The Earth is flat.

As a film, I found Earth by Deepa Mehta to be on average a mediocre bit of storytelling. On first viewing, I could understand why Zarminae Ansariy found it so unforgettable in their review. If you aren’t looking for any depth into the motives of the characters and only look upon it as a dramatic way to kill time, you will find it breathtaking in its simplicity. When Lenny witnesses a man dismembered in the streets, she re-enacts it upon one of her dolls at home. Her tears after Cousin Adi asks “why are you so mean if you can’t stand it?” only emphasizes the devastation witnessed all around her. However, this one moment cannot save the lack of depth in the rest of the film. For that, I primarily agree with reviewer C.J.S. Wallia.

Deepa Mehta’s script lacks one crucial element - believability. These people act this way because that is the way history tells us they should, and as such, they will be stereotypical portrayals so there will be no confusion. We will have a group of friends from every major religion discuss and debate the war taking place around them. We will have them scream at each other, attack each other, and eventually kill each other, but we will not give any reasons as to why. The script attempts to give us a little depth every once in a while, but it comes across more as a surface skimming, like a rock skipping across a pond. We see splashes here and there, but for the most part the surface is smooth.

While the majority of the film is given, and narrated, from the viewpoint of a small eight year old girl named Lenny, there are times where she is nowhere in sight for her viewpoint to exist, such as when Ice-Candy Man is waiting for his sisters to come on the train, or the Masseur’s visit to the Shikh. How could this film show the memory of someone when they were never there to experience it in the first place? Is this memoir supposed to be her romanticized version of events?

Earth is meant to be a film of romance and melodrama on one level, and a pseudo-documentary on another. There is no doubting the history shown within this 101 minute film. The dividing of India into the countries of India and Pakistan did happen. The riots between the Hindu and Muslim faiths did escalate into murders. Friends and families were split apart. Homes were fled for safer climates. However, as a film Earth was lacking. Until the perspective started to change, there was no real depth to the film, and even then the motives and reasonings behind some characters decisions made little sense. When it ended upon an adult Lenny finishing off her memories in a cemetery, it was startling. Who is this woman? Why is she here? Oh, are we back to that?

Humph.

We were better off without her.

Schadenfraude in Lamerica

In Gianni Amelio’s film Lamerica, we see a country stricken with poverty brought on by communist and fascist governments, greed and corruption. The characters of Gino and Fiore, Italian businessmen filling the role of modern day carpetbaggers, enter Albania to start a puppet company in hopes of swindling money out of their investors. However, in order to even reach as far as grants and financial talks, they need to appoint a native Albanian as company chairman. What could only be described as a dark comedy of errors they choose a homeless man held as a political prisoner, so old and downtrodden he barely remembers his name, let alone how to spell it. To further complicate this mad scheme, when he does remember, he remembers not the past fifty years in Albania, but the first twenty years of his youth - in Italy.

While this film was not meant to portray anything remotely humorous, it cannot help but do so as we see Gino chase his chairman Spiro across Albania after the man regains the memory of his youth and leaves for his remembered home in Italy. This is not a happy go-lucky humor but more a schadenfraude for the mishaps Gino encounters on his journey from egotistical executive to humble peasant. At each instance he parks his jeep to look for Spiro or find a bite to eat, you can see the naivety in his belief that nothing will happen to him or his possessions. For a con artist, this naivety is utterly endearing and makes him a character we can’t help but root for while we laugh at his predicament. We want him to see the despair and poverty around him, to become one with it, for only in experiencing it himself can he understand the people he is attempting to exploit. For him to learn on his journey that he has lost his job with his manufactured company brings a happy chuckle deep in the belly. He is taken for what he is, stripped of his nationality by means of his confiscated passport, and becomes one of the proverbial Them - the evacuee’s, the refugee’s, the Albanians.

Amelio may not have meant for this cinematic schadenfraude to occur, and for most people, they may not even see it there. The stunning cinematography, the careful background score mixed with moments of silence make the carefully crafted pictures of Albanian despair heartbreakingly beautiful. Nowhere Spiro and Gino go do we not see street children begging by the dozens or the old silent in their contemplations. One feels dramatically for the Albanians in their hope for a better future in Italy, but through it all, one cannot help but chuckle at the man who learns the hard way what life is like for them. And in his youthful arrogance, Gino most assuredly does.

found review Lamerica

Found review for Gianni Amelio's Lamerica (1994), written by Steve Rhodes and archived at Internet Movie Database. He appreciated the film less than any other so far, but he did have some good points. I agree with him completely about the acting. My own review will follow in a seperate post.

Practice makes perfect

The world's corniest title for a blog. Works for me.