My thoughts about movies and TV shows I've been watching

See also my blog on books: Elliot's Reading

Sunday, March 17, 2019

My Happy Family - title is ironic - has received no attention but is definitely worth watching

A Netflix-available film that's received pretty much Zero attention is the from from the Republic of Georgia My Happy Family (it's immediately obvious that the title is ironic or sarcastic) from 2017 (looking up these names: Nana Ekvatimishvili - writer, and co-rector with Simon Gross). The film is the story of a 50-something woman, a literature teacher in a high school, who without any direct explanation determines she will leave her family and set up life on her own in a small apartment in what is evidently an unsafe and unstable neighborhood. Much of the footage, especially in the first half of the film, establishes the family life that she is leaving behind: she and her husband live in small apartment owned by her elderly parents - her mother is a dominant figure and he father is silent and grumpy - along w/ their married daughter and spouse and their son (age 19?) who is lost in his headphone/computer world most of the time. Through # of great scenes shot w/ handheld camera for a true cinema verite look and feel we get a sense of the difficulty of family life in this crowded space - but we don't quite see why the woman is intent on leaving this home - to the great chagrin and embarrassment of her extended family, who try to persuade and dissuade her. Over the course of the movie, she adjusts to her new life and comes to enjoy her solitude, but she also learns about some family secrets, which shed light on the failure of her marriage. Obviously this movie will remind many of Nora in a Doll's House, but the woman - her name is Lamana - is Nora in reverse: She's not being patronizingly dominated in her family home; she's dominated and silenced, period, by a patriarchal society in which the men are privileged and all-powerful and the women are born to serve. Despite the social and family turmoil that fill the screen in many long and complex scenes, there are also moments of tenderness and beauty, especially in relation to music, an important facet of life at least in this family and, by implication, in Georgian society overall: at various tumultuous family gatherings and at one school reunion there is much entertainment and diversion provided by guests who break into song and harmony - very beautiful. (Also, note the use of Beethoven in the score - which by the way could serve as one of about a thousand counter-examples to a recent essay I read that put forth the notion that filmmakers primarily use classical music as a theme for "evil" characters, supposedly setting them up as esoteric highbrows; I think that is the exception rather than the rule.)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.