'Sicario's' innovative style in female action thriller

"Sicario" is a female action thriller starring Emily Blunt 
Courtesy of Festival de Cannes, reprinted with permission 

"Sicario" features a brilliant role for Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who volunteers to catch the leaders of a drug cartel together with undercover agents. The "Alliance of Women Film Journalists" nominated her as "Best Female Action Star" of 2015.

Directed by Dennis Villeneuve, "Sicario", which means hitman in Spanish, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and was nominated for a Palme d' Or.

The theme of the film - the pursuit of drug dealers by the means necessary to cut off 'the head of the dragon' is illustrated visually. As one head goes, violence erupts like firecrackers in Juarez, Mexico where Emily Blunt as agent Kate Macer is recruited for work. She is there to make the op legit in the unorthodox manner undercover agents go about trying to topple pushers and their regime. Two agents buddy up with her on the job: Alejandro , a rogue agent played by Benicio Del Toro who has lost his family to dealers and FBI agent Matt Graver played by Josh Brolin willing to bend the rules and look the other way. Both Alejandro and Graver work their agenda on Macer.

Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson has created a brilliant musical score in this game of violent high stake pursuit. Behind the camera is Roger Deakins ("Skyfall") who creates some amazing night vision scenes and digital mapping of the terrain where drug runs are made.

Kate Macer (Blunt) does not seem suited for the job; she is often afraid and unsure of herself but eventually she learns why she is attractive to the FBI. "Sicario" is not a pretty picture of legitimate law enforcement cracking down on dope pushers; it shows the viciousness and ruthlessness of the life style, of innocent victims and the families who become involved in this destructive way of life.

Director Dennis Villeneuve creates this narrative in a smooth way with plenty of contemplative spaces. It is not an action film as much as an authentic study of the drug business and the tragedies of lives touched by drug trafficking on both sides of law enforcement and dealing.

'Jeanne Dielman' by Chantal Akerman an eternal classic

Director Chantal Akerman with actress Delphine Seyrig on the set of "Jeanne Dielman"

Festival de Cannes

Jeanne Dielman 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

When Chantal Akerman made "Jeanne Dielman 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" in 1975 she was only 24 years old. The road to making the film began with contacts and one of them was French filmmaker Babette Mangolte , currently a professor of visual arts at UC San Diego who wound up being the cinematographer on this film . Akerman and Mangolte met in New York, a city that would later become the young Belgian director's adopted home. Mangolte introduced Akerman to experimental filmmaking, a small and exclusive world she loved.

Success came early to Akerman whose film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Directors Fortnight in 1975. Suddenly 50 international festivals wanted to screen it. It starred the brilliant French actress Delphine Seyrig as a housewife and widow who stays at home to take care of her teenage son. Once a week she solos as a prostitute for one of her regular clients. Of the film Akerman said that she wanted to value the rare subject of a housewife whose ritualistic work is at home. She has said that a woman almost certainly would have had to make it since a man barely pays attention to his wife’s work at home. To that extent Akerman does a meticulous study of the daily motions of Jeanne Dielman and as she later explains, the film was based on watching the routines of her mother at home, a survivor of Auschwitz whose parents died in the camp.

"Jeanne Dielman" is 200 minutes long and is a fascinating film which breaks down and compartmentalizes Jeanne’s various chores and activities such as putting coffee into a thermos, boiling potatoes, shining her son’s shoes, making up his bed or putting the money from her clients into a large covered dish in the living room. Each day the routines are shot and the procedures given extraordinary importance. This is especially because of Akerman’s framing of the kitchen and the hallway, an almost claustrophobic environment where we as spectators engage in Jeanne’s activities. We are forced to acknowledge how the order is exact and strictly kept in Jeanne’s schedule. We notice how Akerman is careful to present the one day when Jeanne has some time to think for a bit unlike previous days and the film changes its trajectory. This is the compelling force of the film that remains an enchanting narrative construction to this day. Chantal Akerman died in October last year at the age of 65. Her final film on her mother, “No Home Movie”, will be released this year.

Published in San Francisco Examiner.com 1/4/2016