Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 18, July 26, 1976.

Films

Films

Image of a man wearing a tuxedo

The following films from the festival will soon be seen again in local cinemas.

Stavisky

Alain Resnais' Stavisky is a glittering recreation of 1930's French high society. If it invites comparison with The Great Gats by and its ilk, it is only to show what tripe the latter really are, and never loses sight of its penetrating and often very saddening serious moral and political themes.

Fear Eats the Soul

Rainer Werner Fass binder's Fear Eats the Soul is the powerful story of a young Moroccan worker and an ageing cleaning lady who fall in love. The reactions of their peers are at times a little too satirically chicle to be as biting as they should, and a couple of scenes edge towards a rather crass sentimentality. But they do no more than edge, and the moving performances of both leads make this a film well worth seeing.

The Seduction of Mimi

Lina Wertmuller's The Seduction of Mimi is a delightful romping comedy about a young worker struggling to stay alive in a world controlled by a Mafia family who all have three moles on their right cheek. It borrows unabashedly from a host of Italian and American film convent ions, but only really manages to struggle along in their wake. The slapstick is a bit simple, the mock Fellini is artifically contrived, the theme a bit repetitious. However, it occasionally comes into its own with considerable flair and is always very amusing.

I.F. Stone's Weekly

A documentary of the "maniacle zest and idiot zeal" of one of the world's greatest journalists. Jerry Bruck Jr did an excellent job of capturing the extremely efficient genius of I.F. Stone. It was also a useful political documentary on the absolutely ridiculous or at most, the complete dishonesty of American politics and journalism. The documentary was even true to I .F. Stone's own pessamistic outlook when it ends with Stone saying there is little hope of any change when young poor people rebel in order to gain more material wealth and yet who are joined by young rich people who are denouncing the wealth. By ending on this note the documentary effectively kills any value the film may have had in attacking the status-quo. Not half the film Mil house was

Fantastic Planet

An animated science fiction feature set on a planet where humanoids are unwilling pets of giant creatures called Draags. The story is very simple and idealistic with the humans and Draags eventually reconciling their differences and living happily ever after in what I thought was a rather syrupy and naive ending.

The animation technique is unusual and life on the planet is depicted with great ingenuity.

Director: Rene Laloux.

The Invitation

A fairly innocuous film about an office worker who invites his fellow workers to his mansion for an afternoon party to celebrate his new inheritance. The camera placidly watches the behaviour of the guests gradually degenerate as jealousy, frustration and hypocrisy take over amid their host's kind hearted and naive attempts to quell the bad feeling. Most of the humour is provided by the very superior butler hired specially for the occasion. Director: Claude Goretta.

The Middle of the World

Switzerland 1974

This was an attempt by Alain Tanner to draw a parallell between international politics and interpersonal relationships. He seemed to be trying to awaken us to the real nature of human endeavour on all levels by making clear the falseness and self-deception that haunts so many of our love affairs. Then by way of news broadcasts and little sections of narration he shows that the same dishonest relations exist between countries.

In my opinion the film was a failure as it was too ambiguous.

VUWSA Films Coming : Memorial Theatre. Tu 27 July 2.15

Straw Dogs

"Heavan and Earth are ruthless and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs: the Sage is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs." - Lao Tzu.

A mathmatician/writer and his wife atempt to live a peaceful and quiet life just outside a small country village miles from nowhere. But they get mixed up with the violent affairs of the little town and as a result Hoffman ends of defending his cottage almost single-handedly against a bunch of the most ruthless wildmen seen on the screen.

"I can think of no other film which screws violence up into so tight a knot of terror that one begins to feel...." Sight and Sound.

If sheer technical skill was all that was required in a film then this film would certainly be one of the best. That is not to say, however, that there is little more to it than pure spectacle. In fact it is a serious film of considerable social value.

Celebration at Big Sur W 28 July 2.15

A film of the rock festival at Big Sur in 1969 after Woodstock. It is similar to Woodstock and it attempts to put the viewer into the live audience - to live a something like "being there" experience. The film not only records brilliant performances from many greats such as Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joan Baez and John Sebastian, but also includes interviews with them.

Waterloo Th 29 July 2.15

It is to the credit of this film that it deals with the historical event itself, and not the trivia which surrounds it, like so many other historical films do. It accurately or as accurately as an encylopedia does, accounts the events of 1815.

Rod Steiger plays Napolean and Christopher Plummer plays Wellington. They are helped by a list of other movie greats such as Orson Welles and Jack Hawkins.

It is as entertaining as it is educational. For example there are many funny moments when the caricature personalities make fools of themselves.