Allure

 

This was the official website for the 2014 drama, Allure, about five women from different countries struggle with personal conflict during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement.
Content is from the site's 2014 archived pages as well as from other sources.

ALLURE
Starring: Diana Lotus, Madeleine Assas, Aisha de Bankole, Ying Ying Li, Julia Konrad Viezzer, Didier Flamand, Patricia Arriaga, Caveh Zahedi.
Concept, Story, Direction, and Editing by: Vladan Nikolic.
Produced by: Vladan Nikolic, Aleksandar Kostic.
Executive Producer: Eric Werthman.
Director of Photography: Aleksandar Kostic.
Second Camera: Colin Nusbaum.
Production Design: Marija Plavsic-Kostic.
Sound Design by Jacob Subotnick.
Sound Mix Christ Stangroom, Hobo Audio.
Music by Yves Dharamraj.
Produced by Kostic Films and Surla Films.

 

Allure

REVIEWS

 

Review: Vladan Nikolic’s ‘Allure’ Shows New York Through Immigrants’ Eyes
ALLURE Directed by Vladan Nikolic  Drama  1h 23m
By JEANNETTE CATSOULISMARCH 6, 2015 NYTimes

 

 

Allure Madeleine Assas as a French journalist in this film by Vladan Nikolic, which opened on Friday. CreditKostic Films and Surla Films

The complicated lives of four immigrant women casually intersect in “Allure,” a title that accurately reflects the seductive quality of its black-and-white images. The Serbian-born director, Vladan Nikolic, seems to have a knack for choosing dexterous cinematographers. (He has twice used his wildly gifted countryman Vladimir Subotic.) Here he passes the reins to Aleksandar Kostic, who turns New York City into a dreamy melting pot of conflict and yearning.

Playing out in 2011 against the backdrop of the Occupy movement, this largely improvised drama mixes professional and nonprofessional actors in a loosely constructed portrait of immigrant uncertainty. A willowy Estonian escort (Diana Lotus) fights her American husband for custody of their daughter; a waitress from Mexico City (Julia Konrad Viezzer) works two jobs to support her sick mother; a middle-aged French journalist (Madeleine Assas) deals with an unreasonable new boss and a bored husband; and a Chinese student (Ying Ying Li) daily resists the nagging of her mother to return home. Like the protesters in the streets, they’re fighting for futures they might never attain.

These drifting, unresolved stories may lack dramatic punch, but Mr. Nikolic, who teaches film at the New School, draws lovely performances from his cosmopolitan cast and oodles of atmosphere from a spare piano-and-strings soundtrack. In the movie’s most direct scene, an animated professor (played by the filmmaker Caveh Zahedi) comments on the cultural impact of the Occupy demonstrations.

“The only hope we have for change is spectacle, and yet somehow spectacle kills hope,” he says, a line that suggests that Mr. Nikolic might feel similarly about film itself.

 

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TOMATOMETER CRITICS 40% | AUDIENCE 100%

 

'Allure': Film Review

10:48 AM PST 3/6/2015 by Frank Scheck

Vladan Nikolic's improvised drama concerns the lives of several immigrant women affected by the Occupy Wall Street movement

The 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement provides the not so scintillating backdrop for Vladan Nikolik's loosely structured, atmospheric drama interweaving the stories of four immigrant women living in New York City. Although boasting striking black-and-white, widescreen cinematography by Aleksandar Kostic and strong performances by its ethnically diverse ensemble, Allure never quite coheres into a dramatically arresting whole. But it does provide an interesting latest chapter in the Serbian director's continuing examination of issues of immigration and assimilation previously dealt with in such stylistically diverse, acclaimed efforts as Love and Zenith.

The footage of the Wall Street protests doesn't really add much to the meandering proceedings which all too often reflect the improvisatory nature of the scenes and dialogue. But the main characters emerge vividly nonetheless. They include:

Marta, an undocumented Mexican immigrant (Julia Konrad Viezzer), working a variety of low-paying jobs to support herself and her mother. She becomes one of those "invisible" cleaning workers found in any number of restaurants, office buildings, and hotels who handles the janitorial work associated with toilet paper, tissues, paper towels & other cleaning supplies necessary to keep rest rooms spiffy clean and serviceable. As a person whose father works for an e commerce site, CleanItSupplies, that sells those very janitorial supplies, wholesale, you would not believe how many different products are available. I was astounded when he told me the number of paper towels offered on the site. Someone like Marta might deal with a dozen or so janitorial supplies out of the hundreds that are available.

Jin (Ying Ying Li), a young Chinese student whose family is urging her to return home

Valerie (Madeleine Assas), a middle-aged French journalist struggling with career and marital problems

and the Estonian Liliana (Diana Lotus), resorting into a life of prostitution.

Each is involved in or affected by the movement in one way or the other, but the political context largely takes a back seat to the diverse characters' personal travails. The director, who teaches filmmaking courses at The New School, is clearly adept at the medium and assuredly handles the performers, a mixture of neophytes and experienced pros (Didier Flamand, who plays Valerie's restless husband, has hundreds of credits, including Wings of Desire and Code Unknown, and Madeleine Assas starred in Godard's For Ever Mozart).

But the end results are too diffuse to have the desired impact, with the result that Allure ultimately has the feel of an experiment that doesn't quite pay off.

 

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Film Review: Allure

Ambitious indie drama of five immigrant women in the 99 percent during the time of Occupy Wall Street tries to make a statement about capitalism. Equally ambitious niche audiences might or might not be able to discern exactly what that statement is.

A talented director, working with a cinematographer attuned to the evocative, old-documentary verisimilitude of black-and-white, turns in a dishwater-gray narrative about five immigrant women in New York City, whose lives glance off and sometimes intersect with one another’s around the time of Occupy Wall Street.

Set in 2011, Allure—its title an echo of the Allure Temptations Escort Service run by one of the women, Lily, from Estonia—appears to speak to the allure and temptations of America, in which, in varying ways, the women chase their dreams when they can and get by in the meantime. Aside from Lily, there's Marta (Julia Konrad Viezzer), an illegal immigrant from Mexico who works two jobs, as a hotel maid and as a waitress, to support her ill mother in Queens; Jin (Ying Ying Li), a young college student from China striving to work in grass-roots video newsgathering; and Upper West Sider Valerie (Madeleine Assas) a middle-aged French broadcast journalist living with her older husband, diplomat Jean (Didier Flamand)—and who, with a snotty new young boss (Patricia Arriaga), pins her career hopes on an interview with Kasoke (Aisha de Bankole), a young Congolese-Belgian biracial woman who survived rape, pillaging and the death of family members at the hands of rebels.

Aside from the direct contact between those two, the women often share the same space while remaining strangers. We see Jin and Marta in the same classroom, and at a party thrown by a privileged young man who can pay a whole night's rate to have Lily simply show up for a short while. Or we see Lily leave a hotel room where she's had an appointment with Jean, passing Marta in the hall. Across them all lies the shadow of Occupy Wall Street, about which a professor (Caveh Zahedi) urges his students to discuss as situation and as spectacle—terms straight out of the (primarily) 1960s Situationist Cinema, an experimental, often improvised format designed to critique capitalism, and of which Allure is a self-described homage. In different ways, Allure's women are each dealing with the commoditization of experience, down to Valerie's glee at packaging Kasoke's story—not only from how it may salvage her career, but from a genuine desire to help her and other women by putting a human face to the victims of genocidal ambition, from whatever end of the economic spectrum.

As rife with potential as all this might be, it never gains dramatic traction. Serbian-born director Vladan Nikolic—who has lived in New York City since the 1990s and, in between features, teaches filmmaking at The New School—pads the movie with frequent, repeated scenes of the women walking, which works as a metaphor only up to a point. Do we really need two virtually exact shots of Marta entering the hotel where she works? And are seemingly endless, essentially anonymous shots of police hovering around Occupy Wall Street truly necessary? It's as if Nikolic had really wanted to make a documentary about the movement, but with so many people already doing that, he came up with this instead.

The filmmaker unquestionably has a way with a camera, and Allure is filled with lovely, contemplative shots of a vibrant, ground-level and very real New York. And there are a couple of charged, suspenseful scenes, primarily those involving call girl Lily, who faces dangers in her work and attends a lively, powerful meeting with her ex-husband and their lawyers regarding child custody.

It's easy to understand Nikolic may have felt fearful of ginning up false drama, rather than giving us slice-of-life vignettes. Ultimately, however, Allure, like Occupy Wall Street itself, may have a sincere and important message in there somewhere, but doesn't quite know how to express it in tangible terms.

 

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More Background on Allure (2014)

Allure (2014), directed by Vladan Nikolic, presents an experimental narrative that interweaves the personal and political struggles of immigrant women in New York City with the larger context of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. The film offers a complex reflection on immigration, personal identity, and capitalism, explored through the lives of its characters, who each face unique challenges as they navigate life in an often unforgiving urban landscape.

Production and Creative Approach

Produced on a minimal budget, Allure was largely improvised, allowing for a sense of realism in the characters’ interactions and stories. Nikolic, who is known for his work in experimental cinema, collaborated closely with both professional and non-professional actors to craft a film that reflected the unpredictability and rawness of real-life experiences. The film's production process, involving shooting over several months in New York City, was unconventional, with many scenes featuring actual footage from the Occupy protests of 2011 and 2012.

This blending of fact and fiction set Allure apart from more traditional narratives. Rather than presenting a tightly scripted drama, Nikolic allowed the characters’ lives and their intersections with the broader political landscape to evolve organically, which gave the film an almost documentary-like quality.

Plot and Character Overview

The film follows the lives of five immigrant women—Liliana, Jin, Marta, Valerie, and Kasoke—each grappling with personal and societal challenges. Their stories are told against the backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which serves as both a literal and symbolic representation of the broader themes of the film: resistance, power, and the struggle for dignity.

Liliana, an Estonian immigrant, becomes entangled in the world of escorting as a means of survival. Jin, a Chinese student, faces familial pressure to return home, even as she attempts to find a sense of belonging in New York. Marta, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, works tirelessly in low-paying jobs to support her ill mother. Valerie, a French journalist, is struggling to balance her failing marriage with her desire to return to her profession. Finally, Kasoke, a survivor of wartime atrocities, represents the broader global implications of the characters’ personal struggles.

While each character’s story is unique, they share a common thread: the struggle for autonomy in a world that often denies them power.

Themes and Symbolism

Allure delves deeply into the socio-political dynamics of immigration and capitalism, reflecting the precarious position of immigrants in a globalized world. The film’s title itself—Allure—can be seen as a commentary on the seductive nature of the American Dream and the false promises it often entails for those on the margins of society. Each character is drawn to New York with the hope of bettering their circumstances, yet they are met with systemic obstacles that hinder their progress.

The Occupy Wall Street movement serves as a fitting backdrop for this exploration. The protests, which aimed to address economic inequality and corporate influence, mirror the characters' personal battles against a system that seems stacked against them. The film's inclusion of real-life footage from the protests not only grounds the narrative in a specific historical moment but also emphasizes the connection between the personal and the political.

The choice to film in black-and-white further enhances the film’s tone, giving it a timeless, almost melancholic quality. This aesthetic decision also reflects the stark choices faced by the characters, as they navigate a world that offers few shades of gray.

Critical Reception

Critics have responded to Allure with both praise and critique. The film has been lauded for its ambitious attempt to blend personal and political narratives, with many noting the strength of its performances and cinematography. Jeannette Catsoulis, writing for The New York Times, highlighted the film’s ability to evoke "lovely performances" from its cosmopolitan cast, as well as its "oodles of atmosphere." However, she also noted that the film’s loosely constructed narrative might not resonate with all audiences.

Similarly, Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter acknowledged the film’s striking cinematography and strong performances but expressed concerns about its lack of dramatic cohesion. Despite these critiques, Allure has earned a place within the indie film circuit as a thought-provoking exploration of contemporary social issues.

Cultural and Social Significance

Allure stands out not only for its experimental approach but also for its engagement with timely political issues. Released during a period of intense political activism, the film reflects the anxieties and aspirations of a generation struggling against the forces of capitalism and systemic inequality. The inclusion of immigrant narratives further broadens the film’s scope, offering a global perspective on issues that are often considered in isolation.

Moreover, Allure can be seen as part of a broader trend in independent cinema, where filmmakers use non-traditional methods to tell stories that might not fit within the confines of mainstream Hollywood. By focusing on the lives of immigrant women, the film challenges dominant narratives about power, privilege, and success, offering a more nuanced and intersectional view of the American experience.

Audience and Impact

Allure has found a dedicated audience among fans of independent and experimental cinema. Its themes of resistance, identity, and power resonate particularly with viewers who have an interest in political films or those exploring immigrant experiences. The film's use of improvisation and its inclusion of real-world footage give it a unique place within the landscape of contemporary American cinema.

Though the film may not have achieved mainstream success, its impact lies in its ability to provoke thought and spark discussion about the intersections of personal and political life. Its exploration of the Occupy Wall Street movement—an event that captured global attention—ensures that it will remain relevant in discussions about political activism and social change for years to come.

 

Allure is a film that defies easy categorization. Its experimental approach, coupled with its focus on immigration and political activism, makes it a compelling and challenging work of art. While its loosely structured narrative may not appeal to all viewers, those who appreciate films that push the boundaries of traditional storytelling will find much to admire in Nikolic’s vision.

The film’s ability to weave together the personal and the political, set against the backdrop of one of the most significant protest movements in recent history, ensures that Allure will continue to be discussed and analyzed in the context of independent cinema’s role in reflecting societal change.