Tag: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

MIFF 2012 Review: For Love’s Sake (Ai To Makoto)

Takashi Miike gives West Side Story a Japanese spin, and the results are one of his most flat-out entertaining films of the last decade.

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Director: Takashi Miike

Writer(s): Takayuki Takuma

Runtime: 134 minutes

Starring: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Emi Takei, Sakura Ando, Takumi Saito, Ito Ono

Festival: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

Country: Japan

Rating (?): Highly Recommended (★★★★)

More info

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Prolific Japanese filmmaker has navigated countless genres over his career of almost 90 film and television credits, although few would have picked a West Side Story inspired musical as his next outing. Continuing his journey into the past, following period pieces 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, his latest film is based on Ikki Kajiwara’s popular 1970s manga Ai To Makoto. Previously adapted as three live action films and a TV series, it is one of his most energetic films of the last few years, fusing music, unrequited love and the occasional ultra-violence for a curious hybrid that is never anything less than entertaining.

In an anime opening sequence, a familiar motif but one that sets the tone for the film, we are introduced to Ai and Matoko during their collision of a first encounter. Eleven years later in 1972, Matoko (Satoshi Tsumabuki) quite literally still bears the scars of that meeting, and once again encounters Ai (Emi Takei) in the notoriously troubled streets of Tokyo’s Kabukicho district. Matoko is the consummate bad-boy, but nevertheless helps Ai with a gang of thugs troubling her. As a reward, he is sent off to remand school for beating them all half to death. Rich girl Ai, who has built up Matoko as her knight in shining armour over the years, puts in a good word with her parents, and instead gets her dream lover enrolled in her prestigious school. This doesn’t sit well with the school authorities, and it certainly doesn’t gel with bespectacled nerd Iwashimizu (Takumi Saito), who adores Ai. When Matoko is kicked out of the academy and winds up in a graffiti covered school controlled by youth gangs, Ai blindly follows him, and is in turn followed by Iwashimizu. There Makoto attracts the attention of both Gumko (Sakura Ando), the gum-chewing leader of a gang of female delinquents, and the quiet Yuki (Ito Ono). This love story just got very complicated indeed.

Miike has certainly delved into the musical form before, and after so many films it would be difficult to imagine a genre he has yet to touch on. For Love’s Sake sits somewhere between the campy musical The Happiness of the Katakuris and the street violence of Crows Zero, yet that description barely does it justice. The songs appear out of nowhere at first, as a street brawl descends into a sparkling song and dance number that would have made both the Sharks and the Jets put aside their aggression and grooved to the 1970s beats. Miike’s vision of the period is wholly one gathered from memory, his own back-catalogued as a mish-mash of cultural references. Stylistically, Tsumabuki’s rumble in the urban jungle number is a world away from the very retro-parody love song that Takei dances merrily to, but Miike somehow manages to make them part of a cohesive whole.

Miike has a triumph on his hands with For Love’s Sake. Coupled with the spectacular design of the film, with production designer Yuji Hayashida and cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita working in perfect harmony, For Love’s Sake is certainly the most visually engaging Miike film in years. When the film briefly loses momentum in the second half, it is due to a noticeable absence of musical material. Yet the frenetic pacing of the film, coupled with a wonderful cast of characters, manages to make this one of Miike’s most universally appealing films in years, an impressive feat for a musical that contains random acts of violence. Or is it a violent film that contains random acts of music? Therein lies the beauty of Miike, and if nothing else, you won’t be able to get the tunes out of your head for weeks.

For Love’s Sake played at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2012.

August 24, 2012
MIFF 2012 Review: Teddy Bear

The tale of a big cuddly bodybuilder looking for love might be slim on story, but there is nothing lightweight about this emotionally satisfying character study.

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Director: Mads Matthiesen

Writer(s): Mads Matthiesen, Martin Zandvliet

Runtime: 93 minutes

Starring: Kim Kold, Elsebeth Steentoft, Lamaiporn Hougaard

Festival: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

Country: Denmark

Rating (?): Highly Recommended (★★★★)

More info

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Danish director Mads Matthiesen’s debut film Teddy Bear (10 timer til Paradis), expanding on his own 2007 short Dennis, won the World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance this year, and the restrained nature of this emotionally powerful film gives us a clear indication why. Using a cast of non-professional actors, Matthiesen contrasts the impossible largeness of a super-heavyweight bodybuilder with his socially crippling shyness. Digging into the fluffy filling at its heart, this film manages to quietly show the gradual development of a man’s self-confidence, catching up with his already impressive physique.

Dennis Peterson (played by actual bodybuilder Kim Kold) is a 38 year-old man who has worked all of his life to achieve physical perfection. A monolith of a man, his physically imposing body towers over everyone. Despite this, he has been unsuccessful in finding the love of his life, an awkward first date showing us how uncomfortable he is around women. Explaining this somewhat is his comparatively diminutive mother, Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft), who passive-aggressively dominates much of his life. When she isn’t making pointed comments about his social activities, she refuses to eat or come out of her room in response to anything that doesn’t please her. However, after attending the wedding of his Uncle Bent (Allan Mogenson) to his new Thai wife, Dennis resolves to take his first steps towards independence by heading to Thailand. Once there, he begins looking for love in all the wrong places, perhaps finding it where he is most comfortable.

Teddy Bear is a film effectively split into twin sets of two-handers, the first between Kold and Steentoft, the latter half principally concerned with budding romance between Dennis and Toi (Lamaiporn Hougaard), the widowed owner of a Thai gym, and someone that he is instantly able to be comfortable around. Despite this, the film actually posits itself not as a romantic film, in the face of the protagonist’s primary aim of finding someone to be with, but rather as a late coming of age drama. Dennis searches for a female companion, but what he is really looking for is a way to sever the maternal ties that are keeping him in a state of arrested development. Indeed, once the connection is made with Toi, things begin to move quite quickly for Dennis. His mother reacts violently to her son’s progress, revealing that it is actually Ingrid who is stuck in her own limbo. Yet Teddy Bear is also a film that takes its time coming to these conclusions, allowing both the viewer and the characters to settle into a new scene before proceeding. This allows for an incredibly amount of intimacy with these otherwise unfamiliar faces.

Kold is an amazing acting discovery, filling the frame not just with his physical bulk, but with his unlikely screen presence, moving with equal ease in the gym just as much as he does on the Thai streets. The leisurely pace of the film mirrors his own simple grace, another surprising element to the film. His size is the cause of some visual gags throughout Teddy Bear, telegraphing that this often contemplative and sometimes depressing film is actually more uplifting than the shop-front would indicate. One of the better character-based pieces of the festival, it is also one of the most uplifting.

Teddy Bear played at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2012.

August 21, 2012
MIFF 2012: Wrap Up and Reflections

As winter draws to a close, another Melbourne International Film Festival also wraps up, having screened a few hundred new films to Victorians and travellers alike over the last few weeks of fun across the CBD of the greatest city in Victoria. As we begin to roll out our full coverage, here is a snapshot of what we saw, liked or wanted to bury in a dark mine somewhere.

We had a privilege of seeing a number of these already at the 2012 Sydney Film Festival or the inaugural Sundance London, and have reviewed them previously on the site. In addition to this, we visited the festival for the final weekend, and managed to squeeze in another 13 films. We share because we care.

Links to the full reviews have been provided where available, but more will be available in the coming weeks.

★★★★★ – Certified Bitstastic

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Few debut films manage to be saddled with the term “masterpiece” on their first pass, and this singular take on the coming of age story gets almost everything right from the start. The most human of all possible stories is a startlingly original film that will remain a classic for years to come. Full Review >>

Harold and Maude – This one goes without saying, but we did anyway. Hal Ashby’s 1971 classic is playing as part of MIFF’s retrospective program, and this is a terrific chance to catch it on the big screen and spot all the moments that Wes Anderson has a lot to answer for.

Holy Motors – As we say on the film’s official Australian poster, Leos Carax’s art fantasy is one of the most original films of the century. Equal parts magic and insanity, and a reminder of all the things that cinema has to offer.Carax leads us into uncharted territory we might readily call “post film”. Full Review >>

★★★★ – Highly Recommended

Alps – Winner of the Sydney Film Festival Official Competition prize, along with a plethora of other awards, Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to Dogtooth is unlikely to find two audience members in complete agreement. Coupled with absurdity, including an electro-pop remix of the 1960s hit “Popcorn”, Lanthimos may simply be pointing out the craziness of the world we live in. But are you ready for pop? Full Review >>

The Angels’ Share – Ken Loach made a feel-good film. It happened. Winner of the Prix du Jury win at Cannes this year, Loach’s latest collaboration with lawyer/screenwriter Paul Laverty has yielded another lost soul on his last chance, finding hope in bottles of whisky and an unconventional heist. We feel like a drink. Full Review >>

Awesome I Fuckin’ Shot That – After the tragic death of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch this year from cancer, this MIFF tribute to the one and only MCA will also see several other long-form shorts screened, and is a rare chance to see this crowd-sourced picture in a large format.

Bully – Bullying comes in all forms, and at all stages in life, and Lee Hirsch’s documentary about Bullying in the US school system is a must-see for parents, students, teachers and anybody with a pulse.

For Love’s Sake (Ai To Makoto) – Takashi Miike‘s most energetic film of the last few years, fusing music, unrequited love and a bit of the old-fashioned ultra-violence for good measure. Vividly realised with the assistance of regular collaborators cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita and production designer Yuji Hayashida.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai – Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has no less than three films at this year’s MIFF, as this plays along with above’s For Love’s Sake and Ace Attorney. Here he continues to put his own stamp on the jidaigeki genre, switching his penchant for bloodbaths to a serene examination of samurai honour. Full Review >>

Killer Joe – William Friedkin returns with a vengeance in this southern-fried tale of hillbilly murder, rampage and good old-fashioned insanity. Inspired by the excesses of Letts’ script, adapting his own screenplay, Killer Joe might be violent and vile, but it is also sharp, engaging and outright hilarious at all times. Proof positive that Matthew McConaughey belongs in every movie. Full Review >>

Like Someone In Love – Following the painful Certified Copy, Abbas Kiarostami redeems himself with this wonderfully measured character piece. It’s more riding in cars with boys, as he uses conversations between three restrained Japanese personalities (principally veteran Tadashi Okuno and the popular Rin Takanashi) to reveal details about these characters. What is amazing is just how much this minimalist approach completely holds your attention, right up until the ambiguously gripping conclusion.

Moonrise Kingdom – Like most of Wes Anderson’s films, it exist in a bubble of the past that never actually existed except in memory and dreamscapes. Apart from recalling Rushmore, just as directly as the bespectacled clone Gilman does, Anderson is giving us an early signal that his film is about so much more than teenage love. Visually stunning, Moonrise Kingdom is an open love letter to youth of all ages. Full Review >>

ParaNorman – While Pixar have become the masters of making children’s films that adults can also enjoy, Coraline makers Laika continue to prove that it is possible to do it the other way around as well. Originally conceived for Disney in the 1980s, it has an old-fashioned sensibility that effortlessly weaves a wonderful group of characters into a myriad of film and cultural references, set against the timely backdrop of Salem-style witch hunts.

Safety Not Guaranteed – We were lucky enough to catch this one at Sundance London. Charming and funny, this pseudo time-travel dramedy is a delightful and heartfelt retro throwback to a bygone era of filmmaking, drawing inspiration from the Spielberg and Zemeckis films of the 1980s. Based loosely on an Internet meme, the fantastical idea of a man with no education building a time machine in his garage is about as American as it gets. Full Review >>

Side By Side – Keanu Reeves fronts Chris Kenneally‘s insightful and candid investigation into the film versus digital debate, one with no clear winners but a lots of strong opinions from industry heavyweights. Side By Side doesn’t come to any startling conclusions, but it offers up a series of arguments. Full Review >>

Sound of My Voice – Following a recent run of powerful films about cults and faith (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Red State, Higher Ground), it is amazing that Zal Batmanglij’s debut has something new to say. While it asks far more questions than it answers, the central performances are mesmerising. Co-written by Another Earth‘s Brit Marling, who stars as the enigmatic cult leader Maggie.

Tabu – A fable mixed with nostalgic surrealism, this fills that unknown void between Out of Africa and The Artist. Another film that has divided audiences straight down the middle, be swept away in the magic of cinema. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and the Alfred Bauer Award at Berlin. Full Review >>

Take the Money and Run – One of Woody Allen’s earliest funny ones, this 1968 spoof on the crime film is a farce of the highest order. If for no other reason, it is worth watching for Woody’s attempts to join a marching band while playing the cello.

Teddy Bear – Another great two-hander of a character piece as super-heavyweight bodybuilder Kim Kold tries to connect with a woman despite living under the thumb of his domineering mother. Danish director Mads Matthiesen’s debut film, expanding on his own 2007 short Dennis, won the World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance this year, and the restrained nature of this emotionally powerful film gives us a clear indication why.

Your Sister’s Sister – Lynn Shelton continues to prove that Mark Duplass is king of the indies, as he is joined by Rosemarie DeWitt and Emily Blunt for an intimate film that brings a quiet dignity to the romance genre. Full Review >>

★★★½ – Better Than Average Bear

Himizu – Sion Sono has made a name for himself across his psycho-sexual “Hate” trilogy of Love Exposure, Guilty of Romance and Cold Fish, with the latter two playing at MIFF2011. With Himizu, which is a species of mole in Japan, he begins a “brave” trilogy focusing on the individual repercussions of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A great character study that drags on a tad too long, and certainly misses the electricity of Sono’s earlier work. Looking forward to The Land of Hope.

Liberal Arts – Another one we caught at Sundance London, the continuation of a strong storytelling voice in Josh Radnor, who hopefully focus more on this kind of filmmaking when his television children eventually find out how he met their mother. Smart, funny and sincere, with fine performances from Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen, this is a film that you should let wash over you. Full Review >>

Miss Bala – The stark and fast-paced Mexican action film heralds a new voice in Gerardo Naranjo for this Hollywood-inspired look inside the drug cartels of Mexico. Naranjo’s world is relentless, one in which corruption exists at all levels, and it is this bleak outlook that immediately separates Miss Bala from its cousins north of the border. Full Review >>

No – A mockumentary set in 1980s Chile, this film concerns the anti-Pinochet referendum, that was allowed 15 minutes a day to advertise their cause on national television. Cleverly using the U-Matic cameras of the day to seamlessly blend in with the archival ad campaign that the group is making, this has all the immediacy and wit of political comedies The Thick of It or Veep. Gael Garcia Bernal is excellent as the advertising executive who runs the 1988 campaign.

Wild Bill – The debut film from Dexter Fletcher, bringing a cast a genuine characters to his vision of East London. There is nothing terribly subtle about this approach, it’s sense of social welfare informed just as much by episodes of The Bill as it is by poverty in the UK. However, literally building its story under the shadow of the Olympic Stadium, Fletcher seems to be saying that the shop-front might be shiny, but another British staple is still lurking under the surface. Full Review >>

★★★ – Worth A Look

The Hunt – Built around a powerhouse Cannes-winning performance by Mads Mikkelsen, Dogme 95 co-founder Thomas Vinterberg crafts a tale of a man falsely accused of child molestation, and himself becomes the victim of mass hysteria. Intentionally frustrating, with the audience only knowing slightly more than the main character, it is also consciously manipulative, wearing its politics on its sleeve. Of most interest as a character study.

Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap – Following in the footsteps of Style Wars (1983) and Rhyme And Reasons (1997), rapper/actor Ice-T narrates and co-directs this exploration of how artists come up with their lyrics. Filled with contemplative shots of the narrator, it also features interviews in the A to Yeezy of the hip-hip world. While much of this remains about Ice-T for some reason, the insights are many, although it is great need of a re-edit with extended material made available.

Undefeated – The Oscar-winning documentary about the ‘little football team that could’ is sure to have its fans, but part of us still feels that a love of American football might aid in the enjoyment of this popular piece of sports cinema. While a big-screen viewing isn’t essential, this might be one of your only chances.

★★½ – Wait For the DVD/Blu-ray

11/25: The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate – Kimitake Hiraoka, better known under his pen name Yukio Mishima, is largely considered to be one of the greatest Japanese writers of the 20th century. Yet he is also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d’état in 1970. Kōji Wakamatsu’s film traces the final years of Mishima’s life, as his disillusionment led to his eventual actions. Slow-moving to the point of tedium at times, any emotional resonance that this film might have is undermined by repetition and a cause that is never fully realised for a non-Japanese audience.

Monsieur Lazhar – An audience favourite wherever it goes, we have a singular opinion on this one. Mohamed Saïd Fellag delivers a solid performance, balancing his own dark past against the weight of nurturing young lives, but the signposts are too obvious to truly feel anything but a sense of inevitability. A charming if familiar tale of teacher knows best, so much so that it almost charms itself out of existence. Full Review >>

On the Road – Are we there yet? Much of the public attention will be focused on Kristen Stewart’s performance, building on her non-Twilight roles such as The Runaways, and her frequent nudity will keep Google in business for some years to come. A classic American novel that takes just as long to get going as it has getting to the screen. Full Review >>

★★ – Rental For Sure

Rampart – A character portrait of a dirty cop in Los Angeles is a case of arrested development, as a terrific cast meander about on an endless beat. The hard-working cast are merely covering the cracks of a script that loses its way at the mid-point and never fully regains its way by the time Overman finds his ambiguous conclusion. Full Review >>

★½ – It’s Your Money

Mine Games – A predictable mish-mash of familiar horror movie characters and devices, you won’t want to go back into the mine. As the Australian director Richard Gray repeatedly reminds us in the film, we need to break the cycle, and this is where audiences can take control and demand a better class of horror. Filled with thoughts that never play out, this is one film that should remain buried. Full Review >>

★ – Avoid Like Plague

Maniac – Remaking William Lustig’s 1980 slasher may have seemed like a pointless exercise from the outset, and director Franck Khalfoun (P2) proves that theory right. Shot mostly in the first-person perspective, it makes little use of star Elijah Wood, with characters clearly not in the same room when interacting. At all other times, Maniac is brutal, repetitive, misogynistic and utterly pointless. A hollow shell masquerading as film.

August 20, 2012
MIFF 2012 Review: Mine Games

A predictable mish-mash of familiar horror movie characters and devices, you won’t want to go back into the mine.

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Director: Richard Gray

Writer(s): Ross McQueen, Richard Gray, Michele Davis-Gray

Runtime: 91 minutes

Starring: Briana Evigan, Julianna Guill, Ethan Peck, Alex Meraz, Joseph Cross, Rafi Gavron, Rebecca Da Costa

Festival: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

Country: US

Rating (?): It’s Your Money (★½)

More info

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Australian filmmaker Richard Gray made his break onto the local scene with his Project Greenlight runner-up Summer Coda (2010), a film the distributors billed as a being in the vein of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. With his follow-up Mine Games, Gray plunges into the depths of a well-worn genre, and fails to come up with anything new. This completely unremarkable spin on the ‘spam in a cabin’ genre fails to learn anything from the countless imitators and cookie-cutter films that have come before, outright borrowing from a number of them, making this sophomore effort feel more like an awkward debut.

Seven young friends head out to a remote cabin in the woods (stop us if you’ve heard this one before), but a car accident forces them to abandon their car and walk the rest of the way. Arriving at what they assume is the correct house, they await the owners with a growing sense of dread that something is not quite right. Repeatedly reminded that Michael (Joseph Cross) hasn’t taken his ‘pills’, things take a turn for the completely expected upon the discovery of an old mine in the middle of the woods.

In the wake of this year’s superb The Cabin in the Woods, the bar for all horror films was raised by several notches. While it would be unfair to criticise Mine Games purely for its unoriginality, a finger that can surely be levelled at virtually any genre pic, if you are going to make a vanilla cupcake, then it has to be a superb one. Taking itself far too seriously, the set-up follows the rules to the letter, burdening every character with explanatory speech and exposition, so much so that there is an expectation that there will be a ‘twist’ coming at any moment. This too is built into the narrative with the discovery of the mine, yet all it manages to do is add another layer of convolution to this paper-thin outing. In using the symbol of the ouroboros as a recurring motif, a serpent that eats its own tail, Gray has also graphically demonstrated what this film is fundamentally doing to itself.

The cast of young actors have all seen their share of screen time over the last few years, including actual Friday the 13th (2009) star Juiliana Guill, and their failure to elevate the film is scarcely their fault. Gray’s script, co-written with Michele Davis-Gray and Ross McQueen, gives them little to do beyond running around and looking scared, and while the looping nature of the story might be ostensibly a clever idea, it also lacks a clear antagonist. Devoid of an immediate threat, the decision of the characters to repeatedly return to the mine becomes increasingly ponderous and unlikely, with an unseen force acting as more of a catch-all god-machine. It certainly eschews having to adhere to that pesky notion of a story arc or character development. Particularly insidious is the fall-back ‘Latino mystical chick’ (Rebecca Da Costa), the only one who can see some of the strings behind the scenes, and the seemingly mandatory inclusion of the ‘annoying British guy’ in Rafi Gavron.

While Mine Games uses the rather interesting location of a mine to stage its terror, the flat photography shines too much of a light on the dark corners, electing for a ‘show it all’ approach and thus sapping any of the remaining suspense. Indeed, Mine Games feels like a bad student film, and not the work of a group of internationally recognised filmmakers who have been working together for several productions. As the film repeatedly reminds us, we need to break the cycle, and this is where audiences can take control and demand a better class of horror. Filled with thoughts that never play out, this is one film that should remain buried.

Mine Games played at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2012. At the time of screening, it did not have a distributor.

August 20, 2012
MIFF 2012 Review: Wil Bill

Dexter Fletcher makes his directorial debut, bringing a cast a genuine characters to his vision of East London.

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Director: Dexter Fletcher

Writer(s): Dexter Fletcher, Danny King

Runtime: 127 minutes

Starring: Charlie Creed-Miles, Will Poulter, Liz White

Festival: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

Country: UK

Rating (?): Better Than Average Bear (★★★½)

More info

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A veteran of the stage and screen, if the name Dexter Fletcher sounds familiar, then it’s probably from his roles in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells and his childhood role of Spike Thompson in TV’s Press Gang. For his first outing as a director, he teams up with author Danny King, who turned from a life of crime to give education a second go and become a successful journalist and writer. King’s The Burglar Diaries was made into the BBC sitcom Thieves Like Us, and it is appropriate that this film is all about second chances for those who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Bill Hayward (Charlie Creed-Miles) emerges from an eight-year stint in prison, and returns on parole to his former East London home. There he finds his two sons, Dean (Will Poulter), the 15 year-old holding it all together and the younger Jimmy (Sammy Williams), who is coming dangerously close to heading down the same path as Bill. Abandoned by their mother, and now strangers to their father, the former ‘Wild’ Bill must navigate this new world, resisting the pull of crime and deciding to do what is right for his kids. However, as the problems with his youngest boy escalates, he finds himself on the verge of going right back to gaol if he stands up to the people who are dominating his son’s destiny.

A solid debut from actor Fletcher, Wild Bill is a film that wears its heart and all of its other emotions right there on its sleeve. Taking a leaf out of Ken Loach’s book, at least before he started looking for happy endings in The Angels’ Share, and this is a familiar portrait of the cycles of crime and violence that lead to multi-generational social angst. There is nothing terribly subtle about this approach, it’s sense of social welfare informed just as much by episodes of The Bill as it is by poverty in the UK. Indeed, the film is stylistically informed by television, and the episodic nature of the narrative leaves little time for nuanced character development. Each of the players are presented to us as is, and they all have their parts to play in turn, including the teenage mothers, hookers with hearts of gold and the slimy local crime lord in rare non-motion capture appearance from Andy Serkis.

Yet this straightforward approach also highlights a number of the film’s strengths, which are the genuine group of characters that populate its East London setting. Creed-Miles is undoubtedly the focus of the film, and his understated performance is packed with so much more than we see on-screen. Having mostly left his hard-bastard life behind him, he plays Bill as an agreeable and well-meaning chap. This occasionally makes Poulter’s relentlessly contrary nature hard to swallow, and the inevitability of Bill’s return to violence waves a flag as big as the Union Jack. However, literally building its story under the shadow of the Olympic Stadium, Fletcher seems to be saying that the shop-front might be shiny, but another British staple is still lurking under the surface.

Wild Bill played at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2012.

August 18, 2012
Exclusive Interview: Benh Zeitlin on Beasts of the Southern Wild

Few debut films manage to be saddled with the term “masterpiece” on their first pass, but the award-winning Beasts of the Southern Wild breaks the mould. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at its 2012 Sundance Film Festival debut, it has gone on to win the Caméra d’Or award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the first of what will undoubtedly be countless accolades. We were lucky enough to chat with director Benh Zeitlin on his visit to Australia for the Melbourne International Film Festival.

In this form of a fairy tale, Zeitlin echoes Terrence Malick’s eye for nature in his lingering study of the green and brown wetness of a sticky bayou community called The Bathtub. Sitting outside the levees of an unnamed Louisiana city, it might well be New Orleans but this rapidly becomes irrelevant. We glimpse this world through the eyes of Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), a young girl who lives in a ramshackle house near her alcoholic father Wink (Dwight Henry). When disaster strikes, the community rallies together with a sense of hope belying the inevitability of their fate.

We need to thank Icon Film Distribution Australia for allowing us time with the filmmaker, and of course, Mr. Zeitlin for his generous time and answers. Beasts of the Southern Wild is released in Australia on 13 September 2012 from Icon.

To start off with, congratulations on the film. It’s such a beautiful film and I sincerely don’t think I’ve been moved so much by a film in recent memory.

Thank you.

I guess that’s something that a lot of people have been saying. There’s been this overwhelming response to it. Now that the film is out in the public eye, I believe it just came out in the States…

Yeah, about six weeks ago.

Did you ever envisage this kind of response to it at all?

No, definitely not. You don’t even think about it. You think a lot about audiences, and wanting to communicate with people, and wanting to make sure the film works, you know? Showing it to lots of people before we put it out, but I never even thought for a second past the moment of getting the film done while I was making it. You know, we finished the film two days before Sundance and there was no real time to sit around, twiddle our thumbs and imagine whether people were going to like it or not, or what would happen. It was all very foreign to me. But I’m learning about it as I go. Basically, I didn’t know any of this existed. [Laughs]

The film itself discusses a lot of real, and very recent, world events. There’s obvious parallels there. It does it through a fantasy perspective, and certainly that of a child. Did that connection between loss and place come from Lucy Alibar’s play or was it something you came to later?

The play and movie are very different. It was more like an inspiration than an adaptation in some ways. I do think that one thing that came from the play – the play wasn’t about Louisiana or current events, it had nothing to do with storms or water or anything like that. It really focused around this little girl whose father was sick, and as the father got sicker, nature itself started to come apart and the end of the world started to happen. The apocalypse was in sync with the father, from the little kid’s perspective. That sort of sense that idea of connecting a tangible event to a more fantastical epic, fable event was something that came from the play.

Many people are still dealing with the aftermath of Katrina, an event very much in living memory. Was that approach of combining those concepts the logical way for you to deal with that kind of tragedy?

You know, the film wasn’t specifically attached to Katrina as much as it is, especially south Louisiana, south of New Orleans. Katrina was sort of a very urban phenomenon, and south of there was much more effected by storms that happened two years later, Gustav and Ike. The film was really trying to take all the things, all the factors that are going into the collapse of South Louisiana as an environment and express them in a way that wasn’t documentary, that wasn’t actually getting into the actual tangible events that happened. It just wasn’t our interest. We wanted to tell the emotional side of the story and not the social issue, or the current events or the documentaries. There’s lots of great documentaries, and we were trying to get into what does it feel like to lose a place, and what does it feel like to be living on land that’s disappearing. That was really our focus. To get at that, we really needed to take a step away from reality and think about the story more as a fable.

And when you started thinking about the story as a fable, were there particular stories you looked at that were parallels?

There wasn’t a specific story on this one, which I’ve done in the past a lot. I made a short film that sort of jumped off the Orpheus myth [Glory at Sea]. This one just had more of a sense, because the events of the story aren’t actually fable-like or epic, but the actual tangible things that happen are quite realistic. It’s more coming from the perspective of a girl who think of her world as a story, and is creating a narrative between herself and the cavemen, and herself and these extinct animals. Understanding her own world in this epic context. So we always tried to think ‘What is the tale that Hushpuppy is writing about herself?’ as opposed to kind of adapting a different story in the broader sense.

I was at Sundance London earlier in the year, and one of the things that a lot of the filmmakers there spoke about was the importance of the Sundance Labs in crafting their story. Could you talk a bit about how much the Labs changed the story, and how much it developed in that period?

It was massively. We showed up at Sundance with a really raw first draft that I’d written in the two weeks preceding submitting it. So it was really like a burst of ideas when we went there, and the Labs are great because they really discipline you and force you to examine choices, and examine why it is you set out to make the story in the first place. A lot of times, ideas just come to you and images and lines. It’s really a disorganised grab-bag of thoughts, and Sundance really helps you examine where those thoughts come from, and what it is you’re trying to say with them. It really helped us come up with a structure around which to make choices. The film, just from that early point, because a lot more focused and I think we started to understand what it meant and how to tell this story which was really and emotional story rather than a narrative story.

And how much of that changed again once you had your leads in place?

A lot. You know, we sort of start with this kind of fable, and there’s all this realism that comes into it. We set up a system in which these tangible things are actually on-screen can effect that story. Just every line in the film, I would ask the actors, ‘How would you say this?’. Put this in your own words, and all that language got rewritten. Even actions characters take and scenes in the film come from interviews I had with the actors and their experiences, and their lives become very much part of the story. Not that anybody is playing themselves, but we really tried to cast people whose experiences are reflected in the story we’re trying to tell. It gives us a tremendous amount of material that I could have never thought up just comes from the actors.

Was there always the intention to cast non-professionals, and from the area, or did that also come out in development?

It was always supposed to be a combination of non-professionals from the area and professional actors, and that isn’t what ended up happening. We ended up casting all non-professionals. You know, it was sort of surprising that’s how it ended up working. It just had a lot to do with our casting process, where we’re really looking for a lot more than acting ability, or what somebody looked like, kind of fitting into the script that’s been written. A lot of times, we were finding people and meeting people that we found to be extraordinary and who also had this ability to perform, and then also have these amazing lives that we can draw from to incorporate into the story. So we really tried to create a process in which we were able to adapt people coming into the story, and able to create an environment where even if you don’t have the acting training, there’s a way to work within the way we make the film. It’s all very much part of the process that we tried to create.

This is something that has been touched on in countless interviews I’ve read with you. The fact that over 3500 kids were looked at for the lead role of Hushpuppy. Was there a particular quality that stood out in Quvenzhané, and did I pronounce that correctly?

[Laughs] Almost. Kwa-ven-jen-ay. There was a lot of different things. It was just how advanced she is for her age, and how she just had a self-reflection that most people that age don’t have. Or she really was able to understand how to go into character and how to learn lines and how to focus. Also, she had a very ferocious sense of self, where it wasn’t that I could tell her to do anything. She was ‘No, I think it would happen like this’. Or ‘No, I won’t do that. I’m morally opposed’. [Laugh] I would ask her to throw something at someone, and she would say ‘No, that’s not right, you’re not supposed to do that’. She had a very strong sense of herself, and that is what we wanted. We didn’t want a puppet. Someone who was really going to take a hold of the character, the way an actor would, and she really brought all those qualities.

You touched on your shorts before, and Glory at Sea seems to be a stylistic forebear in some ways to Beasts. Did you consciously look at other cinema influences going into Beasts?

We did some, they were very all over the place. We looked at a lot of documentary photography for the cinematography, the Les Blanks docs from the ’70s. There was also this Australian short film that was a big influence on the cinematography called Jerrycan. Narratively, we looked at a lot of children’s films, the structures of Disney stories. The sort of things that a kid would have in their head, try to figure out how Hushpuppy would understand things. Just a lot of things like [Emir] Kusturica’s films, and Bob Fosse’s films, and Milos Forman and [Federico] Fellini that has this come of vibrance that extended past the serene in some ways. We looked at a lot of films like that. So lots of different things for different elements of the movie we looked at and studied.

So many productions have gone through Louisiana in the last couple of years, so what was the reception like that you got from the locals?

We were in a very different part of Louisiana from where films get shot. There’s a big studio up north and out west that most of the films go to that are in the city, and this was a totally different region. So certainly I was the only person with New York licence plates driving down the road. It was a very warm, you know – once people got used to the idea of me, and realised they could make fun of me all they wanted, it became a lot of fun to be the outsider in this very remote place. It’s incredibly hospitable. We were living in people’s houses, and their campers, and were really taken in by the community. We never would have survived the film if we hadn’t. We all would have very quickly sunk into the swamp and been bit by rattlesnakes and never made it out of there. So they really protected us and collaborated with us and guided us through the film.

The last thing I need to ask, and certainly after this very long tour that you’ve been on with the film, what plans do you have for your next picture, or do you still have your mind in the publicity for this?

Well, I’m trying to find time to write the next thing, but it’s going to be another big folktale. I’m hoping to shoot it in Louisiana, and we’re really trying to keep the same team in tact. Just really trying to continue this method of making films and not let that change but hopefully having more resources will allow us to do even better and just keep on improving.

August 14, 2012
MIFF 2012 Review: I Wish

An unabashedly optimistic film that marks a return to Hirokazu Koreeda’s exploration of life and familial connection.

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Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer(s): Hirokazu Koreeda

Runtime: 127 minutes

Starring: Koki Maeda, Oshiro Maeda, Nene Otsuka, Joe Odagiri, Kirin Kiki

Festival: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

Distributor: Rialto

Country: Japan

Rating (?): Highly Recommended (★★★★)

More info

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It is no exaggeration to view Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda as one of the legitimate heirs to the throne of Yasujiro Ozu, especially after the magnificent Still Walking (2008). Seeing Japan through the most measured of lenses, his similar explorations of family, death, childhood and tradition have characterised his works to date. Even in his previous film Air Doll (2009), effectively about a sex doll who unexpectedly develops a heart and a sentience of her own, Koreeda continued to contrast modernity with notions of the traditional and human emotions within his beautifully lonely viewpoint. Just as Ozu was shunned by the New Wave, Koreeda sits in stark contrast to the popular genre pictures that flood the international home market. Yet his incredibly local focus crosses borders with an optimism that betrays the distance from his contemporaries.

Two brothers have been separated by their parent’s divorce. Older brother Koichi (Koki Maeda) lives with his struggling mother (Nene Otsuka) and grandparents in Kagoshima, where a volcano threatens to erupt at any moment. Meanwhile, Ryu (his real-life brother Oshiro Maeda) lives on the other side of the island in Fukuoka with his wannabe rockstar father (Joe Odagiri). A trainline connecting the two cities is drawing close to completion, and soon the boys and their friends begin to believe that when the bullet trains pass each other for the first time, a miracle will occur. Koichi begins to plot with his brother to be present at this fabled event, hoping he will be able to reunite his family.

I Wish immediately distinguishes itself as being thematically lighter than his immediate predecessors, and just as he did with Nobody Walks (2004), places children at the epicentre of his world. The leisurely paced film takes its time getting to the magical moment, and Koreeda’s aim is not a high-concept one at all. Rather, he is interested in the waves of emotions that each of the young characters goes through on their way to this possibility. Indeed, any suspension of disbelief required to follow such young kids on what seems like a risky journey, albeit no more so than the Amblin films of the 1980s, is negated by the complex mixture of moments that Koreeda is able to share with us throughout the course of his very particular approach.

Koreeda’s observational style is where parallels with Ozu are most marked, and it is this unobtrusive nature that ensures that the sentimentality is never forced or less than genuine. The closest parallel might actually come from the world of animation, particularly the works of Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbour Totoro) or Mamoru Hosada (Summer Wars), where the bigger narrative at play is actually secondary to the nostalgic musings on the importance of family and youth. The performances of the child actors are convincing and charming, especially those of the Maeda brothers. Koreeda has left the adult roles in the capable hands of veterans Joe Odagiri and Kirin Kiki, both of whom he has worked with before.

The universality of I Wish comes not in the totems of doom that threaten to rip their lives apart – be it divorce, volcanic eruption or deadbeat dads – but in the unflappable hope that comes from their collective wishes. Unabashedly upbeat, and about building unity across a nation, Koreeda delivers a film to a country that remains in need of healing in the wake of great recent tragedies.

I Wish played at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2012. It will be released in Australia on 4 October 2012 from Rialto Distribution.

August 13, 2012
MIFF 2012 Review: Tabu

A fable mixed with nostalgic surrealism, Miguel Gomes delivers poetry on film in an homage to cinema that defies conventional storytelling.

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Director: Miguel Gomes

Writer(s): Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo

Runtime: 110 minutes

Starring: Ana Moreira, Carloto Cotta, Henrique Espirito Santo, Teresa Madruga, Laura Sovera

Festival: Melbourne International Film Festival 2012

Distributor: Palace Films

Country: Portugal

Rating (?):Highly Recommended (★★★★)

More info

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Everything old is new again in cinema, with the past just as much a portal to other worlds as the most technologically advanced science fiction. Indeed, it is difficult to not feel at least a little bit of The Artist in Miguel Gomes’s latest feature, sharing a strong sense of nostalgia and retro aesthetic that is clearly in love with the very notion of cinema. Yet Tabu should not be mistaken for a lighthearted romp through the golden era of filmmaking, despite sharing a title with F.W. Murnau’s 1931 Tabu: A Story of the South Seas. Instead, former film critic Gomes weaves a tale out of Africa that is romance wrapped in a fable, dissecting Portuguese colonialism in the process.

Tabu begins in modern-day Lisbon, in a chapter called ‘Paradise Lost’, where the otherwise ordinary Pilar (Teresa Madruga) tries to console her over-the-top and bitter neighbour Aurora (Laura Soveral), who believes that her maid is practicing voodoo on her. When Aurora’s health begins to fail, she summons Gian Luca (Henrique Espírito Santo), who is slowly revealed to be her long-lost lover. The initial and thoroughly modern sequences seem sterile in light of what is to come, so thankfully the film segues into a darkened Africa for the second act simply called ‘Paradise’. In the shadows of the foothills of Mount Tabu, the beautiful young “big-game hunter” Aurora (Ana Moreira) embarks on an affair with the young Gian Luca (played in flashback by Carloto Cotta), altering them both and perhaps even the world around them.

Illuminated in a glorious 16mm vision by cinematographer Rui Poças, and framed in the 4:3 ratio that immediately evokes yesteryear, the second half of Tabu is entirely silent, save for the narration by Santo and a selection of Phil Spector tunes. The landscape in Tabu is one of memory and loss, and the journey through it is a mesmerising one. The non-traditional narrative is aimed at keeping audiences slightly off-balance throughout, perhaps to suggest that we are intruding on the most personal moments of these doomed lovers. Without the aid of dialogue, we are simply left to interpret what conversations they are having through gesture, movement and an assortment of ambiguous sounds that serve as a secondary narrative. One of the closest comparisons would be the soundscape of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, where the internal and external sources of sound are often reversed for the purposes of disorientation.

Just like the recurring symbolism of crocodiles, Tabu hints at what lies beneath the surface. While the images themselves might be indicative of the follies of a group of privileged colonials, these images belie the complex web of emotions that can’t be described in something as clumsy as words. Bathed in the unreliable glow of sentimental reminiscence, made more so by the age and bias of the narrator, Gomes wears this emotional misdirection on his sleeve, playing on romantic notions of the dark heart of Africa.

The winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and the Alfred Bauer Award at Berlinale, it is a film that is destined to split audiences straight down the middle, not least of which because the same nostalgic notion of story could also work as an initial hurdle for modern audiences. Yet this also keeps in line with the conscious commentary on the subjective nature of storytelling. Tabu is a film to get swept away by, to live a life vicariously and to soak in at leisure.

Tabu played at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2012 and at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2012. It will be distributed in Australia by Palace Films.

August 6, 2012
MIFF 2012: What to Watch

The 61st Melbourne International Film Festival kicked off last night, and while we are stranded in our home town of Sydney, our various viewings and travels have allowed us to recommend a number of titles for people over the coming weeks.

Here is a brief guide to films you must see, talk about or narrowly avoid. Happy festival-ling and we’ll join you all in Melbourne next week for various soirées and maybe the odd movie or ten.

★★★★★ – Certified Bitstastic

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Few debut films manage to be saddled with the term “masterpiece” on their first pass, and this singular take on the coming of age story gets almost everything right from the start. The most human of all possible stories is a startlingly original film that will remain a classic for years to come.

Harold and Maude – This one goes without saying, but we did anyway. Hal Ashby’s 1971 classic is playing as part of MIFF’s retrospective program, and this is a terrific chance to catch it on the big screen and spot all the moments that Wes Anderson has a lot to answer for.

Holy Motors – As we say on the film’s official Australian poster, Leos Carax’s art fantasy is one of the most original films of the century. Equal parts magic and insanity, and a reminder of all the things that cinema has to offer.Carax leads us into uncharted territory we might readily call “post film”.

★★★★ – Highly Recommended

Alps – Winner of the Sydney Film Festival Official Competition prize, along with a plethora of other awards, Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to Dogtooth is unlikely to find two audience members in complete agreement. Coupled with absurdity, including an electro-pop remix of the 1960s hit “Popcorn”, Lanthimos may simply be pointing out the craziness of the world we live in. But are you ready for pop?

The Angels’ Share – Ken Loach made a feel-good film. It happened. Winner of the Prix du Jury win at Cannes this year, Loach’s latest collaboration with lawyer/screenwriter Paul Laverty has yielded another lost soul on his last chance, finding hope in bottles of whisky and an unconventional heist. We feel like a drink.

Awesome I Fuckin’ Shot That – After the tragic death of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch this year from cancer, this MIFF tribute to the one and only MCA will also see several other long-form shorts screened, and is a rare chance to see this crowd-sourced picture in a large format.

Bully – Bullying comes in all forms, and at all stages in life, and Lee Hirsch’s documentary about Bullying in the US school system is a must-see for parents, students, teachers and anybody with a pulse.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai – Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has no less than three films at this year’s MIFF, as this plays along with For Love’s Sake and Ace Attorney. Here he continues to put his own stamp on the jidaigeki genre, switching his penchant for bloodbaths to a serene examination of samurai honour.

Killer Joe – William Friedkin returns with a vengeance in this southern-fried tale of hillbilly murder, rampage and good old-fashioned insanity. Inspired by the excesses of Letts’ script, adapting his own screenplay, Killer Joe might be violent and vile, but it is also sharp, engaging and outright hilarious at all times. Proof positive that Matthew McConaughey belongs in every movie.

Moonrise Kingdom – Like most of Wes Anderson’s films, it exist in a bubble of the past that never actually existed except in memory and dreamscapes. Apart from recalling Rushmore, just as directly as the bespectacled clone Gilman does, Anderson is giving us an early signal that his film is about so much more than teenage love. Visually stunning, Moonrise Kingdom is an open love letter to youth of all ages.

Safety Not Guaranteed – We were lucky enough to catch this one at Sundance London. Charming and funny, this pseudo time-travel dramedy is a delightful and heartfelt retro throwback to a bygone era of filmmaking, drawing inspiration from the Spielberg and Zemeckis films of the 1980s. Based loosely on an Internet meme, the fantastical idea of a man with no education building a time machine in his garage is about as American as it gets.

Side By Side – Keanu Reeves fronts Chris Kenneally‘s insightful and candid investigation into the film versus digital debate, one with no clear winners but a lots of strong opinions from industry heavyweights. Side By Side doesn’t come to any startling conclusions, but it offers up a series of arguments.

Tabu – A fable mixed with nostalgic surrealism, this fills that unknown void between Out of Africa and The Artist. Another film that has divided audiences straight down the middle, be swept away in the magic of cinema. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize and the Alfred Bauer Award at Berlin.

Take the Money and Run – One of Woody Allen’s earliest funny ones, this 1968 spoof on the crime film is a farce of the highest order. If for no other reason, it is worth watching for Woody’s attempts to join a marching band while playing the cello.

Your Sister’s Sister – Lynn Shelton continues to prove that Mark Duplass is king of the indies, as he is joined by Rosemarie DeWitt and Emily Blunt for an intimate film that brings a quiet dignity to the romance genre.

★★★½ – Better Than Average Bear

Liberal Arts – Another one we caught at Sundance London, the continuation of a strong storytelling voice in Josh Radnor, who hopefully focus more on this kind of filmmaking when his television children eventually find out how he met their mother. Smart, funny and sincere, with fine performances from Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen, this is a film that you should let wash over you.

Miss Bala – The stark and fast-paced Mexican action film heralds a new voice in Gerardo Naranjo for this Hollywood-inspired look inside the drug cartels of Mexico. Naranjo’s world is relentless, one in which corruption exists at all levels, and it is this bleak outlook that immediately separates Miss Bala from its cousins north of the border.

★★★ – Worth A Look

Undefeated – The Oscar-winning documentary about the ‘little football team that could’ is sure to have its fans, but part of us still feels that a love of American football might aid in the enjoyment of this popular piece of sports cinema. While a big-screen viewing isn’t essential, this might be one of your only chances.

★★½ – Wait For the DVD/Blu-ray

Monsieur Lazhar – An audience favourite wherever it goes, we have a singular opinion on this one. Mohamed Saïd Fellag delivers a solid performance, balancing his own dark past against the weight of nurturing young lives, but the signposts are too obvious to truly feel anything but a sense of inevitability. A charming if familiar tale of teacher knows best, so much so that it almost charms itself out of existence.

On the Road – Are we there yet? Much of the public attention will be focused on Kristen Stewart’s performance, building on her non-Twilight roles such as The Runaways, and her frequent nudity will keep Google in business for some years to come. A classic American novel that takes just as long to get going as it has getting to the screen.

★★ – Rental For Sure

Rampart – A character portrait of a dirty cop in Los Angeles is a case of arrested development, as a terrific cast meander about on an endless beat. The hard-working cast are merely covering the cracks of a script that loses its way at the mid-point and never fully regains its way by the time Overman finds his ambiguous conclusion.

What Else We Are Seeing

Wild Bill, Mine Games, Teddy Bear, For Love’s Sake, No, Maniac, Paranorman, Like Someone In Love, Sound of My Voice, Himizu, 11/25: The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate, Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap and The Hunt

August 3, 2012
Melbourne International Film Festival 2012 Launches Full Program

At a media event in Melbourne last night, the 61st Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) launched its full 2012 program.

As previously announced, Australian musical The Sapphires will open MIFF, launching an Australian Showcase of over a dozen films that includes Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s Hail, David Pulbrook’s Last Dance, Luke Walker’s Lasseter’s Bones, and the World Premiere of Jeffrey Walker’s Jack Irish – Bad Debts, starring Guy Pearce.

P.J. Hogan’s Mental will close the Festival on Saturday 18 August, reuniting the director with his Muriel’s Wedding star Toni Collette.

The program is now open to members for purchase at the official website. It will be made available to the general public on Friday 13 July.

Some of the weird and wonderful stuff that caught our eyes:

Accent on Asia

11:25 The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate (Koji Wakamatsu, Japan, 2012) is a new film studying the life of one of Japan’s most celebrated writers, Yukio Mishima. No less than three Takashi Miike films will grace the program in Ace Attorney (Japan, 2012), the highly anticipated For Love’s Sake (Japan, 2012) and the Melbourne premiere of Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (Japan, 2011). Indeed, it’s all about the contemporary Japanese masters. Festival favourite Sion Sono makes an appearance with Himizu (Japan, 2012), alongside I Wish (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2011) .

South Korean cinema is also well-represented with some big names: Im Sang-Soo (The Taste of Money, 2012), Hong Sang-soo (In Another Country, 2012) and Yoon Jong-bin (Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, 2012).

If you missed it in Sydney, India’s Gangs of Wasseypur: Part 1 and Part 2 (Anurag Kashyap, 2012) will get its repeat screening in full 5½ hour glory!

Night Shift

Always the most interesting section on any festival program, the fringes are for the night dwellers and the thrill seekers, those sick and twisted individuals who genuinely like film of all flavours. Outrageous! It’s a real humdinger of a selection this year too, including Australia’s 100 Bloody Acres (Cameron and Colin Cairnes, 2012). We highly recommend William Freidkin’s Killer Joe (US, 2012), and of course, namesake Richard Gray’s Mine Games (US, 2012). This is a section that includes everything from Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America (US, 2012) , anthology film V/H/S (Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence, US, 2012) and Franck Khalfoun’s reworking on William Lustig’s Maniac (France, 2011), starring Elijah Wood. Go in hard, bring a change of underwear.

International Panorama

International Panorama features several titles from Cannes which have already been announced, not least of which are the Palme D’Or winning Amour (Michael Haneke, France/Germany/Austria, 2012), the Sydney Prize winning Alps (Greece, 2011), Sundance favourite Beasts of the Southern Wild (US, 2012), Sydney audience favourite Monsieur Lazhar (Philippe Falardeau, Canada, 2011), Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (US, 2012), Walter Salles On the Road (US, 2012), Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share (UK, 2012) and Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt (Denmark, 2012). They’ve now added James Marsh’s thriller Shadow Dancer (UK/Ireland/France, 2012), which stars Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough and Gillian Anderson; Frédéric Jardin’s Sleepless Night (France/Belgium/Luxembourg , 2011) about a cop who lands in a shady situation; and 2012 Sundance Winner Teddy Bear (Denmark, 2012) in which Mads Matthiesen expands his tale a shy bodybuilder who goes to Thailand in search of love. This is a huge section. Go check it out.

Retrospectives – New Hollywood Comedy, Leos Carax and more!

Several major retrospectives cover everything from Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run (US, 1969) to an epic remastered version of Segio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (US/Italy, 1984). “New Hollywood Comedy” highlights Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude, 1971), Mike Nichols (The Fortune, 1975), Albert Brooks (Modern Romance, 1981) and many more.

Leo Carax will stun with Holy Motors (France, 2012), and this look back at his career to date includes the controversial Pola X (1999), Lovers on the Bridge (1991) and Bad Blood (1986), his first feature Boy Meets Girl (1984) and more.

There’s also a wonderful looking Jean Epstein retrospective, highlighting the influential filmmakers rarely seen films.

Check out the official website for a full program! Happy viewing!

July 11, 2012