netherlands

European Union Film Festival 2011

by James McNally on November 20, 2011 · 3 comments

in Film Festivals

European Union Film Festival (November 17-30)

Now in its sev­enth year in Toronto, the European Union Film Festival is still a little under the radar for most film fans in our city, and that’s a shame. For one, it’s the only film fest­ival I’m aware of where all screen­ings are FREE. But quite apart from that, it offers a huge selec­tion of cinema from a wide range of cul­tures, and in a mul­ti­cul­tural city like Toronto, that makes some of the screen­ings feel like impromptu gath­er­ings for various out­posts of the European dia­spora. Just last year, I was in a screening of Slovenian film Landscape No. 2 (review) and real­ized that long-distance swimmer (and sub­ject of the fas­cin­ating doc­umenary Big River Man (review)) Martin Strel was in the audi­ence too.

This year’s fest­ival takes place from November 17-30th and all screen­ings take place at the Royal Cinema (608 College Street).

The films are a mix of new and old, stuff that plays high pro­file fest­ivals like TIFF and films that rarely play out­side their country’s bor­ders. In other words, it’s really an unmiss­able oppor­tunity to peer into some rarely-glimpsed corners of the world through cinema. Here are a few I’m looking for­ward to seeing:

The Other Side of Sleep

The Other Side of Sleep (Ireland, Director: Rebecca Daly) — screening Tuesday November 29th at 6:00pm

Having recently played at Cannes and TIFF, this film might have the finest ped­i­gree in the pro­gram. Arlene is a young woman prone to sleep­walking. One morning she wakes up out­side next to the dead body of another young woman. As sus­pi­cion grows in her small com­munity, Arlene finds she’s unable to sleep, mixing her dreams and reality.

Stricken

Stricken (The Netherlands, Director: Reinout Oerlemans) — screening Tuesday November 29th at 8:30pm

Featuring the gor­geous Carice van Houten (Black Book) as a woman dia­gnosed with breast cancer, Stricken focuses on her hus­band Stijn and his choices. When her ill­ness shat­ters his per­fect life, he escapes into a world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And soon into the arms of another woman.

Lapland Odyssey

Lapland Odyssey (Finland, Director: Dome Karukoski) — screening Wednesday November 23rd at 6:00pm

A treat from TIFF 2010, Lapland Odyssey is a road comedy about a trio of losers who head out one winter night in search of a “digibox” for Janne’s girlfriend’s tele­vi­sion. He’s screwed up so many times with her that her ulti­matum (get one by morning or I’m out of here) sends the friends off on a ridicu­lous and frozen quest. I’ve seen and reviewed this already but would recom­mend it if you like Nordic comedy. I’m hoping to catch it again, in any case.

P.S. Vancouver also has a European Union Film Festival run­ning from November 25-December 8. They might have a nicer web­site and get to see The Artist, but they also charge for tickets. Ours is FREE! :)

Tagged as: #euff11, europe, europeanfilmfestival, finland, ireland, netherlands, preview

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Eh! U European Film Festival 2009

by James McNally on October 28, 2009

in Film Festivals

Eh! U European Film Festival 2009

Now in its fifth edi­tion, the Eh! U European Film Festival seems to be really hit­ting its stride. Billing itself as “the free film fest­ival” (since all screen­ings are sub­sid­ized by the various European con­su­lates), this two-week fest­ival is really a gift to the city’s cinephiles. This year fea­tures 26 films from 23 coun­tries, and among them are no fewer than six sub­mis­sions for the Foreign Language Academy Award. I’ll high­light those six, but be sure to check the fest­ival site for others, as well as the schedule. Screenings mostly take place at the Royal Cinema, with the excep­tions of the opening night film, The Karamazovs (Czech Republic) which plays at the Bloor Cinema, and the closing film, El Greco (Greece) which will screen at the Varsity. In addi­tion to the high-profile films listed below, I can per­son­ally recom­mend an older film from Belgium in the pro­gramme, The Alzheimer Case (review), which screened at TIFF back in 2004.

The fol­lowing are offi­cial sub­mis­sions by their coun­tries for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film:

P.S. For the curious, here’s the com­plete list of sub­mis­sions for Best Foreign Language Film.

Tagged as: #euff09, austria, belgium, bulgaria, europeanfilmfestival, france, germany, netherlands, romania

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WWSFF: Opening Night Gala Programme

by James McNally on June 12, 2007

in Film Festivals

The Danish Poet
The Danish Poet

Tonight’s pro­gramme con­sisted of award-winning shorts released in 2006, and just watching them one after another led me to a few con­clu­sions about short films in gen­eral. To com­pare them to written works, they’re a bit like poems to a fea­ture film’s novel. And to com­pare to spoken word, they’re like jokes as opposed to sagas. With such a short amount of time, they need to make their points quickly, so there is often a high “clev­erness” factor and the end­ings often feel like the punch line of a joke. This can work well, but a film that stands out is one that doesn’t make these tropes so obvious. Here, in my order of enjoy­ment, are tonight’s selections:

  • The Danish Poet (Canada/Norway, 2006): With lovely nar­ra­tion from Liv Ullmann, this story felt the most organic and the least gim­micky. Even though there is a sort of punch­line “payoff” at the end, it’s tele­graphed early enough to set us down gently. The whim­sical anim­a­tion style and always-great use of anim­ated (but non-speaking) animals made this a worthy Oscar-winner this year. Check out the film’s web site. (9/10)
  • Dreams and Desires — Family Ties (UK, 2006): Another anim­ated short, this one clev­erly used anim­ated sketches to sim­u­late a wed­ding video filmed by the oddly cinephilic Beryl, a large woman of grand­moth­erly vin­tage. Her attempts to film the dis­astrous occa­sion in the styles of famous dir­ectors from Eistenstein to Riefenstahl, all the while keeping up a steady stream-of-consciousness nar­ra­tion, keeps this one rol­licking along, des­pite the nearly impen­et­rable accents. (9/10)
  • Tanghi Argentini (Belgium, 2006): This is a charming tale of an office drone who just might be an angel. André needs to learn to tango in two weeks so he can meet his Internet crush, so he turns to his col­league Frans to help teach him to dance. Will love bloom? (8/10)
  • Contact (Raak) (Netherlands, 2006): Three char­ac­ters paths cross again and again in this cleverly-edited short. There’s that word “clever” again. (7/10)
  • The Substitute (Il Supplente) (Italy, 2006): A class of high-school stu­dents is ter­ror­ized by a Scott Thompson (ex-Kids in the Hall) lookalike, who then gets his comeup­pance. Funny in an odd sort of way. (7/10)
  • Make A Wish (Atmenah) (USA, 2006): A straight­for­ward, almost documentary-like tale of a young girl who will go to any lengths to get a spe­cial birthday cake. Only it’s set in the West Bank. The film­making is pretty rudi­mentary and there’s a bit of a (tragic) punch­line at the end. (6/10)
  • Imagine This (Australia/Ireland, 2006): Sometimes a short should also be a “small.” Using found internet footage to make George W. Bush “sing” John Lennon’s “Imagine” was a pretty funny idea. But it really shouldn’t have made it off the YouTube site. (5/10)

Tagged as: animation, belgium, canada, denmark, italy, netherlands, norway, palestine, shorts, uk, worldwideshortfilmfest

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