tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49608011094669314602024-03-13T21:51:44.584-05:00Kathie SmithTwin Cities Film Geek GaloreKathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.comBlogger561125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-29759404722809975092013-09-05T09:18:00.001-05:002013-09-05T09:18:52.734-05:00The Update No One Has Been Waiting ForDespite the pathetic appearance on my blog, I have been doing a little writing here and there, as well as toiling away trying to find a job (yes, still looking and still failing.) Here is the rundown of the writing:<br />
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<u><b>Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival</b></u><br />
Remember MSPIFF? I covered the festival for a few places, tallying up a total of 20 reviews. Fun! I very favorably reviewed Pema Tseden's <i>Old Dog</i> (pictured below), which played early in the fest, and then got to overhear hilarious quibbles with what many thought were unwarranted accolades on my part. I stand by my praise!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgocfddDwaZNUU-t7W7W_U0IShovdidOealv00niYekMbm5PEbkwF1ZHX0Uzx2rgvjh5TW65F6okX5slizl457cIXPpYKu9qv7P7lZuTmGaSuzt-faSb2aNrst2epiccFEx_UR3c2NhZhPd/s1600/Old-Dog-2011-Movie-Image-2-600x360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgocfddDwaZNUU-t7W7W_U0IShovdidOealv00niYekMbm5PEbkwF1ZHX0Uzx2rgvjh5TW65F6okX5slizl457cIXPpYKu9qv7P7lZuTmGaSuzt-faSb2aNrst2epiccFEx_UR3c2NhZhPd/s320/Old-Dog-2011-Movie-Image-2-600x360.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Minneapolis Star Tribune</b> - My 100 Word Wonders (sorry, slideshow scrolling to find the actual review required)<br />
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/204320891.html" target="_blank"><i>First Comes Love</i></a></b> (US) dir. <span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Nina Davenport</span></li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/204320891.html" target="_blank"><i>F**k for Forest</i> w/ </a></b><i><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/204320891.html" target="_blank">The Capsule</a></b> </i><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">(Poland/Germany) (Greece) dir. </span><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="st">Michal Marczak, </span>Rachel Tsangari</span></li>
<li><i><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/204320891.html" target="_blank">The Hunt</a></b> </i>(Denmark) dir. <span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Thomas Vinterberg</span></li>
<li><i><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/204320891.html" target="_blank">Student</a></b> (</i>Kazakhstan) dir. Darezhan Omirbayev</li>
<li><i><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/204320891.html" target="_blank">The Weekend</a></b> </i>(Germany) dir. Nina Grosse<i> </i></li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/203255481.html" target="_blank"><i>Laurence Anyways</i></a></b> (Canada/France) dir. <span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Xavier Dolan</span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><i><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/202001101.html" target="_blank">After Tiller</a></i></b> (US) dir. </span><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Martha Shane and Lana Wilson</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/202001101.html" target="_blank"><i>Cutie and the Boxer</i></a></b> (US) dir. </span></span><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Zachary Heinzerling</span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/202001101.html" target="_blank"><i>Last Time I Saw Macao</i></a></b> (Portugal) dir. </span><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata</span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/202001101.html" target="_blank"><i>The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear</i></a></b> (Georgia/Germany) dir. </span><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Tinatin Gurchiani</span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/202001101.html" target="_blank"><i>Old Dog</i></a></b> (China) dir. </span><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">Pema Tseden </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b>City Pages</b> - Slightly More Indulgent Reviews (once again, you'll have to scroll down to find my prose)</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><i><a href="http://www.citypages.com/2013-04-09/feature/the-minneapolis-st-paul-international-film-festival/2/" target="_blank">Papadopoulos and Sons</a></i></b> (UK) dir. Marcus Markou </span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.citypages.com/2013-04-09/feature/the-minneapolis-st-paul-international-film-festival/5/" target="_blank"><i>Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart</i></a></b> (Finland/Sweden) dir. Mika Ronkainen</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.citypages.com/2013-04-09/feature/the-minneapolis-st-paul-international-film-festival/7/" target="_blank"><i>Augustine</i></a></b> (France) dir. Alice Winocour</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.citypages.com/2013-04-09/feature/the-minneapolis-st-paul-international-film-festival/7/" target="_blank"><i>Purge</i></a></b> (Finland/Estonia) dir. Antti Jokinen</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b>Twitch</b> - Free Reign, No Scrolling</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2013/05/mspiff-2013-review-the-fifth-seasons-apocalypse-hits-freakishly-close-to-home.html" target="_blank"><i>The Fifth Season</i></a></b> (Belgium/Netherlands/France) dir. Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2013/04/mspiff-2013-review-80-million.html" target="_blank"><i>80 Million</i></a></b> (Poland) dir, Waldemar Krzystek</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2013/05/mspiff-2013-review-these-birds-walk-delivers-emotional-behind-the-scenes-realism.html" target="_blank"><i>These Birds Walk</i></a></b> (Pakistan/US) dir. Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2013/05/mspiff-2013-review-the-deep-is-a-modest-well-made-adventure.html" target="_blank"><i>The Deep</i></a></b> (Iceland) dir. Baltasar Kormakur </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">I spoke with MN native Billy Rosenberg, producer for <i>The Spectacular Now</i>, for the Walker Art Center, who hosted an early screening of the film with Rosenberg and James Ponsoldt in attendance. </span></span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/spectacular-now" target="_blank">Pathway to the Spectacular Now</a></b></span></span></li>
</ul>
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<br />
<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">And I continue to contribute regular reviews for <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/home.html" target="_blank"><b>In Review Online</b></a>. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs8jKHro2HDqmXTdwcnrbVsG7VAS4HMEJvneVsxHIAEoF0UEfiIsRiFZRzD7Oe-dOUJYzXzc2Ox99vaz8bgXt7LNA4kPdBtxImXAeEvd0fU_Otw7JUAdDHJsKOEgX7K-yK_2j7kA1oLl-h/s1600/v_tumane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs8jKHro2HDqmXTdwcnrbVsG7VAS4HMEJvneVsxHIAEoF0UEfiIsRiFZRzD7Oe-dOUJYzXzc2Ox99vaz8bgXt7LNA4kPdBtxImXAeEvd0fU_Otw7JUAdDHJsKOEgX7K-yK_2j7kA1oLl-h/s320/v_tumane.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/3/21_Gimme_the_Loot_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><i>Gimme the Loot</i></a> </b>dir Adam Leon</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/4/26_Mud_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Mud</b></i></a><b> </b>dir Jeff Nichols </span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/5/10_Sightseers_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Sightseers</b></i></a> dir. Ben Wheatley </span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/6/13_In_the_Fog_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><i><b>In the Fog</b></i></a><b> </b>dir. Sergei Loznitsa</span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/8/9_Elysium_%282013%29.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Elysium</b></i></a> dir. Neill Blomkamp </span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/7/18_The_Conjuring_%282013%29.html" target="_blank"><b><i>The Conjuring</i></b></a> dir. James Wan </span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><b><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/7/25_Drug_War_%282013%29.html" target="_blank"><i>Drug War</i></a> </b>dir. Johnnie To</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"></span></span><br />
<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">And two entries in our <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/Entries/2013/8/13_Directrospective_11_-_Wong_Kar-Wai.html" target="_blank">Wong Kar-wai Directrospective</a>:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/old_hat_film/Entries/2013/8/15_Ashes_of_Time_%281994_2008%29.html" target="_blank"><i><b>Ashes of Time</b></i></a> </span></span></li>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/old_hat_film/Entries/2013/8/19_In_the_Mood_for_Love_%282000%29.html" target="_blank"><i><b>In the Mood for Love</b></i></a></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">And at the six month mark, I provided my best of the year so far with other InROers:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/Entries/2013/7/1_Year_in_Review_-_Halftime_2013.html" target="_blank"><b>Year in Review - Halftime 2013</b></a> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">I also will have a piece in a new publication coming in October called The Third Rail Quarterly. As of yet, there is no sign that this publication exists, but I will be sure to point it out when it does. I am, of course, on <a href="https://twitter.com/KathDSmith" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://letterboxd.com/kathie/" target="_blank">Letterboxd</a>, although my activity is anything but prolific or profound. I continue to program, project and make merriment at the <a href="http://take-up.org/" target="_blank">Trylon microcinema</a>. Unfortunately, I will not be traveling to any of the IFFs this fall (see lack-of-job lamentations at the top of this page) but as an interesting consolation prize, I will be going to the <a href="http://www.cinema.indiana.edu/?post_type=series&p=4432" target="_blank">Orphans Midwest Symposium</a> and covering the activities for <a href="http://www.fandor.com/blog/" target="_blank">Keyframe</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption">If any of this impresses you, please hire me. XO</span></span><br />
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<span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><span class="imageCaption" id="imageCaption"><br /></span></span>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-76375595265794121422013-05-08T10:47:00.000-05:002013-05-08T10:47:00.123-05:00Shane Carruth's UPSTREAM COLOR<span style="font-size: x-small;">(<span style="font-size: x-small;">A commission to interview Shane Carruth on his new film <i>Upstream Colo<span style="font-size: x-small;">r</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> fell through earlier this week, leaving m<span style="font-size: x-small;">e with <span style="font-size: x-small;">some useless research and words. <span style="font-size: x-small;">In other words, the perfect thing for my blog: shit other people don't want! <i>Upstream Color</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> is now available online via iAmaGPlay, but see it in theaters if you can.</span>)</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“But while we are confined to books, though the most select and classic, and read only particular languages, which are themselves but dialects and provincial, we are in danger of forgetting the language which all things and events speak without metaphor, which alone is copious and standard.” —from <i>Walden</i>, Chapter IV “Sounds”</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfSFNnj0vMJ_hJzvUh_XKgdX5zz1Ntnw8NSX1RxNKAzCwDJY8v-fG6AS4EP1FVz-FWaw4-a097uVUt1hyphenhyphenFfkmJ9azhRE39c5VYg_qPbRA4KsJsioHL4WqJPhVzQhawDBPi7-qjoo9eap-/s1600/Amy-Seimetz-stars-as-Kris-and-Shane-Carruth-stars-as-Jeff-in-Upstream-Color-2013-Movit.net_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzfSFNnj0vMJ_hJzvUh_XKgdX5zz1Ntnw8NSX1RxNKAzCwDJY8v-fG6AS4EP1FVz-FWaw4-a097uVUt1hyphenhyphenFfkmJ9azhRE39c5VYg_qPbRA4KsJsioHL4WqJPhVzQhawDBPi7-qjoo9eap-/s400/Amy-Seimetz-stars-as-Kris-and-Shane-Carruth-stars-as-Jeff-in-Upstream-Color-2013-Movit.net_.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"They could be starlings." Kris and Jeff of <i>Upstream Color.</i></td></tr>
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Shane Carruth’s <i>Upstream Color</i> is a one-of-a-kind wonder. Modest in means but opulent in delivery, it’s a transcendental blend of science fiction, thriller and romance in the best possible ways. On the surface, the film is about Kris (Amy Seimetz), a young woman who at the beginning of the film suffers a psychological trauma with economic and physical consequences. As if someone hit the reset button on her life without her agreement, Kris starts over and in the aftermath fosters a connection with Jeff (Carruth) who seems to have had a similar experience. Parallel to Kris and Jeff’s developing attachment, the narrative explores the organic agents of cause-and-effect in their relationship: the harvest of psychotropic worms, the transference of DNA from human to pigs, and the spontaneous growth of an exotic flower on the banks of a river. If that sounds elusive, it’s because Upstream Color’s unique development is best experienced without a preconceived notion of plot.<br />
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But I already feel like I’ve said too much. Regardless of what you read before seeing <i>Upstream Color</i>, the web of ellipsis and referential sparks will allow for myriad discoveries. Fans of Carruth’s debut feature, <i>Primer</i>, will understand the enthusiasm. <i>Primer</i>, a surprise Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, generated a fervent following (check your interwebs) for similar reasons. An indie sci-fi mindbender, <i>Primer</i> was made on a well-documented shoestring that challenges its audiences to intellectually meet it halfway. Those who were willing to do so no doubt found inspiration in its wickedly smart DIY aesthetics—those of Carruth’s filmmaking as well as those of the characters’ who engineer time travel in their garage. But where <i>Primer</i> is a cerebral puzzle locked to left-brain mechanics, <i>Upstream Color</i> forges a far more intuitive path. Although structured on a scientific framework of entanglement, the narrative implies that within the symbiosis of physics is something quite spiritual. The requirement for audiences of <i>Upstream Color</i> is to emotionally meet it halfway.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZxcqLYeWtvh0fJaMAI3HKNU25LOsPU6vPz3k2oCQbKYCslsPrLEO0NvOOU6HpUdBXEhUDyzG-xyCH7qjByKmYw897NuYjpnLwhLxRF7XJPnvKaFEQpLZHgFTXSU-dddswJtr3qi1_p6c/s1600/tumblr_mkyo9h5Usf1qziqfho8_1280.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZxcqLYeWtvh0fJaMAI3HKNU25LOsPU6vPz3k2oCQbKYCslsPrLEO0NvOOU6HpUdBXEhUDyzG-xyCH7qjByKmYw897NuYjpnLwhLxRF7XJPnvKaFEQpLZHgFTXSU-dddswJtr3qi1_p6c/s400/tumblr_mkyo9h5Usf1qziqfho8_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Free and trapped: the pigs of <i>Upstream Color.</i></td></tr>
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<i>Upstream Color</i> premiered at Sundance earlier this year largely under a cloud of well-controlled secrecy. It had been nine years since <i>Primer</i>, and while the rumor mills and news feeds were churning with Carruth’s activities (including helping Rian Johnson with effects on <i>Looper</i>) there seemed to be nothing in the hopper for finished material. As if stuck in one of his own <i>Primer</i>esque time loops, Carruth fell silent in the years that followed his award winning film. But instead of wiling away his time in hotel rooms and libraries like the characters in his film, he was running the Hollywood treadmill trying to finance his next project, the now fabled and likely shelved <i>A Topiary</i>. When the verbal support—including Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher signing on as producers—failed to produce monetary support, Carruth went the other way and built his film from the ground up, much like <i>Primer</i> but far more refined in almost every aspect. <br />
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If <i>Upstream</i> appeared seemingly out of nowhere, it was because it was a production so far outside of the Hollywood system, it failed to exist within normal networks. Working as producer, director, writer, composer, cinematographer, editor and actor, Carruth was able to keep the project under wraps until he was ready. When a couple of minute-long teasers arrived online late last year, both fans and the uninitiated were intrigued. Those early glimpses, as well as the eventual full-length trailer, were faithful to the ambiguous, and glorious, mysteries of the film. Carruth has created a multilayered world around Kris and Jeff that is aware of both the macro and the micro of their lives and their relationship. They are connected by an intangible experience (the aforementioned trauma) that they themselves don’t even acknowledge. Their kindred paths create a bond so strong that their individuality starts to blur, but, similarly, their relationship to the world is heightened. When Kris is kept awake at night by a sound, is it because a part of her now flows in the ground water? Does Jeff also hear the resonance of himself there too? Maybe.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgopdtwlxJ0DTHMwoplsVdJOkiMPqMFeldJZkjTwN-obxMjvw5RsmY_Zr62ox5ZR938JmO5CFmSKkbnNFUeP_alT3RWn5EwXqY9t0HjZd2qZRFL14yf4bCV0TYHRJOlqoNbSGl77PfnDEl0/s1600/tumblr_mfi0kwsGFO1qziqfho7_1280.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgopdtwlxJ0DTHMwoplsVdJOkiMPqMFeldJZkjTwN-obxMjvw5RsmY_Zr62ox5ZR938JmO5CFmSKkbnNFUeP_alT3RWn5EwXqY9t0HjZd2qZRFL14yf4bCV0TYHRJOlqoNbSGl77PfnDEl0/s400/tumblr_mfi0kwsGFO1qziqfho7_1280.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An event that speaks with metaphor from <i>Upsteam Color.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Henry David Thoreau’s <i>Walden</i> plays a prominent role in the film as a perfunctory tool for mind control, but on closer inspection the book and film share an overall ethos, to the point where you can nearly connect any sentence found in <i>Walden</i> to <i>Upstream Color</i>. Perhaps it’s the underlying transcendental intentions of the film that so easily associate with a text considered a spiritual autobiography. (Here is where I would have asked if <i>Upstream Color</i> was a spiritual autobiography.) There is a shadowy principal character in the film simply referred to in the credits as The Sampler who (among other things) spends his time carefully recording ambient sounds. His obsessive pursuit is none other than recording the language that Thoreau worried that we would forget—a language that is elevated in The Sampler, Kris and Jeff for reasons that are locked inside the enigma of the film.<br />
<br />
The film uses an immersive technique of both sight and sound that works emotionally on your subconscious. One of the most striking aspects of the film is the intimacy built not only between the characters, but also within their environment that goes beyond the frame. In a brief, disconnected sequence in the film, an unnamed man keeps replaying a scene with his wife in his head: he is leaving and she is making a sincere attempt reach out. She is going to try harder, and most importantly she loves him. He can’t go back and extend his own openness to her; he leaves; he shuts the door; it’s too late. Even as a minor moment in the film, every ounce of this interaction feels honest. This extends to Kris and Jeff where their convincing amity is constructed with performance, editing and a sound design where every interaction is tethered to the surroundings.<br />
<br />
Like <i>Primer</i> did nine years before, <i>Upstream Color</i> will appeal for repeat screenings in order to discover or patch together the answers to its secrets. But defining those answers will be harder than mapping the time sequences in <i>Primer</i>, with many of the emblems of <i>Upstream Color</i> being abstract or obscure. There’s a lot to contemplate, and I’m not entirely sure an analysis can be anything but personal. I left the film thinking about Guinea worms, the relationship that I have been in for over 20 years, economic dependence and corruption, and the life-affirming co-habitation with my dog. Themes and evocations of <i>Upstream Color</i> are scattershot. Revenge, redemption and awakening are all paths Kris travel, but describing the film with those terms is reductive. To go back to Thoreau: “The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of our residual statement.” <i>Upstream Color</i> works on a visceral level, inciting something that is not easily explained. And maybe it shouldn’t be.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-53127973803171385372013-04-11T10:35:00.000-05:002013-04-11T10:35:00.630-05:00Ready. Set. MSPIFF!Local movie yokels unite in a grad spectacle of film gluttony! The <a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/MMXIII/" target="_blank">Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival</a> starts tonight in the winter wonderland that is Minnesota in April. With over 200 films to surf, here are a few recommendations from the peanut gallery called me:<br />
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<u><b>Highly Recommended</b></u><br />
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<b><i>Leviathan</i></b> (USA/France/UK) d. Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel <a href="http://youtu.be/GEQoB_aRB3c" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
Friday, April 12, 2:00pm<br />
Sunday, April 14, 10:00pm<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigAz2niRlpDDXOy7LIdyhmDOMTvaHOP9am4DKk8xi4Bl-gOsP5D8XeKIg1BEvSCHM_l-sbOU11hDPWAvZGzvJ2uq9Q8mfw8pkdLKN31ag2S-0e1Nmi8USU6sJ0Gk1fXjOTSiqL4D1poYlb/s1600/Leviathan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigAz2niRlpDDXOy7LIdyhmDOMTvaHOP9am4DKk8xi4Bl-gOsP5D8XeKIg1BEvSCHM_l-sbOU11hDPWAvZGzvJ2uq9Q8mfw8pkdLKN31ag2S-0e1Nmi8USU6sJ0Gk1fXjOTSiqL4D1poYlb/s400/Leviathan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Film goes physical...big time</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<b><i>The Last Time I Saw Macao</i></b> (Portugal/France) d. João Rui Guerra da Mata, João Pedro Rodrigues <a href="http://youtu.be/BtNLjGbxiJE" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
Friday, April 12, 4:15pm<br />
Sunday, April 14, 2:45pm<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ84qtXxBHCDn6wiSenyBXggwnzRvUiT3nUq7INQHHMm31iCmnXzerlgbj3U7xpGx1yDWQuijmjkm47BfFZuEC2ptPZ7xPHwm2kwpu795OEk3Iv6JENNX5TSdYgEufRiS3eLd-m14bxVt_/s1600/the-last-time-i-saw-macao1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ84qtXxBHCDn6wiSenyBXggwnzRvUiT3nUq7INQHHMm31iCmnXzerlgbj3U7xpGx1yDWQuijmjkm47BfFZuEC2ptPZ7xPHwm2kwpu795OEk3Iv6JENNX5TSdYgEufRiS3eLd-m14bxVt_/s400/the-last-time-i-saw-macao1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Film noir by way of a film essay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<b><i>Old Dog</i></b> (China) d. Pema Tseden <a href="http://youtu.be/L_m2t8yUAwc" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
Saturday, April 13, 12:30pm<br />
Wednesday, April 17, 9:30pm<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-yLdPZ_0tPzvvtU5RYEDQz42JVTpUiZO1CY9N0vB11lUZzczWuY8LvLC2vSEMH9fRI5Dk30OGbrOqF8nX72IXFvs_QwX4LIYpdwGNphNXxfnjVnm8Nga_6L24n-LHyhyphenhyphenNSSag8M6HMgK/s1600/old-dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-yLdPZ_0tPzvvtU5RYEDQz42JVTpUiZO1CY9N0vB11lUZzczWuY8LvLC2vSEMH9fRI5Dk30OGbrOqF8nX72IXFvs_QwX4LIYpdwGNphNXxfnjVnm8Nga_6L24n-LHyhyphenhyphenNSSag8M6HMgK/s400/old-dog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Subtle political protest from Tibet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<b><i>Student</i></b> (Kazakhstan) d. Darezhan Omirbayev <a href="http://youtu.be/mfB2yFeRedA" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
Monday, April 22, 7:00pm<br />
Sunday, April 28, 9:00pm<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4Cxkbkk1VVDxi3dk4VzteReAKVlJ6Tm64moB18KHpbuVWnGVAMVSFnoyVovhxsAmv9R9xWStvDoO7vrgg8iycH5QaOhyphenhyphenGtSJNP7SYRKQrc-45KLte-7s_TOCbmogYHSXx6yrgGIR5-e6/s1600/accr_student2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4Cxkbkk1VVDxi3dk4VzteReAKVlJ6Tm64moB18KHpbuVWnGVAMVSFnoyVovhxsAmv9R9xWStvDoO7vrgg8iycH5QaOhyphenhyphenGtSJNP7SYRKQrc-45KLte-7s_TOCbmogYHSXx6yrgGIR5-e6/s400/accr_student2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bresson meets Dostoyevsky via modern Kazakhstan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<b><i>The Capsule</i></b> (Greece) d. Athina Rachel Tsangari <a href="http://youtu.be/eqzdT65xsuE" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
(screens with <i>F*ck For Forest</i>; don't ask me why, it just does)<br />
Monday, April 22, 9:45pm<br />
Friday, April 26, 10:00pm<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi02Wu8TtaxyTe-T_9UiMs7iehhxazCPUVZ__YBhajSrDOEhyERFWaBs3TfOyFESopZGkx3zKIcfeaWdekTLpAd1BUCzWRQoCuCaNyLL6v0mTCIW5uSmSHDZUwPo9H8sjZb7qgWhuIh2cC7/s1600/The-Capsule_Athina-Rachel-Tsangari_Web-Photo_09_730x10000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi02Wu8TtaxyTe-T_9UiMs7iehhxazCPUVZ__YBhajSrDOEhyERFWaBs3TfOyFESopZGkx3zKIcfeaWdekTLpAd1BUCzWRQoCuCaNyLL6v0mTCIW5uSmSHDZUwPo9H8sjZb7qgWhuIh2cC7/s400/The-Capsule_Athina-Rachel-Tsangari_Web-Photo_09_730x10000.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Surreal world of feminine rights of passage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><br /></i>
<u><b>Worth Making Time For</b></u><br />
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<b><i>Laurence Anyways</i></b> (Canada/France) d. Xavier Dolan <a href="http://youtu.be/rwDzRzqFaIE" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
Saturday, April 13, 8:00pm<br />
Sunday, April 21, 9:00pm<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEul2vCixvGG6S2jrMvpvlEdg0wlb14R8RoMd9R87NG6XSSGpZ7XgqG3sivHQa407JungXNAL4IVINazKHc_ApdRCaZ41H6hrBmH8lix_RdcE22fasBjVoKhH5tZcUNbCsCgsganRO7LR/s1600/laurence-anyways-movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEul2vCixvGG6S2jrMvpvlEdg0wlb14R8RoMd9R87NG6XSSGpZ7XgqG3sivHQa407JungXNAL4IVINazKHc_ApdRCaZ41H6hrBmH8lix_RdcE22fasBjVoKhH5tZcUNbCsCgsganRO7LR/s400/laurence-anyways-movie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love, music and beauty conquers all</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><b>Augustine</b></i> (France) d. Alice Winocour <a href="http://youtu.be/6JWEORpY2xc" target="_blank">Trailer </a><br />
Sunday, April 14, 4:45pm<br />
Friday, April 19, 4:20pm<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMPThnN5QzDXBdwNN9JVqFnsymSnKyLu6dAz6C2ghIp5ZE1_6hyphenhyphen2SRyxzhrSdoK3fJICfBeJOKwDI9tZVqN2taAir8dE-Rjkuv3l90_ECwWygwXlsodBXbiOMJjanCvb5zCpUKORX0fc2N/s1600/augustine_01-560x282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMPThnN5QzDXBdwNN9JVqFnsymSnKyLu6dAz6C2ghIp5ZE1_6hyphenhyphen2SRyxzhrSdoK3fJICfBeJOKwDI9tZVqN2taAir8dE-Rjkuv3l90_ECwWygwXlsodBXbiOMJjanCvb5zCpUKORX0fc2N/s400/augustine_01-560x282.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Better than <i>A Dangerous Method</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><i>Cutie and the Boxer</i></b> (USA) d. Zachary Heinzerling <a href="http://youtu.be/m_7gm_l6zwU" target="_blank">Sundance "Meet the Artists" Video</a><br />
Friday, April 12, 9:45pm<br />
Monday, April 15, 7:00pm<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiintj3ztvDtxkltgJFzHH3UKYMgs6nXB2pyeDzyCkMlJkBP7Uri9lnV05mTc4gPlkSjDW_mev8racj1HHLMyoNsk1TwYhBxqBtKtpD1Kz45Kd4zfBid5Uq0xaqG0TnhZR8XNsNoBYa24xo/s1600/CutieandtheBoxer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiintj3ztvDtxkltgJFzHH3UKYMgs6nXB2pyeDzyCkMlJkBP7Uri9lnV05mTc4gPlkSjDW_mev8racj1HHLMyoNsk1TwYhBxqBtKtpD1Kz45Kd4zfBid5Uq0xaqG0TnhZR8XNsNoBYa24xo/s400/CutieandtheBoxer.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With charisma to burn</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><i>Hannah Arendt</i> </b>(Germany/Luxembourg/France) d. Margarethe von Trotta <a href="http://youtu.be/sOCZxcCbEp4" target="_blank">Trailer</a><br />
Sunday, April 14, 3:15pm<br />
Sunday, April 21, 4:40pm<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-dq7OUrtdxEdaIpUfjWhkrW8bnXb8zicDN3dQI9YXdfOtkJSNGUPu-avxnJlWBclg4fQmE_q-w8aChJxBW1AG2KC_eNqYuq9NLiuQRX3nsDLHfr1DqGM7Qwi01_RGSE1ocSL6TZx7xDM/s1600/hannah_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-dq7OUrtdxEdaIpUfjWhkrW8bnXb8zicDN3dQI9YXdfOtkJSNGUPu-avxnJlWBclg4fQmE_q-w8aChJxBW1AG2KC_eNqYuq9NLiuQRX3nsDLHfr1DqGM7Qwi01_RGSE1ocSL6TZx7xDM/s400/hannah_02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">History dramatically directed (with Barbara Sukowa!)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And finally, if you made it through all of that hoo-ha, a few films that I am looking forward to seeing (but too lazy to add photos or trailers or times):<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i>In the Fog</i></b> (Russia/Germany/Latvia/Netherlands/Belarus) d. Sergei Loznitsa - First of all, look at those country credits. Second of all, from the director of <i>My Joy</i>.</li>
<li><b><i>Your Ain't Seen Nothin Yet </i></b>(France) d. Alain Resnais - It's the second coming of this master filmmaker. Go rent his last two films now!</li>
<li><b><i>Museum Hours</i> </b>(Austria/USA) d. Jem Cohen - I'll admit, I'm a little bitter about museums these days, but maybe Jem Cohen can snap me out of it via Vienna. </li>
<li><b><i>Ceasar Must Die</i></b> (Italy) d. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani - <i>Julius Caesar </i>in a prison.</li>
<li><b><i>Persistence of Vision</i></b> (USA) d. Kevin Sheck - Missed this at VIFF; I like animation and I like obsessions.</li>
</ul>
If you wanna toss some salad about my recommendations, catch me at the festival - I'll be there. In the meantime, I've got some short but sweet reviews in the Star Tribune and the City Pages of some of these films and more.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-34306550035191273852013-03-17T16:26:00.000-05:002013-03-17T16:26:22.530-05:00Linkdom Hearts: Dream Eaters and NobodiesWe'll see what that title does to my stats and comments. Other than eating bon bons, shoveling snow and getting laid off, here's some other stuff I've done:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgixzS1KJRzzR48eDYVQBuKT1KGdfNe8hZOBSOtOpTFe3Jk5JwIugobLwsTEGxiQjBnYs8g-TVw_3M04mON5W3uZ7ORMF4v8nIx91L8718yzjd78EdeI0XNQ6aOjmyFOYm_hCOV8Hcv0hbk/s1600/mama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgixzS1KJRzzR48eDYVQBuKT1KGdfNe8hZOBSOtOpTFe3Jk5JwIugobLwsTEGxiQjBnYs8g-TVw_3M04mON5W3uZ7ORMF4v8nIx91L8718yzjd78EdeI0XNQ6aOjmyFOYm_hCOV8Hcv0hbk/s400/mama.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/1/22_Mama_%282013%29.html" target="_blank"><i>Mama</i></a> on In Review Online</span></b><br />
The other Jessica Chastain film that was kicking around earlier this year about two creepy little kids. <span style="font-size: small;">If you missed it, you didn't miss much. Out on DVD and on various streaming sites in May.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEESd-lFEC_FdZOIyOCVK-YNP2W3ONfEN9ZSnFBJZcMP83Zi40wuVfaKCOPWF3H_XAZEvEbYbVxGqpiQVwc_VjPb4p_-xecy8Jj9ZI_m9YV46i53dxmUOQ83O9Y0zN0gou5azdk8_SL8UH/s1600/Parker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEESd-lFEC_FdZOIyOCVK-YNP2W3ONfEN9ZSnFBJZcMP83Zi40wuVfaKCOPWF3H_XAZEvEbYbVxGqpiQVwc_VjPb4p_-xecy8Jj9ZI_m9YV46i53dxmUOQ83O9Y0zN0gou5azdk8_SL8UH/s400/Parker.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><i><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/1/29_Parker_%282013%29.html" target="_blank">Parker</a></i> on In Review Online</b><br />
I like Jason Statham. I want him to make better choices. When will he get that great role in that great film? This is not it. J-Lo costars. Watch <i>Crank </i>or <i>The Transporter</i> instead.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_PsPMP8y_PgiK_HrpmhfAwtZbjLwZXT_jFwlwJUpWOBfLp2akLFmgzbo_LnVy-5HHuofPdevUDvWKaJxbsAgq3CYAVLJrBB9JzTzrF8AKFv41ErqvdKatCqe12OOboQFNaXzbh_heGnt/s1600/11flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_PsPMP8y_PgiK_HrpmhfAwtZbjLwZXT_jFwlwJUpWOBfLp2akLFmgzbo_LnVy-5HHuofPdevUDvWKaJxbsAgq3CYAVLJrBB9JzTzrF8AKFv41ErqvdKatCqe12OOboQFNaXzbh_heGnt/s400/11flowers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2013/2/21_11_Flowers_%282011%29.html" target="_blank"><i>11 Flowers</i></a> on In Review Online</b><br />
I had low expectations for this film and I was pleasantly surprised. I have been disappointed in Wang Xiaoshuai's films since <i>Frozen </i>(1997) and <i>So Close to Paradise </i>(1998) set the standards pretty high. Set in the waning days of the Cultural Revolution, <i>11 Flowers</i> is coming-of-age story that draws heavily on Wang's own life. This film went into limited release last month and should see a home release in June.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/chris-sullivan-consuming-spirits-interview" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Handmade Spirits: Chris Sullivan’s Ethereal Animated Worlds</span></a></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here's a piece that I did <span style="font-size: small;">for the Walker Art <span style="font-size: small;">Center</span> on Chris Sullivan and his amazing animated feature <i>Consuming Spirits</i>. </span>I had a great time talking with Chris before his visi<span style="font-size: small;">t to the Walker and then subsequently had a great time hanging out with him. Ch<span style="font-size: small;">ris is definitely the guy you want to have around for p<span style="font-size: small;">iano bar <span style="font-size: small;">karaoke. You can also read my transcription of our rambling discussion here<span style="font-size: small;">: <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2013/02/06/interview-chris-sullivan-on-michael-jordan-jean-piaget-and-the-sopranos/" target="_blank">Chris Sullivan on Michael Jordan, Jean Piaget and </a><i><a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2013/02/06/interview-chris-sullivan-on-michael-jordan-jean-piaget-and-the-sopranos/" target="_blank">The Sapranos</a>.</i></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">We also had Bill Morrison and Luther Price in the Walker house earlier this year and I posted th<span style="font-size: small;">ese<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">rando<span style="font-size: small;">m <span style="font-size: small;">questionnaires with the two of them <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2013/01/23/8-ball-bill-morrison/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2013/01/31/8-ball-luther-price/" target="_blank">here</a>. Two more people I feel lucky to have met and hung out with. </span></span></span></span></span></span><i> </i></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also traveled to Columbia MO to the True/False Film Festival<span style="font-size: small;">, but that turned into a little bit of a disaster as the hammer of the Walker lay offs came down in my first day there. <span style="font-size: small;">So much for that. Maybe I will try again next year.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The <a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/MMXIII/" target="_blank">Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival</a> (which, to set the record straight, is not in St<span style="font-size: small;"> Paul at all) </span>is less than a month away and I'm gearing up to do some rip-roaring capsules <span style="font-size: small;">for the Sta<span style="font-size: small;">r Tr<span style="font-size: small;">ibune as well as the City Pages, if they will have me.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">And finally, <span style="font-size: small;">I am not too proud to broadcast that I'm looking for a job. My dog is trying to make the case for a stay<span style="font-size: small;">-at-home mom, but that just ain't possible. </span>I'm good at lots of t<span style="font-size: small;">hings<span style="font-size: small;">, but I really like films<span style="font-size: small;">! Keep me in mind!</span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></h1>
Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-82066341732308119982013-01-01T15:19:00.000-06:002013-01-01T13:24:21.688-06:00My 2012 in Film<br />
I watched 330 films this year, and this is what I have to show for it. God love the the Trylon, the Walker and the Heights for keeping this town interesting film-wise. <br />
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My top 25 films of 2012, within the machine of US distribution, ranked, with a few notes there at the end:<br />
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<li><i>This is Not a Film</i> / Jafar Panahi </li>
<li><i>Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</i> / Nuri Bilge Ceylan </li>
<li><i>Tabu</i> / Miguel Gomes </li>
<li><i>Cosmopolis</i> / David Cronenberg </li>
<li><i>Neighboring Sounds</i> / Kleber Mendonça Filho </li>
<li><i>Attenberg</i> / Athina Rachel Tsangari </li>
<li><i>Consuming Spirits</i> / Chris Sullivan </li>
<li><i>Deep Blue Sea</i> / Terence Davies </li>
<li><i>Let the Bullets Fly</i> / Jiang Wen </li>
<li><i>Elena</i> / Andrey Zvyagintsev </li>
<li><i>The Day He Arrives</i> / Hong Sang-soo </li>
<li><i>Wuthering Heights</i> / Andrea Arnold </li>
<li><i>The Turin Horse</i> / Bela Tarr </li>
<li><i>The Color Wheel</i> / Alex Ross Perry </li>
<li><i>Girl Walk // All Day</i> / Jacob Krupnick </li>
<li><i>Damsels in Distress</i> / Whit Stillman</li>
<li><i>4:44 Last Days on Earth</i> / Abel Ferrara </li>
<li><i>The Raid</i> / Gareth Evans </li>
<li><i>I Wish</i> / Hirokazu Koreeda </li>
<li><i>Post Mortum</i> / Pablo Larrain </li>
<li><i>Whore’s Glory</i> / Michael Glowogger </li>
<li><i>Killer Joe</i> / William Friedkin </li>
<li><i>A Simple Life</i> / Ann Hui </li>
<li><i>Two Years at Sea</i> / Ben Rivers </li>
<li><i>Miss Bala</i> / Gerardo Naranjo </li>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Why 25? Because I hated the idea of not giving those last 5 a mention. I have yet to see <i>Zero Dark Thirty</i>, so take that for what you will; otherwise, I also feel it necessary to state that I didn't fall head over heels with the cinephilia for cinephilia's sake in <i>Holy Motors</i> - as a matter of fact, I found most of it tedious - and nor was I moved by another man-child's kitschy love for himself - I'm talking about Wes, not young Sam - in <i>Moonrise Kingdom</i>. Sorry about that.) </span><br />
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Best viewing 2012, regardless of distribution and release date, alphabetically:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IQV7-U3BMGXrfBfBdryAxnPbzWRkwFdwj8EIewiVmfp_tuA11cQXQGp979p1ehDzs2YdmrHt1N78mkLKijVHcxi2Ij4bYEI4pmpxtbe56zhNUYpVGjwiqQ_9xvUVQgTlETGOXBikE-xd/s1600/GangsAH_banana_702.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IQV7-U3BMGXrfBfBdryAxnPbzWRkwFdwj8EIewiVmfp_tuA11cQXQGp979p1ehDzs2YdmrHt1N78mkLKijVHcxi2Ij4bYEI4pmpxtbe56zhNUYpVGjwiqQ_9xvUVQgTlETGOXBikE-xd/s400/GangsAH_banana_702.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Beautiful 2012</i> (2012) / Gu Changwei, Ann Hui, Kim Tae-yong, Tsai Ming-liang<br />
<i>Emperor Visits the Hell</i> (2012) / Li Luo<br />
<i>Faust</i> (2011) / Alexander Sokurov<br />
<i>The Gang's All Here</i> (1943) / Busby Berkeley <br />
<i>Grey Matter</i> (2012) / Kivu Ruhorahoza <br />
<i>Guilty of Romance</i> (2011) / Sion Sono <br />
<i>In April the Following Year, There Was a Fire</i> (2012) / Wichanon Somunjarn<br />
<i>The Land of Hope</i> (2012) / Sion Sono<br />
<i>Laurence Anyways</i> (2012) / Xavier Dolan<br />
<i>Leviathan</i> (2012) / Lucien Casting-Taylor, Verena Paravel<br />
<i>Margaret</i> (2011) / Kenneth Lonergan<br />
<i>Mekong Hotel</i> (2012) / Apichatpong Weerasethakul<br />
<i>Memories Look at Me</i> (2012) / Song Fang<br />
<i>Napoleon</i> (1929) / Abel Gance<br />
<i>No</i> (2012) / Pablo Larrain<br />
<i>small roads</i> (2012) / James Benning<br />
<i>Target</i> (2011) / Alexander Zeldovich<br />
<i>Three Sisters</i> (2012) / Wang Bing<br />
<i>The Last Time I Saw Macao</i> (2012) / João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata <br />
<i>When Night Falls</i> (2012) / Ying Liang<br />
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And finally, my two most anticipated films for 2013 are Wong Kar-wai's <a href="http://youtu.be/XlZ-Q0yV5Ko" target="_blank"><i>The Grandmasters</i></a> and Matt Porterfield's <a href="http://vimeo.com/38695698" target="_blank"><i>I Used to Be Darker</i></a>.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-65253175680337329362012-12-23T11:00:00.000-06:002012-12-23T11:00:02.821-06:00Links of Limited PosterityBut here they are nonetheless:<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2012/a-cinematic-world-without-end" target="_blank">Eve Sussman's Cinematic World Without End</a></b><br />
I wrote about Eve Sussman's amazing installation piece, <em>whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir</em>, which was on view at the Walker Art Center this past summer. Despite the amount of time spent watching this piece, the above is a still I never saw once.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXgZ3HcSrsjkwx4mQ5Aq7EiMfxV5yoDFY1S7Red8I0YtdnNJ65WM7oG3glzYEL9zkhVGIJFSYLKxh6zPqCwpBATcA6iAWKsNVm2kX3KouXdPQu4kibTKChoOvy_Hg2ScTrVYmwmUAxbgz/s1600/52987d3ec8958bbc91c7958c03bf4636.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXgZ3HcSrsjkwx4mQ5Aq7EiMfxV5yoDFY1S7Red8I0YtdnNJ65WM7oG3glzYEL9zkhVGIJFSYLKxh6zPqCwpBATcA6iAWKsNVm2kX3KouXdPQu4kibTKChoOvy_Hg2ScTrVYmwmUAxbgz/s320/52987d3ec8958bbc91c7958c03bf4636.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b><a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2012/apichatpong" target="_blank">Surreally Yours: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cinematic Journey</a></b><br />
The Walker commissioned a piece from Apichatpong for the Walker Channel, entitled <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/channel/2012/cactus-river-khong-lang-nam" target="_blank"><i>Cactus River</i></a>, and we were also presenting the area premiere of <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2012/mekong-hotel" target="_blank"><i>Mekong Hotel</i></a>. All good excuses to write about one of my favorite filmmakers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUTBRTJwHPpFtfheQX5NrmoojNZi77gerPfQ-wl9KsRZZLGFDJ5r3ilvP9RJOM56XU4UrBAuJeVThyphenhyphenadywLlr22q8GT8ZqrAa0C0YRpMhVlnPJv6lWWSHaktA2ZEa_pHN4NI0FlK3J8qi8/s1600/Rise-of-the-Guardians_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUTBRTJwHPpFtfheQX5NrmoojNZi77gerPfQ-wl9KsRZZLGFDJ5r3ilvP9RJOM56XU4UrBAuJeVThyphenhyphenadywLlr22q8GT8ZqrAa0C0YRpMhVlnPJv6lWWSHaktA2ZEa_pHN4NI0FlK3J8qi8/s320/Rise-of-the-Guardians_16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2012/11/28_Rise_of_the_Guardians_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Rise of the Guardians</i> review</b></a><br />
Why? Why not. I've been in abstentia from <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/home.html" target="_blank">In Review Online</a>, and, although this was a strange way to jump back in, it felt good.<br />
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<a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2012/12/18_Consuming_Spirits_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><b><i>Consuming Spirits</i> review</b></a><b> </b><br />
Chris Sullivan's animated film is some kind of crazy masterpiece. Don't miss it.<br />
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Last and probably least, I have an account on Letterboxd. <a href="http://letterboxd.com/kathie/" target="_blank">http://letterboxd.com/kathie/ </a><br />
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Happy Holidays! Be back soon with multiple end of the year lists and reviews.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-68921355846092785992012-11-16T11:19:00.000-06:002012-11-16T11:19:00.264-06:00Studio Ghibli at the Lagoon Theater Nov 16-29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are few films nearer and dearer to my heart than the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli—animated masterpieces bursting with creativity, beauty, action, drama and unadulterated joy. Starting today and running for two weeks, the magic of Studio Ghibli takes over one screen at the <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=GHIBMIN" target="_blank">Lagoon Theater in Minneapolis</a> with new 35mm prints of 14 titles.<br />
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Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 after the success of Miyazaki’s debut feature <i>Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind </i>(a film later adopted into the Ghibili family.) Miyazaki joined forces with fellow animator Isao Takahata and film producer and influential editor of <i>Animage</i> magazine Toshio Suzuki. Although Miyazaki and his beloved Totoro have long been the face of Studio Ghibli with such features as <i>Spirited Away</i> and <i>Princess Mononoke</i>, Takahata has directed his fair share of gentle dramas under the Ghibli name—most notably <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i> (sadly absent from the Lagoon retrospective), <i>Only Yesterday</i>, <i>Pom Poko</i>, and the stylized family satire <i>My Neighbors the Yamadas</i>. The series offers a sampling of Miyazaki and Takahata's work, as well as a few other animators who took on directing at Ghibli.<br />
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Although I have seen all of these films, some multiple times, I’ve only seen a few on the big screen and I relish the thought of seeing them all over the next two weeks. Below is a detailed schedule of the screenings with information on whether the screenings will be dubbed or subtitled in English. You'll have at least three chances to see each film, and no excuses!<br />
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Not to be missed: <i>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind</i>, <i>Spirited Away</i>, <i>My Neighbors the Yamadas</i>, <i>My Neighbor Totoro</i>, and <i>Princess Mononoke</i>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind</b></i> (1984) <span style="font-size: small;">d<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span>irected by Hayao Miyazaki</span> </span></span><br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles </b><br />
<b>Fri, Nov 16, 2:00, 4:30, 7:00 and 9:30pm</b><br />
<b>Sun, Nov 18, 5:00pm</b><br />
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If I had to choose one film in this series to see, it would be <i>Nausicaa</i>: one of my favorite Miyazaki films that begs to be seen on larger-than-life format. The story itself is a vivid and harrowing portrayal of the ecological concerns that would be echoed 13 years later in <i>Princess Mononoke.</i> In a post-apocalyptic setting, the young princess Nausicaa puts everything on the line to keep the natural balance between the Toxic Jungle and her own Valley of the Wind. Tragically edited and dubbed when it was originally released in the US in the 80s, <i>Nausicaa </i>has since made a comeback in its original form and is largely seen as one of Miyazaki's greatest films. Do not miss this opportunity to see this gorgeous and heartfelt film in all its splendor—the perfect film to kick off the series! <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Spirited Away</b></i> (2001) d</span>irected by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
<b>Sat, Nov 17, Noon, 2:30 and 7:30pm</b><br />
<b>Sun, Nov 18, 2:30 and 7:30pm </b><br />
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<i>Spirited Away</i> was the film to bring Miyazaki's artistry to a much wider audience<span style="font-size: small;"> worl<span style="font-size: small;">d</span>wide</span>. As with many of his other films, Miyazaki bucks the subconscious assumptions in regards to the notion of 'hero' and casts Chihiro, a young waifish girl, in the position to save her parents and restore harmony in the spirit world. When she and her parents take a wrong turn, they are suddenly trapped in a realm of ghosts (which is all of the sudden reminding me of Murakami's Cat Town.) The potpourri of fantastical characters are some of Miyazaki's best, including a giant and temperamental baby named Boh, who helps Chihiro in her uphill battle to make it home. <br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>Howl's Moving Castle</b></i> (2004) d</span>irected by Hayao Miyazak<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in English</b> <br />
<b>Sat, Nov 17, 5:00 and 10:00pm</b><br />
<b>Sun, Nov 18, Noon and 10:00pm</b><br />
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Based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, <i>Howl's Moving Castle </i>was rescued by Miyazaki when director Mamoru Hosoda pulled out as director. The fact that it is not Miyazaki's own source material nor his own project may point to some of the reasons that <i>Howl's </i>is not one of his best. The images are nonetheless beautifully and imaginatively drawn, and this is especially the case for the lumbering, breathing castle of the title. As Miyazaki's unintended follow-up to <i>Spirited Away</i>, it received a full-fledged US release including the well rounded English language dub used for this screening.<br />
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<b><i>Pom Poko</i></b> (1994) directed by Isao Takahata<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
<b>Mon, Nov 19, 2:00 and 7:00pm</b><br />
<b>Tue, Nov 20, 2:00 and 7:00pm</b><br />
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Takahata's adorable yet sobering story is a cautionary anthropomorphic tale that taps into the folklore of the tanuki, or raccoon dog, a mischievous and absentminded critter with the ability to shapeshift. (One of the legendary traits of the tanuki include large testicles that
symbolize financial luck—no, I'm not joking—and Takahata has worked
this into his character designs of the cuddly little devils.) These modern era takunis in <i>Pom Poko </i>are facing a cultural crisis as they slowly start to lose their will to transform and as humans encroach upon their native land. The tanukis decide its time to fight back, but it might be too late. <br />
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<i><b>My Neighbors the Yamadas</b></i> (1999) directed by Isao Takahata<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
<b>Mon, Nov 19, 4:30 and 9:30pm</b><br />
<b>Tues, Nov 20, 4:30 and 9:30pm</b><br />
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More than anything, I love the simplistic and expressive character designs found in <i>My Neighbors the Yamadas</i>. <i>The Yamadas</i> is less of a feature length film with a full narrative arch than a string of vignettes focusing on the daily lives of this six member family: mother, father, grandmother, 13 year-old son, 5 year-old daughter and family dog Pochi. Despite being a satire on family life, Takahata's portrait is both acutely aware and poignantly honest. Like most films in this series, this incredibly charming and infectious film<i></i> has something to offer everyone regardless of age. <br />
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<i><b>Ponyo</b></i> (2008) directed by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in English</b> <br />
Wed, Nov 21, 2:00 and 7:00pm<br />
Thurs, Nov 22, 2:00 and 7:00pm<br />
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Miyazaki's most recent film is also purportedly his last (although we've heard that before.) Made for and based on his grandson, <i>Ponyo</i> strays away from the epic gravitas of a film like <i>Princess Mononoke</i> but it is nonetheless a visual, if not slightly saccharine-coated, treat. Taking a cue from the everlasting mermaid myth, the story follows Ponyo, an earnest and joyful goldfish who, after drinking the blood of a human boy, falls in love and wants to become a two legged creature herself. The plot spirals into multiple side and sub plots, but culminated in the most amazing rip-roaring sea storm you are likely to see, animated or otherwise. The English dub is fine, but unfortunately a little overacted by the young star voice actors. But don't let that stop you: <i>Ponyo</i> is a feast for the eyeballs. <br />
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<i><b>Castle in the Sky</b></i> (1986) directed by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
Wed, Nov 21, 4:15 and 9:15pm<br />
Thurs, Nov 22, 4:15 and 9:15pm<br />
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Miyazaki's first official film under the Ghibli umbrella is a worthy follow-up to <i>Nausicaa. </i>A full-on fantasy adventure, <i>Castle in the Sky</i> tells the story of Sheeta and Pazu who join forces in search for a long lost city in the sky called Laputa. Drawing inspiration from the story of <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> and the landscape of a Welsh mining town Miyazaki had visited, the film explores the power of myth with lush visuals and rich storytelling. <i>Castle in the Sky</i> was Miyazaki's first collaboration with composer Joe Hisaishi, who has scored every Ghibili film since. <br />
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<i><b>Porco Rosso</b></i> (1992) directed by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b><br />
Fri, Nov 23: at 4:30 and 9:15pm<br />
Sun, Nov 25, 4:30pm<br />
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Miyazaki’s sixth feature has a little bit of everything—history, action, adventure, humor, charm, nostalgia, romance, imagination—but lacks the unbridled fantasy that he is best known for in films like <i>Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind</i> and <i>Spirited Away</i>. Firmly grounded in a specific time and place, the story unapologetically indulges simultaneously in adult sentimentality right alongside youthful thrills. <i>Porco</i> may be uncharacteristically conservative, but it has visual vitality that has become Miyazaki’s trademark. Set between the two World Wars, Porco Rosso is a flying ace who makes his home with his seaplane on a picturesque island off the coast of Croatia. Once a fighter named Marco with the Italian army, he has since quit the army and lives as a pig under the famed moniker Porco Rosso—the Red Pig, an obvious reference to the Red Baron.
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<i><b>My Neighbor Totoro</b></i> (1988) directed by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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Fri, Nov 23, Noon and 2:30pm <b style="color: red;">In English</b><br />
Fri, Nov 23, 7:00pm <b style="color: red;">In Japanese with English subtitles</b><br />
Sat, Nov 24, 2:30pm <b style="color: red;">In English</b><br />
Sat, Nov 24, 7:00pm <b style="color: red;">In Japanese with English subtitles</b><br />
Sun, Nov 25, 2:30pm <b style="color: red;">In English</b><br />
Sun, Nov 25, 9:15pm <b style="color: red;">In Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
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There is a lot of love for <i>Totoro</i> in the world, but I'm still convinced that no one loves <i>Totoro</i> more than me. This incredibly endearing film is a pleasure that I don't feel the least bit guilty about. And regardless of multiple viewings, it never fails to move me with its effortless honesty and exuberance for life. A father and his two daughters move to a house closer to where their mother is recovering in a hospital. In the forest near their new home, the two young girls discover a tree where a small, medium and large totoro live. The elusive and playful creatures emerge to help the girls with their anxieties about their ill mother, busy father and an uncertain future. <i>Totoro</i> is a film for all ages, and the Lagoon offers both the English dub version as well as the subtitled version. <br />
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<b><i>Kiki's Delivery Service</i></b> (1989) directed by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
Sat, Nov 24, Noon and 7:00pm<br />
Sun, Nov 25, Noon and 7:00pm<br />
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Years before Harry Potter re-imagined the wizardry of flying on a broomstick, there was Kiki. A witch in training, Kiki sets off alone for a required one year apprenticeship with the aid of her flying broom and her quick-witted black cat. Using her flying skills, Kiki develops a delivery service to earn a living and a little respect from her new neighbors. A heartwarming coming of age story, <i>Kiki's Delivery Service</i> was a huge success in Japan, further adding to Ghibili and Miyazaki dynasty. <br />
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<i><b>The Cat Returns</b></i> (2002) directed by Hiroyuki Morita<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in English</b> <br />
Mon, Nov 26, 2:30 and 7:00pm<br />
Tues, Nov 27, 2:30 and 7:00pm<br />
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<i>The Cat Returns,</i> directed by animating veteran Hiroyuki Morita, is adapted from Aoi Hiiragi's manga about a schoolgirl's adventures in the drama of a hidden cat world. Haru is a girl
who one day saves the life of a cat while on her way to school. The cat is Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom, who takes Haru to the Kingdom of Cats to thank her. And so I find myself back in something like Murakami's Cat Town, where Haru is trapped, unable to return to the human world. This is another film in the series that retains its English dub from theatrical release that includes<span id="movieSynopsisRemaining"> Anne Hathaway, Andy Richter,
Tim Curry, Peter Boyle, and Elliott Gould.</span> <br />
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<i><b>Whisper of the Heart</b></i> (1995) directed by Yoshifumi Kondō<br />
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<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
Mon, Nov 26, 4:30 and 9:00pm<br />
Tues, Nov 27, 4:30 and 9:00pm<br />
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Written by animation master Hayao Miyazaki and directed by his protégé
Yoshifumi Kondo, this film is a simple story about falling in love and learning to believe in yourself. If that sounds a little too cliched, think again—this is exactly the kind of narrative that Ghibli turns into gold with the kind of sincerity that makes you blush. Suzuku is a shy and self-conscious girl who harbors big dreams. Invisible her family when she probably needs them the most, Suzuku finds a kindred spirit in <span id="movieSynopsisRemaining">the boisterous dreamer Seiji.</span> <br />
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<i><b>Princess Mononoke</b></i> (1997) directed by Hayao Miyazaki<br />
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<br />
<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
Wed, Nov 28, 1:45 and 7:00pm<br />
Thurs, Nov 29, 1:45 and 7:00pm<br />
<br />
Certainly one of Miyazaki's best films and also one of his darkest. <i>Princess Mononoke </i>is a heartbreaking parable about the damage that humans have done to the natural world, spun into an incredible period adventure of mythic grandeur<i>. </i>Rife with violence and conflict, <i>Princess Mononoke </i>was to be Miyazaki's final statement as an animator. That, of course, didn't happen, as Miyazaki would break out of retirement for three subsequent films, but <i>Mononoke </i>is nevertheless a bold punctuation point. Ashitaka, cursed by a demon, sets off to find a cure and to "see with eyes unclouded." What he finds is a land in turmoil that has pitted humans against nature, and, as a result, nature against humans. <br />
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<i><b>Only Yesterday</b></i> (1991) directed by Isao Takahata<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6unbQCvuVYGq-qpFiT5fFJHhYoOWbxVUlx-2FRUyMkkelThp8n0Qbr5qgbH9er6v_qP7lQmnHp8B_eXDIS4optgbM6q-oTNUfMHws7e-ipWrcteILQUfRqglB5_ZeRh-1VD3cKitdW-X4/s1600/Only.Yesterday.full.258727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6unbQCvuVYGq-qpFiT5fFJHhYoOWbxVUlx-2FRUyMkkelThp8n0Qbr5qgbH9er6v_qP7lQmnHp8B_eXDIS4optgbM6q-oTNUfMHws7e-ipWrcteILQUfRqglB5_ZeRh-1VD3cKitdW-X4/s200/Only.Yesterday.full.258727.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<b style="color: red;">All screenings in Japanese with English subtitles</b> <br />
Wed, Nov 28, 4:30 and 9:45pm<br />
Thurs, Nov 29, 4:30 and 9:45pm<br />
<br />
Takahata's follow-up feature to his devastating <i>Graveyard of Fireflies</i> is dramatic wonder that falls well outside of what most considered "anime" in 1991. Moving back and forth from the present in 1982 to Taeko's girlhood in 1966, this poetic animated film (loosely translated as <i>Memories of Falling Teardrops</i> in
Japanese) captures the grave and magical essence of childhood defined by
schoolgirl crushes, a changing body, the stern judgments of others and the occasional simple pleasures of life. Takahata's film is also a glimpse at the difficult road for
girls and women who do not conform to the well-behaved, studious model
of proper femininity. Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-90308163017622400292012-10-16T10:30:00.000-05:002012-10-16T10:30:00.683-05:00VIFF 2012: Song Fang's MEMORIES LOOK AT METhere is an introspective pall hanging over <i>Memories Look at Me</i> that goes naturally with the thematic territory of visiting home as an adult. But Song Fang’s debut feature tackles the mixture of nostalgia, sadness, and regret with a very easy to swallow tenderness, worlds away from exaggerated bromides of middle-aged self pity. Using the comfort of her own family—mother, father, and older brother—Song scripts a documentary out of a visit to her parents' home in Nanjing. Her outward concern for their physical health is matched by their oblique inquiry to her unmarried status. Painted with the cool tones of ambient light, the film is a slow train of casual conversation and delicate confessions that all carry a substantial emotional vibration.<br />
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<br />
Song Fang, who both stars and directs, will look familiar from her role in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 2008 Parisian rondeau <i>Flight of the Red Balloon</i> where she stars opposite Juliette Binoche as a filmmaker working as a nanny. Born in China, she studied film first in Brussels and then in Beijing. There might be something prophetic about being cast by Hou, but there is also something very prescient in catching the eye of Mainland master Jia Zhangke, who produced <i>Memories</i> under the wing of his production company Xstream. Song, already a young director that seems to be working in an inner circle, has created a film that rubs elbows with the fiercely independent work of Chinese director Liu Jiayin and the grand <i>mono no aware</i> elegance of Yasujiro Ozu. This caliber of names is simply a testament to how special a film this is.<br />
<br />
This unaffected film slides comfortably into a modern depiction of filial piety in a society where Confucius is little more than an apparition. Although she inspects her parent’s lives as a visitor, Song also cleans her father’s ears and plucks her mother’s eyebrows as if she has always been their caretaker. There is a unique generosity with the time that everyone takes in listing to one another—a quality mirrored in the patience of the camera. The finality of life and the struggle to make the most of the time left gently leaves an impression on every scene. When Song suddenly starts crying, her mother asks, “What’s on your mind?” She replies that she’s not sure, even though it is perfectly clear she is thinking bout her parents’ eventual death. To the film's credit, the implication is there without diving headlong into melodrama.<br />
<br />
<i>Memories Look at Me</i> is an unpretentious film, shot almost entirely inside one apartment with static middle range shots, and sparsely lit beyond ambient lighting. Despite its modest attributes it is already pulling down awards, earning Best First Feature Award at the Locarno International Film Festival earlier this year. In Vancouver, it was nominated for the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema, but came up short to the experimental narrative of <i>Emperor Visits the Hell</i>. It is also receiving praise at the New York Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival where it recently screened. One can only hope that this healthy festival attention will bring it further recognition and possible distribution, especially in the States. Without a new feature from Jia or Liu, Song Fang’s moving film fills a low-key void in what we are seeing from the Mainland this year.
Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-83736898534497817612012-10-14T14:00:00.000-05:002012-10-14T14:00:01.009-05:00VIFF 2012: Jang Kun-jae's SLEEPLESS NIGHT<style>
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After the wave of New Korean Cinema hit the world like a
slap from the back of a hand in the late 90s and early 00s, certain expectations
were set from the most prominent films to rise from that era. South Korean
film, even in its most subtle form, became the cinema with big shoulders,
represented in the slick action, emblematic vengeance, soju swagger,
unapologetic brutality, and brash humor. For this reason, an assured yet
unadorned drama like Jang Kun-jae’s <i>Sleepless
Night</i> is actually more surprising than the latest go-for-broke revenge
flick to come down the pike. </div>
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The film opens in a small town at night, where the sound of
the crickets is louder than the teenagers horsing around on the sidewalk. We
finally settle on our protagonists, a couple sitting in front of the TV, each
enjoying a glass of beer, chatting about their day. They sit close in a tiny
love seat barely meant for two; he has his shirt off, she has her pants off. He
mentions that he has agreed to work on Sunday as a requested favor to his
supervisor; she’s concerned, only because it seems he’s being taken advantage
of; he considers it, and realizes that she is probably right.</div>
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The couple, married for two years, has an ease with each
other that is instantly endearing. He works in a factory, she’s a yoga
instructor, and their companionship, which dominates the short but sweet
65-minute anti-drama, exudes authenticity. The snapshot of their relationship,
as they face the pressures of parenthood and the realities of their income, is
unapologetically sprinkled with their mutual adoration and consideration for
each other. As clichéd as that sounds in writing, it feels wholly
unconventional on the screen. </div>
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<i>Sleepless Night</i>
is Jung’s first film since winning the Dragons and Tigers Award in Vancouver three
years ago for his debut <i>Eighteen</i>, a
film that also gives careful consideration to the veracity of its characters. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sleepless Night </i>is similarly slight by design, where excessiveness is simply not
in its vocabulary. The drama, modest as it is, occasionally segues into fantasy
without warning—a skip of the needle into a parallel universe where the
couple’s simple and happy lives are disrupted by the melodrama that the film so
effortlessly eschews. By introducing scenes where they argue and bicker, Jang
is not only pointing out the avoided potential within their marriage, but also
the avoided potential within his own film. </div>
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Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-92209107870706153502012-10-13T11:00:00.000-05:002012-10-13T11:00:02.922-05:00VIFF 2012: GRANDMA LO-FI: THE BASEMENT TAPES OF SIGRÍÒUR NÍELSDÓTTIRSociety has a way of demanding that we find our career path early and stick to it, not only as a definition of character but also a bogus demarcation of success. Sigríður Níelsdóttir, a woman who started making music at the age of 70 to become something of a phenomenon, tosses that conventional idea right out the window. Armed with a mighty Casio keyboard, a dual cassette deck recording and dubbing system, and the same noisemakers everyone else has in their house, this plucky septuagenarian set up her studio in her kitchen and started her musical career with nothing else in mind other than the infectious joy of creating.<br />
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<br />
And as if reading our minds, the lyrics in the song that opens <i>Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigríður Níelsdóttir</i> announces, “That’s right. It’s never too late to start doing what you want.” A resident of Iceland, by way of Germany and Denmark, Níelsdóttir created 59 CDs and over 600 songs between the ages of 70 and 77 with little training. Although she studied piano for three years, she readily admits that she can’t read music, and that she has to edit out her mistakes. “That’s cheating, isn’t it?” she laughs. By the time we see Níelsdóttir pull her doily off her keyboard for a demonstration and show us her array of clever sound makers—recorded by plugging a mic into that dual cassette recorder—the film’s work is done. We are charmed. We are inspired.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the film coasts on this irresistible personality and fails to draw out the storyline that hovers just below the surface. There are a fair amount of bells and whistles employed, namely hand drawn collages assembled into stop motion animation theatrics, but it feels like a diversion from the innate charisma of the subject. Hidden within the questions never asked are clues to why, at the age of 70, this idiosyncratic woman became absorbed in making music.<br />
<br />
Directed by three musicians who forged a friendship with Níelsdóttir before deciding to shoot this humble and impressionistic portrait, <i>Grandma Lo-fi</i> is less of an in depth tell-all of a cult musical wonder than it is an inventive tribute to a late-in-life artist who passed away last year. In keeping with the analogue textures of Níelsdóttir music, the doc was shot primarily on Super 8 and 16mm, embellished with a conscious flicker and grain that comes with the format.<br />
<br />
The music in question has a naïve magic combined with compulsive creation ala Wesley Willis. But unlike Willis, Níelsdóttir has a much more varied palette tapping into her Casio’s endless combinations of canned rhythms, beats and sounds and layered with a mix of her own vocals, sounds of her own invention, as well as ambient recordings from her everyday life. All of this gets dubbed and edited on cassette and mastered on CD, at which point Níelsdóttir creates handmade covers, and delivers to the record store. And it is very clear that she lives for every minute of it.<br />
<br />
Interspersed throughout the film’s short 62 minutes are a number of Icelandic musicians who step in front of the camera to either sing to or play along with one of Níelsdóttir’s tune. And although we don’t see Björk or Sigur Rós, the musicians and bands nonetheless represent a sort of who’s who of indie Icelandic music: Sin Fang, múm, FM Belfast, Mr. Silla, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Mugison, and Kría Brekkan—all a testament to grandma lo-fi’s status in this influential bubble of society.<br />
<br />
Níelsdóttir’s celebrity is never quantified, but it resides in the individuals that discovered her unassuming creativity, one person at a time. Its viral proliferation was no doubt as DIY as her art and music, relying on a more physical social network like good old fashioned word-of-mouth. At one point she looks at the camera and says, “Do you know how to make campfire sounds?” Even in the off chance that we might know, Níelsdóttir intends to share her own personal triumph with everyone. Although <i>Grandma Lo-fi</i> parries with more style than substance, there is nonetheless a feeling of gratitude in having been introduced to this unique and heartening individual, even if it is just a handshake.
Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-10493619638574648852012-10-12T23:01:00.000-05:002012-10-13T07:58:25.634-05:00VIFF 2012The Vancouver International Film Festival has come and gone, and this is what I have to show for it: 52 films of varying length, many of which will never ever land in a theater near me. Follow the links to the various films I have written reviews for, and, over the next month or so, I will toss out some left over reviews from the fest, as well as chip away at writing about those that topped out my experience. Here's a list of that 52, ranked in order with my favorites at the top.<br />
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<br />
1. <i>Leviathan</i>, Lucien Casting-Taylor, Véréna Paravel (USA/France/UK)<br />
2. <i>Three Sisters</i>, Wang Bing (China/France) 2x<br />
3. <i>Tabu</i>, Miguel Gomes (Portugal)<br />
4. <i>Neighboring Sounds</i>, Kleber Mindonça Filho (Brazil)<br />
5. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-beautiful-2012-is-a-rare-successful-omnibus.html" target="_blank"><i>Walker</i></a>, Tsai Ming-liang (Hong Kong)<br />
6. <i>Emperor Visits the Hell</i>, Li Lou (China) 2x<br />
7. <i>Capsule</i>, Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece)<br />
8. <i>The Last Time I Saw Macao</i>, João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (Portugal)<br />
9. <i>No</i>, Pablo Larrain (Chile)<br />
10. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/09/viff-2012-review-when-night-falls-is-a-poetic-protest.html" target="_blank"><i>When Night Falls</i></a>, Ying Liang (China)<br />
11. <i>small roads</i>, James Benning (USA)<br />
12. <i>In April the Following Year</i>, There Was a Fire (Thailand)<br />
13. <i>When the Bough Breaks</i>, Ji Dan (China)<br />
14. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-beautiful-2012-is-a-rare-successful-omnibus.html" target="_blank"><i>Long Tou</i></a>, Gu Changwei (Hong Kong)<br />
15. <i>Memories Look at Me</i>, Song Fang (China)<br />
16. <i>Lawrence Anyways</i>, Xavier Dolan (Canada)<br />
17. <i>Barbara</i>, Christian Petzold (Germany)<br />
18. <i>Reconversão</i>, Thom Andersen (Portugal)<br />
19. <i>In Another Country</i>, Hong Sang-soo (South Korea)<br />
20. <i>People’s Park</i>, J.P. Sniadecki, Libbie D. Cohn (USA/China)<br />
21. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-if-its-not-now-then-when.html" target="_blank"><i>If It’s Not Now, Then When?</i></a>, James Lee (Malaysia)<br />
22. <i>Egg and Stone</i>, Huang Ji (China)<br />
23. <i>Dust</i>, Julio Hernández Cordón (Guatemala)<br />
24. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-a-fish-is-a-complex-riddle.html" target="_blank"><i>A Fish</i></a>, Park Hong-min (South Korea)<br />
25. <i>This Ain’t California</i>, Marten Persiel (Germany)<br />
26. <i>Sleepless Night</i>, Jang Kun-jae<br />
27. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-beautiful-2012-is-a-rare-successful-omnibus.html" target="_blank"><i>My Way</i></a>, Ann Hui (Hong Kong)<br />
28. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-mcdull-the-pork-of-music-is-a-worthy-continuation-of-the-franchise.html" target="_blank"><i>McDull: The Pork of Music</i></a>, Brian Tse (Hong Kong)<br />
29. <i>Morning of Saint Anthony’s Day</i>, João Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal)<br />
30. <i>The Love Songs of Tiedan</i>, Hao Jie (China)<br />
31. <i>The Metamorphosis</i>, Yun Kinam (South Korea)<br />
32. <i>Leones</i>, Jazmín López (Argentina/France/Netherlands)<br />
33. <i>Mystery</i>, Lou Ye (China/France)<br />
34. <i>Together</i>, Rox Hsu (Taiwan)<br />
35. <i>Amour</i>, Michael Haneke (France/Germany/Austria)<br />
36. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-beautiful-2012-is-a-rare-successful-omnibus.html" target="_blank"><i>You Are More Than Beautiful</i></a>, Kim Tae Yong (Hong Kong)<br />
37. <i>Like Someone in Love</i>, Abbas Kiarostami (France/Iran/Japan)<br />
38. <i>Reality</i>, Matteo Garrone (Italy)<br />
39. <i>Paradise: Love</i>, Ulrich Seidl (Austria)<br />
40. <i>Something in the Air</i>, Olivier Assayas (France)<br />
41. <i>Camel Caravan</i>, Gao Feng (China)<br />
42. <i>Midnight’s Children</i>, Deepa Mehta (Canada/India)<br />
43. <i>Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigridur Nielsdóttir</i>, Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir, Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir (Iceland)<br />
44. <i>All Apologies</i>, Emily Tang (China)<br />
45. <i>Design of Death</i>, Guan Hu (China)<br />
46. <i>The Hunt</i>, Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark)<br />
47. <i>Antiviral</i>, Brandon Cronenberg (Canada)<br />
48. <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/viff-2012-review-a-werewolf-boy-is-mainstream-melodrama.html" target="_blank"><i>Werewolf Boy</i></a>, Jo Sung-hee (South Korea)<br />
49. <i>A Story for the Modlins</i>, Sergio Oksman (Spain)<br />
50. <i>Garden in the Sea</i>, Thomas Riedelsheimer (Mexico/Germany)<br />
51. <i>As Luck Would Have It</i>, Álex de la Iglesia (Spain)<br />
52. <i>Nameless Gangster</i>, Yoon Jong-bin (South Korea)
Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-60585679714184952792012-08-13T09:51:00.000-05:002012-08-13T22:39:32.536-05:00Best Films Directed by Women<style>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
It’s a
man’s world, and this is especially true when it comes to film directing. The
2012 Cannes Film Festival received well-deserved criticism for pandering to a
boy’s club mentality where no female directors were in competition, and, maybe
more to the point, where the quality of the films in competition (directed by men) was in question. Sight
and Sound’s recent <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time/" target="_blank">Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time</a> poll, which includes only
one female director, sparked the discussion again. My criticism is not with
Sight and Sound's poll (it's an unavoidable reality that the
historical odds are stacked against women, even in <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/filmvideo/2012/08/07/walker-filmvideo-weighs-in-the-greatest-films-of-all-time/" target="_blank">my own personal top 10</a>.) My complaint is with the post-poll scramble to fill the gap and chronicle the
best films directed by women. I’m not going to name any names, but some of
these lists were pathetic. (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yentl</i>? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Kids Are Alright</i>? Really?) </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
Let’s
broaden our horizons a little bit, as I try to dig just a little bit deeper
into the great films brought to us by the women fighting the odds. My 21, listed chronologically from most recent:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meek’s Cutoff</i> (2011) Kelly Reichardt</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Father of My Children</i> (2009) Mia Hansen-L<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">ø</span>ve</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oxhide</i> (2005) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oxhide II</i> (2009) Liu Jiayin</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Way We Are</i> (2008) Ann Hui</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mukhsin</i> (2006) Yasmin Ahmad</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sharasojyu</i> (2003) Naomi Kawase</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Cienega</i> (2001) Lucrecia Martel</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fat Girl</i> (2001) Catherine Breillat</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beau Travail</i> (1999) Claire Denis</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ratcatcher</i> (1999) Lynne Ramsay</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Piano</i> (1993) Jane Campion</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hearts of Darkness</i> (1991) Eleanor
Coppola</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Autumn’s Tale</i> (1987) Mabel Cheung</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Born in Flames </i>(1983) Lizzie Borden<br />
<i>Variety</i> (1983) Bette Gordon </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080
Bruxelles</i> (1975) Chantal Akerman</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroy, She Said</i> (1969) Marguerite
Duras</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Connection</i> (1962) Shirley Clark<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cléo from 5 to 7</i> (1962) Agn<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;">è</span>s
Varda</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meshes of the Afternoon</i> (1943) Maya
Deren</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Adventures of Prince Achmed</i> (1926)
Lotte Reiniger</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
And
finally two directors who should be acknowledged, even if I’m ill equipped to do
so:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
Daniele
Huillet</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
Alice
Guy-Blaché</div>
Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-50548719659116540352012-08-06T09:29:00.000-05:002012-08-06T09:29:00.070-05:00Zhao Liang's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>(This review has been kicking around on my hard drive for a while. Check out the film on <a href="http://www.fandor.com/films/crime_and_punishment" target="_blank">Fandor</a>.) </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI1l-BlrJhcFnLIM0xzb-kKPD0CvX47-7TWw3BKfYMvEszCxDIz7UwpegZvCzj1HF7i9AkX-Wyv9vvhCD64MmS7haIloI3MjRWlTG8074_xcwoNO7gfiq6ZNcTfa-5K1fOMpb9cYDDnV0Y/s1600/artwork_images_636_612865_-zhaoliang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI1l-BlrJhcFnLIM0xzb-kKPD0CvX47-7TWw3BKfYMvEszCxDIz7UwpegZvCzj1HF7i9AkX-Wyv9vvhCD64MmS7haIloI3MjRWlTG8074_xcwoNO7gfiq6ZNcTfa-5K1fOMpb9cYDDnV0Y/s320/artwork_images_636_612865_-zhaoliang.jpg" width="320" /></a>When a church bell rings, China’s extreme northeast is
probably the last thing on your mind. This is the image, however, that director
Zhao Liang leaves us with at the end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crime
and Punishment</i>, an oblique yet searing portrayal of power and oppression in
a sleepy, ordinary town. Hymns are heard coming from the quaint church, nestled
among the snow-covered hills, as a line of unconcerned people carrying a couch,
a dresser and a bed make their way across the frame in the foreground. The shot
not only sparks an association with the moral deliberations of the film’s
literary namesake, but also adds a sharp contrast to the seemingly unprincipled
malaise we just watched.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
China is a bundle of contradictions and opposing forces, and,
in this respect, it is no different than any other country. But as it gains
international prowess, both economically and politically, and it sheds its
xenophobic skin, Western perception runs rampant with grand proclamations,
broad assumptions and demonizing stereotypes—none of them necessarily true and
none of them necessarily false. The burgeoning new documentary movement in
China takes very bold vérité stabs at humanizing, if not allegorizing, the
social paradoxes, one film, one person, and one shot at a time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crime and Punishment</i>,
Zhao Liang first feature length documentary, is an observational powerhouse.
Bringing direct cinema back from the ashes, Zhao adds another dimension to China’s
dichotomies by focusing on a small forgotten corner of this rising superpower. Situated
on his home turf, Zhao is given unprecedented access to a local police station
along the North Korean border. Mean streets these are not. Instead we have life
on the margins where ambitions of any kind have left this town behind. The
police are candid, the situations are often defy logic, and the arrests add up
to little more than harassment masquerading as control. Even moments of
idleness seem to be cloaked in an aura of base tedium: cleaning a gun, fiddling
with a pair of handcuffs or a bout of wrestling in the snow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The people detained are less hardened criminals than they
are the pettiest of thieves push by dire financial circumstances. A deaf man
suspected of stealing a cell phone is drubbed for a confession that he verbally
can’t give. A mother is berated for her mentally handicap son who called the
police with a false report of a dead body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A gambling room is busted and their Mahjong pieces
confiscated. An elderly scrap collector is nicked for not having a permit to do
so. And at a routine checkpoint, four men are caught with illegally harvested
timber. That the men were probably going to use the wood to either heat their
homes or earn a little money makes little difference to the police officers. Although
forced into a plea of guilt, it is subsequently overturned by a complaint of
police brutality from a savvy wife who nearly chases the officers away from her
house. Many of the verbal maneuverings here would fit well in an absurdist
play. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With a hands-off approach, Zhao draws a very fine line
between the oppressed and the oppressors and quickly reveals a somewhat
desperate attempt to maintain a certain amount of authority and self-respect within
a low-lying hierarchy. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crime and
Punishment</i> opens quietly with a ritual where the policemen fold their
bedding into an impossible cube. If you detach yourself, this formality strikes
very close to pure performance art, but as a prescribed duty this meticulous
detail is indicative of the systematic subservience expected from the officers.
You don’t see it when they are nonchalantly castigating their fellow comrades,
but the veiled pressures lie just bellow the surface, causing these men to kick
a dog when it’s down, figuratively and quite literally. Just another cog in a
repressive regime, these latent bullies hide their vulnerability behind their
uniform. When some are dismissed in a callous bureaucratic downsizing, the rug that
is pulled out from beneath these young men is written all over their faces. One
officer’s depressed drunken diatribe, perhaps realizing that he will soon be no
different than his former detainees, lays bare an unexpected fragility and
tenderness. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which almost brings us back to the church, but not before a figurative
act of violence is enacted on a powerless, abused creature. Jokingly referred
to as a sacrificial killing, a cursory slaughter is underscored with a
disturbing edge of pitilessness. Although shocking—especially to Western eyes
where animals are killed by someone else’s hand behind closed doors—the scene
is used to connect the dots that add up to larger implications. Much like
Dostoyevsky’s novel, Zhao’s documentary is less about specific crimes and
punishments (or lack thereof) than it is about internal transgression and the
hypothetical collective question of, where do we go from here? Zhao’s answer is
open-ended, with the Currier and Ives portrait of the church humorously
disrupted by a transient reality.</div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-8481776359725113522012-07-30T09:09:00.000-05:002012-07-30T09:09:00.793-05:00The Theo Angelopoulos Collection: Vol 1<style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Theo Angelopoulos, one of the world’s most celebrated and
revered contemporary directors, passed away earlier this year from being stuck
by a motorcycle. It was only then that I realized I had only seen one film by Angelopoulos,
a filmmaker many consider a master. Although there is no one to blame but
myself, I nonetheless also hold US distributors partially responsible for my
failure. Of Angelopoulos’ thirteen feature films, only a scant few are
available commercially in the US: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Landscapes
in the Mist</i> (1988), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eternity and a
Day</i> (1998), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Weeping Meadow</i>,
my one blissful theatrical success. All are probably available to those who are
clever with a computer (that’s not me) and those perfectly comfortable with
subpar quality (also not me), but the point is that for 42 years much of
Angelopoulos’ oeuvre has been ignored stateside. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOMhg5TvbSZzRTMkh-YiL_dyQs88KUWfv59KSz3f8dv78BNkEbv9PSHZ2uJ750x8MKdZS7Xs43jNI69_0jLSBCEKs9NnsyyfuaEcT0Q4cf4UTAAvtjdfY4DDOYRT4SOsjGwYtDdNEuzWQ/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOMhg5TvbSZzRTMkh-YiL_dyQs88KUWfv59KSz3f8dv78BNkEbv9PSHZ2uJ750x8MKdZS7Xs43jNI69_0jLSBCEKs9NnsyyfuaEcT0Q4cf4UTAAvtjdfY4DDOYRT4SOsjGwYtDdNEuzWQ/s1600/images.jpg" /></a>My solution, combined with a modest goal, is to make this
right through the power of the free market. Artificial Eye recently released
three box sets in the UK that include all of Angelopoulos’ features, the third
and final set coming a mere two months after his accidental death. (The possibly
that these releases, 13 DVDs in all, were in anticipation for Angelopoulos’
final chapter in his trilogy on modern Greece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Other Sea</i> now languishing unfinished, is just another reminder
of the loss.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Volume 1, which includes his debut <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Reconstruction</i>, as well as the three films <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Days of ’36</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Traveling Players</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunters</i>, landed recently in NE
Minneapolis. Here’s a rundown of the first four films of this dearly departed visionary
and film craftsman.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Reconstruction</i></b>
(1970)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s hard not to get hyperbolic with a debut like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Reconstruction</i>, a film where
traditional narrative structure and typical camerawork is abandoned for
vanguard innovation. Angelopoulos uses a story ripped from the headlines much
like Nagisa Oshima—as a static impression filtered with creative prowess. In
this case, Angelopoulos maps a crime of passion from cerebral free-form
ingenuity. Made in 1970 and shot in black and white, the film is set in Tymphaia,
a town that is described in the introduction as having a population of 1250 in
1939 and a population of 85 in 1965. In this sleepy small town there was an
absent husband, an illicit affair, and, upon the husband’s return, a murder. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Angelopoulos sets his thesis in motion from film one,
exploring the patience and profundity of the long shot and meddling with the
pliant nature of time in storytelling. Patterned with the failed attempt to
conceal the crime and the eventual police interrogation, the action reveals
method and madness, but very little passion from the earthy adulterous couple. Cleverly,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Reconstruction</i> steers clear of
melodrama, knowing that the most titillating factor of true crime is never
really knowing what happened. The massaging of the details around the edges of
the murder becomes a setup to the film’s last, elegant and ultimately
overpowering final shot. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Days of ’36</i></b> (1972)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Theo Angelopoulos’ second film is a tougher nut to crack,
mired in Greek politics to the point where my own historical research sent me
back for a second viewing. Even then, I had a hard time grappling with the
subtle political implications traversing the era <i>in</i> the film and <i>of</i> the film. 1936
was, from a scholarly standpoint, a precarious time in Greek history. In
reality, it was no doubt chaos, built on years of war that left the country
financially devastated and coup leading to counter-coup and another
counter-coup and yet another. The result was a fragile monarchy, halfheartedly
supported due to the threat from a Fascist Italy, which nonetheless led to the
Mextaxas Regime, a fascist authoritarian leadership in and of itself. To say
that people were exhausted and divided would probably be an understatement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that was ’36. In 1972, Angelopoulos found himself trying
to make politically relevant films under the rule of a military junta. And his
film, underscoring the government’s humiliation delivered by one man, silently
addresses censorship, corruption, and ultimately the weak foundation the
government’s power is built upon (critiques for dual eras.) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Days of ’36</i> takes a documentary approach
to the story of a man wrongly arrested for the assassination of a union leader.
When the prisoner takes a Greek official hostage, the reverberations throw a
giant monkey wrench into the wheels of authoritarian control. The camera never
gets too personal with its characters, and Angelopoulos deploys some brilliant
tracking shots, one specifically that culminates in the scenarios inevitable
tragedy. The subtle political riddles are tantamount to understanding the film
(which I can’t claim), but its tangible atmosphere of uncertainty is
nonetheless something to revel in. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Traveling Players</i></b>
(1975)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The proportions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Traveling Players</i>, with an epic runtime of 220 minutes, are equally matched
by Angelopoulos’ artistic ambitions, elegant yet tortuously bleak. Following a
traveling theatrical troupe, this meandering film chronicles the tumultuous
years between 1939 and 1952 in Greek history. Punctuated by the troupes repetitive
performance of the folk play “Golfo the Shepherdess,” mostly in the form of
false starts interrupted by the calamities of reality, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Traveling Players</i> critically confronts the seeds of contemporary
Greece through the tri-tumult of the Metaxas dictatorship, German occupation,
and the Greek Civil War stimulated by the apathetic Allies. While the politics
of the film are a web of convoluted specificity, not unlike <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Days of ’36</i>, the bitter cynicism is loud
and clear. So loud and clear that many were perplex about how Angelopoulos
managed to get the film made right under the nose of the regime he was not so
obliquely criticizing. But both the personal and the political become intertwined
in this time capsule microcosm, the wounds open and raw. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The structure and process that Angelopoulos has laid out is
rigorous and Brechtian, but also enthralling and graceful. Angelopoulos and his
cinematographer, Giorgos Arvanitis, are less concerned with the movement of the
camera than the movement within a (mostly) steady frame, which often starts out
as empty and is organically activated and populated. The tragic layers to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Traveling Players</i> are enunciated with
stylistic specificity—muted dusty tones, skewing amber, and precise, patient
camerawork. Many of the shots are unblinking acknowledgements of time, with
unadorned takes that refuse yield until the minutes pile up. And sometimes a
character stares right back at the camera with a historical monologue. One such moment
appears about midway through the film when a woman picks herself up from the
side of a river after a brutal beating and rape from the night before to
approach the camera and let the audience know that, for Greece, things get much
worse before they get better. It’s an unsettling historical soliloquy that
resonates far after the film ends, where the country’s post-war woes are tinged
with an aftertaste of savagery. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunters</i></b> (1977)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Taking place in the present, a group of hunters stumble upon
the body of a guerrilla fighter killed 28 years earlier but with wounds still
fresh, like a teleported omen from Greece’s divisive past. Angelopoulos
redefines the possibilities of cinematic language that is able to traverse time
and parables seamlessly, sometimes all in one shot. The hunters, all Right
leaning elite, and their ruminations over the dead body create an epilogue to
the maelstrom of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Days of ’36</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Traveling Players</i>. They drag the
body, his wounds bleeding despite being dead for 30 years, to the lodge
where they are staying with their wives. Through an inquisition, the film
delves into their personal reflection, guilt, and misunderstanding of the historical
implications of the cadaver.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunters</i> rivals <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Traveling Players</i>—its
formal innovation in capturing layers of a collective unconscious through
complex sequences that look deceptively simple is matched, on those same levels,
by its narrative. It’s a two and a half hour surreal trial of the conscience,
effortlessly dissolving back and forth between flashbacks, with only fantasies
of an eventual conviction. In the end, the hunters have had enough, and they take the body,
the unwanted harbinger of compunction, back out to the snowy field and frantically
bury it back where they found it. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Hunters </i>is easily one of the most amazing films I have ever seen, audacious
and surprising in its absolute patience and steady vision. </div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-24318805567503897922012-07-13T20:30:00.001-05:002012-07-13T20:30:42.869-05:00Hong Sang-soo's NIGHT AND DAY: DVD<style>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Y8XBTvPprmxIdeh3wW005DlkXqpZMbOZdo11Kb8evDx8_5codrUVezJ7nj8b1JMRmj64R-BnG9H-RytiQakDA_lJqsuqjDPnC7qFk0cGklmiVnjHPIXuIvrcD88BsDaECQAD7ABN_WmF/s1600/Night+DVD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Y8XBTvPprmxIdeh3wW005DlkXqpZMbOZdo11Kb8evDx8_5codrUVezJ7nj8b1JMRmj64R-BnG9H-RytiQakDA_lJqsuqjDPnC7qFk0cGklmiVnjHPIXuIvrcD88BsDaECQAD7ABN_WmF/s320/Night+DVD.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Any US release of a film by Hong Sang-soo is cause for
celebration, even if it is completely devoid of bells and whistles. In this
case, Hong’s eighth feature from 2008, released earlier this year on DVD,
throws us into Parisian exile with the socially inept Kim Sung-nam, a middle
aged painter fleeing his wife and his home after being pegged for drug
possession. <i>Night and Day</i> opens with this prologue—explaining that he was smoking
marijuana "for the first time" with exchange students from the US—while plying
the dramatic overtures of Beethoven’s 7<sup>th</sup>. This immediate contrast
between narrative and score is reiterated in the contradiction that Sung-nam,
an artist, is bored and apathetic in one of the most artistic cities in the
world. The only catalysts for stimulation in the City of Lights for Sung-nam are,
of course, women: an ex-girlfriend who he meets coincidentally and two art
students introduced to him by a friend at his guesthouse. Emotionally lost,
Sung-nam mimics a sense of purpose by randomly obsessing over these women while
proving his manliness through drinking and arm wrestling. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hong creates another subtle masterpiece out of combative
drinking, failed flirtations and an atmosphere of passive-aggressive ennui in a
Paris lockdown. Kim Yeong-ho is the burly stand in for Hong’s alter ego in <i>Night and Day</i>—his physical masculinity in direct contrast to his emotional
immaturity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Although this may sound
like Hong Sang-soo du jour, Hong sustains Sung-nam’s lackluster days with a surprisingly long runtime of 2 ½ hours and also throws in a surreal dream
sequence that forces the viewer to question nearly every event in the film.
What parts were simply feverish dreams of an uncomplicated man? Foreshadowing
Hong’s more recent <i>The Day He Arrives</i>, <i>Night and Day</i> emerges as a film of
possibilities within a narrow scope of one man’s psyche. Zeitgeist Films delivers only the film to DVD with no supplements, but considering that less that half of
Hong’s films are available in the US, this is good enough.</div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-65118977856097332052012-07-06T21:53:00.000-05:002012-07-06T21:53:28.249-05:00Best of 2012 so farYes, it's that time again. The year is half over and I need to do a little housekeeping. The year has been good so far, be little ol' me has some catch up to do in the next six months. Here are the top ten films I've seen that have received a US release in the first half of 2012, in cop-out alphabetical order, subject to change.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9qGiZOVJJxPUlWm3XK4SeUULzHIZE17nTF2nIBPLyuzoc3VoJhlKhGTnwlvJsevtxr2CUxtzd7mC9S9nCEU7izdr1hOib-mb9Eiakkqy2aHxnwLGtC_dqNOGcLEu69BKVZBDkASGpgwz8/s1600/The-Day-He-Arrives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9qGiZOVJJxPUlWm3XK4SeUULzHIZE17nTF2nIBPLyuzoc3VoJhlKhGTnwlvJsevtxr2CUxtzd7mC9S9nCEU7izdr1hOib-mb9Eiakkqy2aHxnwLGtC_dqNOGcLEu69BKVZBDkASGpgwz8/s320/The-Day-He-Arrives.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Day He Arrives</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<i><b>4:44 Last Day on Earth</b></i> dir Abel Ferrara<i><b> </b></i><br />
<i><b>Attenberg</b></i> dir Athina Rachel Tsangari<br />
<i><b>The Day He Arrives</b></i> dir Hong Sang-soo<i><b> </b></i><br />
<i><b>Elena</b></i> dir Andrei Zvyagintsev<br />
<b><i>I Wish</i></b> dir Hirokazu Koreeda<b><i> </i></b><br />
<b><i>Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</i></b> dir Nuri Bilge Ceylan<br />
<i><b>Patience (After Sebald)</b></i> dir Grant Gee<br />
<i><b>Post Mortem</b></i> dir Pablo Larrain<br />
<i><b>This Is Not a Film</b></i> dir Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb<br />
<i><b>The Turin Horse</b></i> dir Bela Tarr<br />
<br />
(You could assume that I haven't seen <i>Beasts of the Southern Wild</i> and <i>Moonrise Kingdom</i>, but you would be wrong.) <br />
<br />
Honorable Mentions: <i>Bernie, The Color Wheel</i>, <i>Damsels in Distress</i>, <i>Deep Blue Sea</i>, <i>Kill List</i>, <i>Let the Bullets Fly</i>, <i>A Simple Life</i>, <i>Whore's Glory</i> <br />
Best Rep Screening: <b><i>The Gang's All Here</i></b> at the Heights<br />
<br />
<br />Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-401309661114827492012-05-28T20:50:00.000-05:002012-05-28T20:50:35.266-05:00Cannes Blowback<style>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">The <a href="http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/festival.html" target="_blank">Cannes Film Festival</a> came to a close yesterday, with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/movies/amour-by-michael-haneke-wins-palme-dor-at-cannes.html?_r=1" target="_blank">Michael Haneke taking home his second Palme d’Or</a> for his new film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amour</i>. I feel good about this. I like Haneke, and from my distant
but watchful perspective from Lake Wobegone, this is probably a solid, yet somewhat safe,
choice. (Although, Haneke? Safe? Whatever.) Some other people won some awards too, but, honestly, if you want a
rundown on that you should be reading a post from one of the hard working wordsmiths
who spent the last week and a half plying the caverns of the Croisette with “no
guts, no glory” tattooed to their foreheads. (That may sound like romance, but
it’s mostly admiration for the chaos that critics dive into at Cannes.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">Thoughtful analysis of the Cannes Film Festival is not what you will find
below, but instead knee jerk reactions of anticipation and apathy as filtered
through my pounding juvenile film libido. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">Here are my most anticipated films among the 22 in competition at
the 65<sup>th</sup> Festival de Cannes:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIUK5T-Ip10aaWVFTuOW2AiCA-0LO7g6q46lL4evIo0zu4aWiFL0nrVcc3TNyfNEgGyu-mkun14f5MJWKETcjSgSk-QUNy1zTuTSwcEjRXTvygYwAlp_jUa6Yyd9y_SsREau5l5RDB5Eu/s1600/Post-Tenebras-Lux-reygadas-photo-cannes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIUK5T-Ip10aaWVFTuOW2AiCA-0LO7g6q46lL4evIo0zu4aWiFL0nrVcc3TNyfNEgGyu-mkun14f5MJWKETcjSgSk-QUNy1zTuTSwcEjRXTvygYwAlp_jUa6Yyd9y_SsREau5l5RDB5Eu/s320/Post-Tenebras-Lux-reygadas-photo-cannes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;"><i><b>Post Tenebras Lux</b></i> directed by Carlos Reygadas (<a href="http://youtu.be/IWP9C10It5o" target="_blank">Teaser trailer</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">As soon as the critical love/hate line was drawn in the sand, this
film jumped into my top spot of interest. Visual, non-narrative feature length films
with crazy beautiful stuff, which may or may not accurately describe <i>Post
Tenebras Lux</i>, are my kind of thing. It might be also worth saying that Carlos
Reygadas films are my kind of thing as well. <i>Battle in Heaven</i> had its flaws,
and although people sometimes feel the need to goad for my love of <i>Silent
Light</i>, hopefully we can all agree that Reygadas’ debut, <i>Japón</i>, is something
special if not a masterpiece. Reygadas won Best Director for <i>Post Tenebras
Lux</i>—which translates to “after dark, light”—and there was no shortage of
sneers, jeers and bravos, or at least that is what I have garnered from Twitter
and various coverage. This only intrigues me more. Because what kind of film is
it that can take a litmus test from a respectable swath of the film community
and come of with half red and half blue? This fascinates me. <i>Post Tenebras Lux</i>
is wagging around without US distribution as of yet, but someone will hopefully
step up to the plate.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;"><i><b>Holy Motors</b></i> directed by Leos Carax (<a href="http://youtu.be/6SzpeH35PH4" target="_blank">Trailer</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">Listening to the Cannes natter one is led to believe that <i>Holy
Motors</i> director Carax and star Denis Lavant were unjustly shut out of the
awards at Cannes. Never you mind that, <i>Holy Motors</i> caused enough of a stir to
match or better any award it could have muscled. From what I can surmise, this
film is off the crazy chart <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and </i>it
stars Kylie Minogue. I'll take it. <i>Holy Motors</i> was picked up for US
distribution by Indomina, a genre label that can hopefully make good on getting
this film out to us yonder folk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;"><i><b>In the Fog</b></i> directed by Sergei Loznitsa (<a href="http://youtu.be/_0RhO9rWbsw" target="_blank">Clip</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">Loznitsa’s got my attention. <i>My Joy</i> was a shock to the narrative
system, and really really really dark. Until he belly flops, I will always look
forward to this guy’s films.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;"><i><b>Reality</b></i> directed by Matteo Garrone (<a href="http://youtu.be/qCJuuujQnYU" target="_blank">Clip</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">The skill in which Garrone adapted Roberto Saviano’s surreal and
troubling book <i>Gomorrah</i> has earned him lifetime achievement for my admiration.
Garrone’s <i>Reality</i> has a reality television subtext, something Italy probably
knows about even more than the US. Reviews were generally not good for this
film, but, again, it will take some time to convince me that <i>Gomorrah</i> was a
fluke. <i>Reality</i> won the Grand Prix at Cannes and has been picked up for
distribution by Oscilloscope.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;"><i><b>Like Someone in Love</b></i> directed by Abbas Kiarostami (<a href="http://youtu.be/Y3tbi_EjAQk" target="_blank">Trailer</a>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">Kiarostami continues to reinvent, this time in Japan. <i>Like Someone
in Love </i>was picked up by Sundance Selects/IFC.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">I’m also looking forward to Cristian Mungiu’s latest Beyond the
Hills, Resnais’ big finale <i>You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet</i>, Hong Sang-soo’s tandem
bike ride with Isabelle Huppert <i>In Another Country</i>, and of course Haneke’s <i>Amour</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 11pt;">A big thanks for those in the trenches delivering the good the the sad sacks at home. You know who you are and you know who we are. </span></div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-91428015836207975092012-05-26T07:32:00.000-05:002012-05-26T07:32:28.878-05:00Sion Sono v. MayhemNews broke the other day that Japanese director Sion Sono has plans to take on the saga of Norwegian black metal bad Mayhem. The story, <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ezra-miller-may-star-in-film-about-norwegian-death-metal-band-mayhem-from-japanese-helmer-shion-sono-20120522" target="_blank">reported on by the Playlist</a>, focused on the fact that Sono was in talks with Ezra Miller, the young actor who played the bad seed in Lynn Ramsay's <i>We Need to Talk About Kevin</i>. Far more interesting, however, is contemplating Sono's mad genius combined with one of the most fascinating annals in the history of metal music, and one that would forever stigmatize the entire genre.<br />
<br />
When people say that metal is the music of the devil, they are ostensibly talking about Mayhem. In the 80s, the black metal scene was owned by two Norwegian bands: Mayhem and Burzum. Mayhem guitarist Øystein Aarseth "Euronymous" (most likely the person Miller will be playing) and Burzum leader Varg Vikernes aka "Count Grishnackh" where the undeniable kings in this dark underground world where fans fueled the fire of their crazed egos. First friends and then adversaries, Aarseth and Vikernes seemed to be in a competition of who could be the most committed to being a psychopath, resulting in church burning, celebratory suicides, and the eventual murder of Aarseth by Vikernes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaBH8f1bDA-MBGbCuwzMuQh-mWzdj8ygsTQmK4Br_g7DapU2OD-GKOHF5gYfwzvM9TaNWVMiT_BlJ0P6ZCtzvzKRog9p1K4QMc7Pp7Tz0UTEvk3zZXI1iJ_Ldat7-uOsb41OpDrASL6FP/s1600/varg_vikernes.thumbnail.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaBH8f1bDA-MBGbCuwzMuQh-mWzdj8ygsTQmK4Br_g7DapU2OD-GKOHF5gYfwzvM9TaNWVMiT_BlJ0P6ZCtzvzKRog9p1K4QMc7Pp7Tz0UTEvk3zZXI1iJ_Ldat7-uOsb41OpDrASL6FP/s320/varg_vikernes.thumbnail.png" width="254" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mpsfx30JNwmW8xfjvutzya60pMykb3nkTw3-sszZPLRqW__HqN9i4001Yu15o3_uzI_uR0auWxtTSKDbHoYOWm9m-HbZCSfF4W2yoeauuDjTghApJ9gr2qjjExehmDArts6tRBDtrs_U/s1600/8S76r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mpsfx30JNwmW8xfjvutzya60pMykb3nkTw3-sszZPLRqW__HqN9i4001Yu15o3_uzI_uR0auWxtTSKDbHoYOWm9m-HbZCSfF4W2yoeauuDjTghApJ9gr2qjjExehmDArts6tRBDtrs_U/s320/8S76r.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Øystein Aarseth v. Ezra Miller</span></div>
<br />
The sordid details of what really happened before Aarseth's death are murky and have, at this point, taken on some urban legend. <a href="http://www.blackmetalmovie.com/" target="_blank"><i>Until the Light Takes Us</i></a> (2008) attempted to chronicle the history, but ended up being convoluted and completely unfocused. Personally, I wish Errol Morris would take this story on, but in the meantime I am willing to see what Sono might come up with. Who knows, maybe Sono's fictional take on Mayhem will be closer to any truth we've heard yet on the band.<br />
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Mayhem still tours with two remaining original members, although they have lost their spark. Vikernes was released on parole three years ago and and has demonstrated with two releases of new material, one out just last week, that musically he still has something to prove and maybe even offer to the world of black metal.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-28617266400516128512012-05-09T23:47:00.003-05:002012-05-09T23:47:31.683-05:00Look ma! A blog update!Because of a jab about my stagnant and uninteresting blog (Oops! I was sitting at the table!), here's what I have been up to, in between stoking the fires at the <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/film-video/browse/upcoming-events" target="_blank">Walker Art Center</a> and the <a href="http://www.take-up.org/" target="_blank">Trylon microcinema</a>.<br />
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MSPIFF is over. Congrats to the Film Society of Minneapolis and St Paul for another successful year and daunting slate of films. There were 20 films in the line-up I had seen prior to the Fest, and I'm glad to say that I caught 28 more during the Fest. Of the ones I saw at the Fest, there were a number of standouts, most notably Aleksandr Sokurov's <i>Faust</i> and Andrea Arnold's <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, but I also greatly enjoyed <i>Nuit #1</i>, <i>Target</i>, <i>Oslo Ausust 31</i>, and <i>Whore's Glory</i>. Check them out if you get a chance.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> (A film with a fantastic opening sequence.)</span></div>
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If you used either <a href="http://www.vita.mn/" target="_blank">VitaMN</a> or the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/" target="_blank">Star Tribune</a> to make your choices on what to see at MSPIFF, it's possible that you are either cursing or praising my name. I turned in eleven capsules for films that I mostly liked. I know it's a little late, but as a matter of record that I'm not as lazy as my blog implies, here are the links the my mini reviews:<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129746" target="_blank"><i>Juan of the Dead</i></a> Loads of fun. 3 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129815" target="_blank"><i>Rent-a-Cat</i></a> Cute, but kinda meh. 2 1/2 stars.</li>
<li><i><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129806" target="_blank">Policeman</a></i> Really fantastic. 4 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129663" target="_blank"><i>Bestiaire</i></a> Beautiful, almost beguiling. 3 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129781" target="_blank"><i>Mourning</i></a> A very special film. 3 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129808" target="_blank"><i>The Prize</i></a> Some very interesting things going on in this film. 3 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129660" target="_blank"><i>Attenberg</i></a> Love this movie. 4 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129724" target="_blank"><i>Grey Matter</i></a> Really knocked my socks off. 4 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129802" target="_blank"><i>Payback</i></a> I wanted to like this doc more. 2 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129848" target="_blank"><i>Toll Booth</i></a> Quintessential mediocre festival film. 2 stars.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129818" target="_blank"><i>The Rif Lover</i></a> Not good. 1 star.</li>
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The worst film I saw during the fest? <i>V/H/S</i>. Holy mother of God. Why?<br />
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I also put in a few full-ish reviews of films I saw at the Festival with <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/home.html" target="_blank">In Review Online</a>.<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2012/5/2_Keyhole_%282012%29.html" target="_blank"><i>Keyhole</i></a> Disappointing, but not terrible. 2 stars.</li>
<li><i><a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/current_film/Entries/2012/5/9_Whores_Glory_%282012%29.html" target="_blank">Whore's Glory</a></i> Glawogger has something going on. 3 stars.</li>
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Look for a Festival wrap on In Review Online. Who knows, maybe I will even blog about that.<br />
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I also wrote an essay about the digital conundrum facing cinemas and the upgrades taking place in the Walker Cinema right now. In the Walker magazine and online here: <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2012/the-evolution-of-moving-images" target="_blank">Cinema Renovation Pushes the Future, Preserves the Past</a> <br />
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My blog, maybe still not interesting, but updated!Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-84205615340037645332012-04-12T07:27:00.000-05:002012-04-21T15:00:58.565-05:00Ready-set-go! MSPIFF begins!<br />
The thrill of 200 plus international films over the span of a couple weeks right in my backyard will never dull. Despite its humble mid-western stature, the Minneapolis/St Paul International Film Festival, year after year, never ceases to amazing one of the toughest cinephilic customers in town: moi. This year's huge selection is no different. I've seen approximately 20 of the films going into the fest, but there are also plenty I am looking forward to seeing theatrically in the bustling atmosphere of this once a year event. How to navigate? Head first! Here are my recommendations and anticipations. (Follow linky-dinkies on dates and times to MSPIFF schedule, and on titles for my mini Strib reviews when available.)<br />
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<b><u>Highly Recommended</u></b><br />
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<i><b>Kill List</b></i> (Ben Wheatley) UK <span style="color: red;"> </span><br />
<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/kill-list" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Sa Apr 21 10:00pm, Tu Apr 24 9:45pm</span></a><br />
Enter at your own risk! This divisive horror film has teeth and brains. Fascinating an infuriating stuff. <br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129660" target="_blank"><i><b>Attenberg</b></i></a> (Athina Rachel Tsangari) Greece </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/attenberg" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Sa Apr 14 9:30pm, Su Apr 15 6:30pm</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Forget <i>Dogtooth</i> and forget <i>ALPS</i> - <i>Attenberg</i> is the Greek hero in this group.<i><b> </b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129663" target="_blank"><i><b>Bestiaire</b></i></a> (Denis Côté) Canada</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/bestiaire" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">M Apr 30 5:00pm, Tu May 1 9:30pm</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><i>Bestiaire</i> is not for everyone. Some will try and make it into an animal rights doc, but </span><span style="color: black;">Côté's concerns are for more formal, both on an aesthetic level and a philosophical level. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><i><b>The Day He Arrives</b></i> (Hong Sang-soo) South Korea</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/day-he-arrives" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">M Apr 16 9:45pm, W Apr 18 9:10pm</span></a> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Hong Sang-soo is one of the most under-appreciated directors in the world, and <i>The Day He Arrives</i> is a perfect example of his satirical humor and somber drama.<i><b> </b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><i><b>Elena</b></i> (Andrei Zvyagintsev) Russia</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/elena" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Su Apr15 8:45pm, Th Apr19 7:15pm</span></a> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Third feature is certainly a charm for this Russian director. Brilliantly paced and beautifully shot. (Read my review of <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-elena-review.php" target="_blank"><i>Elena</i> on Twitch</a>.)<i><b> </b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129724" target="_blank"><i><b>Grey Matter</b></i></a> (Kivu Ruhorahoza) Rwanda</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/grey-matter" target="_blank">W Apr 18 9:00pm, Su Apr 22 6:00pm</a>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">A recent viewing that knocked my socks off. Some of the most inovative filmmaking come from the most unassuming places.<i><b> </b></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><i><b>Headshot</b></i> (Pen-Ek Ratanaruan) Thailand</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/headshot" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">M Apr 30 9:45pm, W May 2 9:45pm</span></a>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">A genre film with more subtlety and more darkness - literally. Plot points of A, B and C are nothing new in this Thai crime drama, but the devil's in the details what's in between makes it unique. (Read my review of <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-headshot-review.php" target="_blank"><i>Headshot</i> on Twitch</a>.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129781" target="_blank"><i><b>Mourning</b></i></a> (</span>Morteza Farshbaf) Iran<br />
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/mourning" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">W Apr 25 5:10pm, Sa Apr 28 1:00pm</span></a> </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Effective drama that makes better use of the space of a car than Kiarostami. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>The Prize</b></i> (</span>Paula Markovitch) Argentina<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/prize" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">M Apr 23 8:45pm, M Apr 30 4:20pm</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Child actors reign supreme in this somewhat minor film. Sumptuous use of cloudy coast atmosphere and a sparse and interesting soundtrack.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.vita.mn/event_detail.php?event_id=129806" target="_blank"><b><i>Policeman</i></b></a> (</span>Nadav Lapid) Israel <br />
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/policeman" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Su Apr 29 9:15pm, W May 2 6:45pm</span></a><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Plays on expectation and assumptions and temps cliche and irony. I'm hoping to check this film out again. This film is dangling out there without US distribution, so see it while you can!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>A Simple Life</b></i> (Ann Hui) Hong Kong</span><br />
<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/search/node/simple%20life" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">F Apr 27 7:20pm, Th May 3 2:30pm</span></a><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Ann Hui does what she does best (makes beautiful and heartfelt films) with the aid of superstar Andy Lau. (Hui's 2008 <i>The Way We Are</i> is one of the best films in the past 20 years.)</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: black;">Worth a Look </span></u></b><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Las Acacias</b></i> (</span>Pablo Giorgelli) Argentina/Spain<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/las-acacias" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Th Apr 19 7:30pm, Tu Apr 24 9:00pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>Dreileben x3</b></i> (Christoph Hochhäusler, Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf) Germany<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/dreileben-beats-being-dead" target="_blank">F Apr 13 5:30-7:20-9:10pm, W May 2 5:30-7:20-9:10pm</a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Alps</b></i> (</span>Giorgios Lanthimos) Greece<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/alps" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">M Apr 16 9:15pm, Th April 19 9:20pm</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>The Salt of Life</b></i> (</span>Gianni Di Gregorio) Italy<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/salt-life" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Fri Apr 13 5:15pm, Su Apr 15 4:00pm</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Michael</b></i> (</span>Markus Schleinzer<span style="color: black;">) Austria</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/michael" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Su Apr 15 6:45pm, Th April 19 9:30pm</span></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black;"><u>Highly Anticipated (I don't care what people say...)</u></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b> Faust</b></i> (Alexander Sokurov) Russia</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="date-display-single"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/faust" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Su Apr 15 3:30pm, Tu Apr 17</span></a> 7:00pm Both at the Heights! DCP!</span><i><b> </b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Whores' Glory</b></i> (Michael Glowagger) Germany/Austria/Thailand</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/whores%E2%80%99-glory" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">W Apr 18 4:45pm, Su Apr 29 6:30pm</span></a><i><b> </b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Keyhole</b></i> (Guy Maddin) Canada</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/keyhole" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">W Apr 18 7:30pm, M Apr 30 9:00pm</span></a><i><b> </b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Compliance </b></i>(Craig Zobel) USA</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/compliance" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">F Apr 20 9:30pm, Su Apr 22 9:45pm</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><i><b>Together</b></i> (Zhao Liang) China</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/together" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">M Apr 23 7:15pm, M Apr 30 5:15pm</span></a></span></div>
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<i><b>Target</b></i> (Alexander Zeldovich) Russia<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/target" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Sa Apr 14 4:30pm, M Apr 16 6:30pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>Arirang</b></i> (Kim Ki-duk) South Korea<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/arirang" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Su Apr 15 3:45pm, Th Apr 19 4:40pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>Smuggler</b></i> (Katsuhito Ishii) Japan<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/smuggler" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Su Apr 15 9:45pm, W Apr 18 9:45pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>The First Man</b></i> (Gianni Amelio) France/Algeria/Italy<br />
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<div class="field-item odd">
<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/first-man-0" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Tu Apr 24 7:00pm, Tu May 1 9:30pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>The Woman in the Fifth</b></i> (Pawel Pawlikowski) France/Poland/UK<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/woman-fifth" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Sa Apr 21 7:30pm, W Apr 25 9:00pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>Wuthering Heights</b></i> (Andrea Arnold) UK<br />
<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/wuthering-heights" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Sa Apr 28 7:10pm</span> </a></div>
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<i><b>Turn Me On, Dammit!</b></i> (Jannicke Systad) Norway<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/turn-me-dammit" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Sa Apr 28 9:30pm, W May 2 7:45pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>Oslo August 31st</b></i> (Joachim Trier) Norway<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/oslo-august-31st" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Su Apr 29 7:30pm, Tu May 1 9:00pm</span></a></div>
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<i><b>Play</b></i> (Ruben Östlund) Sweden<br />
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<a href="http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2012/content/play-0" target="_blank"><span class="date-display-single">Sa Apr 28 7:30pm, M Apr 30 9:15pm</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Have fun! See you at the Fest!<br />
</span></div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-36664671453402980982012-03-23T07:41:00.000-05:002012-03-23T07:41:43.443-05:00THE TURIN HORSE scriptI first saw Béla Tarr's final film, <i>The Turin Horse</i>,<i> </i>last Fall at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Thirteen days into the Festival with 50 films under my belt in, I knew the 2 1/2 hour film, sadistically slotted at 9:30pm, would be a challenge. My high expectations did not fail me, despite my film fatigue. <i>The Turin Horse</i> is a mesmerizing piece of work, full of laconic atmosphere that attempts to lull you into the apocalypse. (Or creation, depending on how you see it.) And lull it did, until Bernard, a third wheel in this two person play, jumped on screen with a shocking monologue that nearly chewed up my brain and spit it out. After the fact, I had to wonder if Bernard's soliloquy was as obtuse as I remembered or was my brain muddled? Either way, the diatribe seemed to hold a key to the mysterious and bleak film that haunted me. My solution? Truck over to the press office, plunk down in a chair on the last day of the festival, and transcribe the speech from a press screener on my laptop. Forget Nietzsche and his syphilitic madness, <u>this</u> is the heart of <i>The Turin Horse.</i> Enjoy.<br />
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Bernard: “I’ve run out of palinka. Would you give me a bottle?”</div>
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Ohlsdorfer: “Give him some… Why didn’t you go into town?" </div>
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B: "The wind’s blown it away."</div>
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O: "How come?"</div>
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B: "It’s gone to ruin."</div>
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O: "Why would it go to ruin?"</div>
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B: "Because everything’s in ruins, everything’s been degraded,
but I could say that they’ve ruined and degraded everything. Because this is
not some kind of cataclysm, coming about with so-called innocent human aid. On
the contrary, it’s about man’s own judgement over his own self, which of course
God has a hand in, or dare I say: takes part in. And whatever he takes part in
is the most ghastly creation that you can imagine. Because you see the world
has been debased. So it doesn’t matter what I say because everything has been
debased that they’ve acquired and since they’ve acquired everything in a
sneaky, underhand fight, they’ve debased everything. Because whatever they
touch – and they touch everything – they’ve debased. This is the way it was
until the final victory. Until the triumphant end. Acquire debase, debase,
acquire. Or I can put it differently if you like: to touch, debase and thereby
acquire, or touch, acquire and thereby debase. It’s been going on like this for
centuries. On, on, and on. This and only this, sometimes on the sly, sometimes
rudely, sometimes gently, sometimes brutally but it has been going on and on.
Yet only in one way, like a rat attacks from ambush. Because for this perfect
victory it was also essential that the other side… That is, everything that’s
excellent, great in some way and noble should not engage in any kind of fight.
There shouldn’t be any kind of struggle, just the sudden disappearance of one
side, meaning the disappearance of the excellent, the great and the noble. So
that by now these winning winners who attack from ambush rule the earth, and
there isn’t a single tiny nook where one can hide something from them. Because
everything they can lay their hands on is theirs. Even things we think they
can’t reach but they do reach are also theirs, because the sky is already
theirs and all our dreams. Theirs is the moment, nature, infinite silence. Even
immortality is theirs, you understand? Everything, everything is lost forever!
And those many noble great and excellent just stood there, if I can put it that
way. They stopped at this point and had to understand and had to accept that
there is neither god nor gods. And the excellent, the great and the noble had
to understand and accept this night from the beginning. But of course they were
quite incapable of understanding it. They believed it and accepted it but they
didn’t understand it. They just stood there, bewildered but not resigned until
something – that spark from the brain – finally enlightened them. And all at
once they realized that there is neither god nor gods. All at once they saw
that there is neither good nor bad. Then they saw and understood that if this
was so, then they themselves do not exist either! You see, I reckon this may
have been the moment when we can say that were extinguished, they burnt out.
Extinguished and burnt out like the fire left to smolder in the meadow. One was
the constant loser one was the constant winner. Defeat victory defeat victory
and one day here in the neighborhood I had to realize, and I did realize, that
I was mistaken, I was truly mistaken when I thought that there has never been
and could never be any kind of change here on earth. Because believe me, I know
now that this change has indeed taken place."</div>
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<a href="http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2012/the-turin-horse"><i>The Turin Horse</i> plays this weekend at the Walker Art Center</a>. Yeah, I work there. So what? </div>
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<br /></div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-48045465820679048132011-12-30T19:12:00.000-06:002011-12-30T19:12:15.103-06:00Best of 2011...because this is what we do.<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Below is my top ten in accordance with official 2011 US releases submitted to <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/home.html">In Review Online</a>. (There is quite a caché of top tens over there, so check it out.) But because the year offered so much more, I've supplemented with other offerings that didn't make the cut. Happy viewing and Happy New Year!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">1. <i><b>Uncle
Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives</b> </i>/ Apichatpong Weerasethakul</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ub3wCWt3rzM/Tv5JuGga8LI/AAAAAAAAEJk/AbKCnDx4mEM/s1600/uncle-boonmee-poster-chris-ware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ub3wCWt3rzM/Tv5JuGga8LI/AAAAAAAAEJk/AbKCnDx4mEM/s200/uncle-boonmee-poster-chris-ware.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">First viewed VIFF 2010, subsequent viewings Walker Art Center and Trylon microcinema. Now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Netflix Instant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Over a year has passed since I first saw <i>Uncle Boonmee
Who Can Recall His Past Lives</i> and its ethereal glow still burns brightly. The
spiritual world and the natural world mingle effortlessly in Apichatpong
Weerasethakul sixth feature and Palme d’Or winner. In one of the most beautiful
openings of the past ten years, a water buffalo breaks from its tether in the
dim light of the jungle to conjoin with monkey ghosts. The sequence is timeless
and ephemeral, and it captures the film’s mesmerizing preoccupation with the
mysteries of a tangible environment. The patience and simplicity of ‘Uncle
Boonmee’ slowly decodes the fate of one man through gentle curiosity. Death and
the magical possibilities of reincarnation materialize in a drift, a journey, a
spell that taps the collective unconscious and eventually leads to a pop song
induced fracture in the space-time continuum. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">2. <i><b>House of
Pleasures</b></i> / Bertrand Bonello</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tioWgURUQAo/Tv5K5cJYGWI/AAAAAAAAEJw/G5tmX9AVAFM/s1600/11158705_pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tioWgURUQAo/Tv5K5cJYGWI/AAAAAAAAEJw/G5tmX9AVAFM/s1600/11158705_pro.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">First viewed VIFF 2011. Coming soon to the <a href="http://take-up.org/series/32/">Trylon microcinema Feb 7 and 14</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>House of Pleasures</i> is a baroque free-fall of
sensuality and violence stoked by anachronistic tumbles and sways. Director
Bertrand Bonello depicts the corporeal reality of a late 19<sup>th</sup> century
Parisian brothel without schismatic moralizing and stifled emotional goo, but
with a cinematic verve that incites the senses. The graceful narrative patterning,
opening and closing with a round, and organic camerawork flow in tandem with
the natural performances of the ladies for hire within a closed rococo world. Tenderness
and strength, sorrow and joy are amplified with a soundtrack that is seamlessly
embellished with English language pop and soul from the 60s. But just as
quickly as Bonello embraces the fruition of an illusory dream, he pulls the rug
out from underneath the romance for its disjunctive ending. <i>House of
Pleasures</i> lends a feminine ring to the emblematic cries of Aeneid: “These are
the tears of things, and our mortality cuts to the heart.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">3. <i><b>The Arbor</b></i>
/ Clio Barnard</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Clio Barnard’s decision to use actors to lip-sync recorded
interviews with playwrite Andrea Dunbar’s family is nothing less than a stroke
of brilliance. Far from the fallacy that one might expect from this machination,
the raw emotion is heightened, and the actors are a constant reminder of a
potent reality. Dunbar wrote herself into infamy, but also drank herself to
death, leaving a long and winding road of influence and dysfunction on her two
daughters. Their shattering accounts come with a tempered blow, crafted with
assertive matter-of-fact honesty, and juxtaposed with the unvarnished bluntness
of Dunbar’s plays. Barnard spins Dunbar’s tale with the specificity of artistic
mathematics and the patterning of a kaleidoscope, allowing shards of fact and
fiction to present a semblance of a whole. The experimental presentation of
this overwhelming material is both formally and poignantly unique—not necessarily
pushing the boundaries of preconceived form more than simply working outside of
them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">4. <i><b>Meek’s
Cutoff</b></i> / Kelly Reichardt</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Kelly Reichardt rattles the cages of the disaster microcosm
with a dusty neo-Western sharply drawn with its script and artistically
specific with its form. Shot in the square Academy ratio of 1.33, <i>Meek’s
Cutoff</i> boxes nine lost settlers within their own psychology of fear and
paranoia and doubt. Extending beyond the frame is the indifference of nature on
the outsiders, represented in an unforgiving landscape and an enigmatic Native
American. Through cycles of sun-bleached days and inky-black nights, the
personal politics of a desperate situation create a divide between individuals,
a chasm between genders and a permanent wall between races. Emily Tetherow,
played with powerhouse subtlety by Michelle Williams, acknowledges their
precarious situation in the hands of larky chauvinist Stephen Meek, a pitch
perfect Bruce Greenwood, by following her conscience to rebellion. Haunting and
austere, <i>Meek’s Cutoff</i> is filled to the brim with aesthetic elegance and
civil allegory. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">5. <i><b>A
Separation</b></i> / Asghar Farhadi</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">First viewed at VIFF 2011. Coming soon to the Edina Cinema Feb 3.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Few films are able to keep such a character-rich
balance while building a tense, plot-driven drama better than <i>A Separation</i>.
Although literally tackling the marital difficulties of Nader and Simin, a young
middle class couple living in Tehran, director Asghar Farhadi puts all manner
of social issues under an incredibly absorbing microscope, with gender and
class at the forefront. Sharp as a razor, the film gives equal space to all
characters: the religious caretaker, her downtrodden husband, the conflicted Nader,
the brazen Simin and even their mature eleven-year-old daughter who is learning
about the grey areas of human nature. Farhadi presents and considers the
complex moral decisions of each individual within their respective social and
religious confines, but he does so without moralizing to the audience. Tightly
wound around an impeccable script and camera choreography, <i>A Separation</i>
perfectly parables a country hurtling toward and uncertain future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">6. <i><b>Certified
Copy</b></i> / Abbas Kiarostami </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">First viewed at VIFF 2010. Now available on Netflix Instant and import (region free) Blu-ray.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Certified Copy</i> is Abbas Kiarostami at his best,
and perhaps better than we have ever seen him before. He directs dialogue in
three languages and selects an operatic baritone as the individual who can’t
speak Italian. He builds an aura of mystery as he simultaneously points out devise.
He vacillates on classic Italian art while polishing the tarnished halo of
film-as-art. He takes an academic subject and fills it with the pulse of life.
He breaks from a mold of working with non-professional actors and hires the
biggest star in Europe. And he casts us, the audience—<i>his</i> audience—as the mirror, the ultimate reflection of his film. Under
the auspice of exploring artifice, <i>Certified Copy</i> delves into the esoteric
notions of love, life and art on the coattails of a wandering Tuscan <i>tête-à-tête</i> and turns it into something
far more fallible and beautiful than a mechanical reproduction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">7. <i><b>My Joy</b></i>
/ Sergei Loznitsa</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">First viewed MSPIFF 2011. Coming to DVD March 20.</span><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>My Joy</i> opens with a mysterious corpse being covered in
cement and ends with a shell-shocked murderer walking off into the darkness of
the night—although the literal connection is abstruse, the cyclical motif is
crystal clear. Blissfully unpredictable stream-of-consciousness, <i>My Joy</i> is
made of two haves that meander through various stories and leave a lingering
vapor trail to a much larger allegory. Corruption unapologetically blankets <i>My
Joy</i>, trickling down from a history of authoritarianism and extreme conditions.
Any kindness is met with an untrusting hostility that, at least within the gauge
of the film, is not unwarranted. Director Sergei Loznitsa and his
cinematographer Oleg Mutu tell much of their story through the complex and
sardonic ‘joy’ on peoples’ faces. The film’s vignettes, in their structural
ambiguity, are anything but detached. Heavy with heartbreak and despair, each
sequence is loaded with the components of profound social destruction and
deranged malaise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">8. <i><b>Le
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">First viewed MSPIFF 2011. Now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Netflix Instant.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Michelangelo Frammartino evokes the spiritual
philosophies of Pythagoras and relies entirely on the ambient language of a
village in Southern Italy. But the observational tableau gains as much
sustenance from the notions of God’s creations (with a capital ‘G’) and the
Buddhist cycle of suffering and rebirth as it does the transmigration of the
soul. Life, death and the earth-bound rhythms that connect them flow from a man
to a goat to a tree to coal. Unconscious gestures of existence were never so
poetic and graceful as exhibited in snails teaming from a pot, goats
inexplicable exploring and investigating, and, in an unbelievably orchestrated
9-minute shot, a persistent dog communicating to no avail. The magic, however,
seems to lie in the final stage of Frammartino’s visual prose and the
smoldering, coal-producing mounds that open and close the film like an
archetypal symbol of the past, present and future. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">9. <i><b>Love
Exposure</b></i> / Sion Sono</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">First viewed on import DVD in 2009. Available on DVD.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Born from the bowels of chaos, the euphoric anarchy
of <i>Love Exposure</i> trumps the slicked up brutality of Sion Sono’s other 2011 US
release, <i>Cold Fish</i>. Sono’s ambition is fleet-footed if not a little blind,
but his vision of Catholic repression with <i>hentai</i>
aesthetics through a 4-hour maze of cross-dressing, misogyny, obsession, barbarity,
sanctimony, redemption and humor is a frenetic supernova. Like Sono’s <i>Noriko’s
Dinner Table</i>, <i>Love Exposure</i> uses the bloated runtime, not to slow things
down, but to indulge, specify and unreel the impossible with reckless but surprisingly
sincere abandon. Sono has a unique film language that, when given free reign,
explodes with the unusual dexterity of focusing the mayhem like a laser which
in this case is Yu’s serpentine path to personal absolution. Receiving a
belated US release, <i>Love Exposure</i> is a film experience that defies
explanation but not exultation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">10. <i><b>Pina</b></i>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: red;">First viewed at VIFF 2011. Coming soon to the Walker Art Center Feb 1.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Although Wem Wenders’ <i>Pina</i> seems like a straightforward documentary on
the surface, because of the inspired use of 3D and the equally innovative
nature of the material, it was easily one of the most viscerally exhilarating
films of the year. The film is an unselfish and vital homage to the work of
modern dance icon Pina Bausch, who passed away quite suddenly during the film’s
pre-production. Primarily a vehicle for her choreographed pieces—some performed
on stage and some in the open-air ambiance of Wuppertal, Bausch’s creative
home—the 3D perfectly captures the tactile buoyancy and physicality of these
performances. Bausch’s <i>Rite of Spring</i>,
which opens <i>Pina</i> is as thrilling as any action sequence I’ve seen all year. Dispersed
throughout are quiet portraits of her dance troupe, as animated and impassioned
reflections of the artist. Art and film collide in the most unaffected and
visually arresting manner—a palpable masterpiece of digital proportions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The best of the rest.</span></div>
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11. <i><b>Poetry</b></i> / Lee Chang-dong<br />
12. <span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span><i><b>Putty Hill</b></i> / Matt Porterfield</div>
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13. <i><b>Cold Weather</b></i> / Aaron Katz<br />
14. <i><b>Aurora</b></i> / Cristi Puiu<br />
15. <i><b>13 Assassins</b></i> / Takashi Miike<br />
16. <i><b>Mysteries of Lisbon</b></i> / Raúl Ruiz </div>
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17. <b><i>Nostalgia for the Light</i></b> / Patricio Guzmán<br />
18. <i><b>Shit Year</b></i> / Cam Archer<br />
19. <i><b>Le Havre</b></i> / Aki Kaurismäki </div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
20. <i><b>Film
Socialisme</b></i> / Jean-Luc Godard<br />
21. <i><b>The
Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu</b></i> /Andrei Ujica<br />
22. <i><b>Tree
of Life</b></i> / Terrence Malick<br />
23. <i><b>Tuesday
After Christmas</b></i> / Radu Muntean<br />
24. <i><b>Petition</b></i> / Zhao Liang<br />
25. <i><b>To
Die Like a Man</b></i> / João Pedro Rodrigues<br />
26. <i><b>Leap
Year</b></i> / Michael Rowe<br />
27. <i><b>Cave
of Forgotten Dreams</b></i> / Werner Herzog<br />
28. <i><b>Drive</b></i> / Nicolas Winding Refn<br />
29.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><i><b>The
Time That Remains</b></i> / Elia Suleiman<br />
30.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><b><i>The
Mill and the Cross</i></b> / Lech Majewski<br />
<br />
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</div>Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-64636556075497035212011-11-02T09:31:00.000-05:002011-11-02T09:31:00.499-05:00VIFF 2011 Film Roundup<style>
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<br />
66 films. 14 days. Here's what I saw, loosely ranked from most to least favorite, with a few notes and links to reviews I wrote. It's a great slate of films and you really have to get pretty far down the list to get to films I didn't care for. (Yep, I didn't like <i>Alps</i>.) Ratings out of 10.<br />
<br />
1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><b><i>House of Tolerance</i></b> / <i><b>House of Pleasures</b></i> (France) Bertrand Bonello <b><span style="color: red;">9.5</span></b><br />
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<br />
Love defies logic. Find the right key and the doors to the dopamine and serotonin fly open. For those with an affinity for film, this effect has probably happened while sitting in a theater. After seeing 64 films at VIFF, most of them slow, cerebral affairs, I went into <i>House of Tolerance</i> with little pretense and came out head over heels. Hopefully, as an untrained cinéastic, the right side of my brain was informing my left side in my adoration, and there is some sort of critical foundation to my crush. A provocative heartbreak of a film, <i>House of Tolerance</i> (ridiculously renamed <i>House of Pleasures</i> by IFC for its US release) is set in a high class Parisian brothel at the turn of the century. And while its themes and plush visuals reminded me of <i>Flowers of Shanghai</i>, <i>House of Tolerance</i> breaks out of that mold with grandiose highs and lows and a brutal plot thread. All of the courtesan tropes are there, but Bonello orchestrates them beautifully and sometimes rather clinically. But most importantly <i>House of Tolerance</i>'s soundtrack pulls out some of the best emotional trappings since Lee Myeong-se threw a Bee Gees song into an action sequence.<br />
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2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><b><i>This is Not a Film</i></b> (Iran) Jafar Panahi <b style="color: red;">9.5</b><br />
Tinged by bitter post-film developments (Jafar Panahi’s appeal denied; cameraman Mojtaba Mirtahmasb arrested), <i>This is Not a Film</i> is far less ostentatious than the title implies. Instead it’s an unprecedented construct that openly addresses the ubiquity of media, sometimes in its most raw form of self-discovery, and the weight of oppression on an altruistic artist. A day in the life under house arrest, Panahi composes an in-the-moment diary entry, not the least of which includes a reading from the screenplay that he was not allowed to film. <i>This is Not a Film</i> burns with subdued frustration and vulnerable humor building to a final shot of compulsive irreverence.<br />
(Capsule submitted to <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/home.html">In Review Online</a>'s NYFF coverage. No, I wasn't in NYC. If I had been, I would be yammering on about all the Nikkatsu films I saw. But many of the films playing at VIFF were also playing at the NYFF.)<br />
<br />
3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><i><b>Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</b></i> (Turkey) Nuri Bilge
Ceylan <b style="color: red;">9.5</b><br />
Nuri Bilge Ceylan allows his formal compulsions to recede into the background in favor of the sprawl of an impressionistic narrative in his latest, most realized film. While casually wandering the archeological rich countryside of the title, looking for a corpse, <i>Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</i> exhumes the dark fairy tales of public servants and the unfolding nightmares of two criminals. The characters vacillate between the perfunctory and the profound in a mysterious reality of effects without cause. But these somber and sometimes playful intrigues merely lead us down a road to a much less abstruse corporeal space where scalpel meets flesh and dirt clogs throat.<br />
(Capsule submitted to In Review Online's NYFF coverage.) <br />
<br />
4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><i><b>A Separation</b></i> (Iran) Aghar Farhadi <b style="color: red;">9</b><br />
Few films are able to keep such a character-rich balance while building a tense, plot-driven drama better than <i>A Separation</i>. Although literally tackling the marital difficulties of a young middle class couple, director Asghar Farhadi puts all manner of social issues under an incredibly absorbing microscope, with gender and class at the forefront. The film gives equal space to all characters: the religious caretaker, her downtrodden husband, the conflicted husband, the brazen wife and even the mature eleven-year-old daughter who is stuck in the middle. Tightly wound around an impeccable script and camera choreography, <i>A Separation</i> perfectly parables a country hurtling toward and uncertain future.<br />
(Capsule submitted to In Review Online's NYFF coverage.)<br />
<br />
5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><i><b>Year Without a Summer</b></i> (Malaysia) Tan Chui Mui <b><span style="color: red;">9</span></b><br />
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Caged in nostalgia and folklore, a man returns home to visit his friends and family he left behind. Beautiful and mysterious and completely unexpected.<br />
<br />
6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><i style="color: black;"><b>Eternity</b></i> (Thailand) Sivaroj Kongsakul <b><span style="color: red;">8.5</span></b><br />
Although it might be safe to say that Thailand had the corner on the gentle otherworldly genre, this might be a broad stereotype brought about by the widely-seen films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. But I would also include <i>Mundane History</i> (VIFF 2010) and this extremely beautiful love story by way of passing over into another world. I have little expectation that this film will gain any significant international distribution, so if it plays in a festival near you, please go see it!<br />
<br />
7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><i><b>Pina 3D</b></i> (Germany/France/UK) Wem Wenders <b><span style="color: red;">8.5 </span></b><br />
Naysayers beware! Wem Wenders <i>Pina 3D</i> was one of the most exhilarating films I saw at VIFF. The film is an unselfish homage to the work of modern dance icon Pina Bausch, who passed away quite suddenly early in the film’s production. Primarily a vehicle for her choreographed pieces—some performed on stage and some in the open-air ambiance of Wuppertal, Bausch’s creative home—the 3D perfectly captures the tactile buoyancy and physicality of these performances. Dispersed throughout are quiet portraits of her dance troupe, as animated and impassioned reflections of the artist. Art and film collide in the most unaffected manner.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.)<br />
<br />
8.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><i><b>The Turin Horse</b></i> (Hungary) Béla Tarr <b><span style="color: red;">8.5</span></b><br />
More on this later. I promise.<br />
<br />
9.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-apuda-review.php"><i><b>Apuda</b></i></a> (China) He Yuan <b style="color: red;">8.5 </b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-apuda-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
10.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-elena-review.php"><i><b>Elena</b></i></a> (Russia) Andrei Zvyagintsev <b style="color: red;">8.5</b><br />
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev crafts his best film yet with his third, a tightly wound drama of cinematic elegance. The matronly woman of the film’s title is a social survivor who understands the delicate balance between necessary acquiescence and taciturn defiance. But when her hand is forced, the film gives her a grand stage for a paradoxical tragedy of Shakespearian tone. Maternal instinct takes over and Elena rejects fate for conscious, if not reprehensible, volition. Zvyagintsev builds a palpable mood of suspense, staged with gorgeous long takes and scored with the effective anxious sounds of Phillip Glass.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.)<br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-elena-review.php">here</a>. <br />
<br />
11.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Le
Havre</b></i> (Finland/France) Aki Kaurismaki <b><span style="color: red;">8</span></b><br />
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A man in a black trench coat walks into a bar with a pineapple… Moments like these in <i>Le Havre</i>, delivered with a dry wit and in a peculiar light, will be very familiar to fans of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. But surrounding the sardonic humor is unremitting optimism and effervescent magic. Joining unlikely forces is an impassive aging shoeshine whiling away his time and a young illegal immigrant on the lam from the law, backed by an entire community of underserved idealists. Kaurismäki takes his local verve and goes global in a forgotten French port city, rife with gleeful tenderness and plainspoken marvels.<br />
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(Capsule submitted to In Review Online's NYFF coverage.) <br />
<br />
12.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Two
Years at Sea</b></i> (UK) Ben Rivers <b style="color: red;">8</b><br />
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13.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-are-we-really-so-far-from-a-madhouse-review.php"><i><b>Are We Really So Far From a Madhouse?</b></i></a> (China) Li Hongqi <b><span style="color: red;">8</span></b> <br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-are-we-really-so-far-from-a-madhouse-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
14.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>The
Sword Identity</b></i> (China) Xu Haofeng <b style="color: red;">8</b><br />
<br />
15.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>The
Day He Arrives</b></i> (S Korea) Hong Sang-soo <b style="color: red;">8</b><br />
Hong Sang-soo continues to amaze within a narrow frame of focus by somehow pulling a fresh rabbit out of the same hat. Hong evokes his playful side in <i>The Day He Arrives</i> by ruminating on the mound of minor coincidences that mold the lives of his admittedly fallible characters. The set up is familiar—a film director, his friends, women from his past and soju—but the narrative pattern is slightly askew, cycling through different possibilities ala <i>Groundhog Day</i>. But more importantly, Hong takes the opportunity to explore his charming, booze filled variations on a theme all within one film. Check out this brilliant tease of a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=_nuet1q58z8&feature=fvwp">trailer</a>.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.)<br />
<br />
16.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Policeman</b></i>
(Isreal) Nadav Lapid <b style="color: red;">8</b><br />
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17.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-headshot-review.php"><i><b>Headshot</b></i></a>
(Thailand) Pen-ek Ratanaruang <b style="color: red;">8</b><br />
Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang returns to the noir and grit of his cult crowd-pleasing 1999 film <i>6ixtynin9</i>, but with an added panache for murky spaces and nuanced storytelling. A man finds his altruistic ideals crushed on both sides of the law until he suffers a bullet to the head, turning his world upside-down (somewhat literally.) Concerned with enlightenment in a croaked world, <i>Headshot</i> skirts the edges of genre with a striking sense of ease and control. It runs through the well-trodden paces of political, police and criminal corruption with ample bloodletting but a unique set of credos.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.) <br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-headshot-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
18.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Martha
Marcy May Marlene</b></i> (USA) Sean Durkin <b><span style="color: red;">8</span></b><br />
<br />
19.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Life
Without Principal</b></i> (Hong Kong) Johnny To <b><span style="color: red;">7.5</span></b><br />
<br />
20.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-i-wish-review.php"><i><b>I Wish</b></i></a> (Japan) Hirokazu Kore-eda <b><span style="color: red;">7.5</span></b><br />
No one films the subtle affairs of the heart quite like the Japanese auteur Hirokazu Koreeda. He has mastered the ability to capture delicate shifts, shuffles and pangs without caving to predictable schmaltz and eye-rolling banality. <i>I Wish</i> folds these skills in with a group of charismatic young kids looking to make their dreams come true. At the center are two brothers struggling with the adjustment of living apart due to the irreconcilable differences of their parents. The humble perfection of <i>I Wish</i> is found in the generosity not only given to the kids but also to the adults harboring their own hopes and disappointments. Cynics need not apply.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.)<br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-i-wish-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
21.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Mr.
Tree</b></i> (China) Han Jie <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
<br />
22.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Low
Life</b></i> (France) Nicolas Klotz, Elisabeth Perceval <b style="color: red;">7.5</b><br />
In the grand tradition of French film burning with the ethos of May 68, <i>Low Life</i> emerges like a hot-blooded second cousin to Jean-Luc Godard’s <i>Film Socialisme</i>. An unsettled Paris is portrayed through the lives of disaffected young adults and disenfranchised immigrants in a meditative pool of intellectual ideals and carnal passion. Directors Nicolas Klotz and Elizabeth Perceval steady their aim at ill-defined movements of marginal cause and effect, juxtaposed with the less theoretical reality of deportation. These two worlds meet when a graduate student and an illegal Afghani immigrant fall in love. <i>Low Life</i> is a film to discover, with a distinct blend of dialectical acrobats and brooding hipsters that oddly culminates with a little sci-fi and a little magic.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.) <br />
<br />
23.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Kid
With a Bike</b></i> (Belgium/France/Italy) Dardennes <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
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24.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>The
Loneliest Planet</b></i> (Germany/USA) Julia Loktev <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
Western world privilege and confidence are at the center of the latent suspense that slowly spins in <i>The Loneliest Planet</i>. But so is the fragile trust between companions, both intimate and professional. Julia Loktev wields a careful hand on the perceptive story surrounding two beautiful, and engaged to be married, globetrotters (Hani Furstenberg and Gael Garcia Bernal) backpacking through the country of Georgia. Triangulated by a local guide, the group forms a jovial pack until an event, and a reaction, forms a mighty fissure. Unlike Loktev’s first feature <i>Day Night Day Night</i>, the insinuating introspection of <i>The Loneliest Planet</i> is both potent and convincing.<br />
(Capsule submitted to In Review Online's NYFF coverage.) <br />
<br />
25.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b style="color: black;">Kill
List</b></i> (UK) Ben Wheatley <b style="color: red;">7</b> <br />
Divisive, maybe to a fault, <i>Kill List</i> nonetheless pummels its way from drama to thriller to horror with riotous and cavalier flair.<br />
<br />
26.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Patience
(After Sebald)</b></i> (UK) Grant Gee <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
<br />
27.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Return
to Burma</b></i> (Taiwan) Midi Z <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
<br />
28.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>A
Simple Life</b></i> (Hong Kong) Ann Hui <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
Between <i>July Rhapsody</i>, <i>The Way We Are</i> and this film, Hui has made some of the best and most understated films coming out of Hong Kong. <br />
<br />
29.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b><i>The
Skin I Live In</i></b> (Spain) Pedro Almodóvar <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
With its veins pumped full of style, <i>The Skin I Live In</i> launches Pedro Almodóvar back into the spotlight with a riveting explosion of noir melodrama. Antonio Banderas plays a plastic surgeon too confident for his own good, and Elena Anaya plays the mysterious object of his demented affection. Harking back to Almodóvar’s early years, plotlines go haywire but with the measured control of his more recent films. But for all its storytelling confidence and cinematic elan, there is an absence emotional zeal. Obsession and death are brilliant but somewhat plastic tools of the film’s trade.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.) <br />
<br />
30.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Michael</b></i>
(Austria) Markus Schleinzer <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
<br />
31.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b><i>The
Color Wheel</i></b> (USA) Alex Ross Perry <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
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32.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Flirting
with Heights</b></i> (France) Jean-Michel Bertrand <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
<br />
33.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>A
Time to Love</b></i> (S Korea) Boo Jiyoung, Yang Ikjune <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
Omnibus things rarely work, but this South Korean dyptich was impressive. Thinking about it now, it would probably rank higher amongst the films I rated a 7. <br />
<br />
34.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Mitsuko
Delivers</b></i> (Japan) Yuya Ishii <b><span style="color: red;">7</span></b><br />
Can we call this screwball comedy?<br />
<br />
35.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Woman
in a Septic Tank</b></i> (Philippines) Marlon N. Rivera <b><span style="color: red;">7</span></b><br />
<br />
36.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-bachelor-mountain-review.php"><i><b>Bachelor Mountain</b></i></a> (China) Yu Guangyi <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-bachelor-mountain-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
37.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>The
Artist</b></i> (France) Michel Hazanavicius <b style="color: red;">7</b><br />
Michel
Hazanavicius ditches his <i>OSS 117</i> franchise for a very probable spin
through the awards circle. Although <i>The Artist</i> will likely dazzle
audiences with flashy design, good performances and cute dog, behind
this silent film’s undeniable charm is an unsurprising and rote story.
Jean Dujardin plays silent movie star George Valentin whose career is
threatened by Hollywood’s new fangled talkies. The film follows George’s
downfall and his love’s rise to the top. The fact that you can guess
what will happen every step of the way doesn’t decrease the enjoyment,
but it does increase its eventual depreciation.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.) <br />
<br />
38.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Nana</b></i>
(France) Valérie Massadian <b><span style="color: red;">6.5</span></b><br />
<br />
39.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b>Baby
Factory</b> (Philippines) Eduardo Roy Jr <b style="color: red;">6.5</b><br />
<br />
40.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Salt
of Life</b></i> (Italy) Gianni Di Gregorio <b><span style="color: red;">6.5</span></b><br />
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41.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Almayer’s
Folly</b></i> (Belgium/France) Chantal Akerman <b><span style="color: red;">6.5</span></b><br />
In her adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s first novel, Chantal Akerman casts a wider swath over the notion of colonialism. Taking touchstones from the book, <i>Almayer’s Folly</i> puts a more random spin on time and place with an effective theatrical air. Akerman piles on the atmosphere suffocating Almayer in his own malaise of failure while his wife and daughter burn with madness and rage, respectively. The film is a stunning treatment of the material, but alone it becomes an abstruse illusion with a topical fever of power, obsession, jealousy, depression and death.<br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.) <br />
<br />
42.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Invasion
of Alien Bikini</b></i> (S Korea) Oh Youngdoo <b><span style="color: red;">6.5</span></b><br />
<br />
43.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-dragonslayer-review.php"><i><b>Dragonslayer</b></i></a>
(USA) Tristan Patterson <b style="color: red;">6.5</b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-dragonslayer-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
44.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Bullhead</b></i>
(Belgium) Michael R. Roskam <b style="color: red;">6</b><br />
<br />
45.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Shattered</b></i>
(China) Xu Tong <span style="color: red;">6</span><br />
A disappointment compared to last year's stunning <i>Fortune Teller</i>.<br />
<br />
46.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Bonsái</b></i>
(Chile/France/Argentina) Cristián
Jiménez <b><span style="color: red;">6</span></b><br />
<br />
47.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Honey
Pupu</b></i> (Taiwan) Chen Hung-I <b><span style="color: red;">6</span></b><br />
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48.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-seediq-bale-review.php"><i><b>Seediq Bale</b></i></a> (Taiwan) Wei Te-Sheng <b><span style="color: red;">5</span></b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-seediq-bale-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
49.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>We
Can’t Go Home Again</b></i> (USA) Nicholas Ray and friends <b style="color: red;">5</b><br />
<br />
50.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Dendera</b></i>
(Japan) Tengan Daisuke <b style="color: red;">5</b><br />
<br />
51.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>My
Little Princess</b></i> (France) Eva Ionesco <b style="color: red;">5</b><br />
<br />
52.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>The
Sun Beaten Path</b></i> (China/Tibet) Sonthar Gyal <b style="color: red;">5</b><br />
<br />
53.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Outside
Satan</b></i> (France) Bruno Dumont <b><span style="color: red;">5</span></b><br />
<br />
54.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Recreation</b></i>
(Japan) Nagano Yoshihiro <b style="color: red;">5</b><br />
<br />
55.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>My
Back Page</b></i> (Japan) Yamashita Nobuhiro <b><span style="color: red;">5</span></b><br />
<br />
56.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-harakiri-death-of-a-samurai-review.php"><i><b>Harakiri:Death of a Samurai</b></i></a> (Japan) Takashi Miike <b style="color: red;">4</b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-harakiri-death-of-a-samurai-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
57.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Alps</b></i>
(Greece) Yorgos Lanthimos <b style="color: red;">4</b><br />
<br />
58.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>The
Mirror Never Lies</b></i> (Indonesia) Kamila Andini <b style="color: red;">4</b><br />
<br />
59.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Our
Future</b></i> (Japan) Iizuka Kashou <b style="color: red;">3</b><br />
<br />
60.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-hi-so-review.php"><i><b>Hi-So</b></i></a>
(Thailand) Aditya Assarat <b><span style="color: red;">3</span></b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-hi-so-review.php">here</a>.<br />
<br />
61.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Buddha
Mountain</b></i> (China) Li Yu <b><span style="color: red;">3 </span></b><br />
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I'm glad that Li Yu (who brazen started her career with a indie love story, <i>Fish and Elephant</i>, about two women<i></i>) continues to make films, but this is a mess. There's some good material for a music video here, but the story and script fail to launch with some cringe-worth melodrama. Starring Fan Bingbing, Sylvia Chang and Chen Bo-lin.<br />
<br />
62.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>There
Once Was an Island</b></i> (New Zealand/USA) Briar March <b style="color: red;">3</b><br />
A well intentioned but barely realized documentary about a community on a disappearing island off Papua New Guinea. <br />
<br />
63.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b><i>Sleeping
Beauty</i></b> (Australia) Julia Leigh <b><span style="color: red;">3</span></b><br />
It’s going take more than waifish confidence and blissful servanthood for me to buy what this austere, affected film is trying to sell. <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> channels the emotional distance of young woman (Emily Browning) willing to endure a drug induced sleep for the pleasures of elderly clientele. First time director and accomplished novelist Julia Leigh turns in a stylish debut, inhabiting an ethereal atmosphere that is not so different from her novels. But the characters are cardboard cutouts of failed hearts and broken psyches with little gravity, especially when tears are shed. Give me <i>Sucker Punch</i> any day. <br />
(Capsule submitted for my VIFF coverage at In Review Online.)<br />
<br />
64.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Fatigue</b></i>
(S Korea) Kim Dongmyung <b style="color: red;">2</b><br />
<i>Fatigue</i> is an extremely heavy-handed film about a woman in an oppressive domestic situation. The film steers far from literal interpretation, and I (incorrectly) read it as a lo-fi analogy about a male-dominated South Korean society. As it turns out, <i>Fatigue</i> is about the environment and a social engineering project going on right now to boast tourism...huh? The director was on hand to explain the film, but it only resulted in digging a hole. The Q&A was not pretty. <br />
<br />
65.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-white-review.php"><i><b>White</b></i></a>
(S Korea) Kim Sun, Kim Gok <b><span style="color: red;">2</span></b><br />
Read my review on Twitch <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/10/viff-2011-white-review.php">here</a>. <br />
<br />
66.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><b>Sufferosa</b></i>
(Poland/UK) Dawid Marcinkowski <b><span style="color: red;">0</span></b><br />
This is a web based idea, not a film. Check out the idea here at <a href="http://www.suferosa.com/">www.suferosa.com</a>. A frustrating waste of an hour on a gimmick.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-34903129610531515282011-10-17T10:21:00.002-05:002011-10-22T10:21:22.453-05:00VIFF 2011 Non-film RoundupHere's some photos from my two weeks in Vancouver for the International Film Festival. Yes, I spent most of my time inside a movie theater or cranking away in a notebook or on a laptop, but here is a nominal record of some other things that made my trip and experience special.<br />
<br />
VIFF was primarily housed in four venues, not including the Park which hosted the two 3D films in the line up. (No photo of the Park because I was too anxious about getting into both <span style="font-style: italic;">Pina</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Harakiri</span>, one of which was awesome and the other disappointing. Stay tuned if you don't already know the answer to that one.)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_xsVVj1B5jz0DBl7ZzpwUZnPqKqdCZGRbU4fqM4cujt3NL9plDssqjOTaNgEMt4dv0mrH7YbAaDlpqVu_MOpbpbeesdLI_WnuNrpz36p73fI6mTdm77cidLjgbEfkNIU925u88giKqiu/s1600/IMG_2433.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664298795462073202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_xsVVj1B5jz0DBl7ZzpwUZnPqKqdCZGRbU4fqM4cujt3NL9plDssqjOTaNgEMt4dv0mrH7YbAaDlpqVu_MOpbpbeesdLI_WnuNrpz36p73fI6mTdm77cidLjgbEfkNIU925u88giKqiu/s320/IMG_2433.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 240px;" /></a>The massive 1200 seat <a href="http://www.voguetheatre.com/index.php"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vogue Theater</span></a> was the place for the premieres and hot tickets of the fest, and it routinely filled up. Built in 1941, the Vogue is a venue for mostly live performance. (Tom Morello, looking old, coming soon.) I sat in the balcony every time I was in the Vogue, and oh, what a balcony it was. For Twin Cities folks, imagine the upper half of the Riverview being a balcony - huge! I heard one projectionist complaining about sore quads from climbing up the steps to the booth.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOCcg7hCm38dR-lnvTGU5r2s4tQ8z0zaEmAziJ39ARdVJtgi_fe6rCieH5BWS3R56jBMiLTczy6_1LEDD40aUTg5UesjZlHQHMZ3Jf4_p_Fk9iJ8aTEPRoggi4EaAf0eSUd3hs6SHCXiFj/s1600/IMG_2438.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664298791961211890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOCcg7hCm38dR-lnvTGU5r2s4tQ8z0zaEmAziJ39ARdVJtgi_fe6rCieH5BWS3R56jBMiLTczy6_1LEDD40aUTg5UesjZlHQHMZ3Jf4_p_Fk9iJ8aTEPRoggi4EaAf0eSUd3hs6SHCXiFj/s320/IMG_2438.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>The more modest <a href="http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pacific Cinémathèque</span></a> hidden behind the foliage is also a nice theater that has regular programming similar to the Trylon: great rep series and interesting first run screenings. It has a great feel to it and super duper comfortable seats. I would be at this theater a lot if I lived in Vancouver.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXtuTHpBSz38Ara0P53yjSyLOambj3UufRDx2liYkXDW0b8TRhEZAYHfG8qn6sO_LLPerORI9TihTmpQUDoRamyMhY8IV7d3CovZJ7Qau83EGYk-D4B2G5eCyEQrHbckzyAcxb6_uWzFBL/s1600/IMG_2430.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664298789164598706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXtuTHpBSz38Ara0P53yjSyLOambj3UufRDx2liYkXDW0b8TRhEZAYHfG8qn6sO_LLPerORI9TihTmpQUDoRamyMhY8IV7d3CovZJ7Qau83EGYk-D4B2G5eCyEQrHbckzyAcxb6_uWzFBL/s320/IMG_2430.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><a href="http://www.viff.org/theatre/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vancity Theatre</span></a> is the year around venue for VIFF and it is incredibly beautiful. The seats in the Vancity are like first class airplane seats (not that I've ever traveled first class...but I've seen those seats as I walk by!) At 170 seats, Vancity was probably the smallest venue but also the nicest.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjzAQnztwnyF29vFQZXhDiKEshc1cS36vWSLTI_wkr0cdq0UXyDxGIzyX13_aLzdguw6cLE-8XzYHUyP-NhwKP9PLsVPrdVVbjxWhaP3O2A8wbVNYWdONeXEl-2tFDDrGh91lpECohvCo/s1600/IMG_2481.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664298780993154930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjzAQnztwnyF29vFQZXhDiKEshc1cS36vWSLTI_wkr0cdq0UXyDxGIzyX13_aLzdguw6cLE-8XzYHUyP-NhwKP9PLsVPrdVVbjxWhaP3O2A8wbVNYWdONeXEl-2tFDDrGh91lpECohvCo/s320/IMG_2481.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 240px;" /></a>And finally, the <a href="http://www.empiretheatres.com/theatres/vancouver-empire-granville-7-cinemas"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Granville 7</span></a>, also known as VIFF Central Station. This seven screen multiplex was where 90% of the action was, and everyday I was shocked at the organization and planning that went into getting hundreds of people in and out and in and out of this bottleneck. The theater doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's towering lobby with all-glass windows is really nice, especially on those days where I needed to confirm that I wasn't a vampire.<br />
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Downtown Vancouver is flush with cheap eats, some better than others. Although I dipped by toe into the many inexpensive sushi places (finding a good one down near Vancity that suited me just right a couple times), my bread and butter was $5 or less. The true object of my Vancouver food obsession was <a href="http://www.japadog.com/en/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Japadog</span></a>, with carts around town and a storefront on Robson.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQlM_8WFDgeUeJpDEbgGQlbole5aInK4OnkhIeWv2ph41_XqR9-cze3wb4ZqMm9Ybls_bZmxBcTCyXaIwSXk-JgLD7ISSbaCYgY3HOmBgsbLwWlz9yecCCe6yElxfnK_KaXsXLcjmcbtY/s1600/IMG_2428.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664308667402268930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQlM_8WFDgeUeJpDEbgGQlbole5aInK4OnkhIeWv2ph41_XqR9-cze3wb4ZqMm9Ybls_bZmxBcTCyXaIwSXk-JgLD7ISSbaCYgY3HOmBgsbLwWlz9yecCCe6yElxfnK_KaXsXLcjmcbtY/s320/IMG_2428.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 240px; width: 320px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCWmn7Yh2WspXBQP2argnyhOHFak-Ir7-PJwdsoG-3XUCvmFCqaivcsm4tJzfdIUktuto-i4DauxPhcPArDEtBcPqmi0xiRYg5KFl1s4qSxvcnDCOBhDb_ulSAtArrGoYPNVvUmMnKOGq/s1600/IMG_2429.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664308671983639906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCWmn7Yh2WspXBQP2argnyhOHFak-Ir7-PJwdsoG-3XUCvmFCqaivcsm4tJzfdIUktuto-i4DauxPhcPArDEtBcPqmi0xiRYg5KFl1s4qSxvcnDCOBhDb_ulSAtArrGoYPNVvUmMnKOGq/s320/IMG_2429.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 240px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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This cart was conveniently located right outside the hotel of the VIFF media office. My favorite was the oroshi: a brat with grated daikon and soy sauce. Yum!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUb5ziXrG8Ht8K-9xD_wIHAbL7UrPLmnIKfSVxbfDCK3yGihcWeKuJkEyPT1yjcs9AIloK9TfUbyL7f917p4O36mKKpwR69G0T0cHnEQrakZRAmvIEJewLw-5yzp6ZfU1VEp2dzvRYooPL/s1600/IMG_2482.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664310045904250130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUb5ziXrG8Ht8K-9xD_wIHAbL7UrPLmnIKfSVxbfDCK3yGihcWeKuJkEyPT1yjcs9AIloK9TfUbyL7f917p4O36mKKpwR69G0T0cHnEQrakZRAmvIEJewLw-5yzp6ZfU1VEp2dzvRYooPL/s400/IMG_2482.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Here's the outside of their storefront on Robson between Richards and Seymour, but if it was too packed it didn't matter. Right next door at Viet Subs you could get an amazing bahn mi (rivaling St Paul's Saigon Cafe sandwiches) that you could easily smuggle into any theater. And on the corner is Gyudon-ya, an inexpensive rice bowl restaurant that does a bustling business. Top any of those off with a cream puff from Beard Papa's (with rotating flavors like mango, caramel, and green tea) and you will be ready to take on a day of movies.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZXFjZDS4_j9DUC4Jh9A4-53XqwWtcjhsvSWiDaI0uGSYosa8z8RgWDb6mHtXsSuvjEZkWHjKKNnoGXeVhwTYCKVeD3iS1EkYvHsd8ZJf_zZhUuRI-IgAPpSBTRBMucncfnvI_BaOv7woD/s1600/IMG_2460.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664314389121094290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZXFjZDS4_j9DUC4Jh9A4-53XqwWtcjhsvSWiDaI0uGSYosa8z8RgWDb6mHtXsSuvjEZkWHjKKNnoGXeVhwTYCKVeD3iS1EkYvHsd8ZJf_zZhUuRI-IgAPpSBTRBMucncfnvI_BaOv7woD/s320/IMG_2460.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 240px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLuuVoFE3Rgqi7iAvikQvplMT4mslAYP6IZanzIAdl8ii2Cm-DsRKCM4kuKkZQpfbNMwjkIP2uHXSSGEowyVhj0Zim7VPaBfYAdAcLm6jb1UZWs2R1ivnM7V91tRTbYGzgyiJpx3FXwVU/s1600/IMG_2455.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664314384647153138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLuuVoFE3Rgqi7iAvikQvplMT4mslAYP6IZanzIAdl8ii2Cm-DsRKCM4kuKkZQpfbNMwjkIP2uHXSSGEowyVhj0Zim7VPaBfYAdAcLm6jb1UZWs2R1ivnM7V91tRTbYGzgyiJpx3FXwVU/s320/IMG_2455.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; height: 320px; width: 240px;" /></a></div>
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Vancouver has nature! Not that I saw much of it, but here we are at <a href="http://lynncanyon.ca/" style="font-weight: bold;">Lynn Canyon Park</a>, the suspension bridge that the locals go to. (Props to the good folks at the media office for this free recommendation!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfhYlP6OvugeM5Vt1J2xnYg_-s6LcBRTf4Goo_zT9UfT8HvnGpE_ddUJ0zF8Q80BgXYrIwRVFE5Jbm-Ya8VYA8c0VCeaTUXD3hyCt6pCbDtrkhfDi_UKeVPHNP6-aFBBgEU0kLzlm9Ybw0/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664315771546349602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfhYlP6OvugeM5Vt1J2xnYg_-s6LcBRTf4Goo_zT9UfT8HvnGpE_ddUJ0zF8Q80BgXYrIwRVFE5Jbm-Ya8VYA8c0VCeaTUXD3hyCt6pCbDtrkhfDi_UKeVPHNP6-aFBBgEU0kLzlm9Ybw0/s400/IMG_2478.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>I bet you didn't know that one of those exits from Union Street Station puts you in Vancouver. Or at least it did for one morning.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlhotW5C5CdphZyaR9vI9juap1u0tjCy71XxQJUHyzMk64onHWC1FvAtr36OswrTnvi7KGuEeNMWZQul4k7eTHbdhKHJE6pmhwwyVOIR3CZluPIf8hF7L7KlBYjtDp9EzH73tFrRWMIc4I/s1600/IMG_2440.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664316853461316274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlhotW5C5CdphZyaR9vI9juap1u0tjCy71XxQJUHyzMk64onHWC1FvAtr36OswrTnvi7KGuEeNMWZQul4k7eTHbdhKHJE6pmhwwyVOIR3CZluPIf8hF7L7KlBYjtDp9EzH73tFrRWMIc4I/s400/IMG_2440.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>In between films I worked on my behind-the-back dribble here. Steve Nash was able to give me some good pointers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijn8nBKuu5YONowZusD8FOIUvMFJeWLz4R2RihSfjUFf-1DUNsXALhAcs_HzHHe8c0n-pC48M3H8-n8HvC3JaMiHL_14gSmsKDyY_DP6DTndlHrpT6BvdctGl4zVKQ_PUia0NAU_LydC8N/s1600/IMG_2443.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664316842979689890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijn8nBKuu5YONowZusD8FOIUvMFJeWLz4R2RihSfjUFf-1DUNsXALhAcs_HzHHe8c0n-pC48M3H8-n8HvC3JaMiHL_14gSmsKDyY_DP6DTndlHrpT6BvdctGl4zVKQ_PUia0NAU_LydC8N/s400/IMG_2443.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a>A poster in the hostel I was staying that had an unwitting VIFF 2011 theme to it. (Cough, cough. Aki Kaurismaki's most recent.) The St. Clair Hostel has done me right for the second year in a row, providing the most amazing free Thanksgiving dinner. Even if I could afford the Sutton with the film fest rock stars, I prefer the humble and mellow ambiance of the St. Clair.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3L57H-yWMHhLMWNdWQ8k6_m3bdhLNvLvWs3HUYoOqsN8eDrLRJKFLAME09sOy_XQnyhzK4rYWSfUYZYgyUZAE9QsPjnevlvJcl3rf1_3eUkloHnc53sTbzMWvLCM1s4lhEegExwQ2BX3/s1600/IMG_2484.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664316834487436370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3L57H-yWMHhLMWNdWQ8k6_m3bdhLNvLvWs3HUYoOqsN8eDrLRJKFLAME09sOy_XQnyhzK4rYWSfUYZYgyUZAE9QsPjnevlvJcl3rf1_3eUkloHnc53sTbzMWvLCM1s4lhEegExwQ2BX3/s400/IMG_2484.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>And last but not least, a big shout out to my buddy Erik McClanahan who contributes to the Playlist and works for the NW Film Center in Portland. For the second year in a row, Erik and I have been festival roommates and movie comrades. I love talking to this guy about movies, even if he is over-obsessed with <span style="font-style: italic;">Drive</span>. Above is a drawing by a panhandler made while we stood in line for tickets. The guy earned his 2 bucks.<br />
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Up next: the final tally of films, their rankings, my ramblings and link to reviews.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4960801109466931460.post-70973284316576696192011-09-16T11:26:00.003-05:002011-09-16T11:42:30.239-05:0030th Vancouver International Film Festival<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPfGN8xCF3zCbHibfPC3QlvOU7xiPWt53yoeI8rzqQ5pv64CjNY580v7wITfLvkZzdBjsAHDVdSeKIO-0jjsnU5T0GlNRQVQ4EaVvhvSt-HyZE207LCZi1pahBy66MMYzKwFltATCjEvk/s1600/filmfestival-w-eye-web.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 168px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPfGN8xCF3zCbHibfPC3QlvOU7xiPWt53yoeI8rzqQ5pv64CjNY580v7wITfLvkZzdBjsAHDVdSeKIO-0jjsnU5T0GlNRQVQ4EaVvhvSt-HyZE207LCZi1pahBy66MMYzKwFltATCjEvk/s320/filmfestival-w-eye-web.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652998447910946674" border="0" /></a>The <a href="http://filmguide.viff.org/tixSYS/2011/filmguide/">full schedule</a> for the 30th Vancouver International Film Festival went live over last weekend with 375+ films from 75 countries. The Fest will open with Pedro Almodóvar’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Skin I Live In</span> on September 29 and close two weeks later with the Dardenne Brother’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Kid With a Bike</span>. VIFF and its stellar array of films might be overshadowed by Toronto’s buzz, glitz and glam (not to mention the other film festival also known as VIFF), but Vancouver packs 16 days with an eclectic mix of films, including the largest East Asian selection outside of that region and the influential Dragons & Tigers Award.<br /><br />In competition for the Dragons & Tigers Award are eight films: three from the Philippines, two from South Korea, two from Japan, and one judiciously stated from China, parenthetically, Tibet. This year’s jurors are producer Simon Field (<span style="font-style: italic;">Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">I Can’t Sleep Alone</span>), director Ann Hui (<span style="font-style: italic;">July Rhapsody</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Way We Are</span> and this year’s <span style="font-style: italic;">A Simple Life</span>) and actor/director Yang Ik-joon (<span style="font-style: italic;">Breahtless</span>). The award, announced October 8, has had a long history of recognizing some of the most important young talent coming out of the region, including the debut features of Jia Zhangke, Hong Sang-soo, Lee Chang-dong and Hirokazu Kore-eda.<br /><br />There are 46 Asian features in the Dragons & Tigers Program, and rounding out the award nominees are new films from well-known directors (Johnnie To’s Life <span style="font-style: italic;">Without Principle</span>, Hong Sang-soo’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Day He Arrives</span>, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s <span style="font-style: italic;">I Wish</span>, Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Headshot</span> and Takashi Miike’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Harakiri: Death of a Samurai</span>) as well as a number of highly anticipated titles (Wei Te-sheng’s four-hour epic <span style="font-style: italic;">Warrior’s of the Rainbow: Seeqid Bale</span>, Xu Haofeng’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Sword Identity</span> and Jang Hun’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Front Line</span>.) But it is the remaining discoveries of under-the-radar Asian films, curated by Tony Rayns and Shelly Kraicer, which make the Dragons & Tigers Program a unique treasure trove.<br /><br />On the international stage VIFF offers regional premieres of some of the most talked about films on the festival circuit. Fresh from Cannes and direct form Toronto, VIFF 2011 will include Aki Kaurismäki’s first feature in five years <span style="font-style: italic;">Le Harve</span>, Gerardo Naranjo’s follow-up to <span style="font-style: italic;">I’m Gonna Explode</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Miss Bala</span>, Wim Wender’s 3D documentary <span style="font-style: italic;">Pina</span>, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</span>, novelist Julia Leigh’s debut <span style="font-style: italic;">Sleeping Beauty</span>, Frederick Wiseman’s newest <span style="font-style: italic;">Crazy Horse</span>, Jafar Panahi’s <span style="font-style: italic;">This is Not a Film</span>, filmed under house arrest, and Bela Tarr’s purportedly final film, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Turin Horse</span>.<br /><br />Equally exciting is the long list of buzz worthy titles making an appearance at VIFF. Markus Schleinzer’s debut film <span style="font-style: italic;">Michael</span> seems worthy of controversy. Recently picked up by Strand, <span style="font-style: italic;">Michael</span> taps into the taboo subject of pedophilia. Also sure to divide audiences is Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to <span style="font-style: italic;">Dogtooth</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">ALPS</span>. Lanthimos employs more of an ensemble for his newest that has been called an “absurdist ghost story.” Also of note: one of the latest in a exploding US independent scene, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Color Wheel</span> from Alex Ross Perry; the SXSW and Hot Docs favorite from Tristan Patterson, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dragonslayer</span>; the sophomore features from Julia Loktev (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Loneliest Planet</span>), Ben Wheatley (<span style="font-style: italic;">Kill List</span>) and Canada’s own Sarah Polley (<span style="font-style: italic;">Take This Waltz</span>.)<br /><br />The Vancouver International Film Festival, in its 30th year, runs from September 29 to October 14. I will be there from September 30 to October 14, covering the festival daily for <a href="http://twitchfilm.com/">Twitch</a> and providing festival overviews for <a href="http://www.inreviewonline.com/inreview/home/home.html">In Review Online</a> and <a href="http://www.kfai.org/">KFAI</a>.Kathie Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11855869667016065649noreply@blogger.com4