Viva's been devouring some more darkened rooms again this week. Director Kelly Reichardt turns her precise, sure-footed eye to a wagon train of settlers in 1845 Oregon. On pixel paper the story doesn't sound like much. But the transcendental quality of Meek's Cutoff will stay with the viewer for sometime to come.

The 'fly on the wall' doco Armadillo shows with eye-opening detail the daily round of Danish troops in Afghanistan is also just released. But writer/director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie) is the daily round of Adam, an aging Chad luxury hotel pool attendant, as civil war creeps ever more closely. Once a champion swimmer he loves his job and is alas demoted by the hotel's new owners to the security gate - his own son taking his place. What transpires is a sad, soul searching tale of one ordinary family - lives irrevocably torn apart by a war not of their making.

The title is a quote from writer Aimé Césaire, "A screaming man is not a dancing bear." Mahamat-Saleh Haroun: "If there's a lesson in this film it's how to turn from spectator into player to change the course of history." The director has acknowledged the influence of Japanese director Ozu as well as Hou Hsiao-Hsien. An equally fascinating and underrated Japanese director is Mikio Naruse whose 1960When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is re-released this week as part of Film Forum's 5 Japanese Divas season. Criterion issued last month Silent Naruse to complement their other Naruse DVDs and Eureka's box set is also fab. It was only in recent decades that this director was resurrected from obscurity.
Haven't seen The Princess of Montpensier yet but everything French director Bertrand Tavernier does illuminates one's life.
And IFC have The Imperialists Are Still Alive!

For sheer fun, the Ice Age animation team brightens our Easter with Rio (3D). It's age range is probably broader than Hop and there isn't a favela in site to ruffle our feathers. But what's not to like about these well drawn memorable characters! And we've all met a two-faced cocky cockatoo like Nigel (he gets a great come-uppance). Not great PR for the Australian Feather Board but hey, there are enough nice Australians out there to make up for the Nigels of this world. Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) - and ironically a New Zealander- does the voice-over and co-wrote the bird's lines. Bird-butt kickin' soundtrack playlist too.
Quentin Tarantino and his macaw neighbours

Now it's time for Viva to groom her own feathers, throw my sunglasses out the window to get rid of the marmoset that's been on my couch for a week and head off to see the photos of Emma Bee Bernstein (Janet Kurnatowski Gallery)

Forgot to mention that Dogtooth (from last year's New Directors/New Films) is out on Kino DVD.

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