Same Planet Different Worlds: 23rd VIFF

[Johann]

The 23rd annual VIFF is coming up on Sept. 23.
The complete line-up will be announced tomorrow at a press conference.

The six main programs:

Dragons & Tigers: The Cinema of East Asia
Cinema Of Our Time
Canadian Images
Non-Fiction Features
Spotlight on France
and
The Archival Series

www.viff.org

[arsaib4]

Thanks Johann, please keep us upto date.

[Johann]

After scouring the preview guide I've picked some 44 films I want to see.

Some directors:

Alain Resnais, Benoit Jacquot, Kiarostami, Lars von Trier/Jorgen Leth, Yousry Nasrallah, Henry de la Falliase (a 1935 silent), and Weerasethakul.

Also included:
Zak Pens' documenatry on Werner Herzog, a doc on Henri Langlois, a doc on Henri-Cartier Bresson, and a few films on Bush and Iraq...

Should be well worth attending!

[arsaib4]

I enjoyed Resnais' Pas Sur la Bouche when it played here earlier this year during french rendezvous, it's a musical comedy, something Resnais' has done before. Audrey Tautou is in the film.

[Johann]

That's the one- Not on the Lips. I've pencilled that one in already.

[arsaib4]

good, i was gonna talk about it in detail but the dvd released in May didn't come with subtitles. Hopefully the film will get distributed so more people will get to enjoy this farce.

[Johann]

The Nomi Song


An effecting documentary on the extremely talented and extremely weird "art act" of the late 70's New York music scene known as Klaus Nomi.

Nomi was a homosexual German who grew up wanting to be an opera singer like Maria Callas but equally adored Elvis. (He listened to his album King Creole over and over).

He immigrated to New York with all the other "freaks" who were displaced from their homes and found a new way of life.

Who was he exactly?

He was an enigmatic freak, to be blunt. He sang opera arias while dressed in spaceman outfits and wore thick kabuki make-up.
He put on indescribable "art rock" shows with robotic dance movements while singing soprano. He had a small band (who fondly remember him and their scene) and they slowly became a cult group- everyone had to see Klaus Nomi. They got so big at one point they were booked at the famous club Max's Kansas City and sold out shows regularly.

Problem was even though they were knocking them out night after night they had no major record deal. They could barely pay their rent. But that didn't stop people like David Bowie from acknowledging Klaus' talent.
He hired Klaus and his band to perform two songs with him on Saturday Night Live. (The footage from that show is the best part of the doc).

His voice was angelic- he sang like a bird. I was very impressed with how great his voice actually was and by the end of the doc I was wondering why I had never heard of this bizarre German man.

Things got bad for Klaus after his heights sharing the stage with Bowie. His manager got a record deal with RCA that didn't know how to market him, and his band was dispatched in exchange for more "polished" performers. And his former "crew" say in the doc that they felt betrayed by Klaus, that "it wasn't Nomi world anymore", and that the act was going in a direction that was detrimental to him.

Irregardless, this doc shows that Klaus Nomi was a vocal genius- the primitive video of him in his first club gigs are spellbinding- and that a great talent was cut down in his prime by that "new Gay cancer" that was spreading like wildfire.

I highly recommend it.

[Johann]

La Vida que te espera


An excellent Spanish film from Manuel Gutierrez Aragon, it's title means "YOUR NEXT LIFE".


A farmer has a cow named Vanesa that he wants to enter into a milking contest. She fills buckets when she hears a certain style of spanish music.

His neighbor at the next farm wants the next calf from that cow, and when it arrives the owner sends his youngest daughter to deliver it. She tells him she has to study for exams- he tells her to go anyway.

Halfway there, her older sister meets up with her and takes the calf- "you go study" she says.

She gets to the neighbor's farm and the farmer inspects the calf.
"This isn't the calf from Vanesa- tell your father I'm not stupid"
She says: "Sir, this is the calf- I watched her give birth"

He proceeds to put a cow harness on the girl and ties her hands with baling wire. He throws her into his barn.

Next thing you know the former farmer comes looking for his daughter and ends up confronting the neighbor in the barn while untying his daughter: "I'm taking my daughter".
A fight ensues, and the farmer who tied the girl up is stabbed to death.

At the funeral the father keeps telling his daughter not to tell anyone what happened. "It was an accident". Nobody suspects father or daughter because they were neighbors, and they had dealt with each other for years.

They meet with his son, a hairdresser from Madrid, and in true "movie style" the daughter falls in love with him.

If you think I've given away the whole film fear not, because there is a major plot twist that you don't see coming a mile away, and it changes everything.

There are some great sexy scenes in this film and the cinematography shows us gorgeous shots of Spain's luscious hills and scenery.

Excellent, well-paced film that has something for everyone.

[Johann]

Dias de Santiago

A hard-hitting slice of Peruvian street life that shows us what one man's helplessness entails.

Santiago is a former Marine who's trying to make something of his life. He lives at home with his parents in a slum.
He applies to go to school but it's hard to decide to commit to 5 years, plus he has no skills ("Infantryman" has no related civilian occupation).

He meets with his buddies (also war veterans) on the shore to discuss their futures. They try to get him interested in robbing a bank because they have no prospects for fortune post-Army.

He's hesitant: "Why do we want to go back to that stress?"
His buddies are firm: "We need a mission again"

He says no, and he starts being a cab driver (just like Bickle).
He meets women who are attracted to him, he goes to a dance club, he tries to work things out at home.

His family is severely dysfunctional and he's excruciatingly frustrated with life. Everytime he thinks he's got a plan for resolving his problems (whether they be with potential mates or family) he gets thrown a negative doom-warning.

The film is told via alternating cuts between stunning grainy black & white and color. Some great shots of the beach and the city are dropped in here and there. The editing is quick yet the film isn't overly rushed. Santiago is a poor guy- I felt his pain, as Clinton used to say- and the ending is just as frustrating to the viewer as it is to him.

I was reminded of Rambo, Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter. Films I'm sure the director Josue Mendez has seen.

[oscar jubis]

I've been paying close attention to your excellent reviews from the Vancouver fest. I know things will change, but so far the fest seems very similar to my local festival, with its emphasis on Spanish-language and documentary films. As a matter of fact, the director and stars (Juan Diego and Luis Tosar) of La Vida Que Te Espera have visited here more than once. I'd be surprised if that film doesn't play here next February. Keep it up J!

[Johann]

Thanks oscar- My Next Life is a great Spanish film and you should seek it out. More reviews are forthcoming....



Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda & In Rwanda We Say...The Family That Does Not Speak Dies


Two emotional documentaries from Anne Aghion (each are 1 hour).

The Rwandan Genocide is one of the great horrors of recent history. Everyone except very small children have the memories of massacre on their minds. These two docs give the viewer a deep look at what happened and why.

Fighting between two "clans" (if that's the proper word) set off indescribable mass murder between "brothers". Between "fellow Rwandans". Whole families were butchered: babies were ripped off of mothers' backs and thrown against brick walls; fighters threw people into mass graves and hacked at them with huge garden hoes, we hear about the dead who would not die- they were "finished off" with spears in their chests, we hear of the looting of farms and the savage methods of murder that were employed, we hear of savage rapes.

Yet Miss Aghion never shows us any of this. We hear it from the victims' families (some of which only one member alive to tell the tale).
Not only that, but because the State wants to re-build Rwanda
they have decided (in their infinite wisdom) to let the prisoners who are guilty of these crimes go free as long as they admit that they killed people.

So here you have survivors of this insanity relaying how horrified they are that these people will once again be among them.

*I must point out that these atrocites occured in areas where everybody knows everybody and communities are very close knit*

The "presentation" scenes where there is a mediator between the prisoners and the survivors is hard to watch. The survivors are afraid to accuse anyone because there may still be retribution and someone may accuse them in turn of kiling when they may be innocent. It's a farce in way, but the mediators are clearly trying to get to the bottom of the situation and as a viewer you feel what the people feel- on both sides. It's tragic.

Most Rwandans want to move on, but hard feelings and the possiblility of the same thing happening all over again has created a rock-and-a-hard-place climate. It's difficult to see the aftermath of genocide. This doc(s) is a vital document of what Rwanda is going through (ten years on).

[Johann]

Imagining Ulysses


I could listen to Neil Jordan talk for hours.


Sorry. Had to get that out of the way.
This is a documentary that celebrates the masterpiece novel Ulysses by James Joyce. A rapturous treat.

Using archival footage, actual postcards written by Joyce, Joyce scholars and prominent authors (and Irishmen) we get a delirious look into the man and his epic work.

Roddy Doyle, Irvine Welsh & others illuminate the book so that you have no other option but to get the damn thing and read it with new eyes.

Narrated by Brenda Fricker, this film is a walking tour of Dublin circa 1904. But it's also a tour of the other places Joyce has been (because he also wrote the book in Zurich, Paris, etc). The "pornographic" nature of it is examined closely and given intellectual commentary. The side-by-side comparison with Homer's Odyssey is exceptionally well done. If you were in the dark about Ulysses, you're not now-see this great doc.



P.S.
The ending has a rapid-edit erotic passage reading by many Irish women that'll have your heart beating a little faster...

[Johann]

Min



Ho Yuang's Ozu-like glimpse into the life of a Malasian 20 year-old girl.


I say Ozu-like because the camera barely moves. It's Malaysian life in microscopic detail, and I must say I was terribly bored.

Yasmin (or MIN, as her adopted parents call her) is looking for her real mother. She knows where she is, and she takes a train.
The silent, unsettling scenes of her fateful metting with her mother lacked any emotion. (These actors are NOT pros!).
There are scenes in a car wash, scenes at home with mom and dad, scenes of gazing out the window, a scene of Min puking (she gets pregnant but we never see her sleep with anybody (!)), and just static shot after static shot of meaningless tedium.

*There is only one scene that will have you smiling: the father is in front of a mirror, dressing up to go into town and he says twice: You talkin' to me?. Gee, I wonder what inspired that!

Definitely not oscar-worthy, to say the least. If you have insomnia, find Min and you'll be nodding off long before the 78 minutes are up.

[Johann]

The Five of Us



Five french women from Montreal have known each other since they were kids. The story is told in (terrible) flashback, alternating from 15 years later to the day of "the incident".

The "incident" is a double rape and single murder that happens in the woods near a cottage that is owned by one of the girls' parents.

The five of them hold a party there, with their respective boyfriends.Two of the girls hitchhike into town to get more beer and food (?).They get picked up by some guy who takes them into the woods and rapes them. He only kills one- the other one (Manon- the star of the film) somehow escapes. I didn't believe it.

This film angers me for several reasons:

1. Everyone in it is perfect. I mean perfect: perfect bodies, perfect jobs, perfect parents, perfect friends, perfect hair, perfect apartments, perfect lives. No joke- these people operate in some unsettling alternate universe where everything they do, say and feel is perfect.

2. This crime or attack is shown in complete, gory detail: screaming, stabbing, humping, tying up, blood, close-ups, etc. We GET the scene. Maybe this was the directors' intent- to show these perfect people getting a dose of horrific reality.
I was repulsed- it was the way it was done the bothered me.

3. Manon, the survivor of this attack, spends half the movie living her life as if nothing has happened, and half the movie dealing with the demons. This may sound like a rational thing, but trust me, when you see the film it'll be clear that her behavior is very bizarre. Maybe it was the acting, I don't know, but boy oh boy was I disturbed with how this story was told.

4. The crux of the story is about the parole of her attacker, who, after 15 years of good behavior and admitting deep remorse, has been deemed no threat anymore to society. He's now allowed out in a halfway house, and Manon can't do anything about it- it's the law. This is all fine, but for the crux of the movie it's given precious little importance. This anchoring plot point is given sideline status. The importance is given to the five women and how they've been dealing with the tragedy over 15 years. And the way we are guided (by director Ghyslaine Cote), I don't know WHAT to feel.

I didn't feel anything for the characters, which is very odd because considering what I've just described, I should have been totally into Manon's situation. I wasn't. I just didn't care.
I didn't care about the women, I didn't care about the crime, I didn't care about the story, I didn't care about the movie.

What can I say?

[oscar jubis]

Because film fests typically feature brand new films (often world premieres), the experience provides plenty of surprises. One may come across the little quasi-masterpiece no one knows about, or you may find yourself viewing an extraordinarily bad movie. The two worst films I've seen in my life were shown at Toronto and at the Ft. Lauderdale film fest.

[Johann]

Deluxe Combo Platter

Two reviews for this film:

1.
Eve is a pretty yet chubby young woman who loves to paint and works at her uncles' diner as a waitress.

She's had a crush on her brothers' best friend her whole life: she has his pictures on her mirror, she made posters of him, she stares at him when he's in the diner.
He considers her "a little sister", and he's one arrogant, egotistical idiot. He's that good-looking type who thinks he's God's gift to women. You know those kind of guys: they pour on the Calvin Klein cologne, they use expensive hair products and wear designer clothes and drive sports cars. (His is a mustang).

They live in Squamish, British Columbia- very close to me actually, and if you know Vancouver well you'll recognize some things.

This is a comedy, and there are some hilarious scenes in this flick. Dave Thomas (from SCTV) plays a funeral home director/badly dressed cowboy who's dating Jennifer Tilley (Alma- Eve's co-worker at the diner. More on her in review #2).

A super-model comes into the diner (YEAH RIGHT!) and she orders the special. (Dolly Parton mashed potatoes and "bangers")
She turns heads but she's not into guys.

Yep, she's from the island of Lesbos, and she wants porky Eve to be her lover. (I DID say this was a comedy...)

Needless to say I loved this film to death and I'll be buying the DVD as soon as it's available. Quirky, insano, damn *%@ing funny.

[Johann]

Deluxe Combo Platter

2.

Jennifer my love! My sweet tulip!
How thy breasts heave!
How thy accent makes me swoon!
How doth you bewitch me so?


After seeing this film I am devoted to Ms. Tilley for the rest of my natural life. She wears the tightest, best cleavage-enhancing waitress outfit ever worn by an actress. She had me delirious with lust. You better believe it: I'm confessing total mad-love here.

I admit it: Jennifer Tilley is my new sugar-mama. This buxom role is one guilty pleasure that I am REELING from.
Great gargantuan tetons was I leering like a pervert.

You will be too, friends.
Jennifer Tilley may be getting older, but she's still a sexpot.
And that pot is overflowing with steamy carnal intoxication.
Whatever she's got, she could bottle it and sell to saps like me for a pretty penny.



I'm on my knees Jen: I may not have what you want, but I might have what you need.....

[arsaib4]

I believe you meant Jennifer Tilly not Tilley, right? or do we have another buxom woman with a similar name.

[Johann]

Hollands Licht

Translated as Dutch Light, this doc is magnificent.

It's a close look at that myth/legend about the light that plays over the "IJsslmeer" that is said to be the source for the genius paintings from the Dutch Masters.

Huh?
Yeah, I didn't know about it either. Now I do.

The "IJsslmeer" is the flat aspect of the land in Holland.
They say that because there is so much water and because the land is very very flat in Holland the air and light that comes from the sun reflects an atmospheric "haze" over the country that gives it the phenomenon known as "Dutch Light", light that is so frequently seen in paintings by Vermeer and Rembrandt.

But there are people who say that this light has disappeared from Holland, and that's why this documentary was made.

So the filmmakers set up a camera on the side of a road for one full year. We see glorious 360 degree shots from this road throughout the film as art historians, painters and even an astrophysicist describe to us the why's and wherefore's of "Dutch Light".

Incredible documentary, with absolutely stunning cinematography.
You could hear a pin drop in the theatre during this film- everyone was locked on this amazing idea of Dutch Light and it's history/myth. So far this is the best film I've seen during these pre-festival screenings.

[oscar jubis]

Can you guys believe Ms. Tilly turns 46 tomorrow?

[Johann]

Sorry- I'm so in love I spelled her name wrong!
Guys, check this movie out.
Your tongue will hang, I swear to GOD.

UNLESS: you don't like white-trash types with giant breasts who empty cans of hairspray on their dyed hair.
(and sprinkle sparkles on their chests before they go to work)

[arsaib4]

damn it!!! I have no problems with white-trash types with giant breasts who empty cans of hairspray on their dyed hair but I can't stand it when they sprinkle sparkles on their chests before they go to work.

[Johann]

Ha ha!

Well my friend, look no further than Deluxe Combo Platter.
Tilly definitely has FRIES to go with that shake.

My dreams will be wild tonight...

[Johann]

Proteus

Ernst Haeckel is arguably more important than Darwin in terms of natural history research.

Not only did Haeckel study minute organisms culled from nature he also rendered them into gorgeous art. He took organisms from sea beds around the world and documented them in sketches, paintings, quasi-3-dimensional prints and pictures that show the infinite number of possibilites of art forms in nature- created naturally. He made THOUSANDS of these renderings, and this documentary puts them all together in a montage of editing that is dazzling.

They are like snowflakes: no celled organism is the same, yet they all have a complex web of design that Haeckel claimed could only be the work of God himself. The organisms (under a microscope) look like stars, bells, webs, and other unclassifiable shapes that have an inner and outer beauty that Haeckel was able to duplicate for everyone else to see. He became one of the most sought after professors in Europe, and he influenced many many scientists and artists. I had never heard of him (I think I had heard the name before) and I was in awe of this doc.

A very interesting thing the filmmakers did was also take Goethe and Coleridge and illustrate their influence/connection with Haeckel. With readings from Faust and Goethe's notes and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with awesome sound effects make this one helluva documentary.

[Johann]

Arktika: The Russian Dream That Died


Another informative and interesting documentary, narrated by David Suzuki.

This doc tells of the eradication of the indiginous people known as the Samis who lived in the arctic circle in the early 20th century. They were originally from Russia and they tried to live off the land in the arctic- in fact you could say that they "farmed" the arctic, and they were able to create a large agricultural community by herding reindeer and trading with Russia.

They were required to pay taxes to Russia (of course...) but they were also left alone to see if the arctic was actually able to sustain life for a long time.

Then things back home in Russia changed. 10 days that shook the world happened (the revolution), and everyone in Russia felt that progress, industrial progress was not only necessary, but an idea to be exploited to the nth degree. Factories were built, smelting plants were built (in slave-like fashion) and Stalin made sure that every single Russian knew that this "progress" was vital to Russia's future.

This was all lost on the Samis, who were slowly but surely being neglected. They lost support for their "communities"- their children were sent back to Russian towns and cities to boarding schools (and forced to learn the Russian language), they had no increases in trading and many of them commited suicide and drank a lot of liquor because life took a drastic turn for the worse.
Living in the arctic was once a possibility for great Northern expansion that simply disintegrated.

We also see how in the decades since the Russian government has driven even more stakes into the heart of the Samis. They have photos in museums honoring them as past "adventurers" but don't seem to acknowledge that they caused their demise.
We see how the retired nuclear submarines that have been left to rust on the northern shores and in Norway have leaked radioactive waste into the sea and the earth. The trees are dying due to acid rain from the smelting plants which STILL operate all these years later and the Russian government ignores it because back in the day "we did what we wanted- there were no environmental laws that we were held to".

Luckily there is a former submarine sailor and a bunch of environmental activists who have taken up the fight to clean up these environmental disasters. They are shown to be great crusaders in the film, and even though it'll take in excess of 20 years to even begin to see a noticable change in the danger (it costs 20 million to reduce a single rusting sub to scrap) they are trying to remind Russia (and the world) that responsibility to it's people and the earth are important.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Johann

Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda & In Rwanda We Say...The Family That Does Not Speak Dies



I'm not sure if Sundance Channel is available in Canada but I watched the second of the two docs you mentioned (In Rwanda We Say....) earlier today and it's gut-wrenching, I can't imagine how the families (or who ever is left) feels about the killers who took part in the genocide living side by side once again as they were let go. This also begs the question that how long will it be before it starts again?