PIFF Report: Part 9
Our report from the 34th Portland International Film Festival continues.
Black Bread (Pa Negre)
Spain / Catalan / 35mm (1.85:1) / 108min / Directed by Agustí Villaronga
Agustí Villaronga’s somewhat stodgy Black Bread is a coming-of age story/murder mystery set in post-civil war Spain. The film focuses on Andreu (Francesc Colomer), a young boy whose father, Farriol (Roger Casamajor), must go into hiding after being suspected of murder by the fascist government. Andreu’s weary mother (Nora Navas) concerns herself with his safety and education while fighting the charges against her husband. The film is fraught with class and political struggles, not-so-startling revelations, typical whodunit conventions, and the nighttime rustlings of local superstition. Unfortunately for Villaronga, he took one too many pages from Guillermo Del Toro’s aesthetic playbook, which draws unwanted comparisons to superior and far more palpable films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. He even poached Pan’s Labyrinth’s villain (Sergi López). If nothing else, the strong central performances keep the film from being completely devoid of interest.
Passione
United States & Italy / Italian & English / HDV (1.85:1) / 95min / Directed by John Turturro
John Turturro’s Passione is an unconventional documentary that takes a snapshot of the vitality and cultural significance of Neapolitan music. The film is a collection of musical sequences interspersed with segments of Turturro walking around Naples like a hip Rick Steves. (A kind of low-budget Neapolitan Fantasia, if you will.) Turturro is obviously passionate about the music and people of Naples, but . . . oh, how I loathed this film.
Don’t get me wrong; the music, with all its amorous aching and cheeky contradictions, is wonderful. And Turturro assembled some tremendously talented singers and musicians to perform these numbers. (Some of the singers have voices that could make your soul weep, while others could be used to end a hostage crisis.) No, my issue is not with the music, but with Turturro’s defusing vision of the music. The man has absolutely no eye for musical cinema. Some songs are filmed like any standard live performance. They’re a little visually flat, but at least they feel authentic. Others, however, are crafted like horrid 80s music videos, complete with hokey transitions and awkward choreography. Passione didn’t need to be Stanley Donen—but it shouldn’t be quite so easy to imagine the film being roasted by talking heads on VH1.
The Human Resources Manager (Shlichuto Shel Hamemune Al Mashabei Enosh)
Israel / Hebrew, English & Romanian / 16mm (1.85:1) / 103min / Directed by Eran Riklis
For his follow-up to Lemon Tree, Eran Riklis directed an adaptation of the novel by Abraham B. Jehoshua. The Human Resources Manager, at times, feels emotionally canned, but its central story is one of kindness and empathy. The film rises above mere schmaltz with its mildly satirical undertones and astute performances.
Mark Ivanir plays an unnamed human resources manager at a large Jerusalem bakery whose marriage is ruined by a job he now resents. Quitting smoking is his only real accomplishment of the last three months. On his way out of the office one evening, the HRM receives a fax about a Romanian employee named Yulia who had been killed in a suicide bombing a week earlier. A reporter discovered that Yulia was still receiving paychecks after her death and feigns fury over the company allowing her body to go unidentified for over a week. After the reporter threatens to print a damning story about the company’s “lack of humanity,” the HRM is appointed by his boss to run damage control. He begrudgingly agrees to accompany Yulia’s body back to her native Romania, sign the papers and get home as soon as possible. However, what begins as an inconvenience to an apathetic man soon becomes a cathartic journey to bring an unknown woman to her final resting place. If only people would stop smoking in front of him.
I don’t believe Black Bread has stateside distribution yet, but it’s mainstream enough to warrant at least a DVD release. It seems Passione is also without distribution. I can see it debuting on PBS. You know, right after Rick Steves’ Europe. Eran Riklis’s last two films made it to DVD, so I’m assuming The Human Resources Manager will get a release later in the year.
