Karate-Robo Zaborgar (Jpn) (wiki)
The Power Rangers have a lot to answer for, not least a slew of terribly cheesy/brilliantly cheesy (delete as appropriate) Saturday morning kids shows. But even they cannot be blamed for this attempt to take the format to the nth level. Zaborgar is a human-sized robot inherited by Daimon, a scientist's son, on his fathers' death. He has guns in his mouth, and small cars come out of his feet. And he can do Tai-chi and Karate. And he's a motorcyle in his spare time. Controlled by a helmet that Daimon wears with what appears to be a shower attachment on the side, Daimon and robot quickly form a bond taking over from inept police and getting rid of crooks, but when strangely alluring sexy half robot Miss Borg comes along to wreak havoc on behalf of evil organisation Sigma his simple feelings of right and wrong are suddenly muddied.
Even by the high standards set by Japan, KRZ is batshit mental, and relentlessly so. Think about every single stereotypical trait of crazy Japanese films, and to a wider extent, culture. Obsession with bodily function, skimpy women with lots of boob and crotch shots and fights peppered with impossible feats of gravity to name but three. KRZ has all these and more, and flaunts them almost as if to say to the rest of the world: this is how you see us, so this is what you get, kicking them merrily in the crotch while they say it.
Whether this brand of unrelenting action is for you or not I can't say. I just sat there in helpless, slack-jawed mirth. Its unabashed confidence leaps out of the screen at you, and even though the elements are all from a dozen other cheesy films, it's entertaining right to the final scene - a decisive fight between father and son on a massive pair of metal breasts. 7/10
Colorful (Jpn) (wiki)
Almost as an antidote to KRZ, Colorful exemplifies the quieter, gentler side of Japanese cinema, unfortunately one that is rarely seen and thus rarely considered representative of the animé medium.
To be fair though, Colorful is part of a pretty niche corner. If I could sit it alongside some other examples, last years' Mai Mai Miracle, and maybe Shinkai's Children Who Chase Lost Voices (which I'll see Saturday) would go into the same group, alongside Haibane-Renmei, Whisper of the Heart and Only Yesterday, i.e. quietly powerful pieces commenting on aspects of family, relationships and life, love and death, and all ones that I rate highly.
In Colorful, someone (we are deliberately not shown his face or hear his voice) reaches a waiting area in a perceived afterlife, where a sharply-suited childlike figure waits to intercept him before he takes the train to limbo. Purapura tells the man he did a terrible thing in his life, and that he is to be given a fresh start, another chance. He is to inhabit the body of Makoto, a young boy who has just committed suicide, waking up in a hospital bed just after the body is vacated.
'Makoto' inherits a loving but destructive family, whose members are slowly causing it to fall apart. Father works long hours, and his lack of backbone means he is taken advantage on. Mother had an affair, and his new brother shunned the old Makoto because he was doing badly with his studies. School is little better, but at least most of the kids don't go near him for what he did, save for some figures who seem to have had an influence on his mental state. Given only six months, Makoto must try and make sense of this young boys' life and try and put some things to rights, and also work out what he did in his own life.
Bodyswap films tend to be comedy-led, but this one is played with a more serious tone, although some moments of warm humour do show themselves. The action is minimal, concentrating on the strained relationship between the family and friends and Makoto's rediscovery of himself and what it is to be alive. Artistically, it uses a muted palette of pastel shades and an unstylised form to produce a look and style reminiscent of the works of Yoshitoshi ABe, restricting the use of computer graphics to incidental background features such as the flow of water, where it belongs. Though much of the film is played at a slow pace, I did find it almost as rewarding as the films mentioned above when taken as a whole; it's pleasant though not exhilarating in the main body, but it builds to a satisfying and emotional ending that will cause a sniffle or two. Checking my fellow audience members' reactions on leaving (a nice festival mix of young and old) it invited positive, crackling comments across the board. A film to change perceptions. 7.5/10
Mars (US) (site)
When I saw Moon earlier in the year, it was one of a pair of films celebrating (and lamenting) the passing of an age of space exploration, which for the moment will have to fade into the background for a while. This low-budget indie slacker film is the first one I have seen that explicitly works with the realisation that the space program as it is, is in a bit of trouble. Although it does this in a tongue in cheek way.
Charlie is the central character - and third wheel - as one of a trio of astronauts heading to Mars following in the jet stream of the European Space Agency, who have just sent an un-manned robot - ART - up there to look for life. Set eleven years after an alternate, Russian Beagle II set down rather clumsily and got stuck, bringing with it a load of bacteria from a low ranking dogsbody with a bad cold. The nasty, shady government wants them to change course for shadowy reasons and intercept ART to see if they can get to the booty - the possibility of extraterrestrial life - first.
Mars uses a distinctive animation technique, applying a computer generated moire to standard film footage to create something akin to a live action comic-book style. This is a bit garish but it does have the advantage of more easily blending in the characters and cardboard locations with the artificial landscape created around them. The acting was so-so, some of the lesser players looking like they had been brought in at the last minute, but it was a bit of a laugh and not really aiming for a realistic portrayal of mystery and suspense on a foreign planet. What let it down a bit was an abrupt ending and a feeling that the money ran out, which was a shame as the film had some really good ideas and was genuinely sharp and funny. 7/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 11
Sennentuntschi: Curse of the Alps (Swi) (site)
Unfortunately, I missed the start of this but it looked pretty good. The Sennentuntschi story comes from a Swiss folk tale of a woman that appears in a village and wreaks havok. As a comment on the inherent sexual brutality of men towards women through the years, she remains passive and friendly until the chemicals start to flow and the men try to have their way with her. Then they are all slaughtered.
Reusch has been a well respected police officer through the years in the peaceful town of Trepunt, but this changes when a hooded figure is seen creeping through the streets. The young woman has a savage, animal streak and quick witted eyes that seem to glow, but she appears manicured and in good health. The reaction of the villagers is for distrust and gossip to spread, and it is not long before Reusch's investigation is complicated by the raising of pitchforks after a rousing speech by the local priest. And a battle between reason and superstition heightens never allowing the viewer to be completely sure where this girl comes from and what she is capable of.
The audience is kept guessing right until the end, where the director throws multiple curve balls that forces you to re-evaluate pretty much everything you have seen. It's disturbing and a bit gory, although some of the more extreme natures of the male characters, which seem to move randomly between caring human being and slavering sex monster, feel a little false. Nontheless, it is a disturbing, entertaining and complicated film that refuses to be pinned down. 7.5/10
Together (Swe/Den/Ita) (wiki)
Hippy communes have rarely (in film representations, anyway) been successful. Ideological people coming together with a claim of openness to new ideas and perspectives often find they have different definitions of the term, and a purposeful lack of leadership mixed with a naive manifesto sooner or later causes the breakup of the group.
Goren, as much of a leader as you would expect in such a situation is blind or in denial about the imminent demise of his little group. Having been together for some time, a mix of moderate and extreme, socialist and communist, gay and straight. They rejected consumerism and capitalist leanings, and at some point it was decided that they would all be vegans. Rumbling tummies all round. It's got to the point where a round table discussion of who should do the washing up, if anyone results in heated tempers and the matter not being resolved.
Note: the website at the end is no longer for the film.
But Goren finds himself adding another cat among the pigeons. His mainstream society sister Elizabeth and her two children (quiet Eva and moody Stefan) need somewhere to stay as she has just broken up with Rolf. It's a squeeze already and finding them a room adds to the tension.
As expected, this new capitalist pig-dog living in the commune causes ruffles, but also begins to nudge some of it's members into re-evaluating their beliefs and values. Some of the more extreme members begin to move on, whereas those with a more open mind (or a stake to claim) stay on.
The blurb sounded more akin to the same sort of destructive film that Snowland turned out to be, but it really wasn't like that at all. A slightly messy and unfocused start (much like the commune itself) matured slowly and by the end I found myself wearing a genuine smile and feeling a warm glow at the outcome. 8/10
Note: They have just announced the extra festival films for Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th and Together is on the list. Catch it if you are in the area.
Repulsion (UK) (wiki)
How Roman Polanski would like to turn the clock back and be known for his films and not his sordid private life. Repulsion was his first major success with a western audience, a very private study of one womans' mental state in freefall. Delicate fawn Carole begins the film in a bit of a trance-like state (in fact, given this is a film from the 60's she is so zoned out you expect a long line of men of that era to be slapping her and shouting 'for gawds sake, darlin, SNAP AAHT OF IT!').
But her mental state is much more complicated than just feeling a bit airy. Carole, a Belgan manicurist living in her sister's house in an affluent part of London just about keeps things in equilibrium so long as she has enough structure in her life - that of her supportive sister and her oafish boyfriend and a steady job at the beauty salon. But when they leave for a holiday in Italy for a week or so, the scales are tipped and Carole begins to lose control of her faculties.
After a slow start (where Catherine Deneuve basically stares into the distance for half an hour) the true horror of her mental decline is revealed, using some pretty nightmarish psychological hallucinations; walls that crack and threaten to bring the building down, and turn soft at the touch, evil men invading her bed every night, and apparent heavy breathing phone calls. Withdrawing deeper into the prison she makes for herself, both physical and mental, she becomes a danger to whoever happens to stumble upon her predicament.
It looks dated by modern standards, but underneath the slightly tatty exterior is a truly disturbing but finely executed analysis of how a fragile mind can turn in on itself with just the slightest push. 7/10
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Ger) (wiki)
Another film festival, another Werner Herzog film. Advancing years seem not to have slowed the output of this director, who likes to split his time between clinical documentaries and action films of every persuasion.
For the past couple of films, it seemed like he was spreading himself a little thin; My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? seemed to be an attempt at a Coen Brothers' style of film, and though he got the look down there was little feeling there. Likewise, Cave of Forgotten Dreams was a beautiful and privileged glimpse into a forgotten and beautiful world, but Herzog again seemed to bring a scripted clinical quality to it that detracted from the experience.
Taiga is documentary time once more. The Taiga is a stretch of near-impenetrable wilderness made up of deep forests and fast-flowing rivers and spans a ring around the upper end of the globe. In a northern part of Siberian Russia, summer is brief and winter is long and difficult, with temperatures bottoming out at -50c. Herzog narrates a condensed year, from the spring (which is far harsher than any winter I have seen) right through to the following depths of their winters.
The small Siberian village of Bakhtia was chosen for the subject matter. It sits on the outskirts of the Siberian Taiga region, and its hunter-trappers spend the summer months preparing for the winter; catching as many fish as possible, hollowing out trees to make canoes, and creating and setting a thousand or so traps (each!) for the Sable, a weasel-like creature that the locals can sell for their pelts. As well as this, each trapper maintains his own 1500-square kilometre patch of the Taiga, particularly their main cabin and a handful of outlying huts, each of which are open to falling trees, massive crushing snowdrift and the odd curious bear. In the autumn months, the men say goodbye to their families for the winter months, and head off to their huts where they live out a solitary existence with only their faithful dogs for company.
Herzog's clinical Arnie-style narration (I so want him to say 'come with me if you want to live') is not entirely without emotion and doesn't distract too much from the beautiful, harsh landscapes and yet another disappearing culture. The film is a mix of the informative, with a sprinkle of sadness and humour here and there. I'd definitely rate it higher than CoFD (just for the variety alone) and is certainly his best documentary film for years. 8/10
Unfortunately, I missed the start of this but it looked pretty good. The Sennentuntschi story comes from a Swiss folk tale of a woman that appears in a village and wreaks havok. As a comment on the inherent sexual brutality of men towards women through the years, she remains passive and friendly until the chemicals start to flow and the men try to have their way with her. Then they are all slaughtered.
Reusch has been a well respected police officer through the years in the peaceful town of Trepunt, but this changes when a hooded figure is seen creeping through the streets. The young woman has a savage, animal streak and quick witted eyes that seem to glow, but she appears manicured and in good health. The reaction of the villagers is for distrust and gossip to spread, and it is not long before Reusch's investigation is complicated by the raising of pitchforks after a rousing speech by the local priest. And a battle between reason and superstition heightens never allowing the viewer to be completely sure where this girl comes from and what she is capable of.
The audience is kept guessing right until the end, where the director throws multiple curve balls that forces you to re-evaluate pretty much everything you have seen. It's disturbing and a bit gory, although some of the more extreme natures of the male characters, which seem to move randomly between caring human being and slavering sex monster, feel a little false. Nontheless, it is a disturbing, entertaining and complicated film that refuses to be pinned down. 7.5/10
Together (Swe/Den/Ita) (wiki)
Hippy communes have rarely (in film representations, anyway) been successful. Ideological people coming together with a claim of openness to new ideas and perspectives often find they have different definitions of the term, and a purposeful lack of leadership mixed with a naive manifesto sooner or later causes the breakup of the group.
Goren, as much of a leader as you would expect in such a situation is blind or in denial about the imminent demise of his little group. Having been together for some time, a mix of moderate and extreme, socialist and communist, gay and straight. They rejected consumerism and capitalist leanings, and at some point it was decided that they would all be vegans. Rumbling tummies all round. It's got to the point where a round table discussion of who should do the washing up, if anyone results in heated tempers and the matter not being resolved.
Note: the website at the end is no longer for the film.
But Goren finds himself adding another cat among the pigeons. His mainstream society sister Elizabeth and her two children (quiet Eva and moody Stefan) need somewhere to stay as she has just broken up with Rolf. It's a squeeze already and finding them a room adds to the tension.
As expected, this new capitalist pig-dog living in the commune causes ruffles, but also begins to nudge some of it's members into re-evaluating their beliefs and values. Some of the more extreme members begin to move on, whereas those with a more open mind (or a stake to claim) stay on.
The blurb sounded more akin to the same sort of destructive film that Snowland turned out to be, but it really wasn't like that at all. A slightly messy and unfocused start (much like the commune itself) matured slowly and by the end I found myself wearing a genuine smile and feeling a warm glow at the outcome. 8/10
Note: They have just announced the extra festival films for Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th and Together is on the list. Catch it if you are in the area.
Repulsion (UK) (wiki)
How Roman Polanski would like to turn the clock back and be known for his films and not his sordid private life. Repulsion was his first major success with a western audience, a very private study of one womans' mental state in freefall. Delicate fawn Carole begins the film in a bit of a trance-like state (in fact, given this is a film from the 60's she is so zoned out you expect a long line of men of that era to be slapping her and shouting 'for gawds sake, darlin, SNAP AAHT OF IT!').
But her mental state is much more complicated than just feeling a bit airy. Carole, a Belgan manicurist living in her sister's house in an affluent part of London just about keeps things in equilibrium so long as she has enough structure in her life - that of her supportive sister and her oafish boyfriend and a steady job at the beauty salon. But when they leave for a holiday in Italy for a week or so, the scales are tipped and Carole begins to lose control of her faculties.
After a slow start (where Catherine Deneuve basically stares into the distance for half an hour) the true horror of her mental decline is revealed, using some pretty nightmarish psychological hallucinations; walls that crack and threaten to bring the building down, and turn soft at the touch, evil men invading her bed every night, and apparent heavy breathing phone calls. Withdrawing deeper into the prison she makes for herself, both physical and mental, she becomes a danger to whoever happens to stumble upon her predicament.
It looks dated by modern standards, but underneath the slightly tatty exterior is a truly disturbing but finely executed analysis of how a fragile mind can turn in on itself with just the slightest push. 7/10
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Ger) (wiki)
Another film festival, another Werner Herzog film. Advancing years seem not to have slowed the output of this director, who likes to split his time between clinical documentaries and action films of every persuasion.
For the past couple of films, it seemed like he was spreading himself a little thin; My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? seemed to be an attempt at a Coen Brothers' style of film, and though he got the look down there was little feeling there. Likewise, Cave of Forgotten Dreams was a beautiful and privileged glimpse into a forgotten and beautiful world, but Herzog again seemed to bring a scripted clinical quality to it that detracted from the experience.
Taiga is documentary time once more. The Taiga is a stretch of near-impenetrable wilderness made up of deep forests and fast-flowing rivers and spans a ring around the upper end of the globe. In a northern part of Siberian Russia, summer is brief and winter is long and difficult, with temperatures bottoming out at -50c. Herzog narrates a condensed year, from the spring (which is far harsher than any winter I have seen) right through to the following depths of their winters.
The small Siberian village of Bakhtia was chosen for the subject matter. It sits on the outskirts of the Siberian Taiga region, and its hunter-trappers spend the summer months preparing for the winter; catching as many fish as possible, hollowing out trees to make canoes, and creating and setting a thousand or so traps (each!) for the Sable, a weasel-like creature that the locals can sell for their pelts. As well as this, each trapper maintains his own 1500-square kilometre patch of the Taiga, particularly their main cabin and a handful of outlying huts, each of which are open to falling trees, massive crushing snowdrift and the odd curious bear. In the autumn months, the men say goodbye to their families for the winter months, and head off to their huts where they live out a solitary existence with only their faithful dogs for company.
Herzog's clinical Arnie-style narration (I so want him to say 'come with me if you want to live') is not entirely without emotion and doesn't distract too much from the beautiful, harsh landscapes and yet another disappearing culture. The film is a mix of the informative, with a sprinkle of sadness and humour here and there. I'd definitely rate it higher than CoFD (just for the variety alone) and is certainly his best documentary film for years. 8/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 10
Yorkshire Short Film Competition
Extraordinary Moves - A short segment highlighting the work of an arts project based in Yorkshire that uses motion capture techniques to show through wireframe models how both able-bodied and disabled people walk and move. The cause was noble enough but there was little to hold the attention. 6/10
We Are Poets (interview) - Leeds is shown in all it's grotty, run-down, historic and beautiful forms through a poem celebrating the fact that, even though it's got it's faults, it's still part of the person who lives there and should not be derided for it. 7.5/10
Tetleys: Quality Pays - Tetleys as a brewery in Leeds was taken over by Carlsberg in 2008, the new owners promising a secure future. Now it is about to be closed. This short film celebrates it's impact on the area and mourns its imminent and seemingly unnecessary demise, highlighting it's belief in producing good product not making money, something the new owners arguably fails to do. 8/10
Hedwig - Using a random set of words from a random book to make a story is by definition a bit hit and miss. Hence we have a strange little animated film about a Professor Yaffle-style bird caught in a glass, watched by a bird-like creature. Weird. 4/10
Lost at Sea - A fresh breeze of a music video from the local (Belfast?) band 'Cashier No.9' using stop-motion photography to animate a sailing ship and it's crew member splashing through the streets of Leeds. Press the play button and turn the sound up. 8/10
Junk - Tet and his boyfriend Jack live as squatters, after Jacks' massively homophobic father kicks him out. They just need a little bit of money and stability to make the leap to somewhere nicer, but drugs and confused feelings get in their way. A strong, sad tale of broken people. 7.5/10
Click - Shown at Bradford this year, this is the story of five children entering a disused warehouse and finding a windowless room where strangely lights still work. But, as the kids mess around they begin to disappear without reason. A spooky well made film with amateur actors who did a good job. 7.5/10
Bantam - Finally, a tale of a young man who can't seem to get a break whatever he does. Timid and tender, he is bullied at school, ignored at home and the only place he feels secure - a moorside farm where game hens are reared - has just become a place where trust has been betrayed. A quietly sad little film. 7.5/10
Small Town Murder Songs (Can) (site)
In a religious southern American backwater town, a man leaves his community and becomes a born again Christian. Clearly something triggered this desire to undermine the values of his birth community and start again, but when we meet Walter we can have no clue of what led him to this decision.
It seemed to have something to do with Steve, the town's generally inconsequential low-level slacker who has gotten together with Rita, a woman whose past is intertwined with Walter's. When the dead body of a young woman is found at the side of the highway and a Washington detective appears to push the investigation forward, Walter fights with his feelings and emotions and tries not to see it as a way of getting even by implicating the man who has been a constant thorn in his side. His eventual failure has him removed from the investigation, but when things start genuinely pointing towards Steve as the killer when he has been dismissed from investigations, Walters' feelings look to have done twice the harm.
Deep and reverent religious themes play throughout; churches, confessionals, bible quotes writ large on the landscape; showing humanity up for all its sinful terror just bubbling under the surface of everyday life (and arguably, religion's inability to stem the flow). The largely unknown cast play their parts well and the emotional journey is invigorated by beautiful, soulful music; a thumping accompaniment to a powerful story. 8/10
Snowtown (Aus) (site)
Mainstream horror movies don't usually move me much, at least not these days. There's something about the amount of blood splattering or computer generated gore/monsters/etc in them that make them artificial, and thus distant. There is little to turn it from some actors going through a predetermined route in a movie, to you living the terror with them.
Snowtown is not a horror movie, not in the sense conjured up when you mention the term. But it is horrific in it's execution of the life of John Bunting, whose self-righteous brand of mass killing actually happened a decade or so ago in Australia. And it made me hide behind my hands like no horror film ever could.
Told from the perspective of young James Vlassakis, one of four sons and half-brothers to Elizabeth, the unlucky soul who after several failed attempts to find a new man, (including a neighbour who took naked pictures of her sons), found John Bunting and fell in love.
Bunting was initially a solid, family man, but his increasingly extreme methods for forcing the neighbour to move away act as a sign of the madman within. Sitting round the family table with neighbours and friends, he helps whip them into a frenzy of self-righteous bravado and setting the world to rights, it's just that the other guys don't expect to go through with it.
Lacking a father figure, James begins to distance himself from the rest of the family and come under Bunting's wing, who grooms or threatens him into more and more terrible acts and becomes part of his dysfunctional group of warped vigilantes.
This is a shockingly powerful and harrowing film, and it's menace won't leave the mind for a while. Bunting is played masterfully by Daniel Henshall, whose unblinking gaze and Charles Bronson upside-down-face beard, calmly surveys friend and victim alike, we can only guess at the thoughts passing through his mind. I felt deeply disturbed by what I had seen, but such was the point of this film, a masterful portrayal of the depths of human depravity. 8/10
Extraordinary Moves - A short segment highlighting the work of an arts project based in Yorkshire that uses motion capture techniques to show through wireframe models how both able-bodied and disabled people walk and move. The cause was noble enough but there was little to hold the attention. 6/10
We Are Poets (interview) - Leeds is shown in all it's grotty, run-down, historic and beautiful forms through a poem celebrating the fact that, even though it's got it's faults, it's still part of the person who lives there and should not be derided for it. 7.5/10
Tetleys: Quality Pays - Tetleys as a brewery in Leeds was taken over by Carlsberg in 2008, the new owners promising a secure future. Now it is about to be closed. This short film celebrates it's impact on the area and mourns its imminent and seemingly unnecessary demise, highlighting it's belief in producing good product not making money, something the new owners arguably fails to do. 8/10
Hedwig - Using a random set of words from a random book to make a story is by definition a bit hit and miss. Hence we have a strange little animated film about a Professor Yaffle-style bird caught in a glass, watched by a bird-like creature. Weird. 4/10
Lost at Sea - A fresh breeze of a music video from the local (Belfast?) band 'Cashier No.9' using stop-motion photography to animate a sailing ship and it's crew member splashing through the streets of Leeds. Press the play button and turn the sound up. 8/10
Junk - Tet and his boyfriend Jack live as squatters, after Jacks' massively homophobic father kicks him out. They just need a little bit of money and stability to make the leap to somewhere nicer, but drugs and confused feelings get in their way. A strong, sad tale of broken people. 7.5/10
Click - Shown at Bradford this year, this is the story of five children entering a disused warehouse and finding a windowless room where strangely lights still work. But, as the kids mess around they begin to disappear without reason. A spooky well made film with amateur actors who did a good job. 7.5/10
Bantam - Finally, a tale of a young man who can't seem to get a break whatever he does. Timid and tender, he is bullied at school, ignored at home and the only place he feels secure - a moorside farm where game hens are reared - has just become a place where trust has been betrayed. A quietly sad little film. 7.5/10
Small Town Murder Songs (Can) (site)
In a religious southern American backwater town, a man leaves his community and becomes a born again Christian. Clearly something triggered this desire to undermine the values of his birth community and start again, but when we meet Walter we can have no clue of what led him to this decision.
It seemed to have something to do with Steve, the town's generally inconsequential low-level slacker who has gotten together with Rita, a woman whose past is intertwined with Walter's. When the dead body of a young woman is found at the side of the highway and a Washington detective appears to push the investigation forward, Walter fights with his feelings and emotions and tries not to see it as a way of getting even by implicating the man who has been a constant thorn in his side. His eventual failure has him removed from the investigation, but when things start genuinely pointing towards Steve as the killer when he has been dismissed from investigations, Walters' feelings look to have done twice the harm.
Deep and reverent religious themes play throughout; churches, confessionals, bible quotes writ large on the landscape; showing humanity up for all its sinful terror just bubbling under the surface of everyday life (and arguably, religion's inability to stem the flow). The largely unknown cast play their parts well and the emotional journey is invigorated by beautiful, soulful music; a thumping accompaniment to a powerful story. 8/10
Snowtown (Aus) (site)
Mainstream horror movies don't usually move me much, at least not these days. There's something about the amount of blood splattering or computer generated gore/monsters/etc in them that make them artificial, and thus distant. There is little to turn it from some actors going through a predetermined route in a movie, to you living the terror with them.
Snowtown is not a horror movie, not in the sense conjured up when you mention the term. But it is horrific in it's execution of the life of John Bunting, whose self-righteous brand of mass killing actually happened a decade or so ago in Australia. And it made me hide behind my hands like no horror film ever could.
Told from the perspective of young James Vlassakis, one of four sons and half-brothers to Elizabeth, the unlucky soul who after several failed attempts to find a new man, (including a neighbour who took naked pictures of her sons), found John Bunting and fell in love.
Bunting was initially a solid, family man, but his increasingly extreme methods for forcing the neighbour to move away act as a sign of the madman within. Sitting round the family table with neighbours and friends, he helps whip them into a frenzy of self-righteous bravado and setting the world to rights, it's just that the other guys don't expect to go through with it.
Lacking a father figure, James begins to distance himself from the rest of the family and come under Bunting's wing, who grooms or threatens him into more and more terrible acts and becomes part of his dysfunctional group of warped vigilantes.
This is a shockingly powerful and harrowing film, and it's menace won't leave the mind for a while. Bunting is played masterfully by Daniel Henshall, whose unblinking gaze and Charles Bronson upside-down-face beard, calmly surveys friend and victim alike, we can only guess at the thoughts passing through his mind. I felt deeply disturbed by what I had seen, but such was the point of this film, a masterful portrayal of the depths of human depravity. 8/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 9
Bellflower (US) (site)
What can start out as something beautiful can go horribly wrong. Woodrow and his best friend Aiden are dysfunctional stoner American teens who have just broken free of their parents and are heading out into the world. Mad Max and Knight Rider clearly influenced them and together they are trying to realise their dreams of a gadget-filled car to wow the locals everywhere they go, and a home made flame-thrower, for a bit of light-hearted fun. They already have a beat up old Volvo that dispenses brandy, so they are half-way there already. However, getting together on a first date with friend of a friend Milly, Woodrow heads off on a whim across country to Texas and back, and on the way they get it on. By the time they return they are pretty much an item.
But something has snapped in Woodrow's brain, and a new self-destructive side begins to show itself. As relationships falter and change, a defining event forces him into a decision, the result of which will have consequences for how the rest of his life pans out.
As funny as much as it is shocking and disturbing, Woodrows' actions are not always expected, and come from nowhere, sometimes but not always explained later in the film with a carefully weaved flashback. This breakup of the narrative structure unsettles and challenges the viewer a bit more, and the ending has a satisfying feel. 8/10
Red Psalm (Hun) (wiki)
Nobody told me this would be a musical. Nobody said that in the director's attempt to convey the struggles of a socialist farming community against the capitalist regime of late 19th century Hungary, that much of it would be spent singing in the face of the enemy.
Red Psalm is a deeply allegorical film about this struggle, which took inspiration from some of the Hungarian uprisings around the time. The dogged insistence of the director to frame the film as 28 super-long takes means that realism is swapped out for choreography and abstraction. Thus the workers link arms and in a very pre-determined and not remotely natural-looking fashion prance around the guards with their guns drawn. And the incessant git who would not stop strumming his damn guitar, before during and after someone copping it. Why did they not kill him? Gaah.
So to watch this film is to go through a period of irritation and adjustment, to stop trying to get anything more than an abstracted suggestion of some uprising from the past, and view it with the disposition you would have if going to see a ballet or theatre musical. Not get too annoyed when some fop dances around the screen and then drops dead for no particular reason. Not be so surprised if the communication is often via the medium of song. Just watch, interpret some allegorical story from it and move on.
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh; the long, complex choreographed takes were impressive with such a large cast, and it made a bit of a change to have a story told in a different way. And it gets an extra point for having women with their boobies showing in it, which.. you know.. is nice. 4/10
Let the Bullets Fly (Chn/HK) (wiki)
A late night blood fest was on the cards, although it turned out to be more of a PG. Set in early 20th century China we find good hearted gangster 'Pocky' Zhang and his team of numbered mercenaries, hijacking a train headed for the nearby Goose town with their new governor, his wife and their advisor. Thanks to some improbable axe placement the train is derailed somewhat and the two remaining survivors - the wife and the advisor - make a pact with Zhang to have him take the governors place with the promise of Robin Hood-style shenanigans if they can stay the course. This won't be straightforward as Goose Town has been under mob rule for some time, by the smart-dressed but imposing Master Huang, who doesn't like the idea of yet another governor getting in his way.
Note: This trailer rather dishonestly paints the film as a serious action flick. It really isn't.
Chinese movies of this kind tend to be a more complex, less accessible animal than the Korean or Japanese equivalents and this is no exception. Intended somewhere between action-adventure, gangster flick and family comedy it's eastern humour sometimes flew over the audiences' heads, especially when some of the (often white on white) subtitles were on the screen for less than a second. I'm sure that to a Chinese audience, or at least one with a familiarity with some of the more ingrained cultural references this would be a blast, but I found it a little confusing and soupy. 6/10
What can start out as something beautiful can go horribly wrong. Woodrow and his best friend Aiden are dysfunctional stoner American teens who have just broken free of their parents and are heading out into the world. Mad Max and Knight Rider clearly influenced them and together they are trying to realise their dreams of a gadget-filled car to wow the locals everywhere they go, and a home made flame-thrower, for a bit of light-hearted fun. They already have a beat up old Volvo that dispenses brandy, so they are half-way there already. However, getting together on a first date with friend of a friend Milly, Woodrow heads off on a whim across country to Texas and back, and on the way they get it on. By the time they return they are pretty much an item.
But something has snapped in Woodrow's brain, and a new self-destructive side begins to show itself. As relationships falter and change, a defining event forces him into a decision, the result of which will have consequences for how the rest of his life pans out.
As funny as much as it is shocking and disturbing, Woodrows' actions are not always expected, and come from nowhere, sometimes but not always explained later in the film with a carefully weaved flashback. This breakup of the narrative structure unsettles and challenges the viewer a bit more, and the ending has a satisfying feel. 8/10
Red Psalm (Hun) (wiki)
Nobody told me this would be a musical. Nobody said that in the director's attempt to convey the struggles of a socialist farming community against the capitalist regime of late 19th century Hungary, that much of it would be spent singing in the face of the enemy.
Red Psalm is a deeply allegorical film about this struggle, which took inspiration from some of the Hungarian uprisings around the time. The dogged insistence of the director to frame the film as 28 super-long takes means that realism is swapped out for choreography and abstraction. Thus the workers link arms and in a very pre-determined and not remotely natural-looking fashion prance around the guards with their guns drawn. And the incessant git who would not stop strumming his damn guitar, before during and after someone copping it. Why did they not kill him? Gaah.
So to watch this film is to go through a period of irritation and adjustment, to stop trying to get anything more than an abstracted suggestion of some uprising from the past, and view it with the disposition you would have if going to see a ballet or theatre musical. Not get too annoyed when some fop dances around the screen and then drops dead for no particular reason. Not be so surprised if the communication is often via the medium of song. Just watch, interpret some allegorical story from it and move on.
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh; the long, complex choreographed takes were impressive with such a large cast, and it made a bit of a change to have a story told in a different way. And it gets an extra point for having women with their boobies showing in it, which.. you know.. is nice. 4/10
Let the Bullets Fly (Chn/HK) (wiki)
A late night blood fest was on the cards, although it turned out to be more of a PG. Set in early 20th century China we find good hearted gangster 'Pocky' Zhang and his team of numbered mercenaries, hijacking a train headed for the nearby Goose town with their new governor, his wife and their advisor. Thanks to some improbable axe placement the train is derailed somewhat and the two remaining survivors - the wife and the advisor - make a pact with Zhang to have him take the governors place with the promise of Robin Hood-style shenanigans if they can stay the course. This won't be straightforward as Goose Town has been under mob rule for some time, by the smart-dressed but imposing Master Huang, who doesn't like the idea of yet another governor getting in his way.
Note: This trailer rather dishonestly paints the film as a serious action flick. It really isn't.
Chinese movies of this kind tend to be a more complex, less accessible animal than the Korean or Japanese equivalents and this is no exception. Intended somewhere between action-adventure, gangster flick and family comedy it's eastern humour sometimes flew over the audiences' heads, especially when some of the (often white on white) subtitles were on the screen for less than a second. I'm sure that to a Chinese audience, or at least one with a familiarity with some of the more ingrained cultural references this would be a blast, but I found it a little confusing and soupy. 6/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 8
Forest (Hun) (review)
A crowded shopping centre has people come and go. A man with a backpack looking suspicious, a woman with a dog. A few dozen others come in and out of view.
A woman comes back to her flat to learn she is the owner of a dog. The present owner is pretty sure she should have it, and besides, he's about to head off and kill himself. A couple of men analyse a purchase without the viewer ever seeing what it is. Two parents quarrel over the man's inability to accept their daughters' encroaching womanhood, letting a few diquietening opinions slip along the way. A woman confronts her childish man-boy husband whose latest cover-up for screwing around with other girls involves taking some porn to a friend. Who is dead. A disturbing account by a woman to her partner about a bad dream she had which morphs into a tale of abuse from her gran when she was young. A woman is told a tale on a ferry of a giant catfish.
All completely separate stories, more like a succession of short films, connected only by the players being briefly in the same place at the same time. As an original piece of cinema it worked quite well (better than the clip suggests but it's the only one), but it's execution doggedly stuck to close-up wobble-cam shots, which as is usual in these films can get a bit annoying. Mercifully we were spared the worst excesses of the format and after an adjustment period I learned to live with it. Each segment was done in a single take, and the parts were played with the raw emotion expected of their subject matter, and generally the stories were engaging, but the format grated a little for me, and it irked that almost all the men were portrayed as irresponsible idiot man-children. But experimental film has been a lot worse. 6.5/10
Love (Hun) (wiki)
A classic Hungarian film, and a rare screening as it's 40th anniversary looms. In the time of Stalinist paranoia and distrust, Luca tries to keep the hopes of her elderly mother-in-law from taking the last of her fragile thirst for life away. Now elderly and bed-ridden, she hopes for her son (and Luca's husband), Janos to come back from America where he is premièring his first film. Except he isn't - Janos is locked up under dubious charges by the Hungarian secret police and has been for some time, and Luca maintains the story with a bit of help from the maid and a web of concocted tales, helped along by granny's failing and confused memory. The film is set in 1950's Hungary during the dark, paranoid days of Stalins' rule of Russia, where the tight political regime meant that you could expect a couple of forceful men at the door requiring a bit of private time to 'fix' your telephone.
Friends disappear from the radar and Luca has to be careful, but one day a letter arrives that spells hope that Janos might yet see his grandmother before she dies.
It's an obviously dated piece, showing the gulf of technical achievement between east Europe and the western countries at the time (it was the same year of Dirty Harry and A Clockwork Orange). The sound is distant, the cutting is choppy and very little indeed in the way of computer generated robots. But it also shows that the elements that mattered were there. The cinematography was close and uncomfortable, hounding the actors and as oppressive as the regime they were in, and the high quality acting meant that I believed it was happening, rather than some actors rehearsing lines. It's far from the best film I've seen, but it is a strong example of European cinema and quite enjoyable. 6/10
Aitá (Spa) (site)
The slow restoration of an old rectory by an elderly man and his two sons is told slowly and carefully in this late evening film As school trips are invited in and hoards of energetic kids run everywhere the teacher will let them, and late night break-ins by petty thieves result in flickery lights darting between the windows, the house begins to return to life, and the isolated old man begins to experience an awakening of his own.
My heart sank a bit when I read the blurb for this a little closer and saw the word 'experimental', a term which colours my perceptions somewhat as it suggests the director using all sorts of annoying techniques to look 'different'. Fortunately, Aitá (Father) partially adopts the standard narrative method, and then intersperses them with meditative shots to plump it out a bit and allow the viewer to 'experience' the house slowly becoming a home. The dark, old fashioned decor and flaking walls coming back to life with old and broken filmography to the sounds of a beautiful reverent choir, as if the presence of people in the house was causing it to remember it's past. We get to hear a little of the life of the old man, but it is the house that is the star and thus the subject, and we explore it personally. This is not to say I was massively impressed with the film, it would probably bore the arse off many who watched it, but having put lots of time, effort and love into my own small equivalent of this, I sort of 'got it', and understood a little of what the director was trying to say, and thus found it not entirely unenjoyable. 7/10
A crowded shopping centre has people come and go. A man with a backpack looking suspicious, a woman with a dog. A few dozen others come in and out of view.
A woman comes back to her flat to learn she is the owner of a dog. The present owner is pretty sure she should have it, and besides, he's about to head off and kill himself. A couple of men analyse a purchase without the viewer ever seeing what it is. Two parents quarrel over the man's inability to accept their daughters' encroaching womanhood, letting a few diquietening opinions slip along the way. A woman confronts her childish man-boy husband whose latest cover-up for screwing around with other girls involves taking some porn to a friend. Who is dead. A disturbing account by a woman to her partner about a bad dream she had which morphs into a tale of abuse from her gran when she was young. A woman is told a tale on a ferry of a giant catfish.
All completely separate stories, more like a succession of short films, connected only by the players being briefly in the same place at the same time. As an original piece of cinema it worked quite well (better than the clip suggests but it's the only one), but it's execution doggedly stuck to close-up wobble-cam shots, which as is usual in these films can get a bit annoying. Mercifully we were spared the worst excesses of the format and after an adjustment period I learned to live with it. Each segment was done in a single take, and the parts were played with the raw emotion expected of their subject matter, and generally the stories were engaging, but the format grated a little for me, and it irked that almost all the men were portrayed as irresponsible idiot man-children. But experimental film has been a lot worse. 6.5/10
Love (Hun) (wiki)
A classic Hungarian film, and a rare screening as it's 40th anniversary looms. In the time of Stalinist paranoia and distrust, Luca tries to keep the hopes of her elderly mother-in-law from taking the last of her fragile thirst for life away. Now elderly and bed-ridden, she hopes for her son (and Luca's husband), Janos to come back from America where he is premièring his first film. Except he isn't - Janos is locked up under dubious charges by the Hungarian secret police and has been for some time, and Luca maintains the story with a bit of help from the maid and a web of concocted tales, helped along by granny's failing and confused memory. The film is set in 1950's Hungary during the dark, paranoid days of Stalins' rule of Russia, where the tight political regime meant that you could expect a couple of forceful men at the door requiring a bit of private time to 'fix' your telephone.
Friends disappear from the radar and Luca has to be careful, but one day a letter arrives that spells hope that Janos might yet see his grandmother before she dies.
It's an obviously dated piece, showing the gulf of technical achievement between east Europe and the western countries at the time (it was the same year of Dirty Harry and A Clockwork Orange). The sound is distant, the cutting is choppy and very little indeed in the way of computer generated robots. But it also shows that the elements that mattered were there. The cinematography was close and uncomfortable, hounding the actors and as oppressive as the regime they were in, and the high quality acting meant that I believed it was happening, rather than some actors rehearsing lines. It's far from the best film I've seen, but it is a strong example of European cinema and quite enjoyable. 6/10
Aitá (Spa) (site)
The slow restoration of an old rectory by an elderly man and his two sons is told slowly and carefully in this late evening film As school trips are invited in and hoards of energetic kids run everywhere the teacher will let them, and late night break-ins by petty thieves result in flickery lights darting between the windows, the house begins to return to life, and the isolated old man begins to experience an awakening of his own.
My heart sank a bit when I read the blurb for this a little closer and saw the word 'experimental', a term which colours my perceptions somewhat as it suggests the director using all sorts of annoying techniques to look 'different'. Fortunately, Aitá (Father) partially adopts the standard narrative method, and then intersperses them with meditative shots to plump it out a bit and allow the viewer to 'experience' the house slowly becoming a home. The dark, old fashioned decor and flaking walls coming back to life with old and broken filmography to the sounds of a beautiful reverent choir, as if the presence of people in the house was causing it to remember it's past. We get to hear a little of the life of the old man, but it is the house that is the star and thus the subject, and we explore it personally. This is not to say I was massively impressed with the film, it would probably bore the arse off many who watched it, but having put lots of time, effort and love into my own small equivalent of this, I sort of 'got it', and understood a little of what the director was trying to say, and thus found it not entirely unenjoyable. 7/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 7
International Short Film Competition 2
Beach Boy (Den) - Young Dimi has to suffer a beach holiday with his older brother and his girlfriend Isabelle. Clearly horny as hell for this older woman, he tries clumsily to ingratiate with her without raising the ire of his oafish sibling, with mixed results. A sullen little film bubbling under with sibling rivalry. 7/10
The Builder (Col) - A strange film about a father and his young son, who have to cope with the sudden death of their gran. Dad goes on a spiritual journey in recoil, presumably leaving his son behind - I couldn't tell. I felt there was something beautiful to see here, but it went over my head. 6/10
The Choice (Pls) - The grieving father of a young girl hooked up to a machine doesn't realise she is watching him from across the room. A sweet, sombre tale of family love and loss. 7/10
Cold (Nor) - After collapsing mysteriously at a nightclub, Jon has to come to terms with the fact that he cannot live the life his friends can, and his maybe girlfriend has some bad news for him too. The future is looking cold. 7/10
Until Summer Comes (Ita) - A chilling film about the potency of mixed chemicals racing around the body of three teenagers, who when they spotted their 'older woman' teacher sunbathing at the seaside, first flirt with, then appeal to emotion, then doggedly hound her to change their marks so they pass. The ending is left deliberately ambiguous to leave the audience to guess what the outcome was. 7.5/10
The Visit (Sir) - What seems to be a final visit from a long-absent son on his fathers' death bed isn't quite what it seems. A subversively humorous film to round things off nicely. 8/10
Las Acacias (Arg/Spa) (review)
A life alone on the roads transporting logs from one country to the other has allowed Ruben to live an acceptable life of modest comfort. Eating well in the truck stop cafes and providing for his family. He has little contact with people for any length of time, and so e has developed a bit of an independent air.
His little side-earner, giving a lift to those who wish to swap one country for another on the quiet, is the source for a challenge to this ingrained way of life. A mutual friend has arranged for Jacinta, who meets at the pre-arranged point in the hopes of getting into Buenos Aeres, although not alone. She has with her little Anahi, her daughter of no more than a few months. Ruben isn't happy, but slowly the pair managed to remind him of the pleasures of contact and family.
When compared to the action thrillers, this film is distinct in it's long quiet shots and sparse dialogue. For the first ten minutes or so, not a word is spoken, as Rubens' contactless life is described implicitly. Even when they meet, little is said at the start, Ruben's story and transformation is slow and unhurried. This might bore some people to death but it's one of those times where subtlety and the film taking it's time work really well. It's the little things; the gestures, the eye contact, and none more so than adorable Anahi, who stares fixatedly at the grumpy hairy old man slowly melting his heart with her laser eyes. It's a super-gentle film with no bad guys and no major upsets, just a simple meeting of lonely souls with a hopeful future ahead. 7.5/10
She-Monkeys (Swe) (review)
Emma is a young teen on the verge of womanhood, and her big chance is looming to realise her dream. Voltige classes are looming and she really wants to represent her group in an upcoming competition. Now is not the time to think of falling in love, and not to Cassandra, the top performer of the group. So starts a tenuous relationship of love and confusion mixed with a fierce competitiveness, getting in the way of her chances of making the grade in the tough training sessions, and affecting her attitude at home. making her withdrawn and sullen.
A tamer, more sensitive film than I had garnered from the blurb, it never reaches dizzy heights of intrigue or romance, preferring to remain gently simmering off the hob The main story is supplemented by (arguably the star of the show) Sara - Emma's little sister who is growing up all too quickly, getting a massive crush on her (much) older cousin and determined to win him for herself. It deals with sensitive subjects all around the area of developing sexual and emotional feelings with a steady but slightly daring hand. 7.5/10
Beach Boy (Den) - Young Dimi has to suffer a beach holiday with his older brother and his girlfriend Isabelle. Clearly horny as hell for this older woman, he tries clumsily to ingratiate with her without raising the ire of his oafish sibling, with mixed results. A sullen little film bubbling under with sibling rivalry. 7/10
The Builder (Col) - A strange film about a father and his young son, who have to cope with the sudden death of their gran. Dad goes on a spiritual journey in recoil, presumably leaving his son behind - I couldn't tell. I felt there was something beautiful to see here, but it went over my head. 6/10
The Choice (Pls) - The grieving father of a young girl hooked up to a machine doesn't realise she is watching him from across the room. A sweet, sombre tale of family love and loss. 7/10
Cold (Nor) - After collapsing mysteriously at a nightclub, Jon has to come to terms with the fact that he cannot live the life his friends can, and his maybe girlfriend has some bad news for him too. The future is looking cold. 7/10
Until Summer Comes (Ita) - A chilling film about the potency of mixed chemicals racing around the body of three teenagers, who when they spotted their 'older woman' teacher sunbathing at the seaside, first flirt with, then appeal to emotion, then doggedly hound her to change their marks so they pass. The ending is left deliberately ambiguous to leave the audience to guess what the outcome was. 7.5/10
The Visit (Sir) - What seems to be a final visit from a long-absent son on his fathers' death bed isn't quite what it seems. A subversively humorous film to round things off nicely. 8/10
Las Acacias (Arg/Spa) (review)
A life alone on the roads transporting logs from one country to the other has allowed Ruben to live an acceptable life of modest comfort. Eating well in the truck stop cafes and providing for his family. He has little contact with people for any length of time, and so e has developed a bit of an independent air.
His little side-earner, giving a lift to those who wish to swap one country for another on the quiet, is the source for a challenge to this ingrained way of life. A mutual friend has arranged for Jacinta, who meets at the pre-arranged point in the hopes of getting into Buenos Aeres, although not alone. She has with her little Anahi, her daughter of no more than a few months. Ruben isn't happy, but slowly the pair managed to remind him of the pleasures of contact and family.
When compared to the action thrillers, this film is distinct in it's long quiet shots and sparse dialogue. For the first ten minutes or so, not a word is spoken, as Rubens' contactless life is described implicitly. Even when they meet, little is said at the start, Ruben's story and transformation is slow and unhurried. This might bore some people to death but it's one of those times where subtlety and the film taking it's time work really well. It's the little things; the gestures, the eye contact, and none more so than adorable Anahi, who stares fixatedly at the grumpy hairy old man slowly melting his heart with her laser eyes. It's a super-gentle film with no bad guys and no major upsets, just a simple meeting of lonely souls with a hopeful future ahead. 7.5/10
She-Monkeys (Swe) (review)
Emma is a young teen on the verge of womanhood, and her big chance is looming to realise her dream. Voltige classes are looming and she really wants to represent her group in an upcoming competition. Now is not the time to think of falling in love, and not to Cassandra, the top performer of the group. So starts a tenuous relationship of love and confusion mixed with a fierce competitiveness, getting in the way of her chances of making the grade in the tough training sessions, and affecting her attitude at home. making her withdrawn and sullen.
A tamer, more sensitive film than I had garnered from the blurb, it never reaches dizzy heights of intrigue or romance, preferring to remain gently simmering off the hob The main story is supplemented by (arguably the star of the show) Sara - Emma's little sister who is growing up all too quickly, getting a massive crush on her (much) older cousin and determined to win him for herself. It deals with sensitive subjects all around the area of developing sexual and emotional feelings with a steady but slightly daring hand. 7.5/10
Leeds Film Festival 2011: Day 6
I Am Jesus (Ita) (site)
Do you remember David Shayler from a while ago? He was the ex-secret service agent who got kicked out in 1996 for leaking middle-east secrets, a proto-wikileaks if you will. Well, he kept on his path of change. Today, he is the leader of a small group of eco-warriors who smoke dope and dumpster dive, he has found out two things about himself as well. First, he is Jesus reincarnate. Second, he is a transsexual. Well, god is mysterious.
He is not alone. It appears the world is infested with reincarnated Jesii, of which just three are profiled in this film. Over in Brazil, controversial self-appointed prophet INRI Christo emerged out of the Brazilian revolution clinging to the top of a police car, and now as he celebrates his 61st birthday he lives a comfortable existence being waited upon by his many 'daughters', communicating with the outside world via amusing TV appearances (not all of them respectful) and some seriously watchable youtube videos.
What you are seeing are two of his more creative maid servants, performing a choice cover of Britney Spears' Toxic. There are others to savour on their channel. Try to bear in mind that these people are completely serious about all this. But someone needs to tell him he's getting a bit too used to that crown of thorns - it was meant to be punishment if I recall.
A third Jesus lives in snow-locked Siberia, where a commune of families have built a community from scratch around the life of their saviour, the rather more quiet Vissarion, who has the look pretty much nailed but doesn't seem to like talking that much. Their community is quite large now, and devotion to their 'god' has progressed to their own services, dress codes and rare glimpses where he comes out and sits in the snow. Clearly keeping cards to his chest makes them clammer for more.
The directors have stayed completely behind the camera, and with the exception of a couple of questions, kept completely silent letting the prophets reveal themselves who they are to the viewer rather than pointing and laughing. But even though there is plenty to laugh and gawp at here, there is also a lot of love and community also in evidence. Shaylers' ragtag hippy commune is laughable when they start talking about reading his name in scriptures and deciding he was Jesus while high on magic mushrooms, but it's hard to dislike a guy who doesn't care about what people say when he goes out in a dress, has novel approaches to council tax bills and recycles thrown out produce (see Dive!) managing to provide for his commune and living semi-self sufficiently. Even though INRI himself is a massive lazy-arsed douche, his songstresses have the right attitude when people laugh at their videos - they just say they are happy to put a smile on people's faces.
So it's an entertaining, funny, shocking and wonderful film about how even though these people are clearly charlatans and frauds, they have also managed to be happy, and make others happy too. I wish them well. 8/10
Film to Change 2011 (UK)
Running parallel to the film festival is a range of talks and presentations on the subject of mental health by the local Arts and Minds film project. They have gathered together eight short films from small and medium film-makers the UK into a segment to highlight a side of mental health different to that usually depicted in the cinemas.
The Bus Stop - A woman with agoraphobia plucks up the courage to move from the confines of her house to the bus stop outside (the one I dropped off at an hour later!) The travel is a bit past her abilities just yet though, so she finds other excuses to hang around the stop. Sweet. 7/10
Home - A handful of people with mental health problems talk about what their houses mean to them, from sanctuary to an expression of their self. Too short to get to know any of them. 6/10
The Ordinary Looking House - A really sweet but ultimately sad tale, told with old photographs and sentences written on scraps of paper. A woman recounts growing up with a father who had mental health issues, and the strain it had on her siblings and mother. 7.5/10
The Bridge - A paranoid young man goes about his daily routine while heading to work, and fights once again his urges when he reaches The Bridge. It would have been effective but for the music which was annoying. 6.5/10
Tackling Judgement - Sally-Ann Robinson suffers from PTSD and depression, and posts up YouTube videos explaining the problems she goes through on days when she wakes up and can barely get out of bed. A personal and quite moving account of someone learning to cope with something they will have for life. 8/10
Diagnosis Psychosis - With a tongue-in-cheek nod to cheesy cop films, two 'American' plain clothes cops chase down a psychotic serial killer round the streets of Leeds. Silly, but with an ending cleverer than what I was expecting. 7/10
The First Step - A very clever film about a mother trying to find the will to get out of bed and begin the long road back to being a normal person instead of being so withdrawn, for her daughter if not herself. But before that, she has to get over her over analysis of it all which is causing that comfy bed to feel like a much better prospect. Very entertaining and it highlighted the simple but disabling problem really effectively. 8/10
Institute Denta-Mental - A man's anxiety on visiting a mental hospital in a converted house gets the better of him as he travels there, and he imagines all sorts of grotesque characters and treatments he might receive. 7/10
Inbred (UK) (site)
I love Hyde Park, but I wish they would get their act together. When a sell-out film is due to start at 9pm, you'd hope it would do something like that. Especially if you are looking to catch the last train home straight afterwards. I was thus not happy that we were still waiting for the damn thing to start half an hour later. Grr.
The place was packed, and for a good reason. Inbred is a local film, made by local people, and so the masses had been whipped into a frenzy. The League of Gentlemen comparisons continue as the film reveals the village of Wortlake, a rancid pit of a Yorkshire village being visited by Jeff and Kaye, a couple of care workers in charge of a quad of problem teens, off into the countryside for a weekend of walking the dales and.. stripping derelict trains?
Anyway, them there locals don't take kindly to strangers snooping around, and its not long before they are rounded up and made into one-time only attractions at a macabre circus of sorts run by the pub landlord. Can the misfit group stop themselves being picked off and get away while they still have limbs?
After a slightly ropey start (the intro was overly long and dull, and the music tried too hard) it settled down into a surprisingly well-made horror fest, with equally surprising special effects. The director seems to have a penchant for things being crushed, and we get lots of it, and plenty of blood to wash it down too. But it's also got a sharp edged humour to it, poking fun at the Yorkshire folk and even making you feel sorry for some of the bad guys. In other words, enough of both sides to ensure that mostly everyone will get some enjoyment out of it. 7.5/10
Do you remember David Shayler from a while ago? He was the ex-secret service agent who got kicked out in 1996 for leaking middle-east secrets, a proto-wikileaks if you will. Well, he kept on his path of change. Today, he is the leader of a small group of eco-warriors who smoke dope and dumpster dive, he has found out two things about himself as well. First, he is Jesus reincarnate. Second, he is a transsexual. Well, god is mysterious.
He is not alone. It appears the world is infested with reincarnated Jesii, of which just three are profiled in this film. Over in Brazil, controversial self-appointed prophet INRI Christo emerged out of the Brazilian revolution clinging to the top of a police car, and now as he celebrates his 61st birthday he lives a comfortable existence being waited upon by his many 'daughters', communicating with the outside world via amusing TV appearances (not all of them respectful) and some seriously watchable youtube videos.
What you are seeing are two of his more creative maid servants, performing a choice cover of Britney Spears' Toxic. There are others to savour on their channel. Try to bear in mind that these people are completely serious about all this. But someone needs to tell him he's getting a bit too used to that crown of thorns - it was meant to be punishment if I recall.
A third Jesus lives in snow-locked Siberia, where a commune of families have built a community from scratch around the life of their saviour, the rather more quiet Vissarion, who has the look pretty much nailed but doesn't seem to like talking that much. Their community is quite large now, and devotion to their 'god' has progressed to their own services, dress codes and rare glimpses where he comes out and sits in the snow. Clearly keeping cards to his chest makes them clammer for more.
The directors have stayed completely behind the camera, and with the exception of a couple of questions, kept completely silent letting the prophets reveal themselves who they are to the viewer rather than pointing and laughing. But even though there is plenty to laugh and gawp at here, there is also a lot of love and community also in evidence. Shaylers' ragtag hippy commune is laughable when they start talking about reading his name in scriptures and deciding he was Jesus while high on magic mushrooms, but it's hard to dislike a guy who doesn't care about what people say when he goes out in a dress, has novel approaches to council tax bills and recycles thrown out produce (see Dive!) managing to provide for his commune and living semi-self sufficiently. Even though INRI himself is a massive lazy-arsed douche, his songstresses have the right attitude when people laugh at their videos - they just say they are happy to put a smile on people's faces.
So it's an entertaining, funny, shocking and wonderful film about how even though these people are clearly charlatans and frauds, they have also managed to be happy, and make others happy too. I wish them well. 8/10
Film to Change 2011 (UK)
Running parallel to the film festival is a range of talks and presentations on the subject of mental health by the local Arts and Minds film project. They have gathered together eight short films from small and medium film-makers the UK into a segment to highlight a side of mental health different to that usually depicted in the cinemas.
The Bus Stop - A woman with agoraphobia plucks up the courage to move from the confines of her house to the bus stop outside (the one I dropped off at an hour later!) The travel is a bit past her abilities just yet though, so she finds other excuses to hang around the stop. Sweet. 7/10
Home - A handful of people with mental health problems talk about what their houses mean to them, from sanctuary to an expression of their self. Too short to get to know any of them. 6/10
The Ordinary Looking House - A really sweet but ultimately sad tale, told with old photographs and sentences written on scraps of paper. A woman recounts growing up with a father who had mental health issues, and the strain it had on her siblings and mother. 7.5/10
The Bridge - A paranoid young man goes about his daily routine while heading to work, and fights once again his urges when he reaches The Bridge. It would have been effective but for the music which was annoying. 6.5/10
Tackling Judgement - Sally-Ann Robinson suffers from PTSD and depression, and posts up YouTube videos explaining the problems she goes through on days when she wakes up and can barely get out of bed. A personal and quite moving account of someone learning to cope with something they will have for life. 8/10
Diagnosis Psychosis - With a tongue-in-cheek nod to cheesy cop films, two 'American' plain clothes cops chase down a psychotic serial killer round the streets of Leeds. Silly, but with an ending cleverer than what I was expecting. 7/10
The First Step - A very clever film about a mother trying to find the will to get out of bed and begin the long road back to being a normal person instead of being so withdrawn, for her daughter if not herself. But before that, she has to get over her over analysis of it all which is causing that comfy bed to feel like a much better prospect. Very entertaining and it highlighted the simple but disabling problem really effectively. 8/10
Institute Denta-Mental - A man's anxiety on visiting a mental hospital in a converted house gets the better of him as he travels there, and he imagines all sorts of grotesque characters and treatments he might receive. 7/10
Inbred (UK) (site)
I love Hyde Park, but I wish they would get their act together. When a sell-out film is due to start at 9pm, you'd hope it would do something like that. Especially if you are looking to catch the last train home straight afterwards. I was thus not happy that we were still waiting for the damn thing to start half an hour later. Grr.
The place was packed, and for a good reason. Inbred is a local film, made by local people, and so the masses had been whipped into a frenzy. The League of Gentlemen comparisons continue as the film reveals the village of Wortlake, a rancid pit of a Yorkshire village being visited by Jeff and Kaye, a couple of care workers in charge of a quad of problem teens, off into the countryside for a weekend of walking the dales and.. stripping derelict trains?
Anyway, them there locals don't take kindly to strangers snooping around, and its not long before they are rounded up and made into one-time only attractions at a macabre circus of sorts run by the pub landlord. Can the misfit group stop themselves being picked off and get away while they still have limbs?
After a slightly ropey start (the intro was overly long and dull, and the music tried too hard) it settled down into a surprisingly well-made horror fest, with equally surprising special effects. The director seems to have a penchant for things being crushed, and we get lots of it, and plenty of blood to wash it down too. But it's also got a sharp edged humour to it, poking fun at the Yorkshire folk and even making you feel sorry for some of the bad guys. In other words, enough of both sides to ensure that mostly everyone will get some enjoyment out of it. 7.5/10
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