Hey folks, Harry here... I'm dying to see THE TESSERACT and IMMORTAL -- and that last film sounds like a treat. IMMORTAL looks incredible from the trailer... and other than CASSHERN - I haven't seen a foreign trailer better than the ones for CASSHERN and IMMORTAL - though APPLESEED is looking mighty cool. Here's LoneWolf...
Hi Harry, Moriarty and crew,
Lonewolf here from Brussels, last year you where kind enough to post some of my thoughts on the Brussels Fantasy Film Festival and well, it's that time of the year again do here we go for another 16 days of fun and blood.
Although it almost did not happen this year, there were a lot of problems getting sponsors and at one point it did look like it would be cancelled. But finally it all came together and on Friday evening the doors opened for the 22nd festival.
Part of the fun of this festival is the crowd and the sometimes frankly bizarre little shows that happen before the screenings. The opening night started with a transvestite show of highlights from various genre films starting with Star Wars and encompassing Phycho, Kill Bill, Mars Attacks and the Exorcist. The last one complete with vomit. I think that the girl in the first row just in front of me will be scarred for life as the projectile vomit went a little further then I think they had planned and she got quite well sprayed... Hehehe, well, can't go to fantasy festival without expecting at least some fluids...
The opening film was Tim Burton's Big Fish. I know that this has been reviewed extensively everywhere so I'll just say that I think it may be Burton's best film and has shot right into my list of fave movies ever. Just perfect. This was followed up with a welcome cocktail in the once again beautifully decorated bar where from a distance I saw Stuart Gordon (who is presenting King of the Ants on Monday and the Belgian madman Noel Godin (best known for his well placed cream pies thrown at various visiting dignitaries over the years. Bill Gates getting it right in the kisser is one of my favorites....)
Saturday evening and the festival proper starts. Due to needing to get some sleep at some point I missed the Body Painting contest in the afternoon and arrived rested and refreshed at the cinema just as the models where leaving. Made me think that I really should have come along in the first place. Oh well, can't win 'em all.
THE TESSERACT
First film of the evening and of the competition proper is Oxide Pang's take on Alex Garland's 'The Tesseract'. Amazing camera work from Pang. The film deals in time and multi-dimensional events and Pang plays that for all it is worth, slowing film down, speeding it up, stopping, overlapping. Incredible to look at. Saskia Reeves does a good job as the psychologist trying to recover from the death of her son and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is not bad as the drug mule in over-his head. I'm still trying to work-out why this film does not quite work for me. I think that it is the script trying to cram too much into one film and it's gotta be said, some of the dialogue was not great (I'm thinking in particular of the scene with Reeves and the young boy, that, well, was a little laughable.). Still, not a bad start to the evening and proof the the Pang brother can put out a brutal and stylish product. Even if the whole does not hang together it's still better than 90% of the dross out on our screens.
IMMORTAL
Next up was Immortal by Enki Bilal. Bilal is a comic book writer and artist based in France and this is his third film. Bilal introduced the film himself along with the lovely Linda Hardy, Miss France 92 and who plays Jill in the film. Visually this is one of the most amazing films I have seen. The GCI cityscapes are breathtaking and you feel exactly like you have stepped into the pages of a comic. Most of the film uses pure GCI sets and the characters are a mix of real and CGI. This is where I had some problems. The CG characters are sometimes far from perfect and it jars to see them with the 'real' cast. Bilal himself said that he was not entirely happy with some of the effects but I'm not sure that makes it any better. Also there is just too much plot for one film. Just to summarize: Jill is an alien who is mutating to become a human in a future New York where a pyramid has appeared hovering in mid-air above Manhattan and the god Horus is trying to find a body to inhabit for seven days. Then things get really confusing. I must admit to not having read the two books by Bilal that he based this on but it's still a bit of a confusing mess. But still, worth seeing for the jaw-dropping visuals and there is enough hard sci-fi there to keep most people happy for a couple of hours.
Alexandra's Project
The next film was supposed to be Korea's Into The Mirror, but apparently it had not yet arrived from New Zealand where it had been in a festival and so there was a last minute change to the program and we got to see the Australian Rolf De Heer's 'Alexandra's Project'. And what a little gem this is. Made for virtually nothing, De Heer can use a camera beautifully when he wants to and create genuine foreboding. The acting is very good from the two leads, Gary Sweet and especially Helen Buday who gives an amazing performance as the titular Alexandra. I don;t want to give too much away as I feel that if you go into this knowing virtually nothing, just as I did, you are going to get some wonderful surprises (well, 'wonderful' is probably not the right word, but you see what I mean...). The film start by showing a suburban morning with Steve going to work after getting his birthday gifts from the kids and Alexandra telling him that he will get his gift that evening. And boy does he ever. This is a superior physiological thriller and I hope that it gets a wider showing as there is some real talent on display both behind and in front of the camera.
So that's it for the first two days here in Brussels but a packed couple of weeks ahead along with a chance to meet my hero, George Romero next weekend.
If there are any reader around who can get to the festival i would recommend it. Even if you are not a horror nut, I'm sure the you will find something you like and make a discovery or two. Most importantly, we need to show that sponsors need not worry, that there is an audience for the smaller, stranger films and that this sort of festival can therefore continue for years to come and can continue to provide the encouragement that some many of the talented people making genre films for next to no money need to keep on producing their stuff.
There, said my piece, I'm off to get some rest now but will report in again later in the week.
LoneWolf
