Venice diary - International round-up

David Jenkins looks as several titles from across the globe, including 'Paprika' and 'Fallen'.

Sep  5 2006

With American films really tearing up the competition this year, here's a rundown of some of the non-English language films playing at the festival...

'Paprika' is the latest from Japanese anime director Satoshi Kon who's never really capitalised on the cult success generated from his fantastic Hitchcockian debut, 'Perfect Blue'. The film centres on a contraption called the DC Mini which is used to enter other peoples dreams. Naturally, it's stolen by terrorists and used to wreak havoc on the collective inner sanctum. The title refers to a russet-haired coquette who enters the dreams to fight against the terrorists before (get this) dreams start merging together. Why you'd ever need to enter other peoples dreams is something Satoshi never reveals, but it's given him carte blanche to supply us with an array of dazzlingly colourful images, which he then reuses about six or seven times. Coherence and narrative are a definite no show, making this one of the more underwhelming prospects of the festival so far.

Things got considerably better with Austrian director Barbara Albert's attempt to drag the chick flick kicking and screaming into the 21st century with her amiable, if slightly meandering drama 'Fallen' about five women who reunite at the funeral of one of their classmates and embark on a night of booze-soaked soul searching which satisfyingly evades the heartfelt sisterly pourings of lesser English language fare. The ensemble acting is top drawer and there's a folk-rock soundtrack which neatly fragments the various episodes. Alas, a weak final act lets the film down, possibly the result of Albert's decision to introduce new ideas and twists right until the dying moments, and allowing the overall message - that people move on - to be swallowed up in the theatrics. Other than that, this was heartfelt and thought provoking stuff.

Showing out of competition was the tonally confused 'Quelques Jours en Septembre', an unusual film about an elusive CIA operative (Nick Nolte) and his shady dealings in the days preceding September 11, 2001. Screenwriter turned director Santiago Amigorena fails to keep a reign on his flock of characters and has the irritating tendency to film entire shots out of focus, no doubt for 'artistic reasons'. Juliet Binoche also struggles as a motherly secret service agent with appalling dress sense and an awful cackling laugh, going some way to prove that unless Michael Haneke is behind the camera, she can nowadays be something of an awkward presence. For those with curiosity in spades, it was worth seeing purely for John Turturro's bizzarre turn as a depressed hitman who recites lines of English poetry to his dead victims.

Adapted from a play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, 'Private Fears in Public Places' is a small-scale charmer from octogenarian Alain Resnais about the petty foibles of a middle class Parisian family. Concerning the various guises that loneliness can take in the modern world, it also embraces the odd connections we make as a result. There are times here where the director unintentionally shows his age, especially with an ill-judged subplot involving father Thierry (André Dussollier) who becomes obsessed with some pornography left on a VHS (yes, VHS) tape which directly follows a programme about religious music, but the film is otherwise bolstered by its pleasantly uncynical take on the desperate lives of these characters. At 120 minutes, it's too long to be considered prize worthy, but the second half does improve greatly on the first. Overall, a film for those who like their characters and camera focus a bit soft.

With a title like 'Jakpae (The City of Violence)', you'd probably not be too surprised to hear that Seung-wan Ryoo's film (a follow-up to his boxing pic 'Crying Fist') is about two macho coppers who kick ten bells out of anyone who gets in the way of their investigation. Set in Seoul (although frankly it could be anywhere – there's even a fight scene which takes place in the window display of what looks like a Marks and Sparks) the film is merely a series of increasingly ferocious fight scenes which look to have been speedily cobbled together and shoddily choreographed. The themes of lost innocence and the wavering passage of time directly rip-off John Woo's 'Bullet in the Head', but there's enough bravado and chop-socky carnage to ensure that Tarantino will no doubt be drooling into his Applejacks with this one.

• 
•