Searching for Love With Europolis-Meridians Progam

Ten movies will be screened in international competition at the Pula Film Festival. The quest for love is the motif that they all share.

This year’s international competition program Europolis – Meridians takes place between July 12 and 15 at Kastel and in Circola hall in Pula, independently from the National Program of the Pula Film Festival for the first time. 

Under the slogan “Searching for love,” the recurring motif in all film programs, the program entails ten works of the European film industry.  

The Festival opened with the acclaimed La vie en rose (La Môme), which portrays the life of French music legend Edith Piaf in an incredibly convincing fashion. The movie follows her life from her impoverished childhood and rise on the music scene to her tragic death. It does not fall into the trap that many biopics are unable to avoid – La vie en rose does not only present facts and interesting footnotes against the backdrop of a good soudtrack. With Marion Cotillard’s amazing performance and Oliver Dahan’s enthralling direction, La vie en rose takes us into the life of one of the greatest 20th century singers. 

Another French movie was screened on the opening day. An Old Mistress (Une vieille maitresse), directed by Catherine Breillat, takes us to the 19th century and tells the tale of a young man torn between the feelings for his wife and the old mistress mentioned in the film’s title. Top notch production and an excellent cast are the movie’s secret of success.  

The “black sheep” of the entire program was the last to be shown on opening day. Quentin Tarantino’s much lauded Death Proof was screened out of competition.

The well known visual “Tarantino poetics” that we are familiar with from his previous movies, his love of exploitation films and movie kitsch, were brought to perfection in this film. With his grainy imagee, deliberately damaged film and excessive violence, he continues to honour his role models and the result is one of the best movies of the season.  

The second day of the Festival opens with Sam Garbarski’s Irina Palm, starring Marianne Faithfull. Through the story of a mature lady who is raising money for her grandson’s surgery by anonimously gratifying men in a bar called Sexy World, run by a man named Miklos (played by Miki Manojlovic), the director raises the issue of false morality, hypocrisy, but also of the power of love.   

The last film to be screened on the second day is Hungarian Men in the Nude, directed by Károly Esztergályos. It deals with an elderly artistic couple, whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of a handsome young man.  

The director and actor László Gálffi will attend the screening of the provocative movie. 

On the third day, the audience will get their dose of humour from the comedy Gardens in Autumn (Jardins en automne), directed by Otar Iosseliani from Georgia. The film discreetly parodies French politicians, their tendency to have affairs, and primitivism of all kinds.

I Served the King of England is a charming comedy directed by Jiří Menzel and based on the novel by Bohumil Hrabal. The manner in which Menzel follows the story of the benevolent waiter Jan, from his early days as a trainee to his leaving prison during the communist years, is irresistibly reminiscent of Fellini, but Menzel does not imitate him at any point.  

Oscar winning director Jiří Menzel is the special guest at this year’s Festival. Audiences will mostly remember him for his films My Sweet Little Village and Closely Watched Trains.  

The eighth movie to be screened is C.R.A.Z.Y., directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, who has already won as many as ten Canadian Film Awards (Genie). The likeable, humorous drama is a coming-of-age story of an atypical young Canadian. 

The screening of the movie will close the part of the program that takes place at Kastel.    

Romantic musical drama Love Songs (Les chansons d’amour) was directed by Christophe Honoré through songs, but it does not lose realism. It deals with the love problems of well-to-do young Parisians. Even though it is reminiscent of Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, with which it shares actor Louis Garnell, Love Songs does not flirt with incest, but talks about the relationship between love and sexuality in a different manner. 

The slogan “Searching for love” will be put to a test in particular with the final movie of the Europolis – Meridians Program, Italian drama Salty Air (L’aria salata), the feature film debut of documentary director Alessandro Angelini. Salty Air shows a sudden meeting of a prisoner father and son who is a social educator at the prison. The film is an impressive closing to an even more impressive program of this year’s international competition.