Reel foreign
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Film Academy Award — The Counterfeiters won last year, and Revanche is currently nominated. The complex narrative weaves through guilt, retaliation and redemption in unexpected ways, but the movie has some disturbing turns and is recommended for mature audiences.
Jane Campion, one of three women ever nominated for a Best Director Oscar, wrote and directed the series’ next film. Bright Star, which screens on Feb. 28 and March 2, is based on the final years of John Keats’ life, anchored by his tragic assignation with Fanny Brawne. Rich costumes and vivid imagery add to the attraction of this early 19th century period piece.
In Goodbye Solo, director Ramin Bahrani examines the relationship between a Senegalese taxi driver and his elderly passenger. If Roger Ebert could convince you to see just one film in the 2010 series, this would be his choice. Bahrani’s previous films include Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, but it was Goodbye Solo that prompted Ebert to hail the filmmaker as “t he new great American director.” He continues in effusive praise, saying, “Although this is an independent film in its heart and soul, it is a classical film in its style. It is as pure as something by John Ford.” He adds that the movie signals the end of “snarky indie films.” His review ends with a remarkable claim: “Wherever you live, when this film opens, it will be the best film in town.” Solo opens in Springfield on March 14. (See our interview with Bahrani on page 14).
Moviegoers searching for another recognizable face will enjoy Summer Hours, a French movie starring Juliette Binoche, familiar to American audiences for her work in The English Patient, Chocolat, and Dan in Real Life. The film, which focuses on the lives of three siblings trying to dispose of their dead mother’s possessions, has swept the early awards season with kudos from The Boston Society of Film Critics, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The New York Film Critics Circle, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association. The DC Area Film Critics Association, the lone dissenter, gave its award to the Spanish film Sin Nombre.
North Face, the true story of two climbers attempting to conquer a peak in the Bernese Alps, closes the festival on April 11 and 13.
Zach Baliva is a filmmaker living in Springfield.
