The Agronomist, Au Hasard Balthazar, & Wishing Stairs

The Agronomist is a film I've been wanting to see for a year or so, ever since I did some research on Haiti and found out about it. It's an interesting look at the budding democracy there, from the perspective of Jean Dominique, the titular agronomist, journalist, film buff, and radio host. Jonathan Demme directed, and clearly was good friends with him, due to the interviews spaced out over years, and obviously very sympathetic to his message of both democracy and anti-corruption, as evidenced by a somewhat contentious interview with Aristide after his presidency. And, of course, as any documentary about a country torn apart by military coups and the like, the US is at fault. Apparently, the CIA supported the military leaders and Papa and Baby Doc, sometimes without the knowledge of the president. What a frickin' surprise. The CIA does a lot of crazy stuff. And as long as that stuff doesn't include removing not-widely-read blogs, I probably won't know about it unless I see another documentary about them screwing up another country for years. Anyway, the documentary is visually interesting, although the use of repeated scenes and sound effects (especially gunfire) occasionally got on my nerves. One thing that didn't was the soundtrack, by Wyclef Jean. You could occasionally hear bits that sounded almost like No Woman, No Cry, but it was an almost constant presence in the film, behind interviews in both English and French (or Creole, I know it was spoken, but can't tell the difference as I'm an uneducated American), but it adds quite a nice touch to the film. And Cowboy Reagan, another fake cowboy draft dodging Republican president, supporting the suppression of democracy just goes to show that the more things change, the more Republicans are a bunch of crazy assholes.

Au Hasard Balthazar is another arty French film that doesn't have an accepted English title. It sort of translates as Balthazar by chance, or something. Who cares? It's a film about a woman and the donkey who loved her. But not physically, although that was somewhat suggested at least once. Which would have made the film far more interesting. Donkey on woman sex is hilarious! Just look at how often it's mentioned when Mexico is! Bestiality, FTW! Just kidding all, I think it's dirty, dirty, dirty. Anyway, I didn't like the film, as the many scenes of human-on-donkey violence just made me uncomfortable. Another Bresson film, but since I'd just seen the great Pickpocket, he still stays in my Netflix queue. Also, the lead married Jean-Luc Godard. No, not the donkey.

Wishing Stairs is the third in the Girl School Ghost Story series, now standing at four films. The first two, Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori, were excellent films, although certainly Memento Mori was far better. This one is just a mess. Clearly a far higher budget, but little made any sense, nothing was done with any subtlety, I had serious problems telling characters apart besides the fat one with red hair and the lead, and it was utterly ridiculous. Not at all up to the standards of the earlier films, and unless the fourth gets good reviews, I'm not going to continue in the series. If I were interested in watching a bunch of schoolgirls in outfits, maybe, but this one had some crazy stuff in it, like stupid Asian horror cliché ghosts, a naked dead girl covered in clay, and ballet.