In Ridley Scott’s film Napoleon, Joaquin Phoenix is ​​a living cartoon character

A cheerful start in theaters for Todd Haynes’ drama “May December” with just over 7,000 tickets, and a first place performance with a not-so-great-but-not-bad (also internationally) performance for the new “Hunger Games” with 20,000 tickets. Scorsese is still holding on strong, they don’t say it over and over again, it’s one of the biggest hits of the period (now with 110,000 tickets) while Marvels did 29,000 tickets after two weeks…maybe they’ll surpass Past Lives? The global failure of this film is definitely one of the box office stories of the year.

We move into a week with a new Joaquin Phoenix in the role of “Napoleon”, with the extreme political drama “Green Borders”, but also with the wonderful gem of cinema “Red Sky” from the great German director Christian Petzold (Transit (“The Water Nymph”).

Movies of the week:

Napoleon

(“Napoleon,” Ridley Scott, 2 hours 38 minutes)

***

In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon’s rise from military leader to new emperor was rapid. We view his rise through the lens of his relationship with Iosifina, and the times he was forced to leave her behind to be on the battlefield defeating opposing generals—until he was defeated himself.

Ridley Scott delivers an imperfect (himself) biopic of Napoleon – according to the British director, a 4-hour director’s cut will be found on Apple TV in the future – which despite any flaws remains technically sound, impressive, and never dull , very funny, and in places almost unconventional for biographical cinema.

Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role seems intent on psychologicalizing his hero in a very strange way, playing him as a sullen cartoon character. He delivers dry phrases like “Fate brought me that rib!” Which has now become legendary, or stomps his foot like a spoiled little child whose neighbor refuses to return the soccer ball that fell on his balcony, or remains completely unable to understand what is happening. The psychology of things and the context of the situation, Phoenix entertains (us) by taking an x-ray of this famous historical figure with Ridley Scott a step beyond any joke or obvious observations.

There, in his relationship with Josephine (an unsettling Vanessa Kirby), the film’s greatest interest lies in how their utterly unpredictable dynamic is expressed in Bonaparte’s actions—a testament to the idea that behind every action lies a repressed emotion or passion. Selfishness. The film could be great if it devoted itself more to this dynamic, but in its current form it seems unable to focus on a single point. Whenever events move to the battlefield, something of Scott and Phoenix’s concerns seem to be left behind, and developments (usually biographical) sometimes seem to unfold disjointedly and merely as a recitation of the facts.

These individual scenes are of course highly theatrical. There Scott frames Napoleon almost exclusively in close-ups, thanks to the way his figure is erased with his hat, filling the frame with all its dimensions, while, on the contrary, the armies are mainly photographed from a distance – on the one hand, he, on the The other, everyone else, people at a distance, unreal people, expendable figures that he uses strategically. But beyond that, especially in terms of the space they take up, the impressive scenes are more or less empty spectacle, far removed from what’s happening inside the palace walls or the claustrophobic city streets.

It is nonetheless a competent, beautiful, and genuinely entertaining (and very funny!) historical epic, with one of Joaquin Phoenix’s most interesting performances at the helm. This disparity between its separate parts only suggests that a better, and perhaps even stranger, film is imminent. Okay, we have what we have, okay, we’ll wait for the full version.

Red sky

(“Affair/Rotter Himmel”, Christian Petzold, 1 hour 43 minutes)

***½

Leon and Felix go on vacation to the latter’s country house but there they also find Nadia, a mysterious (or maybe not so mysterious?) woman who disturbs Leon, who cannot concentrate on writing his book. It could be his fault, of course, and the way he refuses to let the life around him touch him. Or the fires that increasingly surround them may also be to blame.

Perhaps the most important contemporary German director (we’ve already praised Transit and The Water Nymph) leaves behind the cities where he often weaves new romantic myths, and travels to the countryside where he has a summer holiday in the style of Eric Rohmer. It perfectly balances relaxation and stress. Leon (a dim and fantastically inexpressive Thomas Schubert) faces the agony of a difficult second book, and instead of wanting to live more of life (which he will turn into a story) he chooses to withdraw increasingly into himself.

He chose to be the one who always stays behind, the one who only looks but does not touch, the one who burns with all the desires he suppresses. Paula Beer’s Nadia (now a regular Petzold star) is constantly moving, humane and ever-present, as the film undermines the idea of ​​a mysterious female muse, while sidekick Felix is ​​increasingly absent, having a summer of offscreen fun – when Leon discovers what’s really going on with his friend This probably comes as a surprise to him.

At the same time, Petzold draws influences from horror cinema, from Hitchcock to the rural monsters in The Hills Have Eyes, lending a sustained, simmering tension to the idea of ​​a man who remains a passive spectator of the life happening around him. It is, and so is, expiration, for nothing (let alone happiness) can last forever. The entire film is a constant gaze: the things Leon stupidly looks at, the things he represses, and the things he doesn’t even see.

So, it’s a light summer adventure that is itself a play on the idea of ​​storytelling (as a recent development confirms), and on the relationship between stories and reality, between what we (actually) want and what we (theoretically) would want. Perhaps in places this experience leaves us more than ideal in the company (and gaze) of a central character who is ultimately completely disliked, with the ending not helping matters either.

But the way Petzold plays with the rhythm of the film, how he exploits the natural setting and how he moves between worry and tension, emotion and suspense, with the help of his very strong cast, results in a film that manages to be as entertaining as it is. mysterious. Light, but at the same time something you’ll carry with you as a strange summer memory that, from a distance, seems a little weirder than you can explain.

Green border

(“Green Border / Zielona Granica”, Agnieszka Holland, 2 hours 27 minutes)

**½

In the swampy forests that form the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa are trying to reach the European Union but are stuck in a geopolitical crisis orchestrated by dictator Alexander Lukashenko. The pawns in this hidden war are Julia, a newly recruited activist who has abandoned her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian refugee family.

Agnieszka Holland (1992 Academy Award nominee for Europa Europa) weaves a highly topical social and political drama about the denials and cynicism with which real people’s lives are used to advance other agendas. Holland wants to capture a harsh reality at the same time, but he also wants to play a morality play (with simple choices made by people whose lives are judged only by them), using an idea that would have been a very useful basis on which to build the film in the first place. – a really sharp comment on the relativity of life, and a rather wasteful one.

The film carries the weight of its meaning in a way that often makes it somewhat repetitive and static (it’s long, it’s obvious), but the power of its images is undeniable. Special Prize from the Venice Commission and A Little War for the film At Home Where the Government Attacks the Netherlands and the Hard Realities of the Work.

Petrov’s fever

(“Petrov’s Flu / Petrovy vs. Grebe”, Kirill Serebrennikov, 2 hours 25 minutes)

***

A day in the life of comedian Petrov who wanders through a surreal, frenetic version of post-Soviet Russia and becomes embroiled in a series of unexpected events that straddle the line between real and fantastic. Kirill Serebrennikov, one of modern European cinema’s most visual storytellers – even when he creates scenes that are heavy and difficult to access – composes a delirious stitch of allegorical episodes whose starting point is Putin’s regime’s Russia and as a backdrop of claustrophobic feeling. On the one hand, the epidemic, and on the other hand, house arrest (by this Putin regime).

(His world) as a dead-end absurdity, like the darkest club in the known universe, tinted with an unhealthy green and with a diseased essence permeating it from end to end. A difficult art house, but born from the mind of an original artist.

he wishes

(“Desire”, Chris Buck, von Weerasundhorn, 1 hour 35 minutes)

**

Young Asa encounters the powerful (and beloved by the people) king and sorcerer Magnificent, who possesses the desires of all the inhabitants of Rosa’s kingdom. When one grants their wish to the Magnificent, they forget that they ever had it, and effectively lose a part of themselves. Magnifico, on the other hand, has no intention of achieving almost any of them, because he finds them all dangerous to his authority. How will Asa manage? A star will hear her wish and fall from the sky to help her.

Disney’s centennial film, which is set up as a formula from past successes (filled to the brim with references to the studio’s other beloved films and characters) but as it builds on the score and vice versa, forgets how to actually be a real movie. Ideas appear and are forgotten, secondary characters are like archetypes but no one is forgotten, not a single joke works, and overall the film doesn’t seem to have a single organic idea. It wins points for the central heroine and for an aesthetic (though not really successful) attempt to emulate traditional design through a “hollowed out” version of 3D animation.

It is still in circulation

Through Dalva’s eyes: 12-year-old Dalva lives alone with her father. One night, the police broke into their home and handed her over to a foster family. When Dalva befriends her new roommate Samia and social worker Jaden, she gradually realizes that the love she shared with her father is not what she thought it was. Sexual assault is carefully and utterly viscerally depicted, in his award-winning directorial debut.

The path of atonement: A noir film set in a small town in Mississippi, where a mother and young daughter find themselves in the eye of a hurricane, where whiskey, guns, and a thirst for revenge intersect. Thriller drama with Mel Gibson.