The Son: In the eyes of a forgiving father

Dardenne brothers (Jean-Pierre and Luc) are French-Belgian film directors who have come to limelight through a series of films that are unique in style and content. Their focus is to portray the problematic in society and bring about a healing of sorts. To this effect, they have directed several films, the protagonists of which are generally delinquents. However, Dardenne brothers do not miss to give a positive outlook at the end of each film. Not to forget, their films are popular as much for their content as style.

Dardenne Brothers

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Le Fils or The Son is one such sensitive film. It touches us for its simplicity. The film deals mostly with two characters. One, Francis Thorion is a delinquent. He has just come out of the jail, serving a sentence of 5 years for killing a child. He is now put under a professional carpenter Olivier as an apprentice. The irony is that it is Olivier’s son that Francis had killed. The film develops grimly, with no usual pleasantries being exchanged between the two, even as Olivier knows that Francis has killed his son. It is only when Francis gets to know that it is Olivier’s son that he had killed, that the film picks up pace, literally.

The beauty of the film is that it has very few distractions. In fact, there are very few dialogues as well. The hand-held camera that follows the characters is like a hound of heaven. The medium and close up shots ruling the roost throughout the film are so all-pervading that they can get on your nerves at times, unless you reconcile with the style of the directors. However, what touches, as usual, is the positive outlook of the film. Both the characters of Oliveir and Francis add substance to the film’s orientation.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

The Past: Struggle to pass over

In his recent French film The Past (2013), Academy award winning Iranian director Asghar Faradhi, carefully constructs a world of conflicted characters and fragmented relationships. Reminiscent of the Oscar award winning A Separation, this movie delves into the lives of a soon-to-be-divorced couple and explores the ripples created by their estrangement.

In the film, a French woman, Marie (Berenice Bejo) and an Iranian man, Ahmed (Ali Mosaffa), have been separated for four years.  The impetus to finalise their divorce occurs when Marie starts a new relationship with an Arab man, Samir (Tahar Rahim). While the relationship between Marie and Ahmad shows the flickering sparks of being an old married couple who have grown apart, the relatively nascent romance between Marie and Samir is tenuous and fraught with uncertainty. 

The strained dynamic between these three individuals is compounded by the fact that Samir is married and his wife is comatose. Furthermore, Marie’s daughters from a previous marriage (preceding her marriage to Ahmed) and Samir’s son are caught in the fray, struggling to grapple with the choices of their parents.  As the characters in the film negotiate their present realities, they are paralysed by their own pasts.

Faradhi peels off the layers of every character to expose the fears and truths that lie at their core. The characters in the film are inextricably bound to each other and their seemingly simple acts prove to have catastrophic consequences.  The director skilfully offers the audience a vantage point from which to explore these individuals and their revelations.

The French-Argentine actress Berenice Bejo (who gained renown for her role in The Artist) displays her versatility as the distraught and melancholic Marie. Ali Mosaffa’s character Ahmed is eager for resolution and evokes sympathy, becoming the perfect foil to Bejo. Elyes Aguis, who plays Samir’s young son Faoud, also delivers a heart-wrenching and noteworthy performance.

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Farhadi is a masterful storyteller with a flair for showcasing the nuances of human sentiments. What differentiates Faradhi’s film from the works of his directorial predecessors of the Iranian New Wave like Majidi or Kirostami, is that he extracts his protagonist (Ahmed) from the Iranian homeland. The movie unfolds in a quaintly French setting but maintains Iran as a motif. Farhadi creates a world where he explores the ideas of love, loss, remorse, tragedy and hope. His camera work, like that of Jon-Luc Godard, is unobtrusive. His portrayal of characters, like the films of Jon Renoir, is deeply humanist.

Subtle symbolism punctuates the movie. An ongoing renovation takes place in Marie’s home throughout the film, symbolic of the repairs that are due in her own personal life. In another scene, glass chandeliers jolt precariously in the back seat as Marie and Samir drive their car, representing the fragility of their relationship. Lastly, as Samir visits his wife in the hospital, her life hangs in the balance, as does the future of all the relationships between the various characters in the film.

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The Past fortifies Farhadi’s position as a ground-breaking film-maker with a definitive perspective on the human condition. It is Iran’s entry to the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Whether or not it earns Farhadi his second Oscar award, it remains a testament to his directorial prowess.   

- Parinitha Shinde

Amour: True meaning of love!

Amour means love in several languages. This is a French film. The love that this film deals with is the love of an old man for his wife who is also of almost his age. She is incapacitated by a stroke due to the shock of a robbery taking place in the house. The man Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) promises his wife Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) that he would not put her in the hospital as she is afraid of doctors. Instead, he looks after her delicately at home. However, things are not as simple as he thinks they would be. She deteriorates day after day. Worse, she begins to get more and more hysteric. He is painfully inadequate in dealing with such a miserable situation. But he puts up with all that, because he loves his wife so deeply. The end also looks more as a consequence of his love than anything else.

Director: Michael Haneke

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Amour is the official film selected from Austria for this year’s Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category and is a front runner to win the award. The narration is melancholic and the mood looks very depressing. But, each scene is delicately woven to portray what true love means and what its burdens and consequences are. True love is full of passion at one level; it is also full of pains at another. This seems to be the message the film tries to put across.

The film has very little embellishments except the fine performances by the lead characters, especially Emmanuelle Riva. She is one of the strong contenders to win the best actress award. The camera acts more as an observer than recorder of scenes, because each moment seems so realistic. Finally, one cannot help but realise after watching this film that, it is one thing to grow old gracefully, but quite different to grow old together!

- Melwyn Pinto SJ