A Philosopher in the Arena

A Philosopher in the Arena (Un philosophe dans l’arène) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Directors: Aarón Fernández Lesur, Jesus Manuel Munoz.

There have been countless films and documentaries on bullfighting, most of which mainly tended to focus on the actual matadors themselves (or bullfighters), but I don’t think I remember ever seeing anything like this: a film which takes the idea of bullfighting as a mean to talk about not just its cultural value and relevance versus how cruel and backwards it all is, but also as a starting point for a philosophic essay about the respect for our ecosystem, our biodiversity, to talk about art, life, death and our very own existence.

The film follows French professor and philosopher Francis Wolff, who happens to be a passionate fan of bullfighting too, though, as he says “Conveying a passion in impossible” so instead he’ll try “to convey his point of view”. He’s a rather strange character, even now after the film I still can’t quite tell whether I like or not. He’s certainly very good at opening up his views on bullfighting and broadening them out and comparing them to many other things I wasn’t expecting, but I have to confess I didn’t quite buy into many of his arguments. His comparisons to slaughterhouses were interesting but his comments about the fact that people are not as offended by them as they are about corridas, just because they don’t see it in the open, didn’t quite hold water for me, nor his parallels with hunting and fishing.Even the film-makers themselves seem to lose faith in him as some point as the film increasingly ends up interviewing people on things which he really should have been talking about. Because of that his personal essay/journey became slightly diluted and contaminated by the (way too many) other voices. At some point prof Wolff even questions the film-makers themselves on why they’re asking questions to the people in the street (which he calls them street philosophers) when he should be the one giving the running commentary in the film.It was a fascinating moment and I wished there had been more scenes like that one. Having the film turning against its own “main star” would have been a fascinating thng to witness, of course it would have been a different film, but then why only giving us a glimpse of that? Later on Wolff refuses to go to Barcelona with the crew, changing his mind at the last moment and forcing the film-makers to go on their own… Another hint of what they film could have been. Instead the film chooses to remain mostly neutral (probably a slightly easier choice given the kind of character Wolff is).

The documentary is mostly structured as a road movie, though the travelling device however clever and visually pleasing, feels at time a bit contrived especially when the film breaks its own rules and the journey is not followed through: in fact often we travel to a place or we build up to a an encounter with somebody or an event only to cut to the next scene straight as soon as we got there, or worse, we cut away to images from the place where we have just been. That made all that travelling rather pointless.

Having said that it is all beautifully filmed and there are some very clever and well researched moments (though watch out animal lovers… at times this is not for the squeamish).

Directors Aarón Fernández Lesur and Jesus Manuel Munoz travel from France to Spain to Mexico, throwing everything they can at the audience from great vistas, to drone shots, black and white archive, stock-footage, giving the film not just an expensive look, but also a great visual variety, in fact much greater than the actual intellectual argument it has to offer. Whether that’s a limitation of the film itself or prof Wolff I can’t tell, but I got the feeling that I was been told some of the same points over and over and I didn’t quite get a sense of progression of the argument.

All on all, there are so many interesting and tantalizing ideas in here, not all of them work and some of them are a bit repetitious, but there’s enough to make the journey worthwhile. Probably a slightly tighter film (and a tighter leash on the professor) would have helped making it feel less fragmented and keeping the argument more focused.

The film is available to watch here in French, Spanish and English:

https://unphilosophedanslarene.vhx.tv

Greenland

Greenland ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Director: Ric Roman Waugh. Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd 

Let’s be honest, you don’t get to watch a disaster movie waiting to see Citizen Kane: you’ve got to set your expectations to the right levels. Now, I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve been suffering from Blockbuster withdrawal syndrome and I really needed some big-budget dumb movie or because the film is actually quite good, but I have to confess that I really enjoyed this. I have never been a fan of Gerard Butler, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever watched anything with him before. I don’t quite understand his appeal, nor I find him charismatic in any way, but the film works in spite of him. The first hour it truly great. It spends its time building up the characters and setting up the stakes in such a realistic way that it makes it all much more thrilling and gripping. There’s very little that we haven’t seen before, whether in films like Deep Impact, the Day after Tomorrow or even War of the Worlds and yet among all the usual cliches like the screaming crowds scrambling for safety, the selfish survivalists, the massive explosions left and right, the highway with pack-jam traffic and the plane that must leave (right now), what anchors the film is a real sense of emotional relatability. Among the complete chaos the film focuses on one single family, as if the rest of the planet didn’t quite matter and we all end up identifying with them. Yes you heard me right I identified with Gerard Butler!

Greenland isn’t a perfect movie of course and at times it’s a bit laughable (also I would have preferred if it had stopped about 1 minute before the end) but if you’re willing to go with it and you’re in mood of an action-packed film with some emotional resonance you should really give this a go.

Within its genre, it’s one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.

On Amazon Prime

Chicken Run

Chicken Run (2000)

Directors: Peter Lord, Nick Park. Cast: Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton.

This is one of the most delightful and certainly funniest animated feature this side of the millennium.

It may not be the most original story but its take on films like “The great escape”, “Stalag 17″ using chickens (“the most stupid animal in the world”.. I’m obviously quoting the film here… No offence is meant… 😉) trying to run away from their gulag-like farm is inspired to say the least. Nick Park and Peter Lord’s Aardman, behind projects like Wallace & Gromit (and later “Flushed Away” and “Farmageddon”both of which I recommend) hardly get it wrong. As ever their attention to detail in depicting every character (and a great voice cast too, including, surprisingly, Mel Gibson), their ultra-british sense of humour, the various movie references (not just “the great escape” but also films like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” “Braveheart” among many others, both organically integrated within the story) are only some of the elements which make this film absolutely charming. And a short one too (always a plus in my book) which doesn’t outstay its welcome.