The Central Park Five

I saw The Central Park Five at the Landmark Embarcadero earlier this week.  The film screened at the 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival and it caught my attention.  It plays at the Roxie from December 22 to 27.

The Central Park Five; directed by Ken Burns, David McMahon & Sarah Burns; documentary; (2012)

The Central Park Five chronicles the Central Park Jogger case.  In April 1989, Trisha Meili, a 28 year old investment banker, was jogging in Central Park.  She was raped and beaten into a coma.  That same night, some neighborhood youths were roaming the park and getting into more than mischief.  By their own account, some in the group beat up a homeless man.  Responding to calls about the troublesome youths, police rounded up a number of them.  While in custody, Meili was found and police instantly tried to link the youths in custody to the rape/assault of Meili.  It was a classic "rush to judgment" if the movie is to be believed.

Five boys (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise & Yusef Salaam) eventually confessed to the crime after intense interrogation.  The boys were African American or Hispanic, poor and between the ages of 14 and 16.  Told by detectives that they could go home if they confessed their part in the rape, the boys admitted to their roles in the crime.  As Ken Burns and his co-directors show, the confessions were false and obtained under duress.  In fact, it was a perfect storm of events.  Racial tensions and high crime rates were plaguing New York City at the time.  The police released the names of the minors (contrary to policy) and the newspapers published the names (contrary to policy).

Twelve years after being convicted, another person claimed responsibility for the crime and the five men's convictions were vacated.  Their story is sad and fascinating.

Four of the five boys confessed on videotape.  DNA evidence was collected but it didn't match any of the five boys.  The victim's blood was not found on them despite the woman receiving near fatal injuries and being beaten so bad she was unrecognizable by friends and family.  The DAs contended that there was a sixth rapist whose absence did not prove the other five were not complicit.  Their confessions made no mention of a sixth man but their confessions were full of other inconsistencies which the jury overlooked.

The oldest two boys were tried as adults and Kharey Wise served the longest at nearly 12 years.  It was Wise who met Matias Reyes, a serial rapist who was serving time.  Aware that Wise was convicted for the Central Park Jogger case, Reyes felt guilty that Wise and the other four had served time for a crime they didn't commit.  A serial rapist with a conscience!  Reyes confessed and his DNA matched the sample collected from Meili.

To his credit, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau investigated the claims and decided to recommend the five convictions be vacated.  Morgenthau was the DA at the time of the original prosecution.

Those two events are unusual in their own right.  Reyes had no incentive to tell the truth or claim responsibility.  It's odd that NYPD didn't run the DNA sample against their database but the case was full of odd and suspicious behaviors.  DAs don't like to admit they prosecuted the wrong people as it undermines confidence in the judicial system and demoralizes police and prosecutors alike.

Obviously this was a miscarriage of justice but I couldn't help but shake my head.  All five men appeared in the film (one only allowed his voice to be used).  They claimed that although their ranks swelled to 25 boys and young men that night, they personally took no part in the other crimes attributed to the rampaging mob (which the press dubbed "wilding").

I suspect the boys confessed to the rape because they were worried they would be implicated in the other less-serious crimes.  Maybe I have watched too many Law and Order episodes but everyone knows a) you don't speak to the police without a lawyer present and b) you never confess to anything, even if you are guilty but especially if you are not guilty.  As one of the lawyers said, the videotaped confessions trumped the lack of physical evidence.

This was 1989 (pre-Law and Order which is kind of incomprehensible to me).  The boys and their families were poor, uneducated and too trusting of the police.  As shown in Scenes of Crime (which I saw at the 2011 SF DocFest), people subjected to enough stress can be induced to confess to crimes they didn't commit.

I will give the reader my Criminal Defense 101 (which I hope to never use).  1) Never go to the police station.  Ask the police officer if you are under arrest.  If he says no or gives some weasel words, decline to go anywhere with the police.  Anything they have to speak about can be discussed at the present location.  If you are under arrest, they'll handcuff you and you'll have no choice about going to the police station.  2) If you are under arrest or feel uncomfortable about the way the questioning is going, state that you will not answer any more questions without your attorney present.  3) If police keep questioning you after you have invoked your right to an attorney, remain silent or keep repeating "I want to consult with my lawyer before saying anything more."

If the Central Park Five had followed this advice, they likely would not have been convicted.  I realize when cops are keeping you awake for hours at a time and screaming in your face, it's hard to retain your composure but just keep saying "I want to speak with my lawyer."

The Central Park Five is a damning indictment of our society.  There are all these safeguards in our legal system to prevent this from happening but racism, laziness, corruption, ambition and ignorance allowed five men to have their lives forever altered.

One thing I did note was that the five men came from poor families.  I wonder if they would have gone to college if they weren't convicted.  I think it unlikely.  Two of the boys couldn't make bail.  Several of them received college degrees while in prison.  That doesn't make up for wrongful imprisonment but I thought it ironic that the men went to prison to get degrees which they would have unlikely obtained otherwise.

The Central Park Five is a fascinating film which left me with a queasy feeling in my stomach.  I pitied those five boys (now men) but had a hard time feeling empathy for them.  I felt anger at the system and their families for not looking out for them but frustration with the five men for allowing themselves to be taken advantage of.  Would I have fared any better at age 14?  I don't know but age 14 is a lifetime ago for me.  I can barely remember what it's like to to be 14.  If there is one lesson from this, it's that it is never too early to teach your children lessons in civics and their constitutional rights under the law.

Pierre Étaix Lost and Found

This is my 500th post.  I'm surprised I have stuck with this blog for as long as I have.  That's all I have to say about the milestone.  I like to see blogs where the author stopped posting.  Frequently, the posts stop without notice.  I read through the posts to see if I can discern the author's growing disengagement but typically I cannot.  Abandoned blogs are the e-detritus of people's lives.

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Last week, I went to the Smith Rafael Film Center to see the Pierre Étaix series.  As I mentioned, I saw Yoyo at the 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival.  Wanting to see more of Étaix's work, I ventured to San Rafael.  As I did last time, I stopped by Sol Food.  Due to traffic, I couldn't eat before the screenings so I had a very late dinner before driving home.  Fortunately, Sol Food is open until midnight most days (2 AM on Fridays & Saturdays).  This time I had the pork chop with pink onions and the revoltillo sandwich (scrambled eggs, tomato, onion and ham).  The food was a delicious as my first visit.  I have to go to the Smith Rafael Film Center more often.

As Long As You're Healthy starring & directed by Pierre Étaix; French with subtitles; (1966)
The Suitor starring & directed by Pierre Étaix; French with subtitles; (1963)

As Long As You're Healthy was preceded by Feeling Good which was originally a segment of As Long As You're Healthy.  The Suitor was preceded by Rupture.

Feeling Good starring & directed by Pierre Étaix; French with subtitles; (1966)
Rupture starring & directed by Pierre Étaix; French with subtitles; (1961)

As Long As You're Healthy was re-edited by Étaix five years after its original release.  The film consists of four stand-alone segments.  Like Yoyo, As Long As You’re Healthy has extended scenes without dialog.

The first segment has Étaix playing a man with insomnia reading a vampire story, the second has the hapless Étaix fruitlessly trying to get a seat in a crowded movie theater, the third segment features Étaix in a restaurant with the man sitting next to him inadvertently consuming his anti-anxiety pills and the final vignette consists of a hunter (Étaix), a farmer, a picnicking couple and a wire fence which keeps getting pulled down.  Somewhere in there (the second segment I believe), Étaix visits a married couple who have all the modern conveniences.

The comedy is broad and crosses over into physical comedy but never slapstick.  As Long As You’re Healthy reminded me of a good Laurel and Hardy film.  The film never provoked an emotion.  Étaix was likely criticizing modern lifestyles (in the third segment, the automobiles put out more exhaust than a steel mill) but his character remains a detached observer.

Feeling Good involved Étaix going camping in a location that more closely resembled a concentration camp than campgrounds.

The Suitor was my favorite Étaix to date.  He plays wealthy young man who is being pressured into marriage by his parents.  A remake of Buster Keaton's Seven Chances, it's not surprising that The Suitor is the only film which created any pathos.  Again, consisting largely of stand-alone segments, Étaix bounces from one woman to the next without ever noticing the Swedish exchange student living in his parents' house.  Fleeing from the attention of a tactless and frequently drunk brunette (who reminded me of Joan Collins), Étaix sets his sights on a chanteuse...until finding out she has a son about the same age as him.  Only noticing the Swede until she has gone off to the train station for her return to Scandinavia, Étaix rushes to the station to meet her.  A little offensive if you think about it enough, the film finally provoked an emotion from me.

Rupture has Étaix trying to write a letter to his ex-girlfriend but his desk, pen and stationery won't cooperate.

As I wrote before, I was expecting (hoping?) Étaix to be closer to Jacques Tati or Charlie Chaplin.  Instead, he is more like Jerry Lewis with comedic savoir faire.  All four films (and Yoyo) were very well made comedies and I laughed frequently & heartily.  I would recommend his works but will say that although I had the opportunity to see additional Étaix films the next two nights, I was not willing to fight the traffic and pay the bridge toll for the privilege.

Starlet

I mentioned that I missed one film at the 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival.  I ended up seeing that film at the Landmark Opera Plaza.

Starlet starring Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson; directed by Sean S. Baker; (2012) - Official Website

Interestingly, San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope is one of the producers of Starlet.  I knew he was a film producer before taking the SFFS job but this was the first film where I noticed his name in the credits.

Although Starlet is set in the San Fernando porn industry, has one surprisingly explicit sex scene and features cameos by actual porn stars (even I have heard of Asa Akira), the film focuses on the relationship between young Jane (Dree Hemingway) and eldery Sadie (Besedka Johnson).  Jane makes her living as a porn actress.  It's a rather hardscrabble life as she has two roommates and drives an old car.  I take it Jane is new to the industry and a rising star.  She happens upon some money hidden in a thermos that she bought at a yard sale.  Unsure as to what to do, Jane attempts to return the money to the cantankerous Sadie.  Sadie's gruff demeanor and Jane's faltering ethics leave the issue of the money unstated.

Instead, Jane (who seems desperate for parental approval) gloms on to Sadie as a surrogate mother/grandmother.  She begins to drive her to the grocery store, the bingo parlor, etc.  Initially skeptical, Sadie eventually warms up to Jane.  As Jane's friendship with Sadie begins providing emotionally nourishing dividends, her relationship with her roommates take a turn for the worse.  Melissa (Stella Maeve in a nice performance) and Mikey (James Ransone) are also in the porn industry.  Melissa is an actress with a drug habit and questionable scruples.  Mikey is an actor/director/manager who seems to leech off the two women.

Increasingly aware of the toxic atmosphere at home and by extension, the porn industry in general, Jane clings to Sadie's companionship.  Indeed it appears the friendship means more to Jane than Sadie.  When Melissa reveals the found money to Sadie in a moment of pique, it appears that the relationship is kaput but it turns out that Sadie has her own secret.

The ending was a little bit of let down but the film thrives when Hemingway and Johnson appear together and any time Maeve is on screen.  Her Melissa is one sexy bitch in every sense of the phrase.  Jane's future is left vague and I had to wonder how long she will be able to count on the octogenrian's support but it certainly seems Jane benefits more from their friendship if only because she seems more damaged to start with.

Playing into many of the stereotypes of the porn industry, Jane has a vulnerability and loneliness which likely attracted her to porn.  Not a bad person as much as a confused person, Jane's uncertainty is common among young people.  Her particpation in porn gives it a certain tragic quality.  I believe Melissa is essentially similar to Jane but she copes with her vulnerability by taking drugs and having a loser boyfriend.  Jane recognizes this and strives to be something more than she is without necessarily giving up porn.  It's a tough row to hoe but the film doesn't show if she is successful.  It only shows the first step in the process.  Starlet is neutral to positive about the porn lifestyle.

Hemingway's Jane is very appealing in a "damsel in distress" sort of way.  Attractive, congenial and projecing a sense that she needs saving, she appeals to a large male demographic.  The titular starlet is actually Jane's male lap dog but the title also refers to Jane.

I enjoyed Starlet. It has many understated scenes between Jane & Sadie which are contrasted by the crass and outrageous scenes involving the porn world.  The film works best when it allows these two worlds to play out without a defined story arc being visible.  As the film moves to its conclusion, the scenes and drama seem forced until the conclusion which was out of step with what occurred before it.  Consdered as a whole, the film is very successful in telling the story at its own pace and allowing the three actresses to shine.

2012 Mill Valley Film Festival

I bought tickets to seven screenings at the 2012 Mill Valley Film Festival but only saw six.  I was double booked on the evening of October 4.  I skipped the screening of Starlet and went to the Berkeley Rep's production of Chinglish which I greatly enjoyed.

I've noticed a pattern recently. It seems like I been reading books (Girlvert by Oriana Small), attending events (Femina Potens ASKEW at YBCA) and watching films (Danland at DocFest) where porn or porn performers are the focus.  The titular character in Starlet, the film I skipped at MVFF, is "Jane, a newbie to the San Fernando Valley porn industry who spends most of her plentiful free time shiftlessly getting high and partying. It’s not until she meets Sadie, a taciturn, lonely old woman who just wants to be left in peace, that Jane’s life takes a deeper, unexpected turn."  I also recently rediscovered my love of the film Body Double (a future post on this blog), a Brian De Palma work set in the world of porn.  Don't know what the implies about me.

MVFF ran from October 4 to 14.  The six films I saw were:

Yoyo starring & directed by Pierre Étaix; French with subtitles; (1965)
Thursday Till Sunday starring Santi Ahumada; directed by Dominga Sotomayor; Spanish with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Holy Motors starring Denis Lavant; directed by Leos Carax; French with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
The Slut starring & directed by Hagar Ben-Asher; Hebrew with subtitles; (2011)
Like Someone in Love starring Rin Takanashi & Tadashi Okuno; directed by Abbas Kiarostami; Japanese with subtitles; (2012)
Rent-a-Cat starring Mikako Ichikawa; directed by Naoko Ogigami; Japanese with subtitles; (2012)  - Official Website

I saw Yoyo, The Slut, Like Someone In Love and Rent-a-Cat at the Smith Rafael.  I saw Thursday Till Sunday at 142 Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley & Holy Motors at Cinearts Sequoia.

I cannot recall the last time I was in San Rafael which did not involve a trip to the Smith Rafael Film Center.  While driving there, I always notice a line of people at Sol Food at Lincoln and 3rd Street.  Sol Food is a well reviewed, well regarded Puerto Rican restaurant.  I took a day off from work and made a day of it in San Rafael.  Over two meals, I had the Jamon, Queso y Huevo sandwich, the Cubano sandwich, the Maduros (fried sweet plantains), the Tostones con Mojo (fried green plantains) and a side order of pork ribs.  I would have gone back for a third meal but I had to drive back to SF to catch the 9:30 PM screening of Din Tao at Taiwan Film Days.  Perhaps my critical review of Din Tao was influenced by the knowledge that I had skipped a third meal at Sol Food for it.

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Yoyo was one of a series of comedy films made by Pierre Étaix in the 1960s.  An assistant to Jacques Tati, Étaix borrowed from him as well as Chaplin, Keaton and other silent film comedians.  Long scenes with no dialogue punctuate Yoyo.  Yoyo lacks the poignancy and sadness of Tati, et al.  The result is that Yoyo is more clever than heartfelt.  A great comedy has to have a certain amount of sadness underlying it or it lacks the emotional heft to be meaningful

Although I was expecting more from Yoyo, I may see more works by Étaix.  The Smith Rafael is screening five of his films in December.  In addition to Yoyo, the series consists of Le Grand Amour, The Suitor, As Long As You're Healthy and Land of Milk and Honey.  "Clever" is better than nothing and I have to believe that someone with a reputation of Étaix had to earn it somehow.

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Holy Motors starred Denis Levant (who was terrific in Claire Denis' Beau travail).  In Holy Motors, Levant plays Oscar, an actor who rides around in the back of white stretch limousine.  The passenger compartment is a mobile dressing room filled with costumes, props and make-up accessories.  All day and into the night, with Edith Scob as the chauffeur, the limo travels around Paris delivering Levant to various locations where he performs as a character in real-life situations.  He plays a white-haired businessman, a beggar woman, a dying old man,  a crazy homeless man, a man having simulated sex while wearing a black body suit studded with motion-capture balls, etc.  It ends with him playing a chimpanzee father returning home to his nuclear chimpanzee family.  Along the way, Eva Mendes & Kylie Minogue show up.

Holy Motors is a frustratingly surreal film.  I'm unsure what the message is.  In fact, I don't think there was one.  It was like some dadaist film experiment.  Leos Carax blurs the traditional narrative structure which film audiences have been conditioned to accept.  During the interludes between jobs, Levant & Scob share superficially trite conversations which I listened to carefully searching for clues to unlock the mystery.  Ultimately, I decided to abandon all hope and simply watched the film with a sense of acceptance wondering what character Oscar would next become.

There is a scene where Oscar dresses up like a crazy, homeless man and terrorizes people in a cemetery.  Eventually, he comes upon a fashion photo shoot (in the cemetery).  The photographer is intrigued by the strange and dishevelled man.  He sends his assistant to convince the man to be part of the shoot.  Oscar promptly bites her fingers off and slings the model (Mendes) over his shoulder.  He runs off to some subterranean crypt with her.  In a wordless scene, they share a mildly disturbing scene on a bench which ends Levant nude and fully erect I might add.  I can't blame the man as Mendes would likely have the same effect on me.

Carax and Levant teamed up to in Tokyo! (2008).  That film consisted of three unrelated short film, each directed by a different person.  Michael Gondry and Bong Joon-ho directed the other two segments.  Carax's segment was titled Merde and followed a dishevelled and crazy looking many who rises up from the sewers to wreak havocs on the citizens of Tokyo.  As IMDB confirms, it's the same character as in cemetery scene in Holy Motors.

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I was ambivalent about Yoyo & Holy Motors, but the other four films were outstanding.

The provocatively named The Slut, was the brainchild of actor, director & screenwriter of Hagar Ben-Asher who played the eponymous character.  Tamar is a single mother of two daughters in a small rural community.  She sells fresh eggs for a living, but she believes in the barter system.  She trades sex for various services such a bicycle repair and physical labor.  She and the men in the town have come to an convenient understanding.  Far from being exploited, Tamar is able to satisfy her carnal needs in a mutually beneficial manner.  In a telling but understated scene, she punctures her bike tire on purpose so that she can engage in "bartering."

That's not to say her arrangement doesn't cause problems.  Her young daughters spy on her and seem to be developing unhealthy attitudes towards men and sexuality but overall they are fairly well adjusted.  It's not until Shai (Ishai Golan) returns to town that problems start.  A veterinarian and former resident of the town, Shai is back to treat an injured horse and clean out his late mother's house.  Acquainted with each other from their youths, Shai & Tamar quickly start a passionate relationship.

The relationship fulfills one of Tamar's desires which is a monogamous relationship to add stability to her daughters' lives.  As the females move into Shai's house to form a nuclear family, Tamar begins to feel ill at ease.  She senses the frustration in several men due to her monogamy but more troubling is the difficulties she is having adapting to it herself.  Eventually, she "barters" with the bicycle repair man and Shai discovers them.

Hurt by the betrayal, Shai engages in an act so shocking that I was left stunned during the screening.  Warning:  I will describe the act in this paragraph.  Tamar's elder daughter begins showing signs of puppy love towards Shai who is uncomfortable with it.  There is a scene where the two girls and Shai are watching TV on a couch.  The elder daughter lays her head on Shai's lap and falls asleep.  Conspicuously, Shai does not rest his hand/arm on her as would seem natural.  Aware of the elder daughter's feelings, Shai retaliates against Tamar by molesting the younger daughter which Tamar witnesses from outside their bedroom window.

This story plays out at a measured pace with little dialogue.  There is considerable latitude in assigning motivations to Tamar & Shai's action (in particular his choice for victim).  Even the ending ambiguous although I wonder how the two can stay together much less in that small town.  Provocative, shocking and ambiguous, The Slut is unlike anything I can recall seeing before.

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Thursday Till Sunday was a comtemplative film about a couple's breakup from the viewpoint of their 10 year old daughter.  Set in Chile, Manuel and Ana set out on a road trip with Lucia (Santi Ahumada) and her younger brother.  Although they are civil towards each other, it is clear that there is tension between Manuel & Ana.  The younger brother is too young to understand what is going on but Lucia (and by extension the audience) can clearly pick up on the largely silent dissension between mother & father.    Both have ulterior motives.  What starts as a possible final reconciliation attempt becomes something else.  Manuel wants to visit his family's plot of land and show his son. Lucia wants to meet with the man by whom she is cuckolding Manuel.

Much of the film is set in the station wagon interior and we see the parents converse from Lucia's backseat point of view.  The confined settings leads to an intimacy with the characters.  There are no fireworks (even when Lucia realizes her mother is having an affair) but the accretive observations point a sad and damning portrait of the parents.  Not only does Lucia come realize her parents are likely getting divorced but she also realizes that they are flawed people and not the idealized parents she may have once imagined.

Paola Giannini as Ana is particularly effective.

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On the day I did had my Sol Food Double Visit, I saw a pair of Japanese films.

Like Someone in Love is Japanese language with a Japanese cast and set in Japan but was directed by noted Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.  I'm not sure if he is in exile from his native country but his last two films have been made in Europe and now Japan.  I wonder if Kiarostami speaks Japanese and if he doesn't how did he direct the actors.

Like Thursday Till Sunday & The Slut, still waters run deep in Like Someone in Love.  The film starts in a très chic jazz bar/lounge with Akiko (Rin Takanashi) on the phone with her boyfriend.  It's clear she is lying about her whereabouts.  After she gets off the phone, an older man sits at Akiko's table and tells her that he has arranged an appointment for her.  It is established early on that Akiko is a prostitute earning money to pay her way through college, a cliché but the film has many surprises later.

The client Akiko meets is an elderly and widowed retired professor whose apartment is filled with books.  Akiko is exhausted by her day since it turns out her grandmother has been leaving voice messages on her phone all day.  The ominous part is that grandma is calling her work phone; i.e. the phone number she gives out to clients.  In a skillful piece of filmmaking, we hear Akiko retrieve the half dozen or so messages her grandmother has left.  We learn that she makes an unexpected trip to Tokyo to speak with Akiko, got number from the family of one of Akiko's childhood friend (and fellow prostitute) and finally sees a model on a flyer advertising escort services which looks suspiciously like Akiko.  Akiko decides to leave granny at the train station without contacting her.  As the taxi takes Akiko to the professor's house, we see forlorn looking old woman desperately scanning faces in a vain attempt to find her granddaughter.  Just listening to that woman's wavering voice is enough to make my eyes moist.

Once Akiko gets to Takashi's (Tadashi Okuno) place, she adroitly sidesteps the romantic dinner prepared for her, strips off her clothes and jumps into his bed.  She correctly surmises he is a gentleman and will not object.  The next morning, Takashi offers to drive Akiko back to Toyko.  We learn that his area of expertise is the same subject Akiko is studing (anthropology?).  Akiko begins share details of her life.  Her boyfriend is unaware of her profession, has a temper and is jealous.  Akiko is unsure about him but is not ready to end the relationship.

After being dropped off at the university (it's unclear if it is the same university he taught at), Takashi witnesses Akiko and her boyfriend (Ryo Kase) have an argument.  While waiting in the car for Akiko, the boyfriend approaches Takashi; curious about his identity.  He assume Takashi is Akiko's grandfather and Takashi, does not correct the mistaken assumption of his identity.  The boyfriend tells him he wants to marry Akiko but Takashi gives grandfatherly wisdom to the younger man which is humorous and decidedly self-serving given his actual relationship with the girl.

When Akiko returns to the car, she is disturbed to see her boyfriend and client having a conversation but decides to play along.  The boyfriend runs a garage and hearing Takashi's timing belt is off, insists that he bring the car in for immediate repair.  While at the garage, Takashi runs into a former student who is now a police detective.  This will eventually unravel the charade Takashi & Akiko have allowed to stand.  Eventually, the boyfriend discovers from the detective that Takashi is not Akiko's grandfather and what Akiko's profession is.  Taking refuge in Takashi's apartment, Takashi and Akiko listen to the boyfriend rage outside.

Like Someone in Love is full of hidden identities and mistaken identities.  Takashi has a nosy neighbor  who watches his comings and goings like sentry.  She assumed Akiko is Takashi's granddaughter and shares hilariously personal details.  It turns out she is/was in love with Takashi from their youth (apparently Takashi has lived there since a young professor).  When he got married, she accepted the situation although it's obvious she didn't put aside her feelings.  Little scenes like that abound in the film.

A simple story of a lonely old man paying for companionship with a pretty young woman spirals out to the two of having a little adventure together and allowing societal assumptions about them to stand uncorrected.  That people can be hurt by their actions is dealt with in humorous manner until the final climactic scene.  Like Someone in Love is a very satisfying film with a "less is more" style.  There was no "moral" to the film.  It just the story flow and like life, it was full of humor, heartbreak and moments of terror.

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After seeing three Kiarostami-esque films, I ended MVFF on a different note.  Rent-a-cat is a comedy about Sayoko, a young woman who lives by herself...if you don't count the two dozen cats in the house. Sayoko's "job" is a rent-a-cat agency.  With a pullcart, she chants her come-on pitch, "Rent-a-neko, neko-neko."  Neko means cat in Japanese.  She finds more clients than one would think.  There is the old woman who doesn't want to get a new cat because she is afraid she'll die and the cat will be abandoned, the salaryman who is separated from his family and doesn't want a permanent cat because he could be reassigned to his hometown and his family doesn't like cats and an unfulfilled rental car clerk who I can't recall why she doesn't want to get a cat.

The film takes formulaically over three vignettes with a prologue.  Each segment starts with her using a bullhorn for her sing-song "Rent-a-neko" chant.  She is taunted by some schoolboys who make fun of the catlady but eventually finds a client.  After inspecting the client's home to ensure suitability, she offers the cat for a nominal fee which each client is shocked at.  She makes up a reason why she doesn't need to make money from her cat rental business (which is depicted on screen in a fantasy sequence).  She leaves the cat with the person and the cat affects a change for the better in the lives of the clients or the client's family.  There is strange neighbor woman (played by a male actor) who infuriates her and she prays at her grandmother's shrine while reciting al the things her grandmother taught her.

The plot is not important because this a delightful comedy with some serious issues such the emotional isolation of people in a society.  These issues are explored gently and the film never loses its fanciful whimsy or congeniality.  Mikako Ichikawa delivers a winning performance showing exceptional comedic skills and she captures some of the sadness which I thought Yoyo was lacking.  I doubt anyone will equate Rent-a-cat with Chaplin or Tati but it was a well-made little film which exceeded its seemingly modest expectations or at least, my modest expectations of it.