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Notes From Hairenik
July 21, 2008
'Adoration' Closes Film Festival
The 5th Annual Golden Apricot Film Festival has now come to a close unfortunately. I saw some great films, many of which I would never have had the opportunity to view on the silver screen. One great film which closed the festival and was among the best shown during the last seven days is called "Adoration," written and directed by Atom Egoyan. I am a fan of his work and have been since I saw "The Adjuster" in the early 1990s. This film ranked as high as his masterpiece, "The Sweet Hereafter," which was released nearly 10 years ago.

The film focuses on a teenager named Simon, played by Devon Bostick, who as a class assignment writes a confession intended to be translated into French about the fate of his deceased parents. Simon is cared for by his uncle Tom, perhaps the most complex character in the film brilliantly portrayed by Scott Speedman, who is haunted by bad memories of his dead father. Simon's teacher named Sabine--a bizarre, intrusive woman (played by Egoyan's wife Arsinee Khanjian in perhaps her best role to date) who behaves more like a private investigator, often in disguise, and unbashfully plays with Tom's psyche--encourages him to embellish on the story, even though he admits to her that it is fictionalized. The story claims that Simon's father intended to be a suicide bomber and sent his mother to Israel to visit her in-laws with a bomb concealed in her carry-on bag. He begins to discuss the story in online video chat rooms with friends, and eventually one of them tells her mother about it, resulting in a chain reaction of countless people scattered across the Web debating about the impact of self-proclaimed martyrs on society who die for a religious or spiritual cause or, in this case, those who chickened-out. Simon is pulled deeper and deeper into his past, enduring scathing accusations against his father made by his grandfather on his deathbed, and all the while wrestling with separating fact from fiction. As the film progresses in its criss-crossing fashion interweaving past and future isolated moments, a typical editing technique in Egoyan's work, it is revealed that Simon's father, a violin restorer in reality, accidentally crashed his car in a head-on collision with a transport truck several years beforehand, instantly killing both his parents in the process after they left his grandfather's lakeside home in haste as a result of a bitter argument. By the end of the film it becomes clear that Sabine's fascination with the events of Simon's past is linked to his father, who was previously married to her, and she knew the truth regarding the circumstances of the car accident all along. She confesses to Tom that she wishes to be a part of Simon's life although her intrusion in the end causes some psychological damage.

"Adoration" is in my opinion the most psychologically riveting work that I have seen by Egoyan thus far. The intensity of the dialog and compelling scenarios between characters who are for the most part always portrayed as being in psychological conflict with one another are very strong here. The music score composed by Mychael Danna, who has worked with the filmmaker on other projects, is simply gorgeous. Egoyan's recurring, rather obsessive fascination with live video as the primary projector of a character's soul is put to superb, unprecedented use in this film during the chat room scenes. I cannot recall a more rewarding experience coming away from an Egoyan film come to think of it, even though "The Sweet Hereafter" and even "Exotica" also left strong impressions on me in the theater. This movie was just released but I am unaware whether it has secured international distribution as of yet although the film was produced in Canada as are all his films. In any case, it is a very fine film and a mandatory must-see for any fan of Egoyan's voyeuristic work.

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On a totally unrelated note but definitely worth mentioning, before the film started I met some friends in a cafe situated in the lobby of the Moscow Cinema, where the film was screened. As soon as I sat down a waitress approached me, and assuming that she was there to take my order I asked for a beer. Very politely she told me that people wearing shorts were not allowed to sit in the cafe, and when I asked her rather surprised whether she was kicking me out, she verified that she was with a lovely, caring smile, which I found to be absolutely surreal. The cafe is called Jazzve, and the theater lobby is one of several locations of the franchise found throughout central Yerevan and now, even Los Angeles. I told her just as subtly that I intended to never visit that or any one of the other Jazzve establishments again. She seemed to care less, again with a smile, so I went to the outdoor cafe just outside the theater, which has excellent service by comparison and always seems to have ice-cold beer anyway. My friends follow suit after expressing some dissatisfaction and even tricked me into believing that I had to go home to change so that I could enter the actual theater--they stopped me before I got up from the table to run off. In any case, for those male readers who live in Yerevan or will be visiting soon, make sure you go out into the city wearing pants--jeans seem to be acceptable in my experience as I have never been turned away for wearing them, at least not yet. Although this may be a request that is unlikely to be heeded, I recommend staying clear away from any Jazzve cafe that you see, including the outdoor one near the Opera House. Once I was told when visiting there last year that I was not going to be served a sandwich because it was just starting to rain and there was a very short walk from the kitchen to the table without the protection of the cafe's canopy. They did bring it out finally but only after I insisted, not to mention the fact that I was hungry and had placed an order. Another time while there with a bunch of friends we were served hot bottles of beer--no exaggeration. They had not been refrigerated and were still in their crate apparently. What I want to say basically is that if you really want to go to that Jazzve location, make sure it's not raining unless you like to make a fuss in public places about being served what you expect, because in Jazzve they try to give you want they want. The old, fast food-oriented expression "Have it your way" is not valid there. Actually it's not valid in quite a few places.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 11:19 AM.
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July 17, 2008
Golden Apricot Film Festival Delights
Although in my previous post I harshly criticized the first screening of the Golden Apricot International Festival that I saw and I stand by my words, I cannot discount the high quality of films that are being screened. A few years ago I was also impressed (last year I most regrettably could not manage to see very many films due to work scheduling conflicts) with the fact that I was finally able to appreciate film in a land where Hollywood blockbusters as well as mindless drivel being shown in theaters are virtually always dubbed in Russian, the lack of fluency in which is my handicap. Two nights ago I was lucky enough with a good friend to sneak into a by invitation only screening of Michelangelo Antonioni's Beyond the Clouds from 1995. The film was introduced by his longtime muse (I forgot her name as nearly I always do) who mentioned that the Italian neorealist director traveled to Armenia at one point during his life, something I never knew. In any case, the film was screened using a very good print, and the beautiful thing about the experience was that it was legibly subtitled simultaneously in English and Armenian by some kind of projection system.

Last night, I went to see a film called Silent Light where I lasted for nearly 10 minutes before I walked out from sheer boredom to catch the film by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, Youth For Youth, being shown in the adjacent theater at the Moscow Cinema. The first film was also subtitled in two languages, Armenian and some other unidentifiable one, while the Coppola film which was naturally in English was subtitled in Russian, an interesting, yet welcome change. This means that it is practically impossible to know what you are going to get when you go to see a film during the festival in terms of being confronted with a bad live translation or the preferred standard, subtitles. Luckily I have had to suffer through a translation on only one occasion thus far.

Slient Light I am sure is a fine film but the scenes were too long and boring to be quite honest as they seemed to have been shot in real-time, and I knew that after sitting there for five minutes I would not be able to put up with the slow pace of it. Youth For Youth, starring Tim Roth in perhaps the best role I have seen him in since Reservoir Dogs, the superb German actor Bruno Ganz of Wings of Desire fame, and Alexandra Maria Lara, is a Dorian Gray-esque film about a linguist named Dominic Matei who has a natural gift of learning languages, no matter how ancient, fluently in a matter of days or even moments and who does not seem to age past 40 years for some reason. He meets his match, a young woman, who swoons into past lives uncontrollably and chants lines of text in languages no longer spoken. Despite her fascinating trace-like delves into the past she begins to age before Dominic's eyes and he is compelled to leave her so she can restore her youth and thus her life. In the end his metaphysical powers to escape old age and the dexterity to manipulate physical as well as mental abilities of others on a whim catch up with him when he destroys his antihero doppelganger who pops up from time to time and annoyingly contradicts his thoughts. The theater was packed beyond capacity and I ended up having to stand or kneel the whole time, although rather happily. It was a great movie, and I hope to catch the first 4o minutes which I missed if I am able to find the DVD here. It is a highly recommended film.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 9:56 AM.
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July 15, 2008
The Annoyances of Armenian Film Festivals

Well, the Golden Apricot Film Festival has come again, this time in its fifth incarnation. This year there is a focus on the films of Michanangelo Antonioni and some films produced based on plays or stories written by celebrated Armenian-American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Saroyan. There seems to be plenty of entries from Asia and Europe and dozens of short films are being shown, but most of them during the day in small theaters throughout central Yerevan.

On Monday night I went to see Antonioni’s La Notte with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau at the Nairi Cinema Complex on Mashdots Avenue. The film was disappointing unfortunately as I have been meaning to see it for years. The acting seemed flat and the dialog was nothing special. It was also terribly long and tedious--the majority of the people in the group I was with could not wait for it to end, including myself. The print was also very poor with the film breaking three times. And for some reason, the folks at the film festival decided to find a print with Spanish subtitles rather than English ones. This was a major inconvenience for the following all-important reason: the film was being translated into Armenian live. Yes, live, by a clueless woman who spoke in a monotone and was actually spoiling the entire experience of watching a film projected on a screen in a theater, as films are meant to be seen. Not only was the translation too wordy, the actor’s lines were misconstrued or made more complicated. As an example, a line of dialog from a person saying “Give me a cigarette” would have been translated as “Excuse me, but may I please have a cigarette so I can smoke it, thank you.” The problem naturally is that people do not actually speak that way with such manners and etiquette, especially in the movies. And certainly not in the atrocious deadpan way it was being read. Much of the time the narration, which what it essentially was as if we were watching a documentary, was laughable it was so absurd. The woman was even translating what some random film extra was lovingly cooing to a cat she was caressing for three seconds. Two minutes into the film I caused a near scandal by complaining to the staff that the woman should keep her voice down as it was unacceptably overpowering the dialog of the actors, which was barely audible. That problem was soon fixed but the banter of horror nevertheless continued.

Two years ago films were subtitled in English and there was no one translating out loud--the way things should have continued. Film aficionados do not have issues with reading English subtitles, and that should include serious moviegoers in Yerevan, in other words those who understand and appreciate world film. Armenian subtitles are out of the question since they would cost way too much to produce, and they would probably occupy half the screen anyway, so that option is out.

Since I have been waiting all year for this festival I am going to see at least one film a day if I can help it, but I have resigned to the reality that someone is going to be speaking the whole time at each screening, an unfortunate annoyance. Perhaps if I go drunk it won’t bother me that much. I suggest for anyone in town thinking about seeing one of these films to do the same.

Check out the screening schedule on the film festival’s Web site.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 5:41 PM.
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July 11, 2008
Cops Are Everywhere
These days in Yerevan there seems to be more police officers on the streets than I have ever remembered seeing during the last four years I have been living here.

Lately I have been taking public transportation to work to avoid driving in chaotic traffic and constantly dodging clueless amateur drivers. This morning when climbing the stairs which exit the underground shopping plaza at Paregamutiun (Friendship) Square I passed by four cops. Two of them had truncheons affixed to their belts, ready to use at a moment's notice. They were so thin and frail looking with slouched soldiers that I doubt they would be able to handle a weapon if the need arose, which I doubt will ever. The other day I noticed them at the same metro station, and there was one standing around even at the Republic Square station that day as well. Usually you never see police in the metro, only the guards who stare at people from their small booths at the tops and bottoms of escalators.

Yesterday afternoon on Gomidas Avenue outside the building where I work three police officers traveling in an unmarked vehicle pulled over a minibus for some reason, and naturally there was some sort of argument in action, but between some of the passengers and the lead cop. The two others held their batons and were walking around nervously. A small crowd of people had gathered to see what was going on, and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Perhaps the row had to do with people hailing minibuses at random places along the street, which has been a problem for years. The police has been cracking down on minibus drivers lately to pick up passengers only at bus stops and nowhere else along any city street. But what is the justification of having cops on hand with batons? What are the chances for passengers to become violent after being chastised by police to wait at bus stops? I think that possibility is remote.

When the resumption of opposition-led rallies started on June 20 hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of cops took to the streets in Central Yerevan. They were even bused in from outside the city as Liberty Square which surrounds the Opera House was packed with buses. Police holding shields, truncheons and even taser weapons lined the perimeter of the block on which the Opera House is located that day, as was the case on March 1. Everyone was on guard and ready for action it appeared. On top of that there were members of the red and blue beret brigades strolling around. Last week I witnessed the same thing, but that time the cops were lax, barely holding onto their shields or else placing them on the ground. They were all bored and resorted to sitting along abandoned cafe support walls smoking and munching sunflower seeds. Others were sending SMS messages and conducting business over their mobile phones. No one seemed to take seriously the demonstrations which were being held a half-mile up the street in front of the Matenataran, a centrally located structure perched on a hill where ancient manuscripts are archived. There were hundreds of police up there as well, wearing their classic oversize caps and light-blue short-sleeved shirts, standing around and looking uninterested, even though perhaps some were secretly supporting the rally--you can never tell what people may be really thinking.

But last night I did not see one police officer loitering nearby the spot where a constant sit-in demonstration has been held for the last seven days or so on the only completed block of the Northern Boulevard. People there are protesting the mass arrests which have been going on since March 1 demanding that political prisoners be freed and key government players who allegedly, according to the organizers, played roles behind the scenes in the violent crashes which ensued that day be brought to justice.

The only reason I can think of for the beefed up security is that police are in search of familiar pro-opposition faces, those perhaps suspected of being sympathizers of Levon Ter-Petrossian, the opposition leader, and possible activist mobilizers. There are currently well over a hundred people in jail arrested on suspicion without any proof of their having committed any crimes, including former ministers and officials who served under Ter-Petrossian's tenure as the country's president. But opposition activists are generally harmless and have always dictated that their protests be conducted peacefully, without unrest. The events of March 1 got out of their own control, yet many oppositionists have been blamed for the violence, while those same individuals accuse the authorities for inciting the clashes. The ominous lurking of police officers are turning people off and making them more suspicious of the government than ever before. Some people are even referring to Armenia as being a "police state." Personally I am having a hard time lately disagreeing with such sentiments.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 10:00 AM.
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