Blow Horn (Spn)
Buddhism is a faith with strong beliefs in harmony and peace and contemplation, and a film summarising the experiences of a group of Spanish friends staying at a Buddhist retreat naturally flows along the same waters. We catch up with them in the last few days of their stay at the retreat, a place they have stayed at for 3 years and 3 months. They are preparing for the culminating pilgrimage to the Sherab Ling monastery.
In peaceful and relaxed fashion, we board the heavily jewelled buses with them; exploring and experiencing the journey strictly at life's pace. They negotiate the Indian road system designed to keep a driver on his toes, visit several villages, temples and monasteries along the way, winding in and out of the beautiful countryside.
As a meditative journey through India it worked very well, but without any narrative, and precious little dialogue except between the friends (they didn't converse much with the locals), it did drag rather a lot. It seemed too direction-less, with no sense the journey was heading to a conclusion. Maybe that's the point, and I'm conditioned to expect that from a film, or maybe they just didn't do enough to tell me they had arrived. 6/10
Below Sea Level (Ita/US) (clip)
On the southern outskirts of American desert lies an abandoned Naval base. For the most part, it is deserted, aside from a band of people of all persuasions who, usually due to falling on hard times, have lost almost everything and have had nowhere else to go. They can't sleep in parks because that's illegal. Ditto in the mountain ranges. No-one wants to live in the scrubland desert on the Mexican border, so this natural bowl in the landscape (hence the title) acts as a magnet. It's a lawless, resource-scarce landscape. Little water, harsh summers and harsher winters. No protection from the police or fire brigade, and the nearest hospital is hours away.
Wayne is fantastic. Getting on in years, and tall and thin with a face full of fuzz with a pair of the wildest eyes poking out you have ever seen. He goes by the name of Insane Wayne, and whenever he gets on one in a conversation you can understand why; his borderline psychosis and desire to wipe just about everyone off the planet who isn't him would send a chill up the spine if it wasn't so funny, those mad eyes popping further out of his head with each bluster. The clip above is a perfect example of Insane Wayne at his insanest.
Other people join in the fun too. Bulletproof Carol had a gun fired off in her face, making a mess of her features, but she doesn't let it stop her. She's on the CB radio most days laying into passing truckers giving them a piece of her mind. Cindy is a transgender Vietnam war veteran who is trying to set up a nail bar in the middle of the encampment (a few rusted buses and vans) as realisation of her life dream. 'Bus Kenny' is trying to write country songs about their camp in the hope of becoming a star even though he is tone deaf, and Lili lives out of her SUV and functions as the village doctor, having lost almost everything in a messy custody battle. Each of them come strangely together as a community of sorts, helping others where they can and getting by with surprising levels of contentment. Except Wayne, who is insane. Its funny, and it's got a bit of feelgood running through it, but it could be cut a little in length. 7.5/10
Seven Minutes in Heaven (Irl/Fra/Hun) (trailer)
Galia cannot remember the last few weeks of her life. She and her boyfriend were victims of a bus bombing in Jerusalem. She got out, but was badly burned over her back. Olek didn't make it after a second blast peppered him with shrapnel. Or at least, that's what she understands had happened. As she struggles with her memory, people around her seem familiar and the act strangely, and the chance meeting with a possible new man Boaz at exactly the wrong time confuses her still further, as despite her brain telling her to keep things platonic for now, her heart tells her they know each other much more already.
Told as a brooding thriller with shadows of the divine, Seven Minutes constantly plays tricks with the viewer to keep the true intention of the film shrouded until the final few minutes. When it does arrive, it's not immediately clear, and I'm not completely sure I get it, but I think so, and it was enjoyable trying. 7.5/10
Guidance (Swe) (trailer)
Roy and his wife Ylva are going through a bit of a tough patch. Well into middle age, with a bad back, Roy has no spark any more. No longer going to work, he puts the most trivial job off until the next day, rarely talks, and often just lays about like a surly teen, except with a far-off look in his eyes.
Assuming that the back problems are the root cause, ever-patient Ylva does the donkey-work of looking for a solution, but each one is met with indifference. Desperately, she makes the most of a chance meeting with a directly spoken young man named Carl who overhears her exasperated conversation to a friend, who offers to take him off her hands for some 'alternative therapy'. On pain of death and divorce, Roy finally relents.
It turns out that 'alternative therapy' isn't that alternative. Lots of running up hills and a strict diet, although the mountain retreat near where Carl lives cut off from the outside seems a bit extreme to Roy, who bites his tongue and tries to comply with Carl's ever more ludicrous therapies. In the meantime, Ylva finds liberation from Roy's depressive attitude, and after a few days down the gym, starts turning a few heads. But when Roy overhears Carl having a Kevin the Teenager talk to some poor soul on the other end he thinks it's time to go, but will Carl let him leave that easily?
There were some nice scenes in Guidance, although it did seem to be lighter on content than it should have been; a few threads not followed, some opportunities for comedy laid to one side in favour of a couple of chuckles now and again. It was ok, but nothing special. 6/10
Film Count: 30/150
Leeds Film Festival 2009 - Day 6
Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty (Ned/Fra) (site in progress)
It is perhaps the most controversial and insulting act to question the actions of organisations such as UNICEF, Oxfam and MSF, but this is what Renzo Martens does in this film. Travelling through the Congo with a set of metal trunks and a handheld camera, he comes across encampments of locals, humanitarian volunteers and, occasionally armed soldiers, stepping over dead and decaying bodies now and again as well. In each place he sees the same thing; photographers taking pictures of starving children, corpses, and whatever else they think will provoke a money-raising reaction back in the west. Positive things such as a carnival or wedding are of no interest, and Martens asks a pertinent question: Why is it that the money from these pictures does not make it back to the subjects themselves? Moreover, why is it always a bunch of westerners taking the pictures and then selling them on? Martens spends the film travelling around the Congo explaining this to the residents of villages and trying to show them that, rather than attempting to eliminate the poverty, which will almost certainly never happen, they make use of it as if it were another resource. A photo session at a marriage might earn them a dollar, they might make a thousand if they get the right pictures of malnourished children.
Ethically, such an idea sticks in the throat with it's ruthlessness of exploitation of people suffering and dying, but the point is; they are destitute, dying and without hope or direction. Putting food on the table and keeping free of disease is the priority. By making use of the countries most marketable resource, they could manage these things, and the revenue would go straight into the community, rather than being lost in the ether. Between 25-50% of all donated aid is apparently swallowed up by technical assistance for the groups that provide humanitarian aid, and perhaps 80% of the total aid eventually makes it back into the pockets of the countries that donated it in the first place, due to the price of logistics, supplies, wages etc. Something has to change.
My only real problem with Episode 3 (aside from wondering where 1 and 2 were) was Martens himself. He carried his camera wherever he went pointing directly at his pretty-boy face while his hired help carried his heavy boxes through the marshes. He came across as a public schoolboy who had just had a tidal wave of attack of moral conscience wash over him and got papa to send him off on the nearest banana boat to mumbo-jumbo land where he could Giles Wemmbley-Hogg himself to his hearts content. Honestly, when he started singing I wanted to hit him. But that is all by-the-by. This film is valuable, well put together and argued, and yet another to highlight the struggles of a troubled sector of the world, and a radical idea met with opposition and roadblock that if enough people get behind, might just make a difference. 8/10
A Thousand Oceans (Lux/Swi) (review)
This is one of those very clever films that forces you to re-evaluate what you have just been watching once it lets you in on the trick. Michael has just returned from what appears to be a spontaneous trip to an island in the Maldives with his friend, Bjorn. But when it's time to go, Bjorn didn't get on the plane. Once home, Michael has to confront his parents about his actions; his mother is welcoming, but father is silent, the storm gathering above his head. Dad really wanted to have his son follow in the family car sales business, but on the day he was given his own office, everything changed. What comes next would be a shame to spoil, but I thought it was a genuinely original and unique way to look at a major impact on a person and their family. 8/10
Babaji: An Indian Love Story (Ned) (trailer)
Told with great affection, this documentary film shows us Babaji, a supposedly 107 year old shaman of his local villiage in Hazaribagh, India. When his wife died of cancer some years before, he took the unusual step of digging a grave plot for her (unusual because Hindu's are not normally buried), with spaces for both himself and their daughter, for when the time came. He feels so close to his wife still, that he sleeps in the grave on the bare ground to be near her, as if waiting to die.
Thing is, Babaji seems to be more sprightly than ever. When not providing medicines for his townspeople, he trots to and fro at an impressive pace, his eyes still bright and his mind focused. Once word got around, Babaji became a tourist curio, and people flock from miles around to get a picture of him, staring down into his grave as if to catch the moment of death, but it never comes. Instead, he pootles happily along and we have the privilege of seeing his twilight years.
Babaji was a pleasant, gentle tribute to a man and his dedication to his faith and his community, although it did hang a little over the edges with some seemingly unconnected scenes of a couple performing wedding ceremonies and a naughty section where you think he has died and been cremated, and then he climbs out of his 'bed' once more. 6.5/10
Francesca (Rom) (site in progress)
Causing controversy when it was screened in Venice, Francesca is all about a young teacher trying to find work in Italy. A short note before the film explained the currently delicate relationship between Romania and Italy after an murder of an Italian woman by a Romanian in 2007. Since then, the sides have been split. Through a family contact, Francesca finds a shoe-in - working as a care assistant for an old guy with Parkinsons. Francesca's boyfriend Mita is happy for her and intends to follow a month later, but he has bigger problems. He borrowed money from the local mob for an investment that went wrong, and now they want it back with interest. Naturally Mita didn't let Fran in on any of it, so when the sweetly smiling don turns up at her door asking for him, she lets him stay a while to see if he arrives.
Francesca trotted along towards its eventual conclusion, but there never particularly felt as if there were any pace to the proceedings, until the uncomfortable last quarter and the abrupt ending left things a little up in the air, rather unsatisfyingly. 6.5/10
La Pivellina (Aus/Ita) (site)
Patrizia and Walter are a husband and wife travelling circus, with young teen Tairo helping out with stage work and a couple of acts. Their less than encouraging audience figures make for a poor income and they live as gypsies in a trailer park in Rome. Out one evening after their dog Hercules goes walkabout, Patrizia finds a toddler alone on the swings in the local park. With no-one else around and the night drawing in, 'Aunt Patty' takes the child in. Asia is wrapped up like a Christmas star, and hidden between the layers of clothes is a note; mum has abandoned her, but will be back, leaving it to chance she will be picked up by somebody who cares.
Budgetary concerns are quickly ignored as Asia becomes closer to the little group, until the inevitable happens; another letter arrives telling them mum will be back soon to pick her daughter up. Despite this, Asia seems forever unwilling to leave, much preferring her new family.
The little girl was a star. It was difficult to tell how much she said because it was scripted and how much she said as the others improvised around her, but everyone in the audience was blessed with a big stupid smile on their face whenever she was on camera. It was worth it for her reactions to stimuli, but there is much love in the film in general, and rounded off the night nicely. 8/10
Film Count: 26/150
It is perhaps the most controversial and insulting act to question the actions of organisations such as UNICEF, Oxfam and MSF, but this is what Renzo Martens does in this film. Travelling through the Congo with a set of metal trunks and a handheld camera, he comes across encampments of locals, humanitarian volunteers and, occasionally armed soldiers, stepping over dead and decaying bodies now and again as well. In each place he sees the same thing; photographers taking pictures of starving children, corpses, and whatever else they think will provoke a money-raising reaction back in the west. Positive things such as a carnival or wedding are of no interest, and Martens asks a pertinent question: Why is it that the money from these pictures does not make it back to the subjects themselves? Moreover, why is it always a bunch of westerners taking the pictures and then selling them on? Martens spends the film travelling around the Congo explaining this to the residents of villages and trying to show them that, rather than attempting to eliminate the poverty, which will almost certainly never happen, they make use of it as if it were another resource. A photo session at a marriage might earn them a dollar, they might make a thousand if they get the right pictures of malnourished children.
Ethically, such an idea sticks in the throat with it's ruthlessness of exploitation of people suffering and dying, but the point is; they are destitute, dying and without hope or direction. Putting food on the table and keeping free of disease is the priority. By making use of the countries most marketable resource, they could manage these things, and the revenue would go straight into the community, rather than being lost in the ether. Between 25-50% of all donated aid is apparently swallowed up by technical assistance for the groups that provide humanitarian aid, and perhaps 80% of the total aid eventually makes it back into the pockets of the countries that donated it in the first place, due to the price of logistics, supplies, wages etc. Something has to change.
My only real problem with Episode 3 (aside from wondering where 1 and 2 were) was Martens himself. He carried his camera wherever he went pointing directly at his pretty-boy face while his hired help carried his heavy boxes through the marshes. He came across as a public schoolboy who had just had a tidal wave of attack of moral conscience wash over him and got papa to send him off on the nearest banana boat to mumbo-jumbo land where he could Giles Wemmbley-Hogg himself to his hearts content. Honestly, when he started singing I wanted to hit him. But that is all by-the-by. This film is valuable, well put together and argued, and yet another to highlight the struggles of a troubled sector of the world, and a radical idea met with opposition and roadblock that if enough people get behind, might just make a difference. 8/10
A Thousand Oceans (Lux/Swi) (review)
This is one of those very clever films that forces you to re-evaluate what you have just been watching once it lets you in on the trick. Michael has just returned from what appears to be a spontaneous trip to an island in the Maldives with his friend, Bjorn. But when it's time to go, Bjorn didn't get on the plane. Once home, Michael has to confront his parents about his actions; his mother is welcoming, but father is silent, the storm gathering above his head. Dad really wanted to have his son follow in the family car sales business, but on the day he was given his own office, everything changed. What comes next would be a shame to spoil, but I thought it was a genuinely original and unique way to look at a major impact on a person and their family. 8/10
Babaji: An Indian Love Story (Ned) (trailer)
Told with great affection, this documentary film shows us Babaji, a supposedly 107 year old shaman of his local villiage in Hazaribagh, India. When his wife died of cancer some years before, he took the unusual step of digging a grave plot for her (unusual because Hindu's are not normally buried), with spaces for both himself and their daughter, for when the time came. He feels so close to his wife still, that he sleeps in the grave on the bare ground to be near her, as if waiting to die.
Thing is, Babaji seems to be more sprightly than ever. When not providing medicines for his townspeople, he trots to and fro at an impressive pace, his eyes still bright and his mind focused. Once word got around, Babaji became a tourist curio, and people flock from miles around to get a picture of him, staring down into his grave as if to catch the moment of death, but it never comes. Instead, he pootles happily along and we have the privilege of seeing his twilight years.
Babaji was a pleasant, gentle tribute to a man and his dedication to his faith and his community, although it did hang a little over the edges with some seemingly unconnected scenes of a couple performing wedding ceremonies and a naughty section where you think he has died and been cremated, and then he climbs out of his 'bed' once more. 6.5/10
Francesca (Rom) (site in progress)
Causing controversy when it was screened in Venice, Francesca is all about a young teacher trying to find work in Italy. A short note before the film explained the currently delicate relationship between Romania and Italy after an murder of an Italian woman by a Romanian in 2007. Since then, the sides have been split. Through a family contact, Francesca finds a shoe-in - working as a care assistant for an old guy with Parkinsons. Francesca's boyfriend Mita is happy for her and intends to follow a month later, but he has bigger problems. He borrowed money from the local mob for an investment that went wrong, and now they want it back with interest. Naturally Mita didn't let Fran in on any of it, so when the sweetly smiling don turns up at her door asking for him, she lets him stay a while to see if he arrives.
Francesca trotted along towards its eventual conclusion, but there never particularly felt as if there were any pace to the proceedings, until the uncomfortable last quarter and the abrupt ending left things a little up in the air, rather unsatisfyingly. 6.5/10
La Pivellina (Aus/Ita) (site)
Patrizia and Walter are a husband and wife travelling circus, with young teen Tairo helping out with stage work and a couple of acts. Their less than encouraging audience figures make for a poor income and they live as gypsies in a trailer park in Rome. Out one evening after their dog Hercules goes walkabout, Patrizia finds a toddler alone on the swings in the local park. With no-one else around and the night drawing in, 'Aunt Patty' takes the child in. Asia is wrapped up like a Christmas star, and hidden between the layers of clothes is a note; mum has abandoned her, but will be back, leaving it to chance she will be picked up by somebody who cares.
Budgetary concerns are quickly ignored as Asia becomes closer to the little group, until the inevitable happens; another letter arrives telling them mum will be back soon to pick her daughter up. Despite this, Asia seems forever unwilling to leave, much preferring her new family.
The little girl was a star. It was difficult to tell how much she said because it was scripted and how much she said as the others improvised around her, but everyone in the audience was blessed with a big stupid smile on their face whenever she was on camera. It was worth it for her reactions to stimuli, but there is much love in the film in general, and rounded off the night nicely. 8/10
Film Count: 26/150
Leeds Film Festival 2009 - Day 5
The Mighty Boosh on Tour: Journey of the Childmen (UK) (wiki)
The Mighty Boosh are a radio and TV comedy phenomenon of sorts, and like many before (Little Britain, The Fast Show, etc.) they have moved into the touring phase, and this film captures choice highlights from the backstage goings on from the hundred or so venues they performed at on their previous 2008 tour. The gang's all here, and we see a mixture of their warm-up rehearsals, some footage of what happens when they go behind the curtain, a bit of larking about (which may end up forming the basis of new material), and the huge numbers of [surprisingly largely female] adoring fans, who mob them whenever they poke their noses out and swoon dreamily over grumpy pot-bellied Julian Baratt as if he were in a boy band. This score represents my overall enjoyment having enjoyed a few of the TV episodes but nothing more, I suspect more hardcore fans will be in their element here. 6.5/10
Curtains (UK)
Showing with Journey of the Childmen was a short film by Julian Barratt and Dan Jemmett, about a grotesquely unlikeable alcoholic Punch and Judy man Barry Shepherd, who after a night copulating with one of his mature fans, finds her quite dead the following morning. This begins a chain of unfortunate passings, and wherever he goes, he seems to bring the finger of death with him. 7.5/10
Bunny and the Bull (UK) (minisite/wiki)
Written by Paul King, the director of The Mighty Boosh, this is his first feature film, and the Boosh-style influence is quite evident from the off, helped along by guest appearances by several of the Boosh regulars. Agoraphobic twentysomething Stephen has not been out of the house for a long time. Showing severe Monk-style OCD traits, his life changed by the events of the past year. In flashback (a filming device that seems to be getting overused at the moment) we follow the events that cause this reclusiveness, where Stephen and his friend Bunny (a womanising blokey bloke and the polar opposite of Stephen's restrained character) win a bit on the horses and use it to have a trip into Europe to get away from Stephen's floundering relationship and perhaps get some lady fun along the way.
Flashback scenes are helpfully done in a pseudo-cartoon strip fashion, where the actors perform in an environment not dissimilar from the cut-out houses in a Paddington Bear episode. This is both a useful cue for the viewer and a demonstration of the film-makers' attention to detail. The rest of the scenes are well-set and the pace of the film skips along quite quickly, so there is no getting bogged down in Bunny's hedonism and lack of restraint, or Stephen's self-pity, especially when disgruntled restaurant waitress Elouisa comes along for the ride and possibly more besides.
I have to say that Bunny and the Bull had me thinking I had it figured about halfway through, as some British version of Fight Club, and maybe that was deliberate, as the trick pulled off in that film has been spotted in a few others since, but in fact this left the way clear for it to give a much better and more heartfelt ending which lifted my opinions of the film in the dying minutes. 7.5/10
Crying with Laughter (UK) (site)
This film was on at both Edinburgh and Cambridge this year and I missed them both. I wasn't going to miss it a third time. Actor Stephen McCole got into the part of stand-up comic Joey Frisk by playing gigs under that name for several months. He plays a comic at the precipice of a giant chasm of failure. His agent has given him two strikes, he hasn't paid his rent, and his ex-wife Karen and their child Amy are now living with Jack, a naturally dislikeable but far more competent husband and father than Joey, largely because he's not fighting, drinking and snorting coke most nights.
Even though he has these obstacles impeding his ability to do material, he somehow scrapes through his small-time gigs by improvising some of the events of the previous day into the act, or more effectively, having a go at any audience member who dares to stand out from the crowd. This habit of letting his mouth run loose and apologising later spills over into life away from the mike. It gets him beaten senseless, but at least he has new material for the next night.
Right as his agent comes with good news about an American talent scout coming for a gig, his life falls apart further, mainly due to bumping into Frank, a quiet and slightly creepy man who claims to know Joey from school at around the time he burned the place down, although Joey doesn't choose to remember much from that time. Frank and his goth wife, Collette begin to figure more in Joey's life, and suddenly he finds himself in big trouble with the police, with seemingly only Frank to turn to.
What begins seemingly as a straightforward film about a loud-mouthed arse on a stage develops nicely into a mystery thriller, with Frank keeping his intentions pretty close to his chest. Joey becomes a broken figure given a chance at redemption through the major players and ultimately has to rely on his skills to get him through. Again, another of those low-budget films that manages to hide it well. 8/10
Schultze Gets the Blues (Ger) (site/wiki)
Portly and getting on a bit, Schultze is one of three redundancies from the local salt mine in a sleepy German town. Finding himself without purpose, the day to day life of him and his two friends degenerate into farcical pointlessness, and he struggles to find a reason to get out of bed. The town's accordion player, a chance tuning of his radio exposes him to South American music, a quicker tempo and a livelier style to the 'Schultze Polka' the townspeople have come to know.
Though they disapprove of his new found interest, they do send him over to Texas as 'ambassador' for their little town in a music festival. Making the most of it, he abandons the festival and uses this rare opportunity to immerse himself in a completely foreign culture while he still can.
It's a story of one man who learns to open himself up to the new, right at the age where a person's preferences are expected to be set in stone. I liked Schultze a lot, his quiet, contemplating nature is very appealing, although the film did suffer from the excessive use of static, lingering shots which were just too long for their own good. However, it was a delicate and enjoyable adventure in life's twilight and should be seen when in a relaxed mood. 7/10
Film Count: 21/150
PS: I also got confirmation today that there will be some extra screenings of the most popular stuff towards the end of the festival, which might prove invaluable for those final few films.
The Mighty Boosh are a radio and TV comedy phenomenon of sorts, and like many before (Little Britain, The Fast Show, etc.) they have moved into the touring phase, and this film captures choice highlights from the backstage goings on from the hundred or so venues they performed at on their previous 2008 tour. The gang's all here, and we see a mixture of their warm-up rehearsals, some footage of what happens when they go behind the curtain, a bit of larking about (which may end up forming the basis of new material), and the huge numbers of [surprisingly largely female] adoring fans, who mob them whenever they poke their noses out and swoon dreamily over grumpy pot-bellied Julian Baratt as if he were in a boy band. This score represents my overall enjoyment having enjoyed a few of the TV episodes but nothing more, I suspect more hardcore fans will be in their element here. 6.5/10
Curtains (UK)
Showing with Journey of the Childmen was a short film by Julian Barratt and Dan Jemmett, about a grotesquely unlikeable alcoholic Punch and Judy man Barry Shepherd, who after a night copulating with one of his mature fans, finds her quite dead the following morning. This begins a chain of unfortunate passings, and wherever he goes, he seems to bring the finger of death with him. 7.5/10
Bunny and the Bull (UK) (minisite/wiki)
Written by Paul King, the director of The Mighty Boosh, this is his first feature film, and the Boosh-style influence is quite evident from the off, helped along by guest appearances by several of the Boosh regulars. Agoraphobic twentysomething Stephen has not been out of the house for a long time. Showing severe Monk-style OCD traits, his life changed by the events of the past year. In flashback (a filming device that seems to be getting overused at the moment) we follow the events that cause this reclusiveness, where Stephen and his friend Bunny (a womanising blokey bloke and the polar opposite of Stephen's restrained character) win a bit on the horses and use it to have a trip into Europe to get away from Stephen's floundering relationship and perhaps get some lady fun along the way.
Flashback scenes are helpfully done in a pseudo-cartoon strip fashion, where the actors perform in an environment not dissimilar from the cut-out houses in a Paddington Bear episode. This is both a useful cue for the viewer and a demonstration of the film-makers' attention to detail. The rest of the scenes are well-set and the pace of the film skips along quite quickly, so there is no getting bogged down in Bunny's hedonism and lack of restraint, or Stephen's self-pity, especially when disgruntled restaurant waitress Elouisa comes along for the ride and possibly more besides.
I have to say that Bunny and the Bull had me thinking I had it figured about halfway through, as some British version of Fight Club, and maybe that was deliberate, as the trick pulled off in that film has been spotted in a few others since, but in fact this left the way clear for it to give a much better and more heartfelt ending which lifted my opinions of the film in the dying minutes. 7.5/10
Crying with Laughter (UK) (site)
This film was on at both Edinburgh and Cambridge this year and I missed them both. I wasn't going to miss it a third time. Actor Stephen McCole got into the part of stand-up comic Joey Frisk by playing gigs under that name for several months. He plays a comic at the precipice of a giant chasm of failure. His agent has given him two strikes, he hasn't paid his rent, and his ex-wife Karen and their child Amy are now living with Jack, a naturally dislikeable but far more competent husband and father than Joey, largely because he's not fighting, drinking and snorting coke most nights.
Even though he has these obstacles impeding his ability to do material, he somehow scrapes through his small-time gigs by improvising some of the events of the previous day into the act, or more effectively, having a go at any audience member who dares to stand out from the crowd. This habit of letting his mouth run loose and apologising later spills over into life away from the mike. It gets him beaten senseless, but at least he has new material for the next night.
Right as his agent comes with good news about an American talent scout coming for a gig, his life falls apart further, mainly due to bumping into Frank, a quiet and slightly creepy man who claims to know Joey from school at around the time he burned the place down, although Joey doesn't choose to remember much from that time. Frank and his goth wife, Collette begin to figure more in Joey's life, and suddenly he finds himself in big trouble with the police, with seemingly only Frank to turn to.
What begins seemingly as a straightforward film about a loud-mouthed arse on a stage develops nicely into a mystery thriller, with Frank keeping his intentions pretty close to his chest. Joey becomes a broken figure given a chance at redemption through the major players and ultimately has to rely on his skills to get him through. Again, another of those low-budget films that manages to hide it well. 8/10
Schultze Gets the Blues (Ger) (site/wiki)
Portly and getting on a bit, Schultze is one of three redundancies from the local salt mine in a sleepy German town. Finding himself without purpose, the day to day life of him and his two friends degenerate into farcical pointlessness, and he struggles to find a reason to get out of bed. The town's accordion player, a chance tuning of his radio exposes him to South American music, a quicker tempo and a livelier style to the 'Schultze Polka' the townspeople have come to know.
Though they disapprove of his new found interest, they do send him over to Texas as 'ambassador' for their little town in a music festival. Making the most of it, he abandons the festival and uses this rare opportunity to immerse himself in a completely foreign culture while he still can.
It's a story of one man who learns to open himself up to the new, right at the age where a person's preferences are expected to be set in stone. I liked Schultze a lot, his quiet, contemplating nature is very appealing, although the film did suffer from the excessive use of static, lingering shots which were just too long for their own good. However, it was a delicate and enjoyable adventure in life's twilight and should be seen when in a relaxed mood. 7/10
Film Count: 21/150
PS: I also got confirmation today that there will be some extra screenings of the most popular stuff towards the end of the festival, which might prove invaluable for those final few films.
Leeds Film Festival 2009 - Day 4
Another Planet (Hun) (site)
My idea was to see The Tunnel today, but a last minute decision allowed me to swap it for this and Time Masters - I'm hoping The Tunnel will receive a re-screen. I'm glad I did because Another Planet is yet another of those documentaries highlighting shadowed and uncomfortable areas of the world.
If you have ever seen the Qatsi trilogy, then you may have an idea what you might find here. Fortunately leaving the protracted static shots out of it, Another Planet shows the same problem occurring time and time again around the world: children making a miserable living, beaten by their parents, made to work as slaves, put to labour in lowest of bottom-feeding jobs, or worst of all, turned into killing machines through forced enlistment into an army. The camera follows the lives of children from the Congo, Cambodia, Kenya, Brazil, Equador and others without interrupting or asking questions. What we see is simply a heart-breaking repeat of the same themes time after time. One little girl is treated like a slave by her mother and brothers, but still gets up early, makes food, and can be seen out at night with a tray of cigarrettes to sell to passers by. No sales mean harsh beatings when she returns. Several children scavenge the rubbish dumps, competing with each other and desperate adults, working in pitch black darkness, hoping to avoid the bulldozers that push things around within inches of them. A pimp in South Africa shares a quiet moment with his 'employees', child prostitutes brought from the slums to perform 'tricks' for cash from ages as early as 8. The straight 'honest' paying punter is often actually more than willing to beat, drug and rape these children and then leave them for dead, the pay lost, and the pimp is the one that will get the maddest.
One central theme running throughout the stories is that of religion; despite all that the children have to go through, they often thank their God for what they do have. If I were religious, I would probably interpret this aspect of the film as faith helping them through these situations, which to a degree is true. It is also true that a child's faith is misplaced and exploited for the gain of others; the pimp proclaims himself the 'spiritual father' of his employees; the child soldiers all swear on their faith that they are invincible - the bullets pass right through them if they believe hard enough. It's pretty depressing whichever way you look at it, but this film is one which is important to experience. It shows us things we might not choose to look at as it makes us uncomfortable that we let it persist. 7.5/10
Time Masters (Fra/Swi/Ger) (wiki)
I wondered why they decided to show the Rene Laloux trilogy in such a strange order. This, his second film was shown out of sync with Gandahar and Fantastic Planet yesterday, but on seeing it, I know why. It's the weekend, and so plenty of sprogs about to fill the cinema seats. Whereas the other two films had their fair share of animated boobies and sexeh teim, this one didn't and would thus be much better suited to little Timmy seeing it.
Of the three films, Time Masters is the most accomplished. Despite being made 5 years before Gandahar, it is the superior of the two from a visual and musical perspective. It tells the story of young boy Piel, left stranded on a hostile planet after an accident kills Claude his father. With only an egg-shaped microphone device connecting him to Jaffar, a beefcake space pilot and Claudes' friend. Jaffar's ship is a long way away, currently transporting a despotic exiled prince and more agreeable princess, plus a huge hoard of treasures.
Much to Prince Matton's anger, Jaffar takes a detour to rescue the child, but warring factions, pirate ships, and all sorts of nasty creatures on the planet surface threaten the new mission.
Laloux worked alongside Jean 'Moebus' Giraud (another influence of Miyazaki's), and the hybrid animation style produced benefits from two heads rather than one. It has moments of playfulness, barbarism, sacrifice and the expected socio-political threads add a real-world relevance. If you see only one of the Laloux trilogy (though you should see all three) make it this one. 7.5/10
The Two in Tracksuits (Jpn) (wiki)
In the shadow of Mount Asama, father and son come together from their separate city lives for their annual stay in the family summer house, deep in the woods. They spend their time playing and chatting, watching the weather to see how much hotter it is back in Tokyo, and living the slow-paced country life. The title comes from a delve into Grannys old school tracksuit collection when it becomes a little too chilly for t-shirts.
Little actually happens in this film; it is a slow burner, where instead of action, you see a relationship between family members slowly emerge. It is full of delicate nuggets, such as father and son talking in a similar manner, wearing the tracksuits together, or using words and mannerisms that would only be fully understood if you were part of the family. It's easy on the eye and pleasant like a stroll through the life of a family in good, but not great times. The son is forever trying to patch up his failing marriage over his mobile, a task made more difficult because he can only get a signal from one point in the area. Father is stuck in a rut, himself split from his wife and seemingly unable (or unwilling) to change the status quo.
This film won me over with its charm. It's laid-back pace and subtle entertainment is a great intermission between the more vivid imagery of many of the other festival entrants, and I left with a warm, satisfied glow from the cinema into the cool air of the night, never to look at the signal strength icon on my mobile in quite the same way again. 8/10
The Misfortunates (Bel) (site)
Gunther has had it hard. We first encounter him in his young adult life trying desperately to become a poet or author, but is repeatedly sent boilerplate rejection letters. He has a wife who has become pregnant without him having a say in the matter, and the barely suppressed anger shown belies his past. As Gunther tries yet again to make it as an author, the subject of the piece, the memoirs of his family as he hits puberty form the backbone of the film in flashback.
The Strobel family are proud of who they are. Despite the five grown up sons all living together in their ageing mothers' home with a young Gunther, son of Celle, the disputed patriarch of the house. Drinking and fighting consume their lives, each son doing his bit to stir up as much trouble as possible in the name of more alcohol. Mother Meetje tries her best, but has little control in a house with virtually no trace of an influential mother figure.
Even here, there is still affection between the family members. They all love their mum and would do anything for her, and the family behave as a pack, standing together if anyone dares to put a word wrong about them. Although alcohol, drugs and worse are abundant for Gunther to slide down the slippery slope, he does not let them consume him like his father. His poetry and writing fortunately give him another outlet. Strobel blood still runs in his veins, and you cannot take that away completely, even when self-imposed boarding school attempts to iron him out.
There is a Channel 4 programme called Shameless, which from what I've seen is not my cup of tea, although I would describe it as the closest relative to The Misfortunates, which I enjoyed a lot. Even though you would hate to live within a continent of this wretched family, it's hard not to like them for their better points, and this film proudly shows them with all their ugliness and beauty together in a non-judgemental way. It was another surprisingly great film. Funny, warm and entertaining. 8/10
Cold Souls (US) (site/wiki)
Actor Paul Giamatti plays a pretty straight version of himself in a comedy fable around the idea of what remains of a person if the soul is lost. Having trouble grasping the essence of the part in a play due to a conflict between character and personality, Paul turns to a new company set up in an emerging (read: unregulated) field of soul extraction and storage. Taking it out for a bit, he figures, will allow him to get into the part, do the play, and then the soul can be put back in.
As with similar enterprises, some are willing to make big bucks whilst throwing out any ethical concerns they may have. Souls become a commodity in Russia, and a rogue company is set up to extract them to sell on the black markets around the world. Nina is a 'mule', making a living transporting marketable souls between east and west. A hasty decision taken to make the bosses talentless wife Sveta happy by giving her the soul of an actor means Paul's soul is nicked and she is reluctant to give it back.
Much of Cold Souls is a big 'what if', about how people would be affected by such new technologies; the winners and losers, and there are clear parallels to desperate people in real life who sell organs on the black market to get by. Unsurprisingly this translates into a film that initially amuses the audience with Giamatti's comedic reactions to the situation and then grabs them a little harder as the emotional stuff kicks in and the literal soul searching begins. 7.5/10
Dr. S Battles the Sex-Crazed Reefer Zombies: The Movie (US) (myspace site)
With a name like that, it couldn't possibly be missed, now could it? Dr S is a scientist gone slightly mental, killing his colleagues after a radioactive experiment goes wrong and starts a zombie outbreak. Emerging from his lab having satisfied some of the fighting craves, he saves good ol' American girl Mary Jane from good ol' American horny zombie boy Billy before he bites her head off, and swears to protect her as he heads back to his lab to find a cure.
Shot entirely in scratchy, shadowy black and white, Dr S's mad eyes and teeth are often the only things you can use as a point of reference, as the ultra-low-budget student project works its way to an uncertain conclusion. I don't mean to say it's bad because it isn't. There are good laughs to be had, both visual and scripted and it does its best to vary the quite limited scope of screaming girls, nasty bloody zombies and a grinning unstoppable look kicking the crap out of them. One of the best ways it does this is with old-style cinematic adverts and best of all, a sort of short introductory film at the start in the style of the 'homes of the future' programmes, showing how the doomed radioactive research started. However, the film does suffer from a lack of polish, and a seeming lack of temporal identity (the first half of the film is set in typical 60's America, whereas the second half abandons that for modern computers and cars without explaining why). Still, it was enjoyable enough for my film-addled stupor to appreciate, not least because no thought was required. Oh, and if mid-film intermissions were like the ones shown here in the old days, I want them back! 6/10
Film Count: 16/150
My idea was to see The Tunnel today, but a last minute decision allowed me to swap it for this and Time Masters - I'm hoping The Tunnel will receive a re-screen. I'm glad I did because Another Planet is yet another of those documentaries highlighting shadowed and uncomfortable areas of the world.
If you have ever seen the Qatsi trilogy, then you may have an idea what you might find here. Fortunately leaving the protracted static shots out of it, Another Planet shows the same problem occurring time and time again around the world: children making a miserable living, beaten by their parents, made to work as slaves, put to labour in lowest of bottom-feeding jobs, or worst of all, turned into killing machines through forced enlistment into an army. The camera follows the lives of children from the Congo, Cambodia, Kenya, Brazil, Equador and others without interrupting or asking questions. What we see is simply a heart-breaking repeat of the same themes time after time. One little girl is treated like a slave by her mother and brothers, but still gets up early, makes food, and can be seen out at night with a tray of cigarrettes to sell to passers by. No sales mean harsh beatings when she returns. Several children scavenge the rubbish dumps, competing with each other and desperate adults, working in pitch black darkness, hoping to avoid the bulldozers that push things around within inches of them. A pimp in South Africa shares a quiet moment with his 'employees', child prostitutes brought from the slums to perform 'tricks' for cash from ages as early as 8. The straight 'honest' paying punter is often actually more than willing to beat, drug and rape these children and then leave them for dead, the pay lost, and the pimp is the one that will get the maddest.
One central theme running throughout the stories is that of religion; despite all that the children have to go through, they often thank their God for what they do have. If I were religious, I would probably interpret this aspect of the film as faith helping them through these situations, which to a degree is true. It is also true that a child's faith is misplaced and exploited for the gain of others; the pimp proclaims himself the 'spiritual father' of his employees; the child soldiers all swear on their faith that they are invincible - the bullets pass right through them if they believe hard enough. It's pretty depressing whichever way you look at it, but this film is one which is important to experience. It shows us things we might not choose to look at as it makes us uncomfortable that we let it persist. 7.5/10
Time Masters (Fra/Swi/Ger) (wiki)
I wondered why they decided to show the Rene Laloux trilogy in such a strange order. This, his second film was shown out of sync with Gandahar and Fantastic Planet yesterday, but on seeing it, I know why. It's the weekend, and so plenty of sprogs about to fill the cinema seats. Whereas the other two films had their fair share of animated boobies and sexeh teim, this one didn't and would thus be much better suited to little Timmy seeing it.
Of the three films, Time Masters is the most accomplished. Despite being made 5 years before Gandahar, it is the superior of the two from a visual and musical perspective. It tells the story of young boy Piel, left stranded on a hostile planet after an accident kills Claude his father. With only an egg-shaped microphone device connecting him to Jaffar, a beefcake space pilot and Claudes' friend. Jaffar's ship is a long way away, currently transporting a despotic exiled prince and more agreeable princess, plus a huge hoard of treasures.
Much to Prince Matton's anger, Jaffar takes a detour to rescue the child, but warring factions, pirate ships, and all sorts of nasty creatures on the planet surface threaten the new mission.
Laloux worked alongside Jean 'Moebus' Giraud (another influence of Miyazaki's), and the hybrid animation style produced benefits from two heads rather than one. It has moments of playfulness, barbarism, sacrifice and the expected socio-political threads add a real-world relevance. If you see only one of the Laloux trilogy (though you should see all three) make it this one. 7.5/10
The Two in Tracksuits (Jpn) (wiki)
In the shadow of Mount Asama, father and son come together from their separate city lives for their annual stay in the family summer house, deep in the woods. They spend their time playing and chatting, watching the weather to see how much hotter it is back in Tokyo, and living the slow-paced country life. The title comes from a delve into Grannys old school tracksuit collection when it becomes a little too chilly for t-shirts.
Little actually happens in this film; it is a slow burner, where instead of action, you see a relationship between family members slowly emerge. It is full of delicate nuggets, such as father and son talking in a similar manner, wearing the tracksuits together, or using words and mannerisms that would only be fully understood if you were part of the family. It's easy on the eye and pleasant like a stroll through the life of a family in good, but not great times. The son is forever trying to patch up his failing marriage over his mobile, a task made more difficult because he can only get a signal from one point in the area. Father is stuck in a rut, himself split from his wife and seemingly unable (or unwilling) to change the status quo.
This film won me over with its charm. It's laid-back pace and subtle entertainment is a great intermission between the more vivid imagery of many of the other festival entrants, and I left with a warm, satisfied glow from the cinema into the cool air of the night, never to look at the signal strength icon on my mobile in quite the same way again. 8/10
The Misfortunates (Bel) (site)
Gunther has had it hard. We first encounter him in his young adult life trying desperately to become a poet or author, but is repeatedly sent boilerplate rejection letters. He has a wife who has become pregnant without him having a say in the matter, and the barely suppressed anger shown belies his past. As Gunther tries yet again to make it as an author, the subject of the piece, the memoirs of his family as he hits puberty form the backbone of the film in flashback.
The Strobel family are proud of who they are. Despite the five grown up sons all living together in their ageing mothers' home with a young Gunther, son of Celle, the disputed patriarch of the house. Drinking and fighting consume their lives, each son doing his bit to stir up as much trouble as possible in the name of more alcohol. Mother Meetje tries her best, but has little control in a house with virtually no trace of an influential mother figure.
Even here, there is still affection between the family members. They all love their mum and would do anything for her, and the family behave as a pack, standing together if anyone dares to put a word wrong about them. Although alcohol, drugs and worse are abundant for Gunther to slide down the slippery slope, he does not let them consume him like his father. His poetry and writing fortunately give him another outlet. Strobel blood still runs in his veins, and you cannot take that away completely, even when self-imposed boarding school attempts to iron him out.
There is a Channel 4 programme called Shameless, which from what I've seen is not my cup of tea, although I would describe it as the closest relative to The Misfortunates, which I enjoyed a lot. Even though you would hate to live within a continent of this wretched family, it's hard not to like them for their better points, and this film proudly shows them with all their ugliness and beauty together in a non-judgemental way. It was another surprisingly great film. Funny, warm and entertaining. 8/10
Cold Souls (US) (site/wiki)
Actor Paul Giamatti plays a pretty straight version of himself in a comedy fable around the idea of what remains of a person if the soul is lost. Having trouble grasping the essence of the part in a play due to a conflict between character and personality, Paul turns to a new company set up in an emerging (read: unregulated) field of soul extraction and storage. Taking it out for a bit, he figures, will allow him to get into the part, do the play, and then the soul can be put back in.
As with similar enterprises, some are willing to make big bucks whilst throwing out any ethical concerns they may have. Souls become a commodity in Russia, and a rogue company is set up to extract them to sell on the black markets around the world. Nina is a 'mule', making a living transporting marketable souls between east and west. A hasty decision taken to make the bosses talentless wife Sveta happy by giving her the soul of an actor means Paul's soul is nicked and she is reluctant to give it back.
Much of Cold Souls is a big 'what if', about how people would be affected by such new technologies; the winners and losers, and there are clear parallels to desperate people in real life who sell organs on the black market to get by. Unsurprisingly this translates into a film that initially amuses the audience with Giamatti's comedic reactions to the situation and then grabs them a little harder as the emotional stuff kicks in and the literal soul searching begins. 7.5/10
Dr. S Battles the Sex-Crazed Reefer Zombies: The Movie (US) (myspace site)
With a name like that, it couldn't possibly be missed, now could it? Dr S is a scientist gone slightly mental, killing his colleagues after a radioactive experiment goes wrong and starts a zombie outbreak. Emerging from his lab having satisfied some of the fighting craves, he saves good ol' American girl Mary Jane from good ol' American horny zombie boy Billy before he bites her head off, and swears to protect her as he heads back to his lab to find a cure.
Shot entirely in scratchy, shadowy black and white, Dr S's mad eyes and teeth are often the only things you can use as a point of reference, as the ultra-low-budget student project works its way to an uncertain conclusion. I don't mean to say it's bad because it isn't. There are good laughs to be had, both visual and scripted and it does its best to vary the quite limited scope of screaming girls, nasty bloody zombies and a grinning unstoppable look kicking the crap out of them. One of the best ways it does this is with old-style cinematic adverts and best of all, a sort of short introductory film at the start in the style of the 'homes of the future' programmes, showing how the doomed radioactive research started. However, the film does suffer from a lack of polish, and a seeming lack of temporal identity (the first half of the film is set in typical 60's America, whereas the second half abandons that for modern computers and cars without explaining why). Still, it was enjoyable enough for my film-addled stupor to appreciate, not least because no thought was required. Oh, and if mid-film intermissions were like the ones shown here in the old days, I want them back! 6/10
Film Count: 16/150
Leeds Film Festival 2009 - Day 3
First Squad - The Moment of Truth (Jpn/Rus) (site/wiki)
The first anime of the festival, First Squad played as an unusual mix of faux live-action documentary mixed with traditional animated action-adventure. Set in Russia during the time of the second world war, we meet Nadia, one time member of the Sixth Division, an experimental Soviet psyops group of teenagers banded in response to the Ahnenerbe, an SS-subdivision that was looking into the occult (yes, as well as the US Army in Thursday's The Men who Stare at Goats, the Germans were crazy enough to spend time and money doing it too). Nadia was the only one left alive after a German ambush on their training camp and has ended up a wandering stray, doing cheap tricks amongst the troops to earn her living.
First Squad's hinges around the notion of 'Moments of Truth' - periods in history where decisive decisions were taken that massively affected the outcome, and if someone were able to 'see' such a moment coming, they could hold sway in battle. Thus Nadia is brought back into the army to try and ressurect the other members from the world of the undead so they can help in the fight against the Nazi's, who themselves have decided to raise Baron Von Wolff, a crusader knight killed by the Soviet sword and looking for revenge.
In among segments of the main story, we have short bursts of the afore-mentioned talking heads, where actors playing soldiers from both sides give semi-factual accounts of the things going on at the time, which gives it the impression of trying to back up the supernatural goings-on you just saw animated at you. I think perhaps budgetary issues crept in as well, since the film had an anime series feel to it; fewer frames of animation to keep costs down, and a ridiculous use of panning and tracking over static images to give the impression of action, although there were some genuinely beautiful scenes as well.
It was a distracting hour or so of bang-crash, with some real-world tethering to keep it interesting and to stop it becoming too silly. 6.5/10
Turn It Loose (US) (site)
Welcome to the world of BBoys, which sounds as if it has something to do with Thailand and tucking genitals between your legs, but is actually a form of breakdance-off between contestants. Sponsored by Red Bull (who seem to have their fingers in several sporting pies at the moment), the BC-One has run from 2004 and brings together in tournaments the best 16 contenders from around the world. In 2007, when the film was set, it was held in South Africa in an abandoned power station.
This documentary looks at the lives of several of the contenders, who mainly come from the poorer parts of the places they represent, often citing the dancing as saving them from going off the rails and into drugs and guns. Flipping back and forth between visiting them in their home towns to get a little of their backstory, and the footage of the event itself, (taken with high-quality slow motion and stereoscopic 3D cameras, so you get to see some fantastic moves in intricate detail) the film tries to focus on the human element behind the confrontational WWF-style face-offs and baying crowds. You might not expect for example the players to be so friendly with each other off the floor, and even gentlemanly on it. One early round between two players sees one of them make a mistake during one of their moves, landing badly and not recovering well enough to hide it. The slow-mo cameras catch both the moment of failure and the look of anguish on his opponents face, who immediately goes over and consoles him.
My only criticisms of this film are that the cameras were a little too intrusive in places; there were clearly times when contenders met up before the competition and they had nothing to say in front of the camera, and shuffled uncomfortably at the attention they were getting; there also seems to be a little direction here and there, becoming more prevalent in documentaries these days, unfortunately. But those are not enough to spoil a surprisingly great film. The dance-offs are fantastic to watch, the backstories give a warmth and humanity to the film, and the overall positive vibes can't be avoided. 7.5/10
Gandahar / Light Years (Fra) (wiki)
Rene Laloux directed three main animated films in his career, and this one made in 1987, was his last. Laloux is often credited as a source of inspiration by some of the leading animated filmmakers down the ages, including anime legend Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki's themes in Nausicaa and Laputa both pre-date this film, and I wonder if the admiration wasn't mutual, as there are several similar themes echoed here.
The country of Gandahar is pretty peaceful, its people happily pottering about, living in peace with the animals and plants. Jasper, the central city of privileged inhabitants is in the form of a huge stone head on a cliff, the cliff side carved into the body. One day, an outlying settlement is attacked. Strange beings turn the inhabitants to stone and are carried off.
Syl, a warrior is nominated as the one who will find out what is up, and finds a world of Kryten-like robots, a race of hugely deformed Gandaharians, and a huge bloated mother brain, all it seems the result of botched genetic experiments by Gandahar inhabitants from years before. Syl must do battle with the brain, named Metamorphosis, but is it wholly to blame for the advancing hoards on Jasper, and what about the mysterious gate where stone people go in and more robots come out?
Before you go into a Laloux film, it's clear you need to leave your beliefs, logic and any ideas of what things should be like in the world at the door. These films contain both a very individual animation style, and the output of an imagination left completely to go where it will, and in Laloux' case, this includes crazy plants and animals, and a lot of nubile wenches with everything on display. Bosom and nipple overload await. It should be said however, that these novelties soon become just the normal thing, and the viewer can concentrate more on the story rather than the visual quirks. As an animation milestone, it is pretty much required text, and fortunately as a story, it also has enough to it to be both entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. 7/10
Fantastic Planet / Savage Planet (Fra) (wiki)
Rene Laloux's first major film from 1973 was shown next. (the in-between Time Masters will be shown tomorrow but I can't make it unfortunately) Being a good decade or so earlier, it has a definately rougher feel to it, but still displays the same themes (and bosoms) and messages of environment and war that were present in Gandahar. There are also some scenes here that would be later adapted for use in Miyazaki's beautiful Nausicaa.
Ohms are human-like creatures, but instead of being the dominant species, are inches high compared to the Draags, a humanoid race of beings who occupy the place on their planet that we do on earth. Ohms are treated in a similar manner to dogs, some are kept as pets (and teased/poked/made to fight) and others are deemed to be wild and little more than infestations of vermin. When an Ohm baby's mother is killed by the innocent play of a passing Draag child, she takes the infant as her pet. Not considered intelligent enough to be a threat, she doesn't mind Terr (as she names him) accompanying her in her lessons, and so Terr picks up on a lot of Draag knowledge. Several years later Terr manages to escape and finds his way to an encampment, bringing with him a set of Draag headphones used to impart the lessons. This becomes a catalyst for unification between warring Ohm settlements and the beginnings of an uprising, to which the Draags respond with their equivalent of rentokill traps. Will either side work out that neither can win until they start treating each other with more respect?
Fantastic Planet, though showing its age even more than Gandahar, was still a thoroughly absorbing film, cleverly placing the human characters at the mercy of a more powerful alien race with all-too human behaviour leads anyone to question how they treat those around them, and the as the situation escalates as a result of the Draag-Ohm decision making, the ever-relevant parallels to current world events can't help but pour out of the screen at you. 7.5/10
Les Escargots (The Snails) (Fra)
This 1965 short film by Laloux was shown after Fantastic Planet, a comic tale of a farmer whose crop's just won't grow, until he realises that his tears contain the secret ingredients to supersize them. The morning after leaving house-sized lettuces the previous night, he finds a nightmare scenario: the snails that munched on the lettuce have also grown, and are now on the rampage! 6/10
Departures (Jpn) (site/wiki)
Respect for the dead runs even higher in Japan than most other countries, but times have altered the proceedings slightly. When a person died, they would be dressed and cleaned and prepared for the farewell ceremony by a relative, but recently this has been passed to a niche business market of preparers and dressers, who perform the rites and observe correct protocols on the familys behalf, in a process known as 'encoffinment'. The body is carefully cleaned, given a shave and placed in funeral wear by the dresser in front of the family, taking care to give the body as much dignity as possible when removing clothes by skilful use of a sheet to avoid any bared skin. It is a thankless job, and one looked down on in Society, despite its obvious requirement. A film about the ups and downs of one of these workers obviously treads on some of Japan's cultural taboos.
Daigo is a competent but unremarkable cello player. Bad luck strikes when his orchestra disbands just as he gets what must be the worlds most expensive cello to play in it. This puts him as the non-earning half of his relationship to Mika who smiles sweetly on the bits of news he tells her, not aware of the level of debt as Daigo neglected to mention it.
To ease their burden, they move to Daigo's late mother's house which still contains his estranged (and hated) father's record collection. There they make the best of it until a mysterious job advertisement comes along for work with 'departures'. Good money, full time job, no experience required. So Diago unwittingly ends up as a encoffinment dresser, something he initially balks at, and keeps secret from Mika (who understands it to be something to do with wedding ceremonies given his carefully selected wording) until she inevitably learns the truth in the least noble way possible.
Encoffinment larks don't sound like ideal source material for an Oscar-worthy film, but that's what you have here. Departures won the 2009 Foreign Language Oscar, and rightly so in my opinion. It's one of those films that creeps up and surprises the viewer with it's effectiveness at putting you through all the major emotions. As Daigo learns his craft, he gains an appreciation and satisfaction from witnessing the final farewells of different families and how they handle the loss, and takes us with him. It is a deeply human film about death and facing up to it, but full of positives and deep life truths; it doesn't even come into it that it is a different culture to this western audience, as I looked around and saw everyone enthralled with what they saw, many letting slip the odd tear in some of the more powerful scenes. The best film of the festival so far. 8.5/10
Film Count: 10/150
The first anime of the festival, First Squad played as an unusual mix of faux live-action documentary mixed with traditional animated action-adventure. Set in Russia during the time of the second world war, we meet Nadia, one time member of the Sixth Division, an experimental Soviet psyops group of teenagers banded in response to the Ahnenerbe, an SS-subdivision that was looking into the occult (yes, as well as the US Army in Thursday's The Men who Stare at Goats, the Germans were crazy enough to spend time and money doing it too). Nadia was the only one left alive after a German ambush on their training camp and has ended up a wandering stray, doing cheap tricks amongst the troops to earn her living.
First Squad's hinges around the notion of 'Moments of Truth' - periods in history where decisive decisions were taken that massively affected the outcome, and if someone were able to 'see' such a moment coming, they could hold sway in battle. Thus Nadia is brought back into the army to try and ressurect the other members from the world of the undead so they can help in the fight against the Nazi's, who themselves have decided to raise Baron Von Wolff, a crusader knight killed by the Soviet sword and looking for revenge.
In among segments of the main story, we have short bursts of the afore-mentioned talking heads, where actors playing soldiers from both sides give semi-factual accounts of the things going on at the time, which gives it the impression of trying to back up the supernatural goings-on you just saw animated at you. I think perhaps budgetary issues crept in as well, since the film had an anime series feel to it; fewer frames of animation to keep costs down, and a ridiculous use of panning and tracking over static images to give the impression of action, although there were some genuinely beautiful scenes as well.
It was a distracting hour or so of bang-crash, with some real-world tethering to keep it interesting and to stop it becoming too silly. 6.5/10
Turn It Loose (US) (site)
Welcome to the world of BBoys, which sounds as if it has something to do with Thailand and tucking genitals between your legs, but is actually a form of breakdance-off between contestants. Sponsored by Red Bull (who seem to have their fingers in several sporting pies at the moment), the BC-One has run from 2004 and brings together in tournaments the best 16 contenders from around the world. In 2007, when the film was set, it was held in South Africa in an abandoned power station.
This documentary looks at the lives of several of the contenders, who mainly come from the poorer parts of the places they represent, often citing the dancing as saving them from going off the rails and into drugs and guns. Flipping back and forth between visiting them in their home towns to get a little of their backstory, and the footage of the event itself, (taken with high-quality slow motion and stereoscopic 3D cameras, so you get to see some fantastic moves in intricate detail) the film tries to focus on the human element behind the confrontational WWF-style face-offs and baying crowds. You might not expect for example the players to be so friendly with each other off the floor, and even gentlemanly on it. One early round between two players sees one of them make a mistake during one of their moves, landing badly and not recovering well enough to hide it. The slow-mo cameras catch both the moment of failure and the look of anguish on his opponents face, who immediately goes over and consoles him.
My only criticisms of this film are that the cameras were a little too intrusive in places; there were clearly times when contenders met up before the competition and they had nothing to say in front of the camera, and shuffled uncomfortably at the attention they were getting; there also seems to be a little direction here and there, becoming more prevalent in documentaries these days, unfortunately. But those are not enough to spoil a surprisingly great film. The dance-offs are fantastic to watch, the backstories give a warmth and humanity to the film, and the overall positive vibes can't be avoided. 7.5/10
Gandahar / Light Years (Fra) (wiki)
Rene Laloux directed three main animated films in his career, and this one made in 1987, was his last. Laloux is often credited as a source of inspiration by some of the leading animated filmmakers down the ages, including anime legend Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki's themes in Nausicaa and Laputa both pre-date this film, and I wonder if the admiration wasn't mutual, as there are several similar themes echoed here.
The country of Gandahar is pretty peaceful, its people happily pottering about, living in peace with the animals and plants. Jasper, the central city of privileged inhabitants is in the form of a huge stone head on a cliff, the cliff side carved into the body. One day, an outlying settlement is attacked. Strange beings turn the inhabitants to stone and are carried off.
Syl, a warrior is nominated as the one who will find out what is up, and finds a world of Kryten-like robots, a race of hugely deformed Gandaharians, and a huge bloated mother brain, all it seems the result of botched genetic experiments by Gandahar inhabitants from years before. Syl must do battle with the brain, named Metamorphosis, but is it wholly to blame for the advancing hoards on Jasper, and what about the mysterious gate where stone people go in and more robots come out?
Before you go into a Laloux film, it's clear you need to leave your beliefs, logic and any ideas of what things should be like in the world at the door. These films contain both a very individual animation style, and the output of an imagination left completely to go where it will, and in Laloux' case, this includes crazy plants and animals, and a lot of nubile wenches with everything on display. Bosom and nipple overload await. It should be said however, that these novelties soon become just the normal thing, and the viewer can concentrate more on the story rather than the visual quirks. As an animation milestone, it is pretty much required text, and fortunately as a story, it also has enough to it to be both entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. 7/10
Fantastic Planet / Savage Planet (Fra) (wiki)
Rene Laloux's first major film from 1973 was shown next. (the in-between Time Masters will be shown tomorrow but I can't make it unfortunately) Being a good decade or so earlier, it has a definately rougher feel to it, but still displays the same themes (and bosoms) and messages of environment and war that were present in Gandahar. There are also some scenes here that would be later adapted for use in Miyazaki's beautiful Nausicaa.
Ohms are human-like creatures, but instead of being the dominant species, are inches high compared to the Draags, a humanoid race of beings who occupy the place on their planet that we do on earth. Ohms are treated in a similar manner to dogs, some are kept as pets (and teased/poked/made to fight) and others are deemed to be wild and little more than infestations of vermin. When an Ohm baby's mother is killed by the innocent play of a passing Draag child, she takes the infant as her pet. Not considered intelligent enough to be a threat, she doesn't mind Terr (as she names him) accompanying her in her lessons, and so Terr picks up on a lot of Draag knowledge. Several years later Terr manages to escape and finds his way to an encampment, bringing with him a set of Draag headphones used to impart the lessons. This becomes a catalyst for unification between warring Ohm settlements and the beginnings of an uprising, to which the Draags respond with their equivalent of rentokill traps. Will either side work out that neither can win until they start treating each other with more respect?
Fantastic Planet, though showing its age even more than Gandahar, was still a thoroughly absorbing film, cleverly placing the human characters at the mercy of a more powerful alien race with all-too human behaviour leads anyone to question how they treat those around them, and the as the situation escalates as a result of the Draag-Ohm decision making, the ever-relevant parallels to current world events can't help but pour out of the screen at you. 7.5/10
Les Escargots (The Snails) (Fra)
This 1965 short film by Laloux was shown after Fantastic Planet, a comic tale of a farmer whose crop's just won't grow, until he realises that his tears contain the secret ingredients to supersize them. The morning after leaving house-sized lettuces the previous night, he finds a nightmare scenario: the snails that munched on the lettuce have also grown, and are now on the rampage! 6/10
Departures (Jpn) (site/wiki)
Respect for the dead runs even higher in Japan than most other countries, but times have altered the proceedings slightly. When a person died, they would be dressed and cleaned and prepared for the farewell ceremony by a relative, but recently this has been passed to a niche business market of preparers and dressers, who perform the rites and observe correct protocols on the familys behalf, in a process known as 'encoffinment'. The body is carefully cleaned, given a shave and placed in funeral wear by the dresser in front of the family, taking care to give the body as much dignity as possible when removing clothes by skilful use of a sheet to avoid any bared skin. It is a thankless job, and one looked down on in Society, despite its obvious requirement. A film about the ups and downs of one of these workers obviously treads on some of Japan's cultural taboos.
Daigo is a competent but unremarkable cello player. Bad luck strikes when his orchestra disbands just as he gets what must be the worlds most expensive cello to play in it. This puts him as the non-earning half of his relationship to Mika who smiles sweetly on the bits of news he tells her, not aware of the level of debt as Daigo neglected to mention it.
To ease their burden, they move to Daigo's late mother's house which still contains his estranged (and hated) father's record collection. There they make the best of it until a mysterious job advertisement comes along for work with 'departures'. Good money, full time job, no experience required. So Diago unwittingly ends up as a encoffinment dresser, something he initially balks at, and keeps secret from Mika (who understands it to be something to do with wedding ceremonies given his carefully selected wording) until she inevitably learns the truth in the least noble way possible.
Encoffinment larks don't sound like ideal source material for an Oscar-worthy film, but that's what you have here. Departures won the 2009 Foreign Language Oscar, and rightly so in my opinion. It's one of those films that creeps up and surprises the viewer with it's effectiveness at putting you through all the major emotions. As Daigo learns his craft, he gains an appreciation and satisfaction from witnessing the final farewells of different families and how they handle the loss, and takes us with him. It is a deeply human film about death and facing up to it, but full of positives and deep life truths; it doesn't even come into it that it is a different culture to this western audience, as I looked around and saw everyone enthralled with what they saw, many letting slip the odd tear in some of the more powerful scenes. The best film of the festival so far. 8.5/10
Film Count: 10/150
Leeds Film Festival 2009 - Day 2
Day 2 came with another new venue, the newly refurbished Howard Assembly Rooms at the Leeds Opera House. Its much smaller than the Town Hall, holding about 200 seats, but it's sparkly clean, neat, and above all, acoustically far better for films. Ironically, that didn't matter so much today, since both films were subtitled.
The Third Part of the Night (Pol) (site/second run)
The first film by highly-respected Polish director Andrzej Żuławski, this film is based upon his fathers memoirs and depicts the life of insurance salesman turned fugitive Michal in German occupied Lwow during the second world war. After waking from a fever, nursed in a remote country house by Helena, a mysterious woman who appears to be his wife, he struggles with his memory of events of the months gone by. When she and their child are ambushed and killed as he takes a walk, Michal flees and returns to Lwow and, since the authorities have his face still fresh in their minds, immediately finds himself pursued by gunmen. Only by a quirk of good fortune and mistaken identity does he manage to evade capture when another man in similar dress is captured instead and taken away.
The unfortunate man's heavily pregnant wife bears an uncanny resemblance to Michal's own, and it seems she knows more about his past than you would expect. Slowly, Michal mentally retraces his steps amidst the battling between the Gestapo and Resistance movements and earning cash to get by as a lice feeder* , and finds his mind falling apart at the seams as he begins to hallucinate images of Helena and their child.
The Third Part of the Night was showing its age, nearly 40 years old now, and the screechy music, wobbly cams and camp acting took their toll, but it was generally coherent with a strangely hypnotic thread of surrealism woven into it. If the film were to appear on a satellite channel one night and nothing else were on, I'd probably give it another go to try and make more sense of it. 6/10
* lice feeding was a technique used around the time for emergency wartime medical research. The volunteer is paid with money and rations to inject a virus into their blood and allow lice to feed on their skin; if the lice don't die then the blood is effective against the virus and antibodies can be extracted to make a Typhus vaccine). The places were sought after highly as they gave good money and protection against the oppressive regime.
Heimat Series 2 Episode 1: The time of the first songs. (Ger) (wiki)
Heimat is one of Germany's most highly-respected television series. It had 2 seasons, one in 1984 and a second one in 1992, both of which were highly acclaimed. Yesterday, those who didn't go to the Town Hall could see the first episode of the first series, which concentrated on the lives of a family living in Schabbach, a fictional town in Hunsrück in the early 20th Century. Season 2 is set in the present day, centring round the life of Hermann Simon, split by force from his older love Klarchen by his mother (who is a main character in the first series), he vows never to love again, and to leave the conservative ways of Hunsrück as soon as he finishes his music degree.
Heading off to Munich to study music and composition at the Conservatory, episode 1 (of 13 2-hour episodes) he encounters amorous older women, crazy old men who just will not stop giving him their opinions, and an array of the best musicians from around the world all coming together to learn their art. Potential mates threaten to derail or enhance Hermanns inspiration, though he is always kept in check back by his vows, but how long can that last?
Season 2 required no knowledge of the first series to enjoy, and this first episode showed great promise for the rest of the episodes to be a pretty epic and intimate account of the life of one man searching for his purpose. It had the right mix of fun and poignancy and warmth and more than all that, beauty. Munich shows off a range of beautiful architecture in both colour and black and white segments, but mostly it was the talent of the actors and actresses, who were all highly accomplished piano, marimba xylophone and chello players, who all took their turns showing off their talents on screen, with no swap-ins to actual musicians like you might expect. Even though 2 hours for one episode sounds long, it quickly passed, and the story kept going along at an interesting pace throughout, and I wouldn't mind seeing the next few episodes if I can catch it cheap on DVD. 7/10
Film Count: 4/150
The Third Part of the Night (Pol) (site/second run)
The first film by highly-respected Polish director Andrzej Żuławski, this film is based upon his fathers memoirs and depicts the life of insurance salesman turned fugitive Michal in German occupied Lwow during the second world war. After waking from a fever, nursed in a remote country house by Helena, a mysterious woman who appears to be his wife, he struggles with his memory of events of the months gone by. When she and their child are ambushed and killed as he takes a walk, Michal flees and returns to Lwow and, since the authorities have his face still fresh in their minds, immediately finds himself pursued by gunmen. Only by a quirk of good fortune and mistaken identity does he manage to evade capture when another man in similar dress is captured instead and taken away.
The unfortunate man's heavily pregnant wife bears an uncanny resemblance to Michal's own, and it seems she knows more about his past than you would expect. Slowly, Michal mentally retraces his steps amidst the battling between the Gestapo and Resistance movements and earning cash to get by as a lice feeder* , and finds his mind falling apart at the seams as he begins to hallucinate images of Helena and their child.
The Third Part of the Night was showing its age, nearly 40 years old now, and the screechy music, wobbly cams and camp acting took their toll, but it was generally coherent with a strangely hypnotic thread of surrealism woven into it. If the film were to appear on a satellite channel one night and nothing else were on, I'd probably give it another go to try and make more sense of it. 6/10
* lice feeding was a technique used around the time for emergency wartime medical research. The volunteer is paid with money and rations to inject a virus into their blood and allow lice to feed on their skin; if the lice don't die then the blood is effective against the virus and antibodies can be extracted to make a Typhus vaccine). The places were sought after highly as they gave good money and protection against the oppressive regime.
Heimat Series 2 Episode 1: The time of the first songs. (Ger) (wiki)
Heimat is one of Germany's most highly-respected television series. It had 2 seasons, one in 1984 and a second one in 1992, both of which were highly acclaimed. Yesterday, those who didn't go to the Town Hall could see the first episode of the first series, which concentrated on the lives of a family living in Schabbach, a fictional town in Hunsrück in the early 20th Century. Season 2 is set in the present day, centring round the life of Hermann Simon, split by force from his older love Klarchen by his mother (who is a main character in the first series), he vows never to love again, and to leave the conservative ways of Hunsrück as soon as he finishes his music degree.
Heading off to Munich to study music and composition at the Conservatory, episode 1 (of 13 2-hour episodes) he encounters amorous older women, crazy old men who just will not stop giving him their opinions, and an array of the best musicians from around the world all coming together to learn their art. Potential mates threaten to derail or enhance Hermanns inspiration, though he is always kept in check back by his vows, but how long can that last?
Season 2 required no knowledge of the first series to enjoy, and this first episode showed great promise for the rest of the episodes to be a pretty epic and intimate account of the life of one man searching for his purpose. It had the right mix of fun and poignancy and warmth and more than all that, beauty. Munich shows off a range of beautiful architecture in both colour and black and white segments, but mostly it was the talent of the actors and actresses, who were all highly accomplished piano, marimba xylophone and chello players, who all took their turns showing off their talents on screen, with no swap-ins to actual musicians like you might expect. Even though 2 hours for one episode sounds long, it quickly passed, and the story kept going along at an interesting pace throughout, and I wouldn't mind seeing the next few episodes if I can catch it cheap on DVD. 7/10
Film Count: 4/150
Leeds Film Festival 2009 - Day 1
Day one begins with a shower, which is pretty typical for the walk between Leeds station and the main venues. This year is a little different. As festival organiser Chris Fell explained in a welcome speech before the second film, a popular request on the back of last years questionnaires (aside from the extra week) was to show films in a more grandiose setting.
This made sense, (some of the film rooms at the Electric Press and Carriageworks are pretty tiny) and so these first films were shown in the main Victoria Hall of Leeds Town Hall. It's a beautiful building, especially from the inside, with probably a thousand seats in front of a huge and imposing organ, the main flutes of which could hide a stack of people. In between the organ and the seats was suspended a large screen, added specially for the festival, and was served by a powerful projector in the upper circle. It was all very nice, except for one thing that made itself clear as the first film began - it has rubbish acoustics, or at least as far as films were concerned. There was so much echo that it distorted what was said in the more noisy film segments to the point where I lost chunks of dialogue.
Fortunately, only a small proportion of films are being shown there. Hopefully 2010 will drop it as a venue. Shame because other than that it was perfect.
The Men who Stare at Goats (UK/US) (site/wiki)
How journalist Jon Ronson chanced upon the 'Gold Dust' accounts of a, lets say -unconventional- ex US army veteran named Gus Lacey is down to a mix of bravery and good fortune. Gus saw everything from the inside of the US's psychic ops division and relayed enough of it to hook Jon's interest. A select band of soldiers were being trained to walk through walls, mind-trick the enemy, and stop the hearts of animals simply by willing it to happen. Gus himself, while not being able to reach the dizzy heights of a 'Level 4' soldier, was able to show him a video of his hamster dying. Or rather falling over in his cage and then getting up again.
This film is based on the book of the same name, of story-hunting journalist Jon (played by Ewan McGregor) and his journey in 2003 to Baghdad, meeting up with twitchy, paranoid Lyn 'Skip' Casey (George Clooney), one of the ex-soldiers of the First Earth Batallion, an experimental group led by headstrong hippie Bill (Jeff Bridges). The film focuses on just what Skip is doing there, and how the backstories of each of the characters got them to where they are now as they head randomly through the Kuwait desert. Despite the ludicrous claims, Jon becomes involved ever deeper in the stories he hears and cannot help but come along for the ride, taking him deep into dangerous territory with an edgy partner who thinks he can stop a gunman just by staring at him.
It's a really good film, made even better by the simple addition of a line at the beginning; 'More of this is true than you would believe'. You spend a lot of the film with your mouth open thinking, 'they made that bit up, surely..' but chances are it wasn't, as Jon himself explained in the post film Q and A. Much of it actually happened, or refers to actual US military goings on, secret projects, or accounts from ex soldiers. The scripting was tight, with sharp dialogue (and more than one reference to the Project Jedi and McGregors part) and great acting, it's clear the actors were having a good laugh out of it as they were putting it together. It did fall apart at the seams a little as the film made its way to the chaotic conclusion, but this was not enough to spoil it. It goes on general release this weekend. 8/10
This made sense, (some of the film rooms at the Electric Press and Carriageworks are pretty tiny) and so these first films were shown in the main Victoria Hall of Leeds Town Hall. It's a beautiful building, especially from the inside, with probably a thousand seats in front of a huge and imposing organ, the main flutes of which could hide a stack of people. In between the organ and the seats was suspended a large screen, added specially for the festival, and was served by a powerful projector in the upper circle. It was all very nice, except for one thing that made itself clear as the first film began - it has rubbish acoustics, or at least as far as films were concerned. There was so much echo that it distorted what was said in the more noisy film segments to the point where I lost chunks of dialogue.Fortunately, only a small proportion of films are being shown there. Hopefully 2010 will drop it as a venue. Shame because other than that it was perfect.
The Men who Stare at Goats (UK/US) (site/wiki)
How journalist Jon Ronson chanced upon the 'Gold Dust' accounts of a, lets say -unconventional- ex US army veteran named Gus Lacey is down to a mix of bravery and good fortune. Gus saw everything from the inside of the US's psychic ops division and relayed enough of it to hook Jon's interest. A select band of soldiers were being trained to walk through walls, mind-trick the enemy, and stop the hearts of animals simply by willing it to happen. Gus himself, while not being able to reach the dizzy heights of a 'Level 4' soldier, was able to show him a video of his hamster dying. Or rather falling over in his cage and then getting up again.
This film is based on the book of the same name, of story-hunting journalist Jon (played by Ewan McGregor) and his journey in 2003 to Baghdad, meeting up with twitchy, paranoid Lyn 'Skip' Casey (George Clooney), one of the ex-soldiers of the First Earth Batallion, an experimental group led by headstrong hippie Bill (Jeff Bridges). The film focuses on just what Skip is doing there, and how the backstories of each of the characters got them to where they are now as they head randomly through the Kuwait desert. Despite the ludicrous claims, Jon becomes involved ever deeper in the stories he hears and cannot help but come along for the ride, taking him deep into dangerous territory with an edgy partner who thinks he can stop a gunman just by staring at him.
It's a really good film, made even better by the simple addition of a line at the beginning; 'More of this is true than you would believe'. You spend a lot of the film with your mouth open thinking, 'they made that bit up, surely..' but chances are it wasn't, as Jon himself explained in the post film Q and A. Much of it actually happened, or refers to actual US military goings on, secret projects, or accounts from ex soldiers. The scripting was tight, with sharp dialogue (and more than one reference to the Project Jedi and McGregors part) and great acting, it's clear the actors were having a good laugh out of it as they were putting it together. It did fall apart at the seams a little as the film made its way to the chaotic conclusion, but this was not enough to spoil it. It goes on general release this weekend. 8/10
Bright Star (UK/Aus) (site/wiki)
Director Jane Campion could not work out why this story of poet John Keats and his love Fanny Brawne had never been made into a film. She went against her better judgement and wrote this biopic anyway. Keats spent the adult part of his 25 short years on the earth as a jobless, money-less aspiring poet in the early 19th century; his publications receiving less than favourable reviews, he scraped by somehow alongside his good-hearted but mischievous friend Charles Armitage Brown.
Fanny is a young woman from a middle-class family, and though the gossipers looked down on her initial interest, and then relations with this jobless layabout, they became very close over the next few years. Fanny's largely indifferent initial tone to his work melting away as she learned how to experience, rather than read the words. At the same time as her mother and maids disapproving, Keats' friend Brown also found the situation harmful to his poetic inspiration and muse, not to mention an end to their larking about like schoolboys.
As a biopic of the short time they had together, Bright Star works very well, although it must be said that the dialogue is the quite thick, stodgy wordplay you would expect from authors like Jane Austin. Depending on your filmgoing habits, this might be a putoff, though I suspect those with an appreciation of Keats' work would get much more from it than I did (again, the acoustics didn't help). If you can penetrate the clever wordplay of duelling poets and their admirers, you should find a deeply romantic tale of two people and the joy and heartache of love. 7.5/10
Film Count: 2/150
Director Jane Campion could not work out why this story of poet John Keats and his love Fanny Brawne had never been made into a film. She went against her better judgement and wrote this biopic anyway. Keats spent the adult part of his 25 short years on the earth as a jobless, money-less aspiring poet in the early 19th century; his publications receiving less than favourable reviews, he scraped by somehow alongside his good-hearted but mischievous friend Charles Armitage Brown.
Fanny is a young woman from a middle-class family, and though the gossipers looked down on her initial interest, and then relations with this jobless layabout, they became very close over the next few years. Fanny's largely indifferent initial tone to his work melting away as she learned how to experience, rather than read the words. At the same time as her mother and maids disapproving, Keats' friend Brown also found the situation harmful to his poetic inspiration and muse, not to mention an end to their larking about like schoolboys.
As a biopic of the short time they had together, Bright Star works very well, although it must be said that the dialogue is the quite thick, stodgy wordplay you would expect from authors like Jane Austin. Depending on your filmgoing habits, this might be a putoff, though I suspect those with an appreciation of Keats' work would get much more from it than I did (again, the acoustics didn't help). If you can penetrate the clever wordplay of duelling poets and their admirers, you should find a deeply romantic tale of two people and the joy and heartache of love. 7.5/10
Film Count: 2/150
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