From the Best Movies of the 2000's list: Lavoura Arcaica aka To the Left of the Father

The story concerns a young man, André (Selton Mello), whose ideas are radically different from his father's (Raul Cortez). The father predicates order and restraint, which enhance his own power under the mantle of family love. The son seeks freedom and ecstasy, challengingly signified, in the film, through his incestuous passion for his sister Ana (Simone Spoladore). When the son leaves home on the farm and moves to a seedy boarding house, his older brother Pedro (Leonardo Medeiros), is asked by their mother (Juliana Carneiro da Cunha) to bring him back. His return, however, will completely shatter the family's confining life.

Awards

•    Grande Prêmio BR de Cinema (2002): Best actress (Juliana Carneiro da Cunha) and Best Cinematography.
•     Montréal World Film Festival (2001): Best Artistic Contribution.
•     Festival de Brasília do Cinema Brasileiro(2001): Best Film, Best Actor (Selton Mello), Best Supporting Actress (Juliana Carneiro da Cunha) and Best Supporting Actor (Leonardo Medeiros).
•     Mostra de Cinema de São Paulo (2001): Audience Award.
•     Cartagena Film Festival: Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Soundtrack.
•     Havana Film Festival: (2001): Special Jury Prize, Best Actor (Selton Mello), Best Cinematography and Best Soundtrack.
•     ABC Trophy (2002): Feature Film - Best Cinematography.
•     Festival de Buenos Aires del cinema independiente (2002): ADF Cinematography Award, Audience Award, Kodak Award and Special Mention (Luiz Fernando Carvalho).
•     Festival de Guadalajara - Mexico (2002): Best Film - International Jury
•     Brothers Manaki International Film Festival (2002): Audience Award (Walter Carvalho), Golden Camera 300
•     Entreveus Film Festival (2002): Feature Film - Audience Award
•     Festival de Lima (2002): Best Actor (Selton Mello)
•     Festival de Lleida (2002): ICCI Screenplay Award, Best Actor (Selton Mello)
•     Associação Paulista de Críticos de Artes(2002): Best actress (Juliana Carneiro da Cunha)
•     Festival di Trieste (2002): Best Film
•     Festival de Valdivia (2002): Best Film

The Chambermaid on the Titanic aka La Femme de chambre du Titanic

Set in 1912, the protagonist, Horty, leads an uneventful life as a foundry worker in the Lorraine region of northern France with his wife, Zoe, "the most beautiful woman in town." The owner of the foundry where Horty works, Simeon, lusts after Zoe. When Horty wins a company athletic contest, Simeon's prize is a ticket to Southampton to see the sailing of the Titanic. The night before the Titanic departs, Horty meets a beautiful young woman named Marie, who explains that she is a chambermaid aboard the Titanic. Marie has nowhere to sleep because all of the local hotels are full, and Horty agrees to share his room. Their encounter is seemingly chaste, with Marie sleeping in the bed while Horty spends the night in the armchair. However, in the middle of the night Marie tries to seduce him. Whether or not she succeeds is ambiguous, and she is gone when Horty awakes. Attending the departure of the Titanic, Horty spots a photographer taking a picture of Marie, and asks the photographer for the photo. Upon returning home, Horty finds that he has been promoted, but this good news is dampened by rumors of an affair between his wife, Zoe, and the foundry owner, Simeon. A bitter and jealous Horty visits a local bar to drown his sorrows. Drunk, he tells friends and co-workers about the lovely chambermaid he met in Southampton, earning him free drinks and tips. Following the sinking of the Titanic, Horty's tales become increasingly erotic, and the viewer is never sure what is truth and what is reality.Horty catches the attention of a traveling entertainer named Zeppe. Zeppe offers Horty the chance to escape his dismal dreary life. Horty agrees and begins to work with Zeppe, converting his story into a play. One night, Zoe attends the play; later, Horty explains his tale as a work of fiction. However, Horty's story becomes more elaborate and romantic attracting a larger audience for each re-telling steadily driving a wedge between him and his wife. Eventually Zoe demands a part in the performance, playing the role of Marie poignantly fighting against the waves after the Titanic sinks. The film ends by revealing why Marie would sleep with Horty.

Unforgiven (1992) it was nice!

A group of prostitutes in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, led by Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher), offers a $1,000 reward to whoever can kill Quick Mike (Mucci) and "Davey-Boy" Bunting (Campbell), two cowboys who disfigured Delilah Fitzgerald (Levine), one of their own. The local sheriff, Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), a former gunfighter and keeper of the peace, is worried about their incentive, as he does not allow guns or criminals in his town. Little Bill had given the two men leniency, despite their crime.Miles away in Kansas, the Schofield Kid (Woolvett), a boastful young man, visits the pig farm of William Munny (Eastwood), seeking to recruit him to kill the cowboys. In his youth, Munny was a bandit notorious as a cold-blooded murderer. Now a repentant widower raising two children, he has sworn off alcohol and killing. Though Munny initially refuses to help with the execution, his farm is failing, putting his children's future in jeopardy. Munny reconsiders a few days later and sets off to catch up with the Kid. On his way, Munny recruits Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), another retired gunfighter, who reluctantly leaves his wife (Cardinal) to go along.
Back in Wyoming, gunfighter English Bob (Richard Harris) and his biographer, W. W. Beauchamp (Rubinek), arrive in Big Whiskey, also seeking the reward. Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob, and Bill beats him savagely, hoping to discourage other would-be killers. The next morning he ejects Bob from town, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill. He has impressed the biographer with his tales of old gunfights and seeming knowledge of the inner workings of a gunfighter's psyche.Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive later during a rain storm; they go to the saloon/whorehouse to discover the cowboys' location. With a bad fever after riding in the rain, Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies arrive to confront him. With no idea of Munny's past, Little Bill beats him and kicks him out of the saloon after finding a pistol on him. Logan and the Kid, upstairs getting "advances" on their payment from the prostitutes, escape out a back window. The three regroup at a barn outside of town, where they nurse Munny back to health.Three days later, they ambush a group of cowboys and kill Bunting. Logan and Munny no longer have much stomach for murder. Logan decides to return home while Munny and the Kid head to the cowboys' ranch, where the Kid ambushes Quick Mike in an outhouse and kills him. After they escape, a distraught Kid confesses he had never killed anyone before. He renounces life as a gunfighter.

When Little Sue (Frederick) meets the two men to give them the reward, they learn that Logan was captured by Little Bill's men and tortured to death. He revealed the names of his two accomplices. The Kid heads back to Kansas to deliver the reward money to Munny and Logan's families. Munny drinks half a bottle of whisky and heads into town to take revenge on Bill.That night, Logan's corpse is displayed in a coffin outside the saloon. Inside, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid. Munny walks in alone and kills Skinny Dubois (James), the saloon owner and pimp. After some tense dialogue, a gunfight ensues, leaving Bill wounded and several of his deputies dead. Munny orders everyone out before stopping Little Bill from reaching for his pistol. Bill curses Munny before the latter finishes him with a final gunshot. Munny threatens the townsfolk before finally leaving town, warning that he will return if Logan is not buried properly or if any prostitutes are further harmed.A brief epilogue states that Munny was rumored to have moved to San Francisco, where he prospered in dry goods.

Coup de Torchon 1981

It’s taken me a while to gather the courage to write this review for Coup de Torchon (Blank Slate), directed by the famed French director, Bertrand Tavernier.  In short, because I’m not sure why I was so enthralled with this film.  Usually, I utter definitive opinions — I have none (well, perhaps a few).  Instead, this review shall consist of a desperate attempt to justify my perhaps inflated rating.  But, I love this film — definitely one of my all time favorites (top ten?).  If you’re in the mood for a nihilistic, dark yet oddly comedic, and somewhat ambiguous experience then this is the film for you.What strikes you first is the film’s location — the single undeniable masterstroke of the work — but again, I’m not sure why.  Bertrand Tavernier adapted the 60s pulp novel, Pop. 1280 which takes place in around 1910 in West Texas and transposed it to French Senegal around 1930.  This shift introduces a backdrop of a multi-racial (and racially conflicted) French colony.  Here I’m uncertain why Tavernier chose Senegal since the discussion of the French treatment of its colonies (and various peoples within its Empire) isn’t the film’s central focus.  Nor does it appear that French Senegal is picked simply because it’s an exotic backdrop for some adventuresome action.  Firstly, because the action isn’t adventuresome but rather cold-blooded and disturbed and entirely between the French colonists.  Secondly, because the Senegal depicted is an ultra-realistic small dusty unimportant town (filmed on location in Senegal) with local boys as extras replete with various parasitic infections (hopefully the film crew helped the boy — it definitely looked real).

Then how does the location work?  Good question.  I wish I knew more about the French treatment of their colonies besides their dismal occupation of Algeria (fertile ground for numerous films of the French New Wave movement)…  If race issues are in the background and Senegal is a “non-exoticized” backdrop without Indiana Jones-esque “hacking some blood thirsty natives” type action then what do we have?Lucien Cordier (magnificently played by a frequent Tavernier collaborator, Philippe Noiret) is the police chief in the small Senegalese town of Bourkassa.  Initially, he’s a nice guy and complete wimp.  His wife has convinced him that her “brother” (her lover) should live in their house and the various sordid elements of the town (pimps and the like) push Cordier around — even to the point of strategically placing the town outhouse outside Cordier’s window.  Cordier arrests no one and never uses his gun or flaunts his authority.The entire town mocks him.  Cordier takes bribes from the pimps and allows Rose (a delightfully vivacious Isabelle Huppert) to be beaten in the middle of the town by her husband.  Cordier believes he’s been selected for the job so that other French colonists can take advantage of the native inhabitants of the region.  What’s so strange is we’re COMPLETELY supportive of Cordier — we emphasize with his struggles, we hate his enemies, we revel in his happiness when he consoles Rose.  How wrong we are!  Eventually after a strange incident where some fellow police officers in another town ridicule him and tell him he must stand up for himself, Cordier is transformed into a vindictive man who utilizes his previous easily bullied persona to get away with his dark acts.  He uses Rose in his schemes and proceeds to establish a blank slate by killing his enemies.

True Story : Mar adentro aka The Sea Inside (2004)

This is the life story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his own life with dignity. The film explores Ramón's relationships with two women: Julia, a lawyer suffering from Cadasil syndrome, who supports his cause, and Rosa, a local woman who wants to convince him that life is worth living. Through the gift of his love, these two women are inspired to accomplish things they never previously thought possible.in another words Two of the most talented figures in contemporary Spanish cinema -- actor Javier Bardem and director Alejandro Amenábar -- collaborate for this powerful drama, based on a true story. Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) was a fisherman and part-time poet who, at the age of 26, suffered an accident while diving that left him a bedridden quadriplegic. Now 54, Ramón must depend on his family to survive -- his macho brother José (Celso Bugallo), José's wife, Manuela (Mabel Rivera), and their son, Javi (Tamar Novas). While grateful to his family and friends for their help, Ramón was always an active person, and as the years wore on, he has come to see his life as frustrating and pointless and wishes to die with what remains of his dignity. José, however, is bitterly opposed to the notion of assisted suicide, and Spanish laws would implicate anyone who helped Ramón end his own life, which is something Ramón does not want to do. Through Gené (Carla Segura), a friend who works with a "Right to Die" organization, Ramón is introduced to Julia (Belen Rueda), a lawyer he hopes will help him persuade the courts to let him end his own life. Julia is dealing with her own mortality issues since being diagnosed with a degenerative disease, and Ramón hopes her condition will make her arguments more persuasive. As Ramón and Julia work together on his case and help to prepare a book of his poems for publication, Ramón finds himself falling in love with his attorney, who happens to be married, but while his infatuation gives Julia second thoughts about the case, Ramón remains convinced that the greatest gift to him would be an end to his life. Javier Bardem's performance in The Sea Inside (aka Mar Adentro) earned him the Best Actor award at the 2004 Venice Film Festival.

Leagues beyond a disease-of-the-week movie, and a total departure for its director, The Sea Inside is a potent emotional journey anchored by powerhouse performances. It turns out that Alejandro Amenábar, known for gothic horror (The Others) and existentialism (Abre los Ojos), can do lyrical intimacy with equal finesse. Amenábar's technique is partly responsible for bringing Ramon Sampedro to life; his camera explores the rolling landscape of Sampedro's mind, as well as the photographs of his bedroom, which show the rich exuberance of Ramon's youth. But The Sea Inside wouldn't be half the experience without the work of Javier Bardem. He's such a charismatic figure, so quick to flirt or joke, that he can seduce even from his state of permanent recline, and at times, the 2004 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is equally satisfying as a wistful romance. Ramon's very quickness of wit provides the film with a central conundrum: how can a person who seems so harmonious with his world want to end his life? The Spanish countryside provides an idyllic backdrop for such weighty philosophical debate, deceptively appropriate in the way it accentuates the fragile beauty of life -- especially as captured through Javier Aguirresarobe's cinematography. Amenábar's script is also keenly attuned to life's absurdities. A memorable argument transpires between Ramon, stubbornly confined to his bed, and a paralyzed priest, down two floors because his wheelchair couldn't be carried any higher into the house. A messenger runs between the two, exchanging barbs, but their polarized views lie a much greater distance apart. Ramon's sardonic outlook on religious salvation cannot be shaken, and Bardem's performance convinces the audience there's no reason it should be. The range of perspectives of those who care about him lends the film additional poignancy, never crossing over into maudlin sentiment.

Open Your Eyes (1997) nice movie

From a prison cell in Madrid, César (Eduardo Noriega), a 25-year-old in a prosthetic mask, tells his story to psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera). Flashbacks reveal the following events: good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (Penélope Cruz), the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez). Later on, he takes her home and stays the night, although they don't sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) pulls up outside Sofia's flat and when she spots César leaving in the morning, she offers him a ride back to her apartment to have sex. On the way there, however, she intentionally crashes the car, committing suicide, and César is horribly disfigured, beyond the help of cosmetic surgery. Sofía can't bear to see him like this and goes back to Pelayo.After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. Drunk, César falls asleep in the street. On awakening, everything has changed: Sofía now claims to love him and the surgeons restore his lost looks. But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she apparently changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her with a pillow, yet finds everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía.

While he is confined to the prison, fragments of his past return to him as if in a dream. It is gradually revealed that, shortly after his disfigurement, César contracted with Life Extension, a company specializing in cryonics, to be cryogenically preserved and to experience extremely lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams. Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialise in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He had committed suicide at home after sleeping drunk on the street, and was placed in cryonic suspension. His experiences from about the midpoint of the movie onward have been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film he elects to wake up and be resurrected. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street is simply a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, César leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, resolving to open his eyes once more to real life outside the cryonic fantasy.

Un prophète a 2009 French prison drama

Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), nineteen years old, French of Algerian descent, is sentenced to six years in prison for attacking police officers. Alone and illiterate upon his arrival, he falls under the sway of Corsican mobsters, led by Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup), who enforces a brutal rule.
The prison is divided between two main factions: the Corsicans and the Muslims. Malik keeps to himself. When Luciani forces him to be the unwilling assassin of Reyeb, a Muslim witness, Malik gains the protection of the Corsicans in spite of his origin. Malik serves as a low-level servant to the Corsicans, who treat him with disdain. All the while, he is haunted by visions of the murdered Reyeb. When the bulk of the Corsicans are transferred or released, Luciani is forced to give Malik more responsibility. Having secretly learned Corsican, Malik acts as Luciani's eyes and ears in the prison. When Malik earns the privilege of day-long furloughs outside the prison, Luciani relies on him to conduct his business outside. Ryad, a Muslim friend, teaches Malik to read and write, and the two become close. Ryad exposes Malik to his own heritage, allowing him to meet two other Muslims, Tarik and Hassan, increasing his power within the prison. Malik also becomes involved with a prison drug dealer, Jordi. When Ryad gains an early release due to his testicular cancer, the three partners organize a drug-running enterprise. But when Ryad is kidnapped by the drug dealer Latif, Malik tracks down Latif's partner inside the prison, kidnaps his family, and forces Latif's gang to release Ryad. When Luciani discovers that Malik is using his furloughs for his own personal enterprise, he attacks him. Malik is sent to meet Brahim Lattrache in Marseille, another Muslim, who is involved in a deal between Luciani and the Lingherris, an Italian mafia group.

Lattrache is bitter toward the Corsicans for the murder of Reyeb and holds Malik at gunpoint. When Malik spots a deer warning sign, he remembers a recent dream of deer running in the road. He tells his kidnappers that they are in danger of hitting a deer, which they promptly do. Lattrache is impressed by Malik, calling him a prophet and agreeing to do business with him instead of Luciani, even though Malik has admitted that he killed Reyeb.Luciani believes there is a mole in his organization and decides to use Malik to assassinate Jacky Marcaggi, the Don of the Corsican mafia, for secretly dealing with the Lingherris. But Malik and Ryad have their own plan for Marcaggi: they kill his bodyguards and dump him in a van with his enemy Vettori, Luciani's henchman. Malik takes refuge at Ryad's house with his wife and young son. Ryad's cancer has returned; his decision against more chemotherapy leaves him just six months and he gets Malik's promise to take care of his family when he's gone.Upon Malik's return to the prison, he joins the Muslim faction of the yard. When Luciani tries to approach him, two Muslims intercept and beat him.On the day of his release, Malik is met by Ryad's wife and son outside the prison. They walk off together, followed by a vehicle convoy carrying Malik's new associates.