The 2008 MIami Festival's Comment Page

[oscar jubis]

This butler was a great man:

SANTIAGO (Brazil)

[oscar jubis]

World premiere of comedy inspired by La Cage aux Folles:

LOKAS (Chile)

[Chris Knipp]

In 2005, Salles decides he can incorporate the 1992 footage into a new documentary. He didn't simply edit and complete the film he intended to make back then. He has made

Don't you mean "Salles decided..."?

I don't see why Santaiago was a "great" man. Maybe he was an interesting and complex one, but great? Why?

I'd be fine with "remarkable."

I see this Salles made a movie about Nelson Freire. A fine pianist. Not really a great one, but a fine one.

LOKAS. I really have no use for the originals, so I don't think Id be interested in a knockoff.

[oscar jubis]

I have great admiration for highly civilized, worldly, cultured people, especially those who are self-taught. Santiago was also, for instance, a pretty decent classical pianist although his skills were not demonstrated on film. He didn't discover the cure for a disease or brokered peace between warring nations or invent a helpful device so he wasn't "great" in the traditional sense.

I remember La Cage playing at the 68th Street Playhouse when I visited NYC for the first time. It had a year-long run there. Here, it ran for about 6 months at the old Grove Playhouse. I miss those wonderful little spaces that played foreign and independent movies. You had no use for La Cage...Which is your favorite "gay-themed" comedy?

[Chris Knipp]

The concept of "gay-themed comedy" is a bit suspect, to me. Is it for straight people? What about "black-themed comedy"? A comedy with black people made for whites? Anything like that trades in stereotypes, and people are not immune to stereotyping themselves, just as blacks played Steppin Fetchit roles in the past and continue to do in more subtle ways even today. I would suggest, though, the comedies of Almodovar, which come out of a gay sensibility, but involve gayness only incidentally or partially. I'm also a big fan of the original English shorter run TV series about gay life in Manchester, Queer As Folk, starring Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly, and Charlie Hunnam. Not the Canadian-shot US knockoff which ran for five years and turned into a heavy-handed soap; there's an instructive world of difference between these two versions.

My problem on your description of the subject of Santiago is not with your sense of admiration for the man. I've thought about it carefully, and I just don't think it makes sense in English to call anyone great who is not celebrated, famous, accomplished in a way that sooner or later gains widesspread recognition. Some might differ with me on this. I would use instead words such as "extraordinary" or "exceptional" or (as I said before) "remarkable."

Or, you could qualify great and say "he was a great man, though never recognized," or "he was a great man, in his own special, private way."

[oscar jubis]

The second film written and directed by Kang-sheng Lee, Tsai's alter-ego/muse/apprentice:

HELP ME, EROS (Taiwan)

[oscar jubis]

The first documentary to receive a nomination for Best Picture by the Mexican Academy is good, but could have been better:

THE OLD THIEVES

[oscar jubis]

Best of the Fest:

XXY (Argentina)

[Chris Knipp]

xxy

Also showing at New Directors/New Films at FSLC this week in NYC. There may be some interesting reviews coming since it will be widely shown.

"Hermaphrodyte." Is this Klinefelter Syndrome? If so, the references say the individuals are identified as males. Then, how come "Alex" is identified as a she? My question.

In fact, the Wikipedia article on the film xxy says

The title has been criticized as misleading by Unitask, an Italian organization for people with Klinefelter's Syndrome and their relatives, since males with Klinefelter's Syndrome do not have female physical traits as the film's protagonist does.

They do, apparently, have some developmental problems.

[oscar jubis]

This is all very interesting Chris. The Italian organization Unitask has issued a statement in support of the film while being critical of the title. The title of the film in Italian is perhaps more worthy of criticism than the simple XXY (although it's clear xxy pertains to Klinefelter's syndrome and it's inappropriate because that would not be the Alex's diagnosis). The Italian title is: XXY: Uomini, Donne o tutti e due?.

The term I heard growing up for persons like Alex was "hermaphrodite" which is "now considered problematic as hermaphrodism refers to people who are both completely man and woman, something not possible" (Wikipedia). In interviews, Puenzo uses the more general term "intersexuality" and once refers to the term "genital ambiguity" as being most appropriate according to medical experts.

I'm very happy about XXY being released by Film Movement because Americans from small markets where foreign films don't play in theaters will be able to watch it on dvd. I'm sure my local library system is one of many around the country who suscribe to Film Movement. And Netflix carries all their titles.

[Chris Knipp]

xxy

"Intersexual" is one of those invented words, maybe necessary however. Maybe the use of myth in the film is partly because "hermaphrodite" is more mythological than real for humans (though real for some creatures of course such as plants or sea organisms), though there are people with breasts and a penis, I'm sure. And yet some prefer the term "hermaphrodite" because it is traditional and people can understand it, whereas for the average person "intersexual" means nothing and might also be misleading. So says Widipedia. As for the Italian title of the film, so few people in Italy go to see any movies that aren't American blockbusters dubbed in Italian, the way they title xxy hardly seems likely to cause a ripple in public there.

The SFIFF

The opening conference of the SFIFF took place this morning so the program is out, Oscar, and I hope you will look at it and tell me any titles you recommend that you think exciting and that neither you nor I has covered already.

Here's the full SFIFF schedule and list of films: http://fest08.sffs.org/films/ I have only seen 10 of the films judging from a spot check. I will go to see La graine et le mulet/The Secret of the Grain whether you've seen it or not, but otherwise for the benefit of the site I will prefer to see titles neither of us has covered before.

FYI the ones I've seen are:

Alexandra
All Is Forgiven
Brick Lane
The Romance of Astra and Celadon
Go Go Tales
Fados
In the City of Sylvia
A Girl Cut in Two
Still Life
The Man from London

That's it.

[oscar jubis]

I've researched roughly 70% of the titles to be shown. These are the ones neither you nor I have seen that I think you should CONSIDER based on festival history, available reviews, director's filmography, etc.: Roughly in order of merit

SOLITARY FRAGMENTS
I SERVED THE KING OF ENGLAND
LA FRANCE
FROZEN
LADY JANE
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES
MUTUM
FLOWER IN THE POCKET
BALLAST
THE ART OF NEGATIVE THINKING

[Chris Knipp]

Okay, thanks. No hurry if you think of more. There are 10 press screenings this time, but as luck would have it they include Brick Lane, The Last Mistress, and Still Life, which I've already seen. Others are

BALLAST
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
CACHAO: UNO MAS
I SERVED THE KIND OF ENGLAND
THE WACKNESS
REDBELT
AND UP THE YANGTZE

I think they're only showing films in press screenings that have distributors who want to promote them this way.

[oscar jubis]

I'll research the remaining titles by the morning. Cachao was supposed to be at the SFIFF screening but he died about a week ago. He lived a few blocks from me. I met him at the Publix grocery store many times. Sweet guy. Very friendly. RIP.

[Chris Knipp]

They mentioned at the press conference that he had died. How interesting that you knew him, a bit. As I said there is plenty of time since the actual festival doesn't start for a while.