Peppermint Frappe,
Saura’s first of 9 films with his muse Geraldine Chaplin and the brilliant
first chapter in his Bourgeois Trilogy
(which also comprised of Stress is Three
and Honeycomb), was highly
reminiscent of the Bunuel and Hitchcock masterpieces El and Vertigo,
respectively. The film, through delightful concoction of dark, brooding
character study, and an alternately playful and pungent tone, provided a striking
critique on Franco-era bourgeois morality and shallowness, and a lacerating
examination on obsession and repression. The seemingly discordant opening
sequence, showing a pair of male hands meticulously cutting images of models
from fashion magazines purportedly for his personal scrap-book, exquisitely set
the thematic context for what followed. The hands, as it turned out, belong to Julián
(José Luis López Vázquez), a middle-aged physician who runs a clinic with the
aid of his shy, introverted assistant Ana (Chaplin). When a long-time friend
(Alfredo Mayo) introduces his much younger, newly-wed wife Elena (also played
by Chaplin) to him, he immediately becomes enraptured by the carefree,
liberated and outgoing lady as she reawakens a memory and also titillates his
suppressed desires; he starts pursuing her with increasing vigour, albeit in
futility, with his brazen obsession further fuelled by her casual flirtations
and deliberate teasing, and he even starts moulding Ana, through a mix of cajoling
and coercion, in Elena’s image. Understandably, these increasingly sordid and
desperate attempts lead the tale to a disturbing climax. Loaded with socio-politico-religious
imagery and commentaries, this gleefully perverse, subversive and captivating
film boasted of an arresting central performance by Vázquez and an equally
fascinating dual-turn in diametrically opposite roles (a reverse of what Bunuel
did in That Obscure Object of Desire)
by Chaplin.
Director: Carlos Saura
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Romantic Drama
Language: Spanish
Country: Spain
During its short lived history Amicus
Productions became the only serious rival to Hammer Films in the domain of British
horror B-films, and Tales from the Crypt,
based on stories from the cult EC Comics, remains the most well-known among the
seven portmanteau horror films that it produced, thanks in no small measures to
the popular 7-season HBO TV series. Connected by a framing story about a group
of 5 tourists stuck in an underground catacomb and made to face their futures
by a robed man (Ralph Richardson), it comprised of 5 shorts that were
deliciously misanthropic in their portrayal of the grotesque side of human
nature and in their espousal of the tenet that human society is basically
rotten to the core. In the gleefully bloody …And
Through the House, a scheming lady (Joan Collins), after murdering her
doting husband, finds herself running from a homicidal lunatic on the loose; in
Reflections on Death, a businessman
(Ian Hendry) coolly abandons his wife, only to be left disfigured by an
accident while eloping with his mistress; in the deeply melancholic Poetic Justice, a wealthy snob (Robin
Phillips) decides to get rid of his neighbor, an aged garbage man (Peter
Cushing), but faces a horrible comeuppance in return; in Wish You Were Here, a rendition of the renowned W.W. Jacobs short
story The Monkey’s Paw, a business
man (Richard Greene) close to bankruptcy faces a horrendous future thanks to an
ancient statuette; and in Blind Alleys,
the residents of a home for the blinds exact a clinical revenge on their
callous director (Nigel Patrick). Despite the weak framing device and a
forgettable climax, the demented episodes made this a rather enjoyable ride.
Director: Freddie Francis
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Omnibus Film
Language: English
Country: UK
Influences of Tarkovsky (stylistically) and
Bergman (thematically) are immediately discernible in Russian filmmaker Andrey
Zvyagintsev’s brooding psychological drama The
Banishment. While in his next film Leviathan
he focused on a man’s losing battle against the societal corruption surrounding
him, here he dealt with the protagonist’s struggle within, with familial
fissures and ruptures, along with an alienating landscape, forming the key
linkage. The gripping sequence that the film begins with – a seemingly wounded
man driving through a desolate urban-industrial landscape shot in blue-gray
shades – set the tone for what was to follow. The man, Mark (Aleksandr Baluyev),
has connections with the underworld and is having a gunshot wound, as is
revealed, is racing to the house of his brother Alex (Konstantin Lavronenko), the
film’s protagonist, in order to have the slug removed. Soon after, Alex
relocates with his family, comprising of his wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie) and two
young kids, to a cottage he grew up in the countryside, possibly in order to
escape from his past and rebuild his life. However, when his wife informs him
that she’s pregnant and that he’s not the father, it inevitably leads them all
towards disarray and doom. The delicate heteronormative threads that hold a
family together, along with the protagonist’s tussles with his masculinity and
his barely suppressed existential crisis, thus, formed the dominant threads
around which this ominous and leisurely paced movie was woven. The dazzling
photography magnificently captured the empty spaces – both physical and
emotional, and along with the minimalist score and sparse narrative, brilliantly
captured the characters’ inner voids, while the performances, particularly Lavronenko’s
restrained turn as the troubled protagonist, added fuel to its simmering
tragedy.
Director: Andrey Zvygintsev
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Marriage Drama
Language: Russian
Country: Russia
Wenders’ second film and an adaptation by
notorious Austrian writer Peter Handke from his own novel of the same name, the
mischievously titled The Goalkeeper’s Fear of
the Penalty provided an early insight into the director’s penchant for
exploring urban disillusionment, the ironies of existence and America’s
post-WWII cultural influence on Germany. Thematically, the story is bound to
hark memories of Camus’ The Outsider
in the way it raised pointers on existential crisis and society’s preference
for assigning meaning to seemingly random human actions. The film began and
ended with shots of a football match, albeit in contrasting fashion. It started
off with a golie (Arthur Blauss) displaying ludicrously high disenchantment
while the match is in progress; when he inadvertently allows a goal into the
net, he argues with the referee and gets sent off. While aimless wandering
through the streets of Vienna, he picks up the pretty cashier at a local movie
theatre, and then, at a run-down hotel, he inexplicably murders her. Possibly in
order to escape the legal consequences of his crime, he retreats to a village
where he’s reacquainted with his former fiancée, even though, overtly, he seems
rather unconcerned about being caught. The film ended on a memorably ironic
note with the loner man, while watching a local football game, explaining to
his fellow spectator the psychological tussle that takes place during a penalty
kick between the goalkeeper and the one taking the shot – this seemingly non
sequitur conversation wonderfully reinforced the film’s central thematic
concern. The languorous pacing, dreary tone, distancing technique and a rather
lack of plot progression, too, were in congruence with what the film,
essentially, was all about.
Director: Wim Wenders
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: German
Country: Germany
Rohmer concluded his allegorically titled
quartet Tales of the Four Seasons, which
was the last of three film series that he made in his fecund career and
comprised of A Tale of Springtime, A Tale of Winter and A Summer’s Tale, with Autumn Tale, a delectable and
quintessentially Rohmeresque exploration of matters concerning the heart. With its
understated wit and humour, elegant structuring, serene atmosphere, unhurried
pacing, cheeky plot contrivances and meandering dialogues, the film aptly
referenced its title, viz. attempts at love by people at the autumn of their
lives with regards to forging relationships. Magali (Béatrice Romand), a
quirky, well-read, introverted and widowed 40-something winemaker, is suffering
from loneliness on account of lack of companionship. Hence, her alluring
long-time friend Isabelle (Marie Rivière) takes the help of newspaper ad and
meets a suitable prospect in the form of an affable divorced businessman (Alain
Libolt); meanwhile, her son’s ravishing fiancée (Alexia Portal), intends to
have her hitched with her former teacher and ex-boyfriend (Didier Sandre).
These planned match-making culminates during the wedding reception of
Isabelle’s daughter, leading to both gently comedic and subtly evocative
moments. Rohmer, as was his wont, made use of complex romantic entanglements,
albeit in a manner that was playful, flirtatious and even irreverent, in
chronicling this nicely realized tale where a diverse set of people try with
varying degrees of success in cementing bonds with their anticipated
soul-mates. The mellow tone, vibrant location shooting in the picturesque Rhone
Valley, and fine performances, made this a fine summation of the career of the
master of comedy of manners and romantic complications, and possibly the most
classical of the venerated Nouvelle Vague troupe.
Director: Eric Rohmer
Genre: Comedy/Romantic Comedy/Ensemble Film
Language: French
Country: France
