The Film Festival Thread

[Spinal]

A thread for discussing your visits to film festivals and offering previews to other posters of films that will eventually be coming their way.

The 2008 Portland Film Festival has announced its lineup. Any thoughts on these films and what might be worth seeing would be appreciated:

27,000 DAYS Naveen Singh
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS Cristian Mungiu
A GENTLE BREEZE IN THE VILLAGE Yamashita Nobuhiro
A MAN'S JOB Aleksi Salmenperä
AFGHAN MUSCLES Andreas Mol Dalsgaard
AFTER ALL Alexis Fortier Gauthier
ALEXANDRA Alexander Sokurov
ALICE'S HOUSE Chico Teixeira
AMERICAN/SANDINISTA Jason Blalock
BEAUFORT Joseph Cedar
BLIND MOUNTAIN Li Yang
BLUE DRESS Katie Stern
BREATH Kim Ki-duk
BY MODERN MEASURE
CABINET Robert Todd
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' Cristian Nemescu
CAMP SERIES #2 John Price
CARAMEL Nadine Labaki
CHICAGO 10 Brett Morgen
CHIHULY IN THE HOTSHOP Peter West
CHOP SHOP Ramin Bahrani
CLOUDS OVER CONAKRY Cheick Fantamady Camara
DREAMS AND DESIRES—FAMILY TIES Joanna Quinn
DUSKA Jos Stelling
EDUART Angeliki Antoniou
EMPTIES Jan Sverák
FAIR TRADE Michael Dreher
FAMILY TIES Kim Tae-yong
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON Hou Hsiao-Hsien
FOREVER Heddy Honigmann
GATES Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles
GETTING HOME Zhang Yang
HARROWDOWN HILL Chel White
HOME SONG STORIES Tony Ayres
HOW TO CONDUCT A LOVE AFFAIR David Gatten
I MET THE WALRUS Josh Raskin
IMPORT/EXPORT Ulrich Seidl
IN BRUGES Martin McDonagh
IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA José Luis GuerÃ*n
IN THE HELIOPOLIS FLAT Mohamed Khan
IRINA PALM Sam Garbarski
It's a Free World Ken Loach
JAR CITY Baltasar Kormákur
JEU Georges Schwizgebel
KINGS Tom Collins
La ANTENA Esteban Saphir
LITTLE TERRORS Lou Thomas, Jake Ryan Manning
LOVE AND WAR Frederik Emilson
M FOR MOTHER Rasoul Mollagholipour
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski
MISTER FOE David Mackenzie
MONGOL Sergei Bodrov
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD Daniele Luchetti
MY MOTHER Elaine Wickham
NOT BY CHANCE Philippe Barcinski
OBSERVATION EL CIELO Jeanne Liotta
OFF THE GRID: LIFE ON THE MESA Jeremy Stulberg, Randy Stulberg
OPERATION FILMMMAKER Nina Davenport
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies Michael Hazanavicius
PARANOID PARK Gus Van Sant
PERSIAN CARPET Various Directors
POP FOUL Moon Molson
PRICELESS Pierre Salvadori
RING! RING! Arman Bohn
ROMULUS, MY FATHER Richard Roxburgh
SAFARI Catherine Chalmers
SAVIOUR'S SQUARE Krzysztof Krauze, Joanna Kos-Krauze
SHOTGUN STORIES Jeff Nichols
SHUTEYE HOTEL Bill Plympton
SILENT LIGHT Carlos Reygadas
SNOW ANGELS David Gordon Green
SOFT Simon Ellis
SPIDER Nash Edgerton
STILL LIFE Zhang Ke Jia
STREETCAR NAMED PERSPIRE Joanna Priestley
SUPER NONPAREILS Jeremy Bird
TANGHI ARGENTINI Guido Thys
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE Alex Gibney
TAXIDERMIA György Palfi
TELL NO ONE Guillaume Canet
THE ART OF NEGATIVE THINKING BÃ¥rd Breien
THE BAND'S VISIT Eran Kolirin
THE BUTTERFLY IN WINTER Ute Aurand, Maria Lang
THE COUNTERFEITERS Stefan Ruzowitzky
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ROSEFRIEND APARTMENTS Brian Libby
THE DUTCHESS OF LANGEAIS Jacques Rivette
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN Fatih Akin
THE GREAT MAGICIAN Elisabeth Gustafson
THE MONASTERY: MR. VIG AND THE NUN Pernille Rose Grønjaer
THE PEARCE SISTERS Luis Cook
THE PULL Andy Blubaugh
THE RUSSIAN TRIANGLE Aleko Tsabadze
THE SUBSTITUTE Andrea Jublin
THE TRAP Srdan Golubovic
THE TRUFFEL HUNTER Tom Tagholm
THE VISITOR Tom McCarthy
THE WHITE SILK DRESS Luu Huynh
THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION Cao Hamburger
THE YEAR OF THE NAIL Jonás Cuarón
THEN SHE FOUND ME Helen Hunt
THREE HOURS, FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE THE HURRICANE STRUCK Christina Battle
TIMES AND WINDS Reha Erdem
TOWER BAWHER Theodore Ushev
TUYA'S MARRIAGE Wang Quan
UNDER THE SAME MOON Patricia Riggen
Unrelated Joanna Hogg
UP THE YANGTZE Yung Chang
WHO'S GOOD LOOKING Warren Pereira
WIND Chel White
XXY LucÃ*a Puenzo
YELLA Christian Petzold
YOU, THE LIVING Roy Andersson


No Nightwatching. :evil:

But I definitely want to see Breath.

[Winston*]

PARANOID PARK Gus Van Sant
ROMULUS, MY FATHER Richard Roxburgh

I've only seen these two. They're not good. Don't see them.

[Spinal]

Hmmm, that's a shame. The trailer for Paranoid Park was actually pretty enticing.

[Duncan]

I've only seen The Flight of the Red Balloon. It was good, maybe not great. I dug its impressionism, and Binoche's performance.

[Ezee E]

I've heard nothing but good things about The Band's Visit and The Counterfitters from Telluride, so give those a try while you can.

[Llopin]

IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA José Luis GuerÃ*n
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS Cristian Mungiu
STILL LIFE Zhang Ke Jia

These rule. See them.

FAMILY TIES Kim Tae-yong
IRINA PALM Sam Garbarski
TAXIDERMIA György Palfi
XXY LucÃ*a Puenzo

And these are... uhm... interesting, to say the least. Specially Palfi's.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days is a must see, but I imagine it'll make the Landmark Theaters in the next month or so.

[Skitch]

I really want some reviews for Choke...

[Sycophant]

If I were at Portland, I'd be prioritizing these:
BREATH Kim Ki-duk
CHICAGO 10 Brett Morgen
CHOP SHOP Ramin Bahrani
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON Hou Hsiao-Hsien
SNOW ANGELS David Gordon Green
STILL LIFE Zhang Ke Jia
THEN SHE FOUND ME Helen Hunt
UP THE YANGTZE Yung Chang


But I haven't seen any of them. MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI played as part of the animation spotlgiht at Sundance, and I rather liked it.

I"m a bad film fan. Sundance screenings have been happening three blocks from my apartment and I've only made it to two shorts programs.

[Saya]

This festival is going on right now in my area: International Film Festival of Rotterdam

I've got so much stuff to do at work, I can only go in the weekend. I do have tickets for No Country for Old Men and I'm Not There, but I want to see some more movies.

I might check out something by Ishii Yuya, but I'm not sure yet. If you guys have any recommendations let me know. You can see the programme schedule on the link.

[Spinal]

I'm not likely a good viewer for the red balloon movie.

[Stay Puft]

I might check out something by Ishii Yuya, but I'm not sure yet. If you guys have any recommendations let me know. You can see the programme schedule on the link.

I saw these in Toronto and would recommend them: Dainipponjin, which is a lot of fun. I love Hitoshi Matsumoto so I am requird to pimp it. Sad Vacation, which is good, but the first half is much stronger than the second. And Useless, which is fantastic, but does not appear to be playing during a weekend, so perhaps that recommendation wouldn't work.

[Spinal]

Short List: (will probably see 5 or 6 of these)

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS Cristian Mungiu
BREATH Kim Ki-duk
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN Faith Akin
IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA Jose Luis Guerin
JAR CITY Baltasar Kormákur
La ANTENA Esteban Saphir
MONGOL Sergei Bodrov
PARANOID PARK Gus Van Sant (Winston has me very hesitant.)
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE Alex Gibney
TELL NO ONE Guillaume Canet
YOU, THE LIVING Roy Andersson

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

BREATH Kim Ki-duk
La ANTENA Esteban Saphir
YOU, THE LIVING Roy Andersson

I've seen these. You, the Living is FANTASTIC. The other two were major dissapointments.

[Spinal]

Due to my personal schedule, my short list got thrown out the window and I've been seeing films at times that I have available. After a couple of so-so films, I caught a winner today in California Dreamin' about a NATO train that gets stopped in a Romanian village due to a stubborn railway officer. The American soldiers are delivering equipment to aid in the war in Kosovo, but get derailed (literally) and end up intermingling with the locals to results that are both comic and tragic. The film does an excellent job of examining the mixture of contempt and admiration the locals have for the Americans and what they represent.



Sadly, the director, Christian Nemescu, was killed in a car accident weeks after shooting was concluded and therefore the film has been left basically in the shape it was in on the date of his death. The film is indeed long, as it seems his collaborators have been reluctant to trim his vision. Hopefully, someone will eventually give the film the proper pruning it deserves before general release, because there is much about this film that is extraordinary, poignant and moving. Excellent work from the ensemble, but Armand Assante stands out as the tough guy army captain who has to summon all the patience he can muster to remember to use diplomacy rather than force.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

even if you have to go out of your way, see You, the Living, if it's the right audience it can be one hell of a theatre experience.

[Spinal]

even if you have to go out of your way, see You, the Living, if it's the right audience it can be one hell of a theatre experience.

I've already missed it unfortunately. A friend saw it and said it was amazing. I was bummed, but alas, I was unable to attend.