Two European offerings at the Hong Kong International Film Festival which got an 8 (out of 10) rating from moi! :)

At one of the screening venues for this year's 

Hong Kong International Film Festival

 

Everything Went Fine (France, 2021)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Cinephile Paradise progam

- Francois Ozon, dir.

- Starring: Sophie Marceau, Andrew Dussolier, Geraldine Pailhas, Charlotte Rampling

 

I wonder how many films there are out there that have a major character seeking to peacefully end their lives via assisted suicide?  In any case, I've now not viewed not just one but two: Canada's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-winning The Barbarian Invasions (2003) close to two decades back; and now veteran French filmmaker Francois Ozon's Everything Went Fine (2021).  And both of them have been quite different, including in tone (with Ozon's film being darker in mood, though not as depressing as one might expect), but eminently watchable.   

 

Based on an autobiographical novel by the late Emmanuele Bernheim (who wrote the screenplays for Ozon's The Swimming Pool and 5x2), Everything Went Fine stars Sophie Marceau as a character named Emmanuele Bernheim who's a writer and the daughter of a wealthy art collector, André Bernheim (played by Andrew Dussolier) and former sculptor Claude (Charlotte Rampling).  The first time we see her father, he's in a hospital after suffering from a stroke.  Although André initially looks like he could at death's door, he in fact isn't and recovers sufficiently to be able to do such as attend his beloved grandson's clarinet recital and enjoy a luxurious meal at his favorite restaurant.  And yet, he is extremely dissatisfied with his well being and tells Emmanuele that he wants her to help him bring his life to an end.    

 

Tellingly, André does not make this demand of his other, presumably younger -- but not by that many years -- daughter, Pascale (Geraldine Pailhas).  He also doesn't bother to do so with regards his wife Claude, who has been suffering from depression for far longer than he's been upset with the way things have turned out in his life.  With parents like that, one might think that Emmanuele and Pascale would be pretty messed up individuals.  But, actually, they are not -- and from both these two women, one can see much humanity, and the kind of love for others that involves care, respect, sharing and sometimes even smiles and laughter.

 

There are some films where everyone is an awful person.  Everything is Fine is not one of those films -- and all the better for it.  At the same time, it manages to show and reveal humans to be complex, imperfect beings, who often make terrible demands of others even while being able to give and forgive.  And does so in a way that's so palatable and intelligently that it might be the Francois Ozon film I've liked best of the ones that I've viewed (and I've actually seen a fair few to date!).

 

My rating for this film: 8        

 

Captain Volkonogov Escaped (Russia-France- Estonia, 2021)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Global Vision program

- Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov, co-directors and -scriptwriters

- Starring: Yuriy Borisov, Timofey Tribuntsev, Nikita Kukushkin

 

This offering from Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov was the second of the first four films I viewed at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival with Russian subject matter.  Unlike Navalny, however, Captain Volkonogov Escaped is neither a documentary nor set in contemporary times.  Instead, it's set in Stalin's repressive Russia, where purges are taking place daily; albeit with certain stylistic anachronisms, notably the national security uniforms involving ruby red lower wear that resemble a cross between tracksuit bottoms and jodhpurs for the field officers and leather jackets for more senior ranks.  

 

There's also a spectre of a slain comrade (Nikita Kukushkin) who appears from time to time to haunt the film's titular character, Captain Volkonogov (Yuriy Borisov, giving a strong performance), and get him to go on a seemingly impossible mission involving getting at least one relative of one of his many tortured and slain victims to forgive him.  This after Captain Volkonogov realized one day that he and his colleagues were being "re-evaluated" and targeted for death -- for reasons unknown to them beyond it being the way of the authoritarian state that they serve and are dispensible pawns -- and that he needed to get the hell out of Dodge in order to continue living.

 

Otherwise, Captain Volkonogov Escaped is a fairly straightforward chase film which involves its titular character being pursued by Major Golovnya (Timofey Tribuntsev), another Soviet National Security Service Officer who knows that his life is very much at risk unless he does what he's ordered to do: in his case, track down and apprehend Captain Volkonogov within 24 hours; something that's not that easy to do given that the city where they reside, Leningrad, is pretty large and spread out.  And it doesn't help either that the people that might be said to have known Captain Volkonogov most -- the members of the Security Service who he worked the most closely with -- were all killed off within those 24 hours!

 

So fast paced that the slightly more than two hours spent viewing it really seem to fly by, Captain Volkonogov Escaped is quite the intense, involving thriller.  At the same time, some of the movie's slower, quieter, in-between-chase scenes may well be the ones that stick in the memory; with one particular one, involving a dialogue between Captain Volkonogov and a senior officer, in which it gets revealed why the victims of the purge singled out for "special methods" (i.e., torture) to be administered on them initially will protest their innocence, only to inevitably capitulate and "confess" their guilt, being utterly chilling and, sadly, all to familiar to those knowledgeable about the ways of authoritarian regimes. 

 

My rating for this film: 8.0

The Hong Kong Way of protest

Just a very small part of the very long chains formed 

by participants of the Hong Kong Way this evening

 Thank you, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia,

for inspiring us with your Baltic Way of 1989

At lunchtime today, thousands of accountants -- yes, accountants! -- marched through the streets of central Hong Kong to voice their opposition to the not-yet-withdrawn extradition bill that would allow people in Hong Kong to be legally extradited to Mainland China from more than just the West Kowloon Terminus of the cross-border Express Rail Link.  Then, this evening, Hong Kongers took a page from an amazing show of unity cum mega political demonstration which took place 30 years ago in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to form their own "human chains" along northern Hong Kong Island and on the other side of Victoria Harbour as far west as Kwai Hing and as far east as Lam Tin, and for good measure, all the way up to the top of the iconic Lion Rock peak! 

The Hong Kong Way was yet another creative -- and peaceful -- way for Hong Kongers to come together and collectively voice their grievances against the government (including the police).  It also constituted a show of unity and strength for a protest movement that began with people turning up as far back as March 31st for a protest march against the proposed extradition bill but really got going in early June, with a 1 million-strong protest march on the 9th of that month.  

Some 75 days on, the protests clearly still have the support of a good percentage of Hong Kongers; as can be seen by enough people turning out to clog miles and miles of streets as well as Victoria Park on a stormy afternoon last Sunday and what must be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people turning up in -- and from -- various parts of the territory to take part in the Hong Kong Way this evening.  Furthermore, a good number of people passing by my section of the Hong Kong Way this evening -- be it in trams, buses, taxis or private cars, or on motorbikes, bicycles or foot -- were showing their support by doing such as vocally shouting out their encouragement, tooting their vehicles' horns and, in the case of a bus driver, putting up "Eye4HK" messages where one usually sees route information being indicated on his vehicle.

One might be moved to wonder why those people didn't actually take part in this protest even though they support it.  Sadly, fear clearly is a factor; what with Beijing pressuring many companies to toe the line, including by firing employees who take part in protests, even those that are legal and Beijing-backed -- not just pro-Beijing -- thugs targeting protesters (but often ending up indiscriminately attacking people in the area).  Indeed, it was quite noticeable this evening that a number of passengers on passing buses and trams sought to show their support of the Hong Kong Way in ways that wouldn't draw too much attention from the other passengers seated near them.

In contrast, the one bus passenger who decided to show his opposition to the protest by flipping us the bird did so very openly as well as rudely -- though he wasn't brave enough to accept our suggestion that he come down from his perch on the upper deck and off the bus into our midst!  And for the record: a convoy of taxis with big China flags sticking from them also drove by us; many of them empty of passengers and, strangely, with their "For hire" signs still on!

Rather than dampen our spirits though, the sight of those taxis actually got Hong Kong protesters displaying our distinctive sense of humor once more since they got greeted by shouts -- in English -- of "Free China"!  And to put things in context: over the course of the two hours that this event took place, taxis also did drive by whose drivers showed their support of the protesters by honking their horns in a particular pattern that we've come to recognize and giving the thumbs up signal.

In a bid to (further) raise international awareness of this protest movement that's now also calling for genuine universal suffrage for Hong Kong, there were orchestrated shouts of English of "Free Hong Kong" and "Democracy now" (along with other chants in Cantonese, the most popular on the night of which was "Hong Kong yan, ga yau!").  There also were attempts to get people to belt out the original English version of Do You Hear the People Sing? (rather than the Cantonese one).  Still, it has to be said that people seemed far more comfortable singing another song that's come to be associated with Hong Kong pro-democracy protests: Beyond's Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies; a beautiful English version of which exists, courtesy of a Brazilian man! :)