TIFF ’13: Closed Curtain

For most filmmakers of his stature, bringing two films to the international festival circuit over the last three years would be considered reasonably prolific. For Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced to a twenty year filmmaking ban by the Islamist Iranian government, it is quite extraordinary.  Panahi has been awarded the Camera d’Or at Cannes, the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin, and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.  Although he was not allowed to return to Berlin this year, he added to his list of accolades the Silver Bear for Best Script with his latest film, Closed Curtain (trailer here), co-directed by lead actor Kambozia Partovi, which screens again tomorrow as part of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

A man arrives in a fashionable villa on the Caspian Sea.  The views are spectacular, but he immediately hangs heavy black fabric over the gauzy curtains, completely sealing the house off from the outside world’s prying eyes.  As a screenwriter and a dog owner, he has two strikes going against him.  Initially, he seems most concerned about Boy, his four legged companion.  The state just renewed its campaign against “unclean” “anti-Muslim” dogs, so the television news is filled with grisly images of secret pets that have been rounded up and killed by the police.  Yet, the screenwriter seems to carry his own distinctly personal secrets as well.

After shaving his head to alter his appearance, the man settles in to write his screenplay.  Much to his shock, his refuge is interrupted by a young man and his suicidal sister.  They claim they were chased by the police who raided their beach party, but their very presence troubles the screenwriter.  Could he have been so negligent he left the door open as they claim?

Panahi established his reputation with gritty proletarian dramas, filmed out in the real world, at street level. Sadly, films like The Circle (written by Partovi) are impossible for Panahi these days, so he has moved inside for intimate works, like his protest documentary This is Not a Film and his latest collaboration with Partovi.  In fact, the first two thirds of Curtain plays like an Iranian Pinter production.  As the screenwriter verbally spars with his unexpected guests, darkly unsettling questions emerge.  Just how did they breach his house and if she really is familiar with his case history, just what does that imply?

If viewers were not off-balance enough, Panahi himself walks into the third act, much like Rod Serling.  It seems the screenwriter and the sister are his characters.  They can observe Panahi tending to his mysteriously damaged beach house, but they cannot interact with him—at least not exactly.

There are pro’s and cons to the meta-turn Curtain takes.  In a way, Curtain becomes a fictionalized sequel of sorts to This is not a Film, picking up on its themes and frustrations.  The same sense of claustrophobia is present in Curtain, but it is expressed more acutely.  Frankly, the scenes in which the occupants hold their breath as the police scour around the deceptively darkened house are so effective it seems like a bit of a shame to shift away from that micro story and Partovi’s restrained but deeply powerful performance.

Panahi’s pet iguana Igi might be telegenic in Not a Film, but Boy the Dog is probably the best animal screen performer of the year.  If a distributor picks up Curtain (and somebody really ought to), his notices might rival that of Uggi in The Artist.  Still, there is no doubt Curtain is a profoundly serious film, expressing the themes of confinement and oppression that hold particularly meaning for Panahi, but also have resonance for a great many Iranian citizens at large.  Highly recommended, Closed Curtain screens again tomorrow night (9/15) as this year’s TIFF comes to a conclusion.

TIFF ’13: R100

Even though filming has not even begun on the questionable movie adaptation of Shades of Grey, Hitoshii Matsumoto has already mashed-up the S&M melodrama genre beyond human recognition.  From Japan, we have a cautionary, surreal meta-meta postmodern bondage conspiracy tale, while Hollywood is banking on a dude who wears grey ties.  How quaint.  In the mean time, Matsumoto subverts perversion throughout R100 (trailer here), which screens as part of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

Takafumi Katayama is a drab and depressed working drone who needs to unwind a little.  He thinks he has found just the ticket when he joins a mysterious club for submissive men.  At first, he gets the release he is seeking when the black-clad women meet him at their scheduled rendezvouses to beat him about and smash his sushi rolls (that’s not a euphemism).  However, when they start showing up at his home and work, matters turn a distinctly charcoal shade of grey.

As each dominatrix escalates their encounters, Katayama starts to fear for his life and the safety of his young son and father-in-law.  Then things get really weird, but not do bother complaining about logical inconsistencies.  The film will provide that commentary itself.

Strictly speaking, there is no nudity or sex in R100, but it is absolutely, positively not for kids.  The title is a play on the Japanese motion picture rating system that could be roughly translated as NC-100 for American audiences—and not for nothing.  However, the film definitely seems to suggest you are begging for trouble if you go out looking for something on the deviant side of life.

Yet, R100 careens so defiantly over the top, it becomes a dicey business parsing its symbolic layers and potential take-away teachings.  If any of this film sounds problematic to you, then you should probably avoid R100 because there is way more of whatever it is than we’ve covered so far.  On the other hand, cult cinema connoisseurs looking for a new and distinctive head trip will find it here.  Imagine Eyes Wide Shut transported to the world of Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber and you will start to get the idea.

Nao Omori perfectly anchors the film as the existentially put-upon Katayama.  Just looking at him sort of makes you want to smack him alongside the head.  However, he handles the character’s strange evolution with understated power.  As his son Arashi, Haruki Nishimoto distinguishes himself an unusually engaging young actor.  Fortunately, his classmates will not be able to see R100 for a while and hopefully he will not have to take much taunting over it in later years.

R100 pushes the envelope, but it never skitters into irredeemably disturbing territory.  Indeed, at some point the game-playing ends and the macro insanity takes over.  Although decidedly one-sided, there is also some decent fight choreography in the first act.  Recommended for exclusively adventurous viewers (but rather forcefully for them), R100 screens again today (9/13) and tomorrow (9/14) as part of this year’s TIFF.

TIFF ’13: The Dark Matter of Love

Over 300 so-called “Pipeline Babies” have become the new face of Putin’s Russia.  Often special needs children, they had already met and begun forming relationships with their presumptive American parents.  However, as they waited for the paperwork to be finalized, the Putin regime banned American adoption as the latest salvo in his neo-Cold War.  With no realistic prospects of Russian adoption, it is the children who will suffer the most as a result, but looking after the weak and the vulnerable was never the Russian strong man’s priority. 

Admirably, the filmmakers behind a new film documenting the complicated adjustment process for three of the final (as of now) Russian orphans adopted by an American family are using the Toronto premiere of their film to shine a spotlight on the Pipeline Baby issue.  Masha, Marcel, and Vadim are not Pipeline children, but the Diazes might sometimes wish they were during the rocky course of Sarah McCarthy's The Dark Matter of Love, which screens during the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

Adopting one child is a considerable undertaking.  Taking on three at once is rather daunting.  Recognizing the potential challenges (at least on an intellectual level), the Diaz family enlisted scientific help.  Dr. Robert Marvin and his associate Nicole Millirin will monitor and counsel the family, reviewing video footage that would become part of this film.  Masha is a classic case of the emotionally guarded orphan who erects nearly impenetrable protective walls around herself.  In contrast, the younger twins, Marcel and Vadim, indulge in the sort of histrionic acting out also commonly observed in recently adopted children.  Altogether, they are quite a handful, leaving the Diaz parents little time for their biological teenage daughter, Cami.

Throughout much of the second act, viewers will be reminded of what they say about good intentions.  Nonetheless, Marvin and Millirin offer the family some very constructive feedback.  The authoritative Marvin also provides the audience a lucid thumbnail sketch of the evolution of developmental psychology over the last fifty-some years.  Looking a bit like Max von Sydow’s sensitive younger brother, Marvin is a reassuring presence, who adds quite a bit to the film.

Frankly, the documentary might have benefited from a bit more of Marvin and Millirin.  While the Diazes are clearly good people with strong values, ninety-three screening minutes is a long time to spend with them.  Indeed, Dark Matter could easily be whittled down to an hour for a later PBS broadcast.

Despite some painful moments, Dark Matter will leave viewers largely optimistic regarding the Diaz children’s future.  It certainly never offers any inadvertent justification for Putin’s iron-fisted American adoption ban.  Considering Masha and the twins were adopted just before the decree was passed, it is perfectly logical and appropriate for McCarthy and her colleagues to take up the Pipeline Baby cause as part of their awareness campaign.  Millirin has even sacrificed some privacy by announcing she happens to be a lesbian adoptive mother, in protest of both the Russian government’s adoption ban and their harsh new anti-gay laws.  It is rather incredible how much there is to be alarmed by in Putin’s Russia, such as the continuing persecution of dissenting activists, like Pussy Riot.  What a perfect spot to hold the Olympics. 

Recommended for those interested in its family development issues, The Dark Matter of Love screens again today (9/9) and Friday (9/13) as part o this year’s TIFF.  Concerned viewers can also sign an online petition on behalf of the over 300 affected children here.