Carnage (2011)

I don’t even know where to begin with this film. It stars some pretty famous actors – Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, and that guy from Chicago (John C. Reilly, apparently). Also some other dude who’s mostly been in German films. It’s directed by Roman Polanski who, in his time, has directed some of my favourite films ever – The Pianist (starring Adrien Brody) and The Ninth Gate (with Johnny Depp). I didn’t really think much of his last offering – The Ghost (Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall and Pierce Brosnan) – but I was expecting a well directed film from Carnage, despite its seemingly rather vague and simple plot. Indeed, because of its simple plot, Carnage relies upon good direction to give it momentum and flow.

The film doesn’t last long – only about 70 minutes or so. Thank God. Half an hour would have sufficed. Half an hour of bickering and moaning during which we establish a thorough dislike for every one of the four characters in turn.

The premise is simple. After a violent incident between two boys, two sets of parents are brought together in a New York apartment to discuss their sons’ behaviour and to establish a plan for ensuring both boys understand the seriousness of the situation, and learn about appropriate conflict resolution. It’s all very civilised and grown-up - the parents of the boy who attacked the other take full responsibility for their son’s behaviour. At least at first. Perhaps inevitably, after a while the formal meeting degenerates into an alcohol-fuelled shouting match, with increasingly childish behaviour, name-calling, and general… carnage.

The film is presented to us in real time, give or take. It’s 24 but with fewer terrorists, guns, digital clocks, and exciting bits. OK it’s not 24 - you wouldn’t catch Jack Bauer getting tremendously drunk from a small glass of whisky in the space of 15 minutes. Apparently the characters in Carnage can manage it though – how ridiculous. The drunkenness of course loosens their tongues and lets them blurt out what they really think about each other. Gone are repressed, polite, thoroughly middle-class adults, being replaced by whiny, indignant messes.

All four parents have their individual quirks. The hosts are apparently rather a normal couple, a little bit arty, offer home-made puddings to their guests, and write books about conflicts in Africa. The other couple are richer, posher, and very formal. The husband talks constantly on his mobile to someone at his office and the wife does something boring that possibly has something to do with investments. Their various quirks become more of a feature as tempers flare and gradually we see all four become thoroughly objectionable people. The question I have though is this - how am I supposed to care about a fight that I don’t want anybody to win?

Carnage is based on a French play – God of Carnage, by Yazmena Reza, so I can’t really blame them for the story, although the play’s apparently done very well, including as a West-End production. I think though, that it must have been toned down for cinema. A quick Wikipedia of the play tells me that it contains heated debates touching on homophobia and racial issues which have definitely been left out of the film. This leaves us with only the banal and trivial topics and I don’t care about those. Nor can I understand why they would get so animated about them. It escalates quickly, too quickly. I just don’t believe it.

I’ll possibly watch the play at some point and see how I feel about that. If it proves to be good then I can file Carnage away in the increasingly large section in my brain entitled ‘Films that have ruined good plays’. It can sit next to Closer and several of the Shakespeares.

Polisse (2011)

I enjoyed this film. I think. It’s candid (sometimes very candid), and follows a child protection unit (CPU) in the Paris police force. These are the people who track down runaway crack-whores and their babies, break up gypsy-run child exploitation gangs, and prosecute paedophiles. It sounds a fun job.

The film follows the group rather than individuals, although personal storylines of some of the characters are explored, and we see them together either at work or unwinding afterwards with food and wine – it’s all very French. They argue, they shout, they’re a group of passionate people. They’ve been thrown together in a difficult career and appear to have bonded through the difficulty.

Into this mix is thrown Melissa (played by writor/director Maïwenn), a photographer who wants to follow the unit, capturing key events and scenes on film.

It’s a film with a completely different style to what I usually experience when I venture into French film. Think of Amilé, Potiche, Delicatessen - all of them very different films but with that little bit of French quirkiness and oddness about them; the type of oddness that I can only usually deal with in small doses. Polisse has none of that and has encouraged me to try French cinema more often for it really is quite a good film.

Visually it isn’t particularly disturbing. They’re obviously not going to show most of the crimes that they’re dealing with on film. There are many police interviews however, which frequently go into detail of the offences the suspects are accused of – both with the suspects themselves, and with witnesses/children. This makes for some uncomfortable viewing. It would be hard to watch police interviews with remorseless paedophiles without some strong emotions rising up - the obvious surprise and shock, with a twinge of disgust and a base-note of anger. I personally enjoyed that though. They’re not feelings that get expressed all that often in day-to-day life and I think it’s good practice to bring them out every now and then.  Happy smiley films are all very well but I really value those films that properly affect you and the way you feel. Is that not what they’re for after all?

And if that does nothing for you, wait for the end. Set a little later after a summer break, it feels a little bit like it’s just been tagged on for completeness. It’s not quite long enough to assert itself as a decent section of the film and me with a new feeling – surprise, yes, but mostly confusion.

Bel Ami (2012)

I have no great love for Robert Pattinson, but having said that I don't particularly have anything against him. I will admit to having seen one of the Twilight films (for my sins) but he was in no way the most offensive part of it. He didn’t put me off this film and I’m even considering watching Cosmopolis, which seems to be not far off being The Pattinson Show. I won’t rave about his attractiveness though. The whole pale glittery vampire thing doesn’t really do it for me.

Sideburns and a cravat on the other hand…

Now, there are far too many close ups on Pattinson’s eyes and far too many would-be smouldering looks across a crowded room for the directors to be able to claim anything other than that this is basically a sex film. A lot of effort has gone into making us find this boy sexy - we as an audience need to want him. If we don’t, how can we understand why all these women are falling over themselves (sometimes literally) to have him? It’s safe to say that it works too. He’s hot - at least at the beginning of the film. As he makes his way through several influential men’s wives (played reasonably well by Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Kristin Scott Thomas), the impressive moody looks and subtle lighting start to wear a little thin however. I was over it, and over him, by the half-way point. Coincidently this was also the point where I stopped really caring about the film at all.

Sex (and the power that goes with it) is the main theme of the film. Monsieur Duroy (aka Bel Ami) starts off newly arrived in Paris, poor and friendless (mais oui) and, after a chance meeting with an old acquaintance, goes about sleeping with as many wives and daughters as possible in order to gain money, fame, and influence. It’s a flawless scheme… clearly, and in no way gets him in trouble.

There are other plot devises that go on amongst all this but frankly none of them are particularly interesting and the film ends up being a rather pointless, but harmless, affair (no pun intended) which was interesting enough to watch once. I’m also curious enough to see what the directors produce next – it’s their first full length film, and not a bad one at that.