September 19, 2001
Filmfest 2001 Wrap Up
So it’s all over, and time to summarize.
My favourite films? Two pretty much tie for top honours in my mind:
- LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMÉLIE POULAIN, the totally contrived and
wonderfully fun fable about a girl that does her best to improve the lives
of those around her, and
- ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS, the un-Dogme like Dogme film from Denmark, about
six characters who become friends and lovers through an Italian evening
course, totally natural in feel, with a completely winning take on life.
Both of these will show up on screens later this year, and I want to hear
from each and everyone of you when you’ve gone to see them.
Here’s how I rate all the films, with best memories at the top of each
highly subjective categorey, plus a quick comment
Serious Films
- ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS - Great fun film, serious only in that it felt so natural
- THE SON’S ROOM - Thoughtful, moving
- THE ROAD - Transported me to a foreign land
- MARKOVA: COMFORT GAY - Strong performances by father and sons playing same character at differnet ages
- LOIN - Africa’s poor attempt to cross the sea to Spain
- LA CIENAGA - Argentinian class warfare
- HOTEL - difficult to watch film within a film, unappealing characters
- JE RENTRE À LA MAISON - French actor grieves, too long by half
- HI, TERESKA - Depressing life on Warsaw youths
Fun Films
- LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMÉLIE POULAIN - Throughly brilliant, Standing Ovation!
- NOSFERATU - so much fun with the symphony playing live
- MA FEMME ET UNE ACTRICE - well realized take on living with fame
- JOY RIDE - Too far fetched, but Steve Zahn makes thriller a lot of fun
- THE FLUFFER - Surprisingly good film about ingenue in crazy porn business
- THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT - Crazy retro-future-musical-space western cult flick
- HOW HARRY BECAME A TREE - Colm Meany does great job as crusty Irish madman
- MULHOLLAND DRIVE - Makes no sense, but its a fun ride on a very windy road
- WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE - Japanese fable about the magic life can bring
- EMIL & THE DETECTIVES - fun movie for kids who can read
- ART OF WOO - fun, but ridiculous coincidences pile up too high
- MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS - Mick Jagger’s good, but suffers from far-fetchedness
- MIRROR IMAGE - a nice intro to the Taipei subway, story otherwise ho-hum
Could have been Fun Films
- MAGONIA - starts nicely, gets a bit wonky, then loses it
- ZUS & ZO - characters are uniformly ghastly
- ABSOLUMENT FABULEUX - French destroy Brit comedy series
Documentaries
- MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING - fun film - it was Marlowe I tell ya!
- MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING - fun film - it was Marlowe I tell ya!
- LOSS IS TO BE EXPECTED - deftly crafted look at two sides of fallen iron curtain
- FACING THE MUSIC - engrossing examination of underfunded university in Australia
- THE FRANK TRUTH - fun but too polite look at muckraking Frank Magazine
- COOL AND CRAZY - charming but occasionally slow look at eccentric men’s choir
- CHOP SUEY - eye candy galore, but too self indulgent on part of Bruce Weber
- ANIMAL LOVE - people who love their pets too much, whom we don’t want to know
Who won what awards? Here they are, copied of the festival’s website:
AGF PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD: LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMÉLIE POULAIN Jean-Pierre
Jeunet, France
Runners Up: 2. MAYA Digvijay Singh, USA 3. MONSOON WEDDING Mira Nair, India
VOLKSWAGEN DISCOVERY AWARD: CHICKEN RICE WAR CheeK, Singapore
Voted on by the accredited Press Corps of the Toronto International Film
Festival for a film by a first or second time director.
FIPRESCI AWARD: INCH’ALLAH DIMANCHE Yamina Benguigui, France
For its sensitivity and fresh humour in dealing with the conditions of
Third World women, daily racism, and clashes between cultures, the FIPRESCI
Award goes to INCH’ALLAH DIMANCHE by Yamina Benguigui.
Special Mention: BE MY STAR by Valeska Grisebach (Austria/Germany), because
of the justness of its documentary-like style in observing bittersweet
teenage love.
Special Mention: KHALED by Asghar Massombagi (Canada) because of its skill
in turning a small-scale mother and son story into a poignant human drama.
This year’s FIPRESCI Jury members are: Atilla Dorsay, Sabah, Turkey - Jury
President; Eduardo Antin, el Amante Cine/Tres Puntos, Argentina; Jan Aghed,
Sydsvenska Dagbladet, Sweden; and Réal La Rochelle, 24 Images, Canada.
NFB - JOHN SPOTTON AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM: DZAMA deco dawson,
Canada
For its unique artistic vision that pays hommage to a contemporary artist
using the vocabulary of early filmmakers, the NFB John Spotton Award goes
to deco dawson’s FILM(DZAMA).
CITYTV AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM: INERTIA Sean Garrity, Canada
For its visual flair and comic sensibility which heralds the arrival of a
filmmaker of great promise, the Citytv Award for Best Canadian First
Feature Film goes to Sean Garrity’s INERTIA.
TORONTO - CITY AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM: ATANARJUAT (THE FAST
RUNNER) Zacharias Kunuk, Canada
For its sophisticated telling of a mythic tale that reflects the
complexities of the human spirit, the Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian
Feature Film goes to Zacharias Kunuk for ATANARJUAT (THE FAST RUNNER).
That’s it! I hope this will help you find a couple of good films in the
coming year. Cheers!
Craig James White
Toronto - jacket not required
Posted by rae under reviews | Comments (0)
September 18, 2001
ZUS & ZO
is a dutch film about a trio of sisters who are alarmed to find
that their brother is about to marry before his 33rd birthday. Why are they
concerned? Well first, they’ve always known he’s gay, and second, if he
marries before his 33rd birthday, their late father’s will stipulates that
he will inherit the family’s seaside hotel in the Portugal. So comedy
should ensue while the sisters scheme to keep the hotel, right?
Well, it should, and it would have had we actually liked some of these
characters. The sisters however can’t keep from stabbing each other in the
back and the brother and his intended are just as selfish. And what’s with
the brother anyway? His sexually confused character is so badly realized so
as to be completely unbelievable. I could be more detailed in my
complaints, but it all just came down to two lost hours. I doubt you’ll be
faced by ZUS & ZO
in theatres here anytime soon.
EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES
is a German childrens’ film about country boy Emil
who ends up in the big bad city with no money after a man he meets on the
train ride in robs him while he sleeps.
Things start looking up for Emil when he meets Pony and her intrepid gang
of kid detectives. Kid wackiness follows as we travel through Berlin’s
catacombs, subway system, and into one of its best hotels in search of
Emil’s missing cash. Loopy and kind of delightful for any kid that wants to
read subtitles,
EMIL was a winning package.
HOW HARRY BECAME A TREE
tells the early 20th century story of Harry
Maloney, Irish cabbage farmer. Harry decides that a man is measured by his
enemies, so he sets out to make a good one. George is a merchant and the
wealthiest man in town. He’s never done anything to Harry, and has even
found a bride for Harry’s son, but Harry has him in his sights.
The cast is uniformly good, but it’s
Colm Meany’s terrific performance as
craggy old Harry that will be remembered in the long run in this fable
about the folly of having a cold heart.
COOL AND CRAZY
tells the story of a men’s choir from Berlevag, and small
fishing town a the far northern (and often freezing) tip of Norway. This
documentary, which lurches between plodding and hilarious, introduces us to
the eccentric characters who give this remote town a little more life than
most, and then takes us on their journey to Murmansk in Russia for a
special concert. Very simple, and very charming. For a quiet winter night
snuggled up with the Documentary channel.
The festival ended for me with another “documentary” by
Ulrich Seidel, (the
guy that made
LOSS IS TO BE EXPECTED
- see Filmfest 2001 - 01)
ANIMAL LOVE.
Another “unblinking eye” kind of film, we sit while the craziest assortment
of people, mostly down-and-outers from Vienna, interact with the pets they
love, usually a little too much. Mostly a little too odd, and a little too
dull, often so intimate that it’s difficlut to watch,
ANIMAL LOVE builds to
a nutty climax at least… but, if ever a film at the festival missed a Q &
A, this was the one.
Seidel
should have been there two answer two questions
- where did you find these people, and why did you need to put them on film?
Craig James White
Toronto - jacket not required
Posted by rae under reviews | Comments (0)
September 17, 2001
Ever wanted to see a retro-future-musical-space-western? Well, the best one
around has got to be
THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT.
Created by one-man-film-industry
Cory McAbee
(writer, director, lead actor, musician,
and composer), this totally wacky flick tells the story of Samuel Curtis,
sort of a space courier who trades a boxed “real-live-girl” to the all male
planet of Jupiter for a sixteen year old boy that the all female planet of
Venus wants. While transporting the boy safely, Curtis has to contend with
the nefarious and more than a little obsessed Professor Hess who is
pursuing them both, plus a pair of deranged space farmers, badly affected
by years of living in a weightless environment.
And then there are the dance numbers. Put it all together, and you get what
will become a cult movie, maybe not of
ROCKY HORROR proportions, but one
that will be appreciated for its unique craziness for years.
MIRROR IMAGE
is a Taiwanese “romantic comedy” (not terribly heavy on
either) about a pawn shop owner and his mysterious girlfriend who figures
they can all make more money selling unclaimed items on the Taipei subway.
Being a transit buff, I went to see the subway, and I was not dissapointed.
The Taipei subway, while not architecturally stunning, is sleek, appears to
be very clean, has impressively long escalators to reach the deep stations,
and is cool because you can walk between the train cars, sort of like
Toronto’s articulated street cars. We never did get to the front of the
train to see if passengers get a window on the tunnel or not, so I’m not
sure if the film deserves a 4 or 5 star rating.
NOSFERATU
was a real treat. This silent 1922 version of the Dracula legend
(the filming of which was the subject of last year’s kooky
SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE)
was accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing a
recently rediscovered original score.
Far campier than scary, this film really creeped people out when it was
first made. It’s still worth seeing as a genuine piece of cinematic
history, and for
Max Shreck’s
bug-eyed, spidery-fingered Count Orlok. You
can find NOSFERATU
on video, it just doesn’t normally come with a live
orchestral accompaniment.
THE FLUFFER
is a film about, well, if you don’t know what a fluffer is…
THE FLUFFER
is a film about a classic young innocent who arrives in
Hollywood with a dream to work in the entertainment industry, and whose
career path takes an odd turn when the
CITIZEN KANE video box he rents
actually contains… the gay porno version, CITIZEN CUM… and the only
reason I’m going to go on, was that this turned out to be a pretty good
flick. And it ain’t a skin flick - just in case you were wondering.
Innocent Sean becomes fascinated by CITIZEN lead Johnny Rebel, and he heads
off to the production company to look for a job. Soon he finds himself
employed keeping Johnny “happy” and ready for his sex scenes. While Sean’s
fascination develops into a crush, Johnny is having trouble at home with
his exotic dancing girlfriend: Johnny is only “gay for pay”.
Complications ensue, including one character’s ridiculously cliched fall
from grace, but otherwise good writing, and strong acting from everyone
(including Scott Gurney
who’s some BAYWATCH
cast member as Johnny Rebel)
save the show. Naughty, but not too naughty,
THE FLUFFER was fun. It’ll be
out in the States in major markets beginning late this year, following that
in Canada mid-2002.
Craig James White
Toronto - jacket not required
Posted by rae under reviews | Comments (0)
