Missy | September 14, 2006
Heads on line, Church Street, Toronto
Where was I? I think I’ve seen 10 films since I last posted. The highlights:
Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s Offside presents a celebratory moment when Iran beat Bahrain to qualify for the World Cup. In Iran, however, women are forbidden to attend games and often dress as men to try to sneak in. I have a soft spot for Iranian cinema and this one especially affected me through the Iranians’ joy, spirit, and excitement at the end; and yet, it doesn’t let Iran off the hook for a second when it comes to their dreadful stance on women’s rights.
I found Day on Fire rather arresting…part mood piece, part contrived plot. The mood piece piece of it hooked me hard. It’s political without advocating anything other than the consequences of violence in all of its forms. During the Q&A, Olympia Dukakis actually choked up; I get it, even if some of the (oft repeated) dialogue is only weakly metaphoric and the music too new-agey. (Also, Sweetwater Cafe makes an appearance.)
My favorite film of the festival is Shane Meadows’ This is England, a semi-autobiographical film about growing up in England in the early 80’s and, specifically, the gradations (and corruption) of the skinhead movement. The lead performance–by 11 year old Thomas Turgoose, a non-actor who was described as a bit of a little punk and whom they found in an arcade–is remarkable. (And I loved his little sweaters with various animals on them, before he made the transformation to shaved head, boots, and braces, even though he was throwing the f-word around like nobody’s business.)
Others: Alain Resnais’ Coeurs, all soft filters and unhappiness. Tsai’s latest, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone revisits old themes of water and grime; its plot, if one must use that word, creates parallel versions of caretaking (the invalid in each case is played by the same actor). The film doesn’t really hold up against Tsai’s other works, although many (including myself) praise the film’s wackier turn in the last 20-30 minutes. American Hardcore is a very full and loosely structured film (but by no means a complete one) with some really terrific footage of early-80’s punk shows (including Bad Brains). It’s fun.
I recommend avoiding Little Children; if it were possible for tales of suburbia to become any more annoying, it would be to add a voiceover narration that undermines what perfectly skilled actors are capable of conveying. And hey, that’s exactly what this film does!
I’m hearing that Shortbus is a winner, while All the King’s Men is a resounding stinker. Use that hearsay in whatever way you wish.
UPDATE: I had my only walk-out of the festival, at my last film In Between Days. Maybe it was fatigue, since the film was widely liked, but I suspect I just didn’t care to watch two adolescents being very adolescent-y. “And yet you sat through Colossal Youth,” said Mike. It’s true, and I kind of didn’t hate it the more it sits with me the more I admire it. The photography and photogenic presence of Ventura, the film’s primary “character”, is astounding–it kept my interest for the 2.5 hour runtime simply because I was so inspired. (I can’t shake an image of the tall Venture standing in a white room and yet slumped over at the waist.) We had caught wind that there was a mistake in the version being screened, that the last reel was subtitled in French rather than English. This was also true, and they handed out copies of the translated dialogue for the final two scenes, although there were a couple of scenes that I had to rely on Sam, who speaks French, whispering translations in my ear. Try hearing Portuguese and whispers of English while scanning French subtitles and attempting to read a piece of paper in the dark. Your brain will scramble!
Later, I was well on my way to amassing a small fortune in the movie nerd poker game, which I then quite quickly lost when I made a dipshit move of calling a ballsy raise with a Q-4 hand pre-flop. A few blinks later I was done.
Twas fun. This was a good festival.
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