French screen giants Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert shine in "Valley of Love."
For Madison’s film lovers, the waiting is almost over. The 2016 Wisconsin Film Festival kicks off April 14 with a sold-out screening of Hunt for the Wilderpeople at the Barrymore, followed by an opening night party at the Harmony Bar.
This year’s offerings cover a wide range of subjects, from a look back at ’70s sitcoms to a despair-filled documentary about mining in Mongolia. Some popular films, such as the highly anticipated The Smart Studios Story, sold out within hours, but there’s still plenty to see, especially if you’re willing to take a chance on a lesser-known genre or filmmaker. Also, it’s fun to pretend you live in a big city and stand in line to see if you can score last-minute tickets. You’d be surprised.
The following is a sampling of films that captured the attention of Isthmus critics. See 2016.wifilmfest.org for a full listing.
Cosmos
Cinematheque, April 15 (11:15 am) Sundance, April 19 (8:30 pm)
Cosmos is the final film of Polish auteur Andrzej Żuławski, who died in February at age 25. The 2015 drama is described as a “metaphysical noir thriller,” but it’s not so much thrilling as mostly incomprehensible. Żuławski adapts the 1965 novel by Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, following an aspiring novelist Witold (Jonathan Genet) and the aloof Fuchs (Johan Libéreau), who travel to a hotel owned and operated by a family of energetic, faux-intellectual wackos.
Witold has an unhealthy fascination with signs he thinks share a pattern and could be meaningful: a hanged sparrow, a chicken and a block of wood, the maid’s deformed mouth and a mysterious stain on the ceiling. Cosmos, like Żuławski’s previous work, isn’t for everyone. But some may appreciate the film’s comedic outlandishness, even if comprehension doesn’t come easily.
— Colton Dunham
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Barrymore Theatre, April 15 (4:30 pm) Sundance, April 18 (2:45 pm)
Given today’s splintered media environment and the demise of the multi-camera sitcom, it’s hard to imagine an old-school broadcast comedy pervading the national consciousness the way the top-rated All in the Family did in the 1970s. Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You tells the story of the show’s creator, who all but defined TV comedy in the Nixon era with socially conscious shows like Maude and Good Times. In particular, All in the Family, Lear’s magnum opus, captured the tenor of those troubled political times with its searing, compassionate portrayal of a working-class reactionary and his liberal son-in-law.
The documentary prominently features interviews with Lear, remarkably spry in his 90s, as well as commentary from media figures including Rob Reiner, Russell Simmons and George Clooney. The film is best when it focuses on Lear’s remarkable 1970s output. I’m especially taken by vintage backstage footage from Good Times, whose stars didn’t always approve of the way the show portrayed African Americans. Unfortunately, the filmmakers clutter an otherwise focused film with flashy visual effects and a conceit involving a child actor.
— Kenneth Burns
Valley of Love
Union South Marquee, April 16 (11:30 am) Sundance, April 20 (12:30 pm)
The creeping and creepy Valley of Love threatens to be another dull European story about aloof people philosophizing in pretty landscapes. It has all the ingredients: two French screen giants (Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu), reminders of mortality, big questions, weary answers. Like its Death Valley setting, this story of parents attempting to honor their dead son’s last wishes appears at first to be dry and desolate before it reveals itself to be vibrant and full of life.
Also full of life: our aged stars. It is a rare pleasure watching actors who have shared decades of history together playing people with decades of history. Depardieu loses his broad Gallic bombast, while Huppert shakes off her coquettishness. Their casual comfort helps create a very real bond between the two characters, and their reactions are so entwined and natural that they appear to share a single performance.
They make great company while we watch to see if something is going to happen. I assure you, it does — and that something is worth the wait.
— Craig Johnson
Behemoth
Cinematheque, April 16 (1:30 pm)
Behemoth is a despairing, soul-crushing film. Which is not to say that it is bad or without moments of beauty.
Written and directed by Liang Zhao, the movie documents the extraction of coal and iron from Mongolia, its processing into steel and, finally, its final destination: one of China’s many vacant “ghost cities” erected to cope with the country’s ongoing shift to urbanization.
Banned in China, the film doesn’t chronicle this in typical documentary style. We see images of mountains being blown up and heavy machinery pulverizing the remains, while flocks of sheep wander at the edge of the oblivion. Yet these stunning images are overshadowed by the people carrying out the work. We see them walking through coal tunnels, shoveling dirt, driving trucks, stirring molten iron and picking up trash. We also see them slurping food, washing grime from their faces, sleeping, picking at calluses on their hands and staring at the camera, always in silence.
Instead of talking to his subjects, Liang offers poetic meditations on what is happening. I was initially annoyed by the approach, but then Liang shows them dying in hospital beds, and you realize what they would say is almost beside the point: Their stories don’t matter because (like the mountains) their lives have been crushed and there’s no redemption or understanding in bearing witness.
— Joe Tarr
Chevalier
Cinematheque, April 16 (3:30 pm) Sundance, April 17 (11 am)
It’s easy to imagine Chevalier as an American movie. This tale of six men whose vacation turns into an absurd, gentlemanly contest of “Who Is the Best in General?” could star Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, maybe a Wilson brother or two. Ben Stiller would direct. It would be fun, money-making and inconsequential. By the end of the movie, fists would fly, blood would flow and penises would be measured.
Not to say this Greek comedy lacks fights, blood and penises, but how it arrives at these obvious plot points is entirely unexpected. Writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari is remarkably attuned to how and why men compete, unraveling a strand of militaristic honor in our DNA that makes the threat of losing terrifying. To underscore this, she makes the humor deadpan to the point of solemnity.
The masculine competitive impulse is a pretty easy mark. Still, it never feels like Tsangari is mocking her subjects. They are emotionally grounded and dignified and never become cartoonish in their desperation to win this game with no rules, making Chevalier feel legitimately important in a way few comedies are.
— Craig Johnson
In the Shadow of Women
Sundance, April 16 (5:15 pm) & April 17 (6:30 pm)
Veteran French filmmaker Philippe Garrel directed and co-wrote this atmospheric miniature about a filmmaking wife and husband, Manon (Clotilde Courau) and Pierre (Stanislas Merhar). They live in attractive bohemian poverty as they work on their documentary about an aged member of the French Resistance. One day at a film archive Pierre meets Elisabeth (Lena Paugam), an intern who is much younger than he is, and they begin a dalliance. Elisabeth is jealous of Manon and spies on her — though it’s purely by accident that Elisabeth learns Manon is also carrying on an affair.
In the Shadow of Women is a brief feature, just 73 minutes. Even so, it unfolds slowly. Merhar, in particular, does a lot of moody staring into space. But the Parisian locations and black-and-white cinematography are lovely, and there are big questions to contemplate in the silences: about women and men, about the nature of deception, and maybe most of all about cinema itself. The milieu of the film is filmmaking, and the voiceover narration — an artistic technique unique to cinema, as Garrel notes in the press kit — never lets you forget you’re watching a movie.
— Kenneth Burns
The Club
Sundance, April 16 (6:30 pm) & April 18 (3:45 pm)
The Club is a dark, sordid story of pedophile priests sent to a Catholic retreat home nestled against the Chilean sea. It differs from this year’s Oscar winner, Spotlight, which depicted the investigation into the Catholic church. Past sins are visited upon the priests in the form of a homeless former victim. In graphic detail, he screams out the details of his abuse by one priest, a newcomer to the house. Without betraying the shocking thing that happens next, I will say that the consequences wreak havoc on the house, where every man holds secrets, even from himself.
The film is hard to watch, but the pallid, somber images are arrestingly beautiful. The blue of the sea at dusk spills into every frame like its own colorless ghost. Spotlight left audiences feeling redeemed because the journalists “got” the bad guys, but The Club offers no such redemption. The ending is both unsettling and indicative of future abuse. Ultimately, we see these characters for who they are, broken men who use their relationship with God to make their depraved acts appear holy.
— Laura Jones
Unlocking the Cage
Sundance, April 16 (9 pm) Barrymore Theatre, April 17 (12:30 pm)
This new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and his partner Chris Hegedus tells the story of the Nonhuman Rights Project’s fight to legally render chimps and other animals of higher intelligence “human” under the law. Because chimps aren’t considered human, they fall under the category of “things,” and can be imprisoned in backyard zoos and in research labs for their entire lives.
Anyone familiar with the landmark Citizens United decision that rendered corporations as legal persons might be stumped by the uphill battle faced by the NHP. Unlocking does a solid job of shedding light on the hypocrisy, while offering fascinating glimpses into the legal system and how it works. But the documentary is far from a dry, detached explanation of the ins and outs of habeas corpus. Pennebaker and Hegedus show chimps and apes exhibiting great intelligence and “human” emotions of empathy, grief and sadness. These moments are incredibly affecting, as is the Project’s lead lawyer and resident softie, Steven Wise, who works tirelessly on behalf of the animals. Thankfully, images of animal cruelty are kept to a minimum. Humanity, in all its varied complexities, is the issue of the day.
— Laura Jones
The Witness
Sundance, April 18 (6 pm) & April 19 (1:30 pm)
The crime and its aftermath told us so many disturbing truths — about human indifference, about the callousness of urban dwellers in general and New Yorkers in particular. In 1964, a young woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered on a Queens sidewalk, and in nearby apartments, 38 witnesses saw or heard what happened and did nothing. So journalists reported at the time, and the story has endured as a troubling parable of everything that’s wrong with everything.
The only problem with these disturbing truths, the documentary The Witness argues, is that they are false. Directed by James D. Solomon, The Witness follows William Genovese, Kitty’s brother, as he tries to piece together what really happened. He interviews people who witnessed the crime, as well as journalists and a lawyer who helped defend Winston Moseley, Kitty Genovese’s murderer who died in prison March 28. What emerges is another troubling parable, this one about our tendency not to let facts get in the way of a good story. We also learn about fascinating aspects of Genovese’s life, seen movingly in vintage home movies. And we see that half a century later, her death remains a source of anguish for her family.
— Kenneth Burns
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words
Sundance, April 20 (6 pm) & April 21 (3:15 pm)
Ingrid Bergman In Her Own Words delivers what its title promises: the great Swedish actress’ life story told largely in her own words. Stig Björkman’s movie was made in close collaboration with Bergman’s four children, who provide additional stories and access to a lifetime’s worth of diaries and home movies.
If you already know Bergman’s story — early success, quick Hollywood stardom, titanic scandal, European exile, glorious return — you will not learn much here. There is no mystery solved, thesis statement proven, revelation exposed. It merely ticks off the main points in her rootless life with personal details tossed in about various co-stars, directors, friends and lovers. Inspiring as it is to hear anyone say they only regret the things they haven’t done, things not done don’t make for a compelling story. Even her beautiful, well-adjusted children, now middle-aged, have nothing to complain about.
Still, you could do worse than hanging out with the talented, charming and beautiful Bergman for two hours.
— Craig Johnson
The Academy of Muses
Sundance, April 20 (6:45 pm) & April 21 (1 pm)
Hey ladies, ever have a professor in college who thought he had more to teach you than just the subject of the class? The Academy of Muses follows one such professor in quasi-documentary format (philology professor Raffaele Pinto is played, for instance, by philology professor Raffaele Pinto). The prof spouts opaque theories about poetry and its inspirations, but his subtext is crystal clear: He views his female students as muses, not poets in their own right. It’s a lecture he delivers in the classroom, in his car and eventually in a hotel room to his student lovers.
The opening act of Academy is pedantic and dry; you may be tempted to drop out of class. But the film evolves into a beautiful and tender critique of words, gender and the uses of love. Spanish filmmaker José Luis Guerin brilliantly bends the line between fiction and documentary, clearly aware of the subtle power dynamics in classical academia. Guerin frames his “actors” (all of whom play versions of themselves) through windows so that, as an audience, we’re always conscious of peering into the frame. Guerin is the real muse here. You’ll walk away inspired by his poetic film.
— Laura Jones
