William Tell: The Swiss Folk Hero on the Big Screen

This crossbow-wielding warrior is sort of a Swiss Robin Hood or King Arthur. He is more a figure of legend than history, despite his inspiring folk-hero status. Of course, in the 1970s, leftist Swiss intellectuals like Max Frisch demonized Tell as a backwoods “deplorable,” while arguing his notorious nemesis Albrecht Gessler was just a well-meaning tax-collector. Needless to say, their radical reinterpretations never took hold. Instead, he remains the hero who shot that famous apple, which is exactly how director-screenwriter Nick Hamm presents him in William Tell, opening today in theaters.

The good thing about mythic figures with little evidence to prove their existence is the leeway they leave filmmakers like Hamm to fill in the holes. In this film, Tell fought as a crusader in the Holy Land, but the brutality he witnessed left disgusted with war. However, it was also there that he met Suna, his not very Swiss-looking wife. Initially, Tell would rather stoically endure the Habsburgs’ oppression, rather than risk re-igniting the horrors of war. However, he still feels compelled to help a poor yeoman farmer who killed the Habsburg agent guilty of defiling and murdering his own wife.

Of course, that puts Tell on Gessler’s radar. Recognizing the archer’s potential danger, Gessler sets a very public trap for him. Naturally, Tell refuses to bend the knee for a Habsburg monument, so Gessler forces him to attempt an impossible shot, targeting an apple atop his son’s head. Refusal means certain death for the entire Tell family, but making it would create a national hero.

Logically, Hamm starts with the apple and then flashes backwards, to explain how Tell got there. Yet, there is still quite a bit of story left after that. In fact, there is a whole rebellion to fight. Hamm is not known for action, but he stages some of the best ancient historical battle sequences on film since Gladiator II. Thanks to Tell, the crossbow figures prominently and Hamm fully capitalizes. In terms of grit and theme, William Tell is very much like vintage Mel Gibson.

Invasion, Season Two, on Apple TV+

Evidently, alien invasion tourism will inevitably take you to an Oklahoma cornfield. It does have the advantage of being off-the-beaten path, like pretty much everything else in Oklahoma. However, the frontline for the human resistance is in the Amazon, outside a crashed but not always dormant alien ship. The far-flung characters introduced in the first season start to get together to fight in season two of co-creators Simon Kinberg & David Weil’s Invasion, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Some of the people we met in season one were really smart and some were just sort of average, but they were thrust into extraordinary circumstances—even more than the rest of the everyday Earthlings forced to deal with an alien invasion. Mitsuki Yamato is still the most interesting of the bunch. She is the one who brought down the alien ship by hacking its code. Since then, she has been fighting to avenge her astronaut lover old school-style, with Molotov cocktails. However, Nikhil Kapor wants to recruit her for his team.

Kapor, also the best new character, was the sort of callous tech titan who would have said genocide is “below my line” before the aliens came. He really has not changed appreciably, but the prospect of saving the world appeals to his ego. He could also afford to put together a cutting-edge facility to study the strange transmissions that inexplicably emanate from the wrecked ship.

Meanwhile, former Navy SEAL Trevante Cole is home, but his mind is back in London, where he saved weird Caspar Morrow from the aliens. Morrow had visions of the nasty ETs and sometimes appeared to have the power to ward them off. Unfortunately, he slipped into a coma—and his survival prognosis is particularly bad, after his doctors are unable to evacuate him when the alien monsters attack. Nevertheless, his ambiguous school friend Jamila Huston feels compelled to save him, because of messages she believes Morrow is sending through her dreams.

Former doctor-reluctantly-turned-housewife Aneesha Malik is still determined to save her children and her teen son Luke is still a total pill. However, he also has a bit of that alien “shine.” In fact, there might be more kids like him and Morrow out there. She does not want any part of the resistance group known as “The Movement,” which sounds uncomfortably cult-like, but she might not have much choice. Regardless, Cole is coming to her general area, armed with Morrow’s notebook and looking for answers.

With its combination of rural and far-flung international locations, the moody Invasion often feels like Stephen King’s The Stand re-conceived as an alien invasion epic. That is meant as a compliment. Invasion is far superior to its fellow Apple streaming-mate, Foundation, because it combines several familiar elements into something that feels very distinctively its own thing (instead of copying from Dune and pretending it is based on Asimov’s Foundation books).

The cast is also considerably better. Shioli Kutsuna is even more spectacularly neurotic as Yamato, while Shane Zaza is entertainingly arrogant and elitist as the snide Kapor. Golshifteh Farahani still solidly anchors the series as the Malik, the desperate mother trying to protect her often uncooperative children. Shamier Anderson broods hard as Cole, while continuing to exhibit convincing action chops. Unfortunately, the younger thesps are often annoying, except Paddy Holland, who is terrific as Monty Cuttermill, Morrow’s former bully, who agrees to help rescue him.

Extraction 2, on Netflix

Apparently, if you want to kill Tyler Rake, you must drop him in a vat of molten steel, like Robert Patrick in T2. When we last saw Rake in the first film, he fell off a very large bridge in Bangladesh after getting riddled with bullets. However, the film established he could hold his breath under water for a very long time, so there’s that. Regardless, Rake is still alive, so best of luck to all the bad guys who try to kill him in Sam Hargrave’s Extraction 2, which premieres today on Netflix.

At least #2 acknowledges things really looked bad for Rake. As a result, he spends weeks in a coma before undergoing months of rehab. His merc boss Nik Khan just wants him to quietly retire so he can work on all the emotional issues that fueled his near-death wish, but that won’t be happening.

Instead, he agrees to rescue his estranged ex-wife’s sister, young niece, and annoying pre-teen nephew from the heckhole Georgian Republic prison, where they are forced to live with the druglord brother-in-law. Clearly, Davit Radiani still has the juice to demand such accommodations, despite being convicted of murdering an American DEA agent. Understandably, being incarnated with the abusive Radiani is slowly killing Ketevan and her children, but the worshipful Sandro is too brainwashed to see his father’s true nature, or that of his psychotic uncle Zurab. Regardless, Rake will bust them out anyway, whether Sandro likes it or not, with the reluctant help and considerable logistical support provided by Khan and her younger brother Yaz.

The first Extraction, also helmed by Hargrove and written by the Russo Brothers and graphic novelist Andre Parks, had plenty of action and considerable body-count, but #2 surpasses it in all ways. As fans would expect, Chris Hemsworth’s Rake is still quite a one-man killing machine.

However, the big news is how Iranian exile Golshifteh Farahani really comes into her own as a breakout action star. Khan was also part of the climactic shoot-out in #1, but she possibly caps as many bad guys in #2 as Rake does. She is in the thick of it, right from the start, but it is not to make any stilted statement. Khan and Rake are really partners in the on-screen action (technically, he works for her, but you get the point).

That said, Hemsworth still anchors the most brutal hand-to-hand beatdown, as Rake escorts Ketevan through a full-on prison riot, which even overshadows the complicated escape sequence it bleeds into, involving cars, helicopters, and a speeding train. #2 features an extended 21-minute long-take, but viewers will not really notice the technique, because the stunt work is so intense.

Invasion, on Apple TV+

This must be an alternate universe, because in this reality we still have troops stationed in Afghanistan. Unfortunately for them, they are about to encounter something even more dangerous than al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Our over-the-horizon capabilities won’t make much difference either, because the strange alien force is bent on complete planetary domination. People from different walks of life in several different countries respond to the global crisis in co-creators Simon Kinberg & David Weil’s Invasion, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

This is Sheriff John Bell Tyson’s last day wearing the badge, but something just doesn’t feel right to him. Maybe it will be explained by the final call he responds to. Also in America, Aneesha Malik, looks after her children as best she can, even though she just discovered her husband has been unfaithful to her. That would be the same husband whom she sacrificed her medical career to marry.

Meanwhile, Mitsuki Yamato prepares the last technical checks for a historic manned Japanese space flight. She is especially diligent, because Captain Murai is her secret lover. Over in England, Casper Morrow (who suffers from unexplained seizures) is about to leave on a school field trip, with his crush, Jamila Huston, and his primary bully. Finally, in Afghanistan, we meet Trevante Ward, a U.S. Special Forces Operator, who devotedly looks after his own men in the field to compensate for a family tragedy back home.

Then all heck breaks lose, but Kinberg & Weil never really give us a comprehensive overview of the interplanetary struggle. Instead, they give us fractured perspectives, such as that of the English schoolchildren, whose bus is trapped in crater. Obviously, Invasion would not exist without War of the Worlds and its many film and TV adaptations. In a way, it tries to combine the average-Joe POV of Spielberg’s disappointing War of the Worlds and the scientifically trained perspective of Dr. Clayton Forrester in the classic George Pal-produced War of the Worlds. Just as Pal’s film is vastly superior to Spielberg’s, the sequences featuring Yamato and Ward are much more interesting than those featuring the kids and the Malik family. As for the good Sheriff, you might just forget he was in this show after the first episode.

These inconsistencies are exacerbated by the slow pacing of the early episodes. Honestly, they should reach the point of the sixth or seventh installments by the end of the third. It basically takes a full episode for the Maliks to get from their house to their car—and its just parked in their driveway.

However, the cast is quite strong and in many cases very distinguished. The great Golshifteh Farahani (who has been banned from her native Iran since 2009) is terrific as Malik, even though she is stuck in the show’s most melodramatic story-arc. Yet, Shamier Anderson truly drives the series, even more than her, with his riveting performance as Ward.

Shiori Kutsuna is credible and compelling as the highly intelligent but socially awkward Yamato. She also probably has some of the show’s most poignant scenes opposite Rinko Kikuchi and Togo Igawa, who are both memorable and engaging as Murai and her slightly estranged father. There are also a bunch of kids in this show, the best of which is probably India Brown as down-to-earth Huston. She is very good, but viewers will quickly tire of the Lord of the Flies business that traps her character. (And of course, Kiwi Sam Nail plays yet another Oklahoma sheriff.)

Tribeca ’18: The Night Eats the World

It is based on a French novel written by Martin Page under the pen name Pit Agarmen, but it is clearly constructed over the foundation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Sam, a French musician, will barricade himself in a tony apartment when a zombie apocalypse sweeps through Paris, but as he battles loneliness and hunger, he comes to realize he is the freak amid this new world of the feral undead in Dominique Rocher’s The Night Eats the World (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

You could argue Sam is fortunate to be shy and have a low tolerance for alcohol, or perhaps the exact opposite. Either way, he survives the initial wave of the zombie outbreak, because he fell asleep in a tucked away back room during his ex-girlfriend’s hipster party. Most of the zombies have been there and gone, so he fortifies a particularly nice flat in her building and digs in.

Resigning himself to the new order, Sam does his best to forage for canned goods and clear the other flats of zombies. Much like Robert Neville in I Am Legend, Sam seeks companionship with a pet, but in this case, it is a cat—and Rocher and his co-screenwriters give their relationship a subversive twist. For most of the film, his only company is Alfred, an infected tenant trapped in the building’s retro wrought-iron elevator, until the exiled Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani makes a cameo appearance.

There are so many similarities between Night Eats and I Am Legend, both the novel and its earlier film adaptations, Rocher really should have included some sort of hat-tip, such as a Matheson movie poster. Of course, Neville was fighting vampires in Matheson’s source novel, albeit very zombie-like vampires, so Night Eats should be off the hook for any potential litigation. There is also a pronounced Gallic vibe to Rocher’s film. For instance, when Sam passes the time by constructing some Rube Goldberg like musical constructions (which actually produces some groovy sounds), the vibe is almost Tati-esque.

As Sam, Anders Danielsen Lie does heroic work, withstanding the rigor and scrutiny that comes with being on-screen nearly every second of the way. One look at his tortured countenance tells us he is a quiet on the outside but roiling on the inside kind of guy. The always striking Farahani is also deeply haunting as the mysterious Sarah. However, the wonderfully eccentric Denis Lavant (Monsieur Oscar from Holy Motors) supplies the film’s indelibly memorable and most likely iconic performance as the infected and immobilized Alfred, who just might possibly be lucid at some level deep down in his diseased psyche.

These are real zombies, who are always looking to chomp down on the infected. Rocher’s approach is admittedly more stylish and cerebral than many zombie films, but he still embraces the core principles of the genre. Rocher also composes some eerie visuals of the de-populated Parisian neighborhood and the ferocious swarms of zombie masses. Despite a relative paucity of gore, Walking Dead fans should be able to relate and approve. Enthusiastically recommended, Night Eats the World screens again today (4/22), tomorrow (4/23), and Friday (4/27), as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Eran Riklis’s Shelter

It is impossible to claim the civilized world is winning the war on terrorism when Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s ruling coalition. Frankly, most of the West now follows the “Obama Doctrine:” go easy on Hezbollah to curry favor with their Iranian masters. Israel still fights the good fight and it will continue to protect those who fought with them. Mona is a particularly sensitive example. As the ex-mistress of a high-ranking Hezbollah terrorist/Lebanese government official, she provided extensive intelligence to the Mossad. When she was exposed, her handlers smuggled her out of the country and into a Hamburg safe house. It will be Naomi’s task to protect her while she recovers from plastic surgery, but her assignment will be considerably more dangerous than promised in Eran Riklis’s Shelter (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

This will be Naomi’s first field work since a devastating personal tragedy caused her to take an extended leave of absence. It is supposed to be an easy way to get back into action, so initially, she is not even supplied a gun. It will be her job to masquerade as a nurse, tending to the bandaged Mona while she recuperates from plastic surgery. Eventually, she will be resettled into a new life, with a new identity. Yet, there are things Mona has trouble letting go, like the son still held in the custody of her very former lover, Naim Quassem.

Of course, there is friction between the two women at first, but respect and eventually friendship slowly but steadily develops between them. Not surprisingly, it turns out Quassem still holds a grudge against Mona. Quelle surprise. As Mona bonds with her charge, her instincts become hyper-aware of the danger swirling around them.

If you want to understand why the Mossad is the most successful intelligence agency in the world, watch Shelter. They protect their assets instead of burning them. In contrast, the German BND comes off looking pretty bad and it is rather clear our agencies would not have acted much differently. Riklis’s handling of Mona’s motivation for working with the Israelis is also smart and satisfying—it is deeply complex, yet profoundly simple.

It should be noted Riklis has bent over backwards to be sensitive to the circumstances of Arab Israeli women (who chose to political identify with the era of the British Mandate of “Palestine”) in previous films, such as The Lemon Tree. Indeed, empathizing with a strong Middle Eastern woman like Mona necessarily involves a critical rejection of militant terrorists like Hezbollah.

Israeli Neta Riskin and the Iranian-born, Paris-based Golshifteh Farahani (who has obviously given up all hope of returning home until there is a decisive regime change) are quite extraordinary together. Riskin is icily reserved, but clearly conveys how wounded and vulnerable Naomi is inside. Frankly, Farahani’s performance is genuinely brave in many ways. Arguably, she is just as fragile (if not more so), yet she vamps up the silk robe and surgical bandages better than even Bette Davis could have in her prime.

With its main characters confined to the claustrophobic flat, Shelter definitely shares a kinship with the classic films of Hitchcock and Polanski, but it engages with wider geopolitical issues. Frustratingly, it is likely to be overshadowed by Brad Anderson’s Beirut, but it is a vastly superior film. In fact, it is the best espionage-counter-terrorism film of the year thus far, and Riklis’s best since The Human Resources Manager. Very highly recommended, Shelter opens this Friday (4/6) in LA, at the Laemmle Town Center 5, Monica Film Center, and Ahrya Fine Arts.

Hugh Hudson’s Finding Altamira

It sure was convenient when amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola discovered the Altamira cave paintings on his considerable Cantabria property. However, it would be far from lucky. He expected the Spanish Catholic Church to resist the implications of the finding, but when leading European archaeologists refused to even consider his evidence for parochial and dogmatic reasons, he felt betrayed by science. Humanity appears to devolve before his eyes in Hugh Hudson’s Finding Altamira (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Narrating from the vantage point of adulthood, María Sautuola recalls being there with her father to see it al. Technically, it was rustic hunter Modesto Peres (a bit player) who found the cave and María who first noticed the ceiling paintings, but it was Señor Sautuola who immediately grasped their significance. Based on the rock formations surrounding the cave, the paintings would have to be 10,000 old—and they were far more sophisticated than anything previously attributed to the primitives.

Obviously, the 10,000-year-old business could cause conflict with the Church and Sautuola’s devout wife Conchita (played by the Iranian Golshifteh Farahani), with whom he has essentially agreed to disagree with on the subject of evolution. However, his proper academic friend Prof. Juan Villanova y Piera (portrayed by the English Nicholas Farrell, with his usual earnest dignity) immediately supports his findings. To paint high quality reproductions, Sautuola will hire his wife’s art restoration expert and not so secret admirer Paul Ratier (Frenchman Pierre Ninay), while the local Monseñor spreads malicious slander. That would be Englishman Rupert Everett in his shtickiest performance since hamming it up as headmistress Camille Fritton in the St. Trinian’s franchise. However, the elitist dismissal of the leading experts in the field will profoundly demoralize Sautuola (that would be Antonio Banderas, an actual Spaniard).

Altamira is Hudson’s first full narrative feature since I Dreamed of Africa in 2000, but it veers even further from the heft and scope of Chariots of Fire and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, which are still the primary films he is known for. Obviously, Altamira was conceived as a Euro analog of Inherit the Wind, because screenwriters Olivia Hetreed & José Luis López-Linares belabor the reason-versus-faith well past the breaking point of viewers’ patience. We just so get it already.

Perhaps not so shockingly, it is the accomplished Farahani who scores the only surprises as the forceful Señora Sautuola. Banderas is solidly upright and convincingly Spanish as the Señor. However, given Everett’s widely reported choice words for his former Catholic faith, casting him as the Monseñor seems like an ill-advised stunt that openly invites tittering.

Altamira takes itself so seriously, it just begs for some deflating mockery. Frankly, its ever so well-intentioned pronouncements in drawing rooms and lecture halls would play better on the small screen, perhaps on the PBS stations that programmed The Man Who Lost His Head. It is the sort of awkwardly fervent misfire one can safely disregard. For the record, it opens this Friday (9/16) in New York, at the Village East.

Sundance ’15: Eden

An aspiring French garage DJ does not plan well for the future. That probably isn’t so shocking. Frankly, it is rather surprising just how long he can keep the party going. Nonetheless, when he crashes, he flames out hard in Maria Hansen-Løve’s Eden (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

In 1992, the garage scene was still fresh and new. At least that is how it sounded to Paul Vallée. While attending a rave in a decommissioned submarine, he has something of a musical epiphany, as his friends partake of more hedonistic indulgences. It is moment Hansen-Løve renders almost magically—and it will help compensate for most of Vallée’s horrendously irresponsible behavior that follows.

Together with his chum Stan, Vallée forms a DJ duo known as “Cheers” that will enjoy the curse of early success, but it pales in comparison to breakout fame achieved by their real life colleagues Daft Punk. Girl friends come and go, as Cheers evolves into a satellite radio gig and eventually a hand-to-mouth nightlife promotion business. Perversely, Vallée seems to do more drugs as the money gets scarcer, burning through his inheritance and thoroughly trying his mother’s patience.

The style of music is different, but if you have read one or two jazz biographies, you will immediately recognize the trajectory of the narrative. However, the details of the garage or “French Touch” scene are definitely legit, thanks to screenwriter Sven Hansen-Løve (the filmmaker’s brother), who based the film on his own DJ career (hopefully somewhat loosely).

There is no doubt Vallée’s self-absorbed narcissism gets old quickly. The special guest star presence of Greta Gerwig and Brady Corbet (as Vallée’s American ex and her yuppie husband) only further buttresses its nauseating hipsterness. Yet, Eden is so immersive, it simply pulls you into its world, making you feel it in a sensory, tactile way. Even if French electronic music is not your bag, you will get it during Eden.

As Vallée, Félix de Givry is a bit of a cold fish, who is often hard to read. At times, he comes across like a borderline sociopath, which is rather effective in the film’s overall dramatic context. Arguably, the successive women who take him on as a project really supply the film’s soul. In a performance of great power and fragility, Pauline Etienne acutely expresses the resentment and self-doubt of Louise, the one that got away, but somehow can’t make a clean break of it. Likewise, Iranian exile Golshifteh Farahani (a one-time performer in Tehran’s underground music scene) portrays Yasmin (perhaps Vallée’s last, best chance for a healthy relationship) with tremendous warmth and sensitivity. It is also something of a bold turn for her, considering how much of Eden the current Iranian regime would object to, starting with the decadent music.

Who knew French garage DJs could carry such an epic? Probably more years pass in Eden than Doctor Zhivago, but it is still very much an in-the-moment, experiential kind of film. It is sort of exhausting, but it is worth seeing for exactly that reason. Recommended to a surprising extent, Eden screens this coming Tuesday (1/27) and Wednesday (1/28) in Park City, during this year’s Sundance.

Golshifteh Farahani in the Patience Stone

For a woman in Afghanistan, an incapacitated husband is both dangerous and liberating.  The unnamed man was never much of a husband, at least as westerners would understand the term, but he will finally become a good listener in Afghan expatriate Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone (trailer here), which opens this Wednesday in New York.

It was a loveless arranged marriage.  Her grizzled old husband acquired her when she was really just a child.  At least he was not around much during the early years of their marriage.  Instead, he was off fighting whomever, only periodically returning to lord over her.  Over time, they had two daughters, but they never “learned to love each other.”  Yet, when a tawdry dust-up leads to a bullet in his neck and a subsequent coma, she loyally tends to her former tormentor.

Sending their children to live with their worldly aunt, the woman spends her days maintaining their battle-damaged home and watching over her comatose husband. She must keep him hidden from sight, lest the roving bands of warlords recognize her defenseless position.  Unfortunately, a small contingent of soldiers eventually barges in, with the intent of forcing themselves on her.  Understanding the perverse nature of her country’s misogyny, she claims to be a prostitute, causing most of them to lose interest.  As her aunt explains, those sharing their virulent Islamist mentality take manly pride from raping virgins, but are repulsed by sexually experienced women. 

However, the shy one eventually sneaks back, hoping to hire the woman’s services.  She does not exactly agree at first, but they soon share intimate encounters on a regular basis.  In fact, she starts to enjoy them, both as a sexually liberating experience and a passive aggressive salvo against her husband.  She does indeed confess each assignation to him, as well as the rest of her deepest, darkest secrets.  He has become her “Patience Stone,” the mythological vessel that retains all the sorrow the owner divulges, until it finally shatters.

What a lovely corner of the world this is.  Women are treated like chattel, forced to wear burqas, and consequently blamed the predatory behavior of men.  Atiq’s film, based on his French language Prix Goncourt winning novel, quite boldly examines the pathological sexism of Islamist society.  If it sounds vaguely homoerotic when the young soldier confides to the woman his commander puts bells on his feet and makes him dance in the evenings, it should.  Atiq is rather circumspect in his handling of this issue, essentially using it to establish the woman’s sense of compassionate outrage.  Fair enough, there is only so much that can easily fit in an intimate chamber drama such as Stone.

Essentially, Stone is a two-hander, but the second hand spends nearly the entire film in a persistent vegetative state.  Fortunately, Golshifteh Farahani, the Iranian exile based in Paris (seen in Chicken and Plums and Ridley Scott’s mullah-offending Body of Lies), is extraordinarily compelling as the woman, largely carrying the film on her shoulders.  It is a profoundly vulnerable yet surprisingly sensual performance, likely to equally inspire her fans and outrage the theocrats in her Iranian homeland. Still, Mossi Mrowat has some quietly powerful moments as the young naïve soldier.

True the limits of the woman’s world, Stone has a two-set, four-character staginess that it just cannot shake loose.  Nevertheless, it powerfully crystallizes all the anguish and rage pent-up inside exploited women like Atiq’s protagonist.  He and Farahani might be exiles, but with Stone they vividly hold a mirror up to their respective societies.  Recommended for those concerned about the state of women’s rights in the Islamic world and fans of Farahani, Patience Stone opens this Wednesday (8/14) at New York’s Film Forum.

Chicken with Plums, from the Creator of Persepolis

Over an eight day period, Nasser-Ali Khan will become the anti-Scherezade.  As he wills himself to die, stories from his past, narrated by the Angel of Death, will explain how the musician reached such a state of profound melancholy.   Love and death become intimately intertwined in Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud’s Chicken with Plums (trailer here), their fantastical but sophisticated live-action follow-up to the rightly acclaimed Persepolis, which opens tomorrow in New York.

Khan is widely regarded as the greatest Iranian violinist of his generation, but he has stopped playing.  On the surface, his silence appears to be the fault of his wife Faringuisse, who destroyed his prized violin during one of their frequent squabbles.  However, his depression is really the result of an elegantly tragic tale of love denied.

Technically proficient but never impassioned, Khan’s music took on uncommon richness after he was forbidden from seeing his true soul-mate Irâne, the traditional clockmaker’s daughter.  Music never has been considered a stable profession by protective fathers.  As Khan’s reputation rises, he acquiesces to his controlling mother’s wishes and marries Faringuisse. For him, it is a loveless union.  For her, it is a marriage based on unrequited love.

Frankly, Khan is a crummy husband and a negligent father, but it is difficult to condemn him after witnessing his compounded heartaches.  Mathieu Amalric, with his big sad eyes, is perfectly cast as the exquisitely sensitive jerkweed.  Viewers will sympathize with him, even as they shake their heads at his casual cruelty to Faringuisse.  Likewise only more so, Maria de Medeiros (Bruce Willis’s girlfriend in Pulp Fiction) explodes the harpy exterior of his nagging wife, revealing the pain and vulnerability of Faringuisse.

Set in the late 1950’s pre-Shah, Western-leaning Iran, Satrapi and Paronnaud’s fable of star-crossed love would seem to hold limited political ramifications.  However, it is not an accident Khan’s forbidden love is named Irâne (as they confirmed in a post-screening Tribeca Q&A).  That she is played by Golshifteh Farahani is also clearly significant.  The internationally acclaimed actress was barred from returning to Iran after (tastefully) posing nude in a French magazine to protest the Islamist regime’s misogynist policies.  A radiantly beautiful woman, she also invests her character (and the film) with a graceful sadness.

Visually, Plums is also quite arresting, incorporating brief animated interludes (evoking its graphic novel source), expressionistic sets, and highly stylized design elements.  Their inspired technical team definitely creates a seductive atmosphere of magical realism that is a pleasure to get caught up in.  Highly recommended, Chicken with Plums opens tomorrow (8/17) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

Tribeca ’12: Chicken with Plums

Over an eight day period, Nasser-Ali Khan will become the anti-Scherezade.  As he wills himself to die, stories from his past, narrated by the Angel of Death, will explain how the musician reached such a state of profound melancholy.   Love and death become intimately intertwined in Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud’s Chicken with Plums (trailer here), their fantastical but sophisticated live-action follow-up to the rightly acclaimed Persepolis, which screened at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and will also unspool today at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival.

Khan is widely regarded as the greatest Iranian violinist of his generation, but he has stopped playing.  On the surface, his silence appears to be the fault of his wife Faringuisse, who destroyed his prized violin in one of their frequent squabbles.  However, his depression is rooted in an elegantly tragic tale of love denied.

Technically proficient but never impassioned, Khan’s music took on uncommon richness after he was forbidden from seeing his true love Irâne, the traditional clockmaker’s daughter.  Music never has been considered a stable profession by protective fathers.  As Khan’s reputation rises, he acquiesces to his controlling mother’s wishes and marries Faringuisse. For him, it is a loveless union.  For her, it is a marriage based on unrequited love.

Frankly, Khan is a crummy husband and a negligent father, but it is difficult to condemn him after witnessing his compounded heartache.  Mathieu Amalric, with his big sad eyes, is perfectly cast as the exquisitely sensitive jerkweed.  Viewers will sympathize with him, even as they shake their heads at his casual cruelty to Faringuisse.  Likewise only more so, Maria de Medeiros (Bruce Willis’s girlfriend in Pulp Fiction) explodes the harpy exterior of his nagging wife, revealing the pain and vulnerability of Faringuisse.

Set in the late 1950’s pre-Shah, Western-leaning Iran, Satrapi and Paronnaud’s fable of star-crossed love would seem to hold limited political ramifications.  However, it is not an accident Khan’s forbidden love is named Irâne (as they confirmed in a post-screening Q&A).  That she is played by Golshifteh Farahani is also clearly significant.  The internationally acclaimed actress was barred from returning to Iran after (tastefully) posing nude in a French magazine to protest the Islamist regime’s misogynist policies.  A radiantly beautiful woman, she also invests her character (and the film) with a graceful sadness.

Visually, Plums is also quite arresting, incorporating brief animated interludes, expressionistic sets, and highly stylized design elements.  Their inspired technical team definitely creates a seductive atmosphere of magical realism that is a pleasure to get caught up in.  Highly recommended, Chicken with Plums was enthusiastically received by audiences at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.  For those in the Bay Area, it also screens today (4/30) and Wednesday (5/2)  as part of the 2012 SanFrancisco International Film Festival, concluding this week.