17th MoFo Hall of Fame

Incendies (2010) *spoilers*

I had not heard of this before. I kinda knew it was about something in the middle east, but that's all I knew. I haven't read any of the reviews so don't know what you guys thought of it. I image most will like it, as it's a well made film.

Wow! the opening sequence with the boys getting their heads shaved, that was powerfully artistic. Especially that intense stare into the camera by the boy...Damn that was impressive film making.

When we get to the next scene, the reading of the will, I kinda thought the film might be boring. But then we get into the story of the daughter and her search for her missing brother in the middle east and I was hooked! I was even more hooked when the film flashes back to the early 1970s and we see the mother, who's now a young pregnant woman caught in the middle of the Lebanese civil war. Her story was very engaging and I was riveted to the screen. Both actresses were fascinating to watch and really conveyed their emotions so well, I wish the entire film had been about them.

I'd rate the first hour of the film a solid 5/5 and at this point I thought Incendies might very well be my number 1 choice for this HoF.

But then the second half started and I lost some interest. I didn't like the actor who played the son and thought his story wasn't all that interesting. Neither was the older man from Montreal that went along with him to Lebanon. This last hour took the film down a notch and I did feel like I was watching a movie as opposed to the first hour where I felt like I was watching real people in a real place.

I'm not fond of the ending. Just now, I did a little reading and seen this was based on a play that was based on real events. I don't know how much of this really happened?

But if this was real and the mother revealed to her children that their father was their older brother who raped his own mother in jail, then I'd say she has screwed those kids up for life by telling them that! And the mother claimed to love her first born son, but by telling him that horrible truth in a letter...that's the worse thing she could do to him. If that all really happened then I say it wasn't love in the mother's heart, but vengeance.

Not sure how the ending makes me feel about the movie? If it's based on true events, then it belongs in the movie. However, if the ending was embellished, it's then way too much and takes away from the more heartfelt personal journey that we see in the first hour. Still...this will figure higher on my list, as overall I was impressed.

Amélie is an incredibly beautiful film that effectively uses its cinematography to create a world that exists somewhere between fantasy and reality. This dream-like setting is the perfect complement to its cast of strange characters who each have their own unusual quirk. Colour is used wonderfully throughout the film, and combined with interesting camerawork, it creates an incredibly stylish and unique aesthetic that makes every frame of Amélie a pleasure to look at.

Unfortunately many of the elements that make the film stand out just didn't work for me. There are no normal characters in the film, since everyone we are introduced to is weird in one way or another. There needed to be at least one person grounded in reality to act as a contrast Amélie and her acquaintances. I didn't like Amélie herself either, and while she wasn't exactly mugging for the camera or physically winking at the audience, I couldn't help but roll my eyes any time the frame centred on her face for that supposedly charming smile.

I wasn't at all engaged with the story, and found the whole thing to be rather unsubstantial. The music didn't help either, since I'm just not a fan of that style and some of the instruments used. The accordion was the main offender, since I just do not like the sound it produces. That's not something I hold against the film though; it's just a petty grievance. The film didn't resonate with me, but I can understand why a lot of people do really love it. And even though I didn't exactly enjoy watching it again, I do appreciate the visuals, and commend it for its technical aspects.

Let the Right One In features an amazing use of ambient sound. Sometimes the difference in volume became a bit of an issue for me, but the overall design was excellent. Even though I typically prefer the look of films that use hard light and stark contrasts, the diffused light in this film is just as effective at setting the atmosphere, and works incredibly well. The reserved camerawork, with its slow, even movements and stationary viewpoints was another aspect that I greatly appreciated, adding to the list of technical elements that the film executes wonderfully.

Violence is handled extremely well throughout the film as well. It's not grotesque, because there aren't any close-ups of the actual attacks - just screams, flailing, and blood. It skips the gory details without becoming too tame. That said, I would've preferred the film to focus more on some of the horror elements, since I don't find the childhood romance plot to be particularly engaging. If not that, then having Eli's identity issues play a more prominent role would've sufficed as well, since it's really glossed over. I don't mean more shocking nude imagery, but rather more ambiguous or subtle dialogue throughout the film instead.

Oskar is not a particularly likeable character at the start, since he's just one step away from murdering his classmates. I don't think that being bullied is a justifiable excuse for his violent fantasies, but he did grow on me over the course of the film. His performance was great, as were the physical and vocal performances of the actors who played Eli. The dubbing of Eli's lines was very well done. The voice really suited the character, it sounded natural, and the lip syncing was nearly perfect. I even rewatched a few scenes without the subtitles and paid close attention to Lina Leandersson's mouth because I was thoroughly impressed with how well incorporated it was.