FILM | Reviews
5 REASONS . . .
TO GO TO THE ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL To celebrate its 20th edition, the Ital- ian Film Festival’s co-director Richard Mowe picks his personal top 5 from this year’s line-up.
The Commander and the Stork 'This is by director Silvio Soldini, who has been to the festival a couple of times in the past. He also made Bread and Tulips, which was very popular when we showed it. We’ve been very supportive of him. It’s a magic realist film about the state of the Italian nation.' Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 18 Apr; GFT, Glas- gow, Fri 19 Apr.
Every Blessed Day 'Another one by a director, Paolo Virzi, who’s been very important to the festival over the years. It’s a delightful romantic comedy, it was a big hit in Italy, and it helped establish its leading actor, Luca Marinelli, as one of Italy’s rising stars.' DCA, Dundee, Fri 19 Apr.
The War of the Volcanoes 'This documentary looks at the relationship be- tween Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman. It’s a fascinating documentary, and although it’s quite short it sets the scene very well for the screenings we’re doing of Rossellini’s Stromboli, which it’s showing with, and Fear and Journey to Italy.' GFT, Glasgow, Wed 17 Apr.
Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy 'The Italian Film Festival wouldn’t be complete without a political thriller. We’re describing it as something complex, like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It begins with the bombing of the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura in Milan on 12 De- cember 1969 and spins away from there.' Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 19 Apr; GFT, Glas- gow, Sat 20 Apr.
S.B.: I Knew Him Well 'This is a documentary about Silvio Berlusconi. It doesn’t take the easy option of satirising him – but then Berlusconi is a satire in his own right. Co-directors Giacomo Durzi and Giovanni Fasanella have come to grips with him. They have uncovered all kinds of fascinating archive footage. It really does give an insight into him and shows that he’s not quite just this stupid figure of fun he’s often portrayed as.' GFT, Glasgow, Thu 18 Apr; Filmhouse, Edin- burgh, Sat 20 Apr. (Miles Fielder)
■ Italian Film Festival, various venues across Scotland, until 25 Apr.
62 THE LIST 18 Apr–16 May 2013
ACTION OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (15) 120min ●●●●●
Will anyone welcome Kim Jong-un’s flirtation with nuclear apocalypse? Well, Gerard Butler might, as the new Dear Leader has provided the mother of PR gifts to this piece of action-disaster cinematic imperialism. Butler plays Mike Banning, head of the president’s security detail who is exiled to the treasury after the accidental death of the First Lady (Ashley Judd) until a team of Korean paramilitary guerrillas storm the White House, take the president (Aaron Eckhart) hostage in a bunker and execute the vice-president live on air.
Thus Butler is left as America’s one-man army and armed with gun, knife and clichéd comebacks, he looms through the now gutted corridors of power. There, he engages a very large number of Korean henchmen in a swaggering dance of death, all the while intent on freeing the president – and all that is principled in the world – from the jaws of radical terror.
It would be easy to crinkle your nose at such a film; it’s derivative, it’s cheesy, it’s fantastically
unconvincing, its patriotism unabashed, its politics reductive, its morals binary. Yet Olympus Has Fallen is also imbued with a strange, nostalgic seduction; a throwback actor in a throwback movie appealing to a throwback time when we accepted good guys and bad guys for what they always were: myths of a dominant culture. (Tom Seymour) ■ On general release now.
DRAMA IN THE FOG (12A) 128min ●●●●●
‘I have done nothing wrong,’ insists railway worker Sushenya (Vladimir Svirski), when two local partisans Burov (Vlad Abashin) and Voitik (Sergei Kolesov) call on his modest family home. We’re in 1942 occupied Belarus, and a group of saboteurs has been executed in the local square by the German authorities. Given that Sushenya was rounded up with the victims, but then released by the officer-in-command (Vlad Ivanov), it’s assumed that he must have informed on his colleagues. Burov and Voitik lead him at night into the depths of the surrounding forest, preparing to take revenge . . . Written and directed by Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy), this restrained yet rigorous drama avoids
conventional battlefield sequences and instead recalls Jean-Pierre Melville’s sublime Resistance epic Army of Shadows in the way it explores the harrowing moral choices experienced by individuals in wartime. In order for Sushenya to retain his humanity, will he be forced to die? For if everyone in his community believes he is a traitor, how can he continue to live? Given its lack of music, sparse dialogue and lengthy takes, the stately In the Fog is an undeniably
austere war film. Yet thanks to the richness and precision of its compositions (courtesy of the impressive Romanian cinematographer Oleg Mutu), and the carefully layered sound design, it’s a richly atmospheric work. Extended flashback sequences fill in the background stories of the three lead characters and the performances possess a powerful authenticity. And the poignancy of the fog- bound finale should linger in your mind. (Tom Dawson) ■ Limited release from Fri 26 Apr.