1001 GRAMS

' How much does a life weigh?' Ernst asks his daughter, Marie, who works with him at the Norwegian Institute of Weights and Measures.  Following Ernst's heart attack Marie deputises for him at the Kilo Seminar in Paris where several nations each present their national kilo prototype for accreditation. There the earnest Marie meets Pi whose outlook on life is not as measured as her own.
This seems a subject ripe for ridicule but fortunately director Bent Hamer refrains from that, delivering instead a story with a fine balance of light and dark. This film is shot with a minimalist mathematical eye which does not detract from the underlying threat of chaos just below the surface of Marie's life, but neatly implies it.
I kept waiting for someone to bust out of the formal seminar, but the deadpan expressions of those involved with the business of Weights and Measures was somehow better.
Hamer lifts this above the average love story and presents us with a gracious and perceptive observation of endings and beginnings.

AN

Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase), a stall holder who specialises in dorayaki, a pancake sandwich filled with the titular AN (sweet red bean paste), is approached by the 76 year old Tokue as an applicant for part-time work who says she can improve on his An recipe and drops off a sample to prove it.
Tokue ( Kirin Kiki) is a delightful eccentric character with a sorrowful history who is able to see beauty in all around her and exerts her influence over Sentaro and one of his regular customers, the school student Wakana .  Both Wakana and Sentaro have stories and listening to the stories of the world around her is Tokue's special talent. Visually beautiful this is a film that reminds us to be patient,  to be mindful of the world and the people around us and not to be too quick to judge others based on rumour and gossip.
The unfolding of the stories here is gently paced, some may think too slowly, but not in my view.  Director Naomi Kawase nails it.

☆☆☆☆

FINDERS KEEPERS

Two men fight over a leg, one had it removed and kept it in a barbecue stove in a storage unit and the other believes he bought it along with the barbecue stove when the storage unit contents were sold. John Wood lost his leg in the plane crash that killed his father and decided to keep the leg intending to use the skeletal remains to make some sort of memorial to his father.  Shannon Wishant found the leg when he opened up the barbecue and discovered it inside.

What ensues is grist for the media mill as both men claim ownership, John to retrieve it and Shannon to use the discovery to deliver the fame in front of the camera that he has always dreamed of.  Shannon tries to turn the finding into a tourist attraction even without the actual leg but is destined to fail.  

Following the story from 2007 to the present day the documentary is about so much more than the leg.  Through their dispute we see John fighting addiction and the guilt he feels over his father's death, and Shannon striving to achieve his dream of "being on TV every day and making people laugh".   Directed by Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel this documentary is a five star film, weaving the complex relationships and stories brilliantly into a riveting, moving tale. 

Neither side of the story is black and white, neither man is entirely good nor entirely bad. The repercussions in each man's relationships with those around them are woven into the fabric of the film seamlessly and everyone who appears has an interesting tale to tell.

****