Of films and the like...

OK so first time on the computer at home for over a week, my larger computer having given up the ghost and my small one not being ideal for typing in cold weather...I feel very much the luddite...then again I do use computers all day everyday at work and my non-computer having state has simply "forced" me to use my PS3 more so maybe not. Oh well, time to stop grumbling and re-enter internet land on my small computer...cold fingers on small keyboard NOT FUN!

I am reminded that I promised a blog on last month's film festival and don't say I don't deliver on my promises...though don't look back at past posts either because then it becomes abundantly obvious that I regularly don't. This year marks my sixth year of Sydney Film Festival attendance and sad to say it was a bit of a let down...no gripes to the organisers as I'm sure the fault is partially mine as I got in late and missed out on some films I was super keen to see like the new Wes Anderson and instead wound up with some films I wasn't super keen on. In the end I saw eight films from six countries and it is just sad that from my point of view two of the eight were not brilliant, and another one was variable. So from the top in the order I saw them Clare's run down of her film selections from Sydney Film Festival 2012:

Tatsumi

Love me some anime but this film is not for those who think cartoons/ animation is just for kids. The film is the autobiography of Yoshihiro Tatsumi one of the pioneers of manga for adults and it is interwoven with animated versions of some of his works. Tatsumi's works are quite confronting even the ones earlier in the film that contain less sex and sexual imagery as the latter ones, as are some of the moments of his life. I almost cried at one point in the film and there are definitely moments that tug at the heart strings. Whilst this film wasn't the greatest film, it was told with an honesty and an admiration that is admirable and it is definitely worth seeing for anyone interested in manga and anime.

Play It Like Godard (or JC Comme Jesus Christ to give it, its French title)

It's a long while since I've seen a truly good mockumentary and I thoroughly enjoyed being reminded of how funny a good mockumentary can be with this little French film. It follows a fictional French film directing protege who at the age of 15 won the Palme Dor and is now making a new film. It charts his strained relationship with his parents, his dreadful treatment of his similar brilliant teenaged girlfriend (though academically not artistically brilliant in her case), his affairs with several much older women, and his being hero worshiped by every actor on the block. Ultimately it is an hilarious story of the manipulation of youth by fame albeit tinged with slight sadness and longing for a time when children could be children.

Last Call at the Oasis

There is one every year and was the 2012 film to make me cry. This documentary about water usage, shortage and contamination around the world (though mainly in the US) is not going to set the world alight with its brilliance as a documentary but it is talking about a timely and important issue and this makes it worth the viewing. I challenge any Australian who knows anyone from rural communities who has struggled through the recent years of drought not to cry in the brief section where the documentary team visits rural Victoria and talks to farmers and a community support worker...it brings grown, very tough looking men to tears on the screen and you can tell that this is not through any kind of manipulation.

Liberal Arts

This film simultaneously marked both my highlight of the festival and little did I know at the time, the preemptive brilliance to be followed by mid-festival slump. Written, directed and starring Josh Radnor (Ted from How I Met Your Mother) this is one of those films like Garden State or Reality Bites about the generation of people, often men, in their mid 20s to mid 30s who forsake growing up for a state eternal youth often coupled with a longing to return to their college years. It tells the story of an mid thirties college admissions officer in New York with little in his life of note- he hates his job and he was just dumped by his girlfriend- who returns to the liberal arts college he attended to give a speech at the retirement party for his "second" favourite college lecturer. Radnor's character is a little like Ted in HIMYM but that doesn't bother me as I find Ted mildly endearing and also as Radnor has landed himself an outstanding supporting cast, Elizabeth Olsen (the Olsen to watch...forget her big sisters) is brilliant with the 18 year old the main character has an ill thought out semi relationship with as is Richard Jenkins as his retired professor BUT the true highlights of the films are Alison Janney as his icy English professor (the scene between Radnor and Janney is one of my highlights of the film and it just made my West Wing obsessed brain love her more) and in completely shocking turn of events, Zac Efron as a random young guy who the main character encounters on campus (the boy can actual act...Who knew?!?! And he is hi...wait for it...larious! (sorry Barney reference had to be made)). I just say watch it as if I go on much longer I'll start quoting it and ruin it for you...it was a film that inspired me to want to listen to classical music and write proper letters...and in the best possible way.

The King of Pigs

One of the true low lights of my festival, this, at times quite brutal, Korean anime about school bullying and class differences seemed to last an eternity. It follows two men in their 30s (? maybe late 20s) who meet to discuss when they were both bullied in high school, and their high school years unfold in flashback sequences which are actually the focus of the film. The brutality of the film didn't bother me (though as a lot of the bullying takes place in a class room, the absence of teachers wigged me out a little) but for a film with quite a lot going on it dragged and dragged and dragged...my friend and I left after the film shocked to find that it was only about a hour and a half long as it had felt like over three hours. There was good material at the base of this film (school bullying, class differences, the impact of high school on attitudes later in life, etc.) but its pacing left a lot to be desired.

Dead Europe

My Australian film for the festival. I found this film quite variable as it had some very strong points and other points that didn't quite gel with me. Based on the Christos Tsiolkas novel of the same name, Dead Europe follows an Australian photographer's journey to the small Greek village his parents immigrated from in order to scatter his father's ashes and then his subsequent journeys to Paris (to visit an old friend of his father's) and Budapest (to visit his elder brother). I'll say up front that I haven't read the novel, though avid readers of this blog, if there are any, will recall I read Tsiolkas's The Slap last year and found it quite brilliant if confronting. Dead Europe had some very strong points- the performance of Ewen Leslie as the main character and Cody Smit-McPhee as the young boy he meets in Athens were outstanding, and the cinematography was quite brilliant- but the pacing was slow and there was a feeling that something had been lost in the translation to screen (the director was at the screening and explained during a Q&A that the novel was set in two time periods but they only used one in the film and this explained my feeling that something was missing). At a push I'd say see it to support our film industry (especially as it is better than a lot of the Hollywood crap that is sure to rake home the big bucks this year) and also to see what are some very fine performances even if other components are missing.

The Loneliest Planet

Last year when my film festival highlights was Even the Rain, a Mexican film starring Gael Garcia Bernal and true be told that man is so attractive that I'd pretty much watch anything if he was in. Sadly this film is about the limit of that equation. Set in the Georgian wildness, it is story of two American backpackers (yes from the United States though Bernal's accent is very much still Latin American) and their guide as they hike through the wilderness. That is pretty much it...nothing much happens and you find out very little about the characters and the characters barely talk...all that can be said is that the scenery is pretty as is Bernal but you can only content yourself with that for so long. This film is quite amazingly boring and there is next to no plot except the hiking.

Wuthering Heights

Thankfully for all involved, my festival didn't end with The Loneliest Planet but with the brilliant new adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (having seen and loved Jane Eyre at last year's festival, Sydney Film Festivals are definitely adding to my love of the Bronte sisters). This adaptation is so innovative (I hate using that term though) that it will leave some cold as it did several people at the screening I attended. I won't bother with a plot summary of Wuthering Heights as I assume you know it and if you don't, FOR SHAME...go and read the book!  This production is insanely stripped back, the language is sparse (much of it is cuss words...I never thought I'd hear the c word in period drama but I've been proven wrong) and the performances are outstanding (Effie from Skins plays the older Cathy the fact of which entertained me...though her performance was brilliant). The swearing and the lack of dialogue are not everyone's cup of tea and I heard one woman remark as she left the screening "I'm sure Emily Bronte wouldn't have approved of the language"...but I disagree! The stronger language is employed mainly by one character, Hindley Earnshaw, (though Heathcliff does also swear a little) and it is completely in line with Bronte's portrayal of the Earnshaws are a lower class farming family and Hindley as just a generally unpleasant individual. The other major difference from previous version of the novel is that the actor who plays Heathcliff is black which adds an addition interesting level of complexity to the film. My only downside was that the film is that like most adaptations of the novel stops before the latter section of the novel...not going to give anything away by saying what happens about two thirds through the book, but needless to stay most adaptations stop there and I quite like the latter section (I know many don't) so I often feel a little cheated there. That said this adaptation is totally worth seeing even for the unconverted to the novel's brilliance...as an added bonus there is brilliant (newish) Mumford and Sons song over the closing credits.

So there is my Film Festival for you...next post the beginning of books, many books...to come tomorrow, it was to also be tonight but my hands are too cold from typing on small keyboard and it is near midnight on a weeknight...