Missy | September 10, 2007
No Country for Old Men line, 8:25 am. I had Gang Of Four piping into my ears in order to maintain some semblence of being awake.
Gosh, this is a long time coming. I’m already 10 films in! I’m hoping that tonight is the night I make it to bed before 2 and suck in enough sleep to muscle through a 5 film day tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m going to cram this post into the 20 minutes that I have to suck down a beer and get kicked out of this bar.
My two favorite films thus far–and what a way to start my festival!–are Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas’ about infidelity among Mexican Mennonites, and No Country for Old Men, the Coens’ adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy book of the same name. The poetic, Ordet-ian Reygadas film is visually and aurally arresting and contains my favorite scene of the year (the bathing scene), while the Coens’ film is taut and violent, with the violence becoming seemingly more arbitrary as the film goes on, wearing down and ultimately moving past the soon-to-be-retired sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones in one of his best roles in recent memory). Though the Mennonites may appeal only to the art-film types, everyone should see No Country.
Crowd favorites include Jason Reitman’s Juno and Julie Taymor’s musical Across the Universe. Juno takes some patience to settle into-it’s a little too cute & hip. But the performances (including the supporting cast) give the film a great deal of feeling that ends on an emotionally rewarding note. Taymor’s film was less Taymor than I was hoping–I have so much admiration for her vision and imagination, but was disappointed in what seemed to be a cliche-ridden script that was handed to her. That said, the musical arrangements, something like 33 Beatles songs in total, were for the most part pretty terrific, made more awesome by the fact that most of the vocal tracks were recorded live on set. The audience actually burst into applause after several of the bigger group numbers (while I got excited by the number of scenes shot in Red Hook, Brooklyn).
Other mentionables: The documentary My Kid Could Paint That disappointed me for its lack of (perceived) support (or, maybe, understanding) of modern art but was, overall, interesting enough for its ethical questions raised on the part of the media and the filmmaker (not to mention the parents of the supposed prodigy); Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching is a 2.5 hour film about a Rembrandt painting, and you know what? It’s kind of good (especially for lead actor Martin Freeman). Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly takes some risk in its perspective (I’ll say no more) to make a feel good/tragedy movie more effective. I’m hoping his second film at the festival, Lou Reed’s Berlin screens at BAM or somewhere because I missed the actual Lou Reed show at St. Ann’s in DUMBO and missing the screening here (unless I shove it in somewhere). Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, about a skate park/murder, affected me less than a few others I’ve spoken to, though there are some standout scenes–the sonically jarring shower scene for one (what is it with me & bathing scenes). Overall, given the gruesome card that the film played, it felt too slight. I was also disappointed to discover that Van Sant’s not a charismatic fellow: the Q&A felt a little awkward. Not that I should be too surprised by an introverted artist with a lack of public speaking ability.
My next update should happen around Thursday evening. It’s another poker night that night (I was first out at last night’s event, distracted by socializing with all the people I see only once a year) but my films finish surprisingly early. I don’t have that many photos to share; believe it or not, I also brought a film camera and have been shooting a little with that. But no chemicals, obv. I do overpack, though.
Cheers!
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