SFIFF 2010- - links and comments thread

[Chris Knipp]

San Francisco International Film Festival 2010
____________


SFIFF 53, April 22-May 6, 2010

The festival opening night film was Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs, which depicts one man's war against weapons manufacturers. The centerpiece film is Josh Radnor's Happythankyouplease, a tale of twentysomethings living in lower Manhattan. The finale will be a showing of the documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg), with Ms. Rivers to be honored.

This year though just off the plane yesterday from Paris ( April 22), I don't have a knee injury to keep me from going over to San Francisco and sampling the offerings. I have a head start since I have already seen 20 of SFIFF 53's main slate films (two I did not review). These are:


NEW DIRECTORS

IN COMPETITION FOR NEW DIRECTORS PRIZE:
Night Catches Us (Tanya Hamilton 2101)--ND/NF
Northless--ND/NF
La Pivellina--ND/NF
Tehroun--ND/NF

OUT OF COMPETITION:
Everyone Else--NYFF
The Father of My Children--ND/NF
Lebanon/NYFF

WORLD CINEMA:
Around a Small Mountain--R-V
Hadewijch--R-V
How I Ended This Summer --ND/NF(Alexei Popogrebsky 2010)
Making Plans for Lena--R-V
Soul Kitchen--Paris
To Die Like a Man--NYFF
White Materia--NYFFl
Wild Grass--NYFF

DOCUMENTARIES:
Last Train Home--ND/NF
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno--NYFF
Nénette--Paris
The Oath--ND/NF
Bill Cunningham New York (Richard Press 2010)--ND/NF

This list is, obviously, mixed. It includes a few very fine films, some that film students won't want to miss, and some missteps. Though I was disappointed in Northless and La Pivellina so did not write reviews of them, I very much like The Father of My Children, Hadewiich, Making Plans for Lena and Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno. Lebanon is a celebrated and compelling film, if slightly overrated. The World Cinema items are by major directors and worth seeing, though of varied merit. All those documentaries are watchable, though after To Be and To Have, Nénette is a disappointment. Perhaps the Philibert wanted a subject who would not seek royalties if the film was a big success, as happened with his schoolteacher. Everyone Else recently had a NYC release with some good reviews; it has its tedious aspects but J. Hoberman appreciated it and so, up to a point, did I. But this is a cross-section of how a big festival roster works. You take chances, but you bet on sources that produced well in the past. In both cases sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I'll provide links to my reviews of these and some further comments on the Filmleaf "Festival Coverage" thread.


That SFIFF 2010 Filmleaf Festival Covoerage thread begins here.

INDEX TO THE INDIVIDUAL (NEW) REVIEWS:

Air Doll (Hirakasu Koreeda 2009)
Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio 2009)
Brand New Life, A (Ouunie Lecomte 2009)
Cargo (Ivan Engler, Ralph Etter 2009)
Domain (Patric Chiha 2009)
Famous and the Dead, The (Esmir Filho 2009)
Gainsbourg (Je t'aime...moi non plus (Joann Sfar) (20010)
Linha de Passe (Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas 2008)
Lourdes (Jessica Hausner 2008)
Loved Ones, The (Sean Byrne 2009)
Man Who Will Come, The (Giorgio Diritti 2009)
Moscow (Whang Cheoul-mean 2009)
My Dog Tulip (Paul and Sandra Fierlinger 2009)
My Queen Karo (Dorothée Van Den Berghe 2009
Pianomania (Robert Cibis, Lilian Frank 2009)
Practice of the Wild, The (John J. Healey 2010)
Restrepo (Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington 2010)
Russian Lessons (Andrei Nekrasov, Olga Konskaya 2009)
Seducing Charlie Parker (Amy Glazer 2010)
Splice (Vincenzo Natali 2010)
Transcending Lynch (Marcos Andrade 2010)
White Meadows, The (Mohammad Rasoulof 2009)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik 2010)
You Think You're the Prettiest, But You're the Sluttiest (Che Sandoval 2008)

[Chris Knipp]

Giorgio Diritti's The Man Who Will Come (2009), retelling a WWII German massacre of Italian villagers, has won major film awards in Italy.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review.

[Michuk]

I'm happy to see "The Father of My Children" getting into another festival. It's a very European piece of cinema, subtle, with a quite slow pace, but it left me feeling uneasy. It's both a tribute and an assault. Very smart filmmaking.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, I don't know about European, because I'm not European, so I'm not an authority on that, but everything European is very, well, European, ain't it? But anyway THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN is one of the best new French films I've seen all year, and I've seen relatively a lot, more than a lot of French people do, in fact. I didn't know it had a "quite slow pace." It's not a high speed action film, but quite a lot of things happen it, and I'd say they happen at a normal pace. But it wouldn't be much fun to say "quite a normal pace," because that wouldn't be saying anything. Of course the pace for the hero slows down quit a b it midway, since he dies... But lots happens after that too, at quite a normal pace.

[Michuk]

but everything European is very, well, European, ain't it?

That was a shortcut way to say it was filmed in a non-intruding way, it did not want to rape the viewer with action, it did not try to influence their emotions in an easy/ugly way (like von Trier does) and still it was very powerful and stayed in my memory for a long time. I think this is quite an achievement.
The cinematography and editing reminded me of old French masters like Truffaut. This is not how you usually make movies today, neither in Europe nor in the US.

We can argue about what is normal pace and was is slow. The pace of most today's movies could be described as very fast for someone living in the 50's or 60's.

[Chris Knipp]

Then maybe it's old fashioned rather than European. He did make it in Europe. It reminded me of Hitchcock. Many of the great American directors came over from England and Europe. What movies have come to, the effect you call manipulative, has developed primarily in Hollywood, though it's copied elsewhere. I agree with you on the film's success. I've watched it twice, and I'd gladly watch it again.

Current action movies go at a very rapid pace. Movies of other genres, which may seem to be in the minority now, I don't know, move at a slower pace. THE GHOST WRITER isn't really an action movie, but more of a mystery thriller with political overtones. The popular movies made from Nicholas Sparks novels (DEAR JOHN, THE LAST SONG) are an example of a mainstream genre that doesn't move fast. JULIE AND JULIA, that doesn't move so fast. SEX AND THE CITY, that doesn't move very fast. If you look at the lastest page of titles I've reviewed on my website the vast majority are not mainstream blockbuster movies, so I'm not a good one to comment. Oliver Dahan's MY OWN LOVE STORY and Allen Coulter's REMEMBER ME (in my 'PARIS REPORT') did not move fast.

[Chris Knipp]

Hirakazu Koreeda's Air Doll (2009)


Another story about a man with an inflatable mate. This one comes to life, with sweet, fey results.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review.

[Chris Knipp]

Whang Cheoul-mean's Moscow (2009)

A Korean look at economic realities, class, and friendship focuses on two young women who were friends in middle school and reunite in their twenties.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review.

[Chris Knipp]

Paul and Sandra Fierlinger's My Dog Tulip (2009)

A hand-drawn animated film from a well-known 1959 book, both frank and droll, by English gay writer and BBC editor J.R. Ackerley about the love of his life, an Alsatian bitch. With the voices of Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rossellini, and Lynn Redgrave.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review.

[Chris Knipp]

John J. Healey's The Practice of the Wild.

A somewhat tantalizing glimpse of the "Beat" era poet, linguist, Zen practitioner, outdoorsman, ecologist, and essayist Gary Snyder, who is now 79. But not much about the challenging 1990 collection of Snyder's essays that bears this same title.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review.

[Chris Knipp]

Patric Chiha's Domain (2010)

Gödel, alcohol, gayness: French first feature by an Austrian director about a special friendship between a gay Bordeaux teenager and his eccentric mathematician aunt, which deteriorates when she falls deeper into alcoholism. The auteurist tricks are off-putting, but the film was written as a vehicle for the iconic Béarice Dalle, who delivers. Newcomer Isaïe Sultan holds his own as the nephew.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks Chris for yet another interesting set of reviews.

I happen to be a big fan of NORTEADO aka Northless. I will post a brief comment about it as soon as I get a chance.

Currently working as a supervisor for the US Census. Long hours...trying to earn a lil money before I start a Ph.D. program in August... which assumes I can live on 15 grand per year!

[Chris Knipp]

You're welcome. There will be more. I hope I can cover about 20 of the SFIFF films, which will mean I'll have comments on 39 of the total slate.

I may not have responded to NORTEADO -- perhaps my lack of Spanish caused me to miss subtleties -- it got good reviews in the trade journals and might have a good chance in the New Directors Competition. NORTEADO disappointed me. It's technique seemed a bit clumsy and the acting flat and lifeless. Surprising since the VARIETY review says, "Rigoberto Perezcano's understated, warm, non-exploitative take on a young man's failed crossings, and the temporary life he has in Tijuana, reps an impressive debut and heralds a much-needed new voice. A healthy fest life is assured..." Since the movie has won such praise from English-language critics for its new angle on the border, I didn't want to put a damper on things so I wrote no review of it after seeing it in the ND/NF screeings.

But my vote so far would go to YOU THINK YOU'RE THE PRETTIEST, BUT YOU'RE THE SLUTTIEST

AKA

Che Sandoval's TE CREIS LA MÁS LINDA (PERO ERÍS LA MÁS PUTA)(2008)

A very talky Chilean film about a 19-year-old guy who says he's in love but may just be in lust or maybe he's just on a quest for what his life's all about.This one doesn't deal with the "serious social issues" of the day, but it seemed much more alive to me, and its topics pretty universal and at the same time very specific to the language and customs of today. The dialogue is outrageous, hilarious, touching, and true.

Click on the title for the CK Festival Coverage review of YOU THINK YOU'RE THE PRETIEST...


Che Sandoval

[Chris Knipp]

Marcos Andrade's documentary Transcending David Lynch (2010)

The filmmaker, a Brazilian practioner of Transscendental Meditation, follows the director around on a tour of Brazil to meet with the pubic and promote Lynch's book, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity . A minor film, but essential for Lynch buffs for the hints it provides of his creative process and the glimpses it gives of his unique aura.

[Chris Knipp]

SFIFF 2010: Index of films I've seen and will review.

This will be updated and the line entries will be activated as links to my reviews. Seen at the SFIFF. Previously reviewed SFIFF titles will be added into the index later also.

Air Doll (Hirakasu Koreeda 2009)
Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio 2009)
Brand New Life, A (Ouunie Lecomte 2009)
Cargo (Ivan Engler, Ralph Etter 2009)
Domain (Patric Chiha 2009)
Famous and the Dead, The (Esmir Filha 2009)
Gainsbourg (Je t'aime...moi non plus (Joann Sfar) (20010)
Linha de Passe (Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas 2008)
Lourdes (Jessica Hausner 2008)
Loved Ones, The (Sean Byrne 2009)
Man Who Will Come, The (Giorgio Diritti 2009)
Moscow (Whang Cheoul-mean 2009)
My Dog Tulip (Paul and Sandra Fierlinger 2009)
Pianomania (Robert Cibis, Lilian Frank 2009)
Practice of the Wild, The (John J. Healey 2010)
Russian Lessons (Andrei Nekrasov, Olga Konskaya 2009)
Seducing Charlie Parker (Amy Glazer 2010)
Transcending Lynch (Marcos Andrade 2010)
White Meadows, The (Mohammad Rasoulof 2009)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik 2010)
You Think You're the Prettiest, But You're the Sluttiest (Che Sandoval 2008)