Archive for the ‘VIFF 2008’ Category

  • 06 Oct

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    After the Credits Episode 40 – VIFF Dispatch #3

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    Marina and special guest Jason Whyte of eFilmCritic.com discuss recently seen and recommended selections from the Vancouver International Film Festival.

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  • 03 Oct

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    Festival Trailers that Rock (and make you laugh)

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    Rather surprisingly, one of the things about VIFF that I love most is the trailers. As far back as I can remember attending the festival, the trailers have been a whole lot of fun, never taking themselves too seriously and providing a nice laugh between drama filled hours of film viewing. This year’s ads, created by the masterminds at TBWA\VANCOUVER and Soft Citizen, set the bar even higher. Yes, we film lovers can laugh at ourselves.

    Kurt, brilliantly I might ad, tracked down the ads (including one I haven’t seen yet) at Movie City Indie and I’ve posted them here for your viewing enjoyment. They’re all very funny and apply not just to festivals but to movie viewing in general so sit back, click play and join me in Vancouver, if only for a few minutes!

    Foreign Film


    The Front Row


    More funny clips tucked under the seat!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 02 Oct

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    VIFF Experiences Major Problems: A Call to Action **UPDATED**

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    VIFF Banner

    A week, to the day, into the Vancouver International Film Festival and I received some seriously bad news regarding the Festival.

    Festival organizers had asked the city to consider the fact that thousands of people flock to the Festival but the City of Vancouver has decided to ignore the request and are continuing ahead with scheduled construction outside of the largest Festival venue the Empire Granville 7. I skipped my screenings yesterday but apparently the jack hammering and street excavation is so disruptively loud that Organizers are trying to decide whether to cancel screenings in four of the theaters most affected by the noise: theatres 3, 4, 5 and 6.

    Speaking as a local, VIFF is one of the few highlights left in the City and it’s disheartening and disappointing to hear that the Festival is in serious trouble thanks to inconsiderate planning by the City. Yes, civil works need to move ahead but if they can find the time to dig elsewhere in the evening to avoid traffic congestion, the same should be done on Granville Street in consideration of the thousands that travel into the city for the annual event..

    If you’re in Vancouver and are as upset about these events as I am, I urge you to contact the Engineering Department at City Hall and voice your complaints. They can be reached (604) 873-7011.

    Just received word that the Granville 7 is no longer a construction zone! Festival Director Alan Franey was able to resolve the problem this morning. Construction at Granville Street is halted until the festival closes on October 10th. Kudos to BC Hydro who saw the importance of the Festival in Vancouver and agreed to postpone the work.

  • 02 Oct

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    After the Credits Episode 39 – VIFF Dispatch #2

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    Click the little Audio Icon until we get our Widget back in order:

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    http://www.rowthree.com/audio/AfterTheCredits-Episode39.MP3

    Marina and special guest Jason Whyte of eFilmCritic.com discuss recently seen and recommended selections from the Vancouver International Film Festival.

    Row Three:

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    Show Notes:

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 01 Oct

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    After the Credits Episode 38 – Interview: Ballast Director Lance Hammer

    2

    Click the little Audio Icon until we get our Widget back in order:

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    Marina speaks with Lance Hammer, the director of the multi-award winning Ballast.

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  • 01 Oct

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    VIFF Review: I’ve Loved You So Long

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    Partway through Philippe Claudel’s debut feature I’ve Loved You So Long, I found myself working hard to hold back tears. With stinging eyes and a poignant reminder to call my sister, I managed to regain my composure for the rest of the film but even after following up the screening with another fantastic film, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d been thoroughly moved by Claudel’s picture.

    I\'ve Loved You So Long Movie StillIt’s a simple enough premise: Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Juliette, a woman who is reunited with her sister after being away for an extended period of time. The plot works as more of a skeleton since Claudel seems more interested in the intricacies of the relationships and the nuance of the acting to move the film along than in the story itself (though that’s not to say that the story is lacking either) and the result is a quietly powerful film about friendship, family and sisterhood.

    I suggest avoiding IMDb for the string of easy to find spoilers because Philippe Claudel’s script is most effective when you don’t know the details of what’s ahead. The story develops carefully, revealing each morsel of information in a slow building succession. It’s this dispersal of information that first grabs the audience but as the film develops and the characters of Juliette and Léa become more familiar, it’s their relationship that keeps the film from drowning in despair. The film would be interesting enough if it focused only on Juliette’s struggle to build a life in a new place but it was Juliette and Léa’s relationship that brought me to tears. There’s a tenderness and unspoken understanding between the two women, even when Léa is pleading for answers that never come. Their relationship seems second nature, just as one would expect from siblings, even though the two have been apart for so long. The sharing of memories and re-establishment of their relationship is joyous, if difficult, to watch.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 29 Sep

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    VIFF Review: Sugar

    5

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    It would be simple to write off Half Nelson, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s feature directorial debut, as a “fluke” but when the duo follow it up with a film as wonderful as Sugar, that initial thought is quickly dismissed.

    Sugar Movie StillMiguel ‘Sugar’ Santos is a young man whose life is baseball. Hailing form a small town in the Dominican Republic Sugar, as he is nicknamed, is called up for training camp in the US. Things go well for the talented pitcher who is then drafted into the minor leagues and shipped off to play baseball in small town Iowa, a place where everyone appears to live and breathe baseball. Sugar adjusts well to his new life and slowly, he begins to learn the language, the customs and he even becomes involved in some extra curricular activities but things start to fall apart. He suffers a minor injury, begins to lose focus on the field and eventually is relegated to relief pitcher.

    Though the film focuses it’s attention mostly on Sugar’s rise and fall from grace, it also provides one of the best looks at the inner workings of baseball I’ve ever seen (or at least seen since I recently caught up with that long ago Kevin Costner film Bull Durham). We see the struggles faced by young players being drafted in far off places for a fraction of what their American counterparts are paid and outside of the common place knowledge that if you don’t work out, there’s a younger, better version coming up the ranks to replace you, there’s the added pressure of knowing that if you are replaced, you’ll be returning home. But while baseball is an integral part of the story, the true wonder is the character of Sugar.

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  • 29 Sep

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    VIFF Review: Chelsea on the Rocks

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    A documentary about the infamous Chelsea Hotel is always going to get my attention, especially when it’s a documentary directed by the great Abel Ferrara, unfortunately, Chelsea on the Rocks is not the film I was expecting.

    Chelsea on the Rocks Movie StillTo be honest, I’m not sure what I expected from Ferrara, a filmmaker whose work has always pushed buttons. I always felt a little sleazy watching Ferrara’s films and considering that the Chelsea straddles the divide between sleaze and celebrity, I’d hoped for great things. In its stead, we have a documentary that is neither groundbreaking nor particularly enjoyable to watch.

    Using a combination of interviews with residents, previous tenants, archival footage and even re-enactments of celebrity guests, the film tries to say something about the Chelsea but I’m hard pressed to figure out what. It could be discerned from the material provided that the Chelsea is an odd place where celebrity and the general population meet on equal footing and that, at least comes through in some of the discussions. I’ll give him this much: Ferrara’s approach to the film is unconventional. A compilation of conversations with Ferrara sitting off camera asking questions about people and events and often, even engaging in the discussion with an observation or a comment, the film’s set-up is at least interesting.

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  • 29 Sep

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    VIFF Review: Sheltered Life

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    Abuse is always a difficult topic to discuss but I can’t recall a film that approaches the subject quite as well as Sheltered Life.

    Sheltered Life Movie StillCarl Laudan’s film shares the story of a mother and daughter dealing with the most recent round of abuse. Having seen enough, Josephine, the young girl, calls the police and the pair is taken to a women’s shelter where, over the course of what appears to be a few days, the two bond and make a life change. Worry not, this isn’t some sugar coated story instead, Katherine Schlemmer’s script keeps things moving along briskly and realistically and mixed into Josephine and her mother’s story are observations on society, friendship, the hardships facing women breaking the cycle of abuse (beyond simply walking away to begin with) and the issues of funding which plague social support groups.

    It seems like a lot of material to cover in the 80 minute running time but the film moves along at a brisk pace. The focus never shifts from Josephine and her mother Candice and the issues that surface do so through circumstances of the story and a the resulting film feels loaded with importance while never stretching too far to make some poignant point. Both the writer and director are to be commended for not being sidetracked away from the story at hand; it’s refreshing to see a film that trusts the in the audience’s ability to pick-up on the messages without making them blatantly obvious at the cost of the narrative.

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  • 29 Sep

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    VIFF Review: Il Divo

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    Politics as entertainment. In the heat of an election, personalities rise, cause a stir and eventually fade into the background. Seldom does a character arise deserving of a feature film and even rarer is one colourful enough to transfer well into dramatized entertainment. Leave it to the Italians to find such a character.

    Il Divo Movie StillGiulio Andreotti served as the Prime Minister of Italy until 1992 when his office was marred by accusations of corruption within his government. Being unfamiliar with the intricacies and history of Italian politics, it’s difficult to discern how much of Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, a dramatization of Andreotti’s last few years in office, is fictionalized but one thing is certain: it’s pure, blissful entertainment.

    The film focuses primarily on the last few years of Andreotti’s career and namely, his fight to disassociate himself from accusations of Mafia involvement. A little research uncovered that Andreotti had, in the past, been investigated under similar allegations but his empire, and the future of his party, was ruined by the investigation that plagued his career after he left the office of Prime Minister. Sorrentino seems less interested in the outcome of the investigation and the downfall of the former PM and much concerned with the events and individuals that led to the point of collapse and the result is a film chalk full of colorful characters and events.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Sep

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    After the Credits Episode 37 – VIFF Dispatch #1

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    Colleen (353 Haiku Review), Marina and special guest Lavern discuss recently seen selections from the Vancouver International Film Festival.

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    Show Notes:

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 27 Sep

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    VIFF Review: Blindness

    3

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    When City of God was released, it caused quite a stir among film fans. The film was both a critical and financial success and out of nowhere, director Fernando Meirelles became the next big thing. His follow up, an adaptation of John le Carré’s novel, The Constant Gardenerwas an entertaining film but both the story and style seemed conventional in. I had expected more from the director who had been so innovative with his debut feature. For his third film, Meirelles has again taken up the written word for translation ontot he big screen this time choosing to take on Nobel Prize winning author José Saramago’s work.

    Julianne Moore

    As a novel “Blindness” is a brutally honest examination of the human condition when pushed to the edge and Meirelles’ film manages to capture all of Saramago’s themes. A sudden illness begins afflicting the population of a city leaving the sufferers blind. As a precaution, the health organization gathers all of the afflicted and sends them to a containment camp which appears to be an old jail. The quarantined group is small to begin with and they quickly set up a form of governship that seems to work but as more infected arrive, the small society begins to fall apart. A group of men decides that it is going to take charge of the food and from here, the situation quickly begins to dissintegrate. The resulting chaos serves as a reminder of the violence which rests within humanity but it also shines a light on the opposing goodness of people. Mixed in among the big moral dilemas are smaller stories of individuals and relationships which further question motives and preconceptions. The film doens’t just focus on the social aspects of the fall of manking, it’s also interested in relationship dynamics and how they change.

    Blindness     owes a fair bit of its success to the fantastic performanes. Meirelles is much more concerned with the story than with the visuals (though that’s not to say that the film is lacking in the technical department). Poor performances could have seriously hindered the film but this cast doesn’t fail. Julianne Moore leads the way, yet again playing the woman on the brink of colapse. As the only one in the camp who can see, she is mother and protector and her performance is both tortured and strong. Moore has built her career on roles like this one but here, there’s a tenderness to her that I had yet to see. Mark Ruffalo, an actor who showed great promise with earlier roles, is on a war path. He was excellent in Zodiac and his performance here is wonderful, walking the fine line between fearless leader and helpless victim. Alice Braga proves that she’s more than just a pretty face and Gael García Bernal stands out in a showey but unforgettable performance as the leader of the corrupt group but it’s Danny Glover who surprises. It’s been years since I’ve seen him in anything memorable but his small, quiet performance here is indication that the actor isn’t done yet.

    Visually, Meirelles does not disappoint. His vision of a city in collapse is eerily reminiscent of 28 Days Later, it’s follow up 28 Weeks Later and even children of Men (though not quite to that level of devastation). Meirelles uses the decaying surroundings as a metaphor for the corruption of society and the result is an ugly marvel; a city scape crowded by garbage, bodies and animals. The director also makes excellent use of the fact that the the victims suffer from an ailment which leaves thems seeing everything white rather than black and portions of the film are stark white, which adds yet another layer to the alredy metaphor dense film.

    Like the novel it’s based on, Blindness is a cerebral film. Though on the surface it makes for an excellent, bleekly entertaining apocalyptic drama, peeling back the layers reveals the film’s real staying power. This is the type of film that keeps audiences deep in discussion well into the night and which lingers in the consciousness long after the lights have come up.

    Also be sure to check out Michael’s review of the film!

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