Tomboy

TOMBOY                   B-                   

France  (84 mi)  2011  d:  Céline Sciamma

The French seem to have a fondness for this kind of thing, where esteemed filmmaker Louis Malle made a film where “incest” felt natural in MURMUR OF THE HEART (1971), seen as just an extension of parental affection, but here the idea is to make an audience accept a young 10-year old girl passing as a boy.  While the idea is not at all new, what’s different about this film is that it doesn’t even attempt to delve internally into what motivates the child, but instead portrays a young girl Laure (Zoé Héran) as someone who is more inclined to dress and act as a boy, fitting in easier as one of the boys on the playground where she identifies herself as Mikaël, like her alter ego, which presents few problems other than how to go to the bathroom.  Other than that, she’s simply more comfortable in shorts and loose t-shirts, where she’s easily accepted as one of the gang in her new neighborhood, as she’s obviously moved around quite a lot in her childhood.  She has a younger sister at home, the 6-year old Jeanne (Malonn Lévana), who wears girly dresses and curls and loves being a ballerina, where the two are actually very close, as they are with their adoring parents who couldn’t be more loving or supportive.  This is the French element, where the family unit is near perfect, where the absence of any real problems allows the audience to focus upon this idealized world, where it all feels so charming and politically correct, as the gang is a racially diverse group, where the mood is always bubbly and upbeat, where the music tells you all you need to know, loud, positive, and problem free. 

Laure is on the screen in nearly every shot, looking quite handsome as a boy, where he spends much time preening in mirrors to get the swagger and gestures just right, including how to spit like a boy, where he quickly attracts the attention of another girl, Lisa (Jeanne Disson), probably the tallest of the group, who develops an instant attraction.  Much of the action unfolds in a documentary style, accentuating the feeling of naturalism, especially groups of kids playing together, but the accompanying tone is anything but natural, as the kids are always happy, laughing and giggling, even at home where she always presents herself as Laure, still dressed the same way, the games she plays with her family or her sister are never angry or confrontational.  This is the part of the story that feels forced and contrived, as this idyllic, problem-free world rarely exists at any age, so the viewer feels certain that the bubble of worldly perfection would have to be popped at some point, where the director instead extends this period of living a lie, even showing Mikaël going shirtless on the soccer field, like the other boys, and experiencing his first kiss as a boy.   But it soon becomes clear that once summer is over and kids return back to school, the dream (and playtime) is over.  Since so much of the film is presented simply as children playing, the mood certainly shifts when the games stop.   

The manner in which the director chooses to expose the truth feels quite cruel, where her mother forces Laure to humiliatingly admit she’s a girl to all her friends, including Lisa, once again only superficially examining the surface, as any number of negative psychological reactions are likely, one of which is refusal or bolting out the door, especially if the child truly identifies with being gay and is not interested in kissing boys.  But none of them happen here, instead parental compliance is inevitable, moral law is upheld, and society is apparently saved as the mother instead defines playing the game of being “the boy” as a choice, as if Laure could turn this on or off at will, which is a decidedly anti-gay point of view.  The director intentionally leaves this point hanging on an ambiguous thread, as it is simply not addressed, leaving the future, and any potential connection of tomboys to lesbians, uncertain.  There’s another aspect of this film that feels layered in controversy, which is the prevalent use of humor throughout, where to a large extent people are laughing “at” Mikaël’s dilemma and how she often comically chooses to deal with it, which gives the audience a chance to freely laugh at her instead of evoke sympathy or understanding.  The film is all about curiosity and exploring the idea of wanting to be someone else, where the question of societal prejudice is never raised, which ultimately becomes the issue when one starts changing their gender.  Perhaps the definitive film addressing this issue from a child’s point of view is Alain Berliner’s My Life in Pink (Ma Vie en Rose) (1997), a candy-colored fantasia about a 7-year old boy who is convinced he is a girl, one of the most delightfully convincing efforts that suggests if he’s happier as a crossdresser, who’s to say he’s wrong, showing a great deal of compassion and personal insight into the complex issue of gender confusion, something this film happily skims over. 

2011 Top Ten Films of the Year #10 Oslo, August 31

OSLO, AUGUST 31           A-                    

Norway  (96 mi)  2011  d:  Joachim Trier

Joachim Trier is something of a revelation, known for only two feature films, but both have quietly surpassed anyone’s expectations, where REPRISE (2006), released in the U.S. in 2008, made several end of the year Top Ten lists, including my own, seen here at #8:  2008.  Born in Denmark and twice Norway’s skateboard champion during his teens while also making several skateboard videos at the time, Joachim is a cousin of the more internationally known brash Danish director Lars von Trier, whose clownish publicity stunts seem to overshadow the work of this young director who is still in his 30’s.  But make no mistake, on the evidence of these two films, Joachim is the more talented director.  They may not have the ambitious scope and apocalyptic overkill of Lars, but his films are effused with so much intelligence and vitality that they are among the most appealing films anywhere on the planet, which raises the question, who is this guy and why is he flying under the radar?  While REPRISE was an extraordinary depiction of youth rarely seen in films, this may be one of the best films ever made about drug addiction, as it offers a raw and searingly confessional approach to the kind of character transformation needed to make a clean break from addiction, where one rigorously questions one’s own progress through a relentless form of psychological self-examination, where one is constantly questioning whether they are deluding themselves.  This pursuit for some kind of unknown truth is unprecedented, as drugs have always clouded one’s judgments before, and without drugs nothing seems to fit anyone’s idea of clarity, as life is a jumbled mess passing by at an all too accelerated pace, where opportunities are lost and vanished before they ever really have a chance of success.   

Mind you, this isn’t a film that shows crack houses or junkies shooting up, as it refrains from that kind of exhibitionism and bleak miserablism and instead focuses on one man’s internal quest to get clean, Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), one of the stars from Trier’s previous film, where it plays out like a journey, almost like a road movie, as we follow the various places he visits in one day of his life.  Opening with stream-of-conscious reflections on the city of Oslo uttered by a series of unnamed persons, all mixed together to form a verbal mosaic of someone’s idea of Oslo.  Not any one of them stand out, but collectively the series of thoughts seem to represent the idea of human brain activity at work, which leads us to Andres sitting in a group therapy session listening to the personal difficulties of other recovering addicts, some of which is heart wrenching testimony, also challenging, openly honest and surprisingly truthful.  Anders has been sober for just under a year and is near the end of his confinement in a drug rehab center, where he is given a pass for a job interview in Oslo.  As he freely walks the city streets, it’s as if he’s revisiting the previous steps of his life, viewing them with a sober eye, dropping in on several friends while also trying futilely to make cell phone contact with his former girlfriend.  Hans Olav Brenner as Thomas is likely Anders best friend, now married, but a man with an intellectual background that Anders apparently shares, so their extended conversations together comprise the film’s best efforts to confront sobriety, as Anders has little faith that he will succeed and feels he is sliding into a regressive state where suicide seems like an acceptable option.  This isn’t lily coated stuff, examining Thomas’s less than ideal marriage as well, but these two men are confronting their personal demons with a kind of intelligence rarely seen in cinema.  Frankly put, this is superb writing and even more fascinating direction that emphasizes the mobile, hand held cinematography of Jakob Ihre.

Trier and his collaborator Eskil Vogt loosely rewrite a semi-autobiographical novel by French Nazi collaborator Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, which has already been adapted by Louis Malle in his equally candid work THE FIRE WITHIN (1963).  Having seen both films, and both are blisteringly honest, Trier’s approach couldn’t be more different, where Malle’s is a downbeat and despairing mood of a former drunk with a quick wit who has “squandered away his youth carousing,” while Trier adds a special emphasis on Anders exploration of the special exhilarations in life, where through a hyperactive visual and sound design Trier allows the audience to share the hypersensualized state of alertness where Anders can overhear several different conversations, or see cars, bikes, trains, or pedestrians moving all around him at once, where his sense of time has shifted and inexplicably the world is spinning at a faster pace without drugs, right alongside the recollections or past memories that are also simultaneously streaming through his head.  It’s a mind shattering experience, yet this is an illustration of the world *without* drugs. Anders job interview is a spectacular example of how sobriety is a double edged sword, where the mood shifts from some brilliantly comedic observations that display his wit and powers of social criticism, yet no one is quicker to render harsh and condemning judgment on an addict’s mistakes than the addict himself.  Sobriety is a slippery slope, where his descent back into his own personal hell couldn’t be more brilliantly realized than as he revisits several bars and underground hangouts, where no one can shoot party sequences with this kind of authority except perhaps the exemplary night club sequences of James Gray, as both are literally bursting with life, where Trier uses music as well as anyone in the business.  This film is an exposé of everything that supposedly matters in life, but seen through the eyes of a man with faltering vision, whose doubts outnumber his beliefs, who’s not in command of his own brilliant mind anymore, as everything is beyond his capacity to accept and understand, where he’s literally drowning throughout the entire picture, shown through a somber and mature lens, feeling at times earth shattering.