June was a far superior month to May, I had very little time to make it to the cinema, as ever, but I did binge on two film festivals. My Sheffield Doc/Fest and Edinburgh International Film Festival coverage are up on Film&Festivals Magazine’s online film festivals blog - links provided below.
As always, just a simple summary of my thoughts under each film, rather than any kind of informative review. Comments are much more concerned with what I thought the film was about, and impression it made on me with respect to its meaning, rather than what I did or didn’t like about it, but obviously the placing will let you know what I thought of it, as my film of the month will be at the top, followed by the rest in order of preference, with the worst at the bottom, which once again isn’t one I particularly disliked at all.
Paris, Texas - Wim Wenders, 1984
The weight of responsibility, and sorting out shit that you've fucked up in the past. People have darkness in them, repression of it makes it worse and can damage the soul, but nothing is unchangeable. Masculinity is at question, as the father blames himself for breaking down the mother and possibly blames this on picking up the darkness from his own father. Has his openness, his willingness not to repress, saved his son from the same fate?
Werckmeister Harmonies - Bela Tarr, 2000
Structure, disruptions then continuation. This message runs throughout the film and is made clear from the opening ‘eclipse’ scene. This flow of life controls the actions of people just as they are controlled acting out this scene. Just like the eclipse is a natural glitch, so is social unrest, but is similarly followed by ‘normality’ just as suddenly. The film often depicts stories that are exaggerated; they are the very human aspect in this process.
Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson, 2012
Very rarely can a film so stylised feel so earnest and poignant. The age depicted is a very tricky point between childhood and adolescence. You can still revel in your childlike imagination, but then there are material changes afoot and you have to enter the even messier world of adulthood. Which is no more clear, but has in many cases lost that sense of adventure
Here, Then - Mao Mao - 2012 - From Edinburgh IFF
Coverage on Film&Festivals
Prometheus - Ridley Scott, 2012
Glad it's doing the big ideas and would like there to be sequels. Android adding a further layer to that question of creators/what is human. Looking backwards and forwards.
Tahrir: Liberation Square - Stefano Sovano, 2011 - From Edinburgh IFF
Coverage on Film&Festivals
Smoke - dir. Wayne Wang, written by Paul Auster, 1995
Urbanity, duplicity, identity: Characters use multiple names and change their identities in different contexts so identity is very fluid. The creation of who you are is based on language, on the construction of a story; this is mirrored by the way that stories themselves are used. Not only is story writing and story telling put at the forefront, but are directly addressed and questioned. Who's to say what is real and isn't. Isn't most of this codified in language anyway? How much of the real is hidden behind 'smoke' and mirrors. Or in more direct reference to smoke, the story told early on, recounting howWalter Rawley introduced queen Elizabeth to tobacco by making a bet that he could weigh smoke.This early story/scene perfectly captures what the film says about stories and that they seem intangible; they seem like they aren't there, but they are. To measure them would seem peculiar, but actually it makes perfect sense. Of course they're there, just as you can weigh smoke.
Postcards From the Zoo - Edwin, 2012 - From Edinburgh IFF
Coverage on Film&Festivals
Kid-Thing - David Zellner, 2012 - From Edinburgh IFF
Coverage on Film&Festivals
Ghost World - Terry Zwigoff, 2001
The main character was very authentically adolescent; she was her own worst enemy, put everything off, blamed other people and completely failed to sort out her own shit. Shows a variety of people that are just outside of “normality” and see through it as the fabricated controlling force that it is.
High Tech, Low Life- Stephen Maing, 2012 - From Doc/Fest
Coverage on Film&Festivals.com
The Man from London - Bela Tarr, 2007
The premise of taking the noir/thriller plot structure and juxtaposing it with the patient and mesmerizing camera of a Bela Tarr film is more promising than fulfilling. The very fact that these genre staples are slowed down and subverted - i.e. the camera actively avoids confrontation and spectacle - is a fantastic approach and doubtless the film is beautiful and engrossing, but because of this infusion of genre, the plot and characters have little to say. Their genre placing leaves them without the ambiguity I've come to expect from Tarr and therefore with a much diminished existentialism. The form is just as lucid, but the narrative requires much less thought than either of his other two films I have seen recently, Werckmeister Harmonies and The Turin Horse.
Evidently... John Cooper Clarke - John Ross, 2012 - From Doc/Fest
Coverage on Film&Festivals.com
Y tu Mama Tambien - Alfonso Cuaron, 2001
Adolescent road movies are always easily a favourite of mine (i.e. why I loved Ave so much at this year’s Bradford International Film Festival). Light breezy, fun and honest, but packs a punch from time to time. This goes back into heritage and history with the contemporary urbanity always evident in the boys, whilst they travel further into Mexico’s rural expanse. They find out more about themselves as they see more of their country. this idea isn’t put forward too forcefully, and they aren't in awe, but just shows how this whole world they thought they knew and thought they had locked down, was only a tiny fraction. This includes the the way they thought they had please, and could please, the girls we see them with at the start. They have plenty to learn from the wider world; not only finding more about their country, but pivotally being on this journey from a more mature character representing another aspect of Mexican heritage, its roots in Spain.
Hospitalité - Koji Fukada, 2010 - From Edinburgh IFF
Edinburgh IFF coverage on Page 55 of HowDo
Death Proof - Quentin Tarrantino, 2007
I like that in the two halves, one half is used to set up/ratify conventions, so that the second one can break them down. Extremely feminist agenda and showed how inept the cops are. Sisterrrrrrs, doing it for themselves and a real real love letter to the carsploitation period whilst still adding more to it in a very Tarrantino way.
Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal - Boris Rodriguez, 2012 - From Edinburgh IFF
Edinburgh IFF coverage on Page 55 of HowDo
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975
Very specifically domestically set, which adds to its narrative of showing it as 'this is the depiction of real working people’s experience'. This becomes particularly important when introduced to the Communists, who act like religions group pouncing on this weak lady for their own political ends, having no idea about the experiences of actual working people. This move comes part way through a film that is highly critical of the increasingly heartless capitalist system and nicely balances out the narrative so as to be more complex and nuanced than an overt political rant. Communists use the mother’s high profile court case regarding the loss of her husband to gain political will, just as the capitalist event promoter uses the singer-girl as the sideshow attraction of the daughter of the father who killed himself as a way of making prophit. All just exploiting somebody's loss for their own ends. Who loses out in this? Real people.
Lullaby - Dziga Vertov, 1937 - From Doc/Fest
Coverage on Film&Festivals.com
The Way of the Dragon - Bruce Lee, 1972
Nice way to tackle immigration in the form of some badass Bruce Lee flying kicks.
Alpha Dog - Nick Cassavetes, 2006
Can't say it wasn't dead cheesy, but think it did what it wanted to really well. It used the exploitation tactic of sex, violence, foul language and hot young folk. Not full on extreme, but enough to bring in the audience. EVERYONE was hot and all about the sex, drugs and rock'n roll. Putting the sort of ‘this is what kind of calamity can go no when you enter this drug/gangster world’ didactic message.
The Imposter - Bart Layton, 2012
Shocking yet funny; few things manage to capture that balance. You're busy laughing at those on that end of the camera whilst you yourself are being duped by the same tricks.
Law of the Jungle - Michael Christofferson & Hans le Cour, 2012 - From Doc/Fest
Coverage on Film&Festivals.com
New Releases this month in order (including yet to be, or won't be, released festival films)
Moonrise Kingdom
Here, Then
Prometheus
Tahrir: Liberation Square
Postcards From the Zoo
Kid-Thing
High Tech, Low Life
Evidently... John Cooper Clarke
Hospitalité
Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal
The Imposter
Law of the Jungle
Ongoing list of new films seen this year
The Avengers
Moonrise Kingdom
Here, Then
Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)
The Hunger Games
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Shame
The Descendants
Prometheus
Le Havre
Tahrir: Liberation Square
Postcards From the Zoo
Kid-Thing
High Tech, Low Life
Evidently... John Cooper Clarke
Hospitalité
Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal
Mirror Mirror
War Horse
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Journey 2: the Mysterious Island
Marley
Woman in Black
Dangerous Method
The Imposter
The Pirates.
This Must Be the Place
Bel Ami
Law of the Jungle
Star Wars Episode 1
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