Jimmy's Hall

Jimmy's Hall
La salle de danse

Drama

England, Irland, France, 2015, 109 min.

Director: Ken Loach
Writers: Paul Laverty (screenplay), Donal O'Kelly (play)

Actors:  Barry ward, Francis Magee, Alleen Henry

Distribution:  Métropole Films Distribution

This film is based on a true story of Jimmy (James) Gralton, the only Irish citizen who was ever deported from Ireland in 1933 and was permanently banned from returning back to his country. He died in New York after the end of World War II, in December 1945. The film recounts events leading to his deportation.

The film shows the Ireland's political and social tensions, as well as the general moral and power issues in the late 20th early 30th of the last century. Jimmy returns from America and opens a Hall where people dance, learn Irish-Gaelic language, recite poetry and discuss various issues. Do come and see the film and decide for yourself whether his deportation was justified. The fim has a very touching and quite innocent love story. Whether true to life or invented, it plays a major part in the film.

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Jimmy's Hall Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Barry Ward, Simone Kirby Movie HD

Top photo courtesy of Cinema Excentris.
Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova

Le Sel de la Terre - The Salt of the World

The Salt of the World
Le Sel de la Terre

Documentary
Brasil, Italy, France, 2015, 110 min.

Realisation: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Distribution: Métropole Films Distribution

This is a remarkable film, a tribute to life and work of the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. The scope of the film is truly epic. It covers 40 years of the photographer's life and takes the spectators through all the major recent events in history, trough international conflicts, starvation, involuntary exodus-migrations and mass death. Salgado's photography reveals the extend of misery millions of people were made to suffer, most of it largely not in the vision-focus of the prosperous nations' populace. The film makes a statement that all the people, each individual person is the salt of the world of this Earth, each equally deserving life, respect, dignity and basic means and conditions for peaceful living.

Salvado's constant work on documenting extreme human suffering, of creating his visual stories of it, caused him to become ill in his body and spirit. He stopped taking pictures for quite a while. What helped him to come back to his art was changing his focus from portraying human misery to concentrating instead on the beauty and power of nature, its ability to regenerate itself, especially when helped by a carrying human hand which rebuilds what was previously destroyed. His latest photographic project is called Genesis. It documents those parts of the world which look like they did at the times of the biblical Genesis, with its pristine vistas, wild flora and fauna, and grandiose landscapes. 

Salvado's photographs are black and white. He works masterfully with many shades of greys to brings depth and expression to his images. His photographs are true works of art with many layers of meaning. I highly recommend everybody to see this film.

Film's trailer

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova

Le bruit des arbres - The Sound of Trees

Le Bruit des Arbres
The Sound of Trees
Drama
Québec, 2015, 78 min.

Director: François Péloquin
Actors:  Roy Dupuis, Antoine L’Écuyer, Rémi Goulet
Distribution: K-Films Amérique

This Quebec film is presently in competition at the Karlovy Vary film festival in the Czech Republic. Its contemporary North American setting only intensifies the ages-long universal themes of a father-son relationship, and of a young man coming of age, as well as portraying the general existential dilemma. The conflicts presented are specific to this family and their way of life, but the turmoil the young man feels and the intensity of his feelings and reactions are clearly recognizable as an adolescent's angst, as is his solution out of it - to leave his parents home and to go into the "big" world. And although one might conclude that at the end the young man rejects his father's way of life, not wishing to continue in his footsteps, this might be a precipitated opinion. The son does not burn his bridges with is father just before leaving the town, but rather, with a grand gesture, rebuilds their relationship by placing it on a solid ground. Since he is only 17 years old, his life and experiences might still one day bring him right back to his native town, when the perspective of owning and running a family business and being one's own boss might be much better appreciated. At his present young and rebellious age, he simply is not able to work for his father.

The name of the film Le bruit des arbres, which literally translates as "The Noise of the Trees",  does not refer to the sounds the trees make when swayed by the winds, but rather to the noise produced when they are cut down and processed in the family lamber business. The father hears this noise, the son does not. His ears are plugged with earphones as he listens to a very loud music instead. The word "noise"  most likely also refers to all the external and internal "noise" one creates in one's life and in others who surround him.

The acting is superb. Both Roy Depuis as well as Antoine L’Écuyer who plays his son portray their characters exceptionally well. The scenery of the Gulf of St. Laurence river, where the town is located, is the perfect setting for this film.

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Film's trailer

Top photo courtesy of Cinema Excentris.
Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova