FNC 2018 Review: Fans celebrate the Tour de France in Holy Tour

Tour de France fans enjoy themselves while wait for cyclists to appear in the documentary film Holy Tour (La Grande Messe).

The documentary film Holy Tour (La Grande Messe) is a gentle and amusing visit with some Tour de France fans who are waiting for the cyclists in the 2017 edition of the race to flash by. They set up a roadside camp almost two weeks before at Col d’Izoard (Izoard Pass) in the French Alps, where the scenery is stunning.

Most of the fans are long-married couples who have been following the tour for years, some for decades. They seem old enough to be retired, but then again, France has very generous vacations, so who knows? These fans are comfortably ensconced in recreational vehicles, not roughing it in tents, as the last-minute arrivals will do. (“They look like us, back in the day,” a man tells his wife with a smile. That’s an approximate quote, from my memory.)

The fans are a relaxed, friendly, funny bunch and they pass the days before the Tour arrives with walks, sunbathing, playing cards, reading, chatting, cuddling small dogs, and eating. One man cycles uphill to a scenic restaurant to have a birthday meal. We laugh with them, not at them, as they wonder if it is too early for an aperitif, and struggle to pick up a TV signal, so they can follow the race as it heads their way.

Certainly, there are worse ways a person could spend a vacation. When Holy Tour is over, you might feel light-hearted and relaxed, as if you, too, had just enjoyed some fresh air and camaraderie.

Holy Tour (La Grande Messe)
Year: 2018
From: Belgium/France
Directed by: Méryl Fortunat-Rossi and Valéry Rosier
Length: 70 minutes
Languages: In French with English subtitles

You can see it: Saturday October 13, 2018 at 13:15
Program #260
Cineplex Odeon Quartier Salle 17
350 rue Emery, Montréal, QC, H2X 1J1

Holy Tour (La Grande Messe) is part of the Festival du nouveau cinéma, which continues until Sunday, Oct.14, 2018.

FNC 2018: Bravo! Festival du nouveau cinéma will show Alfonso Cuaron’s new film Roma!

A still from Alfonso Cuaron’s new film Roma.

The Festival du nouveau cinéma has nabbed Alfonso Cuaron’s new film Roma. Roma won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was also shown to great acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.

According to an email from FNC “the film follows Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young domestic worker for a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. Delivering an artful love letter to the women who raised him, Cuarón draws on his own childhood to create a vivid and emotional portrait of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil of the 1970s.”

Roma will be shown on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, at 6 p.m. at the Imperial Cinema, 1430 Bleury, Montréal, QC H3A 2J1

Roma will be available in theatres and on Netflix in December. But why not see it this month? And of course, a theatre would be the best place to see it.

FNC 2018 Suggestion: See hilarious Iranian comedy Pig (Khook) tonight, Tuesday Oct. 9, 2018

Hasan Majuni plays film director Hasan Kasmai in the Iranian comedy Pig (Khook).

Black comedy, dark comedy, parody, spoof, all those words are suitable to describe the Iranian film Pig (Khook).

I don’t know how a script that includes murders, adultery and dancing was approved by Iranian censors, but it was, and I enjoyed it a lot. Check it out for laugh and surprises!
Acclaimed actress Leila Hatami gets to show her lighter side. You can read my review here.

Leila Hatami plays actress Shiva Mohajer in the Iranian comedy Pig (Khook.) In this scene, her costume makes me think of a pinata.

Pig (Khook)
Directed and written by Mani Haghighi
Cast: Hasan Majuni; Leila Hatami; Leili Rashidi; Parinaz Izadyar; Mina Jafarzadeh; Aynaz Azarhoosh; Ali Bagheri; Siamak Ansari; Ali Mosaffa
Language: Farsi with English subtitles
Length: 107 minutes

You can see Pig on Tuesday, Oct 9, 2018, at 9:30 p.m. at Cinémathèque Québécoise (355 de Maisonneuve E.) as part of the Festival du nouveau cinéma.

FNC 2018: Review of Iranian comedy Pig (Khook)

In the Iranian film Pig (Khook) a blacklisted director cannot make films, but he CAN make really weird commercials for insecticide.

Pig (Khook) is so funny that it might be a big surprise for people who expect Iranian films to be serious, sad, or downright tragic. Added bonus: Leila Hatami, who has been in many sad and serious films gets to have some fun in it, too.

Pig is written and directed by Mani Haghighi. It’s about blacklisted filmmaker Hasan Kasmai (Hassan Majuni), who has not been allowed to make films for the past two years. Luckily for him, his family and for us, he IS allowed to make TV commercials.

His hilarious ad for bug-killer spray features dancing women in red who look much nicer than your average insect pests. (Oh, wait! They are not dancing, they are “moving in unison.” Dancing is not allowed, in real life or in commercials. Censorship, you know.)

Later, Hasan and his tennis-partner friend Homayoun (Siamak Ansari) borrow the insect costumes, antennae and all, to wear to a decadent costume party. (Somehow they remind me of Spanish dandies from the Middle Ages in those costumes…apart from the antennae, of course.)

(When he’s not attending costume parties or funerals, Hasan usually wears T-shirts promoting Western rock bands like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Kiss, etc. At least one reviewer took that as a sign that Hasan is still a child at heart. Maybe he is, but maybe he also likes those bands and those clothes. Theoretically, they could even be a political statement.)

Hasan Majuni, left, plays director Hasan Kasmai, while Ali Mosaffa plays his hated rival, Sohrab Saidi, in the Iranian comedy Pig (Khook).

Hasan was already upset that he could not make films, but now he has new worries. His muse and mistress Shiva Mohajer (Leila Hatami), who became a star through his films, is considering a part in a film by one of his rivals, the highly pretentious and unlikable Sohrab Saidi (Ali Mosaffa).

Leila Hatami plays Shiva Mohajer, muse to director Hasan Kasmai. Hasan is jealous when she considers a role with rival director Sohrab Saidi.

In a more serious vein, a serial killer is targeting Iranian filmmakers, and leaving their severed heads in public places in Tehran, with the word “pig” carved into their foreheads. Hasan is terrified that he might be the next victim, but he’s also hurt and offended because the killer must think that he’s not important enough to murder. (Pig’s director Mani Haghighi includes himself as one of the murder victims. Hasan has to identify him.)

Things get more complicated when a video of Hasan throwing a public tantrum “goes viral.” Threats uttered in the heat of the moment against two of the murder victims make him suspect No. 1 and he’s arrested by Azemat (Ali Bagheri) the sinister, high-level, pony-tailed policeman who’s been following him around.

I enjoyed Pig immensely, though I thought a few script decisions went too far. Within the first few minutes I was wondering “Censorship? What censorship?” Amazingly enough the script was approved by the Iranian authorities, despite the dancing, the mistress and many other things.

You can see Pig on Tuesday, Oct 9, 2018, at 9:30 p.m. at Cinémathèque Québécoise (355 de Maisonneuve E.) as part of the Festival du nouveau cinéma.