Most casual filmgoers attending a VIFF screening feel pretty darn good about the experience. What one sees up on screen is paramount, and the politics of the Festival remains of not even blithe concern.
Not so for the passholders.
Yes, those folks who hold a Festival pass ($400 for unlimited filmgoing, $325 if you’re a senior or a student), including the media, volunteers and Festival guests are a kvetchin’ and a moanin’ and a whinin’ this year. Who likes change? So, as part of today’s post we’ll address the early concerns that have plagued passholders, and see if we can’t put rumours to rest by getting the facts out for public consumption.

1. VIFF adopted a new, $64,000 ticketing system this year which, on the first day, proved to be slow, inept, frustrating, not particularly well thought out, and of great concern to diehard Festival passholders. Throughout Thursday all VanRamblings heard (and we spoke repeatedly with senior VIFF staff) was that VIFF was “wedded to” the new system, and it would remain in place Friday. Apparently, at some point during the VIFF opening gala, someone (one would have to think Alan Franey, Festival Director) made the decision to scrap the new VIFF ticketing system, and on Friday morning VIFF returned to distributing tickets by hand. VanRamblings sorta liked the new system, and thought it could work if the bugs were worked out. But, alas, the bugs weren’t gonna get worked out (for instance, when taking passholder film info, staff had to scroll through all films to find the specific passholder request(s) — a cumbersome at best process). At any rate, all that is old is new again.

2. When VISA pulled out as a VIFF sponsor this year, VIFF senior staff changed a passholder entry system that had long been in place. Passholders are the bread-and-butter of VIFF, the passionate movie catholics who give VIFF ‘meaning’ (not to mention a great deal of money, and much enthusiasm for the work VIFF staff perform throughout the year). VISA, as part of their sponsorship arrangement, demanded that their ‘VISA passholders’ receive “early entry”; VIFF staff extended that to all passholders. So, for years, passholders were pulled out of line to gain early entrance to screenings, followed by ticket holders, a de facto recognition of the value of the passholder contribution to the Festival. This year, with VISA gone, and no preferential demand by VISA on the table, VIFF adopted a new system, which VIFF accounts/business manager Mickey Brazeau refers to as “the new egalitarianism”, in which all those in the passholders / ticket buyers lineup gain entrance at the same time. My oh my, has this created a kerfuffle. VIFF Exhibitions Manager Teresa Weir relented on Friday night, and gave advance entrance to passholders for the 9:30 p.m. screening of Nameless Gangster. Apparently the passholder advance entry decision taken on Friday night represented a one-off; we’ll see.

Of course the kvetchin’ wasn’t limited to the two items above: concerns have been raised about what many consider to be the failure of the online ticketing system, the snail’s pace system for ordering 20/30 ticket packs, the website (e.g. one can’t search by actor any more, and when placing a title into the search engine, more often than not you’ll come up with two dozen responses), the VIFF app (film lengths are not listed), ad nauseum.

Continue reading VIFF2012 Is Well Underway, and the Moanin’ Will Out →

Each year for many, many years now, the esteemed and prestigious New York Film Festival has kicked off its run on the Friday, following the Thursday kick-off of our very own and much-looked-forward-to international film festival by the sea. And each year for many, many years, the number of films crossing over between the two festivals — meaning the number of films playing both Festivals simultaneously — has been quite substantial, a feature of both film festivals which continues on to this day.
In 2012, there are 14 films which will screen at both VIFF and the NYFF (New York’s is a much smaller, heavily-juried Festival).
Can’t make it to New York this autumn for the NYFF, well folks not to worry cuz here’s what VIFF has on tap in 2012 that the folks in the big smoke will be viewing the same time as us west coast denizens (note should be made that there are a number of films which you’ll find listed below to which VanRamblings has not made previous reference, which is all to the good for VIFF filmgoers who are still putting their VIFF film schedule together).

Aquí y allá (Here and There)
Antonio Méndez Esparza 2012
Mexico/Spain/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | 110 minutes
Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the U.S. His daughters feel more distant that he imagined, but his wife Teresa is delighted he’s back. With the money he’s earned he can create a better life for his family, and maybe even start the band with his cousins he’s dreamed about for years. But work back home remains scarce, and the temptation of heading back north of the border remains as strong as ever. Antonio Mendez Esparza has made a most remarkable début; rarely, if ever, has a film about US/Mexican border experience felt so fresh or authentic. Using non-professionals, Mendez Esparza gets remarkably nuanced performances that gives a richness of nuance and detail to each of his characters that goes way beyond cliché and stereotype. Winner of the Grand Prize at this year’s Critics Week in Cannes.

Amour
Michael Haneke 2012
France/Austria/Germany | French with English subtitles | 127 minutes
The universally acclaimed winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Amour is arguably Michael Haneke’s crowning achievement to date, a portrait of a couple dealing with the ravages of old age that is as compassionate as it is merciless. The great veteran French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva are staggering as Georges and Anne, long-married music teachers living out their final years surrounded by the comforts of books and music in their warm Paris apartment. After Anne suffers a stroke, Georges attends to her with firmness shot through with love. The underlying unease, as well as some abrupt surprises, are hardly unexpected from Haneke, who challenges the viewer to confront the experience of his characters as directly as he does. But he rewards the effort with a film that is all the more moving for its complete avoidance of sentimentality. An unquestionable masterpiece.

Continue reading The 50th Annual New York Film Festival and Our VIFF →

Well, the day has finally arrived. The 31st annual Vancouver International Film Festival is underway! While VanRamblings will find ourselves cozying up with a few hundred other enthusiastic filmgoers at Festival venues across Vancouver’s welcoming and autumnal downtown peninsula, as promised earlier in the week — please find 20+ more VIFF films VanRamblings is recommending as worthy film festival film fair. See you at the movies!
Note: The VIFF iPhone app became available yesterday, which for iPhone folks makes life so, so much easier. Just put “VIFF” into your search function in your App Store iPhone app, and you’ll be off to the races.

Tabu: Tim Robey in The Telegraph writes, “We’re lucky if a single Tabu arrives each year: a film that knows cinema inside out, and uses it to work pure magic,” while ViewLondon gives Tabu an unparalleled five-star rating (“beautifully shot, brilliantly directed, superbly written, hugely rewarding, achingly emotional. Unmissable). Do we need to go on? For screening times, click on the title link at the outset of this capsule recommendation.

Helpless: One of the VIFF films to which VanRamblings is most looking forward to (and we’re seeing it back to back on Tuesday, October 2nd with Tabu) this Korean suspense thriller from female Korean director Byun Young Joo has emerged as a Korean box office smash, a critic’s darling, as well as winning Ms. Young Joo the 48th annual Baeksang Arts Festival Best Director award. Russell Edwards, in Variety, writes …

Fear and loaning lead to emotional mayhem and murder in the taut South Korean psychological thriller Helpless. Adapted by Byun Young-joo (Ardor) from a Japanese novel known in English as All She Was Worth, this tale of a man whose fiancée goes missing taps into present-day economic anxiety as well as the terror of emotional commitment.

A haunting, desperate, mystery-thriller addressing the theme of female agency (all too rare in Korean cinema), TwitchFilm’s take on the film: “With great stylistic panache Helpless marries noir with the current zeitgeist of the financial distress suffered by many across the globe. Kim Min-hee, whose knock-out portrayal as the mysterious, seductive, and ultimately ruthless femme fatale is the film’s compelling, and riveting, heart of darkness.”

Continue reading VanRamblings Recommends 20+ (more) VIFF Films, Part 2 →

As promised on Monday, VanRamblings will recommend 20+ of a total of 40 films (20+ more tomorrow) playing at 2012’s Vancouver International Film Festival — based on great reviews available on the web written by critics employed by industry trade magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as IndieWire, Screen Daily, and The Playlist, among other web sources, as well as on the recommendations of friends who’ve seen the films you’ll see covered in today’s post (say, at the recent Toronto or Venice film festivals, or earlier in the year at the Berlin, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, London, Seattle, Locarno or Cannes film festivals), or on the strong recommendation of friends who work within VIFF’s superstructure, in the programming department or elsewhere within the Festival.
Without further ado, then, here goes …

Sister: The buzziest of the buzz films at 2012’s VIFF, yet inexplicably off the radar for most festivalgoers — even given that the film stars the always radiant Léa Seydoux — the film, a winner of the Silver Bear award at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival, Ursula Meier’s latest outing has been called a tough, tender and compelling Dardennes-style drama by Screen Daily critic Lee Marshall, IndieWire’s Eric Kohn gave the film an A-, and writes “Sister bears the mark of a filmmaker with supreme control over her material,” while The Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Mintzer calls the film touching, and Variety’s Boyd van Hoeij suggests that “a gentle sprinkling of humor offsets the generally darker material.” Plays late in the Festival, on Thursday, October 11th at 9:15 pm, Empire Granville 2, and on the final day of the Festival, Friday, Oct 12th, at 10:30 am, again in the Granville 2.
Neighbouring Sounds: Vogue magazine and NPR critic John Powers writes, “Written and directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho, this isn’t merely the best new movie I’ve seen this year; it may well be the best Brazilian movie since the 1970s,” while Variety’s Jay Weissberg writes that the film is “superbly constructed, skillfully acted and beautifully lensed … it’s equally clear this exceptionally talented helmer understands exactly what he’s doing & why.” Trailer. Sep 27, 9pm, Gr 7; Oct 1, 3:15pm, Gr 2; Oct 3, 10:30am, Gr 7.

Bay of All Saints (Grade: A-): The winner of SXSW’s Audience Award for best documentary, Annie Eastman’s potent documentary paints an often tragic picture of life in a palafitas slum, just off the coast of Salvador, Brazil, yet manages somehow to offer a profound and moving expression of hope, through the fighting spirit and struggle of the film’s principles, who provide such strong rooting interests for the viewer that you’re just pulled right in (just wait to see how you feel when 9-year-old Rebeca goes missing). Outstanding. Humane. VanRamblings’ favourite documentary thus far. Screens on Friday, September 28th at 10:45am, Pacific Cinémathèque; October 8th at 9:15pm, Gr1; and, for a final time, Oct 9th, 3:30pm, Gr 6.
Amour: Won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, will likely emerge as the Oscar’s Best Foreign Film winner next February, has the critics raving (another A- from Indiewire’s Eric Kohn) and has Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman calling Amour, “transfixing and extraordinarily touching, perhaps the most hauntingly honest movie about old age ever made.” Screens: Saturday, October 6th at 6:15pm, Vogue Theatre; Oct. 8th at 3pm, Vogue; and for a final time, Friday, Oct 12th, at 6:20pm, in the Gr3.

Continue reading VanRamblings Recommends 40+ VIFF Films, Part 1 →