芝士火腿

　　Murayama Kaita, a Japanese painter, novelist and poet died in 1919 at the age of 22, leaving behind an impressive and time-defying body of work. In his most recent film, Sato Hisayasu offers a surreal, time-crossing, meta-layered essay on the artist, his originality and his legacy.
　　Dear Kaita Ablaze brings together a young woman Azami obsessed with Murayama's painting, a young man Saku, who can hear unusual frequencies and claims to be Murayama or his spiritual imprint and a quartet of young performers with psychic abilities. They bond over Murayama’s work which they recreate in performative dance while driving to a mysterious cave called Agartha.
　　Sato Hisayasu (The Eye's Dream, Muscle, The Bedroom), renowned for his pinku and exploration of madness and lust, returns to IFFR. Dear Kaita Ablaze is hyper-dense, obsessive and driven, effortlessly mashing surrealism with sci-fi and mysticism, layering seemingly unrelated events and encounters to bring them together in a monumental climax.
　　– kijA

　　Fraught with over obvious symbolism, Hartley's early feature is nonetheless a joy to watch. Hal here shows us his uncanny ability to cast his characters perfectly came early in his career.
　　Adrienne Shelley is a near perfect foil to herself, equal parts annoying teen burgeoning in her sexuality (though using sex for several years); obsessed with doom and inspired by idealism gone wrong she is deceptively – and simultaneously – complex and simple. Her Audrey inspires so many levels of symbolism it is almost embarrassingly rich (e.g., her modeling career beginning with photos of her foot – culminating her doing nude (but unseen) work; Manhattan move; Europe trip; her stealing, then sleeping with the mechanics wrench, etc.)
　　As Josh, Robert Burke gives an absolutely masterful performance. A reformed prisoner/penitent he returns to his home town to face down past demons, accept his lot and begin a new life. Dressed in black, and repeatedly mistaken for a priest, he corrects everyone ("I'm a mechanic"), yet the symbolism is rich: he abstains from alcohol, he practices celibacy (is, in fact a virgin), and seemingly has taken on vows of poverty, and humility as well. The humility seems hardest to swallow seeming, at times, almost false, a pretense. Yet, as we learn more of Josh we see genuineness in his modesty, that his humility is indeed earnest and believable. What seems ironic is the character is fairly forthright in his simplicity, yet so richly drawn it becomes the viewer who wants to make him out as more than what he actually is. A fascinatingly written character, perfectly played.
　　The scene between Josh and Jane (a wonderful, young Edie Falco . . . "You need a woman not a girl") is hilarious . . . real. But Hartley can't leave it as such and his trick, having the actors repeat the dialogue over-and-over becomes frustratingly "arty" and annoying . . . until again it becomes hilarious. What a terrific sense of bizarre reality this lends the film (like kids in a perpetual "am not"/"are too" argument).
　　Hartley's weaves all of a small neighborhood's idiosyncrasies into a tapestry of seeming stereotypes but which delves far beneath the surface, the catalyst being that everyone believes they know what the "unbelievable truth" of the title is, yet no two people can agree (including our hero) on what exactly that truth is. A wonderful little movie with some big ideas.

　　19世纪80年代，美国帝国主义四出扩张，对殖民地进行疯狂的洗掠。一时间，殖民地人民纷纷建立起了反抗军，对抗美帝国主义。墨西哥当时也是美帝的殖民地，萨拉（萨尔玛•海耶克 Salma Hayek 饰）是当地一位银行家的女儿，虽然自小就被精心培养成标准的“欧洲淑女”。但萨拉却是一身豪气侠胆，被美帝夺取了家里的财产后，萨拉开始了武装抢劫美帝的银行之旅。
　　玛丽亚（佩内洛普•克鲁兹 Penélope Cruz 饰）是当地一户农户的女儿，因父亲被美兵殴打伤重，点燃了她对美帝的仇恨之火，玛丽亚也开始抢劫美帝的银行。
　　两个女孩在一次抢劫银行时偶遇了，从此她们结束了单打独斗，联合起来共同对付美帝。