Weekly round-up

Potent politics, a saintly noodle seller, a polluted
playground and Nazi-hunting femme fatales

DESPERATE DANCER: Serveuses Demandées

by CHRISTOPHER SYKES

Serveuses demandées
When it comes to social agendas in cinema, some directors prefer to approach the subject at heart with a subtle, metaphorical demeanour (see this week’s Home as an example) while others go for the more straightforward jackhammer approach. Serveuses demandées, written and directed by local filmmaker Guylaine Dionne, presents its social thesis in a way that’s much more the later than the former. That’s not to say that direct is bad, or even predictable for that matter, but it certainly opens a picture up for a literal, face-value interpretation.

Serveuses demandées takes the risk that viewers may feel bullied by its politics—that being the plight of young Brazilian Priscilla (Janaina Suaudeau) who finds herself without work or a valid visa after her study permit expires. As her family is convinced Suaudeau is living the Canadian dream, it’s not an option for her to leave behind the Mile-End snow banks for her native white sand beaches.

Lacking options, the desperate Suaudeau is pointed in the direction of the Elixir strip club by a seedy compatriot. It’s there she meets Milagro (Montreal’s Clara Furey, who incidentally steals scene after scene), a young Québécoise who shows her the ropes. The two quickly become inseparable and a love interest is sparked which leaves Suaudeau even more vulnerable. The ending is as transparent as the politics, but props to Furey and Suaudeau for delivering performances that bring the pic home. The soundtrack by Martha Wainwright also deserves mention.

A Dream for Kabul
Philippe Baylaucq’s unforgettable documentary revolves around one simple man: Haruhiro Shiratori, a Japanese noodle seller, and his ambitious attempt to end a circle of violence half a world from his Tokyo home. After losing his only son in the 9/11 attacks on New York City, Shiratori, who himself lived through the American fire bombings of Tokyo in WWII, turns his grief into an ideological quest for the betterment of the impoverished Afghan people.

He is certain that education will kill the urge for revenge that accompanies injustice—the same blood lust he felt towards the Afghans after losing his son—and sets about building a cultural centre for the children of Kabul to promote his message of non-violence.

Baylaucq’s imagery throughout Kabul speaks volumes about the progress Shiratori aims to bring future generations of Afghanistan: shots of unisex classrooms, a kite circling the new Afghan flag, even simplicities such as music (all of which were banned by the fundamentalist Taliban) provide a visual proof that a greater good is being served.

Shiratori, a natural pedagogue who has taught himself magic as a means to break language barriers, shares the story of his son’s death and his own war torn childhood with anyone wise enough to listen. The drama in the picture is whether his message of forgiveness and education will triumph over government bureaucracy, but Shiratori meets each challenge with near infinite patience and fierce determination. His son’s legacy will be honoured, and Afghanistan’s sons and daughters will be richer in the process. It’s absolutely too good to miss.

MENACING MOTORWAY: Home

Home
It’s arguable that Cannes’ best days have come and gone but if you’re able to look beyond the gala openings for Terminator 3 and the like, it’s still one of the key venues showcasing new and challenging cinematic talent. Film festival darlings Isabelle Huppert and Olivier Gourmet have opened some of their best work to rave reviews at Cannes (La Pianiste and L’Enfant respectively) and their successes have ensured both near carte blanche when it comes to future projects.

Home, which premiered at Cannes and was directed by 37-year-old first-time filmmaker Ursula Meier, is certainly new and challenging. In what can best be described as a claustrophobic anti-road movie, Huppert and Gourmet star as a good-natured yet financially modest couple who happen to live next to an abandoned freeway. In the name of progress, the roadway is finished and the family of five find their unhurried way of life forever changed. Once a playground, the highway now spews forth pollution, both noise and air, and is a legitimate danger to the family’s well-being.

Meier impresses as she steadfastly manipulates the scenario, transforming the film from comedy into melodrama with the opening of the new motorway, and then finally into dystopic horror as the family cracks under the pressure of coping with noise and barricade themselves inside the house, fortifying it with cinder blocks to keep the noise out. The metaphors lean towards the artsy-fartsy at times, but it’s still evocatively poignant and, above all, a very solid debut.

FOXY FOURSOME: Les Femmes de l’ombre

Les Femmes de l’ombre
This exceedingly average WWII spy flick starring Sophie Marceau appears far more interesting on paper than what it amounts to on screen. Working for the Resistance together with brother Pierre (a ridiculously mustachioed Julien Boisselier) for the SOE covert warfare department in London, Marceau recruits three French femmes (Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillain and Déborah François) to partake in the daring rescue of a British geologist from an occupied hospital in France.

As the scientist holds crucial information about the upcoming D-Day landings at Normandy and SS officer Colonel Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu) seems to have cracked his captive, the mission is two-fold: bring back the Brit and kill any Nazis now in the know.

The usual gunfights and torture scenes are all present, and of course the female foursome outsmart those pesky Nazis using their sexuality time and time again to both rescue the geologist and take a crack at icing Colonel Heindrich. Despite a rather sultry burlesque strip show meant as a smoke screen, Heindrich escapes death and the gals have to chase him back to Paris.

It’s a foregone conclusion that Colonel Heindrich gets it and the D-Day landings go on as planned, but we’re treated nonetheless to Marceau’s giddy reaction back in London as the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich is announced over the airwaves. And just to hammer home that she’s thinking of her comrades, Marceau dawdles off to church to light a candle for each of her fallen friends. Vive le fromage libre.

ALL FILMS OPEN THIS FRIDAY, JAN. 16