About Endlessness/Om det Oändliga (2019) - Andersson retires with so-so trademark work

♥♥♥

 

A couple are floating away under grey clouds on this grey-toned poster for Roy Andersson's About Endlessness

The priest who has lost his faith, - and who doesn't find much care or comfort at the psychologist's office, - is the through-line motif.

 

About Endlessness is written and directed by great Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson (Lördagen den 5.10 (1969)).

Andersson's latest, and likely his last feature, repeats his familiar style with a long row of more or less poignant tableaus. But the Swedish reality outside of Andersson's creative universe unfortunately seems to have changed more at this point, than the auteur is able to reflect (and likely understand.) And About Endlessness feels somewhat ritualistic.

 

Related posts:

 

Roy Andersson: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence/En Duva Satt på en Gren och Funderade på Tillvaron (2014) - Perhaps Andersson's best film yet

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 4.558 mil. €, approximately 4.68 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 434k $

= Some uncertainty but likely a box office disaster (projected return of 0.16 times its cost)

[About Endlessness premiered 3 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 78 minutes. Shooting took place in Stockholm, Sweden. The film opened #31 to an 8k $ first weekend in 17 theaters in North America, where it did not achieve a higher position and grossed 51k $. The film's Box Office Mojo site regrettably is missing its likely most important market (Sweden), with Germany the biggest one recorded there with 193k $. A projected final gross with Sweden and a small (also unlisted) contribution from Denmark also, is 750k $. The film won a European Film award, 1/4 Guldbagge awards and the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, among other honors. Andersson, who was 76 at the time of the film's release, has not returned with a film since and has likely retired. About Endlessness is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of About Endlessness? 

The Night of the Sunflowers/La Noche de los Girasoles (2006) - Countryside crime drama investigates humanity's unflattering sides

♥♥♥

 

Darkness envelopes two characters on this uninformative poster for Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo's The Night of the Sunflowers

A rapist and murderer of women is loose in a rural area of Castilly y Leon, Spain, when an outsider cave scientist arrives there with his beautiful girlfriend to to explore a newly discovered grotto.

 

The Night of the Sunflowers is written and directed by debuting Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo (Mustek (1997, short)). The title is a literal translation of the original Spanish title.

The film starts promising and shows a grueling rape crime in real-time. - We are boarded on The Night of the Sunflowers, as it turns out to be chronologically sophisticated. But its thriller promise is soon abandoned by Sánchez-Cabezudo in favor of a feel-bad crime drama, which reaches new heights in the depressing content variety. - Not least because all of the developments seem realistically enough.

SPOILER The scientist's crew soon strike down the wrong villager as revenge, and a local cop talks them into cutting up and disappearing the body. - But the deceased man's father-in-law, who is also the local police chief, finds them out, takes a bribe and informs everyone that he never wants to hear talk of the incident. Meanwhile the real criminal returns home to his wife and TV on the couch.

The Night of the Sunflowers is a study in humanity's willingness to sweep even truly horrific crimes under the rug, and about crimes' tendency to spur new crimes, and about the amoral in man. It is well-made but extremely depressing.

Sánchez-Cabezudo talks about the film in a 6-minute clip here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.6 mil. $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.45 times the cost)

[The Night of the Sunflowers was released 25 August (Spain) and runs 123 minutes. The film did not have a North-American release, (though it was screened at Cleveland International Film Festival). Its 3 biggest markets were Spain with 1.1 mil. $ (68.8 % of the total gross), the UK with 120k $ (7.5 %) and France with 114k $ (7.1 %). If made on a low budget of 3.5 mil. $, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film was nominated for 3 Goya awards, among other honors. Sánchez-Cabezudo has not returned with a feature since but instead turned to writing and directing for TV. 2.8k+ IMDb users have given The Night of the Sunflowers a 7.1/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of The Night of the Sunflowers?

The Lunchbox (2013) - The withheld, sad, overrated Mumbai correspondence romance

♥♥♥

An information-packed modern specialty release poster for Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox

An unfulfilled housewife in Mumbai one day gets her husband's lunchbox delivered to the wrong man, an equally unfulfilled accountant. Her husband doesn't notice the mix-up and doesn't appreciate his wife, who ventures forth on a correspondence with the accountant stranger, who values her.

The Lunchbox is written and directed by debuting Ritesh Batra (Our Souls at Night (2017)) with Vasan Bala (Peddlers (2012)) supplying some dialog. Despite the marketing, which indicates a bubbly romance, The Lunchbox is mostly quite sad SPOILER and actually never really develops into a regular romance, - only perhaps after its ending, - because the accountant decides to hold back, when he meets the younger woman who has been sending him lunchboxes and letters.
Despite fine observations and humanity, the film stands a bit too still and appears somewhat as an overlong short film more than a full-bodied feature. Weighing up are keen insights into social and societal dynamics in Batra's birth city Mumbai and in India on the whole, as well as some amusing episodes.

Related post:

Ritesh Batra: 2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3.1 mil. $
Box office: 17.24 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 5.56 times its cost)
[The Lunchbox premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, critics' week section) and runs 105 minutes. Batra started the project in 2007. 15 companies were involved with the funding and creating of the film. The actors reportedly rehearsed together prior to filming for 6 months, which seems a dubious fact. Shooting took place in 29 days in 2012 in Mumbai, India. The film opened #53 to a 44k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 165 cinemas, grossing 4.2 mil. $ (24.4 % of the total gross) during its long 29-week release there. It was the year's 3rd highest-grossing Indian film outside of India. It was nominated for a BAFTA, won 2/3 Asian Film award nominations and several other honors. Controversy arose when the Film Federation of India chose another film as its Oscar entry of the year over The Lunchbox, namely The Good Road. Batra returned with Masterchef (2014, short) and theatrically with The Sense of an Ending (2017). Irrfan Khan (Jurassic World (2015)) returned in Meridian Lines (2013), Nimrat Kaur (Peddlers (2012)) in 3 shorts, Homeland (2014, TV-series) and theatrically in Airlift (2016). The Lunchbox is certified fresh at 96 % with a 7.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Lunchbox?

The Square (2017) - Östlund calls out hypocrisy and grabs the monkey in us with provocative, hilarious, bold masterpiece

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year + Best Stockholm Movie of the Year + Best Swedish Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Claes Bang

A striking and mysterious poster for Ruben Östlund's The Square

The Square it the 5th fiction feature from Swedish master writer-director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure/Turist (2014)).

The curator of a prestigious, central Stockholm art museum feels his life come apart by its seems, as he acts upon becoming the victim of a trick theft, while also welcoming a foreign journalist and a new art installation into his life.

Claes Bang (Anna Pihl (2006-08)) gives an impressive performance as the Danish curator Christian, his greatest role yet, which may open an international breakthrough for him. It is a complex role that he succeeds in making sympathetic for the most part, which makes the character's bad decisions so much more cringe-worthy and objectionable. Bang acts as our guy here, and he couldn't do a better job. His mistakes constitute some of the questions the film asks of us: 
How do we personally deal with the less fortunate we come across in our daily lives? The homeless? The strangers?
Are we prejudiced and in which ways?
Do we truly interact with our family members, or are we miles apart? - And is that how we prefer things, at heart?
How do we treat the people we work with, and especially those serving under us?
Östlund's stance here on his countrymen, privileged Swedes and Scandinavians, and Westerners in general, I presume we can broaden his perspective to include, is quite gloomy: SPOILER The Square pitches us against our ancestor the ape more than once, and the implication seems to be that we are slightly evolved apes, who as modern people seem to have regressed socially, from, say, 50 years ago, to a crowd that today are more egotistical and hypocritical than ever.
Thank God the film is also very very funny. It gets its piercing societal and human critique across often through absurdly humorous scenes, and it is brimming with ambitious, often lengthy scenes that are outrageous, provocative, stressful, uncomfortable - and hilarious.
In supporting parts Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale (2017-18)) is terrific as the visiting journalist, SPOILER and you can look forward to a strikingly well-made sex scene between her and Bang. Fredrik Wenzel's (The Ape/Apan (2009)) cinematography is apt here as throughout. Christopher Læssø (Scratch/Bagland (2003)) is very good in a key role as Christian's assistant, and Terry Notary (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)) is frightening and magnetic as a gorilla-imitating performance artist. While the music motif made me think of the works of another great Swedish cinema artist with a flair for both humor and societal critique, Roy Andersson, The Square has a clear connection to Östlund's own mission as also reflected in his startling, original Force Majeure, one that continually prods modern man and his institutions and exhibits hypocrisy and existential anxiety in many forms.
The Square is a rich experience that invites conversation and analysis, - besides the initial laughs and bouts of cold sweats. It even has a few things left unclear in the way that great films sometimes have, where they are not unexplained threads but conscious mysteries left in, seemingly, just to bother us and remind us that real life also can't all be explained. And The Square is probably most of all meant to do just that; bother us. It does so with rare, invigorating talent and drive.

Related post:

Ruben Östlund: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
Force Majeure/Turist (2014) or, Swedes in Trouble

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.5 mil. $
Box office: 2 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[The Square premiered 20 May (Cannes) and runs 142 minutes. The film is a Swedish-German-Danish-French co-production of no less than 13 companies. Filming took place from June - October 2016 in Berlin, Germany and Sweden, including in Stockholm. Östlund for most of filming reportedly focused on one scene a day, doing each one up to 50 times. The film won the Palm d'Or in Cannes under jury president Pedro Almodóvar and is Sweden's entry for the 2018 Oscars. It opened the previous weekend in North America in 4 theaters to a 76k $ first weekend at #32. Whether Magnolia Pictures will broaden it now is unknown, (but they should.) The film opened #1 in Sweden with the biggest Swedish film's opening there of 2017 so far, selling 22k tickets. It is set to open in more European markets and Argentina in November and December with a UK release following in March 2018. The Square is certified fresh at 79 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Square?

2046 (2004) - Kar-Wai's visually resplendent, empty hull of a movie

♥♥

A kitschy, sensual, mysterious poster for Wong Kar-Wai's 2046

2046 is a sequel to Days of Being Wild/Ah Fei Zing Zyun (1991) and the wonderful In the Mood for Love/Faa Yeung Nin Wa (2000), by great returning Chinese writer/director Wong Kar-Wai (My Blueberry Nights (2007)). The plot of the film is very hard to relate, because it is thin as ice at best:
 
2046 is about the man from the former film (played by Tony Leung (Tokyo Raiders/Dong Jing Gong Lüe (2000))), who in late 1960s Hong Kong has a lot of ladies and struggles with the writing of a science fiction novel.

For large parts of the film, it seems that the idea of whispering one's secrets into a hole in a tree is the only major idea of this film, (and that really comes from its predecessor.) The many women surrounding our protagonist are unengaging, and the film as such is uninteresting, which is a subjective verdict but will still hold true for most people who see it. A completely mindless android subplot doesn't levitate 2046. It is pretentious rubbish, but aesthetically very playful and highly gifted in the strictly visual regard, which is what is still enjoyable about it.


Related posts:

Wong Kar-Wai: My Blueberry Nights (2007) - A slice too cute

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Chungking Express/重慶森林 (1994) - Kar-Wai's urban love drama is a visual treat  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 19.4 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.61 times the cost)
[2046 premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 129 minutes. It took 4 years to complete. Shooting took place in Thailand and China, including Shanghai and Macau. The title has several meanings in the film. It was screened in a rushed and unfinished version in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It opened #36 (in just 4 theaters) to a 113k $ opening weekend in North America, its 3rd biggest market, where it grossed 1.4 mil. $ (7.2 % of the total gross), topping at #34 and in 61 theaters (different weeks). Its biggest and 2nd biggest markets were Japan with 6.8 mil. $ (35.1 %) and France with 2.6 mil. $ (13.4 %). It was released in Hong Kong, (where it made 0.7 mil. $/3.6 %), but not in China. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2½/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. The film was nominated for a David di Donatello award, won a European Film award, a National Board of Review award and many other honors. Kar-Wai returned with Eros (2004, segment), Capture Total (2005, short) and with a feature with My Blueberry Nights (2007). Leung returned in Seoul Raiders (2005). 2046 is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.4/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 2046?