![]() ![]() Restlessly and relentlessly, the camera swooshes up and down, inside and out, right up against faces the style decisively achieves its aim of making the environs feel inescapable.īut there is also a pronounced elegance to it this is neither the rough but spirited style of the French New Wave directors nor the hand-held work of Cassavetes and New York street documentarians of half a century ago. Take after take goes on for minutes, which vastly intensifies the sense of claustrophobia and being stuck in a place with no way out. Most important to the filmmakers is the sense of immersion. Anger and hopelessness scorch every scene of the film.ĭramatically, Athena proceeds like a series of tense and dire situations far more than like a story. Arguments, anguished feelings and violent impulses ensue, and the film that emerges is all movement and mayhem, shouting and screaming and flailing about for lack of any more concrete or useful way to address the tragedy. Eldest brother Moktar (Ouassini Embarek), is a self-absorbed merchant focused on his own shady dealings.īut then there’s hot-headed youngster Karim (Sami Slimane), whose immediate instinct is to riot in the streets and burn everything down he wants revenge and he wants it now. The middle brother Abdel ( Dali Benssalah), a soldier in the French army, returns home from the frontline and wants to keep things calm and let justice take its course. The tragedy is set off by the death of the youngest of four brothers in an apparent police incident. The action takes place on the edge of oblivion, and yet it’s clearly been choreographed (and perhaps visually enhanced digitally) to ensure that the action flows with a fluid sense of purpose. Seemingly unconstrained, Gavras and his cinematographer Matias Boucard create a constant flow of urban rapids that’s ever-pushing the viewer and the film to various indoor and outdoor locations in what feels like - but isn’t always - real time. With this technology at hand, the answer is: everywhere and nowhere. So powerful and extreme is it that you wonder where it can go from here. The power and inclusivity of this sequence is extraordinary a bit of a stunt, perhaps, but an undeniably breathtaking one, a cinematic high-wire act made possible by great imagination, stopwatch timing and technical resources only recently perfected. Venice Film Festival: Memorable Moments 1945-1984 Gallery A long, seamless opening shot transitions from a single building to all over the neighborhood in a startling visual manifestation of “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!” Spielberg’s West Side Story looks like child’s play compared to the way this was shot on the streets. Gavras, the son of famed Z director Costa Gavras and the maker of many music videos, shorts and commercials as well as two previous features, takes the ball from Ladj Ly and immediately cranks up the tension ten-fold. Just 10 miles from the center of Paris, they are stuck, the young men furious, beyond hope.Īll this is taken as a given by the filmmakers, who feel the need to explain nothing the anger and frustration are all that matter to those on or over the edge. As depicted here, the people of the titular community are essentially without hope, their lives lived in veritable cages, cramped flats in soulless modern housing projects. For the moment, in any case, the wisdom part of the equation has been shoved aside by the fomenter of conflict. In fact, the area is currently undertaking new transportation improvements, but the filmmakers’ interest lies strictly in the suffocating oppression, marginalization, lack of opportunity and explosive potential, which, at least as depicted in the film, remain dire.Īthena, lest we forget, was the Greek deity of wisdom and war. Were they exposed to a random few minutes of this film, most citizens of the world would never imagine that they were glimpsing Paris, based on the predominantly dark-skinned faces, blandly impersonal apartment towers, unfamiliar vocabulary, pronounced poverty and sense of lingering threat. This additional content includes new spells, weapons, units, heroes, buildings, quests and more.Venice Film Festival: Deadline’s Full Coverage Also included is every item, quest, unit and building previously only available for purchase using the in-game store. The Kingmaker game editor enables players to create their own missions. They will need a great deal of persuasion before they carry out your wishes. Your rule is not absolute, however, as you face subjects that are independent and stubborn. In the world of Majesty, you are the ruler of the Kingdom.
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