Archive for August, 2007

TIFF 2007: Preliminaries, Part 2

Published
by
James McNally
on August 16, 2007
in Film Festivals and TIFF
. 1 Comment

Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow (Director: Garth Jennings): This premiered at Sundance this year and I’ve been hoping it would make it to TIFF. Set in the 80s, the film tells the story of a boy raised in a strict religious home who has never seen a film until a school friend shows him Rambo and the two boys decide to make their own film version. This gentle comedy will probably be overshadowed when the broader farce Be Kind Rewind comes out, but any film that celebrates the DIY filmmaking spirit is worth my time.

Official Site

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Silent Light (Luz silenciosa)

Silent Light (Luz silenciosa) (Director: Carlos Reygadas): Lots of buzz on this one, about a community of Mennonites in northern Mexico. A married man’s faith is put to the test when he falls for another woman. Co-winner of the Jury Prize (with Persepolis) at this year’s Cannes (and nominated for the Palme d’Or). A curious item is that a certain Miriam Toews is credited with the role of the man’s wife. I’m wondering if it’s the same Miriam Toews who wrote Swing Low, A Complicated Kindness, and other beautifully-written tales of her Mennonite upbringing in Manitoba. From the trailer, I’m pretty sure it’s her.

Note: “Stellet Licht,” as seen in the poster, is the title in the Plautdietsch dialect of German that the Mennonites speak.

Trailer
Official Site

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Secret Sunshine (Milyang)

Secret Sunshine (Milyang) (Director: Lee Chang-dong): I’ve also heard quite a lot about this film, which is about a woman who moves with her young son to the town where her recently-deceased husband was born, only for tragedy to strike again. Though some critics have called it melodramatic, I think that’s pretty standard for Korean cinema, limited as my experience with it has been. Jeon Do-yeon won the Best Actress award at Cannes this year, and the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or. As well, Song Kang-ho (who was great in The Host), plays her new suitor.

Trailer
Official Site

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TIFF 2007: Preliminaries, Part 1

Published
by
James McNally
on August 15, 2007
in Film Festivals and TIFF
. 1 Comment

The lineup announcements for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival are coming fast and furious these days, with the full list of films to be announced on August 28th. I’m already having a hard time limiting myself to just ten films. I’m starting a new job in the next few weeks and can’t spare any time off, so I’m limiting myself to films on the weekends and in the evenings. Since I already have more than ten films, I’m hoping that laying them out here might help me narrow them down. Feel free to make comments, I could use the advice! Here are some I’m considering strong contenders:

Control

Control (Director: Anton Corbijn): Biopic about doomed Joy Division singer Ian Curtis shot in moody black and white by famed rock photographer. I’m sure this will look amazing. I’m hopeful that the script and acting will pass muster, since the only recognizable name attached is Samantha Morton, playing Curtis’ wife, upon whose memoir the script is based. Mixed reception at Cannes, though it won an Honorable Mention for the Camera d’Or (for first films) and, in the Director’s Fortnight, won the Prix Regards Jeunes/Young Eyes Prize and the Label Europa Cinéma Prize (best European film).

Trailer
Official Site

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Persepolis

Persepolis (Directors: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud): Based upon Satrapi’s graphic novels about her adolescence in revolutionary Iran in the late 70s and early 80s. I’ve read the first book and the fact that Satrapi is bringing her own images and stories to the screen is a big plus. Co-winner of the Jury Prize (with Silent Light (Luz silenciosa)) at this year’s Cannes (and nominated for the Palme d’Or).

Teaser
Trailer
Official Site

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Jar City (Mýrin)

Jar City (Mýrin) (Director: Baltasar Kormákur): I’ve been following the work of Iceland’s Baltasar Kormákur since I saw both his work as an actor in Angels of the Universe (2000) and his directorial debut 101 Reykjavik (2000) at TIFF. His latest film is based on the bestselling novel Tainted Blood, by Arnaldur Indriðason, and it’s been the most successful Icelandic film in history, selling more than 100,000 tickets. That means that about a third of the country’s population has seen it. Here’s the canned synopsis, but make sure you check out the (unsubtitled) trailer for this stylish-looking thriller:

“An elderly man is found murdered in his basement flat. Inspector Erlendur and his crew don’t have much to go by in the investigation, but a photograph of a young girl’s grave gives them a lead. They discover that many years ago the victim was accused, though not convicted, of horrible crimes. Did the old man’s past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very cold case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man — with clues knit into the genetic bloodline of an entire country.”

Trailer
Official Site

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80 Years of Women in Film

Published
by
James McNally
on August 6, 2007
in Actors
. Closed

Check out this incredible video collage that morphs the faces of some of the great screen goddesses of the past 80 years. It’s eerie how it feels like we’re looking at just one woman.

Men At Work (Kargaran mashghoole karand)

Published
by
Jason Chu
on August 1, 2007
in DVD, DVD Clubs and Film Movement
. Closed

Men At Work (Kargaran mashghoole karand)

Kargaran mashghoole karand (Men At Work) (Director: Mani Haghighi, Iran, 2006): Kargaran mashghoole karand (Men At Work) begins with four middle-aged men driving home to catch an important football match on television. Three of them are talking and joking around while the other naps. He wakes up and bugs them until they finally pull over and allow him to make a pit-stop on the side of the road on the edge of a canyon. While they are stopped, they discover a tall, narrow rock formation sticking out of the ground. This film is about their attempts at trying to figure out how it got there, but ultimately how to knock it down.

It doesn’t sound like a very intriguing story, but somehow it is. And funny. The situation these men impose upon themselves can surely be a metaphor for any kind of obstacle that one may face in life, or it could really just be about how difficult it is to dislodge a big rock from the earth.

Through alternating moments of silence, comedic and almost slap-stick antics, emotional outbursts and acts of desperation, we learn of these mens’ relationships with women (two of which conveniently show up, join the challenge for a while, and then leave) and each other, but mainly we see how differently they each deal with this “problem.”

Men At Work (Kargaran mashghoole karand)

I have seen a few Iranian films from the past few years, and most of them are about women and their struggles within their culture. This film, however, may focus on the possibly neglected point of view of the men, and perhaps this is why the offensive rock is quite, well, phallic. Is this a commentary on the different attitudes that some Iranian men may have about their male-dominated society? If so, then how does one explain the relatively passive attitudes of the women who show up? (One can make a metaphor of anything, I suppose.)

In the end, after periods of working together and then literally giving up and leaving someone behind, the four friends learn that sometimes problems can solve themselves.