Film Festival Circuit 2006

[zedz]

The list is here.

I am very jealous and would be grateful if VIFF could get 1/3 of these. Didn't know Kiarostami has a new movie coming out. What a surprise!

The Kiarostami is sweet enough, but pretty minor: a collection of his (lovely) still images accompanied by Vivaldi, poetry readings and occasional video / contemplative narration inserts. It's along the lines of 10 on 10, but with much less meat on its bones.

[franco]

So our opening film is indeed Volver.

Here are some excerpts from the media release:

OPENING GALA AND SPECIAL EVENTS

Time figures large in this year's special events and in the festival films in general. A sensation at Cannes, Pedro Almodóvar's VOLVER is a return in more than one sense of the word for the Spanish auteur. The director revisits his birthplace of La Mancha to tell a story about mortality and memory, with three generations of strong women (shared winners of Best Actress at Cannes, Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo and Chus Lampreave), each struggling in different ways with the past; whether it's a ghost who won't leave, or men who, too often, do. This is something of a departure for Almodóvar; sex takes a back seat to death, and there's nary a transsexual in sight, but VOLVER is an instant classic, shot through with quicksilver bolts of humour and passion. VOLVER will be released this Fall in Canada by Mongrel Media.

[franco]

The teaser guide came out today. Frankly I haven't been so excited in a long time, as many films on my wishlist appear in the line-up:

The Host
Climates
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
Offside
Still Life
Old Joy
Shortbus
Iraq in Fragments
My Scary Girl
The King and the Clown
The Fountain
Volver
Requiem
A Soap

And these are just coming from the teaser guide.

[yoshimori]

Many many more incredible offerings here.

2 x Tsai Ming-liang, 2 x Jia Zhangke, Glawogger, Bellocchio, Miike's Big Bang Love, Costa, Karmakar, Weerasethakul, Rivette's Out 1, Broomfield, Kore'eda, etc etc etc

Maybe I should go to Vancouver instead of New York!

[franco]

Thanks for the link yoshimori! I didn't know they had the guide available online as well.

I wonder if Tony Rayns did the East Asia programming this year. It's very likely, as I don't see the new Kim Ki-Duk movie here.

[Grimfarrow]

Wonder? Tony Rayns has been programming that for ages!

[franco]

That's what I thought. A friend from Vancity Theatre said that he heard that Tony Rayns didn't program this year. My mistake for taking rumors into consideration.

[Grimfarrow]

That's what I thought. A friend from Vancity Theatre said that he heard that Tony Rayns didn't program this year. My mistake for taking rumors into consideration.

This is his last year.

[soma]

The Host

Caught this at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July (along with Offside and Iraq In Fragments from that list).

Hands-down one of the best films of the year. Looks like there's a thread on this, will resurrect it now...

[Grimfarrow]

I went to the Toronto Film Festival, and all I got were t-shirts!

But one was pretty funny:

VOTE FOR PEDRO (PEDRO COSTA, THAT IS)

Given to me by the always-wonderful Mark Peranson.

[nredding2]

Very Good
Belle toujours
Black Book
Catch a Fire
CÅ“urs
Four Minutes
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
Kabul Express
Mon Colonel
Takva - A Man's Fear of God
Taxidermia
The Bet Collector
The Host
The Island
The Optimists
This is England
To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die
Woman on the Beach

Good
A Few Days Later…
Brand upon the Brain!
Fantasma
Fido
Lights in the Dusk
Mercy
No Place Like Home
Sheitan
Summer '04
The Magic Flute
The Prisoner or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
Thicker Than Water
Volver

Fair
August Days
Big Bang Love,Juvenile A
Everything's Gone Green
Kinshasha Palace
Love and Other Disasters
Paris,Je T'aime
Princess
The Book of Revelation
The Bothersome Man
The Killer Within
The Last Winter

Poor
Macbeth
Quelques Jours en Septembre
The Bug Master
The Wind that Shakes the Barley

[toiletduck!]

Very Good
Taxidermia

Can you elaborate on this one at all? It's piqued my curiosity and is in competition at the Chicago Film Festival, but I unfortunately will not be able to catch it.

-Toilet Dcuk

[Doctor Sunshine]

Before the fest I'd kept hearing that this was the 2nd biggest/most important film festival in the world and afterwards a couple people said it'd ascended to 1st place, yet, here it gets no love. But it looked, and was, from my experience, a lot weaker than last year. Anyway, I'm going to make a list too.

Excellent
Lights in the Dusk
Volver
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
Rescue Dawn
Woman on the Beach
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
Away From Her
Coeurs
Flandres
Time
When the Levees Broke
The Missing Star
Ghosts of Cite Soleil

Quite Good
The Lives of Others
Brand Upon the Brain!
The Host
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
The Beales of Grey Gardens
...So Goes the Nation
This Filthy World

Fun
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
Building a Broken Mouse Trap
Pan's Labyrinth
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
S&Man
Sheitan

Fair
Requiem
Le Voyage en Armenie
Primo Levi's Journey
Severance
Paris, Je taime

Mediocre
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Let's Get Lost (1988)
Exiled

Tedious
For Your Consideration
Fay Grim
Election
Election 2
The Bugmaster
The Banquet

Embarrassing
Slumming
Quelques Jour en Septembre
Renaissance
The Fountain
Falkenberg Farewell

My favourties were Rescue Dawn and Ghosts of Cite Soleil but nothing really stood out as much as last year. I wish we'd booed The Fountain like in Cannes but, as a Canadian, the most I could muster was not joining the polite applause. We suck. I went to the John Waters-John Cameron Mitchell talk, which was good, but I'd heard all of Waters' stories before from the DVD commentaries, yet, somehow, all of the stories became fresh and hillarious again in Jeff Garland's This Filthy World. The 4-hour When the Levee's Broke played without an intermission, Spike Lee came out beforehand and mumbled, "No intermission?... Well, if you gotta go, you got to go" and then he left. Overall, still enjoyed the festival very much.

[Poncho Punch]

Man, how good is Tales Of The Rat Fink gonna be? Ann-Margret, John Goodman, Rat Fink?

[Gropius]

Is there some cumulative discount on tickets that allows you to see so many films, or do you save up especially for the festival period?

[che-etienne]

Excellent:

Rescue Dawn**
Shame*
The Caiman
Still Life**
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone*
Roads of Kiarostami (short)
Coeurs*
Strike*
A Gravekeeper's Tale
The Optimists
Hana
The Host
Exiled (the perfect way to end the show on a bang)
A Sunday in Kigali
The Top of His Head (part of the Peter Mettler retrospec.)
Woman on the Beach

Good:

Half Moon
Times and Winds
A Cry in the Dark
Wavelengths 2 (the shorts series, which included Roads of Kiarostami)
Mon Colonel

Fair-Poor:

Bugmaster
Le Voyage en Armenie
L'Intouchable

** - best of fest * - runner-up

[Doctor Sunshine]

Is there some cumulative discount on tickets that allows you to see so many films, or do you save up especially for the festival period?

I bought a festival pass which gives you free reign on anything you can get into. Seeing as many as I--and nredding2--did it averages about 12, 13 bucks a film. Also, you save a lot of money not having time to eat (or sleep).

[franco]

Doctor Sunshine, how did you manage to miss Climates, Still Life, and Syndromes and a Century?

[Gropius]

I bought a festival pass which gives you free reign on anything you can get into. Seeing as many as I--and nredding2--did it averages about 12, 13 bucks a film. Also, you save a lot of money not having time to eat (or sleep).

There is nothing to compare to that offer in Rip-Off Britain: all tickets at the London Film Festival are 8.50 GBP (i.e. 16.15 USD, 18.02 CAD). That said, I doubt there are more than 10 films on its schedule that I would be interested in seeing anyway.

[John Cope]

Where the hell is Colossal Youth on any of these lists?

[Doctor Sunshine]

Doctor Sunshine, how did you manage to miss Climates, Still Life, and Syndromes and a Century?

I played it safe this year and stuck mainly with directors I know. I didn't care for Distance, so I skipped the Climates; I liked Unknown Pleasures and The World okay but not enough to make Still Life stand out; and I'm unfamiliar with Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You takes your chances either way, I guess... damned Glawgogger...

[franco]

Where the hell is Colossal Youth on any of these lists?

I give you my word that I will see it in my city.

Thanks for the explanation Dr. Sunshine. I shall skip Glawgogger then... since I never saw his docs...

[Doctor Sunshine]

Where the hell is Colossal Youth on any of these lists?

For what it's worth I had it as a backup... but I never could've got up for 8:45am show.

Thanks for the explanation Dr. Sunshine. I shall skip Glawgogger then... since I never saw his docs...

I'd still recommend Working Man's Death as a big, visually impressive and interesting documentary but he sucks at narrative.

[Grimfarrow]

I'm surprised so many people here bought into Herzog's disingenuous rah-rah ending.

[che-etienne]

I'm not surprised so many people at the screening I was at seemed to think it was disingenuous, and a hollywood sell-out... but in my opinion that ending was the only logical conclusion to the film epecially given the nature of Dieter Dengler and Herzog's own comments about what he wanted this film to 'describe' if you will.

Frankly, I think too many people just saw that as a happy ending on a Herzog film....