What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 28th July 2022.

The 75th Locarno Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday 3rd August and run through until Saturday 13th August. The official website reads 'over the course of its 75-year history, the Locarno Film Festival has become one of the most important film events in the world, in one of the most charming locations. Situated between the lake and the mountains, every summer the entire Swiss-Italian city, in the heart of Europe, turns into the capital of international cinema, bringing the most innovative visions to the screen. It’s eleven days of stars, new talents, professionals and, most importantly, the audience'. The Opening Night film sees the World Premier of the Brad Pitt starring 'Bullet Train' and Directed by David Leitch.

With eleven sections, three competitions and twenty awards, quality and variety are key. This is the framework of a Festival that explores cinema from every perspective, to discover in the present the filmmakers and films destined to have a future. 

The main competition is 'The Concorso Internazionale which features works shown primarily as World Premieres, coming from all over the world and competing for the prestigious Pardo d’oro. Showcasing established auteurs alongside the pleasure of discovery, storytelling and innovation, the Concorso Internazionale is an open, inclusive place, which aims to imagine the new territories of cinematic art. This is where the best forms of contemporary cinema converge, in keeping with the history and tradition of the Locarno Film Festival'. Those films in this competitive strand are :

* 'Declaration' from India and Directed, Written, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by Mahesh Narayanan. Hareesh and Reshmi are an immigrant couple from Kerala working in a medical gloves factory near Delhi. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, when an old video resurfaces among the factory workers, it opens up a Pandora’s box that threatens the couple’s jobs and marriage.

* 'Sermon to the Fish' from Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland and Turkey and Directed, Written, Co-Produced, Edited and lensed by Hilal Baydarov. Davud returns from war to find everyone in his village has succumbed to a strange illness and has decomposed. His sister, the only survivor, is slowly rotting away herself. He confronts the only true question, is surviving the same as living?

* 'Saturn Bowling' from France and Belgium and Directed and Co-Written by Patricia Mazuy. When their father dies, the ambitious police officer Guillaume offers the management of the bowling alley he inherited to his outcast half-brother Armand. The inheritance is cursed, and the two men wind up in a world of violence.

* 'At Night All Cats Are Gray' from Switzerland and Directed and Co-Produced by Valentin Merz. A crew is shooting a libertine costume film in the countryside when Valentin, the Director, suddenly disappears. While the local police investigate, the filming continues but takes an odd turn.

* 'The Adventures of Gigi the Law' from Italy, France and Belgium and Written and Directed by Alessandro Comodin. Gigi is a rural traffic officer where nothing ever happens. One day however, a young girl throws herself under a train. This is not the first time. Facing this unexplainable suicide wave, Gigi starts investigating a strange world, between reality and fantasy.

* 'Tales of the Purple House' from Lebanon, Iraq and France and Written, Directed, Co-Produced, Edited, lensed and sound recording and mixing by Abbas Fahdel. From their ’Purple House’ in the South of Lebanon, French-Iraqi Director Abbas Fahdel and his Lebanese wife, start exploring a multifaceted country that seems to be on the edge of the abyss. Guided only by their perspective, each of them tries, through their art, to grasp the beauty and hardships of a generous country that struggles to feed its children.

* 'Human Flowers of Flesh' from Germany and France and Written, Directed, Edited and lensed by Helena Wittmann. Ida lives on a ship with a crew of five men. In Marseille her attention is caught by the secretive male world of the French Foreign Legion and she decides to follow its traces across the Mediterranean.

* 'Il Pataffio' from Italy and Belgium and Written and Directed by Francesco Lagi. An unlikely group of soldiers and courtiers led by Marcount Berlocchio and his new bride Bernarda take possession of a distant fief. But their castle is a decrepit dump and their villagers aren’t willing to be ruled.

* 'Matter Out of Place' from Austria and Directed, Co-Produced and lensed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. This is a film about waste in remote areas and about people who are trying to clean up.

* 'Tommy Guns' from Portugal, France and Angola and Directed and Co-Edited by Carlos Conceicao. In 1974, the Portuguese and their descendants fled Angola where nationalist groups gradually claimed their territory back. A tribal girl discovers love and death when her path crosses that of a Portuguese soldier.

* 'Piaffe' from Germany and Co-Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Ann Oren. When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, the introvert Eva is forced to take on Zara’s job as a Foley artist. She struggles to create sounds for a commercial featuring a horse, and then a horsetail starts growing out of her body.

* 'Rule 34' from Brazil and France and Co-Written, Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by Julia Murat. Simone is a young law student who finds a passion for defending women in abuse cases. Yet her own sexual interests lead her to a world of violence and eroticism.

* 'Serviam - I Will Serve' from Austria and Co-Written, Directed and Co-Produced by Ruth Mader. An all-girl Catholic boarding school for the wealthy Austrian elite. Faith is declining. The head of the institution, an energetic young nun, fights with ardor against it.

* 'Fairytale' from Belgium and Russia and Written and Directed by Alexander Sokurov. Once upon a time there were two vagabonds... no... three... No, it’s four... But there were others, many different ones... I knew them. For a long time. But with them I felt cramped. Then something happened and they disappeared.

* 'Stella in Love' from France and Co-Written and Directed by Sylvie Verheyde. For Stella, it’s her final year. But she doesn’t care about it! That year, she discovers the famous Parisian '80's club, the Bains Douches, and its crazy nights. Her friends are just studying, her father has left with another woman and her mother is depressed. And then there is Andre, beautiful, black and mysterious, who dances like a God!

* 'Stone Turtle' from Malaysia and Indonesia and Co-Written, Directed and Co-Produced by Ming Jin Woo. Zahara, a stateless refugee, lives on a small remote island in Malaysia, where she makes a living selling turtle eggs. One day, Samad, claiming to be a university researcher, visits the island, wanting to employ Zahara to show him around.

* 'I Have Electric Dreams' from Belgium, France and Costa Rica and Directed by Valentina Maurel. Against Eva’s wishes, her mother wants to renovate the house and get rid of the cat, which, disoriented since the divorce, pees everywhere. Eva wants to go and live with her dad, who, disoriented like the cat, is experiencing a second adolescence.

The other two competitive strands are The Concorso Cineasti del presente which offers a selection of first and second feature films, mostly World Premieres, Directed by emerging global talents; and, a territory for expressive experimentation and innovative formal poetry, the Pardi di domani section showcases short and medium length films as World or International Premieres. 

For the details of these other two competition sections, plus the full line of current and future releases, retrospectives and the full programme, you can go to the official website at : https://www.locarnofestival.ch/LFF/locarno75.html

This week then to tempt you out on a chilly and wet mid-Winter's evening, we have four new movies coming to your local Odeon, starting off with a story that unfolds over a weekend in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and explores the reverberations of a random accident on the lives of both the local Muslims, and Western visitors to a house party hosted in a grand desert villa. Next up are a couple of French offerings, the first of which sees a brilliant architect who suddenly has to investigate the murder of the landlord and patriarch of the mansion she was assigned to renovate, and this is followed by a story of a single mother raising two children, who finally gets an interview for a job where she can raise her children better only to run into a national transit strike. And closing out the week we have an Aussie horror thriller that is a sequel to a 2010 film, that sees a great white shark stalking four friends of a Pacific Islands kayaking and diving holiday. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the four latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'THE FORGIVEN' (Rated MA15+) - is a drama film Written, Co-Produced and Directed by John Michael McDonagh whose previous Directorial offerings take in 'The Guard' in 2011, 'Calvary' in 2014 and 'War on Everyone' in 2016. This film is based on the 2012 novel of the same name written by Lawrence Osborne. It saw its World Premier screening at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September last year, went on release in the US on 1st July, is released in Australia this week and in the UK in early September having so far taken US$344K at the Box Office and garnered generally favourable Reviews. 

Speeding through the Moroccan desert at night to attend an old friend's lavish weekend party, wealthy Londoners David and Jo Henninger (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain respectively) are involved in a tragic accident with a local teenage boy. Arriving late at the grand villa with the debauched party raging, the couple attempts to cover up the incident with the collusion of the local police. But when the boy's father arrives seeking justice, the stage is set for a tension-filled culture clash in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences. Also starring Matt Smith, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee, Alex Jennings and Christopher Abbott.

'MURDER PARTY' (Rated M) - this French comedy mystery film is Co-Written and Directed by Nicolas Pleskof in his feature length film debut. Here, we follow Jeanne Chardon-Spitzer (Alice Pol), a brilliant architect on a new job, renovating a beautiful mansion owned by an eccentric family who head a board game empire. Jeanne turns from architect to investigator when the landlord and patriarch is found dead and suddenly everybody is a suspect. Also starring Eddy Mitchell, Miou-Miou, Pablo Pauly, Gustave Kervern, Sarah Stern, Pascale Arbillot and Zabou Breitman. 

'FULL TIME' (Rated M) - is a French drama film Written and Directed by Eric Gravel in only his second feature film making outing following 2017's 'Crash Test Aglae'. Here, Julie Roy (Laure Calamy) goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the countryside while keeping her job as the head chambermaid of a five-star hotel in Paris. She just about manages to get by with the help of sporadic child support payments from her ex-husband. Each day is meticulously planned out, starting before sunrise, preparing the kids for school and undertaking a long commute to work, where she unflappably completes her duties in time to return to them. When she finally gets a job interview for a position she had long been hoping for, a national railway strike breaks out, bringing the public transport system to a grinding halt. The fragile balance that Julie has established is jeopardised, increasingly pushing her into a frenetic race against time that threatens everything she’s worked so hard for. Also starring Anne Suarez and Genevieve Mnich. This film won the Best Director Award for Eric Gravel and the Best Actress Award for Laure Calamy at last years Venice Film Festival. 

'THE REEF : STALKED' (Rated M) - this Australian horror thriller is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Andrew Traucki and is the follow up to his 2010 great white shark terror offering 'The Reef'. In the intervening years Traucki has also Directed 'The Jungle' and 'Black Water : Abyss'. In an effort to heal after witnessing her sister's horrific murder, Nic (Teressa Liane) travels to a tropical Pacific Island resort with her friends for a kayaking and diving adventure. Only hours into their expedition, the women are stalked and then attacked by a great white shark. To survive they will need to band together and Nic will have to overcome her post-traumatic stress, face her fears and slay the monster. Also starring Ann Truong, Kate Lister and Saskia Archer.

With four new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-