As a result of his new life, he meets an attractive girl who works in a pirate-CD store. As their relationship develops Wang is inspired to take his policeman impersonation to daring new levels – until his dark secret is countered by one of her own…. This is a low-budget, first film and suffers from low production values, but it’s funny and has that priceless feeling of immediacy and freshness that first efforts often have. And if you’re thinking of making your own low-budget movie, this could be an inspiration.

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources

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Overlooked Comedy

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GO FOR ZUCKER, 2004, 90 min., Subtitles, Color

Release Data: September, 2006
Director(s): Dani Levy

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German comedies are scarce and ones that are actually funny positively rare, but here we have a German Jewish farce that was a huge hit in Germany and did pretty well at North American festivals as well. Set in contemporary Germany, it draws on a past family history that goes back to 1961 when the Berlin Wall went up and Mrs. Zuckermann fled to the West with her first-born son, Samuel. Meanwhile, the film’s hero, Jaeckie Zucker (then known as Jakob Zuckermann) was left in East Berlin where he shucked off his Jewish background and became a celebrity sportscaster…. Today, Jaeckie’s glory days are past and he’s become a “reunification looser”, a seedy alcoholic slob who’s a compulsive gambler and sometime pool shark … and he’s 45,000 euros in debt. Suddenly his world is a disaster: he’s broke, his wife wants a divorce, his double-dealing has finally caught up with him, and his banker-son is set on sending him to jail if he can’t cover his debts, and his lesbian psychotherapist daughter thinks he needs analysis. In desperation, he signs up for a European pool tournament thinking that if he wins, all his problems will be solved. However, he hasn’t counted on his mother dying right then. Her will states that Jaeckie must reconcile with his long-estranged Orthodox brother Samuel, and sit shivah with him, if he ever wants to see a penny from her estate. Their eyes on the prize, Jaeckie and his wife Marlene declare a truce and decide to pose as observant Jews in order to host Samuel and his family. When the hated relatives arrive, they show up with their zealot son, their man-eating daughter, and their late mother's pompous, eagle-eyed rabbi who is bent on making sure that all the rules are properly observed. What’s a guy to do but fake a heart attack…maybe two for good measure…. The resolution the director arrives at suggests that the shared pursuit of a windfall can resolve even the most complex of cultural and religious conflicts. This film is an enjoyable and clever feat of comic timing.

Notes: Note: We’re told that Dani Levy’s next movie will be a “comedy about Hitler.”

Available on DVD through our listed on-line sources