Prawdziwa podróż do mrocznego podziemia – piekła, jakie ludzie wyrządzają sobie nawzajem.
Nie polecam na zakończenie słonecznego niedzielnego popołudnia.
10 minutowa scena gwałtu, podróż od makabrycznej teraźniejszości do idyllycznej przeszłości, a tego, co pomiędzy już nie można zmienić, spirala sama się nakręca.
Naprawdę ostrzegam, to nie jest przyjemne kino.
Susanne Bier is a Danish director and ‘Things we lost in the fire’ is her ‘first American language film’ (as I learned on the official website of the movie http://www.thingswelostinthefire.com/). This is the second film of hers I have seen, the first one being ‘Brothers’ – a Danish film about the profound impact of the war in Afghanistan on the life of an average soldier and his family.
This time we are confronted with another family tragedy – an almost perfect husband and father is killed when he defends a woman beaten up by her husband. We follow the scenes from the funeral, intertwined with past events referring to his friendship with the puzzling figure of Jerry. Benicio del Toro is probably the best possible match for this role – a man with the past: an attorney who became a junkie and lost control over his life.
Basically it’s quite predictable what follows. The bad guy and the devastated wife get closer to each other and we could presume they stay together after he completes his therapy and comes to terms with his life. So the story is not at all original and not that compelling maybe. But there are things you could appreciate about the film. And this concerns certainly the light and the way the film was shot – with numerous zooms of eyes and mimics of the characters, which apparently can express more than words. I liked the way the film showed some idiosyncracies we all have – Berry suffers from sleep disturbances and can only falls asleep when she is hugged in an embryonic position (that’s the name I coined..) and when her husband pulls delicately her ear lobe. Jerry will replace him eventually…
So the film is nothing special but like my friend said ’slow and easy to follow’. One could ask however if that is a merit of a film.
And I could not resist the temptation to get a picture of Benicio del Toro. His face is just cut out to play the role of a traumatised man (like in ‘21 grams’ by Inarritu!). Take a look:
What a stunning coincidence! Once I learned my lecture on Popper was cancelled, I headed for Mediothek to watch a film about Levinas. But instead I succumbed to the temptation to have a look at Semesterapparat (which is a place where you find the best available features) to find “Once”, which I heard was worth giving it a go. So I did. And it really was worth it!
The Irish feature is actually a musical, I was quite surprise to learn that 60% of the whole film are songs. The next remarkable thing about the film is that it was made for only 130.000 euros. And I was somehow moved to recognise the scenery so well – Grafton Street, St.Stephen’s Green, Drumcondra – the action taking place in Dublin, where I myself spent two long months.
The film really managed to capture the atmosphere of this city. Crowds of turists, the Irish women – all dressed the same way (according to new trends in Penneys), all blond, long-haired with slightly to heavy makeup. And the poor immigrants who do all those jobs to keep their heads above the water, proud they can earn more than their friends back at home. Of course these are sweeping statements but true to a large extent. I really know what that means and how hard it is to have this, let’s be honest, a bit lower position in the society.
But more important is like I said the form of the film. A couple of simple melodies with simple songs that somehow are very touching and stay with you longer than you would expect. Here is one of them:
All in all I really don’t wonder why ‘Once’ got such enthusiastic reviews and worldwide recognition, it definitely is a positive simple story that all of us think could happen us as well. Once…
