Three must-sees for summer 2010

Here's some good summer news for our fire-proofed souls to survive the horrid heat: three splendid films have hit (sneaked in might rather be said given the fairly discrete welcome in terms of audiences) the local screens along the first half of this summer. Even if three's a crowd, it's clearly too low a number for me daring to mention the word trend, but these pictures do certainly share a common approach to their stories and the way of telling them: small, unpretentious arguments with outstanding performances supporting deeply humanistic stories very hard to attach to a certain nationality. It seems like -yet another- golden age for European independent cinema. Have an example of the multi-nationalily feature, from that of clearest adscription to the absolute mélange: there is a French film that might well be Italian or even Swiss, then an Irish-Dutch film (such an unexpected alliance!) written & directed by a Dutch filmmaker of Polish origin and finally a British-French film on multicultural bridges directed by an Algerian-born Frenchman. And the three of them are simply brilliant pieces of a growing jigsaw that reflects the complex reality of contemporary European society and its concerns. Know what's best about it all? There's still the second half to arrive, and some more outstanding operas seem to be yet in store!

A couple of citations/images from these pictures follow - quite unlike Wikipedia (noticed the great, I'd say lightning-speed-growing collection of film entries in the reference dictionary of our time? more good news alright!), one was never too fond of plot descriptions, but rather a fan of resemblances and impressions (quite harder to communicate or google for however):

• The view on the sky and the sea from the house on top of the mountain
• The scene at the man's home at the start of the film after the woman finds out about her cheating husband
• The sympathetic Italian policemen on foot requesting passports to be shown at the walking path through the Alps
• The touching dialogue with the Italian couple after the rescue at sea
• The crazy (and wise) musician father obsessed with christianism and guilt

• A scent of ‘Sans toit ni loi’ so many years after – and in such different social circumstances indeed!
• "Talent knows where to stop"
• Music as the film third leading character (“Rubber room” as ironic counterpart to the educated lieder)
• "Make it stop" and the couple walking (or rather stumbling) along the deserted road in the windy dawn at the countryside (credit goes to the débutant photographer)
• "Ours is not to struggle for tiresome perfection" - goes the brilliant reply
• The seaweed - didn't it also make you think of 'The field' and Richard Harris?
• Those final, caracteristically Mediterranean staircases – where were those recorded?
  
  
  



• The picture of the still-standing, stone-faced man with the paper covered in blood (gracefully not appearing in the film)
• The sober yet helpful butcher downstairs - "I just mind my own businesses you know"
• A peaceful neighbourood. A linked community – bonds and the people who work for keeping them alive
• The muslim policeman and the sweet woman at the counter telling about missing people
• The music (Armand Amar)

EU Media Programme for promotion of European film production and distribution should be credited as well for such a flourishing – long live successful initiatives for keeping the business going in difficult times.