2023-09-02 17:18:39
Asharq Al-Awsat at the Venice Film Festival: The new Polanski is a comedy maker without laughter
The Corona pandemic made it possible in 2020 to come to the halls at the world’s festivals without a ticket. Your press card, which was granted by the festival, is enough for you to enter the hall and sit where you want. If you find that someone has preceded you to your favorite seat, you choose another. Beautiful, simple and easy picture.
After “Corona”, some wanted to take advantage of the need to separate the audience’s seats by allocating an empty seat between every two, as if that was enough. However, the entry and seating process has become complicated today: you must first visit the “system” that informs you of the available seats. You choose a seat that you don’t usually like, as the lounge diagram indicates that the majority of seats are reserved. How, and you are one of the first to enter? You do not know, and there is no point in seeking knowledge. You just choose what’s available.
You have to do this every day or two, and early in the morning if you insist on choosing a suitable seat, and not at the end of the hall or in front of it or on the far side to the right or left.
This is the only complaint I have heard so far, as the rest of the film screenings, parties and public order are in good condition.
The films are interesting, varied and a good proportion, but most of them are above the midfield. It is not without surprises.
A shot from “El Conde” (Fabula)
Pinochet is a vampire
After the opening film, “Leader”, which did not gain exceptional admiration, the festival entered its actual atmosphere through the next film, which is “El Conde” by the Chilean director Pablo Laran, whose several films hovered over political figures, such as in “Post Mortem” (2010) and “Neruda” (2016); Or social like “Jackie” about the wife of John F. Kennedy (2016), and “Spencer” on Princess Diana (2021).
Through his new black and white film; He goes back to addressing the political period that ravaged his country between 1973 and 1990, when Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile with an iron fist. The aforementioned period was mentioned in more than one way in previous films by Laran, such as “Tony Manero” and “No”. In those biographies, the director did not attempt to convey the facts of life, but rather built on them. He did not care about a “biographical” narration, but dealt with the character from a general historical point of view, to become a focus of what happened from outside it, but because of it.
This is what happens, as we do not see Pinochet’s story, nor a presentation of selected stages of his life, but we get to know him while he lives on a remote farm with his wife (Gloria Munchmeier), his assistant Fyodor (Alfredo Castro) and his five children. Now a vampire, he contemplates doing what will allow his death, deciding not to drink blood at first, much to the response of his children as they long to inherit him. But Pinochet changes his mind and starts hunting his victims. His method is not to bite like “Dracula”, but rather to rip out the heart from its place after slitting the neck. The film informs us that Pinochet puts hearts in the refrigerator so that he squeezes them with his assistant and drinks the blood.
The symbol is understandable and clear. Pinochet spilled the blood of his people and controlled their lives. Previous horror films used this symbol socially, but the film goes beyond it in terms of clarity of intent, and a terrifying destination different from the horror we usually see in vampire films. A measure of violence and crudeness swings the film on the edge between accepting it as a condemnation and rejecting it as a method of condemnation.
Roman Polanski on the set of “The Palace” (Elicio Pictures)
A life on wheels
Another movie about another life, “Ferrari”, is about racing car designer Enzo Ferrari at a specific era in his life, the one in which he bet on achieving success in the racing fields with a car that bears his name and was made by him. This plot is integrated into the family situation of the character, with the kindling of feelings that lie in Ferrari’s chest and prevent him from feeling happy, until the desired victory is achieved.
This is Michael Mann’s first film since “Blackhat” 8 years ago. He was more active in the nineties, then in the first twenty years of this century, and with impressive success, he presented films including “Heat” (1995), “The Insider” (1999), “Ali” (2001) and “Miami Vice” ( 2006)…
His return to work is not a stroke of the unknown, as he spent about 3 years on the film, studying, writing and rewriting, before he set out to film it last year. The result is a good movie about the struggles of a Ferrari car manufacturer, which ended successfully, despite the obstacles, some of which lie in the marital life (Penelope Cruz), who learned of his betrayal of her with a woman (Shailene Woodley) who had given birth to him a son 10 years ago.
Adam Sandler plays Ferrari and stands up to a character who doesn’t have many ripples. Some scenes of the movie are not as clear and well-executed as others. Those that take place in the race field are successful, due to their reliance on synthesis, technical channels, and photography, in which cameras of different sizes, types, and focal points were used.
Polanski spines
Outside the competition, there are films made by directors over eighty: Liliana Cavani, Agneska Holland, De Allen and Roman Polanski… Is this the last stop for these? for a generation? to cinema?
Roman Polanski’s new film “The Palace”, shown here, may or may not be the final stop (he has stated that he will retire at the age of ninety). It is a good reason to present a wonderful and valuable film… but “The Palace” does not bear any of these descriptions.
The palace described is a large Swiss hotel in a remote mountainous area, which since the morning receives customers who come to say goodbye to 1999 and welcome a new year. Some may remember the much talk about the end of the world with the approach of the year 2000. “It is not the end of the world,” the first phrase in the film, said by the hotel manager Hansoli (Oliver Masucci) to his staff before the arrival of the guests. He’s the only character, of all we’ll see, who the director won’t criticize. The guests are all idiots, even if they don’t look like them. Sinful and passive as well. She uses her wealth foolishly and gets drunk, which leads the viewer to question the usefulness of the crowd, among whom there is no one fit to be together.
The answer is that the director wanted it to stigmatize this society. He wanted to make a satirical comedy dealing with the behavior of these people, even if it seemed contrived, and this led to a movie that was inflated with what it contained.
Comedy at first, gradually turns black. And the two types lack what can be praised. Not only because the laughs are few, but because everything that goes on passes under the weight of affectation and the desire to intensify the mistakes of these people to make what can be considered entertainment. The important Polanski, the first task of this film is for Polanski, who wants to be light, but it is still heavy. Despite his previous important works, such as “Macbeth”, “The Pianist” and “The Ghost Writer”, he scatters his talent in a film that does not constitute a point of arrival or a turning point. The first point recedes, and the second comes in a wrong place and time because he has reached the age of ninety.
These personalities gathered without an appointment want to celebrate the New Year, so that hours before midnight, paradoxes occur, such as the death of a very rich husband and his wife’s attempt to hide it, and like a dog emptying its stomach over the beds after an infected woman (Fanny Ardan) fed him caviar. There is a man who curses a lot and belittles others all the time, and another who resorts to farmyards to satisfy his needs… Is this really what a viewer waiting for a job of Polanski would like to see?
There is a movie called “Hotel” by the unknown Richard Quine, which he completed in 1967. It is of ordinary character, but it is more entertaining if entertainment is the point.
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