Animal Heart

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Animal Heart, directed by Séverine Cornamusaz

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

Paul and Rosine live deep and isolated in the craggy, breathtaking Swiss Alps where they have a small dairy farm. The day-to-day work attendant on this rustic if somewhat modernized two-person operation is punishing and relentless. Life is made no easier by the fact that Paul is an emotionally stunted brute. While treating his cows as tenderly as family pets, he bullies Rosine mercilessly, both physically and verbally. She finds a few moments of pleasure when left alone to milk the cows or shimmy to the radio while making goat cheese—reveries more often than not interrupted by Paul’s crude appetites. Hints of backstory suggest what these two used to see in each other, and though Rosine remains fearful of Paul, their bond is obviously deep, melancholy and forbearing. Paul’s softer side finally surfaces when he takes the pain in Rosine’s belly as a sign she’s pregnant with what he presumes is his son. He immediately hires a Spanish laborer to take over for her on the farm. The man’s scruffy charm and insouciance slowly alter the couple’s lives in unforeseen ways, dragging Rosine into an act of defiance and Paul into confrontation with his own malevolent heart. Séverine Cornamusaz’s potent first feature is a courageously clear-eyed and forgiving look at a dysfunctional Old World marriage running headlong into the 21st century. —Tod Booth

Cracks

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Cracks, directed by Jordan Scott

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

The cracks aren’t hard to find within the imposing stone walls of St. Mathilda’s boarding school for girls. At first they appear in the familiar form of elitist cliques, petty jealousies and bitchy bids for popularity. Girls will be girls, after all, and even in 1930s England, mean girls prevail. At St. Mathilda’s, diving team captain Di Radfield (Juno Temple) presides over her small band of snobs and also holds special favor with their stylish and provocative coach and teacher, Miss G. Draped in flowing silk, cigarettes smoldering, Eva Green (Casino Royale) brings some of her sultry Bond-girl style to an otherwise repressed, gray world of drab uniforms, stern-faced matrons and Sunday hymns. Di and her teammates are entranced by Miss G’s glamour and tales of international adventure, faithfully following her every word (“The most important thing in life is desire,” she avers breathlessly) and every move (a naked nighttime dip into frigid English waters, anyone?). The arrival of a new girl, the beautiful daughter of Spanish royalty, gradually splits the fine cracks into dangerous fissures. Fiamma’s pubescent sensuality and exoticism are both a threat and a lure for the girls and an increasingly unsettled Miss G. Adapted from Sheila Kohler’s 1999 novel, Cracks gradually reveals the darker inclinations of a secluded, self-monitored society in which obsession, rivalry and sexual awakening collide. In her feature debut, director Jordan Scott draws superb performances from her all-female cast, making her mark as the next generation of the Scott (as in Ridley and Tony) filmmaking family. —Joanne Parsont

Empire of Silver

Showing at the San Francisco International FIlm Festival: Empire of Silver, directed by Christina Yao

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

With this lush epic Palo Alto–based filmmaker Christina Yao tells a story both timely and timeless: a tale of love, succession and compromised ideals that chronicles the lives of a powerful family of Shanxi bankers during the waning years of the Qing Dynasty. Downright Shakespearean in theme, the film details a little-known piece of Chinese history while offering parallels to the current financial crisis with its shadowy world of unscrupulous market fixing and backroom deals. In the northeastern Chinese province of 19th-century Shanxi, a group of bankers amassed extensive wealth and power that allowed them considerable independence from the state. The fictional Kang family is one such clan, whose fortunes take a sudden turn for the worse when several of the family’s heirs meet tragic fates and civil unrest threatens the nation’s stability. Third Master (played by Hong Kong heartthrob Aaron Kwok), a hedonist and the Kang patriarch’s least favorite son, is now called upon to carry on their lineage. Torn between familial obligation and his own desire for love and happiness, he sets out to reform his father’s unethical business practices while shepherding the family through the country’s growing unrest. Full of swooping crane shots, monumental sets and massive landscapes, Yao’s debut recalls the opulent historical sagas of Chinese Fifth Generation filmmakers like Zhang Yimou as it combines a passionate tale of unrequited love and a fascinating glimpse of a rarely related episode in Chinese history. —Jesse Dubus

Linha de Passe

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Linha de Passe, directed by Daniela Thomas and Walter Salles

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

In a city of more than 20 million people, São Paulo presents many challenges and too few opportunities. For a mother and her four fatherless sons, it’s a confusing metropolis of many temptations and few clear guidelines. Directors Walter Salles (recipient of this year’s Founder’s Directing Award) and Daniela Thomas masterfully show, however, that the city does offer choices besides gangs and drugs. Dario pins his hopes on soccer. Dênis is a motorcycle courier, forced to consider crime in order to support his child. Dinho, working in a gas station, finds hope and meaning attending an evangelical church. Finally, Reginaldo, the youngest, is obsessed with finding his father, knowing only that he’s one of the city’s countless bus drivers. Cleuza, the mother of this difficult brood, is a loving parent but at somewhat of a loss when it comes to giving her boys the support and skills they need. The foundation for this rich familial drama is Salles and Thomas’s probing style, which gets under the surface of São Paulo to show life as it is lived, adding to the film’s astonishing verisimilitude with a cast of largely nonprofessional actors. Sandra Corveloni brings an affecting world-weariness to the part of Cleuza, and deservedly won the Best Actress Prize at Cannes. And those who remember Vinícius de Oliveira, the charming little boy Josué from Salles’s Central Station, will thrill to see him a decade later as the hopeful athlete Dario. Memorable and moving, Linha de Passe is a triumph of neorealist storytelling. —Rod Armstrong

Mugabe and the White African

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Mugabe and the White African, directed by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

Michael Campbell, the white African of the title, charges President Robert Mugabe with a racist land reform policy and takes him to court. Once the largest mango producer in Zimbabwe, Campbell—one of a dwindling number of white farmers—takes this bold, unprecedented step in an attempt to keep his farm from distribution to government ministers and cronies. Says codirector Lucy Bailey, “It’s an intimate story of a family, but through their case you get the bigger picture of what is going on inside Zimbabwe.” The seasoned documentary team makes the most of that focus, putting the lives and convictions of the engaging Campbell and his English son-in-law, Ben Freeth, at the unabashed center of the film—Freeth and Campbell even filmed critical scenes themselves with a tiny A1 camera. It’s Freeth who poses the central question: If a white man can be American or Australian, why not African? Andrew Thompson’s cinematography, shot with a large-format camera he smuggled into the country, conveys the lush vastness and visual beauty of Campbell’s Mount Carmel farm and its black workers’ daily labor. Mugabe, a menacing shadow, is present only in news clips and voiceovers, while the musical score conveys a palpable sense of dread. Despite successive government stall tactics and a brutal attack on the family, the outcome of the case is uncertain until the end. Who will win? And what would that mean? —Kathleen Denny

The Peddler

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: The Peddler, directed by Adriana Yurcovich, Lucas Marcheggiano and Eduardo de la Serna

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

Daniel Burmeister putts into the village in a beat-up red four-door, looking for the mayor. More prolific than Steven Soderbergh, more resourceful than Orson Welles, the avuncular seventysomething is both a filmmaker for hire and the definitive auteur. In exchange for food and lodging, Burmeister offers to make a movie in less than a month, using local residents as his cast. No contracts, no red tape, no grant proposals in triplicate—just a pitch and a handshake and he’s ready to roll. Choosing one of the half-dozen trusty genre scripts he’s been using for years, Burmeister sets about scouting locations, recruiting “actors” and spreading the word about his project. An act of community as much as a creative venture, the filmmaking process elicits varying degrees of curiosity and commitment. Some of the amateur thespians display remarkable natural ability, while the children are enticed by the lure of reflected glamour (and any escape from the boredom of backwater life). But Burmeister doesn’t trade in false hopes and empty promises; likewise, this endearing, generous portrait is uninterested in the tired clichés of deluded small-town dreams and fleeting fame. We are treated to the start-from-scratch optimism and on-the-fly problem solving that define filmmakers the world over, with Burmeister’s pushed-to-the-limit DIY credo generating delicious moments of inspired absurdity. There truly is nothing like the magic of movies, and as the lights dim in the makeshift theater for the premiere of Let's Kill the Uncles, our anticipation is as keen as if it were opening night at Cannes. —Michael Fox

Pianomania

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Pianomania, directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

Concert pianists can be a fussy bunch, but they’re nothing compared to the temperamental demands of a Steinway grand piano. Pianomania gets up close and personal with a group of world famous virtuosos—Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Rudolf Buchbinder, Till Fellner and Pierre-Laurent Aimard—but the real stars of this penetrating documentary are Stefan Knüpfer, the earnest piano tuner doubling as physician and voice coach, and the beautiful instruments themselves. The film observes Knüpfer over the course of a year as he assembles, tightens and fine-tunes a series of magnificent grand pianos, bringing a rare spirit of ingenuity, knowledge and extraordinary competence to his work. Knüpfer’s yearlong collaboration with Pierre-Laurent Aimard is at the center of the film as the pianist prepares to record his interpretation of Bach’s contrapuntal masterpiece, The Art of the Fugue. Together the two sit at the chosen instrument as Knüpfer handles his tools with a surgeon’s precision and adjusts the 230 strings of the piano to refine its voice and tonal color. Pianomania also takes viewers into the Hamburg headquarters of Steinway & Sons, where we glimpse pianos being made and overhear fascinating conversations between Knüpfer and company representatives, many of whom descend from generations of piano makers. With an attentive, languorous pace, the film allows Knüpfer and associates the space to think, ponder and hold forth on camera, providing an inside look into a rarefied world of time-honored culture, exquisite artistry and, of course, astonishingly executed classical music. —Michael Read

Seducing Charlie Barker

Showing at the San Francisco International Film Festival: Seducing Charlie Barker, directed by Amy Glazer

Synopsis from the SFIFF website:

Charlie Barker has been having a real tough time of things lately. Sure, everybody seems to agree that he is an immensely talented performer of a higher pedigree than most, yet that doesn’t seem to be helping him land any roles. In fact, his days of regular work have slowly withered since moving back to New York to pursue a purer artistic sensibility in his chosen craft. Meanwhile, his mediocre acquaintances have achieved unprecedented success despite the abysmal lack of values and aptitude that Charlie possesses, a horrifying fact of show business that has only made him more bitter as he ages. Luckily, his no-nonsense and somewhat demanding wife Stella has allowed him to enjoy luxurious comfort by toiling vigilantly in a career as a producer for a high-rated talk show. The couple even has planned to adopt a Chinese baby and start a family. Then one evening, at an industry party to which he’s been unceremoniously dragged, Charlie meets Clea, a vapid young twentysomething whose prime achievement appears to be the ability to fill out a tight dress. Her insipid delirium instantly frustrates him, but little does Charlie Barker know that this ambitious blonde temptress has set him in her sights. Amy Glazer’s second feature wryly dissects the vacuous nature of the New York entertainment scene with salacious zeal and dark wit, mercilessly skewering the ruthless politics, spirit-crushing resentment and utter loss of dignity that goes hand in hand with art. —Landon Zakheim