Today is the proof why we need at least 2 reporters to cover ANY full length film festival like this one in Melbourne, Australia. Today TAMSIN suffered Festival burn-out and his brain turned to so much silver nitrate laced putty... Luckily NORMAN was there to carry the ball to the game's end... and between the two of them Father Geek's got the Fest pretty well covered for you...
First up is Tamsin's report...
Had a shorter day today (lapsed into celluloid overload and needed to slow down).
Had a shorter day today (lapsed into celluloid overload and needed to slow down).
First up today was the Iranian film "Circle" from director, Jafar Panahi who directed the fantastic film a few years ago, "The White Balloon". This was a bold and confronting exploration of the oppression of Iranian women. It begins, to the great horror of many family members, with the birth of a baby girl and examines the lives and treatment of several different women over one day. Like so many Iranian films, it is presented in such an unselfconscious way which gives you the chance to absorb the characters and their stultifying surroundings. I love Iranian films.
Next up was a French one called "Man of the Crowds" about a tourist who is struck down by apparent "Stendhal Syndrome" - a reaction to "beauty-overload". He is placed in hospital for psychological observation and is discovered by a psychiatrist (Maria de Medeiros) to have a troubled past which is the cause of his trauma. This film suffered from inappropriate slowness which made it a little boring. It also wasted one of my favourite Syndromes.
I started watching the French film "Pariah" but was completely overloaded by this and had to leave. The lighting was too dark and the characters failed to engage me.
Last up was "Everybody Famous" a Belgium/Netherlands/French co-production about a man, recently retrenched, who sees the only way out of his situation is to make his daughter a star. Jean's tale of woe is paved with all the wrong moves and his daughter's talent is comically questionable. But you can't help loving these people. The entire audience laughed from beginning to end. Hilarious costumes and makeup and brilliant acting from Eva van der Gucht (the daughter Marva). Highly recommend this one.
Looking forward to starting tomorrow fresh and well-rested. Lots of good
ones coming up.
Tamsin
Father Geek back, with Norman's lengthy downunder report...
Father Geek back, with Norman's lengthy downunder report...
Today was a day of walkouts. And as the films, on the whole, merited such treatment, I'll be fairly brief. (Probably the most thrilling film experience of the day was downloading the ALI trailer - looks like they've nailed it well.)
First up two featurettes bundled together into one session from Taiwanese director Huang Min-Chen, TOO YOUNG and BIRDLAND. This was fairly moribund filmmaking and the session lost a third of its crowd pretty early on. Min-Chen seems to have a knack - sounds cruel but has to be said - of cutting away from situations just as they start to become emotionally interesting. BIRDLAND is more of an ensemble drama, dealing with the plight of several illegal immigrants after they land, and there are some good moments, but they're brief. And the conclusion is pretty vapid.
Next up was the Korean SECRET TEARS from Park Ki-Hyung. This starts full of promise: recent divorcee Ku-Ho drives home drunk and hits a schoolgirl, Mijo. She is mute and apparently suffers from amnesia, but over time starts to communicate with Ku-Ho via telepathy. A relationship develops between them which Ku-Ho's friends strongly disapprove of. They investigate into Mijo's past and discover that her parents died suspiciously in a case of possible insurance fraud. The story loses puff near the end, mainly because we have no doubt that Mijo is good. And also because director Ki-Hyung tried amping up the emotion by holding on silent looks for what seemed like minutes (more on that later on, in the Bela Tarr review). That sparked a lot of walkouts.
It was a relief to get back to another Herzog doco double. His classic HOW MUCH WOULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK... (I think I got the title right) features the speed-auctioneers of the 1976 Cattle Auctioning World Championships. At the start we get an explanation of what they are actually saying and then Herzog lets fly, showing each of the contestants in action. It's probably the liveliest of his docos and the crowd enjoyed this one. Next, the equally pleasing GASHERBRUM featuring the newly famous German (?) mountaineer Reinhold Messner. Looking a bit like Bjorn from Abba, Messner is attempting to climb Gasherbrum 1 and 2 in the same climb, which has never been done before. Messner concedes that he is just about down with mountaineering - it's cost him many friends and also his brother - instead he just wants to walk the world with just a mule for company. Herzog shares a similar fantasy, except he imagines walking with a "husky with leather pouches". The two men agree to follow in each other's foot-steps. Herzog loves to look at people - men usually - who deal with extremes, and Messner is a particularly good subject. The only drawback here is that Herzog's wonderful V/O has been replaced with a generic American narrator. Only Werner knows how to deliver some of those lines, and they fall flat coming from another mouth.
My Panda Bear neighbour for these docos warned me against my next film, THE WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES. Apparently it is the work of a "New Tarkovsky". I smiled and said it didn't bother me much. I had the strenth and the Bex to prove it.
46 people over 145 minutes - I counted them - didn't. Hungarian Bela Tarr starts his film with just about the most wonderful ten minutes I've ever seen. He takes emotional chances and they all pay off... added to that there's a tracking shot of a man walking away from the light and into the dark that was stunning - you know those shivering moments of cinematic genius? I got one, right then. Then another, a few moments later, when our guide visits a freakshow that has come to town and wonders at a dead whale. He looks into its slack, drooping eye and it's a moment that just slugged me.
After that Tarr just started going farther and farther out and the walkouts began. He'd hold tracking shots of silent people walking for 5, 10, 15 minutes. People would start to fidget, then there was the occasional laugh, and then just silence along with the film. I've slept on this film and I'm glad I lasted the distance. It might not entertain much at the time but it lives strongly in the mind.
I needed a rest and headed to the hotel...
Mum's call woke me out of a WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES nightmare - "I was riding around on my roadster and everywhere I went Bela Tarr was following me with a camera rig." She wanted to make sure I was conducting myself like an upstanding Wagga Wagga man and I lied and said I was. Then I realised I was late for JOINT SECURITY AREA and made my excuses.
Another Korean film of the generally Korean-dominated MIFF, this was a decidedly more commercial offering. It's a look at the fraught borderzone of North and South Korea - thus the title - and an incident which threatens to blow their simmering conflict into all-out war. As such it reminded me a little of THIRTEEN DAYS, with perhaps a little A FEW GOOD MEN thrown in. There's a determinedly "American" feeling to this piece, right down to the boilerplate feed lines ("What exactly do you mean Sergeant...") and recap-littered scenes. A pretty broad tone throughout, not much style, but after WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES it was a joy. I was in a rush to get to my next session but I crashed up with one of the robots from Daft Punk and we cruised the King Street strip joints for a couple of hours instead.
So, refreshed but feeling a little guilty about Mum, I caught up with the French MAN OF THE CROWDS. A man collapses, suffering from Stendhal Syndrome (I know, I know, Dario Argento - that's why I pencilled this one in). Recovering in hospital, his long interviews with a psychiatrist uncover a past in which he participated in brutal interrogations as part of state intelligence. Perhaps it's the effect of seeing a lot of "arthouse"-type films in a row but this really tested my patience. I want a film that works for my attention, respects my time (and my dollar), and - well, basically - hooks me within ten minutes. Whether it's the style or the tone or the story, I don't care. MAN OF THE CROWDS just didn't do it for the old Norman Gunston.
As I wipe my spittle away I'll tell you about the American SOFT FOR DIGGING, my next film. The MIFF booklet claims that this is one of the first screenings of JT Petty's micro-budget film, which is kind of like a thriller with a bit of horror stapled on. It's the story of Virgil, an old man who lives out in Blair Witch country, alone in his cabin. Super-quick Petty draws us into Virgil's story - how he collects the paper wearing thermal underwear and a velvet red robe, and how he feels no embarrassment striding out in that underwear to go fetch his runaway kitty. It's on this expedition into the woods that he witnesses a murder that throws out his quiet life a great deal. What's extraordinary is that Petty somehow manages to navigate us through 65 odd minutes of film with only one line of dialogue... indeed, only one word: "murder!". It's a pretty astounding feat of visual cinema.
The film needs the adrenaline shots of the horror moments on show here, but I felt they weren't really demanded by the material. Or perhaps Petty didn't quite nail the horror moments quite right - I'm not too sure. I never got chills from the Linda Blair-esque little girl freaking out like I should have. Virgil didn't seem much to care whether he lived or died, so I guess I didn't either. But never mind. This was a quiet highlight of the festival for me, and I'll look forward to what Petty has to come.
To recap, my top five films of MIFF so far would be:
- 1. THE ISLE
- 2. SECRETS OF DARKNESS (Herzog doco)
- 3. VIDEO DIARY OF RICARDO LOPEZ
- 4. RING 0: THE BIRTHDAY
- 5. PARADISE LOST 2: REVELATIONS
No killer films yet, but there's still several likelies to come. See you tomorrow!
Norman
