SFGFF08Ores koinis isixias (False Alarm, 2006)

Synopsis: "It is summertime in a pedestrian street in the heart of Athens. The residents are bored with their neighbors and feel indifference towards them. Someone parks his/her car in the street, activates the alarm and leaves. We never see who it is. The alarm of the car keeps going off all night, for no apparent reason. Inside their apartments, the 19 characters of the film are annoyed; they protest and threaten to do something about it. The unsolicited, persistent sound of the alarm will not let them rest. This is the night their paths will cross?with dire consequences."

When Variety reviewer Jay Weissberg caught Katerina Evangelakou's "accomplished" False Alarm at the 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2006), he observed that the car's faulty alarm seemingly brought the neighbors together in protest even as it emphasized their isolation. "Behind all the shutters," Weissberg concluded, "no one is happy and few are true to themselves?small-screen sentiments that also work on the big screen."

Evangelakou?a female director associated with the second post-dictatorship generation who have stormed "the male bastion of cinema with great ease, signaling the conversation of the female image from the object to the subject of the gaze" (Greek Film Center)?is known for forging a personal style combining realism and sociological observation and turning to tragicomic depictions of female dilemmas. Her films are billed as comedies though False Alarm successfully exceeds that limiting ascription.

Evangelakou's own notes on False Alarm?written for the Ninth European Film Festival?prove helpful: "Six different stories, nineteen characters of both sexes and all ages and professional backgrounds. For every story there is a line of action on the surface and another underneath this surface. The interest of the film lies in these lines of action running beneath the surface. Each character has committed a grave sin, but not the kind of sin punishable by law; as a result, their sins are perpetual. Much like an allegorical attempt to awaken the characters from their 'sleep', the car alarm blares continually, but will not manage to alert any of them. They all assume that the alarm has gone off by accident and try to make it stop in any way they can." Maria Katsounaki at Kathimerini characterizes that "sin" as "the beast within", hidden beneath the skin of "unknown, quiet working-class people."

Erikko Listis?who plays the belligerent cab driver Andreas who drunkenly insists his estranged wife Eleni (Angeliki Papathemeli) return home with him (and who likewise plays the masochist Takkis in SFGFF08's separate entry Soul Kicking)?commented when interviewed by Ekathimerini's Maria Katsounaki that the macho Andreas helps to "form a picture of Greece today." Discounting his character is "lumpen", Listis describes Andreas as a "Neo-Elline", a colloquialism in Greek that connotes simple folk, with no working-class ethics, whose environment is nonetheless to a great degree proletarian. At film's end Andreas?exasperated with the car alarm?breaks the windshield and yanks out the alarm wires. The residents of the apartment house who have been kept up all night applaud him. Asked if he would do the same in real life should he find himself in a similar situation, Listis responded: "Yes, I would be among those clapping. We often say 'well done' to things we don't agree with politically but which eat away at you. We may lack the courage to do it ourselves, but when someone else does it for us, it's a relief. In the movie then, the people living in the neighborhood where the alarm is going off are applauding their own urge, but they simply didn't have the guts to do it." Katsounaki cautioned such actions were "still bullying" and Listis promptly responded, "Of course it is. The idea of 'he deserved it' is totally wrong. But, it would also be unrealistic if we showed the residents telling the taxi driver off. What you want is one thing and reality is another. The symbolism is clear. We don't know where the violence and hooliganism that is accumulating in our society will lead. It's an alarm bell to our politicians."

At a panel entitled "Just Talking: When Comedy Meets Drama" held at the 2006 Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Evangelakou noted False Alarm depicts the real Greece and not the one we see in advertisements and magazines. "In our portrayal of the real Greece, we detected not only negative characteristics but positive ones as well." She added the film's humor stemmed from the dialogues as well as the actors' situations as well. Evangelakou speaks further on the film in a video interview (in Greek).

According to Wikipedia, another term for a false alarm is "nuisance alarm", along the lines of Aesop's Fable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", which is to say that an alarm?if false too often?undoes its purpose. And the car alarm is the perfect example. How many times have you heard a car alarm go off in your neighborhood without bothering to check, having heard so many go off for no good reason?

Throughout False Alarm the tension between truth and lies and what the appropriate response to crisis might be is looked at by way of the film's various narrative threads. Actor Fanis (Hristos Stergioglou, who plays the obsequious Drakos in Chariton's Choir) longs to rekindle his secret gay relationship with Marios (Dimitris Xanthopoulos) and is upset when he discovers Marios happened to be in the neighborhood in order to borrow money. Insisting he has no money to lend, Fanis then flounces Marios for lying to him under false pretenses. Eventually, however, Marios discovers that Fanis has been lying to him, adding insult to hypocrisy by hiding the money he possesses for fear of being robbed.

False alarms likewise have the potential of diverting emergency responders away from legitimate emergencies, which could ultimately lead to loss of life, and this is played out in the story of a doctor who forsakes a patient's care in order to respond to the needs of a demanding lover.

The central metaphor of the false car alarm in the film stretches unconvincingly into the supernatural towards film's end, and?despite the various narrative strands weaving together a bit too neatly?they still manage to be effective. As Weissberg summarizes in his Variety review: "Nicely woven storylines may not be original but rarely sag, thanks in part to ideas that spread identification across a broad surface."

At this juncture I would say that False Alarm is my favorite of the screeners I've seen from SFGFF08.

Cross-published on Twitch.

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Its official, Jake Gyllenhaal will be PRINCE OF
PERSIA

A while ago, Latinoreview mentioned that Jake Gyllenhaal might be cast to play the main role in the movie adaptation based on the popular action adventure video game: PRINCE OF PERSIA: SANDS OF TIME.The folks at Latinoreview could receive applause now since today it has been officially confirmed, via Hollywood Reporter, that Jake Gyllenhaal will [...]

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Dusk Watch Confusion: Its Back On

I‘m scratching my head. I really am.First there was sad news that Timur Bekmambetov’s[...]

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New Paramount Theme Park in Korea to Offer 'The
Norbit Adventure' and Other Fine Attractions [Amusements]

There has been no shortage of potential cross-pollenation opportunities for Paramount Pictures over its 90 years in business, but for sheer monolithic stature and creative promise, nothing tweaks our loins quite like the just-announced Paramount Movie Park Korea. While we're mildly disappointed to hear that the park is slated for Seoul and not Pyongyang (tell us you wouldn't have been first in line for "Kim Jong Il's Marathon Man Experience"), we're glad to see the studio back in the theme-park business and eager to have a go at the 30-plus attractions planned for a 2011 opening.

Some film tie-ins (Mission: Impossible, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) have already been announced, but a half-dozen more rumored attractions trickling out of Paramount HQ have us even more jacked:

—The Sonny Corleone Tollbooth Adventure: Buckle up and grab the phone — it's your sister Connie! Her husband's got the belt again! Swoop down the New Jersey turnpike at speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour before plunging almost 300 feet into a hail of ice water and shrieks. On your way out, purchase your photo with optional Marlon Brando Sobbing Picture Frame™: "Look how they massacred my boy!"

—The "Ow Shia's Balls" Jungle Coaster: Settle in for the ride of your crotch's life as you straddle vehicles on two tracks through the Peruvian rainforest, just like the the young hero from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Don't let the spiky jungle cacti thwacking your genitals distract you as you battle an animatronic Soviet swordstress and her Commie henchmen — it's either your balls or America, kid!

—Ash Wednesday Eye-Lift Experience: Go under the knife just like desperate housewife Liz Taylor did in her forgotten 1973 melodrama, and then leave the park with a younger date than you arrived with.

—Ripley's Believe or Not Development Vortex: See how exactly how movies aren't made as cuddly Paramount mascot Jim Carrey guides guests on a winding backlot tour of production meetings, script revisions, salary haggles and other rollicking studio inertia.

—There Will Be Fun! Daniel Plainview Musical Revue: Relive the joy and wonder of There Will Be Blood with sociopathic oil baron Plainview and your entire family. The entire history of California oil drilling gets the stage treatment with numbers including "Bastard in a Basket," "Give Me the Blood, Eli" and the famous show-stopper "(I Drink Your) Milkshake."

—Sumner Redstone: The Ride: Climb 350 feet over Seoul before a wizened finger brushes you into a terrifying freefall back to Earth. (Sorry kids! You must be taller than Tom Cruise to ride.)

Let us know if you've heard about any others!

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Cannes. Liverpool.

"After years at sea, a middle-aged sailor returns to his home in deepest Tierra del Fuego and finds his past coming back to haunt him in Lisandro Alonso's supremely accomplished Liverpool," writes Robert Koehler in Variety. The film "continues the...

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Cannes. Versailles.

"The abandoned child is a sure-fire dramatic devise, and it is to writer-director Pierre Schoeller's credit that in Versailles he uses it to explore true sentiment rather than mere sentimentality." The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt. "Charlie Chaplin made classic comic...

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Little French Comedy To Be Drained Of All Charm
By Will Smith [Trade Roundup]

· Will Smith will produce the U.S. version of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, a little French comedy sleeper about a post office manager banished to the boonies. "There are only 65 million people who live in France, and $191 million seemed to defy all logic," explained producer Ken Stovitz, his eyes rolling to the back of his head and passing clear out as he did some quick calculations and came up with an opening weekend domestic total of $1.2 billion. [Variety]
· John Grisham's novel Playing For Pizza, about a slice of pizza who gets recruited by a high-power law firm only to find itself caught up in a web of corruption and intrigue and eventually eaten by a hungry sanitation worker, has been optioned by Phoenix Pictures. [THR]
· John Woo will tackle 1949--a "a big budget romancer," that is not, to our knowledge, a sequel to the 1979 Steven Spielberg film picking up eight years into the high-flying adventures of Cpt. Wild Bill Kelso and friends. [Variety]

· A deal has yet to be signed with The Simpsons's cast, putting the 20th season in jeopardy. Right now, the superstar voice actors make $360,000 per episode; they're asking for $500,000. $11 million for working in sweeeatpannnts....arghghllhghllrlll...
· NBC has picked up Kings--an updated take on the David vs. Goliath story set in "a metropolis under siege," and starring Ian McShane. If it's a hit, expect a whole slew of updated-Bible-story ripoffs, including The CW's short-lived Sam's Son, starring Jesse Metcalfe as the long-tressed hero and Mischa Barton as his wicked seductress. [THR]

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POSTER: Fringe television promo poster from JJ
Abrams

Check out the first of many promo posters from the upcoming television series “Fringe” by writer JJ Abrams (Cloverfield, Star Trek) and starring Joshua Jackson, Charlotte Rampling and Lance Reddick.Plot: A television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientists in order to rationalize a brewing storm [...]

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om-jj-abrams/

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Trailer Tuesday: THE WACKNESS

Is it already time to reminisce about the 90s? I guess so, as The Wackness revels in all its New York 1994 glory. (see our Wackness Sundance coverage)Starring Josh Peck (various Nickelodeon shows, Drillbit Taylor) and Ben Kingsley (this summer’s[...]

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Cannes. Involuntary.

"Human folly in its rich variety gets a brisk, chilly airing in Involuntary, an inventive ensemble piece from Swedish director-writer Ruben Östlund," writes Jonathan Romney in Screen Daily. "Using a sprawling cast comprised largely of unknowns and non-professionals - with...

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