Love the underlying theme in European films

K.S. Sivakumaran

The European Cinema is till alive in spite of the dominance of Hollywood making inroads into the nascent film industry in such countries like France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, UK, Sweden, Belgium, and Slovakia . An array of films from the European continent was shown at the recently concluded European Film festival in Colombo.

One would have liked to see East European films from Poland, Hungary and Russia, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Portugal and Greece in particular. Nevertheless Lankan audiences who have a developed understanding of what a good or aesthetic cinema is would have

enjoyed seeing some of the films shown. Not all the films were of artistic presentation and a few were a combo of documentary and feature film making. What I would call ‘docu-films’ are the films by - the well-known French filmmaker Agne’s Varda (The Gleaners and I), the Belgian Joachim Lafosse (What makes you Happy), the Frenchman Phillipe Ramos ( Captain Acheb- a film version of Hermann Melville’s Moby Dick), and Britain’s Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi (Sisters in law). They were interesting in presenting social issues but were lacking in continuity as a proper feature film with which we are familiar.

The film ‘What Makes You Happy’ for instance is a depiction of an agonizing film director in making a film. It is a peep into the making of a film. Gathering of waste material and productively using it is what the director underpins in the film ‘The Gleaners and I.’ Set in Cameroon ‘Sisters in Law’ makes you feel nauseating when you see the condition of illiterate and uneducated people molested and ill treated by equally ignorant people who wouldn’t know what is legal and what is not. I thought the film ‘Captain

Acheb’ could have been imaginatively recreated even though the cinematography was stunning.

Fatih Akin’s film ‘The Edge of Heaven’ set in Istanbul with émigré characters is a human interest film which I enjoyed for its script and clever craftsmanship in film making. One switches from the setting in Germany to Turkey which was fascinating.

Yet another enjoyable film set in Germany and Japan was ‘Cherry Blossoms’. The film had many ironies and surprises. Director was Doris Dorrie.

I also loved to see Silvio Soldini’s film ‘Agata and the Storm’. The actress Licia Maglietta was a classic Italian beauty to watch as she also played her role very well.

Ben Sombogart’s Dutch film ‘Twin Sisters’ is a moving film set during the World War II. Here too ironies are plenty and the sufferings of ordinary Germans during the Nazi regime. Juxtaposition of simultaneous happenings in Germany and Netherlands is noticeable. The sophistication of the bourgeois in the 1940s in Netherlands and the dire rural setting in Germany were counterpoints. I liked this film too.

Finally the most enjoyable film was the Swedish film ‘The Guy in the grave Next door’ directed by Kjell Sundvali. It was amusing and entertaining plus a depiction of ever changing human relationship.

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