24th VIFF

[Johann]

I attended my first press conference today for the 24th Vancouver International Film Fest and it was great.

The complete line-up was unveiled as well as the new VanCity Film Centre theatre, which is the best theatre I've ever been in. In my whole life.

The theatre seats are better than first class on a Concorde, alright?
They were flown in from Paris France, and I don't even want to ask how much each cost. The sound system is sheer glory.
Seriously, this theatre is state of the art.

The festival director Alan Franey told us that seats are designed for the cinephile, the ones who need a high quality seat, and he said that this theatre is not for the smart-ass teens with their sodas and cell phones who come to the movies to hang out.
This theatre is designed to make you want to stay, and they are getting a special license from the city to sell alcohol so that patrons can have a glass 'o vino in their plush seats- during films! It's just like Paris!

We were notified of the programming and master classes that will be included in this year's fest.

The programs are the same every year (Dragons and Tigers, Canadian Images, Spotlight on France, etc..) and there are 329 films on the menu. (with 8 World Premieres).

Media screenings begin tomorrow. Reviews to follow.

(I'm also knee-deep in Fellini, but I'll post later on him).

[Johann]

Days and Hours

Try to stay with me:

A Bosnian bachelor named Fuke drives over to his Aunt Samra and Uncle Idriz' to help fix their bathroom water heater.

Conversations turn to the family immediately, and we watch & listen to the concerns and viewpoints of Samra, Idriz, Ekrem & Buba.

Fuke's green VW Golf breaks down in the driveway and nobody can figure out why- he can't leave his Uncles' place.
They try booster cables, they try rolling it down the hill, they ask him when he last filled it up: "a month ago".

They fill it, and the car works. Yay!

Fuke gets pajamas from his Aunt.
She serves him cake.
He leaves the next day and forgets to take his favorite PJ's.
Aunt Samra is heartbroken.

Uncle Idriz puts worms he collected in an old coffee can into the fresh soil outside their home. He also tries to fix a mandolin with a string missing.

Fuke drives away from the house and the engine blows up.

Apparently Idriz had an argument with a woman named Sheila, and she arrives with her man and there is uncomfortable vibes everywhere.

Fuke's "girlfriend" wants to live in Rovinj, in Croatia. He doesn't.
He talks to Ekrem about what to do.

The big, awesome finale?

Everyone breaks out in song, some Bosnian traditional tune complete with an acordian, now-working mandolin and clarinets.


I have no idea what the film was about.



Dear Lord,

I tried to disseminate some message, some universal truth, some meaning from this very Balkan movie, BUT I FAILED

Forgive me, Father

[hengcs]

Hi,
I watched it at SFIFF 2005, and the director was around for Q&A.
;)

Noteworthy, the Bosnian title was "Uncle Idriz's House".
Due to the lack of impact, the title was changed to Days and Hour in English.

I think the film was about mending life and forgiveness. It was a "war" film without depicting "war". In fact, it was filmed near the border of the war zone (i.e., if I recall correctly).

[Johann]

The death of Emin should have been the story.
All of the stuff surrounding it had no point whatsoever.

Are we supposed to laugh or be sad?
I didn't like it at all.

Bizarre movie Hengcs...

[Johann]

Everything Blue
"The Color of Music"



This film won the John Schlesinger Award for outstanding documentary at Palm Springs this year and it's damn good.

It's about the Samba, that mysterious energetic dance that makes Carnival so exciting and exotic.

The dance originated in Africa and in Brazil, (in Bahia) it is a dance that is sacred to the aging blacks. They feel it is their duty to pass on the dance and it's history to their children. They have "samba schools", and they take massive pride in wearing their colors to Carnival. Every school wants to be crowned the best at the Samba.

I haven't told you that it's the very poor who are upholding this tradition, and we are guided through the brazillian slums (the "favelas"), witnessing these spirited souls prepare for the annual festivities that always end on Ash Wednesday.

The cinematography is excellent. (Claudio Rocha)
Panning shots of Rio, the hills, the slums, close-ups and the frenetic editing that culminates with Carnival itself gives the whole scope of the "Ile Aye" that is at the center. It's beautiful.

The dancing is exciting to watch, the stories are riveting to hear- a song called "Tudo Azul" ("Everything's Blue") will lift you up when you hear it. It's sung by the elders, and they all have a drum or intrument to make it sound better.
They are the poor, but their spirits will never be broken.

Their commentaries about Carnival are illuminating- they say it's the greatest moment of their lives when it hits, and it sends them into a massive depression after it ends.
The favelas are the ghettos, and when the one moment comes for them show the world their talent, it goes away just as quick.

Powerful doc.

The ending has truth:


Music speaks only one language, and it is us humans who complicate things

[Johann]

A Particular Silence


This is one of the most tortuous sceenings I've ever attended.

I feel deeply for parents of autistic children. The patience required and the sheer difficulty of raising a child so developmentally challenged would send me to an asylum.

Italian Matteo is 24 years old and his autism is particularly severe.

He hits his parents, he can't focus on anything for more than 5 minutes, and it seems that his father desperately needed to document on film (and paper) his excruciating difficulty in raising Matteo.

The twinges of sorrow you feel for the parents are heavy.
I felt like leaving the theatre several times.

How long can you watch a drooling, staring, moaning, whining ADULT before you start to go mad?

Well Matteo's folks (saints, they are) have been doing it for 24 years, and they have the home movies to prove it.
They even show Matteo his 1st birthday party on TV and he can't comprehend it.


I cannot recommend this film.
It's too sad an experience.
There is nothing to feel here but total sadness.

[Johann]

Based on a True Story


Best show of the day.

A documentary on the real events of that Dog Day Afternoon in New York: Aug. 22, 1972.


That was the day John Wojtowicz went to the Chase Meridian Bank in Brooklyn and robbed it, to get money for his boyfriend's sex change operation.

He held it up with Sal, some goof he met and promised a share of the take, with a rifle and shotgun. They were in a standoff with the NYPD for 14 hours, with all the bank staff held hostage.

If you've seen Sidney Lumet's movie then you know the ending.
(Lumet speaks in the film and so does the screenwriter)

We see everyone who was part of relay their stories (FBI, NYPD, John's first wife, the bank tellers), and it was awesome to get the whole deal.

The criminal is out of jail now, living in a cheap apt. in Brooklyn, and the maker of the film contacted him about making a documentary. He instantly becomes "Mr. Movie Mogul".

The filmmaker, Dutchman Walter Stokman, secretly taped all of their conversations, with John answering the phone differently everytime, with different voices and accents, and for each call Walter had to say "Is the Dog in?" in order to speak with John.
The man is wacko.

He starts making demands on how much he should be paid (it's a lot, and he never gets it), he starts saying how it should be told, he even suggests a couple titles...

He rants about Hollywood and Al Pacino, he makes himself look like a collossal goof. By the end you realize that John doesn't have any perspective on that day or what it means. He wants to be seen as some kind of hero when he's nothing more than a queer criminal.

It was produced by Greenaway's producer Kees Kassander, and if you loved Lumet's 70's classic, then you simply cannot miss this doc.

[Johann]

After Innocence



This is as hard-hitting as they come.
Jessica Sanders won the Special Jury prize at Sundance for this.

It's the most damning film I've ever seen on the U.S. justice system.


Jessica takes us to several different states and profiles real heroes: guys who were wrongly convicted and were exonerated because of DNA evidence.

The number one reason people go to jail for crimes they didn't do is mis-identification.

In one of the profiles a man named Ronald Cotton was convicted of rape.

He looks so much like the actual attacker (Ms. Sanders shows us side-by-side photos) that you would have thought that he was indeed the criminal. DNA evidence got him out of jail, and the woman who accused him is now one of his best friends because she felt so bad for sending him to jail.
And what did he get? Nothing. No apology from anyone (except his accuser) and the crime won't be removed from his record because you gotta pay for that: $6000 U.S.
And what newly freed convict has that kind of cash just kickin' around?

Couple that with the lack of good re-integration programs, the stigma of such a thing (even though you are completely innocent- imagine being accused of RAPE and you didn't do it..) and the massive toll it takes on your family, friends, co-workers (who wants to hang around an ex-convict? even if you did nothin?)

The power of the human spirit is front and center here.
There is a program called "Life After Exoneration" (LAEP) and another project headed by famous attorney Barry Sheck, "Project Innocence" is trying to get the laws changed so that ex-cons who were exonerated can sue the state for compensation.
I mean, after all some of these guys had 20, 30 years of their life taken away.
One guy, NicK Yarris, who was on DEATH ROW and was innocent, was given five bucks and a slap on the back when he left the prison. Yep, $5.
That kinda cash can get you set up immediately on the outside, huh?

Wilton Dedge was also mistaken for a rapist, and he also spent a long time behind bars. Some woman also picked him out of a line-up, and hey, when a victim says you're the guy, you're the guy.

Bye-bye buddy- the witness says you did it and she's gotta be right. There's no way she's just picking you because she wants any man to hang for the rape; YOU did it.
Now bend over.
Wilton's release from prison is a tear-jerker. His parents are pure souls who knew from minute one that their son never did anything.

The film focuses on DNA evidence and how important it is in determining who commited crimes, along with how police departments all over the country bungle investigations.

By the end you are pondering just how many people are behind bars in the U.S. who should never have been there in the first place.

As one of the profilees Eddie Joe Lloyd said:

DNA is God's signature, and it's NEVER a forgery- those checks never bounce

[Johann]

Season of the Horse



This is a masterful debut from China's most famous actor, Ning Cai.



It's modern day.

Ning plays Wurgen, a sheep herder with a young son (Huhe) and pretty wife (Yingjidma). They live in a hut on China's grasslands.

Huhe complains he's missed too many classes to begin school, and Ying is upset that she can't afford to send him.
She comtemplates moving to the city, selling all of the sheep, their beloved old horse and doing as a lot of herders have done.

But Wurgen is dead-set against going to the city.

He displays that Toshiro Mifune inscrutibility, that silent power of "do not cross me- my word is final".

He worships his old, dying white horse, who has seen him through thick and thin. The idea of selling him is inconceivable.

Problems erupt when government workers start putting up a wire fence all along his sheep's grazing ground.
He rides his horse over there to halt their installation. The workers tell him to take it up with the government, they're just following orders.
He dismounts and tries to dismantle the fence.
The six workers beat the living shit out of him.

He survives the beating, and he heads to the city to make his case for halting the fence. "How are my sheep supposed to graze?" The official tells him that the grasslands are in danger of extinction (due to drought) and that all grazing is banned for now.
Wurgen sobs and heads back to his hut, where he proceeds to drink Mongolian whiskey until he passes out under the stars.
Modern progress- you can always count on it.

He must face the sobering reality of his situation.
Living on the plains is not workable.

He sells his sacred horse, his wife sells enough yogurt to move, they tear down their hut and move like gypsies.

What happens to the horse is actually the center of the film, not Wurgen and his family (I won't say what happens but let's just say it involves a fat naked Chinese woman and a bra) and the reason for the title. The ending is poetic. I loved this film.

The camerawork is outstanding. Very eye-grabbing, handsome.
Nature is captured beautifully. This all came through despite a horrible print which had a squiggly green line running through it the whole time.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for the excellent reviews Johann. You're doing a great service of providing a glimpse into many films that are seldom shown outside of festivals, not because they are not good but because they are deemed not commercially viable. Of course, you are also watching some that will get commercial distribution, such as After Innocence.
I find it very interesting that Stokman seems to have managed to make a good doc without his subject's cooperation. I'd be interested to watch how he worked around that.
Season of the Horse gives the impression of the type of regional Chinese film that rarely gets much distribution, partly because they are often critical of the government. Season of the Horse seems to be critical of the Chinese gov's policies re: Mongolia. I hope one of the local film fests shows it because I doubt it'll get distributed. I couldn't even find a listing for it on IMdb.
I understand your reaction to the Italian doc, a labor-of-love by the screenwriter of The Best of Youth. Reading your comments I get the impression that it's the inspiration provided by the self-sacrifice of the autistic man's parents that would get one past the wrenching scenes of dysfunction.
I'm looking forward to future entries from you.

[Johann]

Thanks very much, oscar.

You and all the other cinephiles here would love Based on a True Story.

The way Stokman edits the footage and the audio recordings of John is genius (and photos- he met him in New York at a famous museum). We see 1972 footage of news clips, John in jail, his transsexual wife, photos of his first marriage: to give an idea of how warped John is, one of his wedding photos has him sitting (in an Army uniform) with his wife on his lap, and in his right hand he's holding a giant dildo. And smiling.

Anybody here bring a dildo to the church the day you married your partner?



You're right oscar: A Particular Silence should be seen for the parents. It is a document of the mountain climb of hell that they have endured.

I resisted crying at this film and it was hard.
You are trapped in the parents' universe and you can't escape!

The vibe in the theatre was so uncomfortable..people sobbing, I saw at least 5 get up & leave.

[Johann]

Skritek



Hilarious Czech gem, an outrageous slapstick comedy from Tomas Vorel.



A 50's-ish couple with a stoner son and less-than keen daughter are having marital problems.

The father works at a slaughterhouse, and because the sexual sparks have gone from home, he starts eyeing a blonde co-worker who likes to flirt.

Things lead to things, and they make out in the meat freezer (just like the Wife and Her Lover in Greenaway's film).

They get locked in by the foreman.

The fam sits at home, watching mind-numbing TV, wondering where Pop is.

The couple are found the next morning, clinging to each other but still alive. The ambulance takes them to the hospital to thaw out.

The wife (an old frumpy lady who works as a cashier at the local grocery store) decides she's gotta save her marriage and goes on the hunt for lingerie to spice things up.

By the way, there is no dialogue in this film.
It's all Mr. Bean-type grunts and "errs" and "ows" and "HUn HUn"s.

It's hilarious.

The son gets busted for growing pot plants outside in a park- he smokes J's with his asian buddy (who also gets body piercings with him) at school, off school, while skateboarding- must be good reefer in Czechoslovakia!

It could be a horror film for vegetarians- we see pigs, cows and chickens ripped to shreds.
Yep.
Chainsawed.
Gutted.
Bled.

Hot intestines thrown in front of the camera. Close-ups of sharp knives slicing freshly killed animal flesh.

Ah...that's what we all need. Slaughterhouse 101.


That's part of the humour though: we are actually laughing at the complete visceral absurdity of the slaughtering.

Skritek is a midget, dressed in an Ewok costume.
He looks like a Gnome and he appears throughout the film.
I guess he's supposed to be as symbolic as that gnome in
Amelie, but I have no idea what he exactly represented.

He carries a staff made of old twisted wood that has a purple crystal on it that performs magic.

Does this film sound weird?

It is.
I laughed pretty damn hard.



This very foreign film was picked up by Warner Brothers for distribution- that's how much of a cult potential it has.

[Johann]

Stolen Life



Devastating film.


A Chinese girl named Yanni was given up for adoption by her mother when she was a baby.
Her mother was in no position to raise her.
Adoption was the best option.
At age 9 she was reunited with her, but had nothing to say because she didn't feel like it was her mother.

The two families kept in touch right up to present day.


Today Yanni is going to her first day of University in Beijing and she takes a cab.

The cab gets into a near-accident with a truck.
She gets out and walks, pissed off with both the cabbie and the truck driver.

After the argument is settled with the cabbie, the truck driver drives over to Yanni and apolgizes and drives her to school.

The relationship from Hell is about to begin.




The driver, Muyu, a late-20's chinese guy, helps her out at school- he buys her things to help out, he takes her out to dinner, he takes her to drive-in movies...she's starting to love this guy!
No-one's ever done these kind of things for her before.


She asks if he loves her. He says "we should just be friends- you don't want a guy like me- you've got your whole future ahead of you, I'm just a truck-driver".

She refuses his remarks: "I don't care- if you love me then that's all we need".
He says he'll love her more than any man ever could.


They do the nasty, often, and then Muyu just drops out of sight.
He stops coming around to the University, he just vanishes.

Yanni goes looking for him, and because she's smart, she finds him: in a one-room shack with a newborn baby and a much-older woman.


Muyu's got a secret life.


But Yanni's preggers, with his baby. She knows this is a bad deal:
the University will kick her out for sure. Who knows how her adopted folks will handle this.

Muyu says he'll stick by her no matter what.

She stays with him, thinking he'll stay with her, because that other woman is uglier.

He does hang around, but Holy Jesus you have no idea what his plans are.


I'll stop here.

See it and see what could possibly be happening in China every day. Muyu is not your average truck driver.

He's Satan incarnate.

[Johann]

Souls of Naples


An "intellectual" documentary on the city of Naples and it's inhabitants.

The opening shots are overhead helicopter shots of the rim and bowl of Mount Vesuvius, the legendary volcano. Jaw-dropping.

I think the film was made to preserve the spirit of Naples- the volcano could erupt again anytime. The richter-scale monitors tell us how the city is monitoring the seismic activity 24-7.

Scientists tell us how hot ash would descend on the city and collapse all of the roofs, how the volcano would completely destroy Naples.

We are told that in order to really get to know the city one would have to spend a lot of time in it's alleys and cul-de-sacs.

Various citizens and professionals relay Naples' place in today's world while we watch beautiful shots of the city.
It's a poor city, behind the times in many many ways, but it's culture has a rich and deep history.
Personally, I've never given much thought to this Italian city and now I have a broad idea of what life there is like.

The famous painter Caravaggio is discussed, as he spent a great deal of time in Naples and his commissioned work "The Seven Acts of Mercy" is discussed in great detail, with locals and officials dissecting it's beauty and socio/religious contexts.

It jumps around quite a bit, but I had no trouble following it.
It's like a European travelogue with subtitles.

All of the major tourist attractions & points of interest are shown.

By the end you might wanna see your travel agent.

After seeing this I really wanna walk around the mouth of Vesuvius. It's summit is open for tours.

[Johann]

The Score


This Canadian film was horrifically bad- I wanted to crawl under my seat.


A lab is working on genes and the head scientist, Dr. Lynn Magnussen, is horny.

She's a 40-ish redhead (Played by Jane Perry) and she gets it on with her co-worker Benny in the "cold room". They wear parkas while they fornicate...

The main plot is something about another lab in France that wants in on their research (or something).

Lynn gets pregnant, and she doesn't know what to do because she has Huntington's disease. Her mother just died of it a week ago, and she's concerned she'll pass on the gene to her child (there's a 50/50 chance).

But wait, there's more!

Musical numbers!

Songs that were so shitty and sucky that I don't know what to say. All of the lab staff sing and dance, holding folders, swinging binders around like idiots.

At Lynn's apartment Novex courier guys (3 obvious fags- muscular gay models) sing and dance and deliver a baby to her in bubble wrap and a Novex box.

This movie blows.

It was shot in Vancouver and I'm ashamed.

It appears they paid Translink to film on the skytrain platforms and trains at 3am: if you ever wanted to see supposed Huntington's disease patients caked in grey makeup and doing syncronized dances in their hospital gowns then you've came to the right movie!

Horrifically bad.

The only saving grace is Jane Perry's bathtub scene.
Ooh la la..

[Johann]

Desolation Sound


Filmed in Desolation Sound B.C.
Tense, dark movie.


A married couple and their young daughter have moved to a wood cabin. Hubby's got a 6-week job lined-up away from home that can bring them some serious cash.

Wife gets a postcard from the girlfriend she left in their last town- she's coming to visit.

The woman arrives (Jennifer Beals) and hubby departs for his job.

Right away the woman is acting funny- something ain't right.
Wife questions her on what's wrong (her mother just died).
She asks if she can stay for a while to regroup.

They go out to the only bar in the Sound (down by the coves) and drink until they're sloshed.

Wife: "Since when did you drink so much?"
Beals: (whispers) "I'm an alcoholic"

Beals shocks her by saying she wants to fuck her husband.
Wife slaps her hard- twice. She walks out, disgusted with what she just heard.

Beals comes back to the cabin, pleading for wife to open the door.
She's allowed in but must leave in the morning.

They get into a huge argument on the roof of the cabin (which is connected by door to the master bedroom) and Beals is shoved off the roof.

The fall kills her. Now the movie gets interesting.

She enlists the help of her neighbor to bury the body (he's a weird loner-type guy who makes marionettes for her daughter and didn't like Beals anyway).
They bury her in the rose garden that the couple were using to grow flowers for cash.

They push her blue Trans Am into the bay from a cliff.

Everything's OK now: the story will be "she pissed me off, I kicked her out, I don't know where she is"

Cove cop Ed Begley, Jr. and his wife are friends of the couple: their daughter plays with their daughter, and wifey thinks everything will be fine.
He'll never suspect a thing- especially if I fuck him, she thinks.
Old Ed has the hots for her, even though he's happily married and has a young daughter too. There's another sub-plot involving the occult, and the journals Beals wrote before she came to visit, which also give the story more creepy depth.

Great film. Can't give away the ending to ya.


This is a film Canada can be proud of.

I don't know if this is director Scott Weber's first film or what, but it's as assured and beautifully paced as any taut thriller I've seen.

[Johann]

So Much Rice


This is one Jim Jarmusch would love: black and white, static Ozu-like shots, every scene fades to black, poetic songs punctuate.


But unlike Jarmusch, this film barely registers any emotion. It's funny in parts, and it's interesting only because it resembles Jarmusch's methods. (The film was actually made by a respected Chinese poet but I forget his name)

Mr. Mao lives with his ignorant roomie Wiao, and Wiao wants a woman.

He goes to a "centre" that (with paid membership) will set you up with the mate of your choice. He picks a Virgo woman and the official says "Good choice- she's pretty".

Miss Virgo comes over to Mao and Wiao's pad, they eat rice and sing a song together- it's so deadpan you have to laugh.
Wiao and Virgo fuck the night away, and Mao can't sleep because of it. He does Math problems. (?)

After the sounds of coitus stop, Virgo suddenly comes into his room wearing nothing but a t-shirt.
"I've had feelings of intimacy about you since I first saw you"
Mao nods.
The silence that accompanies this admission is quite funny.

Virgo's brother gave her a big honking bag of rice, rare rice, and she wants Mao to have it.

He carries it on his shoulder for the rest of the film.

I loved it, but I don't see any distributer picking this bad boy up.

The filmmaker will be in attendance at the festival.
I'm gonna see if he can hook me up with a Taurus Chinese woman..

[Johann]

I'm seeing Deepa Mehta's Water on Thursday (Sept. 22).
It's the final film in her explosive/controversial "Elements" trilogy.

I won't be able to give a review (due to an embargo until it's release date Nov. 4th) but I'm looking very forward to it.

I met Deepa in Calgary at that film fest in 2002 (along with Atom Egoyan). She's strong, she's brave, she's ours now (She's dropped anchor in Toronto) and she can shoot.


Honestly, I think India doesn't deserve her.

[arsaib4]

Looking forward to your thoughts on Water.

The film was a hit at the Toronto fest (http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/sep/09water.htm).

[Johann]

The Lynching of Louie Sam


Too short and a tad amateur, this film is important nonetheless.

Louie Sam was a 15 year-old Sto-lo Nation Indian who was hung from a cedar tree in New Westminster, B.C. in 1884.

His story has been passed down through the generations of natives because his murder was never solved (even though everyone knew how and why) and they got no apology from anyone, his family got no compensation.

This film is an eye-opener on the original Native settlers in British Columbia. I knew just about zilch on these "original Canadians".

It illustrates how the Natives' lives have evolved in the 100+ years since the colonialization of B.C.

What happened in regards to Louie Sam was that a shopkeeper/owner in a town in Washington was murdered and his store was set on fire with him in it.

The townsfolk somehow got the impression that it was an Indian kid (Louie) who did it. He was in the town last week, and he lives north, in New West B.C.

Lynch him!

In 1884 lynching was illegal in Canada- they actually had laws protecting the Natives. But this time the Natives were failed. Badly. They were actually told to forget it! Forget the lynching!

They still have resentment over the treatment of Louie's murder, and they say his ghost still lives in New Westminster.

Two undercover police detectives investigated the crime, posing as labourers looking for odd jobs. They went from home to home for months, gathering info from whoever would talk about it.

The info they gathered on the case was absoutely remarkable, with lists of names of lynch-mob members, descriptions on what they were wearing, and the real reason for the shopkeepers' murder: MONEY. The murderers rode their horses up from Washington to New West and took Louie from his home in the middle of the night. He had a date with a cedar tree...

Louie Sam had nothing to do with the murder/arson and the eyewitness accounts of his hanging are chilling: "This kid is stubborn- he won't tell us anything. He just spits and kicks".


The film was made with what appears to be ZERO money but it highlights a native story from Canada that should be remembered.

[Johann]

Look Both Ways



This is the directorial debut of Australian Sarah Watt.


It tells the boring story of a guy who has testicular cancer who meets a woman who witnessed a guy get hit by a train.

Watt inserts her own animated drawings between the action, which illustrates the schizo thoughts women probably have. (Trains falling, murderers/rapists lurking everywhere, violent thoughts about people, etc.- you know, the usual female stuff).


I hated it. I can hear better stories from my friends.

I didn't care about the cancer guy (Nick the photographer), I didn't care about the woman at the center (Meryl- although she's cute) and I certainly didn't care about the story.

It's too uninteresting and too short on laughs.

Avoid this one unless you worship stories in the Bridget-Jones vein.

[Johann]

Duelist


This is the most un-involving chop-socky movie I've ever seen and it's too bad- visually it's awesome.

The characters ("Sad-Eyes" and "Namsoon") are Bo-Ring.

Sad-Eyes is sum yung Korean guy who wears a mask (described in the synopsis as a "goblin" mask) and a long-white hair wig.

He dances around doing wacky martial arts manouevers with his sacred sword of doom.

He has "duels" with Namsoon, a girl who is sexy-pretty, but her facial expressions and goofy antics turned me off completely.

They are supposed to be in love, I think, but they war throughout the movie.

There is lots of slow motion. Tons in fact.
There is tons of slow-falling snow (gotta have that! It ain't chop-socky without slow-falling snow!) and there is tons of "you've met your match" posturing and chin-jutting.

It could have been great if the director (Lee Myung-Se) cared more about the characters than he does about how many loud sword CLANGS he can cram into 111 minutes.

A major disappointment.

[Johann]

Behind the Mirror



Just when you were waiting for the story of the modern east-Indian boy who can't get along with his father here comes "Behind the Mirror".

Three boring movies in a row! Who knew?

A man and his wife & 10-year old son move to the city where the father's mother lives.

She hasn't seen the boy since he was a baby and Granny is very happy.

Dad's got a great job lined up- can Granny look after the boy until he's finished sorting out all the details in the city?
No problem! says Gran.

Gran makes red paint for the local painter- she boils it for days- and she takes it to him. The boy is fascinated with the painters' work- can he teach him?

Of course! They start with camels and elephants.
The whole time the father is away the boy is taking a serious liking to painting. Granny couldn't be happier.

Long story short, father comes back and is horrified that his son is now seriously considering being a career painter- at age 10!

He destroys all of the son's sketches (even a great one of Gran) and says "There is no future in painting- I must prepare my son for the real world".

This uninvolving story was spread over a scant 85 mins. and it had no concrete conclusion.

It will not get picked up and it should never be.
This is just a polished Hindu home movie.

[Johann]

Beowulf and Grendel


An excellent "loose" adaptation of the epic Anglo-saxon poem
starring Gerard Butler as Beowulf "The Hero from the Sea", Stellan Skaarsgard and Sarah Polley.


Loose adaptation indeed.
I don't think they used "shit" and "fuck" in the 9th century, but maybe they did...

It opens with Danes beheading the troll Grendel's father on a clifftop. Grendel hangs underneath the cliff overhang, waiting until the murderers leave. He brings the head back to their cave.


Cut to present day, where the Danes and Geats are stomping the earth and sailing icy waters in their Viking-type ships.

Grendel (translated:grinder-grinder of teeth) lives where Beowulf the hero has set up basecamp.

The man who killed his father (Skaarsgard) is in his army, and he wants revenge. He kills Beowulf's men one by one, skillfully, without warning, beheading them, twisting their heads almost completely around, brutal, plain-as-day violence.

Beowulf is getting a tad annoyed.

He consults Polley, who can see each person's death, thus she has great power.
She tells him that Grendel wants nothing to do with Beowulf, because he has done nothing to him.
It's Skaarsgard he wants.

This Canadian/Icelandic production gets very high marks on production design and cinemtography. It's as sweeping and visually gorgeous as Lord of the Rings. The costumes are just as good as well- I had no trouble believing that this was the 9th Century.

By Odin, this movie should get some notice.
But how and why and where I have no idea.

It could get ripped by the critics because it's a VERY loose adaptation, and Polley seems a little too "modern" to be traipsing through the foggy moors of Daneland.

I loved it because of the raw mythology and throwback to ancient times which doesn't get the proper cinematic attention these days.



MY GODS DON'T REQUIRE ME TO BOW

[Johann]

Shanghai Dreams


This film got great reviews at Cannes.

Personal, emotional, and heavy on contemplation, this film is all about a small family who moved away from big Chinese cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai to find a better life.

It takes place years ago, with the majority of the action in 1983.

Mai Fen convinced her husband to move where he could work in the "third-line factories" and make enough money to support the family.

But Lau Wu holds it against her, saying the decision to move was a disaster- their "Shanghai Dreams" have been dashed.

For the rest of the film Lau Wu is a tremendously domineering husband & father. All he wants to do is find a way to move to Shanghai.
He lords over his daughter Qing Hong, forbidding her from seeing her new boy-toy (Hong Gen), throwing out red shoes Hong just bought her, shouting and griping at every turn about how his only daughter has lost it, how she'll never make it in school or elsewhere. Mai Fen tries to be a referee, but Wu is just too much of a "feudal father".

Her best friend Ziao Zhen wants a "hot" guy, the guy who was just fired from Lau Wu's factory. She decides to go to a club with Qing Hong to meet the hunky plaid bellbottom-wearing Lu Jun.

The "club" is nothing more than an old building, with guys dancing with other guys. (?) The music was funky: Boney M! "By the Rivers of Babylon../"

Lu Jun cuts a rug like you've never seen!

He steps to the middle of the run-down dancefloor, doffs his lame-o jacket and begins some Disco Fever! The whole crowd was laughing at this part.

He jive-walks his way over to Ziao, luring the chinese cutie to dance. A relationship begins, but Lu Jun has another girl "on the go", and she's pregant. The film goes down that alley for a while and then comes back to Qing Hong and her loud angry father.

The tensions and drama builds up to a perplexing mystery of an ending, which is open to several interpretations because we never actually see what happens. We hear it.


Great film, award-worthy.
Tight direction, good acting and luscious camerawork make it a serious cut above other Chinese films.

The crowd clapped enthusiastically when the credits rolled.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Johann
Shanghai Dreams

I saw this one in Toronto (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13003#post13003).

The "club" is nothing more than an old building, with guys dancing with other guys. (?) The music was funky: Boney M! "By the Rivers of Babylon../"

He steps to the middle of the run-down dancefloor, doffs his lame-o jacket and begins some Disco Fever! The whole crowd was laughing at this part.

Very Travolta like, wasn't it? This was the only blithe-spirited sequence in the entire film.

Tight direction, good acting and luscious camerawork make it a serious cut above other Chinese films.

Well said!

[Johann]

Princess Raccoon



Seijun Suzuki's film was an absolute stunner.
A Japanese musical from heaven.
You wanna see a master at work?
This is Palm D'or worthy.



The story is about a Princess and her Operatic magical mystery world, where just about anything goes.
It may be more surreally fantastic than any Fellini film.

The songs are sheer Japanese outrageousness, varying from traditional, romantic, hip-hop, electronic, dance, etc..

I can't accurately describe the visuals- I'll just give you a blanket: "jaw-dropping colored theatrics of the highest calibre".

It's Beckett theatre, Kabuki theatre, it's cheap-ass theatre, it's high-end snobby theatre, it's incredible. I went through just about every emotion you can at a movie.

Stellar cinema from an undeniable master genius. Yes, this is no misprint: Suzuki is in the elite class. This screening was a true priviledge. I'm going to see it again (if it's not sold-out).

How old is the Tokyo Drifter himself? 90?
And he's delivered THIS?

Great God of Cinema: Seijun Suzuki should be canonized.

[Johann]

Manderlay



Another multi-layered masterpiece from Lars von Trier.

Part 2 of his USA trilogy picks up exactly where Dogville left off, and Grace is now in Manderlay.

This film is devastating, but it will probably soar over most peoples' heads in terms of message.

Trier is showing us real, accurate U.S. history here, even though the dressings are anything but.

He's nailed the subject of racism and prejudice (against blacks) in America since the first slaves arrived in the land of opportunity.

This film would upset and infuriate every flag-sucking Yankee if only they were smart enough to pick up on Trier's intent.

I could feel even from the sold-out crowd that they missed what Lars was doing. I got the feeling that most people only saw a movie that uses the word nigger too much, offended their good taste with a sex-scene that was about as graphic as you can get without showing actual penetration, and made (with the end credits) America look like the most racist nation on this globe.

Mentally I was on a mountaintop, with Trier as my guide.

I was marching with him from the first white fade to the 8th and I would march with him to the depths of hell.
Lars von Trier is a modern master filmmaker.
The final film in this trilogy will be without question one of the best films ever made. I can only imagine how he'll finish this epic trilogy, what will he do with Grace in Washington?.

Bowie's Young Americans was cranked up yet again, but this time it was over shots of Bush ("Do You Remember Your President Nixon" was sung when Lars shows us The Goofy Child), shots of MLK, Malcolm X, the Trade Towers, race riots, just still after still of America's "legacy" in terms of black race relations.

Absolutely devastating.
A true priviledge at the cinemas.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for the excellent posts!
Somewhat surprised at the reaction to Manderlay from a Vancouver crowd. Is this a typical Van audience? Maybe there isn't such a thing. IFC Films has not announced release dates for Manderlay. I can't wait. I might see it on dvd first, like Dogville, because the film came out on dvd in Russia months before the film was released in theatres here.
Suzuki's film doesn't have a distributor yet but Zhang Ziyi's casting guarantees that it will.

[Johann]

My pleasure oscar. Literally- this festival is programmed perfectly.

Princess Raccoon is a film everybody should see. It's absolutely genius. It's got echoes of Rohmer's Perceval- the same type of sets.


There's a line in Manderlay that could be a term for the negative reviews that it will probably get:
"Here Comes The Dust".

Lars is rattling the cages with supreme art.

The players are skilled: Willem Dafoe (Grace's father), Danny Glover (Wilhem- the leader of the blacks), Isaak de Bankole (a brilliant actor- great in Jarmusch's Ghost Dog) and Bryce Dallas Howard, who holds her own quite well next to Nicole.
She's the perfect "righteous White", and at the end she gets thrown a GIANT curveball. (It involves her father).

Can't wait to hear what everybody thinks about it.

[Johann]

The District!




An animated film from Hungary that will blow your mind.
The visuals were absolutely eye-popping.
It's jib-jab.com on acid.


Richie & Jules, Sandokan, Moricka, Belus and Csorba are the characters who populate the District, a wacked-out part of Budapest.

The story is based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with main characters Richie and Jules as the star-crossed lovers.
(I must point out that the story is just the "skeleton" of R & J. The movie is bonkers).

It's strictly for adults: this is almost an NC-17.




Hookers with their huge tits hanging out, rapping about the "Ho Game":
Ain't no walk in the park/Fuckin' in the dark
Bring the Gin/ Cum drippin' off my chin
Ain't no good takin' it slow/I ain't no Miss Monroe

The film has gypsies, priests, gyros, guns, bling, Brandy, and a sequence where (in a time machine) the gang kills a slew of wooly mammoths in order to make oil.

That's the underlying message of this film. We are given a 101 on fossil fuels and modern oil consumption.

We are even taken to the oval office of Dumbya, where he pushes a button on his desk that tells his staff which terror color warning will be the one of the day.

Bushie and Blair are shown planning world domination, and it ends with Bush nuking Budapest!


I worshipped it.

Strong message, even stronger visuals which were psychedelic and rapid-fire.

[Johann]

Punk: Attitude



This is a great doc on punk music.

Made by Don Letts, this was dedicated to the late, great Joe Strummer.
This documentary rocked my world.
It shows how the Attitude of punk music is what matters.

Don tells us of Elvis and Jerry Lee, how the term "punk" is applied to anyone who appears to be going against the system, how even the INTERNET is a form of the punk mentality.

But thankfully he focuses on the real shakers and destroyers of the system's influence.

Mr. Letts (former legendary reggae DJ & Clash manager) says the punk movement began with Iggy and the Stooges and The MC5.

We are shown the Doors first album cover, while we hear that Iggy went to see the Doors in 1968 and it changed his life: he wanted to be more crazy than Jim Morrison.
He wanted to "out-do that guy".
John Sinclair the manager of the MC5 was at that same show he admitted that the concert was a profound religious experience.

Seeing raw footage of the MC5 shouting KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHERFUCKERS! was adreneline-pumping. These guys were dead in the water though- their records TANKED because of the reputation they got from the live shows. They wax about the old days, on the road, heads full of acid, spreading their angry PUNK attitude everywhere they went.

The MC5 and Iggy were the first punks.
But like it was pointed out in the doc, most bands hated the term "punk"- especially The Ramones. They did not want to be called a "punk rock band". Tommy Ramone speaks in the film as well as David Johanson & Syl Sylvain of the New York Dolls.
The Dolls didn't give a fuck what anybody thought-That's Punk Attitude. The footage of them in their outrageous wardrobes is incredible on the big screen.

All of the major acts are discussed:
The Sex-Pistols (Sid Vicious learned how to play guitar by listening to Ramones albums over and over), The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Television, The Slits, Richard Hell, Malcolm McLaren, Blondie, The Talking Heads, the Bad Brains, The Dead Kennedy's, DNA, Black Flag, Nirvana- all of the possible bands you could lump under the banner of "PUNK" are discussed.


Music history from those who were there and those who know.

Jim Jarmusch speaks at great length and he's right on the money baby:

It seems like 80% of the people today are asleep

[Johann]

When the Tide Comes In


I fell in love with the main character and I fell in love with this excellent movie from France.

Yolande Moreau is Irene, a talented actress who is starring in her one-woman show, a comedy about a fat masked female freak who killed for love and searches for love.

For every performance she brings a male audience member up on stage to be her beloved "chicken".

The crowd laughs like hyenas from the embarrasing situations she puts these poor guys in, holding their hands, telling them to give her money (even if they have to go back to their seat to get the cash from their jacket), pressing their heads to her large chest, her lovely magnificent chicken..

Well one guy keeps coming back to the shows after he's been the guinea pig for her show. They begin a relationship, and it gets pretty weird- I was waiting for him to rape or kill her- the guy is shady and wonky and I had no idea where the story was gonna go and it was a great surprise when we get to the end and you see where Moreau and Gilles Porte were taking us.


L'Amour par excellence.

Yolande Moreau is a respected French actor and her first film (co-directed with Gilles Porte) won the Cesar for Best First Film and Best Actress.

It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling in my guttiwuts

[Johann]

The Bridesmaid



Another masterpiece from Claude Chabrol.


Philip Tardieu gets entangled in a massively bizarre relationship with the bridesmaid of his sisters' wedding.


The bridesmaid is Senta, a disarmingly sexy woman (Laura Smet).
She tells him that he's the man of her dreams- she knew it as soon as she saw him that he "completes" her.

He's a little bewildered, but he goes along with it because he's single and this woman is so damn attractive.
Who wouldn't?

She lives in a big old home, in the basement. Her mother died giving her birth, and her surrogate mother lives upstairs practising her dance moves with her Fabio-partner.

Philip starts staying the night, away from his own mothers house, where he still lives (in his late 30's?). Mom is wondering where he's always going, arriving in the morning with ruffled hair for breakfast. He's keeping this relationship to himself.

Senta soon displays evidence of being a Psycho Chick.

She tells Philip that if he really loved her he would kill someone.
(among other things: write a poem, plant a tree..)

He obviously says no way.

But after he jokingly says one day that he did indeed kill someone for her, she's over the moon.

The next day she comes home and says she killed someone for him too.

Then the movie descends into a bizarre maze of weirdness that Philip can't fathom.


Incredible film from the 74 year old master Chabrol.
The sold-out audience applauded enthusiatically at the end.

[Johann]

Lifelike



A 1 hour Canadian doc on the taxidermy championships that were held in Orillia, Ontario in 2004.

In the 4 main profiles we see 4 men who are extremely dedicated to their craft. They make sure to point out that most people are repulsed by the idea of taxidermy, that something has to DIE before they have any work.

We're shown how a "mount" is made. They usually have a factory-built hard plastic deer "shell" that they can stretch the skins over.
The fake eyes are put in, the hide is sewn, the antlers are always added at the end, and these 4 guys do it not just as a profession-they want ribbons and trophies for being the best taxidermist in the land.

Each man is given approx. 10 mins of profile time, wrapping with the big championship judging taking place in a hotel pavillion.

The reactions to the ribbons awarded range from depression (one guy, a novice who is a bit annoying, gets an honorable mention for a deer head that he was sure would win- he's choked) to elation.

The others are quite happy with their placings (they're old hands at it)-the three of them show off their "I Love Me" rooms filled with plaques and ribbons.

Good little documentary on something I know nothing about.






A Perfect Fake

Ooooo.
How do I describe this.

It was screened with "Lifelike" and it's a disturbing 1 hour look at the "culture" of love/sex dolls in Japan.

We see several GROWN MEN who treat their sex dolls as if they are their wives.

But these aren't just any doll- these are as lifelike as you can get.
Soft fleshy skin, the bodies are molded to be just like an actual womans'.

These guys bathe them, dress them, take them out in the countryside for photos- one of the completely obsessed men makes calendars of his doll, with ART PHOTOS. They actually look pretty good..

They are all on the internet, with websites dedicated to their life partners, and webrings of other Jap freaks who can't find real love or have any social skills to even begin a relationship.

The doc veers into horror-movie territory often.
This shit is creepy.

There is something profoundly disturbing about a guy who has a large collection of dolls who all have their own wardrobes, bedrooms and arsenal of hairbrushes.

One guy says he cannot stop buying the dolls- it's his life.
He proudly announces that he fucks them as soon as he takes them out of the packaging but his true love is the first doll he bought. She has his total commitment, and nobody had better say anything bad to his plastic princess.

The culture of internet porn and virtual porn is shown in graphic detail, with XXX examples of the adult animae cartoons and how these dolls give men the freedom to have a *Fake* woman do whatever he wants whenever he wants, with no talkback, you hear?

A couple got into a big tiff after the screening- the woman liked the doc, thought is was disturbing but funny, while her mate was being a total dick: That was PORN. I didn't come here to see PORN. You should be ashamed for liking it..

I didn't "like" the film- it was informative, but I didn't need to know that there are thousands and thousands of pathetic Jap men who fuck huge pieces of rubber.

This just goes to show that how you see things depends on how you see them.

[Johann]

Heart, Beating in the Dark


This is the sequel (?) to the 1982 indie Japanese cult hit about a couple who murdered their own daughter and went on the run.


It's not so much a sequel as a remake.
No- it's not that either.
It's a whole new film.
No- it's exactly the same.


For this one I just wish they'd stuck to the regular movie-making methods.

The movie begins with the actual director and star of the original, talking about how they're gonna do a remake of "Heart, Beating in the Dark".
For 15 minutes they discuss how and why they want to do another version.

Then the footage from the 1982 film is cut into the "remake" footage as well as the "real" footage of making the new film.

Confused?

So instead of seeing the new film, we're getting the "making of the new film" along with the actual new film, which is exactly the same as the '82 footage but with modern actors.

The audience clapped at the end but I didn't.

This is dark subject matter, with nudity, rape & violence.

Why didn't they just give us the damn remake instead of watering down the dark story with scenes of the old male lead actor wanting to punch the new lead actor guy because he felt the character deserved to be punched? The character
HE played, no less?

Weird, disappointing film. I could follow it no problem, but I just didn't like it.

I went to see this because the program write-up said "
The best Japanese film you'll see this year".

Trust me- that is a load of *%&^%)!

[Johann]

Be With Me


A film from Singapore by Eric Khoo.

I did not like this Sam I Am.


A typewriter crudely snaps out words of love from 60 year-old Theresa Chan, a real-life deaf and blind woman.
She went deaf at age 12 and went blind at age 14.
She was supposed to get married in 1968 but her mate died.

She's been living alone ever since, and the most impressive thing (in the whole movie let me add) is her self-sufficiency: she can cook, she teaches children, she reads braille and has mastered sign language.

There's not much she can't do, and it's incredibly inspiring to see someone with 2 disabilities doing just fine. But she insists on SPEAKING, and that is where I must be blunt: her voice is one of the most unpleasant voices I've heard. She speaks english (!), and it sounds like that guy on the swing at the beginning of Greenaway's Baby of Macon.

It sounds like she's speaking without a tongue!

But there are 3 stories going on here and Theresa's is just one.

The other one is about a shop owner whose wife falls ill and another about a disgusting security guard who gets killed by a chick who was attempting suicide (she jumped from a roof and fell on him).


Again, people clapped.
I was wondering if it was me because I think this film is really bad. It didn't involve me in any way and I couldn't have cared less about what was happening on screen.

[Johann]

13 Lakes


This was made by art professor James Benning.

He went to 13 major lakes in the U.S. and Canada and filmed a 10 minute "frame" of each lake.

On a tripod that seemed to be in the water, he shot each segment with a 16mm Bolex, with the same horizon line-of-sight for each lake.

Peter Greenaway would love this.

There is synchronized sound, but James said (after the screening) that he edited some of the sounds in order to take away stuff like a car going by when he was shooting or some noise that would disrupt his very focused film project.

It tested the patience of everybody- this was 2 hours and 13 minutes with no actors, music or editing.
It's just nature, captured beautifully, by a real artist.

I saw about 20 people (yep, twenty) that just couldn't take the lack of action. This was not what they paid to see.

But they suck hard, and doom on them for leaving.

It's not just a 10 min+ still of some lake. There is a lot going on in these "shots". The waves are action, the birds are action, we even see some hydroplanes and hear gunshots in one.
The Lake Superior one is awesome, because he shot it in mid-December, when the lake was just beginning to really freeze and the waves of ice that bob up and down along with the Edmund-Fitz-type tanker that is going to port for the season.

It's a film that will definitely test your patience. (Big warning there)

James said a real artist is someone who looks and listens and then reports back to the tribe.

The lakes were in Maine, Louisiana (yes, one is the one in New Orleans- Pontchartrain (sp.?) before the hurricane, the Salton Sea, Alaska, etc.

Pure art from a pure artist.

[Johann]

I saw Princess Raccoon again last night and met Mr. Ning Cai and his producer, who were standing right behind me in the passholders line. I instantly recognized him- I opened the program to Season of the Horse and his producer points to Ning and says "he's the director".

I said "Yes, I recognized him"
He says "Did you see the movie?"
I say yes and he says "Did you like?"

I said "It was as good as Kurosawa".
He laughed, thanked me, shook my hand and we went in right after. I told him I'd already seen Suzuki's film and he couldn't believe it. "Good filmmaker, huh?" he says.

It was great.

I've been trying to spot some celebs but so far the only people I've recognized are Larry Kent (a great independent film legend here in B.C.- Cronenberg loves him) and Ray Liotta of course, who was doing an acting seminar. Couldn't get near him though.

Tomorrow Isabella Rossellini arrives with Guy Maddin to deliver her tribute film to her father Roberto and introduce a screening of Rome: Open City.

Good times...

[Johann]

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes


The Bros. Quay are heroes of mine.

This film is pure sublimity. (The word sublime is actually used in the film).

I was amazed that the theatre was almost completely sold out for a 2pm show for a Quay brothers film.

Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised- Vancouver has many many cinephiles. By the way, I'm seeing a lot of the same faces at these screenings- if I keep seeing this one Russian lady in the next ten days I'm just gonna start talking to her. She's been at TEN of the screenings I've been to since the fest began and all of the media screenings at the PC prior. (In the same seat everytime).

But anyway: Piano Tuner.

Executive produced by Terry Gilliam, this is (to me) the best Quays film yet. If you're familiar with the methods of these artists you'll know their M.O.: bizarre but beautiful stop-motion gothic animation. They also have done films with live actors, and this is one of those.

I almost don't want to describe anything in it.

It's about a piano tuner of course, and yes, of Earthquakes.
The level of phantasy and surreality is hard for me to get across without you having seen it.

If you were already a Quays fan then this film will satiate your aesthetic cravings. Moons, mist, forests, a macabre doll who chops wood and predicts the future, a gorgeous black-haired woman who is knee-deep in the fantastique with the piano tuner, this is bizarro, kids.

It's a dream. Literally a mental journey through the subconscious of the Bros. Quay.

I have nothing but praise (and jealousy).
These guys are special maestros and seeing Gilliam's name up there doesn't surprise me in the least- he's in the exact same league in terms of artistic talent.

See it at all costs.
(Although DVD might be the only way).

Wide release? I highly doubt it.

[oscar jubis]

Damn J, you sure cranking 'em out today.
Whole thread is giving me a "fuzzy feeling in my guttiwuts". (wish I could write like that).
I saw Punk:Attitude on IFC about 10 days ago and forgot to list it in my journal. It was great to watch because it's the music of my teens and early 20s. The two surviving members of the Dolls, Johansen and Sylvain, are touring again, BTW.
It's great to see that the Van fest goes outside the mainstream and that there's an audience that appreciates that.

[trevor826]

Re :A Perfect Fake

It was screened with "Lifelike" and it's a disturbing 1 hour look at the "culture" of love/sex dolls in Japan.

We see several GROWN MEN who treat their sex dolls as if they are their wives.

But these aren't just any doll- these are as lifelike as you can get.
Soft fleshy skin, the bodies are molded to be just like an actual womans'.

These guys bathe them, dress them, take them out in the countryside for photos- one of the completely obsessed men makes calendars of his doll, with ART PHOTOS. They actually look pretty good..

They are all on the internet, with websites dedicated to their life partners, and webrings of other Jap freaks who can't find real love or have any social skills to even begin a relationship.

The doc veers into horror-movie territory often.
This shit is creepy.

There is something profoundly disturbing about a guy who has a large collection of dolls who all have their own wardrobes, bedrooms and arsenal of hairbrushes.

One guy says he cannot stop buying the dolls- it's his life.
He proudly announces that he fucks them as soon as he takes them out of the packaging but his true love is the first doll he bought. She has his total commitment, and nobody had better say anything bad to his plastic princess.

The culture of internet porn and virtual porn is shown in graphic detail, with XXX examples of the adult animae cartoons and how these dolls give men the freedom to have a *Fake* woman do whatever he wants whenever he wants, with no talkback, you hear?


Sorry to pull you back to this one but last night there was a documentary on with exactly the same subject only this time it was about men on your side of the pond, otherwise it sounds exactly the same.

The worst was this old guy who had his doll on strings, he could raise or lower it to any position he wanted, he did her make up and dressed her up as a schoolgirl. These guys pay $10,000 + for the dolls which are pretty much hand made to order.

Again in the US (who knows, maybe Canada as well!), women using machines! I don’t mean the pocket rocket or little vibrating love eggs, No! I’m talking “machines” with rpm’s you could drill through a wall with! Scary, still I guess if the guys have their lifelike dolls, the girls have to get their buzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz somehow!

Cheers Trev.

[Johann]

Hey this sex-doll thing is MASSIVE.
We don't know what perverted sicknesses are going on around the world.

But this is the world we live in: one where rubber dolls are required.

Relationships are the most difficult thing in the world- on one hand I can say these guys aren't murderers or rapists- they're just in love with their dolls.

But on the other hand I say GET. A. LIFE.

If being a hermit with a sex doll is your world then that's your world. Carry on, wayward son...


Quite a few more reviews on the way.

[Johann]

The Miracle of Candeal



85 year-old Bebo Valdes is flying to Bahia Brazil. Candeal, to be specific. He's a world-known Cuban pianist, and this film is just about damn near an epiphany.


Bebo arrives and is treated like royalty. He meets with the residents and music teachers of this extremely energetic town.

It's very poor, but Brazil is known for rising above poverty through music. And the music that we hear in this film is some of the best you're ears will ever filter.

No Joke: one performance had me eyes mistin' up.

This is the power of music, passed down from generation to generation, and you just might wanna get up and dance in the aisles- in fact 3 women did just that at the screening I went to.

People were clapping after every song- I woman behind me was shouting BRAVO! right after every performance.

A semi-standing-O from the crowd, and I was one.

This is what films are all about. I wish I could describe it more accurately, but all you need to know is that the music played here will start spinnin' your higher chakras, buster.

Magnificent film.
It's got a helluva shot at winning the audience award here at the 24th VIFF. This is what majestic films are all about...


Fernando Trueba (maker of Belle Epoque) is a modern cinema saint.

[Johann]

Dear Wendy



What's your name?
Who's your daddy?
Is he rich like me?
Has he taken the time to show you what you need to live?



Thomas Vinterberg has, and he's delivered a seminal film, written by his Dogme partner-in-crime Lars von Trier.

The narration bugged me a bit, but that might have been because the sound volume was WAY UP.

I forgave it soon enough because the message of this film resonated pretty loudly.

If you've seen Bowling For Columbine and are familiar with Lars' current USA trilogy then you'll know what Vinterberg has done here.

The plot?

A bunch of teens want to be in a gun-gang (and call themselves THE DANDIES) but they will never use the guns. They are symbols only. These are PACIFIST teens, and they want to make the world a better place.

Bill Pullman surprised the hell out of me, turning up in a Dogme film like this. He's a sherriff with a weird American accent.

The hand-cannons they each choose are interesting.
Relics, classics, 9-millies, what-have-you.
The soundtrack is all "THE ZOMBIES" by the way- another reason why it was impossible for me not to love this film.

The "animation" or "simulation" of bullets piercing bones and brains and skulls in slow-motion was an awesome element to add.



There are two scenes specifically that are without question instant classic scenes in cinema history.

And those who haven't seen it yet are very lucky indeed, because you'll get to experience these two *explosive* scenes for the first time.

I wish I could get last night back again- my jaw dropped when one of Pullman's officers "goes down".

Reminded me a wee bit like NBK (except these are 2 polarly different films):

I cock my glock.

And I pop.

Until THEY ALL DROP.

[Johann]

The White Diamond




Excellence.
Herzog is a powerful filmmaker. Always has been.


Nearly sold out (I missed Rome Open City for it because it's only playing once- will see it today with Maddin/Rossellini tribute My Dad is 100 Years Old), this was perfect cinema.

A film like this must be seen on the big screen, because the waterfalls and epic aerial shots would lose power on TV.

The White Diamond is the name given to the airship piloted by the somwhat goofy Dr. Graham Dorrington.

He wants to drift above the South American rainforest canopies in his 2-man ship that he designed.

It's powered by helium, and Herzog's film crew dance with death (you expect anything else from Herzog?) a couple times.

Graham explains his desires and career in great detail: we hear of his former partner Dieter who was killed in a similar airship, when he got caught amongst treetops and fell.

Hearing him describe the death is grim: He hit the ground with a thud; like a piece of meat in a butcher shop, he lost an eye on the way down

This is dangerous stuff, and Graham doesn't seem to be the most competent airship pilot. Herzog says he will fly with him to get killer shots (before he takes off he says "In celluloid we trust..."). But the flight is nearly a disaster, and it was all caught on film. Herzog's production manager was furious when they landed:
"This is not good airmanship Graham. This will never happen again". Graham contemplates giving up.

But glorious shots are achieved.


Indeed, this film is like a dream. This ship is actually quite beautiful to gaze at, moving slowly over the lush vegetation and gigantic waterfall that is home to thousands of "Swifts".
Birds that dive and soar in and around and behind the waterfall, "where no one has ever been".

Some shots are jaw-dropping, and for that (and Herzog's Ahnold-like narration which is usually quite humorous) this film comes very highly recommended.

[Johann]

My Dad is 100 Years Old



Thank you Guy Maddin.

And thank you Isabella Rossellini.

You may have made the best film of the whole festival, and it's only 15 minutes.


Isabella confronts giants of cinema history in order to set the record straight with regards to her father.

She plays Fellini (a major player in Roberto's life).
She plays Chaplin (as an angel- these are all cinema angels here)
She plays David O. Selznick, smoking a cohiba, saying how Gone With The Wind is the zenith of cinematic expresion.
She plays Hitchcock- I'm not shitting you- she's a genius.

The best "role" she plays is that of her own mother, Ingrid Bergman. You should be in heaven when you watch this short b/w tribute from the Canadian legend Maddin.

She is putting her father's legacy in perspective, and it's poetry.

His films are being forgotten, over time, and it's pretty much a tragedy.
Rossellini is the true father of Italian neo-realism in cinema, and Fellini actually gets slammed here. He's portayed as someone who turned from her father, when he was the one who got Fellini off his ass.

Her father is represented by a jiggly belly, and at the end she hugs his big belly, saying I don't know if you're genius or not Dad, BUT I LOVE YOU

[Johann]

Rome, Open City


The Rossellini name has stolen the thunder from everybody at this film festival.

All I can say about this sublime experience is that I have a new appreciation for Rossellini.

The big-screen amplifies everything.
I've seen this on video countless times and this sold-out screening was a landmark event.

That's the thing about these festivals.
FILM is the priority here.
We should celebrate and honor the legends and poets who came before.

Like Nicole Kidman said about Kubrick:
There are more important things in life than movies, but the great storytellers are important

Roberto Rossellini is in the same class as Bresson, Cocteau and Vigo.

He was pure, he made the films he felt had to be made, he blazed a powerful, mythic cinematic trail.

But how many people acknowledge that?

That's why Rossellini should get his due. NOW.

This was the man who made Open City with film stock he could FIND, shooting on location because Cinecitta was shut down.

He made poetry in the midst of chaos.
Wipes! Dissolves!
During the occupation!

Cinema of our time? Rossellini had his thumb on it.

The cinema of today owes more than it has given to the pioneering ways of Roberto Rossellini.

Thank him, with all your heart, and rent this film tonight.

[Johann]

a/k/a Tommy Chong



The only weapons of mass destruction the Bush administration ever found were in Tommy Chong's bong factory.

This is a powerful doc on his arrest and jailing for selling "paraphenalia" over the internet, made by Josh Gilbert.


The DEA raided his home and his glass-blowing factory, after following his "drug crimes" for over a year in a sting called "Operation Pipe Dreams".

$12 million and thousands of hours of man-hours wasted in hunting down and imprisoning this "TERRORIST", known to all as Thomas Chong.


The Bush administration is ripped another new asshole in this genius doc that I was 1000% behind long before today.

I am a religious pot smoker and I don't care who knows it.
This film is one I hold dear. Along with Ron Mann's Grass you have 2 101's on the pathetic drug war that America rages every single day.

Costs are not important.
Lives are not important.
Yet the Nazi's and fascists who enforce these ridiculously draconian laws (to PROTECT SOCIETY no less) are made out to be severely fucked up reactionaries and political capital whores.

If you thought John Ashcroft was a fucking idiot before, watch a/k/a Tommy Chong, where Old John says that Tommy is a threat to our children of the future, and how his films (with Cheech) are tantamount to treason.

Bill Maher and Jay Leno point out that if they're targeting CHONG FOR FUCKS SAKES then no one is safe.
Our own Marc Emery was at this screening, lobbying people to vote for it for the People's Choice Award.

If your aunt Betty likes to nip out for a toke on her Victorian balcony at 3 in the morning warn her: the Narcs will come for her.

They got satellite imagery that will pin-point the exact location of the devil weed.

They will swoop in like fucking Batman and make her eat pavement.

Tommy spent 9 months in a jail just outside Bakersfield.
For selling GLASS PIPES. NOT MARIJUANA.

Cheech speaks: This is America.
Tommy says they might do one final Cheech and Chong film, but only if he can get Cheech to agree. His career has gone 180 from the comedy act they pioneered. He says Cheech doesn't really want to play "that Chicano character" again.

But he's needling him...

Tommy and his wife and filmmaker Josh Gilbert were in the audience. Afterward they were brought to the front for a Q & A .

The sweet smell of Ganja floated through the theatre as he decribed getting stoned with Jimi Hendrix in London, how this film has turned him into a crusader and how going to jail was a big wake-up call.

He fielded questions on distribution of this doc, the comedy tour he's on and how Vancouver has been such a big part of his life.

He lives in North Vancouver, and he actually met Cheech here in Van- he was moving carpets.

The Cheech and Chong "act" was just that: an act.

These guys smoked dope, sure, but they were actors, making fun of stereotypes, the culture.

But George Bush and that CAREERIST BITCH from Pennsylvania seem to think that by making an example of Tommy that they're getting the message out that drug use of any kind will not be tolerated.

Funny, considering that marijuana is the biggest cash crop on the face of the planet.

Funny, considering that the "drug trade" is being used to keep our very global economy AFLOAT.

Funny, considering that the glass bongs that Chong was busted for CAN STILL BE BOUGHT- ANYWHERE, MOTHERFUCKERS.

Bush is shown in a speech clip where he says :
If you quit drugs you quit aiding terrorists

I'm gonna say it, I'm a treasonous mofo:

DEA?

USA?

FUCK OFF EH!!!!!

[Chris Knipp]

I'll look for this one. I saw The Marijuanalogues in New York last year when Chong was still in it.

[hengcs]

Originally posted by Johann
Shanghai Dreams
This film got great reviews at Cannes.

[edited]

The tensions and drama builds up to a perplexing mystery of an ending, which is open to several interpretations because we never actually see what happens. We hear it.


Great film, award-worthy.
Tight direction, good acting and luscious camerawork make it a serious cut above other Chinese films.

The crowd clapped enthusiastically when the credits rolled.

Hey,
maybe we could discuss the ending ...
go here ...
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1416&highlight=shanghai+dreams

[hengcs]

Originally posted by Johann
Be With Me
A film from Singapore by Eric Khoo.
I did not like this Sam I Am.

A typewriter crudely snaps out words of love from 60 year-old Theresa Chan, a real-life deaf and blind woman.
She went deaf at age 12 and went blind at age 14.
She was supposed to get married in 1968 but her mate died.

She's been living alone ever since, and the most impressive thing (in the whole movie let me add) is her self-sufficiency: she can cook, she teaches children, she reads braille and has mastered sign language.

There's not much she can't do, and it's incredibly inspiring to see someone with 2 disabilities doing just fine. But she insists on SPEAKING, and that is where I must be blunt: her voice is one of the most unpleasant voices I've heard. She speaks english (!), and it sounds like that guy on the swing at the beginning of Greenaway's Baby of Macon.

It sounds like she's speaking without a tongue!

Hi Johann,
you may read my review here ...
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12826&highlight=Dargis+Khoos+film#post12826

With regards to the speaking, I guess you have to empathize with the fact that she managed to learn how to speak despite being blind and deaf ... it was quite an achievement ...

[Chris Knipp]

I partially replied to your review of Be With Me on another thread
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13244#post13244. I sympathize, johann, but I think you overreacted; I don't think you have to come to the end for it to be worth watching.

[Johann]

I jotted down a list of films I wanted to buy and the Bros. Quay film was on the list.

When I wrote the title down it was with letters only, and it gave me pause.

TPTOE

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
The Bridesmaid
Another masterpiece from Claude Chabrol.
Philip Tardieu gets entangled in a massively bizarre relationship with the bridesmaid of his sisters' wedding.
The bridesmaid is Senta, a disarmingly sexy woman (Laura Smet).
She tells him that he's the man of her dreams- she knew it as soon as she saw him that he "completes" her.
He's a little bewildered, but he goes along with it because he's single and this woman is so damn attractive.
Who wouldn't?

Chabrol has built a career on crime films involving middle-class characters living in the provinces. It seems so effortless to him by now. The Bridesmaid is exceedingly elegant. The classical score by Chabrol's oldest son Matthieu and the fact that all the violence happens off screen contribute to its classicism. But for me, the most important aspect of the movie is that everything that happens is seen from the point of view of the young man (a very good Benoit Magimel). There's a police investigation going on and Senta comes and goes but it all remains a mystery because the viewer only knows what Matthieu experiences.

He may be a victim of a sick seductress but he is a particularly vulnerable target with accompanying pathology: he has developed an unhealthy attachment to the bust of a Hellenic woman. After stealing it from the garden of her mother's ex-boyfriend's house, he caresses it and sleeps with it, then hides in the closet. Senta's resemblance to the bust is what keeps Matthieu from bailing out way past the point a reasonable guy would stay around.

This Ruth Rendell story is a good match for Chabrol. It seems surprising they have collaborated only once before (La Ceremonie). I like the film less than you do, Johann. Once the trap is set for Matthieu, the film becomes a bit predictable and it sticks too closely to genre conventions. I wish it went deeper into its themes or the psychology of the two principals. But I found The Bridesmaid quite enjoyable. An impeccably elegant, classic mystery by a director who hasn't lost his touch.

[Johann]

Thanks for that oscar- you give more info than I did.
And thanks for resurrecting this dead thread.


The ending to The Bridesmaid is a little bit of a let-down.
After all of the strangeness (exceedingly elegant strangeness) I was hoping for more of a payoff. But I still think it's a masterpiece

It's a must-see film, and not just for fans of Chabrol.


* P.S. Chris (if you're reading):
A Black Dahlia post is on the way- I didn't see it last week, went to Jackass instead.

[Chris Knipp]

I agree with both of you on The Bridesmaid/La demoiselle d'honneur. Yes, Magimel is very good. After all he got the Best Actor prize at Cannes for La pianiste some years ago. And it is very elegant and well done and creepy, vintage Chabrol, showing he can still do it. And yet also after it's over, it doesn't leave a very powerful impression, because he's done this sort of thing so often I guess. I'm afraid we may be the only ones who think The Black Dahlia is worth talking about. Hollywoodland did better with the critics; I would recommend both for any fans of noir and Ellroy and Hollywood vintage tales.

[Johann]

I am a DePalma fan.
I think I'll love the movie.
I certainly love the poster...

[Chris Knipp]

If you're a De Palma loyalist I don't see how you can not like this one.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
I saw Princess Raccoon again last night

First of all, I'd like to thank you for introducing me to this latest film by the octogenerian Seijun Suzuki. I think the literal translation from Japanese is most accurate "Operetta Raccoon Palace" because, unlike the previous Pistol Opera, this is truly musical. What a feast for the senses this is. This lightly-plotted film combines elements of Japanese folk legends, Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, and Snow White. The mise-en-scene is a hodgepodge of Noh, Kabuki, Hollywood musicals, and the tanukigoten musicals of post-war Japan. Suzuki emphasizes the theatrical throughout. He uses back projection, cut-out sets and self-consciously cheesy computer-generated imagery. The music is all over the place; ballads of course, but also rock, hip-hop (briefly) and a joyous calypso number. A goofy, loopy delight.

In an earlier post, I said that the casting of Zhang Ziyi guarantees the film will get a distribution deal. I was wrong. But Princess Raccoon is available on a format and region compatible dvd made in Hong Kong. It features an excellent transfer of the film and it sells cheap (about $9 to $12 from internet vendors, shipping included). The director's interview is not subtitled though.

[Johann]

Great!

Glad you got to see it.
I loved it.
It is a very fun "loopy" movie.

I loved the scene where the two women "duel" (the one with the silly string effect) and just the absurdity of the "theatre".

The singin' and dancin' was something, huh?

[Johann]

Here's a list of award winners from this year's VIFF
(which I didn't attend but got all of the press/media releases)


Audience/People's Choice award
THE LIVES OF OTHERS(Germany)
dir. Florian henckel von Donnesmarck


Federal Express Most Popular Canadian Feature
Mystic Ball (Ontario)
dir. Greg Hamilton



National Film Board award for Best Documentary
Have You Heard From Johannesburg?
(USA) dir. Connie Field


Special Jury Prize
Radiant City (Canada)
dir. Gary Burns

Women in Film & Video Vancouver Artistic Merit award
CARMEN MOORE (from Carl Bessai's Unnatural & Accidental)

Dragons & Tigers award for Young Cinema
Todo Todo Teros (Philippines)

CityTV Western Canada Feature Film award
EVERYTHING'S GONE GREEN (B.C.)
dir. Paul Fox

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
When the Tide Comes In


I fell in love with the main character and I fell in love with this excellent movie from France.

Yolande Moreau is Irene, a talented actress who is starring in her one-woman show, a comedy about a fat masked female freak who killed for love and searches for love.

For every performance she brings a male audience member up on stage to be her beloved "chicken".

The crowd laughs like hyenas from the embarrasing situations she puts these poor guys in, holding their hands, telling them to give her money (even if they have to go back to their seat to get the cash from their jacket), pressing their heads to her large chest, her lovely magnificent chicken..

Well one guy keeps coming back to the shows after he's been the guinea pig for her show. They begin a relationship, and it gets pretty weird- I was waiting for him to rape or kill her- the guy is shady and wonky and I had no idea where the story was gonna go and it was a great surprise when we get to the end and you see where Moreau and Gilles Porte were taking us.


L'Amour par excellence.

Yolande Moreau is a respected French actor and her first film (co-directed with Gilles Porte) won the Cesar for Best First Film and Best Actress.

It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling in my guttiwuts

It seems like an appropriate time to rediscover this film (and unearth your review) on the occasion of the North American release of SERAPHINE, which feaures a tour-de-force, Cesar-winning performance by Yolande Moreau. Of course, most film buffs recognize Ms. Moreau from her appearance as AMELIE's long-suffering concierge.

After Vancouver, When The Tide Comes In got picked up by New Yorker Films, was re-titled WHEN THE SEA RISES and received a very limited release in January of 2006. The film was released on DVD in October 2006, but it didn't come to my attention until my admiration for SERAPHINE prompted me to rent it.

One thing I'd like to add to your review is that when you wrote that "Moreau is Irene", that is more true than you let on. During the 80s, she traveled from town to town in the border region between France and her native Belgium performing precisely the same one-woman show shown in the movie. For WHEN THE SEA RISES, she largely resuscitated the show and actually performed it on stage for a paying audience and, this time, also for the camera.

WHEN THE SEA RISES is charming and goofy, in the best way. I love the fact that the film never clarifies who is this Michel she calls on her phone to discuss home improvements. The film never makes an issue out of her relationship with Dries (the carnival worker who fixes her stalled car and becomes her permanent poussin). Their affair just progresses slowly and inexorably until both have to let go. The film leaves you with a good feeling. It warmed my "guttiwuts."

[Johann]

Many thanks for the supplemental info.
Yolande Moreau should be National Treasure for France.
I still remember "When the Tide Comes In" vividly.
(or "When the Sea Rises"- I actually like "Tide' better).
It left a good impression. A movie to remember for sure.
I recommend it highly.
I didn't know it was on DVD.
I'll have to look for it. That's one to buy.
Glad New Yorker films picked it up. But I heard that they are going out of business! I think I read that in Film Comment..

[oscar jubis]

Yes, New Yorker Films is kaput.

The DVD will only set you back a few bucks on Amazon.

One film from the 24th VIFF I wished to get a chance to watch (after reading your review) is the Chinese film SEASON OF THE HORSE. So far no luck.

[Chris Knipp]

"New Yorker films is kaput."

We discussed this news earlier, and it was being lamented at the FSLC when I was there for the Rendez-Vous French series in February and the news came and I gave a link to the NYTimes story (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/movies/24film.html), which points out the important role of the company and Talbot in introducing 'essential art house" films to the American public over a period of four decades.
New Yorker Films, the distributor that helped introduce American moviegoers to the works of Bernardo Bertolucci, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Ousmane Sembene, announced on Monday that it was going out of business after 44 years.

One of the most influential distributors of foreign and independent films, New Yorker has amassed a library of more than 400 titles, including Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" and Claude Lanzmann's epic Holocaust documentary "Shoah," said Dan Talbot, who founded the company in 1965.

Mr. Talbot, 82, said in a telephone interview that the company was going out of business because its library was being sold. It had been pledged as collateral on a loan taken out by its former owner, Madstone Films, which bought New Yorker Films in 2002.

The library could be auctioned off as early as next week, he added.

New Yorker Films held rights to distribute movies to theaters and to institutions like colleges, and also to release DVDs.

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the specialty-film multiplex on the Upper West Side that Mr. Talbot owns, is unaffected by the travails of New Yorker Films.

For more than four decades Mr. Talbot has been one of the most prominent figures in art-house cinema in New York and the United States, controlling not only New Yorker Films but also several theaters (including the New Yorker Theater, now defunct, an important revival house at Broadway and 88th Street).

"Without a doubt it was the pre-eminent distributor of foreign art films in the United States from the mid-1960s really into the '80s," J. Hoberman, the senior film critic of The Village Voice, said of New Yorker Films. "And for much of the time he was the only game in town." The New Yorker Theater closed (New Yorker Films, the distributor that helped introduce American moviegoers to the works of Bernardo Bertolucci, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Ousmane Sembene, announced on Monday that it was going out of business after 44 years.) in the late Seventies. Before that there were various big old classic movie houses on the Upper West Side. I knew about the theater long before I heard of the film distribution company.