Richard (Brad Pitt) gets some bad news in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel
WEEKEND CLASSICS: BABEL (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006)
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Fearing that the people of the world, who all spoke the same language, were capable of anything after building a tower that reached to the heavens, the Old Testament God confused their languages and scattered them all over the earth. The inability of people to communicate with one another is at the center of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fascinating, compelling Babel. The plot follows three stories that slowly intertwine. On vacation in Morocco, Susan (Cate Blanchett) is the victim of a random gunshot fired by a small boy (Boubker Ait El Caid), sending her husband, Richard (Brad Pitt), into a frenzy to try to save her life. Meanwhile, their housekeeper, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), who is looking after their children, has to decide what to do with them on the day of her son’s wedding in Mexico, turning to her crazy nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal) for help. And in Tokyo, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) is a deaf-mute teenager who desperately wants to fall in love, but all the boys she meets — and her father (the great Kôji Yakusho, from The Eel, Cure, and Shall We Dance?) — don’t take the time to listen to and understand her. Despite a couple of minor wrong turns, Iñárritu recovers to make Babel a whirlwind of a movie, laying bear the tragic consequences that can occur when people refuse to simply communicate, even in the most basic of ways.
The film, the finale in the unofficial Death Trilogy written by Guillermo Arriaga (preceded by Amores Perros and 21 Grams), received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Guillermo Arriaga), and Best Supporting Actress (both Barraza and Kikuchi). It was part of the triple play of fabulous films by Mexican directors in 2006, along with Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (nominated for six Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film) and Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (three Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay), all three of whom are among the world’s best filmmakers more than ten years later; Iñárritu’s films have earned three Best Picture nominations and two Best Foreign Language nods (Amores Perros, Biutiful), winning for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance); he has been named Best Director twice, for Birdman and The Revenant. A 35mm print of Babel is screening May 19-21 at eleven o’clock in the morning in the IFC Center series “Weekend Classics: Border Crossings,” which continues Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings through July 2 with such other films as John Sayles’s Lone Star, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, and Gregory Nava’s El Norte.
“You call this a film?” Jafar Panahi asks rhetorically about halfway through the revealing documentary This Is Not a Film. After several arrests beginning in July 2009 for supporting the opposition party, the highly influential and respected Iranian filmmaker (Crimson Gold, Offside) was convicted in December 2010 for “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” Although facing a six-year prison sentence and twenty-year ban on making or writing any kind of movie, Panahi is a born storyteller, so he can’t stop himself, no matter the risks. Under house arrest, Panahi has his friend, fellow director Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (Lady of the Roses), film him with a handheld DV camera over ten days as Panahi plans out his next movie, speaks with his lawyer, lets his pet iguana climb over him, and is asked to watch a neighbor’s dog, taking viewers “behind the scenes of Iranian filmmakers not making films.” Panahi even pulls out his iPhone to take additional video, photographing New Year’s fireworks that sound suspiciously like a military attack. Panahi is calm throughout, never panicking (although he clearly does not want to take care of the barking dog) and not complaining about his situation, which becomes especially poignant as he watches news reports on the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.
A month before her wedding, Michal (Noa Koler) finds out that her fiance, Gidi (Erez Drigues), doesn’t actually love her. Determined to not become an old maid, the thirty-two-year-old animal handler decides that she is going to go through with the ceremony anyway, that love — and the right man — are still out there waiting for her. “I believe God will help me find a groom by the end of Hanukkah,” she tells wedding planner Shimi (Amos Tamam), who is not so sure she is making the right decision. She then goes on a series of ever-more-silly dates with Orthodox men as her wedding day approaches, with no legitimate suitor in sight as her friends and family wonder about her sanity. And then she meets singer Yoss (Oz Zehavi), but is he Mr. Right? By then, you might not care. Written and directed by New York City native Rama Burshtein (Fill the Void, Venice 70: Future Reloaded), The Wedding Plan, which is called Through the Wall in Hebrew, is a Lifetime-like romantic comedy, trying too hard to be charming and funny, resulting in flat scenes that are predictable and trite. Michal’s wedding day is scheduled for the eighth day of Hanukkah, which holds special meaning at the end of the Festival of Lights, a time for rejuvenation; The Wedding Plan could use some rejuvenating of its own.
Gillies Mackinnon’s Whisky Galore! follows in the tradition of such British charmers as Local Hero, Waking Ned Devine, and The Full Monty, another quirky tale of a small community coming together when facing unexpected challenges. It’s 1943, and WWII has not quite made it to the remote (and fictional) Scottish island of Todday, but you wouldn’t know it from the actions of Captain Wagget (Eddie Izzard), an English commander rigidly leading a ragtag unit of islanders just in case Hitler should attack. The town has gone dry, with no alcohol deliveries expected because of the war, putting a damper on everything, including celebrations; most importantly, postmaster Joseph Macroon (Gregor Fisher), a leader on the island, won’t allow his daughters, Catriona (Ellie Kendrick) and Peggy (Naomi Battrick), to marry their intendeds, schoolteacher George Campbell (Kevin Guthrie) and Sergeant Odd (Sean Biggerstaff), respectively, until they can have the proper party, with plenty of booze. George also faces the wrath of his Bible-thumping mother (Ann Louise Ross), who forbids him from marrying Peggy. In desperate need of drink, the town gets excited when a cargo ship runs aground just off the island, transporting tens of thousands of export-only alcohol for a cabinet minister. While Captain Waggett seeks to protect the bounty from thieves — his colleagues and neighbors — a group of thirsty islanders, including Joseph, George, Odd, Sammy (Iain Robertson), the Biffer (Antony Strachan), Old Roddy (Sean Scanlan), and Angus (Brian Pettifer), devise a plan to obtain the contraband whisky, right under Waggett’s nose.
