When Fiction Turns Real Suspending Disbelief
2003; Issue: 61 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2562-2528
Autores Tópico(s)Eastern European Communism and Reforms
ResumoPortentous winds from Germany's neighbor opened the 51st International FilMfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg with 28-year-old Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's Louder than Bombs, a boisterous critique of wanderlust for the West with an eye to a new Poland. (1) The James Dean poster from East of Eden that graces the bedroom wall of Marcin, the film's young car mechanic, at once flaunts the ultimate American cool and shouts in the face of multinational hegemony. Marcin's mother died years ago and he has just buried his father. He sits in the house they shared, trying to find his direction. Why shouldn't Marcin ask his fiancee to forget about her scholarship to study abroad? The film asks if an alternative life in Poland--a cry for commitment louder than bombs--might challenge the last generation's hell-bent globalization. Shot in two weeks with talent known mostly outside the acting arena and using only one take for many scenes, the film boasts a strong local context. With speed, wit, and a hyper camera that audiences might not expect from the quiet Polish workers' town of Wroclaw (Breslau), the film sparked debate on stances regarding dependency and acculturation. At the same time Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's spirited presence at the fest raised the curtain on a considerable repertory of first features by young cub auteurs bearing heavy hearts with lithe voices. (2) When festival fans asked director Kei Horie whether the Japanese hold a special orientation toward death, he responded that he was tackling a big topic for his cohort in his diploma film at age 22, which he based on real stories he read and heard about. His compassionate Glowing Growing ponders the ironies of the freedom promised by an on-line ad for collective suicide. (3) Kominabu, having strangled his girlfriend in a fit of rage when her taunting struck too close to the bone, is sensitive to the overriding despair of his friend Jun following an attack by bullying peers. Feeling rejected, guilty, and afraid, the two buddies are acutely introspective and find reason to flee. In an opening image, a shot of a red ocean fades to black. Nonetheless, their road trip by bicycle along a radiant Pacific (stylishly prefigured in a woodblock graphic) is a bold counterpoint to their flight from life. A long shot frames the shadows of clouds racing over green fields that line the shore. Moments later Kominobu, performing trance-like exercises in the dark of night, is spooked when Jun switches on a garden full of hanging lanterns. More vibrant still is their exchange of confessions when, by default, they bunk down together and find intimacy in sharing past humiliations. The rose glow of the room softens the effect of earlier red-tinted frames and emphasizes the character point of view so crucial to the film. For example, both Jun and Kominobu have their brushes with heaven, Jun with an angel on roller blades and Kominabu with God as an elegant young woman. All in life glows when the soul leaves the body, they learn from their surreal messengers. In their journey, each finds the fear of life compounded by a fear of death. Paradoxically, through this tender portraiture, writer/director/actor/editor Kei Horrie sparks incredible charisma. Sing with your heart, not your voice, insists Eugenia Bassi, the century-old grand dame of Luis Ortega's enigmatic Black Box. (4) He wrote, directed and shot the film beginning when he was 19, casting his younger girlfriend, Dolores Fonzi, as the lead. While scouting locations he was struck by the enigmatic qualities of several local inhabitants. He asked them to play themselves and shot the film in their homes, creating a bare scaffold of a narrative on which he mounted two of the lives he observed. Its back-story never unraveled, Black Box works very much in-the-moment, chronicling the acquaintance of a teenage laundry worker, Dorotea (Fonzi), with a rickety older man, Eduardo Couget, who takes up residence at the Salvation Army upon his exit from prison. …
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