VarietyLA DVFLA021312 : Page 56 V ARIETY .COM/BERLIN MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012 REVIEWS BERLINALE SPECIAL Marley (Docu -U.K.) UNRAVELLING A REGGAE LEGEND By GUY LODGE “ his is my identity,” says Bob Marley, gesturing toward his trademark dreadlocks during a rare inter-view clip with the man himself in “Marley,” Kevin Macdonald’s generous, absorbing, family-au-thorized docu on the late, still-reigning king of reggae music. There’s enough evidence of Mar-ley’s oddball intelligence, sexual magnetism and social idealism here to suggest he was selling himself short with that quote, but if he remains somewhat un-knowable after 144 minutes in his company, it’s hard to say whether film or subject is at fault. The in-ordinate length of this otherwise colorful, accessible pic represents fixable obstacle to crossover suc-cess; festival programmers will surely be jamming. The time has long been ripe for a large-scale cinematic tribute to Marley, among the most generation-ally transferrable of 1970s musical icons: his “Legend” album may still be the soundtrack of student dorms and middle-aged dinner parties alike, but for many, cultural aware-ness of the man behind the gravelly, unhurried voice doesn’t extend far T beyond the marijuana mascot of a million flea-market T-shirts. Macdonald, returning to tra-ditional docu territory after last year’s interactive experiment “Life in a Day,” possesses the right blend of stylistic muscularity and pop sensibility for the project, in-dulging mythology to some extent while mining just enough tangy socio-political context to steer proceedings clear of hagiography. Linear in structure but knotty with detail, courtesy of a broad array of talking, occasionally conflicting, heads, “Marley” should be thor-ough enough to stimulate both the uninformed and the devoted. Particularly compelling is the sub-narrative it presents of a so-cial rebel nonetheless tormented by his own mixed-race heritage. The cause of childhood bullying, it also became to him a bothersome reflec-tion of his mostly Caucasian interna-tional fanbase, while the melanoma that wound up killing him at the age of 36 is pointedly attributed by one commenter to “the whiteness in him.” Discussion of such insecuri-ties, in addition to tart descriptions of his domestic life from his wife, mistresses and children, does much to dispel the widely held notion of Marley as a kind of blissed-out naif, Reggae star Bob Marley remains somewhat enigmatic in Kevin Macdonald’s lengthy biodoc “Marley.” although Macdonald can’t resist one too many shots of the vital, verdant Jamaican landscape to re-romanti-cize things a little. Musically, “Marley” is shorter than might have been expected on concert footage, though the soundtrack is obviously a delight. Macdonald and music supervi-sor Liz Gallacher compensate for some heavy-handed cues for Mar-ley’s hits by underlining the emo-tional significance of obscurities like “Cornerstone,” written about his absent father and played on-screen, in the film’s most affecting non-archive sequence, to his half-sister Constance. Ace DP Alwin Kuechler, arguably overqualified for such a project, can presumably take much credit for the woozy glow of the contempo sequences. Allowing for overlength, Dan Glendenning’s editing elegantly organizes perspectives past and present, in alternately complemen-tary and conflicting sequence. CREDITS: A Shangri-La Entertainment and Tuff Gong Pictures production in asso-ciation with Cowboy Films. (International sales: Fortissimo Films, Amsterdam.) Pro-duced by Steve Bing, Charles Steel. Execu-tive producers, Ziggy Marley, Chris Black-well. Co-producer, Zack Schwartz. Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Camera (color), Alwin Kuechler, Mike Eley; edi-tor, Dan Glendenning; music supervisor, Liz Gallacher; sound (Dolby Digital), Glenn Freemantle; re-recording mixers, Ian Tapp, Niv Adiri; visual effects, Rushes Film & TV; associate producers, Neville (Bunny Wailer) Livingston, Suzette Newman; sec-ond unit director, Michelle Coomber; sec-ond unit camera, Peter Emery. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale Special) , Feb. 11, 2012. Running time: 144 MIN. With: Rita Marley, Neville (Bunny Wailer) Livingston, Chris Blackwell, Cindy Breakspeare, Cedella Marley, Ziggy Mar-ley, Jimmy Cliff, Lee (Scratch) Perry, Dr. Carlton (Pee-Wee) Fraser, Cedella Marley Booker. IN COMPETITION Meteora (Germany – Greece) The father, the son and the holy goat By JAY WEISSBERG F Greece’s “Meteora” looks at the attraction between a monk and a nun. ollowing his Cannes-pre-emed “PVC-1,” Greek-Colombian helmer Spiros Stathoulopoulos addresses his Hellenic side with a monastic drama unsteadily perched be-tween dreamy symbolism and subtlety-killing blatancy. “Me-teora” has much to commend it: stunning locations among otherworldly mountaintop re-treats, attractive icon-inspired animation and an impossible love between a monk and nun that’s generally focused on the conflict between desire and re-ligious calling. Abandoning this delicacy creates an unsatisfying imbalance that destroys some genuine poetry while adding nothing in its place. “Meteora” is likely to remain trapped in the limbo of fest showcases. Meteora is an area of central Greece where centuries-old con-vents sit atop extraordinary nar-row mountains jutting up like giant craggy fingers. Stathoulopoulos sets his drama here, in a monastic establishment reachable by a long flight of stairs, and a nunnery only accessible via a large net attached to a pulley. His story tells of the illicit love between a monk and a nun, a relationship prohibited by monastic strictures and hindered Turn to page 16 Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
