Rendezvous ’10: The Law

Anyone having pursued serious studies at a four year academic institution probably has a passing familiarity with a little card game called “Presidents and [let’s call it] ‘Non-Presidents.’” As vicious as it can get, American undergrads have nothing on Mediterranean gangsters. Indeed, one fishing village’s institutionalized drinking game serves as the local crime boss’s instrument of social control in Jules Dassin’s 1959 classic The Law, which fittingly plays the final day of this year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema on Sunday.

In a vividly evocative opening sequence, it is clear there is a lot of want in this small town. Unemployed men lounging in the square want a job (as long as it is not too much work) and just about everyone wants Marietta, Don Cesare’s fiery young maid. Though Marietta enjoys her reputation as the town disgrace, she really wants to land a husband. She has her eye fixed on Enrico Tosso, the idealistic agricultural engineer assigned to the district, but of course he does not have two hundred Liras to rub together. She also has to contend with the unwelcome attentions of Matteo Brigante, the more savage than suave racketeer whose power in the village rivals Don Cesare. It is he who rewards loyalty and punishes opposition through the game locals call “The Law.”

How good is the cast of The Law? No less than Marcello Mastroianni is easily overlooked as the earnest but clueless Tosso. There is no overlooking Gina Lollobrigida though as the passionate Marietta. At the height of her standing as an international sex symbol, she burns up the screen, particularly when facing down the reptilian Brigante, played with oily flare by Yves Montand. Rounding out the cast of international superstars is Greek actress and frequent Dassin collaborator (in Phaedra and Never on Sunday, among others) Melina Mercouri as Donna Lucrezia, the older married woman furtively involved with Brigante’s son.

With hot Mediterranean blood pounding every which way, The Law is a good clean lurid entertainment. Setting up scenes that crackle with wit, Dassin pulls viewers through at a breakneck pace. Particularly striking is the shadowy confrontation late in the picture between Montand and Mercouri that resembles dance choreography. In a way, it is like a scandal sheet adapted in the style of classical tragedy.

Filmed in gorgeous black-and-white by Otello Martelli, The Law definitely has a noir look to match its dark melodrama. Yet, for all the terrible things that happen or nearly happen in the film, it is always great fun. Truly, more contemporary film noirs should follow its example. It screens tomorrow (3/21) at the Walter Reade as this year’s French Rendezvous concludes.

Rendezvous ’10: The Wolberg Family

The Wolbergs love their vintage American soul music. How they feel about each other is far more complicated, as it always is in families. While their particular circumstances might be unique, they still face universal challenges in Axelle Ropert’s The Wolberg Family (trailer here), which screens during this year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema.

Simon Wolberg, the shaggy headed soul music enthusiast, might sound like an unlikely mayor for his provincial French town, but he seems born for the job. Relating to his family is more difficult. Actually, his feelings are not complicated at all. He worships his wife Marianne and is utterly devoted to his son and daughter. He does not have much use for his brother-in-law though, contemptuously labeling him a “bohemian.” Unfortunately, his family has a host of issues with him, but they might not have as much time to work them out as they think.

Perfectly accentuating the drama with classic soul and R&B, Ropert has created a family style Big Chill, cutting out all the annoying parts. Up until the pretentious closing scene (which is just so quintessentially French), there is not a false scene in the film. At first, Ropert digs beneath the Wolbergs’ apparently happy facades to expose their not-so hidden resentments. Then he digs further to reveal their fundamental love.

François Damiens is truly unforgettable as the tragically “Type A” Simon Wolberg. Your heart bleeds for the man even when you wince at his blundering insensitivity. Hey, he’s just like family. By contrast, Valérie Benguigui’s Marianne is smart and tightly controlled—the model of a politician’s wife, yet far more sensitive and complex than we might initially suspect.

Ropert could easily have reduced the Wolberg’s to stereotypes, but instead his approach is gracefully humanistic. Lensed with tremendous sensitivity by Celine Bozon, Wolberg has an intimate feel, but Ropert never lets the pacing lag.

Despite the funky brass of its soundtrack, Wolberg is a film of quiet moments, closely observed. It is a beautiful treasure of a film, heartily recommended at French Rendezvous, especially since it has yet to acquire an American distributor. It screens at the IFC Film Center this Saturday (3/13) and at the Walter Reade Theater March 20th and 21st.

Rendezvous ’10: Welcome

It looks like Sarkozy is in for the “W” treatment from French filmmakers. Though not singled out for personal censure, Philippe Lioret’s latest film is decidedly unsubtle in its withering assessment of Sarkozy-era France. Evidently, it is particularly scandalous that the government has the gall (Gaul) to enforce its own immigration laws. Indeed, subtlety is in short supply in Lioret’s oh-so ironically titled Welcome (trailer here), which screens during the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2010 Rendezvous with French Cinema.

Bilal is miserable in France. He wants to be in England where the love of his life legally immigrated with her parents. He has come all the way from Kurdistan to Calais, but cannot get across the Channel, though certainly not for a lack of trying. Time is ticking too. For some bizarre reason, her father is less than thrilled with the prospect of his daughter marrying an unskilled illegal alien and is doing his best to prevent Bilal from communicating with her. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so he signs up for swimming lessons at the local rec center.

Simon is also miserable in France. The love of his life just served him divorce papers. A former national champion, he now teaches swimming lessons to kids when not moping around inconsolably. When he takes on Bilal as a student, he strongly discourages the Kurdish youth from tackling the Channel. Still, something about Bilal’s romantic ardor touches the older man. In no time at all, Simon has moved Bilal into his apartment, incurring the wrath of the government.

Vincent Lindon gives an achingly humane performance as Simon, but unfortunately it is in the service of a clumsily didactic film. Still, when not making the same points over and over, Welcome has some nice scenes between Lindon and Audrey Dana as his ex Marion that actually ring true. We do get a sense of the shared history and flawed chemistry between them. Unfortunately, Bilal and his fellow countrymen have little personality, essentially serving as props in Welcome’s morality play.

To its credit, Welcome acknowledges the brutality of Saddam Hussein and his regime, at least to a limited extent. During an attempt to stowaway on a lorry bound for Britain, Bilal is unable to keep a bag over his head because it brings back vivid sense memories of Saddam’s torture chambers. Still, the tenor of the film is far from pro-war. Rather it is an overwrought condemnation of a supposedly Fascist state apparatus that heartlessly prosecutes those tolerant enough to shelter illegals like Bilal.

If viewers try to anticipate the most manipulative possible plot developments at each turn, they will never be surprised by Welcome. This film has a point to make and it is not about to let us forget it, drowning out two very well turned performances in the process. It screens today (3/12) and next Sunday (3/21) at the Walter Reade Theater and tomorrow (3/13) at the IFC Film Center.

Rendezvous ’10: Farewell

He was called “Farewell” and he knew everything top secret there was to know. He was a Colonel in the KGB charged with reviewing the intelligence they gathered on the west—all of it, including the extent to which each western intelligence agency had been compromised. He also knew the Soviet government had failed to live up to its promises. President Ronald Reagan called the resulting L’Affaire Farewell: “one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century.” It also inspired Christian Carion’s Farewell (trailer here), which opens this year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema on Thursday night.

Like the real-life Vladimir Vetrov on whom he is based, Colonel Grigoriev was once stationed in Paris, where he rebuffed the advances of the French and American intelligence services. However, by 1981, the Colonel had come to the conclusion the Soviet Union needed drastic changes, so he approached the DST, the French equivalent of the FBI (and the only western intelligence agency the KGB had not bothered to infiltrate), through Pierre, a French businessman with no formal involvement in the world of espionage.

Out of his element, Pierre wants to extricate himself from the affair as soon as possible, but Grigoriev insists on dealing only with him, knowing he cannot trust a professional spy. Partly in recognition of the value of Grigoriev’s intel and partly out of a sense of budding friendship, Pierre becomes the Colonel’s amateur handler, passing a wealth of information to the DST.

While Pierre and Grigoriev meet in parks and train stations, another alliance in being forged between President Reagan and Mitterrand, France’s newly elected socialist prime minister. The President is less than thrilled at the prospect of Communist ministers in the new French cabinet, but Mitterrand has an olive branch to offer: a high placed Soviet source the DST has codenamed “Farewell.”

One of the fascinating aspects of Farewell is watching how it portrays these influential world leaders. Philippe Magnan’s Mitterrand is aloof and dispassionate, coming across more than a bit like a cold fish. Refreshingly, Pres. Reagan is not portrayed as a doddering bumbler, but as an engaged and commanding leader. Yes, there are scenes of Reagan using classic film as a metaphor with his National Security Advisor (played by an almost unrecognizable David Soul), but never in way that calls his judgment into question. Still, there is something about Reagan’s mannerisms that are hard to emulate without lapsing into caricature. American actor Fred Ward gives it a good shot, but he still sounds more like a Saturday Night Live impersonation than a real flesh and blood individual.

Fortunately, Farewell’s primary leads are uniformly excellent. Though he looks appropriately rumpled, Emir Kusturica plays Grigoriev sharp as a tack, keenly aware of his own personal contradictions. As Pierre, Guillaume Canet also plays it smart and understated, avoiding the headshaking “what-did-I-get-myself-into” histrionics. As a result, viewers can believe the unqualified trust Grigoriev places in him.

Technically well produced, cinematographer Walther Vanden Ende and set designer Jean-Michel Simonet effectively capture the oppressive drabness of the Brezhnev era. Yet ideologically, Farewell resists easy classification. While it certainly depicts some terrible acts committed at the behest of the Communist government, the film often suggests a John Le Carre-like equivalency, at least between their respective governments and spy masters. However, the ultimate conclusion again challenges the audience’s conceptions of faith and loyalty, in the context of the preceding “L’Affaire Farewell.”

Considering how long it has been since a brainy spy film sneaked into theaters, Farewell is quite welcome indeed. Featuring two compelling lead performances and a meaty story that intrigues on several levels, Farewell is a great selection to launch French Rendezvous. It screens this Thursday (3/11) at Alice Tully Hall and Friday (3/12) at the IFC Center.