9 June 2023.
By Neptune
TRANSFORMERS – RISE OF THE BEASTS **
Not everyone enjoys watching vehicles of all kinds convert into gigantic robots, fight it out with their foes and convert back again. But for those that do, this is their ideal action-packed film, the seventh of this blockbuster franchise started back in 2007.
At 127 minutes it is too long and has levels of noise and destruction during the continuous action scenes which are exhausting; but on the positive side it has excellent production quality, a clever Brooklyn-based humor, and a bunch of colorful, endearing and socially responsible characters (both human and machine) which make the film an acceptable example of the genre. So, for some parents, it’s a good film to watch with their pimply, adolescent offspring and secretly enjoy themselves, or not.
But beyond the film, let us beware of the actual reality of fast-evolving AI projects and experiments – such as ChatGPT and others – which, if not controlled more responsibly, could create these same deadly machines in our not-so-far future. Fact can be more dangerous than fiction.
LA HIJA DE TODAS LAS RABIAS (Daughter of Rage) ***1/2 (vo Spanish)
This incredibly sad tale is eons away from the previous blockbuster. The story of a mother and daughter who live off the huge garbage dump in Managua, Nicaragua is just one of millions of others in our unfair world. But it is beautifully illustrated by director Laura Baumeister de Montis and her colleagues, almost all of them women. If one can make beauty out of misery, Baumeister de Montis has mastered it here.
Trying to eke out a decent life for the two of them, the mother (Virginia Sevilla) leaves her 11-year-old (Ara Alejandra Medal) for a time with some friends who have a recycling factory that runs on child labor. Despite some decent folks there and a fleeting friendship with a sweet boy, the feisty, stubborn daughter runs away to find her mother. And so begins her odyssey, which she lives partially through her escapist dreams. The fusional love between mother and daughter is magnificently portrayed through these surrealistic moments, with an ending that is simply shattering. An important film.
DES MAINS EN OR *** (vo French)
How wonderful to see an old-fashioned, somewhat corny film that gives you both laughs and a tear in the eye. Of course, the charming scenario and direction by Isabelle Mergault are the foundation of this film with heart, but it’s the great duo of Josiane Balasko and Lambert Wilson that makes the story vibrate.
The film is actually about pain – the terrible back pains from which Wilson’s arrogant character is suffering. He is a renowned writer, lives in a grand mansion with his wife who is a back surgeon, and he is soon to be anointed an “Immortel” in the Académie Française. But his back problem is making his life hell, until he meets a lively, simple woman who is a healer. Also about the pain in one’s heart, Balasko plays her character to the hilt, with both a lightness and pathos that hits the mark. Here’s a feel-good film that is a refreshing surprise.
FIFOG – FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM ORIENTAL DU GENÈVE
12-18 June at the Grütli Cinemas
Do not miss this 18th edition of 60 films from the Middle East and environs that will be showing the dreams and imaginations of this region of rich, varied cultures and often difficult situations. There will be many guests and discussions around the films. Check their schedule at www.fifog.com
Also at the Grütli – this Monday, June 12th at 19h:
TITI, a colorful melodrama from Iran about a feisty, independent gypsy woman with some magical powers who somehow manages to bring back to life a famous physicist who has fallen into a coma. Come for an aperitif before the film hosted by the CCP – CineClubPersan.
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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