New Directions: the New Zealand International Film Festivals 2008
TIM WONG discusses the new look New Zealand International Film Festivals programme, unveiled earlier this week.UNDRESSED, the New Zealand International Film Festivals cut a lean figure in 2008; the corporate regalia of their former naming rights sponsor discarded as their redesigned programme looks to strike a new pose. Reformatted to a contentious A4 – already a talking point among those who prefer to travel compact – the taller, thinner hardcopy aims to trim the waistline of a programme now carrying over 170 films, although cynics are more likely to attribute its anorexia to budgetary constraints. Whether or not you approve of the makeover, it’s important to note the only real casualty of Telecom’s desertion has been the luxurious souvenir tome, with the festival’s capacity to import cinema – if ever there was any doubt – unhindered and at full strength.
The following short synopses (A-Z) correspond to related features, columns and reviews published during the course of The Lumičre Reader’s film festival coverage.
Related Reading:
» Preview the 2008 NZIFF programme.
» Review past NZIFF reports, 2004-2007.
» Notable interviews from past festivals: Alexander Greenhough and Elric Kane on Kissy Kissy, Charles Burnett on Killer of Sheep, Chris Sivertson on The Lost, Jess Feast on Cowboys and Communists, (2007); David Gordon Green on Undertow (2005).
Capsule Reviews are by the Editor (Tim Wong, TW) unless otherwise specified: Alexander Bisley (AB), Brannavan Gnanalingam (BG), Catherine Bisley (CB), Darren Bevan (DB), David Levinson (DL), Jacob Powell (JP), Joe Sheppard (JS).
Derek
Isaac Julien/UK/2008 | Portrait of the Artist
Tilda Swinton recites passages from her Derek Jarman memorial ‘Letter to an Angel’ in this enlightening artist portrait comprised of extracts from a candid 1991 interview, and clips from the iconoclastic director’s 8mm archive and feature film oeuvre. “Julien’s synthesis of the Jarman legacy benefits from clarity, dignity, and quiet worship... a timely refresher given the re-emergence of Todd Haynes; the gay filmmaker’s breakthrough Poison very much Jarman-esque, and debt owning.”—TW [Full Review]
Eat, for This is My Body
Michelange Quay/Haiti/France/2007 | New Directions
Conceptual, anachronistic mood piece set in post-colonial Haiti, staged across a series of surreal, strikingly rendered episodes. “Pitched somewhere between anthropology and a Matthew Barney film... Quay’s waking dream occasionally gives rise to the sublime, making the most of its scorched Haitian topography: a landscape claimed by swollen shantytowns and restless human wildlife.”—TW [Full Review]
Flight of the Red Balloon**
Hou Hsiao-hsien/France/Taiwan/2007 | Masters
Simply majestic. Commissioned by Paris’ Musée D’Orsay and an homage to Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, Hou’s first picture in Europe centres on a chaotic, confused, charming Juliette Binoche, her young son, and Taiwanese film student nanny. “One of those rare films... a masterpiece by one of cinema’s great filmmakers... the intricate rhythms of daily life captured in a way that leaves you speechless.”—BG [Full Review]
La France*
Serge Bozon/France/2007 | New Directions
The androgynous, unorthodox Sylvie Testud poses as man to join a legion of inglorious French troops in this subversive left-of-field war musical. “A strange delicacy among war movies... its willowy night-time sequences some of the most entrancing ever lit”—TW [Full Review]
The Man From London
Béla Tarr/Hungary/2007 | Worlds of Difference
A dockside noir concerning a suitcase of money, and the Englishman hot on its trail, Béla Tarr’s first film since Werckmeister Harmonies is a masterclass in slow-burn formalism, dense with “opaque images, prowling tracking shots, and eventful scene cuts.”—TW [Full Review]
My Winnipeg
Guy Maddin/Canada/2007 | Framing Reality
An impassioned, unauthorized history of Winnipeg, Guy Maddin’s hometown phantasmagoria is a documentary within inverted commas. “Hilarious... an outrageous documentary tease, the Canadian’s most hysterical film to date.”—TW [Full Review]
Persepolis**
Marjane Satrapi/Vincent Paronnaud/France/2007 | Worlds of Difference
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel of life between France and Tehran is an engaging animated memoir. “An accomplished, accessible and utterly unique film... at its heart a story so simple and familiar to any audience that it’s easy to forget all about its formal innovation or ambitious scope and just have a blast.”—JS [Full Review]
Shadow of the Holy Book
Arto Halonen/Finland/2007 | Framing Reality
Shadow of the Holy Book takes Turkmenistan to task. The repulsive regime, whose absurdity no doubt inspired Sacha Baron Cohen, provides plenty to criticise. And the lefty docomakers hit some solid jabs. Shadow wants to be a Mooreish cherrybomb, it's a more of a middling sparkler. Mildly diverting, but finally fading.—AB
Somers Town
Shane Meadows/UK/2008 | Worlds of Difference
Delightful, casual buddy movie couched in Shane Meadows’ fondness for adolescent relations, centred on This is England’s Thomas Turgoose as a midlands runaway who befriends a lonely Polish teen in North London. “Just when you think Meadows is about to lurch the story towards violence, he refrains, forgoing tragic consequence for ecstatic wish fulfillment. Shot in unobtrusive black and white, the film’s modesty is its biggest charm.”—TW [Full Review]
* Auckland only
** Also screening in Christchurch and/or Dunedin
Derek
Isaac Julien/UK/2008 | Portrait of the Artist
Tilda Swinton recites passages from her Derek Jarman memorial ‘Letter to an Angel’ in this enlightening artist portrait comprised of extracts from a candid 1991 interview, and clips from the iconoclastic director’s 8mm archive and feature film oeuvre. “Julien’s synthesis of the Jarman legacy benefits from clarity, dignity, and quiet worship... a timely refresher given the re-emergence of Todd Haynes; the gay filmmaker’s breakthrough Poison very much Jarman-esque, and debt owning.”—TW [Full Review]
Eat, for This is My Body
Michelange Quay/Haiti/France/2007 | New Directions
Conceptual, anachronistic mood piece set in post-colonial Haiti, staged across a series of surreal, strikingly rendered episodes. “Pitched somewhere between anthropology and a Matthew Barney film... Quay’s waking dream occasionally gives rise to the sublime, making the most of its scorched Haitian topography: a landscape claimed by swollen shantytowns and restless human wildlife.”—TW [Full Review]
Flight of the Red Balloon**
Hou Hsiao-hsien/France/Taiwan/2007 | Masters
Simply majestic. Commissioned by Paris’ Musée D’Orsay and an homage to Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, Hou’s first picture in Europe centres on a chaotic, confused, charming Juliette Binoche, her young son, and Taiwanese film student nanny. “One of those rare films... a masterpiece by one of cinema’s great filmmakers... the intricate rhythms of daily life captured in a way that leaves you speechless.”—BG [Full Review]
La France*
Serge Bozon/France/2007 | New Directions
The androgynous, unorthodox Sylvie Testud poses as man to join a legion of inglorious French troops in this subversive left-of-field war musical. “A strange delicacy among war movies... its willowy night-time sequences some of the most entrancing ever lit”—TW [Full Review]
The Man From London
Béla Tarr/Hungary/2007 | Worlds of Difference
A dockside noir concerning a suitcase of money, and the Englishman hot on its trail, Béla Tarr’s first film since Werckmeister Harmonies is a masterclass in slow-burn formalism, dense with “opaque images, prowling tracking shots, and eventful scene cuts.”—TW [Full Review]
My Winnipeg
Guy Maddin/Canada/2007 | Framing Reality
An impassioned, unauthorized history of Winnipeg, Guy Maddin’s hometown phantasmagoria is a documentary within inverted commas. “Hilarious... an outrageous documentary tease, the Canadian’s most hysterical film to date.”—TW [Full Review]
Persepolis**
Marjane Satrapi/Vincent Paronnaud/France/2007 | Worlds of Difference
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel of life between France and Tehran is an engaging animated memoir. “An accomplished, accessible and utterly unique film... at its heart a story so simple and familiar to any audience that it’s easy to forget all about its formal innovation or ambitious scope and just have a blast.”—JS [Full Review]
Shadow of the Holy Book
Arto Halonen/Finland/2007 | Framing Reality
Shadow of the Holy Book takes Turkmenistan to task. The repulsive regime, whose absurdity no doubt inspired Sacha Baron Cohen, provides plenty to criticise. And the lefty docomakers hit some solid jabs. Shadow wants to be a Mooreish cherrybomb, it's a more of a middling sparkler. Mildly diverting, but finally fading.—AB
Somers Town
Shane Meadows/UK/2008 | Worlds of Difference
Delightful, casual buddy movie couched in Shane Meadows’ fondness for adolescent relations, centred on This is England’s Thomas Turgoose as a midlands runaway who befriends a lonely Polish teen in North London. “Just when you think Meadows is about to lurch the story towards violence, he refrains, forgoing tragic consequence for ecstatic wish fulfillment. Shot in unobtrusive black and white, the film’s modesty is its biggest charm.”—TW [Full Review]
* Auckland only
** Also screening in Christchurch and/or Dunedin
The Edge of Heaven: Raw and urgent as a bullet to the jugular. Head-On's Fatih Akin plumbs Turkish-German family, politics, faith and love with uncompromising, edgy intensity. In striking contrast to Acid Reflux, aka Ashes of Time Redux, it does much more than look pretty.—Alexander Bisley
Sibilla Paparatti - NZIFF wrote:
We don't think we have undersold the Incredibly Strange Film Festival at all. The section dedicated to it in the giveaway brochure (with its vertical layout) is just a prelude to a separate guide that Ant Timpson is preparing and that will hit the streets of Auckland and Wellington soon.