Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here, with my review of a collection of films that will hopefully be making their way to you very soon in select venues that play the non-blockbusters. Enjoy...
BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE
Let me see if I remember this correctly. There is a half human-half vampire 16-year-old named Saya running around Tokyo trying to kill vampires in the hopes they will point her in the director of the leader of all vampires, Onigen, who killed a bunch of people she knew and has haunted her dreams since she was a little girl. Somewhere along the line, Saya gets tangled up with an American high school girl whose father just happens to be a general on an American Air Force base. For those of you into Japanese anime, the title and story of BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE may sound familiar. I remember seeing the original animated version less than 10 years ago, and it was OK, I suppose, but hardly worth turning into a live-action feature. Apparently the people who made this film thought the same thing, since it looks like they spent almost no time or money putting together a halfway interesting horror-action movie.
Pretty much every drop of blood is CGI created, and it ends up looking like globules of oil or mercury rather than blood. If I've said it once, I've said it thousand times. CGI is not scary or gross, and dumping tons of fake blood into this movie doesn't mean much when 95 percent of it is computer generated. Zzzzzz. I guess I'm more curious why French director Chris Nahon (who did the decent Jet Li film KISS OF THE DRAGON) chose to make this film in English, while filling it with mostly Japanese characters. At least if it had been dubbed in English, I might have gotten some comic relief out of that, but instead we get characters clearly not speaking their first language, and perhaps not even understanding what they're saying much of the time.
BLOOD's bloated story and over-stylized look annoyed me from the first frame, and it only gets worse from there. Sure, Gianna Jun, who plays Saya, is cute and wields a sword like a sexy warrior, but once you get over that, the rest of the film is just plain dull and uninspired. Having the American girl character is particularly annoying because it's a clear plot to make American teens curious about this film (they'll get over it). But these are minor problems compared to the awful special effects, camera work, editing, writing and acting. Aside from those things, the film's a winner! But seriously, just because the film's token white girl (Allison Miller) looks remarkably like Kristen Stewart and the film has young, good-looking vampires in it doesn't mean you Twilight fans should start flocking to BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE. Please show at least a modicum of taste. Thank you.
IL DIVO
Winner of the Jury Prize at last year's Cannes Film Fesival, this Italian work is both a perfect companion film and a great counter-offering to GOMORRAH from earlier this year. For those who like a little more flash in their old-country organized crime movies, IL DIVO has got you covered... sort of. Certainly quirkier and dealing with a higher class of criminal than GOMORRAH, IL DIVO tells the story of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti (portrayed by award-winning actor Toni Servillo, who was also in GOMORRAH, coincidentally), whose sole purpose in live is to stay alive and stay in power as a member of the Christian Democrat party. He's like a shark that does nothing but swim and eat, only this shark is a little more scary. When he kills, you never see it coming because he never does the deed himself and somehow always manages to escape blame or criminal charges for his deeds.
The film makes it clear that, although Andreotti did sometimes have to cross paths with the Mafia, he wasn't a fan. Like all great villains, Andreotti viewed every terrible thing he did (all of which were followed by a quick trip to the confessional) as maintaining and supporting a greater good. And lest you think this is a story about a man who lived decades ago, think again. At age 90, Andreotti is very much alive after having served as minister of the interior, defense, foreign affairs and his current position of "Life Senator." As portrayed by Servillo (accurately, from what I hear), Andreotti is a soft-spoken man with bad posture, and an absolute understanding of human behavior. He managed to anticipate--sometimes encourage--a compatriot's deception and respond accordingly. While GOMORRAH addressed crime at its lowest levels in Italy, IL DIVO covers the upper echelons of political corruption with staggering camera work and freakish camera angles that seem more Wes Anderson than Francis Ford Coppola.
The film's final third focuses on the early 1990s as the Christian Democrats are finally brought down from power thanks to a series of investigations and a trial that tore the veil off Andreotti and his machine. The impact on the political system in Italy was so severe that many top-level officials committed suicide. And lest you think that crooked politicians on the level of Andreotti sit back laughing at the justice system during such trials, IL DIVO shows us that simply wasn't the case for him as he goes through the worst kind of anxiety as his life is rehashed and ripped apart for the media and the people to see. With so many characters to keep track of, director Paolo Sorrentino does an effective job keeping the important figures and events straight for us with title cards identifying each character, their nickname (there are some great ones), and their position either in government or in Andreotti's organization. He doesn't quite take it to the level of a Guy Ritchie gangster drama, but it certainly kept me from getting confused.
The only thing I would have liked to see in IL DIVO is maybe a bit more about how Andreotti's actions (good and bad) impacted the common people he was always claiming to help. We see a few scenes of him meeting with peasants and handing out small gifts and cash for bills, but I was left wondering what the general public thought of him. Journalists never missed an opportunity to verbally abuse him at press conferences, and sometimes they paid the price. The glimpses into Andreotti's past, passions and quirks are endlessly fascinating thanks to a flawless performance by Servillo, and the film is a beautifully executed drama that makes politics and the power hierarchy of Italy extremely interesting. Seek this one out.
IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN
I'll admit right off the bat that I don't know that much about classical music or opera, but the two composers I know the best are Mozart and Beethoven, both of whom have been the subjects of two fascinating documentaries by director Phil Grabsky. In 2006, he released IN SEARCH OF MOZART, an extensive and thought-provoking work that wisely featured long stretches of Mozart's music surrounded by analysis by musicians and conductors, who placed the works in context. On its surface, the film was a biography, but the musical selections and dissection of the music made it a wonderful journey through Mozart's life that went beyond the eccentricities and took us into the emotional heart of his works. It seems only proper that Grabsky has not turned his attention to one of Mozart's most popular admirers, Ludwig van Beethoven with the doc IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN, which uses a similar structure to the Mozart movie but with somehow even more emotional punch. Or perhaps it just feels that way because the subject himself was such a creature of feeling and sensitivity.
Once again loading his film with loads of gorgeous (and often familiar) musical performances (55, according to the press notes) and excellent interviews with Beethoven disciples, Grabsky's latest work, which makes its American premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center for a four-week run, puts all of the composer's into a context and perspective that quite simply makes the casual classical music listener a lot more invested in this lovely material. I didn't know who a single one of the experts who converse about Beethoven were, but Grabsky has assembled quite the knowledgeable bunch. If names like Emanuel Ax, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi and Sir Roger Norrington mean any thing to you, you'll be in heaven during IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN.
I think even more than the Mozart film, IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN maps out Beethoven's extensive and extended life, loves and works, and pulls them all together in a chronology that helps each part of Beethoven's life make sense of the other part. He had a habit of falling in love with women who were out of his social class, he was often in ill health, he was a deeply spiritual man, and he didn't become fully deaf until much later in his life than I was aware. The film also explains why it may have taken Vienna and the world a little longer to appreciate Beethoven's genius in light of all of Mozart's accomplishment shortly before Ludwig became more popular. It seems obvious in a biography to do such things, but you'd be surprised how many films about artists don't. I wouldn't be surprised if PBS snatched up this film and aired it soon. It's a marvelous work and a worthy successor to Grabsky's previous effort.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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