Films CXIII and CXIV

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WARNING - DEFINITE SPOILERS FOR SOMERS TOWN

CXIII: Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad, José Padilha, 2007)

Brazilian film adapted by the writer of Cidade de Deus (City of God, 2002) but without the earlier film's energy and complexity, and lacking in ambitions in some ways.

Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is looking for his replacement in BEPO, the anti-drug, anti-gangster forces that wipe out criminals in the shanty towns of Rio. He has his eye on two potentials, Neto (Caio Junqueira)
and Mathias (André Ramiro), although the latter is studying for a masters degree alongside some drug users. Nascimento's replacement needs to be in place before the pope visits the city.

This has the problems that so many narrated films have - what about scenes where the narrator is not present, and do the words add anything the pictures need? Nascimento quite happily narrates scenes which he can't have witnessed, but also tells us that X told him things "years later", thus spoiling the suspense about who will survive. Aside from telling us about the need for replacements early on, I'm not sure the voiceover gives added value, and I wished it would shut up.

This is quite harrowing at times - both in the training camp sequences and the final test. The pope, of course, survived another decade, so we know they did enough to protect him.


CXIV: Somers Town (Shane Meadows, 2008)
A film which caused controversy because - get this - it was funded by Eurostar. Given the number of corporations which put money into Tropa de Elite - judging by the opening logos - I don't see that this is a problem. It Eurostar any more objectional than Murdoch's corporations? From all accounts, Meadows had a free hand - although a careful reading of the credits suggests the original concept was Mother Visions (although whether the vision was the funding or the story, it is not clear). If anything it might cause a fuss that so many foreign workers were employed by Eurostar rather than give them good publicity.

The initial set-up is that of the Meadows chamber piece - see 24:7, A Room for Romeo Brass and This is England (whose title was a homage to the sort of films funded by Shell) - two teen males who come under the influence of a middle aged man. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) has run away from Nottingham and hangs around the St Pancras area. After being mugged, he meets and is given shelter by Marek (Piotr Jagiello), son of a Polish construction worker Mariusz (Ireneusz Czop), and earns some money from dodgy wheeler dealer Graham (Perry Benson). Marek is in love with a French café worker (Elisa Lasowski), and Tomo falls for her too.

Meadows seems more comfortable working with a cast of virtual unknowns, and coaxes another appealing performance from Turgoose - although he's likely to reach an age when the balance of innocence/knowingness is less comfortable to deal with; his bravado about sex is amusing, but less ambiguous once we've seen him masturbating and once we can assume his character is sexually active. Marek and Tomo perhaps become friends too quickly, but both are clearly looking for companionship - it is a weakness of the film that we know more about Marek's home life than Tomo's, although presumably it has involved being called a waste of space. Perhaps we can project more, this way.

But then we have the ending - and you may wish to look away now.

 

 

 

 

 

The waitress leaves for Paris, and Tomo and Marek follow her - getting rail tickets from Marek's father and travelling, presumably without passports, on their own to Paris where - they find her. The shift of scene, perhaps the most blatant plug for Eurostar but even then hardly drawn out, is marked by a shift from a very grey black-and-white (which Meadows used in 24:7) to a very grainy, home-movie style, colour. Given the use of colour for Oz and the Earth scenes in A Matter of Life and Death and Wings of Desire (in the latter two representing what is desired, not necessarily the fantasy), it seems tempting to read the ending as wish-fulfilment. It feels too pat, too convenient, too feel-good. It's as if the film makers have skipped over the practicalities, in what is a very taut seventy-odd minute film. Dream or reality, it's a pleasant enough ride, and less challenging than This Is England

Totals: 114 (Cinema: 46; DVD: 63; TV: 5)

Housekeeping: Projected target total down to 152 for the year. Must try harder.