VIFF: Day 8

Merry-Go-Round (2010)
Yan Yan Mak and Clement Cheng
Hong Kong

Gallants might be the Clement Cheng film that everyone is talking about, but the Vancouver native also has a second 2010 film, Merry-Go-Round. Co-directed with up-and-coming female director Yan Yan Mak, Merry-Go-Round passes on parody and laughs in favor of humanism and drama. The film cleverly combines four individuals, two generations and two continents into a story about immigration and emigration. The film opens in San Francisco where Eva (played by 70s kung fu star Nora Miao) is a traditional Chinese doctor and Nam is a young lost soul looking for herself. The two of them both make the trip to Hong Kong to deal with unfinished business. Nam lands a job in a a coffin depository that is overseen by Hill (played by the Gallant crowd-please Teddy Robin Kwan). Eva returns to her father's herbal medicine shop to persuade her nephew, Fung, not to sell the family property. Eventually the storyline draws the four of them together in somewhat unexpected ways but with somewhat expected results. Mak and Cheng earn huge marks for the casting of Kwan and Miao, the latter an icon that has seen little screen time in the last 30 years. Cheng, tipping his hand as the kung fu fan that Gallants proves him to be, has one very satisfying scene where Eva gives her nephew the kind of smackdown that she was doing in films like Fist of Fury. Merry-Go-Round champions an independent feel that is rare in Hong Kong film, but unfortunately much of the drama suffers from the incessant pop-infused soundtrack. Rising stars in the field, Clement Cheng and Yan Yan Mak are two to watch.


The Fourth Portrait (2010)
Chung Mong-hong
Taiwan

Chung Mong-hong is yet another discovery, at least for me, from Taiwan. Although The Fourth Portrait is only his second feature, it's enough of a standout to chase down his first feature, Parking. The Fourth Portrait is inventively paced and beautifully shot. Xiang is ten years old and his father has just died. It rests upon his shoulders to go home and find his father's nicest suit and his best photograph. Unable to find a photo, Xiang produces the first portrait that sets up the film's modest narrative drive. Although it is clear that we will see three more portraits drawn by Xiang, they turn out to be unusual signposts in his journey. While the narrative moves forward, Chung switches the gears ever-so-slightly so that The Fourth Portrait feels fresh. Xiang is left to fend for himself until he is caught stealing food by a stern but caring janitor who takes Xiang under his wing. Suddenly the path for where the film is going is clear. Not quite. The film shifts: Xiang's mother is found and is taking him to her home where she has a new husband and newly born child. Once again, the film seems to settle into a groove, but wrong again. Xiang is the befriended by an older hang-about who only seems to be good at petty crime. Chung does this a few more times slowly working its way through Xiang's four portraits. Make no doubt about it, The Fourth Portrait is a coming of age story, but one told with inventive spirit and sophistication.


The Ugly Duckling (2010)
Garri Bardin
Russia/France

Garri Bardin's stop-motion animation of the much loved parable is at the very least a joy to watch. The creative character designs and slightly socialist connotation brings something totally new to the tale. The diabolical ducklings and the alien-headed goslings never failed to get a chuckle out of me. The operatic over-the-top score, however, is as pummeling as the relentless oppression of our poor ugly little duckling. There's an overwhelming cynicism to this adaptation that felt unnecessary.

Gallants (2010)
Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng
Hong Kong

So glad I got to see extremely fun film on the big screen in a packed house. Gallants is a loving homage to the kung fu films from the 60s and 70s ala Shaw Brothers and Bruce Lee. Clement Cheng this time aligns himself with Derek Kwok, someone he has worked with before as a screenwriter and who is breaking out onto the Hong Kong scene. In a sleepy part of Hong Kong, a helpless young man by the name of Leung has been sent to settle a property dispute. On his route he is bullied by a little kid, who Leung in turn bullies only to get bullied by the kid's father. A passerby takes pity on Leung and stops the very uneven fight. The selfless hero turns out to be the be the aging but legendary Tiger. Tiger and his fellow martial arts brother Dragon have been quietly holding vigil over their master, Law, who has been in a coma for 30 years. Old rivalries ignite as well as the fighting passion within Leung as master Law miraculously awakes to his biggest challenge yet! The brilliance of Gallants is not only in the overt style that Kwok and Cheng chooses to parody with great wit, but also in its cast. The trio of old-timers—Bruce Leung, Chen Kuan-tai and Teddy Robin Kwan—deliver more charisma than seems fair for one movie. Clement Cheng himself must be a creative force to be reckoned with, working on projects as diverse as Gallants and Merry-Go-Round. Gallants is not going to move mountains, but it sure is a raucous romp and a must see for any fan of the genre.

Rubber (2010)
Quentin Dupieux
France/USA

Rubber is occasionally very clever, occasionally very funny, occasionally overly self-conscious and occasionally too redundant. A movie within a movie (but more importantly, an audience watching an audience), Rubber tells the tale of a rogue tire—abandoned in the desert and gaining a taste for blood (or more accurately gaining a taste for blowing things up with its tire-mind.) The introduction to the film comes from a police officer who pops out of the trunk of a car to explain that things in movies happen for no reason. Why is E.T. brown? No reason. Why do the two people in Love Story fall madly in love? No reason. Why does a complete stranger assassinate the president in JFK. No reason. And so it goes. Most things happen in Rubber for—you guessed it—no reason, and for almost half the film it is interesting. Rubber is very strange and it doesn't really work overall, but compared to the other midnight film (L.A. Zombie which I will get to in my next update), Rubber looks like a masterpiece.

Fortune tellers and fairy tales. VIFF: Day 3

Seven Days in Heaven (2010)
Wang Yu-lin, Essay Liu
Taiwan

A perfectly calculated dramody, Seven Days in Heaven is an excellent representation of a mainstream film from Taiwan that will probably never find its way across the Taiwan Straight or the South China Sea, let alone the Pacific Ocean. Debut directors, Wang Yu-lin and Essay Liu, effortlessly combine refreshing humor and bittersweet sorrow that feels honest to the characters they represent. After Lin Guo-yan passes away, his family and friends congregate for a funeral with all the Buddhist bells and whistles. Steeped in rigorous tradition, the funeral must be carried out with specified ritual and seven days of mourning. The majority of this burden falls on Lin's daughter, Mei, and son, Da-zhi. The two follow all the filial obligations while also dealing with their very mixed emotions. Presiding over the ceremony is Yi, an eccentric Taoist priest and hobbyist poet, and his multifaceted girlfriend who works as a professional mourner, karaoke singer and all around charmer. The script is whip-smart and is able to build the characters into unique yet familiar individuals. Light and entertaining, Seven Days balances complex emotions with ironic wit into a very sweet affair of the heart.


Pinoy Sunday (2010)
Ho Wi Ding
Taiwan

Pinoy Sunday is a buddy film about two immigrant Filipino workers in Taiwan. With the promise of higher wages, Manuel and Dado travel far from their home as contract workers in a bicycle manufacturing plant. Manuel is the free spirit and smooth talker who worries more about chasing girls than being deported for curfew violations. Dado is a family man who left a wife and daughter back in the Philippines and is now guilt ridden about the girlfriend he has in his new home. Down on their luck and feeling low, Manuel and Dado spot an expensive abandoned sofa that symbolizes a brighter future for the two of them. The only problem is how the money-strapped duo will get the sofa back across town before their curfew. Like a hybrid 48 Hours, Pinoy Sunday tracks their mission impossible from city center to police station to river crossing. Unfortunately Manuel and Dado are sketched as caricatures and never allow the film to levitate beyond its own contrivances. As they bicker their way across town, they are scripted into corners of calculated humor. It's hard to take either of their characters seriously, even when they are being serious, and that likewise carries over to the entire film.


Peace (2010)
Soda Kazuhiro
Japan/USA

A simply yet poetic "observation film," Peace was commission by the DMZ Documentary Film Festival, a festival that highlights the complicated issues at the North and South Korea Demilitarized Zone. Kazuhiro's film focuses on the humanitarian work of Kashiwagi Toshio and his wife Hiroko. The couple run a non-profit to help the elderly and disabled who do not have the ability to drive. The people they visit, help and just spend time with are those cast aside with little or no support system left. There kind-hearted endeavors carry over to the gang of motley cats that take refuge in their backyard. Also unwanted by the majority of society, the cats become an allegory for the disabled and the infirmed. Kazuhiro's gentle portrait finds a simple power in humanity and kindness - an onscreen rarity.

The Sleeping Beauty (2010)
Catherine Breillat
France

Coming at this film with only a Walt Disney knowledge of the fairy tell "Sleeping Beauty" is not going to help anyone. Catherine Breillat tackles her second fairy tale in so many years with surreal and abstract panache. And while the origins of Bluebeard's sinisterness is obvious, The Sleeping Beauty's is buried within Charles Perrault's original from 1697 as well as other adaptations that followed. But even full knowledge of these texts may not help navigate Breillat's obscure intentions with this lavishly detailed but highly digressive adaptation. Much like the original, a young princess is cursed at birth to fall into a deep sleep that will last 100 years. But here is where the film splits with the text as Breillat freely improvises a surreal world that feels merely inspired by the fairy tale. Anastasia, as the princess is named here, spends much of the film wandering a dreamworld that she enters after impaling (not pricking) her hand. The Sleeping Beauty is full of the most striking images that resonate and leave an impression: vultures perched in a tree with a slate-grey sky; they young girl riding a deer in a pink outfit through a snowy landscape; the ogre covered in boils who challenges the young girl. Unfortunately the narrative details become as confounding and tedious as the ambiguous logic behind this loosely woven story. Fairy tales, and their perverse subtexts, seem perfect for Breillat's keen eye for social and sexual politics, but this one is far too drawn out and elusive, even for this fan.


Fortune Teller (2009)
Xu Tong
China

Armed with an HD camera, Xu Tong has made one of the bravest documentaries I have ever seen. Brave, not so much because of the risk or the strength it took to make Fortune Teller, but brave because the importance of the subject matter is placed ahead of the importance of the audience. Xu Tong takes a long look (2 1/2 hours) at Li Baicheng, a traditional Chinese fortune teller, and his wife Pearl Shi. Both are physically disabled and int their 60s, and Pearl is also mentally disabled. The couple, and most the people they come in contact with, represent the fringes of the fringes of Chinese society. Its a completely engrossing examination that is as rewarding as it is painful. I was completely galvanized. (This is an international premiere for Fortune Teller and I plan on spending some time on a full review.)

Catherine Breillat's A REAL YOUNG GIRL (1976)

Oh, my poor neglected blog. Here's a review, full of keywords that will surely bring out the spammy comments, that I wrote for an upcoming In Review Online feature on the films of Catherine Breillat. I chose to review her debut feature (which I hadn't seen at the time) thinking it would be tamer than her more infamous films like Romance or Fat Girl. What I learned in the process was that Breillat had been arming her battle stations as a novelist for over ten years before embarking on her career as a film director and that A Real Young Girl may be her most audacious film to date. There is little irony that the abrupt and 'shocking' ending is overshadowed by the films overall brazenness. Experiencing A Real Young Girl is overwhelming, to say the least, but it is also a film worth considering from two steps back, which I've tried to do here.

Catherine Breillat ushers in her filmmaking career with similar controversy that accompanied her writing career. Her directorial debut, A Real Young Girl, instantly paved the trajectory for one of the most compelling oeuvre in cinematic past, present and future. Clear eyed and focused, Breillat steps into the filmmaking ring and throws a defiant punch in the face that will likely take just about anyone by surprise. Adapted from her own novel, Le Soupirail, A Real Young Girl would have been the film that gave pause to the chauvinistic French film celebration, had it gotten the attention it deserved. Walking a fine line between soft-core porn and arthouse drama, this lucid shocker was brushed under the rug until its eventual release in 1999, almost 25 years after the fact. Even 35 years later, this film feels like a subversive bitch slap to the on-screen clichés of feminism in film. (See the inane conversation about ‘women’s films’ after Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Picture Oscar.) Breillat makes the men the passive objects and unapologetically treats a teenage girl as a vibrant sexual being instead of a visual sexual object, quietly begging the question of how many times we’ve seen just the opposite. Although audacious and subversive, A Real Young Girl feels far more personal than a film simply motivated by the base transgression that got it sidelined.

Much of the cause célèbre lies not only in the blunt shots of genitalia but also in the crude juxtapositions—sticky flypaper and unorthodox masturbation or the slaughter of a chicken and abstract sexual fantasies—generated from the perspective of a bored misanthropic bourgeois teenager named Alice. Forced to spend her summer vacation at her parents’ quiet country home, Alice spends her days honing her self-awareness by either traipsing through a littered field with her panties pulled down or reveling in the ‘liberation’ of her own warm vomit. Her adversary is her stern mother and her puppet is her plump, dandyish father. Enter Jim, a sullen and fit mystery man who works at her father’s sawmill. The hunky laborer sparks Alice’s post-pubescent exploration of unbound fantasies and desires. Coyly showing up at the mill, Alice attempts to lure Jim with seductive glimpses through the stacks of lumber or by not-so-subtly lifting her skirt as she gets on her bike. This is all foreplay for the fantasies Alice will build about Jim, as aggressor and self-pleasing companion, while she negotiates the mundane yet turbulent world at large.

For the duration, we are held hostage by Alice’s brazen psyche, making for an unsettling ride not unlike a scene where Alice provocatively joins a man on an amusement park ride only to be disgusted by his jerking off. Although A Real Young Girl is a dreamy blend of fact and fantasy, you can also envision that the entire film takes place inside Alice’s head as she lies on her bed with her eyes closed. Breillat’s depiction of femininity in revolt may be an assault, but it is also fastidiously unique. Alice’s innocence exists in the lack of humility, not in naiveté or stupidity. But Alice is also nothing more than a typical teenager, flushed with contradictory emotions and susceptible to the same social influences as everyone else. Breillat infuses the story with a catchy and banal pop song “Am I a Young Girl” that resonates with Alice: “I’m a little girl. I don’t know, no I don’t know. How big a girl I am, only you can tell. Please, please, tell me, tell me now, what you like about me.” When Alice hears the song on the radio, she admits her gullible connection to the song—and her very simple desire to be understood—and addresses the singer: “I’d do anything for that woman.” Made years before the world realized Catherine Breillat’s nuances and before she was crowned heir apparent of the New French Extremity, A Real Young Girl matches debut mettle with dauntless muster by tackling themes and presenting images in a bold analytical statement.

MSPIFF 2010: Day 9

Bluebeard (2009) Catherine Breillat - Recommended
I am eternally grateful that Catherine Breillat's films are becoming less and less painful. And by painful, I certainly don't mean 'bad' (Breillat's films don't exactly insight such simplistic judgements), but painful because of their unflinching, brutal honesty. The provocation that Breillat was content to hand out has given way to something a little more playful but no less thought provoking with The Last Mistress and her most recent film Bluebeard. The thing that is most striking about Bluebeard is its simplicity. The story of Bluebeard is told from duel perspectives: the first is a literal depiction of the 17th century fairytale in period regalia, and the second is a contemporary reaction to the macabre story as two young sisters read it from a book. The set up is nothing short of brilliant, balancing the then and the now. The then: the sexual allure and curiosity of a rebellious girl who volunteers to marry a 'monster.' The now: the cautionary and moral lessons in the form of fiction to a puritanical society. The period portion is enchanting and is every much the folk tale it should be. Bluebeard is a gruff but gentle man whose physical grotesqueness and murdering tendencies are covert. His young bride is dwarfed by his size, but not by his personality. In many ways, she is more bold than the notorious Bluebeard, foreshadowing a fate that he has yet to realize. The lasting image of the young bride stoking the hair on Bluebeard's decapitated head is haunting. But so is the odd and abrupt ending for the two young girls innocently reading the story. There was a woman on hand at the beginning of the screening who was reading passages from a forthcoming book from U of M professor Jack Zipes entitled The Enchanted Screen: A History of Fairy Tales on Film. Breillat's Bluebeard is included in the book.

Videocracy (2009) Erik Gandini - Highly Recommended
From the standpoint of the material it dissects, Videocracy was the best documentary I saw during the fest. An absorbing look at Italy's celebrity culture, Videocracy starts at the top with Silvio Berlusconi's media empire and works its way down the spiraling staircase of a fame mongering society. Berlusconi laid the groundwork for his future when he bought a television station in the 70s that was made famous by a quiz show in which an ordinary housewife would take off a piece of clothing with each correct answer from the audience. Sowing the seeds for trash television, Italy now has a population of young women obsessed with become a veline, or a host who dances and generally acts like a slutty Vanna White to the numerous Pat Sejack's of news and entertainment on Italian television. Somehow director Erik Gandini was able to immerse himself inside the thinly veiled Berlusconi machine. From the fame-controlling paparazzi to the mousy mega-producer who idolizes Benito Mussolini, Gandini draws out a fascinating and insidious cycle of the beautiful and rich steering both the demand and the consumption of celebrity drivel. Our moral center is a man who is a mechanic but who desperately wants in on his 15 seconds of Italian fame. American culture as it is, you would think that this type of mania is nothing new, but what is revealed in Videocracy is a creature of another kind, hopelessly intertwined with politics. I've spent the last year associating everything I see or hear about Italy with Matteo Garrone's film and Roberto Saviano's book Gamorrah. Now I will be combining that with what I have seen in Videocracy, including the bizarre campaign song for Berlusconi where the refrain is "Thank God Silvio exists."

Night Catches Us (2010) Tanya Hamilton - Recommended
Receiving ample buzz at Sundance, Night Catches Us is a highly anticipated entry in American independent film, and rightly so. Tanya Hamilton's feature debut is a powerful yet low-key drama that smolders with subtlety in the hands of the two leads, Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington. The fact that Night Catches Us is skirting the margins of festival screenings with no wide release date in sight is a crime. Set in Philadelphia 1976, Marcus (Mackie) returns home for his father's funeral after an extended exile. Tensions are high between Marcus and his brother, who believes he abandoned his family, and between Marcus and his former Black Panther brothers who believe Marcus betrayed them. The only kind face Marcus finds is his friend Patty (Washington), now an up-and-coming lawyer trying to make a difference in the courts and the community. In the mix is a secret about why Marcus left town and why most of his former friends feel betrayed. Although Jimmy Carter's voice in present in the background and the struggle for racial equality simmers on the periphery, Hamilton's film focuses on the characters and the inner anguish of trying to move on. Night Catches Us is handsome in its period depiction of 1970s Philly. Everything seems cast with a golden light of a tarnished bygone era meticulously recreated. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the Roots turns in most of the music for the soundtrack (with Tariq Trotter playing the role of Marcus's brother.) Night Catches Us is not flawless however. The girl who plays Patty's young daughter is handed some lines she can't really pull off, and some of the various narrative off-shoots feel halfhearted. That being said, Night Catches Us is far better than average and feels like it should be enjoying a larger stage than it currently has.

The Revenant (2009) D. Kerry Prior - Not Recommended
The Revenant was the best film I saw out of the late night series MSPIFF programed, which isn't saying much. Although I didn't see Red White & Blue, the other three in the series (The Forbidden Door, The Wild Hunt, and this one) barely tripped the entertainment meter and were all too self-conscious in their attempts to be edgy. In the case of The Revenant, a so-called zombie buddy movie, it is trying too hard to be ironic. Bart comes back from the dead, not as a zombie, not as a vampire, but as a revenant. His friend Joey attempts to help him navigate his undead lifestyle in the most harmless way possible. Vomiting and blood sucking hijinks ensue with a little partying in between. The Revenant is good for some laughs, but most of the jokes get pretty stale by the end of the movie and you really just want all the characters to be dead and stay dead. Give any horror film enough time and it becomes satirical all by itself. Shaun of the Dead was a unique film at the time, but is ultimately a one trick pony. Parodies, like The Revenant, now feel self-reflexive simply for the sake of being self-reflexive.

MSPIFF 2010: Day 4

Nénette (2010) Nicolas Philibert - Recommended
Nénette is a 40 year-old orangutan who has spent 37 of those years in captivity at the Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Nicolas Philibert trains his camera on Nénette and her three orangutan companions behind the thick observation glass of the zoo and never deviates from them. A vocal narrative accompanies the images with interviews about Nénette and conversations people have with and about the orangutans in front of the protective glass. Sometimes this was the din of a hundred school children and sometimes this was the thoughtful presumptions about Nénette's life. Philibert, the director of the most successful documentary in France, To Be and to Have, is one of the most conscientious documentary filmmakers around. Careful with subject matter and attentive with style, Philibert's choices have a subtle effect on an unsuspecting audience. This sort of visual specificity is not about manipulation, but about creating a unique experience with a documentary film. Nénette ends up being an effective portrait of ourselves through the reflection of the orangutans. Having just heard a radio program about a group of orangutans in a zoo who figured out how to pick a lock in order to get into the tress of the elephant pen, I was aware about how amazingly intelligent these animals are. Add to it my general distaste for zoos and Nénette became a very melancholy film about our patronization of animals. But being able to see these animals and their amazing features and how they resemble us, is one of the great gifts of zoos. My chances to see an orangutan in the wild: zero. Philibert taps into this dichotomy by contrasting the images with the audio.
(Nénette is one of the newest films at MSPIFF and has yet to negotiate distribution. Best possible scenario is that we will see it available on DVD in a few years.)

Last Train Home (2009) Fan Lixin - Recommeneded
When living in China, I took it upon myself to tackle the art of train travel. The trains in China go everywhere, are relatively affordable and extremely reliable. The real tricks involve negotiating tickets and the masses. As a foreigner I had more options when it came to buying tickets, but often took the when in Rome philosophy despite the fact that it was obvious I wasn't a Roman. It was good practice for my language skills and made for interesting situations, to say the least. When I would find myself in the middle of the crush to get on the train (hundreds of passengers who all wanted a seat and room for their luggage) people would be shocked to see a 'big nose' amongst them, but would keep on pushing. Train transportation in an ever more mobile population was the backdrop for this documentary about a modern Chinese family torn apart by the financial needs and desires created by 'communism with capitalistic traits.' Husband and wife, Changhua and Suqin, left their sleepy, economically depressed village in the middle of Sichuan Providence to pursue more gainful work in Guangxhou's garment district. Their only desire is to provide enough money for their two children, left in Sichuan with their grandmother, to go to school and the education they need for a better life. Their children, however, feel completely cut off from their parents whom they see only once a year when they (and a million or so other people) make a trip home for the New Year. Their teenage daughter sees other opportunities other than school and follows in her parents footsteps to seek work elsewhere, becoming just one more migrant worker. The documentary work wonders in lifting a veil on just one family among the millions in the same situation. However, much like Up the Yangtze, the presence of the camera feels like an unintended red herring that acts as a diversion for the subjects and the audience. The subtle observations get overshadowed by the melodrama that documentary pursues.
(Last Train Home is has US distribution and will eventually make an appearance on DVD and/or on demand services.)

MSPIFF 2010: Day 1

35 Shots of Rum - Highly Recommended
Feeling lukewarm about many of the first offerings at MSPIFF, I decided I would take advantage of the opportunity to see 35 Shots of Rum a second time. After loading up on Surly beer at Pracna with friends (cheers to everyone that showed up), I busted my way into a packed house. Despite the fact that it played in Minneapolis a little over a month ago at the Walker and is coming out on DVD next week and is largely last year's news, 35 Shots had no problem selling out. I had the opportunity to see 35 Shots last fall on a random trip to NYC, arriving on its last day at the Film Forum, and it was one of the best films I saw last year. A second viewing did nothing to tarnish those feelings, and instead reaffirmed every assertion that was was growing vague in my mind. 35 Shots is a masterpiece from the heart that skirts around the edges of social politics with subconscious sublimity. The narrative is driven by a visual osmosis, slowly and subtle revealing truths and discoveries about the transcendental characters. At the center of the film is the relationship between a young adult daughter and her single father—both at junctures in their lives. Claire Denis cites Late Spring in this dedication to her mother and grandfather, but I still see more Hong Sang-soo (albeit a more gentle Hong) than Yasujiro Ozu in 35 Shots of Rum. Beautifully edited and scored, 35 Shots is a must see on the big screen. Here's hoping we don't have to wait until next year to see Denis new film, White Material, in the Twin Cities.
Screens again today, Saturday, April 17 at 3:15

The Forbidden Door - Not Recommended
Just enough time for another Surly, and I was back in the theater for the first of MSPIFF's 'late night' series—four films from the edgier parts of the film world. I had read reviews of The Forbidden Door on Twitch (one positive and one not so positive) and was excited to make a determination of my own about this Indonesian thriller. All I have to say is: these are the risks you take at film festivals. The Forbidden Door is a mess. I originally thought that the beer had effected my deductive logic, but finally realized that logic was on the back burner for most of the film. Completely disjointed, The Forbidden Door feels like it was made by an ADD Eli Roth (and I'm pretty sure Eli Roth is already ADD, so that would be double ADD.) The story focuses on a successful artist, Gambir, who makes highly sought after sculptures of pregnant women. Gambir, however, has a few skeletons in his closet, not the least of which is his impotency and inability to get his beautiful wife pregnant, an irony that would make Freud stroke his beard. Random mysteries and random resolutions are propped up by overwrought genre stereotypes of the emasculated man and the abused child. The components of a good blood-squirting thriller are there, but the lack of overall focus renders this film as ineffective as Gambir. At the introduction, the programmer admitted that finding The Forbidden Door was a hard fought battle, working for two months to simply find a contact. The hard work it took to get this film to the festival is not lost on me, and I wish there was more of a pay off. Joko Anwar has generated a fair amount of low-level cyberspace buzz among horror fans, and although he probably has a genre masterpiece somewhere in him, The Forbidden Door is not it. Which is unfortunate, because I love that poster.
Screens again Wednesday, April 21 at 9:20

Patrick Alessandrin's DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM

(Alas, District 13: Ultimatum has already vanished from local theaters, but it will no doubt live a much longer life on Blu-Ray where you can loop those action together over and over again. This review was written for and published by In Review Online.)

For anyone who has spent hours on YouTube watching parkour videos, there is nothing more exhilarating than watching l'art du déplacement, the art of moving. Parkour, where city streets are turned into an obstacle coarse, navigates on the fringes of martial art, strength training and acrobatics. Adorn the athleticism with the most simple cinematic set-ups and parkour, or free running, quickly becomes a streetwise ballet. Anyone who has seen Casino Royale will inevitably bring up the riveting foot chase that opens the film, featuring one of the founders of parkour, Sébastien Foucan. But that was a mere flash in the parkour pan. It was form over function action producer, Luc Besson, who put the sport in the spotlight by making the stuntman the star. In this case, he recruited David Belle, one of the most influential and talented founders of the movement, to take his first lead role in the 2004 French action film Banlieue 13, also known as B-13 or District 13. High on action, low on plot, B-13 was a hit at home and an eventual modest success abroad. A sequel was all but a given.

District 13: Ultimatum picks up two years after the dynamic duo—by-the-book police Capt. Damien Tomaso and righteous ghetto revolutionary Leïto—expose the government of consciously allowing District 13 to run a road to ruin. A promise to restore order to the District and tear down the segregating walls that separate it from the rest of the city has been long forgotten. Instead, corrupt politicians have set their sights on some good old-fashioned 21st century gentrification with plans to raze the neighborhood (apparently along with the residents) and rebuild for the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The powers that be know their plan will never fly as long as saintly Capt. Damien Tomaso is on the streets with his nose to the ground. Even before Damien smells a rat, he is set up with a possession charge and thrown behind bars. Damien is counting on his fleet-footed buddy, Leïto, to break him out of jail and help him set the record straight. Joining forces once again, the muscle bound bon amis with a little help from the District 13 kingpins, must grapple, punch and kick their way to the truth.

David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli thankfully reprise their roles, as Leïto and Damien respectfully, adding charisma and physical prowess to a film that is otherwise burdened by its lame attempts to be witty. The film opens with Leïto still fighting the good fight for the disenfranchised residence of District 13. Caught trying to blow up the wall surrounding the district, police give chase to the man who loves to be chased. A pulse-driving cat and mouse run though the ghetto allows Belle to display his art with ease and elegance, leaving police in the dust or flat on their face. Damien is given a much more flamboyant and notable reintroduction. Deep within a cavernous nightclub a drug lord is ogling a female dancer from his throne. Just when the stereotypical degradation of women was getting particularly annoying, the film takes a brilliant turn and revels the dancer as our heroic detective dressed in drag, with satisfying gun in the face of the lecherous gangster. Unfortunately, the scene plays out a little too long—cutting between Damien’s made-up face and to ‘his’ impossibly buxom ass, over and over again—draining the sequence of all its momentary cleverness. The lull, however, gives way to one of the best sequences in the film. Breaking free of his wig and dress, Damien displays his more manly skills, fighting off numerous baddies while protecting a Van Gogh painting. Expertly choreographed, the show down is the shining example why Ultimatum, flawed as it is, remains entertaining.

The action fares well in the hands of director Patrick Alessandrin, who took on the sequel after B-13 director Pierre Morel moved on to bigger but not necessarily better things with Taken and From Paris with Love. Ultimatum does not carry the first installment's ethos that editing creates excitement and, settling on middle range shots, allows a little more space to enjoy the physical talents of not only Belle and Raffaelli, but the supporting cast as well. Major credit must go to Raffaelli who coordinated the fights and, in a shift from the first film, steals the show from Belle and his mind-blowing parkour. Unfortunately it doesn’t save the film from erratic pacing and a very overworked plot. The government makes for a placid cardboard enemy and the expositions into their dodgy maneuverings bring the film to an apathetic standstill. References to Halliburton, although funny, are about five years too late and civil unrest in Paris was an international headline that has come and gone. The original B-13 was able to tap into a social pulse that now seems dead, and Ultimatum lumbers under the weight of misguided deviations away from the action. Encumbered by a plodding and characterless pseudo-political drama, District 13: Ultimatum proves that good guy charisma and top-notch action can only carry a film so far.

MSPIFF: Day 5

Other obligations on Mondays kept me away from the Film Fest on day four, but I'm back like a heart attack for day 5 with one of my most anticipated films of the Fest: The Secret of the Grain. My plan was to catch The Secret of the Grain and a Russian film called The Mermaid. However, The Secret of the Grain was sold out so the shuffle to get as many people into the theater as possible forced the film to start a little late. But then, the biggest disappointment came when the light when down and I saw the Cyperhome logo. With no humility, they were screening The Secret of the Grain from a DVD. The steam from my ears subsided once I quickly became engaged with the film, uh, I mean, video, until it stopped and started at the beginning about a third of the way through—I kid you not. Someone had to get up and tell someone that their DVD was effed up and then we had to scan to the appropriate spot where it had stopped. Needless to say, we got out too late for my second screening.

(Just skip this paragraph, because this is nothing more than a self-indulgent rant.) Once again, the Film Festival refuses to put the format that will be screened for the films wither in the catalog or online. To be fair, this is the third screening that hasn't been on film, but the first one that mattered. Letters to the President and Helen were screened from a video source that looked really really good. Both looked to have been shot on HD and I had absolutely no complains about the transfer. The Secrets of the Grain however...wow; colors were soft and washed out. I was embarrassed. Everyone in that theater got cheated. Buy the DVD from the UK (maybe you can barrow MFA's Cyberhome if you don't have a region free player); it will look better in your home. Seriously disappointing.

OK. Now that I have vented, let me talk about the movie itself:

The Secret of the Grain (2007) directed by Abdel Kechiche

Set in the French coastal town of Sète, The Secret of the Grain focuses on 61-year-old patriarch Slimane and his large extended family. Recently shown the door at his job where he has repaired boats for 35 years, Slimane needs to come up with another plan. His adult children suggest he move home, but Slimane is committed to stay with his new lover and her daughter, Rym. He comes up with a plan to open a restaurant on an old boat where his ex-wife would cook fish couscous. His ex-wife knows the secret of the grain, and makes a couscous that you can almost taste in the theater. With a two and a half hour run time, The Secret of the Grain is overwhelming. Not necessarily because of the runtime itself, but because within those 151 minutes are only a handful of very talkative key sequences. The effect is exhausting and exhilarating. One such scene is a family meal where nothing much is said but it is an absolute whirlwind of conversation. It is quite intense. (Imagine a family reunion where you didn't just have to hold individual conversations, but where omnisciently engaged in all conversations.) The camera puts you right amongst the claustrophobic bustle. Although I do find fault in the divisive conflict (begging for resolution) near the end, it also results in one of the most overpowering scenes I have ever experienced. The acting was such that, throughout the entire film, I never felt I was watching people who were acting. The Secret of the Grain screens one more time (probably from DVD) Thursday, April 23 at 9:15. Highly Recommended.