Fragmented City Archivio Film Ingl

fragmented city film 1 kabul, afghanistan at five in the afternoon (alle cinque della sera) samira makhalbaf iran 2003 - 105’ in the bombed-out ruins of post-taliban kabul, an old carter wanders around looking for a safe shelter for his family, and hopes to reunite with his son, lost in pakistan. his daughter dreams to become the future president of afghanistan, hoping in the new opportunities given by the fall of the regime. with no money, not even to buy medicines to cure his ill younger son, the family has to keep on transferring from one place to another. terrible news from pakistan. the desperate carter leaves kabul and with what’s left of his family starts looking for refuge in a holy place, away from the city. 2 nouabhibou, mauritania waiting for happiness (heremakono) (aspettando la felicitÀ) abderrahmane sissako france/mauritania 2002 – 95’ nouadhibou is a small village on the coast of mauritania. among whitewashed houses and melodic songs taught from father to son, life goes on waiting for happiness to arrive. the seventeen-year-old abdallah visits his mother before emigrating to europe. unable to speak the local language, the melancholic boy discovers himself stranger in his own land. the traditional coloured fabrics are to him less interesting than the latest european fashion. he doesn’t join the celebrations of the village. all the same abdallah observes this touching and distant universe: the sufferings of a young sensual woman, nana; the romantic karaoke of a chinese immigrant; the frustrations of the old handyman maata and his broken electric connections. and khatra, a young orphan boy full of curiosity, with his natural capacity of evoking hope and tenderness. 3 city of mexico, mexico amores perros ("love's a bitch") alejandro gonzalez inarritumexico 2002 - 153' taking place in mexico city, amores perros is mexican director alejandro gonzalez inarritu's first film. in a metropolis where 21 million people share urban space with roughly one million homeless dogs, it's inevitable for the two to meet. amores perros is about relationships: whether between people and dogs, lovers, brothers, family members, economic or political. a brutal car crash intertwines the stories of three sets of people and their dogs, all trying to survive their own solitude. in the end, acts of kindness and acts of brutality can both have unexpected consequences. the film is divided into three chapters. in the gritty "octavio and susana" we meet a

young man in love with his thug brother's wife. in order to finance their escape and subsequent new life together, octavio takes his rottweiler cofi to dogfights where he earns money on bets. in a more superficial "daniel and valeria" we find a man who's left his wife and children to live with a spanish supermodel, the face and body behind the "enchant" perfume campaign. life becomes less enchanting for him once a car accident leaves her with an amputated leg and her beloved poodle ends up under the floorboards. the story of "el chivo and maru" is the most poignant. el chivo is a tramp who lives with a bunch of wild dogs and earns money by carrying out hits for a crooked policeman. we learn that he abandoned his wife and child to become a guerrilla, and after spending twenty years in prison tries to reconnect with his daughter maru, who believes him to be dead. 4 rio de janeiro, brazil city of god (cidade de deus) fernando meirelles brazil 2002 – 135’ fernando mereilles, with a different style for every historical period, narrates life in the ‘cidade de deus’, a favelas from the late seventies to the eighties famous for being one of the most dangerous in rio de janeiro. the real protagonist of the film is not a person, but the favela itself, the spirit of the place and the never ending connections of stories and characters. the first part is set in the sixties, on the notes of samba. it evokes romantic criminality, a sort of innocence expressed with a classical style and general composition. the second part is set at the beginning of the seventies. business starts to grow, things are fine. plenty of colour, free movements of the camera, easy editing. the last phase of the movie is about the war to control drug traffic. monochromatic, hectic, agitated. a discontinuous editing, fast pans, camera out of focus, a fast and breathless rhythm. 5 los angeles, usa crash paul haggis usa/germany 2005 - 107’ ‘i saw my enemy, and i saw my self’: this could be the main theme of crash, a film written and directed by paul haggis. fear of oneself and of the others is the theme that induces actions and reactions of all the characters of this film, defined by the village voice as a ‘melting pot’. the story is about 36 hours of life, pain, joy and death of common people in los angeles, a city that may well represent america as place of encounter and fusion of races, cultures and traditions. but today everyone is so hidden behind walls of glass and iron, that nobody hardly ever meets, and people so strongly wish to create a contact with someone, that they wish for a crash just for the sake of feeling something. 6

milan, italy fame chimica (the munchies) antonio bocola and paolo vari italy/swizerland 2003 – 97’ yuri gagarin square – it is no real place, but it could be in the outskirts of any european metropolis. in the film we find it in the south eastern suburb of milan, barona. yuri gagarin square is a marginal microcosm that once seemed lively and able of expressing great solidarity, but now simply gathers and amplifies all the tensions and social conflicts of today’s world. moroccans, albanese - the immigrants - on one side, and the residents, invoking law and order, on the other. in the middle of all this are the zarri, the young kids of the area, that pass their afternoons and nights sitting around and doing nothing, and when faced to reality, see nothing but a future leading to a dead end. 7 peking, china keep cool (you hao hao shuo) zang yi mou china 1997 – 91’ presented after endless problems with the chinese censorship that stopped the film from being screened in cannes, keep cool is a milestone in zhang yimou’s long and grand career. leaving aside for once the historical settings that made him famous, yimou gets into contemporary china, depicting a peking of consumerism, mobile phones, violence and karaoke. he completely renovates his style by placing the camera on the operator’s shoulder, making the shooting more lively and unpredictable. the atmosphere is full of colour, and the plot sprinkled with bitter sweet irony causing the predictable censorship, but offering us a film of great interest, proof of the art of a great director. 8 tokyo, japan lost in translation sofia coppola stati uniti 2003 - 102' bob harris (bill murray) and charlotte (scarlett johansson) are two americans in tokyo. bob is a movie star in town to shoot a whiskey commercial, while charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (giovanni ribisi). unable to sleep, bob and charlotte cross paths one night in the luxury hotel bar. this chance meeting soon becomes a surprising friendship. charlotte and bob venture through tokyo, having often hilarious encounters with its citizens, and ultimately discover a new belief in life's possibilities. shot entirely on location in japan, sofia coppola's lost in translation is a valentine to the nature of close friendships and to the city of tokyo. ms. coppola's film, from her original screenplay, contemplates the unexpected connections we make that might not last - yet stay with us forever.

9 tokyo, japan snake of june shinya tsukamoto japan 2003 - 77’ tsukamoto’s films, all set in the contemporary tokyo, focus on the same themes: violence of japanese society, analyses of concept of integrity of the body, relation of man with the technological world. between fascination and repulsion, the obsession for mutations induced by the technological society is part of a story that exalts the revolutionary power of sexuality: taboos like voyeurism, violence, illness, become instruments to open a way through the prison of the inorganic, towards the awakening of the body in the city of iron, glass and cement. beautiful photography on blue tones creates an dreamlike and visionary dimension, voyeuristic frames, all set in a rainy and insane japanese metropolis, coloured in blue and black tones. 10 waterworld kevin reynolds, kevin costner stati uniti 1995 - 136' widely considered to be an expensive failure, waterworld was an epic vehicle for kevin costner, who starred in and co-produced the film, with his friend kevin reynolds as director. it was based on a 1986 screenplay by peter rader and cost an estimated $235 million, more than any film in history up to that time. costner eventually fired reynolds and directed the last few scenes himself. the story was filmed in hawaii, using several artificial islands, and is set in an apocalyptic future, after global warming has melted the polar ice caps and flooded civilization. the mariner (costner) is one of the human beings who has adapted by growing gills. the survivalist lives on a boat on which he is growing a precious tomato plant. he tries to sell the plant and its dirt to the residents of an artificial island built of industrial waste. they imprison him when they discover that he's a mutant with gills. but the island is attacked by the smokers, a group of oil-guzzling raiders on jet skis headed by the deacon (dennis hopper). the mariner escapes with helen (jeanne tripplehorn) and her daughter enola (tina majorino). back at sea, the smokers repeatedly attack, using planes and boats, until they kidnap enola. enola's back is tattooed with a map showing how to get to dryland, the last unflooded area on earth. but deacon, who needs to get to dryland to replenish the smokers' oil supply, can't immediately decipher it.