(Croatia, 81 min.)
Dir. Nevio Marasovic, Writ. Nevio Marasovic, Rakan Rushaidat,
Janko Popović Volarić
Starring: Rakan Rushaidat, Janko Popović Volarić, Kresimir
Mikic, Daria Lorenci
“Vis-à-Vis is the
result of my intensive, hectic and impulsive collaboration with actors Janko
Popović Volarić and Rakan Rushaidat,” says director/co-writer Nevio Marasovic
in the press notes for Vis-à-Vis. “The
film is a mixture of true events, fiction, improvisation, scripted scenes, fights,
love, intuition and deep analysis of characters and their motivations in the very
process of filming.” Vis-à-Vis is one
of the most interesting films screening at this year’s European Union Film Festival, but one seems bound to appreciate the film even more if one reads up
on it beforehand or discusses it afterwards. This innovative film riffs on art
and life as an anonymous director (Rakan Rushaidat) and an anonymous actor (Janko
Popović Volarić) revise a script for an upcoming shoot, improvising and drawing
inspiration from the world around them, as they explore their characters. Who
knew the Balkans could do mumblecore?
Vis-à-Vis becomes even more novel when one learns that the semi-autobiographical script that the director and actor are revising is actually a script that Rushaidat and Volarić are themselves working on with Marasovic. Vis-à-Vis is thus an ingenious exploration of the creative process, an improvisation of discovery and growth as the writers/actors/director all put themselves at the core of their work-in-progress. They re-evaluate the work and, in turn, themselves, as they learn how the seemingly melodramatic flairs of the material sometimes ring the most true to life while the supposedly natural elements of the film might be the least authentic bits of all.
Take, for example, one pivotal monologue that the director
clings to like a little boy does his toys. It’s inspired by his own daddy
issues and a break-up that still irks him, yet nobody finds it quite as moving
or effective as he does. “It’s too long,” says a cranky veteran actor whom the
director courts to play the father. “Fix it.”
The same conversation arises when the director presents the
same monologue to his actor when they take a getaway to Vis Island, which the
veteran actor also thinks is a gratuitous scene choice but provides some
stirring picturesque views. (A few trips to Croatia are bound to be booked
after the director and actor take a scenic ferry ride.) The actor quips that
the scene is too long, but he shows that it is startlingly effective when he
confronts the director in a random outburst shortly into their trip. It seems
as if the actor is furious at his director, drawing on some deep-rooted
tensions that have gone unexplained in the film, while he shouts furiously and the
director simply stands there in awe. Then the actor pauses and quips that the
last line is too melodramatic. It turns out that he memorized the whole speech
rather quickly and is riffing on the character through some improvisation.
The intensity of Volarić’s performance is remarkable and he
injects the film with an artistic authenticity that can’t be beat. Watch
closely when he enjoys another extended monologue towards the end of the film:
it’s exhaustingly long—pages and pages of words long, perhaps—and it repeats
the same line that the actor feels should be excised from the film for its
inauthenticity. People, actors, and writers thus sometimes stumble into clichés
since there’s a grain of truth to the feelings they express even if the words
themselves are false and phony. Vis-à-Vis
confronts the art/life dynamic face-to-face (hence the title) and it astutely
blurs the line with a dance around reality. Even the film's final shot, a nice exterior long shot of the actor and director embarking on the next step of their film, is a shrewd replica of an unfinished painting that appears earlier in the film. It's all a clever work-in-progress.
The film within the film voices art’s ability to bring
catharsis as filmmakers and actors find outlets for their anxieties and
memories by sharing their experiences with others. One sees the evolution of a
film as the director’s upcoming project, Comic
Sans (also the title of Marasovic’s film-in-progress), comes into its own
and puts onto film the words and actions they struggle to realize in life. The
energy of the film is truly unique, especially for a dialogue-driven buddy
comedy, since one rarely sees this kind of independent spirit from this corner
of Europe. (Kitchen-sink dramas usually dominate the slate of Balkan films that
make their way to North America, although that seems to be changing.) Fans of
the Duplass brothers, Lynn Shelton, and even Woody Allen will enjoy this
insightful and hilarious slice of independent comedy, since Vis-à-Vis is an inspired dramatization
of the creative process and of the art that goes into making a film. This
meta-movie is real art.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Vis-à-Vis screens at the European Union Film Festival on Thursday, Nov. 27 at 9:00 pm at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St.
The European Union
Film Festival runs Nov. 13-30.
Please visit www.cfi-icf.ca for more information on this
year’s festival.
(It also screens at Toronto's European Union Film Festival on Nov. 28.)
More coverage of the European Union Film Festival may be found here.
(It also screens at Toronto's European Union Film Festival on Nov. 28.)
More coverage of the European Union Film Festival may be found here.
