The vagaries of film distribution should
disturb anyone remotely interested in good movies.
Of course, only foreign films and independent American features
fall under this curse; Hollywood continues releasing junk week
after week, an easy-to-please public lapping it all up.
In the specialized world of foreign and independent film distribution,
however, it’s puzzling why certain pictures cannot compete for
a share of an admittedly small art-house audience.
To make partial amends, the Village Voice has conducted a poll
the past few years listing what several critics think are the
"Best Undistributed Films"; critics taking part in
the poll – I don’t – have seen dozens of features at the Cannes,
Sundance, Toronto or the New York film festivals, and each has
pet favorites, usually knowing full well that what critics loved
in a small, darkened screening room in the south of France will
be seen by precious few others.
This year’s edition of "Village Voice: Best Undistributed
Films," at the BAMCinematek May 31-July 7, rounds up six
films from possible obscurity for short runs that allow those
who want to see them the opportunity. The question is: are they
worth seeing?
I’ve seen five of the films, and I must say that only one deserves
wider distribution; unfortunately, Peter Watkins’ "La Commune,"
a typically uncompromising, demanding six-hour study of the 1871
Paris Commune, which led to a brief uprising against and brutal,
bloody putdown by the government, has little chance of gaining
distribution.
"La Commune" will only have one showing, on June 30,
partly because of its inordinate – yet absolutely justified –
length, but partly because there isn’t really an audience for
such an intelligent exploration of the interrelationship of history,
politics and the media. Even at his most wrongheaded, Watkins
makes movies jam-packed with ideas, which is anathema to viewers
and distributors.
The other Voice selections are disappointing. (I have not yet
seen John Gianvito’s "The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein,"
a hybrid of narrative and documentary filmmaking on American
behavior during the Gulf War, which opens the series with a one-week
run May 31-June 6.) With "The Sleepy-Time Gal" (June
8-9), director Christopher Munch shows none of the talent of
his first two films, "The Hours and Times" and "The
Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day"; neither had much depth,
but at least had authentic atmosphere. The dully unoriginal "Sleepy-Time
Gal" doesn’t even have atmosphere as an asset.
"Silence, We’re Rolling" (June 22-23) is yet another
splashy musical by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, whose attractiveness
to the New York Film Festival programmers the past few years
is mystifying.
With the sloppy, ugly "R-Xmas" (July 6-7), Abel Ferrara
has truly reached bottom, lower even than his previous nadirs
"The Funeral," "The Addiction" and "The
Blackout." What an embarrassing comedown for the man who
once made gritty street films like "Bad Lieutenant"
and "King of New York."
Finally, "Millennium Mambo" (June 29) is the latest
unreleased Hou Hsaio-Hsien opus. None of Hou’s films have ever
gotten distribution, including his two masterpieces, "A
City of Sadness" and "The Puppetmaster." Those
richly detailed Taiwanese historical portraits – and, to a lesser
extent, "The Flowers of Shanghai" – show Hou as a master
of epic histories, yet he continues wasting his talent on uninteresting
slices of contemporary Taiwanese life.
Like his other modern-day messes "Good Men Good Women"
and "Goodbye South Goodbye," "Millennium Mambo"
never humanizes the aimless 20-somethings who populate its desperately
empty 105 minutes. Even the stunning Shu Qi, whose beauty overwhelms
her natural acting ability, cannot save this mumbo-jumbo.
What would I choose instead?
I’m glad you asked.
At the recent Rotterdam Film Festival, I saw several interesting,
and a few quite good movies. Among the latter was Anne Fontaine’s
"The Way I Killed My Father," a mature psychological
drama worth seeing for the subtle nuances of its top-flight cast
(including Michel Bouquet, Charles Berling and Natacha Regnier).
But it has much more: depth, penetrating insights, well-rounded
characterizations.
Also at Rotterdam were several features by Serbian director Goran
Markovic – whose charmingly nostalgic "Tito and Me"
was released after showing at the 1993 New Directors/New Films
series – in the "Filmmakers in Focus" section. His
latest, a superb documentary indictment of his homeland titled
"Serbia Year Zero," tries coming to terms with the
horrific charade of Milosevic’s government. It’s required viewing
for anyone of any political inclination.
The best film I saw at Rotterdam was "The Profession of
Arms," Ermanno Olmi’s latest. This chilling examination
of the difficulty in reconciling war with religion is rooted
in its director’s own devout Catholicism; his view of the short
life of the great 16th-century soldier Giovanni de Medici is
as dark and troubling yet life-affirming as all of this master
filmmaker’s work. Superbly photographed by Olmi’s son Fabio and
with a brazenly modernist musical score by Fabio Vacchi, "The
Profession of Arms" is probably too good for a distributor.
But at least it’s being shown locally, albeit not in the Voice
series at BAM. Instead, it will be shown at Lincoln Center’s
Walter Reade Theater, as part of its New Italian Cinema series
June 6 and 7. Olmi – who rarely leaves Italy – may appear with
his film in Manhattan, a rare chance to see one of the great
directors in the flesh. Too bad the Voice series hasn’t included
it, but maybe next year films as good as Olmi’s and Watkins’
will be picked up for distribution, rendering moot the need for
such a series.
"Third Annual Village Voice Film
Critics Poll’s Best Undistributed Films" series runs May
31-July 7 at BAMcinematek (30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place
in the Fort Greene). Tickets are $9, $6 for students (with valid
I.D. Mondays-Thursdays, except holidays), seniors, BAM Cinema
Club members, and children under 12. For more information, call
the BAMcinematek hotline at (718) 636.4100 or visit www.bam.org.
