I must desist from any general commentary on the quality of the recently held seventh Lisbon Film Festival, as I’m not an unbiased observer – I provide programming suggestions to the organisers and do introductions and question-and-answer sessions when directors are present. So I restrict myself to commentary on new films which I had no hand in programming, and which are worth keeping an eye out for in Britain.
Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is a genuinely disturbing – and at times hilarious – exploration of suburban dysfunction and criminal insanity. It stars the man who’s arguably American cinema’s most compelling performer right now: Michael Shannon.
Oscar-nominated for his spectacular supporting turn as the uncomfortable-truth-spouting neighbour in Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road, Shannon is front and centre here as a tormented, mother-obsessed amateur actor, a volatile chap tipped over the edge by the combination of a spiritual vacation in Peru and being cast as the matricidal protagonist in a Greek tragedy. The resulting murder is the true story-inspired launching pad for a typically Herzog exploration of human nature in an absurd, hostile universe. A terrific supporting cast includes Chloe Sevigny, Udo Kier, Willem Dafoe and David Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie.
Lynch is credited as a producer on My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done and his vibe is evident in numerous scenes – Herzog playfully tipping his hat to a fellow-traveller in the darker corridors of cinematic psychology. Although perhaps too cock-eyed for some, My Son, My Son is a pungent and distinctive work that’s at least as good as anything Herzog (or Lynch) has come up with in the past decade.
Considering other Lisbon standouts, I’m startled to note that the quartet all share two specific features in common: all were shot on 16 millimetre film (transferred to 35 mm prints for projection) and all are collaborations involving pairs of directors.
Proof once again that the best things come in the smallest packages, A History of Mutual Respect is a 23-minute short written and directed by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt. Portuguese but born and educated in the United States, Abrantes also responsible for the one of the finest shorts from last year’s IndieLisboa, the taboo-busting Visionary Iraq.
Mutual Respect – in which a pair of spoiled Americans flaunt their decadent colonial attitudes on a tour of South American beauty spots – confirms his singular talents. He’s able to create a world of his own with image, sound and language. The opening, featuring the Iguazu Falls and the voice of Nina Simone, is among the most sublime sequences in recent cinema. Still only 26, he can surely be counted among European cinema’s most exciting younger prospects. News that he’s working on his first feature-length work is cause for optimistic anticipation.
On the subject of scarily precocious young film-makers, keep an eye out for New York’s Safdie brothers, Josh (26) and Benny (24). Go Get Some Rosemary, their debut feature as joint writer-directors won top prize in Lisbon’s main competition section, which is restricted to first- and second-time directors.
It follows a Manhattan film-projectionist’s chaotic struggles to cope with the responsibilities of looking after his two young children for a fortnight (the rest of the year they live with their mother). A little Woody Allen, a little Curb Your Enthusiasm, it’s a pleasingly audacious character-study of a fundamentally dislikeable, solipsistic individual. He’s played with strangely quirky magnetism by Ronny Bronstein (a writer-director of note himself, responsible for 2007’s even more abrasive Frownland.)
Audiences in search of conventionally approachable characters with whom they can identify would have been even more stymied by the film that was perhaps the critical favourite of the festival, the uncompromising Croatian war-movie The Blacks, written and directed by Goran Devic and Zvonimir Juric. Quietly picking up awards around the film festival circuit over the past few months, it examines a specialist unit during the last hours of hostilities with Serbia – a time when the group’s deeds during the conflict are exacting a toll of guilt on certain of its members.
It’s bleak and claustrophobically grim, with the lo-fi feel of an early 1980s horror movie. At times, the storytelling is at times a little too opaque for its own good, but Devic and Juric have skill with dialogue, mood and control of a tight ensemble.
Can it be a coincidence an “archaic” formats such as 16mm – outdated in terms of the hyper-advanced technology that’s becoming the norm for Hollywood productions – should prove such an attraction for younger film-makers, especially with so many of their peers resorting to cheap and cheerful digital cameras?
Portugal’s Marco Martins and André Príncipe use no such gadgetry for their beautiful black-and-white documentary Traces of a Diary: part travelogue of contemporary Japan (mainly Tokyo), part portrait of six contemporary Japanese photographers, including superstars of the genre Daido Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Araki.
A world-premiere at IndieLisboa, the film looks set for a successful run in documentary festivals around the globe. It is sufficiently distinctive and original to stand as an artwork in its own right, as well as an introduction to a fascinating branch of contemporary culture.
