tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30708514924091746352024-03-06T03:13:15.867+00:00Fancyplants' Cracked PotMy little cracked plant pot. Mind the roots.fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.comBlogger384125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-59059557636276862392023-11-14T18:16:00.009+00:002023-11-21T18:29:32.754+00:00LIFF 2023 Day 2<h3 style="text-align: left;">Chronicles of a Wandering Saint<span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Arg/US) (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11317110/">imdb</a>)</span><br /></h3><p>Rita is an ageing and lowly cleaning lady in her local chapel in a
backwater village somewhere in Argentina. Jealous of the local pack of
ladies who always seem to have something interesting to do and the attentions of the local father, she happens
upon an old statue of a saint, supposedly the town's 'Santa Rita', missing for decades. Corralling her meek and simple husband, who loves her dearly but wants nothing more than a quiet last few years, they sneak it back home and hatch a plan to make Rita be centre stage when the statue miraculously reappears.</p><p>There's something quite arresting with this film, it is gentle but with a playful mischief lurking just behind the screen. Nothing shows this more than the viewer experiencing the unusual situation of an abrupt false ending midway through (with a minute or two of credits to dumbfound the audience), after which the hapless Rita has her perspective completely changed, along with the rest of us. It turns from a quiet caper reminiscent of an episode of <i>Last of the Summer Wine</i>, into something deeper and more affecting. It was a genuine surprise. <b><span style="font-size: medium;">8/10</span></b><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Monk and the Gun<span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Bhu) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monk_and_the_Gun">wiki</a>)</span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Strange as it may seem, Bhutan has only had access to the internet and TV since they were given a democratic system in 2006. Since then, filmmakers from the region have slowly started to make their presence felt. Here is one of them. <br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y2_Logx4DoY" width="476" youtube-src-id="y2_Logx4DoY"></iframe></div></span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Set in 2006, just as the newly formed government pushed for democratic engagement with it's people, who viewed this new way of thinking with suspicion and confusion. In a remote village of Ura, the elderly local Lama listened on the crackling radio thrust into his personal space as mock elections were announced, sighed, and instructed his monk assistant, Tashi, to acquire two guns. He was going to sort this out once and for all.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Coincidentally, Ron, an American rifle collector appears on the scene. He has heard of an old man in the village with a very rare rifle, and might be willing to part with it for the right words. He hires local villager Benji as his guide to the area and they arrange for the swap. Problem is, a local Lama's wishes takes precedence in these situations, snatching ritches from Ron's grasp.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What does the Lama want with the guns? Will Ron catch up with the monk and do a deal, and what over the police on Ron and Benji's tail who have been alerted to a suspicious 'arms dealer' on their patch? Reminiscent of the setup from a <i>Mad Mad Mad Mad World</i>, each faction descends on the final confrontation and the (western, at least) viewer is kept guessing as to the outcome. If you were hoping the Lama would go ape and spend the last third of the film creating a bloodbath, I have to inform you that you will be disappointed in the final scenes, but most should see a satisfying, if unspectacular resolution to things. <b>7/10<br /></b></span></p>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-48186230337697909222023-11-11T10:41:00.000+00:002023-11-11T10:41:16.590+00:00LIFF 2023 Day 1<p>Hello.</p><p>As is usual these days, my dusty blog comes briefly to life once again around November, and once again I promise myself and anyone still listening that I'll post more in the following year. It probably won't happen. Hey <i>look</i>, this year and the 2020's have been pretty crap so far and my optimism tank is running pretty low.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Settlers<span style="font-weight: normal;"> (Arg/Chi/UK/Tai/Ger) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers_(2023_film)">wiki</a>)</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;">At the turn of the 20th Century, a ragged group of mercenaries from a bunch of countries including the Spanish, American and British are busy colonizing the outer skirts of Chile and Argentina, and somewhere near the border of the two we find 'Lieutenant' Alexander MacLenan, a Scottish soldier in charge of a lot of other bored soldiers as they force slaves of varying colours to erect cattle fences around their newly 'acquired' land. Trouble is, the pesky Indians who seem to think that they own the place keep messing things up, and so MacLenan is tasked by his landgrabbing boss<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Men%C3%A9ndez">José Menéndez</a></span> to find<b> </b>a safe route out to the Atlantic with which to transport their livestock. Taking sharp-shooting half-Chilean Segundo with him, self-assured and bloodthirsty Texan 'Bill' is brought along for the ride at Menéndez' recommendation, given that those indians will shoot you given the slightest chance.<br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-3_hcR2tHOk" width="471" youtube-src-id="-3_hcR2tHOk"></iframe></div>What you expect to be perhaps an awakening of the morality of an embittered man doesn't work out that way, and my first reaction to that was disappointment. But this is not a nicely tied up story about how a bad white man saw that he could be a good white man, but a reflection of the barbarity on the colonized by the colonizers.<br /><p></p><p>It's dark and unrelenting in this depiction of the period if Chilean history, and even when the third act takes a step back, you are still reminded that for most people of the land at the time, this was a period where many never saw justice other than the convenient interpretation of the word decided on by the settlers themselves. <b>7.5/10</b><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">La Palisiada <span style="font-weight: normal;">(Ukr) (<a href="https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2023/films/la-palisiada">review</a>)</span></h3><p>I had to give <i>La Palisiada</i> a lot of slack to get anything good out of it. In the beginning, which can be roughly described as a prologue, we appear to be in the Ukraine around 2010, as two families and their children spend some time together. After a number of disjointed scenes, a throwaway line uttered by teenage son Kiril as he wanders around the flat he has managed to newly acquire, filled with his dad's 'horrible' paintings, he refers to some of them as '<i>the worst things he has ever done</i>', a clue as to where the film is making it's way towards.</p><p>Kiril is a spoilt, opinionated and unlikable floppy haired little git. Somehow in a relationship with Ayasel, things come to a head during an argument and thankfully we don't have to put up with him any more in the film.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QbRtv4hSmM4" width="483" youtube-src-id="QbRtv4hSmM4"></iframe></div><br />Rewind to 1996 in newly liberated Ukraine, and the parents of the couple are now the focus. At this point the purpose of the film begins to coalesce, as we are shown through deliberately gritty and grainy 4:3 format the past lives of people who in the present are known only as loving fathers, taking part in what passed for justice in the newly liberated Ukraine of the mid 90's, where the habits of soviet influence still meant that so long as someone paid for a crime, that was the main thing. Someone shot one of their comrades and Bohdan, a young offender with some mental problems seemed guilty looking enough to do. Only at this point do we reflectively get some appreciation of the prologue, showing the cleaner, high-definition and relatively carefree lives of their children who, were it not for the actions of the past, may not have a tragedy of their own to deal with. If you can be patient during the first 15 or so minutes and put up with the numerous errors in the subtitles, you can find something of worth here but this new director would do well to tighten things up a bit in their next film. <b>6/10</b><br /><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Toll <span style="font-weight: normal;">(Bra/Por) (<a href="https://tiff.net/events/toll">review</a>)</span></h3><p>Eking out a living in one of Brazil's poorer areas, single mother Suellen sits in the toll booth day after day to put food on the table for her 'maybe' new boyfriend who seems to be taking some liberties, and her son Antonio, who has taken to posting Instagram videos singing along to campy classics in his disco-lit bedroom. What should be an escape from Antonio's dull existence and an exercise in finding out who he is and where his passions lay, Suellen sees as an illness robbing his child of a 'normal' existence. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xd0I0HHV2vM" width="480" youtube-src-id="xd0I0HHV2vM"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>When an opportunity arises to send her son to an expensive 'gay conversion' centre, she takes it without a second thought for the danger that she is putting her family in. With great performances particularly by the two leads, the film gives a view into the difficult waters of a culture steeped in religion and religious beliefs dictating who and what a person should be to be happy, and the hypocrisies we use to make them fit our actual lives. <b>8/10</b><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">World Animation Competition 2<span style="font-weight: normal;"> (<a href="https://www.leedsfilm.com/whats-on/world-animation-competition-2/">liff</a>)</span><br /></h3><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Slow Light</b></span> (Pol) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJFTe2Wxoho">preview</a>)</p><p>In a visual style I can best describe as a Pigeon Street with modern technology, this inventive short toys with the idea that light can travel slowly through certain substances, and how at extremes, this might affect how someone sees their world. Nice but you have to leave your logic muscles at the door. <b>6.5</b><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">27</span></b> (Fra) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VHPg5uCv_c">preview</a>)<br /></p><p>Alice is very bored and very, very horny. With colourful and flyaway imagery, we follow her through a typical day of annoying little brothers and unfulfilled fantasies, where even there the drudgery of the realities of life seem to encroach. Energetic, free-spirited and vibrant animation succeeds, often explicitly to convey the creature desperate to come out. <b>7.5</b><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Remember How I Used to Ride a White Horse</span></b> (Cro) (<a href="https://vimeo.com/778047073">preview</a>)<br /></p><p>Very much one of those shorts that either pings with you based on your life experiences, or will completely go over your head. For me, it was very much the latter. A coffee shop worker, fashioned it seems from sweaty wax into a form resembling a brunette Lisa Jones from <i>Team America</i>, flumps around while some guy sits with his headphones on and distorted noise coming out. He does nothing, even when another man appears, lies on the floor, and then is gone again. Then there are some piles of salt, and a horse. And also a robot wood chopper chopping infinite wood. And the coffee shop is called White Horse so ... she originally rode it? Also, the actual horse was not white. The animation was wooden, the scenes abstract and nonsensical, the characters annoying and without purpose, and any message of some life unfulfilled was hidden too far behind it all for me to give a fig, and I disliked almost every part of it. <b>2</b><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Suruaika</span></b> (Rom) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mQy0V6Ivbw">preview</a>)<br /></p><p>Suffering from a similar level of message obscurity, Suruaika did at least have some good animation. In a noir world of cats where some cats are people and some cats are just cats, one taxi-driver cat avoids the strays on the street as he ferries his clients to and fro. After running one down he feels compelled to take in the strange looking orphan kitten that remains, only for it to get larger with every day, connected somehow with the exponential growth of cat cats on the roads, that he now seems to have no problems in mowing down in their thousands. <i>Something something something rampant consumerism?</i> I really don't know and it makes me feel old. <b>4</b><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">GMAN: a qixia in space</span></b> (Chi) (<a href="https://fantasiafestival.com/en/film/gman-a-qixia-in-space">fantasia</a>) (<a href="https://fantasiafestival.com/imager/fantasiafestival_com/uploads/film/g-man_38411_af599ee76a60a3ffac0b778428c6ae2f.webp" target="_blank">cool poster</a>)<br /></p><p>Well. If anything was going to get us back on track it's a far-out, far-eastern parody of various western and eastern animations, as GMAN, a He-Man anime type, confronts in DBZ style, his reluctant nemesis, GHEAD, who is basically a cyclops with a tin can for a head. In super smooth but increasingly batshit fight scenes, the traditions of an anime good-evil fight are subverted as GHEAD tries to come to terms with just being sick and tired of it all. Mad. Mad as hell and I loved it. <b>8</b><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Somni</b></span> (Ger) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJU9FGvYBBA">preview</a>)<br /></p><p>Short and simple, a baby monkey falls asleep. Quite lovely and should be on at the CBeebies bedtime hour. <b>7</b><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Shackle</span></b> (UK) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIjgV77K-8o">preview</a>)<br /></p><p>A tale of childlike woodland sprites, those who exist in the sun-dappled daytime who have the power to make the ingredients of the forest floor dance and sing, and those of the darkness who covet them. When the two worlds come together, a sprite finds himself in the darkness with no way back. Beautiful, magical and with themes reminiscent of <i>Majoras Mask</i>. <b>7.5</b><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Skinned</b></span> (Fra) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uivYWh-6bfE">trailer</a>)<br /></p><p>As two conjoined beings eke out an existence next to what appears to be the river Styx, we see just how poisoned their unequal relationship is. Wracked by nightmares brought on by her hopeless existence, the sub-servant half is given a chance to break free but at a terrible price. The use of cloth and textile to create visceral flesh and bone is gruesomely effective, and puts a shiver down the spine. <b>7.5</b><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>About a Cow</b></span> (Cze) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzTrhJWaa8s">trailer</a>)<br /></p><p>Cows. Cows cows cows. Cows in water. Cows jumping. Cows having a wee. Cows. And a big fly. <b>6</b><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Human Resources</span></b> (Fra) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XavlElToVx4">trailer</a>)<br /></p><p>Finally, a short and humorous look at how recycling could maybe go a bit too far. Cloth character models much tidier and less gruesome than in Skinned, but with the most amusingly mundane death in animation history, it provided us with an amusingly abrupt finish to our animation journey. <b>7.5</b><br /></p><p><br /></p>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-36140970413290076422022-11-26T19:33:00.002+00:002022-11-26T19:33:34.291+00:00LIFF 2022 Day 3<div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1ml" style="display: block;"><div aria-controls=":1pg" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1pg" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" contenteditable="true" id=":1mh" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 274px;" tabindex="1"><div dir="auto"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85wA9dx75OY">Return to Seoul</a> (S.Kor)</h3><div dir="auto">Freddie is enjoying the good fortunes of youth, enabling her to travel where she will, meet people and see things. I remember those days with fondness. Korean born but put up for adoption at an early age and brought up in France, her plans for a trip to Japan are scuppered by the weather and she diverts to an impromptu visit to Seoul. Fortune finds her mingling with a crowd, including the quiet Tena, who fortunately speaks French and so helps her with the locals. As we join her in the film, Freddie is contemplating her suggestion to visit the Hammond Adoption center to trace her birth parents.</div><div dir="auto">Impulsive and tangential, her heart isn't truly in the escapade; and when she learns her parents are separated and only dad wishes to make contact, her disappointment is lowered further when he turns out to be a needy drunkard.</div><div dir="auto"> </div><div dir="auto">Feeling the pull of both her biological and adoptive homelands, and the emotional thump of her mother's rejection amplifies Freddie's emotional decision making - leave the disappointment behind and return to the comfort of her old life, or derail her life and stay in the hopes her mother will reply to the request, and not turn out to be another bum.</div><div dir="auto"> </div><div dir="auto">Park Ji-min who plays Freddie seems to be just barely maintaining composure throughout, you expect her pursed lips to explode with an angry release of frustration at every predicament she finds herself in, and the ups and downs on her journey of self discovery keep the interest going through to the end, sometimes leading to particularly tender and heartfelt moments thanks to a cast underplaying their parts compared to a typical high energy Korean film. <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7</b></span></div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEV5zpLs1g8">Everybody loves Jeanne</a> (Fr)</h3></div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto">Jeanne is fast approaching middle age, single and her life is falling apart. The culmination of a life's work project to find a solution to the oceans microplastics has ended up as a very expensive fish toy at the bottom of the sea. Her reputation in tatters and her frantic attempt to save the project reduced to mocking YouTube videos, she also has to deal with the death of her mother, who threw herself off a bridge in a fit of depression.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Fighting bankruptcy, the only option is to sell her mother's Lisbon apartment, but first Jeanne must get there and expose her already fragile emotions to the stress of a thousand family memories as she chucks her childhood in the skip.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">The plane journey gets worse as Jean, a large and oafish petty thief happens to tag along like an unwanted shower curtain salesman, and just doesn't seem to want to go away.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Everybody loves Jeanne plays out unsurprisingly as a '<i>girl meets idiot who turns out to be actually quite nice actually but is still an idiot but at least he's not an arse</i>' sort of film. There isn't any plot twists here, but it is very enjoyable. It's played as a romcom of sorts but finds time to meditate on Jeanne's journey of healing as she reconciles her mixed feelings for her mother, who regularly berated Jeanne and her brother at least as much as she loved them; memories of childhood handled tenderly mix with Jeanne's inner monologue, which, much like the excellent <i>BoJack Horseman</i> episode '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_Piece_of_Sh*t">stupid piece of shit</a>' - which could so easily have been a direct inspiration - shows her inner insecurities and suggestions that she too might suffer from the same depression that plagued the mind of her mother. It's a beautiful, tender and funny film and one I would really recommend - and given my relationship with pretentious French films in the past, who'd have predicted that with a French romcom? <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>8</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O27H_1YsLaU">My Small Land</a> (Jpn)<br /></h3></div><div dir="auto">I originally wanted to see the Korean thriller Confession, but it had sold out so I'm assuming it was as good as <i>Jeanne</i>, which I managed to wangle the last ticket for. </div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">My backup choice had some parallels to Return to Seoul, in that it dealt with a young girl brought up in a country other than her birth one. In this case, the geography is reversed, with young Kurdish teen Sarya, fleeing the middle east with her family after her father is wanted for taking part in an illegal demonstration, and finding refuge in Japan. For a while they forge an existence with a similar group of Kurds in Saitama; Sarya has a promising school record, the beginnings of a romance with a work mate and her aims to become a teacher look on track. But it starts to fall apart with the news their refugee status has been rejected and their visas are taken away. With temporary status they can't work or travel, and with their meager savings, their landlord starts to run low on charity. As with <i>Jeanne</i> it didn't have any major twists and turns, and whereas the earlier film had a pleasing mix of humour and emotional clout, <i>My Small Land</i> only has the latter. That's not to say it was only half as enjoyable, but the heavy scenes had to work harder to keep up. Fortunately, the acting, especially by Lina Arashi playing the young lead with maturity beyond her years helps to carry this off. It did meander a little and may not reach the sort of satisfying conclusion some may wish for, but I left with a hopeful warmth for the family that all would be well. <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7</b></span></div></div>
</div></div>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-58191980057500788752022-11-26T19:14:00.001+00:002022-11-26T19:14:10.313+00:00LIFF 2022 Day 2<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nQKf8WSpZw">Myanmar Diaries</a> (Ned/Mya/Nor)<br /></h3><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto">Ukraine, unfortunately but understandably from a western point of view gets most of the airtime when it comes to news reports, but another conflict, predating those events by over a year, still continue apace further east. The military coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi from power at the start of February last year has seen the country's infant new democracy throttled in the cradle. For the inhabitants, it's a daily onslaught of thumping on the door in the middle of the night, snatched family members, and thousands of deaths. The civil disobedience movement, growing organically out of this, made of a ragtag of civilians brave enough to bang pots and pans, stand unarmed against groups of military police, or even join the guerillas hiding in the countryside and outright bring the war back to the military's door, give a fragile hope for the future </div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Myanmar diaries is a powerful window into this horrible world in which to exist. Created anonymously by Burmese filmmakers, it intersperses acted scenes in small rooms; small vignettes showing life's twisted and broken under occupation, and captured phone footage of protests, attacks, shootings and more. Though you know the former is acted out, the scenes gain additional weight because you know the situations they depict went on a thousand times, perhaps behind the curtain of that cramped flat you just saw as a mass beating of protesters took place.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Not for the faint of heart, but a much needed light shining on yet another atrocity as the pendulum continues to swing further to the right. <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7.5</b></span></div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8jPyKkqgQQ">Finite, a Climate for Change</a> (UK)<br /></h3></div><div dir="auto">Climate crises (plural) is pretty undeniable now with half of Pakistan under water, regular and searing forest fires in the Americas, and of course the Arctic ice thawing at an unprecedented rate. It's depictions of these kinds of international incidents that precede the main meat of this film but somewhat surprisingly, and a little disappointingly, it settles on two relatively small and local fights, in the UK and Germany, connected by a common threat of open cast coal mining, and <i>Clumsy</i>, a beringed climate activist who lends his time to protesting both of them. For the UK, a small village in the Tyneside Pont Valley is under constant threat of reopening a once underground mine as open cast, a fight that has waged between the residents and banks, the coal mining company looking to get at a rich seam of black gold, for the past 30 years. Germany however has the largest open mine that has quickly spread across the site of the formerly huge <span>Hambach <em></em></span>forest, of which now only 10% remains. Even so, the company in charge eats ever further into it and unsatisfied with even that, uses draconian laws to evict residents in any village if they so much smell coal beneath.</div><div dir="auto"> </div><div dir="auto">Starting with an almost cozy tale of locals and activists coming together to sit and sing and make banners progresses to higher stakes and more dangerous situations; treetops and rabbit holes become the last outposts as armoured police increasingly lose control of the situation and lives of the activists themselves become chips on the table. As businesses leverage their best lawyer talent to push slowly forward skirting around the limits of the law we see just how much both sides are willing to go. What starts small becomes much bigger and a study on just two small examples of the worldwide move to a direct action approach. An inspirational film that I will be introducing to my kids. <b><span style="font-size: medium;">8</span></b></div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av7xGRiXe0M">Alcarràs</a> (Spa/It)<br /></h3></div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto">The Solé family, spread across three generations spend countless summers happily picking fruit in their orchard home in the Alcarràs. Centuries old orchard trees produce bountiful harvests that provide a livable income for them, at least until now. The market trading value pushed downwards by the big buyers is compounded by news that the current head of the nearby Pinyol family - whose grandfather rewarded the Solés for hiding them in the war with a verbal agreement that the land was theirs to farm - is not much of a fan of traditional farming - or traditional handshake agreements - and likes the look of what is legally if not rightfully his land after all, covered in solar panels.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto"><i>Alcarràs </i>is a moment in time where a family must adjust, and it's told deftly with room to study the effect of change on the three generations; the youngest children play happily around the stressed parents with little understanding of the politics at work, only to gaze in confusion at the outcomes that affect them; the teens are torn between the need to have a familiar baseline in their life and the opportunity to rip it up and find something new. In the middle, father Quimet is stuck in his own ways, too young for retirement but too old for reinvention, watching helpless as his life shakes and crumbles around him and no-one seems to be entirely on his wavelength. Rogelio, grand father to the flock seems to be able to have the calm to see the coming changes and not have the will to fight them. Still worse, their friendly auntie and uncle who come over for meals and get togethers, see advantage in a deal, and seem to be taking matters into their own hands.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">It's a beautifully shot, bittersweet film of the loss of a way of life, it's situation recalling themes from both the earlier climate film and my own personal situation with the politics of neighbourly land ownership. But it did feel overly long, and the use of nonprofessional actors, though providing a sense of authenticity, did mean it went a little unfocused here and there. <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7</b></span></div><div dir="auto"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzlBnWqxEJw"><b>Mediterranean Fever</b></a> (Pal/Ger/Fra/Cyp/Qat)</h3></div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto"><a href="https://leedspff.org.uk/">The Leeds Palestinian Film Festival</a> is not something I was familiar with but it's been going on quietly in the shadows of LIFF for nearly a decade now. As a joint collaboration, this feature about strange and unlikely friendships was also the launch film of the LPFF.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Waleed is depressed, and we don't know why. He has been suffering clinically for.. maybe ever and is just existing. Therapy is no help and his days just revolve around sleeping, feeding the kids, and not writing his book. Variety comes in the form of Jalal, a brash, arrogant man with loud dogs and louder music tastes, but who at least gives Waleed something to take his mind off the emptiness. Jalal becomes more interesting still when it becomes clear he's mixed up with some unsavoury types who want their loan money paid back with interest, but is Waleed just after a creative writing inspiration, or something darker..</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Though billed as a comedy, the laughs are sparingly applied in favour of a dark undertone that rises to the surface in the final act as things come to a head. Amer Hlehel is capable as Waleed, his ability to stare the pants off his subject matter tells of the dark thoughts within, eventually eclipsing Ashraf Farah, who plays Jalal with an initial arrogance that softens in aghast as the two parts swap places. A good, solid film that explores some of the darkest reaches of the mind. <b><span style="font-size: medium;">7</span></b></div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">For this week, that's all I can manage but with a following wind and an understanding partner, maybe I can fit a few more in next week.</div>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-23510489277852927102022-11-19T10:45:00.007+00:002022-11-26T19:14:26.214+00:00LIFF 2022 Day Something<p>Well, its been a long three years since I did much of this, and work/family commitments mean that another <a href="http://fancy-plants.blogspot.com/search/label/LIFF%202013">2013</a> is a long way off. The last posts were in 2019 (apologies) but as you can appreciate, the 2020's have been a bit crap so far, and this is the first time Ive been back to a festival since. Here's hoping we're through it and we only have global recession, climate demise and an idiot government to deal with now. </p><p>The films I post are just a smattering of the films at LIFF this year; theyre chosen more because they fit my schedule than what I would prefer to watch, unfortunately. However, experience has taught me this can be where the best films can be found - the ones you happen to see because the stars align, ones you may wrinkle your nose at and scrawl a '3' next to on your initial scan of the brochure.<br /></p><p>I like films.<br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aDkmeg8pr0">Hello, Bookstore</a> (US)<br /></h2><div dir="auto">What nicer experience to ease me back into the festival spirit than this quiet, gentle study of the locally famous but unassuming 'the bookstore', nestled in the quiet but environmentally dynamic US town of Lenox, Massachusetts. Inside, dwells the quiet, cuddly figure of Matt Tannenbaum, proprietor since my birth year (which yes, is a long time ago, since you ask), who runs the store with occasional help from his two daughters. Learned yet characteristically set in his ways, he watches as the oft present threat of Amazon tag-teams with the in-out-in-out of the COVID lockdowns to squeeze the already modest income passing through his tills. The film introduces us to Matt as he greets potential buyers behind the door in the entranceway, doing his best to work around the restrictions of the first lockdown by getting them to shout their credit card details through the glass, and charts the ups and downs - barely registered by the man too busy enjoying his passion while he still can - until the present day. If it were just a record of the slow death of yet another bookstore, it would have not been nearly so enjoyable, but fortunately it is warmed through by his warmth and friendliness to his patrons, cushioned by readings and excerpts of choice chapters from the many shelves, or from his own life; perhaps a mix of the two sometimes, it's quite possible his memory has been sprinkled with the storylines of a thousand novels. A lovely, affectionate look into the life of a person, an building and a tonne of books that together means much more to the residents of the town. <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7.5</b></span></div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto"><h2 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okH8Y9FKpWA">Goodbye, Don Glees</a> (Jpn)</h2></div><div dir="auto">What appears to be LIFF22's only anime offering, if you discount <i>Unicorn Wars</i> (which you should), GDG is a sweet coming of age tale about the "Don Glees", a duo of teens sidelined from the popular groups and habitually doing their own thing. For this year's summer break celebrations, they're joined by mysterious newcomer Drop, who convinces them their alternate and private fireworks show will be much better preserved with aerial footage from an expensive drone. With all Roma's money spent, the drone AWOL and the fireworks coming to nothing in a deluge of rain, they managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, when the village has to cope with the aftermath of a huge forest fire the following morning. So begins a road trip of sorts to recover the drone and maybe some footage to prove their innocence.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">With Studio Madhouse at the helm, the animation is serviceable but unspectacular, save for a few scenes where the traditional cell animation process is augmented by computer, delivering some grand scenery where it counts. Throughout, the dialogue between the three leads is engaging, though sometimes goes off in odd directions, (perhaps this may be down to my ability to parse the anime style getting somewhat rusty in recent years) but bounces along nicely fleshing the three characters out and keeping things going. A somewhat contrived ending twist takes a little swallowing but doesn't ruin the film and there's still plenty to enjoy. <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>7</b></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></div><div dir="auto"><h2 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9PmjTKhlBg">Next Sohee</a> (S. Kor)</h2></div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto">Who will be the next Sohee, and the next, and the next...</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Sohee is young, spunky and hard to faze. On her final year of school she is told how lucky she is to land an extern job at a major telecom company, somewhere that - she is assured - if she keeps her head down and works hard, could give her struggling school a much needed boost in the all important Korean rankings system. She might even get a few gold stars herself to add to her prospects. But quickly any idea of a fulfilling job post evaporates, and Sohee finds herself in the middle of a busy call centre with grueling hours, impossible bonuses, and downright horrendous customers, who seem to want to terminate their contracts with alarming regularity. When Sohees' boss is found dead in his car, she begins to spiral dangerously downwards, caught between her suspicions around the death, the unfeeling grind of the company, and her increasing isolation and reliance on a stiff drink to make it stop for a few hours.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Based on real life events, <i>Next Sohee</i> tries to convey the reality of both the exploitative working conditions found in some high pressure Korean workplaces, and the frustrating feeling of helplessness from anyone who sticks their head above the parapet and tries to make a change. No one is to blame, everyone is a victim, and lives will continue to be ruined.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Though a tad long, the film is split into two halves with a very different pacing for each, and this helps to keep the attention from flagging. Ultimately though, if you are wanting a film to leave you satisfied that justice has been served, I'm afraid the conclusion it reaches remains true to the real life events it emulates, and this may find you wanting. <b><span style="font-size: medium;">7.5</span></b></div><div dir="auto"><br /></div>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-30228043647213849342022-11-09T10:06:00.028+00:002022-11-19T10:55:32.038+00:00Dusty Blog Syndrome<p>Leaving a blog unattended for a while seems to be something people do; I'm certainly guilty of that, having left big gaps in the internet where I didn't grace it with my presence. You can see patterns emerge looking at blog sites, and as times move, other things such as the youtubes or the instagrams or whatever the young dudes are going onto these days. You see a burst of energy where the site is overflowing with content created with passion and care, and then some event comes along in someone's private life, or sometimes the curator is the sort where passion burns intensely until an inevitable burnout, and the posts slow to a stop. And its a bit like running - each time you stop, it gets harder to start again.</p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(On a completely unrelated note: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0twDETh6QaI">hbomberguy is back</a>!)</span></p><p>Anyway, such is my situation: between 2019 and now there's been a lot of upheaval; notwithstanding the global Covid pandemic, there's also been several job changes, a major house move involving a lot of delays, land-related politics and arguments that persist a year after (and probably for some time to come), and around the same time as that, I got a major infection in my knee, with 2 weeks of intense pain and undiagnosed infection led to 2 further weeks in hospital where at one point was told I may lose the leg. To complicate things, mum coincidentally went in on the same day with what turned out to be anemia and only came out a day earlier; thankfully the hard working people at the NHS managed to diagnose the issue and a full recovery followed. My own personal recovery has been slow and things still aren't right (turned out to be a major case of septic arthritis and now I have about half a meniscus between two knees), but I can jog short distances once more so I'm grateful for what I can still manage. There's a knee replacement somewhere on the horizon but for the moment I'm keeping going. </p><p>Don't get old, kids!</p>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-20408943490510579722019-11-27T21:35:00.001+00:002019-11-27T21:35:02.343+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 7<b><span style="font-size: large;">System Crasher</span></b> (DE) (<a href="https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/system-crasher-berlin-review/5136727.article">review</a>)<br />
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An unassuming ten year old girl loves her mum and clings to her whenever she is near. But her mother rarely visits Benni in the Foster house where she currently stays. Moved from home to home, Benni is a troubled child; some unknown but traumatic events have scarred her childhood and now seemingly random things trigger Benni's violent side - screaming fits and violent outbursts have sent her ricocheting around the Foster home circuit and the one assigned carer who she trusts has few options left. </div>
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Enter Micha, a burly, rough block of a man assigned as her school escort, who suggests some time away in his cabin in the woods. Can an unconventional holiday of sorts break the cycle?</div>
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System Crasher is a better film than to give you such a convenient conclusion; Benni is just too far gone to simply turn twee and lovely after a few nights under the stars, but the film patiently nudges her state of mind slightly closer to a happy place with stumbles and falls along the way, giving the viewer some hope for her future. The ending may not have a happy bow tied around it but I think that would have cheapened the resolution. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Genesis</span></b> (CA) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_(2018_Canadian_film)">wiki</a>) </div>
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Step brother and sister Guillaume and Charlotte are hitting the time of their lives when hormones go a little crazy and relationships start to change. Guillaume is in boarding school and is struggling to find love in the eyes of the girls he meets, their qualities always falling shy of those of his friend Nicolas, if only he could find someone like him. Charlotte, on the other hand has been going too steady with her dull boyfriend Maxime and when an argument erupts, she finds herself drawn to the arms of an older man whose aire of mystery and danger beguile her. </div>
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Genesis didn't really know what era it was set in; on-screen technology and choice of soundtrack in the early scenes suggested the 80's but then suddenly modern mobile phones popped up, which was a bit jarring. That and the standard philosophising in every fricking conversation you typically expect from French films. Despite this, I kinda enjoyed the return to teenage years; the two lead parts were well played and their fragility came out of the screen at you, enough to make you care. Alas, I had to leave early, just as the film ditched all its characters and seemingly started again. I may never know just what happened in those final minutes. <b>6/10</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Jojo Rabbit</span></b> (US) (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/09/jojo-rabbit-review-scarlett-johansson-lifts-smug-hitler-comedy">review</a>) </div>
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Taika Waititi is making a bit of a name for himself at the moment. Among others, he has had his hands in such works as <i>What we do in the Shadows</i> and its series spinoff, the excellent <i>Flight of the Conchords</i>, two <i>Thor </i>films, and of course a hand in the latest Star Wars series, <i>The Mandalorian</i> gives his resume some real kick. Here he is as well, directing and starring in a period comedy drama, as if he didn't have enough to do. </div>
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Waititi plays a dim-witted Adolf Hitler, the imaginary friend of young Jojo, a ten year old aspiring to be a good little Nazi in the dying days of World War II. Brought up with the expected amount of conditioning to vilify and demonise those different to him, imagine his reaction when he finds a young Jewish girl living in his dead sisters' bedroom in a secret compartment. Jojo must come to terms with who he actually is and question what those around him are telling him is the truth.</div>
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Jojo drips of Wes Anderson's thematic style - wide angle lenses and symmetrical scenes, small children as the protagonists, a clutch of well known names (Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant... and Waititi himself as Hitler) but somehow manages to have it's own feel as well, down largely to Waititi giving a fabulously stupid send-up in the period where the real-life dictator was being unmasked as the failure of the Aryan race rather than it's saviour. The only one who looked out of place was Rebel Wilson, overplaying a strange youth camp assistant and office worker, where no amount of amusing face pulling could make her look like she fit into the part or the period.</div>
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That small problem aside, Jojo Rabbit will be well worth watching as it hits the cinemas early in the new year. Some of the reviews have been less than kind towards it, but I thought it was well worth the time. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>La Belle Epoque</b></span> (FR) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_%C3%89poque_(film)">wiki</a>) </div>
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There was one final film on the list before the end of LIFF 2019. Just before <i>Jojo </i>started, long-time LIFF icon Chris Fell came on stage to show the top ten films as voted by the audience, and La Belle Epoque was - at that point - in first place, which gave me hope for a strong finish.</div>
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La Belle Époque is the name of the cafe that Viktor met his long-suffering wife Marianne back in 1974. A luddite surrounded by technology, the old cartoonist grumbles and moans his way through any social gathering with his family if they dare bring up anything that isn't pulled by a horse.</div>
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One such day provides two things of note - Marianne finally snaps and kicks him out of their house, and his son gives him a voucher to spend at '<i>Time Travellers</i>' - a business catering to the super-rich that can recreate any period in history down to the finest detail. Reeling from the rejection, Viktor pines for the distant past where life was simple and he was young and in love, and asks them to recreate the moment when he met Marianne all those years ago.<br />
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Though not reaching the levels of shear beauty and joyeousness set by the now nearly 20-year old <i>Amélie</i>, <i>La Belle Époque</i> is a sumptious, dense, velvety romance about the beauty of first love, and a chance to wallow in a reality where ones most treasured memories can be played out just once more in front of you to live through once again. <b>8/10</b><br />
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And that was my lot. It was nice to get out on the festival circuit proper once again, here's to more in the future.</div>
fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-90008072458547044472019-11-26T16:54:00.001+00:002019-11-26T16:54:27.092+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 6<b><span style="font-size: large;">World Animation Competition</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://anulaura.com/winter-in-rainforest/"><b>Winter in the Rain Forest</b></a> (ES) <br />
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Repurposed porcelain doll parts form creepy fauna and flora interacting on the forest floor; the roles of predator and prey move around as the balance of power shifts. Unnerving and creepy stop-motion animation. <b>6.5/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/281174523"><b>Undergrowth</b></a> (GB)<br />
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A market-stall plastic surgeon trades body parts and uses her gains to grow more in her back garden. The hopes of attaining a partner are one day realized but she gets more than she bargained for. Dark, slick and funny. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.zippyframes.com/index.php/shorts/grand-bassin-short-film"><b>Grand Bassin</b></a> (FR)<br />
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Pool-side shenanigans with a clutch of oversized characters and some saucy squeaks, oohs and aahs. Very French. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="http://ellivuorinen.com/still-lives/"><b>Still Lives</b></a> (FI)<br />
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Museum exhibits come to life at night in an uneventful stop-motion animation. <b>5/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.zippyframes.com/index.php/shorts/sheep-wolf-and-a-cup-of-tea-by-marion-lacourt"><b>Sheep, Wolf and a Cup of Tea</b></a> (FR)<br />
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As his relatives move around downstairs, a young boy goes on a dreamlike journey from his bed with a mysterious wolf-figure in a beautifully colourful, trippy painted tale. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.anaperezlopez.com/lasdeldiente/2018/6/11/las-del-diente-coming-soon"><b>Las Del Diente</b></a> (ES)<br />
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Through a disorienting fisheye lens, the avatars of three women talk about pregnancy, motherhood and what it takes to be a parent in the Spanish culture. <b>6/10</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://dariakashcheeva.com/">Daughter</a> </b>(CZ)<br />
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A daughter and her sick father come to terms with their fractured relationship as he lies in a hospital bed awaiting his operation. Told with roughly-made but beautifully expressive wooden figures, their fluid movement captures their emotions perfectly without the need for dialogue.<b> 8/10</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://kamilakucikova.weebly.com/300gm2.html">300g/m2</a> </b>(ES)<br />
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Fun with paper cutouts as a humanoid figure interacts with the space left in the paper he was cut from. No real story, just some larking around, so limited in entertainment. <b>5/10</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.polishshorts.pl/en/films/2019/the_rain"><b>The Rain</b></a> (PL)<br />
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Polish deadpan humour really shows here, but it's also a commentary on the groupthink of crowds being less than the individual. A superhero emerges from the bored office workers of a skyscraper just in time to save someone falling from the impossibly high roof. Unfortunately, it seems like a thrilling escape from their computers for the rest, and temptation builds. Short, smart and funny. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://en.unifrance.org/movie/48584/toomas-beneath-the-valley-of-the-wild-wolves"><b>Toomas - Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves</b></a> (CR) <br />
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Toomas is a buff wolf-human creature inhabiting a <i>Bojack Horseman</i>-like world. Forever catching the eye of the ladies, he keeps himself for his beloved back home. But when he loses his job in the name of fidelity, those buns need to start earning their pay. A funny blend of <i>Bojack </i>and those softcore British sex films from the 70's. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Leeds Short Film Awards</b></span><br />
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A round-up of the winning entries from several of the other short film segments.<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.rossmcclean.com/">HydeBank</a> </b>(UK)<br />
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Tending a prison farm's sheep provides a much needed escape for Ryan, who is in for an undisclosed but serious crime. Suffering the abuse you might expect from his neighbours, he makes the best of his situation to calm his anger and plan a life outside. A tender look at one person among many trying to be better. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<b><a href="https://en.unifrance.org/movie/48014/olla">Olla</a> </b>(FR)<br />
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Lonely and introverted Pierre orders a bride from the internet and is infatuated with his purchase, but Olla can't just be who he wants her to be just like that. Stuck inside during the day tending to his elderly mother, it's not long before the cracks in their synthetic relationship begin to show. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.waggingtongues.co.uk/noor">A Night with Noorjehan</a> </b>(UK)<br />
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A young indian boy tries his best to make some money for his family by selling balloons on the night streets to anyone who will give him the time, at least when he isn't being tempted to sneak into the local cinema where the latest Bollywood epic is being shown, and being thwarted at every turn by the doorman. A chance meeting with a colourful night character will perhaps give him his wish. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://docsociety.org/films/display/circle/"><b>The Circle</b></a> (UK)<br />
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Described through the medium of dance (<i>no.. come back!</i>), two brothers from the suburbs of London describe their relationship with their wider family in this refreshingly more positive look at black youth culture. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.thenewcurrent.co.uk/agnes-patron"><b>And Then the Bear</b></a> (FR)<br />
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Ignored by his mother, and left to explore the bushland as she waits for an alluring stranger to appear in the night, a young boy becomes consumed by jealousy and anger, summoning the forest spirits to exact revenge. The striking chalk on black paper visuals and the darkness of the subject matter are a delicious combination. <b>8/10</b> <br />
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<b>The Stranger's Case</b> - shown in the Yorkshire Shorts on day 4.<br />
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<a href="https://someshorts.com/movies/whyslugs/"><b>Why Slugs Don't Have Legs</b></a> (CH)<br />
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An absurd but enjoyable animation with a gloriously messy style, explaining to us with remarkably little science to back it's claims up, why the humble slug once had legs (and arms), but now doesn't and is all the happier for it. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Patrick</b></span> (BE) (<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/patrick-de-patrick-film-review-1222450">review</a>)<br />
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I was hoping to go to the <i>Welcoming Young Refugees</i> event but they were unfortunately sold out, so I caught this instead.<br />
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Trailer Warning: <b>Wobbly bare bodies!</b><br />
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Methodical, meticulous loner Patrick has a comfortable and at the same time uncomfortable job working with his ageing father and blind mother at their family owned nudist camp. Considering his familiarity with the naked flesh all around he is ironically repressed, quiet and skimping on relationships. His escape is carpentry, for which he has a well-maintained bank of tools. That is until one day one of his hammers goes missing, and by coincidence, his father keels over and dies. Rather than mourning, Patrick's focus is on the hammer to the exclusion of all else, leading him on a dogged journey through the secret lives of his customers (including an unexpected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemaine_Clement">Jemaine Clement</a>) until it is found. </div>
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The childlike Patrick is played deftly by Kevin Janssens exposing himself in both emotion and body, an innocent in the midst of corruption and sin. My hopes weren't the highest for Patrick but he really came through with a beautiful, darkly humorous film. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Midnight Traveller</b></span> (US) (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/24/midnight-traveler-refugee-documentary-afghanistan">review</a>)</div>
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Afghan filmmakers <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6426761/">Hassan Fazili</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10200934/">Fatima Hossaini</a>, with their two small children Nargis and Zahra fled their home in 2015 with as much as they could get in their car, after the taliban issued a fatwa on Fazil's life. Shot almost entirely on three mobile phones, this is a documentary journal of their 3 year passage across the Middle East and into Europe, to wherever will take them. </div>
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A stunning personal account of one family among thousands, suffering kindness and abuse from locals, dealings with unscrupulous smugglers and a system struggling to process those who attempt to arrive through the official channels. If you have a genuine wish to know how and why so many migrants are fleeing their countries right now and why we in stable countries should not, as compassionate human beings be raising the drawbridge, you <i>must </i>see this film. <b>8/10</b></div>
fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-29774169715807160262019-11-26T10:04:00.002+00:002019-11-26T10:04:18.737+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 5<div dir="auto">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dancer in the Dark</span></b> (DK) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancer_in_the_Dark">wiki</a>)<br />
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Left field singer and occasional actress Bjork lends both her body and her unique approach to songwriting in this avant-garde approach to a film musical directed by Lars von Trier. Selma is a machine worker in the 50's American countryside. A childlike, coy Czech immigrant with a young wayward son, managing as best she can with a small family of sorts looking out for her. Local police officer Bill is her landlord and one day temptation gets the better of him and he takes Selma's savings to make up the shortfall in his own, setting Selma off on a disastrous path on which her childlike state of mind can exert no control. When it all becomes too much, her mind searches the sounds around her for music and she loses herself in daydream, usually in the form of the people around her turning to dance.</div>
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Initially, Dancer in the dark bothered me because of the avant-garde style of wobbly handheld cameras and improvised lines (the number of times someone said a line and the other guy said '<i>..what?!</i>' was almost funny), not to mention Bjork's accent wildly fluctuating between icelandic and cockney, but at its core there is a heartfelt story with some odd but admirable music numbers in among the odd characters and strange, wildly fluctuating tones to the whole thing. Not a film I could love, but I grew to appreciate more as the whole became apparent. <b>6/10</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Yorkshire Short Film Competition</b></span></div>
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A collection of winning films from the various Yorkshire short film competitions. </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaeDoTaYK5k"><b>The Strangers' Case</b></a> - the Shakespearean play <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_More_(play)">Sir Thomas More</a> is adapted and updated for a Yorkshire pub full of ruffians complaining all about those immigrants stinking up the place. You get the jist of what they are trying to say but the dialogue is as penetrable as Shakespeare gets. <b>7/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/352831749"><b>Seagulls</b></a> - A sweet mini-documentary about the <a href="https://seagullsreuse.org.uk/">Seagulls</a> paint store in Leeds, a community store that employs ex-offenders to give a second chance. Their mosaics are all over the city. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.contendersthefilm.com/"><b>Contenders</b></a> - an unusual tale set after the climate tipping point has passed, and a gate to an alternate universe has opened to those brave enough to make the journey. It was an interesting angle on the idea of personal sacrifice for the greater good but not that well executed. <b>6/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/335087716"><b>Resolution</b></a> - a young girl recites emotionally charged spoken word about her absent father and her abusive stepfather, and the hardships growing up in a broken home. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://filmfreeway.com/EyelessinParkway"><b>Eyeless in Parkway</b></a> - a messy scribbled animation of a uneventful bus journey. <b>5/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.leedsfilm.com/whats-on/yorkshire-short-film-competition-plus-awards-announcements/the-waiting-room/"><b>The Waiting Room</b></a> - the strangling hold of agarophobia is told through the cyclical life of a young introverted woman, trying desperately to take that train journey and meet people like she once did. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.instahu.net/p/2177011334922966127_738758976"><b>The Work Continues</b></a> - the volunteers at <a href="https://www.mvuf.org.uk/">Meanwood Valley Urban Farm</a> talk about the place as a connecting social hub, what it means to them and their own personal stories. It was nice but it didn't really progress much and could have been shorter. <b>7/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/334327813"><b>Alice 404</b></a> - the alluring draw of a teenagers mobile phone is explored from the inside as Alice rebuffs the anxious calls from concerned friends and family. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.leedsfilm.com/whats-on/yorkshire-short-film-competition-plus-awards-announcements/70-years-young/"><b>70 Years Young</b></a> - Dave started bodybuilding in the 70's and is still going now. In his own words: make the most of the time you've got. <b>7/10</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.leedsfilm.com/whats-on/yorkshire-short-film-competition-plus-awards-announcements/standing-in-the-rain-slung-low-the-holbeck/"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.leedsfilm.com/whats-on/yorkshire-short-film-competition-plus-awards-announcements/standing-in-the-rain-slung-low-the-holbeck/"><b>Standing in the Rain</b></a> - a culture shock for both sides unfolds as <a href="https://www.slunglow.org/">Slung Low</a>, a Leeds theatre group moves into Holbeck working men's club, in the middle of a deprived area of Leeds. With unease at the arrangement coming from both camps, and the new gaffer quickly having to learn how to pull a pint, the two sides must work out how their uneven pieces fit together for both their futures. <b>8/10</b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Carmine Street Guitars</b></span> (US) (<a href="https://www.carminestreetguitarsfilm.com/">site</a>)<br />
There used to be a music shop in Leeds some years ago, just down from <i>The Light</i>. I would pass it many times as the years rolled by and the film festivals came and went. Custom was rare, but they always had a welcoming scene complete with a grand piano for people to tinkle on, and I pressed my nose up against their windows more than once, wishing I had the talent and confidence to pick up one of those shiny instruments and play. Sadly it disappeared after a long innings, as these things tend to do.<br />
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I recalled the old music store when watching this documentary about the <a href="http://www.kellyguitars.com/">titular guitar shop</a> in the centre of New York. Aging rock guitarist Rick - deft constructor of bespoke guitars from salvaged wood - and his young prodigy Cindy share the work with Rick's mother answering the phones and dusting. It's a quiet, old-fashioned work life that is just about hanging on.<br />
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Rick's shop however shows little sign of struggle; a bevvy of customers
of varying levels of fame come along, lavish praises whilst trying out
the wares and serenade the viewer with their skills. And that's
basically the film. It's not got a lot to say, because there isn't much
to say; this is a gentle and pleasant slice of the lives of those
making a living in an increasingly rare and therefore precious way. The
only slight annoyance was the staged feel to the film, as if it was a
fiction dressed as a documentary. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Talking About Trees</span></b> (FR) (<a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/lff-63-talking-about-trees-suhaib-gasmelbari">review</a>)<br />
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Sudanese_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat">military coup</a> acted upon Sudan in the late 80's was responsible for a crackdown on the lives and consequently the cultural output of the country. Films, both making and showing were banned and the cinemas and film studios gutted. Only empty, partially demolished shells remain.<br />
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Enter a quad of aging film buffs, headed by once-director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6243179">Ibrahim Shaddad</a> and his friend <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4510428">Suleiman Ibrahim</a>, who have become dissatisfied with merely
sneaking around the country putting on secret screenings of their old
films and whatever else they can find, and instead want to lead the way
in reviving Sudanese cinema proper.<br />
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I guess the intention of the film was for a celebratory revival but alas, it is a tale more of
hardened conservatism, the point of the oppressive attitude towards filmmaking lost in time but still holding sway
through a mixture of tradition and fear of reprisal from those lurking in the shadows, through which these four nobles show their years of wisdom, showing warm humour and patience in place of anger and frustration. It is a
fascinating window into a lost and largely overlooked culture cut down
in it's formative years and struggling to resurface, it's slender green
shoots nursed by the oldest of hands. <b>7.5/10</b></div>
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fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-51810447559996086852019-11-19T21:23:00.001+00:002019-11-27T10:42:15.752+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 4<b><span style="font-size: large;">International Short Films Competition 3 - Youthful Indiscretions</span></b><br />
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First up was a selection of short films on the theme of children, getting into all sorts of hi-jinks the world over. I wanted to see them all but had to leave before the last one started otherwise I'd miss the next film.<br />
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<a href="https://someshorts.com/movies/exam/"><b>EXAM</b></a> (IR)<br />
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A young schoolgirl acts as a drugs mule and due to her connection not turning up one day, has to risk bringing her cargo to her strict school, where the students are regularly checked and expelled for much less. There are much worse things to keep hidden in this life than a mobile phone. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.lightsonfilm.com/maradonaslegs.html"><b>Maradona's Legs</b></a> (DE)<br />
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Two scrappy Israeli brothers go on a mini epic adventure in the theme of a hero's quest, to locate the elusive lower half of Maradona's picture in their Italia '90 football album, to the backdrop of their home team (and Brazil, who they actually support) playing on the radios of literally every character they meet along the way. A nostalgic trip for anyone trying to fill up their sticker books. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://halal.amsterdam/item/the-walking-fish/"><b>The Walking Fish</b></a> (NL/JP)<br />
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A very unusual (because Japan) fable of a mysterious fish woman who, as a <i>mutsugoro </i>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudskipper">mudskipper fish</a>) was caught and taken in by a young boy, and magically transformed into a little girl. Told in flashback by the people who knew and loved her. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<b><a href="https://vimeo.com/319822634">Cadoul de Craciun</a></b> (The Christmas list) (DE)<br />
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In the latter days of the Ceausescu regime, a small Yugoslavian boy posts a letter to santa wishing <i>old Nicolai</i> was dead. Fearing for their lives if anyone reads it, mum and dad frantically scramble to cover their tracks. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.festivalscope.com/all/film/nefta-football-club"><b>Nefta Football Club</b></a> (FR)<br />
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A couple of young Algerian happen upon an abandoned donkey carrying a cargo of drugs on their way home through the Tunisian hills. If only they can get it home and hide it, they could be rich. <b>8/10 </b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Greener Grass</span></b> (US) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greener_Grass">wiki</a>)<br />
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In an absurd vision of American suburbia where everyone rides golf carts and wears braces, two couples - 'friends' seemingly only because they crossed paths at their kids sporting events - try to navigate their hellish existence of polite one-upmanship and a desperate need to appear constantly and univerally happy among their equally painted smile peers. With the mysterious murder of their yoga teacher as a catalyst for a series of increasingly weird events to unfold, Jill goes on a journey through hell of her own making. These brightly coloured, wretched lives are paraded for our amusement but equally as a mirror into what we find uncomfortably familiar about our own lives.<br />
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It is a deeply odd film; strange and unsettling, and narratively loose, preferring to frame the film as a series of absurd events. It was enjoyable after a slow start, but it may be either too left-field, or too uncanny for some people's tastes. It's an expansion of the directors <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6CtOD5N8L4">original short film</a> if you want a taster of the full thing. <b>6/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Wolf's Call</span></b> (FR) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf%27s_Call">wiki</a>)<br />
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The claustrophobic insides of a submarine introduce us to 'Socks' - a low-ranking officer aboard the <i>Titan </i>- a french submarine off the coast of Russia. He is an 'Acoustic Warfare Analyst' - listening to the noises of the deep, trying to interpret their qualities and turn them into visualisations of their surroundings - and anything that might be out to sink them. When they are attacked by Russian forces out of nowhere, it sets into motion escalating retaliations, potentially leading the world into full-on nuclear war.<br />
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Socks is the 'talented outsider' who has to prove his worth to the captain and against the odds saves everyone, and The Wolf's Call won't win any originality prizes, but it is a very good, tense thriller with some minor (but not too unpredictable) twists and a classic underwater showdown. As good as any other submarine flick you have seen. It's a Netflix film so you'll be able to see it there soon. <b>8/10</b> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Marriage Story</b></span> (US) (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/15/marriage-story-review-noah-baumbach-adam-driver-scarlett-johansson">review</a>)<br />
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Also on Netflix, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play a New York couple with a young son who - for reasons initially baffling to the audience - have decided to terminate their marriage despite an ongoing love and commitment to each other. Initially trying to keep lawyers out of this and sorting things for themselves, the situation deteriorates as other actors in their relationship begin to influence their decision making and inevitably things become messy and complicated, and nasty.<br />
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Marriage Story is fraught with feelings of loss and sadness - why should it end up this way between two people who clearly still love each other so much and - fortunately for the audience - is played with a degree of humour to soften the depression brought on from the damage inflicted on the lives involved. I think it would have made the whole film pretty unwatchable if there wasn't this other aspect to the film as it makes things bearable.<br />
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The central performances are excellent as you would expect from these actors, and even at 2+ hours it doesn't drag. It's a precise and merticulous study on love and relationships, how sometimes that is not enough, and how even in the most committed and seemingly endless partnerships, sometimes something deep down causes lives to fall apart, at great cost. <b>8/10</b> fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-88252270814662953562019-11-11T12:06:00.003+00:002019-11-11T12:06:41.121+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 3<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Five Million Dollar Life</b></span> (JP) (<a href="https://asianmoviepulse.com/2019/07/film-review-five-million-dollar-life-2019-by-moon-sung-ho/">review</a>)<br />
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As a child, Mirai survived life-saving surgery and due to the regular 7up style TV shows charting his progress, he isn't allowed to forget it. Interpreting the constant intrusions by the media on his life, and his mothers' reluctance to move on from that period as a weighty noose around his neck, he finds the increasingly intrusive expectations of others on his life to be suffocating, and at this crucial point in his life where he is about to graduate and move into the big wide world, it's <i>unbearable</i>. He considers the worst of ways out to be the only solution; ending it all.<br />
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Hecklers on the internet agree, but before they will let him take the easy way out, he has to earn back the money it cost to save his life. Accepting the terms, desperate for a resolution, the size of the task ahead of him becomes apparent. Mirai is smart enough but constantly being coddled has left him workshy and wet behind the ears. Naively he leaves home and looks for ways to make some money.<br />
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<i>Ghost Tropic</i> yesterday treaded some familiar ground, the idea of a stranger passing through strange lands and bouncing off the people he meets. Whereas that film was gentler and more positive about the shadows lurking in the night, Five Million Dollar Life stalks much darker terretory. Mirai is sent on a trial by fire and has to learn to make good use of the parse resources avalable to him. Director Sungho Moon tries hard to avoid the dip in the middle of the film as Mirai moves between a parade of good and not so good characters on his way to the third act and generally succeeds, but the film could maybe done with being a little shorter. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Shooting the Mafia</b></span> (IR) (<a href="https://www.sundance.org/projects/shooting-the-mafia">review</a>)<br />
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I will never look casually at those romanticized charactures of the Mafia we see on the TV and in films again after seeing this documentary. You know the sort of thing I mean: <a href="https://youtu.be/n24B-IhH5xg">comedy cartoon pigeons</a> doing Godfather accents for the kids on Saturday mornings. These people were terrorists of the most violent and bloodthirsty kind and subjected Italy to decades of rule by fear. Because they were dapper and Italian (and possibly also because they were white), the Mafia gangster has been romanticized and comedified and packaged into something much more cozy and acceptable for our entertainment. I doubt that we will see ISIS given similar cartoon treatment in twenty or so years time. <br />
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Journalust turned Photographer turned Politician Letizia Battaglia has spent a long time photgraphing the aftermath of revenge killings by the all-powerful Mafia through Italy from the 1970's into the new millennium. This is the story of how she managed against the odds to not be one of the victims.<br />
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There were a lot of killings, and Battaglia and her small team of brave journalists were there, catching leads over the police radio and snapping the gruesome scenes before they could be cleaned away. Be warned, you will spend a lot of this film staring at photos of dead bodies.<br />
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That isn't to say this film is unbearable; if you can stomach the relentless shots of violent retribution of actual people, this documentary is also two other things; a biography of Battalglia herself, including many of her partners, admirers and lovers, and a timeline of how Italy slowly, <i>finally</i> loosed itself from the terrible grip that the Mafia families had on Italian society for so long. The film was at turns disturbing, thrilling, celebratory and strangely beautiful and is exactly the sort of documentary film that really gets me coming to these festivals. <b>8.5/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>One Last Deal </b></span>(FI) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Last_Deal">wiki</a>)<br />
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The art world as with many others is feeling the squeeze of the modern age, put out of business by the relentless reach of the faster, more convenient Internet. Olavi is at the end of his art dealer career and though his discoveries have never earned him more than a meagre existence things are getting tighter still and the end of the road is looking near.<br />
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But then he spots what looks to be a valuable painting at the back of an auction house; seemingly unnoticed by anyone else. All he needs to do is pay the lofty auction price, and then find someone to sell it on to and he can show them all he had what it took to pull off the big time. Aided somewhat by his clumsy grandson, and not so much by his daughter whose cold exterior is justified by her years played second fiddle to Olavi's art business, he tries to come up with the goods before time runs out.<br />
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One Last Deal isn't going to give any big twists or surprises but it does have a tense rabble of characters and a distinct 'baddie' of sorts to get you rooting for the right result. It was well acted and beautiully shot, and very enjoyable. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Common Threads</span></b> (Various)<br />
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A short film segment around the idea of shared human experiences.<br />
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<b><a href="https://youtu.be/MUD45JCPHE8">After the Silence</a> </b>(BE)<br />
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A young middle-eastern asylum seeker talks about their experiences of applying for asylum, and their circumstances for leaving. David is gay and came to Belgium in the hope of a better life. A poingient reminder of human need and why we should not be raising the drawbridge. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtfIv_IabsA"><b>The Sea Runs Thru My Veins</b></a> (DE)<br />
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Various people talk about what happiness means to them, illustrated by various abstract Super-8 films. An abstract, though pleasant meditation of what it means to be happy. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://manuelabramovich.com/Blue-Boy-1"><b>Blue Boy</b></a> (DE) <br />
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The facial reactions of several male prostitutes are one at a time presented as they watch video of a previous recording of them in various conversations with punters: making sexy chit-chat for prostitution money, being raided by the police without cause, a failed relationship, all in the titular german gay bar. An unusual way of presenting it and although the lingering shots long after the recordings had finished (and before they started) irked a bit, it was quite sweet. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/reality-baby-2019"><b>Reality Baby</b></a> (IE)<br />
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A group of teenage mums (and one very awkward looking dad!) to be are given a realistic baby to nurse and deal with to prepare them for motherhood. The community centre trialling it uses them to give them a realistic view of how their world will utterly change in ways that words never will. The only problem was the almost incomprehensible audio but that might have been the room to blame. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/5f5b079a-f0a9-4764-9050-df1a20e19ab4/and-what-is-the-summer-saying"><b>And What is the Summer Saying?</b></a> (IN)<br />
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A strange film about a remote family dwelling in the Indian countryside. Nonsensical and unconnected ramblings roll over a series of loose family scenes and portraits of nature, and something about a tiger. Far too ambiguous and abstract for my liking. <b>4/10</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.hopscotchfilms.co.uk/never-actually-lost"><b>Never Actually Lost</b></a> (GB)<br />
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The director's elderly grandmother Audrey takes us on a journey through her old photos and cinefilm captures of her children, long before the director came on the scene, knowing that these moments should be communicated over as there is not much time left. Genuinely touching and sensitive. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ordinary Love</b></span> (GB) (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/13/ordinary-love-review-tiff-liam-neeson-lesley-manville">review</a>)<br />
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Liam Neeson needed something to draw a line under recent events, playing a very ordinary husband Tom to Lesley Manville's equally ordinary wife, Joan. They live a very ordinary but contented existence until Joan notices a lump on her breast. What follows is a study in how a relationship bends and strains under the weight of cancer, and anyone touched by the illness or close to someone who did may find this film quite unbearable to watch in places, as it examines the various stages of discovery, diagnosis, treatment and recovery with great skill by two very accomplished actors giving strong, emotional performances. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. <b>8.5/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-76926215138454116242019-11-10T00:02:00.001+00:002019-11-10T00:02:10.193+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 2<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dead Dicks</span></b> (CA) (<a href="http://deaddicks.com/about/">site</a>)<br />
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Groundhog Day is one of those excellent, one-of-a-kind films that exists in a little genre all it's own, and it tells it's story of a man trapped in a time loop until he can figure out the key to the exit very well. There is no time or necessity for any <a href="http://www.tequilaworks.com/en/projects/groundhog-day-like-father-like-son/">remake</a>, and while I wouldnt suggest something so draconian as forbidding any feet to step even near to it's hallowed ground, there had better be a good story and concept behind any attempt to try.<br />
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Dead Dicks steps up to that challenge, moving the cage from a city to an apartment, and swapping romance for horror. The Dick of the title is Richie, who is actually a bit of a dick, Does he have mental problems that require him to completely lean on his sister for every single facet of his existence, or is he just a lazy arse? The film does not attempt to answer. We do know he has ended up dead, and for whatever reason, he wakes up again in the same apartment, in a fresh body as if nothing had happened. Eventually roping in his little sister after having a few other deaths through various inventive means, they try to figure out what is going on.<br />
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Like I said, it needs to be good to make the grade and.. it just doesn't work. The storyline is full of holes, unexplored avenues and unresolved quesions: why does he keep killing himself? Why wasn't the oft-mentioned threat of police involvement never realised? What about the bit about each copy being a degredation of the last? Was the neighbour just there as a plot device so he could figure the way out? Dead Dicks was mildly entertaining but lacking, and for a horror film it was light on both gore and scary bits and the story plodded on without vigor despite dealing with some theoretically gory subject matter and the potential of some serious relationship drama. The acting was.. okay, the two main parts did well enough with what they were given, but the storyline was patchy and the clumsy ending felt forced and unsatisfying. I'm all for low-budget films that punch above their weight but you could have added a couple of million to the budget and it wouldn't have solved this film's problems. <b>5/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ghost Tropic</b></span> (BE) (<a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/ghost-tropic-bas-devos-brussels-cleaner-walks-home-night">review</a>)<br />
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One of the things I had to learn when I started doing these marathon film sessions is the ability to reset the brain, especially as you come out of one film and into another. This is especially true when the pacing and feel of the previous and next films are so different. It's unfair to judge the second one harshly if it is slow moving and medititive if you have just got out of a high-octane thriller or a brain-dead comedy.<br />
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I was pretty sure that Ghost Tropic would fall into the former category; a slow-moving film with long, lingering shots and an expectation on the viewer in those moments - which can last a long time - to analyze the lines on the actor's faces as they stare back at you, and try and read their mind. Khadija is a cleaning lady living a humble existence as she sees out the last of her working years doing the night-time cleaning at a fancy shopping mall. Falling asleep on the last train home, and with no relatives available or disposable income to correct her course, she sets off through the near-empty streets back to her little flat.<br />
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The premise is to frame a parable of the kindness of stranegers, and the director succeeds in never ramming down our throats the universally accepted idiom that you should always look to help others in need. In fact, Khadija's effect on the nightcrawlers she meets is often neutral or ends in failure; the point I guess is that she tried the best she could when she could have just walked by.<br />
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I kind of enjoyed the ride, but I was struggling to reset my mind to the degree required to fully enjoy the little, tiny touches sprinkled throughout; even at 2pm my eyes were getting heavy halfway through, such was the lullaby-effect of the gentle pacing. If you do see it, either make sure you are alert, or be prepared to be woken up by the cinema staff much as Khadija was at the end of the line. <b>6/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Sheep Hero</span></b> (NL) (<a href="https://www.visionsdureel.ch/en/2019/film/sheep-hero">review</a>)<br />
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Stijn, a sturdy, straight-talking 40-something shepherd has been tending his cattle in the traditional ways across the Netherland countryside for as long as he could stand. Now with a wife and two young sons taking an interest, this is the worst time for the current governments to cut farming subsidies yet again and leave their livelihood cut even closer to the bone. <br />
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Sheep Hero I think initially set out as a documentary of a dying profession, before the director realised it was actually about to witness an actual dying out in front of the camera, as Stijn comes foul firstly of the political changes seem hell bent on sweeping out the old ways, and then of the increasingly intolerant city-type neighbours who arent used to having their borders munched and their roads crapped on as he moves his sheep through their town between the fields. As the walls move in, Stijn and his family try ever more desperate ways to make ends meet and keep their way of life going.<br />
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It's a beautiful film celebrating the persistence of the family and as a dog owner brought more than a few big smiles as their expanding team of collies regularly stole the scenes. Ultimately though it is a bittersweet telling of those who lose out as things change and old ways are forced out in the name of bigger demands and tighter margins. <b>8/10</b><br />
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Sheep Hero also had a couple of Short Films with the theme of cattle:<br />
<b><br /><a href="https://www.visionsdureel.ch/en/2019/film/diary-of-cattle">Diary of Cattle</a></b> (IND)<br />
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A short, simple film but hard hitting with barely a word spoken. A herd of cows graze on an Indonesian landfill site. The camera watches as they root for moulding vegetation and whatever else they can find in the several feet deep mess of human detritis. They end up eating just about anything and happily chew away on plastic bags and old shoes, prompting a sense of shame not to mention questions over what sort of state their digestive systems are in, and what sort of reaping humanity takes when these sown seeds are slaughtered and put on the dinner table. <b>7/10</b><br />
<b><br /><a href="https://bestshortfilms.discover.film/latest-releases/videos/tony-the-bull">Tony and the Bull</a></b> (GB)<br />
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To end on a happier note, Tony lives in a run down old farmhouse in the south of England. Quite often, he's joined by his friend, Scrunch the fully grown bull, who tony reared from a calf after his mother died. The film is a unique and lovely account of a crazy relationship that despite the fact Scrunch can barely fit inside the rooms, manages to work just fine for the both of them. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Extra Ordinary</span></b> (IE) (<a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/extra-ordinary-review-1203164876/">review</a>)<br />
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I found myself with a bit of extra time to kill until the next film and saw this had only been on for ten minutes, so I whipped out my pass and scurried in. I'm glad I did.<br />
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The film is a comedy horror set in 90's Ireland and has more than a dash of the Father Ted's about it; and I'm not just saying that because because of all the accents. Rose is a paranormal investigator turned driving instructor, being pestered by Martin to sort out an exorcism of his late wife, a constant pain in his side during life and death. They both cross swords with the local rock star Christian Winter who is pinning his hopes on reviving his failing career on mastery of the occult, using a virgin sacrifice to bring back his lucky streak.<br />
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<i>Extra Ordinary</i> is a lot of fun; much more funny than gory and with a lot of sharp Irish wit, I'm very glad I took a punt. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Family Romance, LLC</b></span> (JP) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Romance,_LLC">wiki</a>)<br />
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My final film of the night was the latest in a long line of Werner Herzog films, although beyond seeing his name in the opening credit's you'd be hard-pushed to tell it was from him. His Germanic drawling narration was conspicuously absent and he let the subjects do the talking.<br />
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His subject matter has recently been covered in Sue Perkins admirable <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008kgf">Japan</a> series on the BBC, where people in Japan can hire out people to act as stand-ins for relationships in their lives that they lack, have lost, or maybe want to re-live in the hope of steering a better outcome. Family Romance, LLC is one such business, or at least that is what the film is trying to portray.<br />
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You see, from the outset, Family Romance LLC (the film) portrays itself as a documentary with these very real businesses as it's subject matter, and you can be forgiven for thinking that the various characters being portrayed are real Japanese people and 'real' actors being hired to fill a void, but is it? Herzog is being clever to blur the lines of what is real and what isn't to make the audience as deceived as the punters by having actors playing both sides - or is he? It's pretty difficult to tell and some viewers may feel a little deceived, although a quick google afterwards quickly sorts things out.<br />
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As with the Sue Perkins program, there is no<i> 'look at these crazy Japanese doing this, isn't it good|bad'</i> aspect. Lack of narration allows the characters to explore the morality easier, but they come to the same conclusion. The practice of employing stand-ins is very much a function of the detachment in modern Japanese society and has a mixture of good and bad points, it's up to the viewer to decide whether it's a healthy thing to do or not. <b>7/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-29422748840757608642019-11-08T16:47:00.002+00:002019-11-10T00:02:28.253+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 1So then!<br />
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Last time I did this was a couple of years ago and, I know, <i>I know</i>. Nobody likes to see a blog go stagnant and die. <i>Again</i>. All I can say is, kids are <b>hard</b>. But as the firstborn is about to hit five years old and start the second half of his first decade - and that has just flown by - I find myself for the first time able to look at the festivals again with a little more flexibility. The missus has kindly given me some days off with which to do as I will. Naturally, this means I pound my eyeballs with films until they cannae take no more.<br />
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In 2014, I was just leaving work with a big stack of tickets to begin another crazy film marathon before our December baby was due, and right on that moment, the phone rang. Ms. Plants was in labour and things were starting early. Didn't he know I had spent good money on the next few weeks on literally dozens of film tickets. So began a lean few years - festival-wise - where I'd only see a couple of films per year. <i> </i><br />
<br />
<i>*tiny violin plays in background*</i><br />
<br />
I'm over it. No, really. I've scheduled a talk with him for his 18th where we will calmly discuss repayment and interest terms.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Luce</span> </b>(US) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luce_(film)">wiki</a>)<br />
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In these days of increasing racial tensions state-side, its unsurprising that there are films coming out of the country that try to tussle with some of the subject matter to some degree or other. It is a subject of many dimensions and unfortunately, still persists the world over. America being one particularly volatile region. Luce injects an additional ingredient into the mix with the story of an Eritrean child soldier, adopted by an affluent white American couple and, after several difficult years of counseling, Luce appears to be a model student; loved by his family, friends and teachers alike and about to graduate with high honors. <br />
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But just as all seems to be going so well, Harriet, one of Luce's most challenging teachers suspects all is not what it seems after Luce submits a paper to her extolling the virtues of a extremist historical figure and she starts to investigate. What follows is a tense drama where Harriet, Luce's parents, and everyone who touches his life get dragged into a game of smoke and mirrors, where no character comes out cleanly. Rights are questioned and boundaries are overstepped in the name of doing the right thing and finding out the constantly elusive truth.<br />
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Luce rewards the observant viewer, handing over complicated characters in ambiguous situations with just enough clues to make figuring out what you see versus what you are told a satisfying experience. No character is good or bad, just the unraveling of a comfortable life and the complicated undercurrents that have been almost hidden. There was a little bit of clunky dialog every now and again, but a solid start to the festival. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Fire will Come</span> </b>(ES) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Will_Come">wiki</a>)<br />
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Middle-aged loner Amador has just been released from jail, after partially serving sentence for starting a major fire that nearly burned down a village in the densely forested hills of Galicia. Quiet to the point of shifty, he ambles his way back along the winding country roads, seemingly trying to start over as if nothing has happened. Naturally, his slight but weather-hardened mother takes him in without question, and they try, with little initial success, to return to something normal.<br />
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He's been away but as you may expect the locals are wary of his presence. Still aloof and a loner, he slowly tries to make small steps towards re-integration, but as the title suggests, the lack of success leads to frustration and history will surely repeat.<br />
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Fire will come works somewhat if you accept it's dreamlike meander through its own runtime; concentrating less on story and more on the beautiful scenes of the remote, high altitude lives where few live and nature still holds most of the cards. It is almost incidental that Amador is seen with his old dog running or tripping through the undergrowth trying to catch one of his cows.<br />
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In the end, the film will ask more questions than it answers; presenting the viewer with essentially the same situation as what happened off-screen but with few clues as to whether he did it this time, or in fact in the first place. I enjoyed the beauty but would have liked to be less frustrated at the man and the ambiguity at the end; leaving things open to interpretation is good, so long as you have some clues to debate the guilt or otherwise of the protagonists. In this respect it was trying to do a similar thing to Luce, but didn't succeed as well. <b>6/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool</b></span> (US) (<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/review-miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool-and-the-problem-of-the-archive">review</a>)<br />
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I saw this one only because of the timing, partly because I am not a cool person and didn't revel in the idea of watching cool people for ninety minutes, but also because Jazz isn't my favorite form of music. However, I have in the past been pleasantly surprised by the documentary format and it's ability to make things interesting, even when I don't find it so.<br />
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So things are with Miles Davis, the legendary American jazz and blues musician who, during his fifty or so years of work beginning in the clubs of downtown New York and progressing through the ages touching and sometimes kickstarting the various related styles of funk, drum and bass and others, through a process of rigorous self-analysis and reinvention in response to stimulus, sometimes external and others from his own internal demons, not least the recurring spectre of drugs.<br />
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This documentary is a bitter-sweet account of the life of a man who, as with many who have contributed to the artistry of humanity are often self-destructive towards themselves and their relationships with their most loved others. Miles Davis was never someone who I could appreciate musically in the same way as some of the talking heads who sometimes held him up as a messianic figure (although there were some pleasant pieces within the film I recognised and enjoyed), I could see the impact the man had on the broader history of music and culture thanks to this film. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Dog Called Money</b></span> (UK/IR) (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/07/a-dog-called-money-review-pj-harvey-the-hope-six-demolition-project-documentary">review</a>)<br />
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In a switcheroo of my expectations compared to the Miles Davis film, I was really looking forward to <i>A Dog Called Money</i>. It's premise was attractive; Singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, in a quest to come up with unique subject matter for her next album, tours the world looking for the downtrodden; often in middle-eastern countries but also in the more downtrodden states of America. Along for the ride is photographer Seamus Murphy to chronicle the process. Then, structurally, the film alternates between clips of them visiting representative people of the area, often in a religious setting, and observing how they cope with their odds, or sometimes joining in with their music, and the resulting jam sessions where lyrically and musically the inspirations are explored and performed as an art installation in a publicly viewable studio.<br />
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There is some commendation for what is being done here; it's always a good thing for the plight of others not so well off to be highlighted so people feel compelled to do something about it, or at least banish complacency; maintain an understanding that not all is right in the world and things need to change. However I felt somewhat underwhelmed by the somewhat mechanical churning of the stages of the film; PJ looks on solemnly at the destitute people, reads a composition of words and feelings, then cut back to the jam session where music of mixed quality is produced. There wasn't much in the way of variation in this to keep an increasingly tired plant awake as he sat on his comfy cinema sofa and although I'd give the album a go for some of the songs, this wasn't quite the film I was hoping to see. <b>6/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-45363875937999078612017-07-27T22:25:00.000+01:002017-07-27T22:25:04.374+01:00Even the question wasn't rightOn this blog, I rarely venture into the realm of politics, but these days the political charge being felt both in the UK and around the world is so much greater. One point in particular that has been grinding my gears is the subject of 'Brexit'.<br />
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Now - cards on the table - I voted to stay in the EU, and I still believe that's the better place to be. Yes, we get some stuffy rules to deal with and extra standards to work to, and - as any self respecting bigot will tell you - all those pesky <i>foreigns</i> coming over here and <strike>taking</strike> doing our jobs, but overall I think it's a good thing that the world was becoming more as one. However, I saw the result and close call though it was, the country as a whole voted to get the hell out, so here we are.<br />
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So great news then: 'we' can <i>'<a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=brexit+take+back+control">take back control</a>'</i> and <i>'give the NHS lots more cash'</i> and do all that crap we were sold and we heard parrotted up and down the country from idiots in vox pops.<br />
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But recent developments in the Brexit soap opera have caused me to realise something - of all the things we were mis-sold about the whole sorry thing, the actual question being asked at the ballot box was the most significant in it's wrongness.<br />
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What we were asked:<br />
'<i>Do you want the UK to exit from the European Union</i>'?<br />
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But what we were effectively being asked was:<br />
'<i>Do you want the UK to get a full and accurate idea about what leaving the EU would mean</i>'?<br />
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Because at the point the question was being asked, we didn't have a bloody clue - both the people entering the ballot box and those arguing for or against - and we aren't that much more informed today. Different people interpreted the prospect of going our own way differently - that it would mean anything from returning to some imagined idyll from the 1950's to somehow ejecting all foreigners and stopping new ones coming in (despite there being an employment demand for them so basically nope), to surviving and prospering on our own because we did alright in 'the old days', to being sold on the idea that we could take some imagined lump of money - currently being sent to the EU with no return on investment - and somehow turn it into hospitals and nurses and schools and reopened libraries and shops and factories. Yes, there will be some sound economic benefits to business, (assuming we can get a good enough deal) but if you asked the layman on the street what these benefits would be, you'd be hard-pressed to get more than a vague answer derived from the manifestation of these dreams.<br />
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So asking the leave/no leave question was the incorrect thing to do at that point. Problem was, you need a simple, pointed question to get the voting juices flowing and the actual question that needed asking wasn't pointy enough, so the other one was put in front of the public instead.<br />
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Amidst the political chaos and the new schism that cuts across parties and communities giving us one more thing to fight over, we are slowly starting to get some ideas of what Brexit will actually mean. Don't ask me as it's still not agreed upon and distilled down to the point where a political novice such as myself can understand it, but when it is - and the public at large can ingest it - <i>that</i> is when we need to be asked. Because at that point - and ONLY at that point, can we make a decision based on the deal put in front of us rather than a load of dog-whistle lead stories.<br />
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Recently, Vince Cable (<i>'me and my cable'</i>) has reiterated the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liberal-democrats-tim-farron-second-brexit-referendum-reverse-general-election-maifesto-theresa-may-a7699256.html">Lib Dem's position</a> that they will offer a second referendum at the point when the Brexit deal is agreed, linking nicely with the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-stop-article-50-leave-eu-politicans-donald-tusk-philippe-lamberts-michel-barnier-european-a7655166.html">abort button offered by the EU commission</a> right up until the end. Although I don't think Vince's party is equipped for government, in principle I agree we should be given the choice at that point. <br />
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But I think their PR people aren't communicating to the public the most compelling reason for it - that asking us if we want to leave <i>won't actually be</i> a second referendum - it'll be the first time we can give an answer based on reason and fact as much as - or if not more so than - emotion. <br />
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Regardless of whether you share my position on leave/remain, we can surely all agree we should be asked a question with such far-reaching consequences after we have our hands on the full picture, not before.fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-33676928460117380232016-11-10T23:50:00.000+00:002016-12-06T23:51:52.448+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2016 Day 2<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Lady Macbeth</b></span> (UK) (<a href="https://thefilmstage.com/reviews/tiff-review-lady-macbeth/">review</a>)<br />
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The often re-imagined story of Macbeth is played out once more, specifically deriving from the Russian novel '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Macbeth_of_the_Mtsensk_District_(novel)"><i>Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District</i></a>'; the location moves to a 19th Century farmhouse in the English countryside; a little past it's best but better than the middle class can manage at the time. In it, Katherine bounces around the walls, feeling alternate emotions of fear from the new husband that was forced upon her, and boredom at the cloying restrictions he places on her ample free time.<br />
<br />
Boredom leads to curiosity and exploration, and one of the young labourers manages to take her eye, a welcome grubby change to the starched and uncomfortable dresses she is forced to wear. The fierceness of the passion leads to desperation as this new freedom is threatened by her icy new relatives, and this in turn progresses to the spillage of blood.<br />
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Moody and dark, although not without a mischievous humour, the film succeeds in keeping you interested as the stakes are raised and Katherine turns to increasingly desperate measures to hold onto that which she values. New parents be warned - it wasn't easy to watch at all in the last segment, but it was well made, well acted and more than a little challenging. <b>7/10</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A United Kingdom</b></span> (UK) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_United_Kingdom">wiki</a>)<br />
My last film and the festival was only just getting started, oh well. Due to go on a wider release than many of it's festival counterparts around Christmas time, A United Kingdom is a biopic of the [then, and unfortunately still now, controversial] relationship between quiet jazz loving Ruth Williams and Seretse Khama, the prince and soon to be ruler of Bechuanaland - what would eventually become Botswana.<br />
<br />
A chance meeting at a party brings the two together just after the Second World War, the prince studying in London by the hand of his father, who hoped a well-funded education in a first world nation would produce a wise ruler in waiting. He hadn't banked on his son coming back with a marriage proposal - to a white woman, no less - a woman representing the oppression suffered by his people and those of the neighbouring countries in both the past and present. It went without saying that similar sentiments were expressed on the other side, and their relationship had to endure much before even considering the implications of marrying a prince and moving to the other side of the world in the hope of making it work and being accepted.<br />
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It's fair to say that us English didn't help; the UK government at the time stood in their way at every turn, forbidding the marriage and nearly wrecking their chances of ever making it work, and the casting of Jack Davenport as the slimy, holier-than-thou face of Great British Ingrained Racism (aka the cultural government representative to Bechuanaland) was simultaneously over the top and perfect for the job of building up the bile with every sentence he utters and then, eventually (without giving away any spoilers) seeing him eat his stupid words.<br />
<br />
There are some superficial comparisons to <i>12 Years a Slave</i>, and though in terms of importance, I would rate that film higher than this one, the tone here is a little lighter and the bad times are a little easier to sit through; consequently the film is more enjoyable. It's a good story (based on the actual events of the time), told well with some safe, predictable story elements. You won't be surprised by the ending (they make the marriage work and eventually are accepted) but you will enjoy getting there. <b>8/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-53906555895014750252016-11-09T08:29:00.000+00:002016-11-09T08:29:30.999+00:00You Had One Job, AmericaThat was to not elect a sexist, racist, anti-semitic self-confessed sexual assault artist; bankruptcy aficionado and Useful Idiot to the Putin regime.<br />
<br />
Hillary wasn't without her faults, but seriously, was she <i>worse than that?</i><br />
<br />
I don't say this lightly: <b>Jesus Fucking Christ.</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-20420701897925759092016-11-07T13:16:00.004+00:002016-11-22T19:05:01.208+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2016 Day 1<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's the Leeds Film Festival yet again, and as is the case these days, my pickings are slim and based around a limited free time available. Ms. Plants has kindly taken off to her parents for a day so I can Indulge a little bit, and what better date than the festivals' now-familiar Animation Day.</span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Belladonna of Sadness</span></b> (Jpn) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belladonna_of_Sadness">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
This
dated anime has been restored, digitized and is about to be released on
DVD for the first time. Based on the book La Sorcieré, it re-imagines
the struggles of Joan of Arc against a tyrant king and a very phallic
devil, who comes to her aid as she is abused and abandoned by the other
villagers and even her husband, whose descent into uselessness comes
with all too little pressure. Sensing a soul that is more resistant to
his charms than usual, the devil offers power and revenge in return for
her body and soul, and a place at his side to rule over the world. With
enough pressure, he knows that anyone can be tempted.<br />
<br />
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1973 is a long time ago, and I suspect director Eiichi Yamamoto's budget for such a
psychedelic and downright erotic animated film may well have been
curtailed somewhat. Mix that with the minimalist tendencies of the time
to animate, the audience is forgiven for needing a little time to
adjust to the largely static scenes. Don't get me wrong, there is some
beautiful (and provocative) imagery here, but on our modern-day diet of
fluid animation and big budgets, I'm not surprised at the scoffing and
shaking of heads I noticed from some of the other theatergoers on
leaving.<br />
<br />
Once you do, and accept the storytelling
style, it is actually quite an enjoyable, even coherent film that I was
glad I got to see. The art style is much more European than east-Asian,
the static watercolour drawings playing out like scrolling tapestry
pages from a book, and and save for the dialogue (they don't even
attempt lip-sync) you wouldn't think it came from Japan, and the script
explores enough of the world it creates to not feel like all show and no
substance, although quite how close it is to the novel I have yet to
find out. In short, go (it's being released in a few places as well as
at Leeds to mark it's overdue release) but reset your expectations
before you do. <b>6/10</b> <br />
<br />
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<b> </b><br />
<b>Father and Daughter</b> (Bel) - Michaël Dudok de Wit, the director of <i>The Red Turtle</i>, also
made this film which was shown with gushing praise by LIFF director Chris Fell, who said that
Isao Takahata, the Studio Ghibli director who brought de Wit's creation
to the big screen considered it to be '<i>the best animated short film of
the 21st century so far</i>'. While I would not go that far, it was cute
and sweet and had a few feels as lonesome daughter awaits the return of her
missing father, her life passing all too quickly while she watches and waits. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Red Turtle</span></b> (Jpn/Bel) (<a href="http://sonyclassics.com/theredturtle/">official site</a>)<br />
Out of the blue, a new Studio Ghibli film appears! Kind of, anyway. The first co-production with a non-Japanese studio (in this case, Belgium-based ), The Red Turtle is the fruits of the efforts between director Michaël Dudok de Wit and the passion of aging Ghibli director Isao Takahata, who upon seeing de Wits' earlier works, felt compelled to help him bring a larger work to a bigger audience.<br />
<br />
It's a dialogue-free story of a shipwrecked man who by stroke of luck washes up on an island. Food and fresh water are plentiful, but his determination to leave sets him on a losing streak; each time a flimsy raft is created and he sets sail for land proper, he is attacked by a large, red turtle and with increasing despair has to swim ashore through the fragments of broken hull. When he spots the turtle coming ashore he takes the opportunity for revenge, an action which changes his outlook on the island forever.<br />
<br />
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From the red-tinged Ghibli logo, you can tell this is going to be a little different to what we normally see from the studio. The art style, while typically Ghibli-realistic, is more pastel and muted, and the character faces are far more European in style, reflecting the work of de Wit rather than Takahata or Miyazaki. This is no bad thing. The quality is as high as anything the studio has produced, and blends hand-drawn and computer generated elements very nicely. For a character spending much of the film alone creating rafts, it moves along with entertaining pace and rarely feels to be dragging. I did feel occasionally trapped between the realistic and fantasy aspects of the film as if sometimes they didn't quite sit perfectly with each other in the same picture, but mostly I was entertained and charmed and surprised myself by the feels I had at the end. <b>8/10 </b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cameraperson</b></span> (US) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cameraperson">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
Dirctor Kirsten Johnson has done her fair share of documentary filmmaking, most notably with Michael Moore in <i>Faranheit 9/11</i> but also a raft of other films you are unlikely to have head of. Many have their place either in the US or the Middle East, covering injustice and war, with a particular theme on what the victims of the atrocities in question did afterward. This film, she describes as 'a memoir' of her film-making career, and is in total a selection of roughly-shot out-takes from the cutting room floor from the last 20 or so years of her career.<br />
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It has a 'behind the scenes' look about it, offering clips taken randomly from a roulette of her films, some of which are quite benign and ordinary and probably have some unsaid emotional value to the director, whereas others are given just enough context so you know that what you are seeing is pretty heavy stuff. The ratio of the former to the latter is enough to maintain interest, and it was like watching an overview of several documentaries together for those who don't have the time to spend on them all. Family life made this an appealing prospect. <b>7/10 </b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Silent Voice</span></b> (Jpn) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Silent_Voice_(film)">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
A final anime for the evening is a surprisingly touching story of school bullying and the aftermath as both protagonist and victim grow out of their childhood selves and reflect on their actions. Shōko is a quiet, deaf girl moving to a new area and school, while carefree Shōya has the lay of the land, knows his position high up on the classroom pecking order, and is increasingly bored and restless with school life. Sensing the growing disquiet about the special provisions paid to this new interloper, he gives into the temptations of teasing increasingly meted on the poor girl, to help pass the time. Boundaries are pushed and teasing becomes outright abuse, until Shōko finally leaves. As the teachers look for a source of the trouble and the clique of classmates turn on each other, Shōya becomes scapegoat, and is himself ostracized.<br />
<br />
Filled with remorse, and suffering several miserable years in high school, he eventually bumps back into Shōko and attempts to make amends, but a life unaccustomed to considering the feelings of others presents many challenges.<br />
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Beautifully animated, though more stylized for my liking (and very occasionally falling into the fanservice trap) it handles both the wide subject of bullying from both viewpoints and the treatment of deaf people as human beings rather well and with satisfying depth. In particular I found the inclusion of realistic sign language gestures by the characters to be novel for animation and also the amount of time spent ensuring the gestures were detailed and accurate as well really good. Strangely, I found that relatively small detail one of the things that elevated the film above a sludge of identikit anime melodramas.<br />
<br />
The only thing letting down A Silent Voice was it's stodgy attempts to resolve the story in the final third, where the gang of characters - all hating or liking or just hanging out with each other - had to work things out and purge the guilt. It may have been down to the Japanese culture of excessive apologetic and a desire not to offend, but they took their bloody time saying sorry time after time. Chopping out ten minutes or so would have tidied it up nicely and stopped it feeling bloated. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
<br />fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-9755270229346949172016-11-07T13:16:00.003+00:002016-11-07T13:18:06.497+00:00Still HereYes, I'm still here. Blah blah children blah no time blah.<br />
<br />
The G Man is just coming up to his second birthday, while The D Man is just hitting seven months. Both are adorable, although D has found the resonant frequency of my ear drums and uses it to great effect when he needs to get our attention, which is all the time he is not asleep. Fortunately, he sleeps.<br />
<br />
The first six months of a childs' life are the most demanding, and mercifully, we are coming out of that period now. We're getting little smiles (adorbz, I believe is the interweb term) and laughter and he is sitting up nicely now with only the occasional topple. A horizontal perspective rather than just looking up at the fizz of the person currently giving attention or the light shade is one of the major steps to the wider world.<br />
<br />
Such a perspective allows him to see his big bro coming, which is just as well as his love for his brother is.. heavy handed at the moment. The hugs come just a bit too close to choking the poor little sausage and so we always have to be there before giggling turns to cries.<br />
<br />
Both have their own demands of our time but the pressure is abating. The podge that I had gathered this past year is now slowly being jogged back off again thanks to a little bit of exercise time in the mornings while they snore the wallpaper off the walls, which is just as well as I'm up for the Edinburgh Marathon next year - after missing out on London for the second time and having to skip York lest I did myself an injury waddling around. Ms. Plants herself has managed to get onto the fat fighters regime to lose '3 stone by the end of the year' (of which 1 stone has already gone), so the challenge is on.<br />
<br />
Unsurprisingly, the festival circuit had to somehow survive with only minimal attention but I have managed to see the odd film at Leeds this year, which I will get around to talking about soon. No plantpots again, obviously as there are more awards than films. Maybe next year it can come back.<br />
<br />fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-58074483298229356442015-11-19T22:53:00.000+00:002016-11-07T13:01:50.427+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2015 - Day 6<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Assassin</span></b> (Tw/Chi/HK) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assassin_%282015_film%29">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
You know when you watch a typical eastern martial arts epic; it's gorgeous, fast paced and has beautifully choreographed action sequences. The story can lurch about a bit and the characters can sometimes do stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense, but you kept watching despite not quite being able to follow along because it was so damn beautiful.<br />
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I went into <i>The Assassin</i> resigned to the fact that I would get a bit confused somewhere between the subtle cultural differences and the complicated character relationships where just about everybody has an X in their name so it's difficult to keep track. I could handle that so long as I got a flavour of the goings on and it excelled in the other areas.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, it didn't.<br />
<br />
Even for a film of the type so culturally unfamiliar to me it was hard to follow, to the point of throwing my hands in the air at the futility if trying to follow the disjointed plot. The basic premise appears to be this: a young woman has been trained well in doing assassinations, and her heartless trainer for complicated political reasons releases her back to her family to murder her cousin, who is living well in a castle somewhere with his family. But she doesn't because reasons, and things get a bit sidetracked from there in the murky middle bit, and then it finishes with the mentor trying for about 5 seconds to kill her and then giving up.<br />
<br />
There are precious few action scenes, and the ones that do happen are badly choreographed, seemingly random and often over without any sort of resolution. Much of the film is a mixture of beautiful shots of scenery and palaces, mixed with the people within them milling about, staring at the walls, floor and each other, or waiting just a little too long for somebody to come walking through the door. The rest of it is protracted cushion shots that seem to be there only to pad out the runtime in a futile attempt to make the film into an 'epic'.<br />
<br />
It never got going, and then it ended abruptly without me quite knowing what had happened. It felt like an unfinished idea that for some reason got cobbled together into a film just for something to do, without anyone daring to tell the director that there was nothing in the film to enjoy beyond the vista. It needed more than just beauty, and it didn't have it. Don't go into this expecting another <i>Hero</i> or <i>Crouching Tiger</i>. Just don't go at all. You will be disappointed. <b>3.5/10</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Liza the Fox-Fairy</b></span> (Hun) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liza,_the_Fox-Fairy">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
My final film this year was a last-minute change. I was originally going to see the closing gala film, <i><a href="http://carolfilm.com/">Carol</a></i>, but after seeing ads on the telly about it last night, meaning I could watch it any time, I decided to switch to something that I probably wouldn't get another chance to see. I noticed that this film had topped the audience charts at one point, so it seemed like the natural choice.<br />
<br />
Liza lives a lonely existence as a care nurse to an elderly Japanese widow. Her only friend is Tomy Tani, the ghost of a Japanese pop star that haunts the flat she tends that only Liza can see. When Marta suggests that Liza finds a man before it's too late, Tomy gets jealous and anyone who gets close, gets killed to death. Distraught at the rising body count and police sniffing around, Liza happens upon the Japanese fox-fairy tales of siren-like women destined never to be loved due to their deathly curse.<br />
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The world Liza inhabits is a slightly surreal 1970's mesh of dreary buildings and badly dressed grotesque characters, giving plenty of scope for dark, absurdist humour. And plenty of these chances are lept upon with several squeals of laughter coming from the audience, many fuelled by the sheer absurdity of some of the situations, often breaking the fourth wall and including the audience directly. It's a refreshingly playful, enjoyable film and one I am glad I switched to see, and almost makes up for <i>The Assassin</i>. <b>8/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-17758308616862922952015-11-18T20:54:00.001+00:002015-11-18T20:54:06.042+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2015 - Day 5<b><span style="font-size: large;">Landfill Harmonic</span></b> (US/Nor/Bra/Pgy) (<a href="http://www.landfillharmonicmovie.com/">site</a>)<br />
<br />
Many documentaries exist that highlight the struggling fortunes of poor communities in second and third world countries, often with images of stinking, steaming piles of rubbish tended over with men, women and children picking through the bits before the gulls can take the edible bits away. Often such films use this imagery as a backdrop to make some greater point. This is one film that attempts to add a bit of depth to some of the people of these villages, and highlight something special and unique to come out of one of them.<br />
<br />
Paraguay doesn't promise the best start in life for many of it's children, some of which live in shanty districts around landfill sites. One such site in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cateura">Cateura</a> was visited one day by Favio, an environmental surveyor who felt an urge to do something about the apparently hopeless situation the kids find themselves in. Being a bit handy with an instrument and with a little cash, he was able to set up a small, free school where some of the local children could come and learn to play. As popularity grew and new instruments dried up, Favio happened upon Cola, a kindly sole from the rubbish dumps that could turn his hand to make anything. The <a href="http://www.recycledorchestracateura.com/">Landfill Orchestra</a> was born.<br />
<br />
This low-key but heart-warming documentary tells the unlikely story of their rise to fame as their popularity grew. Growing from a handful of young girls screeching out something barely recognisable on early prototypes to full-on duets with Megadeth on tour, they showed that everyone with the right encouragement and a bit of lucky opportunity could touch the sky. Go to their <a href="http://www.landfillharmonicmovie.com/">website</a> if you'd like to learn more. <b>8/10</b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Club</span></b> (Chile) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Club_%282015_film%29">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
Superficially, this sounded a little bit like a Chilean <i>Father Ted</i>, with its premise of four disgraced priests holed up in a remote house, where the arrival of a fifth brings all sorts of krazy shenanigans. Beyond a vaguely Jack Hackett-esque elderly priest (although far less violent) this is far less comedic and a whole lot more uncomfortable.<br />
<br />
It seems like the director set himself a challenge to make a film where the most unpalatable examples of society could be centre stage to a film and not be completely reviled throughout. Four men and their female carer, each with their own reasons for ending up there live a lonely but manageable existence, moved silently away from their tarnished flocks to save the face of the Catholic church. Despite their sordid past, the details of which are only lightly touched upon, these men are portrayed as human; caring, loving, even enjoying life in their unlikely idyll, as if set free from the ties of the institution that likely contributed to their predicament. Unfortunately, their peace is broken when the church dumps a fifth body on them, and with it the drunken, shambling form of a stalker; a broken soul who somehow followed this new entrant from afar looking for answers.<br />
<br />
The Club was uncomfortable to watch; within it are graphical descriptions of priestly transgressions, likely adapted from the many real-life accounts which occasionally grace our newsreels. Those looking for a sympathetic view of how the Catholic Church handles such problems are out of luck; it portrays the body much as an unfeeling monolith, dumping it's problem children where few can see and forgetting about them until they start to cause trouble. Rather, the film at least attempts to put a human face on the transgressors, whilst not neglecting to show the damage they cause to the people they are meant to serve.<br />
<br />
There were elements within the film that didn't quite flow right, and a few loose ends along the way that I guess were forgotten about in the cut, but it gave a daring perspective on a taboo subject rarely tackled in film, and told with a hint of blunt, dark humour. <b>7.5/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-55350703881109782942015-11-11T12:35:00.000+00:002015-11-18T12:58:10.859+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2015 - Day 4Just time for one today:<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Son of Saul</span></b> (Hun) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Saul">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
In among some kitchen decorating I found myself with a few hours free without a little one to look after, and my interest was piqued by this one. Billed as a <i>Bourne</i>-style tense thriller set in <a href="http://fancy-plants.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-polish-holiday-2.html">Auschwitz</a>, where a battered and domesticated Jewish <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando">Sonderkommando</a> <i>'dedicates himself to one last desperate act of moral redemption'</i>. Thinking this would involve a righteous amount of hot lead justice at some nasty Nazis, I made time to get back to Leeds - this could be a pretty exciting watch.<br />
<br />
<i>Son of Saul</i> is not without it's atmosphere. For much of the 2 hours runtime you are looking over Saul's shoulder as he is harried from one chaotic, horrible job to another. Showing us in flashes the rendering process of bodies and possessions from end to end. Saul's 'moral redemption' act is all the more staggering that he managed to do what he did in the midst of it all without getting killed in all manner of ways. As a film highlighting the remaining fragments of humanity in a situation where it has been all but eradicated this film excels.<br />
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What spoiled it for me was my expectation; which not for the first time led me to spend some considerable portion of the film expecting something to happen that would never come, and I would leave disappointed. Saul never gets a gun and goes off on a killing spree, his entirety is reduced from average human to that of a defeated mule that somehow is encouraged to surreptitiously rebel in the only way his broken self can with the life spirit he has remaining.<br />
<br />
It is thus a difficult film to score. Certainly, you should not watch this film expecting action thrills and a good tingly feeling that justice will be served. Forget <i>Bourne</i>, don't expect Saul to snap and go mental with the bad guys, and instead expect a more moralistic work that when approached correctly will deliver a powerful punch to the gut. I wish I could have seen it a first time over again with a different mindset. <b>7.5/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-58024919699857666652015-11-08T23:42:00.001+00:002015-11-08T23:42:19.042+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2015 - Day 3<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Case of Hana and Alice</b></span> (Jpn) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_of_Hana_%26_Alice">wiki</a>)<br />
<br />
In my past film-watching experience, I've found the rotoscoping technique for producing animation to be a lazy one that causes nothing but a distraction to the film you are watching, to such an extent as to spoil it. There is something, probably somewhere down the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley">uncanny valley</a> about taking every nth frame of a filmed scene and tracing the lines until you have an animated equivalent. Though static shots of Hana and Alice seemed like your average anime, the previews threatened to confirm my worst fears. Though it took a little time to adjust, I'm glad I did see this film. I could so easily have snoozed in bed a few more hours and nearly decided to. <br />
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Tetsuko has just moved to a new area and needs to fit in at school. All seems normal until her new classmates start acting weirdly around the desk she chooses, it seems the previous occupant disappeared in mysterious circumstances, and the two free desks next to each other have a mysterious story to them that the other pupils seem reluctant to give up. Tetsuko, being a no-shit spunky type lets curiosity get the better of her, and leads her down a seemingly supernatural rabbit hole that eventually leads to a reclusive ex-pupil living next door.<br />
<br />
Without wanting to give too much away, the film is of two strange halves; the first a meditiation on supersition and how that pervades in the fetile imagination of the young; the second an almost slapstick mystery caper of the scooby-doo caliber. Though you would expect a low mark for such a description, the change in direction is welcomed and gives the film chance to tie up several loose ends neatly towards the end. It's funny, entertaining and a little philosophical. <b>8/10</b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Postman's White Nights</span></b> (Rus) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman's_White_Nights">wiki</a>)<br />
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By the time I had realised that my preferred next film, Taxi (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31475783">it got the Golden Bear</a> this year), had sold out the second anime of the day (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expelled_from_Paradise">Rakuen Tsuiho</a>, which I wasn't that fussed about) was well underway and I was across town, so my only other option was this. <br />
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Lyokha is getting on a bit; he is the postman for a remote Russian village, split off from the rest of civilisation for generations by a large lake. He lives a lonely life despite everyone knowing him, and lives alone, each day the same as the rest. Get up, take the motorboat out to get the post, come home and fill the rest of his day with the friends he used to get drunk with, but can't any more. His one hope is to finally win the affections of Irina, an old school friend and crush who lives a single life with her young son. These aside, all he sees are dying memories and the shadows of his youth.<br />
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But Irina is getting itchy feet and is looking to move to the city. Can Lyokha manage to woo her before she takes off?<br />
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Films such as this one can survive pretty well with just a beautiful landscape, and the lake and countryside shots of a relatively unspoiled corner of Russia are certainly beautiful to look at, but Lyokha's actions too many times are frustrating. He could make himself happier, but he doesn't. Chances are wasted and he doesn't seem to learn from them. For this it's hard to completely like or identify with the character, even though perhaps many would have taken the choice which maintains the status quo you are hoping just this once he will kick himself up the arse a bit for his own good. <br />
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I wish I could recommend this more as it had some great roles played by unprofessional actors from the village, and it got many things right, not least the sense of loneliness even in a tight community. <b>6/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Miss Hokusai</b></span> (Jpn) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Hokusai">wiki</a>)<br />
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The director of <a href="http://fancy-plants.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/leeds-film-festival-2011-day-12.html">Colorful</a> from a few years back returns with an animated biography of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsushika_%C5%8Ci">O-Ei</a>, the lesser known daughter of the famous Japanese 19th Century painter, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai">Katsushika Hokusai</a>. Nearing the skills of her father, many of her uncredited works were attributed elsewhere and this film tries to give her back some of that missed fame, albeit a little too late.<br />
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It looks like a Ghibli film for much of it's runtime and is similarly beautiful, but it is actually the work of the <i>Production I.G.</i> studio, an outfit that has collaborated with Ghibli several times in the past. But more than a cursory glance exposes the slightly pale imitation. Whereas a Ghibli film could usually be counted on however to have that extra something beyond high production values, something seems sadly missing from this film. It's still very good, but not a sign of the anime crown being passed over yet. It got a lot of the more tender aspects of the film - exploring the uneasy relationship between O-Ei and her parents, and that of her blind sister with which her father wanted little to do. But some of it felt a little too cloying, and I question the use of heavy <i>J-Rock</i> as background music as well, which rasped against the period setting quite uncomfortably.<br />
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It wasn't a bad film by any stretch, but again my presupposition about which film would come out as best in my eyes was turned on it's head. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie</b></span> (Jpn) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_The_New_Movie">wiki</a>)<br />
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I have a love-hate relationship with <i>Ghost in the Shell</i>. The first film was just complex enough to be considered sophisticated, and I enjoyed the philosophy and style of the second and it was very rewatchable, so I could pick apart and theorise on what Mamoru Oshii was trying to achieve. But starting with 2011's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex_-_Solid_State_Society">Solid State Society</a>, things just went into overdrive, plot-wise; the double crosses and numerous villains of the piece combined with the subtitle-heavy talking bits in-between where several onions were peeled not just one, made enjoying the film hard work. The New Movie (a strange, out of place generic name) continues this trend and is harder work still.<br />
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Set in the early years of the Majors' unit before it became part of Section 9, she and Aramaki's team separately investigate a presidential assassination that occurred simultaneously with a hostage siege, which was seemingly nothing more than a distraction to keep the forces out of the way. More twists and turns than ever - and someone relying on subtitles will struggle to keep up on the first watch) result in a thick soupy mixture of impressive, explosive action scenes mixed with thick talky bits, and you just have to assume that the good guys are hitting the right bad guys for the right reasons in the next action scene.<br />
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Ordinarily I would say things will become clear after a few viewings, but I'm not sure I have the stamina any more to work out who is who and get a full appreciation of the reasons everybody had their heads blown apart. If you ignore the storyline pretty much completely and just enjoy the ride the action has to offer you'll probably get a buzz out of it but feel a bit left out. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Empire of Corpses</b></span> (Jpn) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empire_of_Corpses">wiki</a>)<br />
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Well, where do I start with this one? I wasn't expecting a Victorian-era Ghost in the Shell set in London with zombies and buxom women in it, that's for sure. John Watson (yes they borrowed lots of English names) is fascinated with reanimating corpses, a practice the government is using to provide cheap labour after Victor Frankenstein managed to do it a century before. Thing is, he managed it just once and somehow got the corpse to have self determination and a soul, whereas the ones the government churn out are conveniently sub-servant. Watson is motivated to find the old way of doing things since the death of his friend, Friday, the still warm body of which he has managed to smuggle away from the graveyard and bring back to life. He's only good as a scribbler of all of John's experiences, and maybe as a coat rack, but John has big plans.<br />
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Such plans got put aside when the government find out about his illegal practices, although they see enough in his work to send him off to try and find Frankenstein's notes which will reveal all. Cue a worldwide hunt with a variety of characters and increasing amounts of destruction. Think <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboy">Steamboy</a> and you are quite close.<br />
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I did enjoy Empire of Corpses; it's well animated, high quality format, but you really, really have to stop yourself from laughing at the rather clumsy and sporadic use of people and places simply because they sound English. There are giant 'computers' dotted across the earth, each called <i>Charles Babbage</i>. Sherlock Holmes shares canon with Moneypenny. They suddenly acquire a submarine called.. <i>yes, the Nautilus</i>. <i>Ghost in the Shell</i> used naming references so much more subtly.<br />
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Even when you overcome that hurdle you have to get past the increasingly convoluted and bonkers storyline which lurches between continents with little regard for people stopping for breath, and the ending introduces random new things without any explanation. It's another of those films you just have to sit through and turn off your own internal analytical engine, save for it breaking under the strain of the logical twirling going on. If you can do that, it's an okay film, but you really do need to leave your knowledge of real-life history at the door. <b>7/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-43780305126988341962015-11-07T18:30:00.000+00:002015-11-08T01:00:09.961+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2015 - Day 2<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Tree</span></b> (Slo) (<a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tree-cairo-review-753667">review</a>)<br />
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Slowly, the desperate situation of a mother and her two sons becomes increasingly clear as their mysteriously isolated existence inside a dusty house and even dustier courtyard darkens. Younger sibling Veli has no idea of the situation around him and tries his best to pass the time to his ninth birthday, unaware of what the actual date is, it's so long since he's been outside. A creaking, imposing blue door and an 8-foot wall separates him from the world and he can't understand why. <br />
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Though a little too slow for some, the film does spark and then maintain a steady glow of unseen menace, where everything is suggested and the tiniest studies of movement are used to hint and suggest at the situation before we get the full picture. This might translate as a slow, dull film for those used to having everything explained and exploded at them but if you want an unsettling mystery unfolding in a lower gear (which for my money made things all the more tense) this is pretty good. <b>7/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Original Copy</span></b> (Ger/Ind) (<a href="http://www.originalcopyfilm.com/">site</a>)<br />
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Many of India's ramshackle colonial-era cinemas are still functional, but few of them stick to the traditional painted film poster. Look at any old-fashioned Bollywood promotional and it will invariably be hand drawn and painted rather than photographed. This process has been mostly replaced with lenses and zeroes and ones, but a few places still do things the old way, hanging on by their bare hands as fewer bums fill seats, and prices rise.<br />
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One of the few remaining in the heart of Mumbai sources old film reels of Bollywood classics. Their variety is conservative as their clientele know what they want. Plenty of action, a bit of schmoozing and a hero with a gun and some wise cracks. The film of the week has it's own poster painted from scratch on a huge mural. Aging artist Sheikh Rehman, ably assisted by a handful of talented and patient colleagues repeat this task over and over, creating impressive murals using magazine cut outs and tatty papers from their back catalogue of the actors as a starting point.<br />
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If you have ever seen a film poster after a film and thought, <i>'that poster mis-sells the film just a bit'</i>, well Mr. Rahman's use of artistic license may have been to blame. If they don't have a pic of the actor, someone who looks a bit like them will do. A bit of a blank patch in the mural? Stick a helicopter and some charging horses in there, they were probably in the background of one scene. The film happily chronicles Rehmans' relaxed approach to movie canon, and mixes it nicely with his own personal stories about inheriting the profession from his father (despite his pleading not to) and his own children rejecting his profession and rubbishing his work, an emotional hole somewhat filled by a young apprentice and surrogate son of sorts. Parallel to the goings-on in the basement, we also get to go upstairs to the cinema owners, and their own stories of inheritance. It all hangs together rather nicely, and comes right back to the beginning in a bittersweet sort of way. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Couple in a Hole</b></span> (UK/Fra) (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/coupleinaholethefilm/">facebook</a>)<br />
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In a similar flavour to The Tree, Couple in a Hole presents us with a family in an unusual situation and slowly leaks clues to the tragedy that got them there. John and Karen live hand to mouth in the French mountains in a hovel constructed beneath a fallen tree. Karen is mysteriously agoraphobic, and it's up to John to head out each day and find what he can to eat, staying well out of the way of any humanity in the village below. Quite why they are there is not immediately apparent.<br />
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A spider bite on Karens' arm during a rare outside jaunt forces their hand, and on a hurried trip to the chemists he meets a farmer only too happy to help, putting into action a number of disruptions that will lead to their existence in the hills becoming ever more difficult.<br />
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Unfolding a little faster than <i>The Tree</i>, and with a last third that was far less predictable (I defy anyone to predict the last minute or so), Couple in a Hole felt a little more enjoyable, although both contained gritty performances and compelling characters. <b>7.5/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Another Country</b></span> (Australia) ()<br />
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If you thought that the problems with indigenous aboriginals and the white population of Australia had already been pretty much sorted out, then you should watch this film. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gulpilil">David Gulpilil</a> is not a famous name but if you've seen a film with aboriginals in it, you've probably seen him. Yes, that was him in <i>Crocodile Dundee</i>.<br />
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Gulpilil narrates a film about his home town, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramingining,_Northern_Territory">Ramingining</a>; a place created in the middle of nowhere by the Australian government to house some of the aboriginal population. It has basic amenities, a general store, petrol station and even a church, so a cursory glance by an outsider would consider it fit for purpose. But as Gulpilil provides his own inside perspective on successive governmental schemes that miss the most glaring aspect of their failure - that they never consider the culture they are imposing their rules upon - it becomes clear just how messed up everything is in this one sham town of perhaps many in the country.<br />
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It isn't a film that devotes equal time to problem and solution, perhaps because everything is so far wrong now and little has been done to undo any of the problems, but this does make for a thorough deconstruction of how one cultures' values sometimes cannot translate to anothers, and in trying to force the subject, destroys lives and communities. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Lovemilla </b></span>(Fin) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovemilla">wiki</a>)<br />
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And finally, Finland's attempt to out-Japan Japan. Attention, Finland: <i>it can't be done but points for trying</i>. It remains to be seen whether I can make the twin crazy Japanese entries of <i>Love & Peace</i> and <i>Assassination Classroom</i> next weekend, so I hedged my bets and went for this.<br />
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Lovemilla is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb4RyenQrz416JWsLi_ROMQ">Finnish TV show</a> and here it gets the big-screen treatment with several of the series cast reappearing in a made for film variant of themselves. Young lovers Milla and Aimo work together in the local cafe and live together in their parent's house. They have a vampire cat-thing for a pet and her parents turn into zombies when they drink, which is most of the time. Aimo is a lovable but insecure idiot, and Milla is the films' anchor to sanity in a world that gets increasingly strange as their relationship is tested with a new flat, a romantic rival and a shady dealer in bionic limbs.<br />
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Milla and Aimo inhabit a world like ours but where a load of crazy things just happen and it's normal there, so go with it. Mostly, it works because the film doesn't give them particular attention, they just happen. This leaves you to enjoy the youthful exuberance given to putting the script and world together; its clear that the producer had the output from the far east as a muse but they give their own, slightly toned down and more sedate pace to it, the often breathless tempo of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Metal_City#Film">DMC</a> is not present here, giving the characters more chance to build their relationships with each other. It's not a particular criticism of Japanese films of this type, it's just a nice change. <b>7.5/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-77803464545999664942015-11-07T00:27:00.000+00:002015-11-08T00:30:23.777+00:00Leeds Film Festival 2015 - Day 1<b><span style="font-size: large;">Aferim!</span></b> (Ro,Bu,Czr,Fr) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aferim!">wiki</a>)<br />
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Unfortunately, the usual happened on my first day and thanks to a long queue and a jobsworthing box office attendant, I missed both the first and last fifteen minutes of this film. However what I did manage to see was pretty good, and if I can, I will try and sneak in and catch the ending of one of the other showings. <br />
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Costadin, a Romanian constable, and his plucky but inexperienced son and deputy Ionita travel across the variable Romanian landscape on horseback, encountering a variety of people both friendly and hostile as they search for their prey; a runaway 'crow' - a derogatory term for a Gypsy slave from his boyar owner. Against the odds they find and capture him, and Costadin finds his loyalty to the force tested both by the emerging backstory for the slaves' departure, and the conscience of his son, who increasingly thinks they should set him free.<br />
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As this film takes place mostly on horseback (often obscured by trees and reeds) the film has to survive on the beautiful black and white cinematography, it's characters and their personalities as the story unfolds which fortunately it does. If it wasn't for the emerging father-son kinship and the variety of interesting secondary characters this may have been a very dull and plodding film, but I did find myself interested in their story, although that may have changed if this was not my first film and I wasn't so fresh faced. <b>7/10</b> (but incomplete viewing)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Alice Cares</span></b> (Ned) ()<br />
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Alice is a little doll, no bigger than a 1-year old. Her limbs are plastic and lifeless but her face is covered with realistic skin with a generous mop of hair. She has comical boots that make her look like there are rockets hidden inside. Alice isn't complete, but she can see and hear, and she can talk. Better than that, she can hold a conversation with a human.<br />
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It is well known we are having a crisis with our elderly. The national average age is shifting upwards and the baby boomers of the '60s are now entering their eighth decade. In the Netherlands, as with everywhere else, many of them live alone; either unable or lacking the confidence to go outside and rarely seeing another human being.<br />
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Though technology hasn't reached the point of full-on androids running about the house, Alice, a prototype robot that has been created to provide companionship for lonely elderly people, has through a number of increasingly more advanced versions, achieved a level of sophistication that it can help to fill in these holes in peoples' lives.<br />
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In a trial followed in the film, Alice is loaned out to three women in their 80's all living alone, who have agreed (sometimes reluctantly) to take part. Initially standoffish and dismissive of the little lump of plastic, they slowly open up. While the film could have prompted a general feeling of depression in the audience that society has to look at options such as this, it instead is a playful, sometimes funny and often joyous look at the forefront of AI technology. It concentrates on the humanity both of the subjects and that emerging out of the millions of lines of Alice's code rather than the technicalities, but this is a good thing. Though I am skeptic of how advanced Alice actually is (some of the conversations were pretty advanced) the film is still a fascinating look at the future of AI that had the audience constantly smiling. <b>8/10</b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Do Nothing All Day</span></b> (Ger) (<a href="http://doingnothingallday.com/">site</a>)<br />
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<a href="http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/">Summerhill School</a> has been covered before in a number of films and documentaries; it is an example of a 'Democratic School', where the pupils have an active say in everything from the curriculum to class rules to punishments. They can even elect to walk out of class if they want to. Unsurprisingly this has attracted a lot of attention and despite the hundred year history and a healthy place in the grading league tables, this has not all been positive. 'Do nothing all day' is a reference to the most prevalent of these criticisms - on hearing about how these schools work and remembering their perhaps less than rosy time at their school, most people would elect to just mess around all day.<br />
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Of course, if this actually happened then the 200 or so democratic schools around the world would have long since closed down as a failed idea, but they haven't. The philosophy is about participation and respect; a supposedly democratic country should apply democratic principles throughout and yet most schools are anything but. You go and have facts inserted into you, you learn the basics in the schools' time and not yours, and you are segregated into groups of the same age and ability. We just accept these as our school years to be endured and we hopefully come out of it with a decent enough piece of paper to give to a bloke to give us a job on the first rung.<br />
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The experiences of the director and her child of imminent schooling age struck an obvious chord with me and it was enlightening to see that the kids coming out the other side looked balanced, well educated and not the expected hippy layabouts a first consideration might make me suspect. It is not a schooling for everybody - kids are different and many respond well to our current education approach, and would find such boundary-free situations intimidating; but after seeing this film I believe for many of our future adults, democratic schooling represents a far better foundation than a system invented during the industrial revolution. <b>7.5/10</b>fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070851492409174635.post-24850428122242246142015-11-07T00:00:00.000+00:002015-11-08T00:36:57.375+00:00ParenthoodWell, last year's pledge didn't go very well, did it? <a href="http://fancy-plants.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/changes.html">I posted sometime last year</a>, happily announcing my impending fatherhood, with a promise that because of some more home time there would be more bloggage. Well, as the timing gods would have things, here I am back blogging again on the verge of little Gregory's first birthday.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Yq48lYdo8iKSJRRuBVXyKU-C7kjq1QJi7ZQFjIQ3OVpT8CqCrzQXc1zgeVn7AxhJ3uEZzs_Q9TLF4FZJbAHEBmxmDsZ7STuz-mJ6iecGE1esSl4T78wN2LSupj9Pc26DtDMmKboAN0Y/s1600/SAM_8026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Yq48lYdo8iKSJRRuBVXyKU-C7kjq1QJi7ZQFjIQ3OVpT8CqCrzQXc1zgeVn7AxhJ3uEZzs_Q9TLF4FZJbAHEBmxmDsZ7STuz-mJ6iecGE1esSl4T78wN2LSupj9Pc26DtDMmKboAN0Y/s320/SAM_8026.JPG" title="Little monster!" width="320" /></a></div>
So, what has happened since my last update? Well, the biggest film event of the year got sort of cancelled. Just as Leeds 2014 was about to get going, and we had a couple of weeks remaining til the due date I was sat in my car with a clutch of festival tickets when the phone rang. Ms. Plants had been kept in hospital after a general checkup as her blood pressure was going up, fast. A day later we were inducing the birth. But the little man was like both his parents, so he was double-strength stubborn and five days of pushing and screaming and trying he was finally persuaded out with the help of the frightening-looking <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventouse">ventouse</a>. Fortunately his head did eventually make it back to a proper shape and both mother and baby are fine one year on.<br />
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Parenthood is stressful, busy and exhausting. It's also the <i>best thing ever</i>. Tiny changes like little eyes focusing on you, grabbing fingers, laughing, walking and his first word (banana, strangely) have all been joyous occasions. You forget the tired nights and the dirty nappies in a flash. One little smile makes my whole day and I regret nothing.<br />
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So we're expecting another one next year.<br />
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I anticipate that little Gregory's behaviour will change around springtime and he will be as good as gold so we can concentrate on changing the nappies and feeding #2. I am absolutely sure this will happen with no parental naivety at all. He picks things up quickly.<br />
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So, no golden plantpots this year and you can kind of guess why last years went down the swanny. Normally by now I would have seen several dozen films at a handful of festivals (<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sahttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-284517834w&sig2=U0ImlNY0L2xu5ofGyhDeYw">RIP BIFF this year</a> by the way, hopefully it will return) but at least I can say I managed a few this year. Given the additional fun and games due next year, it will be unlikely I'll find time for films then either, but I think we'll be entertained in many other ways.<br />
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So there will be a few posts over the next couple of days for the films I get to see. Ms. Plants has generously volunteered to take responsibility of the sprog for a few days as she knows how much I miss making my eyes bleed. For that short space of time, bring it on!fancyplantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12244126228958448766noreply@blogger.com1