There is something about young children in movies that tugs heavily at my heart strings and runs a gamut of emotions through my head by the end of the film. First, I am amazed at the power of a child to bring emotions to a screen. How do they possibly convey the sadness or joy of a contrived moment? Imagine adults in Hollywood all doing the same and failing miserable, then pan back to Andrej Chalimon in Kolya and it puts all the wannabes in Lala land to shame! The boy was born in 1990 making him around five or six when the film was shot, then imagine yourself as a five year old child trying to memorize lines or shoot the bathroom scene in which you pretend the phone shower IS a phone and you talk to your dead grandmother whom you miss so much it tears your heart apart. The film won an Academy for best foreign language film of 1997, and to my mind it deserved the award for the bathroom scene alone.
Second, I am baffled at how a child simply remembers what to say at the right moment. Victoire Thivisol talks as Ponette through the movie, delivers her lines flawlessly along with the perfect gestures and actions. Third, I am drawn near to tears when she suffers miserably at the death of her mother in the film, and at times you begin to wonder what it does to the real child behind the character. What does she really think of death and loss? What is her understanding of losing someone so vital in life, of grief? If we adults can barely make sense of the life we live, what then of the children we try to raise? The other children in the film were equally brilliant in their portrayals, seemingly unaware of the camera and going about life as usual. Victoire won the Venice Film Festival best Actress award for this film, and doubtless, fully deserved it.
It's hard for me to imagine my own child in such a discipline, when all he wants to do is what he wants to do. He would not be one for film, but perhaps other things he may excell (one can hope) in. Simply put, there are many children of extraordinary talent out loose in the world, it's a matter of finding them and putting them on the right projects (such as these two films). I firmly believe that at times, children outshine any adult endeavor on so many levels that it's mind-blowing.
10:15 AM | |
