Author: James McNally

The film festival has been disrupted the past few days and two of my screenings have been cancelled or rescheduled, but tonight I saw a film for the first time since Monday night. How fitting that it was The Son’s Room (Italy, 2001, Nanni Moretti, director), a quietly moving film about grief. The anguish that this family experiences in the film is being played out thousands of times over in the United States, Canada, and other countries right now, and collectively as well. It was good to be sad with a lot of people tonight, and to realize that every single person who perished in New York, or in Washington, or in Pennsylvania has people who love them very much, and who are grieving. Impossible for me to “grade” this one, since my reactions are as much due to real life right now as anything in the film.

Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (France, 2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director) Between Jeunet’s dazzling visual tricks and Audrey Tautou’s dazzling beauty, it was hard to look at the subtitles at all (might be a reason to learn French in itself!). Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) has made an incredibly romantic movie that celebrates all of life and love (not just romantic). As in all romantic comedies, Destiny is a major character, but only in this film will it use a suicidal goldfish, a globetrotting lawn gnome, and a one-armed fruit vendor as its henchmen. Perfect! 10/10!!

La Pianiste (Austria/France, 2001, Michael Haneke, director) reinforces the “Austrians=grim” thesis I’m formulating. Isabelle Huppert won a well-deserved Best Actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of a woman who, in her efforts to attain the artistic ideal, loses her humanity. Trapped by her talent, she suppresses her emotions and her sexuality until they can only be expressed in twisted and terrifying ways. When a younger student falls in love with her, our hopes rise, but are soon dashed by the realization that she cannot experience love the way others can. It is too late for her, and the film’s final 30 harrowing minutes are, tellingly, devoid of the beautiful music that carried the first 90 minutes. The message seems to be that the music itself is not enough without the life and beauty it’s describing. 9/10