MATT'S CINEMA DIARY: NOVEMBER 2-8, 2015

Matt Micucci's personal experience at various screenings throughout the week. Less about the film, more about the personal experience. This week, THE TRACKER, ACCATTONE, SPECTRE, YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ME, UNDER MILK WOOD, BRAND NEW-U.

November 2

THE TRACKER (1988) by John Guillermin @ Kino Ponrepo, Prague, 17:30

I went to interview DAVID HAVAS, production manager of PONREPO, for FRED Film Radio, and given that I would go see ACCATTONE in there that day, I simply thought I could do no wrong in going to see the screening previous to it, naively thinking that it would be English friendly and subtitled in Czech, simply because it was a JOHN GUILLERMIN film starring KRIS KRISTOFFERSON. 

I soon found out that I was wrong, and this accidentally became the first non English friendly screening of a "talkie" I ever attended in my life. But as it turns out, the fact that I could not understand the dialogue almost made my viewing experience even worse, as apparently, this film is quite an irrelevant if not downright laughable western TV-movie. 

Not understanding what they were saying meant that I could simply focus on the action and still understand what they were saying. The fact that even still, I could tell this film was laughable even without understanding it says a lot.

Today marked the 40th anniversary of PASOLINI's death, and PONREPO celebrated the occasion by kickstarting a retrospective of some of his works with a screening of his first film ACCATTONE, and my personal favourite film of his alongside TEOREMA. 

I had been looking forward to this screening for ages, also because sadly it would be the only screening of this retrospective that I would attend, given that this retrospective only takes place during the first half of the month and I would not be in Prague. I sent a shout out on Facebook for anyone to join me, but the call was only picked up by my friend Lubomir who loved it and he appreciated TONINO DELLI COLLI's cinematography quite a lot. 

It was amazing to me to see the film on the big screen on an original print for the first time. The screening room was also practically full, which made me very happy. 

This time around I appreciated the fact that there is so much irony in the film, and that there is so much comedy concealing the depressing dramatic situation of the characters and their unwillingness to help themselves. I also, once again, appreciated the sheer charisma of FRANCO CITTI in the leading role. Tremendous film. The audience seemed to like it to. 

One thing I noticed is that the subtitled were printed directly on the film print, which must have been a laborious process. Some of the lines also seemed to lack the translation. Perhaps there was less need to spoonfeed the audience with the meaning of every line in the early sixties. Which raises the question - do we need to be spoonfed EVERY line of foreign language films?

November 6

Even in my first visit to my hometown of Galway for over a year, I could not stay away from the cinema. 

I managed to avoid much of the talk and discussion regarding the new JAMES BOND film. I find the franchise very entertaining, and had high hopes for this one, given the previous film by MENDES in the saga, SKYFALL. I went with my brother, who is a massive BOND fan, and he seemed to like it. To me the screenplay was so naive and superficial that the whole thing seemed incredibly awkward and silly. 

Having said that, LEA SEYDOUX is incredibly beautiful, and that is a general observation more than it is an actual observation on SPECTRE, that also has one of the worst 007 theme songs of all time - even worse than LULU's MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, although that song probably still has the worst intro of the lot. 

Ok, so, aside from the film itself, I have to make a note of how strange it was to be back in the EYE cinema, which was by far the cinema I went to the most when I still lived in Galway. When I was a kid, we had this other cinema called the OMNIPLEX, and that was it, but when the EYE opened, that easily became my favourite. But having been to so many better cinemas since, now it looked like any other blooming multiplex. There is a huge difference between arthouse cinema and multiplexes, and once you get used to one, you can't get back used to the other. If I were ever to move back to Galway, I would miss arthouse cinemas like crazy, as my life pretty much revolves around them. 

Also...the prices of the tickets in Ireland are insane. To whom it may concern - sort it out. 

For the type of films you show, it's simply not worth it! It's only worth mentioning at this point that, a group of about ten to twelve kids attended the screening and near the ending of the film, they all got up to get more candy. Which to me speaks volumes about the type of attention span of kids today, and how candy is better than the way films are exhibited. Then again, SPECTRE really was that uninteresting, so maybe they're genuine film snobs and I just don't know it.

November 7

The first film of this year's edition of the CORK FILM FESTIVAL, which is a festival I personally adore and the only one I will accept a loss of money to cover. I feel as if I am particularly close to the festival not only because it was one of the first that I followed as a full time film journalist, but also because the first edition I attended two years ago is now regarded as the first edition of a new era for a festival that seemed doomed and unintersting. 

This screening was well attended and the audience was very respectful. The director KATINA MADINA MORA was in attendance, and there were plenty of questions for her in the end. 

The only flaw was that at the introduction, they failed to mention that an Irish short film would be screening before it, which probably sucked for the filmmaker himself or herself, who might have been in attendance and, as I can imagine, heartbroken...

November 8

UNDER MILK WOOD (2015) by Kevin Allen @ Triskel Christchurch, Cork (Ireland), 14:00

I was gutted when I found out that I was at the wrong screening after creative director JAMES MULLIGHAN introduced the film in the beautiful venue of TRISKEL CHRISTCHURCH. I was not supposed to see KEVIN ALLEN's imagining of DYLAN THOMAS' UNDER MILK WOOD, but instead I was supposed to see OLDER THAN IRELAND, a documentary on elderly people who have been alive longer than the Republic has existed. But by then, it was too late. 

While I still enjoyed the film, and admired its bizarre, creative and immersive nature, I can't deny that I was kicking myself the whole way through. A few things should have made me suspicious - one of them was that the screening was not as well attended as I expected OLDER THAN IRELAND would have been, in fact I was told that it was sold out. Nevertheless, I still got an interview with KEVIN ALLEN out of it, and although he was not the friendliest of guys, he still seemed quite passionate for his work. 

The screening itself was fascinating, not only because of the colourful nature of the film and its tone, but also because of its experimentation. At the end of the film, as the credits started rolling, a woman stood up in the front row and started singing one of the passages from the original play by THOMAS. I don't believe I have ever witnessed anything like that. 

A few things are worth mentioning about the venue itself. The TRISKEL CHRISTICHURCH is so named because it is a venue that was converted from a restructured church and in all effects retains the sembiance of a church. It makes all its cinema screenings all the more fascinating and exciting.

My friend SHARON, who is also an organizer of the CORK FILM FESTIVAL expressed her disappointment at the fact that the screening room that was reserved for the film was quite big, but less than half of it would be filled for BRAND NEW-U. The main reason was that, from the festival's stand point, it was facing competition from the Irish premiere of JOBS, starring MICHAEL FASSBINDER. Which was, I suppose, inevitable, although still a little disappointing, given the fact that a film festival by its very nature should beg for a certain adventurousness from its viewers. 

Nevertheless, this particular film got quite a likewarm reception from the viewers. I quite enjoyed it. But I guess it's hard for viewers to prepare for an interactive, slow and immersive science fiction dealing with such themes as identity crisis and relationship paranoia, as well as elements of the doppleganger, given the fact that these are all things examined in similar works that use similar approach within similar futuristic worlds but with also twenty times the budget of this film.