In the early morning of Wednesday, October 10th, seeing a hundred or so VIFF patrons lined up outside the Empire Granville 7 waiting to gain entrance to Rafaël Ouellet’s very fine Camion, Vancouver International Film Festival Director Alan Franey approached those standing in line and commenced an open dialogue with the dedicated ticket and pass holders.
The first question, the primary interest of those in line referenced, “next year” for the Festival: “Where will the Festival be located in 2012 following the closure of the Empire Granville 7?” Alan had some heartening news.

“In the past couple of days, VIFF has received a number of calls from members of the community, offering exhibition space for next year’s Festival. SFU has indicated that they could make cinema screens at Woodward’s and Harbour Centre available to the Festival. CBC also called. Apparently, the CBC complex on Hamilton has a state-of-the-art cinema within, which could be made available to VIFF. Should the Festival secure the use of Cineplex-Odeon’s International Village (formerly Tinseltown) 12-theatre complex, in 2013 VIFF would become a Festival situated in an area that has long been designated as the future cultural hub of the City, Downtown Northeast.”

Of course, the Vancouver International Film Festival would continue to employ the Vancity theatre at VIFF’s Film Centre on Seymour, as well as the Pacific Cinémathèque on Howe Street, as venues for the Festival. There’s been preliminary discussion / suggestion that should the Festival secure a sponsor and subsidy, and work out the attendant logistics so as to ensure patron convenience and safety, that a shuttle bus service, at little or no cost, may be a transport option for Festival patrons that would ensure transport between Festival venues in 2013. Or, patrons could simply take advantage of an already vibrant downtown Vancouver transit system.

For Canadian cinema, 2012 has proved to be a particularly strong year. VanRamblings has already written that we believe Manon Briand, who brought her Liverpool to VIFF2012, to be an accomplished filmmaker, and an important new voice in cinema. We were certainly swept away by Sarah Polley’s investigative, melancholy yet full of life documentary, Stories We Tell. On Wednesday morning, we found ourself moved by Rafaël Oulett’s:
Camion (Grade: B+): Winner of both the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Director awards (for Québec-based writer-director Rafaël Oulette) at this year’s Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, throughout the screening of Camion we wondered to ourselves, why is it that we in western Canada cannot seem to produce well-made, international quality, slice-of-life character dramas that provide insight into the human condition, that move, inform, create a sense of mood and place, and are infused with the melancholy of life yet manage to offer hope, films that create a sense of connection for the characters on screen, and for those of us in the audience? Rafaël Ouellet has created all of that and more in one of the true highlights of the 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival.

Stories We Tell (Grade: A): Sarah Polley’s new documentary memoir resonated with us like mad. Engaging, fluid, melancholy, hearfelt, and skilful storytelling of the first order, a film that unfolds with intrigue, heartrending candor and narrative resonance that somehow manages to universalize a very personal story, at the end of the day what Sarah Polley has captured on screen is bold, ground-breaking, reverential truth-telling, a story of a life unraveled and somehow pulled back into cohesion, where tough, tough questions are confronted and answered. No one has ever created as original a work of art — as is the case with Stories We Tell — that explores the dynamics of family, memory, truth and the ragged poetry of life. This is exceptional filmmaking, pertinent, shocking, and lovely beyond words.

In the films we see at VIFF, as is the case with film we screen during the remaining 11½ months of the year, we demand cinema possessed of insight, wit and intelligence, poetry and craft, honest reflections on the human condition, fidelity of intent and purpose for the characters we see on screen, and that they be moving with a melancholy subtext (even if it’s a comedy). We want to see films on the human condition.
We feel much the same about the people we let into our life. We demand the very best from our children, Jude and Megan, and have never sanctioned anything other than complete emotional honesty. Of course, we demand fidelity from our friends and family. We demand of our friends that they are loyal to a fault, have our best interests at heart, that they never ever engage in passive aggressive behaviour so as undermine our fragile heart. Our friends must be possessed of a keen insight into themselves, as well as us, and into the human condition, in general.
Of course, we demand of our friends that they possess a keen wit and and an enquiring and overweening intelligence, that they possess a consuming interest in the political realm — here at home, in the province, federally and beyond (we expect quite a sophisticated analysis, as well) — and in respect of politics we don’t care whether someone’s a Liberal, an NDPer, supports the Green party, or … well, we’d include the Conservative party in the above delineation, but honestly, we’d be misleading you if we indicated a support for Stephen Harper’s Tories. We do have many friends in the Progressive Conservative parties resident in provinces across Canada — we appreciate their moral take on the issues and their commitment to community and social justice, and have found generally their approach to politics to be humane, and when you get right down to it, to the left of most of our so-called left friends (we’ve moved in left circles for 50 years).
Oops, getting off topic. Patricia won’t like the digression above, she demands writing about film, and scolds us if we disappoint her. And as Patricia is our muse for these nightly, reflective essays on VanRamblings, we might as well get on with things. So to placate Patricia, and because we actually like to write, and because we saw a life raft of terrific films on Tuesday, we’ll provide you with some insight into …

Beyond the Hills (Grade: A): After dealing with the psychodrama that began our day in line outside the Granville 7 (sheesh, I mean, really?), we settled down to the 153-minute screening of Cristian Mingui’s fictionalization of a 2005 incident involving a novice who died after being subjected to an exorcism in Romania’s Tanacu monastery: an irrational horror at the heart of 21st-century Europe. We hadn’t really done our homework on the film prior to Tuesday’s screening, and kept saying to ourselves during the film’s first two-thirds, “Cristian Mungiu is turning out a film in support of those who seal themselves away in rural monasteries, to a life of … what? Really, that’s Mungiu’s follow-up to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?” And then, and then, at the two-thirds point in the film, the honesty and fidelity, intelligence and insight, and honest reflection on the human condition emerged (beginning with a spectacular “speech” by a resident doctor in the Romanian hospital, where the monastic novice has been transported).
Migawd, did the doctor set things straight. A little passionate honesty goes a long, long way, in our books. We felt so emboldened after the screening that we engaged one of the senior VIFF staff to address and resolve an outstanding issue of concern, but were disappointed to find only a passive-aggressive response to those expressed concerns, and an utter and absolute lack of fidelity in our contact. Still, a common response when one is feeling under attack, although such was not our intention, and we hope against hope, our demeanour (we strive to be respectful at all times). Hey, we recognize that we’ve been a pain in the ass at this Festival for some people (although we find we are considered to be charming by others, according to the feedback we’ve been receiving); but that comes from demanding the best from all of us, and settling for no less. Be honest and sincere, think about the things you say, be prepared to take action where necessary and be responsible for yourself and for all of your utterances. Both of us will be be a better off for the experience, when a little humanity, a modicum of humour, kindness and wit is brought to our engagement.
Good thing, then, that Festival Director Alan Franey never, ever, ever disappoints. We could write that Alan Franey is the best arts administrator in the City, but that would only be the partial truth. Alan Franey is probably not only the hardest working, but the most sophisticated, intelligent, insightful, organized, humane, caring, warm, and dedicated (we could go on for quite a bit longer) arts administrator in the country. Alan Franey ranks as one of the finest corporate leaders it has been our privilege to interview and engage, at any point in our 40+ years as a working journalist.

Hemel (Grade: A): Arriving at VIFF2012 with immense buzz, after winning the Critics’ FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin this year, at Tuesday morning’s screening, Hemel was everything, and more, that had been promised. A chilly, chilly film emotionally, the lack of emotion onscreen was more than made up for by the promised and delivered outré sex, general kinkiness and nudity (here’s some video), mostly involving Hemel (“Heaven” in Dutch). A character study delving into Hemel’s experience of life, uneasy resolution is reached by movie’s end. How did Hemel become who we see onscreen? With its insinuating trance score offering aural landscape to all we see before us, this movie about a wild and out-of-control, verging on dangerous, woman leaves us to ponder whether her sexual acting out is a product of, or a response to, rape in late adolescence or her early teens years, or derives from her involvement in street, child prostitution, again in late adolescence or her early teen years — the time when a sense of a child’s sexuality begins to emerge and cohere — or is the product of a very early, and sustaining, sexual relationship with an adult, sometimes an uncle or a neighbour, but more generally the father. That the answer to the film’s puzzle revolves around bodily fluids and function, takes the whole issue of resolution to a new and disturbing conclusion. Sacha Polak’s provocative character study of a beautiful Dutch twentysomething enables Hannah Hoekstra to shine in this year’s most stunning, star-making performance.
A couple of quick notes: we loved, loved, loved Come As You Are, and find ourselves grateful beyond words for the recommendation to see the film, from many, many of our VIFF cinephile friends. We also took in a second screening of When The Night, early last evening, and we liked the film much more during a second viewing — that’s going some when you take into account that we loved When The Night when we first saw it in preview three weeks ago. We didn’t think it possible to love the film any more than we already did; we were wrong. We loved When The Night’s cinematography, performances, narrative, insinuating score, as well as it’s evocative setting.

VanRamblings is concerned about the fragility of our emotional state.
Since taking in an early Saturday morning screening of Álex de la Iglesia’s treatise, As Luck Would Have It, we have felt emotionally wrung out, fragile, and have in the days since wondered if we will make it through til Festival’s end, on Friday. That As Luck Would Have It addresses a core belief we have long held respecting the dynamic of women’s impact on the lives of men, and that VanRamblings had never seen this core philosophy expressed on screen before was for us, overwhelming & profound, the truest expression, and capturing, of love that VanRamblings has ever seen on film.
On Monday afternoon, still recovering from As Luck Would Have It, not to mention Monday morning’s screening of certain Best Picture Oscar nominee, The Angels’ Share in Theatre 7, as we were thanking her for her kindness to us throughout the Festival, we broke down and cried. Too many films, too many tears over too many days, too little sleep?
Whatever the circumstance, we will carry on, while remaining grateful for the support of Festival staff, volunteers and patrons — our Festival family.

As Luck Would Have It (Grade: A+): There is no movie we have found more deeply affecting than Álex de la Iglesia’s at all times wondrous new film. A very dark comedy that simply teems with life, the most well-conceived and executed picture that has played the Festival, the single most heart-wrenching family drama that has played the Festival year, as I wrote to my friend Michael Klassen after Saturday morning’s screening …

This morning, I saw Álex de la Iglesia’s new film, As Luck Would Have It, starring Salma Hayek in a role that provides her with the opportunity to turn in the best performance of her career. A story about economic dislocation, and the love that the husband and wife in the film have for one another and how that love defines their lives and informs all decisions that are made for their family, had me on the floor. Although I’ve seen some very affecting films at VIFF, on Saturday morning at the screening of As Luck Would Have It, about two-thirds of the way through the film, during a conversation Salma Hayek was having with José Mota, who plays her husband, I completely lost it … I sobbed uncontrollably, I had a hard time catching my breath, I thought I was going to have to run from the theatre and collapse in some dark corner … I heaved heavy sobs for 15-minutes before pulling myself together enough to make it through the remainder of the film. That a film can speak to someone, as As Luck Would Have It has resonated with me, simply reinforces for me the power of the image to transform.

Of the more than 80 films VanRamblings has seen to date at VIFF2012, As Luck Would Have It has emerged as our very favourite film.

And more from the same e-mail to Michael, on the VIFF animated film, Ernest and Célestine (Grade: A): …

I also caught a screening of the French animated film, Ernest et Célestine, which also proved both powerful and affecting. You would like this film because of your love for Sophie. In many films at VIFF this year, relations between children and their parents have resonated deeply with me … Ernest et Célestine is very much a father-daughter story, I believe. I love the way Célestine treats Ernest, just like Megan used to, and still does, as she helps to keep me on the right path … our daughters, just like our wives, always have our best interests at heart, their honesty and their love in their relations with us, as well as their insistence that we always be our best selves, becomes for us in our lives a defining and abiding characteristic of both the love we hold in our hearts for our children and our spouses, and they for us.

Tuesday’s must-see VIFF films include: First thing in the morning, there’s Beyond the Hills, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s follow-up to his award-winning “race-against-the-calendar abortion thriller 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days; next, Hemel offers a twisted story about love, lust and erotic fixation, Sacha Polak’s weirdly beautiful, graphic and tender début feature both compulsive and transgressive. Hemel was one of the buzz films coming into VIFF2012. Screens for the first time today, Oct 9, 2pm, Gr2, and again on Thursday, 11am, at the Vancity Theatre, on Seymour.
The other must-see VIFF films on this Tuesday are: VanRamblings favourite romance, the at all times wonderful When The Night, a film we love and about which we have heard only praise from those who’ve attended screenings of When The Night, earlier in the Festival. And, finally, on Tuesday, Bay of All Saints, by far our very favourite documentary film at VIFF2012, screens for a final time today, at 3:30pm, Gr6.
As we wrote yesterday, based on buzz and the insistence by VIFF patrons that VanRamblings must attend, tonight we’ll be taking in a screening of what has become Week 2’s buzziest film, Come As You Are.

Ran into Festival Director Alan Franey following a mid-afternoon screening of the Christopher Kenneally / Keanu Reeves documentary, Side by Side: The Science, Art and Impact of Digital Cinema, and spent a few minutes catching up with Alan (who looked great on Sunday in his cream coloured suit), touching on a range of Festival-related subjects.
Alan expressed a concern that, in VIFF’s final year at the Empire Granville 7, the patron experience has not been everything that he might have hoped it would be, that he would have liked to “go out on a higher, better note.” We both agreed, though, with the changes Alan implemented on Friday that the ship had been righted, that following a review at the end of the first week arising from the ongoing consultation / seeking of feedback from staff, volunteers and festival-goers, the patron experience had improved measurably, to patron satisfaction, over the course of the past 72 hours.
VanRamblings suggested that where it mattered most, VIFF is experiencing an exceptionally rewarding year: the films. From The Hunt, Any Day Now, When The Night, Thursday Till Sunday, The Late Quartet, Bay of All Saints, Egg and Stone, Teddy Bear, Rose, Nuala — well, the list could go on and on, couldn’t it? — VIFF is experiencing an exceptional year. The films we see at VIFF don’t arrive as if by magic, they’re curated by Alan, PoChu AuYeung, Mark Peranson, Terry McEvoy, Stephanie Damgaard, Shelly Kraicer, Tony Rayns and Sandy Gow, as well as being juried by a dedicated, hard-working group of cinephiles. This year, the VIFF programmers have outdone themselves, as the Vancouver International Film Festival grows from strength to strength to strength.
Of course, we touched on the issues which Alan must address respecting the re-locating of VIFF in 2013 to a new site(s). Alan indicated that he doesn’t want to rush into anything, or react precipitously, that he and his team will take some time to review the options available to VIFF. For now, though, following a hard-fought year of working to bring to Vancouver the best curated and juried film festival in North America, Alan will take a brief, well-deserved break, before settling down to the tasks at hand.
Then VanRamblings rushed off to the Empire Granville 7 for an early evening screening of Lucy Mulloy’s wondrously delightful, heart in your throat Cuban narrative, Una Noche where we arrived late to meet COPE Executive Director, Sean Antrim, our companion for the screening. Sean had to rush off to a late Thanksgiving dinner (VanRamblings sets aside all prosaic concerns during the Festival, so no turkey dinner for us on Sunday, as we took in five powerfully affecting VIFF screenings).

A few notes to complete VanRamblings’ shorter than usual VIFF post …

Our Children: VIFF has secured a pristine DCP print of Belgium’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee, following the almost week-long psychodrama that occurred following last Monday’s screening of Our Children at the VanCity. The film’s producers had supplied a degraded production screener with a time code running across the top, with a critical two minutes of the film missing (VIFF didn’t know that a portion of the film was missing). We’re looking forward to attending today’s 3:45pm screening at the Empire Granville 7. Given that Our Children looks to be a solid Oscar contender (Amour would appear to be its only serious competition), and given that the word VanRamblings heard from friends who actually stayed for the entirety of the Our Children screening last week, who told us they felt the film to be among the strongest of the films they had seen at VIFF in 2012, well .. given that most of these friends/VIFF patrons are not given to engaging in the kind of hyperbole that defines our ‘review’ approach (we either love a film, or really don’t care for it, there’s ain’t no in between with us), the comments of these friends would have to be considered high praise, indeed. Bottom line: Our Children is one of today’s must-see films.

Come As You Are: As patrons were exiting Cinema Three late Sunday morning, we were approached by several VIFF regulars, who told us, “Raymond, I don’t know what you’ve got scheduled for the late show on Tuesday, but whatever it is, cancel it. You absolutely have to see the 9:30pm screening of Come As You Are on Tuesday night.” So that’s where we’ll be. Ahhhh, how wonderful to be taken care of by the VIFF family.
Any Day Now: Talking about films that are can’t miss, the final screening of Any Day Now occurs at 9:30pm this evening, in the Empire Granville 7. There are very few films which we will guarantee any VIFF patron and cinéaste will love, but let us tell you: Any Day Now is amongst the best American independents of the year. You really oughta do youself a favour and take in a screening of this powerfully affecting period drama.
Monday’s screenings represents one of the potentially strongest VIFF days, thus far, film wise. Must-sees on Monday include: Ernest et Célestine, The Sessions, The Angels’ Share, Amour, Our Children, No Job for a Woman: The Women Who Fought to Report WWII, All in Good Time, Kinshasa Kids, Revolution, The Flat and Any Day Now.
And, finally for this post: we were told by VIFF staff that a screening of The Hunt had to be cancelled on Sunday, for technical reasons. Apparently, there’ll be an additional screening announced today. Given that The Hunt is probably the most well-crafted and accessible film at VIFF in 2012, The Hunt would have to be considered yet another must-see.