Author: Kate Larkindale

NZIFF Review: ‘To The Wonder’

Posted by | Aug 20, 2013 |

I saw this film less than 12 hours after coming out of Michel Gondry’s frustratingly shallow Mood Indigo and the parallels between the two films are obvious. Both deal, albeit in different ways, with the death of love. In Malick’s film we’re treated to some gorgeous visuals as we follow a couple from the first throes of love in Paris, back to the mundane world of rural Oklahoma where the relationship falters when the differences between their two worlds become to much to overcome. She goes back to France with her daughter, leaving him to hook up with an old lover, only to let that relationship die when his French lover returns. They marry, but nothing is right from the start and it isn’t long before the relationship withers and dies again, despite both parties desperately trying to reconnect and bring back the passion that infused their early days. Meanwhile, a Catholic priest faces a crisis of faith and tries to find his god amongst the poorest and most downtrodden in society. His was the only character I really felt anything for. As a displaced person, walking through empty rooms and through his overly-lit, new church, his loneliness is palpable. Malick doesn’t provide a plot for his characters. We see isolated moments and events, often without dialogue, or with the dialogue obscured behind the lush, orchestral score. The landscapes in which the characters live...

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NZIFF Review: ‘Mood Indigo’

Posted by | Aug 16, 2013 |

Michel Gondry is one of the most visually interesting filmmakers working today, because he doesn’t rely on computers to build his special effects. Here, in a futuristic Paris that looks retro, Gondry adapts the whimsical Boris Vian novel, Froth on the Daydream to the big screen as a stylistic feast of imagery. Colin is a handsome, wealthy man who lives with only a servant – until his best friend falls in love, and he decides he needs to as well. He meets Chloe and the rest of the film traces the path of their romance from beginning to end. The film’s tone and visual style follow the trajectory of the romance too, with the early scenes as light and frothy as falling in love for the first time can feel. When Chloe becomes ill, and Colin is forced to spend every penny he has on treatment for her, the tone darkens and Colin’s apartment begins shrinking and dimming into blackness. The final scenes are mostly without dialogue and shot in black and white to reflect a world that has lost all its colour and shine, completing the cycle of a relationship, of a life. This may not sound cheerful, and it’s not. But the joy from the early part of the film trickles through the sadness at the end to remind us that it’s the happy moments that give...

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NZIFF Review: ‘La Jaula de Oro’

Posted by | Aug 14, 2013 |

While most road movies involve bonding between the characters and a certain sentimentality, this hard-hitting film takes a different tack. We are given no real introduction to the protagonists, just see them preparing to leave their Guatemalan village. First up is Sara who cuts off her hair and binds her breasts to pass as a boy. Then Juan, handsome and swaggering, violence seething just beneath the surface. He picks up Samuel, the final member of the trio, in a rubbish dump. There is no discussion between these three as to where they are going or why. It soon becomes clear that they are running away and that their goal is Los Angeles. But it’s a long journey and leaping aboard a moving train is not as easy as it looks. Even once they manage this feat, the journey is not to be straightforward or easy. Along the way they pick up Chauk, an Indian kid who speaks a Mayan language none of the others can understand. Juan initially pushes Chauk away, but Sara recognises something in him and keeps drawing him back into the group. Which ends up being a good thing because Chauk is resourceful, smart and loyal. As they travel across the miles, the foursome contend with corrupt cops and a band of kidnappers before they even reach the border. Once there, the crossing is dangerous, with...

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