a whimper instead of a big bang
in order of preference
Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Ad Lib Night (Lee Yoon-ki)
The Bet Collector (Jeffrey Jeturian)
Before we fall in love again (James Lee)
Khadak (Peter Brosens & Jessica Hope Woodworth)
Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho)
The Other Half （应亮）
Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako)
Grbavica (Jasmila Zbanic)
The Boss of it all (Lars von Trier)
Things we do when we fall in love (James Lee)
Village People Radio Show (Amir Muhammad)
Fay Grim (Hal Hartley)
Gardens In Autumn (Otar Iosseliani)
The Family Friend (Paolo Sorrentino)
Black Gold (Marc Francis & Nick Francis)
Suburban Mayhem (Paul Goldman)
Scream of The Ants (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
Like A Virgin (Lee Hae-jun & Lee Hae-yeong)
Slumming (Michael Glawogger)
M (Ryuichi Hiroki)
Aachi and Ssipak (Jo Beom-jin)
Don't Look Back (Kim Young-nam)
The Silence (Cate Shortland)
Prague (Ole Christian Madsen)
Fuck (Steve Anderson)
Container (Lukas Moodysson)
no surprises as Apichatpong topped my list as the favourite film for this SIFF - even though i have yet to grasp the full picture. also beautiful are the quieter moments on Adlib Night, the third feature by Lee Yoon-ki which resonates with an aching restrain and the human emotions aplenty in The Bet Collector.
right at the bottom is Fuck, which the whole purpose of making such a film is to utter that expletive as many times as possible. pointless but worth some laughs in a full auditorium. moving back up a little, Prague is too cold and unaffecting for me, The Silence has some good atmospherics but not very engaging. M is uninspiringly tepid despite a midly interesting storyline.
the biggest surprise for me was that i didnt hate Mohsen's Scream of The Ants as much as i thought i would, despite the Bruno Dumont-like pretentiousness and worthless mumbo-jumbo dialogue. the redeeming factor could be due to the unintentionally funny moments towards the end of the film. now thats something Dumont is lacking.
so far so good. will try to make a final list once im done with Opera Jawa and erm....the other shows which i missed. :p
updated as at 03.05.07
Opera Jawa was a lush and enchanting experience for me. watching the song-and-dance routines on the big screen is exhilarating but admittedly requires a lot of concentration and patience. most definitely worth the effort by the end - simply breath-taking.
also did 2 Korean films - the animated Aachi and Ssipak, whose crass humour and violent scenes, bogged down by an incoherent plot, becomes a bore by the half-way mark. Don't Look Back, the first feature film by director Kim Young-nam, made up of 3 different stories (an omnibus of sorts i guess) - each with varying degree of completeness. at times evoking the style of Tsai-Ming Liang, this overlong movie is too uneven, probably too wrap up in its arthouse notions.
updated as at 14.05.07
Grbavica won the Golden Bear in Berlin for first time writer-director Jasmila Zbanic. it evoked the same feelings i had when i first watched La Promesse by The Dardenne Brothers on big screen. in-yer-face reality full of grit and emotions that gotten more intense as we slowly uncover the supposed truth. a huge wallop of a film.
apparently centered around a woman trapped in an overweight man's body, Container is all about her monologue, played over monochrome images of an overweight man (deja vu!) and an asian woman and various settings like a hotel room. her monotonous baby-doll voice has a somewhat hypnotic drone and she talks about everything and anything, most irrelevant, unconnected topics, one after another. avant-garde is NOT an understatement.