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Thread: Fiftieth Anniversary SFIFF 2007

  1. #31
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    PEDRO COSTA: COLOSSAL YOUTH (2006)

    Sketches for a cinema of exhaustion



    PEDRO COSTA: COLOSSAL YOUTH (2006)



    Oscar:
    I don't want you to delete your post about Colossal Youth replying to my review. Why would that be in order? I simply contend that I am not attacking your point of view, and therefore a refutation wasn't really necessary. A reply was certainly quite justified. I will quote your post, so that it will stand.

    Oscar Jubis writes:
    Of all the films I've seen this year, including 67 films at Florida festivals, Colossal Youth is the one I can't seem to get out of my mind.
    It's reassuring to me, as a fan of the film, that it managed to place third on the 2006 Indiewire list of Best Undistributed Films, as voted by mostly American, "alternative press" critics. I think it speaks volumes that Colossal Youth did that without a single screening at American festivals in 2006 (the sole North American screenings took place in Toronto, reportedly at odd hours and with a third reel that was subtitled in French).

    Your contention that "Costa offers less to viewers (and conversely perhaps gives them more to do) than almost any filmmaker presenting lives and people" clashes with my experience of the film. Two scenes come to mind in particular: Vanda in her new apartment telling Ventura the story of the birth of her daughter. The tale, delivered in monologue, is so rich it's almost epical, alternatively sad, funny, tragic, absurd, angry, and sublime. Another scene involves Ventura's visit to a man at a Rehabilitation Clinic. The injured laborer tells Ventura about his hopes for a better life, his inability to find more suitable employment, and his disillusionment over a rift with his mother. It's quite eloquent, moving and, more importantly for the purposes of this discussion, extremely nuanced and detailed. At moments like these, it's hard to refer to Colossal Youth as minimalist and hard to see a connection between the film and Beckett's "impoverished vocabulary".

    Further enriching the film is certain, perhaps oblique, allusion to Portugal's colonist past and to the current conditions of Costa's characters as a natural extension of the history between Portugal and Cape Verde. This is a crucial aspect of the film that has only been broached, albeit briefly and as far as I know, by Pascal Acquarello:
    "For the characters in Colossal Youth, the historical landscape of the Cape Verde islands as barren land, exploited colony, commercial way station, slave port, and leprosaria institution is not a forgotten anecdote, but a suffocating reality that continues to weigh on the collective consciousness of its inhabitants, even in their migration and displacement."
    I am sorry that you moved to delete your post before I even finished editing my reply to it. (I might have toned down what I said too--that's one function of my self-editing. But now I'll have to let what I said originally stand, since you even quoted my most annoying remark.)

    True to Graham Leggett's contention that the festival champions independent work, the SFIFF is showing Colossal Youth three times, twice on weekends, and not at odd hours.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 04-29-2007 at 10:42 PM.

  2. #32
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    Originally posted by Chris Knipp
    I think you may have misread my "contention," and I don't think a refutation was necessary. This is my review; do you have to have the last word?. You have already spoken.

    I thought you were interested in discussing the films. I am deleting my post immediately. I'll delete this one after you've read it.

  3. #33
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    Oscar Jubis wrote:
    Originally posted by Chris Knipp
    I think you may have misread my "contention," and I don't think a refutation was necessary. This is my review; do you have to have the last word?. You have already spoken.

    I thought you were interested in discussing the films. I am deleting my post immediately. I'll delete this one after you've read it.
    I'm sorry if what I said above was provocative. You can have the last word and often do. I merely meant to assert what I did in the previous sentence: I don't believe my statements about Costa in the film being a minimalist should be taken as a condemnation. They are meant to show that the film is challenging for many perhaps most viewers to watch, as are the novels of Samuel Beckett. I regard Beckett as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. To compare anyone with him is hardly a slight on my part. But I repeat, Beckett's novels are challenging and difficult. It is the essence of minimal art that it is maximal in implication. Less is more. You may well feel that my response to Costa is less enthusiastic than mine, but not that I am attacking him. You don't need to refute what I said, but you certainly can reply and should!

    I am indeed interested in discussing the films. I'm sorry my viewpoint offends you. A third voice is essential at this point. . . I have cited Justin Chang, Aquerello, and Kevin Lee, to provide a range of opinions, and I've aligned myself with Lee, while implying, intentionally, that I think Justin Chang's descriptions accurately reflect how a majority of viewers might respond. Lee's criticism seems to me to have merit, and so does his praise. I thought that be referring to those other writers, I was providing balance, and placing myself in a middle position, between the extremes of Aquarello and Chang, and close to Lee.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 04-29-2007 at 10:55 PM.

  4. #34
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    NANNI MORETTI: THE CAYMAN (2006)

    Berlusconi skewered. Nanni Moretti's new film from Italy offers an embarrassment of riches. Perhaps too much of good thing?




    NANNI MORETTI: THE CAYMAN (2006)



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  5. #35
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    Are we ready for a cowardly samurai?



    HIROKAZU KOREEDA: HANA (2006)


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  6. #36
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    A cold dish in a hot climate (Another look at revenge).



    MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN: DARATT (2006)



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  7. #37
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    SFIFF SKY Prize contender: Strange ways of loving. . .




    JEAN-PASCAL HATTU: 7 YEARS (2006)


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  8. #38
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    A festival favorite with lovely cinematography, from India. . .



    RAJNESH DOMALPALLI: VANAJA (2006)



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  9. #39
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    A portrait of urban Brazilian youth



    RICARDO ELIAS: THE 12 LABORS



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  10. #40
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    ZULI ALADAG: RAGE (2006)

    A provocative film about Turkish-German conflicts



    ZULI ALADAG: RAGE



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  11. #41
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    PHILIPPE FALARDEAU: CONGORAMA (2006)

    A droll French-Canadian comedy connections, inventions, and origins starring Dardennes regular Olivier Gourmet. . .


    PHILIPPE FALARDEAU: CONGORAMA (2006)



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  12. #42
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    VERONICA CHEN: AGUA (2006)

    Swimming, life: levels of the game. An elegant new film from Argentina.



    VERONICA CHEN: AGUA (2006)


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  13. #43
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    TARIG TEGUIA: ROME RATHER THAN YOU (2006)

    A rough manifesto from an unacceptable civil state: Algeria.


    TARIQ TEGUIA: ROME RATHER THAN YOU

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  14. #44
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    XIAOLU GUO: HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? (2006)

    Engaging meta-fiction tale about screenwriting and murder in changing China. . .


    HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? (XIAOLU GUO, 2006)


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  15. #45
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    MARWAN HAMED: THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING (2005)

    An Egyptian blockbuster about Cairo society in the 1990's.


    THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING (MARWAN HAMED 2005)


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