BFI Southbank introduction: Prophetic in its depiction of surveillance culture and the erosion of
civil liberties, Watkins’ drama constructs a portrait of Denmark’s
‘model society’ in crisis during a NATO summit that is overshadowed by
strikes in a Copenhagen shipyard, terrorism and mounting social unrest.
Blending staged drama with the texture and immediacy of television
reportage, the film follows the state’s increasingly authoritarian
response to dissent. James Bell
Time Out review: A thinly disguised commentary on Japan's post-war history, using
ceremonial family gatherings (mainly weddings and funerals) as a key to
the changes in Japanese society: individual characters represent
specific political factions, just as events in the narrative mirror the
twists and turns in the country's domestic and foreign policies. However
dense the allegory, though, Oshima keeps it very accessible to his
audience by stressing individuals' feelings as much as ceremonies; their
dreams, aspirations, frustrations and agonies are all too familiar. A
significant political film for the time. Tony Rayns
This is part of the Andrzej Żuławski season at the Garden Cinema. Full details here.
This screening will be introduced by writer Michael Brooke. The screenings on September the 11th and 27th will feature a video introduction by Andrzej Jaroszewicz, camera operator on The Devil and frequent collaborator of Andrzej Żuławski.
Garden Cinema introduction: During
the Prussian army's invasion of Poland in 1793, a young Polish
nobleman, Jakub, is saved from imprisonment by a stranger, who in return
wants to obtain a list of his fellow conspirators. Following his
mysterious savior across the country, Jakub sees the overall chaos and
moral corruption, including his father's death and the betrayal of his
friend who stole his fiancee. Becoming apparently demented by what he
has seen, he commits a number of seemingly motiveless and gory killings. An
allegory for the political crisis in Poland during 1968, when communist
leaders created riots to punish student, the film was shelved upon
completion by the government. It was accused of excess of violence and
erotic scenes, but the political undertones of Żuławski’s film were more
objectionable to the government. The film had to wait 16 years for its
cinema premiere and was not released to the public until 1988. Before
this happened, however, Żuławski was forced to leave Poland, deprived of
the chance to make films in his country, he left for France to continue
his career there.
Time Out review: This is Oshima's post-1968 analysis of the failure and disillusionment
of the student Left, and it's among his most biting and cautionary
films. Like Death by Hanging and other movies, it starts with a
riddle (the real or imaginary disappearance of a student militant), and
then follows through all the implications with a remorseless logic.
Another student sets out to trace the missing boy, fearing that he
committed suicide; his only leads are conversations with the militant's
estranged girlfriend and a roll of film shot by the boy just before he
vanished. But it's less a mystery thriller than a series of provocative
questions. What is militancy? Does 'struggle' mean violence? Is it
really possible for an individual to identify with the interests of a
group? And what part do sexual problems play in determining the feelings
and actions of young people? Tony Rayns
BFI Southbank introduction: A woman is given a video camera and decides to record everything in her
life. However, the ever-present camera reveals the dark secrets of her
marriage and triggers an existential crisis. The final big-screen
appearance by Vitti – and the only film she wrote and directed – sees
her give a vulnerable and heartbreaking portrayal of a woman on the
verge.
This film is part of the Peter Watkins season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.
BFI introduction: Peter Watkins’ vast portrait of August Strindberg examines the Swedish
playwright not simply as a literary figure, but as a lens through which
to explore class, nationalism and artistic freedom. Produced as part of a
video production course for the Swedish Folk High School, the project
took Watkins and 24 students two years to complete, and combines
dramatised scenes with discussions between performers and crew,
continually interrogating its own methods of representation. James Bell
Time Out review: Coming-of-age stories don’t get much bleaker than Nagisa Ôshima’s
tale of a preadolescent who assists his itinerant family in moneymaking
scams. But it’s the kind of cynicism that invigorates and energizes—a
bracing dose of misanthropy that is nonetheless suffused with robust
empathy for its hardened juvenile protagonist. Based on an actual
incident, the film follows ten-year-old Toshio (Tetsuo Abe), his father
(Fumio Watanabe), his stepmother (Akiko Koyama) and his infant brother
(Tsuyoshi Kinoshita) as they trek across Japan, stopping in each new
location to fake traffic accidents and extort money from stunned
drivers. It’s a true nomad’s life, with high highs (a night spent in a luxury
hotel with copious food and geisha attendants) and very low lows (Dad
beating Mom for refusing to get an abortion). Though filmed in teeming
real-world locales in what occasionally seem like clandestine
circumstances, the movie has the feel of the science-fiction stories
that Toshio tells to his sibling. Ôshima often situates his characters
at the edges of a rigorously composed widescreen frame that emphasizes
the oppressive architecture of a rapidly modernizing nation. He also
employs visual distortions like monochrome tinting and image squeezing
to suggest the skewed perspective of his corrupted young lead. Happiness and contentment are not in the cards for Toshio, and Ôshima
never sentimentalizes his existence nor lets him off the hook for his
crimes. But still we feel, deeply and profoundly, for this lost soul. Keith Uhlich
