The SIFF Diaries, Part Three
Let's finish this damned thing off before we really move into Manchester, shall we?
Mon 24 Apr
The Art of Flirting - As Told in Four Chapters (Singapore)
"An intense and disturbing drama" is how the description puts it. Well, I wouldn't really call it that intense and disturbing, but nonetheless, it is quite absorbing. The actors give fine free-flowing performances that feel instinctive and improvisational, and the roaming handheld camerawork captures that spirit. It's all very guerilla, and highly watchable. Male and female dynamics and interaction are pretty spot-on.
Thu 27 Apr
Noriko's Dinner Table (Japan)
I had no idea before I saw this that it was a sequel/prequel/follow-up of sorts to Suicide Club, which I'd seen a few years before at the Chicago International Film Festival and enjoyed (Don't ask me to explain that movie, though - it's still frightfully bizarre and I'm not even sure it makes sense). So picking up the references and recycled shots from that first movie was a very fun and exciting experience.
This film follows a young girl, Noriko, from her formative years in a small town to her life after she runs away to the big city (Tokyo) and falls in with some very suspect characters. The suicide club thread is introduced suddenly about a third into the movie, and shifts the entire movie in another direction.
This time more is revealed about the Club, how and why it functions, and this comes out as Noriko's father, a small-time journalist, manages to track her whereabouts down. This ultimately leads to a climax that manages to be intense both in action and emotion. In fact, the entire film has a strong emotional arc that runs through it, which is a vast improvement on the first movie, in my opinion.
A drawback that some may find off-putting is the almost constant narration from different main characters. However, I do appreciate that it doesn't always state the obvious, but gives us a window into the thoughts and feelings of the characters, given that their actions and reactions are so fucking repressed.
Fri 28 Apr
Fluerne på væggen (Flies on the Wall) (Denmark)
Nå skal du høre (Grandpa Is a Raisin) (Norway)
Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent (United Kingdom)
I went to dinner and karaoke with my colleagues, so completely missed these. I don't really regret it though, because I was rather festival-ed out.
Sat 29 Apr
Little Birds (Japan)
A moving, if slightly overlong documentary on the real victims of the War On Iraq. The filmmaker was living in Iraq when the war broke out, and managed to capture on tape images that escaped most braodcast stations. This is not politicians arguing for or agianst the war. This is no grandstanding speech, no excuse or justfication. This is merely one man going out there with his camera and capturing what he sees.
A father has to deal with losing 3 of his 4 children in one night. As he hugs his 4 year-old daughter's broken body to him, he sobs how her brains were spilling out when he found her. A mother cries every night because her 15 year-old son has only one arm now. A 12 year-old girl bravely faces the operating theatre to remove shrapnel from her eye so she can regain her sight. American soldiers mill around looking busy, taking souvenir photographs against battle landmarks, giving rote, confident answers. But when the questions come again and again, accusatory, angry, they look away. Japanese soldiers smile and eat their rations as the press hovers around waiting for a photo op. An old Iraqi man points to bodies surrounding him. "Is he a weapon of mass destruction? What about him? Is she one too?"
By following certain individuals on their journey to recover and rebuild, we feel real pain, real horror, real grief. We root for them desperately, but everything seems bleak. There is no rhetoric because one is not needed. The film has already shown us everything we need to know. Now the question is: What do we do next?
Mon 24 Apr
The Art of Flirting - As Told in Four Chapters (Singapore)
"An intense and disturbing drama" is how the description puts it. Well, I wouldn't really call it that intense and disturbing, but nonetheless, it is quite absorbing. The actors give fine free-flowing performances that feel instinctive and improvisational, and the roaming handheld camerawork captures that spirit. It's all very guerilla, and highly watchable. Male and female dynamics and interaction are pretty spot-on.
Thu 27 Apr
Noriko's Dinner Table (Japan)
I had no idea before I saw this that it was a sequel/prequel/follow-up of sorts to Suicide Club, which I'd seen a few years before at the Chicago International Film Festival and enjoyed (Don't ask me to explain that movie, though - it's still frightfully bizarre and I'm not even sure it makes sense). So picking up the references and recycled shots from that first movie was a very fun and exciting experience.
This film follows a young girl, Noriko, from her formative years in a small town to her life after she runs away to the big city (Tokyo) and falls in with some very suspect characters. The suicide club thread is introduced suddenly about a third into the movie, and shifts the entire movie in another direction.
This time more is revealed about the Club, how and why it functions, and this comes out as Noriko's father, a small-time journalist, manages to track her whereabouts down. This ultimately leads to a climax that manages to be intense both in action and emotion. In fact, the entire film has a strong emotional arc that runs through it, which is a vast improvement on the first movie, in my opinion.
A drawback that some may find off-putting is the almost constant narration from different main characters. However, I do appreciate that it doesn't always state the obvious, but gives us a window into the thoughts and feelings of the characters, given that their actions and reactions are so fucking repressed.
Fri 28 Apr
Fluerne på væggen (Flies on the Wall) (Denmark)
Nå skal du høre (Grandpa Is a Raisin) (Norway)
Russia/Chechnya: Voices of Dissent (United Kingdom)
I went to dinner and karaoke with my colleagues, so completely missed these. I don't really regret it though, because I was rather festival-ed out.
Sat 29 Apr
Little Birds (Japan)
A moving, if slightly overlong documentary on the real victims of the War On Iraq. The filmmaker was living in Iraq when the war broke out, and managed to capture on tape images that escaped most braodcast stations. This is not politicians arguing for or agianst the war. This is no grandstanding speech, no excuse or justfication. This is merely one man going out there with his camera and capturing what he sees.
A father has to deal with losing 3 of his 4 children in one night. As he hugs his 4 year-old daughter's broken body to him, he sobs how her brains were spilling out when he found her. A mother cries every night because her 15 year-old son has only one arm now. A 12 year-old girl bravely faces the operating theatre to remove shrapnel from her eye so she can regain her sight. American soldiers mill around looking busy, taking souvenir photographs against battle landmarks, giving rote, confident answers. But when the questions come again and again, accusatory, angry, they look away. Japanese soldiers smile and eat their rations as the press hovers around waiting for a photo op. An old Iraqi man points to bodies surrounding him. "Is he a weapon of mass destruction? What about him? Is she one too?"
By following certain individuals on their journey to recover and rebuild, we feel real pain, real horror, real grief. We root for them desperately, but everything seems bleak. There is no rhetoric because one is not needed. The film has already shown us everything we need to know. Now the question is: What do we do next?
posted by cinewhore @ 12:23 AM
0 mindfucks
0 Comments:
gimme some mindfuckery
<< Home