Wishing You A Merry European Film Festival

Aidilfitri may be Malaysia’s biggest celebration, but it was the European Film Festival that I was looking forward to the most after the obligatory over-eating of kuih raya (traditional cookies), rendang (meat curry) and ketupat (rice cubes) on the first day of Hari Raya.

If I had my way I would’ve watched all 20 films on offer, but transportation and financial constraints dictated that I would only watch 3 (any willing sponsors out there?).

The first, Mostly Martha, is a German film where wonderful food plays a central role in the film’s progress. Martha is a compulsive, neurotic chef whose sister died in an accident, leaving her as the reluctant guardian of her niece who survived.

One of the most memorable things in the film is the analogies Martha gives, such as how a lobster slowly eats itself from the inside when placed in a tank, and that you need to weigh a lobster before you buy it, the reason being a lobster that is lighter than it looks had been placed in the tank for far too long.

The film gives a lesson or two on how to deal with children, through the utter failures of the straight-laced Martha and the success of her eccentric Italian colleague (I wonder if that is a subtle comment on the nature of Germans and Italians?) and the best way to deal with a fussy customer.

Overall, it was an enjoyable movie, and the only blight during the screening is the “blackout” by the Malaysian censors during a kissing scene. Now, instead of cutting the scene entirely, they place an opaque object in front of the projector so that the screen appears “blacked-out” but the audio is retained, which is just as bad because the audience is forced to sit through the conscious and deliberate act of censorship. There we were, 100 of us, watching a black screen while the <kiss> <kiss> and the <ahh> <ahh> sounds were left unedited for all to hear. It was not only awkward; it was deeply embarrassing to know our censors are still as overzealous as they’ve always been.

The second film, The Spanish Apartment (L’auberge Espagnole) is a Franco-Spanish film about a French economics student who embarks on a student exchange program to the Catalan city of Barcelona and learns a few lessons on love, life and party along the way.

This is a feel-good, coming-of-age movie with some funny moments, and although the film doesn’t seem to have a purpose, it serves as a good nostalgic trip for those who have or are currently studying abroad. This is definitely my favourite film out of the three.

The Spanish Apartment is as European as you can get, with the interchanging French and Spanish dialogues; the stereotypical actors – the patriotic Spaniard, the hardworking German, the neutral French, the stylish Italian, the ugly Brit; and recurring themes of European integration, cross-cultural communication, national identity and globalisation – it’s an aspiring diplomat’s wet dream!

The final movie, Upswing, was promoted in the newspapers as a Finnish comedy about a silly yuppie couple readying to make a big leap up the social ladder. Now, initially I was a bit sceptical on the comedy bit. I mean, can anything comedic come from Northern Europe, a region more famous for its frosty air and military precision than its sense of humour? Besides, the Finnish language is so rough and harsh a sensuous dirty talk will sound, to a foreigner’s ear, like a call to war. How do you laugh at dialogues that sound like the bark of a manic Rottweiler?

In the end, as usual, I was proved wrong. Upswing is quite an entertaining movie as we are shown the couple’s misadventures as they are conned to experience an alternative holiday package where they swap roles to live in a working-class neighbourhood for a month, and the self-discovery that ensues.

Out of the three movies, this one was subjected to the most censorship, but that’s because it had a couple of full-blown sex scenes (I think, because bear in mind I could not see, but only hear, the actions on the screen). However, I have a feeling the guy working on the projector was either confused or just inconsistent when he “blacked-out” the subtitle which had the words “I want to make love”, but allowed “a fuck is still a fuck”. There’s a difference between sensuous erotica and obscene pornography. He obviously thought the latter was better.

Don’t expect it to be a laugh-a-minute film – it’s not Meet The Parents, but watch it all the same for the sleek cinematography and chic furniture, which makes Upswing look more like an advertisement for the Finnish interior design industry and the entire Scandinavian minimalist movement than your average Northern European comedy.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 13:53 | link | comments (2) |