MATT'S CINEMA DIARY: OCTOBER 19 - 25, 2015
Matt Micucci's personal experience at various screenings throughout the week. Less about the film, more about the personal experience. This week, THE THIRD SIDE OF THE RIVER, PRISON SYSTEM 4614, ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, THE PROGRAM and TOUCH OF EVIL.
THIRD SIDE OF THE RIVER by Celina Murga @ Kino Lucerna, 18.45 (Cine Argentino)
This was the first screening of the CINE ARGENTINO festival that took place in PRAGUE, and would probably be one of only two screenings I would attend. Gutted, because I must admit to not having seen much of the cinema of Argentina, but I heard a few years ago that funds from Europe were being invested from productions in South America, and actually recall seeing a film called THE GOLD BUG that openly referred to this.
Anyways, as usual, I struggled with buzzing and noises coming from the music bar directly downstairs from KINO LUCERNA. Always drives me nuts to know that not only do so many great screening take place in LUCERNA, and that it is such a beautiful theatre, but that almost all of its screenings are ruined by this silly noise problem. Given the problem, its tickets are simply overpriced.
Anyways, the film itself, I was surprised, is presented by MARTIN SCORSESE, and despite its relatively low rating, it is an excellent teenage angst flick. Sure, the seeming passivity of the lead character is strange, but aside from the actor reminding me slighly of JOHN TRAVOLTA in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (more for his charisma than for the dancing and singing, which actually THE THIRD SIDE OF THE RIVER has very little of...), in view of the ending it all makes sense and is highly rewarding.
PRISON SYSTEM 4614 by Jan Soldat @ Kino Svetozor, 20.45
I had never seen a JAN SOLDAT film, but for some reason was getting him mixed up with CHARLES LUM, director of a similar flick about the gay fetish world called AGE OF CONSENT.
But to be fair, the reason why I went to this screening is because, first off, I always try to make the doc screenings on Mondays at KINO SVETOZOR, because of this particular regular programme's variety of styles and subject. But also because it had me at hello, when I read it was about men who choose to put their bodies on the line at a non-conventional resort in which they are tortured prison style.
Much like MARQUIS DE SADE, I am always interested in the physical, but also hoped to get some insight in the mind of these people and their reason behind wanting to be used this way. The screening was often disturbed by a man child who constantly giggled and made comments at some of the sequences in which the inmates were tortured. Must admit that I too kind of laughed as a man in his sixties gets his penis tazed while chained to a wall, simply because of its paradoxical extremity.
It is interesting to note that the film itself is not visually stunning, and that SOLDAT produced, directed, shot, edited and captured the audio for the film. This is a type of raw filmmaking that inspires me.
October 20
ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD by Rosendo Ruíz @ Kino Lucerna, 17.30 (Cine Argentino)
The second and last screening at Lucerna for the CINE ARGENTINO programme. I took my friend LUCIEN ZELL to it, but warned him that I literally knew nothing about this film, and was literally only going to quench my thirst of knowledge of Argentinian film.
Alas, what a disappointing screening to invite a friend to. I always like to take friends to screenings with me, to promote the wonders of cinematic experiences, but this film about kids who live a period of time in the countryside in a utopian style was so flat and unrewarding that when it was over, LUCIEN and I looked at each other and just burst out laughing. After the film was over, all we could kind of say about the film was that it was pretty "insignificant", and a few hours later, over a couple of pints, we had almost forgotten we had seen it at all.
As far as the overall film goes, due to my festival travels, I have seen so many other films like it that were so much better than this particular film in so many ways. And all I can say is, this being a festival of Argentinian film and, as it turns out, the final screening of this fest - wasn't there a better film that could have been picked for the programme?
October 21
THE PROGRAM by Stephen Frears @ Kino Atlas, 17.30
I have yet to see THE WALK, THE MARTIAN and LEGEND, all of which are recent new releases doing the cinema rounds these days. But I opted to see one of the films I have been looking forward to the most this past while - THE PROGRAM, about LANCE ARMSTRONG.
There's a few reasons for this. First off, its subject is obviously fascinating, and I rate ALEX GIBNEY's documentary THE ARMSTRONG LIE so highly that I actually included it in my 25 BEST DOCUMENTARIES OF ALL TIME list. But also, of course, I am a huge fan of STEPHEN FREARS, and rank him among my favourite living directors.
Given the fact that I have never seen a film by FREARS I did not enjoy, and that his previous film PHILOMENA was almost perfect, I was thrilled and excited.
One thing I have noticed about countless Prague screenings is that there is always someone who feels like they can talk during the film. There was an old man sitting behind me who seemed to have a comment after every single line of the first part of the film. So, for a long time, I was trying to remember the word for "silence" that I had recently learnt, but timely forgotten as most of the words I learn in Czech...
Nevertheless, quite an exciting film about an anti-hero, strikingly non judgemental and yet very tense and fascinating. Anyone looking for melodrama will be disappointed. Plus, as usual in a FREARS movie, the soundtrack is incredible, and added some excellent energy behind THE PROGRAM.
October 22
TOUCH OF EVIL by Orson Welles @ Kino Ponrepo, 17.30
There is always going to have to be a good reason for me missing an English Friendly screening at KINO PONREPO, or a screening of any film by ORSON WELLES. Given the fact that I have started collaborating with this great cinema, I decided to also invite a group of interesting people with the intention of having the great flick A TOUCH OF EVIL inspire some great drunken conversations afterwards.
Frustratingly, I planned on also recording the conversation, but forgot my audio recorder - would have made a good edition of the CineCola Podcasts. So, it was me, writer MATT JORDAN, artist LUCIEN ZELL and cinematographer LUBOMIR BALLEK.
The screening was great, despite it being a rare occurrance in which PONREPO screened a blue ray instead of an original copy from its archive. And the sound sytstem in PONREPO is far from being perfect, so it was sometimes a real struggle to understand all the lines, particularly in the film's frantic beginning. Nevertheless we all loved it.
MATT was particularly taken by DIETRICH's final, great observation "He was some kind of a man... What does it matter what you say about people?" We had good chats about many of its aspects, such as the remarkable opening shot and incredible cinematography, WELLES looking and behaving a lot like a disgusting animal in this film, how credible HESTON was as a Mexican, and how gorgeous JANET LEIGH really is.
Then we talked about BERGMAN, STORARO, LEONE, ANTONIONI and so on...gotta love late night chats about cinema.