Opening an impressive and ambitious slate of programming at the Gene Siskel Film Center’s 12th Annual European Union Film Festival is a light-hearted con-artist caper from the Czech Republic, I’m All Good. The time is 1993, at the very beginning of the economic boom that swept across most of Europe. The film is set mostly in an anachronistic “gardener’s colony” on the banks of the River Vitava just outside Prague, where a 
collective of societal outcasts all convene at a shack of a pub run by a man whose eyes convey warmth but whose face shows the signs of years of hard living. One of the misfits is fleeced of his savings by a shell game at the local flea market, moments before he was to have purchased a dream beach holiday that was to be the salvation of his tempestuous marital (or thereabouts) relationship. A plan to get the money back from the shady con men is hatched by a washed up magician, an outsider among the group of outsiders, and the antics ensue. While certainly a reflection of the unfortunate societal impact resulting from economic change, the film is primarily an entertainment (and a very good one), without an overly ambitious subtext. Visually, the theme of truth vs. deception is expressed beautifully and subtly by the cinematography, most notably during the dialog-free introduction of each of the main characters, shown in their places of solitude. Each composition partially obscures the subject, making each character immediately more interesting. According to director Jan Hrebejk, who appeared at tonight’s opening to introduce the film and take questions afterwards, there was a hidden defect in the camera which caused them to have to reshoot a handful of scenes. So it would seem that like the resulting film, even the camera was staying true to itself while expressing the art of deception.
I’m All Good
March 6th, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Capsule · Comedy · Crime/Noir · Ensemble · Foreign Language
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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