The Mrs probligo and I went out to one of our occasional forays to the picture theatre last week. To bear in mind here, there were probably no more than 15 in the theatre at the session we went to but it was announced this morning that it has already overtaken "Sione's Wedding" as the highest grossing NZ film. We are a fairly stubborn nation; the creations of ex-pats like Jackson just do not count as "NZ films".
This one by Taiko Waititi definitly qualifies as NZ grown.
The film gets promo'd in the press as a "comedy". I can't agree with that. It has some light moments but that is all.
It is a topical and backward looking excerpt from the life of an 11 year old boy living in back-country NZ. I think that is where I start getting uncomfortable about it; it is about where I come from, it is about people I have known, went to school with, played rugby with, swum in the creek with, fought with, gone fishing with...
Will it make an international hit? I think not.
But for all that, keep a weather eye out at the festivals that come to your town. One never knows, you might get the chance to see it.
Link to home page in the header...
Showing posts with label film review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film review. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, September 28, 2009
Quick note...
As an after-note to the original review I did back in July, “Samson and Delilah” has won Camera d’Or at Cannes, and is now on release in some of the US film festivals.
Keep an eye open for it.
A must-see…
Keep an eye open for it.
A must-see…
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Strength of Water.
SWMBO and the ol' probligo took themselves out yesterday evening to an early (though not matinee) showing of "The Strength of Water". If my heartfelt recommendation is sufficient to encourage you to see it then read no further. Go see it. It is well worth it.
Otherwise -
It is the story of a young lad (about 10) whose twin sister dies from an asthmatic attack in rather strange circumstances. He lives in a remote community on the west coast north of NZ (the Hokianga area to which the probligo repairs for the occasional r&r). The film starts with the portrayal of the family, the community, the landscape.. It is the latter that forms the greater part of the film. The way that Armagan Ballantyne has assembled the story in the hills, the mist, the rain, is very similar to Vincent Ward's "Vigil".
It is a reconciliation of mortality, death, and continuance. The boy realises that death means an end, when the pet hen he and his sister cared for is killed - as commercial hens are when they stop laying. From that point the weather lifts, the darkness of the scenery starts to lift. There is sunlight breaking through the cloud onto the sea.
UPDATE
Why did I write Helen Cato instead of Armagan Ballantyne ? HOW could I?
Otherwise -
It is the story of a young lad (about 10) whose twin sister dies from an asthmatic attack in rather strange circumstances. He lives in a remote community on the west coast north of NZ (the Hokianga area to which the probligo repairs for the occasional r&r). The film starts with the portrayal of the family, the community, the landscape.. It is the latter that forms the greater part of the film. The way that Armagan Ballantyne has assembled the story in the hills, the mist, the rain, is very similar to Vincent Ward's "Vigil".
It is a reconciliation of mortality, death, and continuance. The boy realises that death means an end, when the pet hen he and his sister cared for is killed - as commercial hens are when they stop laying. From that point the weather lifts, the darkness of the scenery starts to lift. There is sunlight breaking through the cloud onto the sea.
UPDATE
Why did I write Helen Cato instead of Armagan Ballantyne ? HOW could I?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Samson and Delilah
This is not the traditional Biblical tale. Samson and Delilah are two Aborigine teenagers, and the film is their story.
The film is funded by a number of Australian organisations, including Central Australia Aborigine Media Association (CAAMA).
To say that I enjoyed this would not be true. It is very definitely not entertainment.
The film opens at dawn in an aborigine village. Samson wakes, cuddles his small tin of petrol, gets out of bed, walks outside and plays (very non-musically) with his brother’s electric guitar, gets hit by his brother… The same scene is repeated perhaps ten or fifteen times. Delilah wakes, takes medicine to her grandmother, feeds her, takes her to the health clinic, sits with her as she paints… The same scene is repeated several times. The repetition is modified slightly, the communal phone rings and no one answers it. The art gallery agent arrives to collect the grandmother’s latest painting, pays her bill of $25 at the store in return. Samson’s brothers wake, start playing drums and guitars; the same tune every day, the same tune endlessly.
As an introduction to the story it could not be bettered. It creates exactly the sense of boredom and hopelessness of life in a very remote Aborigine community. And that, really, is the film. It presents a portrait of Aborigine life, as it really is.
The prevalence and impact of illiteracy, petrol sniffing addiction, teenage pregnancy, rejection by “white” Australian society, unemployment, homelessness, crime – real, cultural, and imaginary – and rejection by the family is all there.
The painting collected by the agent is seen in an art gallery window priced at $22,000.
No, not enjoyable. It is a film that the likes of MK should have as compulsory viewing.
I give it a 9; most of all for not shirking the truth.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
"Rain of the Children"
It happens that Vincent Ward is one of my favourite film directors – those in the US may remember “The Navigator” (not one of his best) and “Map of the Human Heart”. So, when his latest film turned up in the Auckland Film Festival it was (for me at least) a must-see.
His very first film, “Pahi”, was made when he was 21, over a period of 2 years, and is a documentary. The subject is the surprising thing. Pahi was the last remaining link with Rua Kenana; a Maori prophet of the late 1800’s and early 20th century. That name readers may recall has cropped up in other pieces that I have written and most prominently in the saga (continuing saga) of “The Urewera Eleven”. Pahi was (she died in 1980) married to Rua’s brother.
This latest film, “Rain of the Children”, is another documentary. Narrated by Ward himself, it is presented as a rediscovery and personal pilgramage to the story of “Pahi” the original documentary and to the kuia herself.
I know that it is most unlikely that “Rain of the Children” will be seen outside of the local film festivals, perhaps on very late night local tv if the public broadcaster “charter” lasts more than another six months. That is truly a great pity because Ward has recreated the story of Pahi in some depth and combined that recreation with appropriate cuts from his original documentary to present a self-analysis, and his personal discovery of the truths behind her story that he had missed from his first film.
So, his return to the Maungapohatu, to the mountain, to the river, to the story centres on what was “missed”. As seen in the first documentary, Pahi could come across as verging on “mad”; continually in prayer, physically bent double, undertaking “strange voyages” within her very private world, and caring for her one remaining child now in his 40’s. He was regarded as “patuparaihe” – almost literally “away with the fairies”. A very strange man indeed.
Ward was very much aware that Pahi was a great deal more than he recorded in 1978 and it is the missing history that “Rain of the Children” sets out to disclose. Without covering all of the content of the film, which would require a virtual re-creation of the entire script, he ends with a very graphic illustration.
The end of the film starts with one of the final scenes from “Pahi” – a sequence showing the old lady squatting on the ground cutting firewood. Her son Nicki standing in the background, his back turned to her. Ward describes what he was seeing when he took the original film, and then points out that instead of splitting the piece of wood lengthways, Pahi was ineffectually trying to cut cross-grain. After his re-analysis of her story, Ward now realised what Pahi was doing in that clip.
She knew that he was leaving. She wanted him to leave, as he represented (my words) an invasion of her world. At the same time she was trying to delay that departure for as long as possible (by cutting across the wood and extending the scene) so that her “real world” would not return. That real world comprised her “curse”; all of her 15 children except Nicki had died in infancy or childhood. Her only way of killing that curse was to keep Nicki alive. Because of his “patuparaihe” nature, Nicki also had a curse of his own and that for Pahi was the centre of her nature.
It has taken four days to get this sorted in my head. I would love to see the film again. It scared the h311 out of me for sure, not because it was “frightening” as such but because of the world picture that it presented. It was a story of the culture of the pre-European Maori, existing within the context of my lifetime (remember that Pahi would have been alive and in her 70’s at the time that the family was living in Te Whaiti in the late 1950’s).
His very first film, “Pahi”, was made when he was 21, over a period of 2 years, and is a documentary. The subject is the surprising thing. Pahi was the last remaining link with Rua Kenana; a Maori prophet of the late 1800’s and early 20th century. That name readers may recall has cropped up in other pieces that I have written and most prominently in the saga (continuing saga) of “The Urewera Eleven”. Pahi was (she died in 1980) married to Rua’s brother.
This latest film, “Rain of the Children”, is another documentary. Narrated by Ward himself, it is presented as a rediscovery and personal pilgramage to the story of “Pahi” the original documentary and to the kuia herself.
I know that it is most unlikely that “Rain of the Children” will be seen outside of the local film festivals, perhaps on very late night local tv if the public broadcaster “charter” lasts more than another six months. That is truly a great pity because Ward has recreated the story of Pahi in some depth and combined that recreation with appropriate cuts from his original documentary to present a self-analysis, and his personal discovery of the truths behind her story that he had missed from his first film.
So, his return to the Maungapohatu, to the mountain, to the river, to the story centres on what was “missed”. As seen in the first documentary, Pahi could come across as verging on “mad”; continually in prayer, physically bent double, undertaking “strange voyages” within her very private world, and caring for her one remaining child now in his 40’s. He was regarded as “patuparaihe” – almost literally “away with the fairies”. A very strange man indeed.
Ward was very much aware that Pahi was a great deal more than he recorded in 1978 and it is the missing history that “Rain of the Children” sets out to disclose. Without covering all of the content of the film, which would require a virtual re-creation of the entire script, he ends with a very graphic illustration.
The end of the film starts with one of the final scenes from “Pahi” – a sequence showing the old lady squatting on the ground cutting firewood. Her son Nicki standing in the background, his back turned to her. Ward describes what he was seeing when he took the original film, and then points out that instead of splitting the piece of wood lengthways, Pahi was ineffectually trying to cut cross-grain. After his re-analysis of her story, Ward now realised what Pahi was doing in that clip.
She knew that he was leaving. She wanted him to leave, as he represented (my words) an invasion of her world. At the same time she was trying to delay that departure for as long as possible (by cutting across the wood and extending the scene) so that her “real world” would not return. That real world comprised her “curse”; all of her 15 children except Nicki had died in infancy or childhood. Her only way of killing that curse was to keep Nicki alive. Because of his “patuparaihe” nature, Nicki also had a curse of his own and that for Pahi was the centre of her nature.
It has taken four days to get this sorted in my head. I would love to see the film again. It scared the h311 out of me for sure, not because it was “frightening” as such but because of the world picture that it presented. It was a story of the culture of the pre-European Maori, existing within the context of my lifetime (remember that Pahi would have been alive and in her 70’s at the time that the family was living in Te Whaiti in the late 1950’s).
Monday, August 06, 2007
Amazing Grace...
It was not until about a month ago that I learned the provenance of the hymn; the story of the slave-ship captain who renounced that trade to become a reclusive Christian monk. That would be a tale of some fascination in itself.
The subject comes up through the film of the same name, which wife and I went see yesterday afternoon.
The connection comes from the captain who is an important part in the development of the character of Wilbur Wilberforce and the progress of the anti-slavery movement in Britain.
How historically accurate is the film? From my knowledge of the time (relatively limited) I would say that the major players are there, and that they are well portrayed by the various actors. Be sure that Cumberpatch in his role as Pitt the Younger presents a compelling portrayal of the young Turk in his prime and his death. Grffudd as Wilberforce has a large part to fill; which he does with honesty but no great distinction.
The tale of the shipboard party that was diverted (intentionally) alongside the slaver that was in dock was a story that I knew. Such a shame that the ship concerned seemed to move magically among the tightly packed docks until a sternward sequence that showed - quite clearly - the propellor wash under the rudder. The version as I heard it had the ship being towed around (as was the practice of the times) by two gigs. Again, as I heard the story, those two (oar-powered) boats were manned by men landed from the slave-ship.
I enjoyed the film. It is a great story of the power of politics. It is one of the great stories of the victory of humanity over subjugation and exploitation.
Very recommended...
The subject comes up through the film of the same name, which wife and I went see yesterday afternoon.
The connection comes from the captain who is an important part in the development of the character of Wilbur Wilberforce and the progress of the anti-slavery movement in Britain.
How historically accurate is the film? From my knowledge of the time (relatively limited) I would say that the major players are there, and that they are well portrayed by the various actors. Be sure that Cumberpatch in his role as Pitt the Younger presents a compelling portrayal of the young Turk in his prime and his death. Grffudd as Wilberforce has a large part to fill; which he does with honesty but no great distinction.
The tale of the shipboard party that was diverted (intentionally) alongside the slaver that was in dock was a story that I knew. Such a shame that the ship concerned seemed to move magically among the tightly packed docks until a sternward sequence that showed - quite clearly - the propellor wash under the rudder. The version as I heard it had the ship being towed around (as was the practice of the times) by two gigs. Again, as I heard the story, those two (oar-powered) boats were manned by men landed from the slave-ship.
I enjoyed the film. It is a great story of the power of politics. It is one of the great stories of the victory of humanity over subjugation and exploitation.
Very recommended...
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