VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Thu Sep 27 - Sun Oct 12
It happens pretty much every year. At first glance, not a lot that catches my eye. But the more I dig in and read, get familiar with the titles and notice reviews elsewhere, the more VIFF publishes about the films... The more films get added to my "That Looks Interesting" list. To the point where there's more than I can see.
Here's a rundown of the ones that are catching my eye, whether they've got Soul Food potential, or they look like just plain good films. Most exciting titles at the top of the list. Click on the underlined titles for more detail.
ONE HUNDRED NAILS
Sat6 19:00 PCP / Mon 8 21:30 G7 / Tue9 11:30 G3 (43)
Director Ermanno Olmi: "Every story must have a leading character who becomes an ideal example for us: man or woman, in love's passion or caught up in hatred. So whom should I talk about? Whom have I got to know, amongst the throng of historical Greats who have made their mark on my life? Is it too predictable to say Christ?"
THE MONASTERY: MR VIG AND THE NUN
Th27 16:30 PCP / Sat29 19:00 PCP / Thu4 10:30 G5 (pg 160)
Doc, Peter Chattaway recommendation. "A recalcitrant octogenarian clashes with the head nun of a Russian Orthodox sect after he donates his broken-down pile of a castle to them for use as a monastery."
YOU, THE LIVING
Thu27 11:30 G3 / Sat29 18:20 G4 / Tue2 15:00 G1 (pg 139)
Swedish director Roy Andersson's follow-up to the off-kilter SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR.
IN MEMORY OF MYSELF
Fri28 15:00 G1 / Sat29 19:00 G1 (pg 130)
Italy. "A young man gives up a life of privilege and choice to enter the carefully prescribed world of a Jesuit novitiate."
THE MAN FROM LONDON
Mon1 11:00 G4 / Fri5 21:00 PCP (124)
Dir Bela Tarr: SATANTANGO, WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES. "Adapted noirish Georges Simenon novel about a seaside railway sweitchman who finds his life turned upside-down when he witnesses a murder and recovers a suitcase full of cash. More concerned with the aesthetics of film form and tha lack of spiritual values in a godless universe than he is with story."
MADONNAS
Sat29 12:15 G6 / Tue2 15:30 G2 / Thu4 21:00 G4
Co-produced by Dardenne brothers, stars REQUIEM's Sandra Huller. "Barely-out-of-her-teens German mother does jail time and, when released, takes her children back, but soon returns to her old ways..." Euro-SHERRYBABY?
FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO
Thu27 21:45 G2 / Sun30 15:30 G2 (pg 171)
Documentary. "Five families, each with a gay member, struggle to reconcile their faith with their family."
YOU TOLD ME, YOU LOVE ME
Sun30, 16:30 PCP / Fri5, 21:00 G4 / Sun7 14:30 G3 (123)
Ageing swimming champion begins to lose her mind as an unexpected affair with a younger man disintegrates. "The sudden introduction of a metaphysical visitation in a winter forest vaults the film into unexpected territory, but director Rudolf Thome's precise construction makes this seem a natural part of Johann's reawakening."
SECRET SUNSHINE
Sat29 16:00 G7 / Sun30 21:30 G7 / Mon1 16:00 G7
"Woman moves to her husband's home town after his death in a road accident, determined to make a fresh start, fending off romantic overtures from a car-workshop owner and spiritual overtures from a local Christian group. Then tragedy strikes again and she falls to peiece, a vortex of hatred and forgiveness, faith and nihilism, composure and hysteria. Takes the viewer to the very heart of an emotional breakdown and fragile recovery: Bresson and Bunuel would have admired the achievement."
SAMSON AND DELILAH
Wed3 10:30 G5 / Sun7 15:45 VCT / Tue9 19:00 G2 (136)
"Radical reinterpretation of the Saint-Saens opera, the Old Testament story of the struggle of the Israelites against the Philistines," set more or less in modern Palestine.
WE ARE TOGETHER
Fri5 13:00 G7 / Sat6 19:15 G2 / Tue9 10:00 G7 (167)
"The Agape Orphanage in South Africa is home to children whose parents have died of AIDS. Tragedy and triumph (the Agape Choir prepares for concernts in London), unsentimental tone, portraits of strong children in the face of a plague."
JOIN US
Thu27 10:30 G5 / Tue9 20:45 G5 / Wed10 13:30 G5 (pg 172)
Doc. "Four families attempt to rebuild their lives after the unholy devastation wrought by one Pastor Raimund Melz, a born-again German who survived the concentration camps."
IN THE COMPANY OF ACTORS
Sun30 12:30 G2 / Fri5 18:00 G5 (181)
Doc. Kate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving rehearse "Hedda Gabler."
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
Fri28 13:00 G7 / Sun30 19:00 G7 (pg 166)
Apollo moonshot doc. CT Movies: "Rationality cannot illuminate what is a metaphysical voyage of discovery. In SHADOW's final moments, the moonwalkers' speech alters into something elegiac, whimsical and fundamentally spiritual..."
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS
Romania. Cannes Palme d'Or, illegal abortion in the waning days of the Soviet Bloc.
KABUL TRANSIT
Thu27 15:30 G2 / Sun30 13:15 VCT / Wed3 20:45 G2 (pg 172)
"A picture of a city in fragments, without intro, commentary or visual aid. Style much in accord with the norm for current Euro and Asian documaking, where polemics takes a back seat if it has a place at all."
I JUST DIDN'T DO IT
Japan, director of SHALL WE DANCE? "Young man on a crowded Tokyo train is accused of groping a schoolgirl. Angry impassioned drama about the structural weaknesses and blatant hypocrisy of Japan's legal system."
VACATION
Mon1 16:15 G6 / Tue9 19:00 G1 (p 123)
Germany. "Rohmer meets Bergman. Three generations of a family come together - and come apart - at their vacation home."
TAMING TAMMY
Sun7 19:00 RID / Thu11 12:30 G2 (p 107)
Canadian update of Shakespeare's "Shrew."
Several other films look swell, but are very likely for wide release before too long. They include;
ATONEMENT (Kiera Knightly in lavish literary adaptation)
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD (Sidney Lumet, Philip Symour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke)
THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY (Anon: "Ohmygod... Beautiful cinema from a very very mean little man...")
GO GO TALES (Abel Ferrara)
MY KID COULD PAINT THAT (Doc about art prodigy)
PARANOID PARK (Van Sant)
PERSEPOLIS (Graphic novel about punk kid in Iran)
REDACTED (Brian De Palma's brutal take on American savagery in Iraq)
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