Trailer for Scott Cann's 'Mercy'

We just screened this film at the Playhouse West Film Festival. It was awesome and won a bunch of awards. Superbly acted, written, directed. everything. As a committee member I was so glad this film was submitted. This is a quality film!

The Piano Teacher(2001) aka. La Pianiste

Director: Michael Haneke
Writer: Michael Haneke (writer). Elfriede Jelinek (novel)
Starring:Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoît Magimel

What do you get when you combine an aging, eccentric, piano teacher prone to masochism and a handsome, young rake who likes to play ice hockey and Schumann…? You get director Michael Haneke’s film The Piano Teacher.


This film stars Isabelle Huppert as the eccentric Erika Kohut, a professor of classical piano at a respected musical conservatory in Vienna who lives with her overbearing, co-dependant mother. Except for the fact that living with her mother drives Erika to pursue hobbies such as voyeurism, pornography, and self-mutilation, everything is going hunky dory in Erika’s life. That is until she meets a dashing, young, but talented, electrical engineer/pianist named Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel). The two meet at a piano recital where they both are performing. Walter begins his romantic pursuit of the icy Erika with a seductive performance of Schumann. Little does Monsieur Klemmer know that he may be in for more than he bargained for…

The Piano Teacher garnered several film awards including the Cannes Grand Prize of the Jury award and also the Best Actor and Best Actress awards. Isabelle Huppert’s performance as Erika Kohut is so amazing. She is pure genius in this role.

Benoît Magimel is also superb as the dashing young suitor Walter Klemmer. His acting is very human and unapologetic in its portrayal of a young man who totally loses his grip on reality while pursuing the woman he desires.

Another performance worth mentioning is that of the Annie Girardot who plays Erika’s mother. The scenes between Girardot and Huppert are so layered and well acted.

If you watch the DVD, it features a very fascinating interview with Huppert herself. Huppert talks about the making of the film as well as her own views on acting. It is very interesting to see how her real life behavior compares to her behavior in the movie. A very educational interview for any actor.

The Piano Teacher is a film about love and seduction. The main character of Erika Kohut struggles with her desire for love and her fears of being seduced. The actions she takes to avoid the pain of seduction ultimately contribute to her greater downfall. Due to the graphic nature of it's depiction of rape and themes of sexual perversity, viewers be warned, while a french film, this movie is not really a first date movie... unless of course your date happens to be an only child piano teacher with an overbearing mother and a proclivity towards pornographic films, voyeurism, and masochistic self-mutilation. That said, this movie is an example of acting and story telling at it’s finest.

If you watched this movie and liked it you may also like the following movies:

Dangerous Liaisons, The Libertine, 2046, In The Mood For Love, I Heart Huckabees, Last Tango in Paris, Ma Mére

Infernal Affairs(2003)

Everyone has seen or at least knows about the awesome film The Departed starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Mat Dammon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen. But did you know that The last two thirds of The Departed is actually based on a hong kong film called Infernal Affairs? This movie was made in 2004 and features several big name Hong Kong actors including, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng. The movie was such a hit in Hong Kong that it inspired a prequel Infernal Affairs 2 and a sequel Infernal Affairs 3, and obviously Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.

The basic story is mostly the same as The Departed. An undercover cop named Chen Wing-Yan(Tony Leung) infiltrates deep into a Triad gang. Meanwhile a Triad gang member Lau Kin-Ming(Andy Lau) infiltrates the Hong Kong police force. While each man gathers intelligence for his organization, the stresses of leading a dual life begin to take their toll.

I liked the fact that, while very similar to its American counterpart, Infernal Affairs is different not just in terms of plot but also in the overall “feel” of the movie. The best way I can describe it is that it focuses more on group dynamics rather than on individual character arcs. Don’t get me wrong, the characters are strong in both movies, but where The Departed emphasizes the perspective of each individual, Infernal Affairs highlights the “game theory” and strategizing aspects of the story. In Infernal Affairs, the characters seem to be almost pawns in a game through which they must constantly navigate in order to survive. A good example is the first “battle” scene of the movie. In Infernal Affairs, the teamwork that goes on between the two groups of the mobsters and the police is emphasized . There is a dramatic scene between the two rival factions when the head mobster and his gang are hauled into the police department for questioning. The showdown between the superintendent(Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) and the head boss Hon Sam(Eric Tsang Chi-wai) further serves to highlight the rivalry between the two groups. Another gem of a scene that is different from the American version was a scene where Tony Leung’s character, Yan, and his Mafia friend Keung(Chapman To Man-Chat) escape in the gun battle of the second act. In this scene the two share an intimate moment of brotherhood among thieves before the unknowing Keung dies from a gunshot wound. This scene not only is very poignant, but serves to emphasize the deep emotional entanglement between Yan and his fellow mobsters. An aspect only alluded to in The Departed with regards to Billy Costigan’s character.

There is one similarity that really stuck out to me. In The Departed, Mark Wahlberg’s portrayal of Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam really kicked ass. His obnoxious attitude and the “hand on his hip” acting was quite a knockout. It is interesting to note that in Infernal Affairs the actor who plays the corresponding character of Inspector Cheung, Chapman To Man-Chat, also acts many of his scenes with “hand on his hip” acting technique. Clearly Mark Wahlberg is an awesome actor in that he knew what was right for the character and the scene and wasn’t afraid to borrow from genius.

All in all, Infernal Affairs is an awesome movie. While similar to The Departed, it also has it’s own unique story aspects and stylistic approach to telling the story with an emphasis on the overall character dynamics rather than individual character arcs.






If you liked this movie you might also like:

The Departed, Hard Boiled, In The Mood For Love, 2046, Bullet in the Head.

DOUBT(2009)

A popular and friendly priest is suspected by the head nun of sexually molesting a black alter boy. Sister Beauvier accuses the Father Flynn of the crime she suspects he has committed, while he vehemently denies his guilt. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse in which the lines of truth are grayed and blurred. Things become even more complicated when Sister Beauvier learns from the boy’s mother that the boy, who is very bonded to Father Flynn, is gay. The characters as well as the audience begin to question their ability to ascertain the truth in a world shrouded by secrecy and the protocols of formality.

Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley and based on a play by the same name, the story line is very artfully contrived. The interesting thing about both the play and the movie is that it is up to the audience to decide whether or not the purported acts that took place are fact or fiction. This makes Doubt one of those movies that is not meant to merely be watched but to be experienced. It is a heavy movie. It’s the kind of movie you will think about and ponder over for many days or weeks after having watched it. If you like movies that make you a different person after watching them, then you will appreciate this film.

There are several great performances in this film. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep are both exceptional in their roles as hunter and hunted.

Hoffman is expert at playing a progressive-minded man who is obviously wracked a torturous secret. Whether he is a very principled man, or a very sneaky manipulative liar is left to the audience’s interpretation.

Meryl Streep is eccentric yet very human in her role as the mean, terrorizing nun who is willing to do anything to keep her flock in line. For her the ends justify the means. Streep adds a sense of pathos and humanity to a character that would otherwise appear simply cruel, backwards, and unsympathetic.

Other great performances are that of Amy Adams who plays the seemingly innocent and naïve character of the boy’s teacher, Sister James. She gives a very layered performance as well as a woman who struggles with her true belief in the supremacy of goodness and love in the face of all that is going on around her.

Another actress of high merit is Viola Davis who plays the boy’s mother. She has a very powerful scene with Meryll Streep in which she pleads with the Sister to stop investigating her son and the priest's involvement. She is great at playing the role of a woman who has endured the reality of life's injustice and indignities and is desperately fighting for her child’s well-being and future the best way she knows how.

This movie has great performances and is freaking phenomenal in terms of writing and direction. There is a saying that all great art leaves the viewer a different person after watching it and this movie does just that.






If you liked this movie you may also enjoy the following:

Capote, The Devil Wears Prada, Catch Me If You Can, I Confess, Mystic River, Moonstruck.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD(2008)

This movie is the bomb. Ever wonder what would happen if Jack from “Titanic” survived the freezing waters of the Atlantic and got married to Rose, settled down and had kids? What would their lives have been like? Would they have the perfect family and fairytale romance? Or would they become disillusioned with each other once the monotony of reality set in constantly argue with each other and make themselves miserable? Watch “Revolutionary Road” and you can find out what might have happened to them…

If you want to watch a movie with hard hitting acting, a good story, and a hefty dose of Stepfordian socio-domestic drama look no further. Both DiCaprio and Winslet deliver amazing performances of great emotional depth and insight. They deftly portray a young couple’s desperate struggle to break free from the drab confines of a 1950’s Connecticut suburbia known as Revolutionary Estates.

What I liked about “Revolutionary Road” was that it really humanizes the domestic struggles faced by middle-class suburban American couples of the 1950’s.
We see a young couple, Frank and April Wheeler, starting off with dreams, aspirations, and the belief in their own unique superiority as a happily married couple with a great future ahead of them. Over the course of the movie, we see the couple gradually compromise their ideals, dreams, and beliefs, eventually succumbing to the suburban reality that traps and confines them.

There are so many amazing moments of acting in “Revolutionary Road”. Leonardo DiCaprio brings it like a champ as Frank Wheeler, a salesman for Knox Business Machines who desperately wants to become a man worthy of his family all the while denying his own underlying need to discover his own personal passions and desires.

Meanwhile, Kate Winslet is both poignant and human in her role as a failed actress turned housewife whose deep seated need to be special causes her to devote her life to her husband and family at the expense of her self integrity and self-will.

There are also other amazing actors in this film. The most notable is Michael Shannon who steals scenes like a bandit in his role as John Givens, the formerly institutionalized son of the couple’s real estate agent. Shannon gives a strikingly brilliant performance as the one person who is able to see through the falseness of the couple’s lives and calls it how it is.

I would strongly recommend this movie to people who want to watch really good acting combined with good writing. Revolutionary Road takes the story of a seemingly idyllic, and in some sense typical, family unit from the 1950’s and shows what goes on underneath on the human level when people sacrifice their true dreams and ideals for the sake of appearances. The Wheelers are “that family”. The couple that started off with so much promise only to wind up in the end just another casualty of the 1950’s middle class suburban American dream.






If you liked this movie some other movies I'd recommend are:

The Departed, Titanic, American Beauty

A Streetcar Named Desire

director: Elia Kazan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden
Writer: Tenessee Williams


“STELLLAAAAA!!!!!!”

Originally a play by the playwrite Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire has been parodied in popular culture on countless TV sitcoms, radio shows, improv skits and movies. Many a macho American male, seeking to demonstrate his masculine sensitivity and theatrical prowess, has belted this cry at one time or another. Usually to the mild perturbation of the opposite sex. But why? The answer is simple…

Marlon Brando.

Prior to seeing this film, the American public had no inkling of Modern Acting. While Brando had stared in another film The Men a year earlier, A Streetcar Named Desire is the film that put the young actor on the map. It was also a film that forever changed the landscape of American film acting grounded in dramatic realism.

Summary:

Blanche Dubois – a fragile, manipulative southern belle with a healthy streak of alcoholism, and a propensity for grandiose self-delusion– pops into the lives of her sister Stella and her sister’s husband Stanley Kowalski. She arrives on the pretense of taking a vacation from her job as a school teacher. It turns out that the real reason she is there is cause she was fired from her job after seducing a 17-year-old student. Underlying all her troubles is the emotional scar of the suicide of her girlhood fiancé. In short Blanche is a crazy crazy-maker who seeks to live in a world of fairytale southern hospitality.

When she arrives at her sister’s house, Blanche is immediately dismayed to see her sister in a co-dependant marriage with the brutal, earthy, emotionally and physically abusive Stanley Kowalski. She openly disapproves of Stanley’s treatment of her sister Stella. Stanley, who cannot stand the pretentiousness of Blanche’s manipulative ways, sees her as a threat to the couple’s marriage. He seeks to divest her of her delusions and this culminates in his raping Blanche who in turn suffers a total mental breakdown.

Why this movie is flipping awesome:

Ok. I still remember seeing this movie at 19 years old in my college film library and being thoroughly impressed. After seeing Brando’s performance I had a solid understanding of what good acting truly was. This was the movie that set the bar for modern American film acting and his name was Marlon Brando. It is important when watching this movie to keep in mind the fact that prior to this film, acting grounded in dramatic realism was not really seen much on films in the United States.

That said, Marlon Brando’s acting is simply genius. Brando’s acting is charged with raw emotional energy and firmly grounded in the reality of the moment. If there is a textbook performance for good acting, this is it.

Vivian Leigh is also annoyingly good as Blanche Dubois. Watching her act against Brando is like watching a caterpillar get mauled by a gang of army ants. She is nowhere as phenomenal as Brando, but does justice to her part and fits the role to a tee.

Kim Hunter is good as Stella. It’s a shame she was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era, as it seems to have tempered her career during that time. She is very nurturing as Stella and it is no wonder that she also played the benevolent ape, Zira, in the original planet of the Apes.

Karl Malden is pretty good as Stanley's friend who tries to get romantic with the Crazy Southern Belle Ms. Dubois.

Summation:

This movie is a must see for all actors and anyone who is interested in learning about acting. Great performances. Brando is a textbook for good acting.

Other movies I would recommend if you liked this one are:

Young Lions, On the Waterfront, The Wild One, Sweet Bird of Youth, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The Harp of Burma(1956)

director: Kon Ichikawa
Starring: Rentaro Mikuni, Shoji Yasui,


The Harp of Burma aka The Burmese Harp is a Japanese anti-war film originally produced in 1956. It is about a Japanese soldier who travels across Burma disguised as a monk during the aftermath of the Japanese surrender. Based on a children’s novel by the author Takeyama Michio, it won many awards and accolades at the time of it’s release including an honorable mention in the Venice Film Festival and the first ever San Giorgio Prize after tying with the winner. The movie itself is kinda a tearjerker so if you like sad movies about departures you will like this one.


Summary:

The setting is Burma 1945. A platoon of Japanese soldiers is patrolling the jungles of Burma. Led by a Captain Inouye that used to be a music teacher, they are a rather strange bunch who enjoy singing English ballads in four part harmonies during their breaks. One of them, a corporal named Mizushima, accompanies them on the Burmese harp.

While camping out in a Burmese village, the soldiers learn that the war is over when their camp is peacefully overtaken by Allied forces. Most of the group is shipped back to a prison camp to be processed and sent home.
Before leaving Captain Inouye sends Mizushima on a volunteer mission to help negotiate the surrender of Japanese forces further north.

Mizushima goes on the mission, but when he arrives the soldiers refuse to surrender and, except for the private, they are all killed in the ensuing battle. The private flees the battlefield, traveling across Burma disguised as a monk. One day he spots his old platoon on the road returning to the prison camp from a work detail but he does not acknowledge them.

Back at camp, Captain Inouye is convinced that the monk they saw is Mizushima. He and his men organize an elaborate way to communicate with Mizushima asking him to return home with them using a parrot and song.


What I liked about this movie:

Acting-wise, there are some real gems. Shôji Yasui gives a very sensitive performance as private Mizushima, a man who is torn between his desire to return home and the fact that he is forever changed by the experience of war. Rentaro Mikuni is very likeable as Captain Inouye. He gives a moving speech at the end of the film while reading a letter from his fellow soldier and friend. There are many other performances that are quite interesting including the other soldiers in Mizushima's platoon and an old Burmese lady who helps the soldiers in the prison camp.


Summation:

The movie is really poetic in it’s storytelling in a way that is quite endearing and almost surreal at times.. The idea of a group of soldiers who sing in chorus while on break from patrol might seem pretty preposterous considering that they would be ambushed and killed in a second. However, if one is open to the fact that the movie is more of an allegorical piece than a realistic one a whole experience opens up. Early on in the movie there is a spectacular scene where the soldiers are serenading

Ichikawa is a very good storyteller and his visuals are very beautiful and ghostly. The movie is in black and white and I would love to see the color version that was produced in 1985.


Other movies I would recommend if you liked this one are:

In the Mood For Love, The Burmese Harp(1985), The Thin Red Line, The Deer Hunter.