BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: shifting nature.

IT WOULD be stating the bleeding obvious to say that humans have an impact on the environment. And given the massive economic explosion that’s occurred over the last few hundred years, it’s easy to see that there are consequences from our behaviour. While the nineteenth century literature and art was full of depictions of the sometimes traumatic shift through industrialisation, it’s been rare to see a society in flux being captured in film in contemporary times. China’s economic development has been no secret, and it’s proving a fertile ground for artists. Part of the reason it appeals for artists is the sheer scale of the development – the eight minute long tracking shot that sets up Manufactured Landscapes through a factory is just a small reminder of what is going on in China.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: cinéma du look.

A RIDICULOUS film made by a film lover can sometimes be the best hug in the world. Freewheeling through genres, visual styles, homages, narratives, Diva is an oh-so stylish paean to cinema. While Beineix became more famous for his later Betty Blue, Diva was a wonderful debut for a director who has languished in obscurity for the last couple of decades. Breaking free from the angst and experimentalism of the later Nouvelle Vague films, and capturing the anarchic spirit of the early Godard/Truffaut work, Diva helped kick-start a new era in French filmmaking (which was carried on by films such as Mauvais Sang). The so-called cinéma du look movement (if it can be called that) touched on more contemporary concerns while also pitting a punk kind of aesthetic onto its protagonists.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: Lech Majewski’s footnote.

THE Film Society’s Lech Majewski programme ends with a film that Majewski didn’t end up doing a huge amount on. Majewski created the story idea, a biopic about wasted talent, but the project was driven by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Schnabel would have some idea about the successful 80s Neo-expressionist painter Jean-Michel Basquiat – Schnabel was a successful 80s Neo-expressionist painter himself. There are differences of opinion whether the two artists were friends, however, there is no doubt that Basquiat did urinate in Schnabel’s stairwell. But while Schabel’s personal investment might have driven the project (he sold his artwork to initially finance the film), his involvement also divests the film of its more interesting roots. Instead Basquiat is a tame, rushed portrayal of a seminal contemporary artist.

STEVE GARDEN, with a second opnion on the Film Society’s recent screening of three Lech Majewski films.

WITH TEN FILMS, five novels, various multimedia installations and stage productions, plus numerous poems, paintings and pieces of music to his credit, Lech Majewski deserves consideration for his remarkable output alone. I hadn’t heard of him prior to reading the brochure for the 2009 Film Society season, so the chance to view a small selection of the work of this little-known cine-poet was not to be missed, especially if comparisons with Pasolini and Tarkovsky could be trusted. Expectations were high.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: lovers on the run.

THE Film Society is screening a number of lesser-seen films by well-known French artists, and it’s a good chance to see where some of these arthouse favourites either came from, or went to in their work. Leos Carax gained some arthouse fame for his 90s films, the hit Les Amants du Pont-Neuf and the Melville adaptation Pola X, but also started off his film life as a critic. And the film critic background shows, as Mauvais Sang (aka The Night Is Young) frolicks in homages a-plenty.