Gorbaciof - The Cashier Who Liked Gambling at the Toronto International Film Festival
In 2010 it is a brave decision to release an almost silent movie. The cinemas are too full of restless viewers and their rustling sweet wrappers. However, Stefano Incerti’s latest film Gorbaciof – The Cashier who Liked Gambling makes a valiant effort to still and focus its audience.
The film, which showed at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, took seven years to make. During the time that passed between conception and completion, the short script was cut by almost half, leaving it at just over 50 pages. Incerti himself was responsible for this ruthless removal of unnecessary dialogue and he claims, “that’s why the film became quieter and quieter”. But it is by no means silent. Every scene is punctuated by the jangle of keys, the slam of doors and the drumming of fingers. Contact and impact. Most notable are the sounds that give the film its rhythm – the flicker of playing cards and the flutter of bank notes.
If the film were to have a slogan, it would be: “The problem with money is that the more you need it, the more it costs”. This line both encapsulates the film’s central concern, and is also one of the only lines spoken in the film that is longer than six words. Both the film itself, and Incerti’s subsequent comments upon it, focus on money. He said (through a translator), “I come from a place full of crooks where everyone takes money and no-one puts it back”, and he called Gorbaciof “a whistle-blower film”.
The detail is exquisite. Without words, heightened emphasis is placed on glances, raised eyebrows and hand gestures. Laughs and howls are given the responsibility of monologues. However, these avoid sliding into caricature as characters are brought to life through the most intimately conceived means. Lila likes the colour lilac, the long-haired robber likes using the word “awesome”. Gorbaciof himself, played exquisitely by Toni Servillo, is just as subtle. It is his greed which drives the film, and yet it is never stated. Rather, we see him periodically cramming food into his mouth in such a way the point is made effortlessly.
His counterpoint in the central love story, Lila, is played by Mi Yang. Incerti chose her for the part by looking online and “going eeny meeny miny moe”. She looks forever on the verge of tears, and brings to the film a sensual quality. Gorbaciof vows to rescue her from her controlling father, but she shakes off the metaphors that try to define her. She abandons her caged bird, and claims that it is Gorbaciof rather than her who is the caged tiger. The unlikely pair gaze at each other through a fish-tank in a perhaps unwitting reference to Baz Lurhmann’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. These films also share an affronting level of violence – short and sharp, not denying the perpetrator the sympathy of the audience. They give the film a quickened pace and help progress the plot.
The artful photography makes the film worthy of attention, but the wordless presentation of personality is what gives it true power.
Also available on the TIFF review website
(Image by Frank Kehren)
The film, which showed at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, took seven years to make. During the time that passed between conception and completion, the short script was cut by almost half, leaving it at just over 50 pages. Incerti himself was responsible for this ruthless removal of unnecessary dialogue and he claims, “that’s why the film became quieter and quieter”. But it is by no means silent. Every scene is punctuated by the jangle of keys, the slam of doors and the drumming of fingers. Contact and impact. Most notable are the sounds that give the film its rhythm – the flicker of playing cards and the flutter of bank notes.
If the film were to have a slogan, it would be: “The problem with money is that the more you need it, the more it costs”. This line both encapsulates the film’s central concern, and is also one of the only lines spoken in the film that is longer than six words. Both the film itself, and Incerti’s subsequent comments upon it, focus on money. He said (through a translator), “I come from a place full of crooks where everyone takes money and no-one puts it back”, and he called Gorbaciof “a whistle-blower film”.
The detail is exquisite. Without words, heightened emphasis is placed on glances, raised eyebrows and hand gestures. Laughs and howls are given the responsibility of monologues. However, these avoid sliding into caricature as characters are brought to life through the most intimately conceived means. Lila likes the colour lilac, the long-haired robber likes using the word “awesome”. Gorbaciof himself, played exquisitely by Toni Servillo, is just as subtle. It is his greed which drives the film, and yet it is never stated. Rather, we see him periodically cramming food into his mouth in such a way the point is made effortlessly.
His counterpoint in the central love story, Lila, is played by Mi Yang. Incerti chose her for the part by looking online and “going eeny meeny miny moe”. She looks forever on the verge of tears, and brings to the film a sensual quality. Gorbaciof vows to rescue her from her controlling father, but she shakes off the metaphors that try to define her. She abandons her caged bird, and claims that it is Gorbaciof rather than her who is the caged tiger. The unlikely pair gaze at each other through a fish-tank in a perhaps unwitting reference to Baz Lurhmann’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. These films also share an affronting level of violence – short and sharp, not denying the perpetrator the sympathy of the audience. They give the film a quickened pace and help progress the plot.
The artful photography makes the film worthy of attention, but the wordless presentation of personality is what gives it true power.
Also available on the TIFF review website
(Image by Frank Kehren)
