Ahoy, squirts! Quint here, having just finished FUNERAL HOME, the second film of the QT Fest Horror night. The movie had some great moments and an even greater ugly old woman camel-toe moment. Here are some more Toronto reviews, including the Orson Welles doco BRUNNEN (THE WELL). Enjoy!
Hello Harry,
Claudius here reporting from the TIFF! This is my first contribution to your site, mainly because this is first time I have anything of import to report. Rest assured that I have been a regular reader of your site and appreciate the public service it provides.
First, a brief introduction. I would consider my tastes to be slightly geekish on the scale of movie taste, but not overly so. The closest approximation would be to describe my tastes as eclectic. I certainly do not consider myself an expert on movies or movie making, but I love films and, as the saying goes, I know what I like. This would include (amongst others) Star Wars (Original Series), Citizen Kane, LOTR, The Thin Man, Heavenly Creatures, and Legend of Drunken Master.
Patience gentle reader, there is a point to all this. My view on film reviews is that to know if it is relevant you must understand the particular tastes of the reviewer. Hopefully the above accomplishes this.
So, without further ado, let us begin with two movies today: Water and The Well.
Water by Deepa Mehta
The story follows the life of Chuyia (played beautifully by Sarala), a seven year old widow in 1938 India set against the backdrop of Gandhi’s Revolution. As prescribed by 2,000 year old Hindu religious texts, widows must live a life of self-denial. Chuyia is therefore sent by her family to a “Widows House” to spend the remainder of her days. Chuyia, as you can well imagine of a precocious seven year old child, is not at all keen about this.
The little girl’s arrival in the house serves as a disruptive force on the widows inhabiting inside. This is where the heart of the movie truly resides, in the actions and feelings of the women trapped in a situation where Indian societal mores dictate that they are to be considered unclean and are to be shunned. Intertwined within the plot is a love story between one of the widows, Kalyani (Lisa Ray) and Narayana (John Abraham) a member of the Indian gentry and follower of Gandhi.
Deepa Mehta is making in this film a clear statement about the conditions under which some widows live in India today. However, this movie does not fall in the trap of being a proselytization against Hinduism. Rather, it demonstrates through the actions of the characters and the conditions under which they live, the inhumanity and foolishness of such a practice and the hypocrisy of a society that permits this state of affairs to exist.
To its credit, this movie also shows the internal struggle within Indian society over the unfairness of this practice and in particular how Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy shaped this struggle.
The cinematography is superb. This is a visually stunning movie with water (as you would expect) used to great effect throughout to emphasize emotional high points, almost as part of the musical score. Speaking of which, the musical score is quite moving and performs the task required quite well.
This is a “must-see” movie. It can be hard to watch at times because of the sorrows these women must endure, but there is no doubt that the emotional journey is worth while.
The Well (Brunnen) by Kristian Petri
The Well is a documentary about Orson Wells’s extensive time spent in Spain and his choice of a burial site in a well on a property belonging to the famous bull fighter Antonio Ordonez. The film includes never before seen footage of home movies made by Wells in Spain as well as his unfinished Don Quixote (a story that has eluded more than one film maker).
Kristian Petri interviews interesting characters who knew Wells during this relatively unexplored part of his life including author Peter Viertel and director Jess Franco. It shows a fascinating portrait of Orson Wells, at times quite contradictory, which one would expect from a man that seems to have been ruled by his passions.
This documentary has, at least from my admittedly limited experience, a unique way of presenting the material by interspersing it with shots of the Spanish countryside filmed from the point of view of the filmmaker as he travels to important sites during Wells stay in Spain. Although this is a novel way of showing movement, it unfortunately makes portions of the movie quite dull.
I understand that the filmmaker was trying to convey his own personal journey when exploring his subject, but it just didn’t work for me. I found that it distracted from the more interesting enigma of Orson Wells.
Kristian Petri should be credited with the thoroughness with which he has researched and documented his subject matter. The Well is a film that has gems of Orson Wells but that requires going through parts that had this movie been on DVD, I would have skipped, which is how I would recommend you see this movie.
Hopefully everyone finds these reviews useful. Faithfully yours,
Claudius
