The boys are Pashtun who have grown up at the Shamshatoo refugee camp in Pakistan along with 53,000 other Afghanis, victims of the Russian-Afghan War or the American war against the Taliban. The politics of the refugees are not discussed and the film is basically a human story that crosses political and religious lines. Since Jamal speaks some English, Enayat's family asks him to go with him to London where he can apply for asylum as a refugee. From Peshawar, Jamal and Enayat travel by bus to Quetta and over the Iranian border to Taftan and by bus to Tehran. They do not have proper identification and must contend along the way with border guards, police, thieves, smugglers, and numerous changes in currency and language.

The boys bribe a customs officer with a Walkman but when ordered off a bus to Tehran, they meet a group of Kurds who offer them the hand of friendship. There is not much dialogue and the boys mostly improvise the funny stories and small talk as they endure days and weeks of waiting for their next ride. In a sequence of great beauty shot at nighttime using infrared photography, the Kurds help the two boys cross the icy mountains to Turkey, ducking the gunfire of armed soldiers at the Turkish border. Together with an Iranian and his wife and baby, they are then brutally forced to travel inside a shipping container for a 40-hour voyage from Turkey to Italy, a journey where only the strong survive.

In This World is not just a road movie but a human document of urgency and commitment that allows us to experience the humanity of the people some contemptuously refer to as "economic migrants" or "asylum seekers". While it is not a political statement, it is clearly as a slap at the recent hardening of European immigration policies. On a broader scale, however, the film can be seen as an apt metaphor for life. It tells us that the journey is exhilarating but fraught with unimagined obstacles at every turn, yet there are friends who are there for us along the way and, when we feel overwhelmed and hopeless, there is an aching beauty that fortifies us with the strength to keep going.

In the film, Jihei (Kichiemon Nakamura) is a paper merchant who is married with two young children. Though he loves his wife Osan, he has been secretly seeing a courtesan Koharu (Shima Iwashita who also plays Osan) for two and a half years. He has dissipated his fortune at the brothel and now cannot raise enough money to redeem Koharu from her enslavement to the brothel's owner (Kamatari Fujiwara). Though his family finds out about their romance and Osan tries to persuade Jehei to sever the relationship, it becomes apparent that the bond is unbreakable and we watch helplessly as the inevitable tragedy unfolds. Double Suicide has an eerie score by Toru Takemitsu and amazing black and white photography, shown in sharp detail and contrast in the new Criterion DVD, and is highly recommended for a unique viewing experience.
 

GRADE: B+

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May 14, 2004

Whales of August, The   (1987 / 91  Mins. / Rated PG)

Directed by Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Anderson's The Whales of August stars silent film legend Lillian Gish, in her 95^th year, and Bette Davis, 79, as widowed sisters, one warm and supportive, the other cold and cantankerous, who have been coming to a small cottage on the Maine seacoast for sixty years. Every August, they watch the journey of the whales passing in the nearby waters together but the sense is that this may be their last summer together. Knowing that their time is limited, the siblings attempt to resolve long-standing differences but face many obstacles. The Whales of August takes place during the course of a single day and the camera stays mostly inside the house except to follow the sisters on occasional walks to the ocean. It all sounds static but there is a great deal of emotion churning beneath the surface.

Libby (Davis) is nearly blind and very difficult to live with, always talking about how her life is over. Her sister Sarah (Gish) on the other hand is the polar opposite. She is sweet in her sisterly devotion to taking care of Libby and avoiding getting drawn into her moods (she always calls her dear). She brushes her hair, fixes breakfast for her, gets her clothes together and tends to the garden. "Busy, busy, busy" is how Libby talks about her and irritatingly calls her Say-rah throughout the film. Ms. Davis looks gaunt but her face shows a strength that is as craggy as the seacoast rocks. The film also features Vincent Price as Mr. Maranov, a down on his luck but charming Russian refugee whom Libby suspects is trying to worm his way in with them, and Haray Caray, Jr. as Joshua Brackett, a handyman who is forever making a racket in the house.

Also featured is Ann Sothern as Trish, a friend and neighbor who is close to convincing Sarah to leave Libby's care to her daughter until she remembers how Libby supported her when her own husband died. Sarah draws every ounce of emotion from a lovely scene in which she celebrates her 46^th wedding anniversary by having an imaginary conversation with Philip, her long deceased husband. "Forty-six years, Phillip", she tells him. "Forty-six red roses; forty-six white. White for truth--red for passion. That's what you always said - passion and truth; that's all we need. I wish you were here, Phillip." Another moving sequence is when Libby brushes her face with a lock of her husband's hair while sitting alone in her bedroom.

I had heard that The Whales of August was little more than a vehicle for two aging stars to sing their swan song; however, I found the screenplay by David Berry to gracefully complement the performances with an emotional honesty that captures the truth of the characters. Not a great deal happens in The Whales of August but that is often true of life. It is a gentle and civilized character study that lets us know it is never too late to bury long-standing grievances and open a picture window to possibility. It may be elegant and old fashioned in its style but it has a grace and beauty that is timeless.

GRADE: A-

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When Sarah (Kathleen Turner), Macon's wife of many years leaves him, he offers only a scant protest, content to move quietly back to his grandparents' house with his brothers and sister. The siblings, Rose (Amy Wright), Porter (David Ogden Stiers), and Charles (Ed Begley, Jr.) offer little stimulation and amply demonstrate why they are difficult to live. They obsessively alphabetize items in the pantry, play weird card games, and do not answer their telephone. Rose breaks out to marry Macon's publisher Julian (Bill Pullman) but moves back to the family house shortly afterwards because she has to look after "the boys". Macon mopes through each day, resisting any attempt to bring him out of his shell. When he locates a kennel to take care of his overly aggressive dog Edward, he meets Muriel Pritchett (Geena Davis), an eccentric and lonely dog trainer.

Muriel is a single mom who has a somewhat sickly seven-year old named Alexander and immediately zeroes in on Macon as a possible catch. Even though Macon rebuffs her overtures and they seem to have little in common, Muriel doggedly pursues him, trying to light a spark of life in the reclusive writer. Muriel seems to offer Macon a way out, but her abrasive neediness and the prospect of having deal with another child so soon after losing his own propels Macon to run the other way. When his wife Sarah returns seeking reconciliation, Macon must choose to go back to the way it was or take a chance that life could work better with Muriel.

Guido is preparing to shoot a new film with an expensive budget. He constructs a huge spaceship launch pad that costs $80 million but he is unsure of what he wants to say. Guido's dishonesty in dealing with his marriage, his career, and the fact that he really does not want to make the film forces him to falsely mislead people as to his true intentions. He feels like a failure and is physically spent. He checks into a spa to restore his health and well being but the contingent of producers, actors, writers, and hangers on undermine his strength. His feeling of being overwhelmed by personal and professional obligations provides the catalyst for dreams and fantasies that take him back to his childhood.

Fellini shows his encounter with the prostitute Saraghina (Eddra Gale) and the guilt he has to deal with in a confrontation with the Catholic Church. Guido invites his intellectual wife Luisa (Anouk Aimée) to the set but their relationship has turned cold and passionless, and sparks fly when she has to confront Carla (Sandra Milo), his buxom mistress. Guido is misguided but he has an innocence and charm that allows us to overlook his indulgences. He enjoys his pleasures but has a conscience and feels guilty about cheating on Luisa whom he loves and is afraid of losing. He fantasizes that all of the women in his life are together in a harem where they all dote on his every whim. When they finally recognize how little he cares about them, he is forced to suppress their revolt.

After repeated attempts, a doctor is found when a policeman (a former Mayor), finds an illegal substance in a car he's pulled over and sentences the driver Christopher Lewis (David Boutin), a Montreal plastic surgeon, to do rural service in St. Marie for one year. Local villager Germain Lesage (Raymond Bouchard) undertakes to persuade Dr. Lewis to live in the village for five years by cooking up one elaborate ruse after another, which he falls for hook, line, and sinker. The villagers pretend to be enthusiastic about cricket (of which they actually know next to nothing) and admirers of fusion jazz, serve him his favorite dish at the local restaurant, and leave $5 bills in a local lawn ornament each day to convince him of the town's magic.

Unfortunately, they go to lengths of dubious morality to win him over, illegally and unethically tapping his phone to listen to his conversations to find out how they can please him but all they learn is that he likes women's feet and beef stroganoff. They even force the bank manager to approve a loan of $50,000 to bribe the company manager. While Seducing Doctor Lewis has its charms and will put a smile on your face, it pushes all the formulaic buttons and lacks the bold imagination of superior English and Irish comedies on which it is modeled.