1 September Today's films in competition: *You Hua Hao Hao Shou*/*Keep Cool* by Zhang Yimou (China) and *Ossos*/*Bones* by Pedro Costa (Portugal). Winner of the Golden Lion in 1992 for *Qin Ju Da Guansi*/*The Story of Qui Yu* (which also earned Gong Li the award for Best Actress), the film is about life in a Chinese metropolis, where Xiao Shuai, a bookseller, pines away for a beautiful and liberated woman, (An Hong, who is dating an influential man. A researcher, Lao Zhang, accidentally gets mixed up in a fight between the two men and his computer gets smashed. What follows is Lao's attempt to be compensated for his loss versus Xiao's desire for revenge against his rival: wisdom versus raw feelings. Until the roles are reversed. The director said that his shooting style is determined by diegetic (OK, I addes this term) considerations, rather than by purely aesthetic choices. The rhythm of the film tells the story of the anxiety, frenzy, and instability of contemporary China, with its newly-acquired wealth, lots of noise, metropolitan chaos, skyscrapers, advertising, karaoke, and, above all, the inexorable rise of the money god. *Ossos* is set in the Estrela d'Africa neighborhood outside Lisbon, populated by promarily immigrants. Poverty, degradation, and suffering rampant. The film tells the story of a new-born baby and his mother. Apparently destined to die, the baby instead survives a number of dramatic situations--including the double suicide the mother tries to commit. Saved by his father, the child lives on the streets and he is even sold, twice. I read a very interesting statement in a review in an Italian newspaper: "*Ossos* empties all cinematic codes and erases all visual and narrative pleasures." Not bad given the current state of the (Italian?) press reports... *Mimic* by Guillermo del Toro (USA) was also shown today. Gloria Monti ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite