The 57th Chicago International Film Festival runs from October 13th to the 24th. Films will be shown at the AMC River East 21, the Music Box Theater, the Gene Siskel Film Center and the Chi-Town Movies Drive-In. Complete schedule and information is here.
Margot Soriano is the wife/companion of widowed Abdel Soriano (Quim Gutiérrez), a middle-class free-lancing truck driver, and they have a lovely young daughter, Ninon (Loïse Benguerel). They live in Geneva, Switzerland. Judith Fauvet is the wife of renowned conductor and musical director Melvil Fauvet (Bruno Salomone), and they have two adolescent sons. They live in Paris. What we intriguingly learn is that Margot and Judith are the same person (Virginie Efira, precise and magnetic.)
The film is Madeleine Collins (France / Belgium / Switzerland, 2021), and is very well done by writer / director Antoine Barraud. (Margot and Judith also go by Madeleine when necessary.) She has a job as a travelling businesswoman, primarily as a translator, that keeps her busy as well, but it’s also good cover for the elaborate ruses, excuses and strategizing she must configure in order to lead her two very different lives. But why does she need to do this? Is she being blackmailed? Is it an unbalanced personal obsession? Is it part of an elaborate crime? An atonement? The film follows her through a few weeks, demonstrating how grueling the masquerades can be to keep up, but establishing her logistical and deep emotional commitments to each life. Barraud’s narrative drops hints that each family is vaguely aware of the other; the accumulation of clues is painstaking, but necessarily so for us to understand his protagonist’s complexity. Fellow film geeks will spot that ‘Judith’ and ‘Madeleine’ are also Kim Novak’s alter egos in Hitchcock’s Vertigo; the parallel is more inspiration than imitation, but Barraud is engagingly thorough in exploring the shifting identities women must sometimes assume, by necessity or choice. Gordon Spooner is the cinematographer, and his work is as lush and precise as his leading lady’s performance. The canny script was co-written with Héléna Klotz in what was clearly a successful endeavor. I highly recommend it.
Madeleine Collins will be shown on Sunday, October 17th at 7:45 pm, and Saturday the 23rd at 7:45 pm as well, at the AMC River East 21.
White Building (Cambodia, 2021) is a gorgeous and affecting drama that goes deep into the everyday urban culture of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The narrative is based on director Kavich Neang’s own family experiences –the eponymous huge, sprawling apartment building is where they lived up until 2017, when it was demolished for new development, displacing hundreds of low-income residents and families.
The White Building was built in 1963, and subsequently emptied during the Khmer Rouge regime. The country was declared to be Democratic Kampuchea, and, like most major cities, Phnom Penh was completely evacuated – those that didn’t leave were killed. When the regime was overthrown by the Vietnamese in 1979, the U.S., Thailand and China allied to keep the country together (they retained their U.N. seat, for instance), and slowly helped the country rebuild. The reinhabited White Building then became a residence for artists, musicians and performers (including their families).
As teens in 2017, Samnang (Piseth Chhun, best actor at the Venice Film Festival) and his male friends are avid dancers who aspire to TV reality-show stardom. But, in the meantime, they’ll indulge in low-budget nightlife and flirting with girls. His father (Hout Sithorn) is the ‘chief’ of the building, which is slated for demolition, and he’s earnestly negotiating with the management to fairly compensate the residents who must leave. Spirituality and superstition still trickle under most aspects of life, and Samnang’s parents are stubborn and hidebound; Samnang’s diabetic father refuses to see doctors, his mother is less than affectionate and his loyal sister has already moved out and on.
Cambodia was a French colony until 1953, and, like India, colonial indulgences in architecture and design still peek out from underneath the currently modernized steel-and-concrete city. Deftly using music (by Jean-Charles Bastion) and editing to express his underlying sadness that belies the rich, colorful screens, neon and streetlights of downtown, Neang presents his (nonetheless) beloved homeland as a place that even its own residents are starting to give up on. But his rapport with his actors is superb, and their compelling performances bridge some of the inconsistent pacing and awkward narrative rhythms.
I enjoyed the film very much, and was disappointed to learn that its only showing here was Sunday at noon. Let’s hope it’s recognized for an encore screening later in the festival. This one’s worth looking for to stream, and I hope it gets good distribution. The Cambodian film industry is still very young, continually rebuilding since the seventies. This is Kavich Neang’s first feature film, and deserves as big an audience as it can get.
White Building was shown on Sunday, October 17th at 12:00 pm.
Periscope In The Bathtub 