Antipodean Film Festivals 2011 [Archive]

Boner M

06-16-2011, 05:34 AM

This is really just a thread for me, dmk & TripZone (and Winston & trans) to posts news and reviews amongst ourselved; everyone else can look on with jealousy. 25 Cannes titles announced for Melbourne!!

From the star-studded parties on the French Riviera to the trendy laneways of Melbourne, 25 films from the Cannes Film Festival will make their way to the Melbourne International Film Festival, many of which won’t have screened anywhere else.

From the Festival’s Competition, MIFF will screen Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (Best Actress for Kirsten Dunst), a mesmerizing family drama in the face of the apocalypse; Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac and Albert Brooks, about a Hollywood stunt driver by day, a loner by nature who moonlights as a top-notch getaway driver-for-hire in the criminal underworld; Maiwenn le Besco’s Polisse (Jury Prize), a dynamic and involved portrait of officers working in a Parisian Child Protection Unit; Markus Schleinzer’s Michael, the controversial Austrian drama focusing on five months in the life of a seemingly normal man who keeps a 10 year-old boy locked in his basement; Aki KaurismÃ¤ki’s Le Havre (FIPRESCI prize), a pitch-perfect return to form from the Finnish director, that tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre; Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s Hanezu, an evocative romantic drama based on the novel by Masako Bando; and Joseph Cedar’s Footnote (Best Screenplay), which depicts the intense, eccentric rivalry of father and son professors, divided by accolades, and the misplaced recognition of a life’s work.

Sharing the Grand Prix and also screening at MIFF are: the latest (and some say most-accessible) film from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, The Kid With the Bike, about a young boy who refuses to accept abandonment by his father and a woman’s subsequent struggle to save him from his own dangerously stubborn disbelief; and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, a lyrical epic police procedural from Turkey about a doctor and an attorney in a small town in Anatolia.

From Un Certain Regard, MIFF will screen Andrei Zvyagintsev’s highly-anticipated Elena, a subtly searing look at contemporary Russia through the lives of an elderly couple; Bruno Dumont‘s Outside Satan, a cinematic and mysterious observation of good and evil in a rural French setting; Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, a striking, fragmented portrait of a damaged young woman losing the distinction between reality, memory and paranoid fantasy as she struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing a cult; Oliver Hermanus’ Beauty, winner of the Queer Palm and the first Afrikaans-language film ever to be screened at the festival, which takes in the downward descent of a middle aged, married man, wholly unprepared when a chance encounter unravels his clean and ordered existence; Eric Koo’s Tatsumi, at once an enthralling biography of legendary ‘gekiga’ (dark or adult pitched manga) originator Yoshihiro Tatsumi and an animated adaptation of his five short works.

Also from this section Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives, where a lapsed filmmaker re-engages with an assortment of characters from his life that he hasn’t experienced for some time; Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, recently sentenced to jail alongside Jafar Panahi, is present with Goodbye (Best Director Award), a precise and telling film about a young female lawyer’s preparations to flee the country illegally; The Yellow Sea, Na Hong-Jin’s epic, brutalising crime saga that follows a would-be assassin’s quest to clear a debt and escape with his life; and Toomelah, filmmaker Ivan Sen’s second inclusion in this section which depicts the corrupting influence of a drug dealer on a ten year old boy in a remote Aboriginal community.
From Director’s Fortnight, Belgian actor/director Bouli Lanner’s much-awarded The Giants, exploring the exhilarating freedoms and jarring dangers of adolescent experience; Natalia Almada’s El Velador, itself watches over the nightwatchman of an enormous Mexican cemetery, filled with the monument Mausoleums of the highest calibre causalities of its drug cartels; Philippe Ramos’ highly original take on Joan of Arc, The Silence of Joan, starring young French actress Clemence Poesy; the striking Play from multi-awarded Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund; and Sion Sono’s Guilty of Romance, a kinetic, twisted downfall into sex and violence encircling the crimes of a sadistic killer and a woman’s corruption into a seedy underworld of dark desires.

Winston*

06-16-2011, 05:43 AM

My city's film festival starts the week after your one starts. I wonder if there'll be much overlap in the lineups.

dmk

06-17-2011, 02:40 AM

I guess that means We Need to Talk About Kevin, Chatrak and Miss Bala won't screen. Boo.

TripZone

06-17-2011, 04:22 AM

Drive.

I guess that means We Need to Talk About Kevin, Chatrak and Miss Bala won't screen. Boo.

There's still hope!

dmk

06-17-2011, 04:42 AM

I really hope so man, but "25 Cannes titles announced" + an announcement that the program is finalised + a media release with 25 films listed sort of seals the deal.

Spinal

06-17-2011, 04:44 AM

I eagerly await Boner's curt dismissal of Melancholia.

TripZone

06-17-2011, 04:46 AM

I really hope so man, but "25 Cannes titles announced" + an announcement that the program is finalised + a media release with 25 films listed sort of seals the deal.

they clearly just forgot

shhhh

At least Kevin will most certainly get a proper release.

dmk

06-17-2011, 04:53 AM

I eagerly await Boner's curt dismissal of Melancholia.
In a metatextual image-review, preferably.

At least Kevin will most certainly get a proper release.
Hopscotch has it set for November 10.

Also, no The Skin I Live In. How could this happen?

Boner M

06-17-2011, 07:24 AM

I eagerly await Spinal's fawning praise of Melancholia.

Boner M

06-17-2011, 07:25 AM

I guess that means We Need to Talk About Kevin, Chatrak and Miss Bala won't screen. Boo.
Dude, 25 Cannes titles. 25!!!! Quit whining and worship at the altar of Michelle Carey, nerd goddess.

http://images.theage.com.au/2010/08/15/1779829/michelle_carey_main-420x0.jpg

Sigh.

B-side

06-17-2011, 07:28 AM

Oh my. I really hate you Aussies right now.

Spinal

06-17-2011, 07:35 AM

I eagerly await Spinal's fawning praise of Melancholia.

:pritch:

TripZone

06-17-2011, 07:56 AM

I e-mailed Carey last year about Uncle Boonmee's initial absence, she was cool; helped me choose some films to see, too. Though I disliked one of them. She didn't have the big seat then.

Ezee E

06-17-2011, 11:15 PM

My time is around the corner.

Winston*

06-17-2011, 11:21 PM

Got an email from NZ Film Festival. Looks like we're getting most of those, wth the notable exception of Drive.

Boner M

06-18-2011, 01:51 AM

Got an email from NZ Film Festival. Looks like we're getting most of those, wth the notable exception of Drive.
Nice. I demand long-form Winston* reviews posted here regularly; each two sentences in length.

dmk

06-18-2011, 02:43 AM

Dude, 25 Cannes titles. 25!!!! Quit whining and worship at the altar of Michelle Carey, nerd goddess.

She's cute, but only four of those 25 titles look good. But... all will be forgiven if Terri and The Innkeepers make an appearance, which is all I care about anymore.

Boner M

06-18-2011, 02:53 AM

only four of those 25 titles look good.
You're weird.

dmk

06-18-2011, 03:00 AM

you made me feel uncertain about myself for a moment. so i recounted.

Drive
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Hors Satan
The Day He Arrives

still four.

ok, so maybe The Kid with the Bike and maybe Once Upon A Time In Anatolia. meh.

Boner M

06-18-2011, 03:04 AM

Not a Kaurismaki fan?

dmk

06-18-2011, 03:11 AM

Not a Kaurismaki fan?
I don't know. Not really?

To clarify, four look amazing and everything in comparison feel like fillers.

TripZone

06-23-2011, 03:57 AM

DRIVE is now closing night film, not some piece of shit about a dog. Doesn't concern me either way, however.

dmk

06-23-2011, 07:03 AM

Aren't Closing Night films usually strictly closing night films, meaning they screen once and at $90-100?

That concerns me a lot, actually.

TripZone

06-23-2011, 07:35 AM

But it should still screen prior to closing night, right? Oh shiii

dmk

06-23-2011, 07:46 AM

No.

But it comes out three months later.

TripZone

06-23-2011, 07:47 AM

No.

But it comes out three months later.

Yar, just checked. Booo.

At least there's a set date.

Hate Red Dog even more now.

dmk

06-23-2011, 07:52 AM

Kriv Stenders impressed the heck out of me with his film Motherland, but he can really fuck off and die right now.

TripZone

06-23-2011, 07:57 AM

Kriv Stenders impressed the heck out of me with his film Motherland, but he can really fuck off and die right now.

Never heard of it, neither is it listed on imdb, but Boxing Day was....nah.

dmk

06-23-2011, 08:10 AM

Never heard of it, neither is it listed on imdb, but Boxing Day was....nah.
They screened large sections of it in a Documentary class here and I spent over a year looking for it. The director recently uploaded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-7PX-Rc2Ec) it on Youtube though, but I haven't had the chance to see it in full yet.

I haven't seen anything else by him, but Paul loved Boxing Day, didn't he?

TripZone

06-23-2011, 10:21 AM

They screened large sections of it in a Documentary class here and I spent over a year looking for it. The director recently uploaded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-7PX-Rc2Ec) it on Youtube though, but I haven't had the chance to see it in full yet.

I haven't seen anything else by him, but Paul loved Boxing Day, didn't he?

Yes, he did. It's actually worth checking out for the "one take" formalism. But it's hysterical drama.

Thanks for the link; bookmarked.

Boner M

06-23-2011, 01:24 PM

Yeah I was hoping Drive would just be one of those films that no one would book tix to on account of "Oh... American" but now that it's closing night and I won't be here, fuck.

Only Kriv Stenders films I've seen are Illustrated Family Doctor (LOL, remember that POS?), Boxing Day (SNL parody of Dogme 95) & Lucky Country (the homeless man's Proposition, itself a poor man's Dead Man), which are enough to convince me he's a shithouse filmmaker w/ a good PR dude.

TripZone

06-24-2011, 03:11 AM

O9HmPgYeGRU

Boner M

06-24-2011, 03:39 AM

That's actually really funny. Way better than the previous two years (Choctop vs. Popcorn... *shudder*).

TripZone

06-24-2011, 04:23 AM

Choctop vs. Popcorn... *shudder*

Fucking murdered me every time. FASSBYNDER! GODARDDDDD!

Boner M

06-24-2011, 04:25 AM

Seeing the Choctop and Popcorn mascots walking out of Film Socialisme was funny, though.

transmogrifier

06-25-2011, 08:26 AM

My city's film festival starts the week after your one starts. I wonder if there'll be much overlap in the lineups.

Got 7 films lined up for the Auckland film festival next month:

Oki's Movie
The Day He Arrives
The Yellow Sea
The Man from Nowhere
The Tree of Life
Martha Macy May Marlene
Melancholia

Winston*

06-30-2011, 09:20 PM

Wellington film festival line-up. :)

1. 13 Assassins
2. 2.5 Kilometre Mono Action for a Mirage
3. A Boatload of Wild Irishmen
4. A Cat in Paris
5. A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt
6. A Separation
7. A Useful Life
8. Ainâ€™t in It for My Health: A Film about Levon Helm
9. Aita
10. Animation for Kids 2011
11. Animation Now 2011
12. Another Earth
13. Anton Chekhovâ€™s The Duel
14. Arrietty
15. At Ellenâ€™s Age
16. Attenberg
17. Autumn Gold
18. Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
19. Beauty
20. Beginners
21. Being Elmo: A Puppeteerâ€™s Journey
22. Better This World
23. Between Worlds
24. Blue
25. Bobby Fischer Against the World
26. Boxing Gym
27. Breathing
28. Brother Number One
29. Buck
30. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
31. Circo
32. Circumstance
33. Cold Fish
34. CrÃ*a cuervos
35. Daytime Tiger
36. Drive
37. Ebony Society
38. Eight Ladies / Tales from the Daly
39. Elena
40. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
41. Fire in Babylon
42. Flying Anne
43. Footnote
44. Gantz
45. Gantz: Perfect Answer
46. Go the Dogs
47. Goodbye
48. Greensplat
49. Guilty Pleasures
50. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
51. Happy, Happy
52. Heartbeats
53. Hobo with a Shotgun
54. Homegrown: Drama
55. Homegrown: Flights of Fantasy
56. Homegrown: Works on Film
57. Hot Coffee
58. How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?
59. How to Die in Oregon
60. I Saw the Devil
61. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
62. Illustrious Energy
63. Incendies
64. Jig
65. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
66. Joseph Brodsky: In the Prison of Latitudes
67. Khodorkovsky
68. Kill List
69. KNUCKLE
70. Koro's Medal
71. La dolce vita
72. Las Acacias
73. Le Havre
74. Le quattro volte
75. Let the Bullets Fly
76. Love Like Poison
77. Magic Trip: Ken Keseyâ€™s Search for a Kool Place
78. Mana Waka
79. Martha Marcy May Marlene
80. Meathead
81. Medianeras
82. Meek's Cutoff
83. Melancholia
84. Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself
85. Metropolis
86. Michael
87. Michael Smither: Into Perspective
88. Miss Representation
89. Moving
90. My Joy
91. My Reincarnation
92. Mysteries of Lisbon
93. Nainsukh
94. Norwegian Wood
95. Nothing to Declare
96. Okiâ€™s Movie
97. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
98. Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
99. Page One: Inside the New York Times
100. Passione
101. Pina
102. Pink Saris
103. Planet Kirsan
104. Play
105. Point Blank
106. POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
107. Position among the Stars
108. Project Nim
109. Romantics Anonymous
110. Rumble & Bang
111. Senna
112. She Monkeys
113. Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure
114. Silent Souls
115. Sing Your Song
116. Sleeping Beauty
117. Sleeping Sickness
118. Snowtown
119. Something Ventured
120. Sons of Perdition
121. Space Battleship Yamato
122. Stick Climbing
123. Stori Tumbuna: Ancestorsâ€™ Tales
124. Strawberries with the FÃ¼hrer
125. Submarine
126. Supinfocom
127. Tabloid
128. Take Shelter
129. Taxi Driver
130. Terri
131. The Artists Cinema
132. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu
133. The Black Power Mixtape 1967â€“1975
134. The First Grader
135. The Forgiveness of Blood
136. The Future
137. The Giants
138. The Great Bear
139. The Guard
140. The Innkeepers
141. The Kid with a Bike
142. The Last Circus
143. The Man from Nowhere
144. The Mill & the Cross
145. The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertieâ€™s Botanarium (Part 7)
146. The Round Up
147. The Salt of Life
148. The Screen Illusion
149. The Solitude of Prime Numbers
150. The Temptation of Rossano Fan
151. The Tree of Life
152. The Trip
153. The Turin Horse
154. The Women on the 6th Floor
155. The Yellow Sea
156. Tiny Furniture
157. Tomboy
158. Troll Hunter
159. Tyrannosaur
160. View from Olympus
161. Viva Riva!
162. We Talk About Loss
163. Weekend
164. Where Dad Walked
165. Wild River
166. Windfall
167. Winter Vacation

Quite a few promising ones in there.

transmogrifier

06-30-2011, 10:34 PM

Can't believe you get Drive and we don't!

Winston*

06-30-2011, 10:37 PM

Can't believe you get Drive and we don't!

Hey didn't notice that. Awesome, Only one showing though. Better buy tickets in advance.

Boner M

07-01-2011, 12:10 AM

Melbourne's Drive screening is a closing night one, which means tickets are nearly $100. Balls.

Winston*

07-01-2011, 01:24 AM

Melbourne's Drive screening is a closing night one, which means tickets are nearly $100. Balls.

Ours is closing night too, but the same price as any other. Probably the same print.

Ezee E

07-01-2011, 01:37 AM

Ours is closing night too, but the same price as any other. Probably the same print.
Perhaps Sydney gets Refn?

Boner M

07-05-2011, 09:30 AM

Buncha titles being announced on twitter now, The Innkeepers among them w/ Ti West a fest guest. :pritch:

dmk

07-05-2011, 09:45 AM

Buncha titles being announced on twitter now, The Innkeepers among them w/ Ti West a fest guest. :pritch:
Did anyone on Twitter scan and upload the timetable onto imageshack last year?

Because that's something someone should be doing right now.

Boner M

07-05-2011, 09:51 AM

Just asked twitter, fingaz crossed.

dmk

07-05-2011, 09:58 AM

Just asked twitter, fingaz crossed.
That's right, they trust you.

Boner M

07-05-2011, 02:54 PM

Just received a PDF with nearly every title listed. Apart from the already-announced:

Wiseman, Benning, Tscherkassky, Grandieux, Straub, Denis, Jia, A. Jacobs, the other Hong, Lucky McKee, Panahi, Svankmajer, Cote...

Pretty, pretty good.

TripZone

07-05-2011, 05:18 PM

Bennings' Twenty Cigarettes? Hm.

Boner M

07-05-2011, 09:24 PM

Bennings' Twenty Cigarettes? Hm.
Nah, Ruhr. Hopefully I can stay awake for it this time.

Boner M

07-06-2011, 10:55 AM

Festival planner 'ere (http://soxbox.no-ip.org/films/festival_sessions/list/7-31).

Peter Tscherkassky's entire filmography + a masterclass = drooool.

Boner M

07-06-2011, 10:56 AM

Ooh, and Straub & Huillet's Class Relations as a retro screening. Always wanted to start with them there, and it'd allegedly one of the best Kafka adaptations.

Winston*

07-06-2011, 11:20 AM

Peter Tscherkassky's entire filmography + a masterclass = drooool.
Jealous!

TripZone

07-06-2011, 11:30 AM

Festival planner 'ere (http://soxbox.no-ip.org/films/festival_sessions/list/7-31).

Peter Tscherkassky's entire filmography + a masterclass = drooool.

This was announced a while back:

http://www.acmi.net.au/dark-rooms-dreamscapes.aspx

Boner M

07-06-2011, 12:28 PM

Jealous!
I can't tell if this is sarcasm, but you should be.

Boner M

07-06-2011, 12:39 PM

Hey dmk & Trip, do check out the experimental shorts program cos Nathaniel Dorsky's Pastourelle is playing in it. Stupefyingly gorgeous stuff.

TripZone

07-06-2011, 03:53 PM

Hey dmk & Trip, do check out the experimental shorts program cos Nathaniel Dorsky's Pastourelle is playing in it. Stupefyingly gorgeous stuff.

Apparently he's that guy from Rembrandt Laughing.

Winston*

07-06-2011, 08:10 PM

I can't tell if this is sarcasm, but you should be.

Warrantless sarcasm. I've never heard of him.

Boner M

07-06-2011, 09:05 PM

Apparently he's that guy from Rembrandt Laughing.
Here he is with Jost talking about his work. Worth a look (Brightside, you too, even though his first words are a diss of Tarkovsky, spelt Turkowski in the first titles for some reason):

tuSeoOcrjio

Boner M

07-06-2011, 09:08 PM

Warrantless sarcasm. I've never heard of him.
He has a quite a few fans around here. Ya blew it, Winston*.

Boner M

07-09-2011, 11:07 AM

I did a little festival preview here (http://sydneyfilmhappenings.blogspot. com/2011/07/miff-preview-stuff-ive-seen.html), essentially a ranking of everything I've seen.

Boner M

07-19-2011, 12:39 PM

This starts in a few days. Winston*/trans, feel free to post Wellington/Auckland reports here as well.

Pop Trash

07-19-2011, 05:12 PM

G'DAY MATES! PUT ANOTHER SHRIMP ON THE BARBIE! PAUL HOGAN! MEN AT WORK! YAHOO SERIOUS!

Boner M

07-19-2011, 09:13 PM

http://flagspot.net/images/f/fic-spau.gif

TripZone

07-20-2011, 04:47 AM

Insulting the boot is a bootable offense!

Winston*

07-20-2011, 07:10 AM

This starts in a few days. Winston*/trans, feel free to post Wellington/Auckland reports here as well.

Only if you change the thread title to Antipodean Film Festivals 2011.

Boner M

07-20-2011, 07:54 AM

Only if you change the thread title to Antipodean Film Festivals 2011.
Mmm-hmm.

transmogrifier

07-20-2011, 08:04 AM

The Tree of Life screening was packed and ending with a smattering of applause and various comments on the way out along the lines of "looked pretty but self-indulgent". No walk outs at all, from what I saw, but it is a festival, so that's not a surprise.

It'll absolutely bomb upon general release here, however. The more I think about it, the shallower it seems.

The Man from Nowhere, another in a long line of overlong, overly violent Korean action thrillers is almost the polar opposite to TTOL, in that it decides to overload the narrative with as many plot devices as humanely possible (dead wife! heart-warming orphans! meth manufacture by kids! organ harvesting! ex-Secret Services guy trying to live a normal life! etc). It is kind of interesting in the what the hell are they going to chuck in next, but its clunky and the fight scenes are ponderous, except for a POV knife fight near the end.

Winston*

07-20-2011, 08:06 AM

I've got tickets to both of those.

Boner M

07-20-2011, 08:08 AM

What else ya seein', W*?

Winston*

07-20-2011, 08:08 AM

Mmm-hmm.

Well, you tried and that's what counts.

Winston*

07-20-2011, 08:12 AM

What else ya seein', W*?

Only got tickets to the two aforementioned, Arietty, Drive and Sleeping Beauty atm.

Will be seeing a bunch more though, particularly in non-bookable daytime showings: Martha Marcy May Marleene; Take Shelter; The Kid With a Bike; Melancholia etc.

Boner M

07-20-2011, 08:19 AM

Well, you tried and that's what counts.
Oh, right.

Spinal? Help?

dmk

07-20-2011, 08:41 AM

New Zealanders... *shudder*

Not really surprised that audiences don't walk out of films in New Zealand, low wages and everything.

Don't worry, I'm done.

transmogrifier

07-20-2011, 09:05 AM

New Zealanders... *shudder*

Not really surprised that audiences don't walk out of films in New Zealand, low wages and everything.

Don't worry, I'm done.

Bloody low wages. But then we don't have an arid wasteland in the middle of our country crammed full of precious minerals like our ostentatious neighbours.

Pop Trash

07-20-2011, 01:22 PM

Is there some Aussie vs. NZ feud going on that no one cares about outside of the South Pacific rim?

Derek

07-21-2011, 01:28 AM

The more I think about it, the shallower it seems.

You're doing it wrong.

TripZone

07-21-2011, 01:53 AM

Is there some Aussie vs. NZ feud going on that no one cares about outside of the South Pacific rim?

haha

Boner M

07-21-2011, 02:03 AM

This new thread title was supposed to unite, consarnit!

Winston*

07-21-2011, 02:06 AM

This new thread title was supposed to unite, consarnit!

Canadian!:evil:

transmogrifier

07-21-2011, 02:44 AM

You're doing it wrong.

Yeah, I can see how not thinking too much would benefit that movie. It goes for sensory overload and impressonistic atmospherics, but boy is its thesis basic and simplistic in the extreme. I get the comparisons to Enter the Void now.

transmogrifier

07-21-2011, 02:45 AM

This new thread title was supposed to unite, consarnit!

It's the non-Antipodean voyeurs that are trying to create friction between us. Ignore them. We good.

Derek

07-21-2011, 03:02 AM

Yeah, I can see how not thinking too much would benefit that movie. It goes for sensory overload and impressonistic atmospherics, but boy is its thesis basic and simplistic in the extreme. I get the comparisons to Enter the Void now.

I meant that you were thinking wrong, which is now confirmed by your judging the film more on the thesis itself rather than the way it was presented, ie, the most boring and lazy way imaginable to view this film or really, any film. But yes, it's not a film for someone who values narrative qualities over formal ones to such an extreme degree or who dwell on what a film is about rather than how it's about it.

Pop Trash

07-21-2011, 04:04 AM

I meant that you were thinking wrong, which is now confirmed by your judging the film more on the thesis itself rather than the way it was presented, ie, the most boring and lazy way imaginable to view this film or really, any film. But yes, it's not a film for someone who values narrative qualities over formal ones to such an extreme degree or who dwell on what a film is about rather than how it's about it.

:pritch:

transmogrifier

07-21-2011, 04:16 AM

Raiders

07-21-2011, 06:17 PM

Starting July 23, MUBI will be streaming for free certain films from the Melbourne Film Festival the day after they premiere.

Qrazy

07-21-2011, 07:49 PM

Oh, I mentioned in the other thread about how I dislike the construction as well. So all bases covered!

Keep dancing, Ginger.

Yeah except that your comments about the construction were really just thinly veiled narrative complaints. When people label these types of films as 'pretty' it's as if they have zero sense of the depth of information unique formal expression conveys. So once again, you're doing it wrong.

transmogrifier

07-21-2011, 07:59 PM

Yeah except that your comments about the construction were really just thinly veiled narrative complaints. When people label these types of films as 'pretty' it's as if they have zero sense of the depth of information unique formal expression conveys. So once again, you're doing it wrong.

And this is a not even a thinly veiled complaint that I'm too stupid to understand it. In other words, the most pathetic line of reasoning to defend a film in the known universe.

EDIT: I do appreciate the idea via Derek that I'm not allowed to criticise the philosophy behind it, and the idea via you that I'm not allowed to criticise the construction of it, all because of the formalism that it aspires to. That's a brilliant gambit - crush dissent by refusing to even accept basic grounds for criticism. You guys should be in politics.

Kurosawa Fan

07-21-2011, 08:06 PM

Starting July 23, MUBI will be streaming for free certain films from the Melbourne Film Festival the day after they premiere.

I looked on the site and couldn't find a list of what will be available. Does one exist?

Raiders

07-21-2011, 08:19 PM

I looked on the site and couldn't find a list of what will be available. Does one exist?

Don't think so. The newsletter says to check back daily to see what's playing in your area.

Kurosawa Fan

07-21-2011, 08:21 PM

Don't think so. The newsletter says to check back daily to see what's playing in your area.

Cool, thanks.

Qrazy

07-21-2011, 08:45 PM

And this is a not even a thinly veiled complaint that I'm too stupid to understand it. In other words, the most pathetic line of reasoning to defend a film in the known universe.

EDIT: I do appreciate the idea via Derek that I'm not allowed to criticise the philosophy behind it, and the idea via you that I'm not allowed to criticise the construction of it, all because of the formalism that it aspires to. That's a brilliant gambit - crush dissent by refusing to even accept basic grounds for criticism. You guys should be in politics.

My argument is more that if you're going to criticize the formal qualities of a film then actually critique them, don't state you're critiquing them and then criticize it's narrative conceits.

transmogrifier

07-21-2011, 09:02 PM

My argument is more that if you're going to criticize the formal qualities of a film then actually critique them, don't state you're critiquing them and then criticize it's narrative conceits.

Tell me this - the formal qualities of the film, what do they aspire to? You tell me that they provide a "depth of information". Yet according to Derek, I'm not supposed to be responding to the message of the movie, which should come from this "depth of information". Instead, I should be responding to the formal qualities themselves (I guess, I don't quite get Derek's distinction in this case), as you seem to be stating as well, and thus ignoring the implications of this "depth of information". Apparently, just generating the information is achievement enough, right?

So, please explain CLEARLY to me how being unsatisfied with the ideas/thesis/philosophy the film presents and the structure of the film (i.e. the placement of key sequences and rhythm of the editing) is irrelevant to this movie, and how micro-analysis of the formal qualities are the only valid way to respond.

EDIT: For example, I state that the opening act of the film doesn't really work, because the two main sequences repeat rather than compliment each other. The editing and construction of the first family segment minimizes their grief by planting it deep within another context (in this case, a poetic assemblage of isolated moments selected from within this traumatic event, which removes the specificity and personal nature of the tragedy and reappropriates it in a more universal way), but then Malick decides to recontextualize it again in a more grandiose way with the origin of life sequence, and it does not have the impact it could have had by placing it right next to the opening sequence. To contrast personal grief with our true position within the universe is a neat, if pretty obvious, idea but the true impact is lost to me by having that sequence follow an abstract dissolution of personal grief. It doesn't sit right to me.

Explain to me why I am wrong to think about the film in this way. Note, not wrong in my opinion, which is subjective and open to debate, but wrong to criticize the placement of sequences in the first place.

Qrazy

07-21-2011, 09:36 PM

Tell me this - the formal qualities of the film, what do they aspire to? You tell me that they provide a "depth of information". Yet according to Derek, I'm not supposed to be responding to the message of the movie, which should come from this "depth of information". Instead, I should be responding to the formal qualities themselves (I guess, I don't quite get Derek's distinction in this case), as you seem to be stating as well, and thus ignoring the implications of this "depth of information". Apparently, just generating the information is achievement enough, right?

So, please explain CLEARLY to me how being unsatisfied with the ideas/thesis/philosophy the film presents and the structure of the film (i.e. the placement of key sequences and rhythm of the editing) is irrelevant to this movie, and how micro-analysis of the formal qualities are the only valid way to respond.

EDIT: For example, I state that the opening act of the film doesn't really work, because the two main sequences repeat rather than compliment each other. The editing and construction of the first family segment minimizes their grief by planting it deep within another context (in this case, a poetic assemblage of isolated moments selected from within this traumatic event, which removes the specificity and personal nature of the tragedy and reappropriates it in a more universal way), but then Malick decides to recontextualize it again in a more grandiose way with the origin of life sequence, and it does not have the impact it could have had by placing it right next to the opening sequence. To contrast personal grief with our true position within the universe is a neat, if pretty obvious, idea but the true impact is lost to me by having that sequence follow an abstract dissolution of personal grief. It doesn't sit right to me.

Explain to me why I am wrong to think about the film in this way. Note, not wrong in my opinion, which is subjective and open to debate, but wrong to criticize the placement of sequences in the first place.

Personally I just think you're wrong about the treatment of grief in the film. I don't agree that the cosmos segment is redundant for the reason you state because I don't think that it or the earlier segment exist to minimize the grief experienced by the parents or the adult Sean Penn. I believe Malick is trying to express the universality of grief, but not to minimize the reality of it. I also think you are incorrect to assume that the nature of the cosmos sequence exists purely to reflect the issue of personal grief. This film is about a whole hell of a lot more than grief. This film is about the process of growing up internally and externally, the cosmos sequence is a reflection of that. The process of the universe and individual species 'growing up/developing' is juxtaposed with human and specifically one individual's development.

In regards to the depth of information I was speaking in more general terms than The Tree of Life. I've heard this statement about films a lot... 'it looked pretty but...' Some films do just look pretty in a glossy meaningless way... but Tree of Life, other Malick films, Tarkovsky films, etc... there the formal qualities convey the meaning of the work. The upside down shot of the kids shadows on the pavement, the elliptical editing along the road, the theft of the piece of clothing. All of these sequences are crafted in such a way as to provide an emotional and aesthetic experience, to communicate the 'feeling' of the action, not just to state the existence of the action. Personally I thought the film nailed the theft of that garment. It brought me right back to the first time I had done something truly wrong. I wouldn't use the term sin as I am not a Christian but the film nails that sense of discomfort that I myself experienced as a child.

Basically you seem frustrated by the film for not sufficiently achieving or being redundant in the achievement of what you believe to to be doing. I can't say I agree at all with what you think it's trying to do though. If you approach the film from a different angle you may find it more rewarding. Because this is the type of film that is not about direct symbolic manipulations. It's about conceptual associations and large, very large scale metaphoric connotations. It is the be all and end all of macro/microcosmic films. Fair enough if you feel it's reach exceeded it's grasp but imo the film nails it's individual moments.

transmogrifier

07-21-2011, 09:50 PM

Qrazy

07-21-2011, 10:25 PM

The trouble is that it sounds like the only available criticism is to say "I didn't feel anything when X happened", if it is truly only about its individual moments and the connotations they produce.

So, I guess: I didn't feel much emotional connection with any of the isolated moments save the growing up montage which nailed the inexorable passing of time that leaves us all behind eventually.

But its strange that you claim it is the ultimate micro/macrocosmic film, but you only seems interested in approaching the film on its microcosmic scale, which seems to betray the ultimate philosophy of the entire film.

Anyway, I'm of the opinion that the power of individual moments within a film rely both on the scene itself AND the relationship of that scene to the rest of the movie. So, I restate that I think the overall structure of the film works against the accumulation of emotion from its smaller moments.

No, I just don't have any interest in writing 10 pages about the macro/adult/cosmos segments right now.

I do not see the justification for your position that the structure works against the accumulation of emotion, nor that such an accumulation is a necessary component for the success of a film. It seems like you would have been much happier with a more straight forward narrative which excised the cosmos and adult sequences.

Boner M

07-22-2011, 04:06 AM

A tweet from MIFF:

THREE was screened off promo DVD with sales agent's watermark and For Promo Use subtitle, also skipped back and forth constantly.

Fucken hell. This does not bode well...

TripZone

07-22-2011, 06:19 AM

A tweet from MIFF:
Fucken hell. This does not bode well...

bahaha

shit I have to go, two movies tonight

TripZone

07-22-2011, 03:52 PM

Free to watch for Australians at least.

http://mubi.com/films/pink-saris

TripZone

07-22-2011, 03:59 PM

La Havre was gorgeous, so gorgeous. I'm not sure Aki has ever been so concerned with issues of the zeitgeist, and he threads such things together with the beloved proles, rock music, and love stories the have defined him, along with some reflection on aging. Intriguing use of teal in the set design.

Melancholia is quite good. Lacks the vicious irony of much of his work and struck me as earnest, which was nice. After a stunning slow motion prologue of bombastic strings over effects-laden tableaux that people will call a massive wank, it jumps into his usual handheld Bergman-esque dramas of some depth, with Dunst's half (the wedding) being less of a (actually not boring) slog than Gainsbourg's and probably containing Trier's best comedy work. Gainsbourg herself is featured every bit as much as if not more than Dunst is, surprisingly. There's a bit more going on under the surface that I'll have to ponder on. That being said, I can't imagine wanting to watch it again for some time.

B-side

07-23-2011, 03:55 AM

Free to watch for Australians at least.

http://mubi.com/films/pink-saris

We're sorry. There are no films for this program available to watch in your country.

:sad:

TripZone

07-23-2011, 09:45 AM

FREE

http://mubi.com/films/finisterrae
http://mubi.com/films/living-on-love-alone
http://mubi.com/films/jean-gentil

TripZone

07-23-2011, 11:33 AM

Cave of Forgotten Dreams was a fucked up showing: first the sound was garbled, causing people to stomp their feet and boo until it was fixed, which it was, until 2 minutes from the end it shut down and we had to wait 5 minutes and rewatch part of the film just to see the final two minutes, with a minor crash again. Seriously incompetent. The film was actually pretty great, Herzog waxing poetic and observing idiosyncracies like usual. His 3D doesn't just map the contours of the cave walls/canvasses but also those contours of the explorers' faces as they observe. Herzog attempts to understand nascent drawing/painting, music, religion, weaponry, and man's relationship with all the animals either dreamt and rendered or left to die and remain in the cave.

El Velador is that modern kind of documentary with not just no talking heads, but next to no spoken words altogether, just observational bits and pieces surrounding the workers and grievers of a cemetary made up of mini cathedrals/palaces that are actually extravagant (and tacky) mausoleums housing the, uh, victims of this extraordinarily violent region. Bits of news regarding the drug cartels (deaths, politicians asking for US assistance, etc) are infrequently shown via an old television, but the credits lists these as archival, possibly demonstrating a forced hand in this non-narrative portrait; thus it could be in the field of Alamar or Le Quattro Volte -but apparently not enough to label it fiction. There were a few walkouts, as it has no story or narration. The auteur sheds light on those still living in this place of (never-seen) death, going about daily routines and rituals. It's not a polemic, nor a genre picture glorifying then demolishing members of drug cartels, but a small-scale humanist chronicle that does not fail to ignore the absurdism inherent in what we are witnessing. The final shot is, well, really two-part, and just perfect. I like this film the more I reflect on it.

Boner M

07-26-2011, 01:38 PM

Haven't blogged about anything yet, just tweeted. Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is my highlight so far, surprisingly, since it was a slot-filler more than anything. Michael is the lowlight; sub-Haneke nothingness, not even provocative (directed by Haneke's casting director, btw).

NickGlass

07-26-2011, 01:58 PM

A tweet from MIFF:

"THREE was screened off promo DVD with sales agent's watermark and For Promo Use subtitle, also skipped back and forth constantly."

Fucken hell. This does not bode well...

The new Tom Tykwer? I'm seeing that tonight at NewFest in NYC. Let's just hope that you Aussies are getting sold short and I'll have beautiful projection.

Also, Boner, you must see Littlerock today (Tuesday--I'm too late aren't I?) or Sunday at 11.

EDIT: Nevermind. I just checked your Twitter feed and you spewed apathy all over Littlerock; I thought this would be a Boner film, but with these types of films you can never tell when something really is going to hit. It worked for me--not with dazzling results, but surely enough that I didn't merely shrug afterward. Perhaps I was most impressed with the way they nailed the interior of the clueless characters; I found the confusion and fear inherent in language barriers to be really authentic, despite, you know, being American and not Japanese.

Boner M

07-26-2011, 02:02 PM

I saw Littlerock and didn't care much for it w/o being able to really articulate why. Maybe it was my mood or something. Will try and have a review up soon.

NickGlass

07-26-2011, 02:08 PM

I saw Littlerock and didn't care much for it w/o being able to really articulate why. Maybe it was my mood or something. Will try and have a review up soon.

Er, yeah, see edit.

Like I said, I'm saying you missed out on a marvel, but this is quite mood-based filmmaking. But, yeah, modest, surely.

Winston*

07-27-2011, 08:19 AM

Anyone seen Cold Fish? Should I see it?

Boner M

07-27-2011, 08:41 AM

Anyone seen Cold Fish? Should I see it?
If you're a Tyler, the Creator fan maybe.

Winston*

07-27-2011, 09:17 AM

If you're a Tyler, the Creator fan maybe.

I'm a fan of his misogyny but I don't really care for his music.

NickGlass

07-27-2011, 02:36 PM

Anyone seen Cold Fish? Should I see it?

It's a big bowl of misogyny. It's an epic example of grossly graphic, and grossly stupid, filmmaking. Sure, why not.

Rowland

07-27-2011, 06:14 PM

I'm looking forward to Cold Fish, at least. I know Sicinski and D'Angelo skewered it, but I've read some strong press for it elsewhere, including from people more familiar with Sono's style or more likely to warm up to his gonzo approach to filmmaking. And I'm pretty sure they weren't misogynists, though I most certainly may be mistaken.

Boner M

07-28-2011, 04:33 AM

Tscherkassky on the big screen... kjagdasgkjsava. Outer Space even more of a revelation, Dream Work a perfect companion piece, and Happy-End one of the most strangely moving avant-garde films I've seen.

He gave a very entertaining Q&A too. Can't wait for the masterclass in a few days. Adrian Martin was sitting in front of me, as well.

B-side

07-28-2011, 07:32 AM

Winston*

07-29-2011, 01:37 PM

Lol @ all the people that walked out of Tree of Life less than 5 minutes from the end.

Winston*

07-30-2011, 12:40 PM

The Man from Nowhere, another in a long line of overlong, overly violent Korean action thrillers is almost the polar opposite to TTOL, in that it decides to overload the narrative with as many plot devices as humanely possible (dead wife! heart-warming orphans! meth manufacture by kids! organ harvesting! ex-Secret Services guy trying to live a normal life! etc). It is kind of interesting in the what the hell are they going to chuck in next, but its clunky and the fight scenes are ponderous, except for a POV knife fight near the end.

What was the deal with the dude who speaks English with a strong American accent in the first scenes and then never speaks again?

Raiders

07-30-2011, 02:16 PM

Curling, which has received great buzz around here and elsewhere, up for free on MUBI:

http://mubi.com/films/curling (http://mubi.com/programs/melbourne-film-festival)

Winston*

07-31-2011, 03:49 AM

Due to its familiar source material, Arietty inevitably feels a bit more generic than most of the other Ghibli films. Still pretty well done. I liked what they did with the ending.

Winston*

08-01-2011, 08:44 AM

Arietty has both an English and an American dub apparently. Never seen that before. I want a New Zealand dub.

13 Assassins was awesome.

NickGlass

08-02-2011, 07:16 PM

Curling, which has received great buzz around here and elsewhere, up for free on MUBI:

http://mubi.com/films/curling (http://mubi.com/programs/melbourne-film-festival)

WHOA.

Even though I would recommend everyone see it in a cold, dark movie theater with a large cup of tea, all I can say at this moment is: "Get on this people." It's one of the best I've seen this year.

Boner M

08-03-2011, 02:13 PM

Big day of recent Cannes exports: Ceylan's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Hong's The Day He Arrives, Dumont's Outside Satan, Skoonheid (aka Beauty).

The Dumont wasn't great but not as much of a disaster as Cannes folk would have you believe. His formal strengths are on full display, but I just didn't care enough about the surface to do the interpretive heavy-lifting. I am, however, in awe of his ability to consistently find the most physiognomically fascinating actors.

The other three were all varying degrees of very-good-ness. I need to see the Hong again; it only clicked that I might not be watching a linear story until late in the film (Daniel Kasman compared it to Groundhog Day over at Mubi). The first half of the Ceylan is his finest hour, then it gets a little wayward and tedious in the second half only to end beautifully. Skoonheid was incredibly distressing, if only for one scene. Not since The Terence Davies Trilogy has the headspace of a closeted gay been evoked so overwhelmingly. Pretty great but unpleasant.

TripZone

08-04-2011, 01:31 AM

Aww, we were in the same theatres all day?

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia contains a shot early in the film so beautiful tears welled up, then continues to be about as stunningly photographed in all night scenes. A lot of Kiarostamian long shots of cars driving over the hillside with dialogue over the top. The film could be a riff on the glorious opening of Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, with the men's dead-time shown in exhaustive, mesmerising detail. It's quite like a NW Romanian film, eschewing the classical plot dramatics of a Hollywood or South Korean genre movie (often the camera remains with men waiting as they ponder alone or together while "action" goes on around the corner), but even more so in its black farcical humour derived from incompetence and bureaucracy and charm of character. It is indeed Ceylan's most comedic film, despite the black absurdity of much of Distant. It's about men, mainly, and it's quite rich in that sense. A step up from his last film.

Hors Satan is perhaps Dumont's most difficult-to-decipher parable, but I've hardly reflected on it much as this is a festival I'm attending. Rife with religious symbolism, this one. Anyway, I loved its filmmaking.

The Day He Arrives follows Hahaha as a less formalist but more delightful Hong output. Indeed it is one of his funniest pictures. His trademark twice-told narratives here take shape in repeated lines, scenes and single shots, but there is no structural or temporal shifting (the film is linear), instead they take the form of drunken forgetfulness but ultimately go beyond just that. This protagonist (a director, of course, or at least he was at one time) refuses to attach himself to anything or anyone for very long, so he stagnates. All the repetition, and the conversations throughout, echo this idea. Since I really admired the more narratively audacious Oki's Movie as well, Hong is on a fucking roll.

Boner M

08-04-2011, 03:17 AM

Yeah, I need to see the Hong again now.

TripZone

08-04-2011, 03:39 AM

Yeah, I need to see the Hong again now.
Do you really suspect it legitimately repeats the same day, and is thus nonlinear? There are many instances of characters not noticing deja vu, or even not remembering people entirely, but I'm not so sure it's actual Groundhog Day conceit so much as a way to tackle the lack of growth on every level in the protag's life. And as I said, it could even just come down to their being drunk and having no memory of the previous day. It's certainly ambiguous.

Winston*

08-06-2011, 07:07 AM

Sleeping Beauty, MORE LIKE EYES WIDE BORING.

Winston*

08-06-2011, 07:08 AM

Sleeping Beauty, MORE LIKE EYES WIDE BORING.
Nailed it.

Boner M

08-06-2011, 10:08 AM

Yeah it's pretty bad. Ooh, art film.

Ezee E

08-06-2011, 10:45 PM

Yeah it's pretty bad. Ooh, art film.
You yayed it.

Winston*

08-06-2011, 10:55 PM

You yayed it.

Maybe the fact that Emily Browning is naked for literally half the movie affected his critical receptors.

Winston*

08-06-2011, 11:04 PM

Willing to assume that I might just not have got it, but it seemed to be an especially irritating combination of arthouse stasis and empty provocation.

Pop Trash

08-06-2011, 11:12 PM

Maybe the fact that Emily Browning is naked for literally half the movie affected his critical receptors.

HIGH PRIORITY :eek:

Boner M

08-06-2011, 11:57 PM

You yayed it.
A very mild one that has turned to a nay over time. Change it, plz.

Ezee E

08-07-2011, 01:03 AM

A very mild one that has turned to a nay over time. Change it, plz.

Very accomplished for a debut feature, great mood piece. But also oblique without making the particulars vivid enough that I cared to join the dots myself.

Well that's a waste of a quote.

Winston*

08-09-2011, 04:50 AM

Enjoyed The Yellow Sea quite a bit, even though I'm pretty sure the message of the movie is that all women are whores.

Winston*

08-09-2011, 04:59 AM

Still got to see

The Kid With a Bike
Martha Marcy May
Melancholia
Drive

Maybe one or two others.

transmogrifier

08-09-2011, 05:05 AM

Enjoyed The Yellow Sea quite a bit, even though I'm pretty sure the message of the movie is that all women are whores.

And all men are violent maniacs willing to kill at the drop of the hat.

The last scene of the film at the train station (which I didn't like, as it seemed like a cheap gotcha moment) would disagree with you anyway.

Winston*

08-09-2011, 05:12 AM

transmogrifier

08-09-2011, 05:24 AM

I was just being facetious. I don't really think the ending necessarily does that though. Isn't that shot supposed to show that she's the seed of all this craziness?

Also, since you're more familiar with Korean culture than I am, what's the deal with the eating motif in this movie? Everyone's always stuffing their gobs.

Koreans place a lot of value on the social occasion of eating - it is a very communal thing. A few Koreans have told me this stems from the Korean War when the country was terribly poor and food scarce, and following generations have placed the consumption of food on a pedestal, first for simple survival (with villagers working together to get enough food to eat) and then as a mark of wealth and prosperity. But I don't know how accurate that is. I haven't looked into it myself.

One thing I do know is that a lot of Korean men judge food on the ability to give the consumer "stamina" (foods like dog soup, for instance), which is usually a euphemism for sexual virality, but can easily be extended to simple physical vitality as well. So perhaps that could be the explanation for this particular movie.

As for the final shot - I just saw it as a cheap joke that his concerns were all in his head, especially after the final scene on the boat.