Up late again, but on the bus and downtown in enough time to catch … The Exploding Girl (Grade: A-): Essentially, the story of Ivy (Zoe Kazan), a young vulnerable woman, with epilepsy, who travels home on a break from college to upstate New York to visit her mother. Not so much mumblecore in presentation, but rather more naturalistic and heartfelt, director Bradley Rust Gray (Salt), in focusing on Ivy’s every day life, and her relationship with her terminally indecisive friend, Al (Mark Rendall, in an outstanding performance) presents a more honest portrait of what it means for a twenty-something to live with the restrictions imposed by adult epilepsy than any you’d ever find on a disease-of-the-week TV show. For very good reason, Zoe Kazan won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. The Exploding Girl has finished its 2009 VIFF run.
Now, we could tell you that we didn’t get downtown in time to pick up our ticket for Police, Adjective, and that we prevailed on a ‘too busy for words’ Pierre LeFebvre (pictured below) to take VanRamblings’ pass to give to ‘way-too-busy-for-words’ Exhibitions Manager, Bob Albanese, to give to Mr. Shayne, so Mr. Shayne could pick up a ticket for the evening screening, because VanRamblings had a Thanksgiving dinner to attend, and wouldn’t be available to stand in line at 4:30 p.m. to pick up … well, we could tell you that tale of sadness and woe, and of how we imposed on Mr. LeFebvre and Mr. Albanese, and tears would flow, and readers would be aghast, but …
VIFF’s Pierre LeFebvre, 2009 Concierge and Guest Relations Manager
Instead, we’ll eviscerate … Police, Adjective (Grade: D-): The story of a Romanian police detective experiencing a crisis of conscience, surrounding the surveillance of three young people who are doing no more than smoking a little dope. That this teenage activity is not looked favourably upon by the authorities, and more particularly his boss, turns into a long, boring, pointless philosophical discussion about morality, and the role of the state to uphold social mores. Patrons walked out in droves. VanRamblings didn’t. We should have.
Weekends are always tough for cinephiles, at the annual Vancouver International Film Festival. On weekends, VIFF draws novitiates to the Festival, and almost inevitably they ‘talk’. The weekenders play with their iPhones or Blackberries or Samsung smartphones, the blue glow of the phone in the darkened theatre a disconcerting distraction from the more real-life drama on the screen. Better to attend matinée screenings on a weekday, as many of the filmgoers who love films are choosing to do, than risk having one’s experience of the Festival tainted by a texter, or a talker.
But enough of that. On this day, as we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving …
We are, on this Sunday, in the waning days of the 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival so, perhaps, the time has come to acknowledge the very fine work of the staff and volunteers who create this Festival-by-the sea for all of us grateful patrons, each and every year.
First off, note should be made of the following: with 640 screenings of 377 films, thus far in the days of our annual Festival everything has gone off with uncommon aplomb. There have been no technical glitches, no one has reported seeing a DVD version of a film because the 35mm print failed to arrive, films start (mostly) on time, Festival staff and volunteers are invariably helpful and pleasant (which goes a long way to making the Festival an overall better experience for filmgoers) and, once again this year, from programmers Alan Franey, PoChu Au Yeung, Mark Peranson, Terry McEvoy and so many, many others, to the hard-working theatre managers, staff have created a first-rate filmgoing experience for the appreciative throng who attend screenings throughout each and every day.
VIFF Programme Manager PoChu Au Yeung, and ‘A Prophet’ star Reda Kateb
We caught only one film on Saturday evening, the Cannes’ stunner … A Prophet (Grade: B+): With a ‘been there, done that’ quality about it, given the surfeit of prison dramas we see on TV and film on this side of the pond, this Cannes 2009 Grand Jury / Palme d’Or winner, offers a French prison set drama that is as hard-edged as you might expect it to be, as it tells the story of 19-year-old petty criminal Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim), who’s been sentenced to six years in prison, amidst competing ‘tribes‘. Director Jacques Audiard traces Malik’s development from cowering inmate to prison yard kingpin, and beyond, in a surprisingly humane manner, considering the amount of blood and gore onscreen. From beginning to end, it is Malik’s maturational process, and our awareness of his keen, innate intelligence, that makes A Prophet compellingly watchable film fare.
As is the case with most film critics, in the first week of any Festival, VanRamblings’ star burns luminous and bright. By the time the second week rolls around, though, we’re weary. Most films critics ‘pull out’ in the second week. VanRamblings, though, will probably just reduce the length of our daily postings, altho’ we’ll still be there for you through Festival’s end.
In the days leading up to the beginning of the Festival we ‘rest’ each day, sequestered inside a darkened theatre at various of the media screenings, and then when the Festival officially commences, from early morn to very late at night, Mr. Know-It-All and the inimitable ‘Showbiz’ Shayne may be found at one of the VIFF venues watching, bleary-eyed, one of the 4, 5, or 6 films on our schedule for the day. By the time the second week of the Film Festival rolls around, we are more than a little the worse for wear.
And, thus it was on Friday, after securing only two hours sleep (that darn Board of Variancething reared its head late on Thursday evening, with the arrival in VanRamblings’ e-mail Inbox of a correspondence from Joan Bunn, about which Mr. Know-It-All was thankful) — and not to mention the taking of five hours to write and post to the web, each day for you our constant reader, this after a lllooonnnggg day inside a darkened theatre, does take its toll — that Mr. Know-It-All found himself back in the lineup for tickets for his and ‘Showbiz’ Shayne’s planned Friday evening screenings.
While waiting in the lineup, we conversed with Jackie, a retired teacher and organizer of our annual, local Latin American Film Festival, and longtime VanRamblings reader, Julian (so, he’s the one) who told VanRamblings about all their favourites at this year’s Festival. Now, as constant reader might well expect, Mr. Know-It-All is rarely at a loss for words, but this particular late afternoon, given the 2 hours sleep and all, VanRamblings was pleased just to listen to Jackie (playing the role of journalist, asking the questions Mr. Know-It-All should have been asking), and Julian.
Julian asked Jackie what Latin American films were her favourites at this year’s Festival, and she enthusiastically responded with: the Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow (her favourite and now, unfortunately, gone), Argentina’s Berlin Silver Bear winner, Gigante (also gone), and Chile’s The Maid (one more screening, Thursday, Oct. 15th @ 11 am, Gran7, Th7).
As for Julian, he recommended: Lebanon’s The One Man Village (now gone), France’s Villa Amalia (about which we’ve heard good things, and Jackie also liked, and which will screen for a final time this coming Tuesday, October 13th @ 9:15 pm, at the far-flung but still glorious Ridge Theatre).
Who should we see in line asking a question of the folks about to hand out the tickets for passholders but Aussie import, Jeff Sinclair (sorry, this is the only photo we have of the very talented and hard-working Jeff), a founding partner of XOMO Digital, the principal person behind this year’s invaluable Apple iPhone app, the VIFF Fan Guide. Jeff was voluble, wonderful and informative, and answered some questions we had about posting to the Fan Guide (most of which we think we caught, given that VanRamblings was half asleep). We’ll write more about XOMO Digital in the coming week.
Anyone attending most of their film festival screenings at the Empire Granville 7 will know that, this year, there is hardly a surfeit of decent places to grab a bite between films. One of the more reliable, tasty and healthy places to nosh is Halawie Alawie’s always reliable Falafel Maison, on Robson.
Hussein Alawie, proprietor of Falafel Maison
Not only did we enjoy our Shawarma sandwich, Hussein was kind enough to treat us to the single most delicious falafel we’d ever eaten (guess where Mr. Know-It-All, and ‘Showbiz’ Shayne, are going for dinner tonight?).
Back it was, then, for ‘Showbiz’ Shayne, and a still weary, but at least sated, VanRamblings, to stand in line for the 7 pm screening of … Amreeka (Grade: B+): One of the buzz films coming into the 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, writer/director Cherien Dabis’ Amreeka is at all times honest and heartfelt while relating its immigrant story of Palestinian divorcee Muna Farah (played by Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour, in a powerfully rendered performance), who wishes to get herself and her adolescent son, Fadi (Melkar Muallem), out of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Set post 911, as Bush II was preparing to invade Iraq, the xenophobia to which the principal characters are exposed by their American neighbours is, at all times, disillusioning and impactful. Somehow, though, Muna and Fada manage to prevail, despite the intolerance to which they are subjected, and by film’s end a sense of a fitful optimism emerges.
‘Showbiz’ Shayne and Mr. Know-It-All then repaired to the Starbucks, on the southeast corner of Smithe and Granville, where we engaged in conversation with two, young middle-eastern women who had also taken in the screening of Amreeka (and loved it as much as VanRamblings did), both of whom, like VanRamblings, are employed as mental health workers in the Downtown Eastside (while working on their Master’s degrees at UBC).
And, then, it was time for Shayne’s and VanRamblings’ final screening of the day, the Tribeca Festival winning film (directed by Conor McPherson) … The Eclipse (Grade: B+): Set in Cobh County, Ireland, McPherson’s supernatural tale tells the down-to-earth tale story of Michael Farr (a superb Ciaran Hinds), a recently widowed father left to care for his two teenage children. Michael has agreed to act as a driver for writers attending the annual Cobh Literary Festival, which causes him to meet (and, we suspect, fall in love with) Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), a London-based writer of ghost stories. Addressing the themes of grief, love and the possibility of the unknown, with its not entirely successful supernatural theme, The Eclipse is, overall, still winning and eminently watchable (the budding romance between Michael and Lena, for instance, is near breathtaking), and from movie’s beginning to end the performances are both authentic and heartrending, and always engaging. Due to screen twice more before Festival’s end, first tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 11th @ 9:00 pm, Ridge Theatre, and the next Thursday, Oct. 15th @ 4:00 pm, Ridge Theatre.
As VanRamblings does every year as VIFF enters its second week, we’ll set about to bring you news from other scribes, present to you various of the Festival Media Releases, and cover what we will leading into the ‘winding down’ of the 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival.
First up today, on Thursday evening VIFF announced South Korea’s Jang Kun-Jae’s Eighteen as the Dragons & Tigers Award winner for Young Cinema, with a welcome cash prize of $10,000. Eighteen will screen for a final time on Saturday, October 10th @ 4 pm at Pacific Cinémathèque.
In the week before the Festival got underway, Federal Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore announced that VIFF would receive $467,000 in funding as part of the Marquee Tourism Events Programme, designed to promote travel to Canada, which has to be a relief to VIFF folks, given the economy and the deficit they ran last year.
This year’s VIFF theme is “An Open Mind is Advised”, and thus …
… which is one of the three spots running before each VIFF screening.
The folks at Eye Weekly in Toronto recommend Pedro Cósta’s Ne change rien, Maren Ade’s Everyone Else, Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s ‘astonishing‘ experiential doc Sweetgrass, and Lisandro Alonso’s S/T, all of which have VIFF screenings upcoming over the next seven days.
Over at E-Film Critic, Jason Whyte has published a number of interviews …
director Peter Esmonde on Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
Alejandra Aguirre & ‘Showbiz’ Shayne at the 28th annual Vancouver Film Festival
The Vancouver Observer’sVolkmar Richter also posts daily on the Festival.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Straight’s Janet Smith, Ken Eisner and Mark Harris take a sneak peek at the 28th Vancouver International Film Festival, with capsule reviews of more than 100 films, reviews available here and here.
Have you got an iPhone? If so, VIFF is seeking ‘social media contributors’ who will be taking photos (as VanRamblings has); VIFF will post the photos (and text) in real-time to the web. If you’re interested, contact Jeff, at Xomo Digital (the folks behind the VIFF Apple app), by e-mailing him at Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered films
Hong Kong hits at the Festival, among other series
And, as we wrap up today’s post: Derrick O’Keefe, over at rabble.ca has done a darn fine job of covering the docs at this year’s Festival, while “Canada’s national newspaper”, that esteemed ‘old grey lady’, the Globe and Mail, has set about to publish daily reviews of VIFF 2009 films.
And, for what it’s worth, VanRamblings has taken some photos, mostly using our iPhone (thus the often grainy quality), over the course of the past few days, only 36 pictures published for now, but more coming later.
Well, it’s back to the Festival for VanRamblings. See you here tomorrow.
