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Diane Warren Relentless: Eccentric Honest and Real

14 October 2024 Calliope Skye

Diane Warren: Relentless Rating

★★★★★

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“Diane Warren: Relentless” is a documentary that portrays the making of one of the world’s most successful songwriters. A Golden Globe, Oscar and Grammy winner, this film is an honest and well portrayed depiction of how Diane struggled, grew, and achieved as an artist, publisher and relentless business owner. With her music catalogue worth over a billion dollars and having worked with more than 450 recording artists, it is clear that Diane has more than earned the spotlight in this feature.

Following Diane around the landmarks of her childhood and young adult life, we see a highly creative and possibly rebellious personality and how Diane struggles with the ebbs and flows of their music career. From her early years, writing songs in the bathroom of her family home, to negotiating contracts with Cher, Lady Gaga, Aerosmith, Beyonce and many, many more.

The film highlighted various accounts from friends and colleagues who colourfully expressed their connection with and love for Diane, while painting a clearer picture of who she is as a songwriting professional, cat lover and friend. It was a great tool for storytelling and a good way to have the viewer connect with the subject.

When it comes to the film quality and direction, the intent within the expression was clear. Photography and short clips from Diane’s life opened a window into the creative process, the effort that was made and the personalities that shone through them. Capturing treasured moments in the creative process and the interactions between Diane and the recording artists she worked with were highlights, along with Diane’s direct accounts of the many conversations she had with them about her songs.

The one critique I do have, are some of the camera angles and methods used. I would have liked to see more creative shots that help capture any emotion or serious moments. Due some of the themes requiring more care and sensitivity, having that reflected in the camera direction would have helped, rather than distracted. The changing of shots were sometimes a bit too slow or were not straight enough with took away from the possible desired effect. While I agree that having someone walking around with the camera can feel more family orientated and homemade films have a sentimental nature, I found myself thinking about the camera instability each time it occurred, rather than focusing on the content.

Overall, this film was a combination of good story telling, highlighted testimonies and offered Diane genuine love and support that is well deserved. The behind the scenes accounts pulled it all together to create a piece that helped to show music history in the making.

To book tickets to this or other films click https://www.jiff.com.au/

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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All About the Levkoviches Film Review

12 October 2024 Barry Hill OAM

All About the Levkoviches Rating

★★★★★

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All About the Levkoviches is about love, inclusion, and the need to be accepted especially by your family.

It tells the story of a well-meaning but tenacious boxing coach, Tamás, who gets along well with everyone but his own son, Iván, who left the family and moved to Israel to join an orthodox community.

All goes well until Tamás‘ beloved wife, Zsuzsa dies unexpectedly, and Tamás tells his son that he can come and mourn in his house as long as he brings his grandson, Ariel with him. This, however, gives them a chance to settle their old grievances after years of not talking, and also helps Ariel deal with his own grief and his obsession that grandma’s spirit is still in the house.

It is an adroit combination of comedy and drama, and one of the few movies that offers something for everyone. The story, written by Bálint Csaba and director Adam Breier himself, is captivating and gives us a glimpse into the life of the Jewish community in Hungary, and the characters are definitely memorable.

Director Ádám Breier expressed his gratitude for the film’s reception, saying, “We are deeply touched by the number of people watching our film. It’s particularly gratifying that many have told us they’ve seen it multiple times or recommended it to family members,” as quoted in a press release by Mozinet, the film’s distributor.

The film provides a window into the lives of present-day Jews in Hungary, as well as the dilemma for a baal tshuvah (newly Orthodox) man who wants to keep the ties with his secular family.

While Tamás is grieving, the local Orthodox community supports Iván with traditional shiva practices, sensitively explored. There are some tender moments of humour among deeply emotional family scenes.

Zoltán Bezerédi’s Tamás is a wonderfully drawn character and the original grumpy old man, but his heart is in the right place with his care for his estranged son and his grandson. His scenes with Ariel, his grandson are touching, especially when he is teaching him to box.

Tamás Szabó Kimmel’s Iván is torn between orthodoxy, his love for his wife, mother and trying to do the best for his son. The scene when he slaps his son across the face is confronting, but almost understandable.

Leo Gagel’s Ariel is the ‘meat in the sandwich,’ divided between the love for his father and his love for his grandmother. The connection he builds with his grandfather is instrumental in reuniting his father with his grandfather.

All About the Levkoviches teaches us a particularly important lesson, which is that everyone grieves in their own way, whether they are old, young, or deeply religious. Learning to respect this is not always easy, but it has the power to mend broken relationships.

To book tickets to this or other films click https://www.jiff.com.au/

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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Welcome to Yiddishland: Reviving A Dying Language

5 October 2024 Sophie Riley

Welcome to Yiddishland Rating

★★★★★

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Ros Horin’s Welcome to Yiddishland is a charming and lighthearted exploration of modern art and the Yiddish language. We are introduced to a host of characters who are exploring the Yiddish language through forms of music, performance and art. The characters originate from all corners of the globe. And the film features performances from events held in Australia, Germany, the States and beyond.

As they recount their personal experience with the language, the audience is walked through the complicated history of Yiddish, from its inception to its current classification as a dying language. One thing is made clear. It is a language of a people, not of a land.

Documentaries are meant to introduce the audience to worlds previously unknown. As someone with no prior knowledge of the origins and history of the language, this documentary does a great job of educating the audience, while maintaining an upbeat musical tone. It’s a message of joy and perseverance in the face of multi-generational hardship.

The film wonderfully highlights the almost magical connection between music, art and culture. The joy and life that speaking Yiddish brings to the featured characters illustrate the crucial role a language plays in sustaining a culture.

Many characters echo the sentiment, “The culture is here to stay”.

It is tough to make a documentary these days. You have to strike the right balance between informational, entertainment and emotional beats. And today’s audience is well versed in the short-term attention-grabbing buzzy titles regularly featured on streamers.

Don’t expect sleek panning shots or game-changing twists in this film. It has a more personal feel, often the performances feel more like a home video than something that would dominate the top ten page of the streamers. This film would be at home on the traditional TV channels.

As the documentary follows a large cast of characters, the audience doesn’t spend a lot of time with a small group of key players. Instead, we meet featured characters for an introduction beat and sometimes revisit them sporadically throughout.

This leads the film at times to have a general lack of focus. We follow too many people to be genuinely connected to any of them. And those that we are introduced to, we don’t spend enough time with to fully connect with their personal arc.

Though not lacking in joy, the uneven structure and general broad scope of the story limit chances for deeper emotional beats to be experienced. Telling the whole story of the Yiddish language is hard to do in 93 minutes. It means that interesting sub-stories are skipped over in the pursuit of a more general story.

There is also a slightly obvious attempt to address the current complication that might arise from featuring stories told in Israel. While the documentary does its best to remain neutral and promote unity over hate, it’s a complicated line. One that can easily be interpreted as flippant by certain parties.

One thing is clear, the director wants you to know. Yiddish has not said its last word.

To book tickets to this or other films click https://www.jiff.com.au/

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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There’s Still Tomorrow Film Review

2 October 2024 Sophie Donkin

There’s Still Tomorrow Rating

★★★★★

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Let me set the scene for you.

Italy, post WWII. We are being introduced to what one assumes to be another black-and-white, a run-of-the-mill black-and-white post-war movie to doze off to on a rainy Sunday afternoon, panning into a bedroom with a husband and wife waking up to the promise of a new day. “Good morning, Ivano.” And then…SLAP!

Not metaphorically! A big old slap across the face from a husband, Ivano, to his wife, Delia, and whoa! Now we are off!

We’ve just witnessed something horrible; a man slaps a woman across the face, but the reaction it warrants is to burst out laughing. An embarrassed laugh, an unsure laugh, a shocked laugh. The comical, slapstick timing is so perfectly timed and pitched, as the whole film will pan out. Hooray! This film suddenly got interesting.

Directed and starring Paola Cortellesi, a well-respected and much loved Italian actress and comedienne as the main protagonist of Delia along with a perfectly pitched ensemble cast, including Valerio Mastandrea as the horrible husband, and fantastic young actors as their gorgeous teenage daughter and young sons, and her best friend and ally, Marissa.
One almost forgets this is Italy in the second half of the 1940’s. Delia cannot go to a refuge with her children or book an uber out of there.

Delia remains, constantly insulted and belittled, working multiple odd jobs to contribute to the household income, raising the children, running the household, looking after her handsy father-in-law. And then, a mysterious letter arrives, intriguingly addressed only to Delia. What is written in this letter? Who sent the letter? Such a mysterious piece of paper which Delia lets herself smile about and is excited enough about that feels the urgent need to hide away from Ivano.

Then, more good news. Her teenage daughter has the promise of marriage to a well-off son of a local café owner. Exciting new that will make Ivano happy. So happy to shout out to the other tenants in their building from their barely furnished ground floor flat that his daughter will be marrying into a respectable household. Are things finally looking up?

Not to be. We soon come to realise through Delia’s eyes that sadly, old habits are often inherited from generation to generation. Is this young man really a new beginning for the younger generation, or just a younger version of the repressive and threatening husband Delia chose instead of her old flame at the local mechanics who is a gentleman and lets her eat chocolate with him that an American soldier gifted to Delia for her kindness to him.

There’s still tomorrow is a story of repression, domesticity, abuse, survival, love, adversity, and finally, female empowerment. Delicious moments are peppered throughout, when you start to look away as Ivano raises his hand to his Delia, assuming the scene is going one way and then, out of nowehere, a perfectly choreagraphed dance sequence is playing out, like a memory being told that is just so painful that the storyteller is making it more pallatable for the audience. The echoes of West Side Story. And my goodnes, it works a treat.

It is easy to understand how There’s Still Tomorrow was the highest grossing film in Italy in 2023, outperforming Barbie and Oppenheimer.

This is the story of Italian women coming together and having the chance to finally stand up and be counted.

I have already reccommended to all my frfiends in Sydney to go to the Palace Cinma in Broadway tonight at 8.30pm and see for themselves this amazing piece of Italian film.

POTERE DELLE RAGAZZE! Tranlation…GIRL POWER!

To book tickets to this or other films click https://italianfilmfestival.com.au/

This review also appears on It’s On The House. Check out more reviews at Whats The Show to see what else is on in your town.

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