August
2002
Trenton Public Library’s Summer Foreign
Film Series:
August’s movies have a communist thread
By
Dan Dodson
The
library continues its foreign film series in August with three
movies that use communism as a plot device. It’s interesting
to note that all three were made in the post-Soviet era and therefore
assume communism is a failed social experiment.
The
schedule includes: A Chef in Love (Georgia) on August 1,
Character (Netherlands) on August 22 and Window to Paris
(Russia) on August 29. All dates are Thursdays with show times
at 6:30pm. Please note that you can park your Lada in the library’s
side lot.
Marxism
will pass, but great cuisine is forever
A
Chef in Love (1996) sets out to celebrate passion for a woman,
for 
life
and most of all for food. Georgia’s 1996 entry for the Academy
Award was compared to Babette’s Feast as a foodie
movie but is more about living life large.
The
story, set in pre-Soviet Georgia, is told as a narrative pieced
together by a Georgian art dealer living in Paris who comes across
letters written by his mother’s lover, an eccentric French
chef. The chef, Pascal Ichak (Pierre Richard) is a 50-something
connoisseur of food and wine. He meets Cecilia (Nino Kirtadze),
a Georgian princess on a train bound for Tbilisi, and immediately
woos the younger woman. She falls in love with his zest for life,
as does all of Tbilisi when he manages to foil a Bolshevik plot
to assassinate the President. Now a celebrity, Ichak opens an
upscale French restaurant in town. His happiness is ruined as
the Bolsheviks take over Tbilisi, Ichak’s restaurant is commandeered
and a young soldier forces Cecilia into marriage.
Director
Nana Dzhordzhadze tells a sentimental story of how Communism snubbed
the life out of the free spirited Georgia. He alludes to Georgia’s
noble pre-Soviet parity with the sophistication of Paris. Like
last month’s library movie, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis,
civilization is the war’s victim. However, the full impact
of the tragedy is lost in the film’s unnecessary jumping
around from present to past.
That
said, A Chef in Love is an ode to the connoisseurs everywhere
and chefs in particular. Ichak reminds me of Utopia’s Chef
Dametrious, who loves talking about food and backs it up in the
kitchen.
Karakter
is the opposite of communism
Karakter
is a wonderful film and an Academy Award winner for best foreign-language
film. I was totally engrossed in every minute of this story about
a boy growing into manhood despite his meager surroundings.
Jacob
Katadreuffe is being held for the murder of his father, Dreverhaven,
a wealthy but despised businessman in 1920s Rotterdam. His defense
is the story of his life and his odd relationship with his father.
Jacob is born out of brief affair between the unwed Dreverhaven
and his housekeeper, Joba. Joba quits her position and raises
Jacob alone while continuously rebuffing Dreverhaven’s offers
of marriage. Jacob’s character is tested over the years by
his father’s intermittent contrivances to challenge his son.
Karakter
revolves around a wordless struggle between father and son as
the father finds ways to challenge his son’s resolve. This
human rite of passage has evolved from the ancient physical challenge
to a mental challenge in the 1920s.
Karakter
offers a stark "spare the rod, spoil the child" message
from two parents who, at best, are emotionally absent from their
son. To see the message clearly notice the differences between
Jacob and Jan Maan who boards with Joba at the same time Jacob
is being forced out of the house. Jan, who is taken care of by
Joba, remains under-employed and a communist while Jacob earns
a well paying job and eventually becomes a lawyer.
Russians
invade France
Window to Paris imagines what would happen if a magical
portal opened 
between
St. Petersburg, Russia and Paris, France. It’s as if the
Iron Curtain suddenly came down.
Nikolai
is a Russian arts teacher who has been fired to make room for
business classes in a newly capitalistic school. He argues that
without art, Russia’s children will grow to be thugs as easily
in Capitalism as in Communism. Things go badly for Nikolai until
he moves into the boarding house of a ne’er-do-well family
who discover that their previous tenant has disappeared into a
wardrobe that opens up onto a Parisian rooftop.
At
a basic level, Window to Paris is a comedy romp with European
quirkiness. It’s a classic fish out of water tale that find
the humor in Russians trapped in Paris and the horror in French
trapped in St. Petersburg. The story is told by examining the
reactions of the Russians who travel to Paris and the French who
are horrified to wind up in St. Petersburg.
As
Window to Paris shows, Russians are struggling to find
themselves is the post-communist era. They are surrounded by squalor
and hunger so when the opportunity to experience the riches of
the West presents itself, they jump at the chance. But will it
cause them to turn their backs on Russia? Nikolai asks his students
who have followed him to Paris, "Will you stay here or use
your talents to make Russia a better place?" This is a fundamental
question indeed.
# # #
Dan
can be reached at dan@livingonthenet.com
