Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Titane: a winsome mix of sickness and sweetness


Synopsis:

Alexia suffers a terrible skull injury and has a titanium plate fitted into her head. When she gets out of the hospital, she rejects her parents and embraces passionately the car that almost killed her. The coming years she has problems with her sexuality and meets Vincent. Vincent is a tortured man who tries to preserve his strength by injecting steroids into his aging body. Will they find a way to deal with their emotional problems?

My thoughts:

We saw this movie on a big screen when it came out in the fall of 2021. "Titane" is sick in a sweet way, and sweet in a sick way. Agathe Rousselle really puts herself through hell to play the role. This actress is no great beauty - but the roll doesn't call for it. Her androgynous angular features really lend themselves to creating this creature beyond gender or flesh. Rousselle creates a whole twisted universe inside herself - and around herself. The film features a whole slew of unique, grotesque, memorable faces. Wounded, twisted, emotionally disfigured people have a way of finding solace in each other, and that's the message of this film.

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

1944: a small nation caught in a global war

Greetings, commies!

Leave it up to me to find some obscure but stellar WWII film. Today's feature gem is 1944 about the events that took place in Estonia towards the end of WWII.  

Synopsis:

In the year 1944, Estonia faces advances from both the Russian Red Army and Nazi forces. Families are torn apart across enemy lines and soldiers are forced to make difficult choices to preserve a small nation caught in the middle of a global war. Estonia's Official Submission for the Academy Awards.

My thoughts:

I really hope this gem gets more exposure, because it's so though provoking. Rarely do you get a WWII film filled with such empathy.  Estonia is a small country in northern Europe (no, it's NOT a part of Russia!) so you are not likely to read about it in most high-school history textbooks, namely what was going on there during WWII, how the population was divided politically and ideologically. Some fought on the side of the Red Army, believing the alliance with the Soviet Union to be more beneficial, and some fought on the side of Hitler. The latter was a sort of "hold your nose" type of alliance. They ridiculed Hitler openly and harbored no illusions about his promises to "grandfather" the Estonians into the Aryan race. You cannot help but feel empathy for this small unique country trapped between two toxic giants. You see these young people forced to choose sides and realize that they cannot win, regardless of whose side they take.