saw "Our Day Will come" on sunday - the director is the Born Free MIA director. Just as shallow as the music video. And looked worse, aesthetically speaking. Dumb film
Saw Microphone yesterday - an Egyptian film about underground music movements in Alexandria. Great film, muuuch better than i would expect.
Saw Microphone yesterday - an Egyptian film about underground music movements in Alexandria. Great film, muuuch better than i would expect.
Phew! I am seeing it on Saturday. I chose it despite the potential for much cringing at depictions of the "underground" movements described in the write-up.
Block C was terrible. The last scene was actually quite good, but it was too late by then.
It's a distant memory now since after that I had a wonderful dinner and stroll with onetet to his Vincent Gallo film.
Is this Promises Written in Water? Kind of curious to see it despite the all to be expected critical mauling it received at Venice.
Yes, this and ESSENTIAL KILLING (the Skolimowski film in which he's the star) are my two favorite films at the fest so far. PROMISES takes his obsessions and indulgences further even than BROWN BUNNY, so people who hated that one should probably stay away. In fact, 99.99% of all people should stay away. But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
Saw Microphone yesterday - an Egyptian film about underground music movements in Alexandria. Great film, muuuch better than i would expect.
Phew! I am seeing it on Saturday. I chose it despite the potential for much cringing at depictions of the "underground" movements described in the write-up.
haha. my gf is egyptian, so i was forced to see this, not knowing anything about it. Im like, "Microphone?", let me guess - its a movie about rappers and how theyre all subversive and underground? First shot - Arabic rapping. sigh...
thank God it really picked up. And the soundtrack was great, off-beat rapping notwithstanding. One of the bands featured was nothing like ive heard before. Youll enjoy it
Cool - thanks for that. It might be my only music film this year from the looks of it.
PROMISES takes his obsessions and indulgences further even than BROWN BUNNY, so people who hated that one should probably stay away. In fact, 99.99% of all people should stay away. But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
Well, shit. When you put it like that....I just bought a ticket for the screening tonight. I don't work tomorrow so the 10 PM start is doable.
Cool - thanks for that. It might be my only music film this year from the looks of it.
PROMISES takes his obsessions and indulgences further even than BROWN BUNNY, so people who hated that one should probably stay away. In fact, 99.99% of all people should stay away. But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
Well, shit. When you put it like that....I just bought a ticket for the screening tonight. I don't work tomorrow so the 10 PM start is doable.
If I didn't have a ticket for UNCLE BOONMEE... at the same time, I'd watch it again. At least one of my cohorts is going back for a second dip in the ego pool.
Block C was terrible. The last scene was actually quite good, but it was too late by then.
It's a distant memory now since after that I had a wonderful dinner and stroll with onetet to his Vincent Gallo film.
Is this Promises Written in Water? Kind of curious to see it despite the all to be expected critical mauling it received at Venice.
Yes, this and ESSENTIAL KILLING (the Skolimowski film in which he's the star) are my two favorite films at the fest so far. PROMISES takes his obsessions and indulgences further even than BROWN BUNNY, so people who hated that one should probably stay away. In fact, 99.99% of all people should stay away. But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
Yeah I've been looking forward to that Skolimowski movie for a while now.
It has to be said that it's been a fair few years since I've watched Brown Bunny so perhaps I should revisit that first to judge whether I'm ready to enter the World of Gallo again. Personally though I've never found the ego thing that irritating, as long as the output is good I'm happy.
But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
It was very beautiful. Gallo is such a romantic!
To echo SeniorJunior, if the film works, the ego thing doesn't bother me either. And honestly, when in film is there not ego involved? In any creation of art? Gallo is much more upfront about his.
I am glad for it - that ego is responsible for some of the best images and moments I've seen in film.
The subversive aspect is interesting because imo Promises is pretty traditional in a long history of arthouse/experimental movies. In that genre, I wouldn't say this is anything out of the ordinary...but no one makes (major) movies like this anymore.
Have two tickets to see Beautiful Boy at 3pm today at Ryerson, but I'm buried in work. If anyone wants them for $10 each, PM me. I work around the corner from Ryerson and can meet you.
But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
It was very beautiful. Gallo is such a romantic!
To echo SeniorJunior, if the film works, the ego thing doesn't bother me either. And honestly, when in film is there not ego involved? In any creation of art? Gallo is much more upfront about his.
I am glad for it - that ego is responsible for some of the best images and moments I've seen in film.
The subversive aspect is interesting because imo Promises is pretty traditional in a long history of arthouse/experimental movies. In that genre, I wouldn't say this is anything out of the ordinary...but no one makes (major) movies like this anymore.
Yes, I would see this again, too.
I'm glad you felt this way. Honestly, when I saw that you'd bought a ticket, I was nervous. It's definitely cut from a similar cloth as, say, Chantal Akerman's 70s films; as you say, there are definite precedents for this kind of filmmaking, and if Akerman can make us watch her lounge in bed for three hours, Gallo can make us watch him recite 25 takes of the same line of dialogue for 10 minutes. But these kind of films aren't for everyone (massive understatement), and *Gallo*'s not for everyone.
after a drenching of turds the first few days, my festival experience really picked up -- I've liked or even loved about a dozen of the last 15 movies I've watched.
If you liked SECRET SUNSHINE, Lee Chang-dong's POETRY is a must-see; ditto UNCLE BOONMEE if you liked SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY. Both were presented in the "Masters" programme, and belonged there.
The most straight-up entertaining title I saw during the festival was tonight's VIVA RIVA, a suave thriller from the Democratic Republic of Congo with top-notch production values (couldn't be further from Nollywood), sly humor, a great soundtrack, and an 1980s action-flick body count. Not to mention a lot of very, uh... sex positive content.
For those who attended, what were the films that did the most for you?
My Top Twelve would look something like this:
1)PROMISES WRITTEN IN WATER (Vincent Gallo)
Audacious, beautiful 16mm black-and-white button-pushing reminds me of 70s Chantal Akerman in the best possible way.
2)ESSENTIAL KILLING (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Nearly dialogue-free thriller about an escaped soldier in the forests of Poland, who faces a never-ending series of obstacles both natural and man-made. Very strong performance from Gallo (strange that he's involved in my two favorite films this year), and expertly paced.
3)POETRY (Lee Chang-dong)
Masterful drama about an elderly woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's, also dealing with the possibility that the grandson she's raising participated in an unspeakable criminal act. From the director of the also-excellent SECRET SUNSHINE.
4)VIVA RIVA! (Djo Tunda Wa Munga)
Fun, stylish, anarchic action film from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The most conventionally entertaining film I saw at the festival -- but not a conventional film. Great characters, soundtrack, wonderful sense of humor, gruesome body count.
5)UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Cannes-winning follow-up to SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY offers some of the same mysterious pleasures and surprises; each 20-minute reel is rendered in a different style, and one concerns a fish eating out a princess.
6)ATTENBERG (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
A Greek dark comedy/drama with Fassbinder notes about a daughter whose gentle (but fiercely individualistic) father is dying from cancer, and the outside-the-box way they cope with his decline. Very similar tone to DOGTOOTH; the director of that film co-stars.
7)CURLING (Denis C??t??)
French Canadian character study with teeth. A socially awkward working-class father has been homeschooling his pre-teen daughter, only to be hit hard by the realization that she is lagging behind in most academic areas.
8)MEEK'S CUTOFF (Kelly Reichardt)
Evocative western from the director of OLD JOY and WENDY AND LUCY didn't effect me as much as those films, but was still very strong with some very ill moments. Maybe a comparison to THE PROPOSITION is in order, although this is a lower-key story with much stronger female chartacters.
9)CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Werner Herzog)
3-D documentary from Herzog about the ancient cave art in Chauvet-Pont-d???Arc, France is mesmerizing, and offers a left-field, unexpected ending that'll really stick in your mind.
10)BOXING GYM (Frederick Wiseman)
Documentary master turns his attention to a very diverse (in all senses of the word) boxing gym in Austin, TX; as with all Wiseman's work, there are no talking heads here -- we're thrown right into the setting to absorb its flavor and many characters.
11)FILM SOCIALISM (Jean-Luc Godard)
An exceptional first third feels as alive and inspired as anything Godard's done since the 60s; though not for everyone, sequences shot seemingly on low-grade video surveilance cams with audio dissonance felt thrilling, especially when juxtaposed with some of the dry, impenetrable work he's generated over the last 20 years. His intentionally selective subtitling of the French dialogue was also effective and provocativde. Unfortunately, the body of the film is not as dynamic.
12)OKI'S MOVIE (Hong Sang-soo)
Another amusing look at a self-absorbed, male S. Korean film director from Hong Sang-soo; this one tells its story from multiple perspectives, and becomes more about the female protagonist as it moves along, in rewarding ways.
DID NOT LIKE:
John Carpenter's THE WARD -- he's going through the motions with this tired genre piece about a young girl who might've been wrongly committed to a psychiatric ward. The early 60s setting adds a few appealing moments.
HATED:
VANISHING ON 7th STREET -- awful "thriller" from Brad Anderson, the director of the strong horror flick SESSION 9 and THE MACHINIST. The absurd concept (everyone in the world who isn't holding a light source disappears, leaving their perfectly arranged clothes behind; all others must run from CGI shadows) is horribly executed, resulting in the worst film I've ever seen at TIFF, and the most laughable genre piece I've seen since THE HAPPENING. Both films star John Leguizamo... coincidence?
Comments
It's a distant memory now since after that I had a wonderful dinner and stroll with onetet to his Vincent Gallo film.
Is this Promises Written in Water? Kind of curious to see it despite the all to be expected critical mauling it received at Venice.
Saw Microphone yesterday - an Egyptian film about underground music movements in Alexandria. Great film, muuuch better than i would expect.
Phew! I am seeing it on Saturday. I chose it despite the potential for much cringing at depictions of the "underground" movements described in the write-up.
Yes, this and ESSENTIAL KILLING (the Skolimowski film in which he's the star) are my two favorite films at the fest so far. PROMISES takes his obsessions and indulgences further even than BROWN BUNNY, so people who hated that one should probably stay away. In fact, 99.99% of all people should stay away. But my friends and I thought it was beautiful, subversive, and hilarious.
haha. my gf is egyptian, so i was forced to see this, not knowing anything about it. Im like, "Microphone?", let me guess - its a movie about rappers and how theyre all subversive and underground? First shot - Arabic rapping. sigh...
thank God it really picked up. And the soundtrack was great, off-beat rapping notwithstanding. One of the bands featured was nothing like ive heard before. Youll enjoy it
Well, shit. When you put it like that....I just bought a ticket for the screening tonight. I don't work tomorrow so the 10 PM start is doable.
If I didn't have a ticket for UNCLE BOONMEE... at the same time, I'd watch it again. At least one of my cohorts is going back for a second dip in the ego pool.
Yeah I've been looking forward to that Skolimowski movie for a while now.
It has to be said that it's been a fair few years since I've watched Brown Bunny so perhaps I should revisit that first to judge whether I'm ready to enter the World of Gallo again. Personally though I've never found the ego thing that irritating, as long as the output is good I'm happy.
It was very beautiful. Gallo is such a romantic!
To echo SeniorJunior, if the film works, the ego thing doesn't bother me either. And honestly, when in film is there not ego involved? In any creation of art? Gallo is much more upfront about his.
I am glad for it - that ego is responsible for some of the best images and moments I've seen in film.
The subversive aspect is interesting because imo Promises is pretty traditional in a long history of arthouse/experimental movies. In that genre, I wouldn't say this is anything out of the ordinary...but no one makes (major) movies like this anymore.
Yes, I would see this again, too.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/beautifulboy
I'm glad you felt this way. Honestly, when I saw that you'd bought a ticket, I was nervous. It's definitely cut from a similar cloth as, say, Chantal Akerman's 70s films; as you say, there are definite precedents for this kind of filmmaking, and if Akerman can make us watch her lounge in bed for three hours, Gallo can make us watch him recite 25 takes of the same line of dialogue for 10 minutes. But these kind of films aren't for everyone (massive understatement), and *Gallo*'s not for everyone.
I'm glad he switched locations, the way he was pronouncing Thailand was driving me crazy.
If you liked SECRET SUNSHINE, Lee Chang-dong's POETRY is a must-see; ditto UNCLE BOONMEE if you liked SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY. Both were presented in the "Masters" programme, and belonged there.
The most straight-up entertaining title I saw during the festival was tonight's VIVA RIVA, a suave thriller from the Democratic Republic of Congo with top-notch production values (couldn't be further from Nollywood), sly humor, a great soundtrack, and an 1980s action-flick body count. Not to mention a lot of very, uh... sex positive content.
My Top Twelve would look something like this:
1)PROMISES WRITTEN IN WATER (Vincent Gallo)
Audacious, beautiful 16mm black-and-white button-pushing reminds me of 70s Chantal Akerman in the best possible way.
2)ESSENTIAL KILLING (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Nearly dialogue-free thriller about an escaped soldier in the forests of Poland, who faces a never-ending series of obstacles both natural and man-made. Very strong performance from Gallo (strange that he's involved in my two favorite films this year), and expertly paced.
3)POETRY (Lee Chang-dong)
Masterful drama about an elderly woman in the early stages of Alzheimer's, also dealing with the possibility that the grandson she's raising participated in an unspeakable criminal act. From the director of the also-excellent SECRET SUNSHINE.
4)VIVA RIVA! (Djo Tunda Wa Munga)
Fun, stylish, anarchic action film from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The most conventionally entertaining film I saw at the festival -- but not a conventional film. Great characters, soundtrack, wonderful sense of humor, gruesome body count.
5)UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Cannes-winning follow-up to SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY offers some of the same mysterious pleasures and surprises; each 20-minute reel is rendered in a different style, and one concerns a fish eating out a princess.
6)ATTENBERG (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
A Greek dark comedy/drama with Fassbinder notes about a daughter whose gentle (but fiercely individualistic) father is dying from cancer, and the outside-the-box way they cope with his decline. Very similar tone to DOGTOOTH; the director of that film co-stars.
7)CURLING (Denis C??t??)
French Canadian character study with teeth. A socially awkward working-class father has been homeschooling his pre-teen daughter, only to be hit hard by the realization that she is lagging behind in most academic areas.
8)MEEK'S CUTOFF (Kelly Reichardt)
Evocative western from the director of OLD JOY and WENDY AND LUCY didn't effect me as much as those films, but was still very strong with some very ill moments. Maybe a comparison to THE PROPOSITION is in order, although this is a lower-key story with much stronger female chartacters.
9)CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Werner Herzog)
3-D documentary from Herzog about the ancient cave art in Chauvet-Pont-d???Arc, France is mesmerizing, and offers a left-field, unexpected ending that'll really stick in your mind.
10)BOXING GYM (Frederick Wiseman)
Documentary master turns his attention to a very diverse (in all senses of the word) boxing gym in Austin, TX; as with all Wiseman's work, there are no talking heads here -- we're thrown right into the setting to absorb its flavor and many characters.
11)FILM SOCIALISM (Jean-Luc Godard)
An exceptional first third feels as alive and inspired as anything Godard's done since the 60s; though not for everyone, sequences shot seemingly on low-grade video surveilance cams with audio dissonance felt thrilling, especially when juxtaposed with some of the dry, impenetrable work he's generated over the last 20 years. His intentionally selective subtitling of the French dialogue was also effective and provocativde. Unfortunately, the body of the film is not as dynamic.
12)OKI'S MOVIE (Hong Sang-soo)
Another amusing look at a self-absorbed, male S. Korean film director from Hong Sang-soo; this one tells its story from multiple perspectives, and becomes more about the female protagonist as it moves along, in rewarding ways.
DID NOT LIKE:
John Carpenter's THE WARD -- he's going through the motions with this tired genre piece about a young girl who might've been wrongly committed to a psychiatric ward. The early 60s setting adds a few appealing moments.
HATED:
VANISHING ON 7th STREET -- awful "thriller" from Brad Anderson, the director of the strong horror flick SESSION 9 and THE MACHINIST. The absurd concept (everyone in the world who isn't holding a light source disappears, leaving their perfectly arranged clothes behind; all others must run from CGI shadows) is horribly executed, resulting in the worst film I've ever seen at TIFF, and the most laughable genre piece I've seen since THE HAPPENING. Both films star John Leguizamo... coincidence?