Cork Film Festival 2007 (shorts)

I arrived in Cork on Thursday in time to catch the second selection in the Irish Shorts strand of the festival. From what I saw of this and subsequent shorts (I also caught the third collection), there is a wealth of talented film makers in Ireland currently plying their trade in the world of shorts. I've decided therefore to leave the features until a second blog entry and for now I'll cast my eye over the shorts I saw.

The Grass is Greener (Orla McHardy) is a visual interpretation of an Ivor Cutler poem; clearly cut together on a meagre budget but nevertheless manages to enhance the experience of hearing's Cutler's poem.
Asylum (John Haugh) is a very short film on the immigrant experience of asylum seekers in Ireland. For a film on the same subject matter I'd seek out MOSNEY (see my recent Stranger Than Fiction write-up) but this one does as much as it can in its two-minute running time.
Blind Eye (Damien De Burca) features Ardal O'Hanlon as an official who does a good deed for a refugee in Ireland during the second world war and is a positive, professional short that is made all the more uplifting for being based on a true story.
Parklife (Alan Early) is an honest and unflinching, and also undeniably fascinating, look at the life of a gay cruiser and how he has dealt with his shunned habit.
The Formorian (Aideen McCarthy) is an accomplished short displaying a world of fantasy and monsters that suggests the director could easily make a good job of a major feature.
New Boy (Steph Green) is a funny and touching adaptation of Roddy Doyle's tale about an African boy starting school in Ireland - funny, touching and one of my favourite entries.
The White Dress (Vanessa Gildea) shows a little girl experiencing her first communion, though perhaps not in the manner you'd expect. It might only be a short but it relies on the presence of the young actress in the lead role and she carries it off perfectly.
Death in the West (Keith Mannix) is a downbeat, morbidly funny tale of Irish culture and in particular the love of a good funeral. Plenty of laughs are to be had amidst the grief.
Marmalade (Louise Bagnall) is an animated tale of a sweet little girl trying to make friends and is told in a wonderfully effective and jaunty animated style.
I Miss You as Much as the Size of the World (Jo Neylin) is a simple but effective recording of a young lad making an emotional phonecall.
Matterhorn (Ken Walshe) features Niamh Cusack as a woman undergoing a very particular, and rather depressing, treatment from a young doctor. Brief but affecting.
An Cailleach Bhearra (Naomi Wilson) is a haunting and visually stunning Irish myth delivered with humour, panache and a unique use of some lovely location work.
No Regrets in the West (Colm Quinn) is another touching effort about family, in particular a man's memories of his father - atmospheric and funny, but with a hint of sadness. I didn't mention it at the time, but I saw this one at Stranger Than Fiction too.
Without Words (Brian Deane) uses chronological and visual trickery to tell a sad tale of two friends whose latest meeting is not all it appears. This one is very well executed on a technical level and also packs an emotional punch. Easily the best of the shorts I saw, it's absolutely brilliant and I urge you to see it if you get the opportunity.
Pump Action (Frank Reid Beechinor) is an accomplished and hilarious twist on an Irish stereotype that will amuse locals and foreigners alike.
No Sweat (Marc McElroy, David Noble) unfortunately had to be postponed due to technical difficulties. I couldn't make it to the second screening sadly, which is a shame as from the bits I did see, this tale of two friends embarking on a life of crime as one of them becomes a hitman was very, very funny.

The full length features that I saw in Cork will be written about here shortly. Or at least they should be. If they don't appear soon, it's because I'm going to another film festival on Friday morning, in which case I'll write them up when I return.

That film you're thinking of...

For as long as movies have been discussed on the internet, I've been hearing one "What was the name of this movie..." question more than any other. It's popped up on numerous forums; it's been asked in the pages of magazines; and, just when you think everyone who wanted to know now knows, someone actually asked me the same question at work the other day. So now the Freakpit will tell you, by way of a public service announcement, exactly what that film you're thinking of really is...

What usually happens is that someone is trying to remember the name of a film they saw several years ago on TV, and they'll be able to tell you one or more of the following:

1. A man wakes up one morning to discover everyone else on Earth has vanished.
2. He goes a bit mad and at one point dresses up as a woman.
3. He eventually finds two more survivors - a ginger woman and a Maori man.
4. The last scene of the movie sees the man standing on a beach staring at a weird-looking sky.
5. It's Australian.

So first of all let me tell you it's not Australian. Close, but no. It's from New Zealand, and scooped a number of awards there. The man who stars in it is the late Bruno Lawrence, and the film is called THE QUIET EARTH.

So what's the story? Well, it turns out that due to some bizarre scientific thingy, something happens which causes everyone to disappear - except, that is, people who happened to die at the precise moment the effect happened (including our Bruno and his chums).

Beyond that I don't want to say anything as it's a film that's best experienced without knowing too much about it. It's absolutely terrific - so good that I've bought three copies of it. I've got an old pre-cert VHS edition; I replaced that with a rather lacklustre full-screen cheapo UK DVD when it became available; and I just recently replaced it when Anchor Bay in the US released it with a proper widescreen edition, giving it the quality picture presentation it deserves.

You really need to see it if you haven't already done so. And if you have? Trust me, it's as good as you remember it. Who knows, you might even be able to look really smart the next time someone at work says "I've been trying to remember the name of a film I saw once..."

I'm now off to the Cork Film Festival for a few days. See you soon.

EIFF 2007 Part 7 (the end)

The final day of the festival is usually given over largely to the Best of the Fest, where extra screenings of the more popular or acclaimed films are put on for those who may have missed them. And so it was that I took in a few I'd missed earlier, together with the final film in the Anita Loos retrospective.

THE COUNTERFEITERS was probably the best I saw on the day. It's a tense drama, based on real events, about a group of technically talented Jews who were drafted by the Nazis to help with their plan to destabilise the Allies' economies by flooding them with fake currency. The choice faced by the prisoners was beyond tough - succeed, and they would help the Nazis win the war (and the screams from the rooms next to them in the camp serve as a chilling reminder how unthinkable that was to them); fail, and they'd join their comrades back in the concentration camps facing certain death.

It's not without one or two light moments but by and large is an unsurprisingly sobering affair, filmed in subdued colours that make the whole screen seem like an extension of the dark walls and grim, muddy grounds of the concentration camps. Not a feelgood film per se, but not devoid of uplifting sentiment either. It's more a gripping thriller that manages to sift through the terror to find some triumph in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Also a German film, AUFTAUCHEN falls at the other end of the spectrum. I don't mean in subject matter, I just mean in how good it is. An overly-emotional girl falls for an uninteresting, and ultimately uninterested, younger boy only to have her life fall apart around her. There's lots of whiney angst and lots of sex, but really it's like NINE SONGS but without the songs. And I didn't like that film either. Avoid this one.

TEKKONKINKREET is an anime movie which I can't even remember the plot of other than that it involved a couple of young boys and that the style of art used really didn't appeal to me. Another one to miss.

WE ARE TOGETHER is a wonderfully uplifting documentary about a group of South African AIDS orphans who live a tough life and find their circumstances even more unbearable when their orphanage burns down. okay, I don't make it sound uplifting, but you'll just need to trust me on this one. It is depressing in places and indeed almost unbearably heartbreaking; but ultimately it's another tale of human endeavour and triumph in the face of great hardship. Like the previously-mentioned SHADOW OF THE MOON, I expect it to be a documentary contender come Oscar time, although it could face stiff competition from a couple of other films I've already discussed from both EIFF and HotDocs this year.

Finally, I forgot to mention, the Anita Loos retrospective concluded with GENTLEMEN MARRY BRUNETTES. It's not as good as its predecessor and it doesn't have Marilyn Monroe. That's about the size of it really.

I'd love to say that normal service is resumed at the Freakpit, but aside from being busy with other things I'm about to go to another couple of film festivals over the next couple of weekends, so once more I will apologise in advance for the lack of frequent updates over the next couple of weeks.

EIFF 2007 Part 6

JOHN WATERS: THIS FILTHY WORLD is simply a film of John Waters' live routine, a kind of biography in the form of stand-up comedy. While there was nothing that left me in tears, there were nevertheless several laugh out loud moments and a lot of amusing anecdotes about his life in (trashy) film. If you find the work of John Waters too offensive or gross this film isn't for you; otherwise, it's worth a viewing.

If stoner comedies are your thing, WEIRDSVILLE may be up your street. Wes Bentley and Scott Speedman are the likable wasters who end up with more trouble than they bargained for when they cross a drug dealer. Missing drugs, a dead body, angry devil worshippers and a whole lot more all collide in a madcap comedy that lives up to its title without being so weird as to alienate. Like the Waters documentary mentioned above, it's not riotously funny but does manage to be consistently amusing with a few very funny highlights.

You'll have heard of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. I had. Never seen it though; not until it appeared in the Anita Loos retrospective this year, that is. It's an amusing comedy of love and greed but while there are some memorable and deservedly famous songs in it, the film's main strength is in the partnership of Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. Neither have ever been better, and the pairing is electric.

AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? is a typically miserable British film in which Colin Firth comes to terms with the impending death of his father, a man he has never truly known and at times has simply disliked. It is only towards the end that he discovers his experiences were only the tip of the iceberg and that his family holds a few more secrets. It's an engaging enough film with good performances from the cast (including Jim Broadbent as the titular dad) but its air of bleak depression makes me wonder how likely a candidate it is for revisiting.

Did you see the Russian sci-fi/fantasy epic NIGHT WATCH? Did you like it? If the answer to this is no, then you'll not like the sequel, DAY WATCH, either. If however you were happy to be swept along by the original film's adrenalin rush then this sequel is sure to appeal, with the ante upped in terms of both spectacular action (the stunts and effects are truly mindboggling given the limited budgets involved) and the absolute incoherence of its nonsensical and downright silly plot.

Just one more day from this year's EIFF to be reported on. Back soon!

EIFF 2007 Part 5

Clark Gable struts his stuff once more in SAN FRANCISCO, one of the highlights of the Anita Loos retrospective and one of the precursors of the disaster movies that were to become so popular four decades later. Gable is good as the roguish lead, Jeanette MacDonald adequate as the singing love interest and Spencer Tracy fantastic as the film's moral conscience. It's the finale that really makes the film however - as the infamous San Francisco earthquake rumbles through the city tearing apart buildings and lives, even today some of the special effects leave one awestruck as to the scale of the movie. What begins as another Gable romance ends as a monumental action movie and a tale of the triumph of the human spirit - and it's all the richer for it.

From the highlight of the retrospective to the highlight of the festival in general.

My love of Dublin is well documented in previous blog entries, so the musical romance that unfolds on the city streets in John Carney's ONCE was the first film I looked for when the programme was announced. It had already been a hit in America, picked up a prize at Sundance, had no less than Steven Spielberg singing its praises and had picked up another prize (and sold out very quickly) when it received its home premiere in Dublin. I'd been at the Dublin festival when it played, but alas didn't get a ticket. The question therefore was would it live up to my expectations?

It did. The plot is simple enough; a busker on the streets of Dublin (musician-turned-actor Glen Hansard) meets a Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova) on the streets of Dublin. He's busking and recovering from a broken heart; she's trying to make ends meet while looking after her young child. They hit it off and each go some way towards turning the other's life around.

Hansard exudes charm while simultaneously managing to convey the heartbreak and sadness of a man with the world on his shoulders; Irglova makes a Big Issue seller wheeling a broken vacuum cleaner through the streets seem like one of the most lovely things that you could see on a city street. Together they make beautiful music.

The musical aspect of the film is the most pleasantly surprising. At no point does it feel like you're watching a musical; nobody just bursts into song for no reason. The songs (most of which were taken from Hansard and Irglova's own catalogue) are seamlessly integrated into the film and form an endless string of highlights in a film that is in itself one great big highlight. It's fun, it's touching and it's incredibly likely to make you leave the cinema feeling inexplicably happy. I attended this one with a friend; we both agreed as we walked out that it was the best film we'd seen at the festival.

That's not to say everyone will like it; if you don't like the style of music there's a chance it could grate (I'm not a huge fan myself, but it's a decent example of its kind); the low budget look and feel won't be to everyone's taste; nor will the naturalistic approach to the film of the actors and crew. In fact, the next two people I spoke to actually hated it.

So not everyone will like it, and certainly not as much as I did. That shouldn't stop you from seeing it though. In fact, if you're not prepared to at least give this little gem a chance, you should be banned from ever attending a cinema again.

EIFF round up continues again soon...

EIFF 2007 Part 4

Do you know something else, aside from spotting Harlow's double, that really took me out of the film when I was watching SARATOGA? At one point in the film it suddenly hit me that Hattie McDaniel looked just like Idi Amin. After that, I couldn't stop thinking about it whenever she was on screen. That could be a problem for me; I've never seen GONE WITH THE WIND and fully intended to watch it one day. Now I'm not sure if I'll be able to.

But anyway, back to the EIFF and the next part of the Anita Loos retrospective. SUSAN AND GOD sees Joan Crawford once more at her best as the woman who appears to have found religion, much to the surprise of all her friends and colleagues. Is it real? Is it a fad? By the end of the film, she'll realise what's really important, all the while serving up a helping of melodrama and comedy for the audience.

FARO - GODDESS OF THE WATERS is a low budget film from Burkina Faso which relates the tale of a modern man returning to the village where he grew up (looked upon with suspicion due to his father being unknown) only to find that he no longer has the time for their old-fashioned beliefs. But has his return and his doubt made the river angry? Good performances all round, a balanced look at a clash of cultures and some stunning photography that belies the low budget all add up to make this African gem one of the standouts of this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.

A MASSACRE FORETOLD is a grim and revealing documentary that uncovers the truth behind one of the most horrific and yet least known incidents in Mexico's recent political history. Archive footage shot at the time combined with up to date information tells of the poignant and terrible story of the tragic victims of political unrest.

THE SERPENT is a French thriller in which a man sees his life fall apart as, while already heading for a divorce, he ends up being blackmailed, accused of murder and just generally having nasty things done to him. It seems someone has a desire to get back at him for something buried in his past. There are some nice twists and plenty of suspense but there are moments when it all just gets a bit silly. Most people will point to the crazy action stuff, and justifiably so, although for some inexplicable reason the moment when the nasty incident in the past is revealed caused me to cry with laughter. In particular, it's the newspaper headline - I know it shouldn't be funny but something about the exact arrangement of the words (or rather subtitles) just sounded funny. If you see the film you'll either agree or, like most people I suspect, you'll think I'm a bit nuts.

SHROOMS sees a bunch of American kids come to Ireland for the weekend for the express purpose of doing lots of drugs. They have some bad mushrooms however and the situation is made worse by the nasty creatures said to roam the woods (all tying in to an abandoned Catholic school nearby, obviously). Although it's an Irish film, you wouldn't know it as there's barely an Irish accent in the whole film, but then I guess this was probably a deliberate ploy to try and sell the film abroad. It's as good as any teen horror being churned out by Hollywood and offers up some neat set pieces, spooky imagery and one or two satisfying twists.

More from the EIFF soon.

EIFF 2007 Part 3

SARATOGA was next in line in the Anita Loos retrospective and while not as good as the last couple of films, it was nevertheless another enjoyable romp. It's slightly marred however by its reputation as being the film during which Harlow died, giving rise to the morbid but unavoidable habit of trying to spot which scenes they've obviously used a stunt double for in order for them to finish the movie and get it out there. Crass exploitation or fitting tribute? You decide.

ROCKET SCIENCE is an enjoyable high school comedy about a boy with a bad stutter joining the school debating team. It's that oddball quirky humour that you've already seen loads of (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, anything by Wes Anderson, etc.) but it's a decent enough example and will provide enough laughs to get your money's worth. It was made by the same chap who gave us the documentary SPELLBOUND - makes me wonder if he has some serious issues about his time in school.

COMRADES IN DREAMS is for all you cinema lovers out there, i.e. people like me. It's a documentary about four cinemas across the world (USA, India, North Korea, Burkina Faso) or rather the projectionists and owners behind the cinema. It tells of their love of cinema and why they do what they do, but also paints a fascinating contrast of what cinema means to each of them. The highlight is when three of them offer their differing viewpoints on TITANIC (the funniest being the Indian POV - the film is almost fantasy, as hardly any of the cinemagoers have seen the sea). The only one not (directly) included here is the lady who runs the North Korean cinema, as she's too busy showing films designed to motivate the workers. This film's about the love of film; appropriately, I loved it.

YO is a Spanish drama about a German man named Hans who turns up in a sunny seaside town and takes up a job that until recently was occupied by another man named Hans. He had disappeared; the locals aren't very welcoming; odd things happen. What happened to Hans? You never really know for certain and that's pretty much the general theme of this let-down which looks about as good as it could for the evidently low budget but is lacking in almost every area.

Back to the Anita Loos retrospective again, and George Cukor's THE WOMEN. This was actually the only one of the films I'd seen before but I wasn't going to pass up a chance to see it again. It's one of Loos's best works (adapted from the stage version) and really showcases her biting wit. It's helped no end by a marvellous (and all female) cast including Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford at the height of their powers.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY is a starkly affecting documentary about the effects of the long and bitter civil war in Uganda and how it has affected the lives of all who live there. Particular focus is on the children and accordingly it's not the cheeriest of films, but there's enough determination and spirit on show to give some hope for the future.

I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OKAY is the next film from Chan-Wook Park, the genius behind the vengeance trilogy SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE, OLD BOY and LADY VENGEANCE. Far more light-hearted but also a lot madder, this was probably the most insane film I saw at the festival this year. A young lady is committed to an asylum as nobody believes her claims that she's a cyborg; here we're introduced to more wacky characters and the insanity kicks off bigtime. It's nuts, it's beautifully shot and it's a love story quite unlike anything you've seen. From a personal viewpoint I don't think it's quite in the same league as the aforementioned trilogy, but if you're in the mood for something lighter and less violent, this could be the time to introduce yourself to Chan-Wook Park.

For the first time ever (my schedule allowed it for once) I attended the surprise movie. It was Peter Berg's THE KINGDOM, showing for what was I believe its first public screening anywhere in the world. It's a big Hollywood action movie that takes place in the Middle East. The setting and the story might be contemporary, but any chance of it carrying some kind of profound weight or serious political message (and it's a slim chance) is buried beneath things exploding, hoary dialogue, more explosions, lots of people shooting and being shot and some really big explosions. Then more people being shot. It also manages the incredible task of under-using almost every actor in the film. In a nutshell, it's just not very good.

More from this year's EIFF still to come...

EIFF 2007 Part 2

The Anita Loos retrospective continued with RED-HEADED WOMAN, showcasing the talents of Jean Harlow in an entertaining romantic romp which was one of the more enjoyable films in the series. I like silent movies as much as the next man, but it really seems that the coming of sound was a huge benefit to Loos and her work - the silent movies were peppered with her trademark wit, but once there were people to deliver her gags with well-honed comic timing, her work was taken to another level.

SEACHD: THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE is billed as Scotland's first contemporary Gaelic-language feature and the first feature in that language to gain theatrical distribution. All very well, but what of the movie?

I love it. For one thing, the language is not some irrelevance cooked up to pin a marketing gimmick on the poster, it genuinely does serve the film. The plot, in a very brief summary which doesn't really do it justice, concerns a young man who visits his grandfather in hospital which triggers memories of his childhood. His youth was spent in his grandparents' care after a climbing accident resulted in the loss of his parents. Brought up in a Gaelic community on Skye, the boy rebels against the culture, spurred on partly by his grandfather's tall tales. Think of it as Tim Burton's BIG FISH, but Scottish.

The tales themselves are brought to life vividly enough, but what really impresses me is how Scottish they are. Given that the usual Scottish films are misery-laden efforts about broken homes, mental illness, drug addicts, gangsters, alcoholics and so on, it's refreshing to see not just a piece of family entertainment but one which has such a uniquely Scottish identity. This isn't just a story that happens to take place in Scotland - the tales spun by the grandfather include everything from the mythic kelpies to the Highland clearances. It plays on the grand Scottish storytelling tradition and it's magical.

All the more insulting then is that, for reasons known only to themselves, BAFTA have refused to submit the film for Oscar consideration in the foreign language category. God only knows their reasoning, but there might be some irony if KINGS ends up picking up Oscar plaudits - it's Ireland's nomination, filmed in the Irish language. It's an entirely unfathomable decision - and without anyone giving clear reasons why, we can only speculate - and I would suggest you all pop over to this link where another Scottish blogger has written an informative summary of the situation and provided a couple of links of interest.

LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR is a French musical romance which has garnered the inevitable comparisons to THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, comparisons on which I won't comment since I haven't seen the latter. The songs in the former are catchy enough and it's populated with a reasonably likeable cast but despite some moments of sharp wit it's an exceptionally depressing affair. The highlight of the screening was probably the old guy sitting behind me who nattered away for most of it, only to be totally disgusted when it suddenly... wait for it... went a bit gay. Gasp! How dare they!

A superb late night romp was offered up in the shape of TEETH, a grizzly but funny horror film in which a teenage girl has to come to terms with the fact that she has a set of teeth in a place where you really, really, really don't want to find teeth. As far as an allegorical look at growing pains go, it's not exactly subtle; but then subtlety is not something you want in a horror film about a girl with man-eating naughty bits. There's gore galore as she takes her revenge on the blokes who try to mistreat her, but it's never treated in a cynical, nasty HOSTEL-type way - consequently the moments of outrageous violence will result in a lots of men crossing their legs and gasping but still managing to laugh at the same time. If you get the chance, this film needs to be seen in a crowded cinema late at night for maximum effect.

HOLD YOUR MAN offered up more entertainment courtesy of Anita Loos with stars Jean Harlow and Clark Gable proving to have undeniable screen chemistry through melodramatic romance and slapstick humour. It's another highlight of the retrospective.

A highlight of the festival in general was to follow with IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON. This documentary had played at HotDocs in Toronto earlier in the year but sadly not while I was there. I'd really wanted to catch it so was delighted to see it play Edinburgh. It was worth the wait.

Via old footage (including a long-buried broadcast recorded by Nixon in case the Apollo 11 crew died on the moon) and current interviews with all the surviving Apollo astronauts (except notably the reclusive Armstrong), IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON tells of NASA's Apollo series of missions. The trials and tribulations, the triumphs and the tragedies - it's all here in vivid detail. Where the film really succeeds is in the balance of material it uses to tell the story - there's a minimum of technical detail, but a lot of the human story. That, ultimately, is what the film is about. At a time when all was not well at home, America succeeded in putting men on the moon, a victory in the cold war perhaps but also a victory for mankind as a whole. It's a delightfully uplifting story that could very well appeal to the people who matter come Oscar nomination time.

Another documentary that played at HotDocs which I caught in Edinburgh was WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?, a film that follows the Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping as they travel America trying to convince consumers not to spend so much at Christmas, not to get into so much debt and not to help the global corporations get rich at the expense of traditional local stores. It's funny, it's moving and it has a very important message but it's tough to see it making any difference. I hope it's just me being cynical.

MY LIFE AS A BUS STOP is an ultra-low budget Scottish comedy film poking fun at, appropriately enough, low budget filmmaking in Scotland. The acting isn't brilliant and some of the humour is rather juvenile but there's enough lampoonery and talent on offer to ensure an enjoyable time - particularly if you're au fait with the film industry. I never thought a man farting into a cup could be so funny.

THE LAST DINING TABLE is a Korean film that looks quite nice in a grimy sort of way but, after a while, it began to dawn on me that it wasn't going anywhere. There's barely a story to speak of and it bored me something awful. I have a misguided personal code that prevents me from ever leaving the cinema before a film finishes. This film seriously tested me.

More from EIFF 2007 soon.