Gael Garcia Bernal in ‘No’No, the final film in Pablo Larrain’s trilogy of life in Chiule under Pinochet, appropriately enough takes on the end of Pinochet’s reign via the 1988 plebiscite vote that he arranged to “legitimize” his regime to the world. Chileans assumed it was a sham, a public display of democracy with Pinochet stacking the deck with a weighted election: vote “Yes” and maintain a known stability rather than the great unknown of civil rights. But to give the election the illusion of a level playing field, the government gave the opposition 15 minutes a night to make its case. Gael Garcia Bernal’s modern advertising phenom René Saavedra, the film’s ostensible hero, is a composite of numerous real-life figures, but his challenge was the same: he had to convince the opposition not to run a litany of Pinochet’s crimes. What they did with the time utterly befuddled the government spin doctors: they sold the “No” campaign and the idea of democratic as a product, packaged with humor, color, idealized images, and the feel-good attitude of a soft-drink commercial.
Larrain shot his dramatization of the real-life campaign on U-matic video (the ¾ inch broadcast tape standard of the eighties) which gives his film a strange, washed out quality, like a manufactured time capsule of an era. And while it’s nowhere as dark as his previous films, an atmosphere of intimidation hangs over the characters. These shadows of fear really communicate how and why Pinochet was convinced that he would win the vote regardless of the opposition, and it makes their triumph all the more satisfying. René is no idealist, he’s a pragmatist, and his appropriation of corporate advertising techniques to sell a revolution and depose a dictator has a delicious sting of irony. It was one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the last Academy Awards. Guild 45.
Christian Mungiu’s Beyond The Hills continues his exploration of the shadows of the past over Romania in the 21st century, but this time he steps sidewasy from the post-Soviet critiques of Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, and his own previous films to take on religious superstition. In a secluded Orthodox monastery, a former member of the community returns from the city to take the girl she loves out this cloistered bubble and into the world. She’s a troubled girl, to be sure, and becomes so unmanageable by the (almost entirely female) population of this retreat that she’s branded possessed and put to an exorcism. This isn’t the spiritual mumbo-jumbo of the recent rash of American possession movies, which play on demonic possession as an unfathomable horror. The “good intentions” of the flock are taken as serious concern for a suffering young woman rather than the hysterical old-world response to a medical / psychological problem. Or are they? There’s plenty to wonder about in this community, where all the women call the spiritual leader “Papa” and their commitment to the faith is as much comfort in a community where at least they can count on a place to sleep and regular meals (it’s a tough world out there). But Mungiu never suggests there’s anything untoward in the holy father’s behavior, at least until he agrees to an exorcism that he doesn’t really believe in. At that point, conviction and responsibility get a lot more complicated, and judgment isn’t so simple. Seven Gables.
Openings
Up From Poppy Hill, an animated film directed by Goro Miyazaki and produced and co-scripted by his father, animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, opens at the Egyptian in an English-language edition. I review it for Seattle Weekly.
Also opening this week: G.I. Joe: Retaliation, with Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis signing on to the franchise (multiple theaters; Soren Anderson checks their weapons at the door for Seattle Times); The Host, the screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s first novel after the Twilight saga, directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Saroise Ronan (multiple theaters); Tyler Perry’s Temptation, which opens without advance critics screenings (multiple theaters); and The Silence, a German drama about child predators (Varsity).
Documentaries opening this week: The Revolutionary Optimists at SIFF Film Center (with the directors in attendance at the Apr 4 show), Sushi: The Global Catch at Grand Illusion, and Dave Grohl’s Sound City also at Grand Illusion.
Visit the film review pages at The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger for more releases.
Repertory / Revival
“Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut: French New Wave Masters,” the spring film series at the Seattle Art Museum, begins on Thursday, April 4 with Godard’s Breathless, the cinematic blast across the bow of international cinema that announced the revolution. It’s the first of nine films in the series, and it screens on 35mm. Series tickets are still available, and individual admissions are also often available on evening of show. Complete schedule and showtimes here.
“Epic De Niro” is a week-long series of Robert De Niro films that kicks off Friday, March 29 with Goodfellas and, as the title suggests, presents some epic visions, including The Godfather Part II, Once Upon a Time in America (229 minute cut), Heat, and the Deer Hunter. At The Uptown.
Little Fugitive, the proto-American indie drama from directors Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin and Ray Ashley in 1953, is revived at Northwest Film Forum for a week-long run to celebrate its 60th anniversary. 35mm print, of course, and actor Rich Andrusco will be at the Friday and Saturday showings.
For more alternative screenings, read Moira Macdonald’s At A Theater Near You roundup at The Seattle Times.
Schedules and Showtimes
View complete screening schedules through IMDb, MSN, Yahoo, or Fandango, pick the interface of your choice.
You can check your favorite independent cinemas, neighborhood theaters and multiplexes here.
Independent theaters:
SIFF Cinema
Northwest Film Forum
Grand Illusion
Majestic Bay Theatres
Cinerama
Central Cinema
The Big Picture
Seattle Art Museum
Multiplexes and Chains
Sundance Cinema
Cinebarre
Landmark Theatres (Egyptian, Guild 45, Harvard Exit, Varsity and others)
Regal Cinemas (Meridian 16, Thornton Place and others)
AMC Cinemas (Pacific Place, Oak Tree, Alderwood and others)
Kirland Park Place
Lincoln Square Cinemas
Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas