Casa de Lava

The erstwhile Portugese director, Pedro Costa's second feature length film Casa de Lava is released by Second Run DVD today.

Marianna (Ines de Medeiros) is a nurse who escorts a comatose Leao (Isaach de Bankole) from Portugal to his homeland of the Cape Verde Islands.  When they arrive, she is practically dumped by the helicopter pilots who leave her to return to an undisclosed war.  They eventually get moved to a hospital, but no-one will claim Leao stating that no-one knows him.  

While Leao lays asleep Marianna wanders around the volcanic island, slowly becoming mesmerised by the people and the sights.  Most notably she revels at an all-night party, yet moments of fear remain from the presence of rabid dogs.

This film is still expressive of a director finding his feet and attempting to make his voice heard above the crowd.  Like most European auteurs, Costa has an observant camera that allows action to take place in the frame and not pursuing a reaction although his films do sometimes harness documentary sensibilities in their overall outcome.

Costa was abandoned himself as a child, so the yearning for a nuclear family is apparent in the traits of his characters, who he uses as versions of himself - they are searching for a home or a settled place.  Marianna is a lost soul, lost in the sense that she is far from home and in a strange land; Leao is also lost in the sense that he has not been found by anyone who can claim him, and so both are of no fixed abode or location - Costa would return to these traits of loneliness and alienation in his masterpiece Colassal Youth (2006)

Marianna is another of the strong female characters who are independent in spirit and conviction.  As a nurse, she knows nothing about the people she treats, the week on the Casa de Lava allows her eyes to be opened.  Her independent spirit is helped by having her wear this red vibrant dress signifying both fire and warmth - these little touches by Costa marks him out as a keen observer of people, much like his fellow countryman Manuel de Oliveria.

There are moments of melodrama you would anticipate in European auteur cinema, yet this is not over-reached due to the placing of Marianna/Leao in a strange land.  By stumbling into a place of purgatory, people are most scared of dying and the unknown hence the tentative treatment towards strangers yet the natives are seemingly accepting of their lot in life.

The use of landscape and environment is so richly established it becomes a character in its own right as well as a notable narrative device; the human characters act like they do because of the location and vice versa.

Casa de Lava (1994) is released on DVD by Second Run Films today, Monday 24th September and on the disc there are many features; a new HD master of the film especially for this release; an interview with the director discussing the film; an interview with cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel and a new essay by renowned film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

www.secondrundvd.com

Arirang

Kim Ki-duk returns with his award winning film Arirang, the first film he has made in three years.  Kim was quite a prolific filmmaker from South Korea until a tragic event occured on the set of his 2008 film Dream, in which an actor nearly died whilst filming an attempted suicide.  The near death experience of that actor, coupled with the responsibility Kim felt towards the actor, led to a creative breakdown of the director married with a crippling writer's block.

Kim attempts to use the power of film to harness his creative juices again, by looking back upon his career whilst in his self-imposed exile and solitude.

Kim was born in 1960 and studied art in Paris before returning to Korea to begin his career as a screenwriter, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile in 1996.  Since then he has been lauded by critics and developed a following on the art house circuit thanks to films such as Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003) and 3-Iron (2004).

Whilst the documentary form is manipulated into a form of confessional and Alan Bennett-esque talking head format as Kim Ki-duk talks to himself, the product nevertheless serves as a great document about the commitment and focus auteurs have; it may resemble much of a rambling man yearning for calmer days when he had more freedom and less responsibility, yet sometimes a tragedy has to befall you for you to find an answer to yourself.

The film may not be as beautiful as some of his fictional work, and this is harsh to the extreme of showing us a person who is fraught with self-doubt; yet we cannot deny the extent to which the director chooses to show us himself in this naked and honest persona as he battles his inner demons.

Critics may say that such self-indulgent filmmaking should be reserved for biographys and not grace the silver screen; yet we should be thankful that such a strong Korean cinematic voice as his - along with compartriots Park Chan-wok, Oldboy and Bong Joon-ho, The Host and Mother - that was nearly lost has at least chosen to get behind a camera (and in front of it) again, however slowly it may appear, he deserves not to be rushed.

Arirang is released on Friday 8th June by Terracota Distribution and is on limited release appearing at the ICA in London for a week run - www.ica.org.uk

www.terracotadistribution.com
@ICALondon

Absent

Marco Berger is one of those rare beings, a voice in queer cinema, who wants to be heard upon the conscientious and stereotypical musings of homosexual cinema.

His latest work, Absent, inverts the teacher and pupil dynamic of seduction.  In this case it is the pupil, Martin (Javier de Pietro) acts upon or teases the reactions of his swimming teacher, Sebastian (Carlos Echevarria).

Martin is much like a femme fatale, a person who will not stop at anything until he has crossed the unholy line - and once that line is crossed there is not turning back.  As the twists and turns occur, so the expectation of desire and lust is lost, as regret and loneliness takes hold.  Martin can still grow into a man, whilst for Sebastian a career and reputation can lay in tatters.

The real-time first half of the film is shot quite brilliantly, using the naturalism and testosterone filled air of a male changing room to good effect; however, the effect is somewhat lost once the changing room is left for the outside world, so to speak.

Whilst the professional Echevarria delivers a soulful performance as the emotionally fraught teacher, the newcomer de Pietro, shows himself to be a novice and does not quite convince on the basis of this performance.

However, there is a smoothness about Tomas Perez Silva's cinematography - yet for me the film was not as definely told as a German counterpart, Sasha another piece of queer cinema which dealt with the proceedings with a bit more tongue in cheek and had an all around better resolution.

Yet, Berger (who also edited and wrote the screenplay) remains a distinct Argentinian auteur to watch out for in the coming years and works.

Absent is released by Network Releasing on DVD and is out now.

Liverpool

I remember when I went to the London Film Festival in 2009, and there was a lot of talk about a small film from Argentina called Liverpool.  I remember being a little struck by the title seeing as it is the hometown of my mother and wanting to see it, yet being unable to.

I always remember the title and now thanks to Second Run DVD, (who specialise in auteur cinema from third world countries and directors who fail to get home entertainment release) Lisandro Alonso's fourth feature film is gaining a DVD release in the UK having failed to garner a distributor in this country.

In the same vein of his previous work, it follows a lonely soul on a journey of discovery.  In this case, a sailor, Farrel, leaves his ship and begins a lengthy journey to wintry Tierra del Fuego’s interior, to an isolated village and family that he hasn’t seen in years. We gradually piece together his relationship with the people and community he finds there on a journey that looks familiar to him. From the opening sequences on Farrel’s ship, to the spectacular harshness of his destination, Alonso is meticulous in mapping the sights and sounds of the landscape and Farrel’s personal journey into the past.

Alonso's influences of film are far reaching from that of fellow Argentinian and South American luminaries to that of the mythology of American cinema and the cowboy in the Westerns. 

Alonso can be noted as nothing but courageous in his narrative storytelling, in a film where you are asked to invest a lot of time with one character Alonso does this amazingly brash about turn in the story as our focus must switch to someone else.  As the previous character exits, it reminded me of Alan Ladd as Shane in the synonymous film who walks off into the sunset, seemingly never to return - the mythology and convention of the western can be seen in the small town, the wanderer as a lonesome figure and the journey as a rite of passage and possible redemption (as with John Wayne in The Searchers).

Whilst it is a trying experience at times due to the facet of slow cinema in which this piece of cinema can sit next to the work Bela Tarr; it is nonetheless a rewarding watch should you stick with it.

The DVD is presented in a brand new director-approved anamorphic digital transfer and also includes Untitled (Letter for Serra) / Sin título (Carta para Serra) – a new short film by
Lisandro Alonso, available for the first time anywhere on DVD.

The work of Lisandro Alonso is part of Slow Cinema Weekend as part of the AV Festival in Newcastle, Liverpool is screening on Sunday 11th March

Liverpool is released on DVD from Second Run for £12.99 and is 82 minutes long with Spanish subtitles