FFF
So, now I've seen all five films I was going to see during the Fantastic Film Festival.
Saturday
Shaun of the Dead. I've already posted my reactions about this film in another entry.
Sunday
Technotise - Edit i ja (Edith & I)
This was an animated science-fiction feature from Serbia, about a young woman who is failing her exams, and implants an illegal memory chip in her body to help get her through them. After the exams, she has it removed again, but something seems to be left behind... In my childhood, long before the Balkan war, Yugoslavia was a thriving centre for animated film, so it's good to see something creative come out of Belgrad again. The film was inexpertly subtitled in English, which was annoying -- if you don't concentrate the translation of the dialogue enough, and also if you display it in too large letters on the screen, the viewers won't have time to both read the subtitles and watch the actual film. Swedish subtitlers (although they also get the translation wrong at times) are pretty good at this, and we're used to reading subtitled TV shows and film in the cinema from an early age (as soon as we read fast enough to keep up). So watching a subtitled film isn't usually a very big deal for us. But this time, I got annoyed with the subtitling and had difficulties keeping up and looking at the film at the same time. Which was doubly annoying since the animation was beautiful and packed with amazing detail and lots of action.
Wednesday
Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec)
A new film by Luc Besson, based on the graphic novels by Jacques Tardi. A roller-coaster romp of an adventure, set (mostly) in a fictional Paris during La Belle Epoque, involving pterodactyls, Egyptian mummies and a particularly dauntless and determined young adventuress. It was gorgeous, absurd, hilarious and very entertaining, and had ridiculous hats.
Thursday
Cargo
A Swiss science fiction film from last year. And, for once, a rare real science fiction film, like the equally low-budget Moon, as opposed to your usual Sword & Sorcery in Space. It's a dystopian and dark future for the Earth and humanity that we're being shown here, in run-down gritty environments, with ordinary flawed people. This is not an action-packed Hollywood reel. The pace is slow and gives the plot ample time to unfold. I was a bit unsure about picking this film at first, since I'd seen several comparisons with Alien, but decided to go ahead and see it anyway, and I'm glad I did. There is something strange going on onboard the ship, but it's not (spoiler) raging alien monsters eating themselves out through people's stomachs. Moon is the closest comparison I can make, so if you liked that, this might be something for you.
Saturday
Mars
An animated sci-fi comedy by Geoff Marslett. This is a rotoscope animation, which is both annoying and lends a sense of reality to the characters and actions. The comedy is low-key and more due to the rather absurd (but also not entirely impossible, in a way) premise of the film and the interaction between the absurd and flawed characters. Rotoscope animation allows you to put real people into fictional environments, which works really well for a film like this. It was a bit funny, but the acting was sort of wooden and I didn't feel that they managed to really pull off what they set out to do. In comparison with Shaun of the Dead, which is also a comedy based on an absurd premise with absurd and flawed characters, where they got the comic timing, the details, and the absurdity perfectly right every time.
Saturday
Shaun of the Dead. I've already posted my reactions about this film in another entry.
Sunday
Technotise - Edit i ja (Edith & I)
This was an animated science-fiction feature from Serbia, about a young woman who is failing her exams, and implants an illegal memory chip in her body to help get her through them. After the exams, she has it removed again, but something seems to be left behind... In my childhood, long before the Balkan war, Yugoslavia was a thriving centre for animated film, so it's good to see something creative come out of Belgrad again. The film was inexpertly subtitled in English, which was annoying -- if you don't concentrate the translation of the dialogue enough, and also if you display it in too large letters on the screen, the viewers won't have time to both read the subtitles and watch the actual film. Swedish subtitlers (although they also get the translation wrong at times) are pretty good at this, and we're used to reading subtitled TV shows and film in the cinema from an early age (as soon as we read fast enough to keep up). So watching a subtitled film isn't usually a very big deal for us. But this time, I got annoyed with the subtitling and had difficulties keeping up and looking at the film at the same time. Which was doubly annoying since the animation was beautiful and packed with amazing detail and lots of action.
Wednesday
Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec)
A new film by Luc Besson, based on the graphic novels by Jacques Tardi. A roller-coaster romp of an adventure, set (mostly) in a fictional Paris during La Belle Epoque, involving pterodactyls, Egyptian mummies and a particularly dauntless and determined young adventuress. It was gorgeous, absurd, hilarious and very entertaining, and had ridiculous hats.
Thursday
Cargo
A Swiss science fiction film from last year. And, for once, a rare real science fiction film, like the equally low-budget Moon, as opposed to your usual Sword & Sorcery in Space. It's a dystopian and dark future for the Earth and humanity that we're being shown here, in run-down gritty environments, with ordinary flawed people. This is not an action-packed Hollywood reel. The pace is slow and gives the plot ample time to unfold. I was a bit unsure about picking this film at first, since I'd seen several comparisons with Alien, but decided to go ahead and see it anyway, and I'm glad I did. There is something strange going on onboard the ship, but it's not (spoiler) raging alien monsters eating themselves out through people's stomachs. Moon is the closest comparison I can make, so if you liked that, this might be something for you.
Saturday
Mars
An animated sci-fi comedy by Geoff Marslett. This is a rotoscope animation, which is both annoying and lends a sense of reality to the characters and actions. The comedy is low-key and more due to the rather absurd (but also not entirely impossible, in a way) premise of the film and the interaction between the absurd and flawed characters. Rotoscope animation allows you to put real people into fictional environments, which works really well for a film like this. It was a bit funny, but the acting was sort of wooden and I didn't feel that they managed to really pull off what they set out to do. In comparison with Shaun of the Dead, which is also a comedy based on an absurd premise with absurd and flawed characters, where they got the comic timing, the details, and the absurdity perfectly right every time.