It should come as no surprise, really, that Lukas Moodysson's Mammut - or Mammoth as it will be known in English - seems to have very little in common with the Swedish director's previous films Container and A Hole In My Heart. Really, that much was guaranteed the moment that Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams were cast in the leads. You just can't cast actors like that and then ask them to endure the sorts of things Moodysson has subjected his actors to in earlier efforts and while I could see Bernal doing it I can't imagine Williams ever willingly subjecting herself to the sort of raw emotional battering - to say nothing of the expose flesh - of those sorts of films. But, honestly, I don't know that I expected it to be quite this much of a change.
Mammut is quite easily the biggest film Moodysson has attempted to date, a continent hopping affair that intertwines the life of three principal characters: a successful businessman (Bernal) on a trip to Thailand, his doctor wife (Williams) back home, and their Filipino maid. With the film due for theatrical release in Sweden in January the first trailer has just arrived and while I'm sure it will have a feeling all its own this first glimpse comes across, surprisingly, like a cleaner, tidier version of Babel. Check it out below the break.
Hmm, it looks like Moodyson has been watching Olivier Assayas films...
I'm not digging it.
I quit before finishing watching CONTAINER so I don't know what I'm missing but I like what I see and I certainly like the trailer's use of Ladytron (was that a remix? I think so but dunno).
Wow. Guess he didn't like the trailer.
looks more like babel + lost in translation - kind of a "heads-up" to first world upper/middle-class for lives outside their cocoons. i don't think assayas targets that audience too explicitly?
bernal has a hard time selling he's not a club kid :D
No, sir. I didn't like it.
Oh, and they are not exported, they leave because of economic reasons.
You're certainly not the first person to call Moodysson pretentios, Ichi, and you'll be far from the last. He really polarizes people and my opinions vary pretty wildly from film to film with him but when he's on his game he's capable of producing really good stuff. In a lot of ways you could consider him a Swedish Von Trier ...
ooppsss.. i meant "anything wrong", not nothing wrong.
I'm Thai and i could care less.
Ichi-The-Killer, precisely my point. Some Filipinos have a lot to learn from you. By the way, I am excited to see the film.
i agree with arnie.aside from it is a fact, there's nothing to be ashamed being housemaid as long as its legal,decent,can send their children in the school to improve lives.i will watch it too.
What's up with these angry pinoys, relax guys. I'm a filipino nurse and I've been working here in USA since 95 and I'm excited about the fact that a filipino talent is part of this movie. I hope more pinoy talents will be given a chance to be part of international productions such as this movie. By the way, Filipino Indie movies are well respected in International Film Festivals.
Speaking of well-respected pinoys, check out my review of Brillante Mendoza's SERBIS here: http://nypress.com/article-19330-compassionate-spectacle-serbis.html
It’s unfair to dismiss a movie right away without seeing it in full. This “misguided” sense of nationalism dates back to that post-Marcos era when Filipinos wanted to repair their damaged identity after some fallen guy’s misrule. “My fellow Filipinos” (in Tita Cory’s deadpan accent), get a grip, a life! It’s the 21st century!
i'm a filipino and excited to watch the movie. the fact that a filipino talent is part of this movie is already and achievement regardless of the character she portrays. it's just a movie and she will be judged how well she has done her part in the movie, not as a filipino.
Filipinos are talented that's why they are all over the globe! Cheers!
As a Filipino, I should feel proud that a fellow Filipino was chosen to play an important role in a major international film like Mammut. Frankly, however, I feel shame rather than pride because her role only re-enforces the world-wide perception that the Philippines is indeed a country of domestic helpers whom Chip Tsao, a Hong Kong journalist, has recently written a disparaging article about.