Classical Period (2018)

The main reason I watched Classical Period (2018) was that its running time was 60 minutes and it was available to stream on Mubi. After watching Classical Period, I grew to appreciate it more thinking about it, particularly after reading a few interviews with the director-writer Ted Fendt, a film projectionist who self-funds his movies, which are also all shot on 16mm film. Classical Period came about because Fendt knew Calvin Engime (he starred in one of Fendt’s previous films and is a friend) and that he could talk at length about particular topics that fascinated him and that he was studying at university. The film really observes Cal and others – including Evelyn (Evelyn Emile) and Sam (Sam Ritterman) – who are grad school students in Philadelphia, and are all studying Dante’s Inferno amongst other subjects. The experience of the film is like attending an honours-level tutorial where you haven’t done any reading; it can be a bit obscure and over your head (well, it was for me). Fendt films these discussions without any judgement and allows the viewers to interpret what they take away from it; these aren’t nerds who are either punishing caricatures nor are they validated as intellectual heroes. They feel real, and are not intended to be quirky indie movie clichés. Humour develops through the discussions, mainly because there are a few echoes of the same scene: someone asks a direct question and the answer given is an extended lecture, maybe more than was intended to be received. It’s essentially plotless, following the characters walking through areas of Philadelphia, or assembled in rooms to discuss classical literature, the translations and the interpretations. Awkwardness remains in human interaction despite the learned pretensions and meanings can be found across the scenes, building to a point where one of the characters can’t help but briefly puncture all of the quoting and interpretations of text with their own sense of exhaustion and lack of confidence, which felt very real to me while remaining funny and observant. I liked and admired Classical Period, maybe more than loved it, but it is clear that Fendt has a good eye for composition and the use of 16mm film looks great. I look forward to seeing more of Fendt’s micro-budget indie films as he is definitely following his own artistic impulse to capture things directly. Recommended.

A Week’s Vacation (1980)

Sunday afternoon dread when the working week beckons. This is a feeling that A Week’s Vacation (1980; aka A Week Of Holidays aka Une semaine de vacances) is about, yet it also works as a soothing balm for such an emotion. The second film I’ve watched by French director Bertrand Tavernier, A Week’s Vacation is about a school teacher named Laurence (Nathalie Baye). We meet her in the opening watching an old woman alone in an apartment across from her building, her working class boyfriend Pierre (Gerard Lanvin) who sells houses, makes some offensive jokes, and they head off to work together. In a great single take, we watch Laurence bolt out the car and run off, crying in the rain, telling her partner that she’ll see a doctor. We follow Laurence as she takes a break and has a week of holidays; her boyfriend and her mother who lives in the countryside both make references to the privilege of being able to take a break. Yet Laurence is drained from teaching kids, dealing with the grind, and the larger changes from the government on how they teach. While this might sound like a prosaic, plotless movie, Tavernier keeps the pace moving, often pushing the camera in dollies or tracking shots, smash-cutting to flashbacks and occasionally dropping a French rock song when a character puts on a record. In the mix is a parent of a troublesome student, a charming bar owner Mancheron (Michel Galabru), and even an appearance from the main character of other Tavernier movie I’ve seen, Phillipe Noiret from The Clockmaker Of St Paul. Throughout, there are observations, discussions and contemplations on how to be happy, how to help others and how to fundamentally listen – not just to others but yourself. I thought this was wonderful. On one hand, it depicts a malaise I’d assume would be specific to teachers, yet also feels relatable to any late 20s/early 30s life crisis. Streaming until the end of June on Criterion Channel. Recommended.

Red Beard (1965)

Akira Kurosawa’s Red Beard (1965; Akahige) might intimidate with its three hour length. But this drama, the last film Kurosawa would make in black and white, and with regular collaborator and star Toshiro Mifune, is a beautiful, moving experience. Set in the 19th century in Koshikawa, it is basically a medical drama focused on the young, brash doctor Dr. Noboru Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama) who was expecting a high position as the personal physician to the Shogunate. Yet he has been assigned to a rural clinic presided over by Dr Niide (Mifune) nick named “Red Beard” due to the colour of his facial hair. The lengthy running time allows us to see the slow journey and transformation of Yasumoto from his opening arrogance (refusing to wear the doctor’s uniform) to gradually understanding the importance of giving care and consideration to those who are poor and dying. Structurally the film unfolds like a series of short stories as different patients enter the picture and open up about their lives, and hovering at the edges is the wise, gruff, self-critical Red Beard in a great, charismatic performance by Mifune. The use of framing and lighting is masterful in the way the relationships between characters are maintained spatially, or the emotion of a scene is heightened by how it is lit (for example, a young, orphaned girl, Oyoto, who is taken into Yasumoto’s care and whose haunted, sickly face is lit by a single beam of light). Masaru Sato’s score often sounds very collegial, like what you’d hear at a graduation ceremony, which at its centre, this film is. I remember a Roger Ebert quote about what makes him cry at the movies is less about sad things occuring on screen and more watching humans do good things; this film has that quality and my tears welled up a few times at the open display of compassion and humanity. I was also surprised (and delighted) that even in a three hour drama about human compassion, Kurosawa includes a sequence with Mifune whomping a bunch of thugs in a village square. I really loved this movie and its overall effect. Recommended.

In My Blood It Runs (2019)

After being available to rent online, the documentary, In My Blood It Runs (2019) is being screened at some reopened cinemas across Australia in June. I was able to stream it on Kanopy (through UWA Library membership) but it will also be broadcast on ABC in July then available on iView. Directed by Maya Newell, but as she’s said in interviews and listed in the credits, it is a collaboration with the Arrernte community in Mparntwe / Alice Springs and a host of indigenous advisors; even the film’s focus, ten year old Dujuan, is given a camera and films moments himself. It’s an empathetic look at Dujuan who is a charismatic, thoughtful kid who is being raised to be a healer. Yet Dujuan also gets into trouble in school, running away from class at day or from home at night. We see how he is raised by his mother Megan and Nan Carol and by the community (predominately indigenous women) to know the Arrernte language and history, to have a good future and an understanding of his history. With the Four Corners expose of Don Dale youth prison in the background on the TV and radio, there is a concern with how the area is policed and the punitive system enforced, which is a constant danger to Dujuan. The film sees this system connected to education with the subject matter in class still tied to colonial ideas of Australian history and a need for Aboriginal history and language to be taught, which is shown in the ways Dujuan responds in the classroom. Beautifully shot and interlaced with montage footage at key moments, In My Blood It Runs is an insight into a life and a family community that is filled with compassion and love, even as they deal with the ongoing inequalities forced upon them by the Australian government. For more information (as well as educational resources), go to inmyblooditruns.com. Recommended.