Chasing stolen memories: “Q smette di ricordare” [2014 Italy]

 

And now for something completely different..!

Marco Tizianel and Annalisa Lori in Sebastiano Montresor's Q smette di ricordare

Something completely different – Marco Tizianel and Annalisa Lori in Sebastiano Montresor’s
“Q smette di ricordare”.

 

Sebastiano Montresor’s “Q smette di ricordare” [Eng. Title: Q Quits Recollecting], is the second part of a duology made in the style of a graphic novel, and adhering to his principles of agrestic cinema. The first part concerned itself with ‘K’ trying to quit smoking, while this part is all about ‘Q’; ‘K’ and ‘Q’ apparently referring to the man and woman – the anonymous King and Queen.

Diana Simona Gasparini and Annalisa Lori in Q smette di ricordare

Diana Simona Gasparini and Annalisa Lori in “Q smette di ricordare”.

 

Rather than me waffle a storyline, here’s a synopsis straight from the horse’s mouth:

Q has surrendered to the mysterious power and vice-like grip of the ‘Substance’, in trying to erase an old memory that she’d been a victim of. Her ‘Pusher’, fed up with the ceaseless manipulations she’s been through, decides to help her out by pointing to the parallel reality that ‘the Substance’ had created for her. Through this, Q will identify those hiding behind it and slaughters all her tormentors. Helped by ‘the Agent’, Q will fight them – the ‘Runner’ whom she simultaneously loves and hates, the beast of a Nazi woman who tortures her after imprisoning her in a dungeon, and the ‘Cinephile’ – the primary culprit responsible for setting off a chain of events in motion, and the one who wont hesitate locking up innocent women to satisfy his filthy cinematographic lust…

“It is not every child who sucks in this way. It may be assumed that those children do so in whom there is a constitutional intensification of the erotogenic significance of the labial region. If that significance persists, these same children when they are grown up will become epicures in kissing, will be inclined to perverse kissing, or, if males, will have a powerful motive for drinking and smoking.”
– Sigmund Freud, from “Three essays on the theory of sexuality” (1905)

Annalisa Lori and Diana Simona Gasparini in Q smette di ricordare

Annalisa Lori and Diana Simona Gasparini in “Q smette di ricordare”.

Annalisa Lori and Diana Simona Gasparini lesbian kiss in Q smette di ricordare

Cartoon-lesbianism – Annalisa Lori and Diana Simona Gasparini in “Q smette di ricordare”.

 

In a nutshell, the film is a modern-day critique of the cinema industry – Montresor’s agrestic theory aims to dismantle the artificial edifices and barriers in film-making put up over the years, and bring it back to its purest form, not unlike a Alejandro Jodorowsky sans the mysticism. It also takes a dig at the so-called sub-genre cinema, like film-noir, western, sexploitation, nazisploitation, sc-fi, and horror etc. Montresor’s frustration with limitations in commercial cinema is plain to see, and as if to drive home his point, he’d also perused pornographic elements featuring gratuitous nudity and object-insertions.

Porn star Roberta Gemma in Q smette di ricordare

Scenes bordering on pornography in “Q smette di ricordare” feature Marco Tizianel and
authentic porn star Roberta Gemma.

 

The film is irreverent in many respects – it doesn’t take itself seriously, but nevertheless casts meaningful references between its over-the-top reveries. The ‘Substance’ that Montresor refers to takes the form of a cigarette, helping us make a connection with Freud’s theories on smoking. There’s also a clip from Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Summer Interlude’ that’s repeated often, with even Q uttering the same dialogue during a scene. It refers to Bergman’s Marie trying to recall something from her dream, and past. It makes a direct connection with the protagonist’s desperation to recall her own memory.

Roberta Gemma in Q smette di ricordare

The pusher and his robotic player – Marco Tizianel and Roberta Gemma in “Q smette di ricordare”.

 

Montresor defies categorisation, and even though his films consistently lean towards the camp, and outright weirdness, they are meant to be seen as caricatures – he defines his view of cinema by stating what it shouldn’t be, more often than what it should, and in the process persistently challenges our own notions about what cinema should be. At least for this reason, his films, including this one, is Recommended Viewing..!

What’s more – he’s also readily offered to share the film with everyone by giving us a torrent link for the DVD – here’s a director with a mission..!
Q smette di ricordare Torrent

 

The Nudity: Diana Simona Gasparini and Roberta Gemma
Beautiful Diana Simona Gasparini hid her face whilst showing everything else in an earlier Montresor film – it has thankfully been rectified here – she is indeed gorgeous. She plays the Agent from a parallel reality who helps Q see her past (and share some lesbian kisses in process). Pornstar Roberta Gemma makes an appearance as a robotic video player – only her robot plays back people’s memories – she’s literally plugged into a monitor to play back ‘Q”s actions, and she also ‘delivers’ some left-over Substance to the Pusher.

Diana Simona Gasparini and Roberta Gemma nude in Q smette di ricordare

Diana Simona Gasparini and Roberta Gemma feature in some explicit scenes from Sebastiano Montresor’s
“Q smette di ricordare”.

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Making the best of available time: “Una Noche” [2012 Cuba, USA, UK]

 

Lucy Mulloy has made a stirring directorial feature film début through the Cuban drama “Una Noche” [Eng. Title: One Night]. Set in Havana for the most part, it narrates events during a momentous day and night in the lives of three young people – Raúl, best friend Elio, and his twin sister Lila.

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Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Dariel Arrechaga, and Javier Nunez Florian in Lucy Mulloy's Una Noche

Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Dariel Arrechaga, and Javier Nunez Florian in Lucy Mulloy’s “Una Noche”.

 

Raúl (Dariel Arrechaga), an apprentice in the kitchen of a posh hotel, is a frustrated and angry young man – frustrated about his mother’s terminal illness, and angry that there’s little he could do to help her in a city that functions at its own pace and logic. During the course of the day, he’ll end up being pursued by police for a crime that he wasn’t responsible for. He believes the only option available is fleeing Cuba, that very night, and presses friend and co-worker Elio (Javier Núñez Florián) to help him build a raft out of materials they could rummage, to sail the ocean and hopefully reach Miami.

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Anailin de la Rua de la Torre and Dariel Arrechaga in Una Noche

Anailin de la Rua de la Torre and Dariel Arrechaga in “Una Noche”

 

Best friend since childhood, Elio is also secretly in love with Raúl and will do anything for him. Elio however has sister Lila (Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre) to think about – the one person in his otherwise dysfunctional family that he deeply cares for. After stealing food from the kitchen for Raúl’s journey, he too will now have to consider joining his friend. When Lila discovers Elio’s plans, she insists that they take her with them. All three, for different reasons, suddenly feel compelled to leave everything behind and venture on a perilous journey where their chances of survival, if any, are very slim…

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Anailin de la Rua de la Torre in Una Noche

Anailin de la Rua de la Torre in Lucy Mulloy’s “Una Noche”.

 

In realising the film’s premise, Ms. Mulloy has managed to paint a vibrant portrait of Havana that few from outside get to see – of ordinary people and the youth – their enterprise, dreams, and frustrations. It is about a city and its people in the cusp of change, where practical necessities could no longer get in the way of their aspirations, and whose natural ingenuity is tested to the limit at every turn. The film’s imaginative shot-selections and editing make their scenes burst into screen with raw nervous energy.

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Dariel Arrechaga in Una Noche

Dariel Arrechaga in a scene from “Una Noche”.

 

To learn that none among the film’s crew had worked on a full-length feature before was a revelation. Ms. Mulloy herself began this project as part of her thesis for film school at NYU – even if the idea to make a film about Havana had long been on her mind. From a short film, it evolved into a full-length feature, thanks also to a tutor and mentor no less than Spike Lee himself. Mr. Lee’s influence (particularly his early work) is certainly noticeable in some scenes, but I believe she might have also been inspired by older films such as Soy Cuba. The film is however entirely original and it carries a sensibility all of her own. For those interested, here’s an interview with a charming and very down-to-earth Ms. Mulloy, about the making of her film.

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Lucy Mulloy's Una Noche

A scene from Lucy Mulloy’s “Una Noche”.

 

Another feature of the film is its casting. In exclusively using non-actors, the director had taken a leaf from Italian Neorealism in preferring authenticity over professional performances to portray her characters – the three main actors fill the role more than adequately, and it was a joy listening to their accent with the distinct Cuban twang, even if that meant I having to rely on subtitles for the most part. Watching the film is like re-experiencing something fleeting, exotic and invigorating, like youth itself. It’s a gem lovingly crafted with ingenuity and improvisation – it is Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.com DVD Link [NTSC] | Amazon.com Instant Video

 

The Nudity: From a few.
Not often have I drawn a blank in identifying actors appearing nude in a film that’s being reviewed – we have an exception here. Few characters are addressed by their names and all appearing nude are first-time actors – impossible to identify unless those involved come forward. However, there are at least four scenes that include brief nudity, and featured in one of them is an authentic and pretty transsexual.

Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Dariel Arrechaga, others nude in Lucy Mulloy's Una Noche

Brief scenes of Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Dariel Arrechaga, and others in Lucy Mulloy’s “Una Noche”.

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Challenging taboos: “Feuchtgebiete” [2013 Germany]

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Carla Juri in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

Carla Juri in “Feuchtgebiete” aka “Wetlands” (2013).

David Wnendt’s brilliant comedy “Feuchtgebiete” [Eng. Title: Wetlands] is not for the squeamish – it is a frontal attack on our senses, sensibilities, and taboos bound by societal norms. Centred around a young woman coming-to-terms with a childhood trauma, and a subsequent obsession with her bodily fluids (the German title literally translates as ‘moist areas’), the film ceaselessly challenges viewers to confront their preconceived ideas on what we can or should not talk about, of what is ‘acceptable’ behaviour and bad taste.

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Carla Juri in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

Shattering sexual taboos – Carla Juri in “Feuchtgebiete” aka “Wetlands”.

Based on a best-selling novel – rightly, by a female author (Charlotte Roche), “Feuchtgebiete” aims at nothing less than changing our conditioning and attitudes towards the human body and sexuality. The film works because the director, being a male, approaches the novel from an ‘alien’ viewpoint – bemused and fascinated in equal measure with his eighteen year old female protagonist Helen Memel (Carla Juri). We observe her idiosyncrasies, her obsession with everything that her body secretes, and her sexual adventures – all portrayed in a matter-of-fact manner.

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Carla Juri in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

“Feuchtgebiete” aka “Wetlands” (2013).

The film begins with skateboarding Helen make a pit-stop at a public toilet that even Ewan McGregor’s Renton (Trainspotting) would hesitate to use. Unlike Renton, Helen actually suffers from haemorrhoids, and unlike Renton who reluctantly swims to retrieve his suppository, Helen relishes her battle with the surrounding germs – she after all has a healthy ‘pussy flora’!

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Carla Juri in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

Agony – Carla Juri in “Feuchtgebiete” aka “Wetlands”.

It is during a hurried shave that Helen gets nastily injured, and ends up in hospital requiring surgery (anal fistula, if you really need to know). And it is during her stay that most of her eventful back story is recalled through flashbacks. Reflecting upon her childhood with a neurotic mother and a self-centred father (played by Meret Becker and Axel Milberg respectively), Helen will learn to come to terms with past events, and in the process also discover love through Robin (Christoph Letkowski) – a male nurse in attendance. But she’ll nevertheless want her divorced parents to get back together, and will go to lengths to arrange their crossing of paths…

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Carla Juri in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

Avocado magic – Carla Juri in “Feuchtgebiete” aka “Wetlands”.

This must be one of the grossest films I’d seen in a long time – you could almost ‘smell’ the scenes here – and they’re not always pleasant. But if you stick with it, you’ll discover a warm and loving family drama centred around a young woman with revolting habits but a purity and uplifting exuberance in spirit. Carla Juri is sensational as Helen and she makes us love her character despite her shocking shenanigans. A reviewer elsewhere likened her character to Audrey Tautou’s Amélie, only with the odd habit of sticking her fingers into her crotch – I couldn’t agree more.

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Carla Juri in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

Carla Juri in “Wetlands” (Feuchtgebiete), Germany 2013.

The main cast perform exceptionally well in their respective roles, and the film is supported by some fine cinematography and editing. It also boasts an ingenious selection of music and a soundtrack that’s full of wit and charm, in the process also challenging my hitherto held association of Johann Strauss’ The Blue Danube with Kubrik’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – you’ll know what I mean when you get to watch it. The film is in many ways a welcome attack on our senses and is aimed at an informed male and female audience, it is so obviously Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.de DVD Link [PAL] | Amazon.de Blu-ray Link

 

The Nudity: Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Marlen Kruse, Meret Becker, Anna König, Selam Tadese, and others
There are intermittent scenes of sex and nudity – some of them even explicit, featuring male erections and ejaculations. Carla Juri appears nude in several scenes. Marlen Kruse, as Helen’s best friend Corinna, appears topless in one scene along with Carla Juri. Christoph Letkowski (as Robin) briefly appears nude during one of Helen’s masturbatory fantasies. Meret Becker (as Helen’s mother) angrily flashes at a table full of guests when the husband chooses a poor comparison to describe her vagina during childbirth. Anna König plays the prostitute that Helen uses to celebrate her eighteenth birthday – mimicking the custom of fathers ‘initiating’ sons to sex as part of their ‘passage of rites’ for the occasion. Selam Tadese (as Helen’s male colleague from work) also appears nude in a scene when he shaves her vagina.

Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Marlen Kruse, Meret Becker, Anna König, and others nude in Feuchtgebiete aka Wetlands

Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Marlen Kruse, Meret Becker, Anna König, and others in
“Feuchtgebiete” aka “Wetlands”.

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For people in denial: “199 recetas para ser feliz” [2008 Chile, Spain]

After a commendable début (Los debutantes), writer-director Andrés Waissbluth has surprisingly made only one other feature at the time of posting – an offbeat threesome romance among Chilean immigrants in Barcelona. It’s a shame he hasn’t made more, considering the directors out there peddling their trade with lesser talent and yet making an occasional success of it.

Tamara Garea in 199 recetas para ser feliz

A sweaty and bothered Tamara Garea in “199 recetas para ser feliz”.

 

“199 recetas para ser feliz” [Eng. Title: 199 Tips to be Happy] begins with an interesting premise. During an unusually hot summer in Barcelona, Helena (Tamara Garea) and husband Tomás (Pablo Macaya) have just been informed of the death of Helena’s brother Milo back in Chile, but they’re unable to attend the funeral due to an emergency. One day and out of the blue, Milo’s erstwhile girlfriend Sandra (Andrea García-Huidobro) – whom they’d never met before, comes knocking at their door. The couple welcome Sandra to stay with them until she sorts herself out, but the unexpected union will bring to fore latent feelings and insecurities in the couple’s lives.

A topless Andrea García-Huidobro in 199 recetas para ser feliz

Andrea García-Huidobro and Pablo Macaya in “199 recetas para ser feliz”.

 

Helena strikes an immediate rapport with Sandra in wanting to cherish her beloved brother’s memory through her, and perhaps in hoping to find remnants of him in the girl he loved, but more importantly to bereave and come to terms with his death. Tomás is unhappy with his job marketing books for a publishing firm. He isn’t sure what he wants to do next, and has withdrawn into a shell that even Helena finds hard to get through. Whilst promoting his friend’s latest book (the same as the film’s title), Tomás finds in Sandra a welcome if dangerous distraction from his job – he spends his days following her through galleries and alleyways of Barcelona, observing from distance her casual flings, and soon starts to fancy her. Meanwhile Helena’s affection for Sandra also develops into sexual desire, which she’ll begin to openly display even in Tomás’ presence.

Tamara Garea, Andrea García-Huidobro, and Pablo Macaya in 199 recetas para ser feliz

Uneasy triangle – Tamara Garea, Andrea García-Huidobro, and Pablo Macaya in “199 recetas para ser feliz”.

Tamara Garea posing in the nude in 199 recetas para ser feliz

Tamara Garea posing in the nude.

Tamara Garea, Pablo Macaya, and Andrea García-Huidobro in 199 recetas para ser feliz

Tamara Garea, Pablo Macaya, and Andrea García-Huidobro in “199 recetas para ser feliz”.

 

But Sandra – far from being a passive recipient of the couple’s attentions, actually provokes and encourages their lustful feelings, and through their embraces, hopes to find what she’d earlier found in Milo. The film, while reminiscent of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema in the way a stranger’s entry into a household upsets its balance, doesn’t go deep enough in articulating the emotional aspect of the love triangle. It is slow-moving in places because of this failure – there is good screenplay but inadequate characterisation. Due to this, the provocative ending too has a hollow ring to it, but it could’ve turned out better with a bit more effort from the cast.

DVD Order Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Tamara Garea, Andrea García-Huidobro, Alana Vandeweghe, and Pablo Macaya
The film justifiably carries with it an erotically-charged undercurrent, also echoed in the heat and sweat of the summer, and helped by a fan that frequently keeps breaking down. Tamara Garea, as Helena, wears minimal clothing throughout the film and also poses nude for an art class in two scenes. Apart from a couple of beach sequences, Andrea García-Huidobro – playing Sandra, and the object of the couple’s desires, appears nude during three sex scenes; with a casual lover at a cheap hotel, in a lesbian encounter with Helena, and later during a ménage à trois with Helena and Tomás, which also shows Pablo Macaya briefly in the nude. Alana Vandeweghe plays a nude model sitting in one of the art classes that Sandra attends.

Tamara Garea, Andrea García-Huidobro, and Pablo Macaya nude in 199 recetas para ser feliz

Tamara Garea, Andrea García-Huidobro, and Pablo Macaya in the erotically charged Chilean drama,
“199 recetas para ser feliz” aka “199 Tips to be Happy”.

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The wonder years – “Anni felici” [2013 Italy, France]

Directors like Daniele Luchetti thrive in delving into nostalgia, and his semi-autobiographical “Anni felici” [Eng. Title Those Happy Years] looks back at his family while growing up amidst the crazy 70’s art scene.

Kim Rossi Stuart and Micaela Ramazzotti in Anni felici

Kim Rossi Stuart and Micaela Ramazzotti in “Anni felici” aka “Those Good Years”.

 

Guido (Kim Rossi Stuart) is a restless sculptor and art teacher craving for notoriety and recognition in Rome’s art world, and yearns for praise from his often critical mother. He hopes that his success would help him provide for wife Serena (Micaela Ramazzotti) and kids Dario (Samuel Garofalo) and Paolo (Niccolò Calvagna). For Serena however, art doesn’t hold any particular interest – all she wants, is for Guido to get more involved in their relationship. When an art installation of his draws scathing reviews from critics, a distraught and confused Guido disappears from family for a while. Simultaneously, Serena and kids join art boutique owner Elke on a ‘feminist’ holiday to a beach in France. Time away from husband and new acquaintances – especially her intense bonding with an openly lesbian Elke, will open up Serena’s mind to things she hadn’t considered in the past, including understanding what she wants in life…

Lesbian romance between Micaela Ramazzotti and Martina Gedeck in Anni felici

On-screen chemistry between Micaela Ramazzotti and Martina Gedeck in “Anni felici”.

 

Narrated by an adult Dario, the film is a rose-tinted look at his growing up years in what would later become a turning point for him and the family as he once knew it. It was also when he’d begun to understand complexities in relationships, and appreciate his family for all its shortcomings. Dario’s words, “Without a doubt, they were happy years, too bad none of us realised it then!”, nevertheless reveal a tacit acknowledgement that memories will always paint a rosier picture of events than it transpired.

The film functions well as a narrative-led character study. It is aided by strong performances, notably by the fine portrayal of Serena’s character by Micaela Ramazzotti, the supporting presence of Martina Gedeck, and Samuel Garofalo and Niccolò Calvagna as the couple’s precocious and thoroughly engaging kids. The cinematography evokes the feeling of nostalgia, and while the film might not be as richly layered as Luchetti’s earlier drama that also drew from personal life – Mio fratello è figlio unico, it is nevertheless engrossing with an intelligent screenplay. Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon.it DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Micaela Ramazzotti, Martina Gedeck, Kim Rossi Stuart, Angelique Cavallari, Silvia d’Amico, and others
There is intermittent nudity earlier in the film, from various models either posing or performing in the nude for Guido – from Angelique Cavallari, Silvia d’Amico, Maria Teresa Capasso, Giulia Anchisi, and Benedetta Cesqui. Micaela Ramazzotti herself appears nude at an art installation in broad view of a gallery. She later appears nude alongside Martina Gedeck (credited as Martina Friederike Gedeck) when they go swimming in the sea. Additional topless and fully nude women appear at the feminist resort where Serena spends the summer along with her kids.

Micaela Ramazzotti, Martina Gedeck, Kim Rossi Stuart, Angelique Cavallari, Silvia d'Amico, and others nude in Anni felici aka Those Happy Years

Micaela Ramazzotti, Martina Gedeck, Kim Rossi Stuart, Angelique Cavallari, Silvia d’Amico, and others in Daniele Luchetti’s “Anni felici” aka “Those Happy Years”.

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