Well, Ms. Tamsin, and our cinema peeker Norman have sent Father Geek here in Austin at Geek World Headquarters their latest tag-team reports from the MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. Soooooooo here they are... more obscure, and some NOT so obscure motion pictures from that Fest way way downunder...

As usual with these Tamsin's up first...

Had French Film overload last night and decided to leave my reviews until this morning so may be repeating a little.

Started with Kirsten Sheridan's "Disco Pigs". This is the grim story of intensive friendship. Runt and Pig, from birth, decide to shut out the outside world from any influences and be completely devoted to each other. But both are about to turn seventeen and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to exist without the presence of others. As they discuss their future and their relationship at the beach, they promise to be each other's forever. This is an extremely well-made first film, with brilliant performances from the lead actors. It is a pity that the end is as expected as the rest of the film had mostly defied cliché prior to this point.

Next up is the first Frenchy of the day, "Totally Flaky" which is another French film about teenagers pontificating over love and sex. Frustrating and completely tedious to watch.

Then it is over to some Latin Jazz for the music documentary, "Calle 54". This is a great record of some classic masters of Latin and Jazz music including Tito Puente and Chucho Valdez. Definitely for lovers of the music.

Now to the French film which pushed me over the edge, "Petite Cherie". It is about another repressed 30 year of woman living at home with her parents. She meets a man and she pretty much allows him to take advantage of her. This is supposed to have "subtle comic undertones" however, you can read this as "boring". It seems to be attempting a French Murial's Wedding, but it is way too slow and doesn't ever go far enough if it is trying to be a black comedy. Tiring.

Started watching the next French film, "Martha...Martha" but it was way too much. A French woman "prone to fits of depression." This is always a recipe for disaster so I had to leave this one before the end and returned to my room.

Missed some sessions because I'd slipped into visual overload and just couldn't face them. Needed a sleep in and to hang up my clothes which have been piling up around my bedroom.

With a clear head, I started the film from Argentina, "I won't go back home". This certainly was a directorial debut. I wasn't quite sure what was going on and it was poorly shot in B&W (looked like DV blown up to 35 as it was terrible quality). According to the programme it is about two families who "are shaken by a murder". It was extremely difficult to follow, extremely difficult to see so I'm not sure why this one was made at all. I don't know why it is that "when people shoot DV they feel they have to use less light." (AMB)

Took a deep breath and cynically entered the next film, "The Low Down" the English director, Jamie Thraves. Immediately I noticed in the programme that it stated this as being Jamie's "highly anticipated debut" so I was already expecting the worst. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. It is the typical story of a group of friends in their late 20s who are at the point where their temporary lifestyles are becoming permanent ruts. Even though this appears to be greatly improvised, the characters are highly developed and the story detailed and well structured. There is no wasted dialogue or dominating acting which often happens in improv'd films. It is always sharp and engaging.

Finished the evening with a sellout film, "The Fluffer". I think this shows a lot about the minds of Melbournians that they lined up and down the street for a film which was described in the programme as "a fluffer has the responsibility for preparing the male actors in pornos for their big scenes..." This film found its audience here. This is the story of Sean a young man with dreams of a career as a cameraman who lands a job shooting pornos. He falls in love with the lead porn star, Johnny Rebel. This is both hilarious and sad by the director who created the film, "Grief". I loved "Grief" which screened at the Melbourne Festival in '94. The director's work is always well-produced, the scripts are well-written and well-acted. It's a shame he hasn't made more. A definite hit with the audience.

Buono notte,

Tamsin

Father Geek back to post up our crazed motel manager Norman's latest sessons for all of you...

Sometimes you can kill a film by over-selling it to people, over-praising it to the point when people start responding: "It aint all that...". And some of these films are perfectly fine - not great, but better than 80% of the stuff out there - but they get tarred because of a few over-enthusiastic reviews early on. BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF has had a lot of talk, not least on this here site, so much so that I've had this fantasy film pencilled in as one of the possible MIFF highlights.

Last night I crashed into McGregor who'd seen it in an earlier session. He was really hard on the film, and my expectations were duly lowered. In the end, I enjoyed it - McGregor wasn't wrong, but he'd done me a huge favour. And let me tell you why.

For those interested in seeing the film, I'll be using spoilers to discuss the plot, so ignore the next paragraph...

BEWARE... SPOILERS

Are In The Following Paragraph...

In the heady, explosive environment of France just before the Revolution, a fantastic beast - a wolf, so says the stories - is loose in the land, killing off women and children. A task-force is assembled to hunt down the beast, with our story flowing through the duo of Gregoire - the Emperor's naturalist, sent to preserve the body when it is captured - and his Iriquos tracker companion, Mani. The expeditions are mis-conceived, however, and it is not long before Gregoire is prevailed upon to use his skills in taxidermy to apparently defuse the spectre of the wolf. The killings go on, however, and Gregoire feels obliged to solve the problem himself, with only a few faithful companions to help. His investigations reveal that the wolf is being used as the tool of a secret religious Brotherhood with links to the Rome and the Catholic Church, wielded as a warning against the vaingloriousness of ignoring religion in favour of the Age of Reason.

OK... No More SPOILERS, you can begin to read again...

The plot may suggest otherwise, but for once I agree with the MIFF booklet on this. It's a "ripping yarn", nothing more and definitely nothing less. Plenty of good action, lots of good fights (even if I was left wondering about the kick-boxing - in 18th Century Europe?), and some effective moments of suspense - even though these moments were located mainly in the first half of the film. As in all ripping yarns there's a touch of romance as well, and this one - between Gregoire and daughter of nobleman Emilie - was nicely played. Swoon at the countryside, too, perhaps the most luscious landscapes you'll see this side of FOTR. (note to Vincent Cassel: stop choosing roles that involves you wanting to sleep with members of your own family)

Please, please, don't expect the world with this one. It's a lot of fun but not much more than that.

Next up a pair of very different docos. PAPERBOYS, by celebrated music video director Mike Mills (Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Air et al), about... paperboys. Eight of them. Breezy. Mills brings a relaxed style to this, and he gets some great, honest material out of his subjects. I felt eight was about three too many, but perhaps this was made for the "dip in, dip out" TV viewer so I won't go too hard on that. This feels like an exercise to help Mills work up to a feature, and it should be worth looking forwards to.

Next a doco I'd spent time kind of dreading and looking forwards to. A SKIN TOO FEW: THE DAYS OF NICK DRAKE. Reason being, Drake's a kind of Sylvia Plath figure for disaffected youngsters. They both had precise, perfected, minimal outputs, and they died young. (Drake was less obvious a suicide but I think it's clear he was working up to something like that.) The Sylvia Plath "industry" of critical works, revisionistic biographies etc, really disgusts me, and after reading a pretty terrible Nick Drake biography a couple of years ago (not bought, lent!) I've been worried the same thing could happen to this gentle, tragic folk singer.

This Norwegian documentary thankfully doesn't tread the exploitation path. They've taken the trouble to visit Tamworth-in-Arden, the breathtaking part of England where Drake spent most of his life. They also have dispensation to show the family house, including Nick's room which has remained untouched since his death - the Camus on the bedside table and the classical LP cover propped against the wall. We hear a taped snippet of Nick's mother Molly singing one of her own compositions. As Nick's sister Gabriel notes, it's surprising how similar the artistic sensibility was between mother and son. This was a small treasure, and probably made the whole thing worthwhile for me.

Okay, the down side. A SKIN TOO FEW is only 48 minutes long but it's completely flabby. There was all of five interview subjects, and two of these speak only a few words. Whole chunks - important chunks - of Drake's life were rounded down and skipped over. I know compression is part of telling someone's story in docos, but Nick Drake really didn't live a long life, or do too much. It wouldn't have been too hard to get the facts right. As a primer, this is only adequate.

His albums are cheap, buy them instead.

Last up for the day. THE LOW DOWN. This ended up being so good I missed PRETTY THINGS because I didn't want to spoil the aftertaste.

Frank is cruising along in life - late 20s - with an okay-ish job, crappy apartment, you-gotta-love-em friends. He's not quite content, just... alright. And then he meets Ruby, a real-estate agent, and they start to fall for each other and...

What happens then really thrilled me in a strange sort of way. You see, films are greedy. When we see a motor crash it's got to be "THE BIGGEST MOTOR CRASH OF ALL TIME" and when we see people start to fall in love it's without doubt "THE LOVE OF THEIR LIVES", even if the filmmakers have an attack of bravery and it doesn't quite work out.

Frank and Ruby fall in love - or at least I think they do - but at the end of their lives they'll probably look back and say this was the fourth, maybe fifth, best relationship of their lives. That's not to say they're lacklustre together. Writer/director Jamie Thraves plays this so unbelievably right (and did I mention this film is true?), sliding in "off" notes even as they're getting along great. It happens, all the time, but I don't know the last time I've seen it on film. (I tell a lie. The Australian film PRAISE did it, perhaps better. Well worth checking out.)

The actors are great, too. Kate Ashfield is honest and spunky as Ruby (as she was in another UK MIFF film, LATE NIGHT SHOPPING). And Aidan Gillen channels the John Cusack Everyman to perfection as Frank. They're an unlikely physical match but the chemistry is as strong as I've seen during MIFF (watch out for this and many other categories in my MIFF wrap, which I'm starting to put together now).

See you tomorrow for VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS, Ishii Sogo's AUGUST IN THE WATER, and the Icelandic 101 REKYJAVIK!!!

Norman