JDIFF round-up, Part 1

Only about a week late, which must be some kind of punctuality record for me, here's a brief round-up of what I saw at this year's Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

I started with MUTUM, a Brazilian film about a little boy who doesn't do very much. Nick James, in his editorial in the latest issue of Sight & Sound, wrote about the emergence of this new form of cinema which I think he referred to as the "cinema of inconsequence" or something like that (I think his term was a little longer, but I've left my copy lying elsewhere so I can't check). Anyway, what he called it isn't what's important here, I just thought I'd take another opportunity to point out how much I dislike it.

It's another of these films in which not much happens, people don't do or say very much, cameras linger on uninteresting people for what seems like an eternity and the idea of adding a score that consists of anything other than the noises of crickets is firmly off-limits. I've seen a few films in this style now and I've never seen one yet that hasn't been a chore to sit through. I have always conducted myself against the misguided idea that I will never walk out of the cinema before the end credits of a movie, but the emergence of this banal new form of cinema is giving me cause to think that maybe I should reconsider. Avoid this film.

Things picked up a little with the Estonian movie KLASS [THE CLASS], a tale of a bullied school pupil and the retribution he delivers when he teams up with the one pupil who has defended him. Unfolding in chapters, each chapter sees the anger bubbling further towards to the surface until finally a particularly disgusting incident sets up an unflinching finale.

It's ironic that one of the best films I saw last year was the Australian drama 2:37, which also dealt with a high school tragedy and the build up to it and also happened to viewed by me at the Dublin festival. KLASS never quite reaches the power of that movie but isn't far off; 2:37 benefited from a melancholic tone that haunted the whole movie, while KLASS in comparison overuses contemporary music and flashy editing to turn it into more of a "youth" movie, an effect that is a little jarring in places and not really suited to the tone of the film in my humble opinion.

The next film I saw was U2 3D. Not the premiere which the band showed up at mind you, which you'll have seen in the press probably, but the repeat showing later at night. I like a lot of their music (without actually owning any of it) so was approaching the film more as a film fan than as a casual fan of U2. Nevertheless I left impressed.

It's become trendy to lay into Bono for a variety of reasons in recent years, but this film will leave you in no doubt that for all his pomp and preening, Mr Hewson and the rest of the band are still among the best live performers on the planet. The songs are as good or as bad as you know them to be, depending on your taste; the spectacle is impressive; and the digital 3D is stunning. With apologies for resorting to cliches, it really is the next best thing to being there (the concert was part of their recent South American tour). It was a little too much like being there for some people mind you as I ended up sat next to the one person who wanted to sing along with every song - badly, unfortunately - but it was still a highlight.

As was the next film on my list. LA RAGAZZA DEL LAGO [THE GIRL BY THE LAKE] is a new Italian film starring Toni Servillo (star of the fantastic THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE) as a police officer investigating a murder in a small rural town. There are various spanners thrown into the works - the victim appears not to have struggled, for a start - that keep the viewer guessing, and it all plays out against the backdrop of some beautiful scenery and a haunting atmosphere not unlike the similarly themed opening episodes of TWIN PEAKS. Servillo is terrific once again - marginally more emotional than he was in THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE - and around his performance is anchored a film that should surely garner some positive reaction whenever it hits the art house circuit.

The next film would have been MISTER LONELY but alas that screening had to be rescheduled, so I went for some food instead. If you ever find yourself looking for food in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, Fitzers make the best burger ever.

But enough for now. I'll finish my thoughts on what I saw at Dublin next time, including Irish movie 32A, Hollywood thriller THE LOOKOUT, Iraq war movie BATTLE FOR HADITHA and new British horror-comedy THE COTTAGE.