Is there life on Mars? Apparently there is, or at least there’s life on some planets in this immense universe and, sooner or later, people living there will come to see us. This has been one of the biggest fears in human history and one of the most exploited subjects in science-fiction movies since the creation of cinema more than 100 years ago. There is a bunch of titles that obviously come to mind thinking about this, from the (almost) reassuring version of Steven Spielberg in Close encounters of the third kind and ET, to the frightening one of the Alien series, to the irreverent and crazy exploit of Tim Burton in Mars Attacks!. From now on, we must add a further view, the one signed by Québécois film-maker Denis Villeneuve: his movie Arrival is, by far, one of the powerful and poignant aliens landing of cinema history.
Louise Banks, a linguistic teaching in a college, remembers very well the day aliens arrived on planet earth. Suddenly, overnight, twelve immense spacecrafts almost land (they are not exactly touching ground but remain suspended over it) in twelve different parts of the world. One of them is Kansas, and this is where Colonel Weber of the US Forces asks Louise and mathematician Ian Donnelly to go to, in order to understand the aliens language and to decode their messages, hoping they’re coming “in peace”. Time is an urgent matter, because in other places (China, especially), politicians are about to declare war to the aliens, and panic is spreading everywhere in the world.
Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner)
I seriously start to believe that Québécois do it better. Cinema, of course. In these last years, some of my favourite movies have been made by film-makers coming from the Montreal area, and I’m talking, ça va sans dire, about Xavier Dolan and Denis Villeneuve. Even if extremely different, they both have a very personal and passionate approach to what they film, and the wonderful habit of creating movies that can’t possibly leave the audience indifferent. They’re talented and they want to make movies in their own way. And I like it! Villeneuve’s breakthrough was the amazing Incendies, back in 2010, followed by Prisoners and Enemy, both made in 2013, both with stunning performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, so-called thrillers but much more than that. Thrillers with a deep soul, if you know what I mean. In 2015, Villeneuve was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival with Sicario, a breath taking movie about the cartel war on the Mexican border, having as main character a strong yet amazingly vulnerable woman, superbly played by Emily Blunt.
Villeneuve, it is clearer at each new movie, has this tendency to embrace a certain cinematographic genre and to change it from the inside, to spread elements of disturb, to widen the borders of it and go deeper down, where anybody has gone yet. Arrival is certainly this: it is science-fiction, but just on the surface, because what Villeneuve wants to tell us has nothing to do with it. And there is a scene in the movie that summon up his whole career: Louise going nearer the glass that separates her from the two enormous, pretty scary aliens, bringing in her hands a panel where she has simply written: HUMAN.
We are human and this is what the film-maker is interested in: why we do what we do, in the way we are doing it? What is the mystery behind our decisions, behind our feelings? And will a new, possible awareness of our future lives, change the way we act? Arrival also talks about the world we live in: the fragility of our social systems, of the relationships between countries, and the lack of understanding that could so easily lead to ghastly catastrophes. We need to better understand each other if we want to avoid the worst, maybe it is as simple as that. And Villeneuve seems to strongly believe in it: the only element that could save this messy world from his destruction is the humanity in us. And it is not by chance that, in another key scene, the scientist confesses to Louise: "The most amazing thing that happened here wasn’t meeting them. Was meeting you." Maybe science-fiction will save romance, after all.
I have to confess I didn’t know about the existence of a thing called Governors Ball until the previous day, when I received the invitation to attend it. On the card there was written: Hollywood & Highland, Ray Dolby Ballroom, Immediately Following the Ceremony.
Once the Oscars were over, in fact, we have been invited to reach the top floor of the theater building: before entering the hall, there was the usual wall of journalists and photographers waiting for the stars, and those immense reflectors that, believe me, are the most annoying things on planet earth. The life of a star is a tough one…. how can you resist making an interview under those liquefying lights? The Governors Ball was taking place in an enormous, quite dark space, with an orchestra on the far left side, round tables elegantly set up everywhere and few big tables on the corners covered with food. I guess a place like El Morocco in the 20s should look like this.
I immediately understood that all the stars, sooner or later, would be passing by. And I was right. As a matter of fact, there were too many stars arriving. Helped by the first glass of champagne (at empty stomach), I started walking around: Jean Dujardin was the first in my line of vision. He was by himself, and I knew he doesn’t speak English super well, so I thought I could talk to him in French. Yes, good idea! but when I started walking towards him, Alexander Payne crossed my path. Oh, I love your cinema! I wanted to tell him. Yes, but just in front of him there was George Clooney with an absolutely irresistible beard, smiling.
What am I supposed to do now??! It was impossible to choose, believe me, so I just walked around enjoying the funny scenes I had the opportunity to look at, like Adele, Barbra Streisand and Shirley Bassey drinking and laughing all together, or Jason Gordon Levitt posing for pictures with Amy Adams and the-most-gorgeous-woman-in-the-universe, Ms. Charlize Theron (and her fabulous, new short haircut!).
After a while, it was pretty clear that tables were naturally arranging around every Oscar movie: there was the Argo area, the Life of Pi area, and the Lincoln area, where I was. I was introduced to Steven Spielberg. My boss explained to him I was a cinema freak. Spielberg told me: "I love that you love cinema!" The second glass of champagne didn’t help: I felt like we were old friends and that it was actually normal talking to him.
Anyway, where is Daniel??! I wanted to scream. His family was there, all the actors from Lincoln were there, the director was there. And there he was, all of a sudden, the happiest man I have ever seen in all my life:
I looked at him, completely and utterly mesmerized by his smiling, his joyful expression, his way of walking and talking. Everybody wanted to say something, to shake hands, to compliment him. He was looking around, clearly enjoying every minute of it, distributing with equal magnanimity smiles and thank you. I could have stayed there forever. When I was about to approach him, Daniel Day Lewis looked around and said: "Could somebody bring me to my wife? I didn’t see Rebecca since I had the Oscar!" What a lovely and romantic thing to say… but the problem was that somebody actually brought him to Rebecca and soon afterwards they seated down at a table and started to eat. I was panicking. I missed my chance to talk to him. Definitely. So stupid of me! I was there with a desperate expression on my face when Heather, from the Academy, saw me and asked me what was going on. I explained. She said: "Let’s go, there is just one life, and we have to take advantage of it." And off she went towards Daniel. We arrived from behind him. She put a hand on his shoulder, and Daniel looked up at her: "I’m sorry to bother you Daniel, but there is an Italian woman who would like to tell you something." Day Lewis looked at me, smiling, and making a gesture with his hand, meaning: come, no worries. When I arrived, he gave me his right hand, I took it and I didn’t let it go until the end of my love declaration. Daniel listened carefully to my speech, having - I guess - a lot of fun. When I told him I have been following his career since I was 15 years old, he raised his eyebrow, and he commented: wow! He kept telling me thank you, smiling, and squeezing my hand every time I said something nice (basically every two seconds).
I don’t remember anything about the end of that scene. I was completely blown away by the events, and so I started walking around the place without a destination.
And it was then that I saw Mads Mikkelsen walking in my direction. Alone.
Before I could even think what I was doing, I walked towards him.
He didn’t have a choice: he had to stop, because I went right in front of him saying: Hello!
Mikkelsen looked at me (down at me, because he is pretty tall): Hello! - I’m a huge fan of yours!
- Oh, thank you!
- Actually, I have a cinema blog, and every year I give my personal Oscars, and this year you have won the award for Best Actor!
- Oh, really? For which movie?
(Is he really asking me this? I thought in a brief moment of lucidity) - For Jagten! (are you impressed? – I wanted to add – that I quote the movie's original Danish title?)
- Oh, that’s a very good movie. Did you like it?
- Sure, a lot, this is also why I decided to give you this price.
Mikkelsend looked at me: And the price consists of...?
Dear readers, believe me or not, when he asked me that, I moved closer, I put my arms around him, and I kissed him on his right cheek.
Mikkelsen was puzzled: Oh, well… nice price! Thank you! - You’re very welcomed!
- I have to go now, because I have friends waiting for me, but it was nice meeting you.
- The same for me! And while I was looking at him disappearing into the crowd, I thought: And you’re lucky I didn’t give you the Man of my Life Award…. Otherwise you wouldn’t make it out just with one kiss, darling!
To celebrate, I took a picture of myself as a real star:
The Governors Ball was over. On our way out we saw Christoph Waltz drinking coffee with the Oscar under his right arm and Tim Burton with a broken arm, and then we started waiting for our limousine to pick us up.
There was one more thing to do… the night was still young!
L'altro giorno ho letto una lunga intervista al regista americano Tim Burton. L'intervista era molto bella, e lui diceva un sacco di cose interessanti. Una però mi ha colpita in maniera particolare: Burton raccontava divertito lo sconcerto di un giornalista tedesco a cui aveva appena confidato che il suo amore per l'attore Vincent Price gli aveva salvato la vita, quand'era piccolo. Come sconcertato? Ho pensato io, d'istinto. A me infatti sembra la cosa più normale del mondo... a voi no?
p.s. Questo mini-film è una vera delizia. Lo adoro!
