Flick of the Day: Elefante Blanco / White Elephant

Argentine film-maker Pablo Trapero has over the years developed quite a knack for successfully marrying complex social issues in his native Argentina with excellent story telling  and an eye for dramatic flair. Over the years, we have reviewed a number of his films for The Daily Flick including El Bonaerense, an engaging look at police corruption and 2010's  thrilling Carancho. The latter film stars Ricardo Darin, perhaps the best and most definitely the busiest actor in South American cinema. Darin and Trapero are reunited again in today's flick of the day, White Elephant, set in the teeming slums of Buenos Aires.

In the Villa Virgin shanty-town of Buenos Aires lies a long incomplete hospital, an icon of broken government promises around which a vast slum has built up. In this melting pot of humanity toils the good priest, Julian, played by Ricardo Darin, Julian strives to complete a new social housing project to free the people from poverty while working with crusading social worker Luciana, played by the incomparable Martina Gusman, to help the local young people escape drug abuse. At the film's open, we are introduced to Julian looking ominously at a brain scan and before long he welcomes a new priest to his staff, the idealistic and conflicted Nicolas, played by Jeremie Renier. Nicolas has recently survived a vicious attack on the jungle mission where he was working. Together the three fight to try and make the lives of the slums residents a little bit better while interacting with a clerical hierarchy who wish to keep the area at arms length and an organised crime element involved in bloody internecine conflicts between the narrow streets of the favela.

At times this is bravura film-making from Trapero, we are immediately drawn into the life at the heart of this neighbourhood, the living and the dying. The film has an epic feel from the beginning as the excellent cinematography by Guillermo Nieto manages to both highlight the scale of the slum and its conflicts while also accentuating the narrow claustrophobic streets that criss cross it. While the work of Julian and his team is worthy, it would not make for enthralling cinema were it not for the fact that as the tensions mount in the favela over the lack of construction progress and a bitter bloody feud between two rival gangs, the faith and belief of Julian, Luciana and Nicolas is shaken if not shattered.    

How this conflict and testing of the character's beliefs plays out is the emotional heart of the film. Ultimately the question asked by Trapero is what is the cost for people who give everything to help people with less than them? This is an often dark film but it is never less than compelling. If the film has a flaw it is that its ending doesn't live up to what has come before. Yet despite this, there is much to enjoy here not least another fine turn from Ricardo Darin. There is enough talent evident in Trapero's work to make me want to see where he goes next because it will surely be something special.

Flick of the Day: Nine Queens / Nueve Reinas

Since I first started writing this blog, I have always made an effort to label the leading actors as a way of tracking old posts and films. It was a surprise then and perhaps a testament to the talent of the man when I noticed that today's flick of the day would be the third to contain the talents of Argentine actor Ricardo Darin, the previous films being the excellent The Secret in Their Eyes and the equally compelling Vulture. One of the biggest names in Argentine cinema, he is a superb talent has only begun to be appreciated over the last decade outside of his own country.

Nine Queens is the tale of two con artists who meet in a supposedly random fashion on the streets of modern day Buenos Aires. Marcos, played by Darin, is the older wiser head of the two with an eye for a quick buck wherever it can be had regardless of the effect on his relationships with friends and family. He is quick, sharp and charming when he needs to be. Juan, played by Gaston Pauls, is the earnest and naive younger man who needs to raise money to get his father out of prison. The pair meet in a petrol station one night when Juan is caught attempting a scam and Marcos manages to talk him out of it. He offers Juan the chance to work with him foe one day as his partner has split town. Juan is hesitant at first but eventually agrees. They set off into the busy streets of the city to hatch money making schemes as and when they present themselves. Their focus soon turns to a wealthy Spanish businessman who is staying at a nearby hotel and has a passion for collecting stamps. They plot to sell him fake copies of a rare German stamp much to the annoyance of Marcos's sister who as well as being an employee of the hotel has also fallen out with her brother when he attempted to rob her inheritance. A tense and entertaining crime drama, one begins to feel early on that the protagonists are attempting to con each other and that all is not as it seems but who is the true master con artists and who is the mark?

Ricardo Darin is excellent as the sleazy yet likeable Marcos, a man who survives and thrives on the strength of his own wits. He is the focus of the movie and carries it at times. His fellow compatriot Gaston Pauls also gives an entertaining as the supposedly naive young thief Juan. He is the perfect foil to Marcos, helping the old hand out of a few tight scrapes as the film heats up. 

Director Fabian Bielinsky makes the most of his tightly written script and allows the actors performances to flow. The story such as it is could not be accused of being too original and if you are the kind of movie goer with a penchant for seeing twist endings before they announce themselves then you will probably see this one coming a mile off. That said, the film moves along at a breezy base and there is enough humour to keep you entertained. While none of the characters involved are nice people, let us not forget they are all some form of con artist or scam artist, they are entertaining portrayals and it makes for an enjoyable ride.

Ricardo Darin's career has gone from strength to strength over the past decade and though the number of Argentine films which make it to release in European cinemas, even art house cinemas, is still low with talent like this on show the future is bright.

Flick of The Day: Carancho / Vulture

The recent Best Picture Oscar win for Michel Hazanavicius' critically lauded The Artist highlights the relative strength of cinema produced outside America at the moment. Increasingly over the last decade, I have been struck by how often in a given year the most challenging and entertaining pictures are those produced outside the mainstream Hollywood system. Not necessarily foreign language pictures,  just quality genre cinema made for au audience willing to think, cinema that doesn't feed me plot points like lines on a powerpoint presentation. The Lives of Others, A Prophet and The Secret in Their Eyes would stand out as some of the best work of the decade. Today's flick of the day, Carancho, is another fine film starring Ricardo Darin perhaps best known outside of Argentina for his work in The Secret in Their Eyes. Premièring at the Cannes festival in 2010, it is only now reaching Irish cinemas.

Carancho

The film opens by noting that car accidents have reached epidemic levels in Argentina and that as the number of accidents have risen so have the claims for damages. Ricardo Darin is Sosa, a disgraced former attorney who now makes his living by ambulance chasing and signing up victims for a shady operation called the foundation who pocket most of the record compensation and stiff the injured parties. While out one night working the scene of a fresh carnage, he meets a pretty young doctor named Lujan played by Martina Gusman. They form a bond amid the ups and downs of nigh time Buenos Aires perhaps driven by Lujan's dependency on prescription drugs.  Lujan soon finds out that it is no accident that Sosa is present at all of these accidents and that his is a far murkier world than expected with tragic consequences for both.

Directed by Pablo Trapero, who has previous success as Cannes with films such as 2002's El bonaerense, this is a suspenseful and dark look into the seamier side of life in modern Buenos Aires. Packed with emotional punch and surging with the raw energy of the streets, this is an excellent thriller. While not as good as some of Trapero's earlier work, it is still from the top draw. 

Ricardo Darin gives another assured performance as the conflicted Sosa. While not a bad man at heart, he is prepared to do what it takes to win back his license to practice law even if that means causing accidents for profit. That said, he is not unfeeling and his actions weight on him as the film goes on. Martina Gusman's Lujan offers him a respite from the squalor and the hope that perhaps they can both escape their current lives.

All in all, this is a worthy addition to the genre and a genuine insight into a side of Argentina that will be new to most. A fine script is given weight by some genuinely talented actors. Well worth a look.

Flick of The Day: The Secret in Their Eyes / El secreto de sus ojos

The foreign language Oscar is a funny old thing, it has often been a source of controversy be it in the unfair nature of the nomination process or some of the more outlandish winners down through the years. 2010 seemed at first to be another such year, when a largely unheralded Argentinian thriller beat out France's Un Prophet and Haneke's The White Ribbon, two films that had done huge business and critical acclaim on the Indie scene in Europe and the US. However, it is only on closer viewing that it becomes apparent what a gem of a movie, and today's flick of the day, The Secret in Their Eyes is.

The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)

The film opens with Ricardo Darin as Benjamin, a recently retired law clerk and investigator is struggling to write a novel based on a vicious rape and murder case from the mid 70's. He enlists the help of his old boss, the beautiful Irene played by Soledad Vilamil, who he has carried a flame for, for many years. She expresses reservations for reasons which will eventually come apparent. The film then moves in flashbacks between the present day and 1970's Argentina which is rife with corruption and and the excesses of a military junta. A woman is found raped and murdered while her husband was at work, and two immigrant workers have a confession beaten out of them. Benjamin teams up with his lush colleague Sandoval to find the real killer. Together they identify various subtle details which point toward a childhood friend called Gomez. However finding evidence to obtain a conviction is much harder to obtain, doubly so when the political forces controlling intervene. As the past merges with the present, and old secrets come to the fore, Benjamin finds the shocking conclusion at the heart of this tale while perhaps forcing him to confront the heartache he has repressed all these years.

Juan Jose Campanella has created a film of outstanding breadth with such attention to subtle detail that is surpasses anything in the thriller genre I've seen in recent years. At times alternately shocking, frightening or delightfully heartfelt on any number of levels, it is an enjoyable viewing experience. The use of alternating flashbacks with present day action is a tried and tested method and as the plot moves on it exposes the fact that this is Benjamin's memory of events and is often not complete. 

Pablo Sandoval: A guy can change anything. His face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion,his God. But there's one thing he can't change. He can't change his passion...

The central performances from Darin and Vilamal are measured and wonderfully realistic. They give the film a feeling of being true to life.  The setting of 1970's Argentina is an important one and central to understanding the film. Under the auspices of a military coup, a crackdown of all dissent was put in place and a fair trial became a thing of the past.

The film is not just a gripping tale well told, it is also a technical marvel. Campanella must now join the likes of Orson Welles in Touch of Evil for one of the most technically audacious shots of all time involving a packed football stadium and one continuous take from an aerial shot to the depths of the crowd to the bowels of the stadium to the grass on the pitch. Though surely digitally enhanced, it is a remarkable shot.

It is the little details which make the film from the stolen glances between Benjamin and Irene down through the years to the way in which the killer is tracked down to the throw away lines which turn out to have important significance in the final shake-up.

One of the best films of the last few years and a worthy Oscar winner, this just has to be seen by anyone with a passing interest in the power of modern cinema. Tellingly like so many of the great works of the last 5 years, it hasn't come from a big Hollywood Studio but from the foreign language screening of your local cinema. Why with all the opportunities and assets at their disposal do the major studios seem incapable of producing the kind of storytelling worthy of a bright literate audience? All the 3D in the world can't fix that.