debblyst

Lithuania, late 1930s. As the heavy atmosphere in Europe forecasts the inevitable war, Geography scholar and researcher Feliksas Gruodis tries to contact big-wigs in politics and the press to tell them of his radical, inventive plan: to move Lithuania's 2,8 million population to Madagascar and build up a "back-up" ("Nova Lituania") country, in the ever more likely case the real Lithuania is invaded.

At home, things are equally tense: Feliksas's childless marriage is already falling apart, and now his cold, bitter wife brings in her tyrannical mother to live with them. As Feliksas's mother-in-law imperviously takes up literal and symbolic territory, he is forced to let go of his last bits of authority and move his precious African memorabilia to his jammed working place. Public and private oppression reinforces the flip side of the "Lebensraum" (vital space) concept, this time through the eyes of the invaded ones.

Karolis Kaupinis's directing debut is VERY impressive: excellent acting all around, gorgeous b&w cinematography and lighting, great job by the art direction and costume teams.

Kaupinis has a good ear for dialog as well: all the characters in Feliksas's home are build with economic precision and palpable tension. All the scenes between the President and the Prime Minister are beautifully written and performed. And the brief scene of a young lieutenant confronting the (now ex-) Prime Minister is thrillingly powerful.

However, there's a major rub in the structure: the potentially very interesting Prime-Minister character, who seems at first to be the protagonist until Feliksas takes over, sadly fades away into shapelessness and unimportance. Some of the scenes of the growing bond between them feel forced and ultimately pointless, such as the long sequence with the car on the beach.

I would also argue that Kaupinis's use of anachronistic elements in this very careful historical reconstitution don't always work. There is, for example, a long, crucial scene of dialog between Feliksas and the Prime Minister in a restaurant, to the background track of Los Záfiros 1960s haunting rendition of "Black Orpheus"'s Manhã de Carnaval/Canção de Orfeu. I mean, who can listen to any dialog, however well written, with Ignácio Elejalde's incomparable voice singing one of the most beautiful melodies ever written? Our ears are simply abducted away. I spent the whole scene thinking: is Feliksas a modern Orpheus and the Prime Minister his Eurydice or is it the other way around? Very distracting.

Anyway, these are minor and arguable issues: "Nova Lituania" is certainly worth your time and attention. There is real talent at play here, both behind and in front of the camera.

Silent, introverted, absent-minded 14 year-old Luca is about to radically change his quiet life as a countryside boy as he enrolls in a traditional Italian catering school, which has obviously seen better days but still keeps up strict discipline and ancien-régime etiquette, such as measuring the exact length of space between chairs around a table, the centimeters allowed for growing sideburns, or the correct way to wipe the inside of a glass (clockwise!).

Davide Maldi, director and cameraman, centers his slow-paced documentary completely on Luca and his internal battle against boredom, conformity and arbitrary discipline. Luca's mind is far away in classes, be it French, Law or how to perfectly fold a table cloth or a napkin. As his grades and performance worsen, the confrontation with his teachers is inevitable: will Luca bend his will?

Though passive-aggressive Luca is the opposite in temperament from Lou Castel's explosive, fiery character in Marco Bellocchio's "Fists in the Pocket", there's something equally rebellious about his looks and soul (hence the title of my review). The inquisitive brow, defiant grin and tense body reminded me of Castel, as well as Luca's habit of testing the limits of those in power and -- you guessed it -- keeping his tight fist hiding in the pocket of his perfectly pressed trousers (an absolute nay-nay posture, as we learn along).

In a broader context, the film is also about the near absurdist attempt to preserve old, aristocratic, terribly démodé traditions in a country badly damaged by economic problems, unemployment, political cataclysms and the apparently insoluble regional and class conflicts that Italian films have been telling us about for the last 80 years.

While the subject is original, curious and attractive, and Maldi is himself a young observant with a very keen eye, Luca's slowly folding inside himself makes the film drag in bits -- surprisingly not in the unbelievable disciplinarian routines but in the long scenes of Luca in class or by himself in the woods. Minus some 15 or 20 minutes, "The Young Observant" would have been really good.

Filmed by Varda at the height of Nouvelle Vague's very short period of success with both critics and audiences, this short is a black and white silent comedy -- incorporated, in a slightly different version, in Varda's first feature "Cléo de 5 à 7" (1962) -- whose major interest today is the presence of a young Jean-Luc Godard (post-Breathless) as the protagonist. Emulating Buster Keaton's deadpan face and Harold Lloyd's fancy-clothed bespectacled romantic, Godard loves, disputes and saves his lovely fiancée, played by his then wife and muse Anna Karina (in a blond wig), and discovers that his somber vision of people and the world may very well be caused by his constant use of...dark-lensed glasses!

Varda tells us in her DVD introduction to this short that she wanted to show her friend Godard's beautiful, sad Buster Keaton eyes, always hidden behind his thick shades in everyday life. And she reveals to us what we've always suspected about JLG: that coupled with that genius wit, robotic voice and viperous lisping tongue there was a pair of sensitive, sad, soulful eyes. The short feels today like a heart-warming photograph of complex people allowing themselves to be slaphappy for a moment (even Eddie Constantine smiles!) and proves Varda's very special talent for capturing people's warmth and life-affirming vocation.