DIFF 2010 - Biutiful

A clearly disturbing yet beautiful rendition of a fathers struggle to keep his family and children intact and alive versus the dark background of a Barcelonian run-down living. The film has various overlays, of the poor living in a Barcelona neighbourhood, to the lives of immigrants (Chinese/African) and the means of survival they require to follow, to the challenges of holding a family thrown in gorges of neglect and strained relationships. The story paces rapidly from establishing the protagonists', to enlisting their livelihood means to building up of the events leading to the climax, all with a pronounced sense of character formation and complex relationship barriers.

The film works wonderfully in establishing the relationship complexities and helplessness of the characters, the beauty being that everything is kept grey, keeping the viewer within a reality check. The family chemistry is beautifully rendered as a series of believable yet unfortunate equations cleverly using hope as the pivot and not ego. Incident overlays are brilliant and smartly invoke gory imagination, though not shown explicitly.

Dark as it seems, the film does leave several inconclusive threads but still manages to leave a lasting impression, especially one of a disturbing nature.

10:30pm, 18.12.10 Madinat Theatre

DIFF 2010 - Copacabana

A French chick-flick of the win of good-hearted over prejudices and failure. The protagonist starts on a wrong-footing or bad-note in the conventional sense, in this case, and then wins over the odds thereon. The triumph of proving herself to a daughter who has much given-up on her as a responsible dependable parent. Charming, if you really must, to a friday-evening 'pop-corn' and 'feel-good' audience.
6:00pm, 18.12.10 FGT, Madinat Theatre

DIFF 2010 - Shi (Poetry)

The story of a grandmother's poetry with life in the middle of her struggles of daily survival. At the face of it the story is about a well-spirited, 60 yr-old woman who is raising her grandson after his mother divorced and left for another town. The grandmother who earns by serving as a part time caretaker to an old paralysed man, is also enterprising and pursues life as a dream of reality. She joins a poetry class and is in search of her perfect piece during the course of the month that we travel with her. The plot thickens as she is faced with having to answer for her grandsons horrifying misdeed in school, her own ailment which is slowly creeping in on her and a quest to finding the poetry.

Well-dealt light-comical performance by the lead actress, but still a poorly established set of relationships. The overall characterization seems hesitant and the storyline feels jerky. The screenplay seems like a juggle between the many sub-plots like fragments which spring up to remind the viewer time to time of aspects that are easy to forget in the whole gamut of twists to the plot. Several aspects of the story remian unanswered, for instance, the introduction of the grandmothers Alzhiemers' disease, the poetic execution which was sorely missing, the daughter as an alien over the phone. etc.

Cinematography and overlay of the poetic element seem attempted at the most, but fail to leave any lasting impression. Though an easy watch, one longs for the peaking of emotions that are drawn up but left high and dry.

3:30pm, 18.12.10 MOE 7

DIFF 2010 - The Nine Muses

A documentary on world citizens in the context of UK, the triumphs and tridents of immigrants set against the Greek mythology of the Nine Muses.
The movie has a continuos overlay of greek mythology, heavy visual referencing of Black, Indian and British immigrant history and well known literature excerpts in terms of narration and commentary. A great visual treat with excellent photography though tending to get repitative and scattered. Though this is a visual story with lietarture being the backdrop and flow, one cannot see this for a linear thread, as it works simultanoeusly on three levels, the literary, the visual and the mythology. All three are interspersed and appear as strains, dominating the viewer experience in an attempt at being directional.
The structure set is standard with 9 parts representing the nine muses, dance, poetry, tragedy,etc. and each part complete as a music-visual-narrative set. The narrations are writings taken from the great authors, playrights and literary geniuses, ranging from T.S. Elliot to Rabindrnath Tagore to Mark Twain. Very well-finished cinematography, the visuals are a mix of photoimages and tapes from immigrant life 50 yrs ago interspersed with the film-makers metaphoric interpretation of Britain as an immigrant. Wide and long shots of the Alaskan winter lace the entire film, and repeat themselves constantly to a point of blur, embalming the cold winters of the Great Britain. The music varies from intriguing to traditional to noise, but remains a background service throughout. At many points causing unnecessary fervour in an attempt to plot building.
Though an interesting piece overall, as this does not confer to the regular movie on immigrant life post World War two, this movie can be best identified as a piece of art, personal and intimate often to the extent of bring oblivious of an audience. As something that comes from a second generation migrant, this film is a credible attempt at showing both love for what considers thier 'Home' now and at the same time confering to the aspect of migration which is now part of their history.
Though the overall usage is an abstract and not threaded, one wishes the collage read to have been beyind the literary link.

1:30pm, 18.12.10 MOE 9