Boxoffice-June.1997

FEST
Brazilian young people who engineered the
kidnapping of American ambassador
Charles Elbrick ("Mother Night's" Alan
Arkin) in 1969 to protest the policies of
their country's military regime is indeed
well told by Bruno Barreto ("Carried
Away"); but its immediacy—the connections
with larger themes that make a good
movie a great one—is missing.
Most of the time, the Producoes Cinematograficas
LC Barreto production comes off
as a very well-made and well-acted TV cop
drama set in a tropical locale. In at least one
way, that's good: The kidnapping operation
is rendered thrillingly. But the kidnappers
are a collection of types: a humorless rebel
leader (Fernanda Torres); a zealot-in-training
(Calo Junqueira); an innocent destined
to be hardened by experience (Claudia
Abreu). Even Arkin as Elbrick is ever-stoic
in the face of execution, although there's a
nice touch in the respectful relationship that
develops between the ambassador and
some of his tormentors.
What the film lacks in depth, however, it
makes up for in breadth: Instead of focusing
solely on its collection of idealistic rebels,
notably the film's linchpin, Fernando
(Pedro Cardoso), the plot takes time to consider
the event's other aspects, such as the
personal toll being a torturer takes on a
military cop (Marco Ricca) investigating
the kidnapping, as well as the opinions of
Fernando' s friends from the old days, who
believe there are less violent methods of
change. The film also isn't content to end
with the resolution of the kidnapping; the
rebels are seen in an epilogue showing what
happens after their initial glory fades.
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Response No. 70
THE RIVER ^^^^1/2
Starring Lee Kang-sheng and Miao
Tien. Directed by Tsai Ming-liang. Written
by Tsai Ming-liang, Yang Pi-ying
and Tsai Yi-chun. Produced by Chiu
Hu-ping. A Central Motion Picture
Corp. production; no stateside distributor
set. Drama. Chinese-language; English
subtitles. Not yet rated. Running
time: 115 min. Won the Silver Bear.
Of the films screened in competition at
the Berlin fest, "The River" ("He Liu") was
one of the few that attempted to create the
scope and scale worthy of recognition as an
enduring and important film. Yet in that
attempt it succeeds only partially. Its story:
The young Xiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) is
roaming around Taipei when he happens
upon a movie being shot. The director asks
Xiao-kang to play a corpse floating in a
polluted river; Xiao-kang agrees, not having
anything better to do.
Soon after, he's seized by mysterious and
seemingly incurable pain. Meanwhile, his
father, also drifting, is plagued by a ceaseless
water leak from an upstairs apartment.
The ennui and tedium with which Xiaokang
and his parents endure life is echoed
in the film's extended shots of characters
doing next to nothing and in the absence of
a musical soundtrack. Even the impact of
the shocking denouement is muffled by the
film's deadening tone.