10 Canoes

Bea says...
Yet another film that seems to have escaped all notice here in London. Cecil and I saw it in Paris on our recent Movie Marathon there ( 3 films in 24 hours). Despite being made in partnership with the South Australian Film Corporation and Adelaide Festival I'd never heard of it - and although I don't spend a whole lot of time in Adelaide these days I thought I had my finger on the pulse enough to know when a new South Australian film was knocking about. Guess it goes to show I don't.
10 Canoes is narrated by David Gulpilil, well known to Australian people of my age for roles in films like "Storm Boy", and well known to the world for a part in "Crocodile Dundee". I wish I knew more about how this film came to be made (I'd be glad of any enlightenment) as it felt like something Gulpilil may have taken a lead in creating.
A story within a story, the 10 Canoes refer to a group of traditional Aboriginal men who are making canoes and hunting magpie geese and eggs, and during this event, taking place over a number of days, an older man tells a younger man an ancient story of longing, law, and getting the thing you most desire.
Beautiful cinematography and the strong narration of Gulpilil make this film an excursion into another world entirely. Time slows down in both stories. Many chuckles were heard in the cinema when the younger man complained "all I've learnt so far is that you take a long time to tell a story!"
***1/2

Cecil says...
I never thought I'd go to a film in Paris where half the spoken word is in an Aboriginal language so I was darting to the French subtitles to follow what was going on. David Gulpilil's voice (in English, as he narrates the story) is mesmerising - I could listen to his stories for hours, however long they are and however slowly they get to their point! Interesting switch from colour to black & white as the stories switched from the present to the time long-since past. Interesting also to look at the cinema audience in Paris: a total of 13 people, apart from us and a teenage boy, all over 60 - not sure whether this says something about Parisians and their taste for cinema from far-off places telling ancient stories or whether all the young people saw it when it first came out....
***

Netto

Cecil says...
Social realism from East Berlin, focusing on a man in his 30s struggling in the 'new' Germany since the wall came down, and his son, a 15 year-old who suddenly reappears in his father's life after a couple of years' estrangement. Kind of Wim Wenders meet Lars von Trier style. Good story-line as the son teaches his father how to get on in life, while being cringingly hopeless himself in matters of love (scenes with the prospective girlfriend in the park, in the flat, in the attic bring back awful memories of nervous moments with girls so many teenage boys must go through). East Berlin man's ex-wife is a sweetie but she's gone off with Bernd, the flashy Westerner with money, job and fast car. What does the ending mean? God knows, but it's a good film...
***
Bea says...
Cecil wondered if this film would be too much about the lives of men to interest me, but it did. And it made me want to go out and buy the back catalogue of Peter Tersching, East Berlin's answer to Johnny Cash (apparently).
***1/2

Irina Palm

Bea says...
Seen in Strasbourg, France, neither Cecil or myself had ever heard of this film, despite it being set in the UK, with a mainly UK cast. Marianne Faithful plays the lead role of Irina Palm, alias Maggie, a middle aged, widowed housewife who raises the money for a life-saving operation for her grandson by getting a job as a "hostess" in a Soho nightclub. Despite this rather cliched plot, Maggie's transformation from someone "not the least bit interesting", who "doesn't do anything", to someone famed in certain circles for the softness of her hands and her "delicate touch" - someone who does indeed "do something" - is very engaging. The dialogue is well crafted and understated, and well supported by the frugality of the sets and cinematography, leaving the simpleness of the story to shine.
****

Cecil says...
Do men really queue up for these services? I mean, I have never ever seen a queue outside one of those joints in Soho. And how do they make so much money when the men are putting a coin (ie max £2) into a slot for the services rendered? Anyway, apart from these reality checks, a gripping film (!!) and definitely recommended if it ever hits UK cinemas - or go to France and see it now...
****