45 Years (2015)

Needless to say, I think I'm a little too young to appreciate this portrait of an elderly couple celebrating their 45th anniversary. I don't know if celebrating is quite the right word. Most of the movie is actually in the run-up to the big party when a bit of new information about an old girlfriend from 50 years ago disrupts their preparations. This movie explores how a relationship that has lasted for so long evolves. What was once a picture of stability is now turned upside down and the actors convey this with subtle movements and small inflections in their voices. But in these smallest of actions and displays of emotion they say so much.

Charlotte Rampling is devastating as the wife who has to find out about her husband's ex-girlfriend 50 years later, whose spirit has returned to lurk in the corner of every room in the house--quite figuratively the elephant in the room. One scene in particular stood out for me. She is going through old slides and for the first time we see the ex-girlfriend's face from the reverse side of the projector screen. We see just enough of the screen on the right side of the shot to make out a face, and Rampling sits in the background. We catch glimpses of her face as the light from the slide projector goes off and on. And her face just says it all. 

The Mill and the Cross (2011)

The premise of this film is similar to Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park with George" in that it depicts an artist at work creating a well known painting and the events surrounding the contents of the painting.  Except, this movie is devoid of music, narrative, and fun.  It is so slow and boring that it was quite difficult to watch.  There is very minimal dialogue (the few lines of dialogue are these jumbled monologues) and so the story is told much through gestures and lack of action.  There is a lot of artificial light that saturates the picture and don't get me wrong--some of the shots are really stunning (kind of in a "Tree of Life" way that's slow and painful).  The one positive aspect of the movie is its innovative use of CGI to make Bruegel's "The Procession to Calvary" come to life. I wasn't really a fan of French peasant life in "Martin Guerre", but these Flemish peasants are so much worse.