Film Festival 2009: Day 12
I lost a whole day of reviews (and an hour or two of writing) by trying to look up a trivial detail on Google. I went to bed, and this is my attempt to recreate them the next day. Believe me, the originals were much more awesome. :)
* * *
One of the first things that sprang into my head, thinking back on Wendy & Lucy, was, "I wonder whether they went and found the engine noise that goes with the trouble they gave to the car, so that the mechanics in the audience would a the frisson of doom earlier than the rest of us." That's not a reflection on the film; that's a sad commentary on my interest in sound stuff as a consequence of the 48Hr Film competition. I even know that there's a site on the web where a mechanic has recorded the sound of a bunch of ailing engines, so you can guess what might be wrong by comparing those noises to your car.
It was advertised as "slow cinema", so I was worried that it would be another Birdsong. Luckily for me, while it was a quiet film, I enjoyed it quite a lot -- maybe because I've found the tempo for slower films by this point in the Festival? It might have helped that I saw it in the morning, when I'm more likely to be awake. :)
The story focused on a young woman (Wendy) and her dog (Lucy) -- Wendy has a car, $500, and a plan to drive to Alaska to find work, instead of spiralling into debt. But the film shows how fragile the plans of people on the edge are, with one thing going wrong leading to a spiral of problems. But it also shows that other people who are in precarious positions will still go out of their way to help, even though they don't have much themselves; and it also shows the self-righteousness of the people who feel secure, represented by the preppy store assistant who sneers, "If she can't afford dog food, she shouldn't have a dog."
The main actress is excellent, the dog is cute, and they do a good job of showing how they depend on each other, showing in a number of ways how dangerous it is for Wendy to sleep without her dog to protect her. And they manage to draw a fairly vivid portrait of Wendy's relationship with her sister in a single short phone-call.
It made me think about how easy my life would be to upset -- I've got considerably more in the way of safety nets than the character has, and I've got insurance against me losing my job (since I'm just a contractor), or accidents that stop me working. But all my money is going into my mortgage, rather than retirement; and if I lost my house in a way that meant that my insurance didn't cover it (tsunami?), I would be in trouble. And there are plenty of middle-class people looking for work nowadays; while I have no reason to think that I'll be losing my job in the immediate future, it's sobering to think how tricky it would be to get a new one. I don't even own a suit for an interview... heh, which I guess tells you that I assume that I'd be looking for a professional job if I went looking. :)
Anyway, the film -- sad, I liked it.
* * *
I have mixed feelings about Bluebeard. There are two stories going on -- the first, a re-imagining of the fairytale, starts with two sisters summoned to their convent school's headmistress' office, to be told that (a) their father has died saving a child, (b) that they shouldn't be sad, because he would have gone straight to heaven for such a charitable act, and (c) since their family has no way to pay tuition any more, they are to go and get their things and leave immediately.
The other story, with two much younger sisters (six and eight, maybe?) is set in the 50s, with the younger sister insisting on reading Bluebeard to the older sister, who finds it too scary.
The first storyline is interesting -- the younger sister is much more of a protagonist than in the traditional story, and seeks out Bluebeard who is sitting by himself while the people he invited to his party are having fun. Once they are married, we see him doing his best to accede to her wishes, and later we watch her dancing through the forest picking mushrooms, while he tells her their Latin names. And we see him sitting on his bed, vulnerable, with his shirt off... and all this means that his later evil feels a little like a punch-clock villain, an evil that he is obliged to do, rather than one he delights in.
In the other world, we see the older sister being teased by the younger one, in a really adorable performance; when the younger one declares that when you are married, you become homosexual, the older child becomes very cross indeed.
It certainly has one of the best examples of Chekov's gun (or in this case, Chekov's hole in the floor) that I've seen for a while, and while I'm not sure whether I can forgive the director for the ending, it certainly made an emotional impact. I'm not sure if I could watch this again, but I enjoyed it at the time.
* * *
The third film that I saw was Mother which I would have enjoyed more if one of the key plot-points hadn't been revealed in the Festival booklet, meaning that I was waiting throughout much of the film for the other shoe to drop. That aside, it was a pretty good murder mystery, which plays well with the role of the unreliable narrator, and the lengths to which a mother will defend her son.
I'd watch it again... in a while.
* * *
Neil Brand - The Silent Pianist Speaks was excellent -- we got to hear about the abrupt disappearance of those who played for the cinemas, how he got into playing and composing for silent movies, and a bunch of anecdotes about playing for films you've never seen before. He actually had an example of this, a film that he'd never seen before that he has been playing in five minutes chunks every time he has given this talk -- we were really lucky, and actually got the end of this film. It was fascinating to hear him talk through the film, describing who the characters were and why he was making various musical choices.
He talked about how the theaters used to be -- the pianist or orchestra would get the reel and a scene sheet with the moods each scene needed, have one run-through, and away they went. And because they couldn't predict the speed of the film (or whether a roll had been spliced to repair breaks since last showing), they had to keep an eye on the film, and be ready to spring into new music, in unison, as the scenes or moods changed. And then sound came to the movie theater, and pretty soon they were all out of a job.
He gave many anecdotes, like the sinking feeling in his heart when playing an unseen film and seeing an interstitial card saying, "We will now sing the Latvian national anthem!" He also played parts from Steamboat Bill (where they expect the accompaniest to play a song that matches particular words), and a sequence from a Laurel & Hardy film that involved running from the law, messing about on girders on the top of a tall building, and one of the two having a crab in his pants.
(This reminded me of how much I dislike heights; I could feel myself tensing up, even though I knew they probably wouldn't be showing the footage if someone fell to their death.)
A really interesting experience, and I'm glad I went.
* * *
Finally, Unmade Beds -- a young man comes from Spain to find the father who left when he was three; he forgets what happens while he's drinking, and he drinks a fair amount. When he finds his father, who is an estate agent, he decides to pretend to want to rent a flat so they can spend time together. Meanwhile, a young woman living in the same squat has just broken up with her long term boyfriend, and gets involved with a man without knowing his phone number, or even his name -- and deliberately prolongs this anonymity, organising to meet in approximate times and places.
They're both hiding from stuff, and they don't really have a conversation between the two of them until late in the movie, during the after-party of a music video where everyone was wearing animal costumes -- they're both wearing masks, and tell each other their situations. Then the girl takes a photo (with her mask down), and gives the guy a polaroid with a note saying something like "So that you remember".
The beds you end up while traveling, and how you make a place for yourself, are both big features in this movie. And music is everywhere, some of it being bands the director saw at gigs in London and enjoyed, some from artists from his first movie (including the woman who did a bunch for the movie Juno, who was apparently very enthusiastic (and cheap!) despite her fame since his last picture), and at least one song that was sent to the director by a friend who thought it sounded like the director's band (the one involving both a monkey and your ass being funky). The fact that he has a lot of music videos in his background probably influenced him there.
I found it a charming film, and I'm glad I went; I know of at least one person who just didn't like the guy or his drinking, which meant that she couldn't get into the film; but that didn't bother me. And the director was a funny, unpretentious guy... in fact, he seemed a bit stoned, though that might be a language thing. :) It was a shame more people weren't ready to ask him questions.
I imagine this might be a good date movie (providing that the leads worked for you and your date), and I think I'll probably watch it again.
* * *
One of the first things that sprang into my head, thinking back on Wendy & Lucy, was, "I wonder whether they went and found the engine noise that goes with the trouble they gave to the car, so that the mechanics in the audience would a the frisson of doom earlier than the rest of us." That's not a reflection on the film; that's a sad commentary on my interest in sound stuff as a consequence of the 48Hr Film competition. I even know that there's a site on the web where a mechanic has recorded the sound of a bunch of ailing engines, so you can guess what might be wrong by comparing those noises to your car.
It was advertised as "slow cinema", so I was worried that it would be another Birdsong. Luckily for me, while it was a quiet film, I enjoyed it quite a lot -- maybe because I've found the tempo for slower films by this point in the Festival? It might have helped that I saw it in the morning, when I'm more likely to be awake. :)
The story focused on a young woman (Wendy) and her dog (Lucy) -- Wendy has a car, $500, and a plan to drive to Alaska to find work, instead of spiralling into debt. But the film shows how fragile the plans of people on the edge are, with one thing going wrong leading to a spiral of problems. But it also shows that other people who are in precarious positions will still go out of their way to help, even though they don't have much themselves; and it also shows the self-righteousness of the people who feel secure, represented by the preppy store assistant who sneers, "If she can't afford dog food, she shouldn't have a dog."
The main actress is excellent, the dog is cute, and they do a good job of showing how they depend on each other, showing in a number of ways how dangerous it is for Wendy to sleep without her dog to protect her. And they manage to draw a fairly vivid portrait of Wendy's relationship with her sister in a single short phone-call.
It made me think about how easy my life would be to upset -- I've got considerably more in the way of safety nets than the character has, and I've got insurance against me losing my job (since I'm just a contractor), or accidents that stop me working. But all my money is going into my mortgage, rather than retirement; and if I lost my house in a way that meant that my insurance didn't cover it (tsunami?), I would be in trouble. And there are plenty of middle-class people looking for work nowadays; while I have no reason to think that I'll be losing my job in the immediate future, it's sobering to think how tricky it would be to get a new one. I don't even own a suit for an interview... heh, which I guess tells you that I assume that I'd be looking for a professional job if I went looking. :)
Anyway, the film -- sad, I liked it.
* * *
I have mixed feelings about Bluebeard. There are two stories going on -- the first, a re-imagining of the fairytale, starts with two sisters summoned to their convent school's headmistress' office, to be told that (a) their father has died saving a child, (b) that they shouldn't be sad, because he would have gone straight to heaven for such a charitable act, and (c) since their family has no way to pay tuition any more, they are to go and get their things and leave immediately.
The other story, with two much younger sisters (six and eight, maybe?) is set in the 50s, with the younger sister insisting on reading Bluebeard to the older sister, who finds it too scary.
The first storyline is interesting -- the younger sister is much more of a protagonist than in the traditional story, and seeks out Bluebeard who is sitting by himself while the people he invited to his party are having fun. Once they are married, we see him doing his best to accede to her wishes, and later we watch her dancing through the forest picking mushrooms, while he tells her their Latin names. And we see him sitting on his bed, vulnerable, with his shirt off... and all this means that his later evil feels a little like a punch-clock villain, an evil that he is obliged to do, rather than one he delights in.
In the other world, we see the older sister being teased by the younger one, in a really adorable performance; when the younger one declares that when you are married, you become homosexual, the older child becomes very cross indeed.
It certainly has one of the best examples of Chekov's gun (or in this case, Chekov's hole in the floor) that I've seen for a while, and while I'm not sure whether I can forgive the director for the ending, it certainly made an emotional impact. I'm not sure if I could watch this again, but I enjoyed it at the time.
* * *
The third film that I saw was Mother which I would have enjoyed more if one of the key plot-points hadn't been revealed in the Festival booklet, meaning that I was waiting throughout much of the film for the other shoe to drop. That aside, it was a pretty good murder mystery, which plays well with the role of the unreliable narrator, and the lengths to which a mother will defend her son.
I'd watch it again... in a while.
* * *
Neil Brand - The Silent Pianist Speaks was excellent -- we got to hear about the abrupt disappearance of those who played for the cinemas, how he got into playing and composing for silent movies, and a bunch of anecdotes about playing for films you've never seen before. He actually had an example of this, a film that he'd never seen before that he has been playing in five minutes chunks every time he has given this talk -- we were really lucky, and actually got the end of this film. It was fascinating to hear him talk through the film, describing who the characters were and why he was making various musical choices.
He talked about how the theaters used to be -- the pianist or orchestra would get the reel and a scene sheet with the moods each scene needed, have one run-through, and away they went. And because they couldn't predict the speed of the film (or whether a roll had been spliced to repair breaks since last showing), they had to keep an eye on the film, and be ready to spring into new music, in unison, as the scenes or moods changed. And then sound came to the movie theater, and pretty soon they were all out of a job.
He gave many anecdotes, like the sinking feeling in his heart when playing an unseen film and seeing an interstitial card saying, "We will now sing the Latvian national anthem!" He also played parts from Steamboat Bill (where they expect the accompaniest to play a song that matches particular words), and a sequence from a Laurel & Hardy film that involved running from the law, messing about on girders on the top of a tall building, and one of the two having a crab in his pants.
(This reminded me of how much I dislike heights; I could feel myself tensing up, even though I knew they probably wouldn't be showing the footage if someone fell to their death.)
A really interesting experience, and I'm glad I went.
* * *
Finally, Unmade Beds -- a young man comes from Spain to find the father who left when he was three; he forgets what happens while he's drinking, and he drinks a fair amount. When he finds his father, who is an estate agent, he decides to pretend to want to rent a flat so they can spend time together. Meanwhile, a young woman living in the same squat has just broken up with her long term boyfriend, and gets involved with a man without knowing his phone number, or even his name -- and deliberately prolongs this anonymity, organising to meet in approximate times and places.
They're both hiding from stuff, and they don't really have a conversation between the two of them until late in the movie, during the after-party of a music video where everyone was wearing animal costumes -- they're both wearing masks, and tell each other their situations. Then the girl takes a photo (with her mask down), and gives the guy a polaroid with a note saying something like "So that you remember".
The beds you end up while traveling, and how you make a place for yourself, are both big features in this movie. And music is everywhere, some of it being bands the director saw at gigs in London and enjoyed, some from artists from his first movie (including the woman who did a bunch for the movie Juno, who was apparently very enthusiastic (and cheap!) despite her fame since his last picture), and at least one song that was sent to the director by a friend who thought it sounded like the director's band (the one involving both a monkey and your ass being funky). The fact that he has a lot of music videos in his background probably influenced him there.
I found it a charming film, and I'm glad I went; I know of at least one person who just didn't like the guy or his drinking, which meant that she couldn't get into the film; but that didn't bother me. And the director was a funny, unpretentious guy... in fact, he seemed a bit stoned, though that might be a language thing. :) It was a shame more people weren't ready to ask him questions.
I imagine this might be a good date movie (providing that the leads worked for you and your date), and I think I'll probably watch it again.