Australian Film Critics Association - Reviews

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2008

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an iconic Australian film event, hosting films from over 50 countries for nineteen days each Winter, together with a range of special events and a showcase program of new Australian cinema.

Check cinema guides for screening dates (25 July - 10 August) and details, or visit: www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au

AFCA members will provide regular updates and reviews of films screening throughout the Festival (see reviews from Thomas Caldwell, Cynthia Karena, Greg King, Peter Krausz, Peter Malone and Bruce Paterson below). Visit some of our members' external sites for more reviews (including the Melbourne Film site).

Last updated 5 August, 2008. Edited by Bruce Paterson.

Even more recently added
Encounters at the End of the World (8 August)
Night and Day (3 August)
Triangle (30 July)

Recently added
12.08 East of Bucharest (5 August)
Asterix at the Olympic Games (10 August)
Ballast (8 August)
The Battle for Haditha (8 August)
Funny Games (7 August)
Jesus Christ Saviour (7 August)
Lemon Tree (2 August)
Night and Day (3 August)
Time to Die (9 August)
The Visitor (26 July

24 City (1 August)
Alone in Four Walls (2 August)
The Bank Job (general release)
California Dreamin' (Endless) (5 August)
Celebrity: Dominick Dunne (28 July)
Cloud 9 (27 July, 7 August)
Derek (10 August)
Diary of the Dead (7 August)
Don't Touch That Axe (31 July)
Frontier of Dawn (4, 10 August)
Gomorra (3, 9 August)
Honeydripper (8 August)
Hunger (27 July, 9 August)
In Bruges (8 August)
In Search of a Midnight Kiss (6 August)
Inside (2 August)
Johnny Mad Dog (27 July, 10 August)
Katyn (28 July)
Let the Right One In (1, 3 August)
Lorna's Silence (1, 10 August)
Man on Wire (5 August)
My Winnipeg (27 July, 8 August)
Nightwatching (7 August)
Not Quite Hollywood (28 July)
Persepolis (8, 9 August)
The Pope's Toilet (29 July, 2 August)
The Princess of Nebraska (9 August)
[REC] (10 August)
Redacted (3 August)
Reverse Shot: Rebellion of the Filmmakers (2, 7 August)
Rock N Roll Nerd (30 July)
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (5, 7 August)
Salt of this Sea (30 July, 3 August)
Son of a Lion (27 July, 7 August)
Son of Rambow (3 August)
Surveillance (5, 8 August)
Terror's Advocate (9 August)
The Three Monkeys (2, 10 August)
Trumbo (10 August)
The Visitor (26 July)
Waltz with Bashir (2, 10 August)
The Wave (3 August)
Welcome to the Sticks (26 July)
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden (2, 5 August)
Words of Advice: William S Burroughs on the Road (3 August)

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD Prolific German director Werner Herzog brings a nice degree of dry humour to his documentary about Antarctica and the people who live and work there. The interviews he captures reveal an assortment of characters that you just couldn’t invent, but given that they are all people who have chosen to live in the most remote part of the world their eccentricities aren’t all that surprising. Herzog documents various activities such as seal research, diving beneath the ice, vulcanology and a lone penguin that has lost its way. In typical Herzog fashion he speaks about the random violence of nature and the inevitability of nature destroying humanity and yet a lot of the footage in this film suggests that Herzog is aware of nature’s mysterious beauty. There are sequences, in particular the footage taken by the divers under the ice, which are breathtaking and look more surreal than anything ever dreamt up in a science-fiction film. The sound recordings of seals swimming beneath the ice are also spine chilling in their unfamiliarity and strangeness. (4/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

NIGHT AND DAY Sung-nam Kim is a South Korean painter who flees his own country due to a minor transgression and comes to Paris where he cannot speak the language and knows nobody. He soon discovers a small community of Parisian Koreans and finds himself growing increasingly attracted to another artist, despite also longing for the wife he has left behind in Korea. What begins as an outsider/exile film eventually becomes an exploration of desire and fidelity. Sung-nam Kim is a likeable and slightly unpredictable character making Night and Day a mostly enjoyable film since he features in every single scene. However, it suffers badly from false-ending syndrome where after looking like it is about to finish, the film concludes with about another 15 minutes of jarring and confusing scenes that badly let the rest of this film down. (3.5/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

TRIANGLE The point of interest behind this Hong Kong heist film is that it was made in three different parts, by three different directors and production teams, with each part continuing from where the previous part had left of. Tsui Hark sets the story off with his trademark frenetic and often bewildering style where the audience has to keep up with him in order to follow what is going on. However Hark nicely sets the scene of desperate men planning to steal a mysterious artefact, a cop who is sleeping with the wife of one of the men and a trio of impatient Triads who are waiting in the wings. Ringo Lam then continues the story in the most sophisticated section of the film where he sets up a complex web of torn loyalties, betrayals, double crosses and secret agendas. Finally Johnnie To finishes things off by stylishly bringing a degree of farce and fun absurdity into the proceedings. The divides between the three sections are not marked but anybody familiar with the three directors should be able to spot the divisions. Triangle would have perhaps been more successful if either all three parts remained consistent with each other or if they all radically differed. Instead, Hark and Lam’s segments are very close to each other in style and tone while To takes the film off onto a completely different tangent. What To does would have been highly entertaining in its own right but in this case it is slightly frustrating that To’s chose to deviate so much away from the groundwork laid out by Hark and Lam. (3.5/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

Recently Added

12.08, EAST OF BUCHAREST. An interesting film for those who want to know more about the downfall of Communism, especially in Romania.  Its focus is quite local but, along with so many contemporary Romanian films, it is sombre, direct, although there is a satirical and critical undertone which may appeal beyond the local. We are introduced to three different characters as they wake up one morning.  One is an alcoholic teacher who has to get ready for school.  Another is an industrialist who now owns a television channel and is preparing for his afternoon program.  The third is an old man who used to be the Santa Claus in the town. They are all going to appear on a discussion and phone-in program asking the question whether there was a revolution in 1989, the day that Ceausescu fled Bucharest by helicopter at 12.08, with the population watching the events on television. While the film is at pains to give detail of each of these characters, the main part of the film is the television program. Romanians will try to remember what the Ceausescu period of dictatorship was like, what they were like and what prospects for prosperity were and assess what has happened since 1989, whether Romania is better off, a better society, or not.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

ASTERIX AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES. Asterix and his fellow villagers from Gaul have been popular in comic strip form, then as a series of animated films and now we have the third in a series of live action features, following Asterix Against Caesar and Asterix (1999) and Cleopatra (2002).  They have been lavish, big-budgeted affairs, recreating ancient Rome as well as the remote village in Gaul.  This time we have the added benefit of Athens and then Olympia.  Nothing has been spared on costumes, set design (including a huge stadium filled with CGI spectators) and stunt work, including a Ben Hur-like chariot race. For the fans this will be a delight.  For those who don’t quite know Asterix and co, it is a hearty introduction.  And, for those who don’t like it – too bad!! There is a great deal of fun to be had from the plots, from the cheating and a whole lot of farce and pratfalls.  And there is a very strong comedy performance from the now over-70 Alain Delon as Caesar.  He has a lot of self-parody lines which also play on his past good looks and potential vanity. There are also amusing parallels with contemporary sport and doping, tests, cheats and corruption of officials.  But, as Caesar remarks, ‘these games might not last 2000 years but they are very amusing’. The final ten minutes does go on a bit too long, especially with actual sports stars like Zidane turning up.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

BALLAST. Ballast is necessary for smooth and safe sailing with an even keel.  This is not true of the African American family from the Mississippi delta portrayed here.  The film opens with a twin killing himself and the other, grieving, shooting himself but not fatally.  The conflict has been between the dead man and his estranged wife, who has taken out a court order to prevent him going near his son.  The son is curious and tries to get to know his uncle.  When the mother loses her job, she wants to sell the family store and home and make a new beginning. Kind gestures from the uncle bring about, first, a change of mind, as the woman decides to work the store with her son.  As she succeeds and the two make an agreement to home school the boy, barriers begin to break down.  Forgiveness is possible, especially when past events (including her addiction) are spoken of truthfully.  The final image of the three in the car going to the store indicates that truth leads to reconciliation. The locations are atmospheric, winter in the poverty of the delta, and the cast is drawn from local amateurs who are completely persuasive. Winner of the SIGNIS award at the Buenos Aires festival, 2008.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

THE BATTLE FOR HADITHA. For many decades, Nick Broomfield has been making feature documentaries many of which have had considerable cinema commercial release.  More recently, he has been reconstructing true stories in documentary style. He has now done it again, focusing on three days in November 2005 when a group of marines in Haditha in Iraq went on a vengeful rampage killing innocent Iraqis after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb. With his years of experience (since the early 1970s) of filming actual events, he brings a powerful sense of immediacy to his cinema verite filming of the reconstructions.  For most of the film you feel as if you are in the middle of the actual events.  This also means that the performances of the cast also give the impression that this is the real thing. With the moment-by-moment attention to detail over the three days, Broomfield takes us into the ordinary/extraordinary reality of these years in Iraq.  There is plenty to discuss, plenty to question. At the same time, Brian de Palma made Redacted, a companion piece well worth seeing, quite like this film in many ways - close-ups of the Americans, the victims and the reprehensible behaviour of vengeful marines.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

BOY A. Already screened on British television, Boy received some more promotion by its inclusion in the Panorama section at the Berlinale.  It is a strong, well-made film, directed by John Crowley (Intermission) with a screenplay by Mark O’Rowe (who wrote Intermission) adapting a novel by Jonathan Trigell.  Audiences familiar with the Jamie Bolger case in England, where two young boys killed a little boy will be thinking of parallels, especially the outcry when the two boys had served their terms and were released into the community with changed identities. We first meet Boy A when he is released.  No one knows who he is or what he has done.  He does not make contact with his family. The screenplay is sympathetic is inviting us to think about the problems facing a person who has done the time for his crime. But we still wonder what the crime is.  The screenplay provides the answers as flashbacks inserted at different times throughout the film. The final part of the film challenges the audience to think what they would have done had they found out the truth about him.  How many chances does he deserve?  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

FUNNY GAMES. Michael Haneke regretted that his 1998 Funny Games did not reach American audiences which, in his rather severe and finger-pointing opinion, was where it was needed.  He has taken the opportunity to remake it exactly in English, with a better known cast, and set in New York state. There have been many films about families terrorised in their homes, films like The Desperate Hours, with recognisable stars who help us share the frightening experience. Funny Games is about a terrifying night as an ordinary family goes to their holiday house, where two seemingly ordinary young men come in and proceed to torment them physically and psychologically.  Because the situations and characters are so ordinary, some audiences have condemned the film as exploitative.  It is a very unpleasant cinema experience, but it is a dramatising of what happens and is a continual challenge to wonder why such seemingly purposeless malevolence can drive people to violate the innocent.  A powerful reminder of violence in the suburbs, this version is very well acted.  Naomi Watts is convincing as the brutalised wife and mother.  Tim Roth is quietly effective as the husband and father.  Devon Gearheart gives a strong performance as their young son.  As the intruders, Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet (the abused boy in Mysterious Skin) are frightening, all the more so for being initially ordinary and menacing. Haneke makes very serious and strong films critical of the electronic media and its effect on makers and viewers..  He is a bleak and serious satirist in the sense that he is a perfectionist in his expectations of human nature and portrays dramas which underscore his disappointments and these expectations.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR. Although the film version of Klaus Kinski’s one-man performance of Jesus Christus Erloser was not released until 2008, it belongs in content and style to the 1970s.  The stock footage was edited by Kinski’s biographer, Peter Geyer, and premiered at the Berlin film festival in February, 2008. On November 20th 1971, in Berlin’s Deutschehalle, German actor Klaus Kinski (who was soon to appear Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, The Wrath Of God and later in Herzog’s Nosferatu and Fitzcarraldo) presented his 30 page verbal portrait of Jesus.  The performance turned out to be disastrous with heckling and interjections, criticism of Kinski as a person and as a rich film star talking about poverty.  There were gibes about his career in crime movies and, finally, that he was a fascist.  People shouted that they wanted their money back (10 marks). Peter Geyer introduces the end credits but it is not the end of the film.  He then shows the last part of the evening where Kinski describes the Passion.  The camera focuses more on the reactions of the audience than on Kinski himself. Kinski’s voice is subdued, even reverent. While the performance comes from the 1960s and 1970s, with particular references to wars and changes of the period, Jesus Christ Saviour can still strike many chords today.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

LEMON TREE. For anyone who wants to appreciate different point of view of the state of Israel and the attitudes towards the Palestinians, this film is well worth seeing.  It also contains vividly alarming vistas of the separation wall, higher than one might have thought, a fortress wall keeping people in as well as out. The plot is both realistic and symbolic.  The new Israeli Defence Minister owns a mansion on the border with Palestine on the West Bank, looking straight out on a lemon grove inherited by Salma (Hiam Abbas) from her father.  The Israeli Secret Service declare that the grove is a security risk for the Defence Minister, a cover for intrusive terrorists and the military decrees that it should be cut down.  Salma takes a firm stand and eventually appeals through various courts up to the supreme court in Jerusalem. The background to the story is the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006 with its sense of heightened tension.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

NIGHT AND DAY. This is a very long film, almost two and a half hours.  It is well-acted, well-crafted and has some interesting themes.  However, to be sharing the questions of the central character, who is a rather ordinary man and not portrayed particularly empathetically, is something of a hard slog. The structure is that of A Korean In Paris, or glimpses over a seven weeks period (September-October, 2007) of the intermittent diary of a painter.  He has fled Korea and his wife after being reported for smoking marijuana at a party. He meets a former girlfriend by chance and toys with renewing the friendship though she is married.  His kindly landlord introduces him to a young cousin, an art student.  He is then smitten by her room-mate.  He wanders Paris.  He visits the beach at Deauville with the two art students and has to mediate their dislike of each other.  He reads the Bible, tries oysters… and then goes home when his wife tells him she is pregnant. The film uses a Beethoven sonata throughout which, beautiful as it is, has a life of its own and seems a presumption on the part of the director to use it to support the quest of a semi-interesting man in search of himself.  A long two months’ journey through night and day.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

TIME TO DIE. Here is a fine film about ageing and dying.  The director has dedicated the film to her grandmother so one presumes that this is something of a memoir and a tribute. Shot in expressive black and white, most of the film is confined to the old home in which the 91 year old old lady lives.  We get to know the rooms, look out through the framing of the windows, go out into the grounds now and again and visit the adjacent old house on her property.  What might seem a limited plot and viewpoint becomes a fine film. The impressive performance of Danuta Szaflarska holds the film together as well as holding audience attention throughout the film.  Supporting characters appear only briefly. As the old lady looks back at her life, she feels more alone and disappointed. Her reflections on her life at this stage are sadly pessimistic. But, there is more to the film.  There is some hope and the exhilaration of the last part of the film as the old lady decides how she can give meaning to her long life reminds us that life is worth living.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

THE VISITOR. A fine film to be recommended.  It is small-budget and modest but it has a strong impact emotionally and is a challenge to the audience’s sense of humanity. Thomas McCarthy is a full-time actor but he made his first film, again one with great humane appeal, The Station Agent, in 2003.  Now he has written The Visitor, a screenplay that is often understated but is intelligent and rings true in its attention to character detail as well as directing it. Richard Jenkins is a frequent supporting actor but this is his opportunity for a leading role, one that he fully justifies.  It is a well-rounded performance.  He is a sixtyish widower who lectures at a Connecticut college, but who has withdrawn into himself and into the stale routines of academia.  His main attempt to come out of himself, to learn to play the piano, comes to nothing. Actually, music is a key factor in the drama.  Walter’s wife was a concert pianist.  When he finds two illegals occupying his New York apartment, he is shocked but offers them some temporary refuge.  He is rewarded by finding that Syrian Tarek (a charismatically genial Haaz Sleiman) plays drums.  It is wonderful to watch Walter open up as a person as he shares the life of the two and learns to play the drums himself. It is a pity that so many moviegoers’ budgets are eaten up by the big blockbusters which they enjoy when they could also invest in a moving and satisfying film like this one.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

First week's reviews

24 CITY.  A serious and seriously-paced Chinese documentary on the transition of a large armaments factory to new premises, the demolition of the old building and the reminiscences of managers and workers and people associated with the factory over the years.  The three generations of women presented are not actual characters but actresses performing. The site is to be used for re-development and a 5 star hotel, 24 City.  The location is the Chinese city of Chengdu. No Michael Moore histrionics or intrusions here.  No Morgan Spurlock expose, humour or banter here.  The series of interviews, quite long and detailed, of men and women are beautifully mounted and framed.  There are momentary inserts of action, like scenes of smelting or a young girl roller-skating.  But, it is mainly listening attentively to the talking heads. What is revealed is something of the history of Communist China from the 1950s and its adoption of socialism, the cultural revolution and more recent changes that have absorbed a great deal of capitalist ethos.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

ALONE IN FOUR WALLS. German filmmaker Alexandra Westmeier explores the impact the harsh Russian justice system has on a group of young boys, aged between 10 and 14, who have been sent to Reform school for committing major crimes. The stories of some of these boys, their heinous crimes, their backgrounds from invariably abusive and broken homes, and their hopes and dreams, all combine to make this a compelling, melancholic, yet ultimately optimistic documentary. The disturbing sub-text of this film is the revelation that the new Russia is fraught with social and domestic problems, and that it is struggling to come to terms with the consequences as demonstrated by these boys’ crimes and their antecedents. The use of interviews, various scenes inside the reformatory highlighting the boys’ day-to-day lives, and the carefully structured story, combine to make this a disturbing and compelling film.  (Peter Krausz) MIFF link

THE BANK JOB. (two reviews)

Guy Ritchie reinvigorated the gritty, uncompromisingly tough British crime thriller with his Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, which followed the tradition of such films as Get Carter, The Long Good Friday, etc. Ex-patriate Australian director Roger Donaldson follows those thrillers with The Bank Job, another tough yet entertaining if somewhat routine mainstream thriller based on a true story. The Bank Job yet again proves that fact can sometimes be stranger than fiction. Donaldson, who has carved out quite a successful career in Hollywood directing thrillers and genre pieces (No Way Out, etc), handles the material in very workmanlike and straightforward fashion. There are no fancy directorial touches here that detract from the fascinating and quite incredible story. Written by veterans Dick Clement and Ian Lafrenais, the script is also suffused with touches of mordant humour that undercut some of the violence. Jason Statham, arguably Britain’s premier action star, plays one of the more substantial and well-rounded characters of his career, and copes well with his performance. David Suchet chews the scenery as porn king Lew Vogel.  (Greg King) MIFF link

The Bank Job is a rollicking caper through old London Town. The year is 1971, dressed up to the nines with collector’s cars and big coats pulled out of retirement to look good against some great set design and set pieces. Inspired loosely by real events in 1971, Martine (Saffron Burrows) offers Terry (Jason Statham) a lead on a foolproof bank job on London's Baker Street. But Terry and his crew don't know the boxes contain royal sex secrets and a brothel owner’s membership list, which raises the stakes considerably. There is some quite brutal tragedy amongst farce, with Michael (not Malcolm) X making a somewhat peripheral appearance with unhappy consequences, and David Suchet (a man best known for his gentle TV Poirot) almost unrecognizable as a sadistic brothel owner. Terry gets all Mission Possible, 70s style, and cunningly tunnels into the bank from a couple of shops down – with the crew in contact over walkie talkies. Unfortunately, a ham radio operator picks up their suspicious code language (“What are you going to do with your share when we bust into the vault”). This produces some rather wonderful farce as the police zip about from bank to bank in the Greater London area trying to work out which one’s getting done over. This doesn’t necessarily pull off the cracking pace, tunes and dialogue of, say, Snatch. Nor the self-reflective snappiness of Ocean’s 11-13. But it does have a bit of a heart, with questions about what family man Terry would sacrifice for his wife and kids. Of course, it also has two saucy lead characters named Love and Leather, and as one critic put it ‘an MP in a poncy accent putting on pink undies and an S&M collar while being beaten by hookers.’ Say no more. (Bruce Paterson) MIFF link

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ (ENDLESS). The emerging Romanian film industry is one to watch carefully, as a number of quality films are being produced there, including the award-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. The Government is strongly supporting this cultural development after years of fascist rule, similar to the way the Spanish film industry was able to be re-established with the demise of Franco. The voices of various Romanian filmmakers reflect the changes that are now occurring in the country. This first feature film, by Cristian Nemescu (who tragically was killed in a car accident at the age of 27 shortly before completing this film), is a long but compelling tale of the destiny of a NATO train populated with American and other soldiers, trying to get to Kosovo in 1999 for peace-keeping purposes, but instead are derailed at the Romanian border by a corrupt railway official. The film reveals a great deal about the cultural and social dislocation occurring in the Balkans region at the time (in the vein of Emir Kusturica’s films) as well as the rival philosophies between the USA and the region. Starring Armand Assante, this almost epic tale is set over a few days, vacillating between a monochrome sequence of events and family connections during World War 2 (1944), and uses the device of an American missile as the basis for the cultural conflicts existent in 1999. The title refers to the Mamas and Papas song beloved by the daughter of the railway official, as well as her hopes and dreams. Combining conflict and corruption, as well as a dark sense of humour at times, Nemescu’s wide-screen lensing of the film is quite assured and never less than entertaining, with a clearly evolving sub-text. Perhaps “Endless” is not quite the right term, even though it suggests that these cultural divides will never disappear;  perhaps “unrequited” or “incomplete” are more appropriate. What a great shame we will not see more films from this very promising filmmaker. Recommended. (Peter Krausz) MIFF link

CELEBRITY: DOMINICK DUNNE. This film is one of the MIFF Premiere Fund films (together with Not Quite Hollywood, Rock n Roll Nerd, Angel of the Wind, Bastardy, Whatever Happened to Brenda Hean), and turns out to be an engaging and incisive look at the 80+ year old Vanity Fair reporter who specializes in show business trials and scandals. The film, shot over a long period of time, provides extensive comments from Dominick about his own life, as well as the recent trial of Phil Spector for murder. What emerges is a well-rounded portrait of a war veteran, with father-son relationship issues, who specialised in journalism, digging up stories about show business events, and who also produced some films in Hollywood. Presented as a documentary biography, with interviews with family members, and others associated with him, the film reveals a great deal about his background, attitude to life, and especially his attitude to particular show business individuals. As directed by Kirsty de Garis and Tim Jolley, the film covers a great deal of ground in evoking a portrait of a complex individual in a pampered world where entertainment overrides reality. Recommended. (Peter Krausz) MIFF link

CLOUD 9. Every cloud allegedly has a silver lining.  The cloud in the title of this German film does not.  For a time, Inge (Ursula Werner), a sixty-plus housewife who mends clothes at home, sings in a choir and, with her husband, minds her daughters children at times, experiences some cloud nine bliss.  One of the questions the film raises is: at what cost? In portraying older people and a woman beginning an affair with a man in his seventies, the three actors concerned perform with unflinching candour.  The director wisely shows the more explicit sequences, with frank nudity, early in the film so that this is not a distraction when we have to consider the emotional effects on each of the characters as well as the moral choices. The acting is very strong and convincing.  An older audience would relate better to the film and its issues. To cap it all – and, certainly, not to make the resolution too easy – there is a grim ending that demands reflection from the audience. (Peter Malone) MIFF link

DEREK. (two reviews)

Derek is an unashamed homage to the late gay independent filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman. Actress and collaborator Tilda Swinton has written and narrated a letter to Derek. This voice over is weaved in with shots of her walking around London (old haunts of theirs, presumably), footage of old interviews with Jarman, home movies of his earlier and later years, and clips of his films to build up a picture of the man. Swinton probably swans around a bit too much in this, taking the focus away from Jarman, but as a huge Swinton fan, it didn't bother me. Fans will love this film, and even if you've never heard of Derek Jarman, it's an interesting documentary on a fascinating man. (Cynthia Karena) MIFF link

Derek Jarman was a major force in UK independent cinema from the mid-197s to his death in 1994.  A painter, a designer, experimenting with super 8 film and moving on with the technology of the period, he created a unique body of work that merits serious consideration. In 1990, diagnosed as HIV positive, he allowed himself to be interviewed for more than ten hours by Colin McCabe.  Significant excerpts from this interview have been incorporated into this brief but interesting portrait of Jarman.  Assembled by artist-director Isaac Jullien, it is a tribute that is both poetic and rhetorical. Jarman tells his own story during the interviews with quite some detail and personal revelations. He traces the development of his art and talks about learning film-making when he was invited by Ken Russell to be the set designer for The Devils. This film has the advantage, within 75 minutes, of offering biography, tribute and images and assessment of Jarman’s life and work.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

DIARY OF THE DEAD. (two reviews)

Legendary horror writer/director George A. Romero returns to his beloved zombie genre for the fifth time. Although Romero had more creative control on Diary of the Dead than he did on his previous zombie film, the big budget Land of the Dead, he makes the same mistake of making his political statement too overt rather confining it to the subtext like he did so successfully in his earlier films. This time Romero is commenting on media manipulation and our obsession with new media so like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, the film is a compilation of raw footage from home movie cameras, mobile phones and surveillance tapes. This may have worked better if it was not for the fact that the characters spend way too much time debating the ethics of filming the zombie inspired carnage erupting around them. Nevertheless, the film is overall fun. There are some great Scream-esque self-referential moments and the zombies are dispatched in a number of creative ways. The portion of the audience dressed as the undead certainly enjoyed themselves so that’s the main thing. (3.5/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

In 1968, George A. Romero made a small-budget, black and white film about contemporary zombies in US cities, The Night Of The Living Dead, which is now considered one of the principal horror films of the 20th century and a huge influence on film-making.  Romero continued his fascination with horror, particularly the living dead, in the 1970s with Dawn Of The Dead, the 1980s with Day Of The Dead, a remake by Tom Savini in 1990. Romero himself has made Land Of The Dead and Diary Of The Dead and there have been some remakes as well as experimental and 3D tinkering with Romero’s original. Where this one is different is that it shows the influence of The Blair Witch Project style of film-making, handheld cameras, the audience being taken into the film-makers’ confidence that they are seeing footage of real events which have been edited into a feature film. This method was recently used to substantial effect with the rampaging monster in New York film, Cloverfield. By using this kind of immediate film within a film genre and its techniques, Romero has been able to give new life to his 40 year long fascination with the living dead.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

DON’T TOUCH THAT AXE (Ne touchez pas la hache) Director Jacques Rivette is often regarded as one of the more vibrant directors from the French New Wave, making the anticipation for his latest film, an adaptation of the Honoré de Balzac novel La duchesse de Langeais,understandable. It is a tale of unfulfilled love, dangerous flirtations and spurned vengeance between a Parisian socialite and a general who has just returned from the Napoleonic War. Despite this promising mix of themes the film is incredibly flat. It is meticulously staged in stunning settings but is more of a formal exercise in conveying the complexities of human emotion rather than a cinematic film that evokes them. There is no denying the craftsmanship behind this film but it is overly distant and lacks passion. (3/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

FRONTIER OF DAWN. Philippe Garrel has decided to tell a romantic, amour fou, story in the style of French film-making of forty years ago or more.  It is in black and white, uses captions and dialogue that is ripe and sometimes melodramatic.  Some French critics see it as poetic.  Others were not so sympathetic. Louis Garrel, the director’s son, is a photographer who is smitten (though this seems more cerebral than feeling) with a moody and depressed married film star whom he goes to photograph.  They love, they clash, she dies. Two years later, he is engaged to an attractive and wealthy girl and is about to be married.  The actress begins to appear in a mirror, a vengeful figure which a friend, quite rightly, advises him is his sub-conscious.  However, it all builds up to a highly, highly melodramatic climax which seems more like a theatrical tragedy than real life.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

GOMORRA. This is not the most lucid of films.  We admire the sincerity and courage that has gone into the making of it, the craft and the skill in working with many non-professional performers.  However, with the decision to take five stories out of the many in Roberto Saviano’s 2006 best-seller (translated into 33 languages) and to intercut them, this structure has made it difficult to follow. It might have been more helpful to have the five selected stories shown in their entirety one after the other.  The press kit says that they are interconnected.  In fact, episode after episode is not interconnected.  They are simply juxtaposed.  This means that we are following one of the stories and then it is left for twenty minutes or so while we pursue some of the others and so on. However, the film creates a contemporary Gommorah atmosphere in the northern suburb of Naples, Scampia, which is notorious for its ugly estates, open drug-dealing, murders and control of everything by the Camorra – hence the play on names. The five stories in themselves illustrate what Saviano (who has been under police protection since the publication) and Garrone wanted to show of the reality of the Camorra today, an often vicious world of blood, death and power.  Again, the stories could have been developed more and characters probed. Sombre and alarming material.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

HONEYDRIPPER Writer/director John Sayles has always had a remarkable ability to create a sense of place in his multi-narrative films. In Honeydripper it is the small cotton-picking town of Harmony in 1950s Alabama that gets the Sayles treatment. While Sayles has previously flirted with various generic conventions in order to either subvert them or facilitate the exploration of particular subtexts, Honeydripper is far more conventional and ultimately resembles a classic Hollywood backstage musical. Despite the early promise of numerous other storylines, the film’s overall focus is on the lead up to one night of live music that will determine the fate of the failing Honeydripper night club. Other issues such as racial segregation, worker exploitation, religious fervour and poverty are touched upon but under explored. Honeydripper is enjoyable enough but it is a lesser Sayles film. (3.5/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

HUNGER. A gruelling film to watch (and feel).Turner Prize-winning artist, Steve McQueen, has co-written and directed his first feature and drawn his audience into the Troubles of 1981 in Belfast, especially in the Maze prison at the time of the blanket and washing strike, culminating in the hunger strike and the death of activist, Bobby Sands. Hunger joins a number of films about this era including In The Name Of The Father and Some Mother’s Son (which was about Bobby Sands, his hunger strike and his being elected an MP during this time, something Hunger mentions only in the end information).  The IRA committed atrocities.  The British and the prison guards do themselves little credit in their behaviour.  It is more than a blessing that matters have been able to change in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday agreement of 1997. The film is clearly divided into three parts.  The first hour focuses on the inmates and the conditions in the Maze and their demands to be treated as political prisoners because of the IRA war rather than as criminal murderers, a plea turned down by Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, whose severe (and arrogant-sounding) words are played here. The second part of the film is an intense conversation between Bobby Sands and his friend Fr Dominic Moran.  Much of it is in a single take, a medium shot as the two men sit at a table and argue the pros and cons of Sands’ decision to go on a hunger strike to death.  This demands constant attention as the different points of view are persuasively put. Then there is the 66 days of dying that Bobby Sands underwent, with explanations of what the hunger did to his internal organs.  We can see what it was doing to his exterior, with Michael Fassbender looking frighteningly emaciated, dying with pain and an attempt at dignity.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

IN BRUGES. The most unusual thing about In Bruges is that it is a violent black comedy and yet very little of the violence is played for laughs. This feature film directorial debut by Martin McDonagh is very funny, but when violence occurs it is ugly, regretful and impacts heavily on the characters. Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell play two hit men who are ordered to lie low in the medieval Belgium town of Bruges after their last assignment goes wrong. Glesson’s character is relishing the opportunity to be a tourist for a few days while Farrell’s character can’t think of anything worse than to be stuck in Bruges. The humour is offbeat and frequently very un-PC, the entire cast play off each other beautifully and this is all round a refreshingly original film. (4/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS. A quirky independent US movie that is much better than the average romantic comedy.  The central characters are flawed and live in the unreality of the American dream of success (especially in the movie world of LA) and, in their loneliness, have succumbed to a self-centred moral world where their problems and their sad moods eliminate the rest of the world.  But, we know they are better than that.  This story takes place over one day, New Year’s Eve, and by the time it is over, they may have taken only one small step to opening up to a fuller and better life.  But, at least, it is a step. City atmosphere is important.  Photographed in black and white, the film nevertheless brings central Los Angeles alive, makes it real.  Dialogue is important.  It’s the kind of dialogue that Woody Allen tended to write for his New York stories decades ago: revealing, whimsical, significant and sometimes pleasantly inconsequential. The central characters are turning thirty.  It is a film especially for that age group, probably mirroring a great deal of life for those who are still searching for the midnight kiss and well beyond.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

INSIDE (À l'intérieur) Inside is the latest horror film to combine the gritty brutality of genre classics The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Last House on the Left with inventive scenes of violence. It is closer in tone to Wolf Creek and Haute tension than the Saw and Hostel films, although it arguably pushes the envelope even further than all those films in its depiction of truly horrific scenarios. The story is simple – pregnant Sarah, who is due to give birth the following day, is terrorised by a second woman who is determined to cut the baby out of her. As various other characters turn up to Sarah’s house, this deranged mystery woman graphically kills them off. There is something admirable about the gory nastiness of Inside and having a pregnant woman in the middle of it all certainly evokes all sorts of anxieties. However the script is weak and there is not adequate character development to really care about anybody in this film. But the biggest flaw is that first time directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have underlit the entire film. Obviously they were trying to increase the moodiness of the film and create suspense by having every shot filled with shadows, but they have over done it. There are way too many frustrating scenes where you simply cannot tell what is actually going on. (3/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

JOHNNY MAD DOG.  It is quite amazing to read acknowledgements to the president and government of Liberia for a film, especially a film that shows so many ugly faces of war in the troubled conflicts of the 1990s.  Yet, here they are – and the film was made on Liberian locations in and around Monrovia.  And the cast consisted of former child soldiers who portray the fighting and atrocities they committed in those times. Director and producers took care in the casting, finding that the re-enactments, as acting, were a kind of therapy.  The technical adviser was Joseph who plays the rebel general.  He had been a child soldier since the age of ten.  Since many of the cast could not read or memorise a script, much of the dialogue is memory and improvised. The film is a frightening experience in the sense that it shows horrors that are normally unimaginable.  The HD photography gives graphic close ups of characters and action and the editing immerses us in terrible events. The film is a challenge to conscience and consciousness of the evil dimensions of human nature. (Peter Malone) MIFF link

KATYN. (two reviews)

Veteran Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda (A Generation, Kanal, Ashes & Diamonds, Land of Promise, Man of Marble), whose films spoke to the younger generation of Poland and the emerging social and political issues of his country, this time turns his hand to a little known, yet tragic, war-time atrocity. During World War 2, 12,000 Polish army officers were murdered by the Russian Secret Service, and their bodies were dumped in the Katyn Forest in Poland. In 1939, Poland was caught between a rock and a hard place, as German soldiers were invading Poland from one direction, massacring Polish soldiers, while Russian troops were invading from the other direction, rounding up Polish army officers as potential threats to the regime or regarded as Nazi collaborators. Beginning in 1939 and gradually moving forward into the late 1940s, the film portrays the initial plight of the Polish people amidst the two invading forces, focusing on one woman, her daughter and her officer husband, who she discovers has been detained with all other military personnel by the Russians. What ensues is the evolving account of the treatment of these officers, the blame of deaths initially apportioned to the Nazis, and eventually the hushed-up real story of Russian culpability emerging. The film also reveals the treatment meted out by the Nazis to academics, as the Nazis felt that Universities harboured insurrection and anti-Nazi sentiment. Beautifully shot by Wajda in widescreen, as well as monochrome and colour, the film’s stylish approach masks an underlying anger at this war-time atrocity that befell the non-Jewish people of Poland. Like the film Fateless, which told the little known story of the fate of Hungarian Jews in World War 2, Katyn is directed in a non-melodramatic way building towards the shattering climax and the resultant human cost. Above all, Katyn is a deeply humanistic exploration of a devastating event, directed in a masterful way by a filmmaker still concerned at the evolution of Polish society and culture. Highly recommended. (Peter Krausz) MIFF link

Acclaimed Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s latest film is a difficult one to review because there is an overwhelming feeling that it should be praised more than it perhaps deserves to be. Firstly, it is a very important film in that it is finally telling the world about the horrific massacre, and subsequent cover-up, of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet forces in 1940. Secondly, every scene in the film is beautifully crafted and the final sequence where the massacre is finally depicted is a powerful and blunt statement about the cold hearted administration of mass murder. But overall Katyn does not hang together. Narrative threads and characters come and go through the film to only then disappear again. It does all come together by the end but much of the film is confusing. This is probably a film that requires multiple viewings before being truly appreciated. Nevertheless, there is no denying its power. (4/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Tomas Alfredson's film, based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, is gripping from beginning to chilling end. Subtly using ideas and motifs from many classics of the genre but redefining them against the chilling, snow-covered vistas of the Swedish countryside, the film brings fresh blood to often the staid and predictable recent forays into the vampire genre. By taking the story to the suitably eerie winter landscapes of Sweden and making the vampirism on display a sub-plot rather than the whole raison d'être of the film he draws you into the characters well before you fully realise the full extent of the horrors being shown. The director avoids the usual clichés whilst maintaining a few fundamental genres rules that have to be adhered to and taking in a few more obscure ones on the way. Visually the film is stunning, from the nocturnal vampiric attacks to the final swimming pool massacre, the director shows a sure hand during even the most uncomfortable moments. (Cinephilia) MIFF link

LORNA’S SILENCE The Dardennes Brothers make a film every three years, so this is their fourth in a decade, two of which Rosetta and L’Enfant won the Cannes Palme d’Or and the other, Le Fils, was very well received. The previous films were full of movement, the camera following the characters around at very close range.  This time the camera remains still for much of the time giving the film a sense of classical realism.  It is a fine film. Kosovo actress, Arta Dobroshi, brings great presence, beauty, toughness and pathos to the role of a contemporary migrant.  And Jeremie Renier, who worked for the Dardennes in Rosetta and was the callous young father in L’Enfant, gives a believable and evocative portrayal as an addict. Once again, the Dardennes bring their sense of humane realism to significant social issues. (Peter Malone) MIFF link

MAN ON WIRE. A fascinating film about a fascinating (if self-publicising, idiosyncratic) celebrity.  While it is a documentary, it has some reconstructed sequences and plays as interestingly as a fiction feature. Philippe Petit was a 23 year old Frenchman who walked on wires between the two towers of the World Trace Centre on August 7th 1974.  At the same time, Richard Nixon was making speeches about Watergate and, the day after the walk, resigned the presidency losing some of the headlines to M. Petit. Documentarist James Marsh (who also made the feature film, The King, with Gael Garcia Bernal) has had access to a great deal of film footage and photographs of Petit’s walks, not only in New York, but also between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1971 and between two pylons on Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973.  The framework of this film, however, is the narrative of preparations for the World Trade Centre walk. Most of the principal members of the team have been interviewed for this film intercut with the archival footage showing them over thirty years earlier (looking particularly 70s-ish with hair styles and clothes), part of the fascination.  In the reconstructed sequences, we see Philippe’s early days in France, his developing his tightrope walking skills.  And Petit himself, in his late fifties, is a vigorous and entertaining raconteur, drawing us into his story and his vision and his feelings.  He just doesn’t tell the story but gets up and re-enacts a lot of what he did. A continually gripping and intriguing documentary – sometimes unnerving if one has empathetic vertigo sensitivities as one sits in one’s comfortable seat looking at Petit way up high.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

MY WINNIPEG. Guy Maddin is a favourite director for film festivals.  He makes films which are poetic, often melancholic, visually experimental and always a challenge. My Winnipeg is his most accessible film. Commissioned to make a film about the city he has lived in for decades, he has offered us a kind of love-poem to his home but always with a wry comment and a recurring motif of his alter ego sitting in a train, looking out the window at Winnipeg and speaking about leaving forever. Maddin’s voiceover commentary is a blend of poetic images, poetic rhythms and an essay on the history of Winnipeg combined with a memoir.  The memoir is reinforced by the director talking about setting up re-enactments of different scenes of his childhood with the actress Ann Savage (whom Maddin admired for her tough role in the 1940s film noir, Detour) playing his mother.  These scenes with his mother and brothers and sisters tells us about Maddin as a person with his artistic feelings rather than offering any autobiography. There is some nostalgia for the Winnipeg of the past, out there in the vast distances of Manitoba, a centre for the 19th century railroads, the building of a city that was large and remote. This is 80 minutes of impressions.  Those who prefer linear narrative may like it although they may decide it is too meandering.  Those who are able to sit back and let the images and sounds wash over, find interest in the history and enjoy the subjective perspectives of the director will be satisfied with an impressionistic portrait of a city. (Peter Malone) MIFF link

NIGHTWATCHING. Peter Greenaway is certainly a distinctive and idiosyncratic filmmaker whose films, such as The Draughtsman’s Contract, Belly of an Architect, A Zed and Two Naughts, Drowning by Numbers, The Pillow Book, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, The Baby of Macon, etc. deliberately tantalize and provoke the audience to consider the unusual narrative constructions he places on intriguing source material or story ideas. He is also a great believer in the theatricality of cinematic presentation, with his films heightening the sense of static creation amidst a filmic flow of images. Nightwatching continues this approach by presenting a series of visually stunning tableaux to illustrate the life and times of Rembrandt, with an emphasis on his private life, and the political fall-out from one of his emblematic paintings. The 17th Century period is evoked by a combination of studio shot (in Poland) carefully composed scenes, set against some external sequences. Greenaway refuses to present the audience with a standard narrative dissection of the painter (as found in some other films such as: Rembrandt, 1936 by Alexander Korda; instead he uses contemporary language, highly explicit sex scenes and a general air of social debauchery to illustrate the hypocrisy of the period and the personal failings and successes of the painter. The title refers to both the significant painting Rembrandt spent so much time creating, as well as the darker visions he has based on the ramifications of that painting. This is certainly not a film for all tastes, as Greenaway refuses to capitulate to audience sensibilities, with some quite explicit scenes in the film as well as some ribald dialogue. Martin Freeman (The Office, UK) does a great job in inhabiting this deeply affected soul whose nightmares, fraught personal life and social evisceration lead to his demise. I was quite impressed by the film, which is shot like a painting come to life, and demonstrates the way cinema can be employed to relate a complex and dialogue driven story in highly visual ways. Recommended. (Peter Krausz) MIFF link

NIGHTWATCHING As to be expected in a film by renowned director Peter Greenaway, Nightwatching is heavily influenced by theatrical and fine art techniques. Many scenes take place on a vast wooden stage, dressed appropriately for the scene, and every shot of the film is framed, lit and coloured as if it were a Renaissance painting. But in Nightwatching this is not merely a stylistic device but intrinsic to the narrative, which is concerned with the creation, interpretation and impact of Rembrandt’s famously theatrical Night Watch painting. After reluctantly agreeing to take the commission to portray the Militia Company of Amsterdam Musketeers, who feature in the painting, Rembrandt discovers a number of disturbing and unsavoury facts about the men he is painting, including a murder conspiracy. Nightwatching depicts Rembrandt’s bold attempt to expose these men through the allegory in his painting, and the resulting fallout he suffers. Casting Martin Freeman as Rembrandt was an inspired decision as Freeman gives Rembrandt an enormous amount of warmth, sympathy and even humour. Nightwatching is completely fascinating and an absolute triumph of film style. (4.5/5: Thomas Caldwell)

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD. Mark Hartley’s engaging, well-researched documentary exploring the renaissance and resurgence of the Australian Film Industry in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s is a great choice for the opening night film for this year’s MIFF, as one of the main focuses of the program is on Ozploitation. Hartley’s film is a wonderful reminder of a time when local film makers actually made films that audiences were willing to pay to see, when they made films that audiences wanted to see. Films offered audiences sex, fun, Ocker humour, action, monsters, and buckets of blood and gore. An enthusiastic Quentin Tarantino is front and centre and waxes lyrically about some of his favourite moments and scenes from this exciting period of creativity. This rapidly edited doco also includes lots of clips, and interviews with many of the people involved. There are some fascinating, behind the scenes anecdotes as well. Not Quite Hollywood is far more entertaining and memorable than many of the films showcased in the doco itself. Not to be missed!  (Greg King) MIFF link

PERSEPOLIS. Persepolis is animation with a difference.  As with a number of French animated films, this one is for adults rather than children.  It is based on a series of comics or graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi and they translate vividly to the screen, most of them in strong, even heavy, black and white with some excursions into colour. Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran and her early years were spent in the era of the Shah. Then came the Islamic Revolution and the tightening of controls and strictness is behaviour, dress codes, education, especially for women.  Her parents send Marjane to Europe and she spends some time, working, poor, on the street, caught up with the rebel culture and falling in love but betrayed.  She returns to Iran and lives through the restrictions of more recent years with her parents and her wise grandmother. Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni (Catherine Deneuve’s daughter) voice mother and daughter in both the French version and the American-dubbed version. The film won many awards including the Jury award in Cannes 2007 eliciting protests from the Iranian authorities.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

THE POPE’S TOILET.  Not the Pope’s own toilet!  Rather, the toilets needed in an Uruguayan town for people attending the ceremonies during a papal visit. On the one hand, this is an amusing story of poor people in the town of Melo. Many of them make their living by venturing across the border to Brazil and smuggling goods back into Uruguay, dependent on the needs and whims of the black marketeers and shopkeepers (and random confiscations by border guards). On the other hand, this is quite a sardonic take on the impact of papal visits and the question about their immediate effect and their lasting effects. Just what will a papal discourse on the dignity of work delivered in the context of papal robes and political dignitaries do for the workers. With the news that the Pope will come to Melo on 8th May to deliver his discourse about work, dreams of capitalising on the promised influx of Brazilian pilgrims to hear the Pope become more and more fervid and ambitious. And the effect of the papal visit? The question left for viewers of the film is: should the papal visit be an occasion for a commercial bonanza and/or or a pastoral experience, especially for the poor and the workers? (Peter Malone) MIFF link

THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA. It’s a bit sad when a promising director makes one really good film that they never come close to equalling again. That is the case with Wayne Wang who hasn’t made anything particularly worth watching since Smoke in 1995. The Princess of Nebraska, about a Chinese girl who comes to San Francisco for an abortion,is another disappointment. Filmed on digital in the handheld, pseudo-cinéma vérité style that is currently fashionable to use to supposedly convey realism, The Princes of Nebraska alternates between being dull and being pretentious. However, there are occasional moments of interest to indicate Wang is a director worth staying with and the incredibly indulgent ending is somehow quite moving. (2.5/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

[REC]. (two reviews)

The Spanish zombie film [Rec], as in the record symbol on a digital camera viewfinder, coincidentally adopts the same idea as George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, which is to make a zombie film through the first person perspective of somebody holding a camera who gets caught up in the mayhem. While Diary of the Dead contained multiple camera footage edited together, [Rec] is all on one single camera over a shorter period of time. The camera-operator, Pablo, works for a late night reality show and with the show’s host, Angela, are doing a story about a typical night in the life of fire fighters. Pablo and Angela accompany the fire fighters to an apartment where they have to subdue a woman who appears to have gone rabid. When they attempt to leave the building they discover that along with all the residents they have been quarantined inside. As one by one the people trapped inside the building become infected and also go rabid, Pablo and Angela attempt to escape while the camera continues to roll. [Rec] is wonderfully paced and there are some genuine scares as bodies unexpectedly fall into frame or jump out of the darkness.  However it is the final sequence of this film that really gives it an edge as superior horror filmmaking. It is a truly frightening conclusion and there were several gasps of “What the hell was that?” from the audience. (4/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

Extremely popular in its country of origin, Spain, as well as at the closing night of the Spanish Film Festival, [Rec] (standing for “Record” when you use a videocamera) is an effectively produced faux reality documentary, which becomes a cleverly constructed, if obviously manipulative, horror tale. Directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza (and co-written by Balaguero and Luis Berdejo) Rec starts out as a typical reality program where a female reporter and her camera operator/sound recordist follow live a group of fire fighters around Madrid after dark. They eventually are called out to a blazing building, which provides the reporter with a frisson of excitement for her reality show viewers. However, once they enter the building, violence, death and mayhem ensue, leading to some startling events. This Blair Witch Project style film is quite compelling for most of its running time, and at its short running time, provides satisfactory thrills and chills before it concludes. It is quite apparent though that audience manipulation is afoot, so it is both a clever genre piece and yet a clearly evident artifice. Nevertheless, a good entry into the horror/thriller genre. (Peter Krausz) MIFF link

REDACTED. (two reviews)

Brian DePalma has made a thought provoking fictional documentary about a group of US soldiers stationed in Iraq. It is based on a true event, about the soldiers who raped and murdered a 15 year old Iraqi girl and kill her family. The film “recreates” the story through webcams, YouTube, and amateur footage of a would-be filmmaker soldier. But the film seems to show just the tip of the iceberg of what the US troops in Iraq must have gone through. A more talented cast probably would have saved the film. The actors let the film down; they don’t convey the feeling of frustration, confusion, and terror soldiers in war must feel. It’s no Apocalypse Now. It’s not a brilliant film, and falls short of conveying the horrors of war, but anything that gives an alternative view of a war, exposes despicable actions, and gives some insights on how soldiers think, is worth a look. (Cynthia Karena) MIFF link

After The Black Dahlia and such films as Femme Fatales, Redacted is not the film one would expect from Brian De Palma in 2007. It is a strong, even fierce, polemic against the American presence and behaviour in Iraq. De Palma had made a film about the Vietnam War in the late 1980s, Casualties of War, with Michael J. fox and Sean Penn. He knows what he is talking about in terms of making war films. He has written and directed this one – even though it gives the impression that it is documentary with a variety of styles. The styles include the video diary of one of the soldiers (and he wants to use it to get into film school when he gets back from Iraq). There is also a French documentary with French commentary about the checkpoints and what happens for the Iraqis as well as about the behaviour of the Americans. There are also some embedded journalists, interviews during action as well as reports on television. Then there are  internet chat rooms where the soldiers speak with their family. There are also video clips on the web sites showing atrocities, even including the execution of one of the Americans. There is a final collage of graphic photos. The film focuses on a small unit, the audience getting to know their personalities, their interactions, and their work. The film is brief, packs a punch, will not be comfortable viewing for those who are in favour of the Iraq war. It will reinforce the presuppositions about those who are against the war. A companion narrative piece to Redacted would be Paul Haggis' in The Valley Of Elah - which has many overlaps in showing the behaviour of some American forces.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

REVERSE SHOT: REBELLION OF THE FILMMAKERS. The German Film Industry, a major force during the silent film era and into the early sound period, was virtually demolished with the impact of Nazism and World War 2. Despite a number of popular entertainment films as well as some pointed propaganda films produced during the war, the film industry struggled after the war due to the political fall-out, bombing of key studios, economic instability and the departure of key filmmakers. The partitioning of West and East Germany fragmented the industry; in the East, propaganda products like “Heisse Sommer” (1966) reinforced the communist ideology, while in the West, films like “The Murderers Are Amongst Us” (1947) and “The Bridge” (1959) which dared to present a tarnished image of German Nazi history as a warning to the populace, were rarities. Indeed the industry, certainly in the West, remained moribund until an emerging group of filmmakers, combined with some new political resolve, in the late 1960s, created the right circumstances for challenging German films to be produced again. A collective of filmmakers including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog, formed a company that would self-invest in films, produce and distribute them, and then re-distribute the profits back through the collective. In 1971 this was quite revolutionary, and led to Fassbinder and others making some critically important films and virtually single-handedly re-established the German Film Industry as a major cinematic force in the world. Yet this whole venture was also fraught with personal tensions, a lack of financial accountability, a disparate emerging philosophical view of the types of films that should be produced/funded, and the German Government exploring possibilities with funding studios and films. By 1977, the whole venture collapsed under the weight of all these complex issues. This well produced and thorough documentary, with astute use of contemporary interviews, clips from many of the films as well as archival footage related to the topic, clearly dissects a key creative, influential period in German film history, and the implications it had for current filmmakers and the industry. Directors Dominik Wesselly and Laurens Straub (the latter dying during the film’s production) present a detailed, informative portrait of a group of filmmakers attempting to control their own destinies amidst the context of a rapidly changing society, mirrored by the film industry. Highly recommended.  (Peter Krausz)  MIFF link

SON OF RAMBOW. (two reviews)

For his second feature film after directing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy, Garth Jennings has written and directed this enjoyable tribute to the joys of discovering cinema as a child. Set in England in the 1980s, two young teenage boys form an unlikely friendship; one is the school troublemaker and the other belongs to a strict religious sect. While the depiction of the troubled backgrounds of both boys wallow a little in extremities they are overall nicely drawn characters and Jennings does not attempt to smooth over or resolve their less likeable aspects. The pair set about remaking First Blood and the scenes depicting their guerrilla style of filmmaking are mostly a lot of fun. There is a great subplot involving a group of French exchange students and a scene where the boys are invited into the 6th form common room is a hilarious parody of Hollywood parties, complete with scratch-and-sniff stickers being handed around like cocaine. (3.5/5: Thomas Caldwell) MIFF link

Son of Rambow recaptures an era when director Garth Jennings was himself a child discovering the joys of video recorders, bad clothes, and 80s music. Jennings and his producer Goldsmith were working on this obviously very personal project for some time, before being distracted by directing/producing the hit-and-miss Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Bringing to mind elements of Gondry’s Science of Sleep or Be Kind Rewind, emotional honesty is at the forefront here, in a relatively simple journey through adolescent trust, betrayal, reconciliation and a decidedly British sense of humour.  The two boys, particularly Will, have strong naturalistic talent; and Spaced’s Jessica Stevenson plays Will’s mother with appropriate Brethren gravity – she is always a welcome screen presence. Trivia spotters may be interested that Kubrick’s grandson has a supporting role, and the Screen Test winner is ultimately shown through an old clip of Jan Pinkava (recently co-director of Ratatouille). Jennings and Goldsmith are music video collaborators, and have picked a number of 80s musical classics, but the film’s visuals are surprisingly sedate. This actually serves the story well, accentuating the occasional cinematic flourishes. As Will’s imagination becomes more fevered, animated imagery blends into the frame or the scarecrow in the field that inspires the film-within-a-film’s villain comes to dramatic life. The simulated-VHS scenes of Will and Lee’s film have a fantastic fluorescing colour saturation, belying the subdued colours of the English countryside which is making do as their tropical jungle. (Bruce Paterson) MIFF link

SALT OF THIS SEA Any film which captures the present situation in Palestine and in Israel is welcome.  This film is emotionally heavyweight but, as screenplay, it is dramatic-lite.  It is a heartfelt film from Annemarie Jacir, herself a Palestinian who lives in Ramallah (which she uses as part of the plot and photographs tellingly). Brooklyn-born Soraya (Suheir Hammad) arrives for a visit to Israel and is subjected (for her own security!) to a series of grillings at the airport about her name, its pronunciations and origin, about her parents (born in Lebanon) and her grandparents (born in Jaffa).  The mood is set. One of her aims in coming to Ramallah is to check her grandfather’s back account, frozen after 1948 with the present owners finding every way to stop payment. The Israeli occupier of the house welcomes them but Soraya wants an acknowledgement that the house was stolen from her grandfather, something the Israeli is unwilling to do – and one cannot help thinking of claims made after World War II for property stolen from Jewish owners in Europe to be acknowledged. Again, no easy answers, but many questions in a story that stirs the emotions.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link

TERROR’S ADVOCATE. Everyone is entitled be defended in court, even if they are Klaus Barbie or Pol Pot. And the man who has defended them, French lawyer Jacques Vergès, is the subject of this compelling documentary. The film opens with Vergès defending Pol Pot, saying Khmer Rouge killings weren’t as bad as they looked in the international media. After this unsympathetic view of Vergès, the film starts to explore why he defends the people he does. There are extensive and, for the most part, interesting insightful interviews with him, his friends and people involved in his life. Vergès anti-colonialism led him to French occupied Algeria where he defended the Algerian National Liberation Front. The first was a beautiful young Algerian woman who planted bombs in the fight for her county’s freedom. The case gained world wide attention. This film underscores the maxim that one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist. Vergès goes on to help Palestinians and Carlos the Jackal. Vergès is an intriguing subject, but the film rambles and becomes confusing. It stops exploring the reasons why Vergès is defending the people he does, and starts concentrating more on his tactics. Interesting though this is, it would have been good to know why he steered off course and seemed to be defending people that weren’t in his MO. Was it now just for the money? Was it to gain reputation? Were there just no freedom fighters left for him to defend? It is a fascinating film that would be even better with some tighter editing. (Cynthia Karena) MIFF link

THE THREE MONKEYS. Uzak (Distance) was a Cannes award winner and a well-made study of loneliness in the Turkish countryside and in Istanbul.  Climates was also a hit on the festival circuit.  Well filmed and acted, it was a rather slow and sometimes tedious look at a marriage and its difficulties.  While The Three Monkeys is not tedious, it is melodrama material with a familiar enough plot.  However, it opens well with a hit-run accident where a politician wants to avoid any publicity and pays one of his workers to go to prison for him, paying his family a salary each month and a lump sum at the end of the sentence. Things come to the anticipated head when the prisoner is released and comes home. The politician is as loathsome as expected.  The prisoner is affected by some macho brutality. The Turkish locations and atmosphere are interesting but the film offers only average interest.  (Peter Malone) MIFF link