Imagine yourself on a Sunday morning at the 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival. You’ve just walked into the Empire Granville 7, where you’ve been greeted by one of the volunteers, and are then ushered into a dark room with seats all facing forward. You feel reverent.
You are about to worship at the ‘church of cinema‘.
One hundred years on, global cinema has arrived as a form of transcendence, for many replacing the once venerated position held by the institutional church. Think about the similarities: churches and the cinema are both large buildings built in the public space. Both have signage out front indicating what is about to occur inside.
As physical structures, the church and the cinema create a sense of sacred space with their high ceilings, long aisles running the length of the darkened rooms inside, the use of dim lighting, the sweeping curvature of the walls, and the use of curtains to enhance the sacredness of the experience.
In the church of the cinema we take communion not with bread and wine, but with the ritualistic consumption of our favourite snack.
Consider if you will, the memorable moment when you enter the auditorium to find your perfect viewing angle, allowing you to sit back, relax and enjoy. Although you may not receive absolution at the cinema, there is the two-hour reprieve from the burden of your daily life.
As the lights are dimmed, the service begins: The seating, and the opening introduction constitute a liturgy for one and all, not dissimilar to the welcoming ritual that occurs in a church service prior to the sermon. If you are like most people, you obey an unwritten rule that requires you to be in place in time for either the singing (if you’re in church) or the introduction of a film by a Vancouver Film Festival theatre manager. And, you remain silent while in the theatre, focused on all that unfolds before you.
There is, too, the notion that as the film limns your unconscious mind you are being transported, elevated in some meaningful way, left in awe in the presence of a work of film art.
What we want from church is often, these days, more of what we receive from the cinema on offer at the Vancouver International Film Festival: the vague, unshakable notion that the eternal and invisible world is all around us, transporting us as we sit in rapt attention. We experience the progress and acceleration of time, as we see life begin, progress, and find redemption. All within two hours. The films at the Vancouver International Film Festival constitute much more than entertainment; each film is a thoughtful meditation on our place in society and our purpose in life.
As a film draws to a close, just as is the case following a sermon we might hear in church, our desire is to set about to discuss with friends that which we have just experienced. Phrases and moments, transcending current frustrations with a new resolve, all in response to a line of dialogue or an image on the screen that we have now incorporated into how we will lead our life going forward.
In the holy trinity of meaning, cinema reigns supreme, the personal altar of our home theatres placing a distant second place, the city providing the physical proof of the reality the other two point to, oriented towards the satisfaction of the devout cinemagoer’s theology.
Throughout the centuries we have sought to find meaning through manifest ritual and symbolism. If, as in the scene from American Beauty, a plastic bag sailing in the breeze is an intimation of immortality then there is, perhaps, something for us to consider respecting the difference between art as diversion and art in our lives as a symbolic representation of an awakened mindfulness, allowing us to transcend the troubles of our lives.
For those who attend the Vancouver International Film Festival, cinema has emerged as that place where we might experience life in the form of parable, within a safe and welcoming environment, that place where we are able to become vulnerable and open, hungry to make sense of our lives. Cinema delivers for many of us access to the new spiritualism, the place where we experience not merely film, but language, memory, art, love, death and, perhaps even, spiritual transcendence.

VanRamblings’ Thursday and Friday at the 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival involved some of our favourite films to date at VIFF 2012. For VanRamblings, attending our annual film festival is akin to being in love, and not just love, but infatuation. We love the patrons in the lineups and in the cinemas; we love the films we see from early morning to late at night; we love all of the VIFF staff and volunteers, every single one of them; we love writing about the Festival (until the wee hours of the morning), after a full day inside one of VIFF’s darkened theatres. We could, however, use a bit more sleep — two to three hours a night for 16 days … well, we’re glad we can still manage to function on as little sleep as we’ve been getting. Truth to tell, though, we’ve not only ‘survived’, we’ve thrived each and every glorious day at VIFF 2012 — and in the process, driven some people a little nuts. For which we apologize. But … hey, we’re in love!
As for the films we screened on Thursday and Friday, we absolutely loved / were over the moon about the following four great and abiding films, each one of of which has rocketed onto our Top 15 films at VIFF 2012 list.

Liverpool (Grade: A): Structured as a murder-mystery, and a puzzle picture of the first order, with a wildly inventive narrative that pulls you right in as it moves from the personal to the political, with the release of the film Liverpool, director Manon Briand announces herself as a world class film talent, an auteur, and an accomplished filmmaker with a firmer and more joyous understanding of popular culture than VanRamblings has previously been witness to. Liverpool is the most audacious Canadian film of 2012!

Something in the Air (Grade: A): Here’s a picture of of VanRamblings (and spouse) in 1972. Anarchist. Rebel. Student leader. Radical journalist. Community activist, and organizer. Filmmaker. Writer. With a greater fidelity than one would have thought possible, Olivier Assayas’ Something in the Air captures what it meant to be a student radical in the late 60s and early 70s, as well as the milieu of the era — the protests, the marches, the casual nudity, frequent sex and changing of partners, the drug-taking, the focus on the arts as an agent for change, and the innumerable, deadening hours of pedantic diatribes and debates relating to arcane points of radical political philosophy, where no one agreed on anything, when the worst thing someone could say about you was that you were bourgeoise, the need for the vanguard to foment “revolution for the people” (Me? I was and still am, a Bakuninist, so I don’t believe in the concept of a ‘vanguard’). Reputedly an autobiographical account of Assayas’ work within the French student radical movement, circa 1971, this immaculately realized cinematic work, with its exceptionally attractive cast — we’d never heard of nor seen India Salvor Menuez previous to Friday night’s screening of Something in the Air, but we’ll be on the lookout for her now; not to mention how wonderful it was to finally see Lola Créton up on the big screen, given that Mia Hanson-Love’s Goodbye First Love hasn’t made it to Vancouver yet; and, oh yes, we’d be remiss if we didn’t praise Clément Métayer’s searing, absolutely captivating performance — emerges as a compelling cinematic entertainment, and so so much more.

Like Someone in Love (Grade: A): Unexpected and a total surprise, Abbas Kiarostami’s at all times wondrous, compelling watch, from movie’s outset to its out of the blue, abrupt and verging on horrific ending leaves you in no doubt that you are in the hands of a cinematic master, and you’d do well to fasten your seatbelt, cuz you’re in for a wild ride. Addressing the issues of lust, ‘love’, and disconnection verging on anomie, Like Someone in Love is hardly what the trailer above suggests it is, and neither is it what most critics have found it to be (“an enchanting drama of misfired passions“), it is so much more. Both Rin Takanashi and Ryo Kase give the performances of their careers. A delight, and a great time at the movies.

Egg and Stone (Grade: A): We raved about Huang Ji’s début film in our post yesterday, and ran a video of the Q&A that followed a screening of the film, so today we’ll leave you with the film’s compelling to watch trailer.

Empire Granville 7 Closing Permanently
Contrary to the information provided by Empire Theatre management at the outset of VIFF 2012, and in response to rumours floating around VIFF throughout the day on Friday, Festival Director Alan Franey confirmed to VanRamblings late Friday evening that the Empire Granville 7 will close permanently on Sunday, November 4th. “An era comes to an end,” wrote Franey in his e-mail to VanRamblings. “The only silver lining that I can see is that whichever venues we end up using next year are likely to have less complex issues for street assembly.”
The specifics of the “street assembly” comment above relates to an issue VanRamblings raised with Alan in an e-mail sent at 2 a.m. on Friday morning, respecting the efficacy of lineup assembly outside the Granville 7. A portion of that e-mail referenced what VanRamblings believed (and wrote in our e-mail to Alan) suggesting that there is “the same amount of street furniture” on Granville Street this year, as was present in 2010 and 2011. Turns out, VanRamblings was wrong on that count, relating incorrect information to Alan, information he was kind enough to clarify, writing …

“There is in fact more fixed furniture on the street (outside the Granville 7) than last year, and certainly more than the year before. We had involved discussions with the City of Vancouver about how to manage the space as well as possible, not being able to ourselves afford the costs of the engineering department temporarily rearranging benches etc. In the final week of the Festival, VIFF intends to improve the signage on the street, so that assembling patrons will more easily be able to identify the beginning of lineups.”

VIFF patrons lining up outside the Granville 7 on Friday evening will have noticed a much improved mustering of patrons in lineups, as well as improved communication between VIFF staff and volunteers, and VIFF filmgoers. VIFF has worked always to ensure its strong, ongoing commitment to patrons, leading to the best customer service possible for the tens of thousands of VIFF filmgoers who joyously attend the Festival.

Four final notes on this Saturday, October 5th, Thanksgiving weekend post.
Dragons & Tigers winners: The Georgia Straight reports out on VIFF 2012’s Dragons and Tigers award winners, presented Thursday evening, in the Granville 7, prior to the screening of Mystery.
Our Children: Just about the best news we heard on Friday (in a day that was filled with good news, despite hearing that the Empire Granville was closing), we were heartened, thrilled, and … oh, say …. hmmm … over the moon to hear that VIFF’s Kathy Evans, in charge of Print Traffic Distribution, has managed to secure a first-rate DCP print of Our Children. Guess where we’re gonna be this coming Monday afternoon a 3:45pm?
VIFF Highlights for the Thanksgiving Weekend: Just click on the link preceding this palaver, and you’ll be taken to a place that just may provide you with the opportunity to engage in a bit of cinematic magic.
Programme Updates: As the Festival enters its second week, VIFF programmer’s thoughts begin to turn to consideration as to what Festival favourites to bring back in the final two days, as both a response to popular demand, and (truth to tell), availability. There are already a number of additional screenings VIFF will make available. Good news. A worthwhile endeavour? Checking out the programme updates.
See you at the movies!

Week One of the 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival is but a fond memory. Although VanRamblings is having something of an odd Festival (you don’t want to know), in respect of what is most important about the Festival — films films and more films — for the true cinéastes among us, Week One of VIFF2012 has proved nothing less than glorious.
Every VIFF patron with whom I’ve spoken this past week has their favourite film (in fact, a great many favourite films). Most individual patron film choices are both idiosyncratic and subjective. And it was always thus.
As for VanRamblings, here are our first-week VIFF favourites in 2012 …

• Any Day Now. The at all times most wondrous film at VIFF 2012, with terrific central performances by Alan Cumming and Garett Dillahunt — not to mention the single most expansive cast of Hollywood character actor royalty VanRamblings has ever witnessed on screen.
• When The Night: One of our very favourite films screening at VIFF2012, Cristina Comencini’s newest film (her 2005 incest drama, Don’t Tell, earned a foreign language Oscar nomination) ranks among the most accomplished dramas screening at VIFF 2012. Set in Macugnaga, a small mountain town in Italy’s northwest corner and the holiday destination of privileged middle-class mother Marina (Claudia Pandolfi) and her toddler son Marco, and Manfred (Filippo Timi), their brooding antisocial host, this Brontë-esque tale of ill-fated, star-crossed love grabs you from the outset, and just won’t let go.
• Thursday Till Sunday. One of the many, many memory mood sense pictures screening at VIFF this year (which means that for the filmmaker, plot and dynamic narrative is not necessarily as important a consideration as is the sensual evocation of character), Thursday Till Sunday is our favourite Latin American film in 2012, which is really saying something when in 2012 Latin American films are among the strongest films screening at VIFF. A subtle, observant and oh so moving drama about the disintegration of a marriage, as seen through the melancholy experience of their 11-year-old daughter, Lucía. Heartbreaking and at all times a compelling watch. With Bárbara Álvarez’s lambent cinematography, and accomplished work by first-time director Dominga Sotomayor, Thursday Till Sunday ranks as one of our resonant and redolent picks for VIFF 2012…

We are equally over the moon about the incredibly engrossing and moving Brazilian documentary, Bay of All Saints. We loved Teddy Bear, the low-key Danish drama about an enormous and painfully shy bodybuilder whose need for connection leads him to Thailand, where he hopes to find a bride. No Job for a Woman: The Women Who Fought to Report WWII, and Nuala are numbers 2 and 3, after Bay of All Saints, in our doc category.
The Hunt is our favourite ‘big’ picture this year, an accomplished and wrenching drama created by The Celebration’s Thomas Vinterberg. Rebelle (War Witch), Canada’s Best Foreign Language 2012 Oscar nominee, just knocked our socks off when we saw it last Sunday. Aquí y Allá, Mexico’s award winning examination of migrant labour, proved a moving experience from beginning to end, as did the Uruguayan family drama, La Demora.
The kitchen-sink father-daughter drama, Off-White Lies, was a winner in our books. Sean Baker’s Starlet came out of nowhere, and knocked our socks off, this provocative downbeat filmic insight into the porn industry, with its poignant yet contentious May-December relationship drama central to the film’s narrative, ranks high on our ‘best of’ list. On the recommendation of friends, we took in a screening of In Another Country, and man oh man are we glad we did. A sort of Korean Rashomon revolving around the always lovely and provocative Isabelle Huppert, this filmic curiousity involved us from beginning to end. Did we mention that we loved Love in the Medina, a sensuous Moroccan tale about forbidden love?
And that we loved: The Flat, the revelatory Holocaust investigative documentary; or that the Senegalese kora doc, Griot, had us wanting to pick up our old kit bag and move to Senegal, now … right now. Otelo Burning, the anti-apartheid drama, and The Sound of the Bandoneón are certainly high on our list of favourite VIFF non-fiction films.
And boy oh boy, were we blown away by Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Someone in Love, one of the most inventive, accomplished, surprising, humane and completely unexpected films at VIFF (that ending is a stunner!). And, we’re certainly glad we took in a screening of Violeta Went to Heaven, Andrés Wood’s (Machuca) story about Chilean activist-singer, Violeta Parra, widely considered to be the mother of Latin American folk music.
We’ve already written about how over the moon we are over the at all times brilliant Neighbouring Sounds, and Tabu, Miguel Gomes’ stunning fever dream of a film, the two most accomplished films at VIFF2012, both of which we just loved.