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CINEFEST MISKOLC REPORT #3 FILMCLIPS AND MINI REVIEWS

 By Alex Deleon, <filmfestivals.com>

As the week winds down the hits (and misses) keep coming.

GIBRALTAR: French Canadian directed by Frenchman Julien Leclerq (b. 1979) is a drug smuggling thriller set on the teeny British owned isle of Gibraltar, which Separates  Spain from North Africa. The Craggy Rock of Gibraltar is probably the world's most recognizable mountain landmark next to Sugar Loaf in Rio, but as far as I know it has never served as a film location, and this alone makes it worth a visit even if the plot is as pitted as a Howard Hawks mish mash.  Features french star Tahar Rahim (who was also the Armenian hero of Fatih Akin's "THE CUT") as suave corrupt French narcotics inspector) and Italian star Riccardo Scamarcio (Woody Allen's "To Rome with Love") as a charming Italian drug kingpin. What the Indians would call "okay time pass"but little more. (Out of Comp, Open Eye)

"VAN VALAMI FURCA es megmgyarazhatalan" -- "There's something odd and unexplainable here " -- a perfect title for a low budget debut made squarely with young Hungarian audiences in mind, highly amusing for that niche viewership, but will not have much to say beyond the borders. Talented director Gabor Reisz, born 1980, has made many shorts  and docs since 2003 but this is his feature debut, a promising one at that. Most of the actors are non professional friends of the director's and were on hand in the great hall in force to cheer the pic on vociferously with shreiks and screams.

PLEMYA (the tribe), a Ukrainian lesson in sign language. No subtitles. Definitely unique if not much else.  Premiered in Yerevan a month ago where the hall was half empty by the half way mark. It's about a Young deaf-and-dumbnik who Comes to a school for the deaf and gets involved in all sorts of shit. The film is not completely silent, however, because incidental footsteps, door clickings, and other sounds are Heard here and there -- to remind us, I suppose, of all the other things the deaf can't hear which everybody else takes for granted.  Not for every taste.

"Zero Motivation": This study of women in the Israeli army is slightly reminiscent of Goldie Hawn's tour of army duty in Private Benjamin (1980) but far more serious, considering that Isreal is in a never ending war with Arab Neighbors and indigenous citizens. The girls have little (zero) motivation to serve in the army but know it is their survival duty. Another view of the hard facts of life in Isreal today.

( You get used to it!)

MOMMY -- hard hitting but ultimately boring study of an attractive mother and a highly disturbed teenage son, suffering among other things, from nonstop garbage mouth and unpredictable fits of violence. More psychotherapy than film this one takes patience to sit through. French Canadian, directed by 24 year old Quebecer, Xavier Dolan who is also an actor and writer.

The antidote to the depression of MOMMY in the grand hall was "Una Noche en el Viejo México" (A night in Old Mexico) upstairs in the smaller Béke hall at 11 PM starring amazing American character actor Robert Duvall (born 1931) as a gun toting octogenarian grandpa who knows no fear.  This is basically a Mexican border comedy-thriller -- not ha-ha comic, but a rib tickler anyway because of the way Duvall handles the role of "Red" Bovie, an old timer still full of piss and vinegar -- not to mention a roving eye for the opposite sex!  A rousing road trip where Red takes his Slick dude grandson for an uproarious night in a border town that is loaded with life threatening danger, flying bullets, and unexpected May to Septiembre romance. The catalog calls it right as "a story about the virtue of surviving and the right of each individual to choose their own ending".

Duvall goes out in a blaze of glory in one of his most memorable incarnations ever.  This great great actor bit the dust tomorrow -- at the age of eighty three, which Will come  as a great shock to me here in rural Hungary, having just watched him cavorting full blast on screen last night. Rest in shotgun Valhalla, Robert!

Robert Duvall

1931 - 2014 

Robert Duvall is not yet dead. The Report below is a very sick internet HOAX.

Robert Duvall is not Dead

This is a sick $&y%#^g HOAX.

"Robert Duvall, born on January 5, 1931 in San Diego, was an American actor and director. He died on September 20, 2014 at the age of 83."   If true it would have been a far greater loss to the acting community than either Philip Hoffmann or Robin Williams, both of whom topped themselves earlier this year...

Robert Duvall is dead

Robert Duvall, born on January 5, 1931 in San Diego, was an American actor and director. He died on September 20, 2014 at the age of 83.