FILM ... with Tim Milfull
Certified Copy (M)
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Stars: Juliet Binoch, William Shimell
Rating: 4.5/5
102-minutes, screening from 17 Feb
In Certified Copy, Iranian grand master, Abbas Kiarostami continues his love affair with Juliet Binoche, in a delicate reflection on the nature of intimate relationships.
Set somewhere in Tuscany, the film tells the story of eight or so hours in the lives of two people who we can never really be sure are in a relationship or not. Binoche plays French expatriate Elle, an antiques dealer who has come to a book launch by British author, James Miller (William Shimell).
James’s latest work is about the artistic and aesthetic legitimacy of originals and copies. As a dealer in both originals and knock-offs, Elle has ideas of her own about James’s theory, and through his publicist arranges a meeting that may or may not be a date.
The two set off for a gorgeous village, and quickly fall into a sometimes good-natured, sometimes bitter conversation about life. It’s probably not fair to go into much more detail about what follows between Elle and James. Suffice to say that all is not what it may seem, and it’s possible that there is much more at stake here than we might have first thought.
Kiarostami has adapted his screenplay from a story by Massouumeh Lahidji, and the result is a sometimes precarious, always intriguingly balanced interplay that keeps the audience on edge, but not in an unnerving manner.
Binoche and Shimell – the latter an opera singer in his first acting performance – have a convincing chemistry, with Binoche’s Elle alternately sentimental and brittle, and Shimell’s James rarely anything but a pompous English intellectual immune to sentimentality.
Certified Copy is a wonderful jigsaw puzzle of a film that has audiences constantly looking for the edge pieces to establish some kind of defining boundary for its protagonists.
Need a claustrophobic fix?
Then enter the inner sanctum
Sanctum (MA15+)
Director: Alister Grierson
Stars: Ioan Gruffudd, Rhys Wakefield, Richard Roxburgh
Rating: 3/5
109-minutes, now screening
Alister Grierson first came to our attention with a film called Kokoda, a visually striking look at one of the defining moments in Australian military history. Filmed entirely on the Gold Coast hinterland, the project obviously got Hollywood tongues wagging, for Grierson’s latest film Sanctum has been underwritten by James Cameron, one of the most powerful figures in global cinema.
In some ways, Grierson is walking a similar path to his first film, setting this new story in New Guinea, and again filming on the Gold Coast. Billionaire adrenaline junkie Carl Hurley’s (Ioan Gruffudd) latest obsession involves mapping a vast, unknown cave system in New Guinea, and as Sanctum opens, we meet Carl as he is picked up on the coast by Josh (Rhys Wakefield), the son of the caving expedition leader Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh).
Josh is in the doghouse with his dad for screwing up a resupply mission, and by the time everyone meets at the Forward Base Camp two kilometres underground, there are plans afoot to abandon the expedition as a cyclone approaches the coast.
But a genre film wouldn’t be a genre film without looming deadlines, and bucketing rain means that the team is forced to search for alternate routes out of the cave system. Grierson quickly ramps up the tension in Sanctum, picking off his cast one by one, and raising the stakes as the team ventures into unknown and very dangerous territory.
Roxburgh offers a suitably gruff and uncompromising expedition leader, and Wakefield is perfect as the conflicted son. Sadly, the normally accomplished Gruffudd is forced into some very hammy territory, but the overall feeling of Sanctum is of satisfyingly claustrophobic terror.
THE BINGE
Seeing US through different eyes
Amreeka (M) available from 16 Feb through Madman
The Messenger (MA15+) available from 16th Feb through Hopscotch
Windows on Europe available from 16 Feb through Hopscotch
The re-opening of GoMA
Two excellent titles will be released from Madman this fortnight involving similar territory. The word Amreeka is the way many Middle Eastern people pronounce “America”, a destination that for some would be unthinkable, yet for so many more is like a great new hope when living in one’s own country becomes untenable.
In this charming debut feature film written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Muna Farah (Nisreen Faour) discovers that a long-forgotten application for a visa to the United States has finally been approved, and leaves with her teenage son to start a new life in the unfamiliar territory of the Mid-West. Often funny and sometimes poignant, this is a lovely tale of immigration.
Sadly, The Messenger (below) never had a theatrical release in Brisbane, so I’m telling everyone about this understated, but magnificently simple story about grief and redemption. Ben Foster plays Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery, recently returned from Iraq, and ready to go back to his unit after recuperating from some dramatic injuries.
Unfortunately, Ben’s boss has other plans, allocating him to work with Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson). The new mission requires them to deliver news of other soldiers’ deaths, and Stone has very strict protocols to follow. While Montgomery initially baulks at the idea, it quickly becomes obvious that he is very good at the job. This complex, heart-wrenching, and surprisingly funny film deserves a wide audience.
The Windows on Europe Film Festival will come to Dendy Portside on 19 February, and there’s an impressive line-up of films from countries as diverse as Hungary, Cyprus, Greece, Sweden and Germany. For more details about the program, please visit http://www.dendy.com.au
Finally, all those cinephiles trembling in their Birkenstocks after the floods closed down the State Library and GoMA can be reassured that dedicated staff and curators are working hard to reopen the facility in the next week or so. I’ve been assured that as soon as possible, a refreshed program will be released to cater to the down-time, and some events – including Zan Lyon’s special remix of Blade Runner – will be rescheduled to new dates.
