Sydney Film Festival: it's a wrap!

Update (26/6): Australian feature Lucky Miles has won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film shown at the State Theatre, at this years Sydney Film Festival.

This bittersweet comedy is set in 1990 when an Indonesian fishing boat abandons Iraqi and Cambodian refugees in a remote part of the Western Australia. Whilst most are quickly caught by officials, three men with nothing in common but their misfortune and determination escape arrest and begin an epic journey into the heart of Australia. The film recently had its world premiere as the Opening Gala of the Adelaide Internatioanl Film Festival.

“It is a bold move to tackle one of Australia's hottest subjects at all, and to pull it off with such a lightness of touch is a credit to first-time feature director Michael James Rowland” says Clare Stewart, Executive Director of The Sydney Film Festival.

Best Documentary shown at the State Theatre went to the Dixie Chicks doco Shut Up and Sing!, while the Best Short went to Phoenix Dance.

This year there are two sets of Audience Awards: for films shown at the main venue, the State Theatre, and for films shown at peripheral venue (these will be made public later tonight, stay tuned).

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The 54th Sydney Film Festival wrapped yesterday after 17 days of thrilling cinema. Congratulations to all the filmmakers and everyone on the Festival team, it was a great event. And judging from the number of sold-out screenings, a popular one too!

I was able to see quite a few, considering I couldn't take any time off from work. I wish I'd found the time to write a more reviews before the Festival finished, but I will be blogging about a couple more titles in the next few weeks.

Awards

The Fipresci award for Best Documentary went to Monastery - Mr Vig and the Nuns, by Pernille Rose Grønkjær (great interview at Still in Motion) This year’s Fipresci judges were Atilla Dorsay (Turkey), Li Cheuk-To (Hong Kong) and Paul Harris (Australia).

The Dendy Awards recompense Australian short films since 1970. These prestigious awards have started the careers of many Australian film alumni, including festival patrons Jane Campion, George Miller, Philip Noyce and Gillian Armstrong. This year, Best Documentary was awarded to 2 Mums and a Dad directed by Miranda Wills, Best Fiction went to Katoomba directed by Leon Ford and the Most Innovative Short went to director Daniel Agdag’s Paper City Architects.

The Yoram Gross Animation Award was awarded to Chinese-Australian coproduction Sweet and Sour, directed by Eddie White, while the CRC Award - for films reflecting the multicultural experience in Australia - was won by Checkpoint, directed by Ben Phelps.

I'll update this post with the winners of the Audience Awards as soon as they are announced.

I don't usually like attributing a score to a film, but what the hell - for whatever it's worth, I've given each title a star rating (it's out of 5 stars). Titles in blue are also screening at the upcoming Melbourne International Film Festival. Yes, I like to make lists.



I saw 33 features at the Sydney Film Festival...

A Walk into the Sea (**)
Danny Williams, possible lover to Andy Warhol and filmmaker at the Factory, is the subject of this indirect portrait by his niece. A film for which perhaps there was simply no need. (Exclaim review)

Academy (****)
75 Oscar winning films in 75 minutes: what, this artists asks, remains? (more...)

Ad Lib Night (***)
Lee Youn-Ki's simple film relies almost entirely on a complex ambiguity: is the central character lying about her identity? The ending, which lifts the veil, spoils what would've been a smart and disturbing film. (Koreanfilm.org review)

Away From Her (*****)
If you think Sarah Polley's directorial debut is nothing more than a well-acted movie-of-the-week melodrama perhaps you should see it again. I did. (more...)

Boxing Day (***)
Kriv Stenders' no-budget drama unfolds in a single take, yet feels entirely real, not theatrical. That's probably thanks to the impressive naturalistic performances. Perhaps one of the best Australian films in the Festival. (Realtime interview)

Brand Upon The Brain! (*****)
There's enough material in this Canadian filmmaker's subconscious for dozens of features, but this silent film is one of his best: hilarious, personal, and unlike anything you've ever seen (since the silent era). (d+kaz review)

Climates (*****)
Great moments of cinema abound in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's bold and insightful portrait of a relationship in crisis. One of the highlights of the Festival. (Close Up Film review).

Control (***)
Compelling but conventional look at the short life of Ian Curtis which fails to take us inside the songwriter's headspace despite great performances. (Fire of Spring review).

Corroboree (***)
Finally an ambitious and rigorous Australian experimental feature! I wasn't able to engage with it other than intellectually... but I thought about it for days afterwards. (review and animated discussion at DaveScale)

Night Watch (*)
A few cinematic moment are not enough to lift this Russian vampire fantasy above the level of a Matrix fan-film. (Movie Views review)

Don't Touch The Axe [Ne Touchez Pas à la Hache] (***)
Rivette takes on Balzac in an impressive folie-à-deux which is easier to admire, perhaps, than to love. (european-films.net review)

Dry Season [Daratt] (****)
Chad after the war: a nearly silent dialogue between two damaged characters provides a priceless philosophical lesson.

Hallam Foe (****)
Jamie Bell makes a great anti-(super)hero, perched on the rooftops of Glasgow in this quirky Scottish crowdpleaser. (more...)

Hana (***)
A fable or a farce? After a series of powerful intimate dramas, Kore-Eda makes an unusual Samurai movie. (interview at GreenCine)

How Is Your Fish Today? (****)
A simple video diary takes us on a surprising journey in this low-budget Chinese road movie. (more...)

In The Company of Actors (**)
This doc on the Sydney Theatre Company's staging of Heda Gabbler in Brooklyn offers few real insights beyond watching Cate Blanchett and others rehearse. (viewing notes at Screened)

Kidz in da Hood (***)
A Swedish coming-of-age hip-hop musical about immigration? Ch-ch-ch-check it out! (more...)

Killer of Sheep (*****)
Charles Burnett's 1977 thesis film - like Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche - tells it like it was, giving outsiders a voice that the rest of America didn't necessarily want to hear. (GreenCine review)

La Vie En Rose (*)
A good performance does not a good biopic make, unfortunately for the uninspired French director Olivier Dahan. (more...)

Love Conquers All (****)
Malaysian independents continue to make their quiet voices heard... After some solid shorts, young director Tan Chui-Mui delivers a stunning film. (Fipresci review)

Mala Noche (*****)
The missing link between Paul Morrissey, Larry Clark and 90's Queer Cinema. It was 1985 and Gus Van Sant already had it all figured out. (Stylus review)

Me [Yo] (****)
Fascinating performance-workshopped feature about reincarnation - with a terrific central performance by Alex Brendemühl. (european-films.net review)

Once (****)
The feel-good film of the fest. Simple and fresh filmmaking which everyone can nod their heads to. (more...)

Poison Friends [Les amitiés Maléfiques] (****)
Dangerous Liaisons in the dog-eats-dog world of Parisian academia. Très français, très bien. (Not Coming review)

Red Road (****)
This Zentropa project couldn't have begun with a better film, Andrea Arnold's Red Road is bold, riveting and dramatically satisfying. (PopMatters review)

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (****)
A little light is shed on the enigmatic musician's musician in this cleverly constructed documentary. (more...)

Shotgun Stories (****)
Finally a revenge movie from someone who knows what they're doing. (Frame by Frame review)

The Final Winter (*)
Home and Away meets The Footy Show. For die-hard Rugby League fans only. (Official Site)

The Misfits (*****)
Seeing this 1961 John Huston film again I realised what a multi-layered, visionary masterpiece it truly was. (imdb)

The Walker (****)
Smarter than it looks, Paul Schrader's new film is an Altmanesque satire of DC's political elite, a powerful coming-of-age story, a political thriller and gay romance rolled into one. It's perhaps too ambitious for its own good, but it sure as hell puts up a good fight. (GreenCine review)

Waitress (*)
I walked out of this finely-crafted film after one hour because I just couldn't stand its cutesy sentimentality. Shelley was a good director, but these pies are just too sweet. (MovieCityIndie review)

West (*)
Sydney's Western suburbs is the backdrop for this competent but disappointing tale of kids grown up on the wrong side of the tracks. (more...)

Wolfsbergen (****)
With a deceptively simple style all her own, Dutch director Nanouk Leopold brings a dysfunctional family back to life in a spare but moving drama (more...)



12 Features in the SFF program I'd seen before...

Rescue Dawn (****)
Herzog makes a blockbuster! And it's rather good! (more...)

12:08 East of Bucharest (****)
The Rumanian new wave starts here! Rewarding deadpan comedy about our place in History. (more...)

Syndromes and a Century (****)
Metempsychotic daydream from the master of contemplative Thai cinema. (more...)

The Home Song Stories (***)
Joan Chen, we missed you! This compelling coming-of-age melodrama could've handled a little less self-indulgence, though. (more...)

Flanders (****)
War is within us all, waiting to break out. And it ain't pretty. One of the best French war films ever made. (d+kaz review)

I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (*****)
The Taiwanese director finds inspiration in Malaysia and gives us all a valuable lesson in cinema. (more...)

The Witnesses [Les Témoins] (****)
The break-out of the AIDS epidemic in Paris: a heartbreakingly lucid film which benefits from 20 years' hindsight. (more...)

Woman on the Beach (****)
Love triangles! Kimchi! Alcohol! It's the new Hong Sang-Soo! (more...)

Inland Empire (***)
The Empire strikes back, Laura Dern takes a direct hit. Has David Lynch still got the Force? (more...)

London to Brighton (*)
A nasty thriller posing as social realism... Sorry, but no. (others disagree)

Still Life (****)
The best Chinese film of the year: stunning images which just won't go away. (more...)



I saw 13 short films at SFF...

Cost of Living (*****)
Sure to become a classic, this jaw-dropping short about a dancer with no legs pushes us to reconsider our ideas about (dis)ability. From the legendary DV8 Physical Theatre company.

Cry from the Past (*)
This hand-painted animation recounts the true story of the encounter between killer whales and the brave men of Twofold Bay, Eden.

Dance Like Your Old Man (****)
Six young women demonstrate how theirs fathers dance while talking about their (often difficult) relationships. Absolutely brilliant.

Daughters (**)
Malaysian daughters, sisters and mothers define their identity amidst the roles handed to them by society. Intriguing, but fails to engage.

The Goat that Ate Time (***)
An animated pseudo-philosophical tale of a goat which eats up the very fabric of time (mongst other things). This goat is cute but it definitely bites off more than it can chew.

The Girl Who Swallowed Bees (***)
Hugo Weaving does his best Vincent Price in this animated tribute to early Tim Burton shorts, starring Pia Miranda: sweet.

Japanese Traditions: The Apologies (**)
A satire of the many degrees of polite apology in Japanese culture. Hollow laughter ensues.

Meokgo and the Stickfighter (**)
Teboho Mahlatsi's mythical tale of a concertina-playing horseman with magical powers had a lot of potential (an African superhero?). It's gorgeously shot and the scenery is breathtaking - but the story feels under-developed.

The Passion of Gina Sinozich (***)
Fascinating documentary portrait of an octogenarian painter who uses her art to liberate herself from the horrors of war, the sorrow of migration and the difficulty of caring for her ailing husband.

Revolving Door (***)
Making great use of hand-drawn animation fused with live footage, this multi-faceted look at the harsh conditions experienced by prostitutes on the streets of St Kilda shows an intelligent approach to a complicated issue.

Sweet & Sour (**)
This Yoram Gross Award for Best Animation certainly looks stunning - the work of hundreds of 2D and 3D animators no doubt - but the story of a dog who fears for his life in Chinatown leaves a lot to be desired...

Why the Irish Dance that Way (*)
A line of fidgeting people at the post office becomes an ensemble Irish jig. And?

A Wondrous Film about Emma Brooks (****)
Jack Feldstein is a comic genius. This neon animation samples our (Freudian) dreams, paranoias and obsessions until young Emma's coming-of-age journey becomes our own. Fantastic.



Top 5 films at SFF I wish I'd seen...

1. Build a Ship, Sail to Sadness
2. Bamako
3. Elegy of Life: Rostropovich. Vishnevskaia.
4. Out of the Blue
5. Paraguayan Hammock

Coming soon: Melbourne!

5 Up (Bloggers Who Think)

MEME: THINKING BLOGGER AWARD

Being tagged with a meme is a thrilling experience, like being dared by one of the bigger kids to shoplift a chocolate bar from the convenience store. You're flattered to have been asked, slightly worried that you won't live up to expectations, and looking forward to that hard-earned chocolate.

In this case the chocolate bar is the Thinking Blogger Award, kindly bestowed upon me by one of my earliest reads and, coincidentally, one of my earliest supporters as a blogger: Lucas McNelly at 100 Films. Back when I had three readers, Lucas was one of them, and I'm very grateful that now that I've got a couple more, he's still there.

I think the first post that I ever read at 100 Films was this review of The New World, which made me rush out and find the damn thing. I first started blogging because sometimes I was so overwhelmed with feelings coming out of the cinema that I just had to find a way to share them with others. In 100 Films I found a similar love for cinema, something bursting out if its seams which has to be shared with the world.

I know tons of people who are into a particular genre, fanatical about this director or that one, but back then I didn't know many people who had a real curiosity for cinema, one which transcended genres, eras, formats and nationalities. Of course since then I have "met" quite a few other open-minded film bloggers, but many of these I found by scrolling down Lucas's sidebar.

Another thing which I love about 100 Films is that Lucas is not just a gifted blogger and critic, he is perhaps first and foremost a filmmaker, an artist whose craft is informed by cinephilia and a writer whose cinephilia is informed by his craft.

Lucas understands the strength of the blogosphere and rather than shrink from criticism, he puts his own films out there in the knowledge that feedback can only make him stronger. It is this spirit which underlies his brilliant über-indie project, a love letter to independent cinema which is progressively becoming a crucial resource for makers and lovers of low-budget films.

But back to the meme. A friend of mine recently told me that my blog was very analytical, "very French". I think he meant it as a compliment, but one can't be too sure (his writing, in fact, is not just intelligent and witty, it's personal and inspirational and hilarious). I guess there's not much humour there, and probably more logic than emotion. That doesn't mean I don't write from the heart, it's just the kind of guy I am.

I've been given this lovely Thinking Blogger Award, and I'm now invested with the authority to pass it on to five bloggers who make me think (it's not as common as one might think).

Because transmission is viral, it's very hard to keep track of who's already received one of these. Suffice to say the most excellent No More Marriages!, Edward Copeland on Film and The House Next Door have already been tagged. It's only a matter of time before my nominations are tagged too (it might already have happened), but here they are. Bloggers who think, and whom I couldn't do without.

1. Talk to Me Harry Winston

Seattle's Tram Ngo claims she has a love-hate relationship with Hollywood and politics. Well that's a great dynamic with which to explore our cultural and artistic universe. In an ocean of white male bloggers blogging about films made by white males, TTMHW invites you (politely) to look at things from a different perspective. An indispensable voice in the blogosphere.

2. Melbourne Film Blog

Melbourne resident Paul Martin started this film blog in October 2006 and I have been a fan since day one. There are very few film bloggers in Australia and each new blog should be cherished. That this one happens to be choc-full of awe for the magic of cinema, that it should celebrate accessibility and diversity, makes it a breath of fresh air in a critical environment poisoned by the exhaust fumes of commercial journalism and the great big PR machine.

3. Gibbs Cadiz

Ah the Philippines...! One day I will visit and experience firsthand the rich Filipino film and theatre culture, glimpsed at through this fabulous blog. Movies are not the primary focus, but the writing is very cinematic. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, this blog is a gateway into a culture that's thrillingly different yet very familiar - and an important advocate for Filipino cinema.

4. Coffee, Coffee & more Coffee

I *heart* Peter Nellhaus's blog, his insights into Thai cinema, his encyclopedic knowledge of film, his enthusiastic blog-o-thon articles... Half of his blogging concerns immensely familiar items in our pop culture universe, the other tackles obscure and under-represented cinema from bygone eras and faraway lands. That brand of curiosity is infectious to say the least.

5. Critic After Dark

More Filipino cinema... and much, much more. It's irreverant (one film is "ninety minutes spent in a disco for tha half-blind and hard-of-hearing"), it's political (of another Noel vera asks "How realistic is it to look at the world through a peephole?") and it's daring ("may-be the most surprising thing about Inland Empire [was that] it was actually satisfying)... what more could you ask for?

The original post for this meme stipulate some clear rules:

1) If, and only if your blog is one that is tagged on my list below, you must write a post with links to five other blogs you like that consistently make you think (hence, the Thinking Blogger’s Award).

2) Link to this post so people will know whose good idea all this was.

3) Proudly display the “Thinking Blogger Award” logo with a link to the post you wrote.

Thanks Lucas, and here's to blogging that makes us use our brains as well as our hearts!

Prison of silence (Wolfsbergen)

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - Wolfsbergen

Wolfsbergen comes to Sydney after a warm reception at the 2007 Berlinale. Dutch filmmaker Nanouk Leopold is the subject of the Emerging Talent showcase at SFF where she's also presenting her previous features Guernsey and Iles Flottantes, and her graduation short Weekend.

An old widower sends a letter to all but one of his family members to inform them of his upcoming suicide. The news is greeted with apparent indifference, certainly not panic nor distress. His daughter Maria is estranged from her husband Ernst, to whom she barely says a word, even though they share the same house. She looks like she hasn't smiled in years.

Maria's own daughters aren't faring much better. The older daughter, Sabine, is having an affair with her depressed ex-lover, while her own kids suffer under the strain of their parents' difficult relationship. Sabine's younger sister Eva is single, unlucky in love and has little to live for herself. Clearly the sensitive one in the family, Eva cries all the time - which perhaps explain why she never received a letter from the patriarch in the first place.

Leopold's new film is a great showcase for some excellent acting talent. The director's minimalistic approach to dialogue, action and locations focuses our attention on the performances. Long, static close-ups offer challenging opportunities for the actors to convey complex - and contradictory - emotions, often without opening their mouths.

Inded, each character in this slow but immensely rewarding drama seems locked in a prison of silence (deconstructed in this great review). The women have isolated themselves from the men in their lives, yet are clearly suffering as a result. The men try to reach out to them but seem paralysed, as if they didn't speak the same language. The letter, by failing to elicit proper responses, is the catalyst which slowly sets events in motion, as the men who have married into this disfunctional family start to take matters into their own hands - for better or worse.

Composition is a key element in this carefully constructed film. Characters are often shot through doorways, with a third of the frame hidden from view by a wall, a screen or a piece of furniture. This device heightens the sense that secrets are harboured, that the truth is partially obscured by the partitions these characters have built around themselves. Sometimes these walls are real, too. Architecture is very present in Wolfsbergen, from the small, grim studio Maria is buying for her father to the austere building site Eva has moved into.

Each scene is deliberately framed to reflect the barriers which keep everyone apart. There's a vertical motif running throughout the first half of the film. It starts with the opening, static shot of a forest, which lasts for several minutes. Then every frame seems divided by vertical lines which isolate lone human figures in invisible urban cages. Walls, corners, doorways, ladders, flagpoles and scaffolding cut through nearly every frame like bars in a prison.

Wolfsbergen begins its silent journey in a bleak place, with a snapshot of a family frozen under layers of ice. As the ice thaws, characters begin to reach out to each other and the vertical motif starts to disappear. Stylistically, the turning point occurs when Ernst - who has decided to offer his father-in-law some company in his final days - hangs a clothes line in the forest to dry out some sheets. This horizontal line breaks the vertical pattern made here by the massive tree trunks while the white sheet acts as a peace offering.

From then on the framing begins to reflect the possibility of intimacy, as characters meet face to face, side by side, cheek to cheek, in a bathtub, on a bed, around a fire. The discreet forces at play in this film - both in form and content - sneak up on the viewer almost imperceptibly. Their cumulative effect packs a mighty emotional punch, all the more powerful for its subtlety. The superb ending is both simple and hopeful - a moving tableau which remains etched in the viewer's mind long after the lights go up.

Read my other SFF 2007 reviews here.

10 Questions Inspired by SFF

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - 10 Questions inspired by SFF

I'm taking a break from writing reviews of the films I'm seeing at the Festival. I've had many discussions with friends and fellow attendees during this first week of the Fest, dissecting the films and appraising the event. I thought I'd share a few of these with my readers as well, expanding the debate beyond the lobby of Sydney's State Theatre.

Whether you're a flexipass-holding Sydneysider or or a film enthusiast living further afield, let us know what you think!

Q1. Was La Vie en Rose the right film to open SFF? Which other film in the program would you have seen launch the event?

Q2. Cate Blanchett or Joan Chen?

Q3. Had Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain! been staged live in Sydney, with musical accompaniment (the way it was presented at its Toronto world premiere), who would have been good as the film's live narrator?

Q4. Was David Lynch's Inland Empire worth the wait?

Q5. The SFF programmers unearthed Gus Van Sant's excellent debut feature Mala Noche for our viewing pleasure. Which overlooked first feature should the Festival revive next year: Bryan Singer's disturbing Public Access, David McKenzie's creepy The Last Great Wilderness, Christopher Nolan's clever Following, Tsai Ming-Liang's understated Rebels of the Neon God, Ang Lee's gentle Pushing Hands or Gregg Araki's indie ménage-à-trois Three Bewildered People in the Night...?

Q6. In A Walk Into The Sea, filmmaker Esther Robinson argues that her uncle Danny Williams was a major figure in Andy Warhol's Factory despite a certain lack of evidence: wishful thinking or belated justice?

Q7. The subject of this year's retrospective is the great John Huston, whose career should the SFF pay tribute to next year?

Q8. Scott Walker or Joe Strummer?

Q9. In Sarah Polley's melodrama Away From Her, does Fiona effectively leave Grant when she checks herself into the clinic? In other words, is it a complex story of punishment, forgiveness and redemption or just a really well acted movie-of-the-week?

Q10. Are there too many films in the Sydney Film Festival? Not enough parties? What would you change next year?

We want to hear from you!

Read my SFF 2007 reviews here.

The Commitment (Once)

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - Once

Once might've made a great Opening Film for the Sydney Film Festival, but it may have to content itself with the Audience Award. It's not a hard prediction to make, the Irish film having already pocketed the prize earlier this year at Sundance, winning the hearts of critics and audience members alike.

Once tells a very simple story. On Dublin's Grafton Street, a lovelorn busker sings about the woman who recently left him to live in London. One day he meets an Eastern European musician who struggles to make ends meet, caring for her mother and daughter in the absence of her husband. They hang out, become friends, make music together and slowly fall in love.

You'd be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about. On paper there's nothing orginal about this boy-meets-girl story. The film, however, is an authentic delight, entirely free of artifice. It's a romantic comedy where the romance and comedy seem to happen by accident rather than formula, a musical where people sing to one another not through contrivance but simpy because that's what singer-songwriters do.

The common bond here is music. Music brings these outsiders together, gives them a common ground in a materialistic city they fail to recognise, it's the language with which they communicate. When they sing to each other you believe it precisely because as musicians, the metaphors and melodies of their craft are the very means they use to articulate their feelings.

In choosing real-life musicians rather than professional actors, writer-director John Carney lends even more credence to his characters. Glen Hansard, frontman for The Frames (Carney used to play bass in the Dublin band), brings immense charisma to his role. Markéta Irglová is also entirely convincing as a woman who can't afford to take romance lightly. It's hard to believe she was only seventeen when Carney cast her in the role.

As with all good musicals the songs advance the plot at least as much as the dialogue, so it's crucial that they be compelling, beautifully performed numbers. Being a fan of earnest, sensitive songwriting a la Damien Rice is thankfully no pre-requisite for getting in the mood. Whatever your musical tastes, it's hard to deny the warmth and intimacy these songs bring to the story, the raw emotional power of their lyrics, the talent of those who sing them.

Shot in Dublin without permits and made for only US$150,000, the low-budget film captures life in the Irish capital with gritty naturalism. The grainy stock, spontaneous composition and absence of stylistic flourishes combine to create an air of realism which makes the romantic comedy elements much easier to swallow. It's a testament to the careful skill with which Carney has put the script together that the hamonies found in Once never feel orchestrated.

The arthouse musical is infused with effortless charm and devoid of pretense: the feel-good moments come thick and fast in the exquisite script, but they rarely feel contrived. Though it discreetly borrows from countless other musicals, kitchen-sink dramas and romantic comedies, Once follows no single, obvious formula. Even the predictible moments ring true. The intelligent coda wraps the film with the understated emotional pull you'd expect from a well-crafted pop song.

Once is currently out in the USA, it will be released in Australia on August 30th and in the UK on September 7th 2007. The Frames are opening for Bob Dylan in Australia & New Zealand throughout the month of August.

Read my other SFF 2007 reviews here.

Meet Young Hallam (Hallam Foe)

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - Hallam Foe

David McKenzie established himself as a talent to watch in 2002 with the uneven but compelling The Last Great Wilderness, an unclassifiable mix of horror, comedy and Scottish gothic. This was followed by another idiosyncratic picture, the superb Young Adam starring Tilda Swinton and Ewan McGregor. His third feature Asylum was a failed attempt at more commercial - and conventional - cinema.

With Hallam Foe, the filmmaker seems to have regained some creative control and a measure of independence. This middle-ground greatly benefits the film, which manages to be a striking, orginal work as well as McKenzie's most accessible film to date.

The talented Jamie Bell starts as 17 year-old Hallam Foe, a maladjusted boy living with his father (Ciaran Hinds) and evil stepmother (Claire Forlani) in a Scottish manor. In fact Hallam spends most of his time in a treehouse spying on those around him. After a failed attempt to accuse his sexy stepmom of murdering his recently departed mother, he hops on a train to the big smoke.

Part Kaspar Hauser, part Huck Finn, Hallam is a resourceful boy who's never more at ease than when he's on his own. Edinburgh proves a bit of a challenge, but Hallam is soon living in a clocktower squat, working in a hotel and stalking a beautiful woman (Sophia Myles) who looks exactly like his dead mother.

Adapted from a novel by Peter Jinks, Hallam Foe is first and foremost a film about identity, a coming-of-age journey rich in subtext. The young man's unresolved oedipal issues provide psychological fodder for the fascinating Hitchcockian intrigue, a light-hearted tale of voyeurism and sexual obsession.

Jamie Bell owns the unique central character brilliantly, turning this unlikely anti-hero into a sympathetic creep, like a contemporary Hunchback of Notre Dame. His performance is entirely watchable, convincing as a psychotic weirdo yet totally at ease in moments of emotional intimacy. He carries the film on his skinny shoulders with effortless grace.

There's a great chemistry between him and Sophia Myles, no doubt a key ingredient in a film whose central relationship hinges on sexual gratification with incestuous and voyeuristic overtones. Jamie Sives is also excellent as Hallam's boss and, perversely, the third person in the steamy love triangle.

Hallam's big adventure unfolds in the magical city of Edinburgh, gorgeously shot by cinematographer Giles Nuttgens. Nature is always a powerful force in the films of David McKenzie, a character in itself. Here the rooftops of Edinburgh are shot as if they were a mysterious forest, adding to the heightened reality of what is really a modern fairytale.

Laugh-out-loud scenes, a catchy soundtrack (Franz Ferdinand, Sons & Daughter, Four Tet...) and likeable characters propel things along nicely, right up to a satisying ending which sees the story land nimbly on its feet. Even when the film flirts with romantic comedy its quirks more than outweigh its need to be loved. The result is an original crowdpleaser which never condescends to its audience.

Hallam Foe is scheduled for release in the UK (August 31st 2007).

Read my other SFF 2007 reviews here.

Tales of an accelerated culture (Academy)

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - Academy

Luke DuBois's Academy takes each Oscar winner for Best Picture of the past 75 years and compresses it into a single minute. The result, 75 feature films in 75 minutes, is a mind-bending assault on the senses and an accelerated journey through American cinema history.

Using an algorhythm based on frame averaging and time-lapse phonography, the artist is able to present the entirety of the film is one highly abbreviated snapshot. By juxtaposing the films in a relentless chronological order, we get a glimpse of the tremendous changes which have affected the artform in a relatively short amount of time: editing, cinematography, framing...

It's hard to imagine a single film compressed to a single minute: it takes a minute to sink (in) but check out what Luke DuBois makes of James Cameron's Titanic here.

Perhaps Academy is meant to be enjoyed as a video installation, in a room you might be able to walk in and out of. As a continuous screening, it has a slightly nauseating, epilepsy-inducing effect. For me it felt like I'd died and my life as a cinephile was flashing before my eyes. This being the Oscars, they weren't all good memories either!

It certainly made me think of our cultural habits, of the incredible breadth and density of sensory stimuli we are bombarded with on a daily basis, how difficult it becomes to process all this information. Academy certainly was a good metaphor for the film festival I'm currently attending, where I see up to five feature films each day for fifteen days in a row...

Like the best video art, Academy allows the viewer to project some of their own fears, obsessions and dreams onto the work. It may highlight the formulaic nature of Hollywood productions or it may dazzle you with the magic of cinema, the accumulated know how, creativity and innovation of 75 years of filmmaking. It may make you want to pause and savour the next film you see, to isolate it from the noise which constantly surrounds us...

I arrived late at the screening and as I approached the entrance of the theatre, I could hear a strange, rumbling noise behind the closed doors of the auditorium. It was a truly terrifying sound, like thunder augmented by the roar of an untamed beast, Victor Frankenstein locked up with his monster. That noise was the sound of our accelerated culture swallowing us whole, a cacophony of sound effects, voices and music which, in spite of my better judgement, I knew I could not resist.

Read my other SFF 2007 reviews here.

A dialogue across borders (How Is Your Fish Today?)

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - How Is Your Fish Today?

A simple question gets a simple answer in How Is Your Fish Today?

Hui Rao is a thirtysomething screenwriter living in Beijing (and the co-writer, along with director Xiaolu Guo, of the film we are watching). He lives alone with his goldfish, Belle de Jour, and seems slightly detached from his own uneventful life.

In between gambling with his friends and teaching at the local film school, Hui is tentatively working on a screenplay entitled Northern Lights, about Lin Hao, a young man in search of his destiny.

The writer isn't sure what to do with Lin, what should happen to him. It becomes increasingly clear that this alter-ego embodies his own doubts about life. The writer decides to send Lin on a journey up north, to the remote town of Mohe, where temperatures are constantly below freezing.

Having grown up with a romantic idea of this faraway town on the border with Russia, the writer imagines ice fishermen on both sides of the divide greeting each other with the titular question. It's an extreme place, a beautiful place, and - the writer hopes - a place where things might actually happen.

Not having left Beijing in a long time, he decides to take the trip up north himself and follow the fictional protagonist to an unknown land...

Writer-director Xiaolu Guo's meta-narrative journey pulls us in effortlessly, winning us over with its deceptively simple tone. The border across which the narrative echoes is the invisible line between documentary and fiction, between what we see with our own eyes and what we've been told, between the life we live and the one we might really dream about.

Random observations and a whimsical voice-over promise little beside a playful exploration of the creative process. Here's a story which the filmmaker warns us from the start isn't going anywhere.

What's brilliant here is not just that this journey actually has a destination, or that the surprising destination is a rewarding one, it's the fact that we seem to discover it at the same time as the artist.

Along the way the pseudo-documentary takes in some of contemporary China's brilliant contradictions: a snapshot of a country on a journey, a nation in transition. The rapid rate of modernisation hasn't quite reached Mohe, where the protagonist, the screenwriter, the filmmaker and - dare I say it - the audience, find an once of peace and a moment of truth tainted with bittersweet nostalgia.

Read my other SFF 2007 reviews here.

Broken Record (La Vie En Rose)

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - La Vie En Rose (La Môme)

There's a scene in Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose when the young singer's manager berates her during a rehearsal. Your voice is not enough, you've got to wave your arms around, give it all you got! The young woman sings the song again, this time gesturing emphatically... I feel so stupid, she sighs.

Olivier Dahan clearly shared the brash manager' vision when he directed La Vie En Rose: Edith Piaf's voice wasn't enough, her colourful personality, even, wasn't enough. They were going to give it all they had. The result is a loud, bloated and overlong biopic, a film which waves its arms in the air a little too much, when all we really want to do is hear the lady sing...

To make matters worse, the story jumps back and forth in time every five minutes, giving the false impression that the film - like Edith Piaf's life - is a puzzle to decypher. It's as if the filmmakers wanted, until the very last minute, to hide the fact that the film offers very few real or complex insights.

Piaf's trajectory from Dickensian street urchin to demanding diva is really quite simple. Telling the story in a linear fashion might've brought us closer to the characters while shaving minutes off the extended running time. Instead we are led on a repetitive time warp: like a broken record, we get to see the needy Piaf acting out followed by an explanatory flashback to her difficult childhood, over and over again...

Like Ray, Beyond the Sea or Walk The Line before it, this biopic refuses to hone in on a significant moment in the artist's career - a tactic which worked wonders in Capote - prefering instead to show every single defining moment of the subject's life, from childhood until death. It's an exhausting journey to embark upon, like a guided tour of the all world's most beautiful sights where you're not allowed to get off the bus.

Like Chicago or Dreamgirls before it, this biopic refuses to let the drama speak for itself. Awash in music from the first frame to the last, there is rarely a moment of silence during which the actors can actually express themselves. When they do, it's by way of hysterics, perhaps the only way to compete with the sweeping camera moves, overbearing score and impatient editing.

During the scenes of dramatic intensity - and there are plenty in Piaf's eventful life - the dialogue actually fades out on the soundtrack to make way for soaring strings. Whatever proximity we may have to the protagonists is destroyed by endless montage sequences until we feel we're watching a VH1 special on TV.

Much will be written about Marion Cotillard's great star turn as the tragic singer, the kind of transformative performance loved by Oscar voters. What it lacks in nuance it makes up for in bravado - though Cotillard doesn't actually sings in the film, she pours her heart and soul in the role. Despite all the manic waving of arms in the air, the music is still the reason we came, and the music is what we'll be taking home with us once the red curtain finally falls.

La Vie En Rose is out in the US, with upcoming releases including the UK (June 22nd 2007) and Australia (July 12th 2007).

Read my other SFF 2007 reviews here.

SFF 2007: Opening Night

Last night was the Opening Gala of the 54th Sydney Film Festival. The grand State Theatre was the pefect venue for the glamour and drama of Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose (La Môme), the opening film of the Festival. It was a stormy night with strong winds and heavy rain but though the red carpet what somewhat soggy underfoot, we stepped proudly into the foyer, filled with anticipation for the fortnight of film which lay ahead.

Many Australian filmmakers and actors were in attendance, though few could hope to rival with the effortless magnetism of Cate Blanchett. They included filmmakers George Miller, Phillip Noyce, Tony Ayres, Daniel Krige, Andrew Jenks and actors Joan Chen, Barry Otto and Khan Chittenden.

The party took place under massive chandeliers in Sydney's town hall. The band played Edith Piaf and with a little imagination, you could imagine yourself in Paris's Olympia circa 1957, eagerly awaiting the real French diva's appearance on stage.

Now the real fun begins...

Read my SFF 2007 reviews here.

Funky Town (Kidz In Da Hood)

As popular imports from Studio Ghibli in Japan have shown (Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea...), Australian audiences are keen for alternatives to Hollywood family films. The Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals have both introduced eagerly anticipated kids' cinema strands in their programs this year, a rare chance to catch intelligent and diverse films from across the globe.

One of these is new Swedish discovery Kids In Da Hood (Förortsungar), the recent winner of five Swedish Oscars (the "Golden Bugs"), including Best Film. This smart coming-of-age drama addresses serious issues while providing plenty of laughs, thrills and even groovy musical numbers along the way.

Kidz In Da Hood tells the engaging story of 9 year-old Amina, an African refugee who has been spending the past three years in the gritty streets of Stockholm with her ailing grandfather. Forced to leave under violent circumstances following the death of her parents, Amina is a bright but sullen child, hoping for the best but resigned to the worst.

Denied a residence permit, Amina and her grandpa have spent their time in hiding, without a permanent home. Things look like they may be looking up when young musician Johan accepts to take them in temporarily. Despite Johan's rock'n roll lifestyle and total inexperience with kids, a strong bond quickly develops with Amina. But things take a turn for the worse when the granfather dies and social services start calling.

Once the very bleak setup is established, Kidz In Da Hood reveals its true colours. Behind the social realism and grim melodrama there's an uplifting action-adventure-musical waiting to break through.

It all starts when Amina hooks up with her neighbour Mirre, a spunky girl with a can-do attitude, and the de-facto leader of a gang of council estate kids with too much time on their hands. Mirre raps about her life the way Johan sings about his. Soon everyone's breaking into a song and dance routine at the first opportunity - from hip hop to tango and back again, the suburbs are alive with the sound of music.

Kidz In Da Hood is about growing up and seeking solidarity, a sense of belonging. Amina finds a father figure in Johan, who realises he's possibly fit to be a dad. She finds a surrogate family in the street-smart kids who rule the neighbourhood. Together may just overcome the odds and win the day.

The film's initial dark tones give way to exciting action sequences and uplifting moments of music and laughter. The kids find time to solve a crime (showcasing their resourcefulness in a thrilling don't-try-this-at-home chase sequence), put on a school musical, and even break Amina out of social services with the help of Elvis impersonators...

Loosely based on the classic 1945 tearjerker Guttersnipes (a poster makes an appearance on Amina's bedroom wall), Kidz In The Hood isn't the most original of stories - and the plot is fairly predictible - but you've got to give it style points.

The film's success lies in its clever and suprisingly harmonious blend of serious drama and playful hijinks. Kidz In Da Hood is a fun film that's unafraid of big ideas. Set in an authentic multicultural council estate, it explores serious issues such as personal responsibility, grief, unemployment and the plight of refugees without resorting to easy sentimentality or heavy-handed didacticism.

Peformances are top-notch, including Gustaf Skarsgård, son of Stellan Skarsgård (Pirates of the Caribbean), who's very convincing as sweet-natured hard-rocker Johan. But it's the kids who steal the show, helped perhaps by the fact that co-director Catti Edfeldt is herself an ex-child actor turned casting director. They take full ownership of their roles and sing their hearts out when needed, contributing to a seriously funky soundtrack.

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Kidz In Da Hood will have its Australian premiere in the Kids' Films strand of the Sydney Film Festival on Monday 11th June at 2:00pm, Greater Union George Street. It will also be screening in the Next Gen strand of the Melbourne International Film Festival later this winter.

This review also appears on Artsrocket, a fantastic new blog on arts in Australia for kids of all ages.

In Swedish with english subtitles. Suitable for children aged 10 and above (mild sexual references and mild coarse language). Please note that no person under the age of 15 years is admitted to festival screenings of this film unless in the company of a parent or adult guardian.

More Suburban Mayhem (West)

In new Australian drama West, Pete (Clubland's Khan Chittenden) spends his time hanging out on the mean streets of outer suburban Sydney, shooting pool at the pub and smoking pot with his cousin and best mate, Jerry (Nathan Phillips). They're both interested in Cheryl (Gillian Alexy) but Pete knows Jerry'll get there first.

While his cousin starts showing signs of wanting to settle down (starting with a job at a fried chicken shop), Pete's life seems to spiral slowly out of control. Flirting with Cheryl behind Jerry's back, drinking, dealing drugs and getting caught up in increasingly violent altercations with local thugs, Pete seems to lose sight of what really matters. Meanwhile his chances of "getting out" are on the wane...

The wrong-side-of-the-tracks film is an indie staple stateside. This Australian variant doesn't succeed in updating the well-worn genre and seems happy to simply recycle the classic coming-of-age elements of more successful productions.

There was an opportunity here to tell a uniquely Australian story, but while the film certainly has a good sense of place, it aims only to give its cliché-ridden tale a local flavour. It's as if the filmmakers' objective had been to make West "as good as" the American indies who inspired it, rather than to tell a personal, original story.

Even the sleek, gorgeous cinematography cries of attention-seeking professionalism when a dirty, gritty look might've lent the film the air of authenticity it sorely lacks. While West is Daniel Krige's feature film debut, he is an experienced writer and director with several shorts and TV episodes behind him. Here his direction is confident and efficient, it's the screenwriting which falters somewhat.

Daniel Krige wrote the first draft of West more than twenty years ago when he was sixteen, and it shows. Instead of trusting the drama inherent in Pete's journey, the film lays it on too thick. The thin social commentary seems only a pretext for romanticised scenes of harsh street justice. The violence is gruesome and cinematic, a devalued narrative currency which ups the ante artificially, until the characters' motivations becomes unrecognisable or plain hard to believe.

We need to like Pete, or at least care enough to accompany him through these rites of passage. However his violent behaviour, like the viciousness he allows around him, doesn't feel like something he's inherited, growing up in the wrong place. It comes across as something written into his character with the misplaced hope of raising the dramatic stakes.

It's a shame really, as clearly a lot of effort went into this, and from very talented people. The actors, especially, do a fine job with the material they've been given. Rising star Khan Chittenden does a particularly fine job considering the impossible task of portraying a character who behaves like a violent, careless idiot while retaining the audience's sympathy.

Caught between its desire to entertain us and its attempt at gritty authenticity, West fails to convince us that Pete, Jerry or Cheryl don't eventually deserve what's they've obviously got coming to them...

West screens at the Sydney Film Festival on June 13th before an Australian theatrical release on July 5th 2007.